Corrigenda (6/15)
by charvill

Email: charityharvill@yahoo.com 
Category: MSR, A, Post-IWTB

Summary:  Dana Scully was treating more patients than just
Christian during the winter of 2008.  This is the story about the
father of one of those patients who is awed by the miracles our
favorite former-forensics-dabbling-FBI-agent-turned-pediatric-
surgeon performs.  Drama ensues, of course :-)

Author's Note: Corrigenda is a Latin phrase meaning
"things to be corrected"
Archiving: Please ask permission. 


4:42am

The silk of her tank top caressed her back as she rolled over in
her slumber. Scully snuggled her face deeper into the
Egyptian-cotton pillowcase determined to fall back asleep after
the long shift she'd endured that day at the hospital. Mulder's
breath floated across her cheeks and Scully instinctively
pressed her body closer to his. Reaching up with sleep-addled
laziness she let her fingers run its familiar course across his bare
chest: through the downy tufts of hair, over the relaxed pectoral
muscles that gave slightly beneath the minimal pressure she
applied.

His arm wrapped around her waist to pull her closer and she
hitched her leg up to squeeze between his, swaddling herself
further into Mulder's warmth. Scully never tired of the way
Mulder's body reacted to hers, his hard length pressed firmly
against her stomach: The most erotic sex they'd had always
started in their sleep, drunken with carnal arousal.
Remembering how badly she needed to sleep Scully
contemplated rolling over, but her aching desire for him won
out when she heard the fabric around his pillow rustle as he
moved his face towards her. Mulder's lips were supple against
her own, his breath hot as she darted her tongue inside his
mouth, and the groan he elicited had her stomach doing
flip-flops. Their kiss deepened and she was barely conscious of
being rolled beneath his body. 
 
Mulder slid his mouth away from hers to nibble and suck on the
skin of her throat; Scully's hips thrust involuntarily against his,
seeking out the ultimate satisfaction her body required, and he
grinded himself against her in answer. Moving down her body,
he let his mouth hover over nipple -- steaming the silk with his
moist breath -- before taking it between his teeth. Her fingers
clenched around the locks of his hair in her grip and she let
loose a guttural moan. They were wearing far too many clothes. 

His hands slid down her waist to pull the hem of her shirt over
her head and she opened her eyes to watch. 

And suddenly the room was filled with her screams.
Tony immediately fell on top of her, muffling her cries with one
monstrous hand. She tried to claw and scratch at him but his
position gave him too much leverage: her movements were
futile. She could feel her earlier dinner threatening to reemerge,
but she couldn't breathe, couldn't swallow. Scully writhed
harder, lungs and throat burning as angry tears streamed down
her cheeks.

"Shhh-shhh! Just stop screaming and I'll get off you, okay?" 

Scully nodded feverishly, her skin crawling everywhere it met
his. Slowly, he removed his hands and she sucked in an
enormous, cleansing breath. He rolled off of her slowly, and she
waited: all she needed was leverage to make it work, and a
helluva lot of luck. When he moved off her body just enough
for her to free her legs, she pulled them up to her chest with
blinding speed before issuing a kick square to his jaw.

With a loud thud, Tony's body fell backwards, landing in a
huge heap on the floor. She jumped out of bed, not knowing or
caring if he was conscious and raced for the door. It had
occurred to her that maybe in his haste to get in bed with her  
though she still hadn't figured out how the hell that had
happened   maybe he had forgotten to do something as routine
as locking the door. 

She yanked the handle of the lever down but the door didn't
move: He had indeed remembered to lock the deadbolt. Scully
raced back to where Tony's body laid, unmoving on the floor.
She couldn't see any blood, but it was dark, and she had
bigger things to worry about. Except for the small bluish glow
from the nightlight on the opposite side of the room, it was too
dark to see much more than her own hand. Scully tamped
down her revulsion for the man's partial state of undress and
ran her hands along his body. There were no pockets in his
pajama pants and she almost moved away from him when she
heard a tinny sound   like a coin falling to the hard floor  
coming from the area around his shoulders. She felt around and
her fingers brushed against a small beaded chain across his
collarbone. Pulling gently, horrified by the idea of him regaining
consciousness at that moment, she let the chain through her
fingers until she reached a large object hanging from the end.
*The key.*

Being extra-careful not to rouse him, she lifted his head with
one hand, freed the chain with the other, let his head rest upon
the floor again, and bolted for the door. Hand trembling, it took
her a solid minute to finally get the teeth inside the lock. She
held her breath and muttered a quick prayer   and the lock
turned.

Scully threw open the door, unsure of what she might discover,
to find herself standing in a hallway. The only light came from
around the corner and she sprinted towards it not even
stopping to think what could happen if he had an accomplice.
She contemplated screaming for Jeffrey, though the idea of
what might happen to him if he got caught in the middle nixed it.
When Scully reached the lighted corner she was still alone and
now inside a small kitchen. Her eyes frantically searched the
tops of the granite countertops, but she saw no knives. Scully
began pulling every drawer   the loud clanging making her
wince each time she did   until she got to the one just to the
right of the sink station. The knife wasn't large   the blade
barely longer than her finger, but it was sharp with tiny pointed
teeth on its serrated edge.

A muffled curse, coming from the direction of the bedroom,
sent Scully's pulse racing. The adrenaline coursed through the
blood rushing through her veins, preparing her for the fight she
saw as inevitable. There was a door where the kitchen joined
another room   perhaps a living area or family room   and she
dashed towards it, slipping slightly on the tile in her bare feet. 

"DANA!" 

If she could just make it in time to get outside and find
help Scully wrenched the door knob to the right and yanked
so hard her elbow nearly popped out of its socket. It was
locked.

She could hear Tony's booming footsteps in the hallway and
realized he would be upon her in seconds. She thought about
hiding, but knew he was too close. If she waited where she was
  his size grossly outmatching her own even with her newly
acquired weapon --she had no chance. There was only one
way she could win, she knew. The plans ran through her head
so fast that Tony was still only one step closer when she made
her decision. 

She darted back across the kitchen to hide around the lip of the
khaki-painted wall that obscured her view of the hallway and
*his* view of the kitchen. Keeping an eye on the corner in case
he beat her to the spot, she didn't see the clear puddle on the
floor in front of the refrigerator. Her heel hit the water and, with
no friction between her foot and the tile, Scully's legs flew out
from under her. 

Tony heard the cry before he reached the kitchen and raced, if
it was possible, even faster towards the sound.  When he
rounded the corner, Dana glanced up and then began
scrambling on the ground, searching for something. Following
her line of sight, he saw the silver and black object and lunged
towards it before she could. 

"NO!" Dana screamed and   finally on her feet   jumped on
top of him, sending them both to the floor. 

Still reeling from his recent blackout, it took Tony a few
seconds before he won control and for the second time that
night she was pinned under his crushing weight   only now he
wielded a knife.

"Why?" he growled and Dana closed her eyes against the
spittle flying from his lips. The words flowed quickly now, her
attack having pushed him past the breaking point. "I have done
nothing but *care* for you! Can't you see, Dana? I don't want
to hurt you? Why are you making me do this? SAY.
SOMETHING."

He squeezed her wrists and knocked them against the ground.

"Because you tried to rape me!"

Tony released her upper body, pulling back like he'd been
shocked with a live wire. He didn't miss her cringing when his
hips inadvertently pushed down on hers. "Rape? I-I would
never you started touching me I-I thought "

"I was asleep! I didn't know who you were " Scully's words
were an explanation, but she didn't know if Tony was the one
she was trying to convince. Her teeth worried her lip as an
emotional breakdown loomed closer. "What were you doing
there?"

He grimaced. "You don't remember?"

"Oh my God..." she gasped feeling sick; that she should have
realized immediately: "You drugged me!"

"What? No! No, no, no. The only time I have ever done *that*
was the night I brought you here." He shook his head, his face
twisting up as he replayed her accusation. "I saw you screaming
on the monitor, in your sleep. You left the lights on for some
reason, but it never helped pull you out of your dream. I waited
a long time for you to stop but then I was afraid you were
going to hurt yourself or something." She raked her eyes over
his chest, and he could read the question there. "I was already
dressed for bed when I realized I had forgotten to transfer a file
for work. That's when I saw you thrashing around." 

Scully felt like he was leaving something out. She didn't
remember any of this. One of the last things she could recall
before waking was having put on her pajamas after she finally
gave in and took a bath. Even though she had been wearing her
clothes, the water and soap pouring over her skin felt fantastic.
She had wrapped the towel around herself and crept carefully,
as she was sopping wet, to close herself up in the dark closet.
In her boredom that afternoon she had studied and memorized
every nook and cranny of it so that she would be able to find
any item she needed in the dark where his eyes couldn't see her
undress. She refused to imagine that he was using some kind of
infrared technology   her positive, proactive mood was too
brittle to withstand such an idea. She had grabbed the silk
pajamas that she knew were on a built-in shelf to the left of the
door, exactly at eye level. The slide of the silk on her grime-free
skin was heaven.

So, after changing into her pajamas, she had returned to bed
and begrudgingly opened one of the books Tony had brought
to help ease her boredom. All the titles involved the
paranormal. Once Bitten and Ruby Cravings had to do with
vampires. Lost Until Love, a story about ghosts who only found
each other once they realized their love for the other, was such
a laughable idea that she had dismissed it without a second
glance. Forbidden Genius   the tale of a scientist with a
God-complex: a chill had run down her spine so hard that the
book fell from her grip to the floor. *Too close to reality,* she
had murmured to no one and kicked it into the abyss under the
bed. The plots all seemed so strange to have been selected by
Tony   until she realized they must have been favorites of his
wife. She finally settled on the title, Glory in Weakness, the
story of a fallen angel. It had seemed harmless enough and
then she had woken up with a warm body next to her.

There was no memory of a nightmare, let alone of Tony coming
to her bed . "Why did you stay?"

He looked down with a guilty expression and Dana pulled her
arms protectively over her chest. Pushing off the floor, Tony
stood over her and extended a hand (the one not gripping the
knife) towards her. "I'm taking you back to your room." 


3 Hours Earlier 
An Unremarkable House 
Just Outside Richmond

He had torn apart their room, starting with her dresser drawers,
then moving on to the closet, then *his* dresser drawers.
Mulder ripped the sheets from the mattress looking for signs of
a struggle, another note, blood stains,*anything* that she could
have left for him. 

"Help me, Scully," he moaned as he flipped the mattress onto
the floor not caring about the water glass that shattered as it
was knocked off his nightstand in the process. His forehead
was dewed with sweat from his exertions and, coming up
empty-handed again, he collapsed on top of the mattress.
Mulder's eyes traveled across the room where they landed on
the bright, ruby red book jacket she had left on the vanity; and
he remembered the last conversation he had with her.

She drove him to Richmond International   after a morning of
intense passion that began hours before dawn   for his
nine-thirty flight, leaving her plenty of time to make it to the
hospital by ten. Scully was so glad she only had a few
consultations and some paperwork to do after the exhausting,
twelve-hour day she had endured the day prior. 

"It's funny that you scheduled my trip so two of my three days
matched up to your off days," he teased, waggling his
eyebrows until Scully finally looked up at him. His heart seemed
determined to burst when he saw the moisture pooled in her
eyes -- tears she was desperate to blink away. 

They were stopped in front of his gate, one of Mulder's arms
hoisting his carry-on higher up his shoulder, the other grasping
her tiny hand for dear life. And he hadn't wanted to think about
the last time he had told her goodbye, but...*It's like you said.
It's why we shouldn't be together.*

God, I am such a short-sighted prick sometimes! But this,* he
told himself, *this time will be different. I won't leave her
another memory like that.*

"Scully," he began in a whisper as crowds of strangers bumped
and brushed his back. They could have been brandishing
AK-47s for all the attention he paid. "We have seen each other
every day, slept by one another every single night for the last six
years. It's enough to make anybody ready for a little time to
themselves." She gave him that crooked little grin that he
couldn't remember her ever giving to anyone else and he had to
pause, his lungs suddenly devoid of air. "So tell me why the
idea of waking up tomorrow and Friday morning without you
beside me makes me physically ache?"

"Oh, Mulder," she chided -- though her tears were spilling over,
wrapped her arms around him, and buried her face in the
leather of his jacket so that her next words were a muffled,
"mish you, too." 

He could see the large digital clock over the gate and sighed,
wanting to damn it to eternal hell. "Scully? I don't want you to
be late."

"Hmmm?" she replied drowsily.

"It's after nine."

"Oh." She pulled away from him then, wiping the escaped tears
with the backs of her fingers before giving him another smile. "I
want you to have fun, okay?"

"Of course, Scully...I'll be in my element again."

"Well, yeah, that's what I was hoping for" she laughed and
looked at her watch. "Okay, well, I guess I need to go. I love
you."

He leaned forward to kiss her lightly on the lips, but she linked
her hands behind his neck to pull him in closer. He rested his
forehead atop her, breathless, when they broke for air.

"Promise me you'll be careful, Mulder," she whispered, her tone
slightly panicked. Scully released her fingers' grip so her eyes
could search his. "I can't forget the last--"

"Shhh, shhh..." She was remembering Oregon...or possibly
after William was born...or even this past month...or all of them.
"I know. But this is just a leisure trip. Your idea, remember?"

She nodded. "Just promise me you'll come back, okay?"

"Okay. Will you promise to wear the red one?" he asked with a
leer.

"*MUL*-DER!" Her hand smacked his chest.

"Okay, okay...Geez, can you blame a guy for trying?"

"I guess not," she chuckled. 

There was ten seconds of silence between them. Neither
wanted to say the words aloud.

"I'll see you Friday, then?"

"Sure, you're buying dinner, right?"

"If you're still picking me up," he answered, teasingly. "Where
do you want to go?"

She grinned for just a millisecond and then bit her lip to try and
play it off. "Oh, I don't know. Somewhere kind of secluded?"

"Secluded?" Mulder asked, completely baffled by her
response.

Scully glanced into her purse for a few moments, though
whether actually searching for something or simply to frustrate
him he couldn't tell. She reached her arm deeper into the
oversize bag and pulled out her keys. "Yeah," she finally
answered, slightly breathless from her 'excavation'.

He waited for more, but she simply took a step away from him
towards her exit. "Okay. I'll see you Friday." 

She gave him one last, long look and then turned her back, her
red hair spilling across her ivory coat. "Oh, and Mulder?" she
called, whirling around, her long hair whipping away from her
face.

"Yeah?"  

"I'll be the one in red."

Mulder now lay on the edge of the mattress, doubled over in
pain as he thought of another -- could be many more --
morning waking up to no Scully. I won't let it be the last time,
he said, berating himself for even thinking it. I need to be
strong. She needs me to find her.

He pulled himself up off the mattress and was taking a step
towards the bathroom, ready to continue his search, when he
heard something scrape the floor beneath his sneaker.
Removing his foot, he peered down to see a stringy, yellow
object...and a hollow ringing sounded in his ears.

It was Scully's cross.


*************
END Part 6