Page 11
Bright lights enveloped
the street. Scully squinted. The Cigarette-Smoking Man and the other man
headed toward the middle of the street. Motionless, Mulder stood planted
on the front lawn. She ran with her gun poised to shoot the man holding
Samantha. She couldn’t get a clear shot, yet ran toward them ignoring the
nausea in her stomach and the spinning houses around her. Just before reaching
the end of the lawn, she stopped. She could barely move. What the hell
is going on? Mulder was just in front of her.
“Samantha!” he
screamed in despair.
“Fox!”
Scully could
hear Mulder mumbling under his breath, “Not again. Oh please, don’t do
this to me. Not again.”
“Fox!”
“Samantha, no!”
he sobbed. “Don’t go! Please! Take me with you! No!”
“Fox, I love
you…”
“No! Don’t do
this to me!”
“… I’m sorry…”
“Samantha!”
“…Never forget
me!”
“Samantha!”
“Good-bye, Fox!”
Samantha disappeared.
“NO! Samantha!”
The lights faded as Mulder fell to his knees and reached toward the stars.
“Don’t leave me…” He cried, bending over and laying his arms on the grass.
He looked down in defeat. “Samantha…” He sobbed uncontrollably.
Scully found
that she could move again. She limped over to Mulder, crouched down, and
wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her fiercely, crying tears of agony
onto her shoulder. “I couldn’t save her… I let her down… I couldn’t move…
I couldn’t save her, Dana… It’s all my fault…” Scully tried to comfort
him, but what could she do? She felt helpless. She did not know what to
do, what to say. She didn’t know anything anymore. She said the only thing
that she knew to be true, “It’s not your fault, Mulder. It’s not your fault.”
Mulder’s mother
suddenly appeared in the doorway. She ran over to them and held Mulder
in a tight embrace. “She’s gone again, Mom. I couldn’t save her. I let
her down, Mom. I let you down. It’s my fault,” Scully heard him murmur.
“It’s not your
fault,” Scully said again, gently. “It isn’t your fault at all.”
Mulder looked
up at her for a second and included her in the embrace. The three of them
held each other for what seemed like hours, but couldn’t have been any
more than a few minutes. Both the Mulders cried while Scully felt almost
useless with her attempts to make them feel even a little better.
Scully looked
into Mulder’s tear-filled eyes. The dull, haunted look was still gone,
but the joyful, sparkling look had disappeared as if it had never existed.
She felt like she was staring into a void: an empty hollow of nothingness
that nearly broke her heart. Instead of the single ray of hope she used
to see in the depths of his eyes, she saw the darkness of utter sorrow
and pain. Scully quickly averted her eyes. It wouldn’t help for her to
start crying too.
Scully stood
up and took the Mulders into the house. She limped over to the couch and
sat them down. She looked at Mulder’s arm. “Mulder, you’re hurt.”
No answer.
Scully sighed
and lifted up his shirtsleeve. “It looks like a bullet grazed your arm.
It’s just a flesh wound, but I think we need someone to look at that.”
She paused. “Mulder? Are you okay?”
Mulder had stopped
crying. “Leave me alone, Scully.” He pushed her away. Scully lost her balance
and winced as pressure was put on her right ankle. She looked down at it.
Damn. It’s sprained. The walls still spun and her nose was still
bleeding too.
Mulder immediately
looked remorseful. “I’m sorry, Scully. Are you alright? I didn’t mean…”
She forced a
smile. “Yeah. I’m fine,” she lied. She felt like throwing up. She tried
to ignore the queasiness in the pit of her stomach. “I’ll just call the
hospital and tell them we’re on our way. They’re going to need to take
a look at your arm.” She ripped off a piece of her blanket and wrapped
it around his arm.
He nodded.
She cleaned herself up with a paper towel and went to the phone. She looked
back at him. He was trying to comfort his mother, who had not stopped crying.
They don’t deserve to lose Samantha, she thought sadly. After
over 20 years of searching, Mulder deserves to have a sister. She talked
to a receptionist briefly then hung up. She limped back to Mulder.
“Okay, come on.
I’ll drive. Mrs. Mulder, would you like to come along?”
“No, I think
I’ll stay here.”
“You sure?”
“Go on, dear.”
“Let’s go, Mulder.”
“Yeah. Lemme
just put some better pants and some shoes on.”
Scully blinked,
realizing that they were all still in their pajamas. She felt her cheeks
flush slightly. “Um… okay. Sure.” She herself put some jeans and shoes
on then came back.
They went out
to her car. Scully got in the driver’s seat, immediately noticing that
she would have to use her injured foot to step on the pedals. She sighed.
“Something wrong?”
Mulder asked.
“No, nothing
you have to worry about,” she said and winced slightly as she put on the
gas. It was going to be one of those nights.
When they reached
the freeway, Scully wondered what had ever possessed her to volunteer to
drive. She was still dizzy, but whether the spinning was slowing down or
going so fast it looked like it was slowing down, she wasn’t sure. But
she would be damned before she let Mulder know anything was wrong.
“Scully?”
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Mulder.
Why?”
“Your nose is
bleeding and the car’s kinda swerving.”
Scully ignored
him.