Author's Notes: This is the first majority Scully piece I've written in a long time, so let me know what you think! :)

Disclaimer: Strike up the band, it's time for the disclaimer dance! Mulder, Scully and Skinner are property of FOX Television, 1013 Productions, Chris Carter, and probably a bunch of other people. And I am nothing if not a poor college kid with tuition to pay, with no money for a court case so don't get any ideas all of you suit types.

Nothing had gone right that day. Dana Scully sat, exhausted, on the couch in her apartment. When she closed her eyes, visions from the day assaulted her. She kicked off her shoes, and wearily got up and walked into her bedroom to change.

When she emerged, now dressed in a more comfortable emerald green sweater and blue jeans, she sighed and looked at the telephone. She knew that she should call and check up on Mulder, but something held her back.

Events over the past months had conspired to tear at the relationship between the two, both strong and yet so fragile at the same time. Long ago, during one of their first cases, she had told Mulder that there was no one else she would put herself on the line for. She had meant it then, and she still believed it. Still, no one exasperated her more than one Fox William Mulder.

As she found a root beer in the refrigerator, she again found herself wanting to call him. The nagging in the back of her head was beginning to become persistent. It was the feeling that tickled her senses whenever Mulder had stumbled onto trouble of any number of kinds. Taking a drink from her soda, she clicked on the stereo.

She thought about the events that had taken place that day at work, as she sat back down on the couch. They had argued for hours. It started out more along the lines of the banter they shared that defined their partnership. It ended in a gut-wrenching fight, such an extreme for the two of them that she half expected plaster to begin to crumble from the walls and tiles to break from the ceiling.

And it had been so stupid. It was such that she could remember very little of what was actually said. The pain and anger came from how it was said. Neither had truly given the other a chance to breathe, much less actually explain. Distanced from him and the office, the fight, or winning it for that matter, didn't matter as much.

She remained on the couch, just sitting and thinking, for a couple of hours. A few times she found her gaze returning to the telephone. Once, she actually started to stand and reach for the phone, but she still held back. Eventually she dozed off on the couch.

Slowly, she became aware of her surroundings, and she started to search for the source of whatever had drawn her out of her dreams. She heard it again, a knock on her door. Glancing at the clock, she approached the door cautiously. Looking through the peephole, there wasn't anyone there. Confused, she opened the door a crack, looking quickly in the hallway but she was alone. She felt her foot nudge against something, and looked down to see what it was.

A manilla envelope was lying in the floor in front of her door, her name was scrawled on the front. Again glancing around the hallway, she reached down and picked up the envelope. She closed and locked the door behind her, and crossed over to her desk to open the package. She eased the contents of the envelope out onto the desk surface. It had contained a letter and two photographs.

She gasped audibly when she looked closely at the photos that showed her partner lying bound, beaten, and gagged. The room was nondescript, giving her no clues as to his location or who had taken him. Tearing her attention away from her partner's broken form, she read the letter that was lying beside them.

*****
If you want to see Mr. Mulder again,
you must go to 5315 Morehead St. His
situation is dire, and action needs to be
taken immediately. He is being held by
forces that seek to conspire against you.
It is imperative that he survive this
situation.
*****

Grabbing her telephone, she dialed Skinner's home telephone number. She knew that she would have to arrange to get help. Skinner had been asleep, but awoke quickly when she informed him of the letter and photos.

It had taken her mere moments to grab what she needed and leave to meet Skinner and the agents he was going to assemble. It took a relatively short amount of time for the team to reach 5315 Morehead St., but to Scully each minute felt like an hour. At the address was an abandoned building, large and looming.

The agents began their search, progressing room by room through the labyrinth of corridors and rooms. After several tense minutes, a yell broke through the silence. Scully ran toward where the voice had originated from, with Skinner close on her heels. She was brought up short by the sight before her.

A male agent was leaning over the unconscious body of her partner. She paused in the doorway before clicking into Dr. Scully mode. In the background she could hear Skinner calling for assistance, but her attention was focused on her partner. She crossed the distance between herself and Mulder in a few strides, she needed to assure herself that he would be okay. The other agent had been loosening the ropes that were binding Mulder's arms and legs. Scully moved him out of the way, touching her hand to Mulder's throat to check for a pulse. After she assured herself that his heart was indeed still beating, she began to check for injuries.

A soft moan escaped his lips when she found two broken ribs. While she was checking him, she talked to him, nonsense mostly. She wanted to assure Mulder that she was with him, and had no intention of leaving him. Inside, she cursed herself for not calling him earlier in the evening when she had the nagging feeling that she should, but she had held back. She couldn't help but think that maybe something might have worked out differently had she called him. Pushing the thoughts out of her mind, she finished checking him, and concentrated on making him a little more comfortable until the ambulance arrived.

She shook with relief when she heard the ambulance near, and she helped the EMT's load Mulder and take him to the hospital. When they arrived at the hospital, she was forced to wait to see Mulder until after he was operated on to correct the damage to his ribs and to check for the possibility of a punctured lung. While she was pacing and waiting for any news, Skinner arrived in the waiting room to check up on Mulder, and to tell Scully that there was no sign of those who had held him. Scully sighed in frustration, but was admittedly not surprised.

Some time later, the doctor found Scully and Skinner sitting in the waiting room. Luckily, although his ribs were broken, his lungs were fine. Overall, he was going to be fine. He had a concussion, several abrasions, and was rather worse for wear, but none of the injuries were permanent.

She was allowed in to see him after he was admitted into a room. Slowly, she pushed the door to his room open, and walked over to stand beside his bed. He was sleeping, and looked like a peaceful little boy. Collapsing into a chair, she was overcome remembering the way they had fought just a few hours before. She felt awful for losing her temper; and a flare of guilt shot through her when she was forced to acknowledge the fact that if it hadn't been for whoever left the envelope outside her door, she would have been angrier with him for ditching her. She would have given it little thought when he hadn't came to work the next day.

When his eyes began to flutter, she thought she had imagined it. As he continued to struggle with opening and focusing his eyes, she brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead. His eyes betrayed his confusion at his present situation.

Scully smiled, and placed her hand on his arm. "You're okay. I found you."

When he replied his voice was raspy, and she had to struggle to understand his words, but she caught a strangled "I'm sorry."

Looking down at her partner, her eyes glazed over with tears and she quickly blinked them away. "Don't, don't say you're sorry. We both fought, it's no one's fault." Silently, she was trying to convince herself of that fact, she still felt bad. "It doesn't matter. It was silly, really. Do you hear me? I'm just glad you're safe."

Mulder nodded his head slowly, trying not to jar it and worsen the small headache he had. He had been the unfortunate recipient of enough concussions to know what they felt like and what happened afterwards if you weren't careful enough. "Okay," he whispered as his eyes slowly slid closed.

Scully released a breath she hadn't even noticed she'd been holding. Somehow, the world seemed different than it did when they had fought that day. All that mattered to her was that he was okay, and that he hadn't ditched her.

It angered her that those that had taken him had disappeared, like always it seemed. She wondered if Mulder might tell her what they had wanted with him, or if he knew the identity of whoever had delivered the message that had led to his being rescued. Honestly, she thought she would never know the answers to any of her questions regarding Mulder's ordeal.

She stayed by his side as he slept thorough the night, the painkillers keeping the nightmares at bay. The next morning he was stable enough to leave the hospital. Scully took him back to his apartment. It took a while, but she finally managed to get him talking about what he remembered.

He had been grabbed getting out of his car at his apartment. He didn't see the faces of any of the men that grabbed him, and his memory was fuzzy after he had been subdued by a blow to the head. He remembered being questioned, and hit; however, for some reason he couldn't remember what they had wanted to know. The next thing he knew, he woke up laying in the hospital.

When Mulder tried to broach the topic of their argument, Scully would sidestep the conversation. She wasn't sure why she wanted to forget about it, without even trying to sort out what had happened. It was unlike her, she realized, but in this case, it was what she had to do.

Once he was settled at home, she announced that it was time for her to go to her own apartment. She was about to drop, having only gotten a couple of hours sleep the night before and the adrenaline she had been running on was wearing off.

They said their goodbyes with Mulder promising to get some rest, although Scully knew better than to believe him completely. However, the broken ribs would keep him out of too much trouble, she thought. As she collapsed down onto her bed, her mind replayed the events of the past twenty-four hours. It was amazing how quickly she changed her mind and her feelings changed wherever Mulder was concerned. The last thing she remembered before sleep overtook her was knowing that whatever happened in her life, because of Fox Mulder or not, she was thankful that she had found her way down into that basement office, and they had found their way into each other's lives.

In her sleep, Dana Scully smiled.

fin

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