0732
Mulder's Rented Car
Mulder woke up to find Scully still asleep in his arms. He was suddenly overcome with an almost paternal affection and pulled her closer against him and buried his head in her hair and rocked her gently.
Scully slowly woke up. "Mulder?" she asked, still half asleep. "Mulder, what's wrong?" She had shifted slightly so she was looking into his face and he saw concern in her eyes.
"What do you mean?" he asked. "I'm fine."
"You're crying."
Mulder reached up and brushed his cheek. She was right. He quickly wiped his tears away and tried to stop crying but he couldn't. Instead he gathered Scully into his arms and pulled her close against him.
Scully stiffened, but relaxed and wrapped her arms around him. "You can't change the past," she said softly. "You can't take back what happened."
"I want to," he replied just as quietly. "I want to so badly."
"I know you do," Scully said. She had started rubbing his back, calming him down.
Mulder laughed slightly through his tears. "Look at me. I'm supposed to be the one comforting you and here I am crying."
"That's ok," Scully said soothingly. "I'm always here."
"I know."
Thursday, August 3
0940
The Chief of Police's Office
"This is it?" Scully asked skeptically.
"Apparently," Mulder answered, frowning at the foot long piece of vine on the table in front of him and Scully.
"Well, just by looking at it, I'd say it's a grape vine," she said. "But they don't grow in the desert."
"Do any vines?" Mulder asked. "I associate vines with old London houses."
Scully smiled slightly at him. "I don't think that there are any vines that grow in the desert, and certainly no killer vines."
"Can you send it out to get it identified?" he asked.
"Yeah, but the results won't be back until tomorrow," Scully answered and went off to talk to the police chief.
Mulder walked up to them. "This was recovered from which scene?" he asked.
"The Anders'," Chief Delore said. "Nice people. It's a real shame that Vince had to go that way."
Scully didn't say anything, but Mulder clearly recognized her typical look of skepticism.
"When can I do an autopsy?" Scully asked.
"Well, we don't have a real autopsy room out here," Delore said. "There's not much need around here, y'know. There haven't been any unusual deaths aside from these that I can remember, and I've been living here all my life."
Scully sighed impatiently. "Clearly these men and women didn't die of natural causes and in order to find out what caused their deaths, I'm going to need to perform an autopsy on each of the victims."
Delore looked uncomfortable. "Can you ship them out to Phoenix?"
"Not if you want reliable results," Scully insisted. "On a flight they could easily get knocked around and damaged. Besides, the sooner the autopsy is done, the more reliable the results."
Mulder wandered away from the conversation and back to the vine. His brow furrowed in confusion. It wasn't there. He looked around and found it on the floor about five feet away from the table. Mulder walked over to it and picked up the plant. It instantly coiled around his hand.
"Scully!" he called. "Get over here!"
Scully ran over and stared at the vine in fascination. "That's impossible," she said in a sort of dreamy voice. "That's just impossible."
"Well will you get it off of me before it completely cuts of my circulation?" Mulder yelled.
This seemed to prompt Scully into action and she pulled the vine off Mulder's arm. It fell to the floor and slithered away like a snake. Mulder ran after it, but there wasn't any real hope that he could catch it, especially after it went under a locked door. Mulder slammed his fists against the door in frustration.
"That wasn't a vine," Scully said.
"Then what was it?" Mulder asked.
"I'm not sure, but vines don't do that."
"Where'd the chief go?" Mulder asked. "We have to get into that room."
"He went to go see if he could find an autopsy room and equipment for me," Scully answered.
"Can you go get him?" Mulder asked.
"I don't know where he went," Scully replied. "Besides, the . . . well, whatever it is will be gone by now."
"But Scully-"
"Mulder, you saw how fast it was moving," she responded. "There's just no way you can catch it."
Mulder sighed in frustration. He knew she was right. Just then the chief came back.
"There's a room in the back you can use, Agent Scully," he said. Delore looked around and saw what had been thought to be the vine was gone. "What happened to the vine?" he asked.
"It slithered away," Scully said and walked out.
Thursday, August 3
1934
Mulder's Tent
"Want to go for a walk?" Mulder asked.
Scully looked up from her laptop. She was sitting in the tent writing up what had happened that day. "What?"
"Do you want to go for a walk in the desert?" he repeated. "It'll be cooler because it's night."
Scully smiled slightly at him. "I'd love to, but I need to finish this field report."
"Can't you finish it when we get back?" Mulder asked.
Scully glanced at the screen and then back at Mulder. "Alright," she said and closed her computer.
"Maybe we'll even see one of those walking vines," Mulder said excitedly as they walked out of the tent and started away from their tent and the town into the desert.
"I certainly hope not," Scully replied. "If we did, then we'd have to actually do something about it. I'm far too tired."
Mulder laughed. "Are you sure you want to go on this walk?"
"Yes," Scully said definitely. "I want to do something fun so I don't always associate the desert with Jonah."
"That was his name?" Mulder asked.
Scully nodded. "But I don't want to talk about him."
They walked in silence, looking at the scenery. There were cacti everywhere, a lot of them taller than Scully and a few taller than Mulder. There were rocks as well, most of which were sedimentary. The layers stood out remarkably in the sunset and Mulder suddenly wished that he had brought a camera. The sunset itself was also beautiful; red, orange and yellow light cast over everything.
"It's beautiful," Mulder said softly.
"Do you want to take pictures?" Scully asked.
"You have a camera?" Mulder asked, very surprised.
Scully laughed and pulled a camera out of one of the large pockets in her cargo pants. "Here," she said, handing the camera to Mulder.
Mulder looked around, trying to figure out what to take a picture of first. Finally he decided on a large cactus that was probably about ten feet high. "Scully, go stand in front of that cactus," he ordered, pointing at the object in question.
Scully dutifully walked over to the cactus and stood in front of it, smiling. Mulder just looked at her. This wasn't a smile he got to see very often. It was actually more of a grin, full of teeth. Wow, he thought to himself. Everything just clicked for a few moments. The light was right, highlighting her hair, giving it streaks of brown and blonde. The light made everything seem sort of richer and fuller. Scully was always beautiful, but now she looked like a goddess.
"Mulder?" Scully asked nervously, looking around. "Is everything alright?"
He blinked and the moment was gone. "Yeah, everything's fine." He raised the camera and looked through the viewfinder. "Move back a bit." She did. "A little more . . . Just a bit further."
Scully let out a shriek of pain. She jumped away from the cactus, grabbing at her back. Mulder dropped the camera and ran over to her. "Are you alright?" he asked.
Scully looked at her hands. They were clean. "Yeah, I think so. I was just surprised."
"Turn around," Mulder said. Scully did so and he ran his hands along her back, looking for some sort of hole. When he didn't find anything, he gave her shoulders a light squeezed and turned her around. "You're fine," he said.
Scully sighed in relief. "Good."
"Do you want to try again?" Mulder asked, walking over to the camera. When he picked it up, he added, "Uhhh . . . Nevermind."
Scully walked up beside him. "What is it?"
Mulder held the pieces of the camera out hopelessly. "I think it fell on a rock. Was it a really nice camera or something special?"
Scully laughed. "It's just a disposable one I picked up at the drugstore. I hadn't taken any pictures with it yet so you didn't screw up that badly."
"Oh, good. Then I still have my major screw up for this case left," he joked.
"Let's see if you can not use it this time," Scully replied.
"If I don't use it this time, can I carry it over to the next case so I'll have two?" Mulder asked.
"We'll see," Scully replied.
"You don't think I can do it, do you?" Mulder asked suspiciously.
"Well I haven't seen you do it yet, but I suppose that doesn't mean that you can't do it," Scully answered.
"Tell you what," Mulder said. "I'll bet you that I can make it through this case without making one big mistake."
"I don't know, Mulder. What are the stakes?"
"If I do it, then you have to do some miscellaneous thing for me and if I loose, then I have to do some miscellaneous thing for you."
"Nope," Scully replied. "I have to know what the 'miscellaneous thing' is before I agree."
"Fine. If I win, I get to pick which case we do next, to matter how outrageous, and if you win, then you get to pick which case we do next, no matter how normal."
"That hardly seems fair, Mulder," Scully replied. "You get much more than I get."
"What do you want?" Mulder asked.
Scully thought about it. "I don't know," she said. All this time they had been walking and sunset was starting to be over and it was beginning to get really dark. "We should probably go back now," Scully said, turning around.
Mulder grabbed her arm. "Wait a second, Scully. I want to know what you want."
"I already said I didn't know," Scully said, jerking her arm back. She could feel herself beginning to get upset, mainly from the unwanted physical contact and forced herself to calm down.
"You have to decide soon, before the case is over," Mulder reminded Scully, following her back towards camp.
"I'll let you know when I figure it out, ok?"
Mulder sighed. "C'mon, Scully. It can't be that hard. Everybody wants something."
Scully suddenly whirled around. "You want to know what I want?" she yelled. "I want my sister and my dad back! I want to have never been raped! I want to be able to have children! I want to have a normal life!" At the last statement, she broke down, sitting heavily on the ground and sobbing.
"Oh, Scully," Mulder said softly. He sat down next to her and gathered her into his arms, pulling her onto his lap. She curled herself into a ball and cried into Mulder's chest. He stroked her hair and back, whispering comforting words. They sat like that for a while; neither of them knew how long. Five minutes, ten, twenty, fifty, an hour. It all blended together. By the time Scully had calmed down, it was completely black with only the half moon and the stars to give them light.
"I'm sorry," Scully said softly. "I don't know why I can't hold myself together anymore."
"It's probably because of the desert," Mulder said softly. "It's ok, Scully. Really, it's ok."
She didn't say anything, only snuggled further into Mulder's arms.
"I don't want to dislodge you, but we should probably be heading back soon," Mulder said.
Scully stood up and held her hands out to Mulder. He took them and stood up. They walked back to camp together, Mulder not bothering to let go of one of her hands.
When they got back, Scully asked, "Where's the other sleeping bag?"
"In the trunk," Mulder replied. "Are you sure you don't mind sharing a tent?"
Scully smiled brilliantly, and suddenly Mulder thought that the torch lantern he and Scully had set out was unnecessary. "I'm sure," she said and went to go get the sleeping bag.