author's notes: okay, chapter ten sucked really bad. i thought about deleting it, but i figured it would be too confusing. so, i'm gonna cope. anyway, sorry about chapter ten. this one will be better. and longer

************************************************************************************************************

After about two hours of sitting blindfolded, Scully had almost completely returned to her normal self, save the tie wrapped around her head. During those two hours, Mulder and Scully made small talk, avoiding any conversation of the events needing to be discussed. They reminisced about old cases, laughing at the weirder-than-normal cases, and arguing different theories about the ones never solved.

[just like old times] Mulder thought to himself cynically, wondering if anything would ever be normal for them.

"Scully, you hungry?" Mulder asked out of nowhere.

Scully nodded, "Do you want pizza or Chinese?"

Mulder thought for a moment, "Pizza."

"Okay, I'll order," Scully replied, and before he could interject, Scully had walked across the room,

around the coffee table, and to the telephone and hit the speed dial button for the pizza place. All as if she could see exactly what she was doing.

He did not understand this. He had no theories for this whatsoever. Sure, Mulder was used to not having scientific explanations for paranormal phenomena, but Scully was no X File. He paused and shook his head, correcting his train of thought. Scully was an X File, but she was no freak.

They continued talking and reminiscing until the pizza came. They ate in silence for about five minutes, but it was not the comfortable silence they usually shared. Rather, the silence screamed through the room, leaving a ringing noise in their ears. Finally, Mulder could stand it no longer.

"We have to talk about this." Mulder blurted out.

"What?"

"You. We have to talk about what happened to you."

"Mulder..." Scully let the word hang in the air between them.

Mulder chugged his half full beer before answering her. "Something is wrong."

"I know."

Mulder paced the room. He felt idle. "Look at me Scully."

Scully immediately turned toward Mulder, who was standing at his computer. Mulder brushed it off as a heightened sense of hearing. She just followed his voice. He walked back across the room and sat on the

coffee table knee-to-knee with Scully. He put his hands behind his back.

"Hold my hand."

"What?" Scully asked, confused.

"Just grab my hand." Mulder repeated, not offering any explanations.

So Scully did as she was told. She leaned forward, balancing herself by putting her left hand on Mulder's right thigh, and reached behind his back to grab his hand. She did this without feeling around. She knew where it was. Like she could see it. As Scully sat back down and held Mulder's hand in hers, Mulder subconsciously squeezed her hand reassuringly.

"Mulder, what is it?" Scully said, the silence making her squirm uneasily in her seat.

Mulder sighed. His sigh revealed the burdens he bore through his life. As Mulder sat before her, silent once again, Scully pondered over his sigh. A sigh is just a breath held and let out in anticipation. Or relief. Or pain. Mulder's sigh was one of a man twice his age. He had been through too much. The two of them had seen and experienced so much pain. And it was evident. In their faces. In their sighs. Scully tore herself from her thoughts as Mulder began to speak.

"Scully...Can you see me?" Mulder finally breathed.

"Of course I can see you...You're sitting right in front of me." Scully said, more confused than before.

[WRONG ANSWER!!] Mulder's brain screamed, pleaded. He had hoped that he was wrong, that he had just imagined all of it, that his overactive, paranoid imagination had gotten the better of him. Mulder did not know what to say. Instead, he took her hand and gently moved it up to her face, letting her fingers feel the tie. It was at this moment that she comprehended Mulder's silence. It seemed that the silence now conquered Scully, but in the silence a thousand questions screamed to be answered. Mulder moved from the coffee table to couch, next to Scully. He felt awful. Mulder felt like he was telling her she had cancer. He sighed again, remembering the pain and anguish of Scully's supposedly fatal cancer. A shiver crawled up his spine as he blinked hard to clear his mind of the horrible thoughts.

Slowly, calmly, Mulder explained the past eighteen months to Scully. Mulder replayed the events of the night of her abduction to Scully, who had a hard time taking in all of this information. Mulder paused before telling Scully how he found her in the abandoned warehouse. He knew that this was a lot to comprehend at one time. As Mulder told her, he relived the night. They sat in heavy silence: Mulder dealing with the emotions he had buried, and Scully trying to remember the tiniest detail, frustrated that none of this was familiar to her.

At the same time that the two were dealing with their own emotions, they thought of the other's feelings as well. Scully rested her head against Mulder's shoulder, while Mulder wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her as close as possible. So they sat, Mulder holding Scully, and Scully holding his hand in her lap, for the rest of the night, as Mulder explained the events to Scully, who sat in silence.

Finally, close to midnight, Mulder finished telling Scully what had happened and his theories about it. For a minute, Scully did not say anything. Just as Mulder was beginning to suspect that she had drifted off to sleep, she spoke.

"What do we do?"

Mulder paused, searching for an answer, but none came to him, "I don't know."

"So, if I can physically see, then I am somebody else?"

"Well, you don't recognize anybody. Or anything."

"But if I am blindfolded, then I can see you. And I know you," Scully stated, trying to understand.

"If you can't see, then you can see me. And...I am assuming, you can see those whom you already know."

"Oh." Scully sat silent for a moment. "Will I ever be able to eventually regain my memory...I mean when I can see?"

"There is no way to tell."

"I feel like a vampire or a monster. You know, that can only come out at night," Scully mumbled.

"No," Mulder whispered reassuringly as he kissed the top of her head.

For a while, silence regained the upper hand. The silence, though, was more of a comfort than earlier.

"Hey Mulder," Scully interrupted the silence. "I don't want to live not knowing you."

Mulder smiled thoughtfully. "Me neither."

Scully looked up at him and returned the smile, but it slowly faded when she realized how close their faces were. At first she panicked, but she maintained her cool exterior. Then, she did what came natural: she closed the space between them.

The kiss was tender, a symbol of love, not lust. A promise.

********************************************************************************

a/n: finally MSR!!!! i hope this chapter is better than the last one...I like it better. I figure you will either hate it or love it...most likely hate it, though. Hope you fellow shippers appreciated the msr...i hope it fits in. I figured that all the heavy emotions would flow into msr emotions. did you like???