Title: Never Again
Author: Tess
E-mail: tnv099@aol.com
Distribution/Archives: Okay, but I'd like to know where
Spoilers: The End. And that's as far as it goes. 
Rating: R (I think)
Category: S, A, R
Summary: Events that took place after the office was discovered burned 
(in my mind, of course)
Disclaimer: They are not mine CC, Fox and 1013 can keep them, I just 
wanted to play for a little while.  I'm making no money here guys.

Never Again 
By: Tess

Margaret Scully hurriedly wiped her hands dry on a towel and snatched 
the receiver of the telephone out of the cradle. She glanced at the 
clock. 7:00 p.m.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Scully? It's Fox Mulder. May I speak with Dana please?"

"Dana? She's not here, Fox," Margaret replied.

"Oh." 

Margaret's voice sharpened with concern.

"What is it, Fox? Is Dana alright?"

"She's fine Mrs. Scully, but there was a fire at the office this 
morning..."

Margaret interrupted "A fire? Is everyone okay, was anyone hurt?"

"No one was injured, but the office was destroyed."

"Oh, Fox. Do you know how the fire started?"

Mulder laughed bitterly. "I have my suspicions."

"What made you think Dana was here? Why isn't she with you?" Margaret 
asked.

"I just assumed.... Scully usually turns to you for comfort when she's 
upset...." His voice trailed off.

"Actually, she usually turns to you, Fox," Margaret interrupted gently.
"Why don't you tell me what happened."

Mulder sighed. "We were together when we got the call to come to the 
office. When we got there, the office, oh God, it was just a smoldering, 
wet ruin. I don't think that anything is left." He faltered and took a 
deep breath. Margaret waited patiently.

"Anyway, I just stood there, in shock, staring but not seeing anything 
really. I could hear Scully's voice in the distance and it was like I 
was there, but not really there, like I was watching everything from 
outside of my body. I saw Scully grab me by the arms, calling my name, 
then leaning against me, trying to comfort me, maybe looking for me to 
comfort her." Another deep sigh escaped him. "Probably both, I guess".

"I just stood there, frozen like a statue. And then I just turned 
around, I never even looked at her and I left." His voice lowered to 
a whisper.

"God, I just left her there."  

"What time was that?" Margaret asked.

"I don't know, 6:00 a.m., maybe 7:00," he replied.

"And you haven't spoken to her since?"

"No, she doesn't answer at her apartment and I don't think she had her 
cell phone with her this morning. That's why I was hoping she was with 
you."

"You should look for her, Fox. Talk to her. Neither of you should be 
alone right now."  

"I think the last person she wants to see right now is me, Mrs. Scully."

Scully's mother rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed. Dana and Fox 
were the most stubborn people she had ever known.

"Fox," she began patiently, "you are the only person she wants to see 
right now, believe me."

"How do you know that?" His voice was plaintive.

"Because I know my daughter." Margaret paused and considered her next 
words carefully.

"Because Dana is in love with you."

Mulder's breath exploded out of his chest. "Wha...I'm sorry...I don't.." 
he stammered and finally stopped trying to speak all together.

"I said Dana is in love with you. And you are in love with her."

"Mrs. Scul..." 

Margaret raised her voice slightly to speak over him.  

"Everyone who knows you and Dana is aware of it. The only people who 
don't seem to know it are the two of you. Now you're wasting time. Just 
take a minute, try to think about where she might be and go find her."  

"I don't know," he began.

"Go, Fox. She's waiting for you." Margaret hung up the phone and closed 
her eyes uttering a brief prayer for her daughter and this man whom she 
loved like a son.

*********************

Mulder made his way down to the basement office. He stood in the 
doorway allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim light spilling into the 
room from the hallway. His eyes traced over the warped metal of the 
file cabinets, the sodden piles of paper, the mangled, charred desk, 
and the scorched walls. Finally his gaze fell on the diminutive figure 
of his partner, huddled on the floor in a corner near the desk.

"Scully?"

She looked up at him and smiled tiredly. "Hi."

"Have you been here all day?" Her face was covered in soot, her clothes 
blackened with ash.

"I've been looking to see if there was anything I could salvage." She 
indicated a small pile of objects on the floor next to her. "Not much."  
Her face brightened for a moment. "I did find this."  She held out a 
charred piece of paper.

Mulder took the paper from her and studied it. It was Samantha's 
picture, the one he kept on his desk. It was a little water damaged and 
slightly singed, but otherwise, in pretty good condition.

"I don't know how it survived the fire," Scully mused. "Mulder will be 
so happy to see it." She reached out and took it back from him wiping 
it carefully with the hem of her shirt.

Mulder looked at her strangely. "Scully..?"

"He left in such a hurry this morning, I didn't even get a chance to 
tell him." Her voice trailed off. Mulder stared at Scully, fear 
gripping him.

<Oh God,> he thought frantically, <shock?> 

She leaned forward and lowered her voice conspiratorially. "He doesn't 
know it but I've been copying a lot of the files onto disks. The first 
file I copied was Samantha's." She grinned at him and then her face 
fell.

She looked around the office. "But I didn't get to copy all of them. 
He's so upset. He's lost so much, been betrayed so many times. I know 
this is killing him. I've got to find him, he needs me to be strong for 
him." She hesitated for a moment and then continued.

"He probably doesn't need me now that Diana is back." She looked up at 
him pleadingly. "Do you think he still needs me?" she begged.

"I'm sure he can't live without you," Mulder choked out.

She smiled gratefully at him. Mulder reached for her hands and drew her 
to her feet. He was desperate now to get her out of here. Should he 
take her to the hospital? His mind was racing.

"Come on. Let's get out of here for a little while."  

She nodded and let him pull her up. She swayed and would have fallen 
if he hadn't grabbed her. She was ice cold and her clothes were soaked 
and filthy.

He lifted her into his arms and she nestled her head against his 
shoulder, burying her face in his neck. He heard her inhale deeply and 
then suddenly she lifted her head. "Mulder?" Her voice was bewildered.

"Shhh. Come on, I'm taking you home. It's been a long day." Mulder felt 
a tiny glimmer of relief that she had recognized him.

He headed out into the hallway and bumped into Walter Skinner who was 
heading down to the office.

"Agent Mulder, is Agent Scully alright?"

"I don't know sir. I think she's been here all day. She seems a bit 
dazed and out of it." Mulder looked at his boss. "I'm taking her home."

"All right, Agent Mulder. I'll call you tomorrow and we'll talk about 
what's happened here, but tonight, I think we all could use some rest."  

Mulder nodded, shifted Scully more securely in his grip and headed out 
of the building.

**********************

Mulder helped Scully out of the car and lifted her into his arms again.

She roused and lifted her head.  

"Mulder, where are we...? Oh, why are we at your place?"

Mulder was relieved to hear that she was more coherent now. "Come on, 
I don't want to be alone tonight and I don't want you to be alone 
either."

She leaned her head trustingly against his shoulder and closed her 
eyes.

He fumbled with the lock and stepped into his apartment. He closed the 
door behind him and locked it securely, carrying her directly to the 
bathroom. He set her down on the closed toilet seat and crouched before 
her.  

"Scully, come on," he cajoled. " Your skin is like ice, you need to 
take a shower, get all this soot off of you and get warm."

She lifted her hands to her shirt buttons and fumbled for a few minutes.  
Finally she made a disgusted sound and dropped her hands into her lap.

Mulder sighed in exasperation. He lifted trembling hands to her shirt 
and began to undo the tiny buttons. He drew the shirt off of her and 
then reached for the snap of her jeans. He lowered the zipper and 
pulled the jeans down and off her legs. She sat before him, clad only 
in her underwear, too weary to assist him.

He stared at the shower stall and bemoaned the fact that he did not 
have a tub. If he did, he could fill it for her and she could take a 
bath. He knew there was no way she would be able to stand in the shower 
on her own. He closed his eyes briefly and then stood. He turned on 
the shower, letting the water warm and quickly stripped off his clothes.  
He helped her stand and get out of her bra and panties and then drew her 
into the shower.  Mulder closed the door and pulled Scully under the hot 
spray of water.  He drew her close against him for a moment and let the 
water pour over both of them.  After a few moments he picked up a washcloth, 
soaped it and then began to draw it down her neck, over her shoulders, 
down  her arms.  He methodically washed all of the soot and ash from her 
and then poured shampoo into this hands.  He lathered her hair and then 
directed her head under the showerhead to rinse it clean.  He quickly 
washed himself and then as the water was beginning to cool, turned off 
the taps, opened the shower door, grabbed a couple of towels, dried her 
off and wrapped her in one of the bulky towels. 

He drew her into his bedroom. Turning to his closet he withdrew a 
flannel shirt and helped her into it. The tails of the shirt hung down 
to her thighs and his knuckles brushed her breasts as he buttoned it 
for her. He stared at her for a long moment and then stood again. He 
grabbed a pair of pajama bottoms and slipped them on. He turned to her 
and scooped her back into his arms. Walking back into the living room 
he settled her onto the sofa cushions. He walked across the room, 
opened a closet door and withdrew a pillow and blanket. Returning to 
her, he plumped the pillow and placed it under her head and tucked the 
blanket securely around her. He sat next to her for a moment, stroking 
her damp hair off of her face.

"Try to get some sleep," he murmured and rose to leave the room.

She sat up, the covers tumbling around her waist. "Mulder."

He turned back.

"Please. Stay. I don't want to be alone tonight."

He smiled and crossed the room. He slid onto the sofa behind her and 
propped himself up on one arm. He reached out his other hand and stroked 
her cheek.

"God, I was so scared earlier when I first found you."

She looked back at him questioningly.

"You were talking about me, to me, like you thought I was someone else," 
and he repeated some of the conversation they had at the office.

Her eyes darkened briefly and she frowned. "Shock, stress...I don't 
know. Sometimes the brain just shuts down as a protective measure...  
I don't remember it, but I feel okay now."

He drew her close and pressed his lips to her hair.

They snuggled into the cushions, bodies curved trustingly against each 
other and drifted off into a fitful sleep.

*******************************

Mulder was never able to sleep straight through the night, so as usual, 
he awoke a couple of hours later. He glanced at Scully to find her eyes 
open and staring at nothing, unaware that he was awake.

"Hey," he called softly.

She turned to him and smiled sadly. "Hey...Mulder, what are we going to 
do? They are trying to take it all away from us. God, the office, 
there's nothing left..."

"Well, you told me earlier that you had been copying the files onto 
disk. Is that true?"  

Her face lit up for a moment, before a frown marred her expression. "Yes. 
I started copying them shortly after I came back to work after the 
cancer. You know, Mulder, for a brilliant guy, your filing leaves a lot 
to be desired and it just made sense to me to back up the more important 
files on disk. I've got copies of everything in the files on disk -- all 
our notes, photos and reports, as well as copies of any audiotapes. I 
even duplicated your stupid little slides!"  

He grinned at her.  

"But I only copied about 80 files. The ones that I thought were most 
important or that I thought you would feel were most important. 
Samantha's file, anything that you had in there pertaining to the 
government cover up and as many of the more "weird" cases as I was 
able. But there is still a lot of information that was destroyed in 
that fire."

"Did you copy your file?"

She nodded.

"Well then, I'm sure you copied the files that I would have, and it's 
more than I had hoped for. And more than the Cigarette Man thought we 
would have when he torched the place."

"You have proof it was him?"  

"No, but it sure seems like his style."

"Yes, it does. I guess we were really getting too close this time."

They were quiet for a moment.

"Have you heard anything about Diana?" Scully asked.

"I called the hospital earlier today. She's showing improvement and 
they hope to move her out of ICU by the end of the week."

"Gibson?"

"Nothing."

They lapsed into silence for a few moments and then, "Mulder, what if 
they take the X-Files away from us, or what if they reassign us and we 
aren't partners any more?"

He sighed and his voice was muffled against her hair. "Scully, they've 
tried that before. They've taken the X-Files away from us, they've 
taken you away from me, they've split us up, but we always find a way 
back to each other."

He tugged on her shoulder and she shifted so that she was lying on her 
back. Mulder propped himself up on one elbow. He looked down at her 
solemnly and cupped her cheek in his hand.

"I promise that I will never leave you. If they take the X-Files away 
from us, we'll work on our own to find the truth. If they try to split 
us up, then maybe we should consider leaving the Bureau altogether and 
go out on our own."

Mulder took a deep breath and looked around the room for a moment 
before letting his gaze settle back on Scully.

"Finding out where Samantha is, finding out what happened to you when 
they took you from me, finding the truth behind all these conspiracies, 
that has always been the most important thing to me. But earlier 
tonight, I realized that somewhere along the line, my priorities had 
changed." Mulder's thumb was moving rhythmically across her cheekbone 
now.

"What happened tonight?" she asked huskily.

"Tonight I realized I had left the most important thing in the world to 
me back in that office. I had left you there. And I spent the day 
wandering around in a daze. I thought it was because of the destruction 
of my life's work, and in part it was. But mostly it was because I had 
walked out of that office this morning and I had left you behind. And 
when I came back to the office and found you waiting there for me, God, 
Scully, you are always there for me! Never again! They can take the 
X-Files from me and they can split us up as partners, but I will never 
willingly leave you behind again. I'll never let you go."

Scully's eyes glistened with unshed tears and she turned her head to 
press her lips against the palm of the hand still caressing her cheek.

"And if they ever take you away from me," she vowed in turn, "find your 
way back. I promise that I will always be waiting for you."

She reached up with one hand and drew him down to her. Their lips met 
hesitantly at first in a soft kiss. Mulder pulled his head back and 
looked down at Scully. He cupped her face in both hands, then tangled 
his fingers in her hair before lowering his mouth to hers once again.

They kissed again and again. Gentle, getting-to-know-you kisses 
gradually turning into long, passionate explorations of each other's 
mouths. They squirmed on the sofa, trying to get comfortable, the 
leather of the cushions squeaking with every movement. Finally, Mulder 
broke free and threw the blanket and pillows onto the floor. He rolled 
off of Scully and then drew her onto the nest he had created. She lay 
on her back and held her arms out to him. Mulder stretched himself 
over her and lowered his weight onto her. They both sighed at the full 
body contact and then he was devouring her mouth once again. The room 
was filled with the sounds of sighs and moans as their questing hands 
roved over each other.  

Mulder lifted his torso from Scully without breaking off their kiss and 
began to undo the buttons of the shirt that she wore. He unbuttoned it 
to her belly before remembering that she wore nothing else beneath it. 
He stopped there, allowing her some modesty and himself some remnant of 
control.

Finally he pulled his lips away from hers and panting he stared into 
her eyes, silently seeking her approval as he ran the tips of his 
fingers lightly over the skin that had been revealed when he had 
unbuttoned her (his) shirt. Scully lifted his hand in hers and guided 
it inside the open placket of the shirt to cup her breast. She closed 
her eyes and turned her head as his hand began a slow exploration of 
the softness of the flesh he found there. Brushing the shirt aside, he 
lowered his mouth to her breast, suckling it gently at first and then 
lapping at his with the roughness of his tongue and nibbling gently 
with his teeth.  

Scully cried out and arched against him, her legs wrapping tightly 
around his waist for a moment before she moved her hands to help 
divest him of the pajama bottoms he wore. Mulder lifted his hips 
fractionally away from hers and she made quick work of pushing the 
pajamas down his legs. She used her feet to wrestle them completely 
off of his body. He reached between them to tear open the remaining 
buttons of her shirt and then settled himself into the cradle of her 
hips. Scully buried her face into the curve of his neck, her lips 
sucking tenderly on the hollow of his throat.  

Mulder laced his fingers with hers and drew their entwined hands up 
over her head. He stared at her for one long moment before moving to 
join their bodies.

Scully closed her eyes and let out a low moan as he filled her. She 
opened them a moment later to find him still staring at her.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you, too, so much. God, Scully," he moaned as he sank deeply 
within her. They moved together languidly before finally giving 
themselves over to pleasure.

*******************

They awoke to the chirping of a cell phone hours later. The living room 
was flooded with the early morning sun. Mulder groped around on the 
coffee table, before finally securing his phone.

"Mulder," he rasped into the phone as he smiled tenderly at woman 
blinking sleepily at him.

"Yes, yes. All right. 9:00. I'll make sure she knows. We'll see you 
then." He clicked off the phone and tossed it onto the sofa behind him.

He looked back down at Scully and he knew that they could not keep this 
new facet of their relationship a secret. Her lips were swollen from 
his kisses and her flushed cheeks bore faint abrasions from his beard. 
He smiled and ran a finger across the red marks on her face.

"Skinner wants to see us in his office at 9:00."

Scully swallowed hard and looked down. Her lower lip quivered for a 
moment but then she drew a deep breath and looked at him confidently.  

"Remember," she smiled. "No matter what happens, you are never going 
to leave me again," she reminded him.

"Never again," he echoed and sealed the promise with a kiss.

The End