Disclaimer: I don't own Mulder, Scully, or the X Files

Injection Site

Mulder lay on the exam table while Scully moved around him checking his eyes, ears, and limbs. His mind was in a fog. He had only been with them for a couple hours but they had done some damage. He already knew that he had at least one broken rib and when Scully's small-gloved fingers probed gently on his chest he knew he must have two.

She would mutter things here and there but Mulder was past paying attention. He was trying to remember the little he had read from the book he had lifted from evidence.

The novel was Steed in the Mist and on the cover was a picture of a bare chested man and a top-heavy woman on a horse. Mulder had chuckled to himself when he saw it. He had gone right from the evidence locker to the car to avoid running into anyone. He began to flip through the pages and found different words underlined and letters circled. It was some kind of code or a code breaker. Mulder noticed a couple pages near the end that were pasted together very carefully.

He picked at the corner for a moment until he heard a car entering the garage. He looked for Scully but didn't see her. He got a bad feeling as the headlights from the car swept across the car.

He ducked a bit and hid the novel under his seat. The footsteps sounded loud in the empty garage and Mulder began to slowly reach for his gun. In the mirror he saw the Smoking Man watching with a lit cigarette.

Mulder sighed and opened the door while keeping his gun out.

"What do you want?" He yelled across the space.

C.G.B Spender began to walk out of the shadows toward Mulder.

"Fox, it's nice to see you as well." He smiled a small smile and sucked in a breath of smoke.

"Well it is not mutual. I was hoping that you had found your way to your final resting place."

"That is not a very nice thing to say to your father. I came to give you a chance to stop working on the case you are currently handling. This case you are working on is stepping on the toes of some friends of mine. I tried to slow you down nicely by having it reassigned but I should have known that the two of you would not give up."

"Ah this is starting to make some sense now. You are partially responsible for whatever mixture it is that has killed those people."

"Well I am not personally involved, science was never my strong suit, I just help to facilitate."

"I should have known. This kind of evil has your fingerprints all over it."

"Fox I would love to chat but I am sure that your lovely partner is on her way over and I need the evidence the two of you just stole."

"Never." Mulder said as he pointed his gun at the old man.

"Well that seems a shame. I noticed a change in your partnership with Agent Scully as of late. It seems that the two of you have come to a new understanding. Young love is a beautiful thing and it would be a shame for it to end in tragedy."

Mulder tensed, "I've told you before what I would do to you if you hurt Scully. Those promises still stand."

"Oh I believe that." The Smoking Man said as a bag was pulled over Mulder's head.

C.G.B. Spender had laid out his plan for Mulder and seemed confident that Scully would meet his demands.

Mulder talked big and insisted that Scully would never give in but deep down knew that she would. He knew this because he would do the same thing; there was no way around it.

He just hoped that she would have a back up plan.

He heard them make the deal with her over the phone and began to beat himself up once again for letting himself get captured.

His eyes were covered the whole time so he didn't know who it was that injected him with the supposed virus but it hurt and he knew it would leave a mark.

"Listen carefully, what you've just been injected with is a version of what we have been using but instead of eating the body from the outside it will do it from the inside. But don't worry it is not activated, yet. It will be in your bloodstream for at least a week but after that it might not be worth the risk. If I were you I would stay away from this case." The Smoking Man spoke these words close to his ear and Mulder's mouth was covered before he could respond.

He was brought to the present by Scully discovering the injection point. Just the light touch of her fingers near the injection site hurt. He jumped as the pain brought him back to the present. There was a bandage covering it that now was stained with blood.

He opened his eyes to see Scully's concerned blue eyes, "Mulder is this where they injected you?"

Mulder just nodded and brought his hand up and squeezed the bridge of his nose; he needed sleep.

"Just let me examine it and we can go home." She said as she rummaged around.

Mulder's eyes opened a bit to look at her.

We can go home.

The thought of having her with him made him even more ready to leave and at the same time quieted down the simmering anxiety that had been rising in him.

She took a blood sample, took pictures of the injection site, and cleaned and bandaged it.

His arm was hurting from all of the movement near the wound. As if reading his mind Scully handed him a couple Advil and a glass of water as he sat up.

"I won't have the results till later tonight at the earliest. I'll take you home, you need to sleep."

"You do too."

"I'm not sure I can."

Scully lay still in the bed next to Mulder and anyone watching would have thought she was asleep but she couldn't sleep.

It was the middle of the day, which made it harder to sleep in the first place not counting all of the anxiety she was feeling over the current case.

Mulder's arms were wrapped around her waist and they held her tightly to him. She could feel his chest moving up and down slowly against her back and it reminded her that he was safe.

But is he really safe?

She felt the fear come back and she tightened her own arms around his being careful to not hurt his wound.

She had no idea what the Smoking Man had injected him with and she wouldn't know for a while. He said that they had told him nothing would happen if they just dropped the case but they also revealed that it was still an experiment. They didn't really know what it would do to him. On top of that she knew that the Smoking Man was not someone who could be taken at his word, who knows if he was telling the truth.

She ran through scenarios in her head until she felt Mulder shift behind her, "I can feel you thinking."

Scully moved around in his arms so she could see his face.

He still looked so tired but he seemed to be ok. She moved her hands to his face to feel for any excess heat. He let her do her small exam with a smile on his face.

"I'm just worried about whatever they injected you with."

"I feel fine Scully."

"I know but that doesn't mean you are fine."

Mulder let out a puff of air, "He said that it wouldn't do anything unless we went after the case."

"I don't trust him."

"Me either, but so far nothing as happened and since you don't have the test results back yet there is nothing that can be done."

She moved in closer to him and laid her head against his chest as he rolled on to her back.

"Scully get some sleep and when you wake up we can figure out what to do next."