Chapter 20: Encounter.
Scully awoke first as the sun began to shine through the light drapes that covered her bedroom windows. Mulder still slept soundly, his soft steady breathing passing through her hair as he spooned up behind her and held her tightly. She stirred, feeling far more at ease with the coming of dawn and the rising of the sun, and slipped out of Mulder's embrace to commence her morning routine.
The light sun had started to spill in through most of the windows of the apartment as Scully moved into the kitchen and began making her morning coffee, smelling deeply of the fresh grounds before placing them into the coffee maker and pressing the on button. Suddenly she felt an arm around her waist and she smiled to herself believing it to be Mulder as she leaned into him.
"Good morning," An unfamiliar voice whispered in her ear, breathing heavily on her neck.
Scully tried to scream, as her body tensed at the sound in her ear, but not sound could be made from her mouth as a hand shot up and covered it. The grip on her became tense as she felt the strange man and his arousal through her thin pajamas. Struggling against his hold, Scully felt him pull her toward the floor before she got a glimpse at him. He was pulling at her pajama bottom while breathing heavily into her ear. Scully did the only thing she could think of and kicked and flailed as much as she could trying to get out of his grip as she realized that Max had now pinned her to the floor. She kicked more violently and squirmed trying to make as much noise as she could, the chairs of the dining set rocked, and the table shook but it wasn't enough noise until her napkin holder and salt and pepper shakers were shaken right off the table.
"Is everything ok?" Scully heard Mulder's voice from the bedroom.
Max froze hearing the other person in the apartment.
Scully took advantage of the situation and bit down against Max's hand, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to break the skin. He flinched long enough to let her scream.
Mulder rolled out of bed, panic striking his every muscle as he grabbed his weapon from the pile of cloths he had left beside Scully's bed and rushed out of the bed room, where he saw Max pinning Scully, half naked now, to the floor.
"Get off of her!" Mulder yelled aiming his weapon at the attacker, but Max didn't listen and Scully continue to struggle against him. "I will shoot you," Mulder warned coming up to them now, "Get off of her." he yelled right next to Max, but still he didn't respond.
Mulder, one hand bracing his weapon, reached out with his other to pull the attacker of his partner. As he did Max finally acknowledged that he was present by spinning and biting Mulder's arm, hard enough that Mulder gasped and flinched dropping his weapon and watching as the blood ran down Max's face.
"Something's not right," Mulder stated as he kicked Max as hard as he could and backed away.
The altercation with Mulder was enough to allow Scully to free herself. She wriggled out from under Max and scooped up Mulder's weapon before the attacker turned back to her and as he did he was met, face to face, with the barrel of Mulder's gun.
"Back away," Scully stated forcefully. "Put your hands on top of your head!" she stated seeing the shock in Max's face. He did as he was told. Scully grabbed her handcuffs from beside the door, never letting the gun off Max and cuffed him to the door before lowering the weapon and rushing to Mulder.
"What's happening?" Mulder asked his arm had gone numb as Scully reached out and took hold of him.
"We have to stop the process," Scully said frantically pushing Mulder into a chair as she rushed for her bedroom.
"What is happening?" Mulder asked again, more frantic this time, as he stared down into his own pooling blood. The blood caught the light as the sun crept into the apartment and his eyes grew wide to see what was happening. Within the crimson liquid Mulder could clearly make out the flecks of gold that continued to run down his arm.
Scully returned throwing a bag onto the kitchen table. From it she pulled a long length of surgical tubing and grabbed Mulder's arm. Just below his shoulder she wrapped the surgical tubing around his bicep several times before tying it off as tightly as she could.
"What are you doing?" Mulder asked feeling the pinch of the multi wrapped tubing around his arm and the throbbing that started below it.
"We have to stop the blood flow," Scully stated, while Max growled from the door ways.
"You'll never stop it!" He chuckled.
"Shut up or I'll shoot you," Scully stated.
"You picked the wrong doctor to mess with," Mulder stated as Scully plunged back into her surgical supplies.
She pulled from the back a scalpel, her suchering materials and a large bottle of ammonium peroxide and her latex gloves
"Oh man this is going to hurt," Mulder sighed as he watched the instrument line up before him on the table and the numbness in his arm grew more intense.
Scully got up quickly and ran to the bedroom before returning with Mulder's belt.
"Sorry, Mulder, I don't have anything to numb the pain, so you're going to have to deal with it," Scully stated as she came back and moved the chair to sit down before him.
"What's the belt for," He asked as she snapped on her gloves.
"Bite down hard," Scully instructed as she placed the leather belt in his mouth and picked up the scalpel.
Mulder squirmed at the thought but did as he was told and before he knew it Scully was cutting a deep long gash into his arm with the razor sharp scalpel, just below where the surgical tubing and in the crook of his arm. The blood began to run even heaver now as Scully stared into the pooling liquid. When she seemed to be content with the study of his blood she reached for the bottle of peroxide and poured it heavily into the new wound. Mulder cried out, biting harder against the belt now, as the peroxide burned and bubbled on his arm. She moved to the bite mark and covered it liberally with peroxide as well. Once she was satisfied that the peroxide had done its job she began cleaning the wound and suchering the large incision she had made.
"Am I going to be ok Doc?" Mulder asked still bound by the surgical tubing and incredibly sore from the lack of antithetic.
"In theory I think so," Scully stated eyeing Max angrily. "The peroxide won't neutralize the gold that is already in your blood stream but it will stop the chemical change. My hope is that your body will absorb the gold, as it is non toxic, and your system will clear it, but I do want you to go the hospital for some tests and to make sure that once I remove the surgical tubing you don't die."
"At least there I will get some antithetic," Mulder stated teasingly.
"I'm sorry," Scully cooed and then picked up the phone. "This is agent Dana Scully of the FBI, my badge number is JTT0331613. I have a suspect in custody, requesting backup and immediate medical attention." She stated into the phone before raising the weapon once more and training it on Max. "You really did pick the wrong doctor to mess with," Scully stated and waited for her backup to arrive.