Amorem Animalem

His Universe

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" A young dispatcher spoke into the phone.

"My--my partner is convulsing, I believe she's having a seizure. It's been going on for at least a minute or two. She may have been poisoned. I've never seen this, I-- I don't know what to do." Mulder frantically cried into his phone.

"Is she laying on her side?" The voice asked.

"Yes."

"Good. That's the best thing you could do for her. What is your location?"

Mulder looked around the empty parking lot, a few cars occupied it. He had hoped that someone, anyone would be passing by to assist him until help arrived. He was panicking, which was not something that he was used to dealing with.

"I'm at Rosaline's, the nightclub on Coastal Connection." He exhaled nervously. The rain fell into his mouth with every word he spoke.

"I'm dispatching an ambulance right now. They will be there shortly."

Mulder hung up his phone and looked down at Scully. She was no longer shaking, just laying lifeless, on his lap. He held her head in one hand and his other arm was wrapped tenderly around her cold body. There was something about her, the way that she laid in his arms. It was a visual, a picture that he would never forget. The once lively, confident, and strong woman was now vulnerable and weak. She was so peaceful. Angelic. He softly stroked the side of her face, wiping the raindrops from it.

"Scully, I shouldn't have dragged you into this. I am so sorry." He pressed his forehead against her's as he began to cry. Never had he felt so irresponsible. He could've done so much more to protect her. He didn't know what he could've done, he just knew that he could've prevented this all somehow. "I should've come to this club by myself. I'm such an idiot for thinking that this was a good idea." He scolded himself. He had almost lost Scully three times before, and he couldn't bare to see her slipping away again.

He remembered the first time when Donnie Pfaster kidnapped her and held her hostage for nearly an entire day. He remembered the look on her face: the look of sheer terror. The two had only worked together for a few months and the first thing Scully did upon his arrival to the scene was run into his arms and cry. They trusted one another with their entire being. They were each other's beacons, their safe-havens.

"Scully, I can't lose you, not again. Come back to me." He held her closer, under the neon pink light and the rain that was more of a shower now than a drizzle. "Please."

Memories of her abduction and her cancer flew around his mind. He couldn't help but blame himself for it all. "If I had never opened the X-Files, none of this would have ever happened." He said softly as he wiped his eyes. At this point, he thought it better to have never known each other than witness the torture that she had endured because of him. He would throw it all away for her: his career, his findings, the truth. She meant more to him than any UFO, Bigfoot sighting, or strand of murder cases. She was his world. His universe, the stars the Moon and the Sun.

Amidst his quiet tears, he felt her move in his arms. "Mulder?" A tiny voice squeaked. The sobbing agent lifted his head and saw that his partner, was awake.

"Scully, you're okay. Thank God." Mulder smiled through his tears and hugged the tiny woman.

"Mulder, you don't need to apologize to me," she whispered,"we're doing our jobs. You were doing your job. You couldn't have known."

"Scully, my work-- our work is dangerous. I can't bear to watch you suffer anymore." He pushed a strand of red hair behind her ear. "I can't bare to lose you."

"Mulder, you'll never lose me. I'll never leave you."

"This is too dangerous, Scully. Not only have the crimes that we've investigated put you in danger, but the criminals, and even forces at the bureau. Scully, I can't help but feel like you belong back at Quantico, teaching like you were before. Or working at a hospital, being the best doctor that you can be." Mulder hated to say this, he really did, but all he wanted was for her to be safe. "Your talent is wasted on the X-Files."

"Mulder, don't say that. I told you, we belong together. We're a team. The X-Files needs us both."

"Scully, you're a doctor. You dreamed of being a doctor since you were a kid. I won't let you throw your God-given talent down the drain just so you can run around the country with me hunting ghosts."

"Mulder," she began, "I am still a Doctor, and I wouldn't have it all any other way. My dream is to be with you. Whether it be hunting ghosts in DC, vampires in Texas, or murders in Alabama, Mulder, I always want to be with you." She said as she looked up at her partner and held his rough face in her hand.

"Scully, we can't. We-- we just can't do this anymore. Why can't you see that I cannot lose you again?"

"You won't lose me." She whispered sweetly to him. A gentle smile overcame her lips and her eyes were wide and pure with intention.

"Scully, you and I both know that you can't promise that we will be together forever." He sighed as he stared at her soft face.

"Mulder, we will be together forever," Scully said with a grin. Mulder held her closer to his chest and closed his eyes. He loved how Scully never gave up on herself, and him. He so desperately wanted her, to love her, to hold her every day of his life, but he knew that his dream would never come true. They were a forbidden dream; star-crossed lovers. Doomed from the beginning.

"I want us to be together, Scully. But I can't allow it and bureau doesn't let coworkers have a romantic involvement with one another, you know that. It's as simple as that. We just can't." These words pained him to say. He continued to hold her to himself, feeling her heart beat with his, her breath on his neck. He closed his eyes as he savored the moment that he had dreamed of since she walked through his door five years ago.

"Now, we can." She hummed in his ear. Scully reached into her holster, and slowly raised her loaded gun to Mulder's back. "Parting is such sweet sorrow" she whispered, "that I shall say goodnight till it be morrow." She cocked the gun in her hand, and as Mulder protested her actions in fear, she pulled the trigger.

The two agents, partners, star-crossed lovers, fell to the ground. The tears in their eyes and the blood that ran down their chests were the only things that made them human. Mulder's lungs began to feel heavy, his eyes grew tired and weak. The last thing he saw before it all went dark, was the blur of flashing blue and red lights.