Title: Nova

Author: Angel

Feedback: Please!

Archive: Please!

Classification: MSR, Colonization fic.

Rating: NC-17 (for some parts-very mild but to be safe!) Others are probably PG-13 or so.

Summery: The inevitable happens. Mulder has planned ahead and now does everything in his power to keep Scully safe. You MUST read all parts to understand! Available at Ephemeral and my home page.

Disclaimer: You know the drill. Characters are property of Fox, 1013, ect. No money is being made. No infringement is intended. Some poems are used without permission, names of authors are given. Prayers which I did not write, and I don’t know who wrote are included in some areas.

Homepage: (to find missing parts and sooner or later the completed version, also posted at Ephemeral)

A HUGE thanks to Evie my beta reader! Nova would never be doing this well, or going as fast, without her help! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!

Note: Want Nova updates in the mail? Just let me know!

"Baby don’t look up, the sky is falling." Tori Amos

(16/?)

Day 87

"Are you sure something isn’t wrong?" Skinner asked for the- hell he lost track hours ago.

Scully glared over at him. She knew she looked horrible. She felt horrible. Mulder had woken her up in the early morning, she had had that dream again. It played out the same way as the first time. It still seemed so real. Neither of them had been able to get back to sleep. Then an hour before she needed to get out of bed she started to feel ill. She still felt ill and it was after noon. All Scully wanted to do was go back to bed, but even that wasn’t perfect. The fear of having that dream without Mulder there to wake her scared her enough to ignore the fatigue she felt. "I’m fine, just tired." She explained monotone.

Skinner just sighed and shifted restlessly on the bed. He didn’t want to sit around anymore. He had always hated being waited on, the military taught a person to fend for himself. He never would have been able to make it to Nova without that knowledge. The only thing that was saving him from insanity today was Jack. He would be in for a few days, but he was asleep. So Skinner was stuck with watching Scully do random things or read. He was sick of reading. "I’ll get it." He called after a knock at the door.

"No you won’t." Scully held up hand to stop Skinner’s struggle to sit up. "Oh, Amanda." Scully said surprised as she opened the door for Amanda to walk in. "I didn’t think you were going to show up."

Amanda shrugged as she stepped into the room. "I woke up late."

"I’d say so." Scully muttered. "This is Walter Skinner and you know Jack." She said pointing the back of the room where Jack’s bed was curtained in as he slept.

"You’re Benjamin’s daughter?" Skinner asked extending his hand.

Amanda shook it half heartedly. "Yeah… I prefer Amanda though."

Skinner cracked a smile. "Sure."

Hands on hips Amanda looked around the Medical Room, picking up jars and books only to drop them sloppily back down.

Scully ignored what she was doing, but cleared her throat to capture Amanda’s attention. "Well, Amanda, if you want to help out around here you’ll need to show up on time. Seven, like everyone else. I don’t know how much you’ll be able to do, but we’ll work on it-" Scully was interrupted by Mulder walking in the door. She couldn’t help a small smile just at the sight of him. "I was wondering if you were going to show up."

Mulder laughed softly. "Yeah, running a little late today. I can’t really stay either. I just wanted to see how you were feeling."

She shrugged. "Better. Fox Mulder this is Amanda Walters."

Mulder smiled politely and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you. I’m glad to here where will be someone around to give Scully a hand." Mulder looked past Amanda to Skinner. "And to give Skinner someone else to annoy all day."

Skinner glared, with humor, at Mulder. "If you had been sitting here as long as I have, Mulder, you’d be going crazy too."

Mulder nodded. "Probably." He turned back to Scully and kissed her quickly. "I better get going. I’ll see you later."

"Mulder! Don’t forget to eat some lunch!" She yelled as he started down the hallway. Shaking her head with a frown Scully turned back to Amanda. "Come on, you can help me bring in the clean sheets from outside."

Amanda shrugged, indifferent to the idea and walked out behind Scully. "I know everyone calls Fox Mulder, Mulder. But why does he call you Scully instead of Dana?"

"We met while working for the FBI, old habit I guess."

"How long have you known him?"

Scully wasn’t sure if she felt comfortable with this game of twenty questions. "Over seven years."

"You’ve been involved with him for seven years?" Amanda asked in shock.

"Well," Scully pulled sheets down from a line where she hung them to dry, folding as she spoke. "not is so many words. He’s been my best friend for that long. Only recently we decided to go further then that, so to speak."

"You seem very close." Amanda noted softly as she took a pile of sheets into her arms.

Scully nodded fondly as they stepped through the doorway and back into the confines of the cool rocks. "I’ve never been closer to anyone."

They were silent the rest of the walk to the Medical Room.

Scully smiled when she saw Langly waiting outside. "I just can’t get rid of you guys lately. Every time I turn around I see one of you. Langly this is Amanda."

Without giving Langly a chance to say anything Amanda made something of a greeting type noise and walked into the Medical Room.

"Bitch." Langly muttered.

Scully looked into the Medical Room. "I’d like to disagree with you… but I don’t think I can." With a sigh she turned back to him. "What can I do for you?"

"Oh… Nothing. I just was wondering how you are feeling."

Scully smiled knowingly at him. "Mulder has you watching me doesn’t he?"

"Uh…" Langly shifted on his feet. "I don’t know what you mean. He mentioned to me that you haven’t been well lately so I was just… checking."

With that same smile Scully patted his arm. "You never could lie to me, Langly. Tell Mulder I’m fine." Shaking her head she walked in to the Medical Room where Skinner and Amanda were making small talk.

"So you’ve been living here since you were twelve." Skinner asked in shock.

"Yeah, I went to school fifty miles from here. But I’ve always stayed close by."

Scully listened in as she put away the sheets the Amanda had left in the center of the room.

"Why did you want to work in here with Scully?"

Scully’s head shot up as she waited for an answer, she was pretty curious about that herself.

Amanda smirked. "Well… I wanted to see what made the woman my father is so obsessed with tick."

A wave of nausea washed over her. Without saying a word she walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"That was low." Skinner said to Amanda. "It’s obvious she isn’t feeling well and you say something to upset her."

Amanda shrugged. "I didn’t know she’d be react that way."

"Bullshit!" Skinner yelled, pushing himself to sitting position. "You did that on purpose."

With her hands on her hips Amanda glared at him. "What the hell does that mean?"

"You’ve got this wonderful little daddy’s girl act all worked out." Skinner spat out, rather loudly. "You can come and go as you please. You don’t have to work. You came here, so you must be lonely. Anyone can see that. Not that I blame you, your father obviously doesn’t pay much attention to you. You said that to Scully because you were you’re hurting, what’s easier then dealing with your own pain? Making other’s feel like shit. Well that act has to go. I don’t want to listen to it, and Scully doesn’t need it, and you need to grow up and move on. Stop being a little brat. No one wants to be friends with a brat!"

Scully smiled softly as she leaned against the wall outside of the Medical Room. That was so Skinner. Not much gets by him and he doesn’t deal with people’s shit. And he was always trying to protect her, whether she wanted him to or not. She felt guilty for treating him so badly earlier, but until now she just hadn’t been sure who he was looking out for. Himself, Krycek, God knows. She should have known better, as always, Skinner, in his own way, was still looking out for them.

Day 89

With her hand clamped over her mouth Scully rolled onto her side on the bed. She was going to throw up. She knew it. Fighting it for the last few hours had finally caught up with her. Clenching her jaw she lay still, hoping it would pass like the other times. But it didn’t.

Falling to her knees beside the bed she emptied her stomach into a bucket that from that moment on would be used for only that.

"Jesus Scully." Mulder said softly, rubbing her back with one hand, passing her a glass of water with the other. "Better?" He asked as she sat back against the bed.

Scully nodded as she sipped her water.

"What’s going on? You’ve been feeling ill for a week now."

She shook her head. "I don’t know. I really don’t."

Mulder frowned as he watched her carefully drink water. "Alright, let’s get you in bed." Basically picking her up Mulder tucked her under the covers. "I want you to stay home today. Catch up on your sleep."

"I don’t want to sleep if you aren’t here." She admitted softly.

He stroked her cheek lightly with his fingertips. "I know… But you haven’t been sleeping much at all. I know it’s because you are scared. But it isn’t going to help when you are sick."

Nodding, Scully turned her head to the side and stared blankly at the far wall.

"Hey." Mulder turned her face back to him. "I’ll check on you, I’ll have the Gunmen come too. Ok?"

"I’ll just go to the Medical Room." Scully knew she shouldn’t. She was lightheaded and too tired to even think about getting up.

Mulder shook his head firmly. "Don’t even try it. You’re staying here. I’ll talk to Judy and take care of everything." He kissed her forehead for a long heartbeat before standing to clean up from Scully’s morning activity. "I’ll check on you as often as I can."

She nodded lazily.

"I’m going to be late." He muttered to himself. "Bye, sweetheart."

"Bye." She said as he closed the door. "Hurry back." She whispered to the empty room.

She knew she was having that dream again. She could tell by the strange feeling of being weighed too the bed.

Immediately she chanted for herself to wake up. It didn’t work. It never worked.

Opening her eyes she was meet with the usual dark room. She could see the shadowy figure who was the mysterious visitor. The large hand grazed over her face lightly, despite her pleas and whimpering. The hand, heavy and un-dreamlike warm, traveled its usual course down her body. Over her breasts, down her abdomen, into the junction of her thighs, finally skimming over her legs.

Scully twisted and fought as much as possible.

Suddenly she stilled. The hand moved away from her body, hovering over her face. She focused in the low light on the hand, now glistening with blood.

Scully sat up quickly, trying to control her churning stomach, with a gasp. After a few deep breaths she laid back into the bed, staring at the rocks above her head. Shivering, not with chilliness, she wrapped the blankets tightly around her and waited for Mulder to come back.

Day 91

Mulder stood stiffly from the chair he had been sitting in for the past few hours watching Scully sleep at a knock on the door.

She flat out refused to go to sleep if he wasn’t there to wake her, no matter how tired she was.

In turn Mulder refused to let her go to the Medical Room until she was feeling better.

With an audible sigh Mulder stepped out into the hallway with Benjamin.

"I was hoping to talk to Dana."

"Sorry." Mulder said, not meaning it. "She’s asleep, I don’t want to wake her."

Benjamin nodded, understanding. "How is she?"

"Not too well. She’s very tired and sick to her stomach."

Benjamin made a small thoughtful ‘hmph’ sound. "Maybe she’s pregnant."

A tight knot of pain settled in Mulder’s gut. "We can’t have children." He said as smoothly as possible, determined not to show emotion in front of Benjamin.

"Maybe you’re not the father."

Mulder stared at the older man, completely dumbfounded. "Scully is infertile." He spoke without thinking. Immediately he cursed himself silently. That was not his information to give out. Scully herself barely told anyone. It was primal male pride that made him say that.

To Mulder’s joy Benjamin looked disappointed. Mulder could only hope that fact might discourage Benjamin’s infatuation with Scully. "Well… give her my best." He turned on his heels and walked down the hall.

"I’ll be sure to do that." Mulder mumbled using every last bit of his restraint not to smash Benjamin’s head into the rock wall. But if he did that he knew Benjamin would kick him out of Nova. Mulder knew the only reason that he hadn’t been already was because Benjamin knew that Scully would leave with him. Mulder wasn’t sure if that was a blessing or not.

Note: I’m having so much fun writing this…. I hope enjoy reading!