Skinner handed his prisoner over to another agent and went to stand next to Scully. He never thought he would see fear on her face until he observed her watching the crash team fight to save Mulder, and then exit his room. She searched every face as they walked from the room. Fear turned to defiance, and defiance flickered to hope when she heard Dr. Robertson say he had pulled through. Another close call to add to his already long list. Half-heartedly excusing herself, Scully rushed into Mulder's room, grabbing his hand beneath her own, she thanked God that he had survived yet again.
Turning to the pair standing behind her, she asked, "What happened?" The fear was gone, Skinner noted, and Agent Scully was back.
"I was coming back to ask you something else," Skinner said. "When I found someone injecting something into Agent Mulder. When he saw me, he turned to run and I tackled him. That's as much as I know right now."
Skinner deferred to the doctor standing next to him. She glanced between the two agents before speaking. "To put it simply, his heart stopped. We're having blood work done, and the sample left in the syringe analyzed to see what was injected into Agent Mulder this time and what long term effects it might have. For now, he is unconscious, but stable. I've increased his treatment to try and help counter any additional infection. I should know more soon." She paused, remembering her original discussion with Scully. "Agent Scully, you mentioned a previous injection mark?"
Scully motioned for the doctor to step forward and they began to discuss the previous puncture mark as well as the current situation. Skinner stepped out into the hallway to give them some extra room since he was no longer needed. He had sat down in a chair outside the room to wait for Agent Scully, but it was Dr. Robertson who stopped to speak with him.
"You did a very good thing in there, Mr. . . . "
"Skinner. Walter Skinner. I'm their boss at the FBI. Is Agent Mulder going to pull through?"
The doctor eyed the man standing in front of her and noted his near parental concern for the sick agent. "We'll know more for sure when the tests come back. However, if will has anything to do with it, I'd say he doesn't have a choice with Agent Scully in there." For the first time since stepping off the elevator, Dr. Robertson had a faint smile on her face.
"You're right there. They're both quite stubborn. Neither ever wants to be the one to back down. It's part of what makes them such good partners. They force one another to see both sides before deciding on one. Thank you for looking after them, Dr. Robertson." She simply nodded her head and left, having been pleasantly surprised by her patient's boss.
Inside the still room, Scully could hear the conversation between her boss and Dr. Robertson. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she listened to Skinner describe Mulder and herself. It reminded her of the previous Friday afternoon, the one she would like so much to forget. Hearing Skinner enter the room behind her, she blinked away the offending moisture from her eyes.
"Agent Scully, how are you doing?" She was surprised by the soft tone of Skinner's voice.
"I'm fine, Sir. Agent Mulder is the one someone tried to kill." She was speaking to Skinner, but her gaze remained fixed to Mulder's face.
Skinner moved to stand next to where Scully was sitting before speaking. "Yes, but sometimes it's hardest on those who have to wait. Don't you agree? You've done more than your share of waiting these past few years." He noted with some concern when she lowered her head and sniffed quietly. "Agent Scully, Dana, are you sure you're all right?"
"I will be when he wakes up, when he knows me as more than the woman he should remember. Then I'll be okay."
"Agent Scully, I need to go. I had just came back for a minute. But call me if anything changes. I called for a guard to be placed outside the door, so we shouldn't have a replay of earlier. I'll let you know if anything else turns up from the team at his apartment." He turned to leave when she nodded her head acknowledging his words.
She lost track of how long she had been sitting beside Mulder's bed when Dr. Robertson came by. Scully noted with disinterest that it had again grown dark outside. "Agent Scully, we have the test results back." She knew when she heard the doctor pause to clear her throat that it was one of two things. Either it was especially bad, or they didn't know what it was. "The results indicate something with which none of the doctor's I've consulted know anything about. We're at a loss. However, it does appear that somehow his body is fighting it on it's own, along with the standard medication. At this point I couldn't even tell you what cause the memory loss, the infection or the head trauma. I wish I could tell you more."
Scully nodded her head, listening to the news she'd expected to hear, but had hoped against. "May I see the printouts from the lab work? I'm something of a resident expert in Agent Mulder's many strange hospitalizations." She tried to smile as she spoke, but the look came across more as melancholy. She looked down at her partner while she was speaking, but returned her gaze to the doctor to await her response.
Dr. Robertson handed her a small stack of papers. "I thought you might. Here you go. Let me know if you find something we didn't." With that she turned and left. For the next couple of hours, Scully was lost among the data the tests had produced. Eventually sighing and removing her glasses, she stopped to look at Mulder. She wondered how he managed to look like such a little boy when he slept. The countless hotels had given her a rare glimpse into the nightmares he so shielded from the world. The nightmares plagued him relentlessly, but whenever he managed to yet again be in the hospital, his features spoke of a well deserved, but seldom felt peace. Peace from the chaos, the Mulder paradox she supposed. Curling up in her chair, the endless adrenaline she had been running on depleted, she fell into a dreamless sleep.
Sometime later she was woken up by someone calling her name. "Dana? Honey?"
"Mulder?" Confusion rang through her voice, her eyes finally managing to focus on the concerned face of her mother. "Mom? What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night. Wait, how did you even know to come?"
Pulling up another chair, Mrs. Scully explained. "Mr. Skinner called me. It's not the middle of the night, it's Tuesday morning now." Scully craned her stiff neck to look up at the window and discovered that she had managed to sleep through most of the night. "And of course, I'd come. The two of you need me. What happened to my Fox?" Scully could practically hear the "this time" hanging off the end of her mother's question.
Rubbing her tired eyes, she tried to focus. "Uh, we don't know for sure what happened. Sometime Friday night someone apparently jumped him in his apartment and injected him with something. By the time I found him on Sunday, he had an infection and a high fever. He woke up on Monday but he had forgotten what happened to him this weekend, or anything to do with me. While I went to find his doctor last night someone injected him with something else. Skinner stopped him, but he was almost finished and Mulder flat lined as a result. They managed to revive him, but he hasn't woken back up yet." When she finished she realized that she hadn't even stopped to take a breath while she was speaking. Looking into her mom's understanding eyes, she struggled to not give in to the urge to collapse into her arms like she did when she was young, and she or Ahab had always had the answers.
"Dana, he's going to be okay. You must believe that. And it was probably just the trauma of the whole thing that caused his memory loss. He would never want to forget you. The two of you are best friends. You have to believe in him and yourself." They sat beside Mulder's bed for awhile longer before Mrs. Scully suggested, "Why don't I go get you something to eat? I doubt you've even eaten since you found out about Fox." Her daughter nodded her head mutely, and Mrs. Scully headed for the cafeteria for two breakfasts.
"Come on, Mulder. Come back to me, you have to wake up. We just went through this yesterday." She didn't notice the barest flicker of his eyelashes at her words. "Follow your heart, Mulder. For me." Her last words were a mere whisper.
Mulder, barely awake, listened to her words. Flashes struck across his mind of memories he thought he had lost. Five years flooded back in mere moments. He gasped, startled by the overwhelming sensation. Scully's eyes shot up, worried at the unexpected sound. What she saw surprised her.
"Hi ya, Scully. Guess I screwed up again, huh?" There was a spark in his tired eyes that wasn't there before, but there was also an uncertainty. "Scully? Are you mad at me still?"
Her initial shock wearing off, Scully remembered to blink and breathe. "You . . . You remember me? I'm not mad at you, Mulder. We argued, that wasn't that uncommon. But what happened to you this weekend?" Mulder opened his mouth to speak, and Scully remembered the water beside the bed and gave him some. She could see a far away look in his soft hazel eyes, as if he was reliving it in his mind.
"I was at home, I remember watching television and thinking a lot about that afternoon. Later I was in the kitchen when I heard something. Before I could react, someone hit me from behind and I think I hit the counter. The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the couch with no memory of how I got there. That's when I found the pictures. The ones of Samantha, and us, and the email. I must have passed out, because it's a black hole until I woke up in the hospital. I'm so sorry that I didn't remember you, Scully. I would never want to hurt you." The raw emotion in his eyes was touching, and she smiled, unable to help herself. To Mulder it was the smile she always reserved for when he woke up in one hospital or another.
"But you remember me now. Right?" When he nodded his head, she continued. "How? I mean, what caused you to remember? Do you know? We almost lost you again yesterday, Mulder. You may still be in danger. Was that somehow the cause?" She was talking very fast, but couldn't stop. There were too many questions left unanswered. They needed to solve this particular mystery, if possible.
He stopped to think when it was he had started to remember, but didn't have a chance to answer when Mrs. Scully walked into the room. She was carrying a tray full of food and was brought to a halt when she saw Mulder watching her. "Fox? You're awake! How do you feel? Do you need anything? How about something to drink? Wait, do you even remember me?" The range of emotions playing across Mrs. Scully's face was startling and Mulder and Scully exchanged a look and fought to keep from laughing. It was a noticeable break in the tension.
"Yes, Mrs. Scully. I do remember you now. No I don't need anything. As to when I remembered, Scully, it was something you said. You told me to follow my heart. Before I couldn't place why that sounded so familiar. Now I actually remember saying it to you Friday afternoon. I was so worried, all evening, that I would never see you again, that you'd had enough."
Scully lowered her eyes, unable to look at either Mulder or her mother. "About that argument, Mulder . . . I wouldn't have left. Over the weekend, I did a lot of thinking. It was strange, really. I couldn't get you out of my head. In retrospect, I wish I had paid attention sooner, maybe I would have found you earlier rather than later." Again she dropped her gaze, not wanting to see her partners understanding eyes.
"You didn't do anything wrong. Besides, I thought I was the one with the guilt complex. You're in my territory, now." His attempt at levity didn't go unnoticed, but it didn't have the effect he'd hoped for either.
Hoping to change the subject, Mrs. Scully asked, "You still don't know who caused you to be in this condition, Fox?" Scully noted with both awe and a fleck of envy how he didn't even flinch at her mother's use of his first name.
"Like so many other things, I have the feeling we might never know." Each of the two women hated to hear him sound so defeated.
Scully took his hand and said, "What matters most is that it didn't work. You're safe, you're alive. And I'm thankful to have my best friend back. That much we do know."
"Dana, honey. Why don't you go home? Just for a little while, I can stay with Fox while you're gone." Mrs. Scully knew it would take some fast talking to convince her daughter to leave Fox's side. "You need to get some sleep besides in that chair." At the same time, Scully's mind flashed to the last time that she had left her partner's side. She was about to decline when her mother spoke up again. "Honey, please. You're exhausted, and Fox is fine." Looking over at Mulder, who appeared to feel guilty for keeping her there, and seeing the agreement in his sad eyes, she agreed.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours. All right?"
Both nodded their heads, and Mulder lowered his eyes from her stare. "It's okay, Dana. We'll be here when you get back. Take whatever time you need." Scully, walked to the door and with one last look at quite possibly the two most important people in her life, she turned and walked down the hall toward the elevator.
Scully had no intention of sleeping when she went home. However, her body overruled her mind. Collapsing onto the couch, she was asleep before she even realized. Groggily, she struggled to focus after something woke her from a dreamless sleep. Looking around, she finally decided it was her telephone that had interrupted her exhausted slumber.
"Scully," she slurred into the receiver.
Her world seemed to slow when she heard her mother's whispered agony. "Honey, it's Fox . . . " Leaving the phone dangling by the spiraled cord, she ran out of her apartment. She barely even remembered to lock the door behind her. Ignoring the rain that poured over her, she jumped into her car and drove as fast as she dared. Cursing both the traffic and the rain that had caused it, the trip took twice as long as it should have.
Throwing her car into park, she ran into the building very nearly running into several people. In too big a hurry to wait for the elevator, she ran up the stairs two at a time until she reached the third floor. Scully slowed somewhat when she reached the hallway, wary of what she might find. Pushing her soaked hair out of her eyes, her hesitation disappeared when she saw her mom.
"Mom?" Emotion crackled in her voice, and her eyes searched for good news in her mother's features. She was still hoping against hope.
"Dana, honey. I'm so sorry . . . " Shock filled Scully's features, and then disbelief.
"No, I was just here. He was fine. Nothing else was supposed to happen." When her mother tried to envelop her in a hug, she brushed past her, and entered Mulder's deathly silent room.
"How?" Scully's voice was a whisper ringing with emotion. When no one answered, she walked closer to the bed. "No," she whispered. "No. No. No!" She ripped the sheet from over his face, her cries becoming louder and louder until she felt hands pulling at her. "Nooo," her voice was nothing more than a choked sob. The restraining hands returned and she again struggled to free herself and reach her partner's side.
Suddenly a ringing filled the room, and as she continued to struggle she sought to see what machine it was coming from. "Scully?" For a split second she froze, for the voice that had spoken her name belonged to her dead partner. As she continued to struggle to free herself and go nearer to her partner's voice, she gasped.
Awakening with a start, she sat up to discover she was still on her couch. Looking down, she discovered the restraining hands had actually been a blanket. Trying to remember what had sent her reeling from her nightmare, she heard it again. "Scully? Are you there? Pick up if you are." Mulder, she thought he's not dead, it was a dream. It was a dream. She kept repeating it to herself, she nearly sobbed at the sound of his voice, the dream had been so real.
Clutching the telephone, she grasped the receiver. "I'm here, Mulder. What's wrong?" Scully struggled to keep her voice even, the emotions of the past few days were finally beginning to catch up with her.
"I'm fine, Scully. I felt like I needed to call you for some reason. Like I needed to make sure that you were all right. Are you, all right I mean?"
Silence greeted his question until she trusted her voice to speak. "I'm fine, Mulder. Now... Now I'm fine. Have you heard from the doctor?"
He recognized her diversionary tactic, but granted her the temporary reprieve. He could tell by her voice that she wasn't as fine as she claimed and for that he felt responsible. In his mind it was vintage Mulder, always screwing up at her expense. Before his silence became too noticeable, he answered her question. "The doctor came by earlier after you left. They never figured out what had been given to me, but luckily it was responding to traditional treatments. Later Skinner stopped by after work." Scully glanced at the clock to discover she really had slept long enough for that to be true. "No new evidence was discovered at my apartment. And the guy they grabbed in here couldn't tell them anything. He was just a flunkie for someone. We'll be lucky to ever find out exactly what this little experiment was about."
For a moment, Scully closed her eyes and listened to Mulder's voice. It seemed recently that there were far too many unexplained near misses in her opinion. For the moment she wanted to stop and smell the flowers as it were. "So you're feeling better then?"
"Yes, Mom," he laughed into the phone. Emotions were running the gambit in a very short period of time for both of them.
"Ha ha. I'll be back in a couple of hours, 'kay? I love you partner."
Mulder was somewhat taken aback by the breach of emotion, but only smiled. "Love you, too. Partner."
Across the room, Mrs. Scully smiled, grateful that Dana and Fox had found each other. For in each other, they each somehow managed to find the other half of themselves.
fin
