Romantic Mercy

A/N: This is the final chapter. I am so incredibly sorry that I let it drag on all this time. My muse was mad at me for writing such a cliffhanger and didn't speak to me for a year. But it's back again! I hope you like it and I thank you all for reviewing. It's the most number of reviews I've gotten everywhere.

Ex-Special Agent Dana Scully was cool, calm, and collected to the point where suspects were oftentimes intimidated although they would never admit it. She sat in that horribly putrid hospital waiting room where the scent of bedpans, blood, vomit, and aerosol cleaning sprays filled the air. She was horribly impatient. She had Irish blood running through her veins and when she was angry, she would flush red. Embarrasingly red. Now? Now, she wasn't that confident person who drilled suspects for answers. She wasn't that person who screamed at Mulder to leave that building. She wasn't that person who yelled at Mulder to stop the game of Russian Roulette with Modell. She was horribly, frighteningly not herself. She was like her own worst caricature.

I'm so tired of being here

Parker had been arrested for attempted murder, assault and battery. He could possibly be arrested for a felony. Scully wished with all her might that he would get arrested for that felony, but she hoped to God that Mulder wouldn't die.

Suppressed by all my childish fears

She sighed and held her head in her hands. She must look a wreck. She had gone with the paramedics on the ambulance and after a doctor stitched up minor wounds, she was left to wait. And there she learned the grievous torture that was the hospital. She had heard of it before. And she knew the face. The blank stare, with few blinks spaced in there, where the doctor would say stoicly, "I'm sorry. My condolences. I'll leave you to make arrangements." That voice was oftentimes stiff. She, as a medical doctor, had tried to put some empathy and sympathy ingrained in that voice but she could not overwhelm the statistics. Many doctors did that voice and usually, family members would act out violently—yelling and screaming and fighting for their lost loved one. It was a battle she hoped she'd never fight. She hadn't fought it before. Her mother had, with the loss of her father and Melissa.

And if you have to leave

She hoped he didn't.

I wish that you would just leave

She didn't.

Coz your prescence still lingers here

It did. When she had believed that he had cheated on her, been unfaithful, she could smell him everywhere. That wonderful blend of masculinity with his cologne and—it just suffocated her. She had to get out of that apartment or she would have asphyxiated on that scent that she adored. Would she ever smell that scent again?

And it won't leave me alone

These wounds won't seem to heal

Those emotional wounds had been holding her hostage ever since she had walked in on him and that sorry excuse for a bimbo. Like Carrie Bradshaw said in one episode, "The idiot stick figure with no soul."

This pain is just too real

There's just too much that time cannot erase

She couldn't forget it. It was a scene that would forever be ingrained in her memory. The sight of Parker stabbing Mulder. God, he had to strike something major, didn't he? The doctor walked out—the picture perfect image of hygiene. His face was worn with wrinkles and freckles showing that he had seen too much that he didn't want to see.

"Miss Scully?"

"Yes, Doctor? How is he?"

"He's survived, thank God. He's in ICU right now. But we expect he'll be able to recover soon."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The day when Mulder walked out of that hospital room was the day she thought that she'd rejoin her faith. She'd be religious now and she would wear that cross with pride. God had helped save him. God was—God had to be a reason and no matter how much her brain would argue that medicine saved him, not God. She knew that because of this experience, her heart would lie with God. She remembered the scene well. He hobbled out, his left ankle in a little splint to aid his walking.

When you cried, I wiped away all of your tears

She was crying. She had tears streaming down her face every which way and he walked up and enveloped her in a hug. He soothed her and stroked her hair back.

When you screamed, I fight away all of your fears

"I was so scared, Mulder. I was so scared that you were going to die. And I love you." He kissed the top of her head.

"It's okay. I'm here now. You don't have to be afraid."

And I've held your hand through all of these years

His hand found hers and they squeezed together in that way that they could not express with words. It was their way of communicating and damn all who wouldn't accept it.

You still have...all of me.

"I love you so much."

"Come on. What say you to a coffee and a biscotti? I know this great Italian cafe," Mulder offered. His hand slipped to the small of her back, like it had so often.

"Mulder!" she feigned shock. "Am I sensing cultured taste? Be careful. Next thing you know, you might sell your copy of 'Debbie Does Dallas' on e-Bay and then, you'll shock the world."

He laughed and they walked out of the emergency room, out of the hospital, and into their lives.

~Fini

A/N: So, did you like it? I'm sorry for stringing you all along for so long, but...::shrug:: So says the muse, eh? Well, I will talk to you all later. And please send feedback.