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disclaimers in part one.
yes this is a brand new chapter.
Its been a long time I know but I have had all kinds of health and RL problems. Hopefully posting chapters once a week
from
now on. It's going to be a long one folk and thanks so much to those who have stuck by me and shown a lot of constant interest
and poking for this.
You guys know who you are.
MSR A MT dragonrider1@ntlworld.comRange of Motion 5 of ?
Scully took a deep breath,
gingerly opening the living room door.
When Scully was a child, her dad told her stories of various favorite places
he had been to in his Sea travels. She remembered especially his tales of
Copenhagen and the 'Thinker' statue that that
was so prominent in the harbor as it greeted sailors from all over the world. Mulder was currently doing a
passable impression
of it as he sat naked and shivering on his sofa; phone pressed to one ear. His eyes were shut and he was shivering fiercely
in the
unheated air of the living room.
Tonight she would drag him over to her place for the duration it
took to get the heating fixed. If anyone could get pneumonia in his own home it would be
just Mulder's luck. He looked
like he was asleep, then the hand tucked in a tight fist under his chin started worrying his brow. It was only then that she
realized he was listening. It was her turn to shiver.
".No sir, yes I know." Scully released the breath
she didn't she'd been holding.
Skinner.
It was clear that whatever the AD was intoning down the line was pissing
Mulder off. His brow had creased to a frown. He was quietly quaking with cold, although his voice was tense, rock steady
with just an edge of
defiance. Scully disappeared and came back with a blanket, which she draped over his bare frozen
shoulders. Then held herself spooned to his back to in
the hope it might him some extra heat. The gooseflesh on the arm
holding the phone mesmerized her eyes.
"...I won't. but..okay...No, no. I won't risk the child by being
wired. .I won't sir. . aha. .. Has to be done this way.what?" His voice grew tenser and he white knuckled the
phone so hard she thought it would merge with his skin. His eyes flicked down at the non-existent watch on his wrist
when he suddenly glanced at it and frowned at its abcence. " 1 hour.ok. Yes she's with me. .. Car trouble.
She will be coming in with me. I appreciate that sir. .but. Yeah I just want this bastard! .. I will. Meeting
the SWAT team. Yeah. Me too. Goodbye sir."
Scully cringed as Mulder slammed the phone back in its cradle then
stared at it like it had burnt him. A deep angry sigh and several metaphors later, he
turned finally to Scully leaning
back into the warmth she offered. She immediately slid her arms around his waist as he kissed her ear lobe. His voice
no more than a shaky whisper when she realized he had actually spoken.
"Thank you".
He was breathing rapidly and as her hand traveled
up to his chest, his heart felt like something trying to fly apart in her hand. Slowly their breathing became synchronized
in their well-practiced ritual of giving and taking comfort, silently calming the stress that flowed through both of them.
"Is
it a bird, is it a plane, no it's a bald guy who talks out of his ass and doesn't know shit what he's dealing with?"
That was the tone Scully dreaded. The steely crack of frosted ice in his voice that spoke of defiance, not listening and taking
crazy chances that lead to... She held him tighter.no, she wasn't going there. His body was a rigid block of ice against her
and his toes were going an unhealthy shade of blue.
"What Mulder, what did Skinner say? She felt Mulder's chest
expand and exhale long and slow against her. It was a breathless few seconds before he could find his words again, almost like he had to mentally reassess his ability to
speak.
"He is going with a SWAT team staked out down by the docks a couple of streets back from where I'm supposed
to contact Bartoc. They are going to block off any escape routes within a mile radius. He's going to blow it Scully.
I can feel it. Bartoc deals in precise absolutes, he'll fuck off the whole deal if its not executed to the letter."
Scully
shivered at his unfortunate use of words but tamped her fear behind the need to reassure her partner.
"Then he isn't
talking out of his ass, Mulder. He's concerned about your safety. As we all are." In Mulder's mind's eye all he could
see was Tamara'
s scared face crumbling in fear. How typical of Mulder not to include his own safety into the equation.
Both she and Skinner skirted the same wavelength of fear for his trademark dangerous tunnel vision. Even more so now
with him still laid low by grief from his mother's tragic passing.
Scully watched the shift in his eyes as she backed up to look at
his face and could almost hear his thoughts bounce off the confines of her skull, feel it flood her soul. She knew this routine
like an unwelcome visitor and inwardly cringed.
Mulder was his own emotional Achilles heel right now. He was barely
able to take a breath after the last few harrowing cases; he'd worked flat out on a couple VCU consults and had sustained
a few minor injuries which he was still recovering from, and wasn't what she considered really up to dealing with anything
more than day to day basic existence for a while in his
present state, let along trying to get his head around a potentially
knife edge situation. There was a nagging feeling that wouldn't let up inside that said all this was going to hell in
a hand basket. Her arms clung onto him tighter and tighter until his breath hitched with the pressure and she was forced to
take a gulp of air along with him. As she continued to push some warmth and comfort into him; his body, and midst her
precipitous pall of doom, she got an insane urge to never let go of him again.
"I'm sorry Scully," his lips ticked
her in a breathy swell as he murmured against into hair; his arms wrapping around her like a boa. " But you know I just can't
walk away from this now. It's too important. I just need to bring this to a good conclusion."
I just need
to bring this to a good conclusion. God, he made it sound so damn simple. A piece of cake.
Scully nuzzled her face deeper into him to hide a threatening tear
from falling, to no avail, and he hugged her closer still as her humorless laugh
came out a warm gust against his heart.
"Wouldn't
be any use to try convincing you otherwise. You are intent on seeing this through, I know you, that's the way your guilt and
selfless logic fires you but at least try and compromise with AD. Skinner. You are on the same team. You both want a
good safe resolution and god knows I want that little girl home safe to grow up and enjoy her childhood but Jesus Mulder,
do you realize how very bad this all looks?"
"Yeah, but just this one time Scully.get tonight over with and I can rest.
We can rest. In 24 hours we will be home and dry and I promise you, it will be just you and me, your skimpy bikini and
my Speedos and us on our way to a well-deserved vacation of our dreams. It will be our time Scully, all ours. I.. .I just
need to get this child home safe to her mother." ....so
that another mother doesn't end up like mine; tranquilized into mindless, empty oblivion with only a bottle of diazepam for
company and a fractured neglected family, left to flounder like beached fish on a lonely shore. His inner
anxiety supplied bitterly.
What he couldn't tell Scully was that he had fudged away a few facts about this case; the
most startling one was that Tamara had a brother. Jared. 12
years old and naturally devastated by a groundswell of guilt
that she'd been snatched while in his care at a local park. Mulder had interviewed him alone while Scully was on a consult
at Quantico; she only knew what little Mulder had divulged about the case. Skinner had assumed that Mulder would have filled
her in on the rest and didn't call him on it. Partners were supposed to share information, but Mulder had lied by omission.
A different kind of ditch, but a ditch all the same. In hindsight he was grateful he had left her out of the loop.
The
boy's shattered demeanor had mirrored his own in every way. Seeing this kid's stricken face, it was all he could do to halt
the crashing wave of flashbacks.
He didn't have to try hard imagining Scully's terrified reaction
if she discovered this tidbit and the warning implications of the obvious parallels. Even though part of him was still trying
to convince himself that this was all some kind of sad coincidence, deep down he knew that this bore the ominous watermark
that was just too close to personal.
However, this little girl had stolen his heart right from her school photos; her
hazel eyed smile boring right into the chambers of his heart and filling them with her presence like an immovable warm little
fist.
'Focus! She isn't Sam. Tamara..not Sam!' But the fact was his flesh was already invisibly punctured and
he bled out anyway all over the frigid steps outside her parents house, his sobs of confusion and
incomprehensible sorrow drowning him like a waterlogged rodent
as he slunk away into the night, as biting as the freezing wind and november snow flurries that pursued him in demonic ugliness
back to his car.
How many times could he do this.put himself on the rack again and
again.he couldn't stop..no!!!
Later in the shower, they continued to echo back at him from the
hard barren tiles as he stood there as blazing torrents of water cascaded over his body,
searing his skin like a penance
for a failure of many years past, his outpouring catharsis mingling like poison with his sweat streaked fear and mocking him
as it fled his presence through the drain by his toes.
Scully's gentle kiss on his trembling lips startled him back
to the present.
"Mulder you're freezing lets get you warmed up." He laughed against her neck sending warm shivers
through her. His laugh could always do that to
her.
"Why Agent Scully, did you know that you're fraternizing with
a naked fellow FBI agent?" he flashed a teeth chattering grin at her. The smile not
reaching his eyes. He was cold and
in pain and she was heartbroken for him all over again. That smile was so out of place for what she knew he must
have been
feeling.
She slapped him gently on his bare ass and pushed him in the direction
of his shower.
"Funny G man. I guess you will have to just write me up for it cos I think its becoming a habit and
I plan on doing it a lot more." God willing she thought; though her optimism was seriously slithering through her feet at
that point.
"You grab a shower and warm up Mulder. I get some hot coffee going."
"Sounds like a plan," he shivered
ducking into the bathroom.
Scully took a deep breath, leaning one arm on the sink as she went about the ritual
that brought the coffee machine to life. Soon the aroma warmed her senses and she heard the shower go on. She let her
mind wander into freefall as she drank in the sound of the shower, coffeemaker and the fact that she also badly needed a shower.
Skinner wouldn't appreciate the waft of raw sex floating around his office. She let her lips curl into a soft smile at the
thought of creeping in and sharing Mulder's shower, slipping her arms around his wet soapy body and ..
Rap rap rap!
The
door. Shit. Her hand slid to her terry towel covered hip for the gun that wasn't there and a curse tore from her lips, about
the same time as the
bathroom door flew open and a wet Mulder with just a towel around his waist breezed a pink and white
streak ahead of her, his sig already drawn. She
took a deep breath at the implication he was now taking his gun into the
shower with him and was on his heels groping for her own gun on the coffee
table. Mulder's chest was heaving double time
as he dropped water all over the floor and she slid in beside him in a defensive posture.Their heatbeats conversing in the
language of adrenalin.
The rapping got louder and more insistent as they backed onto either side of the door, guns
raised. They shared a moment of silent communication, their
training kicking in but Scully thought she saw a sliver of
fear, but it vanished in a heartbeat. Mulder was mouthing a countdown to her and she nodded in understanding, too shocked
to get words past her windpipe. Mulder's other hand hovered over the doorknob.
His eyes flashed 'Now' as he thrust
the door open.
To be continued .
Part 6 coming soon.
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