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*slam*
The rush of cold air forced across the room by the door's sudden,
sharp closure wraps around the lone figure like a blanket as it
slumps against its desk and into the shadows. The constricting
grip of the chill and the extra empty air created by her
departure should make him shudder, sob, feel propelled to chase
after her and end this madness, but three months of unbearable
torture and then three months of nothingness as he lay condemned
six feet underground have left him robbed and bereft of emotions,
motivation, or much of anything for that matter - resurrection
gifted to nothing more than the shell of who he'd once been. So
instead, the figure rests there and stares with unfocused eyes at
the closed entrance to his apartment.
XxXxXxXxX
Frantic, fleeing footsteps slowed to a stop as Dana Scully
reached her car. The key turned in the lock, but she was already
seated and sobbing into trembling hands before it registered that
she'd even opened the door.
"What have I done? What am I doing?"
He was home, they were together again...and yet they were more
alone than they'd ever been. She didn't know what had just
happened up in his apartment or why she'd been unable to stop
herself from leaving before important words had been said...She
didn't even know why the strong need to go back to her apartment
now refused to let her be.
The only truth there was to know was that she needed him.
When the tears finally abated, hands lowered to rest on the mound
under which their child kicked and shifted and grew, whilst her
head dropped back against the seat's headrest - an exasperated,
defeated sigh escaping.
The things they'd wanted to say hadn't been said, in turn
silencing the words that *should* have been said in place of the
silence and painful snipes. She knew it would take time for him
to re-integrate and adjust to the life he'd returned to, but the
emptiness in him when she'd looked into those eyes...the distance
and coldness he'd put between them when he'd referred to her joy
at having him back and their unborn child... Even if she'd
stayed, any words would have been pushed aside by overwhelming
sobs or the physical act of knocking the sense into him with a
hard slap across his expressionless face.
Countless nights of lost sleep, days of stress, and months of
emotional turmoil combined with today's new devastating blow had
drained the adrenaline she'd been running on since his body had
been excavated from every part of her being, and her eyes slowly
slipped shut.
"If...if only I c-could...If only you knew..." she
wished in a whisper, "how happy I am to h-have you
back...what it's been like..."
XxXxXxXxX
TV couldn't help him forget the hollowness, let alone cure it,
and even the porn that had once been his only solace failed to
hold his attention for more than one minute. After two cycles
through the channels, the man that doubted he'd ever feel like
Fox Mulder again gave up trying to pretend everything was the
same as it always had been and turned the box off before tossing
the remote control in some direction or the other.
He shifted onto his back to stare at the ceiling above where he
lay on the couch. The flashes of memory continued to torment his
soul, leaving him to wonder if he would have been better off left
in the cold, damp earth where the black void staved off the
feeling of complete desolation, and the one person he cared for
couldn't be hurt by his outward expressions that had so much more
to do with his inability to deal with any of it than how he
necessarily felt towards her. A large part of him knew the
distancing tactic had been far from the right thing to use,
especially considering her obvious attempts to grasp for dear
life at their connection's tethering thread, and the emotional
effect it had had on her when it had seemingly snapped beyond
repair.
But *dammit*, he didn't want this pregnant, overly outwardly
emotional Scully - he wanted *his* Scully! The Scully that had
remained in his heart and mind throughout Their torturous
procedures and stopped him from completely giving in or losing
his mind...The Scully that he remembered had been worried and
upset, but still refused to lose her composure as she'd let him
go with Skinner for the flight to Oregon.
His Scully had been a five-foot-two pillar of strength that he
could rely upon no matter what, and unable to conceive a child
even after her precious Science had falsely raised her hopes.
This Scully's face was creased and torn by months of sleepless
nights, panic, relentless searching and an endless stream of
tears. Her voice was softer and occasionally much more hesitant -
hormones smoothing out the cracks in her worn vocal chords after
uncountable callings out of his name in a desperate bid to try
bring him back with the sheer power of that alone.
In fact, this woman that had greeted him upon his return from the
dead was so different from any of what he'd held so dear for so
long that he couldn't believe she dared to bear Scully's name.
It just wasn't right, and that was why he hadn't stopped her from
walking out the door.
Darkness consumed him, both inside the room and within his heart,
and despite the fact that he'd been asleep for the past three
months, the pull of Slumber's tide was too overwhelming.
"You'll never understand because I'll never be able to
explain what I went through - what I'm going through," he
lamented as his eyes closed. "I just wish things could go
back to how they were before. I just wish you knew..."
XxXxXxXxX
*slam*
Thunderous echoes of a large, heavy metal door crashing shut
reverberated in the air and sharply awakened Scully's senses. Her
eyes snapped open, expecting to look out through the windshield
of her still-parked car... Except--
This wasn't her car - it wasn't even either of their
apartments...and the dim blue orbs illuminating the area from
above where she appeared to be laying didn't belong to any place
she'd ever been before. She tried to sit up--
And that was when the pain seeped in, tearing up her arms and
legs - her cheeks burning as something tugged at them every time
her head moved a fraction.
"You refuse to learn or submit," a voice intoned as a
dark figure moved to loom over her. "It's just a matter of
time now, and I promise that will be very short."
Aside from the stranger, the location, and the pain-inducing
restraints, something wasn't right...She knew who she was, the
hell she'd been put through over the past six months, and that
she should be pregnant, but there were tears streaming from the
corners of her eyes and...and there were thoughts, fears, in her
head that felt like somebody else's - terror that 'she' wasn't
okay, that the cancer was back...that he wouldn't see her
again....?
What th--?
"Of course you can never see her again," the stranger's
voice coldly dismissed as the ominous shadow moved away.
"Not that that ever really bothered you, did it? After all,
how many times did you ditch her so that she wouldn't get in the
way? How many times did you lie to her to hide your true
feelings? Her...soul, is it?...has been so tormented, she would
make quite the specimen for us."
Fury beyond comprehension or anything she'd ever known came to a
boil. "Leave her the fuck alone!" The body she had no
control over frantically fought against the restraints, the
overwhelming pain incomparable to its need to get out of here
now. "You touch her, I swear I'll kill every last one of you
as slowly and painfully as possible!"
And then she realized what was wrong. The flat, breast-less and
pregnant bulge-less expanse of torso, and that familiar deep,
cracking voice...
She was Mulder - seeing things through his eyes, experiencing
everything he had been through, an--
The disembodied voice let out an emotionless chuckle from
somewhere to her - *his* - right, before sighing, "There's
no time for idle threats, Mister Mulder. In time, she will be
ours to work on again, but for now we have a few issues
concerning your genetic makeup to contend with."
This was confusing! She could feel everything - every muscle
twitch, every nerve working overdrive as searing pain took hold,
every conceivable emotion - that Mulder was, as if she were him,
and yet she unequivocally was conscious of the fact that she was
the partner he (and, in turn, she) was all-consumingly worried
about. Two souls in one body: one the sufferer, one the tactile
observer.
Without warning, a mechanical arm appeared from nowhere, and
before there was time to question its purpose, two rotary saws on
the end spun to life - their ear-piercing whirring increasing in
volume as they first neared, and then easily cut into, Fox
Mulder's chest.
"Scuuu-leeeeeeeeee!"
*Mulder!*
XxXxXxXxX
The head snapped up as the sound of a pain-filled cry echoed
within the remaining fragments of the dream, but as Mulder tried
to make sense of it, the surreal feeling of being worried about
'him' and the fact that he was now in their basement office, the
sudden need to spew his guts gripped at him with a force he'd
never imagined possible.
"Goddammit...Not again..."
What the fuck?!
As the body shakily moved to a vertical position - holding at the
edge of the desk for dear life - Mulder slowly came to the
realisation that he had no control over what it was doing or the
thoughts that were washing over his consciousness. All he could
do was observe and experience, but as pain wrapped around the
strange body's ankles, pulled at its chest, tore up its sides,
and gripped at its stomach yet again, the thought of that was far
from appealing.
"You okay there, Agent Scully?"
Scully?
Eyes eased open, the unavoidable need to vomit was pushed aside
to save face, and thin hands he'd known, held and loved for years
now were frantically pushing back dishevelled strands of red hair
before he'd even had chance to catch up with what was happening.
"I'm fine, Agent Doggett. I was just--"
"You were just gettin' a little shuteye?"
Despite the pain the unfamiliar thought processor knew would
follow, her back straightened, and in that instant - as tired
bones disapprovingly clicked into place - Mulder finally caught
on to what was happening.
So much for investigative mind!
...Except, this *wasn't* his mind...
But he'd wished for her to know what he'd been through, so why
was he seeing things through her eyes? This wasn't right at all!
Sleepy-but-determined eyes fixed a glare on the figure standing
in the doorway, who casually sipped at his cup of coffee and
stared back at her with a sceptical glare of his own. Before she
had chance to respond, the newcomer shook his head and stepped
into the office. There was something in his expression that made
both Scully and Mulder feel pitied.
"I thought you were on your way home to pack for the
flight?" Doggett commented, moving to sit at the desk in the
corner of the office.
'Montana...' The fleeting thought passed through Scully's mind,
shortly followed by even more thoughts of 'him' and the uplifting
possibility of Hope. Suddenly Mulder's conscience was flooded by
painful memories of what she'd been through over the passing
months since he'd gone back to Oregon. It was all too
overwhelming, and he was certain that if he'd been in his own
body he would have surely wrapped both arms around himself and
squeezed the life out.
"No, I uh..." She was fighting an internal battle over
how much information to share with this man she still barely
trusted, leaving Mulder to wonder how long it had been before
he'd gained any of her faith. "The overnight bag is in the
car already." She'd been sleeping at his apartment? Crying
herself to sleep alone on his bed as she'd clung any item of his
clothing that still had the slightest scent of him still on them
tightly against her chest? "I just need to sort some
of--...I need to finish some paperwork up before we leave."
He should've been there for her... To have been the one sitting
there with her, holding her hand when the doctor had revealed the
news of her miraculous pregnancy; to insist she take it easy at
work; to take care of them both more than she would stubbornly
allow him. He should have been there to stop or wipe away every
single teardrop, dammit, and...
Oh, shit...
XxXxXxXxX
3 HOURS LATER
There was nothing.
No lights. No more sharp implements tearing or drilling through
strained, bloodied muscles. No shadowed faces
expressionlessly-but-intently observing every test and procedure.
Nothing except pain, fear, claustrophobia, darkness, and the
overpowering, worsening stench of dankness and decay, that is.
Scully didn't know which was more unbearable: the idea that she'd
let them bury her very-much-alive partner, or the cacophony of
thoughts that had whizzed around inside his head as he'd lain
completely immobilized and trapped within the confines of the
wooden casket.
'They put you here - nobody wants you.'
'She won't even remember you a week from now!'
'Please let her be okay...'
'You got what you deserved! Is this the truth you were looking
for?'
'You're dead and you're going to be left alone with just your
pitiful thoughts forever!'
'She'll be able to have a proper, happy life....unless it was the
Cancer...Oh God...'
They were just a handful of the noises she was able to make sense
of amongst the clatter, and she couldn't believe that despite all
he'd been through and the terrifying, maddening predicament he
was in now, his primary concern lay with her; as beaten, bruised
and - in almost all literal senses of the term - dead he was, the
state of her health and wellbeing was the only thing torturing
his soul.
"You'll n-never know...I should have told you so many
times..."
'Scully!'
Surreal kicked up a gear and quickly shifted to Heart-wrenching.
Memories from the day of the funeral returned to her, and that
night when she'd been unable to stay away from his grave despite
the insistent pleas from Skinner, the Gunmen and her mother to
'give it time'.
"What was it you said once? 'I don't wanna do this alone - I
don't even know if I can'? Well, I can't, dammit! I've tried -
I've tried so hard, but it's killing me inside and I'm just not
strong enough to--..."
'Scully, I'm here! Please hear me! Everything's gonna be okay,
just...just...Please, be okay...'
She wanted to hold him, soothe him, comfort him - assure him that
everything was okay and that he would be out of this hellhole
soon. She wanted to tell her past self that he could hear every
word she was saying - that he wasn't dead.
But there was no escaping from this - this nightmare she was
experiencing the re-run of, from the opposite perspective *had*
happened.
And endurance of three more long, lonely, terrifying months of
this before finally being 'unearthed' like some forgotten relic
could never be soon enough...She was at breaking point already
having only been in this part of his consciousness for twenty
minutes...Even just a day would seem like an eternity, let alone
a whole month or three!
'Mulder, I'm with you, *always*' she tried to assure him, wishing
that their connection had the power to cross the boundaries of
space and time. 'You have to know that. I wouldn't have let them
do this to you if I'd known - I'm *so* sorry!'
Her wish didn't come true, however, and she felt the torturous
turmoil surging through his paralysed body stir to a higher level
as he chanted to himself 'Scullyscullyscullyscullyscully'.
"What-- What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to tell
our ch-ch-child when...when he asks why his daddy isn't there to
video his first Little League game? O-or when she cries on my
shoulder because her father isn't there to give her away to her
husband-to-be?" A pause, a sniff and a sharp intake of
breath from the figure that knelt on the damp surface of the
earth six feet above. "What am I supposed to tell myself
every second of the day...when I wake up alone each morning...or
as I turn to tell our child that you would be so proud of them if
I'd just listened to my gut instinct and refused to let you go
back to Oregon? I-I should n-n-never have let you go back
there!"
This was killing him, slowly and painfully, and Scully wanted
'out' now.
'Imherescullyimherescullyim-- Child? What? Sc--...Our child? Oh
my God, Scully...Scullyscullyscullyscullyscullyscully'
He'd heard every word she'd wept at that graveside, and suddenly
the expression of dawning realisation on his face as she'd tried
to tell him about the miraculous pregnancy at the hospital made
sense; suddenly everything about his cold attitude toward her
made more sense than she'd dared to let herself imagine or
comprehend. After months of tests and torture at the hands of the
barbaric aliens that he'd spent mostly worrying over her health
and how pissed at him she'd be for ditching her again whenever he
returned, he'd then been condemned to this box for a further
three months with only his endless, festering ruminations as
company (besides the worms, of course) which she had only added
fuel to with her regular, sobbed ramblings.
He'd not been able to question her about the wheres, whys and
whos. His guilt-ridden brain had convinced him that she was
having a much better and more productive life without him...
No wonder he was confused.
'I'll make it up to you, I swear,' she tried again, unable to
avoid the crest of emotion that was threatening to crash over his
mind in any instant. 'Everything will work out right - it has
to.'
Despite the unlikelihood of a miracle, he did seem to actually
relax fractionally shortly thereafter.
XxXxXxXxX
Everything was spinning out of control. Days of stark nightmares,
sickness, emotional turmoil and wild panic had sped past within a
few short hours, and the madness slowly seeping into Scully's
senses was having a knock-on effect over Mulder's consciousness.
Would this ever end? He'd realised his mistake of believing for
one second that his disappearance had been easy on his partner or
even helped to better her life...Surely he should be released
from this now so that he could try make it up to her?
Frantic footfalls across the cracked, wooded land slowed only
momentarily as the stupid, bat-eared Doggett guy tried uselessly
to keep her away from the truth she'd been searching for over the
past three months...
And then everything slowed.
Stopped.
Died.
A world only tethered together by the thinnest strands of Hope
fell into a million shattered pieces as her stressed, bruised,
malnourished bones crumbled to the floor.
"No! Oh God, no...honey, no!"
It was the same feeling of emptiness that had consumed Mulder
when she'd been abducted, but a million times worse - an empty
wasteland sapped of everything it could have ever had to offer.
He'd had an insight into what she'd been going through and the
emotions that had been thrown into chaos by his disappearance and
her unexpected pregnancy, but this...This was the final nail in
the proverbial coffin that made him realise how lost she'd really
always known she'd be without him by her side, and how much she
loved him.
"He needs-- He needs help!"
'I'm so sorry,' he tried to tell her, knowing the words would
never be able to change the pain he'd caused her firstly by going
back to Oregon, and secondly by completely disregarding her since
his return. 'I swear I'll make it up to you...You know I will,
over and over again. Everything will work out - it just *has*
to.....I love you too much to put us through this!'
Only...he *had* put them through this...
XxXxXxXxX
*I love you*
Eyelids flew open and a shuddering gasp of air was snatched in as
sweaty fingers reached desperately for something - anything -
that would give support and a life-saving connection to reality.
It took several more moments and cleansing breaths, but finally
the world spun back into focus and the final traces of the
nightmare faded away.
To punctuate the point, the miraculously-conceived baby kicked at
her insides.
Dana Scully tentatively lowered a hand back down to rub across
her abdomen and glanced into the windshield mirror at the
reflection of the dark apartment building. A majority part of her
wanted to run back upstairs and refuse to let him out of her
tight embrace until he realised she would always be there for
him, no matter how long it took him to find his feet again, but
after witnessing what she just had there was also a part that
insisted she give him the space he needed. Pushing too hard would
not help his recovery or their relationship at all, and they
would just have to take it one step at a time.
"We're always here," she whispered, pulling the
driver's side door shut. "Don't forget that, and please
don't take too long to realise it."
XxXxXxXxX
The sound of a distant car door slamming shut caught the lone
figure's attention as he sat on the edge of his leather couch
rubbing furiously at the sweat bathing his face.
'You're such an asshole, Mulder,' an inner-voice sniped as he
stood and moved to look out of the window over his desk. 'When is
that gonna get through your thick skull?' Bloodshot, hazel eyes
spotted her car as it prepared to leave the parking lot. 'There!
You have a chance to make it up to her - to let her be your
touchstone again. Don't throw it away after all you've both
suffered!'
"Scul-ly..." Quiet and strained from the screaming he'd
done whilst asleep, but the voice carried determination as Fox
Mulder sharply turned on his heel and ran out of the apartment.
XxXxXxXxX
"Scully!"
The car lurched to a halt and red hair whipped aside as she shot
a glance over her shoulder at the echo of that familiar voice in
her ear, and sound of something slapping against the vehicle's
rear hood. After the debate they had just had up in his
apartment, surely Mulder hadn't chased after her?
"Scully?"
He was at the window beside her now, tapping urgently at the
glass, and one look into those eyes that she'd stared into a
million times before - found comfort in on countless occasions
over the years - let her know that he'd chased after her as fast
as his legs had managed to carry him. A little unsure of what to
make of his sudden change of heart, she slowly lowered the
window.
"You--...I thought you'd said all you wanted to say?"
Dana croaked, finding it almost impossible to push the words past
the ball of emotion blocking her throat. "...That...That you
c-couldn't be around me right now..."
Eyelids slipped shut as Mulder gave a solemn nod of his head in
acknowledgement of her words. He couldn't take back what he'd
said, and if he were truly honest with himself he wouldn't
anyway, but he did need to apologise for not giving her a chance
to explain anything and causing her so much more anguish.
If only he knew how to put it in more meaningful words than just
'I'm sorry'.
"I-I can't be around *me* right now," he tried, not
looking up at her. Even the snort of irony sounded hollow.
"I shouldn't be around anything, even - I was dead...I
should still be dead..."
Scully shook her head as she fought desperately against the urge
to jump out of the car and throw both arms around him - knowing
that if she did, nothing would be resolved and wounds would
continue to tear them apart. "No matter what I say to the
contrary, you won't believe me. No matter what I do to try
convince you you're needed more than words will ever be able to
express, you'll only push me even further away."
"It's...It's not--"
"Look, Mulder, I..." She snatched in a deep breath and
lowered a hand to rub instinctively over her pregnant bulge.
"I understand what you're going through - what you fear and
why you feel the way you do...What's happened to you is just too
beyond belief to comprehend, but--..Maybe you're right - maybe
you do need your own space for awhile...Drills, shadowed figures
and being buried alive would drive me insane too."
"How--"
One of her hands outstretched through the open window to grasp
his hand. Mulder tensed at the contact briefly, but she felt his
muscles relax as her thumb started to gently caress along the
back of his fingers. "It doesn't matter, now. You're alive -
you *are* - and as unimportant as that may be to you, to me it
means more than the universe - more than my life a million times
over. This time two weeks ago I was crying myself to sleep for
the god-only-knows-how-manyth-time, certain I would never see you
again and that our child would never know their father..."
*What am I supposed to tell our child when...when he asks why his
daddy isn't there to video his first Little League game?*
Mulder's head lifted as an inexplicable memory from his time in
the coffin underground flashed to the front of his brain.
"I love you," she ploughed ahead, noticing but
dismissing the dawning realisation creasing and smoothing his
features, "and regardless of whatever decision you make,
nothing will ever change that." She gave his hand a squeeze
and then released it. "Just believe me when I say that your
ditching me to go on your own little ventures *never* broke my
soul, nor did anything we went through over the years - not the
cancer, or Emily, or Missy, or more injuries than anyone could
ever imagine suffering in a whole lifetime let alone seven years.
But..." A gust of wind picked up, and Dana briefly diverted
her gaze to watch the leaves tumbling across the road as she
struggled to rein in her emotions yet again. "Finding you in
those woods...Finding you and touching your cold, lifeless
body...F-finding y-y-you in that condition and then learning that
there was absolutely *nothing* I could do to put color back into
your gray cheeks - no way of making you o-open your eyes and
breathe against my skin as I c-cradled you in my arms...That
*did* break my soul - it damn near killed me!" Thin fingers
curled tightly around the steering wheel. "Knowing I-I-I...I
couldn't erase those chest-ripping razor-sharp saws or the
t-tests they'd p-put you through before it had become too
much...I wish I could, I really do - I wish the last
six-fucking-months hadn't happened! But they did, and the only
thing we can do is try to work through the memories and look
ahead, no matter how impossible that may seem. You f-fit in,
M-Mulder, but you n-need to take the step and realise that
w-w-without you I have nothing, and my life could never be
b-better without y-you."
She'd said what she'd wanted to say - what she hadn't been able
to say up in his apartment - and more, and there was no way she
could spill anymore without completely breaking down or putting
the health of their unborn child in danger. If it was enough to
knock some sense into his scarred brain remained to be seen, but
at least she'd tried to eradicate some of the fears she'd been
witness too within the nightmare.
"I'll...I'll speak to you later..."
Her foot was about to apply pressure to the accelerator, when he
suddenly reached into the vehicle, switched off the ignition and
took out the keys.
"Mu--"
"Please tell me you gave a monologue like that for my
eulogy, 'cos I can assure you the oak structure of the casket
wouldn't have been the only stretch of wood in that general
vicinity."
Scully's jaw dropped as she stared at him and watched the flame
that had once made him Fox William Mulder faintly flicker to life
in his eyes and warm the smile that was lifting his left cheek.
"What?"
He glanced down at the collection of keys in his hand and the
Apollo 11 keychain they were attached to.
'No one gets there alone.'
"You really shouldn't have run through the forest like that
- you could've tripped and hurt the kid," he playfully
chided, looking back up at her.
"How do you know--?"
"Like you said, it doesn't matter now - nothing matters now,
except..." A pause for contemplation and then "Except
that you get out of the car."
Despite her doubt at his sudden change of attitude, Scully opened
the driver's door, but when she tried to step out of the vehicle
a wave of exhaustion and inertia too powerful to fight took over
her body and her head dropped back against the seat. Mulder
quickly dropped to his knees beside her and reached for one of
her hands.
"Are you okay?" he frantically asked in a voice she'd
resigned herself to believe she'd never hear again after the
cold, distant, hollowness she'd been given since his revival.
"Should I call 911?"
Without hesitating to think of the best way to respond, she gave
a gentle shake of her and locked eye contact with him. "I'm
fine." Again a hand moved to rest over her abdomen. "I
just wish I could untie those thoughts whizzing around in your
head and cleanout the nasty ones. I want you back."
He wanted 'Scully' back but, even after all he'd experienced
through her eyes, she was still too different from what he'd
grown to love to make that possible. Of course change of some
kind had been necessary over six months for a grieving, pregnant
professional woman, but to him the trip with Skinner to Oregon
had only happened a fortnight ago and things were going along far
too quickly for his head to wrap around.
"Things have just moved on without me so much," he
confessed, moving his free hand to rest over the one she cradled
her stomach with. "So, so much... Even though there are
flashes of all that happened trapped in my head, to me it's like
I left yesterday and it's just difficult - too painful, even - to
accept that in fact you've been through six months of Hell. That
none of this has been easy on you, and that you put that which
you've always prayed for in danger because of your desperate
search for me..." The tentative touch against her body grew
in surety. "And...And I don't know if I can be--...I don't
know if I'm the man you want anymore."
Scully let out a snort of laughter and leant forward to rest
against him. "You silly thing," she sighed, pressing
her face into the warmth of his chest. "God, you...you
really c-couldn't be more wrong..."
Their now-entwined fingers remained against her pregnant bulge as
they both let their eyes slip shut and revelled in the close
proximity of each other. As if sensing the ultimate yet
slightly-tenuous reconnection of the bond between his parents,
their baby kicked at Scully's insides and both smiled at the
intimate sensation.
"You got an athlete in there?" Mulder joked, anxiously
awaiting the next kick and overjoyed when it came only thirty
seconds later. He still had doubts about the paternal credit she
insisted belonged to him, but the knowledge that there was a
little Scully in there, growing against all odds in a
supposedly-barren wasteland - conception blooming as he'd been
dying, even after IVF attempts had failed - meant the world to
him. As empty, lost and dead he'd felt four hours ago, in that
instant he realised that the nightmare, the feel of his partner
nestled under his chin and those two mind-blowing kicks were
breathing the life back into him.
Fox Mulder was being reborn.
"A fighter," came the muffled voice vibrating against
his pecs. "A mini G-person to fight the aliens in the future
when his parents are too crazy and crippled to do anything but
sleep in bed all day together. What d' you think?"
"Do you think you can put up with me that long?"
"As long as we're together, we can do just about
anything."
"I guess I'd better order in the bedpans and hearing aids
then."
The sound of laughter rolled and echoed across the silent car
park as two souls reunited. As painful as it had been, they'd
both taken a walk down each others' path, and the circular
journey had led them back to one another - each where they truly
belonged, better and more complete for knowing what had happened
in their absence.
As tough as the months - maybe, even, years - to come would be,
they would see it all through.
Together, they really could do anything.
THE END
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