The usual - I don't own The X Files, Mulder or Scully - this is for fun, not for money and fame.

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Sunny, as always, you are the MOSTEST! Thank you so much!

Scully drifted in and out of semi-consciousness throughout the night and the following day. All the follow-up scans showed no increase in swelling, no new bleeding but she wasn't waking up. Mulder sat by her side, never moving more than a few feet in any direction. She called his name occasionally, but most of the sounds she made were incoherent moanings. More than once he saw tears rolling down her cheeks as she whimpered.

The waiting was agonizing. He paced the floor, waiting nervously in the corner when the ICU nurse came to check Scully's vital signs or change IV bags. He had expected them to stay in the ER until the scans cleared and then go home, but when she wouldn't wake up, Greg had her transferred to ICU. It was a move that scared Mulder to death. He'd been here before, too many times.

"Why isn't she awake, Greg?"

The doctor pulled the curtain closed behind him.

"I've been thinking about that and I have another theory – you're not going to like it. I already told you I think she was unconscious before the accident. Her tox-screen was negative and her blood work was in the black except for an abnormal level of cortisol. Cortisol increases with high-stress situations. Her numbers were ridiculous, Mulder. I'm talking stupid-high."

Davis took a deep breath.

"And I've seen numbers like that before – in PTSD patients after some pretty harsh flashbacks."

Mulder flinched. The insinuation was not lost on him. No one knew about Scully's abduction 14 months ago except Greg. When Mulder found her, she'd been flown to the nearest facility with a Level One Trauma Center, a hospital more than one hundred miles from where she now lay. Mulder called Greg as soon as the helicopter had taken off – he needed someone he could trust and Scully trusted Greg. Her entire recovery had taken place at that facility – she'd insisted no one on staff at Our Lady of Hope know anything. And Greg had kept their confidence, effectively earning Mulder's trust in the process.

"Are you saying she had some kind of breakdown?"

"I think so. Has she been having problems lately? At home I mean. I haven't noticed anything at work but I'm not with her as much as you are. Has she seemed depressed? Trouble sleeping? Not eating? Quick temper, zoning out or keeping her distance from you?"

Mulder wracked his brain trying to remember if he'd seen any of the signs Greg rattled off but nothing stood out. In fact, he was pretty sure he had been showing more signs than Scully had.

"No. None of that."

"Can you think of anything that might have happened lately that would have triggered a flashback?"

Mulder stopped breathing.

"Mulder? What happened?"

With a shaking voice he told his friend about their conversation the morning of Scully's accident. He told about his own demons, about the nightmare and how he was afraid to lose her again. Laying everything out again, Scully lying in the bed beside him hooked to wires and tubes, he felt even more worthless. He had done this to her. He caused her to have a PTSD-induced attack while she was driving and nearly killed her. Guilt flooded every cell in his body.

"That's it, then. That would explain the witness' report, her injuries. Everything."

"Not everything, Greg."

Mulder looked at Scully's still frame, shaking his head from side to side.

"It doesn't explain why she isn't waking up."

"Actually it does. Hear me out on this, ok."

Mulder waited patiently.

"I've been watching her Cortisol level. It hasn't gone down like it should - after stressors are removed, or in this case the flashback is over, the level should start to normalize as the body's fight-or-flight response returns to 'safe mode'. Scully's hasn't leveled off. It's fluctuated to a degree but hasn't come close to returning to baseline."

"I'm not following you."

Greg ran his hands over his face a couple of times and then tousled his blond hair.

"Mulder, she's still in the flashback."

Mulder looked from Scully to Davis and back to Scully, Greg's words rolling around in his head. Still in the flashback? What, like she was reliving the whole thing this whole time? Holy hell, what had he done to her? Unable to sit in the chair any longer, he stood so quickly he knocked it over, the pressed-wood frame making a thunderous racket in the silence. He stumbled backwards, unconsciously trying to put as much distance between him and Scully as possible, as if his mere presence was making her condition worse.

"I…she…Greg!"

The room started spinning. Throwing his hands out for balance, knocking over the bed-side table, he thrashed in his own skin until the ground came rushing up to meet him and the world went black.

So many noises.

There hadn't been any noise before.

Her hell was silent and black and nothing moved except for her.

But this time, there were crashes and bangs and thuds…and voices.

MULDER!

She heard his name, a cry from deep in the darkness.

Mulder?

She was scared. Why was he here?

What was happening to him?

She needed to find him. He needed her.

Mulder came to and Greg's face emerged, framed by the white grid of the drop-ceiling. He was flat on his back on the damn floor. Son of a bitch, he was just full of the emotionally-strong-male shit these days. Struggling against hands holding him to the ground, Mulder forced his way up and dropped his head between his knees. Greg put a hand on his shoulder.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, just give me a second. I didn't break anything, did I?"

"Nothing important. Your head and your ass broke the fall, so I think you'll be fine."

Mulder looked sideways at the doc and gave a weak grin. With the weight of the world on his shoulders, he looked back to the love of his life lying in the bed across the room.

"You really think she's stuck in there like you said?"

"I believe it's a real possibility."

Mulder stared at her wondering how he'd messed up so horribly.

"What do I do?"

Davis put his hand under Mulder's arm and pulled him up from the floor. Squared in front him, blocking his view of Scully, he locked eyes with Mulder.

"If I'm right - and let's face it, we can't pretend to have another explanation at this point - if she is stuck inside her own nightmare, then what she needs the most right now is to hear you, feel you near her. You are safety for her, Mulder. You always have been – she's told me that herself. And she needs that more than anything if she is fighting those memories. You can play the blame game all you want when this is all over, but right now you have to believe me when I say this is not your fault. So stop backing away. Stop holding back. Get your ass over there and talk to her. She can hear you - she needs to hear you."

Scully had always been good at judging character and Greg Davis was another notch in her belt. He was a good man, a good friend, and Mulder pulled every ounce of strength he could from his friend's words. He walked to Scully's side and took her hand in his. Sitting beside her on the mattress, he raised her fingers to his lips - even now, bathed in the smells of the hospital she still had the scent of the woman he loved.

Her eyes moved erratically under their lids and he wondered if she was dreaming, the pain in his heart intensifying to think she might again be seeing the ugliness she had lived in that hole.

"Hey, doc. Greg's standing over here and he says you're stuck in there - that all you need is for me to talk to you. I don't know what's going on in there, but I sure wish you'd open those beautiful eyes of yours."

He was so close. She could hear him, feel him.

His lips, softness she would know anywhere.

She could feel them.

She wanted to see him. But it was so dark.

Open your eyes, Dana.

He looked back over his shoulder. Greg gave him a little nod, turning out of the room and closing the door behind him.

"I haven't been very good at that lately, I know – talking to you I mean. But I am here, Scully. I'm right here and I'm not going anywhere until you know you're safe. Whatever is happening inside you right now, you don't have to be afraid. It's not real. Just open your eyes and you'll see. I need you to come back to me, Scully. I need you…"

His voice trailed off as a tear fell and landed on her cheek. Reaching up to wipe it away, Mulder noticed a calm had fallen over her eyes – maybe Greg was right. Maybe what she needed was to hear his voice, to know he was there. In all their years together, he never thought of himself as something she needed. Scully was so strong, so independent. He didn't doubt her love for a second, but he did consider himself more of an indulgence than a necessity. She loved him and was happy to be with him. But did she really need him? The idea made him even more conscious of his failure.

"Scully, I don't know how to say I'm sorry. I don't know how to make you understand. You can't leave me like this – not because of my weakness. Please, wake up. Even if the only thing you do is tell me to get out of your life – please wake up."

Wake up, Dana.

It isn't real. A light – so far away.

She felt the weight lifting and fought harder.

Mulder was there, somewhere in the distant light.

Wake up, Dana.

Tiny flashes, slivers of bright dancing in the distance.

She pushed back against the black, fighting.

She would find him and never go back to the dark again.

WAKE UP!

Mulder felt her hand tighten around his, a gentle squeezing that grew stronger and stronger as the seconds passed. Watching her chest rise and fall, her breathing quickening as her strength increased, he worried she was falling back into the nightmare.

"Scully? Can you hear me? I'm right here and you're safe. Open your eyes and see, Scully."

You're safe.

Mulder's voice reached through the dark, bringing her into the light.

Finally.

"Mulder…"

Scully opened her eyes, the left slightly less than the right. Moving her head slowly back and forth, she worked through the blurriness, searching for his face.

"That's it, Scully. I'm right here. I'm right here."

Mulder moved closer to her, closing the distance and feeling her breath against his face. She raised her head off the pillow slightly and whispered words he would never forget.

"I heard you in the dark."