From: ldoone1@aol.com (LDoone1)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: NEW: INTO THE LIGHT
Date: 4 Mar 1996 20:19:57 -0500


"Into the Light"
by Lorna Youngs, aka LDoone1@aol.com
1/1

DISCLAIMER:  The characters in this story belong to Chris Carter, Ten
Thirteen Productions and the Fox network and are used without permission,
but with great care.  Consider that if I am sued for this use, I won't be
able to afford purchasing the entire XF series on laser disk, as I 
certainly intend to.

THANKS:  To Paula Graves, who was kind enough to read this and offer
suggestions.  I also had her wonderful stories and insight into these
characters to guide me.

WARNING:  This is a short scene that should have taken place in "Pusher"
but didn't.  I suppose if it had, it would have been proof positive that
Chris Carter is being held hostage somewhere by a band of angry romantics.
 So, if ghosts, mutants and aliens are your thing, stop reading.

*****
	Scully handed the flak jacket she had been wearing to Brophy as
his other officers righted the table Mulder had thrown out of his way and
prepared to lift Modell onto the waiting gurney.  Scully neither moved nor
spoke as the officers quickly executed her command to move Modell and
clear the room.   It seemed to take an eternity before the last of the
officers left the room.  She walked to the door and pushed it closed. 
Mulder's head was still in his hands.


	Without speaking, Scully reached for him, her one hand pulling his
head toward her to rest on the flat plane of her abdomen while the other
caressed his back.


	At her touch, Mulder removed his hands from his face and encircled
her waist with his arms, squeezing his head ever more tightly to her. 
"Oh, Scully.  I was so close...so very close to losing you.  I swore I
wouldn't let that happen again."


	Mulder thought about all they had been through in the last two
years.  He remembered telling her, angrily, that all that mattered to him
in this life was finding his sister, Samantha, and uncovering the secrets
of Samantha's disappearance that the government was keeping from him.  At
the time he said this, it was true.  But, over and over again, Scully had
shown him that she had no agenda other than to solve the cases they were
given and that her loyalty and trust embraced him personally, as well. 
She had repeatedly been there for him and watched his back, even as he
tried to build walls around himself to preserve his splendid isolation
from her.  He thought about the bottomless pit he had entered when she had
disappeared.  Existing in a nether world of agonizing helplessness at her
loss, more than once he had wiped away his tears with the barrel of his
gun, as he contemplated ending his anguish forever.  Her return to him had
been nothing short of a miracle, second only to the miracle of finding
that the person who his enemies had sent to destroy him had actually
become his savior.  Mulder knew that finding Samantha may once have been
his purpose for living, but Scully had given him back his life.


	"If you hadn't pulled the alarm."  Mulder didn't need to finish
his thought.  Scully moved her hand from his head to his chin, lifting his
face so that she could see his anguished eyes.  The tears which she had
managed to choke back as the Swat team members had worked the room now
reappeared as she saw how the pain of losing her would have crippled him,
perhaps enough to have made him place his own gun to his head, without
Modell's compulsion.


	Scully's eyes had never left Mulder's face as he repeatedly fired
the now empty gun at Modell -- the monster -- who had, only moments
before, caused Mulder to place the gun to his own temple and fire.  The
trigger clicked.  The gun had been impotent, but Scully, realizing her
helplessness to protect Mulder, had exploded in a rage, slamming her hands
on the table and shouting at Modell, "Damn you!  You bastard!"  Moments
later, Modell, had silently "pushed" Mulder to swing the gun in Scully's
direction and ordered him to fire.  Scully had stared at Mulder with eyes
that had welled with tears, then spilled over, not in fear for her own
life, but in the certain dread of what shooting her would do to Mulder if
he killed her.  Spying a fire alarm box in the hallway, Scully had spun
away, crashing into the wall as she pulled the alarm latch.  The clamor of
the ringing alarm had broken Modell's hold long enough for Mulder to
re-aim the gun at Modell and fire.  This time, the chamber was loaded.


	"Don't do this to yourself, Mulder.  I've come close to losing
you, too.  When I came home from New Mexico, I was so ashamed of letting
you go to that boxcar alone...I swore...after you came back to me...that
I'd never let that happen again."  As she spoke, she lowered her lips to
his and gently kissed him.  Pulling up to look at him, Scully saw that his
eyes, which had been clouded with guilt, had now softened and were shining
with unshed tears.


	His feelings for her, so long harbored, now poured out of him.  "I
love you, Scully."


	Scully closed her eyes upon hearing the sweetest sounds she'd
heard before only in her head.  Her eyes were open and glistening now as
she said, "I've loved you for a long time, Mulder."  Her voice was barely
a whisper, more nearly a prayer.


	On more than one occasion, Scully had contemplated life without
Mulder -- even long before New Mexico.  It had been on that Navy ship,
adrift and sinking in the North Atlantic.  Tainted water had caused both
Mulder and Scully to age, more like ossify, inexorably.  Mulder, who had
been more seriously affected, was dying before her eyes and she was as
helpless to stop it as she had been to stop Modell.  Scully had offered
him the last dregs of untainted water to prolong his life as long as
possible, but he had refused, sensibly concluding that Scully had the
better chance of surviving until help arrived.  In that moment, she knew,
as she, too, refused the water, that she preferred dying with Mulder to
living without him.  Unknown, even now, to Mulder, she had then lain down
beside him to die.


	Scully's hands moved to cup his face.  "I always thought I was too
strong to need anyone, Mulder, but I need you."  Scully smiled wistfully,
realizing the import of the feelings that had just drained out of her. 
Scully turned her head so that she could receive Mulder's lips as he
reached for her again.  Their kiss was long, but sweet and tender,
astounding Scully that her recent torment could be washed away by the most
gentle of feelings.


	The sound of the door opening broke their kiss, but neither Scully
nor Mulder was inclined to move.


	"Excuse me, Agent Scully?"  It was Brophy, the SWAT team leader
who had sat with her in the surveillance van as they watched Mulder scour
the hospital for Modell.  He had witnessed the silent farewell between
these partners.  He had heard of people who could communicate volumes
without words, but he had never witnessed such uncanny ability.  Brophy
knew that whatever had transpired in this room with Modell had to be faced
by these two again and alone, but duty was now compelling him to intrude. 
"I just thought you should know that the orderly and security guard are
dead, and Modell is being taken into surgery.  If...ah...you and Agent
Mulder are ready, we need to get some statements?"


	"I'll be right with you, Brophy."  Regretfully, Scully pulled
away.  "Why don't you go back to the van and rest, Mulder?  Brophy and I
can start the paperwork on this."


	"The paperwork isn't going to be easy, Scully.  How do I plead
self-defense for shooting an unarmed man?"


	Scully's hand sought out his and squeezed.  "Whatever *pleading*
there is to do, Mulder, we'll do it together."  Their fingers intertwined,
Scully, once again, led Mulder out of the darkness and into the light.

The End
LDoone1@aol.com




Lorna
LDoone1@aol.com