Scully couldn't believe what she was doing. It was like she was a marionette and the strings were making her do things against her will. She was getting dressed all in black to go to Mulder's funeral. Skinner knocked on the door. Promptly when he told her he would. She opened her door and greeted him with a nod of the head. The drive over seemed to take an instant and an eternity all at one time. Time seemed to have stopped for Scully. She was glad that she had asked Skinner to drive her, she knew she would never have made it herself. The turnout was low, the lone gunmen, Skinner, herself, and her mother, along with a few others were all that turned out to watch this great man's last rights.
The service was beautiful, Scully managed to say a few words on her partner's behalf. She kept her wall up to the best of her ability. When everyone else left Scully threw a small handful of dirt into the grave. She hoped that wherever Mulder was right then that he knew how much she love him, how much she missed him.
She turned to Skinner. "He was the last. His father, and mother...his sister...all gone. I think the real tragedy...is that for all of his pain and searching...the truth that he worked so hard to find was never truly revealed to him. I can't truly believe that I'm really standing here." Skinner's eyes were filled with compassion. "I know. And I don't truly believe that...Mulder's the last." Scully started to tremble and once again Skinner took her into his arms to cry herself out.
After Skinner took her home Scully was too numb to do anything. She sat on her couch despondently, eventually drifting off to sleep.
Mulder stood in the doorway, looking at her sleeping. He couldn't let it happen again, what had happened last time. She had seen what was really going on. This time he thought he could keep it from her. He hated to wake her, but the sorrow on her face was too much for him to take, he walked over and was about to touch her shoulder when her eyes snapped open. It took a moment to register who was standing before her, and when she did realize it, she screamed.
"No. Your dead. Your dead and it's all been a dream. Why won't my mind just let me rest? Leave me alone. Leave me alone. Leave me alone to grieve you." The look of fear and despair in her eyes drove him a step backwards, then another. Mulder felt as if she had just stabbed a butcher knife through his heart, he wished she had, this would linger for longer. He was almost at the door when he got the courage to turn around and tell her what he had come for.
"Don't give up your hope, whatever you do." He let himself out of her apartment and sagged against a wall. He felt himself start to cry. She was all that he had left, and he had been rejected. He raised his hand to his face to wipe away the tears and saw the same piece of paper in his hand. He must have picked it up without noticing he had done so. He put it in his jacket and walked away down the hall.
The next morning Scully showed up for work, bright and early. She came down to the X files office. "Agent Scully" she was startled by Doggett's voice behind her. "Agent Scully, haden't you better take a few days off?" she shook her head and sat down at the desk. "There is work to be done Agent Doggett."
The days blurred together. Scully made it through one week, then two, the time turned into months and although the hurt never faded, it was no longer the only thing on her mind. Her baby was growing and soon she would have a child to think about. Still the world seemed duller, more gray since the funeral. Mulder had taken her heart and a large portion of her soul with him when he died. Luckily for her piece of mind she didn't have the dreams anymore since the day of is funeral. In fact she stopped dreaming all together.
Not until nearly three months after the funeral did something break the monotony of her new daily life. Ring Ring. "Scully" AD Skinner was on the other line. It wasn't irregular, they had been talking more since the death. "Yes sir?" "Agent Scully, I think you should come down to the hospital, there's something you have to see." Scully's haze broke and she sat bolt upright. "Sir?" there was a long pause on the other end. "Agent Scully…It's Mulder. He's alive."
Scully moved as quickly as someone that pregnant could. She drove as quickly to the hospital as she could without getting pulled over and by time she was at the hospital she was breathing heavily and her heart was pounding. She saw Skinner and rushed towards him. "Is it true?" Skinner put his body in front of the door to the room. "Slow down." He said, trying to calm her.
"No. I want to see him!"
"I know you do…"
"No, I need to see him, damn it!" She was on the verge of tears
"You're not going in there." Skinner grabbed her arm and stopped her. "Scully, you can't." At that moment Scully was about to tear past Skinner, she was desperate to know, to see for herself if it was real. "Tell me it's true. Tell me." Just at that moment Doggett appeared out of the room. Scully walked towards him. "What did they say?" There was silence from Doggett. "I need to see him."
He wouldn't meet her eyes. "I know, but I wish you wouldn't"
Scully walked past him and into the hospital room. Miracles of miracles…She put her hand on his chest, to feel the rise and fall of his chest. Suddenly she couldn't stand anymore, she crumpled down on the bed and held him. She had given up on ever having this ever again. After three months color came back into her life. She began to cry.
She woke up later that morning to the sound of the door. She was holding Mulder's, warm and alive, hand. "You can't do this alone." For a moment she was terrified of her new partner, scared he would try and take her away from the old one she loved. "You asked me not to come in here, Agent Doggett. I hope you're not asking me to leave."
"Concern's for your well-being, Agent Scully. That's all it's ever for. I felt this was a bad idea from the start. I told the Assistant Director so. Worrying about the effect it might have on you." Now she was angry at him. Mulder was alive, in however bad of condition, alive is still alive. "You mean finding Mulder alive?" A hint of her anger came through in her voice.
"I know you came in here with the doctors. I'm sure you must have asked them what his chances are." Scully let go of Mulder's hand and stepped angrily towards Doggett. " Agent Doggett...However I felt about you when we first met, you changed my opinion with the quality of your character and of your work. Now, I am thankful to know you and I am thankful for your concern...But no matter what Mulder's chances are the choice not to open up that grave was wrong. And not because of me personally but as my partner on the X-Files. Now, the truth may hurt but it's all that matters." Although she sounded brave inside she was shaking. She didn't know what she would do if she lost him again. So soon after she found him.
"What truth?" Doggett was never quite sure what Scully was referencing when she used those words, but she used them a lot. "The truth of what caused this." She gestured towards the bed. Before Doggett could respond a nurse broke into the room saying to come quickly, something about Billy Miles.
Billy Miles was in almost the same condition as Mulder, but he was found wandering the halls of the hospital. He had no idea how he came to be there, but there was nothing physically wrong with him. Scully couldn't believe it. "It's too incredible. Sir, there isn't a piece of medical data on him that isn't one hundred percent normal." She was explaining to skinner later that afternoon.
"Why are you questioning that... when it could mean that the doctors are wrong about Mulder?"
"Because it doesn't make sense. I mean, there should be blood, fluid, electrolyte imbalances. Loss of brain function, but as it is, it's like he shed his skin and literally became a new person. And I don't mean the same person"
Skinner stopped and gave her a look she couldn't pinpoint. "What are the chances this could be due to an alien influence? Could it be a virus?" Skinner knew that such a thing was possible through the case files, but he sounded like he knew something else, more information.
"Why are you asking me this? Sir, if you know something... look, we-we're working against the clock here. This, this could happen to Mulder. And until we know what it is we have to do everything to control it." Scully's pulse heightened.
"There may be a vaccine."
"Where?"
"It doesn't come without a price."
"This is about saving a man's life." Scully would move heaven and earth to save Mulder. Skinner knew it and his reply was tinged with sadness.
"Yes it is."
Scully was on her way out of the hospital where she ran into Agent Doggett. She seemed to have less and less in common with the man as time went on. She told him what herself and the AD had thought of and for once he agreed with her, or at least said that the stories matched up. A few moments later Mulder was rushed to the OR, it appears he was taken off life support and his temperature dropped rapidly. By taking him off life support they could stabilize him and treat him with anti-viral. There was a chance he could make it.
Scully sat by his hospital bed all that night and most of the next day. She was exhausted but he seemed to be getting better and that gave her the strength and energy to stay awake. Slowly his color was coming back and Scully had hope. Scully was holding his hand, just as she had been doing since they moved him out of the OR. His fingers moved slightly and out of the corner of her eye she saw his head move. Her heart leapt. "Mulder?" for the first time in over three months Mulder opened his eyes. Scully didn't know exactly what emotion she was feeling just then, she didn't know if she should laugh or cry, or what to say. What does one say to a man you love that's been dead for three months, suddenly returned to you?
"Hi" she finally managed. Mulder's face was still blank. When he opened his mouth to speak he had to remind his vocal cords how to work and when they did they were hoarse from lack of use. "Who are you?" Scully feels like she was just hit with a ton of bricks. He didn't know who she was. Oh god, this could possibly be worse than dead. He didn't…but then he smiled, life came back into his face. He was joking in that horrible serious way he does some times. Like in Dallas on the roof, like so many other times. She sobbed in relief and let the tears she had held back flow forth. "Oh my God, don't do that to me. Do you know...? Do you have any idea what you've been through?" she loved this man so much.
He studied her face for a moment and his expression softened. He still looked horrible, bu the fact that he woke up and could talk could only point to good. "Only what I see in your face." She laid her head down upon his shoulder and held him where he lay. He was still weak but not too weak to manage a joke. "Anyone miss me?" she laughed, he always knew how to make her laugh. Doggett opened the door to find Mulder awake and Scully half on the bed, half in her chair. There was nothing he could say, so he left. She was relieved he didn't intrude. Scully, finally at piece, closed her eyes and cuddled closer to Mulder. Mulder lay his own head down, they both slept.