Disclaimer: The voices in my TV say their CC's, but what do they know? Rating: PG Distribution: Wow, that sounds yummy :-) Go right ahead. Summary: An aftermath... Keywords: MSR, Angst Feedback: That would be awful sweet, I'll paste it to my dog for all the neighbors to see... xfilesqueen@ibm.net NOTES: Please notice that this fanfic assumes that Mulder and Scully were previously romantically involved before the..accident. More notes at bottom. This is from 3rd Person POV, and I've never attempted this before: let me know what you think. Tumbling Up By: Crystal Lily Wakening hours were strange now. It was hard to tell when she was fully awake, or still half asleep. She missed the crystals of the blues, the pools of hazel in Mulder's eyes, the sparkling of the sunlight, and even the normal bland, bleach-feel hospital's gave off. God, what she would give to see those white, lifeless walls. It was at this point in the life of Dana Scully that she finally had the time to survey her surroundings, although not how she had wanted to. The fact that her hours awake looked exactly like her hours asleep was taking it's toll. Blackness, always blackness. For the past 24 hours she had been in the hospital unable to get a sense of her surroundings, unsure of how to act, how to feel, and how to react. She shifted restlessly on her hospital bed, careful not to touch the multiple bandages that permeated her body. A scratchy stiffness growled at her from the back of her throat, pleading for water. Her hands fumbled for the glass of water somewhere on the table next to her, unable to locate it. 2 strong hands came down on hers stilling them, and offering assistance. "Scully, I told you I can help." A small, yet caring voice chided. Mulder picked up the glass of water and brought the straw to Scully's lips. "Mulder, I'm not an invalid you know....I'm just the same as I always have been." She retorted as she accepted the glass of water from Mulder's generous hands. Scully heard a sigh of disappointment from the chair that Mulder had made his vigil at her bedside. Guilt flooded in, along with the ever-present fear. She opened her mouth to apologize..."Mulder, I'm..." Yet, was cut-off by Mulder. "Go back to sleep Scully. You need your rest before we can leave." He said in a nimble voice. Reluctantly, Scully leaned back in her starched, stiff hospital sheets. "Mulder, I'm sorry. I don't mean it. You have to know that. Please." She said in a low voice. It wasn't long before the creak of a chair was heard, followed by the cringe of the hinges on Scully's hospital bed accompanied by Mulder's gentle weight dipping down the mattress. Soon, Scully felt the warm weight of a hand on her own taking the water glass and replacing it on the table, untouched. Mulder returned his hand to Scully's, and intertwined his fingers with hers. Sighing deeply, he simply said "Sleep, Scully, we'll talk about this later." She extended her one remaining, unoccupied hand slowly, blindly reaching for Mulder's face. It hung briefly in the air before it was gently caressed and pulled down into her lap. "Sleep, Scully." Mulder whispered out of desperation this time. He brushed a strand of hair out of Scully's face, and placed both of her hands in her lap when he sensed that she was asleep, and silently retreated back to his chair. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Yes Sir." "No, Sir, the doctor's don't imagine so. The on-call physician says at the maximum, 20% may be restored." "I suppose that you will have to take that up with Agent Scully yourself, Sir." "No, I can't think of a position that Agent Scully isn't over-qualified for that she would be able to work in." "Yes, Sir. I will, thank you." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A ground-shaking, earth-shattering explosion. Too close. Bright, intense, hurtful light. Then total and complete blackness. Groping around, feeling for anything recognizable. Stepping cautiously forward, only to plummet lower. A call of desperation : "MULDER!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A blood curdling "MULDER!" rang out in his ears as he was jolted awake from his vinyl vigil beside Scully's hospital bed. Mulder's eyes quickly focused in the darkness of the hospital room on the thrashings of his partner. Her hands were blindly groping in front of her...reaching for anything to recognize. A sob escaped Scully's throat followed by a "Mulder, please help me..." so soft, and wavering that it was almost inaudible. This wasn't the first time this had happened, Mulder recalled. Scully had been having flash-backs to the horrible accident that had brought her to where she currently thrashed in her hospital bed. Mulder shot-up out of his chair, and rushed over, taking her hands in his own. "Shhhh Scully, it's okay, I'm here." He shushed her. Mulder placed one of his hand's on her face, and brushed away the tears. "Shhh, Scully, it's all right. No one else, just Mulder. You know I wouldn't hurt you." He breathed out. "M-m-mulder?" Scully stammered, still having trouble distancing her dream and real world from each other. "I'm here, it's all right." He once again reiterated. To prove his point more fully, he leaned over, and placed a gently kiss of her forehead, careful to avoid the area's which contained the cuts. "Mulder..." she breather out in relief. "Mulder, how am I going to function like this? How am I supposed to help myself, or anyone else for that matter." She questioned with desperation. Mulder temporarily stepped out of the bed, much to Scully's fright. "Mulder, where...." she began; panicked... When Scully felt Mulder slide in behind her on the bed so that she was now positioned between his legs she breathed a sigh of relief. Mulder placed his arms around her waist, lacing them together against her stomach, and rested his head gently on her right shoulder. In return, Scully placed her hands on Mulder's knees. Mulder's breath created a comforting breeze in Scully's ear as he spoke: "Scully, you know that I'm not going anywhere. You know that no matter whether you had lost a leg, or your vision, I would never look at you any differently. Please tell me you understand that, Scully." He pleaded. Scully nodded her head in response, for fear that if she spoke, her tear-filled voice would betray her. "We will make it through this together. I'm not going anywhere. I'll be your new set of eyes." He whispered to her, head still on her shoulder. At this, Mulder retrieved one of Scully's hands off of his knees, and brought it up to his mouth, kissing each knuckle separately. "I can still show you love, Scully. I can still show you who I am, who you are. One thing will never change, though...do you know what that is?" He asked her quietly. Scully shook her head, and placed her hand on his face to help her get a good sense of her surroundings. The same-old Mulder face that she had known to love paraded under her finger-tips as she trailed them over his face. "I will never stop loving you. We've gotten through everything else together, a lack of vision can't slow us down now." He said. "Thank you, Mulder." Scully sedately whispered, and turned her head to kiss his forehead. It was a little off center, and hard to find, but her hands found his head, and she kissed him. "Thank you for everything. I know that you're always here." She reassured, sniffing from crying, adding: "I once was blind, but now I see. I love you so much." "Be my vision forever, Mulder?" she questioned. "Always." He responded back. +_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+ NOTES: I hate coming out in a fic and stating the obvious. Hopefully, there was enough information in there for you to piece together things. I am starting all over again the XF fanfic world. Not a high profile author, it's easy for me to change my name. I have become dissatisfied with my bad reputation, so I thought I would start fresh. This is my first new fic in over a year... Let me know what you thought about this--even if it's a one-line e-mail: input in greatly appreciated. Xfilesqueen@ibm.net ----------------------------------------------------------- "You've been a naughty boy--go to my room" ----------------------------------------------------------- "I need to talk to the writer..." ~Mulder "Post-Modern Prometheus"