Gosh. Sorry. Not acceptable to wait this long to publish. Big thanks to BBlvr who made me take this up again! Hope you all like it, please let me know what you think!

xH

CHAPTER 2

Scully turned off the radio. It had been a rough day at work and she couldn't really be bothered with the hysteric talk and music broadcasted from one of the local stations. Instead she listened to the sound of running tires against asphalt, the sound of a car breaking speedily through time and space, meditating sounds that allowed her to think. She longed to get home. Home. She loved the thought of having a home. It may be that they, or at least he, was still living as a refuge, but she felt safe. Like she wasn't constantly running away from the darkness, like she'd finally found a peaceful place. There were no other cars on the road, there seldom was out here and with a sense of freedom rushing through her, Scully drove a little faster than necessary. The trees rose majestically around her, making it seem like she was alone in the world. A black bundle on the side of the road surprised her and made her step on the brake a little too suddenly. Her head bounced as she stopped and she had to massage her shoulder where the seating belt had probably bruised her. She reversed to get a closer look.

Mulder might have noticed how quiet it was; not a bird was singing, the leaves had stopped trembling and even the wind had gone silent. The rain had taken a short break leaving a damp mist in its stead. Scully however, was too focused on what looked like a body and the potential medical aspects of the situation to notice. She carefully approached the pile of black cloth, cautious not to disturb the ground too much in case there would be a body in there. She bent down, noticed there was indeed a man and while checking his pulse she appeared to wake him up. He was lying face down and the only sign of him noticing her was a faint grunt.

"Don't worry. Lie still. Are you in any pain?" she said, trying to calm him by stroking his back.

The man disobeyed her completely and sat straight up, a little to fast it seemed because he closed his eyes, put his hand against the side of his head and moaned quietly. Scully was at first taken aback by his frightening appearance. His face looked as if half of it had fallen into his scull leaving little more than a crater. His veins seemed to have shaped a different route around his misshaped features, they were shallow and pulsating, looking as though at the tiniest pressure, they would break. Scully could almost see the blood travel around his face, over what she thought must be his nose, taking a turn around his wrinkly forehead and disappear under his fringe. Noticing the hair was a bit uneven she realised it must be a wig. Professional as she was though, she soon found her cool and took charge of the situation.

"I don't think you should sit up," she said trying to make him lye down. "Do you remember what's happened to you?"

"Um… I must have fallen." He looked around hesitantly as though trying to locate himself. He coughed faintly and tried to swallow. "Water. Do you have water?"

His eyelids fell down slowly and he swayed to the side as if he was about to fall again. Scully quickly caught him and carefully lay him down. Pressing him to stay awake she took both her hands on his cheeks, had a quick thought that it was lucky she had gloves on and then felt bad for thinking such a thing. She tried to make him look at her but was unsuccessful. She hit him ever so lightly on the cheek, it seemed to have helped, he looked up in surprise.

"I'm going to try to get you into the car and then I am going to drive you to the hospital, okay?" she told him. "But I'm gonna have to ask you to…"

"No!" He interrupted, trying once more to sit up, "not the hospital."

When he couldn't get up he started shaking his head in panic and rolling to the side, putting his hands between his knees.

"Please, please, not the hospital. Not the hospital. Look what they've done to me. No, not the hospital."

"Alright, not the hospital. Sch, sch…"

She stroke his back trying to make him calm down and did her best to rapidly think of a solution. The best thing would probably be to call an ambulance. But it would take some time for them to get here, and she was still a bit paranoid about speaking of this road on her cell. She knew it was probably stupid, but at the same time she wasn't prepared to take any risks. She wouldn't be able to lift him into the car and if he didn't cooperate there would be nothing she could do for him. He might have been faint, but she still believed he could be strong if need be. There was really just one thing she could do.

"It's gonna be alright" she told him. "I'm going to take you back to my place, how does that sound? No one's going to hurt you."

The man slowly stopped shaking and she managed to lift his right arm over her shoulders and help him to the car where she made him lie down in the back seat. She took her coat off and put it over him like a blanket.

"What's your name?"

"Donald"

"Don't worry, Donald. It's not far. Just lie still."

She drove the short way home, asking him every thirty seconds how he was. Arriving by the house she parked on the driveway and asked Donald to wait in the car, she wanted to prepare Mulder. As she expected she found him in his study. He was sitting with his back to her as she rested her shoulder against the door frame. He was surrounded by papers, magazines and clippings.

"Hi."

He spinned his chair to look at her. "Hello doc. What up?" he said, scissor and news paper in his hand. He saw the look on her face and put them away. "You look troubled."

She looked up at the pencils stuck in the ceiling and wondered if there was any way she could do this without him knowing. Then she looked back at him. "I have someone with me."

"What?" He stood up and stepped close. "What do you mean 'you have someone with you?' Who?"

"I don't know who he is, he's in the car."

"What do you mean? Have they found us?" he started walking to and fro on the floor, scratching his head. Suddenly he stopped to look at her. "Did he force you to take him?"

"No, I took him here by my own choice. Calm down Mulder."

"What are you thinking?" His voice was that of an angry person repressing his anger because he doesn't want to get heard. "We can't suddenly have 'guests', as I'm sure you know" he hissed, stating the obvious.

"He's not a 'guest', he's hurt. I found him on the side of the road. I don't know what's happened to him but I believe he's seriously dehydrated."

"So," Mulder raised his shoulders. He could still not see the point of seriously risk the exposal of their hiding place. "Get him to a hospital."

"I would, but he panicked when I mentioned it. So I thought that if I could get him here, I'll be able to treat him for the night - I have all the things I need - and then he might be in a better state tomorrow for me to persuade him to come with me to work."

"But you know nothing about him, Dana." He grabbed her shoulders. "He could be anyone. We can't trust him."

Scully knew he had a point. She had of course thought of it herself, but what choice had she had? She couldn't just leave him. She took a deep breath. "Mulder, this is not the time to get paranoid. He's seriously ill and if he wanted to harm us there are better ways, wouldn't you agree?"

"But he knows where we live now."

"There's not a chance that he could possibly know where we live. He was lying in the back seat, practically unconscious, while I drove here. Besides, if someone wanted to really get to you, to be perfectly honest, I don't think we would've been able to live as peacefully as we have."

He took a few steps back from her and shook his head. "Never underestimate these people Scully."

"Well… I can't just throw him out now. We should at least give him somewhere to sleep."

He sighed and looked at her. She stood firm by the door, looking at him with steel blue eyes, not once faltering. "Fine, where is he."

"In the car."

Mulder followed her out and was taken aback by the deformities in the man's face. 'What has happened to this man' he thought and hesitated shortly before he brought himself together and managed to help him inside.

Scully did what she could for the man and then left him to sleep. She left a dim light on by the bed, in case he would wake up and be afraid. If she had turned and looked at him as she closed the door she might have seen his eyes wide open, staring at her. And on his forehead, the shape of two horns.

To be continued