F.B.I. Special Agent Fox Mulder walked into his
kitchen and glanced at the pile of papers on the
counter. Normally, there was nothing exceptional
there. Usually it consisted of the day's mail, an
occasional flyer left on the front door and various
pamphlets his wife, Special Agent Dana Scully, brought home from her doctor's office.

Today, however, something caught his eye. There was a
brochure containing pictures - pen-and-ink drawings,
not photographs - of all sorts of exotic sexual
positions.

Holy shit! Mulder thought, Scully's going to kill me!
Apparently, one of the mailing lists he'd subscribed
to back in his pre-marital days had tracked him down.
He grabbed the paper and was about to toss it in the
trash when Scully walked in from another part of their house.

"Dana, I don't know where these came from," he began.

"From my doctor, Fox. She gave them to me for us too
look at."

"Your *DOCTOR* gave you these?" he asked
incredulously. "They look like something out of the
Kama Sutra!"

"They probably are," Scully said with a smile. "Do you know that book was originally designed as a medical work? Sort of a reference guide for the ancient Eastern version of today's gynecologists."

"Er, no, I didn't know that," he said.

"Actually, though," she replied, gently removing the
papers from his grasp and taking his hand to lead him
to the living room, "there's something else we need to talk about first." She sat down on the couch and
tugged him down beside her.

"What? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, Mulder. It's something my doctor
said she suggests all her patients discuss with their
husbands at this point in the pregnancy."

"What?" Mulder inquired again, curious as to where
this conversation was heading.

"Fox, when we first got married, we never really
discussed birth control. We were both under the
impression that I had been left barren by my abduction experience. The only angle we ever discussed family planning from was whether or not it might be possible for us to conceive a biological child using some sort of in vitro fertilization technique. When it turned out not to be necessary to go to those extremes - when I got pregnant naturally - we were both thrilled beyond belief. But my doctor pointed out that while this baby might be a one-in-a-million triumph over the odds, it might also simply be that I was misdiagnosed when I was originally told I was infertile. Which would mean we might want to consider using some sort of birth control after the baby's born."

"Sure, Scully. Whatever you want. That's up to you."

"Mulder!" she shouted angrily. "I can't believe you
would say such a stupid, chauvanistic thing. You think the responsibility for family planning is all *MY* responsibility?"

"No, Dana, no," he murmured soothingly. "I don't mean
it's your responisibility, I mean it's your *CHOICE*.
I'll do whatever you decide."

"Mulder, it's the sort of thing that ought to be a
mutual decision."

"Look at it logically, Scully," he said, using her
favorite line. "You're a doctor. You're also the one
whose life is more dramatically impacted by having
children. You're obviously in a better positon than I
am to make an informed decision about the pros and
cons of various methods of family planning. If you
want me to have a vasectomy then I'll do that. If you
want me to use condoms, that's fine, too. Or if you'd
rather go on birth control pills, okay. I'm willing to be cooperative, I just don't have strong feelings on the subject."

"Actually, I think we're approaching this discussion
from a backwards angle," Scully said. "I guess the
first thing we need to talk about is: do we want more
than one child?"

"Do we?" he asked her.

Scully sighed and rolled her eyes. "Mulder, I wouldn't want you to think I'd be disappointed if this is the only baby we ever have. God's been more than generous to us already. For years, I didn't think being a mother was even an option for me. The fact that I was able to conceive at all - much less that we didn't need medical assistance to do it - is nothing short of a miracle. But I loved growing up with brothers and a sister. If we had the chance, I'd like to provide that same sort of family for our child."

"You want *FOUR* children?" Mulder inquired, looking
somewhat alarmed.

Scully laughed softly. "No, I don't think I want that
many. But I'd like two. Another thing we have to
consider is my religious beliefs and the Catholic
teachings on family planning."

"Um, Scully, I don't mean to deride your beliefs in
anyway, but as a scientist don't you think that
natural family planning is a pretty ineffective manner of birth control?"

She shook her head. "Actually, it can be very
effective when used correctly. I've been doing some
research on it over the internet. It kind of got a bad rap back in the 1960s and 70s, but there's been a lot of fertility research done in the past 20 years.
Although it's never going to be effective as surgical
sterilization techniques or birth control pills,
natural family planning can prevent pregnancy just as
effectively as condoms or foams or diaphrams."

"Why does it have such a bad rap, then?" her husband
asked, intrigued.

"Probably because it does require a certain level of
self-control on the part of both participants. A lot
of couples would have sex on days when they knew
conception was likely, get pregnant, then call the
method ineffective; which is akin to getting a
prescription for birth control pills, forgetting to
take the pills two or three days out of every week,
then complaining because the pills didn't "work" when
you get pregnant. Also, it was seen as something
strictly for Catholics. But I've read that a lot of
holistic healers and practitioners of alternative
medicine are encouraging it's use nowadays."

"So I take it that's what you'd like us to do?" Mulder asked.

"Actually, no," his wife replied.

"What, then?"

"Nothing."

"You mean you'd want another baby immediately? Is that a good idea?"

"It's unlikely that I'd get pregnant again
immediately, Fox, but it's always a possibility. For
one thing, I hope to breastfeed and that tends to
suppress ovulation. For another thing, if we assume
that I've been fertile all along,  we still have to
remember that we were married for almost a year before we conceived. Still, if it's a choice between having two children closely spaced in age or never having a second child at all. . .I just wouldn't want to feel that we missed the opportunity."

"Dana, I know I said I'd agree to whatever you
decided, and I will, but with one provisio."

"What's that?"

"I don't have a problem with a second child, even if
the births are closely spaced, but only if your doctor okays it and things go smoothly this time around. If you have a dificult labor or the doctor says a second pregnancy would endanger your health, then no go. In that case, we'll do the natural family planning - even if it means fairly long stretches of abstinence. After all, it's not like we're not used to long stretches of abstinence, Scully."

She laughed softly.

***

Mulder and Scully has been cuddling quietly on the
couch for several minutes and he thought she might
have drifted off into a light doze - she got tired
easily nowadays. But she suddenly raised her head and
smiled at him, holding the brochures spread out like a hand of cards. "Did you want to pick one?"