Fic: The Quiet Limit of the World (4/4)
Final section!
Title: The Quiet Limit of the World (4/4)
Summary, disclaimer, etc. same as in Part 1.
~
Part 4
Scully is extremely glad the next morning that she had the foresight to take this day off from work. Though the night's sleep has helped a great deal, she still feels too emotionally taxed to function at the office. She notices Mulder's absence before she opens her eyes, and is briefly unsettled until she hears him talking on the phone outside her room. He is calling in sick, no doubt.
Squinting at the clock by her bed, Scully reads that it is 7:13. She rolls over and closes her eyes; it's far too early for her to even contemplate facing the world.
She is just beginning to fall back into slumber when she hears her bedroom door open quietly. The bed dips under Mulder's weight, and he pulls away the covers for a moment to slide back under them. She smiles as he settles her against him, his arm around her waist. “Sorry to wake you.”
“'Sokay,” she murmurs. “Just glad you're here.”
“I wouldn't be anywhere else.”
Scully drifts in and out of sleep for the next two and a half hours, soothed each time she wakes by Mulder's solid presence and even breathing. Then, finally feeling rested, she turns over carefully - to find that Mulder's eyes are open and that he is watching her with a half-smile.
“What are you looking at, Mulder?” Scully asks, conscious of her tousled hair and lack of makeup.
“You,” he tells her simply.
She returns his smile and raises an eyebrow. “How long have you been awake?”
“Not too long,” he says. “I wasn't bored, if that's what you're worried about.”
Scully laughs. She starts to turn away, to get out of bed, but Mulder reaches a hand to her chin and gently turns her face back toward him. He searches her eyes for a moment. Before she can second-guess herself, Scully leans in and kisses him.
Only surprised for an instant, Mulder closes his eyes and deepens the kiss. She is becoming utterly lost in the sensations of his mouth on hers when Mulder pulls back, breathing hard.
“Mulder...” She isn't sure what she's planning to say, other than to communicate her disappointment at the end of the kiss. Her breathing is a little ragged, too.
“Scully,” he says, brushing his hand across her cheek, “I just-- I just want to make sure you're okay with this happening right now.”
She smiles again as she looks into his eyes, seeing a mixture of worry, love, and desire. “I'm okay with it, Mulder. More than okay, actually.”
“You aren't going to--”
“Regret it later?” Scully thinks about it, and then shakes her head. “No, Mulder, I'm not.” She looks away for a second. “This isn't about trying to forget something painful,” she says quietly. “I think... I think it's about moving forward.”
He gazes at her. “I can agree with that,” he says, and then with a wicked glint in his eyes, he closes the distance between them. “We could make some new memories if you want, Scully,” he murmurs, lips almost touching her neck.
She shivers and laughs. “That sounds good.”
~
Four Days Later
When Mulder strides into the office holding a file folder, his eyes alight with excitement, Scully braces herself for a new case. It's been long enough. She's ready. “What have you got, Mulder?” she smiles, leaning back in her chair.
“Maryland PD has reported several disappearances out in Garrett County,” he says, sitting on the edge of the desk and handing her the folder. “Four people, of varying age and ethnicity, all vanished at night over the course of the past two weeks.”
“And we're interested why?” Scully opens the folder.
“A witness gave enough of a description of the suspect that the sketch artists were able to produce a good working sketch.” He leans forward. “Take a look - there's a copy of it in there.”
Scully flips through the report... and stops dead at the unmistakable image of the man they have come up against so many times over the years. She looks up up at Mulder, eyes wide.
“I thought you might recognize our bounty hunting friend,” he says, nodding. “I figure if we leave now, we can get out there by tonight.”
She sets down the file without bothering to look at the rest of it for the moment. “Mulder, I feel like I should remind you, every time we've confronted this... man, or whatever he is, we haven't exactly come out on top.”
“That's true,” Mulder admits, with a wry twist of his mouth. “But that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to see what he's up to, right?”
“I suppose not,” she says. “Are we heading out now?”
Mulder stands. “You have an overnight bag ready?”
Scully rises to her feet and stares at him, hands on her hips. He laughs and puts up his hands in a placating gesture. “I thought I'd ask anyway, just to be sure.”
~
The drive out to the westernmost county in Maryland is long and uneventful. They arrive travel-worn and hungry just before nine, and Scully is glad that Mulder seems quite willing to wait until the next morning to start the investigation. Mulder leaves a message for the local police station while Scully checks them in and orders dinner.
They are quiet through most of their Chinese takeout (the only readily-available takeout in the area). As she's finishing up the last few bites, Scully wipes her mouth on a napkin and asks, “So, what's the plan for tomorrow, Mulder?”
He sets down his chopsticks, having already finished. “Well, I figure we'll go talk to the local PD, find out where this eyewitness saw our friend, and go from there.” He shrugs. “Should be simple enough.”
Scully gives him a look. “And if our 'friend' doesn't take kindly to us trying to track him down?”
“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Mulder picks up their empty cartons and throws them away.
“Right.” As long as we're adequately prepared, Scully thinks, but keeps her sarcasm to herself.
Mulder hides a yawn as he walks over to the connecting door between their rooms. Perhaps it is because of how tired they were when they arrived, but he hadn't even made a joke about being disappointed when she had gotten them two rooms.
The next morning, the two meet with the sheriff after breakfast. Sheriff Glass strikes Scully as similar to most of the small-town sheriffs they've encountered: competent, dedicated, and baffled by the rash of serious crime in his normally peaceful home. “I appreciate you giving us a hand, Agents,” he tells them, after introductions have been made. “We've been looking pretty hard, but other than that description Andy Conrad gave us, we don't have much to go on.”
“One of the reasons we came out is that we believe your suspect might be a person of interest in quite a few of our cases,” Mulder tells him.
“Really? What kind of cases?” Sheriff Glass asks, looking anxious.
Mulder shoots Scully a glance before she replies, “Mostly in connection with kidnapping cases.”
“Just like what's going on here then, I guess.” The sheriff heaves a sigh. “Well, let me get you the addresses of the victims.”
The five Garrett County inhabitants who have disappeared do not have anything obvious in common, other than their location. Two are a young couple who just moved to the area in the past year, one is a retired schoolteacher who lived alone with his dog, another is the mother of three children (one of whom is the Andy who gave the description to the sketch artist), and the most recent is a seventeen-year-old girl who vanished from a sleepover at her friend's birthday party.
Mulder elects to visit the husband of the missing woman first. Mr. Conrad has little to add, though he repeats several times how grateful he is that the FBI has sent some agents to help look for his wife. “Andy's at school right now,” he tells them, “but I don't know what else he could tell you, other than what he told the police.”
“That's fine, Mr. Conrad,” Scully says. “We might stop by again once your son is home from school, if that's okay with you. Meanwhile, can you describe for us again what happened the night your wife went missing?”
After all the interviews are complete, Mulder follows her out to their car, so lost in thought that he almost runs into her when she stops at the passenger side door. “Oops. Sorry, Scully.”
“Whoa there, Mulder,” she says, raising an eyebrow and giving him an amused look. “You okay to drive, or should I take the wheel this time and save us both from wrapping around a tree?”
He grins, looking slightly embarrassed. “No, I can manage all right - ah, if you don't mind, that is.”
Scully stays where she is, gesturing toward the passenger side. It only rarely bothers her when he just assumes he'll be driving, and now is not one of those times. “What were you thinking so deeply about?”
“I was just thinking, most everyone mentioned that the kidnapper seemed to take off in a general westerly direction,” Mulder answers as he makes his way around to the other side of the car. “That's the direction of the Savage River, and I have a hunch that we might find something around there.”
“Certainly a promising name for a river,” Scully mutters, getting into the car. “So are we just going to drive up and down the length of the river, or what?”
Mulder glances at her with a smile. “Just the easily accessible parts.”
“Fine,” Scully says, indulging him with a smile of her own, “but I have to insist that we have lunch first. Otherwise it could be sometime tomorrow before we have another chance.”
“Agreed,” Mulder replies.
As it turns out, when they arrive at the river later that afternoon, they find a good place to park and only have to walk a short distance before something of interest turns up. There is a riverboat moored near an old, decaying dock - and although the boat is silent and still, there is a faint light in one window.
Hastily, the two agents move to the cover of some nearby trees. “The sheriff told me earlier that there wasn't really a whole lot to see out here,” Mulder whispers. “I guess he didn't know about this boat. Must not have been here long.”
Scully feels uneasiness begin to stir. “Still, it seems awfully exposed for the bounty hunter to choose it as a base of operations, don't you think?”
He shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not.” Without waiting to see if she's with him, Mulder draws his gun and begins to move toward the dock.
Sighing, Scully readies her weapon and follows. Though she starts after him only seconds later, Mulder is already on the deck of the boat by the time she makes it to the dock. He glances over his shoulder at her for a moment, but then strides forward again.
Scully moves as quickly and as quietly as she can to catch up. She is only a few steps behind when Mulder arrives at the other end of the boat, where the lighted room had been visible. The gloomy room is visible through the porthole-like window in the door, but there is no one in sight. Mulder pauses, briefly exchanging a glance with Scully. Then he pushes the door open as soundlessly as possible and stands aside as Scully enters the room, gun at the ready.
It takes several seconds for Scully to adjust to the dimness of the boat's interior as she cases the room for immediate threats. In those seconds, Mulder has already moved on from this room - which is empty except for some wooden crates against the wall - into the next room. He stops abruptly, a few feet inside it, raising his gun to aim at something beyond Scully's sight.
Scully hurries to follow, and quickly raises her own weapon at the sight of the bounty hunter. The imposing figure is standing at the other end of the room, in front of two long metal tables. He regards the two of them with no change of expression.
“Where are the five people you kidnapped from town?” Mulder demands.
The bounty hunter takes one step closer to them. “They are not here. And you should leave this place now.”
“Not until you tell us where you took them,” Scully says. Her eyes dart from their opponent to the metal tables, and she suppresses a shudder.
He continues to walk toward them, slowly. “You're far too late to find them.”
“Don't come any closer,” Mulder warns, moving to stand partially in front of Scully without blocking her aim.
Scully shifts out from behind Mulder, aiming for the bounty hunter's neck as best as she can. She knows that he will not just let them investigate the area for evidence of his victims. This is not going to end well.
Almost before she has completed that thought, the bounty hunter rushes forward brutally and swiftly. Scully is not sure whether she or Mulder fires first - but it does not matter, since both of their shots go wide. Before she has time to react, Scully feels an iron grip on her throat and she is slammed into the wall. There is an answering burst of pain and her vision darkens. Through this, she is vaguely conscious of the fact that Mulder is also being held against the wall by his throat. She chokes and hears her pulse pounding in her ears.
“You will find nothing here,” the bounty hunter tells them dispassionately. With that, he allows Scully to slide to the floor before punching Mulder squarely in the face with his freed hand. Mulder is limp in his grip as the man hefts him toward the window.
Recovering her breath, Scully gasps as she realizes an instant before it happens what their assailant is planning. She reaches desperately and half-blindly for her gun - but does not find it until after Mulder is sent crashing through the window. Then she scrambles to her feet as quickly as she can and raises the weapon.
At the sound of the weapon being cocked, the bounty hunter turns impossibly fast and knocks it from her hands. In an instant, she follows Mulder out of the shattered window.
The shock of hitting the frigid water is almost overwhelming, but Scully quickly breaks the surface, coughing and gasping as she scans the dark river frantically for her partner. She finds him unconscious and facedown in the water a few yards from her. The current is swift, and he is already being carried farther away.
Taking in a gulp of air, Scully swims to him as fast as she can. The water is chillingly cold, and her layers of clothing hamper her movement. Still, she reaches him in seconds and immediately lifts his head out of the water. It's hard to tell if he is breathing.
Only the fact that the water is helping to carry his weight allows Scully to guide Mulder's progress toward the shore with any kind of speed. He is completely out, and she does her best to keep his head level with his back and above the water.
Scully heaves a sigh of relief as she finally manages to pull Mulder out of the river and sees his chest rise and fall. Her relief is short-lived as she also notes the bloody wound on his forehead. He is still unconscious, and in clear need of medical attention. She, of course, is fine - soaking wet and shivering, but the cuts she'd received during her forced exit through the window of the riverboat are already almost closed over. For once, she is glad of her unnaturally quick healing; if she had fared as poorly as Mulder as a result of their altercation with the bounty hunter, they would both be unconscious in the water and would have almost certainly drowned.
She looks up toward the boat. It is still close by; they have only drifted downstream about a dozen yards. She hopes the bounty hunter does not pursue them - she doesn't think she can defend both Mulder and herself from his unrelenting attacks.
Mulder coughs and moans, turning his head slightly. He looks as though he's trying to open his eyes. “Scully...”
“Don't try to move, Mulder,” Scully tells him. She pushes his bangs out of the still-bleeding head wound. “You're hurt, and you need to stay still.”
He is shivering, and Scully's heart sinks as she considers the deadly combination of shock, hypothermia, and concussion - not to mention the water that must be in his lungs. There has to be a way for her to get him out of here. Her cell phone, of course, has been rendered useless by its submersion in the river, and she already knows that the boat is a significant distance from the nearest town. Their car is on the opposite bank.
If Mulder had been trying to aim for a return to consciousness, her words have evidently made him decide not to bother. He is quiet and still, other than his regular breaths and constant shivering.
Scully bites her lip and comes to a decision. Though it is dangerous to move him before she knows the extent of his injuries, it is more dangerous to leave him here. She will have to try to drag him to dry ground, at least, while jostling him as little as possible. She peels off her dripping jacket and lays it on the riverbank, and then moves to stand between Mulder and the river, judging the route she will have to take.
Scully is so focused on her task that she doesn't see the bounty hunter exit the boat and move purposefully along the dock to the opposite shore. Thus, she has barely a second to react when the whole boat explodes, sending debris flying with incredible force. Before the shock wave reaches her, she has time to throw her arms up in front of her face. Then she is propelled forward and the world goes dark.
Searing pain brings her out of unconsciousness in brief snatches. At one point, she feels herself being moved, tries and fails to open her eyes, and cries out in agony when something comes in contact with one specific area on her back.
“Sorry, ma'am,” someone says.
Another voice speaks up, urgently. “Agent Scully, can you hear me? We need to get you and your partner--”
The voice fades out, though Scully struggles to hold onto it. She needs to hear what's being done for Mulder. At least it sounds like he is alive and they have not left him behind. With that thought, she is enveloped by darkness once more.
~
Garrett County Memorial Hospital
Scully experiences a moment of sheer panic when she begins to wake up and finds that she cannot move. She is lying on her right side, and she's tied down. She starts to try to pull free, but her attempts cause fresh pain in several spots on her back, including one area in particular near the base of her spine.
“Agent Scully,” a man's voice says in a calming tone, “don't fight against the restraints. You're in the hospital, you're doing fine, but you have a serious wound on your back that needs to heal.”
Scully opens her eyes slowly. The speaker is standing in front of her, observing her with a kind but serious expression on his face. He introduces himself as Dr. Tyler.
“How...” Scully swallows, her throat aching. “How long have I been here?”
“Today is your third day,” Dr. Tyler tells her. “You and your partner were brought in in serious condition on Tuesday night. The sheriff was concerned when he tried to call you and wasn't able to reach either of you.”
Blinking, Scully tries to process this information. There is something important about the length of time she has already been here and the continuing extent of her injuries, but she discards the thought for the moment. “Mulder. How is he?”
“Agent Mulder had a concussion, bruised ribs, hypothermia, and water in his lungs, as well as quite a few scrapes and bruises - including contusions around his neck, which you also have. But he's doing well, and will most likely not sustain any permanent damage. He was asleep last time I checked.”
The lingering pain in her back brings Scully to her next question. “I... What happened to us? I remember an explosion...”
He nods. “Yes, Sheriff Glass tells me you were found near a riverboat that was apparently rigged with explosives. A piece of the metal railing was embedded in your lower back, not too far from your spine,” he says, gesturing to the part of her that hurts the most at the moment, “not to mention several smaller injuries caused by other debris. It took a long time in surgery to get it all out. You also sustained a minor concussion when you hit the ground - but when you fell, you managed to shield your partner from most of the blast.” At that, he smiles. “And you certainly saved his life by pulling him out of the river.”
Scully lets out her breath. “Will you thank the sheriff for me?”
“He said he might be in to check up on you both later today,” Dr. Taylor says, “but I'll be sure to tell him if you don't. Your boss has also been in to see you.” He smiles at her again, reassuringly. “Now that you're awake, we can take off the restraints. Be careful not to roll onto your back.”
Once she is alone with her thoughts, it only takes Scully a moment to recognize the possible significance of this hospital stay. If it has been three days, and she still needs to have her bandages changed and to be careful to stay on her side... then she is not healing at an abnormally fast pace. It can't be a coincidence that her most serious injury is in almost exactly the same location on her back as the exit wound from Ritter's bullet almost a year ago.
She feels hope begin to stir. Maybe her life has returned to normal now - or at least, she amends wryly, back to the usual brand of insanity.
A nurse knocks on the door and enters, crossing to stand where Scully can see her. “Good morning, Agent Scully. How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” Scully tells her honestly, “and hungry.”
The nurse smiles and nods. “We'll bring you some food after your bandages are changed.”
Scully lies still as the older woman checks each wound. She reports that everything looks fine, that most of the minor cuts will most likely heal without any lasting scars, and then replaces the covering on the major wound. Scully cannot hold back a wince as the nurse tapes down the bandage.
“I'm sorry, dear,” the nurse says, smoothing it down gently. “I know it's still tender. But there's no sign of infection, and the stitches are looking good.”
“Good,” Scully says. She closes her eyes for an instant and breathes a prayer of gratitude that the nurse has said nothing about a miraculous disappearance of any of her wounds. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome,” the woman says, giving her another smile. “I'll bring your breakfast - and your medication - in for you right away.”
~
Two Days Later
Dana Scully's Apartment
8:32 AM
She is just beginning the process of getting herself some breakfast when Mulder shuffles into the kitchen. He has almost completely recovered from his injuries, but he is still more stiff than usual.
“Morning, Mulder,” she greets him with a smile. “Feeling okay?”
He nods and clears his throat. “Yeah. How about you - did my snoring keep you awake?”
Chuckling, she shakes her head. “No, I slept just fine.”
There is a brief pause, during which they look at each other somewhat shyly. Last night was their first night out of the hospital, and they had spent it together. Mulder told her he wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't overextend herself during their time off for recovery - and Scully accepted his reasoning as the partial truth that it was. They are still both easily taxed, and so their night together had contained nothing but sleeping. Still, Scully is fairly certain she slept better last night than she has in quite a while.
“You want some breakfast?” Scully asks, breaking the silence.
“Sure.”
Scully is lost in thought, absently eating her bagel when Mulder clears his throat again. Though the bruises around his neck have all but faded, he still speaks with a hint of a rasp. “So, Scully, are you still healing all right?”
She knows what he isn't asking, and nods slowly. “Everything seems to be proceeding at a normal pace.”
“How do you think it happened?” he asks, watching her intently. “What caused your change back to mortality?”
She takes a breath. This is the first time they have had to really discuss the topic since regaining consciousness in the hospital. “I-- don't know, Mulder. I really don't. All I know is that I was totally focused on getting you out of that river and trying to get you to safety.” They share a look. “And with all these close calls and attacks we've had this past year, maybe... maybe what you told me in the hospital in New York is true, about seeking the opposite of death,” she continues. “I was looking for any way to make sure you stayed alive--”
“And so death decided to start looking for you again?” Mulder looks thoughtful. Then he frowns, pinning her with his gaze. “On that subject, I don't appreciate the human shield act Dr. Taylor told me you pulled, putting yourself between me and the explosion.”
“Well, it's not like I had a lot of time to think about it,” she says, looking down at her plate. “And I had every reason to think I was much less at risk than you, anyway.”
Mulder shakes his head. “Even so, I thought we agreed you weren't going to test that theory.”
“You would have done the same thing,” Scully points out, only the slightest bit defensive.
“And you wouldn't have appreciated it, either,” Mulder returns without a pause.
She looks up at him then. “You're right. I wouldn't have,” she says softly.
They fall silent again, and Mulder is the first to break their gaze this time. Then he grins and looks at her again, almost challenging. “You know, Scully, not too long ago you would have come up with a way of writing this whole thing off as a series of bizarre coincidences, now that it seems to be over.”
She concedes his point with a faint smile. “Maybe. But I don't think I would want to deny this experience, Mulder, even if I could. It's... it's brought a lot of good into my life along with the bad.”
“Not just more scars?” His tone is light, but Scully can hear the perennial undercurrent of guilt.
“No, not just scars.” Scully reaches across the table and takes his hand. She thinks it fitting somehow that her two newest scars will mark the beginning and the end of the experience. Mulder, on the other hand, is clearly practicing his usual self-recrimination for her suffering. “Mulder,” she says, bringing his eyes back to hers, “do you remember what I told you a while ago, about moving forward?”
She sees a flash of some unidentifiable emotion in his eyes before he nods.
“Well, I want us to keep moving forward,” she continues, still holding his hand. “And I think that means not being held back by guilt or regret. Maybe that's part of what it means to seek life.”
Mulder is silent for a few moments. He rubs his thumb across the back of her hand and then leans in to kiss her with the same intensity of faith that left her gasping in an Oregon thunderstorm nearly a decade ago.
“I believe you.”
Author's Note 2: Thanks for sticking with this story all the way to the end!
The title of this fic comes from Tennyson's haunting poem “Tithonus,” which I read upon recommendation from the very astute glisters. I recommend it to you as well if you haven't already given it a read. It can be found easily on the Internets.
Title: The Quiet Limit of the World (4/4)
Summary, disclaimer, etc. same as in Part 1.
~
Part 4
Scully is extremely glad the next morning that she had the foresight to take this day off from work. Though the night's sleep has helped a great deal, she still feels too emotionally taxed to function at the office. She notices Mulder's absence before she opens her eyes, and is briefly unsettled until she hears him talking on the phone outside her room. He is calling in sick, no doubt.
Squinting at the clock by her bed, Scully reads that it is 7:13. She rolls over and closes her eyes; it's far too early for her to even contemplate facing the world.
She is just beginning to fall back into slumber when she hears her bedroom door open quietly. The bed dips under Mulder's weight, and he pulls away the covers for a moment to slide back under them. She smiles as he settles her against him, his arm around her waist. “Sorry to wake you.”
“'Sokay,” she murmurs. “Just glad you're here.”
“I wouldn't be anywhere else.”
Scully drifts in and out of sleep for the next two and a half hours, soothed each time she wakes by Mulder's solid presence and even breathing. Then, finally feeling rested, she turns over carefully - to find that Mulder's eyes are open and that he is watching her with a half-smile.
“What are you looking at, Mulder?” Scully asks, conscious of her tousled hair and lack of makeup.
“You,” he tells her simply.
She returns his smile and raises an eyebrow. “How long have you been awake?”
“Not too long,” he says. “I wasn't bored, if that's what you're worried about.”
Scully laughs. She starts to turn away, to get out of bed, but Mulder reaches a hand to her chin and gently turns her face back toward him. He searches her eyes for a moment. Before she can second-guess herself, Scully leans in and kisses him.
Only surprised for an instant, Mulder closes his eyes and deepens the kiss. She is becoming utterly lost in the sensations of his mouth on hers when Mulder pulls back, breathing hard.
“Mulder...” She isn't sure what she's planning to say, other than to communicate her disappointment at the end of the kiss. Her breathing is a little ragged, too.
“Scully,” he says, brushing his hand across her cheek, “I just-- I just want to make sure you're okay with this happening right now.”
She smiles again as she looks into his eyes, seeing a mixture of worry, love, and desire. “I'm okay with it, Mulder. More than okay, actually.”
“You aren't going to--”
“Regret it later?” Scully thinks about it, and then shakes her head. “No, Mulder, I'm not.” She looks away for a second. “This isn't about trying to forget something painful,” she says quietly. “I think... I think it's about moving forward.”
He gazes at her. “I can agree with that,” he says, and then with a wicked glint in his eyes, he closes the distance between them. “We could make some new memories if you want, Scully,” he murmurs, lips almost touching her neck.
She shivers and laughs. “That sounds good.”
~
Four Days Later
When Mulder strides into the office holding a file folder, his eyes alight with excitement, Scully braces herself for a new case. It's been long enough. She's ready. “What have you got, Mulder?” she smiles, leaning back in her chair.
“Maryland PD has reported several disappearances out in Garrett County,” he says, sitting on the edge of the desk and handing her the folder. “Four people, of varying age and ethnicity, all vanished at night over the course of the past two weeks.”
“And we're interested why?” Scully opens the folder.
“A witness gave enough of a description of the suspect that the sketch artists were able to produce a good working sketch.” He leans forward. “Take a look - there's a copy of it in there.”
Scully flips through the report... and stops dead at the unmistakable image of the man they have come up against so many times over the years. She looks up up at Mulder, eyes wide.
“I thought you might recognize our bounty hunting friend,” he says, nodding. “I figure if we leave now, we can get out there by tonight.”
She sets down the file without bothering to look at the rest of it for the moment. “Mulder, I feel like I should remind you, every time we've confronted this... man, or whatever he is, we haven't exactly come out on top.”
“That's true,” Mulder admits, with a wry twist of his mouth. “But that doesn't mean we shouldn't at least try to see what he's up to, right?”
“I suppose not,” she says. “Are we heading out now?”
Mulder stands. “You have an overnight bag ready?”
Scully rises to her feet and stares at him, hands on her hips. He laughs and puts up his hands in a placating gesture. “I thought I'd ask anyway, just to be sure.”
~
The drive out to the westernmost county in Maryland is long and uneventful. They arrive travel-worn and hungry just before nine, and Scully is glad that Mulder seems quite willing to wait until the next morning to start the investigation. Mulder leaves a message for the local police station while Scully checks them in and orders dinner.
They are quiet through most of their Chinese takeout (the only readily-available takeout in the area). As she's finishing up the last few bites, Scully wipes her mouth on a napkin and asks, “So, what's the plan for tomorrow, Mulder?”
He sets down his chopsticks, having already finished. “Well, I figure we'll go talk to the local PD, find out where this eyewitness saw our friend, and go from there.” He shrugs. “Should be simple enough.”
Scully gives him a look. “And if our 'friend' doesn't take kindly to us trying to track him down?”
“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Mulder picks up their empty cartons and throws them away.
“Right.” As long as we're adequately prepared, Scully thinks, but keeps her sarcasm to herself.
Mulder hides a yawn as he walks over to the connecting door between their rooms. Perhaps it is because of how tired they were when they arrived, but he hadn't even made a joke about being disappointed when she had gotten them two rooms.
The next morning, the two meet with the sheriff after breakfast. Sheriff Glass strikes Scully as similar to most of the small-town sheriffs they've encountered: competent, dedicated, and baffled by the rash of serious crime in his normally peaceful home. “I appreciate you giving us a hand, Agents,” he tells them, after introductions have been made. “We've been looking pretty hard, but other than that description Andy Conrad gave us, we don't have much to go on.”
“One of the reasons we came out is that we believe your suspect might be a person of interest in quite a few of our cases,” Mulder tells him.
“Really? What kind of cases?” Sheriff Glass asks, looking anxious.
Mulder shoots Scully a glance before she replies, “Mostly in connection with kidnapping cases.”
“Just like what's going on here then, I guess.” The sheriff heaves a sigh. “Well, let me get you the addresses of the victims.”
The five Garrett County inhabitants who have disappeared do not have anything obvious in common, other than their location. Two are a young couple who just moved to the area in the past year, one is a retired schoolteacher who lived alone with his dog, another is the mother of three children (one of whom is the Andy who gave the description to the sketch artist), and the most recent is a seventeen-year-old girl who vanished from a sleepover at her friend's birthday party.
Mulder elects to visit the husband of the missing woman first. Mr. Conrad has little to add, though he repeats several times how grateful he is that the FBI has sent some agents to help look for his wife. “Andy's at school right now,” he tells them, “but I don't know what else he could tell you, other than what he told the police.”
“That's fine, Mr. Conrad,” Scully says. “We might stop by again once your son is home from school, if that's okay with you. Meanwhile, can you describe for us again what happened the night your wife went missing?”
After all the interviews are complete, Mulder follows her out to their car, so lost in thought that he almost runs into her when she stops at the passenger side door. “Oops. Sorry, Scully.”
“Whoa there, Mulder,” she says, raising an eyebrow and giving him an amused look. “You okay to drive, or should I take the wheel this time and save us both from wrapping around a tree?”
He grins, looking slightly embarrassed. “No, I can manage all right - ah, if you don't mind, that is.”
Scully stays where she is, gesturing toward the passenger side. It only rarely bothers her when he just assumes he'll be driving, and now is not one of those times. “What were you thinking so deeply about?”
“I was just thinking, most everyone mentioned that the kidnapper seemed to take off in a general westerly direction,” Mulder answers as he makes his way around to the other side of the car. “That's the direction of the Savage River, and I have a hunch that we might find something around there.”
“Certainly a promising name for a river,” Scully mutters, getting into the car. “So are we just going to drive up and down the length of the river, or what?”
Mulder glances at her with a smile. “Just the easily accessible parts.”
“Fine,” Scully says, indulging him with a smile of her own, “but I have to insist that we have lunch first. Otherwise it could be sometime tomorrow before we have another chance.”
“Agreed,” Mulder replies.
As it turns out, when they arrive at the river later that afternoon, they find a good place to park and only have to walk a short distance before something of interest turns up. There is a riverboat moored near an old, decaying dock - and although the boat is silent and still, there is a faint light in one window.
Hastily, the two agents move to the cover of some nearby trees. “The sheriff told me earlier that there wasn't really a whole lot to see out here,” Mulder whispers. “I guess he didn't know about this boat. Must not have been here long.”
Scully feels uneasiness begin to stir. “Still, it seems awfully exposed for the bounty hunter to choose it as a base of operations, don't you think?”
He shrugs. “Maybe. Maybe not.” Without waiting to see if she's with him, Mulder draws his gun and begins to move toward the dock.
Sighing, Scully readies her weapon and follows. Though she starts after him only seconds later, Mulder is already on the deck of the boat by the time she makes it to the dock. He glances over his shoulder at her for a moment, but then strides forward again.
Scully moves as quickly and as quietly as she can to catch up. She is only a few steps behind when Mulder arrives at the other end of the boat, where the lighted room had been visible. The gloomy room is visible through the porthole-like window in the door, but there is no one in sight. Mulder pauses, briefly exchanging a glance with Scully. Then he pushes the door open as soundlessly as possible and stands aside as Scully enters the room, gun at the ready.
It takes several seconds for Scully to adjust to the dimness of the boat's interior as she cases the room for immediate threats. In those seconds, Mulder has already moved on from this room - which is empty except for some wooden crates against the wall - into the next room. He stops abruptly, a few feet inside it, raising his gun to aim at something beyond Scully's sight.
Scully hurries to follow, and quickly raises her own weapon at the sight of the bounty hunter. The imposing figure is standing at the other end of the room, in front of two long metal tables. He regards the two of them with no change of expression.
“Where are the five people you kidnapped from town?” Mulder demands.
The bounty hunter takes one step closer to them. “They are not here. And you should leave this place now.”
“Not until you tell us where you took them,” Scully says. Her eyes dart from their opponent to the metal tables, and she suppresses a shudder.
He continues to walk toward them, slowly. “You're far too late to find them.”
“Don't come any closer,” Mulder warns, moving to stand partially in front of Scully without blocking her aim.
Scully shifts out from behind Mulder, aiming for the bounty hunter's neck as best as she can. She knows that he will not just let them investigate the area for evidence of his victims. This is not going to end well.
Almost before she has completed that thought, the bounty hunter rushes forward brutally and swiftly. Scully is not sure whether she or Mulder fires first - but it does not matter, since both of their shots go wide. Before she has time to react, Scully feels an iron grip on her throat and she is slammed into the wall. There is an answering burst of pain and her vision darkens. Through this, she is vaguely conscious of the fact that Mulder is also being held against the wall by his throat. She chokes and hears her pulse pounding in her ears.
“You will find nothing here,” the bounty hunter tells them dispassionately. With that, he allows Scully to slide to the floor before punching Mulder squarely in the face with his freed hand. Mulder is limp in his grip as the man hefts him toward the window.
Recovering her breath, Scully gasps as she realizes an instant before it happens what their assailant is planning. She reaches desperately and half-blindly for her gun - but does not find it until after Mulder is sent crashing through the window. Then she scrambles to her feet as quickly as she can and raises the weapon.
At the sound of the weapon being cocked, the bounty hunter turns impossibly fast and knocks it from her hands. In an instant, she follows Mulder out of the shattered window.
The shock of hitting the frigid water is almost overwhelming, but Scully quickly breaks the surface, coughing and gasping as she scans the dark river frantically for her partner. She finds him unconscious and facedown in the water a few yards from her. The current is swift, and he is already being carried farther away.
Taking in a gulp of air, Scully swims to him as fast as she can. The water is chillingly cold, and her layers of clothing hamper her movement. Still, she reaches him in seconds and immediately lifts his head out of the water. It's hard to tell if he is breathing.
Only the fact that the water is helping to carry his weight allows Scully to guide Mulder's progress toward the shore with any kind of speed. He is completely out, and she does her best to keep his head level with his back and above the water.
Scully heaves a sigh of relief as she finally manages to pull Mulder out of the river and sees his chest rise and fall. Her relief is short-lived as she also notes the bloody wound on his forehead. He is still unconscious, and in clear need of medical attention. She, of course, is fine - soaking wet and shivering, but the cuts she'd received during her forced exit through the window of the riverboat are already almost closed over. For once, she is glad of her unnaturally quick healing; if she had fared as poorly as Mulder as a result of their altercation with the bounty hunter, they would both be unconscious in the water and would have almost certainly drowned.
She looks up toward the boat. It is still close by; they have only drifted downstream about a dozen yards. She hopes the bounty hunter does not pursue them - she doesn't think she can defend both Mulder and herself from his unrelenting attacks.
Mulder coughs and moans, turning his head slightly. He looks as though he's trying to open his eyes. “Scully...”
“Don't try to move, Mulder,” Scully tells him. She pushes his bangs out of the still-bleeding head wound. “You're hurt, and you need to stay still.”
He is shivering, and Scully's heart sinks as she considers the deadly combination of shock, hypothermia, and concussion - not to mention the water that must be in his lungs. There has to be a way for her to get him out of here. Her cell phone, of course, has been rendered useless by its submersion in the river, and she already knows that the boat is a significant distance from the nearest town. Their car is on the opposite bank.
If Mulder had been trying to aim for a return to consciousness, her words have evidently made him decide not to bother. He is quiet and still, other than his regular breaths and constant shivering.
Scully bites her lip and comes to a decision. Though it is dangerous to move him before she knows the extent of his injuries, it is more dangerous to leave him here. She will have to try to drag him to dry ground, at least, while jostling him as little as possible. She peels off her dripping jacket and lays it on the riverbank, and then moves to stand between Mulder and the river, judging the route she will have to take.
Scully is so focused on her task that she doesn't see the bounty hunter exit the boat and move purposefully along the dock to the opposite shore. Thus, she has barely a second to react when the whole boat explodes, sending debris flying with incredible force. Before the shock wave reaches her, she has time to throw her arms up in front of her face. Then she is propelled forward and the world goes dark.
Searing pain brings her out of unconsciousness in brief snatches. At one point, she feels herself being moved, tries and fails to open her eyes, and cries out in agony when something comes in contact with one specific area on her back.
“Sorry, ma'am,” someone says.
Another voice speaks up, urgently. “Agent Scully, can you hear me? We need to get you and your partner--”
The voice fades out, though Scully struggles to hold onto it. She needs to hear what's being done for Mulder. At least it sounds like he is alive and they have not left him behind. With that thought, she is enveloped by darkness once more.
~
Garrett County Memorial Hospital
Scully experiences a moment of sheer panic when she begins to wake up and finds that she cannot move. She is lying on her right side, and she's tied down. She starts to try to pull free, but her attempts cause fresh pain in several spots on her back, including one area in particular near the base of her spine.
“Agent Scully,” a man's voice says in a calming tone, “don't fight against the restraints. You're in the hospital, you're doing fine, but you have a serious wound on your back that needs to heal.”
Scully opens her eyes slowly. The speaker is standing in front of her, observing her with a kind but serious expression on his face. He introduces himself as Dr. Tyler.
“How...” Scully swallows, her throat aching. “How long have I been here?”
“Today is your third day,” Dr. Tyler tells her. “You and your partner were brought in in serious condition on Tuesday night. The sheriff was concerned when he tried to call you and wasn't able to reach either of you.”
Blinking, Scully tries to process this information. There is something important about the length of time she has already been here and the continuing extent of her injuries, but she discards the thought for the moment. “Mulder. How is he?”
“Agent Mulder had a concussion, bruised ribs, hypothermia, and water in his lungs, as well as quite a few scrapes and bruises - including contusions around his neck, which you also have. But he's doing well, and will most likely not sustain any permanent damage. He was asleep last time I checked.”
The lingering pain in her back brings Scully to her next question. “I... What happened to us? I remember an explosion...”
He nods. “Yes, Sheriff Glass tells me you were found near a riverboat that was apparently rigged with explosives. A piece of the metal railing was embedded in your lower back, not too far from your spine,” he says, gesturing to the part of her that hurts the most at the moment, “not to mention several smaller injuries caused by other debris. It took a long time in surgery to get it all out. You also sustained a minor concussion when you hit the ground - but when you fell, you managed to shield your partner from most of the blast.” At that, he smiles. “And you certainly saved his life by pulling him out of the river.”
Scully lets out her breath. “Will you thank the sheriff for me?”
“He said he might be in to check up on you both later today,” Dr. Taylor says, “but I'll be sure to tell him if you don't. Your boss has also been in to see you.” He smiles at her again, reassuringly. “Now that you're awake, we can take off the restraints. Be careful not to roll onto your back.”
Once she is alone with her thoughts, it only takes Scully a moment to recognize the possible significance of this hospital stay. If it has been three days, and she still needs to have her bandages changed and to be careful to stay on her side... then she is not healing at an abnormally fast pace. It can't be a coincidence that her most serious injury is in almost exactly the same location on her back as the exit wound from Ritter's bullet almost a year ago.
She feels hope begin to stir. Maybe her life has returned to normal now - or at least, she amends wryly, back to the usual brand of insanity.
A nurse knocks on the door and enters, crossing to stand where Scully can see her. “Good morning, Agent Scully. How are you feeling?”
“Sore,” Scully tells her honestly, “and hungry.”
The nurse smiles and nods. “We'll bring you some food after your bandages are changed.”
Scully lies still as the older woman checks each wound. She reports that everything looks fine, that most of the minor cuts will most likely heal without any lasting scars, and then replaces the covering on the major wound. Scully cannot hold back a wince as the nurse tapes down the bandage.
“I'm sorry, dear,” the nurse says, smoothing it down gently. “I know it's still tender. But there's no sign of infection, and the stitches are looking good.”
“Good,” Scully says. She closes her eyes for an instant and breathes a prayer of gratitude that the nurse has said nothing about a miraculous disappearance of any of her wounds. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome,” the woman says, giving her another smile. “I'll bring your breakfast - and your medication - in for you right away.”
~
Two Days Later
Dana Scully's Apartment
8:32 AM
She is just beginning the process of getting herself some breakfast when Mulder shuffles into the kitchen. He has almost completely recovered from his injuries, but he is still more stiff than usual.
“Morning, Mulder,” she greets him with a smile. “Feeling okay?”
He nods and clears his throat. “Yeah. How about you - did my snoring keep you awake?”
Chuckling, she shakes her head. “No, I slept just fine.”
There is a brief pause, during which they look at each other somewhat shyly. Last night was their first night out of the hospital, and they had spent it together. Mulder told her he wanted to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn't overextend herself during their time off for recovery - and Scully accepted his reasoning as the partial truth that it was. They are still both easily taxed, and so their night together had contained nothing but sleeping. Still, Scully is fairly certain she slept better last night than she has in quite a while.
“You want some breakfast?” Scully asks, breaking the silence.
“Sure.”
Scully is lost in thought, absently eating her bagel when Mulder clears his throat again. Though the bruises around his neck have all but faded, he still speaks with a hint of a rasp. “So, Scully, are you still healing all right?”
She knows what he isn't asking, and nods slowly. “Everything seems to be proceeding at a normal pace.”
“How do you think it happened?” he asks, watching her intently. “What caused your change back to mortality?”
She takes a breath. This is the first time they have had to really discuss the topic since regaining consciousness in the hospital. “I-- don't know, Mulder. I really don't. All I know is that I was totally focused on getting you out of that river and trying to get you to safety.” They share a look. “And with all these close calls and attacks we've had this past year, maybe... maybe what you told me in the hospital in New York is true, about seeking the opposite of death,” she continues. “I was looking for any way to make sure you stayed alive--”
“And so death decided to start looking for you again?” Mulder looks thoughtful. Then he frowns, pinning her with his gaze. “On that subject, I don't appreciate the human shield act Dr. Taylor told me you pulled, putting yourself between me and the explosion.”
“Well, it's not like I had a lot of time to think about it,” she says, looking down at her plate. “And I had every reason to think I was much less at risk than you, anyway.”
Mulder shakes his head. “Even so, I thought we agreed you weren't going to test that theory.”
“You would have done the same thing,” Scully points out, only the slightest bit defensive.
“And you wouldn't have appreciated it, either,” Mulder returns without a pause.
She looks up at him then. “You're right. I wouldn't have,” she says softly.
They fall silent again, and Mulder is the first to break their gaze this time. Then he grins and looks at her again, almost challenging. “You know, Scully, not too long ago you would have come up with a way of writing this whole thing off as a series of bizarre coincidences, now that it seems to be over.”
She concedes his point with a faint smile. “Maybe. But I don't think I would want to deny this experience, Mulder, even if I could. It's... it's brought a lot of good into my life along with the bad.”
“Not just more scars?” His tone is light, but Scully can hear the perennial undercurrent of guilt.
“No, not just scars.” Scully reaches across the table and takes his hand. She thinks it fitting somehow that her two newest scars will mark the beginning and the end of the experience. Mulder, on the other hand, is clearly practicing his usual self-recrimination for her suffering. “Mulder,” she says, bringing his eyes back to hers, “do you remember what I told you a while ago, about moving forward?”
She sees a flash of some unidentifiable emotion in his eyes before he nods.
“Well, I want us to keep moving forward,” she continues, still holding his hand. “And I think that means not being held back by guilt or regret. Maybe that's part of what it means to seek life.”
Mulder is silent for a few moments. He rubs his thumb across the back of her hand and then leans in to kiss her with the same intensity of faith that left her gasping in an Oregon thunderstorm nearly a decade ago.
“I believe you.”
Author's Note 2: Thanks for sticking with this story all the way to the end!
The title of this fic comes from Tennyson's haunting poem “Tithonus,” which I read upon recommendation from the very astute glisters. I recommend it to you as well if you haven't already given it a read. It can be found easily on the Internets.