Title: Changes Author: Ravenwald Spoilers: well, Requiem certainly, but nothing else Rating: G Keywords: Silly Thanks to Sister Tess for the down and dirty Beta. "Scully!" The bellow of my name comes from the living room where Mulder is watching television, holding our daughter. She had been asleep, but now her cries are added to the noise in the apartment: blaring TV, crying baby and pissed off Mulder and I don't have a clue in hell why he's upset. I put the casserole in the oven; wipe my hands and head to the other room. I take in what was once my pristine living room. There are Mulder's running shoes: one by the door, the other at the end of the sofa. His jacket is slung over the top of the armoire door that is standing open. The baby's blanket trails from the end of the bassinet and two of her stuffed toys are on the coffee table standing guard on either side of an empty beer bottle. Okay, enough is enough. "Mulder, give me Lizzie." When he wasn't home for the birth, my mother gently convinced me that I couldn't call her baby for the rest of her life. "She needs a name, if only to be baptized with." I had been wavering about having her baptized and then realized that Mulder would go along with anything I decided. He was like that. So we christened her Elizabeth Anne, Elizabeth for Melissa, and Anne for Samantha... a remembrance of them both without the heartbreaking reminder of failures and loss. I gently took her and cuddled her close. "What's a matter, sweets, did Daddy scare you?" She hiccupped and then stopped crying, realizing that Mommy had come to comfort her. Smiling now, I turned to Mulder. "Okay, just what is this all about...? And while you're telling me, why don't you put your shoes and jacket away?" Sheepishly, he got up and picked up after himself and the baby, but left the animals guarding the beer bottle... maybe he thought it was modern art... Maybe he was just too upset. I still didn't understand what had set him off. Finally, he turned to me. "It's the TV. How the he... heck can I watch TV like this? I looked at him puzzled. "What?" "It's this digital cable, Scully. I really appreciate that you went to the trouble to have it installed for me and everything and I really like the sports channels but it's so annoying!" Apparently the puzzled look did not leave my face so he used the remote to show me what had set him off. "How can I channel surf when you have to wait three to five seconds for the picture to load...? It'll take all night to get through all the channels!" When I got my digital cable... my first thought was how frustrated Mulder was going to be when he got his. - Ravenwald