The Loop

Chapter Thirteen

Scully runs quicker than she ever has in her life, and as soon as she gets to Mulder, she is down on the ground, kneeling over him. He's now down on his side, curled up slightly, his face scrunched up in pain as his right arm clutches his chest tightly, his left sprawled out on the ground next to him. Scully quickly sits down and pulls him into her lap, trying to observe him better. He was covered in sweat, his face glistening and his hair damp as she ran her hands through it. As she takes everything in, from the pained look on his face to the way he was gripping his chest, a horrible thought entered her mind. A lump forms in her throat and she has trouble swallowing it down. She can feel her tear ducts readying themselves to cry. She pushes down the feeling as much as she can and tries to speak to Mulder, her voice failing her at first. She quickly clears her throat, making it only a little easier to speak.

"M-Mulder, I think... I think you might be having a h-heart attack." she tries to say, her voice sounding croaky as panic and fear begin to take over. Mulder responds with a tight nod, confirming what she said. She sits there, her mouth hanging open as she stares down at him in horror and disbelief, not knowing what to do, when suddenly Mulder opens his mouth. She watches as he tries to speak.

"Scully," it was breathy and broken, yet she knew what he said. She sat up a bit, cradling his head and turning so that she could face him better.

"Y-yes? Yes?" she answered quickly. Mulder begins to pull his right arm away from his chest, causing his face to scrunch up a bit more in pain. It falls limply against his body. He begins to slowly drag it down to his jackets left inner pocket, trying with all he had to get his unstable hand into it. Scully watched as he grabbed something and began to shakily drag his hand back out, resting it on his thigh. She can see that he's holding a small, black velvet box. Scully's left hand flies up to cover her mouth as Mulder turns to look at her, using all he had to open his eyes and look up at her.

"I s-should've - g-given this t-to you a - a long t-time ago." he says, his voice strained as he spoke between sharp intakes of breath. Scully's eyes begin to well up with tears as Mulder drags his arm to her right hand, taking it and placing the box in it, then wrapping his hand around hers. He then tries with all his might to lift his left arm, slowly getting it up, and wrapping it around their hands as well. He squeezed her hand with his two, flashing her a small, pained smile. Tears began to fall down Scully's cheeks as the two stared intently at each other, Scully noticing that Mulder's eyes were welling up with tears as well.

"I l-love you, Dana." Mulder whispered. It seemed to be getting harder for him to talk. Scully gave him a pained, loving smile, a small sob escaping for her lips.

"I l-love y-you too, Fox." Scully replied, her sobs beginning to take over now. Mulder stared up at her, his eyes never leaving hers. He opened his mouth slightly to speak.

"G-g..." his words fail with a huff of breath as he tries his hardest to speak. "Goodb-." his face suddenly screws up and he lets out a pained breath, his right arm flying to his chest and his knees tucking in closer to his body as he begins to have another heart attack. Not knowing what to do, Scully sits there, clutching Mulder to her chest as he shook, sobbing as she tried to hold on to him, her tears covering both of their faces. The light slowly beginning to fade, everything eventually turns black.