disclaimer: not mine, don't sue


"Mulder?" she asked again, but Mulder was unable to speak. He wasn't used to his prayers being answered. He wasn't used to the all-powerful beings being on his side.

"Scully… are you okay?" he managed to get out. He could tell her eyes were cloudy and she was fighting to stay conscious. She started shaking her head, trying to look around at where she was. She was panicking. Mulder put his hand to her forehead, brushing the wet and sticky hair from her face. He hoped he would calm her down and tried to avoid the large gash that marred her.

"What happened? What's going on?" she asked, frightened. Even Scully's resolve had been worn, and Mulder wondered whether she had a head injury. That wasn't important, though. What was important was that Scully was alive, awake, and in his arms. Unconsciously, Mulder rocked back and forth to soothe her.

"We hit a tree, Scully, but we're going to be alright. Help is coming, and we're going to be fine," he assured her. Or was he assuring himself?

"Mulder?" Scully asked again, but Mulder felt he knew what her concern would be.

"I know, Scully, I didn't get renter's insurance on the car. I'm sorry, I should have--"

"No, Mulder," Scully interrupted, and she looked like she wanted to laugh. Instead, she closed her eyes and spoke very slowly.

"Your cheek…" she told him, reaching her hand up from under his jacket to touch him. She didn't even know about her own wounds, and she was worried about his. Mulder found that ironic, considering he was praying for her to wake up not five minutes ago. He was more concerned for her than he was for himself, and she was the opposite. Together, they would be fine, but apart… Mulder realized as long as that was what was going on, he could never be apart from this woman.

"I'm okay, Scully. It doesn't even hurt," he said, wincing at the damage that was done to her body that she wasn't even aware of.

"Don't lie to me, Mulder."

"I'm not… Are you hurt?" he was afraid to ask.

"I don't know. I'm… I feel numb."

"You're probably just cold," he sighed, relieved, trying his best to hold her closer.

"Yeah, probably," she said, and Mulder couldn't tell whether or not she was saying that just to assuage him. Scully mentally leaned back into him, and he felt it. It was the best sign of trust she could give him, considering that she was growing more and more tired and hadn't been particularly happy with him before they crashed. All that was to be forgotten. Because, in the larger picture, she knew her partner loved and cared about her more than either of them could put into words. That's why they never said it. Because they always knew.

He felt when she drifted back into sleep. Not sleep, some sort of concussion. A new wave of fear crashed over him.

"Scully," he shook her slightly, "please don't fall asleep. Please stay awake."

"It's… okay," she managed to get out before she was totally out. Mulder took hold of her hand and tried to give her every single bit of strength and survival he had left. There was no other option in his brain. If somebody had to die that night, it would be him.


"Over here!" Mulder yelled when he saw flashing lights. He still held Scully in his arms, and his own tears had mixed with the blood that covered her. The tender, loving part of him told him to be quiet, so he wouldn't wake her up from her nap. But he yelled as loud as he could until a paramedic and a police officer had reached him.

"Were you the only two in the car?" the police officer asked.

"Yes. Please help her. She was talking and then she was out. I can't wake her up. Don't let her die," Mulder told the paramedics.

A coldness spread through him when they lifted his partner out of his arms. Everything was becoming a blur. The officers were asking him questions and the paramedics were leading him toward their ambulance, but his eyes never left Scully. His gaze never moved from her tiny, broken body as they put her on a stretcher and carried her away. When he couldn't see her any more, he felt he would panic. Nothing was getting through to him but the irresistible urge to find her.

"Sir… Sir!" the paramedic yelled as he blatantly walked away while being stitched up. Mulder didn't hear him, though. He heard the pounding in his heart, and the screech of the tires in his mind, but he could not hear the paramedic standing ten feet away from him.

There were two ambulances, and Mulder was determined to leave one empty.

"I need you to calm down, Sir," the officers and the paramedics both said as he tried to climb in the back of Scully's ambulance. He saw her tiny, broken body once more. It was covered by blankets instead of his jacket. Her neck was in a brace, and there was a tube in her left arm. They had taken off her shirt and attached monitors to her chest. This was not his Scully, but he had to be there in case she came back.

"Don't you know who that is?" Mulder asked, surprisingly calm.

"Sir, we need you to be seen by the paramedics."

"That is my partner! She leaned back in my arms! I am NOT leaving her!" Mulder shouted, not understanding why they thought he didn't understand.

"We're taking you two to the same place--"

"NO! I will NOT leave her! She's never left me, I can't just walk away now. I'm riding with her to the hospital."

"Sir--"

"I'm STAYING!" Mulder screamed, climbing in the back himself. Nobody stopped him this time. He grabbed hold of Scully's free hand and they rode like that to the hospital.

He never left her side once. Not even when she flat lined halfway there and they had to pull over and use the defibrillator. He kept himself connected to her, in mind and body and spirit, always calling for whoever had allowed to wake up the first time to allow her to wake up again. To allow her to live. To allow his life to be sacrificed for her's, if that's what was called for.

He couldn't let her die if the last thing she had told him was that she was fine. He pleaded with her to hold on.