West Highway

Cedar River Road

Seattle

Scully asked Gordon to drive slower as they approached Cedar River Road. She watched the verge for any sign of the car hoping against hope that they would make it all the way to the hotel without finding any disturbance. Hearing the phone clatter to the ground and Mulder shouting as the unmistakable clang of metal hitting metal coursed over the phone hit her panic button. Then suddenly she saw it. The verge collapsed under the weights of his car. The snow had been churned up and mud stained the other wise white blanket.

She yelled at Gordon to stop the car and had climber out before he managed to pull over. Skidding and running over the ice and snow she followed the tracks to his car that had been imbedded into the tree. The passenger door was crushed but as she peered into the drivers window trough the spider cracks she saw it was empty. Checking the ground she searched for his footprints fervently.

Heart thudding angrily against her ribs she eased into the woods where the tracks from his car had lead her. Her ungloved hands were numb from the cold, from fear as she moved aside a branch and peered deeper into the woods. Behind her a twig snapped sharply. She spun around and saw Gordon running from their car towards her.

"Can you see him?"

"No. The car was damaged but he's not inside it. His footprints lead into the woods."

He stepped towards her though the ankle deep snow. "I called for an ambulance."

"Do you hear that?" she said suddenly turning towards the trees.

"What?"

"Water. I hear water." She began to run, ducking under low branches and stumbling through the brush. Mulders footprints were weaving back and forth now as though he had been staggering. The snow was disturbed in a large patch where he had fallen. Too much blood loss she thought.

The sound of rushing water grew louder now. She broke out of a tangle of evergreens and emerged onto the bank of a creek. Rain and melting snow had swollen the torrent to a dangerous level. Frantically she scanned the snow for his prints and spotted the rolling patch of crushed snow entering the creek to her right.

"You see him?" Gordon asked.

"He's gone into the water!" She splashed knee deep into the creek where his prints met the waters edge. Reaching underwater, she blindly grabbed whatever her hands encountered. She came up with bottles, branches and rubbish so she waded in deeper, to her thighs, but the water was moving too fast and she felt the torrent pulling her downstream. Stubbornly she braced her foot against a rock and plunged her arms deep into the icy water.

And found an arm.

At her scream Gordon came splashing over to her side. Mulders jacket had been snagged on a branch and they had to rip it off him. Together they lifted him out of the creek and up the bank, onto the snow. His face was blue. He wasn't breathing, nor did he have a pulse.

She began CPR. Three breaths, filling his lungs then cardiac compressions. One-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, the sequence automatic and well rehearsed. As she pumped on his chest blood gushed from his nostril and spilled to the snow. Re-establish circulation and the blood flows to the brain, to the vital organs, but it also means the body bleeds again. She saw a fresh stream of dark red trickle from the wound on his head.

Voices drew near followed by footsteps running towards them. Scully stepped back wet and shivering as the ER personnel lifted Mulder onto a stretcher. She followed them back to the building and into a trauma room that was exploding with noise and chaos. On the monitor behind Mulder the cardiac tracing showed a pattern of ventricular fibrillation. His heart was beating with rapid irregular contractions. A nurse hit the defibrillator charge button and slapped paddles on Mulders chest. He jerked as the electrical current shot through his body.

"Still in V.Fib," the ER doctor called out. "Resume compressions. Did you get the bretylium in?"

"Going in now," a nurse replied, Scully wasn't sure which. Her body was shivering so much now that she didnt notice when a heavy blanket was draped over her shoulders.

"Everyone back!" Another shock to the heart.

"Still in V.Fib," the doctor said. He glanced at Scully. "How long was he under water?"

"I d-d-don't know. Possibly up to an hour. But the water was close to freezing." Even an apparently dead person could be revived after cold water submersion. They couldn't give up yet she pleaded with her eyes and her heart.

"Core body temp's up to thirty two degrees centigrade," a nurse said.

"Maintain CPR and get him warmed up. We may have a chance."

"What's all the blood from his nose?"

A trickle of bright read slid down Mulders cheek and stained the crisp white mattress sheet he was lying on.

"He was bleeding when we pulled him out of the creek. There was a car crash before he went in to the water."

"Only a small scalp trauma just beneath the hairline and no facial trauma." The ER doctor reached for the paddles. "Stand back, lets shock him again."

Unable to watch his body jerking as they tried to get his heart under normal rhythm Scully buried her head into her chest and pulled the blanket up tighter around her shoulders.

"We have a steady pulse Doctor," another nurse called out in triumph.

"Get the hypothermic blankets out and warm him up. I want head x-rays done as well to make sure. And someone clean out this wound."

Scully felt an arm around her shoulders and glanced up to see Gordon gently guiding her away from the trauma room and over to an empty cubicle.

"Here, it's all I could find."

She looked down to his outstretched hands and saw the medical scrubs he was carrying. Realising suddenly how cold she was she felt her wet clothes stinging her skin and she smiled gratefully. He stepped behind the curtain and held it closed for her as she peeled off her old clothes and pulled on the dry warm scrubs.

"Is he going to be okay?" Gordon asked.

"We can't tell yet. He seems to be recovering physically but there should still be brain damage from his lack of oxygen."

"When will we know?"

"When he wakes up."

She stepped out from the curtain and brushed the wet tendrils of her hair from her face as the doctor approached them.

"You came in with the drown victim?" he asked senselessly and Scully thought he'd win no points for his consideration.

"Fox Mulder. Yes. I'm his physician."

"Oh," genuinely surprised by her reply he seemed to reappraise what he was about to say. "He is no longer in fibrillation and seems to be warming up well. The trauma to his head," he continued pointing out the area with two straight fingers to his own forehead "is superficial and should heal nicely."

"What about cerebral hypoxia?" she asked.

"We wont know until he regains full consciousness. He is responding well to all sensory examinations thus far."

"Can I see him?"

"He is being transferred to the ICU where his temperature can be monitored. You can come see him before we take him."

Scully started to walk with the doctor then turned back to face Gordon. "Call Skinner. Tell him what's happened and I'll report later."

"What about Nelson?"

A look of sorrow flitted past Scully's face but as soon as it had arrived it had disappeared. "Leave him. Don't mention to Skinner that we found him."

"Agent Scully...I hope you realise what you are saying."

"I do." With that she hurried after Doctor Kilburn and left Gordon standing in the hallway alone.

Seattle General Hospital

After spending the day in the hospital canteen with Gordon, Scully was ready to leave the city of Seattle behind and get back to DC. Too many arguments over too trivial amounts of circumstantial evidence. She hadn't been to see Mulder in over four hours and even though the nurse had come to inform her that the ventilator had been removed he hadn't regained consciousness.

"Look Gordon," Scully stood up and ran her hands through her hair. It felt grimy and stringy but there was little she could do with it. "I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying you've no proof. No proof no case."

"I had the proof." He protested weakly. Tiredness and frustration had burrowed its way into his brow. "They stole it from us."

With a rueful smile Scully turned his way. "Welcome to my world!" She dropped a hand onto his arm and gently squeezed. "Go home Gordon. Send in you're report if you think it'll do any good."

"What about you?" He covered her hand with his own and looked up to her resignedly.

"I'll travel back with Mulder."

He sat in the canteen watching her as she strolled out of the room. Her limbs stiff from the cold water and her shoulders slumped with defeat. With great effort he grabbed the paper cups that held their cold coffee and tossed them into the trash before leaving the hospital.

In the ICU ward Scully walked over to Mulders bed and quickly scanned the chart. His breathing was raspy and painful but she was glad it was under his own power. His temperature had risen slightly and was out of the danger zone and his vital signs were slowly returning to normal. The chances of any brain damage was minimum but she still worried and would do until she saw the crooked smile curving his lips and the spark of humour brightening his eyes.

"How is he doing?" she asked a nurse who was taking his vitals for the 15-minute check.

"Very well. Considering."

After she left Scully pulled the seat closer to his bed and slipped her hand beneath the side barrier to clasp his. His fingers were cold to touch but on his wrist she could feel his pulse beating steadily and it ebbed her tension away. Letting her head fall back to the top of the chair she allowed her eyes to close and her mind to wander. It wasn't long before sleep claimed her into a heavy slumber.

Mulder felt hot searing pain with every breath he took. His lungs contracted against the air and burned at the slightest movement. Unable to open his eyes he was a prisoner to the darkness. She was awake the first time he moaned and at the sign of consciousness she stood from the chair.

With one hand she caressed his cheek, gently encouraging him from the fitful trap. He tossed his head from side to side and opened his mouth to gasp air. He struggled to survive in the water that was no longer engulfing him.

"Mulder...take a deep breath," she urged calmly speaking to him and stroking his hair away from his face. "Deep slow breaths."

His eyes shot open and he lurched with the need for air. Scully pressed his shoulders into the bed and put her face in his line of vision.

"Mulder...Mulder..." she said over and over.

"Scully!" he gasped. At the sight of her before him he pushed himself up and took in a deep slow breath. His lungs contracted and he fought the cough but it won, sending him back into the bed. He grasped his chest and waited for it to pass.

"Hey." She stood over him with her hair hanging about her face, her cheeks flushed form the sleep and her eyes glistening.

"Hey," he croaked.

"How do you feel?"

"Terrible. What happened?" His hand came up to his forehead where it found the bandage.

"You're car came off the road...Ice?" she added uncertainly.

"Ice?" he laughed softly trying not to aggravate his already tender throat. "More like unmarked vehicle ramming me."

"Same thing happened to us."

"CIA?"

"They didnt specify." She grabbed a glass of water from the counter and held it to his lips for him to sip.

"One of them broke into my apartment." He pushed himself up. "He was looking for you. Said that I should find you before he did."

"It's crazy Mulder." She sat back into the chair beside him and rested her head in her hands. "We spoke to Malcolm Nelson. But he's on his last legs. Agent Dixon wants to push him for a confession but I don't see the point."

"If he was guilty of the assassination and now lives under US Government protection, don't you think that's important to find out?" Mulder argued gasping for breath between each word.

"Yes I do but at what price?" She stood up and circled the bed. "You were attacked in your own home and run off the road in what could have been a fatal accident!" Back at his side she touched his arm gently. "We were interrogated and our files stolen."

Mulder said nothing. He looked down at her fingers as they smoothed the hairs on his arm subconsciously. Her eyes were distant and clouded.

"I'm okay Scully." It took a minute for her to look up and when she did her fingers tightened around his arm.

"I know. But you almost weren't." There was nothing he could say. Nothing to make her feel better about almost loosing him so he didnt. Covering her hand with his own, he pulled her closer to his head and sat up. Meeting her in a hug he reached his arms around her and held her tightly.

"I thought I was going to lose you too," he murmured. She let him hug her for a moment longer then pried herself free.

"Lets get the doctor in here so we can go back home."

"I dunno Scully, the sunny climate here in Seattle is doing wonders for my lungs!"

"Well maybe when we get back to DC and explain to skinner how we got on out here, he'll spring for a vacation out to Hawaii!" she said smiling as she went towards the door to call a doctor.

"Maybe Scully. Maybe. Stranger things have happened." He joked as he lay back down on to the bed and gently rubbed his aching chest.

"That's why they invented the Xfiles."

THE END

Skinfull Nov

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A/N : Thanks Faye. ;)