Author's Note:
Mulder, Scully, and Krycek investigate the mysterious facility. Angst. I waited to post this one after the holidays...
Chapter Ten
"We should split up," Krycek said in a hoarse whisper.
Mulder grabbed the back of Krycek's collar, bunching it up in his fist. "You're the only one who knows where he's going, and you want to split up? I don't think so."
"Look, if you're looking for evidence of something, we have to move fast. The more time we spend here the better the chance we're not getting out of here alive."
"He's right," Scully whispered back.
"So, which one of you wants to be my partner?" Krycek asked with a smirk.
"I'm not leaving you alone with Scully for two seconds," Mulder said, as he began to make his way through the metal shelving deeper into the room.
"You'd let your wife go by herself?"
"I can handle it," Scully affirmed.
"Whatever you want, but if you think I'd take this chance to put the moves on her, you don't know anything about timing with women," Krycek chuckled, indicating with a jerk of the head that they should go down the hallway to the left.
"That means I go right," she whispered.
Mulder looked at her for a half beat. "Meet back here in fifteen?"
She knew he was looking for assurance that this was the right thing to do and that she would be alright. There were never any guarantees, but she gave him a tight lipped smile before turning right down the darkened hallway.
She made her way briskly down the hallway, looking quickly to her left and right at the empty rooms that she passed. Finally she came upon a room full of computers and metal filing cabinets. The door to the room was closed and the lights were off inside, as was the case with every other room she had passed. She peered through the window on the door, but other than the darkened computer monitors and gray filing cabinets, the room appeared to be empty. She reached for the doorknob and found that it turned in her hand without any resistance. Either there was nothing worth protecting in this room or whoever ran the facility didn't imagine that anyone would ever make it this far without being detected.
…
"So what is it you were hoping to find?" Krycek asked as they entered a large space full of storage containers and crisscrossing metal gangways that stretched across the space above their heads.
"Some kind of documentation, I guess. I'd rather not actually meet up with anyone or any thing if that's what you mean."
"Well, you haven't completely lost your mind."
"I'm glad to have your approval," Mulder scoffed as he peered into one of the storage containers that appeared to be either awaiting its intended contents or already emptied of them. "You know what these are meant for?" he asked.
Krycek shrugged.
"You haven't been a whole helluva lot of help so far," Mulder said with irritation before walking deeper into the cavernous space. "Some of these things open from the top," he said tapping one of the metal crates as he walked by. "That must be what the gang planks are for."
"There's a ladder over there," Krycek said, pointing with his good hand at the left-hand wall with the metal ladder attaching to the first in a series of connecting gangplanks overhead.
"Well, let's get a look-see from above then," Mulder said as he walked over to the ladder. He turned back to face Krycek, glancing down at his fake arm: "Can you climb?"
Krycek raised his lip in a sneer, "it isn't my favorite pastime."
"I'll go first and give you a hand."
…
The computer screen lit up in bright blue as the processor began to boot up.
Scully had already pulled open a couple of file drawers, but it seemed that they contained nothing but print outs of series of coded numbers. She didn't have the ability to take them all, so she'd taken one set of files, rolled them up into a tight cylinder, and tucked them into the back of her pants. Maybe these pages would be enough to decode them later. Seeing as the files all seemingly contained the same kind of print outs, she had decided to try the computers.
The screen prompted her for a password. A password. What should she try? First she typed: super soldier. Access denied, password invalid—flashed on the screen. BioFit and AgroSurplus also had no effect. She wondered if Mulder was having any more luck than she was.
Scully tapped her foot nervously and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall. Ten minutes had already passed since they'd parted. They were supposed to meet back up soon. She hadn't heard anything in the building other than Mulder and Krycek's footsteps as they walked away from her; otherwise the place seemed completely silent. She wasn't going to take any chances, however: she had chosen a computer that faced the door so she could watch for anyone that might pass by.
Just then something occurred to her: Projet Impérissable. Her fingers moved quickly over the keys and she clicked the submit button with trepidation.
"Bingo!" she whispered.
…
Mulder made Krycek walk in front of him as they crossed the gang planks that hung over the large industrial looking storage containers. From this vantage point you could read a series of numbers painted on the tops of the containers. He couldn't make any sense of them, however.
"How does the missus feel about leaving behind the little prodigy?"
"Okay. Number one rule, Krycek: don't say a word about my son."
"He is a prodigy though, right?" Krycek continued unfazed. "Ahead of the curve or whatever bullshit."
"I don't know what the hell you're getting at."
"Special, Mulder. There's an interest in your son. An interest in what he might turn out to be."
Mulder stepped into Krycek's space and grabbed him by his good arm. "I'll throw you right over."
"Look, I'm not going to pretend that I'm concerned about the kid's welfare because of my softer side, Mulder. I've just heard rumblings at the top, and if he is special, I imagine he would be better off with us than with them. Catch my drift?"
"Us? Don't flatter yourself," Mulder said giving Krycek a shove so that he stumbled down the plank a few feet.
"Get that kid of yours some protection," Krycek said, regaining his footing and straightening up. "Grandmas don't qualify," he added with a smirk.
…
Scully was on her second file directory when she thought she heard several rounds of gunfire coming from somewhere else inside the facility.
"Shit!" she cursed under her breath, flicking off the computer monitor and dashing around the desks towards the door.
…
"Shit!" Mulder cursed, crouching down on the gangplank. "Where the hell is that coming from?"
"I don't know, but we're sitting ducks up here. Move!" Krycek ordered, pushing Mulder back towards the ladder they had come up.
The two men ran across the metal plank hunched over as another round of fire exploded in the room. In the vast space with the echoing metal and concrete Mulder couldn't determine where the gunman was positioned so as to even attempt to return fire.
And then there was the most incredibly shocking impact he had ever felt. He was thrown back cracking his head on the metal walkway as his body slumped backwards. His legs had given out and it felt as if a jackhammer was at work on his chest. Everything seemed to go into slow-motion. He was strangely aware of the high-speed camera like effect that the massive amount of adrenaline was having on his synapses, causing him to view Krycek peering over him in a dream-like state of separate moments in time.
"Mulder, get up!" Krycek shouted at him. "Fuck," Krycek shouted, glancing down at Mulder's chest.
Mulder's gaze followed Krycek's. Through his wavering vision he saw a large dark wet spot beginning to spread across his chest. There was another pop of gunfire and Mulder was dimly aware of Krycek turning to return fire.
"Mulder, get your ass up."
Mulder tried to speak, but he was beginning to feel a pain in his left lung and every breath felt like a knife twisting in his chest. Krycek leaned over him once more, slipping his arm under Mulder's and jerking him upright. Sitting upright, Mulder began to feel the hammering in his chest with renewed vigor.
Krycek awkwardly hooked his arm under Mulder's and heaved him onto his shoulder, stumbling the last couple of feet to the ladder. Mulder's vision began to go white in a progressive fade out from the right: he knew somewhere in his foggy recollection that this was due to low blood pressure. He would pass out soon. Krycek dumped him back down on the walkway just as another round of gun shots began to ring through the air.
"I can't carry you down this ladder," Krycek said as he got behind Mulder and began to push him towards the opening in the walkway.
Mulder knew he was about to be pushed through the opening. He wasn't sure why Krycek had bothered to carry him out of the line of fire, when he was going to throw him down a hole anyway. Krycek rolled Mulder onto his stomach so that his legs were dangling through the entrance to the walkway.
"Try to break your fall," Krycek warned. "Play dead when you hit bottom."
Mulder felt the hole in his chest rub against the metal of the ledge. He gasped and gripped the edge, while trying to gain a foothold with his last bit of strength. "I might not have to pretend," he croaked as he slipped through the hole and dangled from one of the last rungs on the ladder.
Krycek leaned down. "Play dead!" he reiterated with a hoarse whisper. "I'll draw fire."
Mulder began to slide down the ladder, his hands loosely holding onto each progressive rung as he started to slip more quickly to the floor below. He hit the ground faster than he would have liked and felt the blinding twist in his left lung once more.
He was beginning to lose consciousness as he heard the clatter of feet on the metal walkway above and the sound of gunfire echoing around him.
…
The sounds of intermittent gunfire drew Scully towards the large semi-darkened room that appeared to be some kind of storage facility. She stepped into the room, breathing heavily from the combination of her dash down darkened hallways and the terrifying possibility that something terrible had happened. She looked quickly to her right and then her left.
"Oh my God," she said, seeing Mulder slumped against the far wall.
Scully ran towards him. Reaching him, she crouched down to take his vitals. She felt for his pulse, pressing her fingers into his carotid artery: his pulse was thready but mercifully present. She didn't have to ask to understand what happened. Warm blood was bubbling out of his chest and pooling on the ground around him.
"God damn it! This is not happening!"
Scully had begun to dig in her pockets for her phone when she saw Mulder's eyes flicker open. She experienced a brief moment of relief that he was at least conscious.
"Mulder! Mulder look at me," she said grabbing his limp hand.
His eyes appeared unfocused.
"Mulder, you gotta stay awake. I'm calling the paramedics."
"No," he whispered weakly.
Scully thought she heard gurgling, which might indicate fluid buildup in his lungs.
"Yes," she said, pulling out her phone. "Where is that son of a bitch Krycek?" she asked angrily as she opened her phone and held it in the air, trying to receive a signal.
"We don't have a reason to be here," he whispered.
"You're worried about getting caught now?" she said as she continued to wave her phone in the air.
"I've got some…unpaid parking tickets," he said, choking with the effort.
Scully couldn't be bothered to acknowledge Mulder's gallows humor. "Damn it, I can't get a signal here," she said. "Can you walk?" she asked.
He shook his head in the negative.
"Mulder, you're going to bleed out here. I can't get you out of here myself. I have to call the paramedics."
He gave no response. Scully wasn't sure whether he had acquiesced or simply could no longer mount a protest.
"Don't move," she ordered, realizing the absurdity of the command.
She ran from the room, holding the phone in front of her and watching for bars to appear on the screen. She had almost reached the front of the building when one lone digital bar appeared on the LCD screen. See quickly dialed the emergency number and gave them the address and information regarding Mulder's condition. She didn't know where Krycek had disappeared to or whether someone else was in the building, so she ran back to Mulder as soon as she had given all of the necessary details to the dispatcher.
His eyes were closed once more as she slid down on the floor next to him, slipping in his blood. Scully wished she could rip his shirt open so she could assess the wound, but that might disturb whatever clotting was keeping him from completely bleeding out. She would have to wait for the paramedics to arrive. With her medical abilities rendered momentarily useless, she had only her emotions to guide her.
She reached up and caressed his cheek. "Mulder, I need you to stay awake for me. Until the paramedics get here."
He coughed a gurgled response that she couldn't make out.
"Just stay with me, okay?" she pleaded, taking up his hand.
"William," he whispered his eyes darting about seemingly agitated.
"He's okay. He's with my mom, remember?"
She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand, but he made no response.
"Hey, if I tell you something, will you stay awake for me?" she asked as she slid closer to him on the floor so that her lips were nearer his ear. "I never told you something about William."
He let out a labored breath and Scully took his pulse once more, this time from the ulnar artery. Weaker than the last time.
"Remember that night in Los Angeles? The night of the movie premiere?"
Mulder groaned.
"I know, the movie was awful," she said smoothing the worry lines on his forehand with her touch. "But it was fun wasn't it? I had fun that evening. Just the two of us. No case, no monsters. Dinner and a bottle of wine."
He gave her hand a light squeeze, as if to agree or just to let her know that he was still with her.
"I like to think back on that night, Mulder. But not just for those reasons." She swallowed and squeezed his hand tightly in her own. "I'm pretty sure William was conceived that night."
Mulder's head rolled to his right and he fixed her with a glassy look.
"He's our little Hollywood production," she said with a weak smile.
Mulder swallowed and she heard the distinct sound of fluid once more.
"Scully…"
"Shhh…it's okay," she said, shaking her head. "You don't have to talk. Just stay with me."
She thought she could hear emergency sirens in the distance, and if it had been almost ten minutes since she placed the call, it wouldn't be unreasonable to hope she wasn't imagining them.
"Do you hear that, Mulder? Help is coming."
He knit his brow, swallowing with obvious effort. "I've loved you…forever."
She bit her lip, trying to smile through the tears that were beginning to run down her face. "S'okay, Mulder. I know."