From: Jennifer Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 23:33:29 -0500 Subject: In the Glow of the night Source: direct Title: In the Glow of the Night Author: WindSpider E-mail: Windspider@mediaone.net Distribution: Okay, but I'd like to know where Spoilers: Oh, come on! You wouldn't be here reading these stories if you hadn't seen every episode at least twice. Everything is fair game. Rating: R/NC-17 Category: S MSR A Summary: It is The End only if you believe it! Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Having that much UST would kill the normal person. Thanks to "She" for the beta. My friend in massage (the therapeutic variety, gutter brains!) and smut, uh, lurid fiction. Oh, what the hell! SMUT! Hey, She! You only should forcibly make me rite good! Let's see you fix this one! LOL! It would be helpful if you know or at least seek out the song "Domino" by Genesis. The song is about 10 minutes long and is in two parts. This little piece of fluff is based on the first part. If I get enough positive feedback, I may write a companion piece based on the second half. Feedback: YES! Flames will line the bottom of my cat's litter box. If you like this one, there are 4 more in production. Just wait. If you are interested in being a beta reader for me and can tolerate periods of writer's block and my two jobs, just let me know. And in case you were wondering, I write almost all of my stories to music. In the Glow of the Night The rainy gloom of the night brought a foreboding almost more poignant than the knowledge of the events about to crash down around human kind's proverbial ears. Special Agent Fox William Mulder lay stretched out in the dark on the leather couch in his apartment listening to the rain pelt against the window. The radio played softly close by; no news yet blaring over the airwaves proclaiming the beginnings of the "epidemic" to infect all of human kind. The Sixth Extinction would shortly be upon them. To this point, Mulder had really not been paying attention to much of anything except the recriminations and guilt he was turning over inside his own head. On this, his probable last night on earth, he should be with the woman he loved. He knew that he and Scully would be targets at some point. Neither of them was a suitable incubator for the monsters that would claw their way out of their victims at the time of their birth. Their very immunity to the plague would be their death sentences. But at the very least they should be together. Perhaps it was cowardice that kept him rooted to his sofa. He could not bear the though of Scully being ripped limb from limb in the crazed attack that would spill the vibrant life from her small body. Watch the razor sharp claw slash the creamy flesh of her throat to bloody ribbons. Through his closed eyes, he could see it in all its technicolor gore. He had received word less than an hour ago from someone who'd slipped a note under his door. Darting from his apartment, Mulder had searched the building, floor by floor, but could find no sign of the phantom messenger. The letter, unfolded from its unadorned envelope, simply stated "It has begun". Those three words burned a trail of fear down his spine to settle in the pit of his stomach. How could the herald of the end of human life on the planet be delivered with such an unostentatious announcement? In his heart of hearts, he knew that this message was not a fake. It came at a time when he thought that his and Scully's efforts were actually making a difference. 'That smoking bastard still found a way to screw us all.' Mulder's dark thoughts churned through every encounter he had ever had with CGB Spender. The man, who had claimed that Bill Mulder was not the younger Mulder's true father, was always three steps ahead of their game. There were moments when the gap had been narrowed, but always, the evil one had managed to slip through the partners' fingers. Mulder ultimately placed three calls to warn those closest to him, the first to Scully. When she answered on the third ring in her tired world-weary voice, he had almost hung up on her, not wanting to tell her what her fate was to be. Not wanting to be the one who crushed the very foundation of her life. "It's me." He finally managed to say. Before she could utter a word in greeting, he spoke the last three words he thought he would ever say to her, mimicking the hateful black letters that spelled the fate of the entire world, words that screamed at him from the page in his hands. "It has begun." All he heard from the other end of the line was a soft gasp followed by a pause and then finally quiet weeping that rapidly grew distant as the phone on her end clattered to the floor. It twisted his gut to do it but he hung up the line and made his other calls to Skinner and the Gunmen. Since that last call, he had been lying on his back gazing up at the ceiling. He stared at its mottled surface trying to think of some way to bring back order into his shattering world. All the while, guilt raged in the back of his mind for not calling his partner again. Problem was, he didn't know what he would say to her even if she did answer the phone. The music that played softly before suddenly became pervasive as the lyrics filtered through the fog of his depressive state. ::The gray of evening fills the room:: ::There's no need to look outside:: ::To see or feel the rain:: ::Then I reach across to touch her:: ::But I know that she's not there:: ::Rain keeps running down the windowpane:: ::Time is running out for me:: The words reached into his soul and yanked out one final action, one final act of defiance against the machine that would break the world. Mulder fairly leapt from the couch as he ran to his bedroom. Somewhere in his cowardly soul, he found the impetus to run, not away from, but to the last safe haven on the planet, a protective crucible that would last at least for a little while. Perhaps it would hold out long enough for him to tell Scully what had been lurking in his soul for years, hiding from the light of truth. Snatching up socks and his running shoes, he made a hopping run to the front door as he finally managed to get the footgear onto his size thirteen's. The last line of the phrase, repeating in his head, forced him to move faster. He managed to pull on his leather jacket while running out the door and reached for the keys to lock it. He almost laughed at the absurdity of such an action. His apartment would not be his for much longer so what was the purpose of locking it? Pulling the door shut, more out of habit than anything else, he ran for the stairs, praying to the god that he did not believe in that he would make it in time. ::Can't you see what you are doing to me?:: ::Can't you see what you have done?:: Making his way to his car, the lyrics, which he knew so well from listening to the song so many times before, continued to play on in his head. He didn't think Scully really knew the depth of his feelings for her. She had managed to single- handedly destroy all of his defenses and settle herself into his life with her grace, her strength, and yes, he believed her love had a big role in it. But it was a kind of love of which they never dared speak, only hint at. Thinking only of her now brought forth so much regret of the things he had never done for her, said to her. He hoped for one last chance from the fates that had denied him so much in the past. One more chance to find and give a brief moment of peace and perhaps love. Even if it was too late. ::As I try to pass another long and sleepless night:: ::A hundred crazy voices call my name:: ::As I try to pass them by:: ::I almost can believe that she is here:: ::Here in the glow of the night:: Mulder burst from the front door and ran for his car as fast as he dared, afraid that a fall on the rain slicked pavement would cost him dearly. He had almost made it when he collided with one of the residents of his building who was weaving up the sidewalk. Mulder knew instantly that something was wrong. He grasped the shoulders of the older man steadying him upright and turning him toward the street light. He almost dropped the man when he saw the evil shimmer of the black oil boiling in the man's eyes. "Help me! Please!" The man trembled in Mulder's grasp, groping for something or someone, anyone, to render aid. Mulder had a half-second of indecision whether to end this man's life with a bullet to the head or let him die when the gestating creature finally burst from the man's chest. The end result would be the same but there would be one less of the nightmarish creatures on the planet. Another half-second later, and despite the fact that the man would die in agony and fear, Mulder decided not to join the ranks of the murderers that had unleashed this plague on an unsuspecting and yes, he truly believed, undeserving world. "I'm sorry." Mulder shook from the man's grasp, tears mixing with the rain as he continued to his car, determined not to look back even though the dying man's pleas followed him as he moved away. Finally sliding into the driver's seat, he allowed a shuddering sob to pass through him. A weep for all that humanity had lost and would lose this night. Pulling away from the curb, Mulder wiped the tears and rain from his face and donned a cloak of determination to get to Scully at any cost. ::Do you know what you have done?:: ::Do you know what you've begun?:: ::Do you see we shall never be together again?:: ::All of my life:: As Mulder sped toward Georgetown, he noticed the not-so-curious lack of traffic for a Friday night. The plague was spreading faster than he had anticipated. Those few pedestrians he did see were none too steady on their feet as they moved. Mulder tried to tell himself that they had had an early start to the weekend getaway, but knew deep inside that was not the case. He was beginning to fear that he would not make it at all when the black streak of one of the newborn monsters crossed through the beams of the car's headlights followed closely by two more. Mulder pushed the accelerator closer to the floor. A few miles closer to Scully's apartment, he was forced to stop to allow a parade of police squad cars to pass through an intersection. As the last of the visibar flashing vehicles was passing, Mulder was rocked by a large tremor that shook the car. Whipping his head around, he saw the black shimmering eyes and long teeth and claws of an alien organism staring at him through the rear windshield. There was no life at all in those obsidian eyes. Only cold murderous intent. And its gaze was fixed firmly on him. Acting purely on instinct, Mulder tore his gun from its holster, pulled the trigger firing at nearly point blank range and hit the gas. The impact of the bullet and the forward movement of the car knocked the creature off the trunk and onto the pavement. A metallic screech of anger or pain, Mulder couldn't tell which, chased him as he sped away. He would take no more chances. His gun stayed close at hand as he vowed not to stop for anything or anyone until he had Scully in his arms. It took several more minutes to get to his partner's apartment than usual, as Mulder had to dodge people wandering the streets in vain search for anyone to render aid. A few more close calls with the front end of his car and a number of the black creatures nearly brought a swift end to his headlong flight. For all the danger he was in, his mind insisted on turning to past regrets. All of the time he had wasted by not telling Scully what was written upon his heart. That very first day she had walked into his office, into his life, he had been enraptured with her very being. And he had never told her. He had said the words once before but she had written it off as a drug induces haze. Why do we always wait until it's too late? Mulder shook his head with a soulful sigh. Finally, as Scully's building came into view, Mulder brought his car to a screeching halt at the curb. He would have simply left the car running were it not for Scully's apartment keys on his key ring. He pulled the keys from the now still engine ignition and quickly scanned the area as he exited the vehicle, making sure he would not be attacked. Running as if the very devil was hot on his heels, he raced for the security door of his partner's building. Just as he was about to pass into the foyer, he felt a cold drop of water from the above rain gutter strike his hand. Glancing quickly at his hand, he was horrified to see that it was not water at all. The Black Oil slithered and twisted on his skin seeking entrance into his body. Mulder violently shook his hand, trying to free himself of the deadly substance. But the Black Oil refused to be dislodged as it clung to his hand like a second skin, finally sliding beneath the epidermal layer. Just as panic started to wash over Mulder, not knowing what to do now that the evil substance was loose in his body, the oil fairly leaped out of the skin on his wrist and landed on the ground writhing as if in agony. He watched with disgusted fascination, backing against the door, as the toxic matter slowly ceased its movements and began to disintegrate. He didn't stay to watch the rest of the disintegration process. He had to get into the building and up to Scully's apartment. But he was more than slightly grateful that he now knew for certain he was immune to the alien substance. ::Lonely people, empty rooms:: ::Pointless violence, silent tombs:: ::Could it be that we shall be together again:: Mulder dashed up the stairs until he reached the fire door on his partner's level. With his Sig Sauer in the lead, Mulder quietly opened the door, listening for any sounds that might indicate trouble. Sliding along the short wall to the corner, he took a quick peek around the corner and down the long hallway toward Scully's door. There wasn't even the sound of a television playing as he crept past the silent apartments to stand before the entrance to his partner's home. The complete silence unnerved him more than any of the alien monsters he had seen so far. Hope and fear warred for possession as Mulder gently rapped on Scully's door. "Scully, it's me." xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Scully dropped the phone after Mulder had intoned the three words that sounded the death knell of their world. She began to shake all over with fear and regret. Sobs she didn't know she was capable of shook her entire being; the counter in her kitchen her only support as her legs sagged from beneath her. "Oh, god, this can't be happening!" She slowly slid to the floor, her knees to her chin, arms wrapped around her shins. The glittering shards of her world lay scattered about her like a thousand broken mirrors as she desperately tried to think of a way to put it all back together again. Denial tried to reign supreme but Mulder's words were not to be taken lightly. She knew this night would come. She had hoped that she and her partner would have found a way to put a stop to the madness of the Consortium. That all they have suffered and borne would not be in vain. Such would not be the case. With shaking hands, she picked up the phone and proceeded to call her family. Scully trembled so much that she couldn't even key in the number for her mother. Ultimately she let the phone slip from her hand to land with a clatter on the tile. She had no idea what to tell her mother even if she got ahold of her. There was no place on the earth she could hide or hope to survive. Her brothers would probably put up a fight, but to what end? They too would succumb. For a time that seemed an eternity, Scully sat wrapped within herself and cried for the world and let regret steal her away. Too late, always too late. Her thoughts turned to her partner and best friend in the world. Fox Mulder had the capacity to challenge, infuriate and excite her like no other man in her life had ever been able to do. When she was with him, it was as if they existed on another level, that they would, and usually could, handle most anything thrown in their path. The one avenue that was never explored was the physical. They had become lovers a few years ago in all ways but one. Through touch, thought, and emotion, they were one body, one mind, and one soul. Through the fires of hell their lives had been forged. Indivisible. But both of them had become the most consummate of cowards, yellow streaks a foot wide coursing the length of their collective spines. They let fear keep them apart from the final connection. Fear of rejection, fear of being together, fearful that some how they would become less than they were if they were to let flesh intrude on such a spiritual plain. Just plain stupid. Scully wiped the tears dripping from her chin and picked up the phone with a slightly more steady hand. Hitting the first speed dial button, she rang for Mulder's apartment. After the fourth ring, the answering machine picked up. Mulder's recorded tenor pitch sounded so strong and confident in its tinny way. But the fact that he was not answering meant one of two things. He was either dead already or just not there. She wished with all of her heart that it were the latter. Hanging up, she hit the second speed dial button keyed to Mulder's cell phone. It continued to ring until the system that made cell phone calls possible finally played a slightly exasperated sounding message informing the caller that the owner of the cell phone was not answering, so hang up, stupid, and try your call again later. She shut off the cordless handset and dropped it to the floor. Her head fell into her hands and she began to cry again. "Mulder, where are you?!" She said to no one in particular. ::Sheets of double glazing help to keep outside the night:: ::Only foreign city sirens can cut through:: The blaring sounds of police sirens and strained engines roared by outside her building. Scully pulled herself, reluctantly, to her feet to look out of window to see if there was anything to see. Her blue eyes scanned the darkness for anything amiss. She watched in startled fear as three dark menacing shapes moved away from the shadows of her building and disappeared into the night. She tried to kid herself that it was nothing more than kids out for a little mischief. The illusion was shattered when the glint of the streetlight reflected off the eight-inch talons the alien monster's claws. A jolt of terror forced her to back away from the window, afraid that they would catch sight of her and end her life in a way that she knew would be unpleasant in the extreme. She stepped back and bumped into the tall cabinet. Which she knew with perfect clarity that was there. But it nevertheless rushed the breath from her chest and scared her into moving quickly. Treading lightly so as to make as little noise as possible, she headed through her living room, snatching up her gun from the sideboard table, and made for the hallway closet where she kept the spare ammo and clips for her Sig. It wasn't until she had pulled her holdout gun from her nightstand that she noticed the marked temperature decrease in her apartment. She remembered getting a notice that maintenance was going to be turning on the heat to the building today. It looked to her that it wasn't and probably wouldn't ever be done. Shivering in the chill, she pulled a heavy sweater from her closet, setting the guns down for only a moment to pull the garment over her head. A moment later, she donned a pair of thick wool socks. ::Nylon sheets and blankets help to minimize the cold:: ::But they can't keep out the chilling sounds:: ::Will the nightmare soon give way to dreaming:: ::That he is here with me?:: ::Here in the glow of the night:: Scully fairly leapt into her bed, pulling her comforter around her to ward off the encroaching cold. But the trembling would not leave her. There were many times, as a child, that the cloth and fiberfill would be a sufficient barrier to stay the menacings of imaginary monsters. This would not be one of those nights. The monsters were real. With nothing and no one to occupy her time, she listened to sounds of her environment. Aside from the pounding of her heart, she could make out the quiet hum of the fridge in the kitchen, more sirens passing into the distance and something that sounded wholly like an animal howl from somewhere beyond her window. Directly above her she could make out the sounds of moaning as if someone were in terrible despair. The scream that followed was something so completely human - a scream of agony and death accompanied by what sounded like someone beating on the floor - that it sent icy fingers into her skull. Just as quickly as the screaming and pounding had started, it stopped. The ensuing silence was more terrifying than the noise. The guns in Scully's hands shook as the animal cry she had heard from outside was replayed just feet above her head. Tears cascaded anew down her face as she realized that Mr. Evans, her upstairs neighbor, was probably no longer among the living and that he had given birth to something horrible, something beyond her worst imaginings. Something that was now seeking its escape from her former neighbor's apartment. She remembered the many times that Mr. Evans had defended her at the tenant meetings when the evil of her job came calling at her door and caused general concern or panic in the denizens of the building. He honestly had believed that they were all safer for her presence. ::I failed you, Mr. Evans, I failed you all:: Her thoughts enshrouding all of the tenants, all of her neighbors. ::I'm so sorry!:: She listened, one by one, to the death throes and tortured screams of those who lived in closest proximity to her apartment. She fought every instinct as a FBI Agent, who was sworn to protect and serve, and her oath as a doctor, to render aid, not to run out her door to try to help her neighbors. Each death she had to endure compounded her guilt as if she was the one responsible for unleashing this terror into the world. A river of tears flowed for every one of the murders she was forced to hear. Tears of impotent rage and fear. After a time of seeing in her mind's eye the death of those who lived around her, her mind turned once again to Mulder. She wishing, prayed and cajoled to the powers-that-be that he would come up with some brilliant plan to save them all from destruction. Some screwy idea that would save the world's bacon. But as each moment of his absence passed, her hope faded until there was almost nothing left to hope for. ::Do you know what you have done?:: ::Do you know what you've begun?:: ::Do you see we shall never be together again?:: ::All of my life:: She closed her eyes and held an image of his face before her and resigned herself to the fact that she would never see him again. Never hear the sound of his voice, feel the touch of his hand in that particular spot on her lower back that he had claimed as his own. Feel his warm breath blow a very un-FBI-like innuendo into her ear designed to elicit either a blush or a scalding retort. His lips so agonizingly close that she wanted to whip her head around and capture them in a sizzling, mind-spinning kiss. ::Lonely people, empty rooms:: ::Pointless violence, silent tombs:: After an uncalculated amount of time, it seemed that the world had said enough and everything became as still as a grave. She didn't even have the business-like noises of the fridge to keep her company as the motor died into silence. The cascade of tears that stained her face dried, as she felt more than heard her heart's staccato rhythm in her head. Her hands again fairly shook, this time from the intensity of the beat. Terror crept back in to replace regret. Clang! Scully nearly shot her radiator as it began to exchange the condensed water out of the cast-iron structure for live steam; blessed heat finally began to warm the chilly room. The landlord had come through for his last surviving tenant. She dropped her guns to the bedspread and pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. Her palms trying to stop the renewed flow of tears had as much effect as a tissue paper dam on the Mississippi River. "God, Mulder! I wish you were here!" ::Could it be that we shall be together again?:: A knock that she would have missed any other day due to the routine ambient noise of her world sounded through her apartment like the clap of thunder in a violent storm. Scully snatched up both guns and aimed them toward her bedroom door. Did alien creatures knock before entering to slash their victims? The three words that had destroyed her world were replaced by another three that gave her back a spark of hope. A reason to continue. Even if only for a little while. "Scully, it's me." ::Could it be that we shall be together again?:: Scully wasn't sure if her feet actually touched the floor as she rushed to the entrance of her apartment. Chains and bolts flew aside as she threw the door open, grabbed Mulder's arm and pulled him into the apartment with as much haste as her terrified and relieved body and soul could muster. Only after the door had been slammed shut and the locks into their properly locked positions did she bodily throw herself into her partner's waiting arms. Hot, grateful, fearful tears marked the chilled flesh of Mulder's neck and racking sobs shook the body that was encircled within his arms. He was whispering words of comfort that she knew were meant to sooth but only made her cry that much harder. Mulder felt tears gather behind his own eyes as he crushed the trembling body of his partner against him; wishing with all of his might that he could absorb her fear, her anguish, her helplessness. "Oh, Scully!" "I've...I've never been so...so glad to see you in all...all my life!" Her hitching words squeezed his heart until he thought it would burst. 'Oh, god, I knew I should have called. She thought I was dead!' "Scully, I'm so sorry! I should have called you back! I know I should have, but, you have no idea what I've seen! It's worse than we ever thought it would be!" He could feel his fear of the last hour's events creep unwontedly into his voice. The last thing he wanted to do was add to her terror. Scully released Mulder slightly to gaze red-eyed up into his face and read the horror and hopelessness there. She shook her head. "I know what I heard!" She struggled to get the words out past her emotion-choked throat. "I listened as every one of my neighbors died in agony!" A whisper was the best she could manage. "As a public servant, I couldn't protect them! As a doctor, I couldn't save them!" Her heart was racing so loud in her ears that she could barely hear herself speak. "The terrible screams of the dying and of the new-born was unlike anything I'd ever heard!" Mulder watched her eyes glaze over with remembered fear. Anger coursed through him directed at himself for not being here for her. "Scully, there was nothing you could have done for them." After her abduction, he had made a pact with himself that he would always do whatever was in his power to safeguard his partner. Tonight, his cowardice shattered that pact and forced Scully to live out her nightmares alone. "I watched from the window as three of the monsters crossed the street. Black as night, with long teeth and claws. The eyes...the eyes were as dead as any I've ever seen on a morgue slab. But with a deadly, coldly calculating intelligence. I only caught a glimpse. But that was more than enough!" She returned from the immediate past to gaze fearfully into her partner's eyes. "Is that what you saw on the ship? The ship in Antarctica?" Mulder nodded silently. He knew all too well. On the alien ship from which he rescued Scully, in the power plant when he went after Gibson Praise, and tonight on the trunk of his car. Same type of creature. Same kind of death and destruction. "Is there anyway we can fight these monsters?" For a moment, desperate hope overrode the fear. Her faith in Mulder to get them out of nearly hopeless situations seemed unwavering. "I don't know!" He wanted so badly to tell her everything was going to be all right. But he knew deep down in his soul there was nothing that could be done. "We have a sample of the anti-virus but we don't know if it will work against these...these things. We have no way of administering it. There isn't nearly enough to treat those who are infected. It's progressing too fast." Mulder dropped his head until he was touching Scully's forehead with his own. "Scully, I nearly killed a man tonight. One of my neighbors, in fact." Scully looked at her partner in shock. In the entire time she had known Mulder, he had never taken a life that wasn't in the line of duty. The temptation where C.G.B. Spender was concerned had on more than one occasion been Mulder's near undoing, but her partner had never crossed that boundary. "Was it someone who was infected?" Mulder nodded. "He clung to me, desperately seeking help, for someone to cure him of something he didn't understand and wouldn't even after his own end." He moved over to the couch, pulling Scully with him, his last life preserver on this sinking ship called Earth. Dropping onto the soft cushions, he scooped Scully into his lap and held her tightly. "I had a split second of indecision as to whether or not to pull the trigger. I knew what was going to happen. I could have spared him the agony of his death. But in the end, I couldn't do it. I couldn't join the ranks of the destructors. I couldn't help THEM consign one more person into the graves they have dug for all human kind." Pain and indecision clouded his once beautiful green eyes to a dull gray. "Scully...did I do the right thing?" She was front row witness to the agony in his eyes. She knew exactly how he felt with the deaths of her own neighbors that weighed heavily upon her heart. She gave him a small smile that held zero mirth and nodded her head. "Mulder, you have to be the bravest man I have ever know. And as far as I'm concerned, you did the only thing your good conscience would allow you to do, or in this case, not do." She wiped away the tears that were flowing down Mulder's face with her thumbs, her small fingers cupping his face. "You did good, partner." "Thank you, Scully." Mulder's voice was lost against the skin of Scully's throat as he hugged her to him, wrapping his long arms around her small frame. Scully's hands left his face to circle his neck and head, gently stroking his dark hair, feeling his silent weeping in every fiber of her being. After a time not easily counted, Scully asked the question that would measure their lives in mere hours, not years, as one would hopefully expect. "Mulder? How long do you think it will be before they come for us?" Mulder sat back from her tight embrace and stared up into her defeated eyes. He didn't have an exact answer for her but he was certain that this was probably going to be their last night alive. He raised a hand to brush back a lock of her auburn hair. It was then that he noticed the blood. Scully too noticed it. "Mulder, what happened?" She took his hand into hers and began to examine it more closely. There was an area of mottling with a one-inch gash in the skin on the back of his hand. "Oh, that must be where the Black Oil got me." Mulder examined his own hand now that he realized the alien substance had actually injured him. He looked up and noticed the look of shock on his partner's face. Her look of growing alarm prompted him to tell her what happened when he was 'attacked'. As scientifically interesting as the events were and the reaction of the Oil to Mulder, the maternal instinct that had managed to save his sorry ass more than once made its presence known. "Well, we should get this cleaned up." Scully stood up from Mulder's lap and handed him up from the couch. "I have some supplies in the medicine cabinet that'll care of it." Mulder's derisive snort didn't stop him from following her into the bathroom. "What possible difference could it make now Scully?" He placed himself in his customary position of obeisance when Mother Scully came calling; seated on the closed lid of the toilet, offended appendage extended for treatment. If Scully didn't have an answer to her question before, his rhetorical question to her ministrations spoke volumes. She nodded but went through the motions of disinfecting the wound and placing a bandage over the area. Mulder retrieved his injured hand and allowed both to drop into his lap as he stared at the tile floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched his partner assimilate the not-so-veiled answer. She pulled at her bottom lip in trepidation before she answered. "If we're still alive, there's always hope. Even if it's hope for the little, or not so little things left undone." She tried to stop the tears that were for the thousandth time tonight filling here eyes. "To tell the person closest to us how we truly feel." Scully was never more certain about anything, about her desire for her partner. Through the fear and terror of the past few hours, she allowed her love and passion not a little desperation shine in her eyes and in her face. Mulder looked up in uncertainty from his forlorn position on the toilet. He saw burning in her countenance the emotions he'd so much wanted to see ever since she had crawled into his heart. He let out a soulful chuckle at his own stupidity. He instantly realized how that sound could be interpreted and spoke before hurt could register in her eyes. "Why, oh, please tell me why do we always wait until it's too late?" A sad smile bloomed across Scully's face as she stumbled in to Mulder's arms as he rose from his seat. Mulder gently cradled her face in his hands and wiped away another river of tears. "Dana Katherine Scully, I have loved you since the day you walked into our dingy basement office and irrevocably tangled your life in mine. I have been in love with you just short of that amount of time. I can't imagine my life without you. You truly are my touchstone. The standard by which all other things are judged. As far as I'm concerned, no one has ever come close. My one in five billion." His mouth barely a breath away from hers. "I love you!" His lips captured hers in a kiss designed to set the world ablaze. The next moments seemed to twist and bend in the eye of a kaleidoscope. Moments mixed and intermingled, blurring the lines of the real and unreal. A gasped 'I love you' escaped Scully's lips as they stepped, slid and tumbled to her bedroom and into the welcoming embrace of rapidly warming flannel sheets. They sank into the mattress, a coiled mass of heated flesh, passion, and fear. Clothing disappeared as quickly as tangled hands and feet were capable of removing them. Swollen lips and nibbling teeth devoured ears, chins, breasts, nipples, necks, all in an attempt to feel as much as they could experience in as little time as possible. A moment of clarity galvanized them both as the moment of joining rushed upon them. Eyes locked in a symphony of emotion, breaths stalled in heaving chests. Sad regretful smiles dawned as a slow steady lunge blended them into the whole they should have been years ago. Their breathing began again with moaning sighs. "Scully!" Mulder whispered harshly into her neck as his hips dipped determinedly into her again and again. "Oh god, Mulder!" Scully returned, her legs wrapping around him holding him, caressing, urging, and loving him. The kaleidoscope turned again and the world blurred. Heat, sweat, movement, cries of passion and love were the only things left to their world, shrinking to that point of perfect union, and gripping tighter and tighter. A final thrust, a single clench of muscle, shattered their tiny world into a super nova of sensation screaming down nerve fibers, and wailing from throats. It poured and gushed in a gesture of love and futility. Reality snapped to focus as the crazed stained glass eye dissolved. A tender kiss, heaved breaths, whispered 'I love you's'. ::In silence and darkness:: ::We held each other near tonight:: ::We prayed it would last forever:: It wasn't until Mulder looked down at his chest that he realized that something was horribly wrong. Four gleaming claw tips protruded from just to the left of his sternum. A river of his own blood flowed from the wounds to bathe Scully's flesh in a rain of sticky heat. He refused to turn his head or to make a sound to acknowledge his murderer as its talons ripped away from his body. His last vision wanted to be that of Dana Scully. He looked into her eyes to see that the passion was already replaced by horror and pain. He glanced to the side of Scully's ribcage to see four crescent shaped tears pouring her life's blood from her pale body to soak the comfortable sheets. He realized belatedly that they had not even heard the creature enter the room let alone through the locked door of the apartment. She started to turn away to see the insect-like face of her killer but a small movement of Mulder's head kept her gaze locked to his face. They would give no satisfaction to the creature that was their doomsayer. Their generations together, their many lives, flashed by in an instant in their eyes. Breath, heat and life were draining down a vortex of darkness. One final tearful kiss, a whisper of love, then the tunnel of inky black stole them from their world... xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Scully awoke with a start, consciousness returned from the edge of forever. She shook all over as she raised a trembling hand to wipe away the sweat that ran in rivulets down her face. After a long minute, her breathing finally slowed as she collapsed back against her pillow. With the dream still fresh in her mind, she recalled every excruciating detail right to the very end. ::Please don't let that be our ending!:: She pleaded to everyone and no one. She almost screamed in fright as the well-muscled arm of her partner, friend, and lover snaked around her middle to pull her closer to his nearly sleeping form. She resisted for a moment but that, as well as the sweat drenching her torso, brought awareness to Fox Mulder in a rush. "Scully, you're soaking wet. What's wrong?" He sat up quickly, tossing the covers aside and gathered her quaking body to his own. She hugged him tight as if holding on to her one an only anchor in this life and sobbed quietly against his shoulder, hating that she was so shaken by a nightmare. Mulder gently stroked her tangled auburn tresses as he whispered quiet assurances in her ear. He knew it had to be something pretty bad to shake her up this much. Letting her have the time to calm down and rationalize what she'd experienced, he knew she would eventually fill him in. Some time passed before Scully lifted her head and began the messy task of palming away the tears. "I'm sorry I woke you Mulder. It was just a dream." She scrubbed her hands over her face one more time and raked her fingers through her sweaty matted hair. "Simple dreams don't bathe you in sweat and send you into a crying jag." He wrapped her in his arms, gently stroking from her shoulder to her elbow. "Come on Scully, out with it." When dog-with-bone syndrome struck her partner, there was little chance of getting him to drop it. With a soul weary sigh, she broke down and told him all she could remember of the now-fading nightmare. Mulder didn't say a word during her monologue and listened to everything she had to say. As a psychologist, he could have picked her dream apart and presented to her all of the symbolism her subconscious had thrown at her: irrational fear, abandonment, all that psychobabble. As her new lover, he wanted to hold her, cuddle her, and make the fear and hurt go away. As her FBI partner on the X-Files, he had to give her intuitive flashes some credence. Always wary of the future. Lover, for the time being, won out as she fell silent. "Scully, I think we should get you a shower before you itch your skin off from the drying sweat. Then get some sleep to gain a little perspective and we'll discuss this in the morning." Mulder looked over at the clock that read three in the morning. "Well, at least at a descent hour after the sun comes up." Scully had the look of a woman being patronized. Dana Scully hated being patronized. Before a word was uttered from her lips, Mulder jumped to his own defense. "I heard every word you said. It's all up here." He pointed to his head indicating his incredible memory. "Let's just sleep on it and talk about it later." Scully scowled lightly even though she knew he was right, about all of it. She was exhausted from the ordeal and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep again. But the need for a good scrubbing was becoming more pronounced as her skin began to prickle. She roused herself from the bed, slithering across Mulder's lap in a most suggestive manner and started toward the doorway, no mind to her nakedness. She stopped long enough with a light swish of her tail and her gaze tossed over her shoulder. "Care to join me G-Man?" Mulder smiled as his body responded to both her explicit and implied invitation. "Anytime, anywhere G-Woman." He leapt from the bed and chased a squealing Scully into the bathroom. All thoughts of nightmares involving the end of the world were banished...for now. Fini