Story takes place after season 10 of the X-Files and also refers to my previous X-Files/Saving Hope story "Saving Fox" .
If you would like to read it I will not reveal too much - I will add info at the end of this chapter for those who don't want to read.
Story also take place after Saving Hope's season 5 finale (BEWARE!)

"Hi Dana!"

Dana Scully turned around, her heart responding with a thunderous beat. A blond-haired, blue-eyed man she hadn't seen in two years was currently sitting at the edge of her bed. He wasn't a very close acquaintance of hers either, but he was related to a major event in her life and thus she couldn't forget him. "Dr. Charlie Harris?!" she let out with surprise, "What the hell are you doing here in my bedroom at this God-forsaken hour?!"

Charlie, for his part, gave her a thoughtful gaze, as if he were contemplating his answer to her demanding question. He got up and paced about her bedroom and Scully was beginning to think she'd never receive an answer, then he stopped mid-pace and looked beyond her, obviously avoiding her eyes. "I'm… well… I'm not exactly here and neither are you."

Both her eyebrows rose.

"It's complicated."

Her eyebrows remained in their question-mark position.

"Damn, you run such a tight inquisition. I told Mulder it will not go easy with you—"

"What? When did you get to talk to Mulder? Is he out of his coma?!" She was about to pick up her cell and dial the nursing facility Mulder had been living in for the passing two years when Charlie raised his hand and signed her to stop. "Dr. Harris—"

"Call me Charlie," he insisted.

"Charlie, what the hell is going on here? What are you doing here?!"

Charlie Harris smiled. "I'm here to let you know that you shouldn't give up on hope."

Scully opened her mouth to protest but Charlie Harris turned around and walked out of her room through the wall. She tried to call out to him but no sound came out of her mouth and then she woke up and she realized it was just a dream.

"Dammit!" she cried out with frustration. This dream was just another milestone in the long list of disappointments she'd been forced to deal with ever since the day of the alien invasion. The moment the big bright light shone down on both her and Mulder. One moment she was there, talking to Miller about finding William and the next moment she could hear Mulder's raspy cry as he called out to their son. She didn't understand what had just happened but she didn't have much time to dwell on it as Mulder was calling out for her with a voice barely above a whisper.

"He was here, Scully," he rasped.

She leaned before him as she grabbed his hand and felt for his pulse. "Mulder, don't talk, you need to save your energy," she told him. To her surprise, his previous weak and thready pulse seemed strong and steady now, and yet Mulder appeared to be so unwell and tired. She was confused.

"I'm not going to die," Mulder continued, now only able to whisper.

"Shshsh…" she hushed him, her heart beating fast. She was losing him, yet nothing about his vitals made any sense to her. How could he be slipping away when his pulse and breathing seemed fine?

"William said I'd be OK…" Mulder whispered and then his entire body went limp before her eyes and he collapsed into her arms.

She could still recall her screaming for help at the top of her voice like a mad woman. With so many sick people all around her there were hardly any medical personal available. She was the only person who could help him. In fact, she was the only person who could help everybody but she couldn't care less. She had to save Mulder. She had to.

She put her ear against his mouth and she could feel the warmth of his breath against it. She released a long breath of air herself. He was breathing on his own. Maybe he'd just fainted. Well, she could deal with that. The whole ordeal must have been too much on his body.

She put both her arms on his shoulders and shook his body in an attempt to get him out of the fainted state but she was unsuccessful. Next, she slapped him against his face. He responded to the painful stimuli with a contorted face and his eyes blinked for a second but otherwise he remained passive.

The relief she felt just mere seconds ago when she realized he was breathing was now making space for a new kind of worry. It was appearing more and more that Mulder had slipped into a coma.

She'd been re-living that moment ever since that day. Later on all the tests showed that Mulder had been somehow miraculously cured from the virus. From what little Mulder had said before he withdrew from the world, Scully figured William was somehow involved in his recovery, but none of the test had managed to explain why he became comatose and after a while when it was clear his state was probably permanent, they told her it was time to accept things and move on with her life.

But despite moving through the motions of a so-called life, Scully's feelings and thoughts never went past that day. Her hope was hanging on a very thin thread only barely but it meant she still wasn't able to give up on Mulder. The doctors told her that there were very rare cases where people got out of a coma once a year had passed from the day of onset, and being a doctor herself, she knew the statistics all too well, but Mulder had defied every statistic in the past and she hoped this was just another part of their ever-intricate puzzle. He was cured and she couldn't accept him being cured just so he'd lie on a bed all day long while nurses and orderlies took care of every aspect of his bodily needs.

So she kept searching for a cure and that was why she remained with the X-Files team.

After much deliberation she told Skinner that she would continue to serve as an FBI agent as head of the X-Files but she would need help. She was willing to train additional agents under her but she would only help on cases if time permitted. She wanted to remain close to Mulder as much as possible.

Skinner didn't argue. His only question was who she'd like on her team and she knew right away it had to be Agents Miller and Einstein. Skinner spoke to the two younger agents and while Miller jumped on the opportunity, he was having a much harder time with Einstein. In the end Scully took the hard-headed agent out for a drink and told her how important it is to have a scientist on such a team. Einstein finally relented, but Scully knew she was going to have to work hard to keep that woman on her team. With her it was Mulder's intelligence and charm that first kept her from leaving the X-Files, and of course her ever-present tendency to be overly obedient. Einstein was more of a rebel of sorts but Scully found that refreshing and she felt a lot better once she had secured her presence on the X-Files.

But now, two years had passed and despite all her efforts, Mulder's condition remained the same. She felt herself sinking deeper and deeper into despair. She was losing interest in everything and she was feeling so goddamn lonely. Even Skinner began to tire her with his attempts to make her feel better and she began avoiding his presence as much as she could. Her only confidant was Mulder but now he couldn't retort or comment on anything. She might as well had been talking with a tree.

And now this stupid dream!

It was just past two in the morning and but she felt too rattled to be able to succumb to her weariness. For the life of her she had no idea what could be stirring such a strong reaction within her. It wasn't like she hadn't had some weird crazy dreams before related to Mulder and his condition. The opposite was true; there wasn't a single night that went by without her mind conjuring some means to save Mulder and get him back to her. In her mind's eye she had managed to revive him several times only to find herself waking up into reality just mere seconds before he touched her.

So why should this particular dream unhinge her like this? Giving it some thought she realized it was different from the rest of them; she was not the perpetrator of the events. What's more, there weren't actual events occurring. No. This dream felt more like a message of sorts and she didn't understand why, but something was telling her this message actually held some substance within it.

She lay awake and wondered. She was on the verge of giving up. She knew it and she feared hope, even though a tiny shimmer still existed within her. Could this be an actual sign?

Reference to Saving Hope:
1. Charlie Harris is an Orthopedic surgeon who had a car accident, survived a three month coma and when he woke up he had the ability to talk with ghosts. He works at Hope Zion Hospital in Toronto and his love of all times is Alex Reid, General surgeon and mother of his kids (two children).
2. In my story "Saving Fox" Mulder becomes very ill while on holiday with Scully in Canada and is taken to Hope Zion. At some point William finds him and with the help of Charlie's abilities he manages to save Mulder but then he later on disappears again, leaving Scully extremely devastated.