PART 29

As Scully stood waiting for Mulder to come back to her she got worried. It suddenly went very quiet and she could only imagine the worst. She heard him shouting and some people screaming, then she heard gunshots. That was it, weapon or no weapon she had to see what was going on, and if Mulder was ok.

"Mulder!"

"Scully..."

"Mulder oh my god are you ok?!"

"Not...ouch, not really."

He'd been shot and it looked like the wound was close to his lung. Scully opened his shirt and pressed down on him to put pressure on the cut. She moved his shirt out of the way.

"Scully, we're in public...leave the undressing until later..."

"Mulder, trust me if I ever imagined undressing you it wasn't like this and it wasn't here."

As the bleeding slowed down Scully sighed with relief, the shot hadn't gone through his lung. She and one of the men helped him stand up and they took him to the only proper bed in the huts and lay him down. He was very weak and Scully needed to dress his wound. The man left them alone to clean up outside.

"Mulder stay still, I've got to get this cleaned."

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine Mulder. Now be quiet and stay still."

"Ok, ok."

"Mulder, what happened? Who did this?"

"I don't know who it was, I didn't recognise him."

"The bounty hunter?"

"Scully? Am I hearing you right? You are suggesting that the man who shot me was wearing a different face so I didn't recognise him? Changing his form at will? Are you ill?"

"Very funny. Seriously Mulder. We're lucky no one was killed."

"Well I don't understand why they weren't. What was stopping them from killing any one of us if not all of us?"

"I don't know. Something they wanted?"

"Well I didn't see them take anything."

"I just don't understand any of this anymore. I don't understand it's purpose or meaning, I mean what the hell is going on Mulder?"

"I don't know. Ouch!"

"Stay still if you're in pain."

"If? Of course I am, you keep poking me like that, you should be an expert at bandaging me up by now, I mean you've even shot me before."

"It was for your own good Mulder."

"Yeah yeah."

"It was. I'd never do anything to harm you unless I thought it was absolutely necessary."

"So what kind of situations are you saying you'd shot me in?"

"I don't know! Erm...I guess if I thought you were going to do something stupid, or run off to be a hero."

"You'd have shot me for running out there tonight?"

"No. I just...you'll always be my hero Mulder, I don't need you running out on me to shoot people to prove that to me."

"You really mean that?"

"Yes. I do."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"No one's called me a hero before. I could get used to it."

Scully laughed and lay down beside him. He put his arm around her and she got as close to him as possible without causing him a great deal of pain. He held her with a certainty that said they were at last being honest with each other; they were at last admitting they were in love after all these years. After it had been so obvious to others from the start, it was now obvious to the both of them too. No more denying it or refusing to believe it. This was the real thing. As they fell asleep they clear forgot about everyone else, their plans to escape, the planned action for the evening. It was

all cancelled, now they'd have to wait until Mulder was ok to move around easily. As everyone fell asleep that night there was a sense of anger and relief. Anger for not getting out of there like planned, and relief because moving was going to be the scariest thing that they'd ever have to do.

As Mulder woke up the next morning he just lay and watched Scully sleeping peacefully beside him. He'd been waiting to wake up beside her for a long time. As she stirred, she smiled when the first thing she saw as she opened her eyes was his face.

"Where you watching me sleep Mulder?"

"No..... well maybe. You look so beautiful when you're relaxing and not following me chasing little green men."

"Mulder..."

"I know, I know. But I really am the luckiest person in the world."

"No Mulder, I'm the luckiest person in the world, to finally realise how much I loved you before it was too late."

"Scully listen when we..."

"Miss Scully?"

One of the women had entered and Scully sat up quickly, Mulder slowly got up to

sit beside her.

"Miss Scully I have some terrible news."

"What, what is it?"

"It's Nacelles."

"What? Where is she?!"

"That's just it. We don't know. Her bed hasn't been slept in and no one has seen her since our dramatic events last night. She's gone..."