Dreamcatcher 12
Ally

Cleveland Ohio May 4th 2:34p.m.

Scully attempted to negotiate the mid- afternoon traffic, weaving the rental car through the Downtown Ohio streets with one hand, even as she used the other to press the cel phone to her ear.

"C'mon Mulder....pick up the damn phone...."

She waited a few seconds until the clipped, correct tones of the cel-net computer generated operator began to ring annoyingly in her ear.

"I'm sorry, the cellular customer you are trying to reach..."

Shit.

Either he had switched off the phone in deference to the rigid hospital rules - rules which they both tended to disregard - or he had simply left his phone in the motel this morning.

Knowing her partner like she did, Scully would have bet money on the latter. But this knowledge did little to soothe her. She didn't like being out of contact with him, even for a couple of hours and especially not now, not when she was still trying to process the information given to her.

After the initial shock had worn off, she had hastily exited the Diner in the hopes of catching a glimpse of Mulder before he headed off to the Hospital. But, as good as his word, he was nowhere to be found and since Scully had the keys to the rental, she could only surmise that he had snagged a cab.

Her first point of call though, had not been the hospital. Instead, she had driven the short distance across to the Coroner's office and picked up the print- outs of the Tox screen. Partly because she needed to see the evidence in black and white, but also partly so that she could better explain to Mulder what exactly they meant. Which, incidentally, was a joke in itself, since even she wasn't sure what that might be.

The anger she had felt towards her partner had quickly dissipated. She wasn't exactly sure even where it had come from. It had risen up inside of her, unbidden and totally beyond her control. She had no right to take out her bad temper on him. he didn't deserve it, especially in light of the fact that she *knew* that his every action that day had been based on his concern for her. He had done nothing more for her, than, given the exact same set of circumstances, she wouldn't have done for him. And how had she repaid him? Not with gratitude towards the fact he cared enough about her to even bother about how she was feeling. Oh no, that would be too simple. Too *Human* of her.

Instead, she had taken the anger she had felt towards herself, and turned it squarely around so as to direct it at him. Maybe it was easier to do that than to admit how she was really feeling. The day had been a hard one.

The headache had remained with her, pounding at her skull, making rational thought difficult at best. And she was tired. God she was *so* tired. She wanted nothing more right now than to return to the motel. To nestle her head in to the softness of the pillows. To close her eyes and let herself drift in to nothingness for a few hours.

Somewhere behind the pain in her head, she had the vaguest recollection of Mulder's arms around her. Feeling his warmth as he curled his body around hers. Whispering in to her hair, soothing her with his words, with his touch. Calming her in ways only he could.

{Don't leave me Mulder}

And she had tried to remember the nightmare of the previous night. Tried so damn hard to sift through the mist that seemed to fill her head. Searching for answers to questions she wasn't even fully aware of asking. But the memory had remained elusive There was nothing.

Just the feeling of his hands tracing slow circles on her back as she shook in his arms. The sound of his voice. His words. His beautiful, calming words which allowed her to relax in to sleep again.

{Don't leave me Mulder}

{I'll never leave you Scully...}

Scully blinked rapidly, to dispel the sudden prickling behind her eyes, not really noticing as her hold on the steering wheel tightened, whitening her knuckles cruelly as she fought to keep control. Not even consciously aware that the darkness was lurking. Ready to consume her.

*********

St Mary's Hospital Cleveland Ohio May 4th 1999 2:34p.m.

It took a while for Scully to locate her partner. The small Hospital was, if anything, even busier than it had been the previous night and she had to almost shout to make herself heard above the din.

Eventually though, the admitting nurse had found the time to search her records and direct her up to the third floor. To Gina Robiks room. Scully had escaped in to the elevator gratefully, watching as the doors slid shut on the chaos that seemed to permanently reign within the building's crowded ER. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't bother her. Working alongside Mulder for six years had taught her all about chaos, but today her aching head just couldn't handle it.

She found him seated in one of the hard plastic chairs that graced the corridor. Head resting in his hands, he seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of interest in the floor beneath his feet and for a second she paused, struck suddenly by the sight of him. He appeared lost. Defeated somehow.

Shaking off the thought that she might have in part contributed to this, she made her way along the corridor towards him. Long before she drew level though, he raised his head in her direction and Scully realised with a certain sense of wonderment that he could recognise her simply by listening to the sound of her footsteps. It shouldn't have surprised her she supposed. It was a skill she had acquired long ago with regards to him.

Had she ever in her life *known* someone the way she knew him?

"Hey."

He straightened up, offering her a gentle smile that brightened his whole face. He was pleased to see her at least.

During the drive over here, Scully had wrestled with the fear that he would be angry with her. Would hold what she's said at the Diner against her. But she realised her fears had been groundless. Mulder never held grudges. Already he would have analysed her actions. Broken them down in to easily understandable segments. Made allowances for her. *Forgiven* her. Their friendship was far too precious to him for her to expect anything less.

He shifted over slightly and inclined his head to the unoccupied chair beside him. It's surface littered with a few discarded sunflower seed husks that had somehow escaped the small, neat pile that adorned his own chair arm.

Scully couldn't help a smile. Obviously, her partner had been engaged in some pretty serious thinking.

"You OK?"

That question again. His deep hazel eyes searching her face, brows drawn together slightly as he voiced his concern for her once more.

Scully cleared her throat.

"I'm fine. I'm......I'm sorry about earlier..."

Mulder shrugged, careful not to make much of the fact that hearing that simple admission from her had the ability to make his heart contract painfully. He didn't need her apologies. He just wanted her to level with him, to tell him the truth about what was going on with her. In the space of twenty-four hours Dana Scully had frightened him badly. Not once, but twice. And seeing her standing before him now did little to lesson the fear. Quite apart from the fact that something obviously troubling her deeply, she looked exhausted to the point of collapse.

Her delicate features seemed pinched somehow, the skin that covered her face stretched too tightly as she attempted to return his smile. Even beneath the make-up, Mulder could see how pale she was. The dark circles were back. Her luminous blue eyes ringed by dark shadows that seemed to consume her whole face, stealing her usual vibrancy. And if he was reading her right, he was pretty sure that she had been crying. Recently.

{Why can't you trust me Scully? Why is it always so hard with us?}

She sat beside him wearily, and for the first time, he noticed the manila file she held loosely in her hand. He didn't ask. He didn't need to.

Tired or not, she was immediately all business.

"I got the results of the Tox screen back. They called through just after you left....."

But then she trailed off, eyes fixed far in to the distance and Mulder finally reached out and took the file from her when he realised she wasn't about to continue. That she had drifted away. And the worry was back. Digging at him like a thousand needle points.

"Scully?...." he prompted softly, laying a hand briefly on her arm. She jumped visibly at his touch, and he immediately backed off. Watching as she snapped back in to herself. And Mulder's eyes widened as he finally made the connection. The connection between how his partner was acting. *Why* she was acting this way.

{Jesus, she's *afraid*}

Afraid of what?

Before he could even open his mouth to speak though she reached across and retrieved the folder from him. Opening it up and running her finger down the page, stopping finally on a group of words and numbers that might have well have been written in Swahili for all the sense they made to Mulder.

"I don't understand Scully. What am I looking at here?"

She didn't look at him, just kept her gaze riveted on the string of technical jargon as though the answers might jump right off the page at her.

"I can't even begin to explain it Mulder. It makes no sense, but what you're looking at here are individual enzymes used for the breakdown of cellular material......"

"What?"

Mulder's mouth dropped open at her words, feeling the gears beginning to turn in his head....

"What are you saying Scully? That this is......is...."

Scully raised her head once again, confusion evident on her face.

"It's venom Mulder. Secreted orally by spiders. Injected in to their prey. It softens the tissues, liquefies them. It also contains a kind of anaesthetic, to immobilise so that the spider can do it's work without fear of harm........just like Caitlin Stevens described."

Mulder actually felt his stomach, complete with recently ingested contents do a slow, languid somersault inside his body as Scully's explanation hit home. Hearing about this stuff from a frightened six year old was one thing. Coming from the mouth of his scientifically minded partner was something else all together.

"Oh my God." he finally managed.

He was saved from having to articulate further by the door to the left of him opening suddenly, a nurse stepping across the threshold to bestow a smile on him that was too dazzling for the moment.

"Agent Mulder? You can come in now."

She gestured in side, and Mulder immediately sprang to his feet.

{Spider venom?}

He pushed the questions that were burning inside of him to the back of his mind, arranging his expression in to one of practised neutrality. This wasn't the time or the place. He didn't think that the waiting parents of Gina Robik would appreciate him discuss the prospect with Scully right now.

He entered the room quietly, feeling rather than seeing Scully follow him and stand close to his side.

The room seemed sparse somehow. A single bed taking up most of the floor space. No monitors, no respirator to jostle for position beside it. Just a single bed containing the still form of an eight year old little girl, who looked for all the world as though she were simply sleeping. The only piece of medical equipment that Mulder could see was the IV line that snaked from it's stand, coiling slightly across the covers until it disappeared in to the soft skin at the back of Gina's hand.

Feeding her as she slept.

Two sets of worried eyes fastened on him as he entered the room. Gina's parents. Both displaying that same haunted look he had seen a thousand times before. The look of two people tying desperately to hold on to even the smallest thread of hope.

He extended his hand.

"Special Agent Fox Mulder. My partner Dana Scully. Thank you for agreeing to see us....."

The woman shook her head slightly, disregarding him immediately, and riveting her gaze back on her daughter.

"How is she?" He queried.

"No change...."

The woman's voice cracked slightly as she voiced the words and Mulder was uncomfortably aware of the tears that spilled from her half closed eyes and tracked down her face in a steady, silent stream. He felt awkward, as though he were an interloper, his presence unwanted, unwarranted.

"I appreciate this is a difficult time for you." he ventured gently "But we need to ask you a few questions......would you prefer if we went somewh.."

"We're staying right here."

Gina's father cut him off abruptly and Mulder recognised the barely suppressed anger churning beneath the surface.

"We should never have agreed to her going to that damn place in the beginning"

Mulder didn't respond. He knew that he wasn't expected to. Instead, he pulled a chair close to the two distraught figures before him. Scully remained standing, her gaze riveted on the bed where Gina lay, the sound of her partner's voice barely even registering as he began to softly question the child's parents.

And then, the voice faded out altogether, to be replaced with a whispering stillness that dipped and swirled inside Scully's head.

She took a step forward. Listening intently all the while as the whispering became clearer, more pronounced.

{Come closer}

Another step. hands clenched into fists, a part of her, the *rational* part attempted to deny the voice. But it was too strong. The sound of a child. Calling out to her. As clear as though she were in the room with her.

{Come closer Dana. Come see.}

From across the room, Mulder frowned as he watched his partner's face go alarmingly blank, hardly listening to the response of the Robik parents to his question. His attention was riveted on Scully as she took a hesitant step towards the bed, her head cocked slightly to the side, as though she were trying to figure out a particularly perplexing problem. Her hands were tightly clenched into fists at the end of arms that hung limply at her sides.

Time seemed to stand still as he watched the drama unfolding before him, even now unsure as to what he was seeing.

And all the while, Dana Scully drifted.

She was no longer aware of her surroundings. The rooms' contours had blurred together, getting lost in her peripheral vision until they ceased to exist altogether. Leaving only the child before her. Innocent. peaceful. Serene.

Nestled snugly beneath a canopy of fine spun lace that shimmered and sparkled in the strange half light, Gina Robik slept. Wrapped in dreams, she sighed contentedly in her sleep.

Scully smiled at this vision before her. Drinking in the serene beauty of the child. Rich ebony hair, spread across a pillow of ivory silk, wafting gently in the sweet breeze that kept her comfortable as she slumbered. Pink rosebud lips parted gently in a smile of absolute tranquillity.

A scene so breathtakingly perfect that Scully couldn't help but stroke a finger along the smooth porcelain of the little girls flushed cheeks........

and then the darkness came once again.

"What the hell is she doing?"

Michael Robuk sprang to his feet the instant Scully reached out to his daughter and the spell was broken. Shattered in to a thousand pieces as Scully jerked back abruptly.

Mulder followed Robik a split second later, catching a hold of the smaller man's arm even as he took a step towards Scully.

"Wait." He ordered forcibly.

Scully blinked. Once. Twice, her eyes wide, what little color she had draining out of her face. To Mulder it seemed like this moment of realisation was frozen in time. A sudden terrible clarity flooded her features as she took a stumbling step backwards, seeking escape from a horror only she understood. She brought a closed fist up to her mouth, pressing against it as though biting back a scream. Her breathing was harsh, laboured, reverberating around the sterile surfaces and to Mulders mind at least, blocking everything else out. She remained there for long seconds, until, just as Mulder was about to go to her, she uttered an anguished cry and fled the room.

Ignoring the incredulous stares of the Robiks, Mulder followed.

"Scully!.....Wait!"

He caught up with her easily. She seemed disorientated somehow, frowning heavily, as though trying to place him in her thoughts.

Mulder took a hold of her upper arms, forcing her to look at him, heart sinking as he felt her limbs trembling beneath him, hardly lessening as she slowly came back to him.

The returning was painful for her though. The tears that pooled in her eyes told him as much. Unable to speak, she just shook her head from side to side, an expression of absolute wretchedness obscuring every other emotion from him, and Mulder felt something inside of him turn to stone.

"Scully. It's OK........"

The tears spilled to run unchecked. A salty river that seemed to have no end, they collected in droplets at the edge of her fixed jaw line to drip on to the fabric of her tailored suit.

{Oh God Scully, what? What is it? *Please*}

"Mulder......"

again, that same whispered voice he had heard before, almost hidden behind the hitching sobs that tore at her throat.....

"Please Mulder. Take me home....."

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