Title: Hypothermic Heartbreak
Author: Heather Horn
Rating: G
Category: DAL
Summary: After a night in the woods, Mulder and Scully are both dying, but of something no one but Margaret Scully expected.
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Disclaimer: The X-Files is copyright of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions, and The Fox Network. No money is being made off of this. No copyright infringement is intended.
Dana Scully didn't know what led her to the woods that frigid January night.
Instinct, maybe.
This is great, just great. She thought as she stumbled on. I'm turning into Mulder.
Running into him was more like it.
Scully had been trekking through the snow for and hour or two now. She was cold an tired, and positive that she had frostbite. Despite her medical doctor knowledge that this was not a good activity for humans she continued to walk on, not sure was she was trying to accomplish.
As the night droned on and she still found nothing, she strongly considered turning back to her car that she had left on the side of the highway many miles back.
But she didn't.
She had to keep going until she found something, anything.
She decided to call Mulder.
Despite the absurd time of night, she knew he would awake, for he never slept.
Poor Mulder, Scully thought. All alone and afraid of the dark. Someday, that will all be different, though.
Mulder was good at handling things on impulse, he was an expert, having ditched Scully more times than she could count.
She reached into her coat pocket for her cellular phone and the press of a single button brought Mulder's number up on the speedial.
His name was the first on her list.
As Scully pressed send, she heard a ringing in the distanced that matched that of her phone. She followed the sound until her phone went dead.
Scully cursed, but stopped mid-word.
A limp body lying face down in the snow, not even twenty feet away from her.
She ran to the body as fast as her numb legs could carry her, hoping that she had not just readhed the inevitable.
She turned the body on its side and gasped.
Mulder.
She placed two fingers on the side of his neck. His pulse was thready, but it was present.
She tried unsuccessfully to call for help on her car phone then saw a small black object lying next to Mulder.
His cell phone!
It was probably worse off than her own, but it was worth a shot.
She picked it up the phone and dusted of the light covering of snow, only to see her own number blinking painfully on the green electric screen.
He tried to call me, she thought, a tear escaping down her cheek.
As she expected, his phone didn't work either.
The cold was finally beginning to sink in on Scully. She tried to fight it, but it was a loosing battle. She stripped herself of her coat and tried to manoeuvre Mulder's motionless body inside of it. The she lay next to him, hugging him tightly as she lay he head on his outstretched arm. As Scully drifted into unconsciousness, she wished more than anything that it would snow sleepingbags.
The sun had risen, and a medical crew was on the scene, as well as Assistant Director Skinner, and Scully's mother and older brother, having followed the lead of Scully's parked car.
"Ew, aw, Lord, I'm going to kill that creep when he wakes up!" Was all Bill could say, looking down at Mulder, who lie close to his coatless sister.
"Bill!" Margaret Scully scolded her son, lightly smacking his shoulder.
All Skinner could do was stare and wonder weather to believe Bill or Mrs. Scully. Skinner had a theory of his own, though. The assistant director had observed the way his agents gazed at each other for quite sometime now.
As the medics tried to separate Scully from Mulder, Scully's eyes popped wide open and she hugged Mulder tightly to her body.
"Agent Scully's regained consciousness!" Skinner yelled.
"Dana, what did that perverted monkey boy do to you?" Bill interrogated.
"Ma'am, please let go. We need to treat you both so no further damage is done." One of the medics reasoned.
Everyone was yelling. Everyone except for Margaret Scully, who stood silently, staring down at her unresponsive daughter. Slowly, Mrs. Scully approached Dana, and whispered something in her ear. Dana obediently obeyed her mother's request and loosened her grip on Mulder. There was no expression on her face, her eyes were empty. No sooner had Scully let go of Mulder that the medics filled him and dragged him away.
Mulder was obviously in much worse condition that Scully, being out in the woods longer and all. However, Scully was the one who was seriously injured. She would have been released immediately after being treated for hypothermia, but a week later she still lay in the droll hospital room. Scully still would not respond, but doctors couldn't find a diagnosis. She wouldn't speak, wouldn't eat, and wouldn't sleep. She never even moved. Her grieving mother sat at her bedside the entire time. Only she knew the true cause of her child's pain.
A broken heart.
Fear that the love of her life was dead.
Nearly two weeks had passed when Mrs. Scully discovered a cure for Dana's fatal disease.
"Dana," She questioned softly. "Would you like to visit Fox?"
Scully's face lit up like a child on Christmas morning, and she released a radiant Scully Smile that her mother had only seen on rare occasions. She hugged her mother, then said quietly into her ear, "Not Fox, Mulder!"
Scully weakly entered Mulder's hospital room, dragging a saline IV at her side. Her hair was ragged and all the colour was drained for her cheeks, but her happiness at that moment could light the world. She limped to Mulder's bedside and took his frail hand, entwining it with her own.
"Thanks for saving me, Scully." We're the first words to arise from his mouth.
"No, Mulder, I didn't do anything." She replied.
"Your car, Scully, that's how they found us!"
"Mulder, that's your wildest assumption yet."
"Why were you in the woods, anyway?"
"I - I had a feeling."
"Maybe that's how you found me."
"I think fate had something to do with it." Margaret Scully volunteered as she entered the room. Dana gave her mother a puzzled look, agitated that she had interrupted, but curious as well. "I doubt you remember this, Dana. But when we found you, you wouldn't let go of Fox, no matter what we tried. Finally, I tried to talk you into it and you let go."
"What'd you say?" Dana asked.
"If you love him, you'll let him go."
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"Hypothermic Heartbreak" was written by Heather Horn on April 3, 1999
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