Disclaimer: Strike up the band, it's time for the disclaimer dance! Mulder and Scully are property of FOX Television, 1013 Productions, Chris Carter, and probably a bunch of other people. For safety sake the line "I'll never let go" came out of "Titanic" another 20th Century Fox thing. And I am nothing if not a poor college kid with tuition to pay, with no money for a court case so don't get any ideas all of you suit types.

"I'll never let go." Her whispered words echoed through the empty room. Empty except for the now lifeless form of her partner.

As tears streaked down her face, she gently brushed his hair off of his forehead. She foolishly wished for him to open his hazel eyes and make a joke about the ice queen in tears. But she knew even if she were to wait forever, he would never again crack a smile or a joke for her or anyone else.

She looked up when she heard the shuffle of an emergency crew nearing their location. Holding him closer to her chest, she didn't want to move from her position guarding what was left of him. For his spirit, which made him so special, was gone.

*****

"Mulder!" She called through his closed apartment door after her knock went unanswered. They had been supposed to meet at her place over an hour ago, but he had never arrived. They had separated at the office a few hours earlier, and he had mentioned going home to gather his things before meeting her.

She dug her key chain out of her pocket, fumbling to find his key. She couldn't explain why, but she couldn't shake a nagging feeling that had crept up on her. Scully unlocked the door and entered the darkened front room. She drew her gun, with Mulder for a partner, you never knew what to expect.

Cautiously she walked into the main room, looking for signs of trouble. She checked out the kitchen, and moved toward the bedroom. Nothing looked amiss, until she saw the dim light coming from inside his bedroom. The sight before her made her stop dead in her tracks.

Fox Mulder lay in the floor, a hint of blood on his chest, barely visible through his suit jacket. The only sign of a struggle was an upturned night stand next to the rarely used bed.

"Mulder," she gasped, running to his side across the small room, checking for a pulse. -- Please, God -- she thought -- let him be alive. -- She finally took a breath when she heard a shuddered breath escape his still form.

"Dana?" He questioned, his eyes barely open, and not quite focusing. She jumped, startled not only by his being awake, but using her first name, as well.

"I'm here, Mulder. Just relax. What happened? I was worried when you never came . . ." She stopped talking, when she realized that she was practically babbling. -- Come on, Dana, you're a doctor. Get a grip, you're not helping him any by freaking out. --

As she opened his jacket and shirt to examine the wound on his chest, he gasped, betraying the pain he was feeling but trying to show.

"A couple . . . of guys. Here when I got . . . home." He managed between gasps for air. Scully, having switched into doctor mode, observed his labored breathing and began to examine the prominent knife wound in his chest.

Scully grabbed her cell phone from her pocket, quickly punching 911, and filling the operator in on the situation. She was dismayed, there was a fire on the other side of town, and it would take at least fifteen minutes for anyone to be able to come.

"Hang on, Mulder. Help will be here in about ten minutes," she lied, thinking that it sounded better than the fifteen minutes or more it might really take. "How do you feel?"

"Tired," he didn't open his eyes as he spoke. Suddenly, he was racked by a coughing fit, pain screaming on his features. That's when Scully saw what made her blood turn cold. There was blood dribbling down his chin. The knife had punctured a lung. She had known it was a possibility, but had hoped his luck was better.

She held him until the coughing subsided, and wiped the blood from his chin, hoping to hide the fear in her eyes. "Shit, Mulder," she mumbled under her breath. -- Where are those damn paramedics? --

He opened his eyes when he heard her muttered swear, and saw the worry she failed to mask. "Scully, I . . ." he paused, blinked, and continued. "I just want to tell you . . . how much . . . how much you've always meant to me."

While he spoke, she was close to panic. "Don't talk like that. You're gonna make it, just like every other time." She was holding pressure on the wound, knowing how little good it was doing, but she had to do something.

He licked his lips, and began to speak again. "It's ‘kay, Scully. I'm . . . not scared. You'll be . . . ‘kay. You always were . . . the . . . the strong one."

"Fox," she cried. Despite an inner battle, a single tear forced its way down her cheek, and fell onto his shoulder. She closed her eyes, and tried not to picture her life without him in it.

His words became more labored, but he continued to talk, he felt like he had to. "Don't cry, Dana. Just think . . . no more wild chases . . . or flukemen." He smiled faintly at his own weak joke. He felt like he owed her so much, throughout so much she had been his anchor and his guiding light, and he knew he had to leave her with something. "I love you, Scully. You're the . . . best friend that I've . . . I've ever had."

"No, Mulder, don't say good-bye to me. You have to stay with me, my life is so empty without you in it. You have to survive, I need you." She was pleading, begging him; her reserved manner she usually maintained had long since been forgotten. She was growing more desperate to reach him, and to convince him to hold on.

He didn't know how, but he knew his time was almost gone. "Scully," he began, his eyes pleading with hers, "live your life, and be happy. But, please, remember us . . . everything we shared . . . don't ever let go . . ." With those final words, his eyes closed for the last time. The last thing he saw was his beloved partner's face.

"I love you too, Fox. What will I do without *my* best friend?" A sob escaped her throat. And she prayed, for the first time in a long time. She prayed that wherever he was, he was finally at peace. She hoped he had finally found the peace that eluded him in life. Lastly, she hoped he heard her when she told him that she loved him, too.

As she held him close, she whispered, "I'll never let go."

fin

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