CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

"I'm so sorry Scully.. I'm so sorry.." He kept repeating to her sadly over and over, as she held him. She kept close and closed her eyes, holding him like that until he stopped shaking. Her back was aching but she didn't care. It really didn't matter.

"Stop it, stop it.." She whispered to him gently, as he kept apologising.

It was breaking her heart. He needed to stop. They both needed a minute to calm down..

"Tell me where I hurt you.. please Scully I need to know.." He begged in a pained voice.

"No Mulder, its ok.. really.."

"Please Scully, please.. did I hit you? Did I-I push you? What did I do honey please.."

She sighed and really didn't want to go into details, but he was just pushing her to the edge, he was breaking her heart and when he called her honey all her defenses were down..

"It's really not a big deal, its just.." She tried to hold it back but gave in.. "its just my back.." She explained as lightly as possible, but he turned back then to look at her and held her hand tightly.

"What?" He gasped, his eyes searching hers desperately.

She swallowed some tears down and tried to look as calm as possible, but he was killing her.

"I'm ok.." She nodded and reassured him firmly again.

"Scully, Scully.." He breathed, clearly distressed, feeling her pain as well as his, "Where does it hurt?" He asked her tenderly.

He wanted to touch her, to touch her back and rub it better, or look at her skin, see what marks he might have left there, kiss it better.. but his damn hands were tied and it was driving him insane. He groaned and looked tortured as he tried to pull his hands from the table.

"Hey.. shh" She calmed him again and covered his hands with hers, moving back to sit on the chair, to face him. She got closer and raised his hands up as far as she could without hurting his wrists and kissed his knuckles. "You pushed me." She told him then, as calmly as possible. "We were on the terrace and you pushed me back against the handrail." She told him, as he was not going to let it go and she knew it.

"Oh god…" He gasped, devastated as he finally was able to picture it. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I'm so sorry…"

After he had said sorry about a hundred times over, she stood up again and kissed him once last time on his cheek, then moved away to take a breather.

She needed to think, she needed to pull herself together and sort this out for Mulder.

"I'm gonna be right back, I'll get us both some water." She said softly, and he just nodded a little. She was getting tearful again too, as she had been holding it back to be strong for him. She wiped her eyes when he couldn't see her, when she headed towards the door and let herself out, she needed some air.

As she stepped back into the reality of the busy department, Officers gave her looks which could kill.

They knew that she was his partner and that she believed he didn't do it.

It was written all over their faces that they didn't want her or the FBI around, they wanted this to be an easy case closed. She ignored them as best as she could and overheard Skinner in a heated conversation down the hall about FBI jurisdiction as she got to the water cooler. She got two small plastic cups of water and headed back to the room where he was being held. It wasn't the relaxing breath of fresh air she had been craving. She knew this was going to be difficult.

"Here." She said softly and handed him the glass, and sat back down on the chair, running a hand through her long hair, trying to make herself look more normal. They sat there in silence for a moment while she took slow sips from her water.

"I need to talk to the girl." She said then after a long while.

"Yeah." Mulder nodded. "But she's not talking."

"You don't remember anything? Anything at all?" She asked him gently, searching his face.

He closed his eyes and sighed, it was hard for him.

"I told you all I can remember, then the next thing I remember was waking up with this little girl in my arms, and she was bleeding, she was terrified of me, so I.. I called the cops..

"Wait, wait a minute, you called the cops?" She interrupted then, thinking.

"Yes, I couldn'tu remember anything and she needed medical attention, and I was too shaken up to drive my car which was there too by the way..

She hummed in thought, mulling it over. "A guilty man doesn't usually call the cops."

"Unless they are trying to pretend it wasn't them. Which is what they think I was doing. They don't have any other evidence Scully.." He reasoned sadly.

"Not yet. But I'm going to find it." She said firmly then, standing up, determined now. She looked at him and he just looked up at her with a very sad smile on the corner of his lips. He loved her, and her drive. "Is there anything else you need to tell me? Were you injured at all?"

"No."

She nodded and walked closer, placing her hand over his firmly again.

"All right. I'm going to get you out of this Mulder, I promise I'll be back soon ok? You just hang in there." She tried to calm and reassure him, and he nodded again, looking back at their hands.

She let go after a moment, then walked towards the door, ready to go and solve this, to get Mulder's name cleared.

"Scully..?"

She was about to open the door, her hand on the handle, when she heard his soft voice. She turned back to him and saw him, looking like a little puppy dog. Her heart melted again.

"Yea..?" She whispered as their eyes met.

He paused, taking in her beauty with his eyes, knowing he was so lucky to have her.

"I love you." He stated passionately.

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