Solo By: afg Rating: NC17 for graphic violence, sex and expletives. Category: Casefile, Scully/other, MSR Disclaimer: Not mine and no money is being made. Summary: While Mulder is suspended and on medical leave, Scully gets assigned to Violent Crimes. Thanks: To audu2, for giving her time and much needed skill, also to Xangel for help and encouragement For: The delightful AnubisKV5. See what your simple request has unleashed! Bet you're sorry now. Feedback: Would be lovely. siggy.63@btinternet.com Website: www.ofnoconsequence.com Note: This story is set season 5 before 'Travellers' but it doesn't follow canon. ~oOo~ Chapter One Mulder's Apartment. Alexandria. Washington DC. 0600 hrs Around 2am, Scully decided she hated the spring that had been prodding her in the ass all night. As the hours had passed and her attempts to achieve deep sleep had been thwarted by its insistent presence, she had gone beyond hate, directly into loathing until she now positively despised the damned thing. She got up off the battered old leather couch and groaned as her lower back twitched and twanged with little jolts of pain. She gave the couch a glare and headed towards the bedroom to check on the reason for her discomfort. Mulder was sleeping the sleep of the drugged. He lay on his back, one arm was flung to the side and the other lay across his stomach. Scully watched the rise and fall of his abdomen and listened to his gentle snores. Her eyes moved to his feet sticking out of the bedclothes at the foot of the bed. Those big feet of his, with their long hairy toes, one set of which twitched slightly as if irritated by being surrounded in Plaster of Paris. The cast began at his toes, going as far as his thigh just below his groin. It was a bad break of his right femur with accompanying muscle damage, causing spasms which meant that he had to take some pretty hefty muscle relaxants. So, with the huge cast, the need for crutches and the medication, he couldn't be left alone in case he fell and caused himself some more damage. Scully thought it was quite possible she'd be causing him injury before too long. Sighing in frustration she set off for the bathroom leaving Mulder to sleep for a little longer. Mulder's bathroom was much like the rest of his apartment, small, dingy and somewhat grimy. Shucking off her pajamas, she started running the shower, and stepping into the tub she moaned in pleasure as the hot water eased her aching muscles. She made quick work of her hair and then turned the water off before Mulder's notoriously unpredictable plumbing could turn nasty. Wrapping a towel around herself, she stood in front of the bathroom mirror and began to brush the knots out of her hair. She winced as the brush caught on a particularly stubborn strand and was horrified to find that she was on the verge of tears. Swiping angrily at a lone tear that had made a bid for freedom, she dropped her brush in the sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Her reflection showed a face that looked old, tired and not a little hard. Scully thought she'd looked better with cancer. She'd hoped, after surviving against all the odds, that somehow life would be different, or at least, that she and Mulder would be different. She'd read accounts of miracle recoveries and how the patient suddenly got a renewed zest for life, how their world-view had undergone a paradigm shift. Not for her this lifting of the veil. No, good old Scully had taken the minimum amount of sick leave and gone right back to chasing phantoms and Mulder had carried on keeping secrets, and holding on to information like a three year old with a candy bar. She was tired of it all, tired of travelling the same road, always out of the loop and one step behind. What good were they doing? What was the point? They never got any proof of the phenomenon they investigated or if they did they were never able to hang on to it. Christ, she couldn't even bury her daughter, just an empty coffin. The thought of Emily opened the floodgates, and fat, scalding tears ran down her face and splashed into the sink; the weight of sorrow almost crippling. How many more of her children were out there? How could she save them all, when she couldn't even save one? Adding to the whole impossible mess, she now knew the supposed cure for her cancer was also the means by which she could be called away at any moment to God knows where, to be slaughtered or even worse; to be taken again, to disappear. Even if she could somehow save her genetically crippled children, there was no way she could keep them safe. That was a moot point anyway; she wouldn't be having any children, manufactured or otherwise, even that choice had been taken from her. Her only choice now was whether to leave or stay. "Scully?" Mulder always did have great timing. "Yeah, I'll be out in a minute." She called. Running the cold tap, she splashed some water on her face. Slipping on her robe, she left the sanctuary of the bathroom. "Morning, Mulder. How did you sleep?" She asked as she walked into the bedroom. "Like a rock, but I need to pee, could you give me a hand?" She watched as he managed to swing his legs out of the bed. "If you'd just use a bedpan it would be much easier." She went to him and handed him his crutches, keeping an arm around his waist in case he was wobbly. "Unless you get a thrill from carrying around receptacles full of your partner's urine, then my answer would have to be, over my dead body." He started to clunk his way to the bathroom. "You can come and hold it for me if you like?" Scully didn't grace this with a reply; she wasn't really in the mood for witty comebacks. She was still angry with him for getting into this situation in the first place. Instead, she took out her frustrations on the bed and plumped the pillows with rather more vigor than was strictly necessary, then made quick work of straightening the under-sheet and quilt. She could hear Mulder clumping about his bathroom. Probably trying to give himself a sponge bath from the amount of splashing going on. "Mulder, take it easy in there." She spoke through the bathroom door. "You shouldn't be out of the hospital, never mind walking about on your own." She jumped as the door flew open and Mulder emerged, looking damp but happy. "I'm okay Scully I don't like not being able to shower though." "Yes, well perhaps you should have thought of that before you started charging through the woods without your partner." "You're not going to let this go are you?" "Not this time, Mulder." "You know why I didn't call you." "Mulder, I don't need you to protect me from our cases. " "It was little girls, Scully. He was killing little red-haired girls. I couldn't let you be a part of that." Mulder put his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it slightly. Usually it would have felt comforting, warm, but not today. Shrugging off his hand, she stepped towards him, invading his space. "Let me get this straight. It's okay for you to investigate child murders. You, who've been so affected by the loss of your sister, but I'm too fragile to accompany you because I lost a daughter that I knew for barely a week?" She could hear her voice and she sounded like a complete bitch, but she couldn't help herself. "Samantha's not dead." "Jesus, Mulder, even you can't be that naive." It came out of her mouth before she could stop it. She winced as Mulder's face morphed from a look shocked hurt to bitter amusement "Are you coming up for the wrong time of the month Scully? Or don't you have to worry about that anymore?" "Fuck you." The noise of the slap was so loud, the imprint of her small hand on his cheek, clearly visible. She reached up as if to touch the mark, but let her hand drop to her side instead. "God, Mulder, what are we doing to ourselves?" Mulder hopped his way to the bed and sat down heavily, gasping sharply as pain shot up his leg. Propping his crutches against the wall he looked up at her. "I really don't know, but don't beat yourself up, if you'll excuse the pun. I deserved that." "Yeah you did, but I shouldn't have said what I did. I'm sorry." "No you're not." "Mulder, just for once, could you not tell me what I'm feeling." Before he could reply, they heard a key turn in the door. "Dana, honey, it's me." Maggie Scully's voice came clearly through to the bedroom. "Oh good, it's the shift change." Mulder rolled his eyes. "Come in Mom" Scully called, rather unnecessarily. She started to turn towards the door. "Are we all right, Scully?" She turned back to face him. The look in his eyes made her want to say yes, to say that they were fine. "I don't know, Mulder, I really don't know." She'd never been less than honest with him, she wasn't about to start now. She walked away and went through the door, leaving him alone. ~oOo~ "Hi Mom, you're early." Scully gave her mom a peck on the cheek. She could smell the familiar perfume. Her mother had worn the same fragrance for as long as Scully could remember. "Well, I thought you'd need to get off a bit early, didn't you say that you had a meeting with Mr. Skinner?" Mrs. Scully said, placing the bags of supplies she'd brought on the kitchen counter "Yes, I'm to be reassigned while Mulder is off." "And how is Fox?" "He's stubborn, but don't let him get out of bed today, unless he needs to go to the bathroom. He's still a little shaky and I want him off that leg as much as possible, until his muscles relax." "Oh don't worry; he'll stay in bed alright." Scully almost felt sorry for her injured partner. Her mother was something of a tyrant in the sickroom. On the other hand it had made the Scully children a hardy breed only complaining to their mother if severe loss of blood or imminent death was in the offing. I'm sure you'll manage Mom, and thanks for doing this." "To be honest I'm glad to be out of the house. Now that Charlie and the kids have gone back home, the place feels too quiet. He was sorry to have missed you, by the way." Scully knew that her mother didn't mean to sound accusing but she heard it in her voice anyway. "I'm sorry, but..." "I know, Dana, something came up at work." "Do I use that excuse that often?" "Do you really want me to answer that?" Maggie said, not unkindly. "I've got to get dressed. I've got that meeting in an hour." Scully went over to Mulder's desk and picked up the clothes she'd laid out over the back of a chair the night before. "Yes, well, I'd better get all this stuff unpacked. I think I'll do a little baking while I'm here." Scully smiled at her mother, the tension easing a little. She finished dressing and picked up her briefcase and car-keys then went into the little kitchen. "I'm going now mom. Just ask Mulder if you don't know where something is. Will you be okay?" "Don't worry Dana we'll be fine. I've got your cell number if anything terrible happens, but it won't." She stepped forward and gave her daughter a brief hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Dana, are you alright? You look tired." Maggie put her palm against Scully's cool cheek. Scully's eyes closed briefly and she leaned in to her mother's touch. "I'm fine, mom." "Of course you are, but then you wouldn't tell me if you weren't, would you?" Maggie said resignedly, breaking the contact "I've got to go." Scully felt the loss of her mother's hand more acutely than she would have thought. "I'll see you later. Say goodbye to Mulder for me." "See you this evening. Take care." Scully gave her mom a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes and left the apartment hoping that the day could only improve from here.