Dumnezeu permite razbunare (9/30) by Bonkersfm E-MAIL: bonkersfm@yahoo.com CLASSIFICATION: MSR casefile SUMMARY: When Mulder starts profiling again, Scully mysteriously disappears. When she is discovered it's a race against time to unravel the events that have taken place, to save the lives of others and salvage a relationship in the balance. RATING: NC-17 SPOILERS: IWTB ARCHIVE: Yes just e-mail me please DISCLAIMERS: Not mine and making no money Chapter 9 "She's alive?" Mulder strode toward the attending physician, almost running into him as he made his way down the hall alongside Skinner. "Yes she's alive, although she has yet to regain consciousness." The Doctor held up his hands, stopping Mulder in his tracks. "But she'll be okay? I want to see her." He had been frantic on his way to the hospital. Luckily, this had been part of the week that Maggie Scully had gone back to San Diego. He hadn't wanted to bring her to see her daughter's dead body. Skinner had told him that they'd found her body washed up on Virginia Beach and Mulder had automatically assumed the worst. As they turned the corner and entered the private room, those fears resurfaced. Her skin looked grey and her lips blue. The oxygen mask pumped air into her lungs, causing her chest to rise slowly. He sank down into the chair beside her, recoiling at first when he touched her hand, before replacing his hand with care. He didn't take his eyes off her. "Why is she so cold?" He asked the doctor. "She seems to have been submerged in the water for quite a time. We suspect she was left for dead in the water, maybe held down with a weight. Her skin still displays signs of welts and bruising although we haven't done an extensive examination as of yet. We suspect the submergence will have disturbed any evidence." The doctor paused, sensing the emotion his words stirred in the man sitting beside the woman. Mulder put a hand to his brow as his face softened, his lip caught between his teeth in an effort to stunt the feelings that threatened to overwhelm him. As he heard the door click shut behind him, his mind reeled off the events of the last few months. Now they had a lead; a living, breathing witness. God knows what she had endured. His heart felt heavy again at the thought of what may have happened to her but he shrugged the thought away before it took root. She needed him now to be strong, to find the bastard that had done this. "They say she'll be alright." He said flatly, as Walter Skinner entered the room, taking in the sight of her much the same as Mulder had. He watched Skinners reaction as he walked around to the other side of the bed. "She escaped." Skinner snapped his head up. "What?" "This guy doesn't take chances with bodies. He wouldn't have left her like that. She tried to get away at some point, recently most likely by the look at the scratches. She has bruises on her calves and they're the size of finger prints, you never know we might get lucky and get a print." "Mulder " Skinner wanted to interrupt, knowing how difficult it would be to keep him from this case now. "I don't understand why there are no signs of asphyxiation like the others. There are no ligature marks around her neck and her wrists and feet haven't been bound. It makes me think even more that he wasn't ready for her to go yet." "Do you think it's a different perpetrator?" "No - just a different kind of victim." Mulder sat in the hard chair opposite Scully's private room. Through the blinds he could see Maggie Scully sitting at her daughters bedside, praying she wake up. When Skinner had phoned to say that the local PD had found a body matching her description, he'd been sure it wouldn't be her simply because it wasn't the killer's MO. His victims were found in those horrible boxes. He'd assumed that Skinner had made the identification, a fact that he assumed to be false judging by Skinner abhorrent reaction to her condition. He had driven to the hospital assuming that the body they had found were dead. His mind had jumped between thoughts of a stranger dead, a misidentification, and the awful contemplation of the other. It wasn't fair. It had taken them so long to really find each other, and they hadn't had long enough yet not by a long shot. Or had they? Had they taken too much time and this was some Gods cruel way of letting them know? The entire time his mind had been filled with those times they'd wasted. He knew she'd sneak out at the first opportunity, that's why he'd wrapped himself around her before they'd gone to sleep. He still couldn't believe she'd made this choice and silently thanked Daniel Waterston and his dodgy ticker for moving things along for him. He felt her slip out from his embrace a little after five, watching through half closed eyes as she had fished around for her clothes. She'd left without checking to see if he were awake and so he closed his eyes again, letting sleep encompass him, trying to shake the feeling that today might not be the milestone he imagined. He had arrived at work with minutes to spare before the expense meeting, due to take place in Skinner's office. On finding the office empty, he made his way up there, expecting to catch her before they went in. It was to his surprise that she wasn't there either and so he took his seat, disappointed that his usual distraction in these tedious meetings would not be present. Around ten minutes later, Scully had arrived without apology, placing a thick file in front of Skinner. "Thank you Agent Scully, for retrieving these from Agent Wenson. Now, lets see how Agent Wenson and Agent Reight manage to keep a lid on their expenses shall we? Agent Mulder, Agent Scully you could learn a thing or two." As the meeting began with Human Resources giving their spiel, Scully took a seat opposite Mulder, glancing over only briefly before looking away as quickly. That was how they spent the whole meeting, because even though he could tell that Scully was doing her best to avoid him, she couldn't help but make the same occasional glances as he did. When the two torturous hours were over, they had both got up and headed for the door. "Agents, I would appreciate it if you took the remainder of this Friday to complete your reports based on today's meeting. There isn't anything pressing on your caseload." The afternoon had passed much more smoothly than he first thought it would, possibly because they had been assigned some wise guy from HR, who had happily talked for most of the meeting, leaving little time for awkward small talk. Their meeting ran till the end of the day, leaving Mulder little time to speak to Scully about the events of last night. She had been quiet throughout, agreeing with everything he had said, a sure sign that she was not herself. As she gathered her things to leave he jumped out of his seat and grabbed his coat. "I'll walk you out Scully." He followed her out into the hall and all the way to the parking lot, rambling on about his thoughts on the meeting and its redundancy. When they reached her car, she gave him a small smile, "I'll see you Monday Mulder." "Are you kidding me?" He said, much more loudly than he had meant to. She looked shocked. Not shocked that he had raised his voice, but more that he dared to challenge the uncomfortable silence. "I mean, how long do you think you can do this for?" "Do what?" She looked around to ensure there was no one around. "Oh come on! Scully I understand that this is huge, I do. I also understand that we're at work and that makes things complicated " "Mulder, I just need time to think " He took hold of her arm now, pulling her closer so that he could lower his voice yet still make his message audible to her. "Don't do this to me Scully. Don't give me everything I want and then take it all away in the next breath. Don't hurt me this way." Then it was her turn to look hurt. He knew she would never cause him pain intentionally and he would never push this if he weren't absolutely sure that it was what she wanted too. She wriggled out of his grasp and opened the car door. "I just need to think. I'm sorry." With that she'd closed the door and started the engine, leaving him alone. It turned past nine on that Friday night, as Mulder lay on his couch, watching muted images from the TV move before his eyes. His brain processed little, as his imagination ran wild replaying selected events from the night before. Of course she had every right to decide she'd made a mistake, but he knew that decision would be wrong. She would try to lie to him, and to herself but in doing so she would only drive him away. He had meant what he'd said. He couldn't go back. A knock had come at the door a little after ten. He'd known straight away it was her, even though the late hour made him question his guess to start with. He opened the door to see Scully dressed in black jeans and dark trainers, making her size seem even more diminutive. "Scully? What're you doing here? I didn't hear a car " "I walked." She stated. "It gave me time to think." "Well I'm happy for you." He turned and headed back to his couch, leaving her at the door. She followed him, choosing to stand, nervous of sitting if he didn't want her there. "Mulder you can't blame me for needing time to process this, its huge and it changes everything." "Does it? Scully the way you were acting today it was as if it changed nothing!" He stood now, at the other end of the couch. "I laid it all out for you Scully. I told you how I felt and I told you what it would do to me if you rejected me after we did this and you did it anyway!" "Mulder I haven't done anything yet!" "You know me Scully." He stepped forward, grasping her forearms so that she was forced to deal with what he had to say. "You know that the only thing stopping this from happening sooner was my fear of losing you. Of ruining what we have together.. You're all I want.." He saw by her reaction that she now understood. He had trusted her completely with his feelings and she had discarded them. He pulled her over to the couch. "Mulder, I just don't know how this can work." "Look Scully. If you turn around now and tell me you regret what happened I can accept that. It would crush me, but I'd accept it eventually. But you can't deny us this because of our job. This job has taken so much from us. This could be the one good thing we get out of it.. Each other. But only if you feel the same way as I do." "Of course I do." She breathed quickly. "Then what's the problem?" He asked. "I'm terrified." She stated, covering her eyes with one hand. He waited patiently for her to continue. "Mulder," She began again, "I have never met anyone like you. I've needed anyone as much as I need you. I'm scared that if we go through with this, I'll need you even more." "What's wrong with that?" He asked. "I accepted that I needed you years ago. I love what we have." "But that's just it Mulder. What if this doesn't work and we end up with nothing?" "Okay." Mulder slapped his legs with his hands in parody. "It's too scary. It's not worth risking what we have. We can just stay like this forever, because what we have is enough. But you tell me, if you were so happy with what we had before why did you get into bed with me last night?" He stood now, as his voice became hoarse with emotion. "Mulder please. You just finished telling me that you could accept it if we didn't take this any further " She mirrored his body language now, her voice becoming defensive. "Only, if you told me straight that you regretted it. Only if you thought last night was wrong in some way. I was there Scully, I know you want this. I can take this stubborn streak when we're on a case but not now, not when we're on the verge of having something so " As word blindness seemed to strike, he waved his arms at her, feeling resigned to have lost this. As he moved past her, she reached out and caught his arm. "I know what you mean." Her voice softened and in return his heart leapt at her final acknowledgment of the significance of this next step. "What ever happens Scully, you will never lose me. You can set the rules, whatever you want, but please don't pretend that this isn't the right step for us. Because you're only kidding yourself." He waited for a response as she shrugged off her jacket and walked over to the kitchen, grabbing two of the beers he hadn't already opened. "Okay so lets set some rules." She said, handing him a beer. Mulder smiled to himself, leaning back in the chair, watching as Maggie Scully still sat at her daughter's side. He often remembered that night, having relived the events that followed their discussion so many times on his own. And now he had her back, they could make more memories. The sudden movement of Maggie Scully disturbed his thoughts, as she stood quickly then came dashing out of the room.