From: JumperChick@aol.com
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2000 19:33:50 EDT
Subject: "Nova" (1/1)
Source: direct

 Title: Nova
Author: Angel
Email: JumperChick@aol.com
Feedback: Please! I love every but of it!
Archive: Please! If you need txt copies let me know. 
Or link to 
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Bath/7266/nov
apage.html 
Classification: MSR, Colonization fic. (If I say 
anymore I'd give it all away!)
Spoilers: All the way up to 7th season finale but NOT 
including even though nothing much is really 
mentioned. 
Rating: NC-17 (for some parts-very mild consensual 
sex- but to be safe!) Others are probably PG-13 or so 
for naughty words and implied naughty stuff =).
Summery: The inevitable happens. Mulder has 
planned ahead and now does everything in his power 
to keep Scully safe. 
You MUST read all parts to understand! Available at 
Ephemeral and my home page.
Disclaimer: You know the drill. Characters are 
property of Fox, 1013, ect. No money is being made. 
No infringement is intended. A few poems and songs 
are used without permission, names of authors are 
given. Prayers which I did not write, and I don't 
know who wrote are included in some areas. 
Homepage: (to find missing parts and sooner or later 
the completed version, also posted at Ephemeral)
http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Bath/7266/ang
elsfanfic.html

A HUGE thanks to Evie my beta reader! Nova would 
never be doing this well, or going as fast, without her 
help! Thank you thank you thank you thank you! 
Umm. one more! Thank you!

 "Baby don't look up, the sky is falling." Tori Amos

Part 1 of 48
Day 1
A late spring morning like any other...

Mulder braced himself against the wall as another 
quake caused the building to quiver; a picture rattled 
off the wall. It's crash went unnoticed as Mulder 
shoved all his spare clips for his gun into his hiking 
bag. Hauling the already heavy pack over his 
shoulder he made his way into the kitchen, stumbling 
as the building shook again. Emergency sirens blared 
through the broken windows as he packed what 
canned and dried food he had, matches, batteries, and 
the few bottles of water from the refrigerator whose 
door was left swung open letting chilled but unlit air 
into the brown hazed room. Mulder made his way to 
the door, full pack over his shoulders. He cursed 
himself and went back into his bedroom and 
rummaged through the closet until he came upon a 
fireproof safe. Quickly entering the combination he 
pulled out the items contained; now useless cash, a 
folded piece of paper and two silver chains. Shoving 
the contents into his front jean pocket he left his 
apartment without a second glance, without shutting 
the door. 

Stepping outside the sirens wailed loudly as Mulder 
made his way to his car. The street was flooded with 
panicked drivers, heading no where and anywhere. 
He guided his car, as best he could, out onto the side 
streets and floored the gas pedal ignoring the earth as 
it shook, ignoring the sky that had turned dull and 
thick, but most of all ignoring his thoughts. 
 
"Scully!" Mulder called as he pounded on the door. 
After no answer he pulled out his keys letting himself 
in. He stepped into the apartment and looked around. 
"Scully?" He made his way to her bedroom stepping 
over broken lamps, nick-knacks, and other debris. 
Walking into her room he saw her, laying on her bed, 
which had collapsed, a small trickle of blood fell 
from her forehead that was resting against the leg of 
her night table. "Scully?" He kneeled beside her and 
touched her cheek. 

She gasped as her eyes flew open.

"It's ok. It's me."

Scully cringed and pressed the heel of her hand to her 
forehead.

"You ok?" Mulder asked as he helped her sit up. 

"Yeah I think so." She looked around in awe. All she 
remembered was waking up to a loud bang then the 
ground seeming to fall from under her. "What 
happened?" 

Mulder was silent for a moment. "The inevitable." 

Scully's jaw went slack as she took in the sirens, the 
shaking ground, the haze in the air, and the 
indescribable expression on Mulder's face. She 
slowly shook her head. "No." It came out more of a 
sob then a word. "No. I'm dreaming. This isn't 
happening." 

Mulder took her face in his hands and met her eyes. 
"It's happening. I need you to listen to me, Scully. 
Ok?" She nodded quickly not knowing what else to 
do. "Ok you need to get dressed, we have to leave 
now. Where's your hiking bag?" Her jaw worked for 
a moment as she tried to speak. "Scully, focus, where 
is it?"

She cleared her throat. "Hall closet." 

He nodded and helped her stand. "You need to get 
dressed." He left without another word. After pulling 
the bag from the closet he tore open her cabinets 
dropping in anything useful. More cans of food, bags 
of rice and pasta, bread mixes, bottled water, any 
food he could find that wouldn't spoil quickly, a 
small pot, some utensils. 

He turned to Scully as she walked out, still in a daze. 
He took her arm and brought her back into the 
bedroom dropping the bag onto the slanted bed and 
picking up her gun to pack. "Clothes, Scully." She 
nodded and walked to her closet handing him pairs of 
jeans, shirts, an extra pair of shoes; dependable multi 
use clothes like the ones they both wore and Mulder 
had packed for himself. 

"I have some blankets." She mumbled pulling a few 
fleece blankets from the shelf in her closet. Just as 
Mulder shoved them into the overflowing bag the 
room shook. They braced themselves in the doorway. 

"The siren stopped." Scully whispered after a 
moment. 

Mulder nodded and pulled her out of the room. 
"Flashlights? Batteries?" He was about to go on but 
Scully held up a hand for him to stop and pulled open 
a drawer. She dropped the items in question along 
with a lighter and a small army knife. She walked 
into the bathroom with some medicine bottles, soap 
and a few other things. She pulled the bag on as they 
walked towards the door. 

Scully turned before she stepped out of the door. 
"Wait, Mulder." She called as he was leaving. She 
ran to her desk and pulled a photo from a drawer and 
placed that in the bag also before they left the 
apartment. 

"Is your gas tank full?" 

"Yeah." They made their way to the car oblivious to 
the screaming people in the streets. 

"Ok let's drain it and we'll take my car." Scully 
nodded and unlocked the trunk for Mulder. He pulled 
out the gas can and sieved the gas into it as Scully 
opened her glove compartment. She pulled out 
another flashlight and her first aid kit. "Scully?" 
Mulder called as he capped the can.

"I'm ready." She called back and pulled the pack 
back on. Mulder lead her around to the back of the 
building to where he had left his car, thankfully no 
one had broken into it. Stowing the gathered items 
into the back seat they climbed in. Mulder made his 
way back out onto the road, which was cluttered with 
cars. 

"We aren't getting anywhere too soon." Scully 
whispered. She reached forward and flipped on the 
radio. Nothing came back but dead air. "Towers must 
be down." She mumbled as she continued to scan 
through the stations. All the way at the end of the dial 
a soft beep, beep-beep, bee-eep, beep came through. 
"Morse code." Scully flipped off the radio and sat 
back in her seat. 

Mulder glanced her way before turning onto a side 
street in an attempt to get away from the traffic. After 
some time they were on the highway. It was littered 
with cars, but they were able to do the speed limit. 

Finally taking a moment to look around they did. The 
sky looked foggy and dirty, like it was covered in 
damp dust. No clouds were visible. In the distance 
there were several red glowing areas from fires and 
explosions. Buildings were crumbling for the 
constant shaking of the ground. The pavement had 
even started to crack in some places. Everything was 
dark, no lights from the windows. The power went 
out hours ago. The sun had vanished behind the thick 
haze. Cars were pulled off the road. Hoards of people 
walked the roads. Once tall old trees lay on their 
sides. There was no wind. The air was heavy and 
still. Waiting.

Scully couldn't look anymore. She turned onto her 
side and curled herself up in the seat facing Mulder. 
She took in his expression. His jaw was clenched, his 
eyes alert, hands strong on the wheel. Determined. 
She closed her eyes and thought. For the first time 
since Mulder woke her she thought. Her mother, she 
was in San Diego visiting Charlie. She would worry. 
Bill. Where was he at sea right now? She couldn't 
think about that anymore. Her heart couldn't take it. 
She looked back at Mulder. "Where are we going?" 
She asked the dead silence of the car.

He glanced over at her and swallowed roughly. 
"Some where safe." He turned away from her. 
Scully didn't ask anymore questions. She didn't want 
to. She wanted to wake up in her bed, this being all a 
bad dream. The worse dream possible.

Mulder unconsciously slowly the car as he starred out 
the top of the windshield. Scully sat straight up and 
looked up as a large ship passed silently and slowly 
over them. Mulder clenched his jaw and pressed 
down hard on the gas petal. 

***
Scully woke as the car slowed to a stop. She sat up 
and looked around them. Mulder had pulled into a 
rest station on the highway. The soda machine had 
already been forced open but there was no one is 
sight. 

"I'm going to put the rest of the gas in the tank. Take 
a minute to walk around but be careful." He warned 
as he tucked his gun into the front of his jeans and 
stepped out of the car. 

Scully nodded even though he couldn't see her and 
stood on stiff legs. The air was cold from the lack of 
direct sun all day. She looked across at the rest 
station and spotted the area map. Pennsylvania, they 
were somewhere is Pennsylvania. Probably not very 
far on less then one tank of gas. Mulder touched her 
shoulder lightly as he walked by her and into the 
men's room, gun drawn. With a sigh Scully pulled 
her own gun out and walked into the bathroom. The 
room was almost pitch black save for the slight 
grayish light from the one window. Glancing around 
and under doors she put her gun away knowing she 
was alone. Emptying her bladder she almost laughed 
bitterly after noticing someone had taken all the toilet 
paper. She walked to the sink and stared at her dim 
reflection in the mirror. She looked tired, alone and 
scared. She was all of those things and more. 
Reaching down she flipped on the faucet already 
knowing nothing would come out. She caught the 
few drops that fell. 

"Scully?" His voice was full of concern.

"I'll be right out, Mulder." She called back. 
Pointlessly turning the faucet off she walked back out 
into the night. Mulder was leaning up against the car 
scanning the surrounding area when she walked out. 
"It's quiet." She stated as she got back into the car. 

Mulder nodded and looked around. "Too quiet." He 
started the car and pulled back onto the road only 
slightly dotted with other cars.

"What do you think They are doing?" 

He glanced at her and let out a breath before facing 
the road again. "Taking who they need and killing 
who they don't." 

Scully didn't ask for details. They both had their own 
ideas about who They would want, and why. And 
whom They didn't want and what they were doing to 
them. Realizing for the first time that she was hungry 
Scully reached for her bag. After passing Mulder a 
bottle of water and getting her own she pulled out a 
jar of peanut butter and bread, squished from being in 
the bag, but bread nonetheless. She made Mulder a 
sandwich and passed it over to him.

"You never told me you were a gourmet cook." 
Mulder commented with mock surprise.
Scully laughed softly appreciating his efforts to 
lighten the situation. When they had finished eating 
Scully looked over at Mulder. He was just as tired as 
she. "You want me to drive for a while?"

"No I'm ok."

"Maybe we should stop for the night and get some 
sleep." She tried again. 

"No I want to get as close as we can as soon as 
possible."

"Where are we going, Mulder?" She asked in a tone 
that meant she wanted the full answer. He shot her a 
quick glance and reached into his pocket. He handed 
her two silver charms each on their own lengthy 
chain. She held the chains up so that the charms 
dangled in the low light of the car. Two identical 
small stars swung in front of her eyes. "I don't 
understand. what are these?" 

"Our passports to the Nova Project. Put one on."

Still not understanding she pulled the long chain over 
her head, the charm hung low under her shirt, the 
cool metal tickling the sensitive skin between her 
breasts. He took the other from her hand and pulled it 
over his head and tucking it under his tee shirt. "Nova 
Project?"

He nodded and passes her the folded paper from his 
pocket. "About four years ago the gunmen found out 
about it, I don't know how. But they brought it to my 
attention. The project has been set up for years, 
preparing for when They came. While there were 
people working to help Them, there were people 
working to help us. I had to buy my way in of course. 
It's set up in Canada; They don't like the cool 
weather apparently. A system of tunnels have been 
built underground. Rooms are built, a water source, 
and a system of gardens and barns for farm animals 
on the surface. The growing season isn't long. but 
it's all planned out. Last I heard over a thousand 
people were expected when this happens, but who 
knows how long it will take for everyone to get 
there."

Scully stared at him in shock. "Mulder. how do you 
know that isn't all a load of crap?"

He looked at her soberly. "I don't. But it's better then 
nothing." 

Scully didn't say anything for a moment. "How do I 
work into this?" She asked softly.

Clearing his throat he looked at her for a long 
moment. "Scully. I wouldn't go with out you, I 
don't want to go without you."

She was silent for sometime. "Why didn't you tell me 
about all this?"

Mulder let out a laugh. "Scully you would have told 
me I was crazy. You probably still think that. But it 
doesn't matter, this is better then sitting in our ruined 
apartments waiting for Them to come and kill us isn't 
it?"

She nodded quickly then leaned back in her seat 
pulling the charm out examining it. "It's actually very 
pretty." 

He smiled over at her. "Well it's a good thing 
because you can't take that off. If anyone sees you 
with it, if they are also a member of Nova they have 
to help you, and vise versa."
She stared at it another moment before placing it 
back under her shirt. 

Day 2
Mulder pressed his lips together with an annoyed 
smile as Scully bit her lip waiting. 

"Come on Bessie, just a little more!" Mulder cheered 
to the car as it slowly rolled down the road. 

"You've named your car Bessie?" Scully asked with 
astonishment.

He nodded. "Yeah about four seconds ago." The car 
finally stopped. Mulder sighed. "Well that was over 
four hundred miles we don't have to walk." He 
looked around the deserted street. "Slide over here 
Scully, I'm going to push us down into the trees 
some. We'll stay here and get some sleep. I think we 
should be ok." He stepped out of the car and into the 
cool hazy air. 

Scully slid over and steered the car until is was 
covered in brush. 

Mulder struggled to get back in, cursing at a branch. 
Once he sat down Scully passed him a blanket as she 
reclined her chair and settled on her side facing him. 
He copied her actions and reached out, tucking a 
strand of hair behind her ear. "You doing ok?"

She let out a humorless laugh. "Oh yeah wonderful." 

He smiled sadly and pulled his hand away. "Get some 
sleep."

She closed her eyes and nodded. "You too."

"Mmm Hmm." He mumbled already half way there.
 

Mulder woke quickly to a tapping sound on his 
window. He opened his eyes quickly and glanced at 
Scully, she was sleeping soundly. He jumped when 
he looked towards his window. "Sir." He said 
surprised to see Skinner standing in the brush beside 
the car. "How did you find us?" Skinner didn't 
answer. Mulder jumped again when a tapping came 
at Scully's window. He turned to see Maggie Scully 
looking down at him. He turned to the front to see the 
Lone Gunmen standing at the hood of the car. 
"Scully." He said softly trying to wake her. Glancing 
in the rearview mirror he saw four of the guys he 
played basketball with on Saturdays. They all began 
tapping on the windows. 

 
Mulder jerked upright. His hard breathing the only 
sound other then the wind pushing the brush 
surrounding the car with soft taps. 

"Shh. Mulder it's ok. Just a dream." Scully soothed 
placing a hand on the back of his neck.

Mulder let out a long breath and leaned forward 
placing his face in his hands. 

"What was it about?" She passed him a bottle of 
water.

After taking a long drink he looked up at her with 
pained eyes. "Everyone we left behind." He leaned 
back against the door and shook his head. "I'm so 
sorry Scully. I didn't even ask if you wanted to 
come with me." 

Scully squeezed his knee lightly. "Mulder of course I 
would have come with you. I had no place else to 
go." She finished in a sad whisper. Mulder placed his 
hand over hers and leaned back with his eyes closed. 

"You want to get moving?"

Opening his eyes he sat up and nodded. "Yeah, we've 
got a hell of a lot of walking to do. Rest of 
Pennsylvania, all of New York and some of Canada." 

They both got out of the car and pulled on their bags. 
"How long do you think it will take?" 

"Maybe two months, depending." He said as they 
walked up to the road. "Come on, it'll be easier on 
the pavement."

Scully was silent lost in her thoughts for some time. 
"Is it safe up here?"

He looked around. "I think so. Let's just keep our 
eyes out. We need to stay with the roads so I can use 
the map."
 

They walked for hours, side by side, in the dark haze, 
in the silence, listening for anything until Mulder 
stopped and steered Scully to the side of the road. 
"Let's take a break, I'm staving."

Scully fell gratefully to the ground. Running three 
miles four times a week for the past two years did not 
have her prepared for this. She stretched her legs out 
into front of her and lay back against her pack. 
Mulder sat beside her and pulled open his pack, 
tossing an orange at her. She peeled away the skin 
and rolled on her side to look at Mulder. He was 
watching down the road suspiciously. Scully 
followed his line of vision and saw a family of four 
walking up the road towards them. Scully looked 
back down at her orange. 

Whenever they would come across other people they 
would never make eye contact. After glancing for a 
Nova pendent they would act like they weren't there. 
Scully bit into a piece of orange and fiddled with her 
necklace. Just a few days ago she would be fingering 
her gold cross, but that now that lay against her 
collarbone all but forgotten. They both finished 
eating before the family walked by. Scully struggled 
to look away from the small boy holding his father's 
hand. She kept her eyes down cast until they were 
just little dots on the horizon. 

Mulder cleared his throat and held a hand for her 
after standing. Giving him a weak smile she let him 
pull her to her feet. "Better get moving."

***
Mulder and Scully sat back staring at the fire of their 
makeshift camp after a dinner of bread and a can of 
green beans. Scully tucked the bread back into her 
bag and looked up at Mulder. "We aren't going to 
have enough food."

"I know." 

Scully watched him for a moment before sighing and 
pulling the pot of warm water out of the fire. "I'm 
going to clean up." He nodded absentmindedly. She 
turned, but stayed close to the fire and started to strip 
off her clothes, only leaving the bare minimum on. 
Dipping a small towel into the warmed water she 
washed away the sweat of walking all day carrying a 
heavy bag with the knowledge of Mulder's eyes on 
her back. She slowly dressed in clean clothes and 
turned back to Mulder who adverted his eyes. 
"There's still half left." She held back a smile as she 
passed him the pot and towel.

"Thanks." He mumbled. Not bothering to turn away 
he stripped down to his boxers. Scully tried not to 
watch as he washed himself but she was fascinated 
by the way the fire played off of his skin. Mulder 
looked up at her and refrained from smirking as she 
quickly looked away. Silently cursing herself Scully 
laid down two of the blankets as a cushion and pulled 
out the other three. Mulder redressed and added more 
wood to the fire. 

Scully looked up at him sheepishly. "We should 
share, it'll be warmer."

He grinned. "Finally! It's rained sleeping bags." With 
a sigh he settled down next to her and bunched up 
two shirts for them to use as pillows. 

Scully smiled and shook her head as she lay back 
between the fire and Mulder's body. Immediately she 
was warmed and felt sleep beckoning. Everything 
was quiet; the only sounds were their breathing, the 
crackling fire and the calls of small animals. Scully 
drifted close to sleep when an explosion and a burst 
of light lit the sky. They both sat upright. "What are 
They doing?" Scully asked softly.

Mulder shook his head and looked around the sky. "I 
don't know. Doesn't sound too close though." He 
reached over and placed a hand on Scully's stomach 
pushing her back down against the blankets, he left 
his hand there and rolled onto his side. Two more 
explosions followed quickly, sounding further away. 
After a few long moments of silence Mulder gently 
rubbed Scully's stomach. "Get some sleep." They lay 
awake for a few hours more in silence before finally 
drifting off.

Day 3
Mulder woke feeling the sun on his face. Opening his 
eyes he could actually see the blue sky instead on a 
brown haze for the first time in days. He rolled on his 
side to tell Scully. He couldn't help but smile. She 
was curled up on her side, blankets wrapped around 
her and looking utterly innocent. Deciding not to 
wake her yet he climbed out of `bed' and looked 
around for a fairly flat rock. Cleaning one side with 
water he dropped into in the hot embers from last 
night's fire to let it heat. He then dug through their 
bags and pulled out the four left over pieces of bread 
and a can of pineapple chunks which he opened with 
his army knife. 

Sensing movement Scully woke up. "Mulder?" She 
called softly as she rolled over to look towards the 
fire.

"I'm here. Just making breakfast." He placed the 
bread on the hot rock. "The sky cleared." He nodded 
upward. 

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah it did." She 
started to fold up the blankets and passed Mulder a 
bottle of water. "We're almost out."

He nodded and flipped the bread over with a fork as 
he passed her the can of fruit. "According to the map 
we should intersect with a stream late today, it's set 
up so we walk along water most of the time." He 
passed her two hot pieces of bread. "Toast my lady."

She smiled around a piece of pineapple. "Now look 
who is the gourmet chef." 

***
Scully poked at the fire with a long stick when 
Mulder draped a blanket over her shoulders and sat 
beside her. "It's cold by the water." He said 
absentmindedly. Looking over at her he rubbed her 
back lightly. "You ok Scully?"

She looked at him with a small smile. "Yeah." She 
pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on 
them, still looking at him. 

Mulder tipped his head to the side, copying her 
stature, and tucked her hair behind her ear. Scully's 
eyes closed at the contact. Placing his palm around 
her jaw he stroked her cheekbone with his thumb. 
She leaned into his touch. After a moment Mulder 
laid back against the already spread blankets pulling 
Scully with him. He tucked her securely against his 
chest with her back to the fire. Pulling the other 
blankets over both of them he stroked her back 
lightly. With a contented sigh Scully fell asleep 
wrapped in his arms. Sensing she had fallen asleep 
Mulder rolled her away from him slightly so he could 
see her face. With the back of his fingers he stroked 
her cheek. Then traced her lips with the tip if his 
finger. She stirred slightly and opened her eyes 
sleepily. Mulder leaned down and kissed her 
forehead for a long heartbeat then tucked her head 
under his chin before she could see the thoughts in 
his eyes. The fear. The fear that maybe the Nova 
Project was in fact a hoax. Then what? Where would 
they go? How would he make it up to her? Dragging 
her a thousand miles through dangerous land. Who 
knew what would happen? Who knew where They 
were waiting? Maybe They wouldn't even bother 
them. Maybe They didn't need them, didn't care 
about them. But even if They didn't bother them 
there were people out there, desperate people who 
would do anything to find food for their loved ones. 
Would do anything to ensure their safety, their future. 
Mulder knew. He was one of those desperate people. 

Day 5
Scully rubbed her face with her hands as she sat 
down and watched Mulder gather things to make a 
fire before it became too dark. Usually she would 
help, but today they stopped walking early and went 
slow the whole day. Scully silently cursed herself. 
She had gotten her period. It didn't surprise her; it 
was actually a few days late. She felt woozy and 
heavy limbed. Her body couldn't handle the constant 
walking, the decrease in food and blood loss. It 
wasn't even bad this month, but too many factors 
were against her. All she wanted to do was curl up 
next to the fire and sleep for a few days.

Mulder got the fire going well and added some large 
pieces of wood before sitting behind Scully slightly. 

He placed his hands on her shoulders and gently 
massaged away the tension of carrying the heavy 
pack all day. 

"You gonna tell me what's going on?" 

Scully leaned back into his hands. "It's nothing 
really."

"Nothing has you pale and tired?" He pressed gently.

She let out a long breath. "Woman problems." 

"Ahh. I understand now." He continued to relax her 
muscles. 

"I'm sorry I'm slowing us down." She mumbled after 
a few moments.

Mulder's hands stopped and he took her chin in one 
hand and turned her to look at him. "You are not 
slowing us down." He turned her whole body around 
so her back was against the fire. "We'll take it easy 
for another few days and then make up that time. 
Summer is almost here so the days will be longer; 
we'll walk more then. Ok?" 

She nodded and tucked herself against his chest. 

"Oh, Scully." He whispered in a heartbroken tone as 
he wrapped himself around her small body. He 
pressed his lips to her temple and ran his hand 
through her hair as she relaxed into his safe embrace. 
The fact that she let him hold her like this said a lot 
about the situation. They were both tired, aching, and 
most of all scared. 

"Mulder?" She mumbled against his neck.

"Mmm?" He nuzzled the hair at her temple just 
wanting to bury himself in her warmth and comfort. 

"You think They will come for me? They can track 
me with the chip." 

He pulled her head from his neck, cradling her face 
with his hands. "No. They wont. They already took 
everything They want from you, it won't happen 
again." 

She gave him a strained smile. "We don't know 
anything for sure." She dropped her weight back into 
his arms and closed her eyes. 

Day 7
"You know what I want?" Scully asked 
conversationally as they walked the road, sun beating 
down strongly. 

"A half pound cheese burger, fries, potato salad and a 
beer." He supplied quickly, his mind obviously on the 
same track.

She nodded thoughtfully. "Actually I wanted some 
sea food Alfredo and a glass of white wine, but I 
could settle for that instead." 

Mulder stopped walking and squinted into the 
horizon. "Hey Scully, is that a gas station."

"Well. maybe once." She said when she saw a small 
building all but collapsed. 

Mulder reached over and tugged her arm. "Let's go 
check it out, maybe it hasn't been completely cleaned 
out yet."

Scully quickly nodded, glad for a change of plan. 
"Watch out for the glass Mulder." She called once 
they came to the building. But Mulder was already 
occupied with searching the remains for anything 
useful. She couldn't help but smile at him. He looked 
like a little boy on an Easter egg hunt. Looking down 
she toed through the crumbled wall and shelving 
debris that covered a small area of land, only one 
wall was still standing. 

"I found some canned food." Mulder called over as 
he shoved three cans of tuna and a can of beans into 
his bag. "There's still some stuff here, it's just 
buried."

Scully nodded and picked up a crushed box of 
crackers, a large box of raisins and a few other items. 
They poked around for at least an hour collecting 
odds and ends. Including two cartoons of cigarettes 
Mulder said they could probably trade something for 
at some point.

"Man its hot today." Mulder looked up at the sky; it 
was just turning mid afternoon. "I think we should 
call it quits early."

Scully shrugged. "If you want. We can take 
advantage of the warm weather and wash some 
clothes, that way they'll be dry before we pack up in 
the morning."

He nodded and they walked away from the station in 
case anyone else walked by and went looking 
through. They stopped at a lightly treed area in front 
of a wide shallow part of a stream. Scully kneeled by 
the edge with the pile of dirty clothes next to her and 
a bar of soap in one hand as Mulder leaned a few 
long branches up against a tree. As Scully washed 
each article of clothing he hung it up in the sun to 
dry, everything very close by incase anyone came by 
and decided to try to go shopping at their makeshift 
clothesline. After a moment's thought Scully stripped 
down to her black panties and dark gray tank so wore 
as a bra -she quickly realized that anything with a 
wire was not comfortable in this new lifestyle- and 
washed the clothing she wore that day. Mulder 
stripped to his boxers and as she finished washing the 
clothes he walked out into the water, barely reaching 
his waist and fell straight back into the cool water. 

Sully laughed at him when he reemerged and tossed 
him the bar of soap as she hung the wet clothes up. 

Cringing she stepped into water. 

"Oh it's not that bad." Mulder teased and handed her 
the soap as he stepped out clean and freshly shaven. 

"It's freezing!" She whined. 

He laughed at her and sat back on a blanket after 
changing out of his wet boxers and into dry ones, 
which were the only thing that wasn't wet. 

Scully focused on washing herself, trying to erase the 
image of Mulder's bare backside that was now 
burned into her mind. She worked slowly enjoying 
the opportunity to really get clean. She sat down and 
dipped her head in, lathering her hair and washing it 
for the first time in days. After rinsing off she sat 
back for a moment and relaxed, pretending she was 
in her bath with scented bubbles and a glass of wine 
in her hand. After her third shiver and stood and 
walked over to where Mulder was sitting next to the 
small fire. 
He tossed one of his tee shirts at her. "I left that for 
you to change into."

"Thanks." She said walking over to hang up the 
clothes she pulled off. She could practically feel 
Mulder's eyes on her skin as she shed her wet tank 
and panties. She pulled his shirt over her head and 
almost laughed when it fell to her knees. Walking 
back over to the fire she placed a few cleaned flat 
rocks in the fire and then a few on the sides, building 
small walls. She found a large rock to fit over the top 
then dug through her bag for a box of corn bread mix. 
She stirred a small amount with water then dropped 
two globs on to the warmed rocks and placed the 
large one on top creating a makeshift oven. 

Mulder clapped his hands together. "A job worthy of 
Indian guide status."

Scully smiled proudly and laid back on the blanket 
next to Mulder letting the sun warm her cooled skin. 
Mulder looked down at her from where he sat and 
reached over tugging the shirt down her thighs 
slightly. 

"Showing some skin there, Scully."

She looked over at him with raised brows. Reaching 
over she took his hand in hers, interlocking their 
fingers. With a small tug she pulled him over so he 
lay on his side, holding himself up on either side of 
her on his elbows. He looked down at her with a 
confused/intrigued expression. With a small sigh 
Scully reached up and flicked the Nova charm and 
watched it swing. One moment with would shine in 
the sunlight, the next it would go dark from Mulder's 
shadow. It looked like a real star twinkling in the sky. 
"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. How I wonder what 
you are. Up above the world so high. Like a diamond 
in the sky. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. How I 
wonder what you are." She murmured still watching 
the necklace. "First star of the night."

Mulder smiled down at her and pulled her own 
necklace out from under her shirt. "Go ahead and 
wish." He whispered. 

She bit her lower lip in thought for a moment before 
meeting his eyes. "Can I take a rain check?"

He gave her half a smile and nodded. "Of course."

"What about you? Any wishes?" She asked swinging 
the charm once again.

Nodding slowly he said, "A few."

"Care to share?"

He gave a shy smile. "Not just yet." They were quiet 
for a moment, Scully swinging his charm, him 
stroking the front of her neck with his thumb. "A star 
is the perfect charm for you." He said out of the blue. 

She tipped her head quizzically. "That's what you 
are. A star, beautiful, bright, strong and out of reach."

"I'm not out of reach Mulder." She whispered. They 
locked eyes for a moment, just watching each other. 

Scully wrapped her hand around the chain of his 
necklace and pulled gently bringing his lips down to 
hers. 

The touch was soft, warm, gentle. Mulder pulled 
back slightly and changed angles, pressing again in 
the same way. After a long moment he pulled away 
ever so slightly, his lips still resting against hers but 
without pressure. Together they met for another kiss, 
this one open, tongues taking soft tastes of each 
other. 

The kiss lasted a moment before Mulder pulled away 
and pressed his face into her neck, Scully's hand still 
clutching the chain. 

Day 10
Mulder paused where they were on the road and 
pulled out the map. "We have to take this next exit 
coming up. We'll be off the water for at least a day 
and a half so we better go fill up our water bottles." 

Scully yawned and stretched as she nodded and 
followed him down to the water. 

"You want to camp here for the night?" He asked 
over his shoulder after her yawn.

"No, we've cut too many days short. Might as well 
keeping going." 

Mulder shrugged noncommittally and flipped his bag 
off his shoulders to pull out the empty water bottles. 

Scully sighed and sat at the edge of the water, tucking 
her legs under herself. Mulder passed her the bottles. 

A slight cracking sound, nothing more then a twig 
breaking in the trees behind them, and Mulder spun 
with his gun drawn. Scully turned, still crouched on 
the ground, pulling her gun from her side. "Drop it." 
Mulder said calmly to the middle aged man standing 
partly behind a tree with a knife. It was nothing more 
then the kind used to cut vegetables, and it was 
nothing compared to two guns. The man just starred 
at both of them. 

Mulder scanned the thin trees for anyone else but he 
appeared to be alone. "I said drop it. Now." With a 
glare the stranger dropped his knife. "Now kick it 
over to me." Mulder bent to pick up the knife without 
breaking eye contact with the man and tossed it into 
the stream. "Now get the fuck out of here before I 
shoot you." The man turned, the sound of branches 
breaking echoed back. Mulder holstered his gun and 
turned to Scully, placing a hand on the back of her 
sunburned neck. "Almost ready?" 

She nodded and splashed some cool water on her 
face. She was getting worried, this wasn't the first 
run in they had with someone trying to rob them. So 
far their guns had gotten them out of it, and keeping a 
fire burning all night kept people away. It had 
worked, so far.
 
Part 2
Day 13
Scully arched her neck to the side as Mulder nibbled 
the corner of her jaw, his hands running up and down 
her sides slowly. This had become a nightly ritual; 
they would kiss softly by the fire, lips always staying 
above their collars, hands caressing gently over 
clothes. Mulder pressed his palm over her breast. 
Scully tilted her head to the side to meet him for a 
kiss as he rubbed his thumb over her nipple. She 
murmured slightly against his lips. Mulder moved his 
mouth to her ear and suckled her lobe. With great 
courage he slipped his hand under her shirt and 
caressed her bare belly. After a few moments his 
hand traveled upward and stroked the smooth 
underside of her breast. Scully's breathing hitched. 
Mulder pulled his face away from her neck and 
looked at her face, her eyes were closed and lips 
parted invitingly. After pressing a long kiss to her he 
slipped his hand over her breast, his fingers brushing 
her pebbled nipple and kneaded softly. 
Scully caught a moan in her throat. 

"Don't hold back, Scully." Mulder whispered as he 
kneaded harder. "Let me know what you like."

She bit her lower lip but let out another moan. 
Satisfied with her response Mulder suckled her neck 
softly as he ran his thumb over her nipple. After 
another moment Scully began to tense. 

"Mulder." She whispered signaling she was 
uncomfortable just by the tone. 

Mulder shifted and nuzzled her temple as he slid his 
hand away from her. He pulled the blankets over 
them and let her get comfortable before his placed his 
hand under her shirt again, only against her stomach. 

"Thank you." She whispered against his neck.

"For what?"

"For not rushing anything."

Mulder smiled against her hair. "I've loved you for 
seven years, I can wait for this as long as necessary."

She nuzzled his neck. "I love you too."

Day 14
Scully kicked at a stone as they walked. Mulder was 
a step behind her and watched as she walked side to 
side on the street to fallow the stone. She was acting 
like a little girl who's mother dragged her to the 
museum, finding anything else to hold her attention. 

"Scully. you keep that up you'll be tired before 
noon." He called with a smile to where Scully had 
stopped at the corner of the road. 

"Hey Mulder. Is that a baby?" She asked pointing 
to a small object sitting on the edge of the grass thirty 
feet away. 

They walked slowly up to the bundle. 

"Oh my God!" Scully took a step to pick up the 
sleeping baby when Mulder grabbed her arm to stop 
her. 

She took a step away from him expecting him to let 
her arm go. "Mulder, let me go."

He shook his head as he scanned the surrounding tree 
line. "No. Come on, Scully." He tugged firmly to 
bring her back onto the road.

"Mulder. We can't just leave the baby here." She 
tugged her arm.

Mulder tugged back, only harder, sending Scully to 
step closer to his chest. "Scully, leave it. Walk away."
She looked up at him with angry tears swimming in 
her eyes. "What the fuck is wrong with you? It's a 
BABY Mulder."

He let his hand slide down until it circled her wrist, 
still tightly. "Scully. Please. Just come with me." 
He whispered softly as his eyes screamed for her to 
trust him. 

Scully gave the baby a long look as Mulder tugged 
her away. They walked in a tense silence for some 
time before the baby began to cry. Scully turned 
quickly. "Mulder. I can't." Scully trailed off as 
she saw a man and woman come out from behind the 
trees to retrieve the `bait' they left out. Scully 
swallowed roughly as the mother picked the child up 
and cooed softly. Letting out a long breath she placed 
her hand over her eyes. "I'm so stupid." She 
whispered. 

Mulder pulled her back in the direction they were 
headed before speaking. "You aren't stupid." He 
wrapped his arm over her shoulders. "You are a 
naturally caring and giving person. I would have 
done the same thing, but I saw something move in the 
trees and put two and two together." He paused for a 
moment trying to organize his thoughts. He stopped 
and turned her toward him. "I wouldn't leave a baby, 
Scully." 

"I know." She said quickly. Scully didn't say 
anything else, just hung her head slightly as she 
silently cursed herself. Excepting that the world had 
changed so much was close to impossible. Not being 
able to even think about trusting anyone but Mulder 
was hard. Not speaking to anyone other then Mulder 
was starting to make her feel alienated. She could 
feel herself fighting a bought of depression. 

Day 16
Scully lay on her back, head turned as she looked 
unseeing into the flames. With a sigh Mulder lay on 
his side beside her and pulled the blankets over them 
to keep out the damp chill of night. Running the back 
of his fingers down her cheek he asked her; "What's 
wrong?"

She gave a little shrug, honestly not knowing. 

Wrapping an arm around her waist he tugged her 
closer to him and burrowed his face into her neck as 
he stroked her side softly. Pulling herself from her 
thoughts Scully turned her head and kissed Mulder 
deeply, cupping his cheek with her palm. She pulled 
away after a moment and ran her thumb over his 
bottom lip. 

Her eyes closed in contentment as Mulder pushed his 
hand under her sweatshirt, then slowly under the 
band of her sweat pants. He paused, just gently 
combing his fingers through her course hair. She 
began to swallow convulsively as his fingers moved 
to brush lower. Mulder lowered his head and suckled 
the curve of her throat for a moment before 
whispering in her ear. "I want to touch you." She let 
out a breathy gasp and licked her dry lips. "Can I 
touch you Scully?" He asked licking at her ear lobe.

"Yes." She whispered. Mulder smiled against her 
neck and slipped his hand lower cupping her sex 
possessively. Scully let her eyes close and focused on 
enjoying Mulder's touch. His fingers gently found 
her bundle of nerves and massaged with a gentle 
pressure, that for some reason didn't surprise Scully, 
was perfect. "Just like that." She encouraged softly. 
"Don't change." Mulder kissed her neck to show he 
understood and that's when Scully began to imagine. 
Pretending that they weren't in the middle of no 
where Pennsylvania. That it wasn't a chilly forty 
degrees. But that they were lying in her warm bed 
with soft cotton sheets. That Mulder was touching her 
in the most intimate way after a romantic candle lit 
dinner at a fine restaurant, not after a dinner of plain 
rice. That she was dressed in her light blue silk 
camisole, and Mulder in a pair of black silk boxers, 
not dirty sweats to keep the chill out. Stuck in her 
fantasy Scully felt a steady release building in her 
body. With as much focus as she could muster she 
shoved her hand into Mulder's sweatpants and 
grasped his erection. His guttural cry didn't disturb 
her imaginary world as she continued to stroke him 
firmly, edging on painfully. The orgasm that flooded 
Scully's senses did not distract her from her search 
for Mulder's release. In the moments following her, 
Mulder moaned as his body released. Both fighting 
for a good breath they lay close together, Scully still 
lost in her own world. Where she and Mulder were 
going to fall asleep warm and safe in her apartment 
and wake in the morning to a satisfying breakfast and 
a life that, even with it's difficulties, she desperately 
wished she could return to. 

Day 17
Mulder turned to Scully with his arms wide open, 
displaying the land surrounding the road, a proud grin 
on his face. "Welcome to New York, Scully." He 
called exuberantly. 

Scully shook her head with a smile and walked 
towards him, plucking the map from his fingers. 
Unfolding it Mulder placed a hand on her back to 
guide her while she frowned at the wearing paper. 
"We sill have a hell of a way to go."

Unfazed, Mulder paid little attention to her.

Still frowning Scully glanced behind her. "Have you 
noticed that everyone we have passed the last few 
days as been going in the opposite direction of us?"

"Yeah. They are probably moving to a milder 
climate for when winter comes."

Scully was silent for a moment. "What are we going 
to do if Nova is a fake?"

Not meeting her eyes, "We'll turn around." 

Although the idea was having to back track was 
unappealing Scully wasn't going to pass up the 
chance to see Nova. She knew if she told Mulder she 
didn't want to continue, if she said she thought they 
should turn around and settle someplace else he 
would. But that would mean crushing all the hopes he 
had for them. A life when life was meant to be 
destroyed. A way to live when everything was meant 
to die. 

Day 19
Slack jawed Scully looked at the land in front of 
them. As far as they could see the land looked turned 
inside out. Debris of buildings, trees, cars, even 
people lay mixed with the earth. The road they 
needed to follow was lost amongst the chaos. 
"Mulder." 

Cursing under his breath Mulder turned away and 
rubbed his face with his hands. 

"Mulder?" She asked softly and took a step toward 
him. She could almost feel the tension and anger 
radiate from him. "Hey." Reaching out she placed a 
hand on his arm trying to bring him back to her. 

"Fuck!" Mulder hissed and spun around. Scully 
jumped away from him on reflex. He looked at her 
heartbroken that she pulled away. "I'm sorry Scully." 
He took two steps toward her and lightly took her 
hand in his. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's ok." She closed the space between them and 
leaned her forehead against his shoulder for a 
moment. 

"Now what?" She asked lifting her head to find him 
scanning the horizon.

Pulling the hand he still held in his grasp. "We go 
around."

"Go around? Mulder we don't know how far off we 
are going to have to go."

He turned to her with a frown. "What do you suggest 
we do Scully?" He held his arm out toward the 
disaster they were walking by. "We certainly can't 
walk through this." The anger was evident in his 
voice. 

"You want to turn around? Go someplace else? So 
that one night we'll be sitting by the fire and then 
poof! You'll be gone or dead and then what? Huh? 
What do I do then?!" He dropped her hand a turned 
away from her once again, breathing heavily and 
choking on tears. 

Scully placed her hand on his shoulder. "I'm not 
leaving you Mulder."

"You said it yourself Scully; we don't know anything 
for sure." He still would not look at her. 

Letting out a long breath she leaned forward and 
nuzzled his upper arm. "I know, for sure, that I want 
to do anything possible to ensure that I won't be 
leaving you. And if that means we have to walk 
around this, whether it's a mile or five hundred miles, 
I will do it." Picking her head up from him she turned 
him toward her and held his face in her hands so that 
he looked at her. "I don't want to fight with you. We 
are both getting frustrated and we're tired. Let's just 
keep going. As much as I hate to admit it we don't 
have a choice."

Looking both ways around their obstacle Mulder 
asked; "Which way?"

She shrugged. "Right?"

He nodded. "Sounds good." Taking her hand once 
again he pulled her to the right. 

Day 21
Scully idly watched Mulder's back as they walked 
along the rough ground. The bright sun reflected off 
his skin making it a challenge to continue. With 
aching eyes she turned to the disaster they paralleled. 
She paused her walking and studied the land.

Not hearing her footsteps Mulder stopped and turned. 
"Scully? You taking a break or just like the view?" 

He gestured toward the turned up earth and the 
remnants of houses.

Squinting, she pointed to the horizon. "Can you see 
where the ground is normal? Or I am hallucinating?" 

Mulder stepped behind her and crouched to her eye 
line. "I think you are right. Wanna try to cross here?"
Stretching her arms over her head she nodded. 
"Might as well give it a try."
	

They walked in a silent concentration. Carefully 
testing even ground and steering away from debris as 
well as possible. Although they had more time to 
think then either thought possible they barely did. It 
was odd how quickly they forgot everything about 
the past. They would see things that should have 
reminded them of the past but it wouldn't even cross 
their minds. It was useless, that was a different time, 
a different life, and a different world. Nothing existed 
but the present. 

"Oh gross." Mulder said with disgust after walking 
for at least fifteen minutes. 

Scully looked up from the ground for a spilt second 
to glance at him at her side. "Problem?"

"No. I just stepped in something."

"What?"

"I don't know and I have no desire to."

Scully laughed softly before they stopped at a drop 
off seven feet. "Well. this is unfortunate." She said 
grimly.

Chuckling, Mulder carefully hopped down, wavering 
on the landing. After graining his balance he held his 
arms up to Scully. "Come on jump, I'll catch you."

She snorted. "Yeah right." Reaching down she took 
his hands in hers and slide down. 

Mulder steadied her with his hands on her waist. 
"Told you." Smiling smugly he turned and walked 
on.

"That was barely a jump, Mulder." 

He glanced over his shoulder at her. "I'm sorry I 
couldn't hear what you said." Before she had a 
chance to repeat what she knew he heard he began to 
whistle. 

With a smile she shook her head and took a few large 
steps to be at his side. "Why I put up with you I'll 
never know."

Throwing his arm over her shoulders he spoke matter 
of factly. "Because you love me." Beaming he leaned 
over and kissed her cheek then continued to pull her 
along. 

Day 24
Mulder frowned down at the map, looked up at the 
road they had met with, back down at the map, again 
at the road, and for good measure back at the map 
once again.

Rolling her eyes Scully plucked the map from his 
hand. "There's no way to tell if this is the right road 
is there?" 

"Well we should follow it about five miles and if we 
come to a stream we have the right road. If we 
don't. well we don't." 

Scully passed the map back to him with distaste. 
"Sounds fun." 

"That's the spirit!" Mulder exclaimed throwing an 
arm over her shoulders to pull her down the road with 
him. 

 
Mulder tossed a few large pieces of wood into the 
fire and sat down by Scully. She turned to him with a 
thoughtful expression and ran her fingertips over his 
four-day beard. "Will you shave for me?" She asked 
softly. 

Mulder couldn't keep the smile from crossing his 
lips. Nodding he grabbed his bag and pulled out the 
soap and a razor as Scully brought over the pot of 
water.

"Can I do it?" She asked after a moment's hesitation. 
He grinned fully this time and handed over the items 
then sat back on his hands with his legs out in front 
of him. Scully sat down on his thighs. "I'll be 
careful." She said as she worked up a thick lather in 
her hands. 

"I'm not worried." He said truthfully. 

She gave him a small smile and spread the lather over 
his face. He turned and angled his head helpfully as 
she moved about his face. Wiping her hands on a 
towel she picked up the razor and bit her lip in 
thought. Tipping his chin with her thumb her first 
shaved his neck. He lowered his head after she 
finished. Scully smiled at him. "This is fun." He 
laughed as she turned his face to one side. "Hold 
still." 

"Sorry." He mumbled as he started to caress her thigh 
with one of her hands, the other still supporting him. 
"But this is fun." 

Once done Scully wiped his face with a damp towel. 
"Viola." She sat back proudly.

Mulder rubbed a hand over his face, testing the 
closeness of the shave. "Good job Scully. You can 
shave me anytime." 

Smiling, Scully leaned forward and kissed him softly. 
He leaned back on both his hands as she wrapped her 
arms around his neck. "Want to go to bed?" He 
shrugged as best he could in his position. "Tired?" 
Glancing at her mouth he shook his head. 

He smiled smugly. "You can stop playing stupid 
Scully. I know why you wanted me to shave."
She silently thanked the night so Mulder couldn't see 
the extent of her blushing. Looking down she 
mumbled; "You don't have to."

He laughed then shook his head with a smile. Sitting 
upright he took her face in his hands. "Oh, Scully." 
He kissed her deeply for a moment before shifting, 
bringing them both down onto the spread blankets 
with her beneath him. His fingers quickly found the 
hem of her shirt and pushed under. He teased her ribs 
for a moment before caressing the undersides of her 
breasts. Becoming impatient Scully wiggled and 
pulled her shirt over her head then tugged Mulder's 
off, quickly pulling his lips back to hers. Mulder 
chuckled against her mouth as he pulled at the 
waistband of her pants. "Anxious, Scully?" He pulled 
away enough to fully pull off her pants. When she 
didn't answer he lay back against her and turned her 
face so she looked at him. 

"Don't be shy. I told you I want to know what you 
like."

She smiled weakly and nodded. 

He kissed her gently in reassurance once then moved 
slowly down her body. Spending long moments on 
each breast, tasting every inch of her body he could 
reach. When he came to her belly button he darted his 
tongue in and out massaging her thighs with his 
hands, slowly lifting them apart. Mustering her 
courage Scully buried her fingers in his hair. 
Encouraged, Mulder placed openmouthed kisses on 
the inside of her thighs feeling a slight quiver run 
through her body. Slowly and gently he worked his 
way to her center. With gentle kisses and strokes then 
with the help of his fingers she came moaning his 
name. He made his way back up her body and 
stroked back her hair as she reclaimed her breathing. 
Before she even opened her eyes Scully pushed down 
at Mulder's pants.

"Scully...?" 

Finally opening her eyes and smiled and pushed him 
onto his back. Mulder let out a laugh until she took 
him into her mouth. Working him with a strange 
familiarity it didn't take long before he moaned out 
her name. They both lay silent until the chill of the 
night caused them to shiver. Scully pulled on all her 
clothes while Mulder only mustered enough strength 
to pull up his sweat pants. Cuddling up against his 
chest Scully tucked the blankets around them to lock 
out the cold reality of the world around them. 

Day 28
Scully rolled away from Mulder after he gave her a 
little push. She quickly wrapped the blanket around 
herself to fight the chill as Mulder slowly eased off of 
the blankets and into the dark. Thinking nothing of it-
he often woke to add more wood to the fire-Scully 
settled herself to sleep again when she heard 
scuffling, grunts and a few cries of pain. She sat 
upright and looked out in the night with eyes 
struggling to focus with the dim orange light of the 
fire and the pale gray haze of the half moon. She 
picked Mulder out amongst the trees struggling with 
a man slightly larger then himself. Shoving the 
blankets aside Scully grabbed her gun and flicked off 
the safety. She looked up just in time to see another 
man barreling towards her. Without a second thought 
she raised her gun and shot him in the chest. The man 
fell with a dull thud. 

"Scully!" Mulder called while he struggled.

Lifting her eyes from the body a few feet in front of 
her she aimed her gun at the attacker. Crouching on 
her knees she followed the two trying to get a clear 
shot. Knowing this, Mulder ducked down and 
grabbed the man by the waist, trying to push him 
away from Scully. Focusing on the blonde haired 
man the best she could in the dark. The second 
gunfire echoed in the night and both men fell to the 
ground in a tangled heap. Scully jumped up from her 
spot on the ground. "Mulder?!"

He groaned and pushed at the body laying over him. 

"Are you ok?" She fell to her knees beside him. 

"No." He said softly. "He stabbed me."

"Oh God. Let me see." She leaned over to check 
him but he shifted away as he pressed his palm to his 
upper left arm. 

"Wait. Get rid of the bodies before animals catch the 
scent." He leaned his back against a tree trunk feeling 
woozy.

Frowning, Scully nodded and dragged both the 
bodies over to the stream. The water level was still 
high from spring and the current slowly but surely 
dragged the men down stream after she dragged them 
as close to the center as she was able. Ignoring the 
cold coming through her soaked sweatpants she knelt 
by Mulder again. He was leaning silently against a 
tree with his eyes closed and his hand still clamped to 
his arm. "Mulder? I need to you come over to the fire 
so I can look at you."

He opened his eyes slowly and Scully helped him 
stand on weak legs and sit again. 

"Is this blood all from you?" She asked quickly 
wiping away as much as she could with a towel from 
his bare chest.

"I don't think so." 

Scully pulled out her first aid kit. "I need to clean the 
cut." She motioned for him to move his hand. She 
quickly clamped hers over to replace it as the blood 
flowed out. "Damn it. Mulder, that's deep." He just 
nodded and leaned back against a hiking bag to 
support his weight. One handed Scully pulled out a 
strip of rubber truncate, tying it with the help of her 
teeth. The bitter metallic taste of blood on her tongue 
brought another wave of adrenaline. She keep her 
hand pressed against him until she felt the hot thick 
flow diminish. "You with me?" She asked softly as 
she shinned a flashlight on the wound to get a better 
look.

"Always." He whispered. 

She glanced up at him. "Do you think the knife hit 
the bone?" 

"No."

"Good." She looked back down at his arm tight 
lipped. "I'm going to have to stitch that up. It's 
going to hurt more, I don't have anything to give you 
other then some aspirin." Fumbling to open the bottle 
with bloody fingers she placed three in his mouth and 
held a water bottle to his lips. "Drink it all." After 
half the bottle Mulder tried to turn away but she 
caught his face and forced the rest down his throat. 
Squeezing his hand in reassurance, Scully left to fill 
the pot with water. She placed it on the fire to boil so 
she was sure it 
was pure. "This is going to hurt." She warned as she 
readied herself to clean out the wound. 

"It already does." Mulder informed quietly. 

She glanced at his face only to see his eyes tightly 
closed and featured twisted in pain. Holding back her 
growing fears she flushed the wound. "I'm sorry. I'm 
sorry." She whispered as Mulder pointlessly fidgeted 
to get away from the pain. He made a strangled 
pained sound as response. After cleaning the best she 
was able to, Scully threaded the special needle with 
stitch thread and sat beside him. "Ok I'm going to 
sew it up now."

"Just do it." He mumbled bracing himself.

Nodding, even though his eyes were still closed, 
Scully inserted the needle in his swollen flesh. 
Mulder hissed out curses and tried to hold still as she 
quickly sewed the gash. Wordlessly she cleaned the 
surface with alcohol and wrapped a thick layer of 
gaze over it. Finished she scooted up to his head and 
took the hiking bag away, pulling his head down to 
her lap. "All done." She whispered as she stroked his 
hair.

Mulder nodded, breathing heavy from pain. 

Scully began to rock his body gently, stroking his 
bare chest, hair, neck, anywhere she could reach. 
"Talk to me, Mulder." She whispered wanting him to 
stay awake for a while longer.

"About what?"

"I don't know, anything.. Tell me about Nova."

He smiled softly. "Again? Scully I've told you all I 
know more times then I can count."

"I don't care. I want to hear it again."

He nodded, needing a distraction from the pain. 
"Ok. It's set up underground. A network of tunnels 
almost. We'll have our own room. I don't really 
know what it will look like. But each room has a 
small fireplace, a bed, a few hurricane lamps, and a 
drainage system. There's center area where a larger 
fire is built. It's set up so the smoke filters up and 
out, but not all in one big chimney. It separates and 
diminishes out into the open. In this center area there 
is a food room, every morning we have to get our 
rations, everyone gets the same amount. There is a 
running water system also. As much fresh water as 
we need, the drainage system empties out down 
stream from where the water comes in. There's also a 
medical room where you will probably be spending 
most of your time. Like I said everyone has to work 
everyday. Whether it's out in the gardens, hunting, 
keeping watch, in the food room, canning and drying 
food, collecting wood, I could go on and on, it all 
changes." Mulder stopped and moved his face into 
Scully's touch where she rubbed his jaw with her 
palm. "It's all a system." His voice slowly trailed off 
to a whisper. "I can't stay awake anymore, Scully."

Scully ran her hand over his damp forehead. "Go 
ahead and rest." 

He gave a weak nod and turned his face into her thigh 
and swiftly fell into a needed sleep. 
Scully sat with him for a long time. Just rocking and 
stroking him like a mother would with a sick child. 
Her adrenaline wore off soon enough. With careful 
movements she lay behind Mulder, curled 
protectively around his head. With him nestled 
against her abdomen, she fell into an anxious sleep. 

Day 29
Scully woke after the sun had risen fully. She 
wiggled away from Mulder after gaining her 
bearings. Before even laying a hand on Mulder she 
knew he had a fever. His skin was flushed and damp 
to the touch. 

Carefully she unwrapped his arm and cleaned it. He 
murmured uncomfortably in his sleep. After 
bandaging him again she went through her bag 
looking for the bottle of vitamins she knew were 
there. She had planed on saving them until their food 
was extremely low but Mulder needed them now. 
"Mulder?" She gently stroked his cheek trying to 
rouse him. "Mulder, wake up."

"Mmm?" He went to turn towards her but stopped 
short and cringed. With a pained expression he 
opened his eyes and struggled to focus on her. 

"Hey." She said softly. Moving to his head she 
carefully lifted him onto her thighs. "I need you to 
take some medicine." She placed the pills into his 
mouth and held water to his lips. "Slow down." She 
eased the bottle away slightly. Slowly he finished the 
water. "Want more?"

"No." He said in a dry voice. "Lay with me." He 
requested softly, letting his eyes slide shut.

Wordlessly, Scully lay on her side and pulled his 
head to rest on her arm, curling herself around him 
copying his protective stature in the way he often 
held her at night. He let out a long breath as she 
nuzzled the sweaty hair at his temple. 

Scully watched him sleep throughout the day. His 
fever breaking and coming back many times causing 
him to stir uncomfortably. She changed the bandage 
often and only woke him for a moment to drink 
water. 

Soon enough night caught up with Scully, bringing 
with it her exhaustion and mounting frustrations. 

Day 31
Mulder woke to a thick tickle in the back of his 
throat. He held back the painful cough as long as he 
could. But eventually he body racked with harsh 
coughs leading to dry heaves. His body wouldn't give 
up contracting his stomach until he rid himself of the 
bitter and thick bile. After many minutes he lay 
breathless and gasping and first became aware of 
Scully's hand smoothing his back. He shivered 
violently as she placed a damp cloth on his forehead 
and rolled him onto his back, cradling his head. 
Wordlessly she pressed a water bottle to his lips. He 
sipped carefully, his throat dry and his mouth full of 
cotton, but dreadfully afraid of another heaving 
session. Finally catching his breath, Mulder opened 
his eyes. 

The sky was dim, hazy, dead. Knowing his voice 
wouldn't cooperate he glanced questionably at 
Scully.

"You've been out for a couple days now, if you were 
trying to scare the shit out of me it worked." He gave 
her a short apologetic smile. "There were more 
bombings last night." She whispered following his 
gaze to the sky. "Pretty close." She added in a softer 
tone. Mulder wanted to speak. Wanted to tell her 
things. But his voice box ignored his brain. "I know 
what you are going to tell me." She said without 
looking at him but with a slightly humorous smile. 
"You are going to say for me to take the map and go 
ahead without you. I bet you had the map memorized 
four seconds after you got it. You're gonna say that 
you will be ok. You'll rest for a few more days then 
slowly make your way to Nova. But I should go 
ahead without you. After all they must need a doctor 
and that's what I am. You will be along. You 
promise. You love me and you are doing this for me." 
Finally she looked down at him, still with a smile. 
"Well save it pal. It ain't gonna happen." 

With a soft dry chuckle, Mulder nodded. That's what 
he was going to say. 

Scully leaned down a placed a light kiss on his lips. 
"Can you talk?"

"No." He said with a shit-eating grin in a very hoarse 
voice. 

"Good." She copied his smile as she rubbed his arms 
with her palms. "You talk too much anyway."

Mulder pouted out his lower lip. "I haven't said 
anything for two days." He pointed out, his voice 
cracking dryly every few syllables.

Scully cringed and placed her hand over his mouth as 
she cleared her throat because it wouldn't help him. 

"As much as I did miss your company you need to 
stop talking now before I go hoarse from listening to 
you." 

He placed a kiss on the palm over his mouth. 

With a smile she gently lifted his head off of her and 
placed it on a rolled up blanket. "I want you to eat." 
Mulder interrupted her with a groan. "I know you 
must feel terrible but you need to. I want to give you 
some pills to but I don't think they will stay down on 
a empty stomach." She routed through the bags for a 
moment looking for soft bland foods. Furrowing her 
brow she examined the inner plastic bags of foods, 
the outer cardboard disposed off long ago to save 
space. "How about some Bisquick?" She asked 
brightly. Mulder groaned again. "I knew you would 
like it!" She prepared the dough then sat by Mulder's 
side as it baked and slowly unwrapped his arm. 

"How am I, doc?" He whispered.

She set to cleaning the wound. "Um. You have an 
infection, not too bad. I. I did what I could but you 
came down with a fever. That's why you were asleep 
for a few days. I think you will be ok but we need to 
stay here for a few more days so don't try to jump up 
tomorrow and get going." She glared sternly at him 
while he just smiled innocently. 
 
Part 3
Day 32

"Scully?" Mulder whispered as he squinted against 
the harsh glare of the hazy sky. Finding it too painful 
he closed his eyes and called for Scully again, louder. 
Still no answer. He knew she was here, she just 
couldn't leave him. Swallowing back the pained tears 
in his throat he crooked out her name as loud as he 
could. 

Scully rushed from where she was getting water from 
the stream after hearing the desperate tone in his 
voice. "I'm here, Mulder." She smoothed his hair 
way from his face, feeling his hot forehead. "What's 
wrong?"

Swallowing roughly, Mulder tried to move his arm. 
"It hurts." He forced his eyes open and gave her a 
look pleading for relief.

"Ok. Ok. Don't move." She gently unwrapped the 
wound to see the red swollen flesh. "How does it 
hurt?"

"I don't know." He said frustrated. "It aches." 

"Alright. It's going to be ok. You're infection is 
getting much better, you slept through the worst of 
it." She cleaned and rewrapped trying to work 
thoroughly and ignore his wordless cries of pain the 
best she could. 

"Squeeze my hand as hard as you can." Scully placed 
her hand in his. 

Holding back to scream of pain he did as she asked.

"That's good. You can let go." She flexed her now 
aching fingers. "Did that make it hurt more?"

"No." He turned his head to face her, looking tired 
and flushed. 

"Is the pain localized? Do you have feeling in your 
fingers, any tingling?" Her was attention split 
between her interrogation and pouring out aspirin and 
vitamins. 

"Nothing other then a constant ache. Every time my 
heart beats its worse."

Scully moved back to his head, lifting him gently into 
her lap then placing the pills in his mouth and water 
to his lips. "You'll be ok." She cooed softly. "Here, 
let's get your arm up. Let me lift it." She instructed, 
carefully lifting and placing his injured arm to lie 
against his chest. 

Mulder cringed sharply. "Can't you just hit me over 
the head with a rock so I can sleep through all this?"
With a small smile, Scully leaned down and kissed 
his damp forehead. "But then I will have to listen to 
you complain about a head ache when you wake up."

He immediately looked hurt. He didn't want Scully to 
think he was whining this. He had been turning to her 
for comfort for years, not just on the medical side but 
also personal. It was never an easy thing for him to 
do. The common comforts of a loving person were all 
but common in his family. 

Cursing herself under breath Scully leaned over, 
covering his upper body with hers as she caressed his 
chest lightly. "I didn't mean it like that, Mulder. I 
know it hurts a lot." 

Swallowing his pride in favor of her care he turned 
his head into her embrace to nuzzle the crook of her 
neck.

Day 34
"How's this for an Indian summer?" Mulder 
commented as he pulled a blanket up one handed 
before settling back again.

"In youth, it was a way I had
To do my best to please,
And change, with every passing lad,
To suit his theories.
But now I know the things I know,
And do the things I do;
And if you do not like me so,
To hell, my love, with you!" She carefully tucked the 
blankets around Mulder's arm then lay down next to 
him with a smile.

"Thank you Miss Parker." Mulder chuckled softly as 
he waited for Scully to settle. Turning his head he 
gave her a soft smile. "I do like you so."

"Well you better, cause you're stuck with me.. I've 
always like that poem." She rolled onto her side and 
regarded him seriously. "What about you? Any 
favorites?"

Nodding, Mulder struggled to remember all the 
words;
"How do they do it, the ones who make love,
without love? Beautiful as dancers,
gilding over each other like ice-skaters
over the ice, fingers hooked 
inside each other's bodies, faces
red as steak, wine, wet as the 
children at birth whose mothers are going to 
give them away. How do they come to the
come to the come to the God come to the
still waters, and not love
the one who came there with them, light
rising slowly as steam off their joined
skin? These are the true religious,
the purists, the pros, the ones who will not
accept a false Messiah, love the
priest instead of the God. They do not
mistake the lover for their own pleasure,
they are like great runners: they know they are alone
with the road surface, the cold, the wind,
this fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-
vascular health- just factors, like the partner 
in the bed, and not the truth, which is the 
single body alone in the universe 
against its own best time."

After a moment Scully swallowed around her closed 
throat. "Mmm. Sharon Olds?"

"Very good." Mulder was truly impressed. "`Sex 
without Love'. I'm surprised I remember the words." 

"Well. They are pretty memorable." She said with a 
slight blush.

Mulder laughed softly. "You look so cute when you 
blush."

This caused her to blush even more. "Shut up 
Mulder." She mumbled and moved closer to him. She 
rested her head on the shoulder of his uninjured arm 
and wrapped one of hers over his waist. 

"Night Scully." He said still laughing as he placed a 
kiss on her forehead. 

Day 37
There were no two ways about it; Mulder was going 
stir crazy.

And Scully was ready to kill him. "Mulder stop that." 

He looked away from where he was poking at her 
freshly made fire with a long stick. "Why?"

"Because you are going to knock over the wood and 
then I'll have to start it again." She turned back to the 
clothes she had just washed and began to wring them 
out to dry. 

"Don't worry Scully, I won't mess up your pretty 
fire." He turned to stick from the fire and poked 
Scully in the butt with it, leaving a soot mark on her 
right cheek.

"Mulder!" She batted it away and turned to him with 
her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to drive me 
crazy?"

"No not at all, it is just a added benefit." Reaching 
out he poked her belly lightly. Scully grabbed the 
stick strongly so he couldn't jab her anymore. "Ooo, 
Scully." He said slyly. "Your grip is so firm." 

"Oh brother." Scully released her hold and walked far 
enough away that he couldn't touch her with it. 

"Hey! Where're you going?" Mulder called with a 
dramatically hurt tone. "Are you going to leave poor 
injured me all alone?"

Raising her eyebrows she turned toward him. "I 
thought you were all better? I believe your words 
were; `Scully, I don't want to sit around here wasting 
time. I'm fine, I don't need my arm to walk.' Then I 
said; `Yes but you need your arm to carry your bag 
even if I put the heavy things in mine.' Then you 
gave me that damn puppy dog look and I said ok."

Mulder grinned smugly. "That look always works on 
you." 

Scully quickly walked back over to him and knelt by 
his side, suddenly serious. "Mulder I really want to 
you take it easy. You've got nothing to prove to me. I 
know you want to get going, I do to. But if you push 
yourself and get hurt we will just end up waiting 
longer. Ok?"

He cupped her chin in his good hand, his other laying 
gently against his chest in a makeshift sling. "I 
promise. Stop worrying Scully, you're gonna go gray 
at this rate."

She frowned. "I'm surprised I haven't after seven 
years with you." 

Mulder couldn't help but smile. "I'm not that bad." 
Scully gave him her `yeah right' look, raised brows 
and all. "Ok so I am that bad." 

Scully moved away and added large pieces of wood 
to the now steady fire. "Damn right." 

Day 39
"Is it something blue?" 

"Mulder, why are you stuck on asking color? And no, 
that's question number 18. Two to go." 

Mulder frowned in deep thought. He was horrible at 
the game Twenty Questions. "Is it something you are 
wearing?"

"Yes! Finally you got one right." 

"Ok. So it's something small, important and you 
are wearing it." He walked backwards and examined 
her. "Well it's not your bra because that isn't small." 

"Mulder!" 

He laughed, proud of himself. "I just wanted to see 
you blush. Ok. I've got one question left." He 
focused all his investigative skills on her five foot 
something frame. Suddenly he smiled smugly. "Your 
necklace?"

Scully sucked in an unsure breath through her teeth. 
"Which one?"

His smile quickly faded. After a moment he shook 
his head. "I don't know." 

Reaching under her shirt Scully pulled out the Nova 
charm. "I figure this one is more important at the 
moment."

Mulder turned back around, much to Scully's relief. 
Regarding her form his position beside her, "I don't 
know if that's true Scully, your religion has always 
been important to you. If you didn't have faith you 
wouldn't be able to carry on."

She thought in silence for few moments. "In all the 
time we have been walking I haven't prayed once. 
The last time I did it was when we were still in the 
car."

"What did you pray for if you don't mind my 
asking?" 

Scully watched her feet with great focus. She 
remembered what she prayed for; her mother, her 
brothers, the world in general, that her and Mulder 
would be safe, that Nova would be real, that They 
wouldn't find them, that They wouldn't even look for 
them. Her worst fear has been that They would start 
to look for them, tracking her with the chip. She 
would take in out in a heartbeat to save Mulder, 
knowing he wouldn't leave her willingly. But if she 
did take the chip out she would die. Probably within a 
few months. She didn't want to die. She prayed that 
she wouldn't die. Even with her life being turned 
upside down she did not want to die. 

"That everything would turn out ok." She whispered 
after many minutes in silence. 

Smiling, Mulder bumped her shoulder lightly with 
his. "It will be. Eventually. I think as long as you 
have faith we can get through this."

"But the thing is.. I don't have faith in God." 
Mulder looked at her sharply. "I don't. Not at this 
time."

"But you have faith?" Mulder was quickly becoming 
confused.

"Yes." She answered immediately. "But my faith is in 
you now. I've always had faith in you Mulder. But 
now. now that you've done all this for me. Now my 
faith is in your hands."

Day 41
"Mulder." Scully looked up at the darkening sky. 
"It's going to rain." 

"It's ok, our bags are water proof. We need to keep 
walking, we are really far behind." It was simple: 
Mulder was pissed at himself. They had to walk 
slowly, stop often, and poor Scully was carrying 
much more then half her weight on her back. Every 
time he tried to speed up his arm would begin to ache 
and Scully would make him stop. He had never been 
able to keep anything from her. And she had been 
watching him carefully, noticing every cringe and 
missed step. Probably filing them in her mind in 
order of degree of pain and length of time between 
such events.

Scully frowned up at the big clouds. "I know, but 
after all the bombings I doubt the rain will be clean. 
Can we please just stop and find somewhere to wait 
out the storm? I really don't like the idea of what ever 
nuclear waste and acid falling on our heads."

Mulder ran a hand down her arm, she sounded so 
worried. "Ok. Lets keep walking and we'll look for 
something for the night. We don't want to stay too 
close to the trees."

"Thank you." She said visibly relieved. 

They walked for fifteen more minutes before they 
came to remains of a building that would provide 
some shelter; two of the walls were completely 
destroyed but the roof was partly intact. They 
normally didn't stay in old buildings, too many 
people could run into them. 

Scully slowly eased Mulder's bag from his shoulders. 
"Sorry." She murmured as he cringed when she 
carefully placed his arm back in the sling. "I'll get 
some wood, why don't you get out the blankets."
Within ten minutes they were sitting by a small fire 
as Scully mixed water with a can of chicken soup. 
The rain started to fall with a heavy patter, a cold 
breeze came into their little home.

"Of course we have to be facing the wind." Mulder 
mumbled as Scully settled next to him handing him 
his soup. 

"Well at least we won't get too wet." 

They ate in silence and watched as the lightening 
started off in the distance. The increasing wind kept 
the fire to a minimum, the damp air was not helping 
the chill. 

Setting their dishes aside, Scully moved closer to 
Mulder. 

"Cold?" Without waiting for her answering nod he 
pulled her back against his chest and looped his good 
arm around her belly. "The sky looks so different." 
He whispered in her ear.

"I know. I think the bombs have effected the ozone. 
The sun is so much stronger. And sometimes the 
wind changes, like now, doesn't it feel different."

Mulder nodded in her hair. "Yeah. I don't know what 
it is but you are right." With a small sigh he pulled 
her closer and kissed her neck. 

A tingle of excitement ran down Scully's spine. She 
arched her neck, encouraging him. Mulder quickly 
pushed the stray hairs away with his nose and placed 
soft opened mouthed kisses on the curve of her neck. 

A happy murmur left her throat as she reached back 
and buried a hand in his hair. With an awkward hand 
Mulder turned her cheek so he could kiss her lips. 

She smiled against mouth and twisted to face him, 
without breaking contact. Being careful of his arm 
she pushed him down onto his back. 

One handed Mulder unbuttoned her jeans and slipped 
his hand into her heated folds as she pulled at his 
waistband and gripped his sex at the same time. "Still 
cold?" He asked softly as he pressed a finger up into 
her body.

Biting her lip she shook her head and smiled. 
Because he couldn't with only one hand she pulled 
down both of their pants only to the needed amount. 
Awkwardly she settled by his side struggling to find 
an angle so he could keep his hand on her but not 
lean on his injured arm. 

Not that it mattered. Mulder couldn't feel anything 
but Scully's hand around him. Determined to bring 
Scully over the edge with him he sped his pace up on 
her body. With a small whimper Scully buried her 
face in his neck and clenched around his fingers. 
Mulder quickly followed in a choked gasp. 

After a few moments Scully helped him redress then 
pulled the blankets around them both. Mulder quickly 
fell into a deep sleep. But not Scully. She laid awake 
for a long time, watching the lightening, listening to 
the thunder around them and Mulder's heart under 
her ear.

Day 42
Scully ran her brush through her damp hair noticing 
she needed to trim it. She only had a small mirror that 
she happened to grab when packing, which was 
probably for better so she didn't notice the extent of 
the changes in her body. She knew she had lost 
weight, but she had also added muscle. And it 
seemed every time she did look in the mirror she was 
dirty, even though she washed at least twice a day. 
She just felt different. Like she did while fighting her 
cancer. She felt like herself, only altered. 

They both had changed. Mulder had become so much 
more open with her. Not hiding his feelings behind 
jokes. She felt more comfortable with him then ever 
before. But she had forced herself to open up to him, 
it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be.

She looked over at him. Mulder needed a trim also 
she noticed as he dozed beside her. Reaching over 
she ran her hand front and back of his head, the damp 
strands standing on end. He stirred slightly from her 
caress but did not wake. 

She didn't bother to wake him this morning. It was 
still raining and he needed his rest. It bothered her 
that he pushed himself so hard after being injured. 
He's chased bad guys with bumps, bruises and 
sprains more times then she could count. Willingly 
letting scientists drill holes into his head, other 
numerous head injures-not all by his choosing. The 
one that always came to mind was brain surgery by a 
certain smoking friend of theirs. He seemed to have a 
tendency to be near bombs as they ticked closer and 
closer to zero. He managed to drive recklessly and 
barely miss head collisions, people, buildings, even 
an airplane or two. She wasn't sure how many times 
he'd been shot. His list went on and on.

Her list wasn't much better. Cancer, numerous 
kidnappings, the target of mutants and madmen 
alike. She stopped thinking about that. It didn't 
matter. It just really didn't matter now.

With a sad sigh she placed her hand back into his 
hair, caressing his scalp with her fingertips. A slight 
hum came from his throat.

Scully smiled softly at his sleeping form. She worried 
about him more then he could ever realize. He was 
constantly thinking of her safety before his own. She 
loved him for that. No one had ever put her first as 
much as he did. It still amazed her, after almost seven 
years of knowing he cared, that he could care that 
much. But sometimes he just didn't think before he 
acted. As much as she loved him, she could hate him 
at the same time. Always leaving her behind for `her 
own good'. She whole heartily believed he thought 
that was what he was doing. But it didn't make it any 
easier. Strangely enough, every time he did 
something crazy thinking it was right, she loved him 
a little more. Maybe it was because it made the fact 
that she could loose him any moment clearer. Or 
maybe it was just that she loved him and he gave her 
a reason to think about the fact. Three years ago she 
started to think about it constantly. So it took the 
destruction of the world for her to realize it. Maybe it 
was a small price to pay for this important insight: 
time was up, live life now or die regretting what she 
didn't have the guts or opportunity to do. 

Mulder opened his eyes and smiled up at her sleepily. 
"Hey." 

She returned his smile and caressed his hair more. 
His eyes closed at the contact and he leaned into her 
touch. "It's still raining." She informed looking out 
into their dark surroundings. 

"Mmm." He mumbled, too content with her attention 
to care.

She let out a soft ironic laugh. At the moment he was 
fine with it, but when he was fully awake and in a 
few hours restless he would think differently. But for 
the moment she didn't care either. She was happy to 
sit by his side, in the cold damp air, in the bitter wind, 
in a destroyed building, in the chaos this world had 
turned into and just be alive. 

Part 4
Day 45
Scully sat straight up with a gasp. Her head spinning, 
turning her stomach violently. Scanning the 
surrounding trees she was only met with orange 
tinted darkness. 
"Scully?" Mulder, awoken by her sudden movement, 
touched her arm lightly. 
She couldn't speak. The visions in her head where 
still too fresh. Her head pounded, her eyes were still 
teary and her heartbeats echoed insanely loud in the 
silence of the night. 
"You're trembling." Gently he pulled against him. He 
held her silently for a few moments, letting her catch 
her breath, catch her mind. "A dream." 
Scully nodded against his chest even though it was a 
statement, not a question. 
"Want to talk about it?"
She pinched her eyes closed. The dream replayed in 
her mind. The trees bursting into flames around them. 
The eyeless men coming straight to them, ready to 
kill them. Maybe if they had eyes they would see. 
Would see that she and Mulder where people, with 
hopes, who felt love, people who didn't want to die 
just yet. Or maybe their eyes wouldn't be like normal 
eyes. Maybe that would be black and hollow. Like 
the eyes of a shark. No feelings. Just a job nature, or 
whoever, gave them. Scully felt her body shake more 
at the remembrance of watching Mulder burn beside 
her. Reaching his hand out in a desperate plea for 
help. But she couldn't move to him. Her body was 
frozen, wishing to wrap her arms around his body 
and burn with him. His last words a choked 
confession of undying love.
Mulder hugged her closer to him, feeling a shudder 
run through her. 
"No." Her answer was delayed and barely audible.
Mulder didn't ask again. Slowly he lowered her back 
down onto the blankets. He held her for a long time 
before he felt her finally relax and fall back into 
sleep. He lay awake a while longer. Watching over 
her, just in case the dream returned once her 
consciousness relaxed. Nightmares are tricky like 
that, he learned. They can sneak up on you when you 
least expect it and when you least need it. Why have 
a nightmare when you are living one in slow motion? 
 
Day 47
"You ok, Mulder?"

He glanced at her from her side. "Yeah, why?"

"You've just been so quiet today."

With a shrug he leaned down and picked up a small 
gray stone off the road. He tossed it in the air a few 
times. "Just thinking." 

"What about?" Scully reached over and took the 
stone Mulder was offering her. 

He gave another shrug and watched Scully finger to 
smooth rock. "It's amazing how everything in our 
lives, how important or unimportant led to this." He 
paused and shook his head. "It's just odd. That no 
matter what we did, I'm not saying what we did was 
pointless mind you, but everything we did. didn't 
change a thing."

Scully thought for a moment. "I suppose its possible. 
But if that's true then its also possible that everything 
we did do, no matter how small, did make a 
difference. Maybe if lets say we didn't go on a 
certain case or speak with a certain contact that this 
would have happened sooner. Or later, anything is 
possible. "

"Gosh Scully, I wasn't talking about that kind of 
stuff, I was just thinking that I wouldn't have paid 
taxes this year if I knew." 

"Taxes aren't important?" She asked playing along 
with his sudden change in mood. They barely stayed 
on depressing topics for too long. That seemed 
pointless, there was nothing they could do about it so 
there was no reason to dwell. 

Mulder paused a step to kick at a break in the 
pavement. "Well our government is doing a shitty job 
of taking care of the roads."

"I'll write a letter to our council man immediately." 
She said deadpan. 

Day 48
Scully cradled Mulder's head on her chest as he 
dozed lightly. There was something soothing about 
his breath between her breasts, his arm around her 
waist and his weight grounding her. Perhaps it was 
her unused reserve of maternal instinct that enjoyed, 
even needed this. Keeping him safe and comfortable 
made her feel that same way. Her body was relaxed 
and felt light, his hair tickled her chin, his heartbeat 
pressed up against hers. 

Scully fought sleep. 

She really didn't know why. Maybe she was too 
content with this quiet moment. The sun had set not 
long ago, leaving the sky a hazy red. The air was still 
warm from the afternoons rays. Everything was quiet. 
Scully's motion stopped on Mulder's body, causing 
him to drift away from his slumber slightly, as she 
listened. 

"Mulder?" She questioned softly as she slid the hand 
from his hair down to cup his jaw, turning his head 
up to her. "Why is it so quiet?"

"It's night time Scully." He mumbled before buring 
his face back in the front of her shirt. 

She wiggled out from under him, ignoring his groan 
of disappointment. "I'm serious Mulder, I don't hear 
anything. No wind, no birds, nothing."

Mulder rubbed his eyes to rid himself of the last 
reminisce of sleep. "Ok I'll admit it. It is early calm 
but that doesn't mean anything."

Starring up at the sky she drew her knees up to her 
chest. "No, it does mean something. Last time there 
were bombings, when you were unconscious, it was 
like this before."

Mulder took a deep breath, he had nothing to say to 
that. There was nothing they could do but wait it out. 

He was about to reach for Scully when an 
indescribable noise filled the air, the ground shook, 
the sky turned black with upturned earth and the air 
turned heavy and thick with dust. 

The noise ended just as soon as it came. 

The fire was snuffed out by the useless air. They both 
choked on that same air. A ringing filled their ears, 
their eyes stung, their throats burned. 

For a long time all they could do was sputter and wait 
for the air to clear enough to see. 

Finally the thick brown settled into a dim haze.

"Are you ok?" Mulder asked hoarsely as he slid 
closer to Scully.

Still coughing dryly she nodded. "That was really 
close."

Mulder pulled the front of his t-shirt up and wiped 
away the dirt from his face. He quickly added wood 
to the fire, catching on the burning embers. He then 
collected their bags which had tumbled away slightly 
from the shaking. He brushed the dirt from the 
blankets and pulled Scully back down with him. 

"What were they bombing?" She asked after many 
moments of tense silence.

"I don't know." He whispered placing a kiss on her 
forehead. "It's ok, just get some sleep." 

She tried to let the day's exhaustion take her over as 
she burrowed into Mulder's warmth. But they both 
lay awake ready for another explosion. Ready for it 
all to be over in a moment. 

The Big Bang theory started the world, a whole other 
bang could take them out.

Day 49
Mulder absentmindedly glanced up at the sky as they 
walked. It had barely cleared enough for the sun to be 
more then a brighter area in the haze. With a sigh he 
looked over at Scully beside him. His stomach 
immediately twisted sickly, his throat closed up. 
"Scully!" 

She quickly spun to look at him. "What?" 

"You. you're bleeding." 

Without breaking from his panicked eyes she placed 
a hand over her top lip, under her nose. A thin line of 
crimson marred her index finger when she pulled her 
hand away. "Oh." She wiped at her face a few more 
times and shook her head. "It's just from the dry air. 
It-it's not anything other then that." 

"Scully." He said softly, taking a step toward her.

"No!" She stepped back and held up her bloody hand. 
Causing them both to cringe. She quickly wiped 
away the blood onto her dirty jeans. "It's nothing 
Mulder. I'm fine." She wiped her face a few more 
times and walked ahead of him not daring to look 
into his eyes. She didn't want to see the same fear she 
was feeling. 
 
Part 5
Day 49
Words had been sparse that day.

The fear that clutched Mulder's stomach was eating 
him alive. He watched Scully carefully all day. It was 
making her angry but he couldn't help himself. He 
was reliving the worst moments of their lives all over 
again. 

Mulder sat down heavily by the fire. He shivered 
from the cold water he had just washed the day's dirt 
off with despite the warm flames. 

Wordlessly Scully sat beside him with her back to the 
fire drying her hair. 

After watching her struggle with keeping the blanket 
wrapped around her nude body and fluffing her hair 
with one of her hands for a minute before Mulder slid 
closer to her. "I don't like it when we aren't talking." 
He said bluntly as he pushed her hand away and ran 
his finger through her damp hair, slowly heating with 
from the fire. "I especially dislike it when I don't 
know why we aren't talking."

"We aren't talking because we don't have anything to 
say that won't upset each other." Her voice was soft, 
apologetic and forgiving at the same time. 

Mulder nodded then remained silent for a moment 
while he chose his next words carefully. "Do you 
really believe it isn't the cancer coming back?"

"There is no reason to think that it would be back. I 
have been in perfect health ever since the chip. 
Unless that is malfunctioning." With a sigh she 
leaned her head against Mulder's shoulder. That 
simple gesture spoke volumes. The day of silence 
was over. "It was the dry air Mulder. My throat and 
eyes still burn, yours too. That's what is was. It has to 
be." 

Mulder moved away now that her hair was dry and 
faced her. "You better dress before you catch a cold." 
He said softly, as he ran his hand down her shoulder 
over the blanket. 

Scully watched him for a moment before shaking her 
head slowly. Upon Mulder's quizzical look she 
dropped the blanket so it pooled around her waist and 
leaned forward running her hands over his still bare 
chest, letting her hands rest on the waistband of his 
boxers. "I want to be with you."

A fist of arousal wrapped its self around Mulder's 
body. He opened his mouth to speak but his nothing 
came out for a moment. "I thought you wanted to 
wait."

Scully let out a curt laugh. "Wait for what?" Without 
letting him answer she slid forward and took his face 
in her hands. "It's just you and me now Mulder. 
We've got nothing to do but keep walking. There is 
nothing we can do to fix the world, we don't even 
know how much longer the world with be here." She 
quickly swallowed back tears. "I want to live the 
moment." 

Mulder nodded as he cupped her jaw in a gentle hand 
and pulled her lips against his. 

Day 52
Mulder woke slowly. The sun was beating down on 
his face, warming one side while the other was being 
warmed by the soft warm cotton covering Scully's 
belly. Lazily he rolled onto his back and looked up at 
the finally cleared sky. After a few moments of 
watching the clouds drift by he sat up and looked 
down at Scully. 

She looked breathtaking. Her hair spread out beside 
her, her lips open slightly, her cheeks flushed with 
sleep. Painfully innocent.

Silently Mulder cursed himself. He knew this would 
happen. He knew the moment they made love his 
urge to protect her would intensify. He had kept 
himself in check so far, but with this past week's 
cancer scare he was ready to burst inside. But if he let 
it out Scully would be angry. He knew she could take 
care of herself, there was no question in his mind. 
But there was something about being inside her that 
made him was to wrap her in his arms and carry her 
to Nova. God he hoped Nova would be there. 
Something about making love with her that made him 
want to take her away from every bit of pain. He 
knew they weren't making life in the traditional 
sense. He accepted that. It broke his heart but he 
accepted it. But they were making their life together 
by being together. Scully was right, it's all they have 
now.

Scully shifted slightly and opened her eyes. "Good 
morning." She said softly while smiling up at Mulder.
He nodded with a small smile and brushed her hair 
away from her face. 

Day 55
Scully stomach rumbled loudly. She pressed her palm 
against her belly and continued walking. 

They were down to one meal a day. One small meal.

Scully was thankful though. Mulder shot a rabbit the 
other day. It was just plain luck. He happened to be 
sitting by the water washing clothes when the animal 
hopped close by. Scully never thought she would eat 
rabbit. She couldn't eat veal, for some reason it 
seemed wrong to her. But she had never tasted 
anything as good as that fresh meat, at least nothing 
that good lately. 

But that had only been one large meal for them, it 
would have been more but they had no way to keep 
the meat. Now they were down to a few cans of food, 
some pasta and a little bread mix. 

Swallowing a gulp of water Scully rubbed her 
stomach again while she looked aimlessly around the 
road. 
"Hey Mulder. Look." Scully reached down and 
picked a few dandelions from the grass. She handed 
half to Mulder. "You know you can eat every part of 
a dandelion? Even the root." 

"I think I did hear that." He said as he chewed the 
bitter plant. 

They didn't taste very good. And there wasn't much 
to the pant. But it gave them something to do as they 
walked along the mostly quiet road. 

Day 57
Scully rubbed her tired eyes as Mulder looked at the 
map for a moment. She honestly didn't know why he 
looked at it. He had a perfect picture of it in his mind. 

"Hey Scully."

"Mmm?" She asked around a yawn. 

"We're in Canada." Mulder smiled happily at her.

She looked at him for a moment in shock. "Already?"

He nodded. "We've been walking eighteen hours a 
day lately. It paid off." Ever since Mulder's arm 
healed enough they walked. They walked as long as 
they could. Only stopping when it was too dark and 
became unsafe, and starting at sunrise when they 
woke. Walking helped keep their minds off the 
hunger and fear. 

She looked around in amazement. Most of the road 
signs had fallen with the last bombing making it 
difficult to follow the roads without looking at the 
map often. "How much longer until we reach Nova?"

He stared uncertainly at the map for a moment. 
"Hopefully ten days or so." Carefully he folded the 
map and put it back into his pocket. 

Scully took his hand in hers and pulled him along. 
"Well lets keep walking then." 
For the first time in a many weeks she felt some 
hope.
 
Part 6
Day 57
"Who knew Canada could be so hot." Mulder 
mumbled.

Scully nodded in agreement as she pushed tree limbs 
out of her way. 

Once in Canada there wasn't any main roads to take. 
Everything was poorly marked and overgrown with 
brush. It was difficult walking with rocks and uneven 
ground in some places. They had to move around 
newly fallen trees from the bombings. 

It was hot.

And humid. 

Mulder wanted nothing more then to sit down with a 
cold beer and forget about all this for ten minutes. 
But that wouldn't get him away from the heat, and he 
didn't have a beer, much less a cold one. 

If Mulder had to choose between that cold beer and 
real food, the food would win out in a second. They 
only had two days of food left. A couple weeks of 
vitamins, but those only did so much. 

But it was better not to think about it, so they didn't. 
They just walked.

"I'm taking a break." Scully announced then 
immediately sat down in the shade. 

"I'm not going to complain." With a yawn and a 
stretch Mulder sat beside her and leaned against a 
large tree. They sipped water in silence for a few 
moments before Mulder looked over at Scully in 
thought. She looked tired, stressed and bored. He 
continued to watch her silently as she recapped her 
water and tipped her head side to side, cracking and 
popping away tension. He tried not to smile as she 
stretched her arms over her head with a groan. 
Suddenly Mulder reached out and grabbed her waist. 
Ignoring her shriek of surprise he pulled her into his 
lap and tickled her through her damp t-shirt. 

"Mulder! Stop!" She forced out around laughter, 
trying to push herself off of him. 

Mulder danced his fingers along her sides 
relentlessly. It was wonderful to see her laugh. He 
was never able to often. Their lives have always been 
busy and hard. It was the still the same, but he 
wanted happiness added to that equation. 

Scully finally managed to tear herself from his grasp, 
causing her to tumble off his lap and onto the dirt. 
With a smug grin Mulder stood and pulled his bag 
on. "Well. we better get moving." 

Scully squinted up at him from where she still sat on 
the ground pulling her bag on. "You gonna help me 
up?" She held out a hand expectantly. 

"Well I guess so." Nonchalantly Mulder leaned down 
and took her hand. With a sharp tug he pulled her up 
and over his shoulder.

"Mulder!" Scully's yell was muffled by his hiking 
bag. Desperately she kicked her feet.

"Hold still young lady." Mulder scolded easily 
holding her legs down with his forearm. 

"Mulder! I'm serious! Put me down."

Mulder walked along the tiny path. "If you are so 
serious why are you laughing?" 

Realizing Mulder wasn't going to give up, Scully did. 
She dropped all her weight against him making him 
work to carry her. "Fine, if you won't put me down I 
might as well enjoy the ride." Folding her arms she 
rested them on the top of his bag, then lay her head 
on them and closed her eyes. The up down motion of 
Mulder's stride was relaxing.

Day 59
Scully wiped the sweat from her brow as she walked 
silently behind Mulder down the narrow path. It was 
hot, she was hungry, and it was barely noon. The day 
didn't look promising. 

A painful ache settled in her belly. Scully suddenly 
felt cold despite the heat in the air. She paused her 
stride and pressed the heels of her hands to her 
temples as a high pitched ringing sounded in her ears. 
Her vision became spotty and darkened. 

She watched silently as Mulder took a step away 
from her. Two steps. Three.

She wanted to say something to him, tell him she 
needed to rest. But her head spun and her mind 
wouldn't focus long enough for the sound to travel 
from her throat out her mouth. The last of her focus 
was spent on putting a hand to her nose, she pulled it 
away. She saw only sweat covered fingers, no blood. 
That relief only lasted a moment before she wavered 
helplessly on her feet.

Four strides away. Five. Six.

Mulder, not hearing Scully's answering footsteps, 
turned around. "Scully?" She was pale and shaking 
slightly. His six easy strides of distance was 
recovered in two long steps to her. "Scully!" He 
caught her around the waist just as her knees gave 
out. "I've got you, it's ok." He said softly as he 
lowered her to the ground. 

He gently pulled her bag from her shoulders then laid 
her on the ground. After wrapping her in a blanket he 
sat her up with her back to his chest. Running his 
fingers through her hair he spoke softly to her. 
"Come on, Scully. Come on back to me." He pleaded 
gently. 

Slowly Scully was able to focus on his voice and not 
the ringing in her head. Lolling her head back she 
kissed his neck lazily in a silent reply that she was 
ok. 

Letting out a long breath Mulder squeezed her tightly 
and let her relax a while longer before speaking. 

"What happened?"

Scully shrugged the blanket off and turned to him. "I 
don't know." Shaking her head she ran her hand over 
her face. "I think the heat is getting to me." 

Mulder frowned. He didn't know what to say or do 
that wouldn't upset her. "Let's stay for a while 
longer." 

He said tentatively as he handed her water.

She nodded. "A few more minutes. I'll be ok. I feel 
better now." 

A knot of anger settled in Mulder gut. "No. I want 
you to rest." 

"I will, for a few more minutes." She repeated 
meeting his angry gaze with her own. 

He rubbed his face with his hands in an attempt to 
erase some of the frustration he felt. "Scully please." 
He got up onto his knees in front of her. Begging, out 
right begging. "Please. I'm worried, can you lay 
down for a little longer?" 

Scully's first reaction was be yell at him. Tell him 
she was fine, even though she knew she should rest 
for a bit longer. She hadn't fainted in a years. She 
wanted to be mad at him, part of her was. It was 
always so much easier to be angry with him instead 
of herself. But seeing the way he put the anger and 
frustration away for straight out concern made her 
think twice. 

"We don't have the luxury of sitting, Mulder." 

He nodded and took her hand, pulling her down with 
her head pillowed on his thigh. "Close your eyes and 
take it easy for a little while, then we will start 
walking again. Just a little while."

"I'm not tired." She mumbled at him. She wasn't, she 
was hungry and hot, but not tired. 

"You don't have to sleep, you just have to rest." 

Scully jumped at the sensation of something cool and 
moist on her neck. Mulder shushed her and continued 
to run the damp cloth over her exposed arms, her 
neck, her forehead.

Despite not being tired Scully was easily lulled into a 
calm half sleep state.

Day 62
"Mulder, get off of me it's too hot." Scully mumbled 
and pushed him off of her shoulder where he had 
placed his hand

The sun had gone down a few hours ago but the air 
was still heavy and the fire, lit only for safety, was 
not helping. 

He batted her hands away when she tried to push him 
away. "I'm trying to help you." He informed helping 
her pull her shirt over her head. 

"Thank you, but I think I can handle washing 
myself." She stripped off the rest of her clothes 
perfectly aware of him starring at her. 

Mulder grabbed the towel and water from her hands. 
"Yes, I know you can. But won't it be more fun if I 
do it?" 

Scully bit the inside of her cheek in an attempt not to 
smile, it didn't work. 

Returning her smile, Mulder moved behind her and 
washed the sweat and dust from her pale skin. Once 
finished her laid her down onto the blankets and 
washed her chest and arms.

"I think you are favoring certain body parts over 
others, Mulder." Scully accused good naturedly since 
the focus was on her breasts. 

Mulder only smiled knowingly, her voice was light 
and airy as he traveled down her body. He bypassed 
her midsection, going straight to her feet. 

Scully let released a low groan of approval as he 
massaged the soles of her feet with him thumbs. 
Mulder continued until he felt she had relaxed 
completely into his hands before moving to her 
calves. He cleaned and massaged the tight muscles all 
along her legs until he reached her inner thigh. 

Scully slowly became aware, within her relaxed haze 
of arousal, that Mulder's hands were gone. "Are you 
stopping?" She whispered without opening her eyes. 

"Just for a minute."

Cracking her eyes open the bare minimum she saw 
Mulder. His back was to her as he washed the day's 
grime off of himself. With a soft sigh of anticipation 
Scully closed her eyes again and waited for him.

A few moments later Mulder settled himself on his 
side next to Scully, pressing the length of his body 
against hers. Leaning down he kissed the underside 
of her chin and stroked a hand down her body. With 
his fingers buried in her heat he settled himself on 
claiming her mouth with deep thorough kisses. 

Scully returned his attentions on her as well as she 
was able, but his strong skilled fingers continued to 
distract her. Finally, she gave up trying to keep up 
with him and relaxed into the sensations. Closer and 
closer she came to release. Mulder brought her right 
to the edge then eased up, avoiding stroking her 
sensitive nub or working his fingers into her body. 
He stroked her gently, bringing her down but not far 
from where she wanted to be. 

Opening her eyes sleepily, Scully looked up at 
Mulder. He smiled down at her look of annoyance 
and kissed her softly. 

In a wordless invitation Scully opened her legs. 
Without breaking eye contact Mulder settled down 
against her. She happily wrapped her arms around his 
neck, holding his familiar and comfortable weight to 
her body. 

They closed their eyes in unionism as Mulder sank 
into her body. Warmth radiated through Scully's 
body as she kept her eyes closed and Mulder began to 
move in relaxed strokes. Welcoming his body into 
hers Scully bent her legs around him. 

The warmth that built in Scully increased, along with 
her heart rate and breathing. Times like this she 
found it easy to accept the world as it was now. She 
could pretend it had always been like this. She never 
had a job, or a house, or a family outside of Mulder. 
That the ones who were destroying the world around 
them for only God knows why never took her away, 
never took her life force, never destroyed part of her. 
Scully let the heated ripples of pleasure take her away 
from the memories of what life was once. 

Mulder nuzzled the side of her face until she opened 
her eyes and focused on him in the firelight. Half his 
body glowed with orange warmth, the other half lost 
in the shadows of the night. He was a living eclipse 
over her, the Nova charm swinging gently in the 
firelight with his motion. 

Scully struggled to keep her eyes focused on his as 
the fire inside her consumed them both. With breathy 
calls of the others names they relaxed spent against 
each other. 

When the focus returned to Scully she dropped her 
legs from his waist, wove one hand into his hair and 
soothed his back with her other. Mulder rested his 
head on her collarbone, his arms around her waist, 
still inside her body. 

After many moments of silence he shifted, rolling 
onto his back and pulling Scully onto his chest as he 
struggled to pull a light blanket over them. 

"We should get there any day now." Scully 
whispered as she toyed with the charm low on 
Mulder's neck. 
His only response was to bury a hand in her hair and 
place a kiss on her forehead, leaving his lips to rest 
there. 

"What do we do once we get there?" Scully asked 
after long moments of silence. She carefully wrapped 
the chain around her index finger, watching the silver 
catch the orange light of the fire. 

"Doesn't say."

Scully glanced up at him with worry. They had 
nothing more to go on other then what Mulder had 
been told about Nova which wasn't much at all. But 
without the idea of Nova they had nothing. 

"We just have to walk until Nova finds us."

Letting out a long breath Scully looked back at he 
small charm now settled into the palm of her hand. 
Turning her hand over she trapped the star between 
her hand and Mulder's heart.

Day 63
Scully was her usual two steps behind Mulder on the 
small dirt road. Their order of walking wasn't about 
sexual rank. Mulder would walk slowly wanting to 
set the pace so Scully wouldn't push herself too hard, 
she knew this, but humored him into thinking she 
didn't. He would push the heavy branches away with 
his longer arms. Scully preferred to stay behind him 
anyway, otherwise he would try to help her too often. 
Guiding her up embankments, around ditches, and 
through trees. She didn't mind much, it was the 
chivalrous part of him coming through. She actually 
enjoyed his help, but not when it was this hot. She 
just didn't want to be touched until it was dark and 
cooler. That and she liked the view.

Their usual comfortable silence was ruined by 
Mulder cursing then falling to the ground.

Scully walked up next to him, looked down with her 
hands on her hips. Her expression was a mixture of 
question, concern, but most of all humor. Mulder 
could be so damn clumsily sometimes. 

"I stepped in a hole." He looked up at her with his 
lost puppy eyes.

With a smile Scully shook her head and kneeled 
down by him. "Which foot?"

"My left."

Sitting in the soft dirt she carefully pulled off his 
shoe to inspect for injuries. "Did you sprain it?"

"I don't think so. It doesn't even hurt anymore. I 
think I just lost my balance."

"I saw." Scully stated trying not to laugh. 

"You're just lucky I was walking in front. I found the 
hole for you." 

Deciding there was no damage she put his shoe back 
on. "If your feet weren't so big you wouldn't have 
had any trouble." She teased, after all there were a 
few perks of being petite. One of them being you 
didn't often trip in holes, just fell in them. Ok so 
maybe it wasn't a perk, but she had to tease him 
when she could.

"Well you know what they say about guys with big 
feet." Mulder grinned, proud of his comeback.

Shaking her head in good humor once again Scully 
stood and started walking down the path away from 
him. 

"Hey!" Mulder jumped to his feet to follow her. "Just 
gonna leave me all alone?"

"No," She glanced over her shoulder at him. "I just 
thought I should take over the hole searching for a 
while, you don't seem to be doing so well."

Mulder mumbled a wordless reply but didn't push the 
fact that he usually led. He liked the view he had now 
anyway.

Day 64
Scully actually wasn't hungry anymore. It was 
strange, she woke up and for the first time in a long 
time her stomach didn't cause her pain. It was still 
empty, she knew that, but it didn't bother her. 

And that frightened her. She wasn't starving to death. 
That took months. They had water, so that wasn't a 
problem. But she didn't like the fact that she wasn't 
in pain. It had become a comfort to her in a way. 
Something that was always there no matter what they 
did. But that seemed ridiculous. She didn't like that 
though. She wanted food. Wanted something to 
chew, to fill her stomach, something to use their pot 
for besides heating water. 

"Hey Scully.." Scully followed Mulder's line of 
vision to a group of five people walking in the sparse 
trees by them. "Stay here for a minute and keep an 
eye out for me."

"Mulder?" Her voice was filled with warning and 
concern. 

"I'm going to go see if they want to trade anything." 
He started to walk towards them in a calm non-
threatening stance.

"Be careful."

He smiled over his shoulder. "I always am. and 
when I'm not you are there to save my ass."

Scully watched, unamused, as he walked up to them. 
They group was suspicious towards Mulder at first, 
but Scully could pinpoint the moment he said he had 
cigarettes to trade. 

Standing alone was something that didn't happen to 
Scully anymore. She and Mulder were never far from 
each other. It made her feel vulnerable and protective 
at the same time. So she watched Mulder carefully. 
The group didn't look armed, but then again neither 
did Mulder. When in fact he had two guns and a 
knife hidden on his body. They talked and bargained 
for quite a few moments before Mulder walked back 
over. 

"Well?" 

Mulder put his arm over her shoulders and guided her 
back down the path they were on. "Well. we'll be 
eating a nice dinner tonight. I traded pretty well, still 
have a whole carton of cigarettes if we run into 
anyone else. It's amazing what people will trade for 
an addiction." 

Day 67
Mulder paused his walking beside Scully. 

"What?" 

Not looking at her he placed a finger to his lips as a 
signal for her to stay quiet. They both drew their guns 
slowly, scanning the surrounding area. 

Scully cursed herself silently, she was so lost in 
thought she wasn't paying attention to everything 
around them. She had been doing that often. Thank 
goodness Mulder didn't have that problem. Multi 
tasking was simple for him. He could be in deep 
thought, walking, listening and watching all at the 
same time. 

A few feet in front of them a middle-aged man, 
armed with a rifle, stepped out into the road. They all 
watched each other silently, with respective firearms 
lowered but posed at their sides. 
Scully waited for some sign of what Mulder wanted 
to do. Walk on? Speak to him? See if he had any food 
to trade? 

Slowly Mulder reached under his shirt, pulling out 
his chain. The Nova charm was displayed to the man 
on the pad of Mulder's thumb. 

Part 7
Day 67
The man looked at Mulder a moment with a blank 
expression. Then he gestured toward Scully; "She 
have one too?"

Scully frantically dug under her shirt pulling out first 
the cross them with more fumbling the star. 

All in one motion the man lowered the gun 
completely to his side, smiled and took a step 
forward extending his hand. "I'm Jared, nice to meet 
you."

"Fox Mulder." Mulder supplied as he shook his hand 
looking very shell shocked.

"I'm Dana Scully." 

"Nice to meet both of you." He turned, nodding his 
head in the direction from which he came. "Come on 
I'll take you to Nova so you can settle in."

"So Nova is real?" Scully knew it was, she knew it 
now. But she still needed to hear the words. 

Jared glanced over his shoulder nodding. "Of course 
it is. It's going to be about two miles walking. We're 
coming up on some of the gardens and barns now." A 
few feet later they all stepped out of thick trees and 
into small fields. "Hey Bill!" He called to an other 
middle aged man who was wondering around the 
field. "I'm taking these two to Nova, watch my area 
for a bit." The man waved in a friendly response over 
at them. Jared walked along the dirt path pointing out 
different fields, kept small so that the canopy of tree 
provided some cover. And barns containing cattle, 
pigs, chickens, and work animals. Mulder and Scully 
followed along in silence, taking in all the 
information and filing away the names of the people 
they met. Everyone was working, everyone seemed 
relaxed; it was strange. After months of being alone 
together it was difficult to remember how to 
communicate with other people.

"Ah there he is." Jared said to no one in particular. 
"Benjamin! We have some new arrivals." 

Jared waved his goodbye as a tall man with silver 
gray hair came up to them smiling. "Hello, I'm 
Benjamin Walters."

"You're the man who started all this." Mulder said as 
he shook his hand. 

"That's right." He said as he moved on to Scully. 

"I'm Dana Scully and this is Fox Mulder." Scully 
immediately liked Benjamin. He was kind, and quiet 
with an honest smile. 

"Doctor Dana Scully?" 

"Well. Yes and Agent Scully." She said with a 
small laugh.

"Oh yes. I remember now. You are both FBI agents. 
Dana has a medical background and Fox you have a 
psychology degree."

"Yes that's right." Mulder was truly impressed. With 
all the people in Nova it was shocking that he could 
remember the two of them. 

"Well this is wonderful. Dana you are the first doctor 
to make it here since this all started. We have a few 
nurses but that's it. Come on, I'll show you around."

They slowly walked towards a rocky area, almost 
small mountains. 

"How is that you remember the two of us?"

"Well Fox-"

"Mulder, it's just Mulder."

Scully rolled her eyes. But she was actually surprised 
it took him so long to mention that. 

"Ok, Mulder. Your story about your sister, your 
work, Dana's medical training, I suppose it just stuck 
in my mind." They had approached a rocky cliff. 
"Watch your step here, the ceiling is low in some 
spots." The three slowly made their way through a 
dark maze of rocks before stepping into a lit hallway. 

Scully shivered slightly. The air was much cooler 
with the rock cover. Large oil lamps lining the 
hallway threw out some heat, but mostly just light. 

"This is the main entrance. There many others, but 
smaller and not as easy to get in and out of." 
Benjamin began as they walked. "There is a map in 
your room, that will help you learn your way 
around." The hall became brighter and warmer as 
they walked into an open area at least two hundred 
feet in diameter. A large fireplace was in the center 
and what looked to be brick ovens with the smell of 
fresh bread filling the air. "This is the Main Room." 
He directed them to the right of the doorway and 
pointed down a long hallway. "There are many rooms 
down there, four hallways in all. The north, south, 
east and west, named for obvious reasons. Here's the 
food station, every Monday morning you pick up 
your rations, every morning you pick up fresh milk, 
bread and eggs; you also pick up your work 
assignment then. Usually once a week we have fresh 
meat. I'll bring your food to you once you have 
settled in." Benjamin waved at different rooms as he 
spoke. Showing them where to collect the ice cold 
water that flowed in from the river higher in the hills. 
Where to dump waste and milk bottles to be refilled. 
Pointing down the hallways of rooms they passed, 
introducing them to anyone that they met along the 
way. He showed them the `churches' the `library' the 
storage rooms filled with canned and dried food, 
other rooms with stacks and stacks of spare clothing 
and bedding, everyone would be given replacement 
clothing every few months. When they walked into 
the Medical Room Scully looked around in wonder. 
The walls were lined with shelves and cots lay in the 
back near a small wood stove. There were bandages 
and herbal medicines-some which she recognized, 
surgical supplies and medical books. She didn't say a 
word as she walked around. Finally, after being 
shown and told more things then they could possibly 
remember, Benjamin showed them to a room. Saying 
`it is one of the largest ones left' since not many 
people had arrived yet, only a few hundred so far. 
Benjamin closed the heavy wooden door behind him 
after lighting a few of the many oil lamps in the 
room. 
Leaning back against the door Mulder looked around 
what was now their home. The room was rectangle, 
about thirty feet by twenty. The door was on the short 
side, the floor was rock, just like the hallways. The 
walls were of thick wood planks, stained a natural 
dark color. In the right corner of the opposite short 
side was a small wood stove with a pipe leading up 
into the carved out rock ceiling. Next to the stove was 
a queen sized bed on an old oak frame pressed up in 
the corner. In the corner, to the left of the doorway 
was a large dresser, above were two long shelves. 
The only other furniture was a small wooded table 
pressed up against the wall opposite the bed and three 
mismatched chairs. 

The stove had a flat top. A small pot, pan, a few 
plates, glasses, mugs, and bowls along with silver 
ware in a low cabinet. It was made for both heat and 
cooking. 

The bed looked inviting, with a thick down blanket 
and four pillows. 

Silently Scully dropped her hiking bag near the table 
and walked over to the bed. Tentatively, as if it might 
dissolve at any moment, she sat on the firm mattress. 
With a soft laugh she laid back against the soft 
sheets. "I missed having a bed."

Mulder slowly made his way over to her, running his 
fingers along the wall. "I missed having walls." He 
sat on the edge of the bed savoring the cushion that 
absorbed his weight. 

Reaching up Scully pulled him flat on the bed. She 
curled up against his chest with her hands tucked up 
against her. "I feel comfortable here." 

Mulder only nodded. He felt the same way. It was a 
strange feeling, he never felt like he was home 
anywhere. Not his old apartment, not even his house 
as a child. It didn't seem to have anything sacred. 
"Who thought our first home together would be a 
single room in a cave." 

Scully picked her head up enough to rest her chin on 
her hands. She smiled for a moment trying to decide 
whether or not to talk about the fact that he presumed 
that they would be living together at some point. Not 
that she thought any different. Years ago she realized 
Fox Mulder was the only man for her. He loved her, 
and she loved him, it was that simple. They would 
easily give their lives for each other without a second 
thought. What more could she look for in a man? 

A knock sounded on the door. 

Mulder kissed her forehead quickly before standing. 
He opened the door to Benjamin. 

"Here you are Mulder." He handed him a canvas bag 
with dried rice, cans of vegetables, fruit, soup and 
many other things; more food then Mulder had seen 
in weeks. "This is both of your rations for the rest of 
the week. I brought the only bottle of milk left from 
this morning. Now don't forget to pick up your 
assignments in the morning, but Dana, you will be 
working in the Medical Room. Mulder since you are 
good shape you'll probably be doing hard labor." 
Mulder nodded solemnly. "But it's still early, so take 
the day off. Get settled in and take a look around. Be 
sure to read the rule-book. You can pick up wood in 
the Main Room where I showed you. There should be 
a change of sheets for the bed in dresser. If you hear 
something, it's just the clock chiming the hour. 
You'll get used to it quickly, except the wake up call 
at six am, you won't miss that." Benjamin laughed 
softly. "Oh, and before I forget, we don't work on 
Sundays. Except Dana. People will have to find you 
if they have any problems."

She nodded in understanding. "Benjamin, what day is 
it?"

He smiled softly, feeling sorry that they had to make 
the journey to Nova. And judging by their tired, worn 
expressions it wasn't an easy trip. "It's Wednesday. If 
you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to 
find me." With a smile he left them. 

Mulder turned back around to find Scully, who had 
kicked off her hiking boots, putting clothing away. 
"We can do that later, Scully. Why don't you come 
over here and eat something." 

Scully walked over and sat in one of the chairs taking 
the cold bottle of milk in her hands. "I would just like 
some milk."

Mulder passed her two glasses which she separated 
the milk into equal parts. She sipped slowly, savoring 
the rich thick taste of raw milk, as Mulder stowed the 
food in the cabinet by the stove. She watched 
wordlessly as he walked around drinking his milk 
just as slowly. He unzipped his hiking bag, placing 
the clothes in the dresser, then with care, he took out 
his framed picture of Samantha and placed it on a 
shelf. Scully set her empty glass down, after digging 
through her bag she pulled out two pictures. One of 
her and her mother, father, Bill, Charles, and Melissa 
when they were young. And one of Emily. Smiling 
she leaned back against the foot of the bed. "This is 
perfect."

"Perfect?" Mulder's voice was full of amusement. 

"Well." Scully tipped her head from side to side in 
thought. "Just about, yeah." She placed a hand over 
her stomach. "I haven't felt this full in a long time." 
The fresh milk felt heavy in her shrunken stomach. It 
was a wonderful feeling.

Mulder nodded his agreement then picked up a 
bucket. "I'm going to go get some water, then I'll get 
some wood." 

Scully dragged the hiking bags back out. "I'll finish 
unpacking. Then I think we should take a nice long 
nap on this new bed."

"I agree whole-heartedly." Mulder called as he shut 
the door.

A few minutes later Mulder was making his second 
trip back to the Main Room to get wood. He was 
placing the small pieces of wood in the carrier he 
found in the room when he heard a questioning voice 
call his name.

Mulder looked up from his crouched position. 

"Mulder!" Langly bounded over to him. 

After recovering from an unbalancing hug Mulder 
laughed in disbelief. "How long have you been 
here?"
"All three of us got here over a month ago, we had 
enough gas saved up so we drove all the way to 
Canada, but we left about a week after They came. 
The guys are back in their rooms for lunch." Mulder 
nodded, the clock just struck twelve. "When did you 
get here? Is Scully with you?" 

"Yes, we got here today. No more then an hour ago." 
Mulder pulled the heavy bag onto his shoulder. "Why 
don't you guys stop by. We are in the fourth room on 
the left in the west hall." 

Langly nodded enthusiastically and started jogging 
off to the east hallway. "Yeah! We'll be right there." 
Mulder walked back to their room with a stupid grin 
on his face. "Hey Scully. Guess who I just saw?"

She looked up in question from where she was 
stowing items they wouldn't need under the bed. 
"Langly. Him, Byers and Frohike are on their way 
over here right now." 

A few minutes later the Gunmen arrived, they stayed 
throughout the hour and a half lunch break. They 
talked about their relatively easy ride up to Nova. 
Then Mulder and Scully shared their story. The short 
version. It was easier that way. For all of them.

 
Scully lay on her side on the bed, watching Mulder 
start a small fire. It was only mid afternoon, but they 
were both ready to turn in for the night. Mulder 
walked around, putting out the lamps so that the 
room was lit in a faint orange glow from the fire. He 
then climbed up on the bed, his back against the wall 
and pulled Scully to him.

She rolled over, buring her face in his chest. 

Then she started to cry. She finally let herself cry. 

"Shh. It's ok sweetheart." Mulder cooed softly. 
"Everything is ok now." He didn't press her to stop. 
He couldn't. He had started to cry softly. But it was 
of relief. He felt safe now, he felt he could keep 
Scully safe here. At least he hoped he could, for a 
little awhile if nothing more. 

Scully hadn't let herself cry about Them coming. 
Through the whole thing she only cried once. And 
that was for Mulder. When she went to wake him to 
drink water after being stabbed, and he wouldn't 
wake. She started to cry. For him. That she might 
lose him, it was a big possibility. So she cried from 
the moment he wouldn't wake up to the moment he 
finally did. For over forty-eight hours she cried. Only 
sleeping when pure exhaustion overcame her, the 
moment she would wake up she would cry again. 

Mulder soothed his hand through her hair, the other 
wrapped around her waist, holding her to him. 
"Everything is ok." He whispered again. 

Slowly Scully stopped crying. She just lay in his 
arms, horribly tired from physical and mental 
exertion. But she wasn't hungry. And she wasn't hot. 
She wasn't cold. She wasn't sleeping on rocks or 
even dirt. And she wasn't as scared. Slowly she let 
Mulder's heartbeat pressed against her ear lull her 
into a restful sleep. 

 
Scully was awoken slowly by the feeling of Mulder's 
lips pressing feather light kisses to the back of her 
neck. It took her a moment to remember where she 
was. It always amazed her that she never got over 
that, even after all the years of spending most of 
nights in hotels and the last few months waking up in 
the middle of no where. "Is it time to get up?" She 
asked sleepily, rolling over to face him.

Mulder placed a long deep kiss on her lips. "Not at 
all. I just heard the clock, it's only two in the 
morning." 

"Then why are you bothering me?" She teased. 

"It's bad luck not to make love in a new house." 

Scully laughed softly. "Is that a fact?"

"Mmm hmm." He mumbled against his neck as his 
hands slipped under her shirt. "Brings good luck." 

Wiggling against him she managed to pull off her 
shirt. "I don't want to tempt luck." She tugged at 
Mulder's shirt.

Reaching behind him, Mulder pulled his shirt off the 
rest of the way with one hand. "I wonder how thick 
these walls are." He said with a smile against Scully's 
lips as he struggled to unbutton her pants without 
looking down.

Scully just laughed and shimmied out of the rest of 
her clothes. Mulder moved to cover her body with his 
but she stopped him with a hand on his chest. "You 
have too many clothes on." She said matter of factly.

"Aren't you in a hurry. Not that I am complaining." 

Scully pulled him, finally naked, down onto her 
body. "I wouldn't want any misfortune to strike while 
we wait."

He chuckled against her as he suckled her breast. 
"That would be a shame." 

She pulled his face back up level with hers, pulling 
his hips between her legs at the same time. "We 
better hurry then." Putting her hands on either side of 
his face she kissed him deeply. She fingers slowly 
traveled down his arms where he held his weight on 
either side of her face. Then she skimmed them down 
his back until she cupped a cheek of his ass in each 
hand. With a firm pushed she took him into her body. 

Mulder broke off their kiss as the sensation of her 
warmth sheathing him overwhelmed him. Nothing 
else in the world mattered but his body moving inside 
of hers. All his focus was concentrating on bringing 
pleasure to Scully. It served as a way from him to 
take away all the pain and harshness that surrounded 
them.

Angling himself, Mulder put his weight on to one 
arm while sliding the other down to Scully's 
slickened folds. Finding her swollen nub he rubbed in 
time with his strokes. Almost immediately Scully 
began to quiver around his hardness. 

In the closing moments Mulder fell to her side, 
placing his face in the crook of her neck. Rolling onto 
his side he pulled Scully against him. Taking her 
thick hair into his hands he pressed his lips to her 
forehead for long moments. 

"We may have to do that again." Scully whispered 
sleepily with a smile.

Mulder pulled away enough to look at her face in the 
faint glow of the fire. "Why?"

Stretching up she kissed him quickly. "Just to keep 
our luck up."

He chuckled softly and pulled her against him again. 
"Sounds like a good plan." He murmured into her 
hair. Slowly they both drifted off again in the 
peaceful silence of their room. 

Part 8
Day 68
Scully awoke with a gasp at a loud chiming, the 
blood rushing from her head at the sudden upright 
movement made her feel dizzy. 

Mulder chuckled softly from the other side of the 
room. "Benjamin said we wouldn't miss that." He 
moved from the table where he was reading the rule-
book to sit on the side of the bed. 

Scully rubbed the sleep from her eyes in order to 
focus on Mulder. He had obviously been awake for a 
while, the lamps were lit dimly, the fire was going 
well, and he was clean and dressed. "Did you sleep 
alright?" Scully asked with concern, cupping his jaw 
in her palm and rubbing his cheekbone with her 
thumb. 

He turned and placed a long kiss on her sleep-warm 
hand. "Yeah, just fine." He stood and motioned 
towards the table. "I already got our breakfast. I'll 
even cook for you." He grinned over at her as he 
picked up the pan from the cabinet in one hand and 
the two morning eggs in his other. With a little wink 
that melted Scully's heart he turned to start frying the 
eggs. 

Scully climbed out of bed, wearing only Mulder's tee 
shirt from the night before. She wrapped her arms 
around his waist and kissed him between his should 
blades through his shirt. "I love you." She said softly. 
Even though they had confessed their love they 
didn't get carried away with it. They knew how the 
other felt, but didn't see the need to say it all the 
time.

He smiled over his shoulder. "I love you too. And I 
don't want you to catch a cold. Get dressed before 
these are cooked."

After another quick kiss she did as requested. 
Dressed, Scully sat down in one of the chairs and 
took a long drink of the still very cold milk. She 
quickly became accustomed to the rich taste of the 
fresh milk, wondering how she ever drank fat free. 
She took a large bit of eggs and an equally large bite 
of bread. Chewing happily she looked up at Mulder. 
His fork was poised over his plate, but he was just 
staring at her with an astonished expression. "What?" 
She mumbled out around a mouthful. 

Shaking his head he laughed lightly. "Nothing. 
Nothing at all." He hadn't seen her eat with such 
relish in a long time. Good food after so long without 
it will do that to a person. 

With a shrug Scully focused back on her food. "What 
are you doing today?"

"Chopping firewood." Scully looked up at him in 
slight question. "I have to meet the group at seven, 
we won't be back until five tonight."

Scully looked back down at her almost empty plate. 
She didn't know what to think. Working a day away 
from Mulder was not typical. Even when they 
worked in the FBI. It hadn't happened in years. 

"Hey." Mulder reached over and tilted her chin up to 
meet his eyes. "I know, it will be weird. Not seeing 
you for ten hours." He smiled in humor. "No cell 
phones, so I can't call you every hour with some 
stupid reason to hear your voice." Mulder blushed 
slightly realizing he said that out loud, but Scully 
wasn't surprised, she did the same thing. "But don't 
worry. We'll both be busy, the time will fly by." 
Scully raised her brows at him. "Yeah, I know, that's 
a load of crap." He picked up both their empty plates. 
"But we've got to get used to it." 

Scully leaned back in her chair, stretching her arms 
over her head with a slight groan. "I hate to say it but 
you're right." 

"Oh, thank you Scully." He said with mock hurt. 

She began to page through the rule-book Mulder had 
been reading. 

"That is a pile of shit if I have ever read one." He said 
turning around after cleaning the dishes in one of the 
buckets of water. 

"Why do you say that?"

"They are just unrealistic. `Anyone who steals will be 
banned from Nova.' Like they are just going to walk 
away. I don't think so. Another one was `Sexual 
harassment and other such offences are not 
permitted.' Like having that written will stop it from 
happening." Mulder shook his head in annoyance as 
he started to tie his hiking boots. 

"Well. we can hope right?" Scully sounded less 
hopeful then she meant to.

Mulder sighed when the clock chimed seven. "I better 
go. Not allowed to miss a day unless you file a note 
from the doctor, which is you by the way, with the 
work station." Mulder rolled his eyes then stood. 
After kissing Scully quickly. "I'll see you later." 

"Bye." She called as he closed the door. 

 
Scully was sitting in the silence of the Medical Room 
reading when the creaking of the door caught her 
attention. She looked over her shoulder to see 
Mulder, he was sweaty and covered in dirt. Smiling 
he walked over and leaned down to kiss Scully's 
cheek. 

"No way!" She ducked down and out of the chair. 
"You are not laying a hand on me until you clean up."

Mulder held his arms out to display himself. "What? 
You don't like the rustic lumberjack look?"
She shook her head. "Not really."

"Oh all right. I was just trying to kiss my woman 
hello when I get home from work." His voice was 
coated with humor. 

"Tell you what, you go to our room, clean up. I'm 
going finish up in here and I'll kiss you hello."

Nodding, Mulder walked out the door. "As long as I 
get a kiss I have no complaints."

Smiling to herself, Scully put away her medical book, 
turned off the lamps, leaving only the faint fire to 
light the empty room. Closing the door behind her 
she flipped over the wooden sign saying the doctor 
was no longer in. She walked towards the west hall 
smiling at the people she met during the day. 

Scully smiled openly the moment she opened to door 
to their room. Mulder was lying on his side, facing 
the fire, he was cleaned and changed and looked 
completely exhausted. She toed off her shoes and sat 
next to him. 

Mulder opened his eyes for a moment to look at her, 
then let them slip closed. "Do I get my kiss now? I'm 
all clean." 

As her answer she leaned down and kissed his 
exposed neck. She stayed down, leaning her weight 
against his side. 

Mulder rolled onto his back, causing Scully to land 
on his chest. "How'd it go today?" He asked taking 
her hair into his hands. He let the soft strands slip 
through his fingers, only to pick them up again.

Scully lifted her head, resting her chin on the back of 
her hands in the center of his chest. "There are two 
pregnant women here, I saw them both today."

"Yeah? Are they doing well?"

She nodded, looking at the wall behind him in 
thought. "Yeah, they are fine as far as I can tell." She 
paused for a moment. "I'm going to have to deliver 
the babies, Mulder." Her voice was just above a 
nervous whisper. 

Mulder rubbed his palms over her back. "You've 
done it before."

"Once, Mulder. Only once."

Mulder turned her face with his hand to meet her 
eyes. "You'll do ok Scully, don't worry."

Frowning Scully laid her head back down on his 
chest and looked into the fire. 

Day 69
Scully was sure of it, they had barely been at Nova 
for three days and Mulder had already gotten himself 
in trouble. 

She had gotten back from the Medical Room over an 
hour ago, Mulder was supposed to be back an hour 
before her. His job today was to patrol. Mostly 
because of his experience with firearms. He had to 
walk to border of Nova all day, watching for anyone. 

Scully paced the length of the room for the 
umpteenth time. She wanted to go looking for him, it 
was her first reaction. But he could be anywhere in 
the hundred square miles that Nova had `claimed'. 
There was no way for her to find him. But she wasn't 
allowing herself to panic, yet. 

With a frustrated sigh Scully walked out the room 
and down to the main room. She all but jogged down 
the east hall to the three rooms the Lone Gunmen 
had, all in a row. She rapped her knuckles on the first 
door, Frohike's. 

"Well Scully, what do I owe this pleasure?" Frohike 
greeted with his trademark leer. 

"Have you seen Mulder today?"

His face straightened. "Not since I woke up, why?"

Scully frowned and leaned against the wall next to 
the door as Langly and Byers walked in from the 
Main Room. "He went on patrol today and hasn't 
gotten back yet. He's two hours late."

"We'll go looking for him if he doesn't get back by 
dark." Byers promised. "But give him time."

"Yeah, don't worry yet Scully. All he had to do was 
walk a little farther then he planned and lose track of 
time." 

Scully looked at Langly and tried to absorb the truth 
of his words into her reeling mind. Nodding slowly, 

"Ok. Thanks guys. I'll come back over if Mulder 
doesn't show up in a couple hours." She started 
walking back towards the Main Room. 

"Don't worry Scully, I'm sure he'll show up." Byers 
called. 

Scully studied the floor her entire walk back to the 
room, she wouldn't be able to force a smile for 
anyone she ran into in the hallway so she didn't want 
to make any eye contact. 

Refusing to let herself pace anymore before she wore 
a tread into the rock floor she laid down on the bed, 
starring up at the rock ceiling. Studying the natural 
contours of how the stone broke away from the 
carved out sections was much like looking up at the 
clouds. At a quick glance they looked like nothing 
more then hills and valleys. But with the imagination 
of her stressed mind Scully saw many things. 

In the far corner above the table there was a spiral, 
uneven and irregular, but it was there. Native 
Americans believed that symbol meant the 
continuation of life. It went on forever, no matter 
what. 

Scully couldn't imagine her life without Mulder, she 
hadn't been able to for years. 

The area above the stove had already turned slightly 
dark from the soot when the glass door was opened to 
add wood. The way the smoke spiraled up and 
around left a swirling mark. It looked like a large 
black spider. 

Scully hated spiders. She smiled in memory at the 
time one had found it's way onto her desk in their old 
office. She had screamed like a little girl, jumped out 
of her chair and told Mulder to kill it. But he 
wouldn't, instead he picked it up in a scrap of paper 
and let it out one of the tiny ground level windows. 
Scully hated this spider. Climbing off the bed she 
pulled a chair over to the spot. Standing up on it she 
was tall enough to wipe away the mark with her 
hand. Once it was nothing more then a blur of soot 
she climbed down and got back on the bed. 

For many silent moments she stared at the area above 
the head of the bed. She knew her unconscious had a 
part in what she saw, but she didn't care. To her the 
stone was cut in an `X'. She smiled at the 
appropriateness of it all. 

Her eyes grew heavy at as she stared at that X. She 
didn't want to sleep, but it was so much more inviting 
then waiting. She had always hated waiting as a 
child. She grew out of it as an adult, until she started 
working with Mulder. Then the waiting wasn't just 
waiting, it was fear, annoyance, concern, and 
nervousness. 

But she had no choice but to wait.