A Familiar Heart
Chapter Seventeen


He made it out to the street before he realized
he had no idea where the old woman lived.  In his
shirt sleeves, his tie askew, he began to shiver
in the pre-dawn light, the rain that had changed
over to snow stinging his cheeks.  "Damn it," he
muttered, shifting on his feet, hands on hips. 
Aw, to hell with it, he thought.

He brought his hands up around his face, taking a
deep breath.  "Scully!"  He whipped around,
shouting her name in the other direction.  And
again and again, until he was hoarse from the
effort.  She had to be close by - why wasn't she
showing herself?

"Mulder, what the hell do you think you're
doing?"

Charlie stood on the front porch, his confusion
apparent in his wide, worried eyes.  Mulder could
see that Charlie assumed he'd gone off the deep
end, and he supposed he made a perfect picture of
madness, with his red-rimmed eyes and cries for a
sister thought dead.  "Mrs. O'Malley," he said
breathlessly.  "Where does she live?"

"One block over, third house on the left,"
Charlie answered, pointing to his right.  "But -"

Mulder took off in a sprint, ignoring Charlie's
shouts for him to stop.  The pavement under his
feet was slippery, and the fresh snow quickly
soaked his shoes and made his toes numb.  But he
kept going, the cold air he drew into his
laboring lungs almost piercing with pain. 
Rounding the corner, he almost collided with a
milk truck; the driver cursed him soundly, waving
a gloved fist.  Mulder slid to the curb, falling
to one knee.  Still, he didn't linger, though he
heard a little crack as bone met concrete. 
Struggling, he picked himself up and kept on,
still calling her name, limping his way to the
O'Malley place.  The slightest pressure on his
leg made pain radiate up to his hip, but he
didn't care.

"Scully!"  One, two, three houses - where the
hell was she?  "Damn it, Scully, answer me!"  He
was sure he was at the right place; a few fingers
pulled a crack in the blinds.  "Scully," he
breathed, heading for the sidewalk and the front
door.

"Shhh."

The hiss came from the open garage.  In the
dimness of the cloudy dawn, he couldn't make out
exactly where; everything blended in with the
black Pontiac parked inside.  Taking a limping
step forward, he squinted in the direction of the
sound.  "Scully?"

"Mulder, will you shut up!" she whispered. 
"Chang is listening!  He has a man at the
Stuart's just a few doors down!"

Mulder smiled, with giddy relief, holding out his
arms.  "Scully, would you mind coming out here?"

"No!  Shut the hell up and go inside the house,
Mulder!"

"Chang is dead, Scully," he said wearily.  "We
found his man at the Stuart's place."

"He's dead?  Are you sure?"

"Yes." Arms dropping, he began to shiver, knowing
he was going into mild shock.  "Now, would you
please come to me, because I think I'm about
to..."

He landed flat on his back in Mrs. O'Malley's
front yard, a whoosh of breath leaving his lungs
as he hit the icy ground.  Suddenly, he was
assailed by warmth, as a curtain of Scully
surrounded him.  Cracking open his eyes, he
finished, "Fall."  She hovered above him, concern
making her face pale.  His gaze swept over her
and he smiled at her sheer beauty, his hands
coming up to grip her waist.  "Nice outfit,
Scully."

She looked down at the pink, flowery housecoat
and blue rubber boots, taking the blanket from
her shoulders to settle it over him.  "It's Mrs.
O'Malley's," she said tremulously.  "Like it?"

His shivers expanded into deep tremors and he
felt the wet snow seep into his shirt at his
back.  "Are those snaps or buttons?"

"Snaps." Her hand brushed over his forehead; it
was warm and familiar, and so soft.

"T-then I like it," he smirked, one eyebrow
raised in a leer.  "Con-convenient."

"You would," she remarked dryly, then her
eyebrows drew together with concern.  "Mulder,
you're going into shock."

"N-no shit." He closed his eyes, wondering if he
had the strength to get up.

"Dana?"

"Charlie, get over here!  Mulder's hurt!"

"No, I'm not," he said weakly, though he knew
shock was nothing to laugh at.  Other than the
shakes and a busted knee, he felt fine.  "I- I
just scraped my knee, that's all."

Still, she looked up at her brother, who came
skidding to a halt on Mrs. O'Malley's driveway,
his face happy, yet worried.  "Call an ambulance,
Charlie.  Now!"

Charlie, after a moment's hesitation, ran up the
driveway.  Mulder could hear the clamor of other
Scully relatives coming up the street, and he
tightened his grip on Scully's waist, forcing her
to look at him.  "Scully, I don't need -"

"Yes, you do," she insisted, then looked up again
to address the crowd descending on them. 
"Mulder's hurt!" she cried out.

He was getting warmer, and the shakes weren't
quite so bad anymore, but all the bobbing up and
down of her head was making him dizzy. "Scully,
damn it, stop moving!"

She did, leaning down, her frizzed hair blowing
in the snowy wind.  "What?  What's wrong?  Do you
hurt anywhere else besides your knee?"

"Will you just listen to me?"  He had to tell
her, before her family made it impossible. 
Before another 'Chinaman', as Mike was fond of
saying, took her away again.  Before he himself
let another ghost come between them.

"What?  What's so important you have to tell me
now?  Jesus, Mulder, you talk too much.  Keep
still.  We'll get you to a hospital as soon as -"

"I love you, Scully."

" - we can..."  Her eyes changed from concerned
blue to silvery, soft clouds and she whispered,
"What did you say?"

"I said I loved you.  I know we've only known
each other a few days, and I know we didn't get
off to the best start... and Charlie says your
brother Bill will rip my balls off when he finds
out about us - but I don't care - and, and..."
His voice trickled to nothing as he watched her
face crumple.  Sucking in a sharp breath at her
misery, he pulled her down to him.  "Shit,
Scully.  I didn't mean to make you cry.  Just
forget it.  Forget everything."

"Not on your life, sailor." Her face nuzzled his
neck and her hands cradled his head.  "I'm going
to hold you to every word."

Laughter rumbled through his chest as he wrapped
his arms around her.  "Even if means your brother
castrates me?"

"He lays one hand on you, he answers to me."

Mulder laughed even harder, knowing he had
nothing to worry about.  She'd proven herself a
most capable partner, able to watch over him
better than any guardian angel.  "That's my
girl."  The wail of a siren pierced the air
around them.  His chuckles dying, he said, "I'm
not going to the hospital, Scully.  If anyone is,
it's you."

"Wrong.  Mulder, you may have broken something."

"Scully, the only thing broken is my ass, and
only because I think it froze before it hit the
ground."  He gently pushed her away.  She rose to
her feet and, grabbing his outstretched hand,
helped him to his.

"Mulder..." she warned, eyeing the way he favored
his right leg.

"Scully..." He was just as stubborn, wrapping his
arms around her to hold himself steady.

"Hardhead."  She returned the gesture, a soft
'oomph' coming from her lips at the precarious
way he teetered in her arms.

"Listen who's talking." Steady now, he allowed
her to guide him to the sidewalk, and the
greetings of the group rapidly gaining on them.

"Look who's limping.  And it's not me, Mulder. 
Not this time."  Her hand came up to caress his
cheek.  He looked down at her lovely, cold-white
face and beaming smile.  "It's you."  Her thumb
ran across his lips and she said it again, this
time meaning so much more.  He saw it in her
eyes, felt it in her touch.  He was an angel
after all.  Her angel.

"It's you."


**********


No amount of arguing, threatening or cajoling
could get him to go to the hospital at the
beginning.  It was only when she offered to go
herself to be checked out, though she knew
nothing was physically wrong with her, that he
relented.  They spent the better part of the day
in the emergency room, where she kept grumbling
about the slow service, especially when she
realized Mulder was in increasing pain.  His knee
was swollen, and the doctor seemed in no hurry to
come back with the results of his x-rays.  Scully
paced, having been released an hour before with a
clean bill of health.

"Did the rabbit die?"

She whirled on Mulder, hands on hips, taking in
his smug look as he laid on the bed, one arm
propping up his head.  He looked so hopeful and
sweet, she found her anger at the shoddy
treatment fading.  "That's not a routine
emergency room test for someone who's been
abducted by the Chinese Mafia, Mulder.  Sorry to
disappoint you.  Besides, I think it's still a
bit too early to worry about that."

He laid back, his grin turning into a wince. 
"Who's worrying?  You see anyone here worrying?"

Now wasn't the time to be speaking of possible
pregnancy.  She moved forward, moving the sheet
aside to prop his bare leg back on the pillow. 
"No, I see you.  In pain, I might add.  Where is
that doctor?"  Her fingers brushed over his leg
as she studied his knee; it was a hellish shade
of fiery red that promised to transform into
black and blue before long.  "If you can't walk
down the aisle for the wedding, Charlie will be
crushed."  Not to mention me, she added silently.

"I know.  Let's keep our fingers crossed, okay?"

"Okay."

The corners of his eyes crinkled with his
grimace.  "Um, Scully?"

"Yes?"  Biting her lip, she concentrated on
making him more comfortable, feeling awful for
him.

"I may be hurting, but if you keep playing with
my leg like that, the doctor's gonna see
something besides a swollen knee when he walks
in."  He sucked in a hiss, and its tone spoke of
frustration more than pain.

Her gaze wandered up, and she blushed furiously
at the growing evidence of his arousal under the
double layers of gown and sheet.  Quickly, she
pulled the sheet back over his knee and said,
"Mulder - we're in a hospital, for goodness'
sake!"  She was still dressed in Mrs. O'Malley's
housecoat; she'd sent her relieved parents home
for some of her clothes an hour ago.  With a
pinch of his wandering hand, she added, "And
Charlie is right outside."  Some watchdog, she
mused.  Her father had no idea just how much
Charlie had witnessed already when he asked him
to stay behind with her and Mulder.

"So what?  He knows better than to come in here." 
Mulder waggled an eyebrow, bringing back the
tryst on the couch in a heartbeat.

Scully leaned over the bed, one hand coming to
rest by Mulder's tousled head.  His face broke
into a wide smile at the way her face hovered
above his, but she resisted the urge to kiss him. 
Just barely, as she licked her lips.  "I'm not
about to add to Charlie's education by having him
walk in on us in a hospital emergency room.  He's
getting married tomorrow, you know.  If we make
him sick this time, Ellen will never forgive us." 
But her eyes told him she wanted to... God, how
she wanted to.

"Guess we'll have to wait, then."

"Besides, you still owe me twenty minutes of
listening, sailor."

Mulder's eyes darkened as he picked up on the
seriousness in her face.  He brought a hand up to
caress her cheek.  "Scully, about Sam."

"Yes, he was the one who saved me at Los Banos,
Mulder," she said, forging ahead with what she'd
planned to tell him before so rudely sidetracked
by Chang.  "That's why you looked so familiar to
me in Utah.  I just didn't put it all together
until you told me at Uncle Mike's where he was
killed."

"Scully, listen to me -"

"I felt so guilty, Mulder," she interrupted,
trying her best to stay level and not get all
teary.  There was *way* too much of that going
around for her tastes these days.  "That's why I
just left without saying a word that night.  I
was there when he died, Mulder.  If not for me,
he'd still be alive.  He took the bullet, the one
meant for me.  All I could do was sit there and
cry in Japanese.  I couldn't stand for you to
know that."

Mulder's confusion was evident, and he rushed to
keep her there.  Not that she was going anywhere,
but she let him wind his other arm around her
waist, anyway.  "Scully, men died in battle every
day of the war.  All of it was senseless, but
necessary.  Don't you believe that?"

"Now I do," she whispered, smiling through her
tears.  Damn it, she was going to cry, no matter
how hard she tried not to.  "Mulder, Sam came to
me."

"What?"

She still had trouble believing it herself.  She
was not one to embrace the mystical, even if she
believed in the power of God and angels.  But
despite Sam's gentle swaying of her mind into
safer, more logical pathways, she knew he'd been
there.  An angel, a ghost, a specter - whatever
name she put to it, it had been him.  His soul
had manifested itself before her.  To give her
final guidance back to life... to Mulder.

"He appeared to me on the ship, when I was about
to go crazy in that closet Chang locked me in."

"He locked you in a closet?" Mulder tried to sit
up with concern, but she stayed his anxiety with
a soft hand to his shoulder.

"He did.  And I almost lost it, but Sam spoke to
me.  He calmed me, showed me a way out."  It
sounded so ridiculous to her ears, but she had to
get it out.  "He told me to let go of my guilt. 
To be happy.  Silly, isn't it?"

After a moment of searching her face with his
solemn gaze, Mulder replied, "No, it isn't. 
Because he came to me, too."

"You're kidding," she breathed, amazed at his
admission.

"Outside the ship, when we were about to storm
aboard, a voice stopped me.  He told me you were
safe, not to go on the ship." Smiling sheepishly,
he added, "Then it all blew to hell.  He saved
me, Scully.  He saved *you*.  Again."

"Stop it right there," she warned.  His eyes
still held lingering clouds, and she made him
focus once again on her with her adamant
statement.  "I did not fall in love with you,
Mulder, because you looked like Sam.  Let's get
that clear right now."

He groaned with realization.  "Charlie."

"Yes, Charlie.  See?  My nosy relatives are good
for something now and then."

Mulder paused, mid-laugh, as if his brain had
finally caught up with his ears.  "Scully?"

"Yes?"

Narrowed eyes still heart-wrenching with
disbelief, he asked, "Did you just tell me you
loved me, or was that still the ringing in my
ears from the explosion?"

"Well, I suppose I can take pity on you and say
it again."

"Please do."

"I love you, Mulder.  Only you.  You may look
like your brother, and talk like him, but it was
you who saved me.  You who made me feel alive
again."  The tears were flowing freely now, and
she kept going, lowering her head to kiss his
brow.  "Your soul is beautiful to me, Mulder. 
Your mind captivates me, and your body makes mine
sing.  And your heart is filled with courage and
loyalty and trust."

"Oh, Scully," he breathed, pulling her until she
had no choice but to lay beside him, her body
curling into his.

She trapped their clasped hands between them, and
felt their heartbeats soothe and slow, falling
into a lifelong rhythm.  "You were familiar to me
from the beginning, Mulder.  Not because of your
looks, but because of your heart.  My heart
understood your pain and saw your capacity to
love, despite your sadness.  Because I had lived
through the same thing... and together, we
survived it.  Sam didn't save me, Mulder.  You
did.  And I saved you."

She felt shaky fingers tilt her chin up.  The
kiss was soft and warm, without a trace of
physical desire.  She returned it as he gave it,
a simple touch to seal the pact their hearts had
made days ago.

"Aw, geez.  In the hospital?  Give it a rest,
already!"

Mulder let his head drop back to the pillow with
a groan; Scully lifted hers from the cozy corner
of Mulder's chest and gave Charlie a glare. 
"Don't you ever knock?"

"Very funny." Leaning against the door jamb, he
crossed his arms, a satchel hanging from his
hand.  "Just thought you'd want to know - Dad
dropped off your clothes on his way to Uncle
Mike's for a beer.  Oh, and the doctor's coming
down the hall."

Scully scrambled from the bed, murmuring an
apology to Mulder, who grimaced at the jarring of
his knee.  "Please tell me there's somewhere in
this damn country where there isn't a Scully for
a hundred mile radius," he growled through
clenched teeth.

"Hey," she said, nudging him with an elbow
trapped by pink flowers and elastic.  "I'm a
Scully."

"I meant *another* Scully."  He trained deadly
eyes on Charlie, who held up his hands as he
moved into the room.

"Don't look at me, pal.  In just about twenty-
four hours, my ass is honeymooning."  Grinning,
he added, "Of course, Bill will be here by then. 
Did I ever tell you, Mulder, what we used to call
Bill when we were kids?"

"Charlie..." Scully, straightening her pseudo-
dress, looked up in warning.

"Elmer." Charlie lifted his eyebrows like Groucho
Marx.  "Because he sticks like glue.  Try keeping
him off your tail tomorrow, Mulder.  Ain't easy,
believe me."

This time, Mulder's groan came deep from his
chest, and Scully rounded on her brother.  "You
little..."  An instant of indecision flitted
through her mind while she pondered retribution.

The middle finger?  No.  Stick her tongue out? 
Nah.

Instead, she turned back to Mulder, and, taking
his surprised face in her hands, planted a kiss
on him.  With her mouth open, her tongue doing a
dance over his lips, and her throat purring like
a kitten.  It didn't take but a second for Mulder
to respond, as his arms flew up to pull her down
to him.

"Shit! That's it!" Charlie cried.  She heard the
satchel hit the floor at her feet. "I'm outta
here!"

"And how's our patient doing?"

Scully, almost too far gone to break out of
Mulder's embrace, pulled back just in time to see
a bespectacled man walk into Mulder's room.  The
doctor who, thankfully, had his nose stuck in
Mulder's chart.

"Pretty good," she heard Mulder say behind her, a
smile in his voice.

She watched Charlie huff out, his mumbled, "I'll
be in the hall," thrown over his shoulder.

"Good, good," the doctor said, making notes. 
"Your kneecap isn't broken, Mr. Mulder.  But your
knee is badly bruised and sprained.  I'm giving
you some pain medication and sending you home..."

Scully turned, her gaze meeting Mulder's, her
smile as broad as his.  Maybe the wedding wasn't
out of the question after all.

"... on crutches, naturally.  No weight on that
leg for at least a week."  He muttered a few more
instructions, then made a hasty exit, telling
Mulder he could leave whenever he wanted.

"Looks like I'll have to get Bill to substitute
for you, Mulder."  Charlie had obviously
overheard from his vantage point outside the
door, and he looked like he'd just lost his best
friend.  In a way, he did, Scully thought.  To
injury, but after all they'd been through, it was
horrible to think Mulder wouldn't be able to
stand up for him.

"Like hell you will.  I came all this way to be
in a wedding, and I'll be damned if I let a
sprained knee stop me."

Charlie's smile was beaming.  "I'll pull the car
around, okay?"  He practically bounced out of the
room, and Mulder pulled on her arm.

"Give me a hand, would you, Scully?"  He swung
his legs over the side of the bed with a bite of
his lip.

An arm wrapped around him, she helped him stand,
then found herself flush against him in an
embrace that told her his ardor had definitely
not been one of the things frozen on Mrs.
O'Malley's lawn.  "You're shameless," she
whispered, looking up at the eyes that skimmed
over her face with burning desire.

"Think we have time before Charlie gets back to -
"

"No."  Her face got hot, despite her adamant
refusal.  "He's quick, you know."

"I can be quick."

"I'd rather slow but sure."

His gaze deepened to the point where she thought
she'd be consumed in flames in another second. 
"Just name the place, sweetheart, and I promise
you I'll be so slow time will stand still."

His soft vow made her shiver, and the image of
him fulfilling that promise took her breath away. 
They had to stop before she threw him back on the
bed and put those snaps to the test.

"A wheelchair?" she asked.

Her swift change in direction did the trick,
startling him into pulling back before he could
kiss her.  "What?"

"We could wheel you down the aisle."

Eyes filled with a silent, mock reprimand at her
diversion, he said,  "No wheelchair.  Think you
can carry me, Scully?"

She put a bit of distance between them, her arm
going around his waist as he hopped on one leg. 
"No way, Mulder."

"What?  I would have carried you, remember?"  He
gave her booted foot a pointed look.  "In fact,
as I recall, a certain someone used that very
excuse to get me to stay a few days ago."

"I can get Bill to carry you, if you'd like."

"Very funny.  Will you at least help me put my
clothes on?"

She thought about it a moment, then called out,
"Charlie!"

Mulder leaned down and nipped at her ear. 
"Chicken."

"Brute."

"You know, I kind of like that housecoat. 
Five'll get you ten it doesn't look that good on
Mrs. O'Malley."

She smiled, leaning up to give him the kiss she'd
denied him moments ago, hearing the door open
behind them.

"Car's by the - Christ, not again!"


End Chapter Seventeen