Fic: The Way You Are (3/3)
Here's the last part. Comments & feedback are welcome! Summary, disclaimer, etc. same as in part 1.
They made it to Mulder's apartment complex without further incident - unless you counted the dog they startled while crossing its owner's yard, causing it to yap hysterically until they were far enough away to no longer be a threat. It was slightly more difficult to get into Mulder's apartment than it had been to leave Scully's, but they both got up to the window with a minimum of near-falls.
This time, Scully let Mulder take the lead, and he went directly to his room. As the two of them drew closer to the head of the bed, Scully became aware of a very strange, entirely foreign scent, which was growing stronger. She found that she didn't want to get any closer to the source, whatever it might be. Mulder had stopped moving forward, too, but then he said, There, and walked a few more steps, looking at the empty glass on the bedside table. Can you smell that?
Yeah, Scully said. She felt like she was going to sneeze, or be ill, she couldn't tell which. In your glass?
I'm pretty sure I got up and got some water after Langly woke me up this morning, Mulder confirmed. So someone poisoned my water. Well, it's been a few years, I guess. He couldn't mask his anger, despite the light tone.
It seems to be concentrated in the glass, though, Scully observed, not just introduced into your apartment building's water supply this time. I mean, we can only smell it in here, not next to any of the sinks in your apartment, right?
We can check again to be sure, but that does seem to be true.
And maybe... some of the substance stayed on your mouth after you transformed, Scully continued as the thought struck her, which could explain how it spread to me. She was suddenly reminded of the climactic scene of Romeo and Juliet, and was faintly amused at the similarities - and vast differences - between their situation and hers and Mulder's.
That certainly makes sense as far as it goes, Mulder agreed. He was restive, pacing around the room. Abruptly, he headed for the door. I'm going to check and make sure that there are no traces of this stuff in my kitchen sink.
Scully followed. She was preoccupied with wondering about the composition of the material, and so almost ran into her partner when he stopped in front of his computer desk. What is it, Mulder?
Someone left a message, he replied, looking at the blinking light on the phone, and I have a hunch that it's one we should hear right now - if I can figure out a way to push the button. After a moment of deliberation, he picked up a pencil in his mouth, and carefully aimed for the small button. It took a few tries, but finally he succeeded.
The message - which had apparently been left at about noon - started. It was a man's voice, completely unfamiliar to Scully. “Hello, Agent Mulder.” The speaker sounded... not exactly threatening, but something about his tone made the listeners both quite uneasy. “Or, well - Agent Mulder is no doubt indisposed at the moment, so this is probably his partner listening to his messages, perhaps wondering where he is. Hello, Agent Scully.”
Scully glanced at Mulder. The man started speaking again. “I assume you'd like to find your partner. I regret to tell you that I don't know exactly where he is, though I did see him earlier today. Though you may not believe me, I will tell you truthfully that Agent Mulder is no longer himself. In fact, I have repaid his lack of consideration by doing to him what he evidently didn't think was possible. Whether or not you do believe me, Agent Scully, if you want to find Mulder, you'll probably need to bring along a tranquilizer dart or something similar. The person on whom I tested my potion totally lost his humanity within minutes, and your partner's been a leopard for hours by now, at least. Your best bet for finding him might be by tracking any reports of a wild animal on the loose in the area.”
There was another brief pause. Scully looked at Mulder again. His ears were flat against his head, but he was utterly still. “If you can find and restrain him, you'll need the antidote next.” The message cut off there, and Scully almost began to panic until the next message started to play, and she relaxed. This man - whoever he was - obviously found what he had to say too important to fit it in one message.
“So, the antidote,” he continued. “It's relatively simple. You'll need a blood sample from him, and then you'll need to pick up the rest of the ingredients from a storage locker.” He recited the address of a place that sounded nearby, and said that the key could be found taped to the underside of Mulder's car. He ended the message by stating, “There are also some documents in the storage locker... which I strongly suggest you and Agent Mulder take a look at this time, instead of disregarding them.” He did not leave a name, not that Scully really expected him to.
After the message ended, they were silent for a few moments. Then Scully asked, somewhat tentatively, Mulder? Did you recognize his voice at all?
Mulder shook his head once. No. And I swear, I never saw anything to do with - with leopards or transformation or anything like that, much less just decided not to investigate it. I have no idea what he's talking about!
I believe you, Scully assured him. But he obviously thinks you ignored something he sent you. Maybe something got lost in the mail, or got accidentally thrown away before either of us saw it.
Yeah, I guess, Mulder said. He walked a few steps back toward his room before turning to meet her eyes. How are we going to get blood samples, Scully? I don't think either of us want to try operating a syringe with our teeth, not that I even happen to have any lying around the house.
Good point, Scully replied. She sighed, sitting down and looking away. I hate that we have to jump through this lunatic's hoops, Mulder. We have no guarantee that he's even given us the real solution. And since he clearly was watching you this morning, what's to keep him from watching your apartment now, and following us when we go to the storage locker?
I know, Mulder said quietly. He moved over to her, and again touched her face with his briefly. But I think it's our only option at this point, unfortunately, since neither of us want to take the chance to just wait around and see if it wears off.
Reluctantly, Scully nodded. Before we leave, we do need to figure out how we're going to get blood samples - and how we're going to carry them with us.
I'd rather not carry the key to the locker in my mouth the whole way, either, Mulder remarked.
They eventually decided to trust to the cover of darkness to keep any watchers from noticing that one of a pair of leopards was carrying a plastic bag in its mouth. The plastic bag contained the key that was in fact taped under Mulder's car, and two small glass jars that would hold the blood samples once they got to the storage locker. Scully had decided that the easiest and safest way for them to get blood samples would unfortunately have to involve a knife (which was also in the bag), rather than syringes. It had already been hard enough to maneuver these few items into the bag just using their mouths and paws. But they would cross this next bridge when they came to it.
Their luck - such as it was - seemed to hold: the two made it to the location the man had directed them to without anyone seeming to notice them. They did start a few dogs barking again, but passed through quickly enough that none of the dogs' owners came out to check what had disturbed them.
Upon arriving, however, they faced a real obstacle: the storage lockers were - of course - inside a building, and the door to the building was locked. Great. Mulder rose onto his hind legs and pushed against the door as hard as he could, but it didn't give. I doubt the key he gave us is going to open the outside door and a specific locker inside.
Mulder, Scully said, looking over her shoulder at the empty parking lot nervously, I'm starting to doubt that he was really planning to give us the antidote at all. Just as she finished the sentence, she heard Mulder gasp, and she turned quickly. He was slumped on the ground, a tranquilizer dart in his shoulder. Mulder! Then she felt a sharp pain in her own side, and the last thing she saw as she hit the ground was a tall man approaching them.
~~~~~~~~~
Scully felt herself coming slowly out of unconsciousness. For a second, she was terrified that she would lose her memories of her human self again upon waking - but then she realized dimly that the fact that she was aware enough to be terrified about this meant that she still had her memories. The next thing she realized was that she was cold, and she was also in pain. Her sense of smell was curiously deadened. But that last part could mean... She opened her eyes.
It was dark, and she seemed to be outside. She was shivering - because she was human again, and covered only partially by a thin blanket. There was something sticky on her face, and when she reached up a hand to her head, it came away with blood on it. How had she gotten here?
Sitting up, Scully pulled the blanket around herself, groaning at the pounding headache the change in position produced. She seemed to be on a deserted street somewhere. There was one lone streetlight providing illumination enough to see that the truck that she had obviously been inside had crashed into a tree, throwing the occupants of the back of the vehicle out onto the street. Mulder was about a yard away from her, also back in human form, out cold and half under a large, upside-down, empty kennel whose door was hanging off its hinges. From what she could see, he wasn't even lucky enough to have a blanket over him. There was blood on his face and scrapes on his back.
“Mulder?” Scully stood up cautiously, but swayed and almost fell despite her care. She took a few deep breaths before making her way over to him. Then she crouched down and felt for his pulse, letting out the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding when his pulse was strong and steady.
“Mulder?” she said again. He didn't stir. He's got to be freezing, Scully thought detachedly, standing again to walk carefully towards the truck. Maybe there would be more blankets in there.
She looked at the truck bed, and saw nothing useful other than a tarp, which she would use as a last resort. Ignoring her own increasing shivers and lingering grogginess, Scully moved toward the cab. The driver was slumped against the steering wheel, and when Scully opened the door and felt for a pulse, there was none. The man in the passenger seat was still alive, though his pulse was faint. He had a coat folded up on his lap, which Scully managed to pull out from under his arms. She wondered if either of these two men was the one who had tranquilized Mulder and her - and if either of them was the man on Mulder's answering machine. As she was about to walk as quickly as she could back to Mulder, she noticed another blanket crumpled up on the floor of the truck. It was covered in shards of glass from the crash, but Scully grabbed it anyway. She shook it out as carefully as she could while still trying to hold her own blanket around herself.
When she got back to Mulder, Scully saw with relief that his eyes were open. “Mulder?”
“Scully,” he replied, looking up at her. He blinked, and then shivered. “This wasn't really what I had in mind for what it would be like when we turned back.” His words were slightly slurred, as if he too were still fighting off the sedative.
Scully helped him push the crate off, and then handed him the coat and the blanket. She turned away to let him put them around himself, and then jumped as he put his hand on her shoulder. “Here.”
She turned back to him as he was putting the coat over them both. “You're cold, too.”
“We need to get somewhere warm, and soon,” Scully said, shivering again as she allowed him to pull her close. “And we need to get help for the passenger of this truck. He's fading fast.”
“Do he or the driver have cell phones on them?”
Thankfully, the driver did have a cell phone, and it didn't take too much effort to get it and call an ambulance. Scully didn't know how they were going to explain the situation to the EMTs when they arrived, but she really couldn't bring herself to care too much. Even in his groggy state, Mulder had some “helpful” suggestions for explaining their lack of clothes, but in the end, he agreed to let them draw their own conclusions without adding anything too colorful.
Scully stayed lucid for as long as it took to tell the EMTs who she was, make sure Mulder was being taken care of, accept the more adequate blankets offered to her, and make sure that the truck's passenger would be treated as a suspect in their kidnapping if he survived. Then, as she warmed up, she promptly fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, to the sound of Mulder's voice as he continued to inform the EMTs of a few pertinent details. She could only keep herself awake for brief moments during the next few hours, as she dealt with the combined effects of exhaustion, shock, and the remnants of the tranquilizer in her system.
~~~~~~~~~
This time when Scully woke up, she recognized immediately that she was in a hospital bed - and she was only mildly surprised to see her mother talking quietly to a doctor just outside her room. When she shifted and started to sit up, both of them noticed, and quickly entered the room.
“Dana,” her mother said with a worried smile. “How are you feeling?”
She took stock for a moment. She wasn't cold, her head had been bandaged, and she didn't feel any pain. “I... feel pretty good, Mom, considering.” They hugged, and Scully asked, “How long was I asleep?”
“You were brought in at around 11:45 last night, and you've been out pretty much the entire night.” the doctor answered, as Mrs. Scully and her daughter both turned to him. “It's just now ten.”
“Oh, I made you miss Mass,” Scully said to her mom with regret. “I'm sorry.”
Her mother smiled again, and brushed a lock of hair out of her daughter's face. “That's nowhere near as important as knowing you're all right, honey.” Then she paused, glanced at the doctor, and said, “Dr. Stevens said you and Fox were in a car accident, and that you'd been kidnapped?”
Scully hesitated, wondering how to even begin to explain the whole thing in a way that her mother would understand and believe. “Yes, and we were both injected with some sort of tranquilizer...” She turned to Dr. Stevens again.
“Yes,” the man confirmed. “You were both lucky to suffer no side effects from it, since the toxicological showed that it was a kind of barbiturate usually only used in tranquilizer guns to knock out large animals. It's very dangerous when administered to humans.”
“No wonder I couldn't stay awake last night,” Scully remarked, wondering if it had been their captor's intention to have them turn back into themselves while still drugged, or if that had been an accident. “How is Mulder?”
“He's doing fine, too,” Dr. Stevens told her. “He woke up about fifteen minutes ago. You both were a little banged up from the accident, and your partner had a few more scrapes than you did, but he's all patched up now.” He smiled. “And he wanted to be informed when you woke up, so I'll leave you two alone while I do that.”
Scully nodded. As the man was leaving, she had another thought. “Dr. Stevens?”
He turned back to her questioningly.
“How... how is the man that was brought in from the passenger seat of the truck? And has anyone been able to find out who he is?”
The man's face darkened slightly. “He's... still hanging on, but he received a severe head injury as a result of the crash. It's still up in the air as far as whether he'll make it. The ID found on him says that his name is Devin Granger.” Dr. Stevens sighed. “There's been no luck IDing the driver so far.”
Scully thanked him. As soon as he was gone, her mom looked at her with concern still evident in her eyes. “Dana, what happened?”
Sighing, Scully tried to compose her thoughts. “What have you heard already?”
“That you and Fox were kidnapped out of your apartments last night,” Mrs. Scully answered, “and that you ended up in the back of a truck, drugged, and... that both of you only had blankets on when the ambulance got there.” She looked extremely distressed, and Scully could guess what she was imagining.
“Oh, Mom,” Scully said, hugging her again. “No.” She hastened to assure her that neither Mulder nor she had been put through the kind of assault she had been imagining, though of course Scully hadn't exactly been pleased to wake up and find herself without clothes, especially on a cold night. Her mother held her for a while, crying a little with relief, and Scully couldn't keep a few tears from escaping either. She put her mom through so much pain over the years while doing her job - it really didn't seem fair to do it to her on weekends, too.
As they broke apart, Scully realized that she was extremely hungry. “Mom, can you get someone to bring me breakfast?” she asked, wiping her eyes.
Mrs. Scully dried her own eyes and nodded. “I'll talk to a nurse, and then I'll stop and make sure Fox has had breakfast, too.” Scully smiled, and squeezed her mother's hand. “I'll be back soon.”
“Thanks, Mom. Would you ask if they're serving bacon?”
Epilogue
The doorbell rang, and Scully opened it. She was totally unsurprised to see Mulder standing there, his smile tinged with sheepishness. “I decided to come in through the door this time,” he told her in greeting, “just for the novelty of it.”
“I appreciate it,” Scully returned, standing aside to let him in. “Enjoying your day off, Mulder?”
Mulder nodded absently. Skinner had visited them both a few hours before they checked out of the hospital yesterday. After hearing their tale and reviewing the evidence that had been gathered - lab analysis of the substance in Mulder's glass had not come back yet - he had sighed, looked like he couldn't really believe what he was hearing (as usual), told his agents he was glad they were feeling better, and ordered that they take at least the next day off. They were still waiting on Devin Granger, to see if he would regain consciousness or not.
“I, uh... I just thought that maybe, since I owe you dinner, I could... we could go out.” Mulder looked up from the spot on the floor at which he'd been staring to meet her eyes.
“That sounds nice,” Scully said with a small smile. “How fancy are we talking? Do I need to change?”
“No,” Mulder grinned. “You're perfect just the way you are, Scully.”
“Ha ha,” Scully replied, but she couldn't keep from grinning as well. She took his offered hand. “I think I'm in the mood for steak.”
“Ooh, still feeling carnivorous, are we?” Mulder inquired, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
Still smiling, Scully warned, “Mulder, just because I don't have claws anymore doesn't mean I can't hurt you.”
He tightened his hold on her hand. “Oh, I believe you.” Scully locked her door with her free hand as they left. Then Mulder raised her palm to his lips and kissed it. “Did that work better than the last time I tried it?”
“Much.” She stopped walking and tilted her head up at him. “But don't feel like you have to stop there.” As he leaned in to kiss her, Scully felt the last of the weekend's tension melt away. They still had to tie up what details of their ordeal they could, but that could wait. For now, there were much more important things to think about.
~~~~
Author's Note part 2: Thanks for reading this far! And I swear I wrote this before the movie came out, so the animal tranquilizer was not meant to be a rip-off of IWTB.
They made it to Mulder's apartment complex without further incident - unless you counted the dog they startled while crossing its owner's yard, causing it to yap hysterically until they were far enough away to no longer be a threat. It was slightly more difficult to get into Mulder's apartment than it had been to leave Scully's, but they both got up to the window with a minimum of near-falls.
This time, Scully let Mulder take the lead, and he went directly to his room. As the two of them drew closer to the head of the bed, Scully became aware of a very strange, entirely foreign scent, which was growing stronger. She found that she didn't want to get any closer to the source, whatever it might be. Mulder had stopped moving forward, too, but then he said, There, and walked a few more steps, looking at the empty glass on the bedside table. Can you smell that?
Yeah, Scully said. She felt like she was going to sneeze, or be ill, she couldn't tell which. In your glass?
I'm pretty sure I got up and got some water after Langly woke me up this morning, Mulder confirmed. So someone poisoned my water. Well, it's been a few years, I guess. He couldn't mask his anger, despite the light tone.
It seems to be concentrated in the glass, though, Scully observed, not just introduced into your apartment building's water supply this time. I mean, we can only smell it in here, not next to any of the sinks in your apartment, right?
We can check again to be sure, but that does seem to be true.
And maybe... some of the substance stayed on your mouth after you transformed, Scully continued as the thought struck her, which could explain how it spread to me. She was suddenly reminded of the climactic scene of Romeo and Juliet, and was faintly amused at the similarities - and vast differences - between their situation and hers and Mulder's.
That certainly makes sense as far as it goes, Mulder agreed. He was restive, pacing around the room. Abruptly, he headed for the door. I'm going to check and make sure that there are no traces of this stuff in my kitchen sink.
Scully followed. She was preoccupied with wondering about the composition of the material, and so almost ran into her partner when he stopped in front of his computer desk. What is it, Mulder?
Someone left a message, he replied, looking at the blinking light on the phone, and I have a hunch that it's one we should hear right now - if I can figure out a way to push the button. After a moment of deliberation, he picked up a pencil in his mouth, and carefully aimed for the small button. It took a few tries, but finally he succeeded.
The message - which had apparently been left at about noon - started. It was a man's voice, completely unfamiliar to Scully. “Hello, Agent Mulder.” The speaker sounded... not exactly threatening, but something about his tone made the listeners both quite uneasy. “Or, well - Agent Mulder is no doubt indisposed at the moment, so this is probably his partner listening to his messages, perhaps wondering where he is. Hello, Agent Scully.”
Scully glanced at Mulder. The man started speaking again. “I assume you'd like to find your partner. I regret to tell you that I don't know exactly where he is, though I did see him earlier today. Though you may not believe me, I will tell you truthfully that Agent Mulder is no longer himself. In fact, I have repaid his lack of consideration by doing to him what he evidently didn't think was possible. Whether or not you do believe me, Agent Scully, if you want to find Mulder, you'll probably need to bring along a tranquilizer dart or something similar. The person on whom I tested my potion totally lost his humanity within minutes, and your partner's been a leopard for hours by now, at least. Your best bet for finding him might be by tracking any reports of a wild animal on the loose in the area.”
There was another brief pause. Scully looked at Mulder again. His ears were flat against his head, but he was utterly still. “If you can find and restrain him, you'll need the antidote next.” The message cut off there, and Scully almost began to panic until the next message started to play, and she relaxed. This man - whoever he was - obviously found what he had to say too important to fit it in one message.
“So, the antidote,” he continued. “It's relatively simple. You'll need a blood sample from him, and then you'll need to pick up the rest of the ingredients from a storage locker.” He recited the address of a place that sounded nearby, and said that the key could be found taped to the underside of Mulder's car. He ended the message by stating, “There are also some documents in the storage locker... which I strongly suggest you and Agent Mulder take a look at this time, instead of disregarding them.” He did not leave a name, not that Scully really expected him to.
After the message ended, they were silent for a few moments. Then Scully asked, somewhat tentatively, Mulder? Did you recognize his voice at all?
Mulder shook his head once. No. And I swear, I never saw anything to do with - with leopards or transformation or anything like that, much less just decided not to investigate it. I have no idea what he's talking about!
I believe you, Scully assured him. But he obviously thinks you ignored something he sent you. Maybe something got lost in the mail, or got accidentally thrown away before either of us saw it.
Yeah, I guess, Mulder said. He walked a few steps back toward his room before turning to meet her eyes. How are we going to get blood samples, Scully? I don't think either of us want to try operating a syringe with our teeth, not that I even happen to have any lying around the house.
Good point, Scully replied. She sighed, sitting down and looking away. I hate that we have to jump through this lunatic's hoops, Mulder. We have no guarantee that he's even given us the real solution. And since he clearly was watching you this morning, what's to keep him from watching your apartment now, and following us when we go to the storage locker?
I know, Mulder said quietly. He moved over to her, and again touched her face with his briefly. But I think it's our only option at this point, unfortunately, since neither of us want to take the chance to just wait around and see if it wears off.
Reluctantly, Scully nodded. Before we leave, we do need to figure out how we're going to get blood samples - and how we're going to carry them with us.
I'd rather not carry the key to the locker in my mouth the whole way, either, Mulder remarked.
They eventually decided to trust to the cover of darkness to keep any watchers from noticing that one of a pair of leopards was carrying a plastic bag in its mouth. The plastic bag contained the key that was in fact taped under Mulder's car, and two small glass jars that would hold the blood samples once they got to the storage locker. Scully had decided that the easiest and safest way for them to get blood samples would unfortunately have to involve a knife (which was also in the bag), rather than syringes. It had already been hard enough to maneuver these few items into the bag just using their mouths and paws. But they would cross this next bridge when they came to it.
Their luck - such as it was - seemed to hold: the two made it to the location the man had directed them to without anyone seeming to notice them. They did start a few dogs barking again, but passed through quickly enough that none of the dogs' owners came out to check what had disturbed them.
Upon arriving, however, they faced a real obstacle: the storage lockers were - of course - inside a building, and the door to the building was locked. Great. Mulder rose onto his hind legs and pushed against the door as hard as he could, but it didn't give. I doubt the key he gave us is going to open the outside door and a specific locker inside.
Mulder, Scully said, looking over her shoulder at the empty parking lot nervously, I'm starting to doubt that he was really planning to give us the antidote at all. Just as she finished the sentence, she heard Mulder gasp, and she turned quickly. He was slumped on the ground, a tranquilizer dart in his shoulder. Mulder! Then she felt a sharp pain in her own side, and the last thing she saw as she hit the ground was a tall man approaching them.
~~~~~~~~~
Scully felt herself coming slowly out of unconsciousness. For a second, she was terrified that she would lose her memories of her human self again upon waking - but then she realized dimly that the fact that she was aware enough to be terrified about this meant that she still had her memories. The next thing she realized was that she was cold, and she was also in pain. Her sense of smell was curiously deadened. But that last part could mean... She opened her eyes.
It was dark, and she seemed to be outside. She was shivering - because she was human again, and covered only partially by a thin blanket. There was something sticky on her face, and when she reached up a hand to her head, it came away with blood on it. How had she gotten here?
Sitting up, Scully pulled the blanket around herself, groaning at the pounding headache the change in position produced. She seemed to be on a deserted street somewhere. There was one lone streetlight providing illumination enough to see that the truck that she had obviously been inside had crashed into a tree, throwing the occupants of the back of the vehicle out onto the street. Mulder was about a yard away from her, also back in human form, out cold and half under a large, upside-down, empty kennel whose door was hanging off its hinges. From what she could see, he wasn't even lucky enough to have a blanket over him. There was blood on his face and scrapes on his back.
“Mulder?” Scully stood up cautiously, but swayed and almost fell despite her care. She took a few deep breaths before making her way over to him. Then she crouched down and felt for his pulse, letting out the breath she hadn't noticed she was holding when his pulse was strong and steady.
“Mulder?” she said again. He didn't stir. He's got to be freezing, Scully thought detachedly, standing again to walk carefully towards the truck. Maybe there would be more blankets in there.
She looked at the truck bed, and saw nothing useful other than a tarp, which she would use as a last resort. Ignoring her own increasing shivers and lingering grogginess, Scully moved toward the cab. The driver was slumped against the steering wheel, and when Scully opened the door and felt for a pulse, there was none. The man in the passenger seat was still alive, though his pulse was faint. He had a coat folded up on his lap, which Scully managed to pull out from under his arms. She wondered if either of these two men was the one who had tranquilized Mulder and her - and if either of them was the man on Mulder's answering machine. As she was about to walk as quickly as she could back to Mulder, she noticed another blanket crumpled up on the floor of the truck. It was covered in shards of glass from the crash, but Scully grabbed it anyway. She shook it out as carefully as she could while still trying to hold her own blanket around herself.
When she got back to Mulder, Scully saw with relief that his eyes were open. “Mulder?”
“Scully,” he replied, looking up at her. He blinked, and then shivered. “This wasn't really what I had in mind for what it would be like when we turned back.” His words were slightly slurred, as if he too were still fighting off the sedative.
Scully helped him push the crate off, and then handed him the coat and the blanket. She turned away to let him put them around himself, and then jumped as he put his hand on her shoulder. “Here.”
She turned back to him as he was putting the coat over them both. “You're cold, too.”
“We need to get somewhere warm, and soon,” Scully said, shivering again as she allowed him to pull her close. “And we need to get help for the passenger of this truck. He's fading fast.”
“Do he or the driver have cell phones on them?”
Thankfully, the driver did have a cell phone, and it didn't take too much effort to get it and call an ambulance. Scully didn't know how they were going to explain the situation to the EMTs when they arrived, but she really couldn't bring herself to care too much. Even in his groggy state, Mulder had some “helpful” suggestions for explaining their lack of clothes, but in the end, he agreed to let them draw their own conclusions without adding anything too colorful.
Scully stayed lucid for as long as it took to tell the EMTs who she was, make sure Mulder was being taken care of, accept the more adequate blankets offered to her, and make sure that the truck's passenger would be treated as a suspect in their kidnapping if he survived. Then, as she warmed up, she promptly fell asleep in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, to the sound of Mulder's voice as he continued to inform the EMTs of a few pertinent details. She could only keep herself awake for brief moments during the next few hours, as she dealt with the combined effects of exhaustion, shock, and the remnants of the tranquilizer in her system.
~~~~~~~~~
This time when Scully woke up, she recognized immediately that she was in a hospital bed - and she was only mildly surprised to see her mother talking quietly to a doctor just outside her room. When she shifted and started to sit up, both of them noticed, and quickly entered the room.
“Dana,” her mother said with a worried smile. “How are you feeling?”
She took stock for a moment. She wasn't cold, her head had been bandaged, and she didn't feel any pain. “I... feel pretty good, Mom, considering.” They hugged, and Scully asked, “How long was I asleep?”
“You were brought in at around 11:45 last night, and you've been out pretty much the entire night.” the doctor answered, as Mrs. Scully and her daughter both turned to him. “It's just now ten.”
“Oh, I made you miss Mass,” Scully said to her mom with regret. “I'm sorry.”
Her mother smiled again, and brushed a lock of hair out of her daughter's face. “That's nowhere near as important as knowing you're all right, honey.” Then she paused, glanced at the doctor, and said, “Dr. Stevens said you and Fox were in a car accident, and that you'd been kidnapped?”
Scully hesitated, wondering how to even begin to explain the whole thing in a way that her mother would understand and believe. “Yes, and we were both injected with some sort of tranquilizer...” She turned to Dr. Stevens again.
“Yes,” the man confirmed. “You were both lucky to suffer no side effects from it, since the toxicological showed that it was a kind of barbiturate usually only used in tranquilizer guns to knock out large animals. It's very dangerous when administered to humans.”
“No wonder I couldn't stay awake last night,” Scully remarked, wondering if it had been their captor's intention to have them turn back into themselves while still drugged, or if that had been an accident. “How is Mulder?”
“He's doing fine, too,” Dr. Stevens told her. “He woke up about fifteen minutes ago. You both were a little banged up from the accident, and your partner had a few more scrapes than you did, but he's all patched up now.” He smiled. “And he wanted to be informed when you woke up, so I'll leave you two alone while I do that.”
Scully nodded. As the man was leaving, she had another thought. “Dr. Stevens?”
He turned back to her questioningly.
“How... how is the man that was brought in from the passenger seat of the truck? And has anyone been able to find out who he is?”
The man's face darkened slightly. “He's... still hanging on, but he received a severe head injury as a result of the crash. It's still up in the air as far as whether he'll make it. The ID found on him says that his name is Devin Granger.” Dr. Stevens sighed. “There's been no luck IDing the driver so far.”
Scully thanked him. As soon as he was gone, her mom looked at her with concern still evident in her eyes. “Dana, what happened?”
Sighing, Scully tried to compose her thoughts. “What have you heard already?”
“That you and Fox were kidnapped out of your apartments last night,” Mrs. Scully answered, “and that you ended up in the back of a truck, drugged, and... that both of you only had blankets on when the ambulance got there.” She looked extremely distressed, and Scully could guess what she was imagining.
“Oh, Mom,” Scully said, hugging her again. “No.” She hastened to assure her that neither Mulder nor she had been put through the kind of assault she had been imagining, though of course Scully hadn't exactly been pleased to wake up and find herself without clothes, especially on a cold night. Her mother held her for a while, crying a little with relief, and Scully couldn't keep a few tears from escaping either. She put her mom through so much pain over the years while doing her job - it really didn't seem fair to do it to her on weekends, too.
As they broke apart, Scully realized that she was extremely hungry. “Mom, can you get someone to bring me breakfast?” she asked, wiping her eyes.
Mrs. Scully dried her own eyes and nodded. “I'll talk to a nurse, and then I'll stop and make sure Fox has had breakfast, too.” Scully smiled, and squeezed her mother's hand. “I'll be back soon.”
“Thanks, Mom. Would you ask if they're serving bacon?”
Epilogue
The doorbell rang, and Scully opened it. She was totally unsurprised to see Mulder standing there, his smile tinged with sheepishness. “I decided to come in through the door this time,” he told her in greeting, “just for the novelty of it.”
“I appreciate it,” Scully returned, standing aside to let him in. “Enjoying your day off, Mulder?”
Mulder nodded absently. Skinner had visited them both a few hours before they checked out of the hospital yesterday. After hearing their tale and reviewing the evidence that had been gathered - lab analysis of the substance in Mulder's glass had not come back yet - he had sighed, looked like he couldn't really believe what he was hearing (as usual), told his agents he was glad they were feeling better, and ordered that they take at least the next day off. They were still waiting on Devin Granger, to see if he would regain consciousness or not.
“I, uh... I just thought that maybe, since I owe you dinner, I could... we could go out.” Mulder looked up from the spot on the floor at which he'd been staring to meet her eyes.
“That sounds nice,” Scully said with a small smile. “How fancy are we talking? Do I need to change?”
“No,” Mulder grinned. “You're perfect just the way you are, Scully.”
“Ha ha,” Scully replied, but she couldn't keep from grinning as well. She took his offered hand. “I think I'm in the mood for steak.”
“Ooh, still feeling carnivorous, are we?” Mulder inquired, raising his eyebrows suggestively.
Still smiling, Scully warned, “Mulder, just because I don't have claws anymore doesn't mean I can't hurt you.”
He tightened his hold on her hand. “Oh, I believe you.” Scully locked her door with her free hand as they left. Then Mulder raised her palm to his lips and kissed it. “Did that work better than the last time I tried it?”
“Much.” She stopped walking and tilted her head up at him. “But don't feel like you have to stop there.” As he leaned in to kiss her, Scully felt the last of the weekend's tension melt away. They still had to tie up what details of their ordeal they could, but that could wait. For now, there were much more important things to think about.
~~~~
Author's Note part 2: Thanks for reading this far! And I swear I wrote this before the movie came out, so the animal tranquilizer was not meant to be a rip-off of IWTB.