Thanks for those who have reviewed so far. Anyone else who is reading anonymously, thanks to you, too. Of course, I would thank you personally, if you let me know that you were reading:) (okay, so I'm pretty much begging, I'll admit it) On with the show.

Healing (3/7)

He was in the hallway when he heard the banging on the door. He carried Scully with him to the door, maneuvering to open it while still holding her. Paramedics waited for him at the other side. He laid her on the stretcher and one paramedic checked her vital signs, while the other asked him what had happened.

Looking at the floor and her belongings thrown in a pile on the floor. He told them what he knew, which was little. "I found her in the shower, like this. These might be the clothes she had been wearing. I don't know. She was having a hard time breathing. She just lost consciousness. I was going to cover her up when you guys came."

The first paramedic nodded to the second. "We're ready to go."

"Can I ride with her? I, uh, promised I wouldn't leave her."

"Yeah, sure. But you should bring those clothes to the hospital. They're evidence."

Mulder nodded and quickly went to the kitchen, bringing back a garbage bag and stuffing the clothes in it. He followed the paramedics down to the waiting ambulance. He held Scully's hand while the paramedics tended to her injuries as much as they could during the short ride to the hospital.

Arriving at the hospital, despite Mulder's arguments, he was forced to wait outside the examining room while various medical staff passed through the doors. He chased along beside her as they transferred her to an operating room, berating the doctors, demanding information about her condition. The doctors quietly deferred his questions, leaving him alone and in the dark again.

Soon after Scully was transferred for surgery, the local PD arrived to question Mulder.

"We understand that you are the one who found Ms. Scully, is that correct?"

Mulder nodded his confirmation.

"She's your partner, right?" Another nod. "What were you doing at her apartment at that time of night, sir?"

"I was going to check on her. I called and she didn't answer. I was worried." Mulder's voice, when he answered, held a tinge of anger. He was tired of being kept in the dark about Scully's status and he didn't need this jerk questioning his motives for going to her apartment.

"It just seems odd that you were calling your partner so late on a Friday night."

"Listen!" He was yelling now. "We don't go off duty after our shift is done like you lazy slobs do. Besides, if I hadn't gone there, it would have been much later before anybody found her. What would've happened then?" Tears threatened at the edge of hiseyes as Mulder contemplated all the possible answers to his question.

"Okay, okay, take it easy." 'Jesus, this guy is really wound up tight,' the questioning officer thought to himself. "Let's just have you describe what you saw when you found her."

Mulder described in exacting detail the events at Scully's apartment, his eidetic memory preserving the surroundings perfectly. The image of Scully's battered body huddled in her shower had been burned permanently into his memory, haunting him each time he closed his eyes.

"Can we see her clothes?" Mulder pointed at the garbage bag on the floor at his feet and the officer handed them over to his partner. "Too bad she was in the shower. She washed away all the evidence from the rape."

Mulder cringed at the admission. He didn't want to believe that his Scully had been violated in such a way, but the facts clearly indicated that she had been. Apparently, so had the medical exam, if the police were assuming she was raped without having interviewed her.

The officer's partner, sorting quickly through the contents of the bag, held up a video tape and looked at Mulder questioningly.

"I guess she had gone to rent a movie. She must've walked, there's a store not too far from her place." He hesitated, his voice haunted. "It must've happened on her way home."

"Okay, thanks. Let's head over there and see if we can find anything."

The officers were about to leave when Mulder stopped them. "I want every scrap of evidence you find sent to the bureau. I'll be heading up an investigation of my own."

"Agent Mulder, if you don't mind my saying, I think your personal involvement in this case would influence your judgment. Besides, this really isn't in your jurisdiction."

"Actually, I do mind. And personal cases are my specialty. Make sure you send everything to the attentionof Assistant Director Skinner. He'll make sure it gets to me safely." With that said, Mulder stormed off in the direction of the nurses' station to try, again, to get an update on Scully's status.

Sorry for the short chapter, but it seemed fitting to break it up here. Please review and keep reading, too.