See Disclaimers in Chapter 1.

Too Few Words, Not Enough Time

Chapter 3

By Kimberly Warner

"Mr. Mulder? Sir? Are you there?" Rita's voice brought him back to reality.


When he answered, his voice came out shaking, tears threatening his usually calm voice. "H-how is she? Is it bad...?"


There was a silence. "I think you'd better come down here. She wants to see you."


He didn't hesitate. Without even saying goodbye, he slammed the phone into its cradle and ran out the door with his car keys. His thoughts swirled as he drove, and in record time he was at the hospital, rushing through the emergency room doors.


"I want to see Dana Scully," he demanded like a madman to the nurse at the admittance desk.


The pinched-looking nurse on duty looked up at Mulder with a scrutinizing gaze from under the pile of paperwork that surrounded her. She looked down and shuffled with some charts and said, without looking back up at him, "Are you family? Only family is allowed to see patients in ICU."


"ICU?" He paled. Then, thinking quickly, "I'm her fiancée, please, let me see her."


The nurse stared up at him skeptically, but before she could respond they were both interrupted.


"Fox? Fox Mulder?" He turned to the small, brown-haired woman addressing him. "I'm Nurse Rita Jones, I spoke with you on the phone about Ms. Scully," she said as she stepped up beside him.


"Where is she?"


Rita took his arm and started to lead him down the corridor to ICU. She said nothing and her silence worried Mulder greatly. He just wished someone would tell him something, anything at all, about how she was. He wanted Scully to come walking down the hallway toward him, right that second. He wanted her to smile and hold him in her arms, assuring him it had been just a minor accident and that she was all right. He didn't want to be here in this cold, sterile smelling place, worrying about the one he loved.


Suddenly, Rita stopped in front of a closed door. Room two-hundred-and forty-two. He'd never forget. He reached out to open the door, but Rita stopped him.


"We're really not supposed to let non-family members in to see patients," she said gently, "but she was asking for you, when she was brought in. She was able to give us your number. No one's been able to reach any of her other family yet and, I'm sorry to say, she isn't doing too well. I couldn't just let her be alone."


Mulder's knees wanted to turn to jelly and his stomach fell to the floor, but somehow he managed to hold on to his composure. "How bad is it?" He forced himself to ask.


She sighed. "The other vehicle hit her pretty hard. Her car isn't even recognizable anymore, from what I heard from the paramedics..." She stopped and looked straight into Mulder's hurting eyes, and then, "I won't lie to you.... it's bad."


He stopped listening then, and didn't even pause a moment to brace himself before he pushed open the door to Scully's room.


The scene was so hauntingly familiar, yet at the same time so much different than any time before. Scully lay there like a ghost. She hardly looked alive to Mulder. Innumerable tubes and bandages covered her still form; the left side of her face was shrouded in gauze. The only sound in the room was the gentle humming and beeps of the machines monitoring her status.

Perhaps Mulder spoke her name as he stepped inside the room, but he was too numb inside to be sure. He didn't know what to do, what to say. He could only stand there and stare, waiting while his heart wanted to rip in two.


This is my fault, all my fault, he thought. If I hadn't asked her to come over...


He couldn't console himself and he didn't want to.


Somehow he managed to turn his head, looking at Nurse Rite. "Could I...could I be alone with her?"