Kathleen A. Klatte

Missing scene – "Sein und Zeit"
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Dana Scully sat curled in the corner of her partner’s couch. His body was cradled against hers – what would have been a pleasantly warm weight under other circumstances. Mulder’s head rested in the crook of her arm and both his hands were wrapped around hers in a desperate grip. Dana’s free hand trailed through his hair in a soothingly meaningless repetition of motion.

He lay very still in her arms now, and she hoped fervently that he was finally asleep...and that he wouldn’t dream. It broke her heart to see him like this...first his sister, all those years ago, then his father...now this. He had endured so much loss...she wondered how much more he could possibly take. The next death would send him right over the edge...except...he had no one else left to lose...except for her.

Damn, she was getting tired. Dana dropped a light kiss on his temple, then rested her cheek atop his head and closed her eyes.

******

Mulder lay very still in his partner’s arms. He tried to keep his breathing even, hoping to fool her into thinking that he slept. He rarely did, even under normal circumstances, but tonight...well, at least he could try to control himself enough for her to get some rest. He owed her that much, at the very least. He almost laughed at that thought, knowing that he could never repay her for all she had risked and suffered on his behalf. He wondered somtimes, if those dark men who watched and waited in that dark room, making their dark pronouncements, knew that the woman they’d sent all those years ago to destroy his work...had instead saved his soul.

He felt Dana’s fingers stop their gentle motion through his hair, then her lips, feather light against his face. He hoped that she slept...and didn’t dream.

******

Thin shafts of pre-dawn sunshine filtered through the blinds – pink and golden and all the warm, innocent colors of a new day. Mulder watched the beam of light creep across his carpet. It was funny how that pale light made the shadows seem all the more dark and sinister. He wondered vaguely wondered what those shadows would swallow up and take away from him next...there was only one person left to him now...one ray of light in his world, and if he lost her, too... The tears came again, scalding his eyes, but they were quieter this time, more a release than an eruption. He felt Scully move and cursed his weakness.

"Mulder? Shh...it’s OK...I’m here..." She rocked him in her arms, tenderly as a child, all the while pressing her lips to his forehead and whispering quiet words of comfort. "I’m here," she repeated.

"Forever?" he whispered brokenly, knowing in his heart that there was no such thing, but needing to hear her say it just the same.

"Forever," she vowed. "Somehow...some way...I’ll always be with you."

Mulder knew that those words were a stretch for her analytical mind...but he also knew that she never said anything that she didn’t mean, and he was content. He moved his face against her arm, pulling her hand to his mouth and kissing it gently.

******

Scully sighed, wondering what she had just promised. There was no ‘forever’ for people like them, and yet, whatever there was, whatever space of time that was reserved to them, they were inextricably linked. She could no more leave this man than she could cut out a piece of her own heart.

She watched the sunlight spill across the floor and wondered what this day might bring. Well, she’d know soon enough...sooner actually – there were footsteps out in the hallway, coming closer. She carefully extricated herself from Mulder, laying him back comfortably against the cushions. Scully allowed herself one last glance back at him - and then there was a rap at the door.