Partners By Chance - chapter seven

Disclaimers located before chapter one

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Mulder turned and was about to follow his colleagues towards the buildings being renovated when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye. Right next to the water stood a run down building that looked more or less like a storage shed.

For some reason Mulder felt drawn towards the building. Trusting his instincts he jogged towards the building and peered into the windows. They were covered by curtains - relatively frilly ones. They definitely looked out of place in the run down building.

Mulder walked over to the door and jiggled the handle - the door appeared to be unlocked and drawing his weapon he went inside.

The shack appeared to be empty but it was obvious that someone had been there recently. The light was on and shone directly down on a rather large table. The table was covered with dust and in the dust a message was written.

"Try again Mulder" the note said.

Mulder's heart sank and he realized that whatever was happening to Scully was partially meant as a form of payback towards him.

He bolted out of the building grabbing his cell phone and quickly calling in a forensic team to check out the shed. He continued jogging and called Fraser.

"The killer is trying to rub my nose in it. Meet me at the Bureau. I think he brought her there."

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Mulder tried to ignore the pain in his legs as he ran as fast as he could the 5 or so blocks down to the Bureau. He had no car and didn't want to waste time dealing with taxis and one way streets.

He tried to picture the building to which he was running in his mind. He had been around practically the whole building at one time or another and the only area with which he was not familiar was the basement.

That was where he would start.

Mulder opted to take the stairs down to the basement not wanting to alert anyone to his arrival with the elevator's ding. He slowly opened the door and made his way down the hall.

The entire floor was quiet but he thought he heard something. He strained to listen and could have sworn that he heard the soft strains of classical music coming from down the end of hall.

Mulder slowly, quietly walked down the hall pulling out his weapon as he went. As he walked the sound of the music got louder and it was apparent that the music was coming from the large storage room. The door to the room was slightly ajar and along with the music, Mulder noticed the flickering of soft light.

"Candles?" Mulder thought to himself as he braced himself to enter the room.

He quietly counted to three in his head and kicked the door in. He froze momentarily when he spotted Scully's body laid out in front of him on a large platform. He quickly drew his attention from her and focuses on the man who is hovering over her holding a knife in his hand.

At the noise of Mulder entering the room, the man looked up at him and smiled a horrible smile at him.

"You are too late Mulder. I have already had her - she was wonderful."

"Put the knife down McCormick and back away."

"You have no idea how sweet she is Mulder."

"Back away - I won't warn you again."

McCormick raised the knife - looked at Scully's chest and started the plunging motion when a shot rang out. Mulder hit him directly in the shoulder pushing him back.

Stunned but not down, McCormick lunged again towards Scully's body. Mulder did not take the time to carefully aim this time but just emptied his service weapon into McCormick's chest.

After convincing himself that McCormick no longer posed a threat, Mulder hurried over to Scully trying to avert his eyes from her naked body. He put his hand on her throat and was relieved to feel a weak pulse there.

He took of his jacket and was about to cover her with it when he noticed Scully's stomach. McCormick had used his knife to etch a message to Mulder.

"You lose Mulder"

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Mulder stood outside of Scully's room along with her mother and Bishop listening to her doctor report on her condition.

"At your request Agent Mulder, we did a thorough examination of Agent Scully and have found no sign of internal sexual assault."

"Thank goodness" Mrs. Scully whispered.

"As far as her other injuries are concerned, the cut marks on her stomach seem to be healing nicely with no signs of infection. The blows to her head were substantial but should not cause any permanent damage. The drugs that were pumped into her system are pretty much gone."

"So why isn't she awake yet?" Mulder asked fearing the worse.

"To be honest with you Agent, I am not sure. I think her coma is self- induced."

"Self-induced?" Mrs. Scully tried unsuccessfully to keep the panic from her voice.

"Yes, she is trying very hard to block out something. Judging by the bruises and cuts on her body she has been through quite a lot."

"And since she was familiar with how McCormick treated his victims" Bishop continued "she may very well assume that she had been roughed up more than she actually had."

"Can she hear us?" Mrs. Scully asked.

"There is no reason to think that she can't"

"Then we will just have to convince her that she is alright."

The doctor left them to chart out their course of action. It was decided that since Mrs. Scully had just arrived, that Bishop would bring her over to her hotel and settle her in. Mulder would stay with Scully for the rest of the afternoon and Mrs. Scully would join him after resting a bit.

"Agent Mulder" Mrs. Scully said softly "I don't know how to thank you for saving my daughter."

"Please call me Fox, Mrs. Scully" Mulder replied accepting the hug she gave him.

"Talk to her Fox, she will listen to you." And with that Mrs. Scully let Bishop lead her away.

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Scully thought she could hear voices coming towards her through the fog that surrounded her mind. She strained to hear and thought she heard her mother first and then Mulder.

But what were they saying?

She tried to make out the words but couldn't. She was just too tired.

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Mulder took his place by Scully's bed and picked up her hand. The nurse, Judy, attending to Scully smiled at him and told him that she would bring him some coffee shortly.

Although Scully had only been in the hospital a couple of days, the nursing staff all knew Mulder. He had pretty much refused to leave her side since she had arrived there.

They had been very understanding and had supplied Mulder with an endless supply of coffee, sandwiches and hospital scrubs to replace his blood stained clothes.

They smiled encouragingly at him as he continued to speak quietly to Scully telling her over and over and not to worry that she was safe and that he wouldn't let anything else happen to her.

They kept watch over Scully when he rose from the chair from time to time to stretch his weary body or use the bathroom.

"Scully, it's me. I am right here Scully and I won't leave you. Not now. Not ever. Come on Scully, open up your eyes and look at me."

Mulder repeated this over and over again and was just about to give up on this line of conversation when he thought he saw Scully's eyes flicker just a bit more than normal.

"Come on Scully, open up those eyes and look at me. You can do it."

And she did.

She opened them slowly obviously trying to focus on the face perched so close to hers.

"Hey" she murmured.

"Hey yourself"

Scully smiled weakly and closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

Mulder kissed her hand and still holding it lay his head on her bed and wept.

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It was another day before Scully totally came back. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the person sitting next to her bed reading a newspaper.

When it dawned on her who it was, her eyes grew huge.

"Jack?" she said weakly.

"You're awake. Thank God." Jack Willis bent over and kissed her on the forehead.

Scully said nothing her forehead wrinkling as if she was trying to solve some sort of puzzle.

"Why are you here Jack?"

"Well, I guess I was still listed as one of your emergency contacts with the Bureau. They called me when they couldn't get hold of your mother right away. I came up as soon as I could to make sure you were alright."

Scully still looked a bit skeptically at him. It was Jack's style to drop everything and run up to Boston to check up on a former lover.

She was about to ask him more questions when her mother appeared in the doorway.

"Dana" she said with tears sparkling in her eyes.

"Hi Mom. Oh, don't cry I am fine really."

"I know honey, it's just that you gave us all a bit of a scare."

She took a seat next to Jack after giving him a bit of a dirty look and proceeded to fill Scully in on her medical condition. Scully absorbed as much as she could but tired quickly.

As soon as Mrs. Scully noticed that her daughter was about to nod off, she took her leave taking Jack with her.

Scully woke up a few minutes later to find her room empty of visitors. Although she was relieved to be rid of Jack - who she knew would start lecturing her again on the dangers of field assignments - she was hoping her mother would be able to fill her on what happened with McCormick and with Mulder.

Mulder. Somehow she had expected him to be sitting by her side when she woke up. She knew it was foolish for her to expect such a thing - the man barely knew her after all - but she was disappointed none-the-less.

She closed her eyes briefly figuring that she would find out all about Mulder and McCormick soon enough. Her eyes sprung open when she heard someone enter the room.

It was Judy the nurse.

"So would you like to try some solid food today?"

"I don't know - the thought of eating anything doesn't really appeal to me."

"Not even ice cream? Your partner brought in a pint of your favorite just in case you had a craving for it. He said how he was amazed that a little thing like you could easy down a pint of rocky road."

"My partner?"

Judy smiled sympathetically at Scully assuming she was still mildly confused "Fox - the cute one."

"Mulder was here?"

"Yes, he was. Didn't the other man tell you that? He said he would"

Thinking she had said too much already, Judy tried to leave the room but Scully stopped her.

"Judy, please, I can't stand being left in the dark. Please tell me what happened."

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author's note - I promise to wrap up this story in the next chapter.