Author's note: I realize this story is little slower, but it picks up now. This is for all of you who thought you had it figured out. ;) Thanks for reading and, as always, reviews are like candy!
As much as Scully tried to put him to bed immediately, Grant assured her that he was well enough to help himself. They were all famished but Scully found that her appetite had not returned. Grant ate heartily, which she was glad for. DiNozzi seemed to be suffer from the same loss of appetite as Scully and picked at his food. They had all agreed that Viste and Bennett should not be the ones to call for medical attention, so Grant assured them that he would do it. He volunteered in a friendly fashion to put the two guides at ease and walked off slowly to the main cabin to use the radio. He returned a short time later and explained that he had asked for assistance and a medical team promised to come in first thing in the morning. Scully and Mulder headed back to the cabin first, both dragging and weary. With seemingly record speed, Mulder had a fire going and his sleeping bag laid out.
"Are you not going to shower, Mulder, you smell bad." She warned him with a smile, gathering some clean clothing.
Mulder grunted in response as he settled into his sleeping bag, burying his head. Scully's smile widened when Mulder's dirt caked boots were shoved out of the top of his sleeping bag without once revealing her partner.
A short lived wave of nausea came over her and she sighed, wondering if she really truly improving. Guilt came with it as well, Mulder had been forced to turn back on a finding of a lifetime . With another sigh, she tried to push these feelings aside and looked forward to being in Mulder's position in her own sleeping bag. Not before a shower, she thought, feeling grimy.
It was full dark by the time she came back outside to trudge tiredly to the shower rooms. Groaning inwardly, she realized that she still couldn't read the writing that would lead her to the correct shower rooms. Why couldn't they just make things easy and use the stick figures with a skirt, she thought. Blowing out a frustrated breath, she shrugged and simply chose, veering off to the left. No one was in sight and, as far as she knew, she would be alone inside anyway.
The heat within the showers covered her chilled skin and she took a soothed breath. She was tired of being cold and filthy. She undressed quickly, ignoring the goose bumps that covered her body despite the warmth. The scorching water felt wonderful as it ate through the many layers of dirt and sweat. She scrubbed her body clean and swiped soap through her red hair and then fought between wanting to linger in the therapeutic hot water and steam or hurry to bed. Eventually exhaustion won over and she turned the shower head off. Wrapping the rough towel around her small body, she picked up her clean clothes, a pair of khakis and a flannel, both more than comfortable enough to sleep in, when she heard voices coming closer, men's voices.
"Damn." She whispered, knowing that she had chosen the wrong shower and hoping that it wasn't Bennett or Viste.
"Scully will continue to weaken as will DiNozzi, but Mulder hasn't ingested any. He may be a problem." When Scully made out the voice, she swayed on her feet. It was Grant's voice, all signs of weakness and illness gone. Scully threw herself to the ground, hiding behind the wooden shower stall, incredulous to what she was hearing.
The next voice she heard came from a walkie talkie that Grant held to his ear, "What about the guides?"
"After everyone left the dining area, I followed them to their cabin. Viste is dead and I drugged Bennett, he is incapacitated in his cabin now. I knew you wanted to question one as to the source of your leak. Everyone else is asleep." Grant explained, making Scully's heart pound so hard she was sure Grant would hear.
"Mulder is armed and healthy, I will need some help here." Grant argued heatedly.
"I have some people in route, they should be there soon. Make sure it looks as they were just lost in the forest, I don't want an investigation."
"Yessir." Grant answered and Scully couldn't make out what the man over the radio said next.
"Interesting proposal, I think it's a good idea. Why let them go to waste?" Was Grant's answer to it however.
A trickle of water began to drip down from Scully's hair into her eye and she brushed it away as the implications of what she was hearing swam through her head, pushing her toward panic. The one repercussion above all was the poison, had she and DiNozzi taken enough to kill them? However she would never find this out if she was unable to leave her unnoticed.
Thankfully, Grant turned off his radio and turned on a shower, drowning out any noise she might make to him. Pulling on her clothing, she carefully crawled past Grant's stall, holding her breath and praying. Getting to her feet once she had made it out of the door, she began to breathe again, ragged and desperate. She could only manage a jog to the cabin in which a sleeping Mulder was about to get a jarring wake-up call.