Truth (3/12)
by Fallon

Category: Post-The Truth/Pre-IWTB

Summary:  M&S arrive in Mexico but face hardship at the
hands of polluted water.


Chapter 3


"What do you mean we're busted?" His voice was groggy from
just having woken up.

Scully's lips trembled. "They're asking for license and
registration."

"Is that all?" He asked, reaching into the glove compartment for
a manila envelope and pulling out a stack of papers. He gave it
to Scully so that she could hand it over to the border patrol.

The officer, a burly, bald-headed man of about fifty, read over
the forms quickly but tentatively, before turning and signaling
that they were indeed allowed to go through.

They drove along for another forty-five minutes, traveling over
rocky sand and grassy planes alike, yet intermittently.

Mulder cleared his throat and spoke up. "So...do you think we
can trust border patrol letting us through, or do you think that
guy was working for *them*?"

Scully concentrated on making a U-turn onto the next road. "I
think we're going to have to learn to trust some people other
than each other otherwise we'll never get anywhere but back
where we started."

"I know...I do know that. But what if the Syndicate already
knows where we are even without spies?"

"You mean the chip in the back of my neck? Do you want me
to take it out?" she asked furtively.

"No, no. Jesus! You know what would happen to you without
it." He choked up, on the verge of crying. "You could die."

"Well, then there's no point worrying over it then. We're
obviously not taking it out, so if they find us that way..."

"They aren't going to find us," he said.

"Your turn to drive," she replied.

They ended up booking a few nights at the Mexico Reforma. It
was the cheapest they could find in the area. Mulder handed
them a wad of cash and he and Scully headed upstairs to their
room, which was modest but comfortable.

Scully grabbed the first bottle of water from the package and
poured it into a small cup to brush her teeth. Then she
shimmied out of her jeans and cami and into a nightgown.

She patted over to the bed to where Mulder was. "Mulder, are
you going to sleep now?"

"Yeah."

"Without brushing your teeth? We talked about this..." she
began, not wanting to sound like his mother but failing
miserably.

"I did brush my teeth."

"I took the first bottle of water, Mulder."

"There's water in the sink."

"You didn't?"

"What?"

"You're going to get sick now. Wonderful." The last thing she
needed was to have a seriously ill and possibly dehydrated
Mulder in a place where clean water was a far cry from being a
commodity.

"Oh, shit," he said, finally remembering that you can not drink
the water in Mexico.

She pressed her hand up against her forehead in a classic face-
palm and allowed herself to topple over, asleep.

The next thing she knew it was four AM and she woke up to
the sound of him getting sick in the bathroom. Without a word,
she threw on her jacket and grabbed her keys.

It was a lot easier than she thought to find Pepto Bismol in a
foreign country. It didn't matter what the label said. She just
had to look for the triangular pink bottle with the picture of the
guy grabbing his abdomen and sticking his tongue out in a
mock sick face.

When she got home, she found him asleep on the bathroom
floor. She'd bought ginger ale and saltines for when he was
feeling slightly better, but she knew she would have to wake
him up to try and get him to take his medicine.

She rolled him over and brushed back a strand of sweat slicked
hair away from his forehead. She felt his temperature and he
seemed to have a low grade fever.

"Scully?" he croaked out, trying not to cough.

"I brought you something to take for your stomach." She
handed him the tiny cup filled with chalky bubblegum pink
liquid. Immediately recognizing it as the same harmless remedy
his mother had given him as a child, he drank the tiny sip that
was held in the cup.

"Thanks," he said.

"I'm going to try and get you back to bed," she said, grabbing
his arm as gently as she could and hoisting up some of his
weight on her shoulder. She managed to get him in a sitting
position before she pulled back the covers and urged him to
climb in.

"Are you coming onto me, Doctor?" he asked playfully, in a
parody of what he had asked her several years ago atop a rock
when he thought they were stranded in the middle of nowhere.

"Not with you in this condition, I'm not," she said honestly. Just
then, a guy knocked on the door.

"Room service!" he said. Scully could see Mulder's nauseous
face just from hearing the words so she quickly said "No
thanks!"

"Can you sing me something?" Mulder asked.

Remembering the woods in Florida a few years ago, she
thought of both the fond and the not-so-fond memories she and
Mulder had shared. Then she thought of "Joy to the World" and
how she also sang it for their son, who was now gone.

"I...I can't sing you that song again," she said.

"Why not?" he asked, now more than half-way asleep.

"That was the song I used to sing...for William. When he was
just born and he had trouble falling asleep."

The tears ran down her cheeks and fell onto his shoulder, onto
the blanket that was wrapped around him. He was starting to
get chills and his teeth were chattering. Scully hugged him to
try and keep him warm, just like she had in Antarctica, and she
hoped with all of her heart that he could not see her chapped
red lips trembling under the force of what could have been.