Author's notes: Hi, y'all. This was one of my first experiments in X-Files fan fiction. So, play nice. I know it's not great, but I just found it on a disk. Oh yeah, the characters of Sheriff Jenkins and Deputy Edwards are mine, not that anyone would want them. :)

Disclaimer: I've written very few fan fictions, but the disclaimer dance was old a long time ago. Here gang, let us all say it together! This isn't written for profit of any form, other than the hopeful enjoyment of the reader. Besides, I'm in college, and broke doesn't quite describe it fellas. :) The characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are the property of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, FOX Television, is that it?

Anger. That's what it had all came down to. Pure anger. In retrospect, she couldn't remember what had started it all, only that she couldn't take it anymore. Her words had been calm and precise, but still cutting deep. His face had registered his hurt at her cold words his hazel eyes clouding over. Now, she was left sitting in a basement office alone, one that did not even bear her name on the door.

The day had started out simply enough. She had reported to work at the J. Edgar Hoover building at nine a.m., with nothing but paperwork planned for the day. Well, Scully had paperwork planned for the day. That seemed to be the established pattern for the partners, they solved the case, then she did the paperwork.

As she entered the basement office, she could see only the top of Mulder's head behind a mountain of folders and the occasional sunflower seed. He was so absorbed in his reading, glasses precariously perched on his nose, that he failed to even note the arrival of his flame haired partner. After she had placed her purse under her desk, and flipped on her computer she cleared her throat, in an attempt to gain the attention of her distracted partner.

"Oh, hey Scully," Mulder called out, while still munching on a sunflower seed and not bothering to look up from whatever possible case he was reading about.

"Good morning to you too, Mulder." Meanwhile, she was just glad it was Friday, and she would finally have two X-Files free days. She wasn't sure where this bout of restlessness had come from, but it was best to just hide for a couple of days, and face Monday with a refreshed attitude.

"Oh, Kimberly called earlier and Skinner wants the report on the Scott case by five this afternoon. I told her okay. So, how is the report coming anyway?" Mulder asked, an innocent look on his face as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Not that you would know, since you never seem to help with the paperwork; but it's coming. I should have it finished in time, I don't know why I wouldn't," Scully said, her agitation showing through more than she had intended.

A puzzled look on his face, Mulder just started at her.

In an attempt to save the morning, Scully walked over to see what Mulder had been reading before she had came into the office. Scanning the document, she got the look on her face that told Mulder she thought he was off on another wild goose chase.

"Mulder, you've got to be . . ." was all she managed to say before he interrupted her.

"Wait a minute Scully, give it a chance. At least read it all before you declare it a ridiculous cause."

The rest of the day had not gone any smoother than the morning had, and Scully was glad to be done with the report and turn it in to A.D. Skinner. Her last stop before heading to her apartment was to pick up her stuff in the office.

When she entered the office, Mulder was sitting at his desk the same way he had been all day.

"Go home Mulder, get some sleep, or watch some of your movies, what ever it is you do on Friday nights to relax."

"Uh, yeah Scully, have a good weekend," he said distractedly, hardly looking up from his folder, "yeah, I'm gonna get out of here sooner or later."

"Come on Mulder, don't sit in here all night looking at that worthless file," all she wanted to do was go home, yet she couldn't leave worried that he might not go home at all.

"Worth . . . Worthless? Is that really what you think?" his eyes shining with flecks of hurt.

"Mulder . . . don't. Don't start this. Not again. This argument was old four years ago. The file you're looking at isn't even remotely valid. It's pointless to waste Bureau money and time pursuing this."

"One of these days, Scully, one of my so-called, pointless cases is going to be something big, and you'll regret your hard-line stance."

"Mulder, listen to me, mysterious lights over a forest in the middle of nowhere, whatever the locals are calling it, doesn't add up to anything worth our time. So, why don't you just put the file down and go home?" her blue eyes were drilling holes into his head, daring him to try and convince her otherwise.

She crossed the office to her desk, gathering up everything that she wanted to take home for the weekend. She was somewhat relieved when she heard Mulder packing up. His voice caught her by surprise when he finally spoke after several tense moments of silence.

"I guess I'm sorry that after so long, you still see extreme possibilities as being more along the lines of the impossible. I'll be sure to not interrupt your weekend away from all of this," with that he left the office, his dress shoes clicking down the hallway to the elevator.

Anger. As she sat unmoving in her chair, she tried but failed at discovering where it had came from, this need to get away from the X-Files, even to get away from her best friend. Funny, she wasn't exactly sure when she had came to see him as her best friend, but he was all the same. Even though she still felt angry, she also felt as if she had shot yet another hole into the trust they had woven so delicately around their relationship.

Silently she cursed herself for not holding her tongue. However, since she couldn't take it back she felt no need to continue worrying about it. Mulder is a big boy; he can take care of himself. With that, she too left the basement office. She didn't notice as she was leaving that the file that had caused such an argument earlier wasn't on Mulder's desk anymore.

*****

Scully had gone home Friday night, and watched old movies. Sometimes it was nice to hide from the world. Not to mention flukemen, killer bees, morphing guys, and the assorted strange characters she and Mulder came across in their work.

When she awoke the next morning, she didn't remember falling asleep. Her television was still tuned to the classic movie channel, and was in the middle of showing "Citizen Kane." Having never cared for the film, she turned the set off.

The day was uneventful enough; she went to lunch with her mother, luckily avoiding another Mulder-centric conversation. They went shopping for most of the afternoon, and Scully returned home right around dusk.

For much of the afternoon, Scully couldn't quite shake a strange feeling about Mulder. It stayed at the edge of her consciousness, begging to be noticed. Still slightly annoyed at the argument they had had the previous day, she ignored the feeling. However, after the sun fell, the feeling became more persistent until she couldn't just ignore it.

Fine, she thought, I'll call him and get it over with. She picked up her phone, noting that since it was only ten p.m. it was earlier than he typically called her. She let it ring until his machine picked up and she jabbed the off button on her phone. She then called his cell phone, figuring that she could make up some excuse for calling him, especially if it would make the nagging at the edge of her mind go away.

Her stomach sank when she got a recording saying that he had traveled out of range. Damn it Mulder, where are you? she thought. Otherwise she might not have thought much of his disappearing, but the feeling of dread she'd had was growing worse by the minute.

Suddenly it hit her, the case file he had been so interested in. The one she had called worthless. In vain she tried to remember where it had originated from. She tried to picture the file in her head, wishing once more for the gift of Mulder's photographic memory. Alabama, the case had been in Alabama. But where?

*****

Mulder was cold, wet and most of all, alone. For the hundredth time he wondered exactly how he had gotten into this situation. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The words echoed through his mind over and over. Exactly how long he had been stuck in a hole in the ground he wasn't sure. He had left the office the day before, and found himself getting on a plane heading out to the middle of nowhere in Alabama. Early Saturday morning he had hiked off into the wilderness, searching for something that Scully would label swamp gas. Now he was twenty feet below ground with a broken leg and a killer knot on his head, stuck off in the middle of the forest. This is why you're not supposed to work alone, Scully's voice scolded in his mind.

"Come on Scully, leave me 'lone . . ." his voice, weakened by the fall and cold, called out. "Probably why I'm in this mess in the first place, just did it to annoy you." It took him a moment to realize that she wasn't actually there.

"Now what am I going to do?" he questioned, not even wondering why he was talking to himself. He figured he had to kill time somehow, seeing as how his cell phone was useless and no one even knew they needed to look for him, much less where to look.

Crickets began to chirp and darkness started to fall in the woods. One more day, he thought, and maybe someone will notice my amazing personality is missing. At that thought, he smiled faintly, before slipping into unconsciousness.

*****

Scully had grabbed her coat and drove over to Mulder's apartment. She knocked on his door, her anxiety increased when she received no answer. Using her key, the one officially listed for emergencies, she entered the dark main room. The place was a disaster, as usual, but she found what she thought she might. The file was laying on the table by his computer. On it was a scribbled note he had made listing his flight time and carrier. American 602, 7:45 a.m. Saturday.

Reaching for the phone, she dialed the number in the phone book for American Airlines to find out the destination of flight 602. It turned out to be a flight to Mobile National Airport. It took only a few moments to secure a seat on the next flight to Mobile. Her flight didn't leave for two hours, and it gave her time to pack at her apartment, drive Ronald Reagan International Airport and try and plan for what she would do when she got to Mobile.

According to the file's information, the original sighting had been reported in the forest outside of a small town, a two-hour drive north of Mobile. Scully made arrangements to have a rental car waiting at the airport so she could head north as soon as possible.

Finally situated on the plane, she could not relax, the feeling that had originally been on the edges of her conscious were now occupying her thoughts. What if this time, I don't reach him in time? flashed across her mind, just as quickly as it had appeared, she dismissed the fear. What's one more game of find Mulder and save his butt? her thoughts countered, and she allowed herself a faint smile at the thought of again saving his hide.

*****

Dawn found Mulder still slumped over in the pit he now called home. Luckily the night air temperature hadn't dropped too low; however, he didn't know how much longer he could manage without food, water or warmth. His leg had long ago gone numb, but his head was killing him. Well, he figured if his head didn't kill him, Scully would gladly take the chance. That would be after she chewed him out for ditching her again.

"Well, it wasn't really a ditch this time," at this he laughed, "she knew it was lame from the beginning. Just one more time, shoulda listened 'suppose." By this point even Mulder noticed his speech was becoming blurred, it was catching up to the fact his vision had been blurred since he had awoke. It wasn't long before a dreamless sleep was again tugging at the corners of his mind.

*****

By early morning Sunday, Scully feared she was hopelessly lost in the woods. Sure, she could handle herself in an outdoor environment, but it helped to have some idea about the area. She had contacted the local sheriff, an older man named Jenkins. Apparently Mulder had spoken to him briefly early Saturday morning, and the last anyone knew was that Mulder was heading out into the woods to search for the cause of the mysterious lights. Even Sheriff Jenkins agreed with Scully that it must be the imaginings of a few local over-active imaginations.

Luckily, before she managed to become too deeply lost in the forest, a deputy was dispatched to help guide Scully in the unfamiliar terrain. Quickly they set out walking through the dense tree and foliage growth in search of the wandering agent.

*****

Judging by the placement of the sun in the sky, Mulder was guessing it was mid-afternoon sometime. He tried to recall where the hours since he had first woken up had gone, he didn't remember falling back asleep. Above, he could hear birds chirping and the wind blowing. He also heard Scully's voice.

"Oh man. Come on, Scully, I asked you to leave me 'lone," he whined. The pounding in his head hadn't eased since the day before, and his vision was a mere blur of it's former self. Yet, the voice was insistent, it kept calling his name.

"Scully?" he called, questioning if she was truly there. Yet, his voice was weak, and he could tell it didn't carry very far amidst the sounds of the forest. Again, his voice rasped out "Scully? Over here . . . " but again, his mind was betraying him, ever so slowly no matter how he fight it, sleep was reclaiming him. "Scu . . ." And again he was still.

*****

She couldn't explain it, but all of a sudden she knew where to walk. She surprised the deputy by veering off to the right suddenly, and she began to walk faster until she was jogging through the undergrowth.

"Mulder!" she cried, listening to only silence in response.

"Mulderrrr!" she tried again. They had been calling his name for hours, but she wouldn't, no, couldn't give up. He needed her, she knew it as surely as she knew she needed air to breathe. As surely as she knew she needed him to live.

She barely caught herself before she would have fallen into a great hole in the earth. Scanning the recesses of the pit at her feet, she was about to move on when she spotted something blue in the shadows. Blue, she wondered? Royal blue was rare in nature.

Scully yelled for the deputy to follow her voice. "Deputy Edwards, I think I've found him!" broke through the silence of the trees. She could have sworn to have heard a moan from below her when Edwards finally caught up to her.

"Quick," she started, clicking into professional mode, "you've got to help me get down there and see if it's really him. If he fell that far, he's probably badly injured."

Tying a rope to a tree, they formed a pulley system to lower Scully into the hole. Prior to lowering her, Edwards called the Sheriff's office on his walkie-talkie, relaying their position and requesting medical back up.

"Come on, Edwards, let's go," Scully all but demanded. "That's my partner down there, and I'm not going to leave him there any longer than I have to." As she spoke, she was climbing farther and farther down into the ground. When she reached the bottom, she was taken aback at the state Mulder had once again found himself in. But the time for reacting would come later, when he was safe in a hospital.

*****

Mulder was once again woke up still in his prison of earth. Only this time, Scully really was there. Squinting his eyes, he looked at her. He finally spoke, although he believed her to once again be a speck of his imagination.

"Not again," he rasped out of a parched throat. "Didn't you lecture me enough last time? You've come back to lecture me again?" His hazel eyes were glazed and told of hurt, pain, and confusion.

Scully, believing him to be talking about Friday's argument, only replied, "sshhh . . . it's okay, we've just got to get you up out of this hole." Yet her eyes told a story of guilt, her hostility long forgotten. Time would come for such a discussion later.

The current rescue of Special Agent Fox Mulder went unimpeded. Sooner than she would have thought possible, Scully was aware that the medical team was above ground. She had done the best she could at keeping Mulder warm, but there was little she could do otherwise. She could tell he was in shock, so she concentrated on talking to him, letting him know he wasn't alone anymore, and continuing to keep him warm. Progress was slow at lifting him out, having to try and not aggravate the injuries to his leg or head. Finally they were both out, and headed to the local hospital.

*****

When Mulder awoke again, he was free of the earth that had surrounded him. He surveyed the room as best he could. Yep, he thought, same as all of the others. His eyes stopped on the head of his partner, which was laying beside him on the bed, having had fallen asleep in her chair propped up against the bed's edge. She awoke at his movement, looking up to meet his eyes.

She smiled, and he looked away, unwilling to meet her gaze. She looked at him, concerned, when he continued to avoid her eyes.

"What is it? What's wrong?" she questioned him, hoping to bring him out of his shell.

"I'm sorry . . ." he said, so softly and quietly that she had to strain to make out the words. "I'm sorry I got angry, and wouldn't listen, and ran off without you. Again. And I even ruined your weekend. But, how'd you know?" At that he looked up into her eyes, his own shining with a sheen of tears unshed.

"Mulder . . ." she stopped, not knowing how to continue. "You don't have to be sorry. The fault here is with both of us, sometimes we're just both too stubborn for our own good. I should have been more open minded, that's not a new idea for me since I started working with you." With that she finally allowed herself to smile again.

"As to how I knew, I just knew. You know, Mom likes to say how connected we are. All day yesterday, I couldn't shake the feeling you needed me. So, last night I did something about it. Then today, I didn't know where I was going in the forest, I just went. I was scared, but I found you. Like always," she laughed, "someone had to save your butt."

"Thanks . . ." was all he managed before the drugs to kill the pain in his leg forced him back into slumber.

*****

"Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to join us," Scully laughed as Mulder half walked, half fell through the door to their office.

"Ha, ha. Let's see you manage with these things." It had been two weeks since his ordeal in Alabama, and the crutches were still alluding him. He had been back at work for a day, and had complained the whole time. Leave it to Mulder to milk it for all of the attention it was worth.

"Poor thing, here sit down before you break something else. This time it might be something more important than your head," she said with a sly grin.

"Uh, huh, just keep 'em coming. You'll get yours you just wait," he grinned back at her, as soon as he managed to collapse into his chair. "So, what does Skinner have lined up for us anyway?"

Mulder knew he was in trouble the moment he saw the huge grin on Scully's face.

"Oh man, not paperwork. Anything but that," he cried.

"Yep, here ya go, Grizzly Adams. You're on desk duty till the cast there comes off, and for once, I'm not stuck with the fun stuff. Enjoy, I've need to head over to Quantico for a while today to sub for one of the teachers." The look on his face was enough to keep her smiling for the remainder of the day.

"And remember," she called from just down the hallway, "in the basement, no one can hear you scream." With a somewhat evil laugh, she was off leaving Mulder to pout among his newly acquired paperwork.

fin

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