Title: What He Knew

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Don't own 'em... never did.

-x-

Placing the last red satin ornament on the tree, Margaret Scully took a step back to admire her work. It wasn't what she wanted, but it would do. The small, artificial tree looked out of place in the sterile hospital room. Sighing, she turned around and glanced at the sight of Mulder's sleeping form in his hospital bed.

She hadn't wanted to spend another Christmas in a hospital, not this hospital, at least. She shivered, and pulled her sweater tightly around her body. Christmas Eve always brought out certain ghosts, and though she'd dealt with them in the past, she'd much rather avoid them tonight. Maggie remained, standing in the middle of Mulder's hospital room, the ghosts of Christmas tragedies all around her. Her reverie was broken when the door to the room clicked open, and her exhausted looking daughter waddled into the room. The sight of her brought a small smile to Maggie's face, but not fast enough for her daughter to miss the sad expression she had been wearing.

"Are you okay, Mom?" she questioned quietly, taking her mother's hand in hers.

"I'm alright, sweetheart," she replied with a confident smile. Scully didn't miss the unshed tears in her eyes. "We don't have the best track record for Christmases, do we?" Scully shook her head. "No, I'm afraid we've been spending a few too many of them in the hospital recently." She appeared lost in thought for a moment, and then chuckled. Her mother looked at her peculiarly. "I was just remembering that Christmas when Charlie got the BB gun that Bill wanted, and they startled wrestling in the middle of the living room, and then Charlie broke Bill's arm. We spent that whole day in the emergency room..." Maggie brightened a bit at the memory.

"Those two didn't speak for a week they were so mad at each other. And if memory serves, Bill ended up breaking the gun and neither of them ever got to use it!" Scully nodded, smiling at the memory of that Christmas.

"Scully?" Mulder mumbled sleepily and started stirring. Maggie looked at her daughter and smiled.

"Go to him, sweetheart. I was just on my way out. I'll be back to visit you in the morning," she said, kissing Scully on the cheek.

"Scully?" Mulder mumbled again, turning his head toward the two women. "Oh hi, Mrs. Scully."

"Maggie, Fox," she said, walking over to gently kiss him on the forehead. "And you need to get your rest. I was just on my way out." He smiled at her, sitting up and resting on his elbows.

"Okay," he replied. "Are you coming by tomorrow?" She nodded.

"Yes, I'll be by first thing in the morning."

"Okay," he said, squeezing her hand. "We'll be here." She gave Scully a hug, and headed out the door. They both watched Maggie leave, and then Mulder turned his attention to Scully.

"Hey sweetie. How are you feeling?" Scully asked, taking his hand in hers.

"I miss you," he said. She raised her eyebrows and looked at him peculiarly.

"Mulder, I'm right here, and have been for the past four days..." she replied, gently stroking his forehead.

"No, it's not the same, Scully. I miss our normal life," he replied, kissing her knuckles. That earned an eyebrow raise.

"When were our lives ever normal, Mulder?" she questioned, unable to keep from smiling. She was trying to lighten the mood, and he knew it, and he was willing to let it go for now. He could tell by the change in her expression that she knew what he'd meant to begin with. Feeling the twinge of her sciatic nerve in her back, Scully rubbed the spot where the pain began, and sank down gracelessly into the chair beside Mulder's bed.

"How's Skinner?" he asked, gently massaging each of her fingers.

"He's not awake yet, but the doctors say he should be soon. Kim's upstairs with him," she replied. Mulder nodded. "Has the doctor told you anything?"

"Nothing other than the fact that none of the conventional treatments are working. He said he wants to look into more radical stuff, more aggressive stuff. He said it was basically the only thing we could do if we wanted to have even a chance of killing this cancer," he replied.

Scully closed her eyes, remembering having the same conversation with Dr. Zuckermann years before. She paused for a moment, thinking of how to bring up the subject of another possible treatment... one that Mulder risked his life for during her illness.

"There's something I want to talk to you about," she said, leaning back slightly in her chair. " It's something that could help you get better," she continued quietly. He nodded, urging her to go on. "During my illness, when the doctor told me that I was running out of options, amidst all other radical treatments, and visits from Father McCue, you gave Dr. Zuckermann what seemed like the unlikeliest of cancer treatments... the chip. Looking back on it now, that long-shot saved me. The chip cured me of my cancer, and if my assumptions are correct, repaired my ovaries enough so that they began producing ova again, and restored my fertility. I want a chance to return the favor, Mulder. I want to help you get well," she paused for effect. "Tell me where to get a chip like mine."

His reaction was the opposite of what she had expected. He shook his head vehemently, his mouth set in a firm line. "No, Scully."

She stared at him. "What?! Mulder, why not?! For Christ's sake, this could save your life!" She was an inch from shouting as she got up out of her chair, with her hands balled up in fists and resting on her hips.

"It's too dangerous. I did things I would've rather gone without doing to get that chip. I won't have you risking your life to go looking for this."

"So you're going to die rather than let me help you," she said, feeling tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I won't have you risking your life," he replied quietly, unable to meet her eyes.

"So you're going to take the easy way out of this. You're not going to fight this at all?"

This time his eyes met hers, and he was angry. "You think that dying is the easy way out, Dana?! You honestly believe that it's easy for me to sit here in this hospital, knowing that I'm going to die before my children are born? Do you think I want to leave all of that behind?" Her tears were falling freely.

"If that's what you expect me to believe, Mulder, then prove it. Fight with all you have against this disease. Don't sit here and let it eat away at you. Let me help you!" she said, her voice shaky from crying.

"Scully, I can't let you..." He didn't even finish his sentence before she was out of the room. The door closed heavily behind her as he watched. For the first time in a long time, his head fell into his hands, and he cried out of despair.

-x-

"Just a minute!" Maggie Scully called as she walked toward the door. She wondered who in the world would be at her door at nearly midnight. Yawning, she rose up on her tip-toes to glance out the peep hole. Seeing who was on the other side, she immediately grew worried and hurriedly yanked the door open. "Dana what is it?" she questioned. Without warning, her teary daughter practically fell into her arms.

"Oh Mom..." she managed, burying her face in her mother's shoulder and wrapping her arms around her. Startled and now very awake, Maggie managed to close the door without breaking her daughter's precarious and awkward embrace.

"Dana, what is it? What's happened?"

"We had a fight," Scully said in a voice barely above a whisper.

"You and Fox?" she queried, slightly surprised. They hardly fought at all, especially recently. Her daughter nodded. When she was distraught, she became so inarticulate. "What was the fight about?"

"We were arguing about his course of treatment... All conventional treatment has been giving him no results, and neither has anything radical that they were willing to try... so I proposed getting him a cure like the one he brought to me when I had cancer..."

"The microchip," Maggie said quietly, guiding her now-standing daughter into the living room and gesturing toward the sofa. Awkwardly, Scully lowered herself onto the sofa, sitting back to look at her mother. She nodded briefly before continuing.

"Yes, a microchip. It seems to be the only cure that might work. His cancer is identical to mine, in type and origin. But he won't let me. He wouldn't tell me how he got my chip."

"Why not?" Maggie questioned, bewildered as to why Mulder wouldn't let her daughter help him get well.

"He says it's too dangerous. He doesn't want me risking myself or the twins just to save him." She was crying hard again, and covered her face in her hands. "He's just going to let himself die. He's not going to fight." Maggie felt her heart plummet from her chest.

"Dana, he's tired. You know how tired you were during all of your treatments... I'm sure he doesn't mean it like that..."

"I was so terrible to him... I never gave him a chance to explain... I just walked out..." Scully said, rubbing her belly in circles to calm either Adam or Nora, whichever baby was kicking her.

"You'll have these silly arguments, Dana. I'm sure you'll both be over it all in the morning..." Maggie said, reaching out to pat her hand.

"No...we won't," she said quietly. Before Maggie could question what Scully meant, she continued, "We won't be able to talk about it in the morning. Apparently, after I left, Mulder got so worked up that he started bleeding again... and the trauma put him into a coma. They don't know if he'll come out of it."

-x-

Author's Notes: Another cliffhanger. (Ducks flying objects.) School is crazy, and that is my excuse yet again for the delay between chapters. I promise that there are more coming, and as long as you keep reading I'll keep writing it. Make sure to hit the little review button and let me know how I did! Thanks!