He was not alone…

One of Mulder's childhood friends had a Halloween party every year and the neighbourhood kids would play a game her parents had set up. They would win candy and prizes for being brave enough to put their hand inside an enclosed box…

Box, he thought abstractly and then started to slowly creep his hand out to his right.

…Mulder had always won the most candy. The others thought it was because he was the bravest, but even then he knew the truth – he wasn't the bravest, it was just that his desire to find out what was in that box always trumped his fears. But then what was it Scully told him once? Being brave is not the absence of fear, but feeling that fear and then doing it anyway.

He had chuckled and told her that while she was brave, he was merely stubborn. She'd smiled, he knew she didn't agree.

Mulder's hand slowly crept towards the person lying next to him; he winced at the pain in his arm but continued dauntlessly. His fingers met the material of their clothing, and then a body…a leg…sliding his hand up the figure breathlessly his mouth dried in the silence of the dark unknown space.

But then suddenly he heard a noise - the last sound he ever expected, but one he recognised immediately.

"Muhhh…"

His breath caught sharply and ignoring the pain in his side he rolled quickly towards the body and reached his hand up towards her face, "Scully?!"