TITLE: Almost Home (16/?)
AUTHOR: Shoshana
EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected]
DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: Gossamer, Spookys site, Xemplary,
etc.
SPOILER WARNING: Seventh season episodes through Requiem.
RATING: NC-17 (Most of the story is rated R, NC-17 parts will be
clearly marked)
CONTENT STATEMENT: MSR
CLASSIFICATION: SRA
KEYWORDS: Mulder/Scully Romance
SUMMARY: Post ep for Requiem. Mulder comes back... but he's
missing something.
DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me.
NOTE: Thanks to my great beta readers Keleka, Lisa and Sallie!

Almost Home (16/?)
By Shoshana

February 24nd, 2001
Saturday
2:00 p.m.
Westerly Hospital
Westerly, Rhode Island

Bill Scully, Jr. screeched to a halt in front of the Emergency Room
door and told his mother, "Mom, I'll park and meet you inside."

Maggie Scully slammed the door of the Lariat rental and yelled over
an incoming vehicle's siren, "He might already be in a private room,
Bill. Find me when you're done."

Bill pulled away from the curb, far more leisurely now, shaking his
head. His mom had insisted they fly into Newport and drive to
Westerly, Rhode Island. She would have done so herself if he hadn't
offered to come along, so he'd done the right thing and accompanied
her. This was just one more frantic hospital visit of so many his
mother had been forced to endure.

He was really tired of this. Either his sister or her borderline
insane partner were always getting injured, on and off the job. He
was thankful Fox Mulder had finally shown up to take care of his very
pregnant sister. Bill still disliked the man, but his mother had
convinced him Dana would never accept anyone else as the father of
her child.

Dana had promised she'd come for Sunday dinner tomorrow, but this
latest development had delayed any happy reunion for now. His sister
had called at eight o'clock this morning, dead tired after an all-
night bedside vigil. She'd asked their mom to come if she could; she
couldn't stand the thought of Mulder waking up alone.

Bill Scully walked over to the Emergency Room desk and quickly
discovered Mulder had been transferred to a private room upstairs.
He was listed in fair condition and had been there since shortly
after midnight. He'd been air lifted by Charlestown Search and
Rescue within minutes of the 911 call from his family's summer home.

Maggie intercepted her son in the hallway before he could enter the
room. She took his hand and told him solemnly, "Fox hasn't regained
consciousness yet, Bill. She'll only leave for a shower and some
rest if I stay with him. Do you think you could wait outside?"

Her eyes begged his forgiveness for excluding him, but Bill knew why
it wasn't such a great idea for him to sit with his mom. He'd never
gotten along with Mulder, a situation he was determined to remedy in
the near future. This morning held no promise for conciliation with
his sister's partner, 'boyfriend,' whatever he was to her--Bill was
well-advised to fade into the woodwork of this small regional
hospital.

"All right, Mom. I'll talk to Dana, then I'll buy a few magazines
at the gift shop. Would you like some coffee?" he offered.

"Sure, son," she said fondly, patting his shoulder with motherly
affection. "Thanks so much for getting me here so fast. The
prognosis is very good, Dana says. No evidence of an aneurysm, no
unusual brain activity."

Bill heard the door to the private room open and close quietly
behind him. He turned around and gave his obviously exhausted,
disheveled sister a giant bear hug.

"Dana, you go rest now... Mom will watch over Mulder, and *I'll*
watch over Mom," he assured her.

Dana Scully squeezed her brother's hand firmly, then spoke in a
tired, thready voice, "Thank you, Bill. I'm going to do just that."

Scully's eyes were still red from tears shed earlier that morning,
but the latest news on Mulder's general condition had encouraged her.
It was unusual for a patient to sleep for over twelve hours, but not
unheard of. There had been no traumatic injury; Mulder had simply
passed out on the second floor landing, remaining there until the
paramedics tied him to a gurney and flew him to the nearby hospital.

She kissed her mom on the cheek and walked toward the Nurses'
Station, ready to take them up on their offer of a shower and nap in
the staff locker room. Mrs. Scully took leave of Bill and crossed
the hall to enter Mulder's room. She was pleasantly surprised at the
absence of any monitoring devices. There was an IV drip providing
nourishment and hydration to the sleeping agent, but no other tubes
present.

Maggie sat down in the upholstered chair next to Mulder's bed, still
warm from Dana's long, stressful watch. She hoped her daughter would
get several hours rest now, confident her significant other was in
good hands. Mrs. Scully understood why neither of them implicitly
trusted hospital personnel anymore.

Dana had recently told her about Mulder's hospital stay at
Georgetown Memorial. She didn't usually tell her mother such
details, but her daughter had been trying to explain why Fox may have
been abducted. Dana Scully didn't often answer her mother's probing
questions so openly, but her need for a confidante had been obvious
to her mom.

"Hello, Fox," she said, taking his limp hand in both of her smaller
ones. "If you're ready now... we'd appreciate it if you'd wake up,"
she joked.

She chuckled softly to herself and lowered her hands to her lap.
Before she could decide whether she would knit or read while waiting
for her daughter's return, a soft knock at the door signalled her son
with the promised coffee.

*******************************************************************

8:00 p.m.
Mulder's hospital room

Dana Scully looked over at her mom from the seat beside her. She
looked exhausted, having hopped on a plane at a moment's notice, then
driven from Newport to the hospital. Miraculously, Scully had slept
for almost six hours in the staff locker room. She'd been so dead
tired not even the chatter from employees in the lunch room close by
had disturbed her.

"Mom?"

"Yes, honey?" her mom answered, eyelids fluttering with fatigue.

"Go get Bill and check into a motel. I'll be fine now."

Maggie Scully took her daughter's hand in her own and answered,
"Okay, Dana. Why don't you check with the Nurse's station later?
I'll call and let you know where we are."

They both rose from their chairs and Dana embraced her mom tightly,
telling her, "Thanks so much, Mom. I wouldn't have made it without
you."

"He's going to be all right, honey. I just know it," she soothed.

Scully glanced over at Mulder on the bed where he was still sleeping
soundly. Occasionally, he'd mumble to himself--he was definitely
experiencing REM sleep, another positive sign of recovery. She
wondered if he was having nightmares earlier; his face had scrunched
into a painful grimace for a few seconds, then he'd relaxed, his jaw
going slack as the fleeting moment passed.

"I'm certain of it, Mom. The neurologist didn't find anything wrong
with him. They have every expectation he'll come out of it tonight.
I'll call you as soon as he wakes, okay?"

Maggie smiled and reminded her, "I don't care what the hour is, you
just call, sweetie."

Scully escorted her out to the waiting room so she could thank Bill
again. They both understood how much she wanted to get back to the
room, taking their leave from her with little ado. Scully strode
swiftly back to Mulder's side and stood beside the bed for several
minutes, holding his hand and wondering whether his dreams were so
important they'd taken precedence over his conscious, waking life.

She carefully sat next to him on the bed, avoiding the ever-present
IV. "What's going on in there, Mulder?" she queried, stroking his
warm forehead.

The room they were in was cool and comfortable, but she felt
compelled to fidget with the thin thermal blanket which barely
covered his torso. She was adjusting it to conform to the long,
straight line of his body when the hand not encumbered by an IV
moved swiftly to cover her own. Scully was startled temporarily,
recoiling slightly at the unexpected movement. Her eyes moved
from his lower half to his face, catching the tail end of a
self-satisfied puckish expression.

"Gotcha big time," he rasped.

"Oh, Mulder!" she exclaimed, shifting her weight so she could get
closer to him. "Don't try to get up," she cautioned, pushing him
back against his pillows.

She reached beside her and grabbed the device controlling the tilt
of the adjustable mattress. She depressed the button and the upper
half of the bed rose slowly.

Mulder grinned as he warned her in a scratchy voice, "Scully, I
don't think that's the 'magic fingers' control. I think we'll have
to wait until we check into a cheaper motel."

Scully grinned back at him, then leaned over to kiss his dry,
chapped lips. "Hold on, I'll get some water for you."

She filled a cup with water and held the straw as he took a small
sip of the cool liquid, resuming her place beside him on the bed.

"Mom's here," she said before he could finish his drink.

"Really? How long have I been out, Scully? And where are we?" he
asked, looking around the room with curiosity.

"Almost twenty hours. Westerly Hospital," she answered, smiling
broadly.

"Twenty hours! No shit! No wonder I had such great dreams!"

"You did?"

"Well, some of them were nightmarish, but they were all very
entertaining. Scully, did we see a yacht in a trailer park last
year?" he queried, squinting his eyes in mild disbelief.

"Yeah... we did," she drawled slowly. Scully's eyes enlarged with
wonder, and her hands gesticulated frantically in the air, attempting
to ferret out the meaning of his question. "But, Mulder... you
couldn't possibly know that... you haven't read anything about last
year in your journal!"

Mulder stilled her frenetic hands with his own, then winked at her
suggestively, "Did we do it in the car on a balmy July Fourth night,
Scully?"

"Oh, God! Mulder! You've remembered! Oh, God. What else?"

Mulder's mood changed drastically as he retrieved images from his
catalogue of dreams. "Scully... you're going to want to examine my
scalp for puncture wounds. That's how they delivered the drugs when
I was taken."

Her lips parted, trembling with anxiety and frustration. She licked
her lips nervously and clutched at his hands. "They did?" she
finally croaked out.

Mulder wished he could erase his last comment no sooner than it had
left his throat. He should have waited until much later to tell her
about his captivity. She was probably exhausted, sitting up with him
all night while he dreamed about their last year together. It wasn't
fair to lay this on her now. He pulled her close to his chest,
battling with the IV line in their way.

"Scully..." he whispered softly in her ear. "I only remember things
piecemeal. It's like a crazy quilt of memories; all jumbled up and
thrown back into my head." He sighed joylessly against her before
continuing, "I don't want you to hear all the bad stuff right away...
okay? I'd rather tell you about taking long drives in the sticks or
seeing the sun rise on the beach. I'll tell you everything--but not
today. You're tired, aren't you?"

"A little. I got some sleep while Mom watched over you," she said,
battling the impulse to break down in tears.

"Do you have to talk to the doctor? Or do you want to lay down next
to me and sleep a little more?" he asked, rubbing his nose against
her freshly washed hair.

She considered this a moment, then said, "Let me call the nurse. We
need to get this IV out of your arm and we need the doctor's
approval." She leaned out of their embrace and stroked his cheek
with her forefinger. "I didn't say anything about your amnesia,
Mulder. I told the doctor you'd been held against your will because
of your occupation--nothing more than that."

"Maybe I'll learn more next time--" Mulder responded with
excitement, his mind still swimming with intriguing, but widely
scattered images of the past year.

Scully wrest free of his loose grip on her arms, pacing away from
the bed in anger. Her back quivered slightly underneath the too
large sweater someone had let her borrow from the staff room.

She clenched her fists tautly, and spat out her response with her
back to Mulder, "Next time? You want there to be a next time? Do
you have any idea what I've been through since last night, Mulder?
If this is the price you have to pay for regaining your memories--"

She lowered her head into her hands, swaying unsteadily as she
sought to contain her exasperation. Mulder scrambled off the bed,
his IV line tripping him up for a few transitory moments before he
unsnaked the line and wheeled the device across the room.

"Scully," he whispered tentatively, his free hand tracing the
contour of her shuddering forearm.

She flinched away, still infuriated at his comment. Her deeply
ingrained medical training chastened her fit of pique when she
realized Mulder was trailing his saline solution behind him. She
twirled around quickly, making a cursory visual inspection of the
damage done.

Mulder maintained several inches between them, unwavering in his
placatory attitude or stance. He braced himself for a lecture from
Dr. Scully, but none was forthcoming. Her cheeks flushed with
embarrassment and an acute sense of how ridiculously undignified and
foolish she felt at the moment.

Mulder extended his hand to her, eyes pleading for absolution. She
closed the distance between them, speaking softly and guiding him
back to bed, "I shouldn't have reacted like, Mulder. You must be
elated to remember anything at all from last year."

She readjusted his IV line as they sat down next to each other on
the bed. She continued, "I don't want to see you go through this
every time your body decides it's time to take a trip down memory
lane. I didn't tell you before, Mulder... your vitals were extremely
weak on the way over here. I was really worried about you."

Mulder's face fell instantly, supremely miserable she'd had to
endure another medical scare on his behalf. He slipped his free arm
around her and said quietly, "I'm so sorry, Scully. If I'd been
thinking clearly... I wouldn't have anticipated another incident like
this with such enthusiasm... I don't want to put you through this
again."

Scully threaded her arm around his waist and tilted her head against
his shoulder. She lifted her eyes to meet his and told him, "I'm
sorry, too. I shouldn't have blown up at you, but I *am* worried
about future episodes happening when we can't get medical assistance
so easily. I'm going to become too pregnant to deal with every
eventuality--"

"Let's not worry, Scully. We'll be more careful. We'll keep the
cell phone handy, if it makes you feel better. What makes you so
sure I'll have another attack? Maybe the rest of my memory will
return during my regular dream cycle. In any case, I feel more
competent to deal with your family now... I won't have to lie to them.
And I remember who you are, Scully... every bit of who you are," he
whispered softly before leaning down to kiss her warm lips.

They lost themselves in a welcome moment of passion, chasing away
concerns about the future. They broke off their kiss, hungry for
oxygen--both exhausted by their stressful argument. Scully slipped
her head against his chest and waited for them to catch their breath.

She spoke quietly, but firmly, "Mulder, I'm going to get the doctor
now. I know you'll be kept overnight for observation and I'm sure
you want to get rid of the IV. I think they'll discharge you by noon
tomorrow if there's nothing else revealed by then."

"What about your mom, Bill?"

"I promised to call her, and I will--but not until the morning.
They were tired from travelling and as long as you're doing well I
don't see any reason to wake her." She lifted her head to address
him directly, "You know we'll be driving back to the summer house
with them--they'll probably fly back today."

"We could get rid of their rental and drive back in your car. I
think I can be civil to Bill that long," he quipped.

"You really don't know Bill, do you?" she laughed back.

"I don't think I ever have--have I?" he said, searching his mind
for some concrete image of the man.

"No, you haven't. Even if you remembered your few encounters with
him... you wouldn't really know the man. I think you've spent a
total of three hours in his presence, and that's only because you
came out to San Diego when I was seeking custody of Emily."

Mulder flinched against her, guilt sweeping through him like a
poison. Scully noted his pained expression and intervened, "Don't,
Mulder. Don't blame yourself--you didn't create Emily and you
didn't hasten her death. We have so much to look forward to and I
don't want you to dwell on the past."

"It's hard not to when I'm consciously trying to recreate it in my
mind. These dreams I had all day... everything must have happened
after October 1999. I didn't get any farther in my journal and even
though you've filled me in on Samantha and a few other things, I'm
still confused by some of the images. Why did we go to an office
building looking for the Cancer Man's office? There's more to that
story, isn't there?"

Scully placed her hands behind his neck, rubbing her fingers across
the nape of his neck. Her right hand swept through his disheveled
hair, and she pulled him down gently for a brief kiss. He could tell
this was a painful revelation for her; he almost wished he'd kept his
big mouth shut.

"Cancer Man offered me the Holy Grail, a cure for all diseases. I
ditched you, Mulder, then I ran off to some resort in Pennsylvania
and almost got myself killed. My 'informant' was conveniently shot
to death, probably by Spender. The disk he insisted I take along
with me was blank. You were royally pissed and wouldn't look me in
the eye--until we went to the bogus office Spender had set up for
himself."

She looked away from him quickly, but he caught a glimpse of self-
reproach in her eyes. Mulder hooked his finger around the tip of her
chin and forced her to concentrate on his words.

"That's the part I remember--speaking to you in an empty office. I
also recall taking you to your apartment immediately afterward and
kissing you goodnight, Scully. I couldn't possibly have been *that*
upset if things ended so positively."

He smiled at her warmly, then watched the subtle changes in her
face as her mood lightened. Scully pursed her lips nervously, then
the corners of her mouth formed a pleased expression which reached
her eyes.
 
She ran her fingers down his arm, resting her hand around his wrist
lightly as she responded, "You're going to be insufferable, Mr.
Know-It-All... you know that?"

He grinned back and remarked innocently, "I thought I already was
insufferable."

"Just incorrigible until today, Mulder."

"That's me, earning new adjectives daily for your amusement," he
replied, caressing her forehead with a slow, warm kiss.

Scully yawned openly as he retreated a few inches from her--lack of
eight hours sleep had finally caught up with her.

"How about some more rest, sleepyhead?" he asked, turning his wrist
in her hand so he could entwine their fingers.

"Okay. I'll go get the doctor. Like I said, I don't think they'll
keep you past noon." She glanced at her wristwatch. "I think I
*will* call Mom. It's only nine o'clock and she did tell me to call
her as soon as you woke."

Scully slipped off the bed, smoothing her wrinkled clothes, then
turned to give him one last kiss before stopping to use the mirror in
the attached bathroom. Mulder discovered the remote control for the
TV set in the few seconds it took to make her presentable, and he
was busily clicking channels when she exited to find the doctor.

Several hours later, she was asleep in his arms, too weary to watch
any more of "Plan Nine From Outer Space." Mulder was listening to
the film with only half an ear, watching her slumber peacefully.
His mind wandered, settling on newly recovered memories from last
July Fourth--when their own fireworks display had lasted long into
the night.

fin

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