Title: Open Your Eyes Author: Angel Email: Jumperchick@aol.com Rating: PG-13 Rating Warning: This story contains adult language and graphic descriptions of violence (not bad through). BIG WARNING!!!! This story deals with religious issues! Do not read if easily offended. I am not a religious person and I am not pushing my beliefs on others! I want everyone to be understanding to the fact that certain things may be offensive. Thank you. Disclaimer: I hate this part…. Mulder and Scully and Skinner and the X-Files yadda yadda yadda belong to Chris Carter, 1013 production, Fox network and the brilliant minds of DD and GA. No infringement intended, no money made. Spoilers: You bet!!! All the way to the Millennium episode in season 7. This kinda counteracts Mulder’s ideas about fate in the Monday episode of season 6, but this in my little fantasy world so * Sticks out tongue * too bad! =) IMPORTANT Author note: Be sure to read the entire story! You will still understand if you skip parts of "monologues" by Mulder and Scully but you will lose the desired effect. So please don’t be stupid like me and skip parts because you get excited about the ending and then have no clue what is going on so you have to read the whole darn thing over again. But maybe I am the only one that does things like that…. Anyway please please please send feedback. I will respond to all. Good or bad. Flames or praises. Let me know what you think and what you think I could do to improve my writing, or just to say you read it. If you have any fanfic let me know so I can take a look! If you are interested in my other writings email me and I will put you on my list so you will be the first to receive new pieces! Thanks for reading, now on with the show! ~If you walk out of me, I’m walking after~ Foo Fighters (FTF soundtrack *highly recommended!*) * Open Your Eyes * "Good morning Scully!" I say that as peppy as possible just so she will give me that ‘what the hell have you been smoking?’ look. Three…Two…. One there is it! She just had to hang up her coat first. I sit back in my chair grinning as she turns all the way around. "Ok Mulder what case has gotten you in such a good mood?" "I got you some coffee." I say pointing my pencil in the direction of her desk where a cup of her favorite mocha chino rests. "Thanks" She says turning to pick it up. That’s it Scully turn around so I don’t see you smiling. Yes, you have us all fooled. "So Mulder…. The case?" "Oh. Yeah. Take a seat I have some slides." I each over to switch off the lights and role my desk chair out motioning for Scully to sit down. I jump up on the edge of my desk, as close as I can sit to Scully. Just to piss her off. It IS my main goal to have her fully annoyed with me by eleven. I click on the first slide and a dead young girl lies on her side. Curled into a fetal position with no eyes, blood dripping down her face. "This puts you in a good mood?" Scully looks like truly disgusted with me, that’s NOT what I am going for. "No actually this depresses me. I’m just pretending to be happy. My defense mechanisms, you like it?" "Oh yeah real healthy Mulder." I let out a little snort of laughter. "So this is the first of three girls found dead in four weeks. They were all found in a forest about an hour from here. All of them lived within walking distance but their parents don’t know why they were there. All found in their night cloths, no shoes." I say as I flick through the pictures. "What’s the cause of death Mulder? They don’t look injured other then their eyes taken out?" She is starring at the pictures with true Dr. Scully profession. "That’s ONE of the weird parts. The autopsies found some sort of heart failure. Their hearts just stopped beating." She doesn’t look convinced so I had her a copy of the coroner’s report. "Apparently these girls were just walking through the woods, at night, alone, with no eyes, then just died." I say gravely, it is really hard to keep a happy tone when the involves dead kids. "Mulder do I even need to say it?’ She asked looking up at me. "No. No you don’t. I know that something else must be going on. These girls were all healthy, mentally and physically. I know they weren’t just taking a late night stroll and died." "Did their parents hear anything the night they disappeared?" She asked mainly to herself as she flipped through the file. "Not a thing. The second girl even shared a bedroom with her older sister. They went to bed at nine and when she woke up at seven her sister was gone." "It is winter, they may have died from exposure. Body went into shock and heart stopped beating." "But that doesn’t explain the eyes Scully. And it doesn’t explain why they were walking alone anyway. No shoes. No one heard or saw anything…" "Ok Mulder. I hate to ask but what do you think happened?" "Abduction." Can’t help but smile when I say that. "No way Mulder. No way." She stands up and chucks her empty coffee cup into the trash. Hey three pointer, go Scully. "Can I ask why?" "Well for starters not EVERY case involving mysterious deaths is because of abduction. There is no evidence of that at all anyway. As you said no one saw anything. This is probably just a kidnapping by someone these girls knew. That’s why they didn’t make any noise about it. The same person or group of people knew all three girls that’s why they were all found in the same woods. I don’t how to explain the eyes, but the person or persons that took them obviously have a few problems. And the cause of death… Maybe suffocation and the autopsy didn’t catch it. Maybe a drug of some sort that cleared itself from the system. Or it was exposure, if they couldn’t see they certainly wouldn’t have been able to find their way out of the forest to get help" She pauses for a minute with a sad expression. "But these are three girls all between thirteen and fifteen. An impressionable age, say this person that is taking them is a good-looking guy. All he has to be is older, handsome and pay some attention to them and these girls will fall head over heels. It’s no surprise that they didn’t put up a fight. They probably had no idea what they were getting into." All right Slick, what are you gonna say to that? She just yelled at you about relating yet another case to your sister. "I don’t know Scully. I’m not going to fight with about this one… I don’t have the energy this morning. All I know is we have this case and it makes no sense." There that’ll throw her for a loop, one more daily goal finished. She just looks at me for a few moments. I know I can’t hide the hurt in my eyes, they always give me away. "Mulder I’m sorry I reacted like that. I know these cases aren’t easy for you." "Don’t worry about it." I jump up from the desk suddenly very uncomfortable. Scully looks uncomfortable too. "What about the eyes Mulder?" She asked softly. "I don’t know. Maybe out little gray friends have a new eye fetish." I say pointing to the sky. "No… I mean where are the eyes?" "Oh. No one knows." I hand her coat to her. "That’s where we are going. They haven’t found any of the eyes. There’s a search going on in the forest right now but its been 24 hours since that last body was found so if the eyes were felt anywhere in the forest some animal would have gotten them by now. We need to take a look at this place anyway." "How big is this forest Mulder?" She does not look happy about a trip through the woods. "Its not too bad 30 acres, but with the body already located we don’t have to go trekking through the whole thing." Scully grumbles something I can’t understand, but sounds strangely like a curse word. "What was that Scully?" I place my hand on the small of her back and lead her out towards the elevator. "Nothing." She mumbles. As usual I am driving, I hate it when Scully drives. She gets mad at me too quickly whenever I start to pick on her. It’s better when she sitting in the passenger seat, like now, reading the case file. I get to look at her out of the corner of my eye without her knowing it. And whenever I say something smart-ass like to her and she smiles I can see her when she thinks I cant. What more can I ask for? Well I would like a lot of things, but I’ll take what I can get. "There doesn’t seem to be anything that connects these girls." Scully says finally looking up from the file for the first time in a half-hour. "I know." "Mulder…" She paused, I know she is going to ask about my theory. "Do you really think they were abducted?" I can’t look at her. I know that isn’t what happened, no reason to think that. It is just a reflex now to think anything case with missing or murdered young girls to think its because of aliens. "No I guess I don’t." "Then what do you think?" "A cult. That might explain the eyes missing. Some ritual or sacrifice. Just like you said, they were impressionable, got caught up in it and didn’t even know what was happening." She nodded. "Maybe. But each statement said the girl was well adjusted, good grades, lots of friends, very religious, basically normal kids." "That’s just it Scully they were kids." I smile over at her. She raises her eyebrow and looks at me like I am the stupidest man alive. "And that explains what?" "Come on Scully. Don’t you remember when you were a kid? Didn’t you ever hide anything from your parents just because you could? Didn’t you ever do anything *bad*?" I give her my best bad boy smile. "Not really Mulder. I was like these girls. I was normal." She doesn’t look amused. "You mean boring?" Opps… That was a mistake. She is shooting daggers out of her eyes at me. "What I’m getting at is that kids hide things from parents for the rush of doing something they shouldn’t. It could be that simple. We just need to find the rest of the cult before this happens again." She just sighed and leaned back into her seat in thought. We drove in silence for awhile until she suddenly pulled out a map of the forest area with the body locations marked. "Mulder what are these buildings around here?" She pointed to edges of the forest. "Some houses, some small stores, the bigger buildings are the church, shopping center and the school building is a little down the road. The town pretty much centers on the forest edge. This is a just a small town we are going to. Not back woods or anything that bad, just good old Smallville USA." She nods in answer. Still looking at the map. "What are you thinking Scully?" "Nothing really. Just occurred to me I hadn’t asked yet." "Oh." Yeah sure Scully. Whatever. "Here we are." I say as we pull onto a long narrow road dotted with old houses and other brick buildings. Everything was quiet and homely expect for the collection of police cars on one side of the road. I pull the car up slowly next to the other parked cars. A group of police officers turn and look at the car. They have a ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ look. I love that, now I get walk up and introduce Scully and myself. A little power surge. Yes I am a pathetic petty man at times; this is one of those times. We get out of the car and walk over to the men. All drinking coffee and looking very grave. "Can I help you?" A middle aged no necked man asked. Definite Navy or Marine type of guy. I personally wouldn’t want to get into a disagreement with him. One punch and I would be out for a week. "I am special agent Scully and this is agent Mulder." We both show our badges. Scully got this one, oh well. I don’t want this guy in a bad mood form my cocky behavior right away. I’d like to live through this case. "Oh I heard you would be coming today." The man shakes our hands. "I’m Sheriff Clark. Thanks for coming out It was a shock to think with us so close to the Federal Building we couldn’t get anyone out here when this whole thing first started." "Well we tend to work on usual cases." I love saying that… I really do. Did I mention that I am a petty pathetic man? "Have you found any new evidence?" And Scully HATES when I say that. All in a day's work. "Not a thing. We were just about to pack it up for the day. Unfortunately we can’t seem track the girls foot prints, the ground out here is too rocky in some places. But you are welcome to give it your best shot." "Still no leads?" I ask, I know the answer. But I ask anyway. Clark shakes his head. "Sorry but not a thing." "I’m a medical doctor, I know the bodies have been examined but I’d like to take a look at them before we head back tonight." Yep that’s my partner… She’s a doctor too. Cool huh? "Well the other two girls have been buried, but the last girl is still at the county morgue." "Ok thanks. I presume we can get a hold of you at the local police station." Scully is the one on a power surge I guess. Watch out all Power Bitch Scully coming through! "Of course. We are going to head out now. If you find anything interesting let me know." He just walked away after that jumping into one of the cars and they all drove off. "I don’t think he liked us." I say turning to Scully. "Mulder what do you expect when the first thing you say is we deal with the strange cases that no one else wants?" Ah… A healthy dose of Scully attitude will bring any man right to his knees, well at least this man and any other with a head on his shoulders. I just grin and pull out the map Scully had earlier. I notice Scully shiver slightly. Its’ cold out, gray sky. Looks like snow any minute. As if Scully was reading my mind, which is not unusual, says; "I wonder if it will snow today." "Too bad it didn’t snow the other night, might be able to find out where Sally Morgan came from. She lives about two miles from here, but who knows what direction she came from, where she was first…" I trail off as I direct Scully in the direction of where her body was found. "Lived, Mulder." She said it so softly I barely heard her. I don’t think she really wanted me to hear. "Huh?" "You said she lives two miles from here, she lived, she’s dead." Her voice was so low I had to strain to hear her. I just nod for a moment. I honestly don’t know what to say to that. I don’t think she wants me to say anything anyway. After about a ten minute walk we come to an area roped off with police tape. Scully walks right under the tape and looks around at the ground. I stay on the other side and lean against a tree and watch her. Scully watching is a hobby of mine. In the office, in the car, in the field, anywhere I can. "Nothing." She calls over to me. And steps back under the tape. "They didn’t find any blood anywhere other then here?" She points to the small pool of blood in the center of the area. "Nada. Come on lets look around see if we can find any prints." She nods and we head out in separate directions looking at the ground. We wander around for at least an hour. I keep Scully in my eyesight the whole time. I know she can take care of herself, there is no doubt in my mind. But that doesn’t stop my urge to protect her at all times. I guess that comes with the territory of loving some one the way I love Scully. I admitted to myself a long time ago I was in love with her. I know she loves me, she just doesn’t say it. Not that I tell her. It’s not how our relationship works. "Mulder I don’t see anything." She yells over. "I didn’t think we would." I start to make my way over to her. "I’m cold… and hungry." I cant help but laugh a little, she sounds like a little girl who’s father dragged her out to find the perfect Christmas tree and has been walking around for hours. "Lets go get some lunch then check on that body." I put my arm around her to warm her a little and we start walking back to the car. It surprises me when she leans some of her weight against me. She looks tired today. I pull her a little closer. We found a small diner when we got in town. It was welcoming and fairly empty at two in the afternoon. A kind old woman showed us to a booth. Once seated Scully stretched her arms and legs kicking me lightly in the shin. "Ow." I pout my lower lip out a little, it always works. "You’ll live." She says unruffled and picks up her menu. "If you say so Doctor." That gets me a smile. "What’ll be for you folks?" The woman has come back smiling away. "I’ll have a bowl of vegetable soup, a turkey club and coffee." Scully says handing her menu over. "Same." The waitress smiles and walks away. What an easy life, well I guess no one has an easy life. At least she has an easy job. No dead kids for no good reason, that there is any good reason for a kid to die. I look over at Scully who has rested her elbows on the table and is rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hands. "Tired?" She looks up at me and sighs. "I barely slept last night." "Any reason?" She looks thoughtfully at the table for a minute before looking up again. "The last few weeks, every few nights I’ve been having these dreams." Gee don’t know what that is like. "What about?" I try to act natural about it. "That’s just it…I don’t remember. I know I had a dream when I wake up but I cant place it. It’s been driving me crazy." "You don’t remember anything at all?" That seems hard to believe. "Not really… It’s right there too. You know? I can almost remember it…I can almost see it…" She trailed off starring at her water glass. "Maybe you should try hypnosis if they keep up." I’m going out on a limb here, God help me. "Umm…." Wow she is considering it. "If they don’t clear up in a few weeks maybe I will. You’ll…you’ll go with me right?" I think my heart just leapt out of my chest and is lying on the table between that napkin dispenser and salt shaker. I reach out and take her hand lightly in mine. "You know I will Scully." She smiles sadly and releases my hand as the waitress sets down our meals. We eat talking lightly about the case. Neither us in a big hurry to go look at the body. When we finally finish we head out to the county morgue. Once we show our badges a lab assistant shows us to the body and walks away. "Well let’s get this over with." Scully says under her breath and she rolls the table holding Sally’s body out from the freezer. She slowly pulls the sheet off and I can’t help but grimace at the gapping wholes where her eyes once were. "Doesn’t look like she struggled when her eyes were taken out." She touched the girl’s face with a gloved hand. The skin was smooth and unmarked. She put the sheet back over and rolled her away. "Mulder these exams were done well. I don’t know what to say about this." She looked dead on her feet. "Scully lets head back. You are tired and we just need to do some back ground work and try to find a connection." She pulled off her glove. "Yeah I cant seem to focus." I had to fright the urge to pull her into my arms; she looked so innocent and vulnerable. I insisted that Scully go home as soon as we were back at headquarters. And for the first time I can remember she agreed with me without hesitation. I tried to do some research after she left. But only succeeded in starring blankly at numerous papers. So now I lay on my couch watching some pathetic college basketball game on TV. Fighting the urge to call Scully to make sure she is all right. But I don’t want to wake her in case she is sleeping. I start to drift in and out of my own light sleep when the phone rings. I reach at my coffee table with my eyes still closed until I find the phone. "Hello?" "Hey Mulder. Did I wake you?" Her voice was thick with exhaustion. "No don’t worry…. Scully why aren’t you sleeping? Did you have another dream?" Too many questions pop into my head at once and I have to force myself to give her a chance to answer me. "I’ve been drifting in and out of sleep. I don’t think I had another dream I don’t really know. I was calling about the case." "What did you find out?" I slowly sit up so my body will stop fighting my mind for sleep. "Nothing really. But I found one person that every girl knew." "Who?" "Their priest. They all when to the same church… Maybe he noticed if they were acting differently. People tell their priest things that would never tell their mother. At least I did when I was that age." "Ok. We can drive out first thing, ask him a few questions." "Alright." I could hear her yawn. Chuckling a little. "Scully will you just go to sleep." She laughs back. "I was trying but I keep thinking about the case. Then I finally figured out this little connection but couldn’t sleep until I told you. I just kept thinking you might be laying there thinking about it like me." "You were picturing me laying where?" I couldn’t help that one. It was out before I could think twice. "Good night Mulder." "Sleep well Scully." I can’t help but smile because I know she is smiling too. I switch off the game. I can sleep fine now. I always can sleep better when the last thing I hear is Scully’s voice. I stretch and head for my bedroom. I arrive at work the next morning and do a double take when I walk in and see Scully perched on my desk. "You are here early." "Yeah. I’ve been here for a while. Do you want to get going?" She looks so tired as she walks over to me and pulls on her coat. "Scully did you sleep last night?" I ask once in the elevator. "Not really. I had another dream…" She isn’t telling me everything, why cant she just let me in? "And you remember it?" Suddenly she turns to me. "Mulder I don’t know. I don’t know if I was just dreaming what I wanted to be dreaming or if that was the same dream from before. I don’t know." "What do you remember?" I’m walking on very thing ice here people. She shakes her head. "I don’t want to talk about it just yet Mulder. You know I’ll tell you once I have it straightened out in my own head." Now she won’t look at me as we walk towards my car. "Ok Scully. I won’t push you. You know I’m here if you need me." "I know Mulder. You are the person to come to with dream problems." She smiles sadly at me. "Yeah I guess I am." We arrive at the church. It’s a small classic looking building; not one of those new modern ones that looks like its structure defies gravity. But a good old-fashioned building, with history and memories just flowing out… And I don’t want to go in. I hate churches. I feel like I am being judged whenever I walk in. I do enough of that myself, I don’t need any help form God thank you. "This is beautiful." Then there is Scully. She looks right at home. "Come on Mulder it wont take long." She takes hold of my forearm and basically drags me in. I’d be more then happy to wait outside in the freezing cold and think warm thoughts. But Scully would kill me. We walk in. Its smells of wood and candles. My body maybe not be uncomfortable but my brain immediately relaxes. Something about that aroma is comforting. "Can I help you?" A kindly middle aged priest walks up smiling softly. I’ll admit he is an attractive man, not that I swing that way. "Yes we are looking for Father Matthews." For the first time in two days Scully looks relaxed. "I’m Father Matthews. How may I help you?" This man is just oozing with kindliness, I think I’m going to be sick. "We are Agents Mulder and Scully with the FBI." Did I mention I love this part? "We were called in to help with the recent deaths of three girls, they were all members of your church." "Oh yes. Those poor girls. God rest their souls..." He trails off into a silent prayer. Oh brother… "We were just hoping to ask you some questions. Is there some where else we could go?" Scully asks motioning around to the open church with a few people lighting candles and saying prays. "Yes. We can go into the Sunday school room if you’d like. No one will bother us in there." He walks over to a door at the side of the church. Leads us into a small room with a round wooden table. We all sit down and I motion for Scully to go ahead. This is her territory not mine. "You knew all these girls didn’t you Father? Maggie Thornburg, Sharon Webster, and Sally Morgan?" "Yes of course. They were all very sweet girls. They spent a lot of time here at the church. Maggie was head of the choir, and the other two sang regularly. They weren’t friends outside of the Church as far as I know. I never saw them speak regularly." He knew just what we would ask, must have spoken to the police already. "Did you notice their personalities…. Or anything change before they died?" I just sit back and watch as Scully takes notes on everything Father Matthews says. "No not at all. They were wonderful girls, never any problems with their families or friends or anything I ever knew of." I speak up now; Scully is being too polite. We will be here forever. "Have you noticed anyone unusual coming to mass? Or anyone in town?" He looks at me with a very confused concerned expression. "No not at all." I just nod and Scully goes about asking various questions. The Father just sits there answering away, never losing his cool. Once back in the car Scully sits silently in thought for a while. I don’t say anything because I can’t think of anything good to say. "Mulder what did you think about Father Matthews?" "What? Like am I going to join the church? Become a priest… Father Mulder?" I can’t help it. Sometimes I just have to be a smart-ass. "Mulder I’m serious." "I don’t know Scully. He seemed nice. You gonna ask him out? Take him clubbing?" There we go! Scully look of death, I can get back to work now. "I don’t know Scully. What did you think of him?" "Something about him was just strange." She is starring out the window in thought. "Well maybe he was nervous. He seemed to be holding back his feelings. Trying not to show his emotions to us maybe." Scully just nodded and continued starring out the window. "It’s starting to snow." She whispers as fake flakes fall on the windshield. We’ve been sitting in this office. For hours. Nothing. Not a thing. No strange people in town. No one has seen a thing. I’m tired. Hungry. Scully is tired. She probably not hungry, she doesn’t eat nearly enough when on a case. "Scully I’m wiped lets call it a night, this isn’t getting anywhere." She looks up at me like she didn’t even know I was there. "Oh. Yeah I guess you are right. You go ahead I’m gonna finish looking through these medical files then head home." "You sure?" "Yeah. I’m almost done here. Another half hour and I’ll head out." I thought about it for a minute. "Ok. I’ll see you in the morning." She looked up from the papers and nodded. "Good night Mulder." I’m walking out the door and stop. "Hey Scully. If you need to talk to me about anything you can call me. Whenever. It doesn’t matter." She looks up again and smiles. "I know Mulder." With that I leave before I start to embarrass myself is some way. It’s late. Almost eleven. Well not late for me but for some people, normal people. Who are lying in their beds, with their husband or wife watching the late night news. Maybe getting the whether for the next day. Then they’ll turn off the TV and fall asleep with a warm body to hold in their arms. But not me. I just lay on my couch watching yet another game on TV, when it is over I’ll wander to my mystery bed. It’s a nice bed, I’d send a thank you note if I knew who to send it too, but when alone its no fun. So I watch my game as usual. Not paying any attention to it tonight. I’m too busy thinking about what Scully is dreaming about that is bothering her. Her abduction? Emily? Melissa? What? I can’t handle it anymore I have to call her. I hope I don’t wake her up, but this is going to drive me crazy. I dial her home number and it rings. And rings. The machine pops on but I hang up. Then I quickly dial her cell phone. It rings once, twice, thrice. "Scully." Damn it she was asleep. "Scully I’m sorry I woke you." I’m about to hang up when I notice she is laughing softly. "Scully? Are you ok?" "Yeah I’m fine. I fell asleep on my desk." She is still laughing. "I’m going to head home right now." She yawns, a big yawn I can hear her jaw crack. "Scully why don’t you let me come and pick you up. I don’t want to falling asleep when you are driving." I pause and half expect her to tell me to go fuck myself. "Thanks Mulder. I think that might be a good idea." Whoa. "Ok Scully I’ll leave right now. I’ll be there in a bit." I hang up and run out my door barely remembering to put shoes on and get my keys. I think I do 90 all the way to the building. I don’t even take the elevator. I’m too damn impatient to wait for the doors to open. I jump down the stairs. All I can think about is the fact that Scully needs me. Sure it is only for a ride home but still I don’t get many of these moments. I reach our office door and take a moment to compose myself and catch my breath before I open it. Carefully I open the door trying not to let is creak too much. I look around the door and see Scully. She has fallen asleep again. Her arms folding on the files in front of her and her head resting on them. She is out cold. I quietly walk over to her and kneel down. "Scully." I don’t want to scare her so I speak softly. "Scully. Come on. Time to get you home." I place my hand on her back and slowly run it up and down. She makes a grumbling noise and I can’t help but smile. "Come one Scully. Wake up." She slowly sits up and looks at me confused. I can’t help but smile at her. "I did it again." She rubs her eyes with her palms and leans back against her chair. "Yeah I guess you did. Lets get you home." I stand up putting one hand on her elbow to help her to her feet. "Sounds like a good idea." She stretches when she stands and pulls on her coat. We walk out to my car is silence. We don’t even say anything until we are driving. "Mulder?" Scully has her forehead leaning against the window. "Yeah?" She doesn’t say anything. "Scully?" "Mulder I don’t want to go home." She says is a rushed breath. I look over at her but she isn’t looking at me. "What’s wrong Scully?" She suddenly looks at me. "Mulder those dreams. I can’t sleep. I don’t want to be alone." "Ok…" I don’t know what to say. Where does she want to go? What the hell is going on? "Could I stay at your place…Please?" Yeah like she needs to say please! "Yeah of course you can Scully. You want to stop by your place and pick some things up?" She nods and looks back out the window. "Thank you Mulder." "Scully you don’t have to thank me. I want to help you. You know that." She just nods again and settles into her seat. Once we get to her apartment I walk up with her. I love her place. So neat and home like. I always feel so comfortable in it. Stretched on that couch, reading a file. Talking with Scully about a case. Then it comes time when I have to return to my apartment. Small and dead feeling. I feel at ease there, just because I have been there for so long. But I don’t like it. It’s dull and boring. I don’t know how to explain it. I just don’t feel that same when I am home as when I am at Scully’s. I was planning on just waiting for Scully in her living room. But she gently takes the sleeve of my leather jacket and pulls me into the bedroom with her. I busy myself looking out the window into the deserted street as she fills a bag with various Scully like things. "What are you looking at?" I didn’t even notice Scully walk up next to me. "Nothing. You ready?" She nods and I take her bag from her. We walk into my apartment and suddenly I feel like a college kid who just brought his drunken date into his dorm room. I’m flustered and feel like I could puke at any moment. "Mulder I’m going to go take a shower ok?" "Yeah go ahead." She takes her bag from my hand and walks into the bathroom. I wonder if I left the seat up? She yells at me every time I forget at her place. I put the teakettle on in the kitchen so I can make Scully some tea. I personally don’t care for it but I keep a stock just in case she ever wants any. Anything to keep Scully with me for five more minutes is worth it. Then I run into my room and change into a pair of flannel pants and a T-shirt. I don’t think Scully would appreciate it if I was walking around in my boxers all night like I usually do. I hear the whistle of the teakettle and the water shutting off at the same time. Once Scully’s tea is made I wait for her in my bedroom. In a minute or two Scully walks out for the bathroom wearing navy blue silk pajamas and her hair damp and curling around her ears. "Mulder I’ll take the couch. I’m not going to kick you out of your bed." I hand her the tea and she smiles her thanks. "No way Scully." I point to where I pulled back the covers. "Sit, drink your tea and tell me about your dream last night." I know I am pushing it by telling her what to do, but I don’t want to take no for an answer any more. This has her more upset then she let on. She reluctantly sits on the bed and pulls her knees up under the covers. "I don’t know about these dreams Mulder…" She trails off as she sips her tea. She looks almost embarrassed about them. "Scully just tell me what you remembered last night? Tell me what has gotten you so upset?" I sit down next to her on the bed. She won’t look at me; she just stares into her tea. "I…I think I was dreaming through the eyes of Sally Morgan, or one of the other girls." "What did you see?" Why does this always happen to us? Why cant either us have some nice picnic or beach dreams? "I…she was walking in the forest. Crying. It was strange. I could see but I know she couldn’t. She was touching trees and shuffling. Her eyes must have already been taken out. She was mumbling "Not him. I don’t want him to hate me. Not him." Things like that over and over again. I don’t understand any of it. But then she doubled over and clutched at her chest." She had to stop for a moment; she was sobbing now and could barely speak. I reach over and take her teacup before her shaking hands drop it. "I don’t know if she was saying it or thinking it, her heart was broken. I heard that. I heard her thinking it. She was in so much pain. She was so sad Mulder. She felt so alone. I feel so alone." She pulled her knees up to her chest wrapping her arms around them crying into herself. "Scully its ok. I’m here." I pull her against my chest and rock her softly. "You aren’t alone. I’m here. Its ok." I put my lips against her hair and keep whispering to her until her sobs quiet and she pulls away. "I’m sorry Mulder." She wipes at her eyes. "Don’t be Scully. You have no reason to be." I gently touch her cheek. My heart leaps when she moves into my hand and kisses my palm. I run my thumb over her lips. I can’t stop it; it’s one of those things I have to do. "Do you think my dream is about the case? Or just a dream?" I have to tear my eyes away from her mouth to her eyes. "Honestly I think it is about the case. You may be putting some of your own fears into it though. But it is derived from the case. Is this the same dream you’ve been having the past few weeks?" She sniffles a little and I think it is truly the cutest thing I have ever heard. "I don’t know. It feels like the same dream, but it cant be. I didn’t know about the case until yesterday." "Maybe you did, but you didn’t realize you knew." She looks up at me, tears still in her eyes. Then she slowly nodded. "I think you are right." That is a big step from Scully, to admit that I am right so quickly. AND for it to be about something like this. "It would explain this weird feeling have been having…" She trailed off, she wasn’t really talking to me. Just saying her thoughts out loud. "What feeling Scully?" "Like I have been watched almost. Been on trial." "What?" That makes no sense to me whatsoever. "I feel like God is watching me. I’m being judged as a person whether or not I can solve this case." "Whoa, Scully. Hold off a little. This case does not revolve around you. Don’t take this personally. That’s my job remember?" She laughs lightly and places a hand on my arm. "I wont Mulder. I was just thinking out loud." I don’t believe her but I won’t call her on it right now. "Mulder why do you think those girls had to die?" She looks really far away. I let out a long breath. "You mean do I think there was a reason for them to die?" "Yeah." She choked out. "Scully I think everything happens for a reason. Everything good and bad has a reason in the end." "What was the reason for these girls to die?" I shake my head slowly. "I have no idea, I might never know. It might take years for that reason to show up. It wouldn’t be the first time…" Saying too much Mulder, shut your feed hole. "Like what?" She asked it so softly I couldn’t just shrug it off. She seems so close to opening to me. I take in a deep breath. "Like my sister’s disappearance." "What good has come of that Mulder?" She looks shocked and confused and just plain beautiful. "Well who knows where I would be if she wasn’t taken. I doubt I would have joined the FBI, and even if I did I wouldn’t have this sad obsession with the unnatural. I never would have seen everything I have. I don’t know if that part is a blessing but other things have been." She is searching my eyes, I feel so naked to her right now. "What has been a blessing Mulder?" I know she knows the answer but she needs to hear it, I think I need to say it too. "You." I can’t say it above a whisper. She smiles sadly and nods. "So all these horrible things needed to happen so we would meet?" "I don’t know. I think everything substantial happens for a reason. But there are too many variables for very little thing to have meant to happen." This is getting way to serious so I reach out and pinch her cheek. "Like that." I start to laugh at the confused look on her face. "That didn’t have to happen, I doubt anything substantial is going to happen because I pinched your cheek." She finally smiles at my reasoning so I continue. "I think we were meant to have this discussion tonight because it is a serious. I am telling my thoughts on life. It’s not something to laugh at really, at least not to me. But we didn’t necessarily have to have it sitting my bedroom. Maybe you have driven yourself home after I called. Knowing me I would have called you to make sure you made it ok. Or I would have stopped by. One way or another we have this talk." She nods as she is fingers the front of my T-shirt. "So it is all fate?" "Well yeah I guess so. I don’t think a person can change his fate. Someone might say to themselves ‘I’m not going to drive drunk, I’m going to change my fate.’ I don’t think that is possible. That person wasn’t meant to drive drunk. Does this make sense?" I’m confusing myself so she must be having some problems too. But she nods her head so I continue. "Maybe even if my sister wasn’t abducted we would have met. If for some reason Sam’s disappearance isn’t a critical thing in the world. Maybe you would be some doctor I would go see to treat tennis elbow or something." I can’t help but laugh at that, neither can she. "But my point is Scully, that no matter what is supposed to happen to us in this world there is no doubt in my mind that we are supposed to do it together." She looks up at me. "I believe that too Mulder. Before I met you…I wasn’t alive. I mean I was living, but I was living a life that I thought everyone else wanted me to live. I took a big step just joining the FBI. I tried to make everyone happy, my father, my mother, Melissa, everyone came before me. But then I started to work with you and suddenly I realized there is a lot more to this world them making other people happy. I wasn’t living my life for myself" She stopped looking at me. "Over these six years I’ve almost lost you too many times. When you were sick and I was in Africa… I couldn’t stop looking because if I did I was afraid you would die. I spent a lot of time trying NOT to think about what my life would be without you. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do it. The scary thing is…I can picture my life without my mother. I can imagine what it would be like. I know I could move on, I would be sad and miss her. But I could keep going. But…but if I didn’t have you." She paused as her voice broke. "Without you Mulder…without you in my life I would rather die." She looked up at me with those beautiful blue eyes filled with tears. I pull her to me, she came willingly. Placing her head on my chest and wrapping her arms around my waist. I bury my face I her hair and think to myself these seems strangely like that time in my hallway. "Scully, you know I feel that same way about you. I don’t need to tell you that you are everything to me. I can’t do any of these things I do without you. I cant. Its that simple. But unfortunately it isn’t a simple thing. It’s the hardest thing…to love someone the way I love you." She pulls away slightly and looks up at me. Then she does the strangest thing, Dana Scully kisses me. She places her hands on the side of my face and pulls me to her. I am basically just along for the ride. And what an amazing ride it is. Just a simple kiss. The kind a husband and wife give each other before leaving for work. But ours lasts a little longer. This is better then our kiss on New Years. That was testing the waters…. Seeing if the world would actually end. It didn’t then, and it didn’t this time either. She slowly pulls away from me and smiles. I place my the back of my fingers against her damp cheek "You need to sleep Scully." She nods. "I know… Will you stay?" She motions with her head to the empty side. "If you want me to." "I do." I slowly slide across the bed and lay beside her. Pulling the comforters up around us. Scully then does another amazing thing, you’d think I would get used to Scully knocking off my feet after all these years. She slowly curls herself up against me. I can’t do anything else but wrap my arms around her and hold her gently. "Mulder?" "Mmm?" "Wake me up if you hear me dreaming, ok?" I just nod and kiss the crown of her head. She snuggles up closer and settles her head in the crook of my arm. For the first time anything like this has ever happened between us it seems strangely familiar. Like husband and wife. But I suppose Scully and I are married in our own weird way. I can’t remember the last time I looked at another women and thought anything more then ‘She’s pretty.’ That is were it ends. I don’t have any urge to walk up and talk to them. I don’t give a pretty woman another thought. Just because I have this beautiful amazing women in my office? Beside me in the field? But not in my bed? I guess all I need is to have her in my heart and I know I do. There is no question about it, even before tonight. I knew. We cant live without each other. I can’t even fathom the words to describe the trust and love I have for this woman. I don’t even know if it is possible to love someone this much. Do other people feel this way about the one they love? All I know is I need her. There is nothing more that I want then to have her all to myself, 24/7. But I honestly don’t know if that will ever happen. I don’t know how it could. Our lives don’t allow personal relationships. But then again if someone had asked me seven years ago if I ever thought I would have a partner I trusted fully with my life, with not a second thought, no question whatsoever. I would have said no way. But now I don’t know how I ever did anything without her. I guess I never did…at least anything that really mattered. If anyone had ever asked me if I would put my life on the line without a moment of hesitation for anyone but my sister. I would have told them not a chance. Too many things I need to uncover in this world to risk it for just anyone. But Scully isn’t just anyone. Scully is my world. She fills that void in my heart that has always been there. She completes every part of me. She is half my mind, half my soul, and my whole heart. Without her there is no doubt in my mind I would die. I would just die of grief. She is the only thing I believe in and without her there would be nothing worth living in my life. She is my faith, my religion you could even say. Without her my world would come crashing down with around me. I would tear myself apart and then just die. I cell phone is ringing. I can hear it on my bedside table. That’s the third ring. I want to answer it; I need to answer it. But Scully is spooned up against my stomach and this is too good to let go. Oh damn she is awake. "Mulder just answer it so we can go back to sleep." She reached in front of her and grabbed the phone from the table. Basically whacked me in the head with it before I managed to tear my arm from around her stomach and answer it. "Mulder." Did that sound pissed enough? Its barely light out and I have a beautiful woman in my bed that hasn’t moved and doesn’t look like she is planing to. In fact she has even rolled over and is burring her face in my T-shirt. I don’t think I sounded pissed enough. I wonder if I hang up if they will call back and I can answer again. Maybe throw in a few swear words to get my point across. "Agent Mulder? I’m sorry to bother you so early. This is Sheriff Clark." Oh shit. "Its ok Sheriff. What are you calling about?" Scully heard the word sheriff and rolled on to her back, her head still resting on my one arm. She looking at me and I can tell she is trying to hear what is being said on the other line. "Well I just received a call that another little girl has been reported missing." I can see Scully tense as she heard that. I don’t bother fighting my instinct this time. I cradle the phone with my shoulder and start running my hand lightly over the satin covering her stomach. "It sounds just like the other girls, 14 years old and no one heard a thing." "Have you started searching the forest Sheriff?" I’m starring down at Scully the whole time. She has guilt in her eyes and it is tearing my heart out. "The search is being formed right now, I called you right after I heard." The man sounds panicked, not that I blame him. His town is falling apart around him. "Ok. Agent Scully and I will be there as soon as we can. If you find a body call me on my cell phone." "I will." The sheriff quickly hung up the phone. I turn my cell phone and practically throw it to my table. Then look down as Scully. She looks shocked. I know I need to get up and take the world faster shower but I cant find words. "Another one." Scully whispers. "They haven’t found a body Scully. She might not be dead." I’m trying to sound hopeful but I know I am failing miserably. She just shuts her eyes and nods. I lean down and place lips on her forehead. "I’m going literally jump in and out of the shower so we can get going." She shifts so I can slide my arm out from behind her head. I grab cloths for the day so I don’t walk out of the shower and into my room nude, like I usually do, before turning back to her. She is laying in bed still, one arm over her eyes. She looks defeated. "Scully?" "I’m ok Mulder. Go shower and I’m going to get dresses so we can go." "Ok." I don’t saying anything else. I don’t have anything else to say. There is nothing I can do to make this better for her. If there was I would do it. We park that same place we did the first time we came to the forest. But this time the only things that greet us are parked police cars. We both get out of the car silent just like our trip up here. The only word Scully spoke was her opinion on the coffee we stopped to pick up. "Did Sheriff Clark say were they were going to start looking?" "No he had no idea. Do you have any ideas?" She looks like she has a plan in her wonderful head. "I think we should start behind the church." "Ok." We start walking down the side of the road to were the church is. "Any reason Scully?" Not that I am going to question too much, I don’t have a clue what to do. "Nope not one. Just seems like a good place to start." She smiles at her lack of logic. "Sounds like a plan to me." I think she is hiding something. Suddenly I put two and two together and don’t come up with five by the way. "Scully you had another dream last night didn’t you? That’s why we are starting behind the Church?" She glances over at me. "I think so Mulder. Again I don’t really remember. I just have this feeling we should start here. Maybe we’ll get lucky and be able to find some foot prints in the snowy spots." She gestures to the clumped areas of snow, mostly under trees where it is sheltered from the morning sun light. "You said that last girl was holding on to trees. So maybe will just will get lucky." "Let’s hope so…" She whispered. We walk for a long time, I don’t even know how long. But I am cold and I just want another cup of coffee and my very own bloodhound so we don’t have to keep walking around this damn 30 acres of forest. Actually what I would like is for this to be Saturday, that way I could still be laying in bed with Scully. Warm, comfortable and oblivious to that fact that somewhere in these woods is a girl, who if she hasn’t already died of some strange heart failure then any minute now she is going to die from exposure. "Mulder?" Scully is off to my right somewhere. Damn it I can’t see her. I wasn’t too lost in thought and wasn’t watching carefully enough, this forest is too dense. "Scully where are you?" "Oh God Mulder…" I fallow her voice, she isn’t too far away we know better then to let that happen. "Scully what is it?" I find her she is starring down at the forest floor. "Scully?" I slowly make my way over to her. "Mulder." It was all she had to say. That one word broke my heart. I came up next to her and my heart broke even more when I saw her. The young girl was lying on her stomach. No eyes, some blood pooling under neither her. She was already turning blue from the cold. I got out my phone and called the police station telling them about where we were so they could radio the Sheriff. I turned back to Scully after my call, she hadn’t moved from where she was. She just stood, starring down, a look of total horror in her eyes. "Scully, come here your shivering." I pull her gently away from the body and put her gloved hands between mine and rub them together. She was starring at my chest; she was very far off. "Scully?" She didn’t answer, didn’t even blink. "Scully…Scully can you hear me?" Nothing. What the fuck is going on. I let her hands go and they just fall to her sides. Gently I tip her chin up trying to get a look at her eyes. She gasps suddenly and pulls away from me. "Scully it’s me. You ok?" "Wha-?" She looks around her frantically, stopping at the body. I take a tentative step towards her. "Scully what happened?" "Mulder I want to go back to DC. I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to be anywhere near here. I need to leave. Mulder please." She was talking a mile a minute. She took my sleeve and pulled me back the way we came. "Scully wait. We just have to wait for the Sheriff to get here. Then I will take you home right away." I took a hold of her shoulders to stop her. Just then there was a rustling in the trees. "Agent Mulder? Is that you?" It was Sheriff Clark. "Yes. The body is right here." I said as he walked from between some trees. "We have to go. We have an important meeting. Please call me as soon as you get the medical reports and everything." Yeah so I lied, not the first time in my life. "Um… Agent Scully aren’t you going to do that autopsy?" He looked very confused. Well join the club buddy. Scully shook her head. She couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the girl’s body. "Well then I will call you when I get the results." He walked away over to the group of people standing around the body. "Come on Scully. I’m taking you home now." I whisper to her and take her arm. We walk back in silence. Once in the car and heading out of town I got up the nerve to say something to her. "Scully are you ok? And don’t say you are fine…please." She looks over and me and nodded. "I don’t know what happened out there Mulder." "You were not with me for a little while. You were shivering and just starring off." I’m wish I wasn’t driving right now. I want to look at her. But it has started to snow heavy wet flakes. Well there goes finding any tracks of that girl. This just isn’t working out for us. "I couldn’t see you…" She mumbled. "What do you mean?" "I knew you were there but I couldn’t see you, I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t move, I don’t know…" "Scully…" She cut me off. "Please Mulder I just want to go home." "Ok. We’ll talk about it later." I can’t push her, she sounds so confused. I don’t even really know what to ask her. I need to do more research; I have to find this cult that is around here. All of a sudden two victims in such a short time. I don’t like where this is heading. The damn town is going to run out of kids soon. We got back to my place. Why she wants to come here is beyond me, but her wish is my command. She walks right over to my coach and pulls her knees up to her chest. I pull of my jacket and tie then walk into the kitchen and make her tea. I have learned Scully’s tea moments and this is definitely one of them. Hell I could use a couple of shots, but its only 3 in the afternoon. A couple minutes later I walk out to the still dazed looking Scully and hand her the mug. I sit down in front of her and pull her legs over mine. "Ok Scully spill the beans." I smile lightly. She looks as me returning my smile and leans back into the couch more. "I don’t know Mulder. I really don’t know." "What the hell happened out there?" She shook her head slowly. "I don’t have a clue. I was just not there any more." She is interrupted by a yawn. I move her legs and stand up. She looks confused that I got up. Well if that was confusing your going to love this one Scully. I grip under and knees and slide her down on the couch. I look up at her and have to laugh that the shocked expression. Well it gets better Scully. I pull off her low-heeled shoes. Then more up the head of the couch. Lifting her shoulders I slip off her jacket and lay it on my table. Then I pull the blanket from the back of the couch and lay it over her. "I want you to get some sleep." She looks worried and opens her mouth to say something. "I’ll be working at my desk." I gesture to the desk beside the couch and she shuts her mouth and smile. "Ok. I’ll try but no promises." She settles into the couch more. "Wow Mulder this couch is comfortable." I laugh at that. "Yeah I think I broke it in." I sit at my computer and turn it on and log into the Internet. I can see out of the corner of my eye Scully has turned on her side and is watching me. "Close your eyes young lady." I say in best stern tone I can muster. She smiles and complies. I can tell she is off to sleep with in a few minutes by her relaxed breathing. So I set myself down with a bag of sunflower seeds and enter my password into the FBI database and get to work. I search for known cults in the area. I search any eye removable records. I search the significance of the eyes in religious/spiritual sense. The eyes are the windows to the soul. Yeah I knew that before. Who doesn’t know that? This is getting no where and it is taking way to long to get there. Before I was just annoyed at a lack of mode for these deaths, now I am truly frustrate. And its dark out now and I am starving. As much as I enjoy my sunflower seeds I’m a growing boy. I look over at Scully part of me hoping she will wake soon as hungry as I am and want to share a pizza with me. I sit there and rub my eyes trying to figure out what I am missing. What I really want to do is pick Scully up and put her in bed the curl up beside her and forget about the cold cruel world outside my dank apartment. That would make me a happy man. But instead of that happening my cell phone rings and I answer it as fast as I can because Scully is still sleeping peacefully on the couch. "Mulder." I quickly get up from my desk and move into the kitchen so I can talk above a whisper. "Agent Mulder its Sheriff Clark." "What did you find?" "Same as before. Eyes taken out, as you saw, no sign of struggle, or abuse. Died of heart failure, no finger prints on her. We were only able to find a few tracks, but the new snow has covered everything up now." "Which way were the prints coming from?" "East." I fumble for my map of the forest. "So that means she came from the area of the school, stores and church right?" "Yes, she lived north of the area. So that means she walked somewhere around the those building or through them." "Ok Sheriff. Thanks. Agent Scully and I will be in touch as soon as we find anything else out." "Thank you." He said and hung up. This case is lots of fun. Lets see what do I have so far…four dead girls, eight missing eyes, random heart failure and a partridge in a pear tree… "No..." What the hell was that? "Scully?" I walk back into the living room, she still asleep. "No please…not him. How…Oh God help…" She is struggling and crying softly on the couch. "Scully, wake up Scully." Kneeling beside her I touch her shoulder lightly. "How…I can’t believe. Take my soul. God take my soul forgive me…" "Scully. Wake up." I shake harder. I don’t want to scare her, but she needs to wake up. "I’m sorry…I’m sorry I didn’t make you happy God. Please forgive me. Take my soul!" She is sweating and crying. What the hell is going on? "I’m so so sorry God. I’m so sorry. I give myself to you…" "Scully wake up!" I pull her upright and give her a good shake. Mental note: buy smelling salts. "Mulder!" Her eyes fly open all of a sudden. "Mulder?!" "I’m right here, its ok." Shaking she grabs at me. "Its ok now Scully. You’re awake its ok." I pull her gently against me. I shift so I am sitting on the couch beside her, pulling her into my lap. She wraps her arms around me and buries her face in my neck. I rock her gently as she slowly quiets again. "What was I dreaming about?" She asks looking up at me. I use my thumb to wipe away the trail of tears on her cheeks. "You don’t remember?" She shakes her head and slides from my lap. "You were saying things like ‘God I’m sorry I didn’t make you happy. Take my soul. Forgive me. I can’t believe. Take my soul’…. Oh how could I be so stupid?!" I swear I could kick myself. "The eyes are the window to the soul Scully! You said in your dream ‘God I’m sorry I didn’t make you happy take my soul’! God took these girls eyes!" I am just rambling now and I know it. "Wait a second Mulder. That makes sense in a way. But how could ‘God’ do that? This cult must have a messed up version of God!" "Scully please don’t take this the wrong way. But not all people see God the way you do. These people must be sacrificing these girls for themselves or something like that. I don’t know…" I get up from the couch and go back to my computer. Switching off the FBI database I switch over to the good old Internet. People always say you can find everything you ever wanted to know about, lets test that theory. "Mulder…" I turn around. "Yeah?" "Nothing never mind. Keep looking." She has a look on her face like she forgot the last digit of her phone number. "I’m starving. I’m going to order a pizza ok?" "Don’t have to ask me twice." I swivel back around in my chair and start typing in searches. I try "stealing the eye" "stealing the soul" "taking the soul" anything I can think of along those lines. One pizza, two ice teas, millions of web sites and many hours later and still nothing. Scully comes up behind me and looks over my shoulder. "Mulder why don’t you call it a night?" She places her hand on my shoulder to get my attention. "Oh damn! Scully I’m sorry. Did you want me to take you home? Your car is still at the office." I am such a moron at some times I know this. She looks away from me, almost embarrassed. "Actually is it ok if I stay here again?" "Sure Scully. You can stay here as long as you want." Hell if you want we can go get married tomorrow morning and you can live here forever and ever. "Thanks Mulder." She whispers. Wow Dana Scully is embarrassed…how cute is that?! "Why don’t you go ahead and get to bed." I place a hand on her waist lightly. She nods a little. "You going to come soon?" She gestures with her head toward the bedroom. This is too damn amazing. I get to share a bed with her two nights in a row. I suddenly remember what I am doing and look back at the screen. Oh fuck it, I’m not getting anywhere. "Yeah I’ll be right there." "Don’t hurry. I’m going to take a shower first." She smiles and walks off. I wonder if I am dead. I really do. That would explain why this is happening to me. Maybe I died and am in heaven. I shake the thoughts from my head and turn off my computer. I can hear the water turn on through the wall and decide to change before Scully comes out. I slowly walk down the hall and notices she left the bathroom door open a crack. Don’t you dare even think about looking you pervert! I force myself by the door quickly. I change into another pair of flannel pants and T-shirt. I hear the water shut off again. Damn Scully is being fast in there. I know she stays in for at least fifteen minutes on average. One of the benefits of the shity motels that the Bureau puts us in with their damn thin walls is you quickly learn your partners habits. I wonder when I cleaned my shower last? It can’t be that scary. Why the hell does a shower get dirty any way? Nothing in there but water and soap, the makings for cleanliness. Scully walks into the room wearing the same pajamas from the night before. She looks troubled. "I’ll be back in a minute." I say walking by her and into the bathroom. I am welcomed by Scully smells. Her shampoo is like a magnet to me, light and womanly. I brush my teeth and wash my face slowly, giving her time to settle in again. I realize I left my cell phone in the kitchen so I take a little detour before heading back to the bedroom. "Mulder?" A very worried Scully calls. She must think I’m not coming back in there. I think my heart just grew three sizes. I’m like a messed up version of the Grinch. I walk back into my room and throw the phone on my table. "Forgot my phone." I explain when I notice how worried she is. Well this case is just a load of fun. I am confused beyond belief and Scully is scared shitless. Wonderful. Of course I do have Scully sleeping in my bed, I guess its not ALL bad. I move around to the opposite side and slide under the covers. Scully shocks me once again by moving over towards me. I open up my arms and she settles in, with face against my chest. I can’t help but let out a contented sigh and I settle in around her. "I could get used to this Mulder." She admits with a shy smile. I laugh a little. "Scully I already am." I gently kiss her temple. She lifts her head and looks at me. Just looks at me for a moment. Then slowly leans forward and kisses me lightly. Two kisses in two nights. That proves it I’m dead. I am in heaven. She pulls back a little and smiles softly. "I’m getting used to that." I just nod. All I want to do is kiss her again. Really kiss her. But I don’t. I don’t want to ruin this…. whatever this is. It’s better then anything I have ever had in my life and I am NOT about to lose it because I can’t control myself. Scully lays her head back down and closes her eyes. "Good night Scully." I whisper in her ear as she drifts off. If only I could promise you a good one. I wake up suddenly to a loud gasp and Scully practically ripping my arm off when she sits upright. "Scully?" I reach over and turn on a lamp and sit up next to her. "Oh my God Mulder…" "What Scully? Another dream?" She nodded. She was in deep thought trying to remember everything. "They did it to themselves…" "Scully want do you mean?" I turn to so she is facing me. "Just tell me what you saw." She nods again and swallows hard. "She was in…in some kind of basement or cellar or something. She was crying and apologizing to God. Then, my God, then she took the clamp of some kind…" Scully choked on her words. "She just pulled her eyes out. Someone…. Someone was there with her. She was doing it for who ever that was. I don’t know maybe there wasn’t someone there, maybe she just thought there was…I don’t know. But she did it herself…" "Suicide?" It’s all I can think to ask. I’m as dumbfounded as she is. "No. No she did it for God. Gave God her soul for forgiveness. Then…then she was walking in the forest She couldn’t see. She was in so much pain, not from her eyes. But from sadness. Then she just fell over and wanted to die…" "She died of grief." I whispered. "What?" Scully looked at me confused. "Everything she knew and loved was her faith. Her life revolved around her religion, she lived every moment to make God happy. When she failed her world came down around her. Her heart stopped beating because she didn’t think she had any reason to live." This is starting to make sense. "What? Mulder the isn’t possible." Ok it is making sense to ME, but she wouldn’t be Scully if she didn’t question me. "Think about it Scully. You said she wanted to die. Maybe it was suicide in some way. She felt like she failed, maybe this cult told her she had. An initiation of some kind she didn’t pass. Therefore she failed in the eyes of THEM but they said she failed God. She gave God her soul by giving her eyes then left. She gave god what she had and tried to go on with life but couldn’t. She couldn’t live without her faith. These girls’ lives revolved around God. Without God in their lives they didn’t know how to go on. They died of grief. Their hearts literally broke." Scully looked like a train had just hit her. "We have to find that basement she was in." She jumped up off the bed and went to her bag. "What a second Scully we don’t know where it could be. 30 acres is a hell of a big wild goose chase." She didn’t answer just kept digging through her bag. "Scully you know where this place is don’t you?" "No I don’t." I don’t believe, she knows she just doesn’t think she does. "Ok. I’m going to get dressed." I was about to ask her if she wanted me to take her home so she could get warmer cloths, suits aren’t very practical for running through the forest at two in the morning. But I notice she has already pulled out a pair of jeans and a sweater. That’s my Scully always prepared. I swear she must have been a Boy Scout in a past life or something. Future den mother of the year folks. She grabs her cloths and heads to the bathroom to change without another word to me. "Where do you want to park?" I ask Scully as we drive up the road of the forest. No one else is out here. It’s dead quiet. Just the street lamps greet our arrival. "Let’s park at the Church." I nod and pull in to the empty lot. We both slowly step out into the cold night air. I cant believe those girls could last out in this weather wearing what they were. They couldn’t have gotten very far. I pull my flashlight out of my trench coat and go around to Scully. "Where to?" "Um…I don’t know Mulder. Maybe this isn’t such a good idea to be walking around here in the middle of the night." "It’s ok. We’ve got flash lights, guns and phones, we’ll be warn enough." I pause for a few moments as we both look behind the church to were the forest edge is. "So what are we looking for exactly?" "Well… Any underground chamber. Maybe in the rocks, maybe a basement or cellar. This is an old forest, people used to live in here. There must be hundreds of old fruit and wine cellars in the ground…" She biting her lip, which means she is nervous about this. I don’t blame her, running around when some whacked out cult is hiding in here and more then likely knows the forest better then we do. Even with my gun and a few extra clips I don’t like this much either. "Ok Scully which way?" "Mulder I don’t know!" "Yes you do Scully. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Use your intuition." She was getting mad, I could tell. "Mulder how am I suppose to know?" "Scully you are having those dreams for a reason. We’ve said before that dreams are the answers to questions we don’t know how to ask. Well here it is again Scully. Your dreams are telling you where to go. You are the one that is suppose to figure this out. It’s your fate!" She just stares at the ground for a moment contemplating her thoughts. "Mulder I am trying to think where to go but I don’t have any idea." "No Scully. Don’t think. You are doing it wrong." I move behind her and put my hands on her shoulders. "Close your eyes Scully." She turns over her shoulder and raises her eyebrows. "Just do it Scully. Trust me, I’ll be right behind you the whole time. Close them." She turns around and her eyes slid shut. "Now don’t think, just do. Which way do you want to go? Clear your head and start walking whichever way your gut tells you to go. Don’t open your eyes until your subconscious takes control." We stand for a moment in silence. Then slowly she takes a step forward and to the left. I fallow closely behind her not letting go of her shoulders until her eyes open. "Over here Mulder. Some where over here." She says pointing to the left. "Ok lets go." We start walking slowly, shinning our flashlights to the ground. Both to try to not trip on rocks and to find any opening in the ground. We are moving very slowly, I’m always a step behind Scully. It seems like we are moving against the clock, feels like days of walking in this silence but it has only been an hour or so. "Mulder over here." Scully says pointing to an area of large rocks. We slowly climb up and over them and practically fall onto an old wooden storm door. "You go girl." I whisper in her ear. "I can’t believe I found it…. It may not be it Mulder." She suddenly realizes. "Well if it isn’t it I’ll buy you a new Mustang." "I’d prefer an Explorer." I love it when she plays along. "Done." I pull out my gun move in front of the doors, she mimics my movements. "Lets see wants behind door number one." She moves to the side of the door I’m not opening, gun poised. I slowly lean down and pull the door open slowly. It lets out a huge creak as I pull it back that causes us both to cringe. Honey we’re home. Scully nods to me it’s clear and move back around with my gun up. "Guess I don’t get that Explorer." "Sorry." I say sarcastically as I look down into the cellar. There is faint candle light coming from on side. I shine my flashlight down into the hole, which I shouldn’t do because whoever is down there knows we are here. But damned if I’m about to jump down there without a look. There are two steep wooden steps leading to ‘ground’ level. "I’ll go first." I whisper to Scully. She nods and I slowly take a step down. Gun and flashlight poised I notice I’m in some sort of hallway, the candlelight is coming from around a corner to my right. I look up and motion for Scully to come down. She silently walks up next to me. I can tell she is scared, hell I am terrified. I didn’t think I was a claustrophobic person but I am change that really soon. "Any thoughts Scully?" She shakes her head but heads slowly off to the corner. "We are definitely in some kind of old fruit cellar." She whispers. Nodding I walk up next to her and the hallway becomes wider. It is cooler down here. "Scully do you smell that?" There is a bittersweet scent in the air. Not pleasant at all. She nods as we slowly continue into a room. We are alone down here. There are a few candles and large old lanterns lit. I scan the room with my flashlight and catch something glitter off to the side. I look over at Scully who is scanning the opposite wall. I walk over to where I saw the glint and the smell is suddenly stronger. "Oh God! Scully…" There is a pool of blood on the dirt floor and a pair of metal clamps. Scully walks over and puts her hand to her nose. "Mulder we better get out of here. Call for backup then come back." I nod and stand pulling Scully by the elbow towards the hallway. I’m stilling looking over at the pool of blood when Scully gasps and grabs my arm. I wipe my head around, gun poised in the area hers is. "Came for the guidance of God my children?" "Father Matthews…" Scully is pale and leans her weight into me. "Put your hands where I can see them!" I yell with my FBI-don’t-fuck-with-me tone. Unfortunately Father Matthews doesn’t seem effected at all. "You have disappointed Him you know…You have questioned Him. Both of you. You must save yourselves now before it is too late…" He starts walking around towards the candles. "Freeze! Just stop right there, I am armed!" Come on Scully snap out of it. She is just staring at him in shock. "How…how could you do this to those girls?" Her gun has gone limp by her side. "I didn’t do a thing to those girls! They sold themselves to the devil with unpure thoughts. I tried to counsel them…Every night. In here. I spoke to them. They confessed their sins to me. So many sins…I could not help them in any other way. They saved themselves by giving their souls before it was too late." He reaches next to him onto the shelves holding the biggest lantern and my gun hand flinches. "I’m not going to say it again! Put your hands where I can see them!" "You can see my hands just fine Agent Mulder." He opens his palm to show a collection of eyes, drying and bloody. I have to fight a wave of nausea. "But can you see your soul?" This guy is wacko, that’s all there is to it. He is holding a handful of eyes and he wants to know if I am ready to die. "How? How could you kill them?" Scully is still in shock. "My child I didn’t kill them. I simply showed them a way to save themselves before it was too late." His voice is almost tranquilizing. It’s smooth and cool. "You confused them! You told them God was angry! You killed them you bastard!" Well Scully has snapped out of it that is for sure. All of a sudden she lunges forward, I don’t know what she is doing but I stop her by grabbing her arm, almost dropping my gun in the process. "You made them die! They died because they thought God was angry at them!" "I did not kill them! I saved their souls! I told them the only way for God to forgive them was to give themselves over to Him! I saved them! You need saving! You are making God angry by questioning me! You are damning yourself!" His face is glowing red with anger. "If you wont save yourself I’ll save you!" He reaches behind him and grabs the lantern. I don’t even think to shoot all I can think to do and pull Scully behind me. I feel the sharp hot pain at the metal and glass hit my shoulder. The metal hook of the lantern hits me hard in the temple just as I try to turn and shoot. I don’t know if my gun fired or if Scully’s did but I heard it echo off the rock walls before the world around me goes black. My eyes feel so heavy. I really want to open them though. Actually my whole body feels heavy. I basically feel stoned. I hate lying on my back, why am I sleeping on my back? I never do. I try to roll over but a shooting pain goes down my left side, starting at my head and ending at my fingers. I can’t help but groan. "Open your eyes Mulder. Come on. Please open your eyes." That voice could so easily be mistaken for an angel's but I know it too well. I can feel and smell Scully leaning over me. I try to open my eyes again, this time with the motivation of seeing her face. I force them open a little but am immediately blinded by bright lights. Oh shit I did die. Don’t people talk about lights and angels leading them away from their bodies? Great just when my life was getting good I had to die. "Mulder? Open your eyes. Look at me." I can feel her hand on my cheek. I didn’t know you could feel things when you died? I open my eyes again and force them to stay open despite the shooting pain in my head. "Hey." Scully smiles down at me, running her hand along my jaw. "Scully?" Yeah its Scully you idiot. "Yeah it’s me. You gonna stay with me now?" She is still smiling but looks worried. I try to sit up but she pushes my shoulders down lightly. Not that I was going to get anywhere, the pain coursing through my body causes my muscles to give out. "Don’t you dare try to move. Just lay there." She lets one hand trail down to the center of my chest. "I take it from the pain that I’m not dead." I mumble. Then I realize I’m in a hospital, that horribly sterile smell suddenly floods my senses. She looks a little amused by that. "No way I was going to let you die." She leans over and presses her lips against mine. If my mind wasn’t so foggy I would have kissed her back but it just wasn’t going to happen. "How you feeling?" She asks when her pulls away. "Like I was hit by a train." I groan out. She laughs a little. "No not a train just a lantern form hell." "Oh…" I moan. "Now I remember." I close my eyes and let my memory come flooding back. My brain feels about 30 seconds behind the rest of the world. "What the hell do they have me on?" "Um…well other then a whole lot of pain killer and some antibiotics?" She asks sarcastically. "What’s wrong with me? I hurt but to fuzzy to figure out where it is coming from." I let my eyes slide shut and relax into the feel of Scully’s hand as it moves to hold mine. "Well you have one a heck of a concussion from being hit in the head, 2^nd degree burns on your shoulder and arm, some stitches and bruising. You’ve been out for three days. If you wanted a vacation Mulder you could have asked Skinner." I laugh a little but stop when the pain shoots through my body. "Ow. I hurt." Pretty deep statements I can come up with at times, huh? "Yeah I bet you do." I open my eyes when I feel her hand on my cheek again. "Mulder…You…Once again you saved my life. That lantern would have hit my in the head. No way I would have come out of that. Even if I did live I would…. God I hate to think would have happened. I probably-:" I cut her off by reaching my good hand up and placing it over her lips. "Don’t think about it Scully. It didn’t happen. You know I would give my life for you without a second thought, and that’s what I did. I didn’t think I just DID." She nods and leans her head down to my chest. I move my hand to tangle it in her hair. We stay that way for awhile in silence. "Well look who joined the world of the living." I open my eyes and Scully lifts her head up to see Skinner walk into the room. "I don’t know if I am quite living, Sir." "Yeah you are doped up that’s what you are." Wow Skinner and a sense of humor…I’m not dead right? "You know Agent Mulder, I wonder if you don’t get yourself in trouble all the time so you cant get a good dose of Demerol and take a week off." "Is that what they have me on? No wonder I feel so funky." Demerol…God bless the man that made this amazing drug. Skinner just shakes his head amused. "Wait a second! What happened to Father Matthews?" Painkillers are great and all but I would really like to able to focus for a little bit here. Skinner glances over at Scully. "Agent Scully shot him right after you went down. Fatal shot." I nod and look over at Scully who is just starring at the wall. "Well I was just stopping by to see how you were doing." Skinner looks uncomfortable all of a sudden. He walks over to me and shakes my hand. "Enjoy your…. stay." He glances over at my drug supplying IV. "Goodnight Agents." He turns and walks out the door before we say anything else. I look over at Scully…she has a strange look in her eyes. "Scully you ok?" She looks over at me kind of startled. "Um yeah I’m fine." "Yeah and I’m about to go play some baseball." She smiles a little. "What’s going on?" "I…I can’t believe I shot a priest." She lets out a little snort of laughter. "Scully that man was a murderer. He twisted their minds so much they didn’t know what was going on! I’m not the most religious person but that man had no sense of God…" "I know." She looks so sad. I manage to slide over one side of the bed. "Come here Scully." I open my good arm up so she can lie down next to me. She slowly curls up with her head on my shoulder. "I think…I think your fate was to learn that people aren’t always who they seem." She was about to defend herself but I don’t give her a chance to talk. "I’m not saying you are naïve, I know you aren’t. You are the smartest person, male or female I have ever met. You have amazing knowledge and even more amazing common sense. But sometimes judgement can be clouded. I think that is what happened to these girls. They didn’t know better then to trust that man. They hadn’t learned that people aren’t who they seem. Maybe your fate was to learn that. Well not to learn…but to reinforce that fact for whatever reason. You might not come across the situation where you need to remember that you can’t trust people you think you should for a long time. But, I think, that is why you were involved in this case." "My fate was to question my faith because of this case?’ She questions softly. "Is that what you are doing?" "I think so." She closes her eyes as tears start to form. "Then maybe that is another reason, or the only reason. But something that I know about you Scully is that you are a strong person. And part of that is because of your faith. I don’t want you to think that this all happened because you should turn your back on your faith. I honestly don’t think you could do that. She tilts her head up to me. "You know me too well Mulder." We both laugh lightly at that. "Yeah well it comes with the territory." I lean down and kiss her forehead. "What territory?" "You figured you me out, I had to do that same." She smiles up at me and we are both quiet for some time. "Go to sleep Mulder." "As long as you are with me." I whisper. "Always." THE END Visit my page for all fanfics! _http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Bath/7266/fanfic.html _ __ Well I don’t know about this one. It was one of those things that came to me in the middle of the night. I literally had to jump out of bed at 2 in the morning and started talking down notes. Yeah I am a little crazy I accept that. Email me if you have ANY comments or want to read any of my other works. I could contiune this one, make it a little more interesting. I mean Mulder has to come home from the hospital sometime and I don’t think he could take care of himself for a while. * evil laughter * Well let me know what you think I should do! JumperChick@aol.com . THANKS!!!!!