Author's Note: So, we have reached the Almost-Over mark in this very long adventure. It's been an interesting ride, hasn't it? This is NOT the last chapter of Post Mortem, but there should not be more than three or four chapters after this one. I'm just going to tie up a couple loose ends for my readers. :) I hope it doesn't drag too long after the thrilling climax.

Enjoy!

37. Is This Real?

Scully heard the irritating beep a fourth time. She twisted on the springy surface and got a sharp twinge of pain in her shoulder. The beep sounded again. Frowning, she reached out to turn off whatever was making that maddening noise-

And found that her arm was in a cast, fixed tightly to her chest by a sling. With her eyes wide open, Scully took in the monitors circled around her, the lightweight blankets smoothed over her legs, and the laminated hospital mattress she was lying on. "Mulder?"

"You're awake," said Mulder's voice. Scully turned to see him entering through the door at the back of the tiny room. "Hey, Scully," he said, smiling. Scully could tell he was much more worried about her than he let on. "Still walking and talking, huh?"

"Not much walking," Scully said, gesturing to her swathed legs. "And not much talking, apparently. How long have I been here? What happened, after-?" She avoided saying, 'After I passed out from the excruciating pain.' Why not spare Mulder some of the gory details?

"Well, that's a long story. And I don't feel qualified to tell it." Mulder hesitated, then said, "Someone wants to talk to you, Scully. You want me to let her in?"

Her? Scully knew exactly who it was: Alice. Taking a deep breath, she allowed herself a moment to consider. Unwillingly, she remembered her last recollection of Alice Cullen: a face hovering above her in the darkness, a hand on her shoulder, crushing her dislocated scapula. Scully shook off the terror accompanying the memory with a shudder.

"Scully? I can tell her no, if you need rest."

"Did you see them, Mulder?" asked Scully, looking up at her partner. She went on without an answer. "You were right, Mulder, you were right all along. Their speed, their strength..."

With a twist to his mouth, Mulder shook his head. "I was wrong about one thing: their motives. And that was the most important thing about them." He came and sat at the foot of her bed, giving her ankle a squeeze. "I can send her away if you need time."

"No, no, let her in." As Mulder stood up and went to the door, Scully tried to straighten her emotions out. In truth, Scully owed the Cullens. She would be dead without them. Somehow, she had to thank them for exposing themselves, to FBI agents, no less, for her sake. They could have easily let her die-

Scully started as a different girl from the pale, black-haired one she had expected came in. "Hi," Bella Swan said, with a nervous smile. "Um...can I sit down?"

"Of course," Scully said, without really thinking. Mulder quietly slipped out of the room with some mutterings about coffee.

"Thank you." Bella didn't sit; instead, she stood awkwardly next to Scully's bed, her walking cast resting on her other leg and her chesnut hair partially hiding her face. "Um, I'm not sure how to say this, Dr. Scully, but...I just wanted to ask you not to tell the FBI about us."

Scully blinked, confused. "About...who?" Surely the girl didn't mean Bella and her dad.

"About my family. The Cullens," she added, seeing Scully's confusion. "About me and the Cullens."

"Oh." And here was the conflict: what to do with an entire nest of vampires lurking in Washington state. Dimly, Scully registered that Bella Swan considered herself an honorary Cullen. What that meant for the girl's plans for the future was too disturbing to contemplate.

"Well, Bella," Scully said, "I'm not sure at the moment what Mulder and I should do about this situation."

"Oh, please, don't tell anyone about us," Bella interjected quickly, her large brown eyes earnest. "There are so many rules, Agent Scully-" she cut off suddenly, as if unsure if she had said too much. "There are really good reasons why the Cullens are in hiding, obviously," Bella finished, biting her lip.

"Rules? What rules?"

"It's not my place to tell you."

Scully winced as a stab of pain shot through her arm. "You're not doing such a stellar job of convincing me of anything, Bella." Seeing the hopeless look on the younger woman's face, she sighed. "I realize you're obligated to the Cullens to keep their secrets. But I already know the most important one: they're vampires." She had to force the last word out through gritted teeth. "So I think any other fact about them you could tell me would be a bit of an anticlimax."

"I know. I just..." Bella glanced around. "They don't really want me to talk to you, but I wanted you to realize that it's not just them who might suffer if you turn them in. My dad...he's police chief here. How would that look for him? And me..." The girl swallowed, blinking several times. Scully assumed it was some sort of calming mechanism. "Okay, this is going to sound weird to you, but I really love Edward and I don't want us to be separated for any reason. There." She took a breath. "I said it."

In love with a vampire. Oh, Chief Swan would have an aneurysm. To think, his only child giving herself up to a creature who was not even human. Scully had to suppress a shudder at the thought. "Bella...I can't make any promises. I'm sorry, that's all I can say at the moment. This situation is serious."

"They saved you, Dr. Scully," whispered Bella, her face now positively desperate. "Please, you must know how good they are!"

"I can't deny that they seem as good as anyone." But they're vampires, Scully wanted to add. That fact could not be ignored.

"They're better." Bella paused in her argument, then took the edge of her left sleeve and pulled it high above her elbow. "Look, Agent Scully." Holding her arm out, she leaned over so Scully would have a clear view.

It took a second for Scully to locate what she was supposed to see on the girl's arm, but then she gasped aloud. There, in a faint crescent-shaped pattern on Bella's skin, was a scar. To an untrained observer it would not be glaringly obvious as to what kind of injury would cause such a scar, but Scully knew instantly. This was the mark of human teeth, cut into Bella's skin like a grisly tattoo. "Who did this?" asked Scully, looking up from the old wound.

"His name was James," Bella said quietly. "He tried to kill me two months ago. He hunted me all the way to Phoenix, Arizona."

Scully went back to the scar and identified what was so odd about it. Not so sure she wanted to know the answer, she asked anyway. "Bella, why is it glittery?"

"Because James was a nomad, a vampire who travels around and kills humans for their blood. I was his target, Agent Scully. He would have killed me if it hadn't been for Edward and his family. I'm alive-" Bella's voice broke here, "because of Edward. He...he drew the venom back out of the bite so I wouldn't die, or turn into a vampire. He saved me just like he saved you."

Scully sat back on her mattress, gobsmacked. This new turn of events might change things. If the Cullens were making it a habit to save targeted victims of psychotic vampires (or just plain psychos, she supposed), perhaps she could be persuaded to cover for them. Maybe.

"And Carlisle saved me from bleeding to death," Bella hurried on eagerly, correctly interpreting Scully's expression. "The Cullens are-are-protectors, Agent Scully. They did everything they could to save you because they don't want humans to die!"

"Now, hold on, Bella. They're vampires. If they go around policing 'nomads,' don't you think their policy of vengeance is just a little hypocritical?"

"They don't kill humans!" said Bella, horrified. "They hunt animals!"

Oh, this just got better and better. Scully squeezed her eyes shut and tried to put a hand to her temple. When the tubes and cast stopped her she buried her forhead in her hospital blankets. "Kinder, gentler vampires. Just what I needed." But, of course, it had been just what she needed. She could deny that as much as she could deny the fact that she was sitting in a hospital bed rather than a coffin.

"Please, Agent Scully, please." Bella seemed to have forsaken logic in favor of begging. "Please, keep the secret."

"Scully?" Mulder's head popped around the doorway. "Everything okay?"

"Yes, we're fine," Scully said.

"Good. I hope it stays that way, because there's a herd of Cullens headed our way."