Part 1 by Noelle (AGillian21)

Her eyes opened slowly, carefully, as though not wanting to view the unknown, reluctant to face the truth.  In this case, she discovered, once her eyes were fully open, the unknown was a place where the horizon ran north to south rather than west to east.  The unknown was cold and white.  Well -- her eyes darted left and right -- not completely white.
The blurred area of ground directly in front of her face showed a design stained on the white with red.  It was the shape of a wine glass; a maroon bulb at the top, and then a long thin stem where she might have tried to move, and thick base where her lips parted now.  Almost convinced her first suspicion was correct, she pushed upward with the muscles in her throat and spat, wacthing the pinkish foam stain the while and rolling the taste of salt over in her mouth.  
She shifted, the cold stinging her skin, trying to raise an arm and touch her nose to her lip.  The knowledge that she was bleeding somehow could not be confirmed by the taste on her tongue, the smell of it, or the sharp pain just above her left breast.  To see the blood on her fingers pulled from the wound was always required.
Again, she tried to move her arm, but it wouldn't budge without sending a string of hot and cold pains up her arm.  The other half of her body was completely numb, and pressed against some hard substance.  
Some feathery-soft and cold thing touched the side of her face that could still feel enough to let her know that it had come in contact with something.  The cold touched her cheek.  Then her forehead.  When three of the falkes fell in front of her eyelashes, Scully realized what was going on.  Snow.  Long pieces of brown grass poked up through the ice already on the ground here and there, but for the most part, everything as far as she could see as covered in snow and ice...
...And she was lying on her side, twisted in a painful position, mearly frozen solid right in the middle of it all.
Just as she was trying to remember where she was, and how she got there, a voice asked, "What do you remember?"
The answer was nothing.  She didn't remember anything.
When she didn't answer, the voice tried again.  "What do you remember?"
The speaker seemed to be nearby, but she couldn't figure out where.  And the voice sounded oddly familiar.
"Anything..."  It suggested kindly, patiently.  "anything you remember."
She blinked slowly.  "My name...is Dana.  I was born the twenty-third of February in 1964...um, I have two brothers and a sister, may father died in 1993...I used to work for the FBI...I still do -- no.  Yes, I do...I still work for the FBI...but just in a different..." she struggles for the word, "a different department."
She stopped, not knowing what else to say.  "Um...I married my partn -- ...uh, I was married on August eighth in 1998.  It was...it was a Tuesday, and it was....it was raining.  Let's see...I hate flying, I hate cats...Oh, I have my...we...we have two kids, Ryan and Sean...Ryan is three, and Sean is six months old...we adopted them both....three months ago? ... if it's December..I don't remember.  They both have blue eyes...and Sean has...asthma..."
Unable to go on, she let her voice fade.  It felt like someone had their fist around her heart.  Her children... Where were her children?  She asked the question aloud, instantly frightened for the safety of the two young boys.  "Where are they...?  My kids... If Sean...when Sean gets really scared...I mean, if you leave him alone, he starts to -- he gets the hiccups, and you have to pulg his ears and get him to swallow water, and sing to him..."
She was suddenly aware of something warm being held against her ear.  She felt warm air brush over the delicate skin behind her ear, and something very soft and warm touch her cheek.  And then she heard a noise.  The little "yp!" was quite familiar, and she tried to turn her head to see him.  "Sean?"
"That's right, " the voice she now recognized said, "don't worry."  The baby was lifted away from her face once more.  "I got him, Dana.  He's okay."
She tried to move, having the sudden need to look at her husband and son, and confirm that they were both all right.  Pain.  She stopped trying to move.  "What about Ryan?"  She asked quickly.
"I think they might have him already," her husband replied crouching down at her back, and supporting the baby -- who was still battling his fit of hiccups -- on one shoulder.
"Oh, God..."
"Shh, " he said, gently, touching her cheek.  "It's going to be all right.  They should find you soon."
Something inside her told her she needed to see her husband.  It was too strange having him hover behind her.  She needed to see him:  his shining eyes that changed colors in the light; the pensive slant of his eyebrows; his nose that was interesting in its shape but somehow adorable; his lips; his cheeks; his chin; everything about his face that made him who he was.  Her partner in the office and her partner in the bedroom.  The only man that she could ever dream of giving her love to.
His hand dropped to stroke her frozen cheek once more.  "Dana, it'll be all right," he said softly.
"I know," she replied, "I know, but I'm still so scared, Walter."

(End Part 1/?)

Part 2  by D (DScully777)

She blinked her eyes; half expecting to wake up in her bed.
"Walter?...Walter?"
"Over here!"  Another familiar voice called out.  Another hand touched her face.  "God Scully.  What did they do to you?"  She couldn't quite remember where that voice was from.
The colors began to swirl again.  The world fading.  Where was Walter?  She didn't hear anyone talking to him.  Where was Ryan?  Where was Sean?
The colors grew darker.   All at once, the voices clicked.
"Mulder?"  The darkness claimed her.
----------------------------------------------------
Her opened leisurely, then closed again violently due to the harsh florescent light.  She tried to speak.  but the words didn't leave her mouth.
"Dana?  Dana can you hear me?"  It was a doctor's voice.  She could tell by the subdued tones he spoke in.  Again she tried to speak.
Nothing.
"Mr. Mulder, please don't call me again unless she's awake."  Scully inwardly sighed.  Where was Walter?  What was Mulder doing here?  She didn't want to see him.  After what he said to her.
She opened her eyes again this time a little more carefully.
She was in the ICU.  She was on a ventilator.  The rythmic beeping of her heart was a reassurance that she was still alive.  A warm smile greeted her.
"Scully?"  She tried to turn her head.  She didn't want to see him ever again.  She told him so.  Why was he here?  Where was Walter?  "Scully?"  He whispered it so delicately that she could barely hear it.  She didn't want to.  He began to talk to her anyway.  "Ryan is okay.  They found Sean by the side of the road where you were found.  He is alive and well."  Where is Walter?  "The Director is still missing."  She laughed to herself.  He stil couldn't speak Walter's name.  He took her hand.  She shook out of the grasp.
"Scully...please forgive me."  She turned her head.  "Scully...I never meant to hurt you."
She closed her eyes.  She could never forgive him.

(End Part 2/?)

Part 3 by Elaina (MDeabay)

A few hours later, her eyes reopened.  She glanced around the room trying to piece together the events of the past few days.  The car, the accident...
"Dana?  Are you awake?"  A soft voice asked.
She turned toward the sound.  Her eyes focused on the face of a man that she hadn't seen in almost a year.  She struggled to speak.  Her voice was forced, and it hurt to say the few words that she could squeak out.
"Mulder?  What...what are you doing here?"  She managed.
He shook his head to indicate that she shouldn't talk.
"I'm going to get the nurse.  Don't try to talk, they've put a tube in your throat.  That's why it hurts when you speak."  Mulder said as he turned and left the room to find a nurse.
Her eyes closed and she tried to remember what happened.  Her mind flashed her back.  She saw white.  Snow.  She tried to remember further back.  The image went blank.
"Mr. Mulder, she's not awake.  I've warned you not to bother me.  It's nice enough that I am letting you stay with her, seeing how you're not even a relation."  The nurse snapped.
Dana's eyes flew open.  She tried to indicate that she was awake, but every time she tried to speak her throat felt like sandpaper.  It was apparent that Mulder had been aggravating the nursing staff most of the night.  'Why was Mulder here in the first place?'  She wondered.  She wanted her husband.  She wanted to see her children, to make sure they were okay.  The last person she wanted to see was Fox Mulder, but it was obvious he wasn't going to leave.  
"Look!  See!  Her eyes are open.  She IS awake, " Mulder said in his typical 'I-told-you-so' attitude.  He walked over to her.  "Dana?  Dana, can you hear me?"  He asked cautiously.  He knew that she was still mad at him.  She was downright pissed, and he knew it was all his fault.  He couldn't leave until he was sure she was okay, and that she would forgive him.
<That's going to take some work.>  He thought to himself.
"Well Mr. Mulder, I guess you're right.  I'm amazed that she lived through a crash like that."  The nurse answered in a sigh.  "She's still critical though.  There's a chance she won't make it, and it's too bad about the boy."
Mulder nodded solemnly.  Scully's mind raced.  <The boy?>  Her heart sank in her chest.
"Can you remove the tube?  She's awake now and she tried to talk.  I want, I need to talk to her.  To explain, to...to..."  his voice trailed off, "to apologize."
"I'll get the doctor and see what she has to say about it."  the nurse replied as she left the room.
Mulder walked over and sat in the small plastic chair that was placed at her bedside.  He took her hand in his and stroked a strand of hair out of her face.  He then leaned down and kissed her cheek.  She turnd her head away from him.
"Scully I know you're probably wondering why I'm here.  I'm sorry.  I'm so sorry.  This is all my fault, " he started.  His voice began to waver, hinting that he was on the verge of tears.
She wished she could speak.  She wanted to yell, to scream!  Selfish!  All he could talk about what himself, and how guilty he was.  The more he spoke, the angrier she got.  She wanted to know about Walter.  She wanted to know about her children.   She could care less about Mr...., Special Agent..., Whatever...Fox Mulder and how sorry he was.  She was grateful when the nurse reappeared, accompanied by the doctor.
"Dana...I'm going to remove the tube from your throat, okay?  All I need for you to do is not swallow, and try to relax your throat."  The doctor explained.  
He leaned over and reached into the back of her throat with a pair of grips.  He began to pull out the tube as her gag reflex began to react.  This was common, and the doctor was equipped with a bucket to catch the vomit.  The tube was out, and she could talk without obstruction.  She spit into the metal pan, trying to rid the taste of the vile liquid that had just left her mouth.  The nurse handed her a glass of water, and she used it to rinse her mouth.
"Better?"  The doctor asked with a kind smile.  "I'm glad to see you're doing so well.  It was close for awhile.  Let me know if you're in too much pain, and I'll have the nurse administer a sedative."
Dana nodded as the doctor and nurse left the room, leaving her alone with Mulder.
He started to talk once again, but she cut him off.
"Agent Mulder.  I don't know why you're here.  In fact, I don't care why you're here.  You can explain that later, and believe me, I want an explanation, but right now all I want to know is how my family is.  Okay?  How is Walter?  Oh, actually, I guess he's 'Section Chief Skinner' to you, right?"  She smiled as she said that last line.  She knew it would hurt him, and he deserved it.  "And my children, how are they?  Are they okay?  Tell me Mulder!  I need to know!"
"Dana, I..."  Mulder began.
"Assistant Director Scully."  She corrected.
"Fine, Assistant Director Scully.  I regret to inform you that your son, Sean, is in critical condition, and that Ryan, survived for a short time after the paramedics discovered you, but there were complications and he didn't make it."  Mulder said as he lowered his head.  She had hurt him, and she thrived on it.  He knew that what he had done would be something that he would regret for the rest of his life.  The thing that had lost him not only the friendship of Dana Scully, but the respect as well.

(End Part 3/?)

Part 4 by Yew (EnglishYew@hotmail.com)

"Leave."  Was all Scully could muster after a brief silence.  Tears welled up in her eyes, blurring her vision of the man before her.  "Go!  I want you out of here and out of my sight!"
Mulder's heart was breaking.  He had seen his former partner in pain before, but nothing as terrible as her wailing proved now.  Not even when he had done the terrible thing that she would never fogive him for.
"I'll be right outside if you need me."
Scully painfully wiped the tears from her blue eyes and watched him leave.  As soon as the door shut, she closed her eyes and took a breath.  Her children were just as torn up as she was, her husband was no where to be found, and her ex-partner was tormenting her with a time that she'd tried so hard to forget.
The petite woman tried to roll onto her side, but found it too much work and too much pain, and decided to sleep for awhile instead.  She knew that there was nothing she could do for anybody in her condition, and the sooner she got better, the sooner she could see her one remaining son and find Walter Skinner.
Her mind was racing from everything that her senses had been exposed to in the past forty hours, and her heart acked for release.  Slowly, she let thoughts of better times float into her mind.  She thought of her wedding day, of dancing with her husband and her promotion to Assistant Director.  She thought of the day when the adoption agency called and told the happy couple that two sons were on their way to help make their family complete.  And finally, regretably, she thought of Mulder and the times they had as field agents for the X-Files.  Why did she always have to think of him?  And why was she still so mad at him for something that had happened over a year ago?
"Dana?"  a soft voice whispered in her ear.  It was a woman's voice, light and happy.
Scully opened her eyes, squinting against the harsh lighting of the hospital room.  When they adjusted, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.  Could it actually be *her*?
"Dana, some very bad things happened to you, but I want you to remember."  The woman was kneeling next to Scully's bed, stroking her forehead like a mother or concerned friend.  "You need to remember it all..."
Scully's face contorted in pain.  "I can't, it's too much..."
"Yes you can, Dana.  I'll be right there with you."  The woman smiled warmly and took Dana's hand into her own.  "You need to remember for your children, for yourself, for me...and for Fox."
"Please!"  Scully cried.  "I can't...please..."
The woman silently hummed a soothing tune, and against her better judgement, she remembered.  While just outside her room, Fox Mulder had his head in his hands, and he remembered too...
...The case had been a long and arduous one, the search for the truth about extra-terrestrial beings had been opened once again with new information from a group of scientists that worked for NASA.   Scully's old roommate in medical school, a microbiologist named Corrine Davison, had come forward with some startling findings from the rocks retrieved from Mars and a few comets.  Her collegues had been killed off one by one in less than a week, and she had driven to Scully's apartment in the middle of the night for some advice and protection.  Everywhere they turned guns were in their faces, people were trying to steal the evidence, and the files left by her peers were burned along with their bodies.
Frustrated and tired, Corrine called Mulder one evening while Scully was pre-occupied with making them dinner.  She told him that she had recieved a call, someone wanted her and her research, and were not going to stop until she was taken, or she was dead.  She hadn't told Scully, and she didn't plan to.  She wanted to set up a time to catch the people that were after her, and who had killed her friends and co-workers.  She was tired of running, and with Mulder's help set up an offensive.  
Scully found out a little too late from Walter Skinner what Corrine and Mulder had planned, and arrived on the scene to find Mulder crawling away from a van covered in blood and her friend's body strewn on the open street like lost packaging.  As she rushed toward the scene,  she saw the knife in his hand gleaming and red.
"Mulder what happened here?"  She said, keeping a bit of a distance.
"Can't..."  He wheezed.  "She's...one..."
"What are you talking about?!?"  Scully turned toward her friend's body in the street.
"Don't go..."  Mulder raised the knife.  "I'm...warning...you..."
"Mulder!"  She turned just as the knife sunk into the back of her lower leg, and ripper herself from him.  She pulled the knife from her leg, not knowing how to comprehend what had just happened to her.  Her eyes showed such a profound sadness...
The next day, while Mulder was in the hospital, she went into his apartment to check for any way that someone may have drugged her partner to make him act as he had.  His tox screen had proven that drugs were in his system, but were unable to identify them correctly, and her friend lay in the morgue with over 52 stab wounds in her chest.  The investigator in her knew she could find a reason...she had to.  
After all but ripping the place apart, she opened the refrigerator door, searching his food.  Without any luck there, she opened the freezer compartment and was angered, grief stricken, and shocked all at once.  She sank to the tiled floor with the vial in her hand...
'Why on earth would Mulder have a vial of her ovum?'  She thought to herself.  'And why wouldn't he tell me he had it?'
When she took the vial and confronted Mulder with it, he couldn't answer her.  He thought he was protecting her, he never meant to hurt her.  
If only he had thought of her feelings for a minute instead of his...it was there in that hospital room that she told him she never wanted to see him again, that she was leaving the X-Files, and that there would never come a time where she would ever come to him again.
Mulder pleaded forgiveness, even claimed that he loved her.  And in a strange way, she believed that, because once she had loved him too.  But now, everything that they had ever built together was ruined.
"You lied to me, Mulder.  Blatantly.  That is not love!  You knew that I was suffering with the fact that I knew I couldn't have children!  And now the same vial that I thought would give me some hope is ruined because you kept it in your FREEZER!"  Scully yelled at him.  "There's a cold dark place for liars, Mulder.  And you're going there the day you die!"
Mulder hung his head in shame.
"Everything you've done, Mulder...you're just as bad as the men who keep you from your truth.  You have keep me from the very truth that I was trying so hard to find, and I can NEVER forgive you for that.  I thought that our search for the truth was a sacred thing, nothing could be kept from either one of us as long as it wasn't a lie..."  Scully turned to leave the room.  "How can I ever trust you again?  So many lies...I never thought that any of them would come from you..."
Scully walked out of Mulder's hospital room door and awakened to the grim reality of her own hospital bed.  She cried for a few moments, soft sobs of bitterness.  
'Why couldn't things have been different?'  Dana wondered.

(End Part4/?)