Title: Gotcha!
Author: X_fairy (fairy175@yahoo.com)
Disclaimer: The X-files belong to CC and Mulder and Scully belong to each other, not to me! No infringement intended!
Rating: PG-13 for graphic descriptions of Mulder's injuries
Category: MSR, Muldertorture
Spoilers: None!
Archive: Anywhere, with my name and addy, but please let me know!
Summary: Mulder admits his feelings for Scully after she has rescued him from some violent kidnappers.
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Gotcha!
By X_fairy
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"FBI! Freeze!" Scully shouted the exact same moment the SWAT leader kicked open the door of the warehouse. Three of the men slowly lifted their hands, too surprised to resist, while the forth tried to dive for a weapon and ended up with a bullet in his thigh.
Scully went straight towards the nearest man, the SWAT team swarmed in after her to take care of the others. She tipped his head up with the barrel of her Sig and hissed, "Where's Mulder?"
He gestured with his head in the direction of another door, "O'er there."
Scully bit her lip to keep a sigh of relief from escaping her throat. She turned the man around and kicked him against the wall, "Hands down. Cross your wrists." She handcuffed him and then left him with the SWAT team to go search for her partner.
She didn't have to search long. When she had passed through the door the man had indicated, she instantly spotted him. He lay on his knees in the middle of a grid of about ten feet in square. She slipped out of her high heels to be able to walk on it and crossed towards her partner.
Mulder heard steps coming in his direction. "No, don't, please don't..!" he screamed. He felt somebody kneel down in front of him and two gentle hands on his shoulders. "Scully...?"
She softly pulled him up and gasped in the next moment. His shirt was ripped open, and his chest and face were covered in bruises, his eyes swollen shut, his lips bloody. He was chained to the grid from the knees down.
"My god, Mulder, why did they do this to you?"
He flung his arms around her waist and buried his face against her stomach. "Scully... thank god you're here..."
Helplessly, she stroked his hair and murmured, "You're gonna be okay, partner, you're gonna be okay..."
At last, Scully knelt down again, so she could look into his eyes, or what was left of them. She gently ran her fingertips over his bruises, but he couldn't even begin to feel that. In lack of any other possibility to make him feel she was there for him, she started to kiss him, his swollen eyes, his bruised cheeks and at last his bloody lips. His eyes opened in surprise, but at least he responded this time, and kissed her back, a soft, intense kiss.
"I'm gonna get you outta here, Mulder," she turned towards the door and called, "I'm gonna need some tongs, he's chained to the ground!"
One of the SWAT team members handed her a pair of tongs with long handles, and she personally cut Mulder's chains, and thereby discovered that not only his knees but also his ankles were chained to the grid.
When she pulled him on his feet, he was hardly able to stand. She put an arm around his waist and more carried than guided him out to her car and deposited him in the passenger seat. When she was opening the driver's door, a SWAT member called after her, "You gonna be okay, Agent Scully?"
"Yeah, all I need you to do is get out that grid, I want it as evidence, I bet Mulder has some nice impressions on his shins." She slipped into the car, turned the key and floored the accelerator.
*****
Scully only realized the full extent of her partner's injuries when she had peeled him out of his dirty clothes. When he stood before her in her bathroom, clad in nothing but boxers, she finally saw just how much they had abused him. His whole body was bruised all over, and when she turned him around, she gasped once more: his back looked as if they had *whipped* him!
"Mulder, best thing is that you take a bath to clean out your wounds." She turned on the hot water tap. "Get in the water and knock when I can come back in. I wanna take a closer look at those wounds on your back."
He tried to grin and winced the next moment, it didn't do his bruised face any good. "Why don't ya stay here..?"
She grinned his usual lopsided grin instead. "Not today, Mulder. Get better first and we'll talk about it."
She went out and closed the door behind herself. In her bedroom, Scully sat down and tried to think clearly. Mulder would need something to sleep in. Might be that there was one of his shirts in her wardrobe... She went to get it, and in the same second heard a knock from the bathroom.
"You okay, Mulder?"
He nodded and shook his head at the same time. "The water's burning."
"Can't help that, we gotta get you cleaned up." She took a washcloth and started to wash out the wounds on his back. He grinned, "Oooh, Scully, you think you could do that frequently?"
"I *do* do it frequently, Mulder, only you're unconscious most times!" She sat on the edge of the tub and laid her face against his hair. "I only wish I had a less serious reason..."
He turned his face up in her direction. "Kiss me again, Scully."
"What??!!"
"Kiss me. Please."
She leaned down and softly brushed his lips with hers, but he caught her face in his hands and kissed her more deeply. After a few seconds, she broke away and stared at him in shock, "Mulder!"
He smiled and suppressed the urge to grimace in pain. "I love you, Scully. You know it's true, don't you? You know, I thought I was going to die in there. Every two hours or so, one of those guys came to beat me up. I wasn't sure how long I'd be able to survive that, but I kept telling myself that I can't quit without telling you goodbye." His face was earnest.
Scully swallowed hard. A declaration of love was the last thing she'd expected tonight. "What do you expect me to say, Mulder?"
"I don't know. But I guess you know what I hope for."
"Get out of the tub, Mulder, you need sleep. And I need some, too."
*****
She couldn't bring herself to let him sleep on the couch, with his mass of injuries, so she had to share her bed. He curled up in her arms and was asleep almost instantly. She stroked his hair and thought about his words. How could she *not* love him? Even in an agony she didn't dare to imagine, he still only thought of her, that he couldn't leave her alone.
She pressed a soft kiss on the top of his head. "Mulder, I love you too."
She felt him smile softly and sighed. "I should have known that you're not *really* asleep!"
The End!