TITLE: "You're Going Where?"
AUTHORS: Jen & Lauren
EMAILS: JenR13@aol.com (Jen) & JRDG1013@aol.com (Lauren)
RATING: PG (for one or two words)
SPOILERS: Mentions of "Closure."
CLASSIFICATION: S, mild A, MT
KEYWORDS: M/S friendship
ARCHIVE: MTA only.
SUMMARY: Another 'nice' trip to the forest.
DISCLAIMER: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, and all other X-Files characters we
have
used in this fic are not ours. They belong to the talented Chris Carter,
1013
Productions (I made this!) and Fox Television and are brought to life by
equally talented actors. We have made no profit for our efforts.
AUTHORS NOTES: Well, we haven't written in a little while, but we're back!
*g*. After some thinking, we got stuck on the forest idea and after
overcoming some e-mail problems, here goes.
"You're Going Where?"
by Jen & Lauren
Begun: April '00; Completed: May '00
"You're going where?"
She could hardly believe her ears.
"Camping, Scully. As in a tent, a campfire, and the wilderness-"
Dana Scully impatiently tapped her fingers and cut her partner off. "I
know what camping is, Mulder. I was just wondering why you want to do it?"
He shrugged. "Why not? I mean it's possibly the cheapest vacation in
the world, and some places are just beautiful . . ."
Scully shook her head and let her gaze fall as Mulder continued. She
didn't need to hear the camping "campaign." Walking over to retrieve her
cold cup of coffee, her eyes came across a folder lying not far from Mulder's
reach.
". . . and relaxation and . . ." Mulder caught Scully looking at the
folder and went to grab it, but his shorter partner was quick and was opening
it before he could blink.
"Camping, Mulder? Gee, could that have anything to do with this case
that Skinner denied you? The one about that," she paused to smirk, "
'life-saving ghost wolf'?"
Mulder grabbed the folder from her hands. "You may think it's pointless,
but many people have reported on this. This is something that could -"
"Could have been a great story for 'Unsolved Mysteries'?," she
interrupted. "Mulder, give me a break."
"It's my weekend."
"It's against orders."
"My weekend. It's going on my VISA, too, as a matter of fact."
Scully sighed. "Your weekend. Last time you did something on 'your
weekend' I spent an hour explaining to Skinner about how you ended up needed
a Tetanus shot. Last time I checked your apartment didn't have any sharp
and
rusty wire lying around."
"That went on my VISA."
"And on your insurance. And into your file. Which is growing by the
day. Your insurance rates are growing along with it."
"Scully, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were implying
something."
"You think," she muttered. She put her coffee down again. "Insurance
rates."
"My weekend."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"His weekend, my ass."
Scully looked out at the vast amount of trees surrounding her. The last
time she and Mulder made a "new little trip to the forest" it's results were
disastrous. <Why not try for two?> she thought as she jogged to keep
up with
Mulder, who had already wandered ahead of her.
"Why do I let myself get -"
"Is that a clue you're not enjoying yourself, Scully?"
She gave him a look. "Mulder, I just want you to see their is no
'X-File' here so we can get out of here, avoid injury, and get home in time
for the 11 o'clock news."
"I didn't make you come, Scully."
<No, but you _need_ me to come.> "I'm tried of explaining your
'disappearances' to Skinner all the time."
"Just tell him that I need a place to think. The bathroom just wasn't
working me for anymore."
Scully sighed. "Thanks for sharing," she said. She stopped for a minute
adjust the laces on the boots covering her already aching feet. Mulder
stopped, too, when he realized that she wasn't following. "Can we at least
stop for lunch soon?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, okay. Let's just walk a little further; I remember a nice little
clearing a bit ahead, here."
Scully stopped again and looked at him. "You've been here before??" she
demanded.
"Scully, I grew up about ten minutes from here. Why do you think I care
about this case so much?"
"Well, it's got all the essential elements of an X-file," she said. They
had reached the clearing, and Mulder had sat down on a boulder and was
sorting through his backpack. He pulled out a canteen and took a swig, then
offered it to Scully, who declined, looking disgusted, and sat down on the
ground next to him.
Mulder put the canteen down and wiped his mouth with the back of his
hand. "It's also great tabloid material. Have you ever known me to be that
low, Scully?" Her eyebrows raised, and he sent her a warning look.
"Seriously, a friend of mine growing up is a cop, here, and he's the one
who
told me about it. I thought I'd do a favor for old Jimmy by coming down and
checking it out, but Skinner had other ideas."
" 'Old Jimmy'?" Scully looked amused. "I didn't realize you had any
friends that go by their first name."
Mulder chose to ignore her comment. He pulled two sandwiches out of his
backpack and tossed one to his partner. "C'mon, Scully, dig in. I want to
start walking again soon. We need to reach the cabin before night fall, when
it gets really cold."
"Cabin? I thought the point of all this was being one with nature.
Roughing it out. Sleeping under the stars...."
"It was until I found I had to drag a lady along," Mulder said, which
received him a slap on the arm. They sat quietly for a moment, finishing
their lunch, then put their garbage back in their backpacks and set off.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They arrived at the cabin around five thirty, about half an hour after
the sun had set. By that time, Scully was glad to have a bed to look forward
to, rather than a sleeping bag over the hard ground.
Mulder opened the door without a key, flipped on the lights (Scully was
surprised there was electricity) and collapsed on the bed. Scully put her
backpack down by the other bed, which was across the room, rolled her
shoulders a few times, then lay down. After a few minutes of enjoying their
respective horizontal-ness, the partners sat up again.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starving," Scully said.
Mulder led her into a small kitchen and opened up a burnt orange fridge
that looked like it should have been retired years ago. "Ta da," he said.
In the fridge was enough food to last them several days, and when he opened
the freezer, Scully could see several objects wrapped in brown paper, most
likely frozen meats.
"How old is this, exactly?" Scully asked, looking worried.
"Well, the last time I was here was 1986..." Mulder said, then laughed
when Scully began to look worried. "Relax, I had Jimmy stock up on food for
us earlier this week. This is his cabin." He pulled out some things from
the fridge, put them on the counter then went into the adjacent living room
and dropped into a chair. Scully followed him, and looked at him
questioningly. "It's your turn to do some work," Mulder explained. "Get back
in there and make me some dinner, woman."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After dinner, Mulder offered Scully to take the first shower. When she
came out, rubbing her newly short hair dry with a towel, she found him lying
on his stomach on his bed, reading through the case file.
"Your turn," she said.
"Mm hm, one minute," Mulder replied.
When he didn't move after several minutes, but continued to read, Scully
put down her towel and came over to him. She took the file from his hands,
and when he scowled, said, "Hey, let me read it, too. I need to know what
to
look for, right?" She sat down on the bed next to him.
Mulder shrugged. He got up, making the bed rise several inches, and
pulled off his shirt. "Did you save me any hot water?"
Scully looked up. "Oh man, you're telling me you wanted a _hot_ shower?"
Mulder grabbed his toiletry kit from his backpack and started towards the
bathroom, muttering, "Women."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully glanced nervously at her watch. Twelve thirty four. In the bed
across the room, Mulder was sleeping soundly. She hated sleeping in new
places, she could never fall asleep on the first night. And it was
especially important for her to get a good night's rest tonight, since she
knew that Mulder would be dragging her for miles through the woods, tomorrow.
She rolled over, and pulled the blankets higher. It was much colder here
than in D.C.
From somewhere in the distance, she heard a long, high pitched howl. She
stiffened, and pressed her head harder into the pillow. She heard it again.
"Mulder," she inquired softly. "D'jou here that?"
"Mm go back to sleep," he muttered, and shifted slightly.
Scully lay still for another minute, then said, "Mulder, about that
case..."
"Go to sleep, Scully," he said, his face in the pillow. "No such thing
as life-saving ghost wolf."
That made Scully smile. Even if she did get no sleep tonight, at least
she'd have something to use against her partner in the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully eyed the cabin the next morning. It grew smaller and smaller as
she trailed Mulder. Glancing up at the sun above her, she once again thought
about how she _could_ be in her apartment, and how she _could_ be curled
up
with book. Thoughts aside, she thought back to the case file she'd read last
night. It did make interesting reading. _If_ one was writing fiction.
"Mulder, do you honestly think we are going to find anything?" Her
partner stopped his fast-paced walk to turn around and look at her.
"We have to get to the places that eye-witnesses were first, Scully."
She sighed. "Mulder, I read that file. Must I remind you that those
'places' are highly dangerous places were the 'eye-witness' had gotten
themselves into trouble, and in most instances hurt."
"Well, of course, Scully. They don't call it a 'life-saving wolf' for
nothing."
Scully bit back telling Mulder what he'd let slip last night, and
continued to follow.
"I was just saying that you and 'dangerous place' just don't mix."
Mulder turned his head to her, but kept walking. "Scully, you wound me."
Scully was about to respond, when Mulder stopped short to pull a map out
of his pocket.
"I thought 'real men' didn't need maps. What happened to your 'Indian
guide intuition'?"
"It's telling me to look at the map." With that he folded his map back
up and continued to walk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We're lost."
"No we're not."
"Yes we are."
"No, we're not."
Scully looked at the late afternoon sky and sighed. "Mulder, we've
haven't reached _one_ of these 'sites', yet."
"Well, yet, just turned into now, Scully."
Mulder stopped in front of a small drop. It wasn't so steep, but if one
fell right, it could do some damage. Scully shivered a bit in the slightly
cold air. It may have been approaching April, but it certainly didn't feel
like it. She coudl see how a simple fall could become dangerous. Exposure
was a real danger out here, epecially if one combines it with shock. She
glanced at the tree above the drop. She took a second glance when she saw
Mulder eying it himself.
"Mulder, any person that climbs that tree could easily fall and break
something. Do not tell me that you're even _thinking_ about-"
"Of course not, Scully." He glanced back up. "That's what happened to
Kelly Anderson. She climbed the tree and-"
"Fell and broke her leg. Your point, Mulder?"
"Well, maybe we're not going to see these thing unless one of us-"
"Mulder, are you actually suggesting one of us injure ourselves??"
Mulder held her glance for a minute, and she wondered if he was really
thinking about. "No, Scully. But maybe if we look like we need help, it'll
show up."
Scully sighed. She had a feeling it was going to be a long afternoon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Almost ready?" Mulder called down. Scully looked up at him from where
she was pacing in the large ditch.
"Yeah, but I still don't like this idea," she said.
"I didn't ask if you liked it, I asked if you were ready." Mulder swung
his backpack, filled with rocks they had gathered, over his shoulder, and
looked up at the tree, preparing to climb. "Position yourself right under
that big branch."
Scully obeyed, and kept her neck craned, watching Mulder warily. "Be
careful," she said.
"Yes, mom." Cautiously, he put one foot up against the tree's thick
trunk, and grabbed onto the lowest brance with his opposite hand. The branch
groaned when he pulled himself up, but held his weight. In a similar manner,
he climbed up to the fourth branch up, then stopped, seeing that the next
few
brances would be too thin to hold him. He sat down on the branch, and slowly
scooted out towards the end, holding on to the branch above to prevent
himself from tipping over due to the extreme weight of his rock-filled
backpack. When he got out as far as he felt it safe to go, he looked down
and met Scully's eye. "Prepare the catsup," he said.
Over-dramatically, so he could see, Scully pulled three packets of
McDonald's catsup from her pocket. Opening them, she squired the catsup onto
the knee of her left leg and, groaning in disgust, rubbed it into her blue
jeans. "This better not stain," she warned. Mulder just smiled. Now,
Scully lay down on the ground, and, carefully, arranged herself so that her
leg with the catsup on it was bent at an odd-looking angle. "All set."
Mulder scooted out onto the branch a little further, held out the
backpack at arm's length, and, making sure it was nowhere near his partner,
let it go. Half a second later, it hit the bottom of the ditch, the rocks
in
it hit the hard ground with a satisfying crash, and Scully let out a
high-pitched, pre-planned scream. Then all was silent, and Scully
remained perfectly still with her eyes closed.
Above, Mulder felt himself tip slightly off balance, but he scurried back
towards the tree's trunk, and held on. The two remained unmoving for what
seemed like forever, until Scully whispered, "If it's a ghost wolf, how will
we know when it's here?"
Mulder sighed, and said aloud, "I don't know, but I don't think that it's
here now. When Kelly Anderson broke her leg, the wolf carried her all the
way to Jimmy's cabin and lay her on the doorstep. I think we'd notice if
that happened." He paused and shivered.
"C'mon Scully, let's go home. This isn't working." He started to shimmy
down the tree, but stopped suddenly when he heard a rustling in the bushes.
From her view point in the ditch, Scully watched with alarm as her
partner suddenly dropped from the tree, one foot going down before the rest,
as if he was being dragged down by some invisible force. Then there was a
rustling of dry leaves on the ground, and Mulder seemed to be struggling
against something, but dust from the forest floor billowed up and clouded
over the whole image. Scully stared, unable to move, but when Mulder s
creamed, she jumped up, scrambled up the wall of the ditch and ran to her
partner.
"Mulder are you hurt?? Talk to me. What happened??" She leaned over
Mulder, her face impatiently inquiring him to respond.
Mulder sat up slowly, hissing in pain, and Scully eased him against the
tree trunk.
"What hurts, Mulder?" she said, then felt foolish when she saw the five
streaks across his upper arm that were already bleeding badly. They looked
painful, but they wouldn't kill him. "Anything else, Mulder? Do you think
anything is broken?" She was beginning to regret having moved him, but she
had just wanted to get him away from the spot where he was attacked.
Mulder leaned his head back and closed his eyes. "No, I'm fine."
He looked more shocked than anything.
Scully let out a relieved sigh, and whispered, "Thank G-d." Then she
said, "Well, you're not quite fine, Mulder. These could require stitches,
and it's getting cold. We need to get you inside before you go into shock."
When he still didn't say anything, but kept his eyes closed, she said, "What
happened? Did you fall?"
Mulder opened his eyes. "I don't know. I thought getting down would be
easy, cause I wouldn't have that heavy backpack on, you know? But it was
like something was dragging me down... then I don't know what happened on
the
ground." He shuddered, remember, but also because shock was setting in,
Scully thought. He pulled his knees up to his chest, and pulled down the
sock of his left foot. On the ankle were two tiny puncture marks, not large
enough to be extremely painful, but definite evidence that Mulder hadn't
simply fallen.
Scully examined the marks, looking more worried over them than his arm,
because she knew what her partner was thinking. "Mulder, it could be from
anything. You might have gotten scratched earlier from some thorns or
something..."
"Scully, it was here," he said softly. "Our life-saving ghost wolf was
here."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The two mile walk back was painful for Mulder, but not as painful as it
would have been without shock dulling the pain, Scully reminded herself.
It
was a mixed blessing, though, because by the time they walked through the
door to Jimmy's cabin, Mulder was shivering in earnest.
"Come here," Scully said, gently, and led Mulder over to his bed. She
grabbed the first aid kit from her own backpack, which she had left by her
bed, and sat down next to Mulder. "Can you take off your shirt?" she said,
but helped him, because he wasn't totally
with it. She then wrapped the blanket from the bed over his shoulders, and
pushed it away near the wound, so she could clean it off. She winced in
sympathy as the gashes became painfully clear, but at the same time was
thankful that none seemed big enough to need stitches. She disinfected the
wound, which got hardly any response from Mulder, then wrapped a bandage
around his arm and pulled the blanket around him. "I think you're about set,
now," she said. "Do you want to try to get some sleep?"
He nodded, almost imperceptibly, and she helped him stretch out on the
bed. He lay there, with his eyes open, staring up at the ceiling. Scully
knew that he was still in shock, but she figured that he was also
contemplating the events that had just happened. She patted his leg and went
into the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, feeling clean, and thankful that the catsup smell
was off her, Scully returned to see her partner still lying awake on the
bed.
"It must have been mad at me," Mulder said softly.
Scully sighed, and sat down, making the bed dip under Mulder. "The wolf?"
"It knew that we tried to trick it," Mulder continued. "And it was mad.
It came after me because it was my idea. It's smarter than we thought,
Scully."
Scully just nodded, silently, and looked worried.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was still Saturday, and it was overcast. The late-afternoon sun tried
to peek through, unsuccessfully. It seemed that Mother Nature was pissed
off
as the 'life-saving' wolf was. Scully sighed, tired from the hike,
especially since she'd spent two hours dragging Mulder along with her. The
man may be thin, but he still weighed a ton. Mulder had fallen asleep again,
holding his wounded arm protectively.
<Tomorrow we can get out of here. Before something else happens.> She
laid down on the other bed to stare at the ceiling. She should have known
that which Mulder, things were never that easy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was dark when he woke, the shades of an early and cold night streaming
in the window. Mulder shivered and sat up to glance around, surprised to
find Scully curled up and apparently asleep in the next bed. His arm
throbbed and his ankle burned a bit, but other then that, he felt a hundred
times better than he did before.
<What the hell happened?> he thought as he carefully got out of the
bed
and limped toward the window.
"Night," he whispered and then it clicked. All of the 'witnessed' had
gotten into trouble during the day, but saw the wolf at night. Mulder was
sure the thing was pissed off at him, but he was still determined. Staring
at the bandage on his arm, he sighed. Scully was right, he didn't need
another injury. He glanced back at the
abandoned case file, which had been left on the nightstand. He sat down and
fingered his jacket. It was heavy and if he didn't go too far, he could be
back within an hour with Scully non the wiser.
An hour and approaching darkness, he reminded himself and he slid on his
jacket, wincing when it hit his arm. <I'll be back by ... 7. Gotta be
back
by 7.>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An hour later
"Stupid," he muttered to the darkness.
This time he really was lost. And the dark didn't help. His flashlight
batteries had gone out five minutes ago and the map in his pocket was nearly
impossible to read without it. He leaned against a tree and fingered it,
debating whether or not to try again. Scully was certainly going to kill,
that was for sure. Plus, he'd seen nothing. He was going on a pure
fascination in this case. It seemed after Samantha, well, it wasn't like
he
had her driving him anymore. Everything he'd once looked for seemed to be
disappearing, so this was all he was left with. A 'live-saving' wolf in the
middle of the forest. He could have picked a more interesting case.
There was truly no more point anymore.
He sighed and looked ahead.
"Yes!" he muttered.
He noticed a ditch and recognized it as the same one he and Scully had
been 'in' before. Walking toward it, he ran the two mile hike back to the
cabin through his head. He turned right and began walking at as fast a pace
as his ankle would allow. He had been making progress until he tripped.
Normally he would have been able to
stop himself from falling, but his ankle, throbbing from his 'attack'
earlier, gave out quickly and he stumbled to catch himself. To make matters
worse, when he reached out with his right arm, only to realize he'd injured
it before. He tried to reach out with his left, but only succeeded in
twisted himself. In the five seconds he fought to maintain balance, he
thought about how Scully was going to say "I told you so." Landing hard on
his left wrist, he immediately heard a crack. He'd broken a bone before and
knew immediately that's exactly what he'd just done.
Dazed a minute before the pain began to set in, he stared at the grass in
front of him and thought about the way back. Going two miles didn't sound
like fun. As if in protest, a wave of nausea hit and he swallowed it down.
He was in trouble.
Big trouble.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mulder lay perfectly motionless for several minutes waiting for the pain
to subside to manageable levels. Sitting up made the nausea come back, but
he managed to remain upright, and moved over a few feet so that he could
lean
against a tree. He ever so gently tucked his left arm by his stomach, and
told himself that there was nothing he could do about that for now. He
turned his attention to his other arm, and saw that the fall had caused the
wounds to start bleeding again. He considered trying to stand up, but figured
that it might be wise to stay low for a few minutes, until he figured out
what
his next action would be. He was at least two miles from the cabin, probably
more because he remembered passing the spot where he and Scully had been
earlier that day a few minutes before. He closed his eyes. "Can't think,
can't
think, can't think," he muttered, and let out a little whimper. <This
is a good way to
get attention from the wolf,> he thought, blandly. "Unless he still holds
a
grudge over that little trick you pulled earlier," Mulder said aloud, then
swore softly when his arm began throbbing at new levels.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully woke with a start and glanced at her watch. Two thirteen in the
morning. She sighed. Not quite a full night's sleep, but better than the
tossing and turning she had done the night before. She rolled over and
tested to see if she could get back to sleep. Nope, her heart was racing.
What had woken her, she wondered? And why did she feel like this? She lay
on her back trying to recall the dream that she had had right before she
woke
up. Something about a wolf....
Speaking of which, she'd better check on Mulder while she was up. The
conditions of his attack hadn't exactly been sanitary, and with his luck,
his
arm was probably infected by now. Swinging her legs over the side of the
bed, she shivered in the cool night air, and thought <Thank G-d we're
not out
in the woods, now.> She tiptoed over to Mulder's bed, and silently prayed
that he would be fine, and they would be able to go home tomorrow no worse
for the wear.
A single beam of moonlight shone in through the window adjacent to
Mulder's bed and clearly showed the empty space where he should have been
lying.
"Please don't make me have to kill you, Mulder..." Scully whispered. She
walked into the kitchen-- empty-- through the living room and even opened
the
bathroom door, knocking first in a hope that she didn't really possess that
Mulder would be in there. She circled the cabin one more time, then sat down
in Mulder's bed, alarmed that it wasn't even warm.
She had a feeling where her partner was, and she wasn't happy about it at
all.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Damn it," she swore softly. He'd taken the flashlight.
And the map.
And at 3 in the morning it sure didn't look like a 'nice trip into the
forest' anymore. She quickly stepped back into the cabin and walked over
to
the phone. She doubted that any form of forest service would be awake at
this hour but maybe the operator could help. Going outside and getting lost
herself wasn't going to help. She shivered involuntarily against the chill
that seemed to seep through the walls. Another type of chill entered her
mind when she thought about how if it was that cold inside, it must be colder
outside.
She started dialing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sky was clear and the stars were bright, shining down upon the earth
like diamonds. A beautiful sight for anyone to enjoy.
Mulder wished he were enjoying the sight himself. Instead he had gotten
up to start waking, but it seemed like a there was a fog in-between his body
and his mind. He was going in circles, he soon realized and figured that
it
was easier to just sit down and wait to be found rather than get more lost
and confused trying to get back to the cabin. He shivered, wishing he could
hug
his arms to his body, but unable. The mere thought of moving his arm sent
a
new wave of pain through his wrist. He was cold, he was lost, and he was
miserable. He wished he'd listened to Skinner about disregarding this case.
Of
course, he'd never admit that out loud.
His arm had stopped bleeding a little while ago, so that was a plus.
However, with his luck, it was probably on it's way to becoming infected
at
this very minute. Shock was close, but he figured it hadn't truly set it
yet, because his wrist _hurt_. Hadn't Scully told him that shock dulled the
pain? At that point his mind was too fuzzy to remember.
Hurt. He was always getting hurt. Of course, on many the occasion he
could say it was part of his 'quest for the truth.' Now, well, it seemed
like everything was beginning to wrap up into a neat little box.
It seemed too easy.
Samantha, gone like that.
After all his searching, had he been expecting something else?
Leaning against the tree, he sighed heavily, the pain in his wrist
seeming to dull as more of the chill air entered his body. Shock was setting
in finally, he realized. He ought to know that. Glancing down at his wrist,
he hoped it would be a clean break.
Then again, he didn't know if he cared any more.
He blinked again at the stars looking down at him and closed his eyes,
feeling once again, helpless.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the voice on the other end muttered a sleepy, "Hello?" Scully almost
laughed out loud, she was so relieved.
"Hello," she said. She quickly got over her initial exuberance and
thought about how to phrase her problem. "Um, to whom am I speaking?"
"Jason Seiver, park ranger, how may I be of service?" Scully thought
that the man might have sounded a _little_ more interested in her call, but
rather than focus on details, she reminded herself, be thankful that someone
was actually there.
"Yes, I'm an FBI agent, and my partner seems to have run off without me."
She thought she could hear a snicker on the other end. "I'm afraid he might
be in trouble, and was wondering if you could possibly
send a team out here to help me look for him. He took our flashlight, and
the map of the area, so I'm having a bit of trouble conducting the search
by
myself."
"You think we've got _teams_ over here at this time of night, lady?"
Jason said. "_I'm_ the only one here, and I'm gonna _be_ the only one here
for another few hours. And I gotta watch the forest. So why don't you call
back in about five hours, and then we'll talk about your 'search and rescue
team,' okay?"
Scully seethed. "Your job is to watch the forest, and right now my
partner is _in_ that forest. Now you get your ass down here and start
looking, or I will see to it that you are relieved of your duties. This is
a
federal officer we're talking about. I don't care what it takes; send out
the
dogs, call the teams, maybe, God forbid, get up _yourself_ and start looking."
She paused a moment for breath and heard a click. Unsure as to whether
Jason had decided to ignore her, or whether he was going to get help,
Scully figured she might as well start looking as best she could right now.
She pulled on her heavy coat and boots over her pajamas and searched
around for something to use as a light. The only thing that presented itself
to her was the tiny Indigo feature on Mulder's watch, which sat on the table
adjacent to his abandoned bed. It wouldn't help much, but it was better than
nothing, and she wasn't about to put any great faith in Jason the park ranger
to find her partner.
The door creaked loudly in the night silence. Scully closed it carefully
behind her, figuring that it just wouldn't do to return and find a deer or
a
raccoon in her bed. She fumbled for a minute with the watch, positioned it
in front of her and pressed the Indigo button. It emitted a pitifully weak
green glow, and she considered leaving it behind, since it would be more
of a
burden than anything, but right now it was her only link to her partner,
so
she opted to keep it. She called our her partner's name, knowing full well
that he couldn't hear her. Soon enough the sound of her own voice
echoing became eerie enough to make her stop, and she trudged on, the only
sound, her feet shuffling through the crumbling brown layer of leaves below.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was _cold._
Mulder had truly come to this realization about 20 minutes ago. He felt
like a popsicle. And he was still sitting against that tree. He was still
lost.
Lost was a feeling he was beginning to become awfully familiar with. He
stared at the picture-perfect star-filled sky. He was just about to
completely give up when he heard a rustle. Using every ounce of strength
he
had, he pulled himself up to see where it was coming from. He saw nothing.
"Great, shock, and now hallucinations," he muttered, and grimaced as he
shifted his wrist. The rustling repeated itself, but Mulder didn't move.
He
wasn't about to be tricked twice. His mind wasn't as fuzzy as it had been
before, but he wasn't about to do any deep thinking. And he wasn't about
to
get up and see that the rustling was just in his mind.
The rustling became constant and he tired to ignore it. He closed he
eyes and had just about drifted off when the sound of footsteps invaded his
mind.
"Scully?'" Groggy, he opened his eyes at half-mast, and the world
appeared a bit blurry to him. And bright. It was like a white light had
just landed and was blinding the whole world ...
Something clicked up in his brain. "Scully?" he called again and
struggled to sit up. The light that had just been there was gone. He
blinked. He couldn't have imagined it, could he? Using his good hand, he
pushed himself up, ignored the pain. The rustling was back. Turning in the
direction of it, he saw the bushes moving.
<It's the wind> he thought, but went toward it anyway.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully was lost.
<Well, at least Mulder and I have one thing in common now> she thought.
According to Mulder's watch it was 4:14 a.m. It was cold and she'd been
wandering now for awhile. The sky had began to lot a little lighter, but
the
darkness remained. Dawn was still a couple of hours away.
She needed a leash for Mulder. One of those little toddler ones that her
sister-in-law Tara had for Matthew. Then he won't ditch her.
Then again, he'd probably be like one of the Rugrats (TM) and cut the
line loose.
She _had_ to stop watching TV with her nephew.
She once again stared at the Indigo glow of Mulder's watch and decided
maybe she should try to find her way back to the cabin and let daylight come
to help her search better. She had just turned right, when she heard a
rustling. She looked toward it.
Nothing.
Shaking her head, she took a step forward.
The rustling began again.
She turned.
Nothing.
The forest was beginning to play tricks on her. She was an experienced
FBI agent. She wasn't going to let rustling bother her. She continued on.
The rustling continued.
Not knowing why, she suddenly turned back to see nothing but light.
Bright white light. Before she could even blink it was gone.
She stared for a moment. The rustling picked up again and she saw the
bushes moving. Purely out of curiosity's sake she followed it. But just out
of curiosity's sake.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He was following rustling bushes. He must in shock, unconscious and
having some weird dream. This was Mulder had decided. His arm was throbbing
again and he was walking, very slowly to follow a rustling. He had plenty
of
instinct and did plenty of stupid things, but he was beginning to think this
was the worst.
Definitely the worst.
Yet he continued on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully thought she was out of her mind. A rustling. She was following a
damned rustling. Yes, she was definitely out of her mind.
Oh, and yes, Mulder was dead was she discovered him.
She swallowed unconsciously at her thought. She kept going, pushing the
idea out of her head. She was confused. First white light, then
A small howl interrupted her thought.
<No it couldn't be ....>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shock, he told himself. He almost ready to sit down in the spot he stood
in. Almost. Something kept him going. Something he wasn't sure of. A
bright light, a rustling, a ....
A howling interrupted his thoughts.
He froze.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Scully kept going, not willing to give into the fact that Mulder's file
was ....
<no!> her mind screamed. She stared at the ground and continued
on her path, following the rustling, not watching her step.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mulder stood there, not wanting to move. He stared at the ground, and
heard footsteps mixing it with the rustling. He was nuts. He picked that
file on a whim, a 'I'm-bored-with-work' assignment, nothing more.
He continued to move. The footsteps grew closer.
He took a step and collided with something.
"Mulder?"
"Scully?"
They both sat in the ground they landed in. The rustling continued
behind them. Neither said a word about it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mulder sat up on the exam table, staring blank faced at his partner, who
claimed the stool across from him. She looked cold and tired, her clothes
were dirty, and her shirt ripped in one place, and dirt smudged her cheek.
She looked kind of cute like that, he thought. He didn't even want to think
about how bad he looked. He could smell himself, and it wasn't pleasant.
After meeting up with each other in the woods, Mulder and Scully had
attempted to get back to the cabin, without much luck. About twenty minutes
later, a man named Jason, whom Scully seemed to be already acquainted with,
found them and led them back to his home, ear the Park Information Center.
From there, Jason had called the closest hospital, which refused to send
an
ambulance all the way "out there," so Jason offered to drive us himself,
with
just a few nasty looks from Scully.
There were very few people in the waiting room, and they were almost
immediately shown to their present location, so they could sit and wait in
private for forty-five minutes.
Mulder was just beginning to squirm when the nurse knocked on the door,
and entered. She took the clipboard holding Mulder's information from
Scully, and looked over it. She said a few, "hms" and squinted at Mulder.
"Could you please take off your shirt, Mr. Mulder?" she asked.
He pulled his right arm out with relatively little difficulty, but the
left proved to be more of a problem. After watching him struggle for a bit,
Scully said, annoyed, "He's not supposed to move it, can't you cut that off
him?" Mulder watched her bite back, "Don't you people know _anything_?"
"Of course," the nurse said, coldly and stormed out of the room.
"Now you did it, Scully. She's never coming back," Mulder muttered, and
leaned back, looking miserable with his shirt half on, half off.
He proved to be half correct, because the next person who entered the
room was an actual doctor, a few minutes later.
"Hello, Mr. Mulder. I'm Dr. Miller. Sorry to keep you waiting," the
doctor said. Mulder and Scully snorted in unison, and the doctor's eyebrows
raised. "Uh, let me look at that arm." He then noticed Mulder's
predicament. "Hm, how about we get that off of you first." From his desk,
he
pulled out a large pair of scissors and cut the shirt off of Mulder, being
careful
around the left sleeve by his wrist. Then he gently prodded his wrist, noting
where Mulder stiffened and hissed.
"All right, I'm going to send you down to x-ray, but I'm almost positive
you're going to be leaving here with a cast. Now, are you left-handed?" Dr.
Miller asked. Mulder shook his head. "Great, then you're one of the lucky
ones. You'll probably be in the cast for about seven weeks, but it shouldn't
be too much of a burden.
Just keep it dry and try not to fall on it or anything, and it should be
fine. I'm going to go get you a nurse pushing a wheelchair, who will be glad
to escort you down to x-rays." He smiled, "Have a nice night!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"What about all our stuff?" Mulder asked. He was sitting on the bed
inside the Pequot Motor Inn and Lodge, wearing his jeans, dirty from his
tromp through the woods, and a scrub top that Dr. Miller had given him.
Scully sat down on the other bed and sighed tiredly. "Jason said he'd
drive us up tomorrow so we could get it." She studied Mulder. He looked as
tired as she, but didn't really seem to be in pain. "How does your arm feel?"
He shrugged. "It's okay. They gave me some Tylenol or something. I
think it had codeine in it. Feels great, actually."
"Okay, but if you wake up in the middle of the night, and it hurts, wake
me up and I'll find you something in my bag of tricks."
"Uh, middle of the night, Scully?" Mulder asked. "It's six thirty in the
morning."
"Oh, right," she said. "In that case, good night." She lay down on the
bed, and flipped off her light.
Mulder sat on his bed, watching her. About five minutes later, he
realized that he was still fully dressed and was going to have a hell of
a
time getting out of his clothes with one arm. "Uh, Scully?" he whispered.
She didn't respond. He said, "Scully," a little louder. "SCULLY??"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Three days later
Needless to say, Skinner was less then enthused to find out that one of
his agents had broken his left wrist. Of course, he had no idea it was on
a
non-assigned case. It was hard to keep a straight face as Scully made up
some stupid story about how Mulder had fallen down some stairs or something.
Whatever she'd said, it made him look like a klutz.
Well, he _had_ actually tripped over his own two feet.
Not that he'd admit that.
Skinner had told him to take a couple of days off and he'd agreed, going
home only to spend the whole night up as his arm throbbed at new levels.
By
Tuesday, it was still throbbing and the cast was tight. Scully had come over
and promptly driven him back to the ER, where they proclaimed it was swollen
(he paid a doctor to tell him that? he could have told them that himself)
and cut the cast, to switch it with a soft cast. It would be a couple of
days until a plaster cast would be put back on due to the swelling. The
doctor had wanted him to stay overnight, but Scully talked him out of it.
So here he was, Wednesday morning, with a throbbing arm in a soft case
and another prescription for painkillers.
He and Scully hadn't mentioned the case once to each other since.
It seemed silly to take about a 'life-saving-ghost-wolf' now.
Last time he picked up a case against orders was with Kersh and that was
out of Spender's trash. At least he had moved a step up.
There was a knock at his door and it was soon followed by "Mulder, it's
me." He got up off his couch, and let Scully in.
"Thought you were at work."
"Paperwork isn't the same without you, Mulder," Scully said, weakly
trying to cheer him up. "How are you feeling?"
"Lousy. My arm hurts. Guess I should be used to it," he added.
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them until Scully pulled
out a file and placed it in front of Mulder. Mulder just looked at it.
"It's the 'wolf' file. Figured you'd want to keep it in the drawer.
Maybe for later use."
Mulder picked up the file. "Admitting something to me, Scully?"
"I just said you might like to keep it, Mulder. You believe in it."
He opened the file and looked at it for a second. "Yeah I guess I do."
Scully's shift in position was the closest to her agreeing with him. Oh
well, he'd take it. As for the file, well, maybe every mystery in his life
wasn't solved. No yet, anyway.
The End
Feedback is a girl's best friend. JenR13@aol.com & JRDG1013@aol.com.
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