Hi all! Sorry it's been soooo long since I've updated. I didn't fall through a black hole, just been really busy. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, and for being patient. Here's the next chapter; hope ya'll enjoy it:)
Disclaimer still applies
Chapter 10
I sighed heavily and tried to relax my body. This was the second time in the same day that I was at the hospital, but this time it wasn't because I was hurt. Mulder, Nicole and I were waiting along with Audrey Lincoln's mother for news on her daughter. The only thing we had been told by Mrs. Lincoln when we had arrived at the hospital was that her daughter had been shot and that she was in surgery, in critical condition.
Mrs. Lincoln had told us between breathless sobs that they had been heading down to pick up Audrey's father from the airport when they had gotten a flat tire. They had gotten out to change it and a woman had pulled a car up beside theirs, pulled out a gun and had shot Audrey twice. Mrs. Lincoln didn't remember what the woman looked like, except that she had brown hair.
Now we were all waiting tensely to see if Audrey would survive. Any time now, Mr. Lincoln would be arriving from the airport, and I dreaded having to tell him why his daughter had been shot. Everything was going from bad to worse, and I didn't have a clue as to where it was going to end. People kept getting hurt left and right: I felt powerless to stop it.
"Where is she? Where's my daughter?"
We all looked up to see a haggard and harried man rushing up to the information desk. His grey hair was rumpled, along with his suit and he looked exhausted. I assumed that this man was probably Audrey's father, and my assumption was confirmed when Mrs. Lincoln ran over to him and clung to him like a life raft.
"What happened to her? The police told me she was shot. How can that have happened? How?" he demanded, but Mrs. Lincoln could only answer him with her tears and sobs.
Mulder introduced himself and then gently explained what was going on. I had figured Mr. Lincoln would be upset, but I wasn't prepared for the total outburst of rage that followed Mulder's explanation.
"How the hell did you let this happen?" he roared at Mulder and me. "You're FBI agents! You said you'd protect her, dammit! You son of… you might as well have shot her yourself!" Without any warning he swung viciously and slammed his fist hard into Mulder's jaw. Mulder stumbled back, hitting the wall behind him, and before Mr. Lincoln could do anything else, the two officers had restrained him. He was still struggling, trying to get at Mulder.
"Damn you, you said you'd protect her!" he snarled violently, breathing heavily.
"Sir, you need to calm down," one of the officers told him, but he only kept struggling against their grasp. Finally they had to take him outside to calm down, and Mrs. Lincoln followed them, still sobbing quietly. I couldn't feel anything but sorrow for them. And Mr. Lincoln had every right to be furious. We had said we wouldn't let anything happen to his daughter, and now she was in surgery, fighting for her life.
I offered my hand to Mulder and helped him steady himself. He shook his head a little bit, as if to clear it.
"Are you alright?" I asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I think so. Jaw hurts some though," he replied, rubbing it tentatively.
"I'll get some ice," said Nicole, and she hurried away to the nurses' station.
Mulder plunked himself into a chair with a groan and closed his eyes. The area where Mr. Lincoln had punched him was already starting to turn purple, and I knew it was going to be painful for a couple of days. I was concerned it might be broken.
"Mulder, I'd like to check your jaw to make sure it's not broken," I told him, but he frowned.
"It's okay, just sore."
"Let me check it."
He huffed but turned his head back so I could get a better look at his jaw. I looked it over, then I began to gently probe the area surrounding the purple spot, working my way closer to the actual bruise. He winced and groaned a little bit, and when I touched the main area he let out a strangled yelp.
"Ouch! Watch it Scully, that hurts!" he whined.
"Sorry," I said, but I continued to probe until I was satisfied that it wasn't broken. That's when I noticed my hands were shaking slightly. I hoped Mulder hadn't noticed but my hopes were squashed when he said, "Scully, your hands are shaking."
I didn't have a chance to say anything because Nicole had returned with a bag of blue ice. She handed it to Mulder and he placed it on his jaw with a little moan. I was glad she had come back when she had. I knew I would have a hard time convincing Mulder that I was fine because I was having a hard time convincing myself. I was two seconds from crying.
I quietly excused myself and hurried to the women's restroom. I needed to compose myself and right now being around Mulder didn't help me accomplish that. I took my time in the bathroom, hoping it would give Mulder a chance to forget about my hands. Unfortunately, his photographic memory wouldn't allow for that. Maybe he would just let it go; not bring up it at all.
It didn't surprise me any when I came out of the bathroom and saw him leaning up against the wall, waiting patiently for me.
"You okay Scully?"
Tears sprang to my eyes when I heard the genuine concern and consideration in his voice and suddenly I lost my voice. I wasn't fine this time, and I just couldn't bring myself to lie to him. Lying to him didn't do anything to repair our friendship; in fact, it only served to destroy it more. But admitting that I wasn't okay would be kin to admitting that I wasn't in control. I wouldn't be admitting it just to Mulder, but to myself as well.
It is often said that if you say something often enough and believe it enough, then it will eventually become true, even if it isn't. All those times of saying I was fine when I wasn't weren't just to convince Mulder, they were to convince me as well. I suddenly realized that I said it not because it meant I could function, but because it was my way of trying to keep my own fears and worries at bay. It was to make myself believe that everything was fine; that there was nothing to worry about. It was meant to protect me.
"Mulder, I…," I trailed off, unable to tell him that I wasn't fine. It would mean putting holes in my own protective shell.
"Let's go get some coffee, 'kay," he suggested.
"What about Nicole?"
"I don't think she's going to go anywhere."
"Alright. Coffee does sound good."
We went down to the hospital's cafeteria, and Mulder got us two cups of coffee while I found a table.
"Here you go," he said, handing me one of the cups, along with some cream and sugar packets.
I thanked him and started to doctor my coffee. I didn't look at him the whole time though because I was afraid he could see how upset I really was. Then I heard him sigh heavily and I looked up at him.
"What's wrong?" I asked, feeling a little worried when I saw his agitated face.
"I should ask you the same question, but you'd only say that you're fine; nothing's wrong. The thing is though, there is something wrong. But you won't talk to me and let me be your friend and that's what's wrong with me."
When I didn't say anything he went on. "You keep pushing me away Scully. Why? Why can't you talk to me; let me be your friend? Are you afraid to talk to me?"
My throat had closed up so tight I couldn't swallow and I couldn't talk. It wouldn't have mattered if I could've talked because I didn't know what to say anyway.
"You know, whenever I'm hurting, be it physically or emotionally you won't let me push you away. You're always there to make sure I'm alright and to comfort me if I need it. You stick to me tighter than a tick. But if you're hurting it's the exact opposite. And sometimes I think the more you're hurting the farther away you push me. You're always fine, no matter what," he sighed heavily. "Look, I know you're upset about Audrey getting shot; I know I am. I keep feeling like we let her down, like there was something more we could've done. I think that's probably how you feel, but there's something else bothering you. I know there is."
He took my hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze and I was afraid I would lose it right then and there. There would be no doubt left anybody's mind that something else was bothering me if I started bawling like an idiot in the hospital cafeteria. Of course there was something else bothering me. A lot of things were bothering me, but none of them could simply be fixed by talking to Mulder. I had a hard enough time talking to my therapist.
"I'm sorry Mulder," I heard myself saying and Mulder was taken aback. He blinked and then asked, "For what?" He looked as surprised as I felt.
"For the things I said the other night. For everything I've said that was wrong and hurtful. I shouldn't have said those things." I looked him in the eyes the best I could and he looked back, looking deep inside me.
"That's okay Scully. Don't worry about it. Apology accepted," he said quietly.
I nodded, but in a way I had almost wanted him to say that he didn't forgive me. That he did after what I had said to him just made me feel even guiltier.
"And I'm sorry too. I said things that I shouldn't have."
"Apology accepted," I repeated his words, and got up to leave, afraid if I stayed any longer I would lose my composure.
"Where are you going?" he asked before I could make my escape.
"To the restroom."
"Ya comin' back?"
"I have no where else to go."
When I did return I found Nicole standing next to our table with Mulder looking like he was getting ready to go somewhere.
"What's going on?" I asked curiously.
"We just got a lead on the bomb in your car," explained Nicole.
"Someone should stay here to see what happens with Audrey," I said.
"You are," Mulder told me and I frowned. I didn't think I liked the sound of Mulder going off with Nicole and not because of personal reasons. I was worried about his safety. She was still a suspect even though we didn't have enough evidence to really even question her.
Mulder motioned with his eyes for me to follow him, and then he told Nicole to go tell Mrs. and Mr. Lincoln that I would be staying with them while they worked on the case.
As soon as she was out of earshot I said, "Mulder, do you think it's such a good idea to be going out there with her? She still is a suspect after all."
"I know she's a suspect but I'm not too worried about her at the moment. Beside, what better way to keep an eye on her than to have her investigate with me?"
"Just the same, be careful."
He gave me a little smile. "Aren't I always?"
I snorted and rolled my eyes as he walked away, still smiling. I just hoped he was more careful than he usually was.
I realized as I was going back up to the ER waiting room that I felt lighter, less stressed. Simply beginning to mend the tears in our relationship made me feel better. If we could apologize to each openly and honestly, then maybe we could work out the rest of our differences. That did mean though that I would have to talk with Mulder and he would be persistent about what was bothering me. The thought of talking and opening myself up still scared me stiff.
But I couldn't keep thinking about our personal problems. It was time to push those aside and focus on my job. And right now my job was to wait with the Lincolns for any word on their daughter.
It was a long nerve-racking afternoon, and I wasn't even her mother. Every time a doctor or nurse in scrubs would walk by I would tense up, bracing myself for bad news. But each time the doctor or nurse would continue by and I would let out my breath with relief and yet with disappointment. It was hard not wanting to know and yet in reality really wanting to know. Somehow, not knowing was even harder than knowing.
It was around six in the evening and I was on my fourth cup of coffee when a tall, rather austere looking man in green scrubs walked into the waiting room and over to Audrey's parents.
"Are you Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln?" he asked and they both nodded. They were clutching each other's hands tightly, as if holding onto one another like that would help them hang onto Audrey.
"I'm Doctor Abernathy. Well, Audrey made it through surgery, but she's lost a lot of blood. Right now we have her heavily sedated so she won't be waking up for awhile," he explained.
"Is, is she in a lot of pain?" Mrs. Lincoln asked haltingly.
"Not at the moment. That's because she's sedated. It's best that we keep her that way so that her body will have time to heal without fighting the pain. Once some time has passed we'll lessen the dosage."
"But she will be alright?" Mr. Lincoln persisted.
Dr. Abernathy's face flinched slightly and though it was only for a second, he hesitated, seemingly searching for the right words.
"Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, I'm not going to lie to you. Right now, it's very, um, touch and go. Your daughter is strong and in good health, so that will help her chances, but there could be complications from the surgery, so it's best if you are prepared for the worst," he said bluntly. "Be prepared for the worst but hope for the best."
Though Audrey's parents paled visibly, they both nodded and there was less turmoil in their eyes. At least now they knew what to expect.
Dr. Abernathy had a nurse take them down to their daughter's room and then he stepped over to me.
"I take it that you're the officer in charge of this case," he said.
"Actually I Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI, but yes I'm working on this."
"Well, we removed three bullets from Audrey. One from the upper right side of her chest. That one lodged in a muscle and it didn't do hardly any damage. If the shooter had stopped at that Audrey would probably be going home tomorrow. The second bullet was in the upper left side of her chest. That one did a little more damage, but nothing major. Now the third bullet lodged just below her heart, and knicked one of the veins, and she almost bled out before she got here. We barely saved her, and it took quite awhile just to get things repaired. The whole time we were giving her transfusions but she just kept bleeding."
As I listened to Dr. Abernathy I realized just how close Audrey had come to dying and I couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened to her. If we had just taken her into protective custody, or maybe placed a surveillance team outside her house, maybe this wouldn't have happened. She still might possibly die and not just because she had been in the wrong place and had seen the wrong thing but because we hadn't provided her with protection.
I gave myself a small shake. It wouldn't do any good to think about what we should've done. I needed to focus on what needed to be done now.
"Dr. Abernathy, I'm going to have the Atlanta PD post some officers outside Audrey's room for her protection. We believe that she was a witness to a murder, and that the shooting was a result of what she saw."
Dr. Abernathy nodded and told me that would be fine. I gave him my number and Mulder's number, and he said he would call me if there was any change. I thanked him and headed out to make the arrangements. Then I needed to catch up with Mulder and Nicole.
As it turned out, Mulder and Nicole caught up with me just as I was leaving the hospital. They had come back to check on Audrey, so I brought them up to date and then asked what they had found out.
"Well, we actually got lucky this time," Nicole remarked.
"How do you mean?" I asked.
"We have security camera footage of a man by the name of Jake Leever putting the bomb in your car. He's chilling down at the station, waiting to talk with us."
"Yeah," Mulder interjected, "he's obviously not that observant. When we went to the library, we parked under a security camera, and he just came up and jimmied the lock with a coat hanger and tossed the bomb under my seat. But what was really lucky was that the security guard noticed it and put two and two together when he heard about the bomb."
"Well, how can we be sure that it was even the same car?"
"Because, the camera saw us get out and you can see the license plate as clear as day."
"That was lucky," I remarked. "Well, are we going to go talk to this guy?"
"That's our next order of business," Mulder told me, and we headed down to the station
Jake Leever was an impatient man. I caught a glimpse of him in the interrogation room and he was pacing back and forth like a caged animal. He walked up to the window, looked out and then, as if he knew we were out there, proceeded to give us the finger.
"Oh, real nice," I muttered as we entered the room.
When Leever saw us come in, he seated himself in one of the chairs and propped his feet up on the table with a smug leer.
"Well well well, if it isn't the FBI," he drawled, looking us over, and paying special attention to Nicole and me. "I heard rumors that law enforcement was employing hot chicks but I never believed 'em until now. Mm mm mmm, whoa!"
"Mr. Leever, I'm Agent Mulder, this is Agent Scully and Detective Beaumont," Mulder told him.
"So, what's your beef with me? What am I in for?"
"Well, Mr. Leever," Nicole began, "you do know that planting bombs in cars is illegal, don't you?"
"Yeah, I heard that somewhere."
"I'm sure you did. Did you also hear about the car that blew up this morning during rush hour traffic?"
"Now that you mention, I did hear something about that. Did anybody survive that blast?"
"Yeah, we did Mr. Leever," Mulder continued. "We're just fine."
"No thanks to you," I added.
"Now just what are ya'll talking about?"
"Now c'mon, don't tell me that you didn't know that it was us in the car? The media splashed our names all over the place," said Mulder.
"Come to think of it, those names, Mulder and Scully, they do sound a little bit familiar. I might've heard 'em on the news."
"You know, a lot of times cases like these take quite awhile to solve, but this case isn't taking that long," Nicole took up the conversation.
"Oh, and why is that?"
"Whoever planted that bomb in our car didn't realize our car was parked under a security camera. We have the perp's face on camera," I went on. At that point I could see that Leever tensed up a little, but he recovered quickly. You had to give the guy credit; he was pretty good at playing it cool.
"Well, I hope you catch the crook. I gotta get going but it was nice having this little chat," he said getting up to leave, but Mulder gave him a little push back into the chair.
"We all know that it was your face on that film so there's no use denying it. In fact, denying it only makes it worse for you," he told him.
"Now, it seems to me," Leever said, "that all you have is a face and we also all know that security camera film is grainy at best, so even if I did plant that bomb like you say, I don't think I really have anything to worry about."
"That's where you wrong Mr. Leever," Nicole interjected. "You see, even though it was a big explosion, parts of the car survived, including the door handle. We have four great fingerprints and one really spectacular thumbprint. And guess what; those prints match your prints that we got from your rap sheet."
Leever's face turned a sick white and I knew we had him. He wasn't the type of guy to hold out just because he liked screwing with the police: he was going to want to cut a deal. And that's exactly what we wanted.
"Okay, what can you give me?"
"We can't cut you any deals: we don't have that authority, but if you cooperate and tell us everything we want to know we will let the federal district attorney know that you cooperated," Mulder told him.
"Alright."
We went through the process of Leever documenting the fact that he was waving his rights and talking to us without his attorney present and then we got down to business.
"Alright, did you plant the bomb in our car?" Mulder asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay, why?"
"This broad asked me to."
"Who was she?"
"I don't know. She paid me man, a lot."
"How much?" I asked.
"Six hundred thousand."
We all looked at each other and Mulder let out a low whistle.
"That's quite a bit of money," he remarked.
"Sure is," Leever agreed. "She just told me to make a bomb and put it in this car. She gave me the license plate number. Hey, for six hundred thousand, man, well…"
"So you know how to make bombs?" I asked.
"Yeah, it's not hard and you can get the directions on the internet. 'Sides, I had practice with bombs when I was in the army."
"How'd she know to ask you? Did she just see you on the street and say, hey, I want you to make me a bomb and put it in this car?" Nicole pressed.
Leever hesitated for a moment. It was obvious that he was doing more for this woman than he was letting on. Finally he blew out a big breath and said, "Look, if I tell you this, you're gonna have to make sure nothing happens to me."
"What do you think is gonna happen to you?" asked Mulder.
"I don't wanna find out."
"We'll see what we can do."
"Alright. This woman, she said her name was Jane Smith, she paid me two hundred thousand to follow this guy for her, and see if he was cheating on her."
The little hairs on the back of my neck stood up and my stomach suddenly twisted up in knots.
"Well, this guy, and I think he was her husband, he definitely had extracurricular activities going. She paid me another twenty thousand just to keep my mouth shut. Guess I'm gonna have to give her that money back."
"That's all you know?" I asked.
"Yep, except she wrote me an IOU for the six hundred thousand."
"You got it with you?" Nicole asked and Leever nodded. "Give it here. I'm sending this down to the lab. We might just get lucky and her fingerprints will be in the database."
We sent the piece of paper to the lab, telling the techs that it was top priority. About two hours later we got a call back. Nicole took it and we watched while she talked. Her eyes went wide and when she hung up she turned to us with a rather startled expression.
"What?" asked Mulder.
"They only had two sets of prints on the paper. One set belongs to Mr. Leever and the second set belongs Mrs. Monterale."