Subject: New: Far Away Nearby
Date: 6 Jun 1995
This story contains characters copyrighted 1993 by Chris
Carter and
TenThirteen Productions. No copyright infringement intended, none
should
be inferred. The story however, is copyrighted 1995 by the author
who
reserves any rights she may have. (Including the right to remain
silent...)
Note: I have e-mail now; thanks to those who sent replies to
FEVER
DREAM, I just got them today.
Here we go...
THE FAR AWAY NEARBY by Jessica Archibald
He was waiting for his target by the Potomac. The evening was
still chilly for May and his topcoat was buttoned all the way up,
drawn
tight against the invading cold of the Washington night. There
was a
faint breeze coming off the river, adding to the frostiness of
the
evening. He kept himself warm with thoughts of his job.
He loved his job.
Of course, not many people knew exactly what it was that he did
for a living, but he still liked his job. *That's* what was
important.
The target approached from across the park land, long legs
covering the distance to the river in quick strides, a rolled up
newspaper in one hand.
Good. No need to plant the phony evidence he had with him then.
There was a couple necking over at one of the benches. It was a
good thing there wa a silencer on the pistol. Too bad he couldn't
use
his *other* talents on the target, but that would be too obvious
for
some. He'd have to rough it this time.
The target was a few feet away now, looking around for someone,
hand bunching up the paper in frustration. Time to make his move.
He went forward, passed in front of the target, pulled the weapon
from his pocket and squeezed the trigger. There was a small sound
like
air whizzing through a tube and the target went down.
"Hey," said one half of the couple on the bench,
hearing the
thump of the falling body.
Damn. Time to go.
he fled the scene on foot, trusting in his aim to have done its
job.
It was his only mistake.
***************************
The outside doors leading into the E.R. went flying open just
ahead of the paramedics and the gurney they wheeled in. Two
doctors met
them at the entrance and the procession made its way down the
hall.
"White male, gunshot wound to the chest," called out
one of the
'medics with trained efficiency. "Puncture of left lung,
possible damage
to the heart. Witness sealed the wound and called for help."
"Vitals?" snapped one of the doctors, eyeing the pale
face of the
man before them.
"Blood pressure and heart rate both falling. We nearly lost
the
pulse twice on the way in."
"Any ID?"
"Wallet was found with the victim. He's a federal
agent..."
****************
Melissa Scully sensed the change in her sister's aura the
moment
Dana answered the phone. The lighthearted atmosphere that had
permeated
most of the evening vanished and Melissa sat up straight in her
chair,
listening intently to the one side of the conversation. Before
the first
words were out of dana's mouth, Melissa already could feel that
something
was wrong.
"Sir?" Dana asked, posture going stiff and formal, an
inbred
response to an authority figure or even the voice of one. Then
she
sagged back onto the sofa, eyes widening and flitting over to her
sister. "When..no, sir, I have no idea what...yes, sir,
right away."
She hung up, her hand fumbling a couple of times before hitting
the cradle.
"Dana?"
"I've got to get to Washington Memorial...what the hell was
he
*doing* for God's sake?" There was suppressed panic in her
voice.
"What's going on?" The younger redhead got to her feet,
following Dana to the door. "I'll go with you."
She nodded. "I'll explain on the way..."
*****************
Neither one of the Scullys noticed the gray Saturn that
followed
them from Dana's building.
***********************
Fox Mulder watched the sisters come into the waiting room from
his position by the door. He couldn't really remember how he had
gotten
there and was more than happy to see not one but two friendly
faces. He
wasn't sure if he should count Assistant Director Walter Skinner
who had
been pacing the room for as long as Mulder could recall, ignoring
the
other man.
"Hey, Scully," he greeted, going over to join the
three. "What's
going on?"
She ignored him.
"Sir, what happened?" Her voice was trembling and she
looked unsteady.
"Scully, what's wrong?" Mulder asked immediately,
concerned,
reaching out to touch her shoulder.
She shivered.
"We're not exactly sure yet, Scully," Skinner said.
"We've got
two agents at the scene now. It looks like a professional
job..."
"Hello?" Mulder waved his hand if front of first Scully
then
Skinner. Neither one of them reacted.
Melissa jumped slightly, eyes darting back and forth.
"Is he..." Scully's words were lost behind a desperate
look.
"He's still alive," Skinner reassured her. "But it
doesn't look good."
"
"Dammit, what was Mulder doing out there?"
"Me? What...will *someone* please say *something* to
me."
Mulder was getting seriously annoyed. First Skinner ignores him,
fine.
That happened a lot. But now Scully was disregarding him too,
looking
like she wanted to cry and no one was even *glancing* at him.
Except Melissa.
"Melissa?" he tried, feeling a little bit desperate
himself now.
"Can you hear me?"
She didn't say anything, but her darting gaze seemed to keep
coming back to rest on him.
"What the hell is going one here?" he wondered out
loud.
"Mulder's still in surgery," Skinner was saying.
"No, I'm not," Mulder objected. "I'm right here.
*Scully*, I'm
right here, dammit!"
<Man passing in front of him, momentarily blocking his view of
the Potomac...>
The image came to him unbidden.
<A hiss of air and then a heavy impact on his chest...>
The room began to spin.
<Fiery pain, the ground rushing up to meet him, a sense of
betrayal, the pain, darkness rushing in all around, the pain, a
face
peering down at him, pain, pain, blackness...>
He staggered for a moment as the memoires came rushing back over
him. He'd been at the Potomac waiting for his contact, but there
had
been another man...
"I was shot," he whispered, a giddy feeling rushing
through him.
"I was *shot* but here I am in the waiting room. I'm having
an out of
body experience." If things weren't so serious, he'd be
tempted to
perform an impromptu dance, but the only dancing partners in the
room
couldn't see him. "I was *right* about out of body
experiences, Scully,"
he said, pointing an enthusiastic finger in her face, but she
didn't see
it. Just last week they'd had an argument about the very same
thing.
She had protested, citing the lack of evidence and he had
challenged her
to prove conclusively that it was impossible. Near death
experiences
she'd buy, but not out of body ones. She had made a very distinct
separation of the two, citing NDEs as something internal to the
mind and
thus it was possible for a person to have one. OBEs she
attributed to
hallicinations caused by extreme pain and trauma, claiming that
the
hallucination could gradually transform into an NDE. He thought
that
this time she was arguing just to annoy him. Sometimes she really
drove
him up the wall. He'd love to see the look on her face if she saw
him now...
Except she couldn't. No one could. And from the way Skinner
was talking no one might ever see him again. He wondered what it
would
be like if he died. Would he stay like this forever or would he
just
fade away?
"did anyone see the shooting?" Scully asked Skinner,
eyes bright,
hands clenching and unclenching convulsively.
"There were two witnesses. One of them had had some medical
training. It's what saved his life. I left orders for both agents
to
check in here when they are through at the scene."
"Why would someone do this?" Melissa asked quietly.
Skinner
turned to her.
"And you are?"
"This is my sister Melissa," Scully replied
automatically,
sinking slowly into a plastic chair.
Skinner nodded. "When we know why, Miss Scully, we'll know
who."
"That's helpful," Mulder snorted, knowing now that the
other man
couldn't hear him.
Melissa jumped again.
"Melissa? Can you *hear* me?" he tried again, this time
with
more force. "Melissa?"
********************
Something wasn't right about this. Melissa had felt an
imbalance of
some kind in the waiting room with her, ever since she and Dana
had
walked in. Hospitals always had an aura of death around them, but
this
was different. It was like the time she had stood watch over
Dana...she
could sense a presence, but it wasn't as strong as her sister's
had
been. It was as if it was reaching out across a vast gulf to call
to
her. The words were indistinct but she could definitely feel the
presence and identify it.
"Fox!" she exclaimed suddenly.
Dana and her boss turned to her.
"Melissa, what--"
"He's here, I can sense his presence." She turned
slowly around,
a full three hundred and sixty degrees. "I know he is, he's
trying to
reach out to us, but he can't."
"Melissa," Dana began, voice tight with pain,
"please, don't do this."
Melissa looked at her, wanting her to listen and believe her.
"Dana, he *is* here."
Skinner looked like he wanted to roll his eyes, Dana just looked
uneasy.
"Melissa..."
The younger woman threw up her hands, knowing it was useless to
argue. Both of them were equally stubborn and their arguments
usually
ended in a draw.
Skinner tried to release some of the tension. "He'll be in
surgery for a while, Scully. I know that you won't want to leave
until
he's out of it. Why don't you and your sister sit down and I'll
go get
some coffee?"
Dana nodded, already seated. "Yes, sir."
************************
Mulder watched Skinner disappear down the hall and then took
the
seat next to Scully while Melissa sat on her other side.
"Better enjoy
having Skinner play gofer while you can, Scully." His
initial elation at
his situation had long since faded. Melissa could sense him, but
not see
or hear him. He was frustrated because everyone was so worried
about him
and he was right there. He wanted to reassure them that he was
all
right...at least *part* of him was anyway.
"What was he doing out there?" Scully asked softly.
"Could it have anything to do with a case you were working
on?"
"No, Melissa, we'd just finished a case and were catching up
on
our paperwork...the Potomac..."
"Dana?" Her sister peered intently at her.
Mulder looked at her in concern too. "Scully, you
okay?" <She
can't hear you, you idiot.>
"When the X-Files division was shut down, we'd meet down
there...dammit, that's it! I'll bet he was supposed to meet
someone down
there...and I have a damned good idea who it was too."
"Who?" Melissa demanded.
"Not here, not now."
"It was Mr. X," Mulder suppled helpfullly, not that
anyone
acknowledged him. "But he didn't shoot me, he wasn't even
there."
Scully frowned in thought. "But it doesn't make any sense,
unless..."
"Unless what?" Melissa and Mulder chorused.
Scully waved Melissa off. "Let me thing about this."
"You do that," Mulder said, patting her hand. She
shivered
again. <Interesting, I can touch her and she *does* feel
*something*.>
He decided to try something else. Reaching for a magazine strewn
on a
nearby chair, he intended to lift it up, but found he couldn't.
It
seemed to weigh an infinite amount. He couldn't even get a page
to
turn. <So much for that idea. This is really weird. I can
touch things
but I can't affect them. If someone walked into me, I'd probably
get
knocked on my rear and they wouldn't feel much of anything.>
He felt
fine in a physical sense. His chest didn't hurt or anything like
that.
A sudden sick urge struck him. "Don't go away, now, ladies.
I'll be
right back."
Neither one of them noticed him leave.
*******************************
Dana couldn't believe this was happening. Skinner had called
her
and told her that Mulder had been gunned down by the Potomac.
Now, no
one could tell her if he'd make it or not. She felt physically
ill at
the thought that he might die. A couple of times in the waiting
room,
she had felt like something had touched her lightly, sending a
chill down
her back. With Melissa insisting that Mulder's presence was in
the room,
a tiny part of her wondered if it had been him coming into
contact with
her. The more rational part of her dismissed it as a childish
notion.
<Dammit, Mulder, what happened? Who did this to you?> she
thought sadly, watching Skinner come back with three cups of
coffee
balanced percariously in his hands. Melissa leapt up to help him,
taking
two of the cups and handing one to Dana. She took it with an
automatic
reflex and set it aside.
"Are you all right, Scully?" Skinner asked with a kind
of rough
sympathy.
"Yes, sir. I'm just trying to figure out what happened to
him."
She already had a good notion as to what had happened, but was
unwilling
to share her thoughts quite yet. <He could be in surgery for
hours, *if*
he makes it at all. Dammit, I want whoever did this to him.> A
fierce
anger had been boiling underneath her fears and worries and she
had to
fight to keep it in check. "Sir, was there anything found at
the scene
I should know about?"
He looked over at her. "There was a newspaper that Mulder
had
been carrying. That was it. Part of it was circled in red, an ad
for an
exterminator actually."
<An exterminator? What's that got to do with anything Mulder
would be interested in?>
"And the suspect?"
"The witnesses didn't get a good look at him, other to say
that
it was male. He was wearing a dark trenchcoat."
"Race?"
"Too dark to tell conclusively. You don't think..." The
words
didn't have to be spoken. Skinner knew only too well about
Mulder's
mysterious contact, having had it out with the man in an elevator
on an
occasion that Dana was desperately sorry she had missed seeing.
"Maybe. Mulder did meet his -- sources -- there from time to
time." From what he had told her though, it was Deep Throat
who met him
there, not Mr. X. This new informant didn't seem the type to risk
being
seen like that. And trying to kill Mulder didn't make much snse
unless...
Unless Mr. X had gotten tired of using Mulder and then finding
his puppet had control over his own strings. That was a distinct
possibility. The only problem with that was he would have to know
that
he would be the logical suspect in the shooting under the
circumstances.
She left sick to her stomach as she eyed the vile hospital
decor, and she pushed the coffee cup aside. "This isn't
getting us
anywhere." Standing up, she motioned for Melissa to stay
where she was.
"I'll be right back."
There was a washroom just down the hall and around the corner,
past the entrance to a stairwell. She went in, locking the door
behind
her. Nausea reared its head again and she threw up into the
toilet.
When she was finished, she rinsed her mouth and let the emotional
tidal
wave crest. Perching uncomfortably on the edge of the sink, she
allowed
the hot tears to come.
Mulder was lying in some surgical theater with a bullet in his
chest because God only knew who had shot him. Her best friend
might die
and there was nothing she could do right now to help him. She
might be a
doctor, but she couldn't be the one in there performing the
surgery. All
she could do was wait and pray, and it was the hardest thing
anyone could
ever aske her to do. She wrapped her arms around herself and let
the
tears fall. She didn't want to cry in front of Skinner, but she
wasn't
going to let herself shut down emotionally. Mulder was forever
warning
her against that, and it was funny coming from a man who hid
everything
so well.
<I swear, Mulder, I'll find whoever did this.> The anger
inside
her welled and she curled her hands into fists, feeling her nails
press
deeply into her palms. Irrational vengeance wasn't her style but
in this
case she was more than willing to give it a go. She felt another
cold chill.
When the emotional tempest seemed to have past for the moment,
she splashed cold water on her face. Eyeing her reflection, she
acknowledged the fact that a well trained observer like Skinner
would
have no trouble telling that she'd been crying. The red eyes were
a dead
give away. She didn't care right now. She didn't care about
anything
except Mulder.
Leaving the washroom, she started back to the waiting room. She
never made it to the corner.
*******
END PART ONE
===========================================================================
From: larchiba@unixg.ubc.ca (Jessica Lynn Archibald)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: FAR AWAY NEARBY 2/4
Date: 9 Jun 1995 06:00:58 GMT
Here's part two to this little adventure and thanks for all
the feedback,
guys. I'm glad you're enjoying this as much as I am.
Whoops! I gave the wrong e-mail address last time so here's
the correct
one: larchiba@unixg.ubc.ca
Story contains characters copyrighted 1993 by CC and
TenThirteen
Productions. I mean no harm and the story is all mine,
copyrighted
1995.
THE FAR AWAY NEARBY PART TWO by Jessica Archibald
Mulder's sick urge had taken him to the operating rooms. He
found his way blocked by various obstacles, such as doors, and he
finally
discovered if he thought hard enough about being somewhere,
voila, there
he was. It took a fair bit of effort and left him lightheaded for
a moment.
<Aside from that and the fact I can't touch anything, I would
make one hell of a burglar.>
Finally he found what he was looking for by thinking about his
corporeal form.
Inside the room, two surgeons were labouring over his physical
body, trying to repair the damage done by the bullet. He wandered
over
and had the perverse pleasure of actually seeing his heart laid
open to
the world at large.
He suddenly remembered why he made it a policy not to stay in the
room if Scully was performing an autopsy.
<This wasn't such a good idea...>
He decided to leave before he saw something that he *really*
didn't want to. On his way out, he glanced over at the heart
monitor and
winced. Things weren't looking too good for the home team.
Deciding to go back to the waiting room, he formed a mental imgae
of it, but found that his attention wandered to his partner and
instead
of appearing in a disgustingly neutral hospital room, he
materialized
inside a tiny washroom.
<Oh, jeez,> he thought, trying to fixate on another image.
<I'm
glad she can't see me, or I'd be a dead man. I *still* might be a
dead
man...>
After a brief instant, he realized that Scully was crying
quietly, looking rather pitiful, folded in on herself and
clenching her
fists. He didn't have to stretch his imagination very far to
figure out
what was probably running through her head.
"C'mon, Scully, don't start this now. I'm not dead
*yet*." He
reached out and touched her shoulder again. Tears were forming in
his
own eyes and when they fell, they dissipated like fog before
bright
sunshine, vanishing before they would ever have hit the ground.
"I know
you're worried about me, but don't give up on me yet, Scully.
Please,
Dana, don't give up..."
After a few minutes, she got herself under control and turned her
back on him to wash her face. He went with her when she left the
room
and was just as surprised as she was when a hand snaked out of
the
opening stairwell door and grabbed hold of her coat, yanking her
through
before she had a chance to react. The door snapped shut before
Mulder
could go after her, and it took him precious seconds to
concentrate
enough on her to follow.
The hand belonged to a man who had her pressed hard against the
wall of the stairs, one hand holding her right arm away from her
gun, the
other holding a .38 revolver to her head.
"Oh, hell," Mulder said out loud. "Hey, I thought
you were on
*our* side. Kinda. Or maybe not. What day of the week is
this?"
It was his mysterious contact, known unaffectionately as Mr. X.
"I didn't shoot Mulder," he was saying.
Scully glared at him. "Then why are you holding a gun on me?
It
doesn't exactly argue for your innocence."
"I wouldn't want you to get carried away and shoot me by
accident, Agent Scully." He let go of her and stepped away,
not *quite*
lowering his weapon.
She kept her hands clear of her 9mm. "If I shot you, it
wouldn't
be an accident."
"Careful, Scully," Mulder warned ineffectually, but
passionately. "This isn't someone to mess with." He had
moved
instinctively to stand between her and X, which was quite
meaningless
really because they were carrying on their argument like he
wasn't even
there.
Which, to them, he wasn't.
"If you didn't shoot him, who did?" Scully demanded
angrily.
"I think you know," X replied. "Suffice it to say,
Agent Mulder
was not their only target." He looked drawn and tired, like
a man who
had...
Who had been on the run.
"They found out who you are," Mulder said. "Son of
a bitch, they
found out who you are and they want to plug the leak!"
"They're after you, aren't they? The government?"
Scully said,
obviously thinking something similar. "Dammit, they followed
you to
Mulder!" She looked like she wanted to deck X.
"No," X snapped. "They already knew about Mulder.
I tried to
warn him."
"The exterminator ad that was circled in the paper. You were
trying to tell him that they were after you. And him."
"You might want to watch your own back, Scully. They're
aiming
for a clean sweep. They wanted you to think that I shot Mulder,
to keep
us all separated while they hunted us down."
"Son of a bitch," Mulder said again, clenching his
fists and
wanting to take his own swing at X. "You could have *called*
for God's
sake. A little laxness in security hardly matters when they've
already
figured out who you are."
"There's only two of them. They want to take care of this
one
their own, make names for themselves," X explained. "If
they bothered to
get in touch with their superiors, they would know that Mulder is
protected, at least from such a *direct* threat, at least for
now."
"But you're not."
"Didn't the death of my predecessor teach you anything,
Agent
Scully?" the man snarled at her. "Of course I'm not.
And neither are
you! But you already know that don't you?"
Mulder was shaking with anger that he couldn't vent in a
satisfying manner. Scully grew angry as well, and she hid it only
marginally better.
"What are you telling me this for? You obviously want
something. You never gave Mulder something that didn't indirectly
benefit you, so you couldn't possibly be telling me this out of
the
goodness of your heart." Her tone practically bathed all
present in
contempt. "You led him around, you *used* him dammit, but I
will *not*
allow myself to be used by you. Whatever you want, you can just
forget
it." She brushed past X and began to open the door.
X raised the gun again.
"Scully, oh, SCULLY!" Mulder shouted.
"What if I tell you that they'll try again? Try to finish
Mulder
off while he's still down."
She turned back, saw the gun. "How do I know that you aren't
here to do the job for them?"
"Mulder's too valuable."
"You mean he's too gullible."
Mulder looked at his partner, startled. "Hey, watch it,
Scully.
I could tell Frohike where you live." The only good thing
about his
predicament was that he could let his mouth have free reing
because she
couldn't hear him. Otherwise, he'd wind up in traction.
X inclined his head slightly. "I'll admit that Mulder does
possess certain proclivities--"
"Which you exploit and twist around until they fit
yours."
Mulder could count on one hand the number of times he had heard
Dana Scully this angry and still have room left over to name at
least
half of teh seven dwarves. He was pleased to not that the rare
occasions
when she *did* get this angry, the rage had never been directed
at him.
Except for the time when he gotten a love, or rather a *lust*
letter
Frohike had sent to her mixed in with a report he had handed to
Skinner...
"I have never approved of the way you manipulate him--"
"Agent Scully, I don't five a damn if you approve or not.
Right
now, I am offering you a chance to keep Mulder alive."
"How?"
"You have to find these two men and eliminate them."
"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head. "You want me
to kill them
for you? Forget it. I am a federal agent. I do *not* hunt down
people
and kill them."
X shrugged, handed her a piece of paper which she refused to
take. It fluttered to the ground. "Then you'd better get
used to the
thought of being dead by morning, because they'll be coming for
you. And
your partner. I'm leaving town until their superiors track them
down, or
they get dealt with. I don't think you have that option. Ask
yourself
this, Scully. If positions were reversed, wouldn't Mulder be
willing to
*bend* his morals a little to save you. I think he already
has..." He
disappeared down the stairs.
"Dammit," she whispered, sinking down onto the stairs,
sitting
down hard. "He has..."
"No, Scully, no I didn't," Mulder siad, sitting beside
her. "He
offered me that same sort of chance he's giving you and I didn't
take
it." He paused, looking first at his form, which no one else
could see.
He thought about the body in surgery that would, in all honest,
probably
die before the night was throuh. He looked at the woman beside
him, who
was still alive and in one piece. He wanted her to stay that way.
"Let
it go, Scully, get yourself out of this..."
She reached for the scrap of paper, and angrily Mulder swatted at
it.
It quivered as if caught in a breeze.
"What the hell?" Mulder said in surprise.
Scully hadn't noticed anything and she picked up the paper.
"It moved, Scully! Did you see that? I got it to move."
he
tried again, batting at the paper in her hand.
Nothing.
"Then how..." He frowned, trying to figure it out,
peering over
her shoulder to look at the paper. It was an address for some
warehouses
down by the docks. "Scully, he's using you, you know
that."
She was silent, studying the paper, then looking up to the floor
above, where the O.R.s were. "I can't just sit here and
wait, Mulder."
It took him a second to realize that she was not talking to him
exactly. "Scully, don't do it. If they're after me, they'll
be coming
after you. Don't make it easier on them by walking right
in." He was
pleading now, but she still couldn't hear him.
She stood and started down the stairs.
"At least tell Skinner," he argued, following her.
"He'll send
more agents with you."
Of course she couldn't hear him and when she exited the stairs in
the lobby and headed for the door, her partner's spirit went with
her.
***********************************
Melissa was getting worried. Dana had been gone for a long
time
now and when she went looking for her, her sister was no where to
be
found. Walter Skinner had immediately gooten hospital security to
help
in the search after having Dana paged repeatedly. There was no
sign of
her anywhere in the hospital. Her car was gon from the visitor's
parking
lot and no one had seen her leave.
"Where could she have gone?" Skinner asked, mostly to
himself.
Melissa could tell what he was thinking by reading his aura. He
was
worried about both of his agents, wondering if whoever shot Fox
had
gotten to dana.
Melissa doubted it.
Closing her eyes as if she were tired, she leaned back in her
chair and tried to locate her sister. It wasn't something that
always
worked, lord knows she had tried when Dana disappeared for those
three
months, but it hadn't worked then. This time, she found her right
away.
Dana's aura flared with anger, bordering on rage. Melissa
flinched when she sensed it and almost missed the second aura.
But then
she caught it and recognized it as Fox's, bright with worry,
fear, and
frustration.
<Fox! But how?> She sent her mind on a quest to a location
a
little closer to her present position, specifically, the O.R. and
Fox's
body. There was no sense of him anywhere in the building. His
spirit
was quite literally with Dana. <I hope you know what you are
doing,
Fox. Getting separated from your body at such a distance could be
dangerous for you...>
The situation struck her as darkly amusing. This time it was Fox
who was trying to blanket Dana's raging emotions instead of the
other
way around.
<Good luck to you both...>
**************************
In the operating room, the heart monitor suddenly emitted a
steady wailing.
"He's crashing!" yelled one of the nurses.
"Internal paddles," barked the surgeon. Two tiny
paddles were
handed to him and he positioned them on either side of the
exposed
heart. "Clear!"
A charge of electricity raced into Mulder's body, centering on
his heart.
**************************
Mulder felt a crushing pain building in his chest and he
reached
for the dashboard of Scully's car to steady himself. As he
reached, he
arm brushed the seatbelt and it *moved*. With a sense of wonder,
he
tried again and instead he found himself back in the operating
room,
watching the doctors and nurses struggle to save his body. He was
unable
to do anything but clutch desperately at his chest and let out a
cry of
mortal agaony that no one could hear...
**************************
Dana pulled up in front of the warehouse with a silent engine,
coasting in the last few feet. There were no visible windows and
she
could see no light seeping out from under the door.
<What if he lied to me and this was a trick to get me away
from
Mulder?>
The idea sent a cold chill through her, but she got out of the
car and eased out her gun, disengaging the safety and heading
towards the
warehouse. She didn't have much of a plan beyond trying to arrest
the
two men who were supposedly after X, Mulder and her. That was
going to
be the tricky part. She'd worry about what to charge them with
later.
For right now, she just wanted to find and detain them. She
didn't think
that Skinner would approve, so she had decided to leave him out
of it.
<I think I'm beginning to see what Mulder likes about not
telling
anyone what he's up to. There's no one to say 'no'.>
The door to the warehouse was unlocked and she slipped inside.
It was dark in the outer area, crates and metal shelving units
lining the walls and forming aisles of wooden boxes. Down the
main aisle
she could see an office at the far reaches of the warehouse and
there was
a light on.
She crept slowly forward.
*********************
In the waiting room, Melissa Scully let out a gasp as she felt
Fox's return and pain. Skinner turned towards her from where he
was
barking orders into a pay phone, seinding agents out to look for
Dana.
Melissa squeezed her eyes shut.
<Hold on, Fox, you've got to hold on.>
*******************
Outside the warehouse, the gray Saturn parked next to Scully's
car and a man got out, drawing a pistol with a silencer
attachment. He
headed directly inside and began stalking the small figure in
front of
him with deadly intent.
******************
In the O.R. the heart monitor remained flat as the surgeon
tried
again and this time was rewarded with a steay beep.
"Got 'im!" he crowed.
Mulder felt the pain ease and swayed with a rush of weakness that
sent him crashing to the floor. He felt like someone had just
performed
open heart surgery on him...which was exactly what had happened.
<Scully,> he thought, shaking his head to clear it,
glancing at
the monitors, seeing that he was all right for the moment. He had
to get
back to her...
*****************
Dana was only a few feet away from the office now and she
could
make out the figure of a man sitting at a desk, studying a file
that was
laid out before him. Taking the last few steps at a quick pace,
she
burst into the office with her gun held high.
"Federal agent! Don't move!"
Startled, the man jerked his head up and his eyes widened with
recognition and surprise.
<Am I supposed to be dead?> she wondered.
Catching a glimpse of the file on the desk, she saw photos of
her, Mulder, and X, as well as other pieces of paper. Looks like
she had
her shooter.
"Place your hands where I can see them."
*********************
He looked at the woman in front of him with disbelief. The
deal
was that he was to kill Mulder while his partner killed her and
the
informant. She was supposed to have been the easiest one, no one
would
have been particularily upset if she got wasted, her death lost
in the
shuffle of the other two.
But here she was, obviously alive, holding a gun on him. This
would *not* do. He'd *have* to use his other abilities now or the
whole
opportunity would be lost. And besides, what was the point of
having
these powers if he didn't get to flaunt them once in a while.
Reaching out with his mind, he ripped the gun out of her hand,
twisting the metal with a mental shove as he did so.
She cried out in shock as the weapon was wrenched from her,
catching her finger in the trigger guard, hearing the bone snap.
With a look of utter disbelief on her face, she leapt back as the
ball of metal that had been her gun came arcing back down at her
head,
aimed by an unseen force. She ducked but the metal was being
controlled
by the speed of though and with another small cry, she went down
as it
hit the side of her head with an audible crack and lay still.
His partner came running in, gun in hand.
"What the hell did you do that for?" he said midly.
"I did it because you didn't do your job. She's supposed to
be
*dead* for God's sake, not walking into our office. Tell me you
got the
other one, that he didn't lead her here."
His associate was silent.
"Dammit!" he yelped. "Can't you do anything
right?"
"Oh, shut up, you didn't do such a hot job either."
"What are you talikng about?"
"Mulder's still alive. I followed her to Washington
Memorial,
he's there right now, in surgery."
He sat down muttering curses. "This can't be
happening." He
glared at the unconscious federal agent. "Get her the hell
out of here,
kill her, take her out to the docks, dump the body. I'll go take
care of
her damned partner and then we'll go find that traitor and
eliminate
him." He shook a finger at his cohort. "Don't screw
this up. We can
make names for ourselves if we pull this off."
Grabbing his jacket off the chair, he stormed out, aiming a kick
at the woman on his way out, not caring that he missed.
***********************
END PART TWO
===========================================================================
From: larchiba@unixg.ubc.ca (Jessica Lynn Archibald)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: FAR AWAY NEARBY 3/4
Date: 12 Jun 1995 05:22:45 GMT
Here's part three.
Characters copyright 1993 by CC and Tenthirteen
Productions...the story
is all mine though!
THE FAR AWAY NEARBY PART THREE by Jessica Archibald
Mulder managed to get back to Scully after ten minutes of
waiting
for his figurative strength to return to what it had been. While
he
waited, he watched the surgery with ghoulish interest and noted
with some
relief that the doctors and nurses were starting to perk up
enough to
tell bad jokes. he tried to add a comment here and there, mainly
to
assure himself that he was still there, and even though no one
could hear
him, he was beginning to think that he just might make it after
all.
<Now if only Scully doesn't get herself killed, then we can
call
it a day,> he thought and immediately he vanished from the
O.R. and
reappeared inside a warehouse office.
He din't immediately see Scully, but caught a glimpse of a man
leaving the warehouse and then spied another over on the other
side of
the room's desk. The second man was grumbling to himself, leaning
over
something and as Mulder came around the desk, he finally saw his
partner.
She was out cold on the floor, a nasty gash on her right temple
bleeding freely. On the ground next to her was a warped piece of
metal
that bore a passing resemblance to the 9mm that was missing from
her
holster and the silenced weapon that was currently being
positioned just
above her ear.
<Oh God,> he thought with a sense of horror, realizing that
Dana
Scully was about five seconds away from getting her head blown
off by the
second man. And there was nothing Mulder could do...
Wait just a minute.
He *had* gotten things to move on two occasions: the scrap of
paper and the seatbelt in her car. both times were when he was
feeling
an extreme emotion that triggered adrenaline. Like in every day
situations, adrenaline fuels the body and provides extra energy
and that
energy was letting him effect things in the physical world. And
right
this second, his adrenaline, physical or not, was certainly
pumping.
Without even thinking about what he was doing, he grabbed hold of
the wadded up metal and *lifted* it.
The other man stumbled away from Scully, startled by the
seemingly unsupported object flying towards his head at extreme
speeds.
His eyes were wide as he just stood there and Mulder connected
with a
solid blow, making the man's eyes go misty and cross over. His
gun went
sliding under the desk with a clatter. The object was suddenly
too heavy
to hold and Mulder had to let it go as the man fell to the floor,
the
metal landing on the would-be-killer's foot, both dead weights,
both
still and unmoving.
<Now *that* was satisfying,> he thought with some wicked
pleasure. He looked around the room briefly as he went to kneel
next to
his partner and saw the photos and the desk. <Looks like she
found what
she was looking for.> He realized that the toher man was gone
and there
were only two possible places for him to go. To find X or to go
to the
hospital and finish the job he had started. Mulder decided that
he
really didn't want to die.
"Scully, hey, Scully," he said, trying to shake her,
but either
the adrenal rush was gone, or it wasn't enough because she didn't
move.
"C'mon, Scully, wake up will ya?"
Still no response.
"Please, Dana, I need your help..."
******************************
Melissa had nearly dozed off in spite of herself by the time a
doctor came out to speak to Skinner. Without a word, she rose and
joined
the two, listening intently.
"We've removed the bullet and repaited his left lung. The
bullet's path caused it to nick the left ventricle of the heart
and we
repaired that as well." The doctor sighted, realizing that
his surgical
greens were covered in blood. "It was touch and go for a
while, but the
prognosis is fair. It's important that we wait to see if Agent
Mulder
revives first, then we can start breathing easy." He turned
to Melissa.
"Are you Dana Scully?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm her sister."
"Is Miss Scully here? I should really be telling her this,
even
though you are his boss," a nod to Skinner, "he had her
listed as his
next of kin."
Skinner looked startled and Melissa allowed herself a private
smile.
"She's not related to him," the FBI director said.
"She's his
partner."
"Well, he listed her as next of kin. Do you know where she
is?"
Skinner looked at Melissa, his face unreadable. "She is
currently unreachable. I'll let you know when she does
arrive."
"Where's Fox now?" Melissa chipped in. She still didn't
sense
his presence in the building and she wanted to be there to help
guide him
back when he returned. It wasn't much, but it was the best she
could do
to help.
"We've taken the leberty of putting him in a private room
instead
of recovery. Under the circumstqances we thought it would be
best. I
can show you where it is, I guess you can see him if you are Miss
--
excuse me, *Agent* Scully's sister."
Melissa followed the doctor, looking briefly back at Skinner who
was muttering something about Fox Mulder and his damn medical
bills. She
could read the relief in his aura and she smiled again.
**********************
She could hear a voice calling her softly, far away. She
didn't
want to answer, she wanted to just lay wherever she was and not
move.
Her head felt about five sizes too small and her index finger on
her
right hand throbbed with pain. The pain and the voice were all
that she
was aware of.
"Dana? C'mon, dammit, wake up!"
"Go 'way, Mulder," she muttered automatically. "I
have a headache."
"Dana! You can hear me?!"
"Mmmm." She couldn't concentrate.
"That other hitman is gone, Dana, and I think he's coming
after
me. Dana, I need your help!"
Mulder needed her, she had to get up, Mulder had been shot...
"MULDER!!" she gasped, sitting bolt upright, pressing
one hand to
her temple. He was in the hospital, not here, there was no one
here
except man she had never seen before, and he was out cold,
snoring loudly.
<The other man, where is he? And what the *hell* happened to
my
*gun*? And why does my subconscious sound like Mulder?> She
started to
stand up and wished she hadn't. A chill gripped her elbow of all
places,
and her head was really starting to hurt now, plus her finger had
definitely broken when her gun had gone flying out of her hand.
Better not think about that now.
"Mulder," she said again, a whisper. Subconscious or
not,
whatever it was, the voice had made sense. The man was gone and
it
didn't take a trained agent to figure out where he was going.
<Dammit, there's no phone here!> She had left her cellular
at
home, having barely remembered to grab her gun in the haze
following
Skinner's phone call. <I have to get back to the hospital!>
Looking down at the unconscious man, she wondered what had
happened. By all rights she should be dead because she was sure
that
this was the second man X had been talking about. But she was
still
alive and somebody had brained this guy with what was left of her
gun.
The irony of it impressed her, but there was no sign of whoever
had saved
her life. X perhaps? Surely not. If there was one thing she knew
about
him, it was that he was a coward when it came to risking his
skin. She
wondered how these men had stumbled onto his idenity and then
decided
that she didn't want to know because she suspected that there
would be a
blood trail leading to the answer.
She had to go, before it was too late. Once decided, she didn't
look back, knowing that the man on the ground would probably be
gone by
the time she got back...She'd find him again later. A quick look
had
burned his features into memory.
she left the warehouse at a stumbling run, knowing she was
unarmed and pursuing a killer, but she didn't care. All she cared
about
was getting there in time...
******************************
He found out where Mulder was at the front desk and made his
way
to the room via the elevator. Once on the appropriate floor, he
followed
a male nurse about his size until the nurse was alone, then he
struck,
coming up behind him and breaking the other man's neck in one
smooth
movement. He was in a foul mood and didn't want to waste any
time,
didn't give a damn who else he killed. Using his talent to disarm
Scully
had given him a bitch of a headache. He was glad she was dead.
Dragging the dead man into a supply closet, he stripped and took
the uniform of the nurse, acknowledging the cliched disguise but
knowing
it would get him where he needed to be. Now all he needed was a
syringe.
It didn't take him long to find it.
*************************
Scully had heard him!
Mulder couldn't believe it. He figured it had something to do
with her semi-conscious state at the time and he wasn't going to
knock
it. But as soon as she was fully awake, it was like he wasn't
there. He
had tried to steady her when she had gotten to her feet, looking
like she
was going to pass out again.
"C'mon, Scully," he coaxed, not caring if she was
ignorant to his
presence again. He watched her take in the scene with stunned
suspicion,
looking around for whoever had clobbered the guy on the floor.
"There
isn't time for this." Wondering if he should head back to
the hospital
and try to reach Melissa again, he dismissed the notion. There
wasn't
much he could do to get through to her. *Dana* Scully was his
best chance.
"Mulder," she whispered.
"I'm here, Scully, but you've got to get going." He
watched her
search for something with her eyes then straighten, shooting her
most
dangerous look at the snoring man on the floor and then she ran
out of
the warehouse at an unsteady dash.
********************
Melissa was sitting next to Fox's body, listening with only
part
of her mind to the various beeps and hums of the machines that
were
insuring his life. Most of her was focussed on seeking out his
spirit.
Now that she was alone, she had dug out one of her crystals and
was
holding it cupped between her hands, gazing into its depths.
<Show me where you are, Fox,> she thought to it. <Let me
help
you back...>
The door to the toom opened and a nurse stepped in, hand in his
pocket. Startled, she looked up at him and her eyes widened as
she read
his aura.
there was violence about this man, a sense of anger directed to
the form in the bed.
She knew instictively that this was the man who had shot Fox.
Reacting with speed she didn't know she possessed, she threw the
crystal at his face as he began to approach, and she started to
lunge for
the call button.
But she was on the wrong side of the bed adn he caught her before
she could reach it, swatting aside the gem before it hit him,
grabbing
her arm and hitting her with a closed fist. With a cry of fright,
she
tumbled away from him, loosing her balance, heading for the
floor. On
her way down, the side of her head struck the rounded metal edge
of the
foot of the bed.
<FOX! DANA!> was all she had time to think as she lost
consciousness.
**********************************
Skinner was still in the waiting room, doing exactly what the
room was built for. waiting. Waiting for notifications from his
agents
that they had caught the man who had shot Fox Mulder, that
somebody had
found Dana Scully, that aliens were storming the White House.
Something. Anything. For Melissa Scully to come back from seeing
Mulder. Nice enough girl, if a little flaky. He was glad that it
was
Dana and not Melissa who had ended up with the FBI. He got the
shakes
just thinking about if there were *two* flakes running the
X-Files
Division. The notion was too horrible to contemplate, but he
momentarily
fantasize the response of Mulder's Cancer Man to that situation.
Maybe
it did have some merits after all.
************
Scully had run out of the warehouse beofre Mulder had a chance
to
follow, driving off in a squeal of tires. He wondered very
briefly if
she should be driving after taking such a whack to the head, then
realized that he would die if she didn't reach the hospital in
time,
which was why he'd been trying to get her to start moving. He
oncentrated on an image of her and appeared in her car just as
she
rounded a corner with dangerous speed, blood still flowing down
her face,
hands clutching the steering whell hard enough to turn her
knuckles white.
"Come one, dammit," she whispered desperately, wincing
a little
in pain as her fingers curled around the wheel. he noticed now
that the
one was obviously broken.
"Easy, Scully," he urged. "You can't help me if
you wreck the car."
******************
No time, there was not time.
Dana squeezed the wheel tightly, trying very hard to ignore the
pain in her finger and her head, ingnoring the vision that would
blur for
a second now and then, ignoring everything but the street signs.
It was
now late at night and traffice was light. Otherwise she never
would have
made it.
She was out of the car before it came to complete stop and went
plunging through the main doors to the hospital, skidding to a
halt at
reception.
"Where's Fox Mulder?" she snapped.
The clerk at the desk took one look at her and tried to direct
her to the emergency room.
"Fox Mulder," she repeated, showing her Federal ID and
projecting
authority, a neat trick when dripping blood onto the counter.
The clerk typed the name into his terminal. "Fifth floor,
room 518."
Paging Skinner would alert the killer and she had no patience to
wait for hospital security. Spinning away from the desk, she
darted for
the nearest staircase, head and heart pounding. The five flights
of
stairs went by with impossible slowness, and by the time she
reached the
right floor she thought she was going to pass out. Ruthlessly she
shove
the thought aside and erupted out the stairwell. 518 was at the
end of
the hall and she shouldered open the door, bursting through and
letting
it slam closed behind her.
The first thing she saw was her partner's pale face, dark circles
under his eyes, a few scrapes from when he'd fallen from the
bullet. She
could hear the heart monitor and felt her own heart leap with joy
and
relie.
*He was still alive!*
The euphoria faded as she saw Melissa on the floor, insensate, a
lump on her forehead beginning to darked with bruising.
<Oh god, no!>
The man from the warehouse was there, looming over Mulder, an IV
tube in one hand, needle in the other. There was nothing in the
syringe
but empty space.
<An air emolism,> she thought as he swung to face her.
<He's
going to kill Mulder with an air embolism.>
His eyes registered shock at the sight of her.
"You do seem to lead a charmed life, Agent Scully," he
said with
a dangerous undertone. "You were supposed to be dead by
now."
"Step away from him."
"Not yet." He turned back and started to plunge the
syringe into
Mulder's arm, bypassing the IV, but she dived for him, wishing
desperately that she hadn't lost her gun, grabbing his arm and
wrenching
it back.
He tried to throw her off long enough to drive the needle home,
but she clung onto him with frantic intensity. Changing tactics
with
unexpected speed, the man yieled to her pressure and used the
momentum to
turn and trap her between his arms and chest, the needle now
aimed at her
throat.
"Say goodbye to your partner, Agent Scully, and your
life..."
********************
At the warehouse, the man was starting to come to, raising a
hand
to tender spot on his head. His fingers came away stained with
blood.
Glancing around, he saw no sigh of Dana Scully except the bundled
mass
that had been her gun. He remembered it flying through the air at
his
head and wondered if his partner had decided to eliminate him as
well.
Footsteps.
Climbing carefully onto his feet, he could make out a figure
approaching from the outer warehouse area. He recognized it two
seconds
before a gun barked. He never hear the shot that killed him.
*******************************
A security guard found Skinner in the waiting room.
"Excuse me, sir," he said.
"Yes," Skinner replied tiredly. "What is it?"
"A clerk at reception asked me to find you. About five
minutes
ago a woman came in demanding to know where your Agent Mulder
was. She
had a federal ID, but the clerk was concerned because of her
appearance--"
"What do you mean?" he demanded, climbing to his feet.
"What
about her appearance?"
"Apparently her head was covered in blood, the clerk tried
to
direct her to the E.R. but she disappeared into one of the stair
cases."
"What did she look like? About five-two, red hair?"
"Yes, sir, that tallies with the description the clerk gave
me--"
<Scully. Just once I'd like to see *one* of them coming
through
an assignment or a *week* without running up a medical bill.>
"I'll tkae
care of it. she's one of my agents." <For the *moment* at
least.>
************
Mulder had lost Scully in the lobby of the hospital, but he
found
her again by centering on her image. He wound up in a hospital
room
shred by his body, a semi-conscious Melissa and a struggling pair
he made
out to be Scully and the first man from the warehouse.
<That's the guy that shot me!>
And at that particular moment, the man was trying to kill his
partner. Melissa wasn't going to be of any immediate help; she
was just
starting to come around, groaning nad carrying on like sh'd never
been
knocked on the head before. Which perhaps she hadn't.
Scully was playing a game of keep away involving a syringe that
looked empty.
<Air embolism,> he thought, mind racing to come up with
something
helpful. <*Very* nasty.>
He could feel the adrenaline flowing again and racked his brain
for the best way to use it. There was little doubt in his mind
that he
would lose a tug of war with the man. He came up with the answer
just as
the man snarled at Scully, something about saying goodbye to her
life.
<Not just yet, she won't.> He stabbed at the call button,
sliding around the grappling duo. <Hold on a second,
Scully...>
Brushing past them, he sprinted for the door and hit the light
switch,
plunging the room into semi-darkness.
**************
END PART THREE
===========================================================================
From: larchiba@unixg.ubc.ca (Jessica Lynn Archibald)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: FAR AWAY NEARBY 4/4
Date: 18 Jun 1995 06:11:26 GMT
Ta da...drum roll please. Here's the conclusion and red faced
apologies
for taking so long.
Characters copyrighted 1993 by CC and 10-13 Productions but
the story is
copyrighted 1995 by me.
THE FAR AWAY NEARBY PART 4 by Jessica Archibald
When the lights went out it was a toos-up who was more
surprised. Dana didn't waste much time worrying about it though,
and
used the man's bewilderment to bring her foot smashing down on
his
instep. with a howl, he let her go and she pivoted, hitting his
jaw with
the point of her right elbow. The needle went spinning out into
the
room, clattering to the floor.
Reaching out, he caught hold of the collar of her jacket, and
used it to fling her onto the floor. this time, she was prepapred
and
rolled into the throw, coming to a stop on her knees, leaping
back into
her feet. Her head was spinning now and she'd bashed her finger
in the
struggle. Things had to end soon.
He came at her again.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the needle rise up,
outlined in the moonlight coming in the single window, casting
the room
in shades of blue and gray.
It headed straight for Mulder.
The man threw a punch at her head.
****************
He couldn't waste all of his time with her. He had to finish
off
everyone in this room and get out before someone came in to
investigate
the ruckus they were making. Squaring off against Scully, who
looked
like she was going to collapse any minute and save him some
trouble, he
sent part of his mind reaching out to the needle on the floor,
lifting it
and sending it hurtling straight towards his initial target.
It was funny, but he could swear that there was someone else in
the room, hiding in the shadows and watching the fight with
anxious eyes.
********
Mulder saw the needle and jumped for it, but this time there
was
nothing left to swat it with. It felt like he was hitting a
stonewall
Skinner would be proud of.
<The shooter must be telekinetic,> he thought frantically.
<That
would explain Scully's gun.>
He may have saved Scully, but there was no one to save him.
***********
Skinner was just coming out of the fifth floor elevator when a
buzzer went off at the nurses' station. A sinking feeling was in
his gut
as he produced his ID, flashed it at the duty nurse and demanded
to know
what room the call was for.
"518," she replied in surprise.
Another nurse came running down the hall from the opposite
direction in a state just this side of hysteria. She was babbling
about
finding someone named Lou in one of the supply closets, he neck
broken,
stripped down to his underwear.
"Call security," Skinner snapped, "and don't let
anyone near room
518 until I say otherwise." He could take a good guess as to
what was
going on in that room. He wasn't Assistant Director of the
Federal
Bureau of Investigation for nothing. "Tell security to call
the FBI
building and request additional agents."
He took off down the hall before anyone could ask him anything
else.
*********
Melissa was aware of both Fox and Dana when she came swimming
back to consciousness. Both were in a state of high agitation and
she
forced herself into a sitting position. her head was poinding and
she
felt sick to her stomach. She'd never gotten involved in a fight
like
that before, leaving such physical conflicts to her sister and
their
brothers. In the future she decided to maintian such a stance.
<Up,> she told herself firmlyu. <You have to help
them.>
Peering through eyes that kept blurring, she saw Dana and the man
fighting on one side of the room. Fox was still somewhere in the
room,
she could sense his anxiety and it was screaming at her , making
her poor
head hurt even more.
A flash of motion caught her eye and she saw a needle rising up,
quivering with no one to hold it. It paused and then headed
towards the bed.
Her hand flew up almost of its own accord and she caught it as it
went by, holding onto it with a determinied grip. It struggled
against
her grasp and it flet like a full sized male was actually tugging
it away
from her. With her free hand, she reached up and yanked out the
plunger
part of it, rendering it incapable of doing anything more than
sticking
in soemone. jAs soon as she did so, it fell still in her hand.
****
He swore silently as the other woman intercepted the needle,
lashing out at Scully, who ducked and came up under the blow,
catching
his arm, yanking him off balance. Recovering, he grabbed a
fistful of
her hair, kicked at her feet and knocked her down.
Suddenly there was someone else beside her, urging her to get
back up. He choked on a yell as he recognized Fox Mulder, who was
only
visible to his other senses.
"This time you'll stay dead," he snarled and gathered
what little
energy he had left, aiming it at the ghostly image of the federal
agent....
*********
Mulder saw the man stare right at him as he tried to convince
Scully to get up again.
<Uh-oh. He sees me.> Part of his mind was cataloging the
fact
that htis man must have other psychic abilities in addition to
telekineses. Most of him was too busy panicking to notice.
The man seemed to stretch out a hand towards him and Mulder saw
a faint glow that burst into full techniclour life.
The room exploded into a world of pain and began to fade away
into a wash of darkness.
He reached for Scully and everything went away...
***********
Melissa sensed what was about to happen and she squeezed her
eyes
shut, trying to get a visual image of the scene. Fox was standing
to
Dana's right, the man in front of both of them. The stranger's
aura was
on overload, a mad swirl of colour that blinded her through her
closed
eyes. A bright lance of colour exploded from him and hit Fox in
the
chest. She could sense his pain as his spirit went rushing back
into his
body.
*********
Dana wasn't exactly sure what the hell the man was talking
about
now, but she didn't take the time to ask him. For just a second
she
thought she saw a flash of light and the outline of a familiar
figure,
but she couldn't be sure. From her position on the floor, she
struck out
with her right lega dn swept his feet out from under him. He
seemed
distracted and he fell hard, striking his head on the tile floor
with a
sickening crack just as the door flew open and Assistant Director
Skinner
dove through, fanning the room with his gun.
The heart monitor was wailing.
"Mulder!" She scrambled to her feet, almost tropping
over ht
eman in her hast to get over to the bed. Looking up0 at the
monitors,
she cursed so hard that she heard Skinner exclaim in surprise and
Melissa
choke back a hysterical giggle.
<Damn you, Fox Mulder,> she thought angrily, <don't you
*dare*
give up on me now!>
Mulder's heart was threatening to stop and he wasn't breathing.
Without hesitation, she began mouth ot mouth resuscitation from
an
awkward position next to the bed.
Internally she began to count off the breaths she was sharing
with him and when she came up for air, she saw that Skinner had
stuch his
head back out the door and was bellowing for assistance. Melissa
had
come to stand on the other side of the bed, clutching Mulder's
hand.
<Come *on*, dammit, *breathe*.>
Her face felt damp with tears and she let them fall.
<IF you die, Mulder, I'll kill you. Who else will drive me
crazy
with wild theories? who else will help me through the bad spots
and let
me cry on their shoulder? Who else will tell me all about the
sister
they love so much? Who else will put so much trust in me? Please,
Mulder -- *Fox* -- don't die...>
She was still counting.
Skinner was back in the room, leaning over the man on the floor
and shaking his head, motioning to the incoming guards to take
him away.
She had no time to be glad.
<Breathe.>
the monitors stopped wailing.
Mulder coughed and she jumped back.
His eyes opened. She heard Melissa gasp.
"Mulder? Can you hear me?" Dana asked, smoothing back
his hair
with her good hand.
His gaze flickered over to her, taking in her rather battered
appearance and tear slicked features. He nodded, reached for her
left hand.
**********
The last thing he remembered was standing before the other man
and reaching for Scully. And now he was in the hospital bed, with
both
Scully and her sister staring at him. Now he could feel the pain
that
should have been with him all night. Biting back a groan, he
completed
the motion and took hold of Scully's hand.
"Bad day, Scully?" he whispered hoarsely.
She gave a cross between a laugh and a sob, one of her rare
smiles lighting up her face. "Mulder, you have no
idea."
"You might be surprised..."
***************
He came to handcuffed to a hospital bed, two men in suits
standing guard, FBI agents if he was any judge of tailoring. His
head
ached dully but it wouldn't dtop him. All he would need were a
few
minutes to get his strength back and then he would be able to use
his
abilities to get lose. Glancing out the window, he saw that he
was on
the first floor of the building and if he could overcome his
guards, she
would be gone just like that.
The door opened and Assistant Directore of the FBI, Walter
Skinner, walked in, nodding to the two agents, and looking down
at him
with a stern air.
"I don't suppose you want to tell me who you are and why you
tried to kill Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully? We already know
why you
killed that nurse and you will be going to jail for that much at
least."
He said nothing, glaring back at the older man.
" didn't think so." Skinner waved the two agents out of
the room
and leaned closer to him. "Agnet Scully tels me that you
work for the
government and I'm inclinded to believe her. I want you to know
that I
won't stand for you hiding behind another agency to escape
charges. The
truth will come out about this."
He was beginning to probe at the handcuffs, inching them open
with the power of his mind, a natural talent he had had since
birth and
one which the government recognized the importance of. They
wouldn't let
this windbag of a bureaucrat ruin his career. OF that he was
sure.
*********************
Skinner watched the man's reaction carefully. He had just
spent
the last hour debriefing Scully as it were and she had explained
her
actions while carefully avoiding the source of her information.
She had
attributed the actions taken against Mulder as retribution for
past
interference in government matters.
The director had a good idea who had supplied her with the
information this time around and was milding disappointed that he
wouldn't have the satisfaction of beating it out of the informant
again.
Dispatching some agents to the warehouse had netted them a dead
body, a
pistol under a desk, and a ball of metal that had once been a
gun.
Nothing else. Ballistics was running tests on the bullet that had
killed
tha mna, but Scully asserted that she hadn't killed him and
Skinner
believed her. In fact, he believed everthing she had told him,
including
needles that went flying through the air and guns that turned
themselves
into scrap without assistance. The story was too bizzare not to
be true,
even if the storyteller had now been admitted to the hospital
with a
concussion. If it had been Mulder telling the story, that would
be
another matter, but Scully had seemed completely rational when
she had
explained, althought Skinner suspected that come mroning she
would be
kicking herself for saying so much.
The man in front of him was now sullen, but Skinner was wary.
The unexplained phenomena that Scully, as well as her sister, had
witnessed had to come from somewhere and this man was the kilely
source.
He looked out the window for a moment to compose himself and a
glint of metal caught his eye.
the window exploded inward as a bullet came winging in.
Skinner dropped to the floor as the agents came bursting back
into the room at a dead run. There were no more shots.
The man in the bed was dead.
************
"You and Melissa are going to have matching bruises,
Scully."
Mulder was propped up in his bed, enjoying the physicla
sensations of being able to affect objects without being in a
high stress
situation.
there was a non committal answer from the bed on his right.
Melissa giggled from her seat between both beds, the lump on her
head already purple. she had already taken several aspirin and
said she
felt fine.
The partners were sharing a hospital room for the night, what was
left of it. Scully had been admitted under protest for
observation and
Mulder obviously wasn't going anywhere for a while.
Mulder had decided not to tell Scully that he had been shadowing
her most of the evening and he actually saved her life. She would
never
believe him and would probably start calling for a psychiatric
evaluation
to be done on him if he opened his mouth. He was still have
trouble
believing it himself now that he was back in his body, and would
in fact
have chalked it all up to one massive hallucination if it wasn't
for the
fact that he could recall events that had actually happned.
Skinner had brought word that both the man who had tried to kill
Mulder * and* his accomplice were dead. Mulder suspected that he
and
Scully both shared the sme opinion about who the killer and been
this
time. Skinner had presented Scully with what was left of her
weapon,
complained aboutthe cost of their health care, did they know how
much
paperwork went along with it? and had finally left with a few
brusque
words of sympathy.
Mulder watched Melissa tease her sister about the multicolour
bruises that were spreading over both their faces and smiled to
himself.
Life was good.
"Purple bruises with red hair, Scully," he said
playfully.
"That's a bold fashion statement." He winked at Melissa
who winked back.
Scully turned her head towards him and he could see the wry
grin. "AT least I'm not asking to borrow one of your
ties..."
"What's wrong with my ties?" he demanded as forcefully
as he
could without opeing his stitches. "They're the pinnacle of
fashion."
"Donb't make me laugh, Mulder," Scully replied,
"it hurts too much."
"Isn't that supposed to be my line?"
Mlelissa excused herself around then, saying that Skinner had
arranged to have an agent drive her to Scully's apartment.
Mulder waited until she was gone and then let out a pained groan.
"you okay, Mulder?" Scully asked immediatley, looking
up from
examining the splint on her broken finger.
"I'll live." He looked up at the ceiling for a minute
then swung
his head to face her. She was still watching him. "I know
what you did,
Scully, going after tem like that."
"Oh?"
"I was listening when you filled in Skinner." A lie,
but he
didn't think she would want to know the truth. "It was
stupid."
"Really?"
"you could have gotten killed."
"Sound advice from the man whose track record is full of
stupid
actions."
He grinned, held up his hands. "I didn't say I wouldn't have
done the same thing, I'm just saying it was stupid."
"I know it was, but what else was I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, but I wanted to say thank-you."
"You're welcome."
They shared a companionable silence for a long moment.
"Do you think that this could ver happen again?" he
asked finally.
"I don't know, Mulder, and I don't want to think about
it." She
shut her eyes. "I want to go to sleep."
"'Night, Scully."
"Good night, Mulder."
He watched her for a while and then settled back to get some
sleep of his own.
He was still here, she was still here.
For now, it was enough.
THE END