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Date Posted: 13:07:20 05/11/02 Sat
Author: Islandgirl
Subject: "Byers Dreamworld Revisited"

Title: "Byers' Dreamworld Revisited"
By: Islandgirl
Category: Alternate universe/MSR
Rated: PG
Summary: Remember the dream Byers had at the beginning of "3 of a Kind"? This expands on it. A lot. Alternate universe. This is a reworking of my original "Byers'
Dreamworld", which I wrote back in 1999. Some of the couples have been changed around or subsititued. I thought we could all use some happy fic to compensate for all the uber-angst in season nine. This is so sweet it could cause cavities, so don't say you weren't warned!
Disclaimer: None of the characters mentioned in this story belong to me. They are the property of Chris Carter and 1013 Productions.
Timespan/Spoilers: Hard to say, since this is alternate universe. It pretty much diverged from the "real" XF world after season one, but there are two characters in it whose only appearance on XF was in season nine, so go figure.
Note: Although Mulder and Scully are married in this, it's not part of my regular "married" series (the ones that began when they got married in Las Vegas). Other stories that might be vaguely assumed to take place in this particular universe are "Two Couples" and "Pizza for Four". Have I thoroughly confused the hell out of everybody now?

***

John Fitzgerald Byers tugged off his tie as he started up the steps to his charming, Cape Cod style home. TGIF! he thought. It was the beginning of a three day weekend, Suzanne and the girls were waiting for him, and they were hosting a party for all their friends to celebrate Memorial Day!

"Daddy, Daddy!" screamed Jill and Jackie as they ran out to meet him. Byers swooped his younger daughter up in his arms and enfolded the older one's hand in his. They wandered out into the backyard, where Suzanne was putting the finishing touches on the decorations for the party. He slid his daughter down to the ground and held open his arms to his wife. As always, she smiled and kissed him.

After he'd changed and gone back outside, little Jill ran up to him again. "Who's coming to the party, Daddy?"

"Let's see. Suzanne, is everybody coming?"

"Unless somebody's kid has come down with something in the last 24 hours - always a possibility when you're dealing with this many little ones - everybody will be here."

"Okay," Byers said to his daughter. "The Mulders are coming. And the Bonds. And the Pendrells. And the Skinners. And Mr. Frohike.And Mr. Langley."

"How come Mr. Frohike and Mr. Langley don't have a Mommy?"

"A. . . oh, you mean a wife? Like Mommy is Daddy's wife?"

"Yes."

"They just don't, honey. God's plan is different for everyone. Most people do get married, but not everyone."

"Could they get married someday?"

Personally, Byers doubted that his friends would ever tie the knot, but he supposed stranger things had happened. "Well, yes, I guess maybe they could, but I don't know if they ever will."

"How come Mr. and Mrs. Bond don't have a baby?"

"Because they just got married last fall. You have to wait awhile before God sends you a baby," Byers explained.

"How come Mr. and Mrs.Skinner don't have a baby?" Jill continued.

"Mrs. Skinner does have a baby!" her sister replied. "She's just keeping it in her tummy until the middle of summer. Mommy told me."

"How would she get a baby into her tummy?" Jill demanded.

Byers was spared having to explain that one by the arrival of a familiar car in the driveway.

"Mulders are here!" Jackie yelled.

Suzanne smiled as Emily Mulder, clad in a bathing suit, ran out to join Jill and Jackie in the shallow end of the swiming pool under Byers' watchful eyes. Fox and Dana followed, with their infant son in his mother's arms. The two women liked each other a lot and had a lot in common. Both had medical backgrounds, but both had chosen to work only part-time during the years their children were small. "How are you feeling, Dana?" Suzanne asked.

"Better. I think I'm finally adjusting to work part-time and having *two* children."

"It take a while to get acclimated," Suzanne agreed."There's the initial adjust simply to being the mother of more than one child, then another adjustment six months later when maternity leave ends."

"Want some iced tea, sweetheart?" Fox asked his wife.

"That would be great!" she responded with a smile.

A few moments later, Fox returned with two large glasses of tea. He handed one to Dana and she thanked him with a quick kiss. "You need to sit down, Dana," he said.

"I'm fine, Fox," she said, rolling her eyes just a little at his overprotectiveness. Actually, she enjoyed having such an attentive husband, but he tended to go a bit overboard when she was pregnant or nursing; and she was still breastfeeding William first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

"I'll bet you've been on your feet almost all day out at Quantico."

Realizing that her husband would soon have means to independently verify her duties at work that day, Dana muttered, "I'll sit." Fox grinned. She stuck her tongue out at him.

The next couple to arrive were Kimberly and Walter Skinner. Walter had been Fox and Dana's boss when they had worked as F.B.I. partners in the days before their marriage. Now he wasn't the direct supervisor of either of the Mulders, so socializing with them wasn't a problem. His pretty, redheaded wife could have passed for Dana's sister; she had been her husband's secretary until their marriage and the bureau's nepotism regulations had required her to be reassigned.

"How much longer?" Suzanne asked. Kimberly was obviously pregnant and she wore the look of bemusement common to many women expecting their first child. . .as if she couldn't quite believe such a miracle was actually occurring within her own body.

"My doctor says the due date is July 15th but Captain America over there," Kimberly said, nodding her head in the direction of her husband, "wants it to be born on the Fourth
of July."

"You'll probably go beyond your due date," Suzanne said. "You usually do, with the first one."


John smiled as the next guests arrived. It was true that neither Mervyn Frohike nor Ringo Langley had a "Mommy" of his own, but the men had been a good friend to all the couples there for many years. Frohike soon joined the Walter in what he laughingly referred to as the "middle-aged corner' of the party and Langley joined Byers in the pool.

"Mommy, Mommy!" hollered Emily, running up to where Dana, Suzanne and Sharon were sitting. "Aunt Melissa and Uncle Sean are here! And Baby Kathleen!"

Suzanne had to admit that the Pendrells were a bit of a contrast to each other. Sean was shy and quiet in social situations, quite different from the lively, free-spirited Melissa. They had the only completely traditional marriage of the guests, Melissa having quit her job to become a stay-at-home Mommy when Kathleen was born a year earlier. Having her at home full-time has certainly been a blessing to me and Dana, Suzanne thought with a smile, since Melissa was always willing to help out if something went askew with the usual childcare arrangements in the Mulder or Byers families.

"Hi, Dana. Long time, no see," Pendrell commented dryly. Dana giggled. It was a family joke, because she and her brother-in-law worked just down the hall from each other at Quantico and saw each other virtually every day that Dana worked.

"Hey! My favorite sister-in-law and my favorite niece," Fox said as he came up to kiss Melissa and Kathleen.

"You know, Fox," Melissa said, "eventually she's going to be old enough to understand that I'm you're ONLY sister-in-law and she's your ONLY niece."

"Well, you'll always be my only sister-in-law. I guess the niece thing is subject to change, but that depends on you and Pendrell."

"How about and Bill and Tara, and Charles?"

"Please, Melissa. This is a party. Let's not bring your brothers into the conversation."

The last guests to arrive were the Bonds. These two looked more like they belonged on a Hollywood movie set than a backyard in suburban Maryland. Both were tall, good-looking and in their 20s. Yves had a hint of exoticness to her dark beauty, in contrast to her husband's all-American blond good looks. Jimmy had played football all through high school and college and still retained the sculpted build of an athlete. Suzanne smiled slightly as she heard both Langley and Frohike draw in their breaths as Yves dropped her cover-up to reveal a bikini. The married men, however, seemed not to even notice.

"Hi, Suzanne. Thanks for inviting us," Yves said, her voice still tinged with British accent that a decade in America hadn't completely erased.

"We're glad you could come," Suzanne said with a smile.

Langley chose this moment to stop staring at Yves and, instead, focused his attention on the children splashing in the pool, then looked at William and said, "You are SERIOUSLY outnumbered here, dude! I think somebody" - here he paused and glanced at Kimberly - "needs to have a baby boy to try to even things out a bit. Geez! Four little girls and you!"

"Hey, give him about ten years!" Fox said. "Then, if he takes after his Daddy, he'll be QUITE happy to be surrounded by all these pretty girls."

"Hit him for me, will you, Melissa?" Dana called out to her sister. "I don't feel like getting up to do it." Melissa playfully bopped her brother-in-law on the arm, then went over to sit near the other women.

Byers surveyed the backyard from his position in the pool. The three little girls were laughing as they played in the water near him and Langley, the two babies were sitting on a blanket near the women and the other men were talking and drinking beer.

What a wonderful life, he thought!

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