TITLE: FEVER (1/1) AUTHOR: Kitsunagari RATING: PG KEYWORDS: MSR CATEGORY: SRA SPOILERS: NONE ARCHIVING: Anywhere with name attached, just let me know! SUMMARY: Mulder's not acting like himself...or rather, too much like himself. FEEDBACK: If domesticated and friendly will be given a kind home and fed regularly at kitsunagarix@yahoo.com. No feral feedback please! DISCLAIMER: I'd love to say that Mulder was mine...but alas! I shall have to confess that he and Scully are the property of Chris Carter, 1013, 20C Fox etc etc yadda yadda yadda. ********************************************************** FEVER Scully put the finishing touches on her report. She and Mulder were in a small town investigating the murder of a middle-aged woman, Sarah Armstrong, by her husband, Martin. Martin had claimed that he had had no control over his actions, and Mulder and Scully had been notified of the case through the man's claims that he may have been 'possessed'. However, after exhaustive interviews with the suspect and various people of his acquantaince, Mulder had finally dismissed the case as having none of the earmarks of a possession case; however, the motive behind the murder of the man's wife of 25 years still eluded them - by all accounts Martin was, to use a cliched term, mild- mannered and unassuming. Still, as Mulder had ironically remarked, "It's always the quiet ones." Having finished her report, Scully packed up her laptop and carried it and her suitcase outside and put them in the trunk of the rental car, and then proceeded to wait for Mulder. After several minutes, she lost her patience and knocked on Mulder's motel room door. No reply. She knocked again. "Mulder?" This time the door swung open, greeting Scully with the sight of Mulder still clad only in his pyjama bottoms, blinking bleary-eyed at her. "Scully?" He squinted at her. "What time is it?" "Mulder, it's 9am. We're supposed to be gone by now. Did you sleep through your alarm?" Mulder blinked a bit more. "Alarm?" "Mulder, are you feeling okay? You seem a little out of it." Mulder ran his hand down his stubbled face. "To tell you the truth Scully, I'm feeling a little disoriented...and it feels like someone's on the inside of my skull trying to beat their way out with a pick axe." "You're running a low fever, Mulder," Scully told him in concern, gently pressing her hand against his forehead and cheek. "Look, get dressed, and I'll pack up for you." ******************************************************************* Scully collapsed on to her bed. It had been a long tiring drive; Mulder had not been in any condition to relieve Scully as driver. He had spent the entire journey in a deep sleep - so deep that Scully had trouble waking him up when she got to his apartment. He'd still seemed a little out of it, in fact Scully had to help support him when he walked, but had turned down her offer to stay - he hadn't wanted her to catch whatever it was he had, and had insisted that she leave. Reluctantly, she had. The phone rang. Sighing, Scully dragged herself off her bed and picked it up. "Scully." she answered. Silence. "Hello?" Scully's annoyance seeped through to her tone. In a hoarse whisper, she heard "Scully..._they're here_," "Mulder? Who's there Mulder?" "Their eyes! I can feel their eyes..._I can *hear* them listening!_" Mulder whispered frantically into the phone. "Mulder, listen to me, stay where you are. I'll be right there." Silence. "Mulder? Mulder, are you there? Stay where you are." "Hurry, Scully." ********************************************************* Scully knocked on Mulder's door. No reply. She tried again, louder. "Mulder?" Still no reply. The hair on her neck began to prickle...and she removed her weapon from its holster, and then unlocked and opened Mulder's door. Quickly swinging herself in, weapon first, she encountered gloom. Mulder had all the blinds in his apartment shut, and the only light came from between the few missing slats. She relaxed her outstretched arms, bringing the gun closer into her torso, but still keeping it at the ready. "Mulder? Mulder, where are you?" In the silence she thought she could hear a muffled sob. Scully found a lamp in the darkness, and switched it on. Mulder sat on the floor, hugging his knees, on which his head rested. Another muffled sob escaped into the darkness. Putting her weapon away, Scully knelt in front of Mulder, and pressed the back of her hand to his forehead - Mulder's temperature was now very high, dangerously high. At the touch of her hand against his forehead, Mulder's head whipped up. "It's my fault, Scully." "Mulder, we have to get you to a hospital. You're running a very high temperature..." Mulder seemed not to hear her, and looked away, tears streaming down his face. "It's my fault, Scully. I should have stopped them. But I couldn't. And they took her. I tried so hard to stop them, but I couldn't." Another sob. Mulder was obviously reliving his sister's abduction again. Scully put her hand out and pulled Mulder's chin around until he faced her. "Mulder, it's me, Scully. You're going to have to go to the hospital." Mulder's eyes seemed to focus on her. "Scully?" She nodded. His face crumpled, and more tears escaped. "Scully. They took you too. I tried to stop them taking you too, and I couldn't. Your cancer, your sister's death, Emily's death...all my fault. I should have stopped them...but I couldn't." Another sob. "I'm sorry, Scully." he whispered hoarsely. Scully wiped away the tears filling her own eyes at Mulder's pain and the memories he was bringing to the surface and put her arms around him. He threw his arms around her and held onto her as if his life depended on it. Whatever this illness was was giving Mulder one hell of a guilt trip. There was obviously no getting through to him in this condition. She cleared her throat. "Mulder, I'm going to call an ambulance, okay?" No response. Scully gently pulled away and patted her jacket for her cellphone, and immediately had a vision of her phone resting in its charger, where she had put it when she had come home, and from where she had failed to retrieve it when she left her apartment in the hurry to get to Mulder. "Damn it," she muttered under her breath. Standing up, she crossed to Mulder's phone. She put the receiver to her ear and reached down to start dialing, and realised it was dead. Picking up the cord connecting the phone to the phoneline, she saw the reason why...the line had been cut. And, by the looks of his apartment, Scully would have more luck finding gold at the end of a rainbow than finding Mulder's cell-phone. Sighing, she knelt beside Mulder again. "Mulder? Did you cut the phone line?" He nodded. "Why?" Suddenly he grabbed her and pulled her down so that her ear was right next to his mouth. "Because _they're listening!_" he hissed. Just as suddenly he released her and sprang to his feet, Scully making a hard landing on the floor in consequence. Spying the door that Scully hadn't closed on her cautious entry, he pulled it so that only a crack remained, through which he peered, looking left and right. "They think that I don't know that they're there. But _I know_." He quickly shut the door and locked, chained and bolted it. Despite being aware of its inherent futility at this point, Scully tried to reason with him. "Mulder, you and I both have our apartments swept for bugs regularly. It's been more than a year since any were found." Unsurprisingly, Mulder seemed not to hear her. "I'm ready for them this time," he said, pulling out his gun. Scully became quickly alarmed. Mulder was not exactly in a condition to be bearing arms. She stood, licking her lips, trying to think of the best way to approach this situation. "Mulder, if you shoot them, that's just what they want." "It's just what they deserve! You _know_ that, Scully!" Mulder almost shouted, actually seeming to hear her this time, perhaps because she was playing along. Scully took her eyes off Mulder's gun to look into his eyes. "I know that Mulder. But for you to spend the rest of your life in prison for it...it's not worth it Mulder." Mulder's eyes raced from side to side, as he thought about what she was saying. Scully stepped closer to him, hand outstretched. "Give me the gun, Mulder." He tightened his grip on the gun, unsure. Scully took another couple of steps closer to him. "Mulder, it's me, Scully. You trust me, right?" Dumbly, Mulder nodded, not releasing his grip on the gun. Scully stepped even closer, until they were not even a foot apart. "Then give me the gun." Scully's every muscle was tense. When Mulder still didn't move, "Mulder, more than anyone else I want them to pay for what they've done." She paused as tears again sprang to her eyes, and she continued more quietly. "But not like this. Give me the gun." A couple of heartbeats passed, then Mulder handed her his gun. Scully sighed and almost sagged in relief. She tucked the gun into the front waistband of her trousers, intending to empty it of ammunition as soon as she got the chance. Mulder allowed her to lead him over to his couch, where she sat beside him. Whatever this illness was, it seemed to be bringing out different aspects of Mulder's personality to an extreme extent...guilt, paranoia...she had to get him to a hospital. "Mulder, listen to me. I'm just going next door to use their phone. I won't take long, but I need you to promise that you will stay right here." Scully began to rise off the couch but Mulder's hand grabbed her arm and pulled her down next to him. "I'm sorry, Scully. You were right. I'm just so tired of it." Scully nodded and attempted to rise again, but his hand kept her where she was. Mulder's voice rose. "I'm so sick of the lies...of the deceptions...I just want my sister!" Mulder had his hands on Scully's upper arms now and shook her at the end of every sentence as if to emphasize his point. "I've spent ten years of my life being called Spooky Mulder and toiling in the basement...I've lost my father, I've watched Scully lose her sister..." Scully, already more than a little alarmed at being so roughly handled by Mulder, was even more disconcerted when he referred to her in the third person - it made her realise her danger as he obviously was unaware that it was she who he was shaking. Meanwhile, Mulder carried on regardless. "...watch her daughter die, and get cancer...I JUST WANT MY SISTER BACK DAMN IT!" With that, Mulder slammed Scully down on the couch, still holding on to her upper arms in a bruising fashion. Both of them were breathing hard, Mulder from anger, Scully from fear. She knew Mulder would never hurt her in a rational state of mind, but now he did not seem to be aware of who she was... After a couple of heartbeats, Mulder's eyes seemed to focus on Scully, as opposed to the glazed look that had accompanied his previous rants. "Scully?" he asked in a low voice. "Mulder? You're hurting me." An unbidden tear slid down Scully's cheek. Mulder looked at his hands and where they were as if surprised to see them. "I'm sorry, Scully." he relaxed his grip, but as most of his six-foot frame was sprawled on top of her by this stage, she was not in much of a position to move. Mulder's eyes roamed over every part of her face, and then his head dipped to under her chin, where she could feel the graze of his unshaven chin and the heat radiating from his overwarm skin on the delicate flesh of her throat. At first she was unsure of what he was doing, but then she could hear his intakes of breath...he was smelling her. "Mulder..." she said softly "Mmm, it's definitely Scully alright..." he said quietly, his warm breath tickling her throat. "I would know that scent anywhere." "Mulder...what are you doing?" Scully asked, her tones hushed, and not carrying much conviction. "Sssh, Scully." She could feel his lips graze her neck as he shushed her. "I know it's very unprofessional, Scully, but sometimes, I can't help but wonder what it would feel like, if I were to kiss you...just here..." Mulder's warm lips pressed softly on her throat. "...or here...here maybe...and there's always here..." Mulder proceeded to kiss a haphazard line down her throat, stopping just where her blouse ended in a V above the top button. Scully was still breathing hard, but now for an entirely different reason. She could feel the imprint of his kisses burning as if Mulder's lips rested there still. A part of her was demanding that she do something to get out of this situation, and get Mulder to a hospital...but that part was receding rapidly in the wake of the feeling of inevitability. Mulder's weight shifted slightly, and she saw his eyes widen slightly. "What...?" his left hand ran down her side and along the waistband of her trousers. A patch of skin was exposed by Scully's prone position, and Scully felt the too-warm warmth of Mulder's hand graze gently along it and then stop at his gun which was still tucked into the waistband of her pants. Very gently, and very slowly, he dragged it out along the sensitive flesh of her belly, the coolness of the metal leaving goosebumps in its wake, and placed it on the coffee table. He then ran his hand around her exposed skin and began to insinuate his fingers under her back. Almost involuntarily, Scully arched her back slightly, and Mulder pulled her weapon out of its holster and placed that on the coffee table also. He then gently raised her blouse up so that a larger band of flesh was exposed, and began another pattern of searing kisses. Scully's sense of practicality made another desperate attempt to reassert itself. "Mulder..." she croaked, and then cleared her throat. "Mulder...you're sick, you need..." Mulder moved his attention back to her throat, and Scully was stopped short as she bit back a moan as Mulder ran his hand gently over her breast. Mulder lifted his head and looked into Scully's eyes, brushing an errant strand of hair off her cheek. His eyes glowed with a dark intensity beyond that caused by the fever he was running, and slowly, ever so slowly, lowered his head until his lips met hers. They kissed lingeringly, but gently, Mulder's tongue gliding in langurous exploration. Finally, Mulder pulled back slightly and searching her expression as if to look for a rejection. As Scully watched his expression also, she was shocked to see his face crumple as he again began to cry. Without another word, he sat up. Scully, feeling more than a little lightheaded, did the same. "Mulder? What's the matter?" "The bee, Scully. They took you, like before...and I didn't know where you were..." "But you found me, Mulder. And when I had my cancer, you found a cure..." "But they only took you...to hurt me. They know...they know that I can't live without you..." He sprang to his feet. "It's my fault..." he made a grab for her gun, but Scully had preempted that move and had closed her hand around it before he had and knocked his off the coffee table and under the couch, but he now tried to wrestle it from her. "It's the only way Scully...if I die, they won't need to hurt you any more..." Scully was rapidly losing the fight with Mulder - he just about had wrested it away from her - when his eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell to the floor unconscious. Scully quickly knelt and felt his pulse and then wrestled with the many locks on Mulder's door, flung it open, and ran to the first door. BAM! BAM! BAM! "I'm Special Agent Dana Scully with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. I need to use your phone, sir." ********************************************************* Scully straightened up from looking through the microscope lens. "And you say that this was also found in Martin Armstrong's blood?" she asked the white-coated Dr Williamson. "Mmm-hmm. I can't say I've ever seen anything like it...a virus that makes it's host act on the extremities of their personalities. The worst part for the victim is that they are in some part aware of what they are doing...yet have no control. They even remember what they have done. You know several of the police officers in the precinct where Martin Armstrong was being held also came down with it. You were lucky not to be infected." Scully nodded her agreement and he continued. "I notified the CDC of course...but the virus seems to have disappeared from sight." "But Agent Mulder has fully recovered?" "Oh, yes. The fever's gone, and he is no longer contagious." "Thank you for your help, Dr Williamson." ******************************************************** Scully knocked on Mulder's hospital room door. "Yeah?" Scully opened the door, and saw Mulder lying in his bed, looking out of the window. He did not look over as she came in. She pulled a chair close to the bed on the same side of the bed as the window. Mulder finally looked at her. "Scully, I can't begin to..." "Mulder...you don't have anything to apologise for." She risked a quick look into his eyes, and saw slight surprise. She sighed, and continued. "For nearly seven years now Mulder, while we have been so avidly seeking the Truth in every god-forsaken small town in the country, there has been a certain truth somewhat...closer to home...that we have both avoided facing." She looked him straight in the eye. "What happened...only brought that truth into the foreground." She took hold of Mulder's hand and smiled as he squeezed it. "That still doesn't excuse..." Scully cleared her throat in semi-embarrassment. "Mulder - I had my weapon, you were weakened by illness - there is no way what happened could have happened, without my letting it." They both sat in silence for a couple of minutes, contemplating this momentous shift in their relationship dynamic. A nurse opened the door to Mulder's room. "I'm afraid visting hours are over, Agent Scully." Scully nodded, and the nurse closed the door again. Scully stood, keeping Mulder's hand in hers. "I'll come and see you again tomorrow." she said, looking up from their clasped hands to meet Mulder's eyes. "Well, you know where I'll be," he said, smiling that wise-ass smile of his. Their hands remained clasped an instant or so more, and then Scully let her hand drop and she crossed quickly to the door. As she was just about to put her hand on the doorknob, she turned. "Oh, what the hell," she said and crossing quickly to Mulder's bedside, took his head in her small hands, and kissed him. THE END ICQ # : 43731870