Freedom of The Trapped Soul Chapter 4: Irrevocable
Bits and pieces of conversations enter her mind, but Scully can't make sense of any of them, only that the black figure was gone."Oh my God, it's a slaughterhouse in there. She's still alive. She's lost a lot of blood. Not sure if she'll make it. Good job holding the wound, sir. Lift. Careful. Injured neck. put her in the board. Need to make an airway."
There's no pain in this blackness, rather a cold numbness. She's dead. Truly dead. Her hands reach out but there's no rope to bring her back to shore this time -just blackness.
She blinks her eyes to affirm that they're open, and next she tries to sit up, finding it easy.
Suddenly she sees a glowing light. She squints, before her eyes widen and she clamps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from screaming. Red, piercing eyes are staring right at her; Black lips split to form into a menacing smile.
Tears gather in Mulder's eyes and he knows that Scully's hurt; or dead. He's out of the car door in an instant, running toward the scene. He doesn't care about risking their investigation, about everything they could lose. You could lose her.
He wants to scream her name, but when he sees body bags and gurney being carried up the stairs to the building, he suddenly has a vice grip around his larynx. What if Scully is going into one of those black bags? They'd lay her delicate mangled body down with care, careful to move her blonde hair from her face as they zipp- No. She wasn't dead, she couldn't be. Mulder rushes toward the strip of officers and onlookers when he sees the gurney being rushed down the marble stairs by EMTs. He barely takes two steps before strong arms push him back.
"You have to get out of here," his voice is calm, but underneath it lays the seething anger and self-loathing that Mulder has come to know well from Walter Skinner. The anger that he couldn't stop this 'undercover' mission. Just like he 'let' Mulder get abducted and charged with murder.
"I-"
"They're watching, Mulder. It's not your life that I'm worried about."
Mulder suddenly looks around and notices the eyes. They would kill her if he interfered.
"Keep your ears open."
His legs wobble as he steps back from the scene. Hazel eyes water as he sees blonde ringlets muddled and covered in blood, as paramedics swarm around her. He turns before his eidetic memory catches any more. Sitting in his car, he pushes the palms of his hands into his eyes, sucking in a deep breath, then two, and finally a third, before he starts the car and drives.
After 30 minutes he reaches his destination. His keys slide easily into the locks and his fingers work the pad of the updated scanner.
Fox Mulder sits in what used to be the home of The Lone Gunman, and waits for Skinner's call, waits for Skinner to tell him that Scully was still alive.
"Patient is Bedelia Du Maurier, severe damage to neck, difficulty breathing," Laura says as she runs along the emergency halls with the staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital. In her 10 years as an EMT, she hasn't seen any 'attack' this bad. At least not on anyone who was still alive. "Blood pressure is quickly dropping, unable to find viable vein." She continues to pump air into the victim's lungs, while giving them a quick report on their patient. "Stab wound in abdomen, object still embeded" A nurse takes over, leaving the EMT behind the double doors and Laura stands there, wondering if the woman would make it to the operating table.
Hannibal Lecter slides into Bedelia's recovery room with ease, stating simply to a nurse that he is her colleague. 'FBI' litter the hallway, waiting for the prime moment when their informant wakes from her coma.
It has been four days since the attack. Two hours since she came out of her coma. 1 hour since visitors were allowed into her room and Hannibal Lecter is the first to enter.
Hannibal sits down in a chair next to Bedelia's bed and gently takes her hand, rubbing his thumb over it.
"Mul-Mulder," her voice is strained, barely above a whisper.
Her eyes crack open slightly, and she squints at the onslaught of light. "Dr. Du Maurier's awake and speaking," Scully hears someone shout.
When her vision focuses she sees Dr. Lecter sitting by her bedside, his face smug. He stands and leans into her bed, his previous words echoing in her head 'You have someone you want to protect.' The room suddenly darkens, and she blinks, gasping when it is no longer Hannibal Lecter standing before her, but the black figure, wearing his skin and paisley suit. It looks like the demons she'd imagine from horror stories told after catechism. She can't move, can't scream and her eyes are locked on the demonic figure leaning toward her face, as if to plant the kiss of death on her cheek. The main voice belongs to Hannibal, but beneath it is a deeper, more sinister echo growling it's words into her soul.
"Maybe Mulder wasn't the one who needed protecting, Dr. Scully"
"Upon discussion with the board, we are removing Dr. Scully from primary investigation of this case."
Mulder shifts in his chair, knowing that it wasn't this easy, that they wouldn't just let them return to their normal lives.
"However, Dr. Scully's testimony of her attack, although she refused to directly incriminate Dr. Lecter, seems to pinpoint the need to investigate him further. Her case notes on Dr. Lecter-"
"The evidence you have is all circumstantial and the case notes are not admissible in any court," Mulder inserts. He shouldn't need to be briefed on his wife's attack from someone other than Scully. He shifts in his chair again, huffing out a breath.
"It seems that Dr. Scully has caught Dr. Lecter's attention-"
"And she nearly died because of it!" Mulder interrupts, his fist banging on the large round table. "What more do you want from her?" His voice nearly breaks. His partner, his wife, has given them everything- she's paid her two pounds of flesh. The bulky man, Director Cromwell, clears his throat at the sudden outburst and adjusts his glasses.
"Dr. Lecter will be invited as a consultant, in the hopes of incrimination. Upon both parties insistence, Dr. Scully will resume as Dr. Lecter's psychiatrist in a manner of weeks in a hope to draw him from his," the man looks down at his notes "'person-suit,' as she likes to call it. You may resume communication with Dr. Scully once she returns to her home between the hours of-"
The rest of the conversation passes in a blur and when it's finally over, Mulder storms out of the meeting room. She's been hospitalized for nearly two weeks, and Hannibal Lecter was on the visitor log.
Just last night, Skinner's words shook him to the core, the conversation replaying in his mind.
"There's something wrong with her, Mulder." Skinner spoke and he could swear he heard fear in the man's voice. "When I asked how she was feeling, her only response was 'Mulder wasn't the one who needed protecting.'
He needed to see her