Title: Nova

Author: Angel

Feedback: Please!

Archive: Please!

Rating: NC-17, very mild but to be safe!

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. Don’t sue me; I don’t have much, just a computer and a horse, not even a good car, believe me!

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

A special thanks to Eve and Evie (hehe) for all their help editing and giving me ideas and hints, which involved listening to all my psychotic questions! And of course who would I discuss Mulder’s yumminess with without Eve? =) Thanks!!

NOTE: There may be some changes on the beginning versions! I’ll make a note at my page if they are important and repost if I feel necessary.

(3/?)

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

Day 32

"Scully?" Mulder whispered as he squinted against the harsh glare of the hazy sky. Finding it too painful he closed his eyes and called for Scully again, louder. Still no answer. He knew she was here, she just couldn’t leave him. Swallowing back the pained tears in his throat he crooked out her name as loud as he could.

Scully rushed from where she was getting water from the stream after hearing the desperate tone in his voice. "I’m here, Mulder." She smoothed his hair way from his face, feeling his hot forehead. "What’s wrong?"

Swallowing roughly, Mulder tried to move his arm. "It hurts." He forced his eyes open and gave her a look pleading for relief.

"Ok. Ok. Don’t move." She gently unwrapped the wound to see the red swollen flesh. "How does it hurt?"

"I don’t know." He said frustrated. "It aches."

"Alright. It’s going to be ok. You’re infection is getting much better, you slept through the worst of it." She cleaned and rewrapped trying to work thoroughly and ignore his wordless cries of pain the best she could. "Squeeze my hand as hard as you can." Scully placed her hand in his.

Holding back to scream of pain he did as she asked.

"That’s good. You can let go." She flexed her now aching fingers. "Did that make it hurt more?"

"No." He turned his head to face her, looking tired and flushed.

"Is the pain localized? Do you have feeling in your fingers, any tingling?" Her was attention split between her interrogation and pouring out aspirin and vitamins.

"Nothing other then a constant ache. Every time my heart beats its worse."

Scully moved back to his head, lifting him gently into her lap then placing the pills in his mouth and water to his lips. "You’ll be ok." She cooed softly. "Here, let’s get your arm up. Let me lift it." She instructed, carefully lifting and placing his injured arm to lie against his chest.

Mulder cringed sharply. "Can’t you just hit me over the head with a rock so I can sleep through all this?"

With a small smile, Scully leaned down and kissed his damp forehead. "But then I will have to listen to you complain about a head ache when you wake up."

He immediately looked hurt. He didn’t want Scully to think he was whining this. He had been turning to her for comfort for years, not just on the medical side but also personal. It was never an easy thing for him to do. The common comforts of a loving person were all but common in his family.

Cursing herself under breath Scully leaned over, covering his upper body with hers as she caressed his chest lightly. "I didn’t mean it like that, Mulder. I know it hurts a lot."

Swallowing his pride in favor of her care he turned his head into her embrace to nuzzle the crook of her neck.

Day 34

"How’s this for an Indian summer?" Mulder commented as he pulled a blanket up one handed before settling back again.

"In youth, it was a way I had

To do my best to please,

And change, with every passing lad,

To suit his theories.

But now I know the things I know,

And do the things I do;

And if you do not like me so,

To hell, my love, with you!" She carefully tucked the blankets around Mulder’s arm then lay down next to him with a smile.

"Thank you Miss Parker." Mulder chuckled softly as he waited for Scully to settle. Turning his head he gave her a soft smile. "I do like you so."

"Well you better, cause you’re stuck with me…. I’ve always like that poem." She rolled onto her side and regarded him seriously. "What about you? Any favorites?"

Nodding, Mulder struggled to remember all the words;

"How do they do it, the ones who make love,

without love? Beautiful as dancers,

gilding over each other like ice-skaters

over the ice, fingers hooked

inside each other’s bodies, faces

red as steak, wine, wet as the

children at birth whose mothers are going to

give them away. How do they come to the

come to the come to the God come to the

still waters, and not love

the one who came there with them, light

rising slowly as steam off their joined

skin? These are the true religious,

the purists, the pros, the ones who will not

accept a false Messiah, love the

priest instead of the God. They do not

mistake the lover for their own pleasure,

they are like great runners: they know they are alone

with the road surface, the cold, the wind,

this fit of their shoes, their over-all cardio-

vascular health- just factors, like the partner

in the bed, and not the truth, which is the

single body alone in the universe

against its own best time."

After a moment Scully swallowed around her closed throat. "Mmm… Sharon Olds?"

"Very good." Mulder was truly impressed. "‘Sex without Love’. I’m surprised I remember the words."

"Well… They are pretty memorable." She said with a slight blush.

Mulder laughed softly. "You look so cute when you blush."

This caused her to blush even more. "Shut up Mulder." She mumbled and moved closer to him. She rested her head on the shoulder of his uninjured arm and wrapped one of hers over his waist.

"Night Scully." He said still laughing as he placed a kiss on her forehead.

Day 37

There were no two ways about it; Mulder was going stir crazy.

And Scully was ready to kill him. "Mulder stop that."

He looked away from where he was poking at her freshly made fire with a long stick. "Why?"

"Because you are going to knock over the wood and then I’ll have to start it again." She turned back to the clothes she had just washed and began to wring them out to dry.

"Don’t worry Scully, I won’t mess up your pretty fire." He turned to stick from the fire and poked Scully in the butt with it, leaving a soot mark on her right cheek.

"Mulder!" She batted it away and turned to him with her hands on her hips. "Are you trying to drive me crazy?"

"No not at all, it is just a added benefit." Reaching out he poked her belly lightly. Scully grabbed the stick strongly so he couldn’t jab her anymore. "Ooo, Scully." He said slyly. "Your grip is so firm."

"Oh brother." Scully released her hold and walked far enough away that he couldn’t touch her with it.

"Hey! Where’re you going?" Mulder called with a dramatically hurt tone. "Are you going to leave poor injured me all alone?"

Raising her eyebrows she turned toward him. "I thought you were all better? I believe your words were; ‘Scully, I don’t want to sit around here wasting time. I’m fine, I don’t need my arm to walk.’ Then I said; ‘Yes but you need your arm to carry your bag even if I put the heavy things in mine.’ Then you gave me that damn puppy dog look and I said ok."

Mulder grinned smugly. "That look always works on you."

Scully quickly walked back over to him and knelt by his side, suddenly serious. "Mulder I really want to you take it easy. You’ve got nothing to prove to me. I know you want to get going, I do to. But if you push yourself and get hurt we will just end up waiting longer. Ok?"

He cupped her chin in his good hand, his other laying gently against his chest in a makeshift sling. "I promise. Stop worrying Scully, you’re gonna go gray at this rate."

She frowned. "I’m surprised I haven’t after seven years with you."

Mulder couldn’t help but smile. "I’m not that bad." Scully gave him her ‘yeah right’ look, raised brows and all. "Ok so I am that bad."

Scully moved away and added large pieces of wood to the now steady fire. "Damn right."

Day 39

"Is it something blue?"

"Mulder, why are you stuck on asking color? And no, that’s question number 18. Two to go."

Mulder frowned in deep thought. He was horrible at the game Twenty Questions. "Is it something you are wearing?"

"Yes! Finally you got one right."

"Ok… So it’s something small, important and you are wearing it." He walked backwards and examined her. "Well it’s not your bra because that isn’t small."

"Mulder!"

He laughed, proud of himself. "I just wanted to see you blush. Ok… I’ve got one question left." He focused all his investigative skills on her five foot something frame. Suddenly he smiled smugly. "Your necklace?"

Scully sucked in an unsure breath through her teeth. "Which one?"

His smile quickly faded. After a moment he shook his head. "I don’t know."

Reaching under her shirt Scully pulled out the Nova charm. "I figure this one is more important at the moment."

Mulder turned back around, much to Scully’s relief. Regarding her form his position beside her, "I don’t know if that’s true Scully, your religion has always been important to you. If you didn’t have faith you wouldn’t be able to carry on."

She thought in silence for few moments. "In all the time we have been walking I haven’t prayed once. The last time I did it was when we were still in the car."

"What did you pray for if you don’t mind my asking?"

Scully watched her feet with great focus. She remembered what she prayed for; her mother, her brothers, the world in general, that her and Mulder would be safe, that Nova would be real, that They wouldn’t find them, that They wouldn’t even look for them. Her worst fear has been that They would start to look for them, tracking her with the chip. She would take in out in a heartbeat to save Mulder, knowing he wouldn’t leave her willingly. But if she did take the chip out she would die. Probably within a few months. She didn’t want to die. She prayed that she wouldn’t die. Even with her life being turned upside down she did not want to die.

"That everything would turn out ok." She whispered after many minutes in silence.

Smiling, Mulder bumped her shoulder lightly with his. "It will be. Eventually. I think as long as you have faith we can get through this."

"But the thing is…. I don’t have faith in God." Mulder looked at her sharply. "I don’t. Not at this time."

"But you have faith?" Mulder was quickly becoming confused.

"Yes." She answered immediately. "But my faith is in you now. I’ve always had faith in you Mulder. But now… now that you’ve done all this for me. Now my faith is in your hands."

Day 41

"Mulder…" Scully looked up at the darkening sky. "It’s going to rain."

"It’s ok, our bags are water proof. We need to keep walking, we are really far behind." It was simple: Mulder was pissed at himself. They had to walk slowly, stop often, and poor Scully was carrying much more then half her weight on her back. Every time he tried to speed up his arm would begin to ache and Scully would make him stop. He had never been able to keep anything from her. And she had been watching him carefully, noticing every cringe and missed step. Probably filing them in her mind in order of degree of pain and length of time between such events.

Scully frowned up at the big clouds. "I know, but after all the bombings I doubt the rain will be clean. Can we please just stop and find somewhere to wait out the storm? I really don’t like the idea of what ever nuclear waste and acid falling on our heads."

Mulder ran a hand down her arm, she sounded so worried. "Ok. Lets keep walking and we’ll look for something for the night. We don’t want to stay too close to the trees."

"Thank you." She said visibly relieved.

They walked for fifteen more minutes before they came to remains of a building that would provide some shelter; two of the walls were completely destroyed but the roof was partly intact. They normally didn’t stay in old buildings, too many people could run into them.

Scully slowly eased Mulder’s bag from his shoulders. "Sorry." She murmured as he cringed when she carefully placed his arm back in the sling. "I’ll get some wood, why don’t you get out the blankets."

Within ten minutes they were sitting by a small fire as Scully mixed water with a can of chicken soup. The rain started to fall with a heavy patter, a cold breeze came into their little home.

"Of course we have to be facing the wind." Mulder mumbled as Scully settled next to him handing him his soup.

"Well at least we won’t get too wet."

They ate in silence and watched as the lightening started off in the distance. The increasing wind kept the fire to a minimum, the damp air was not helping the chill.

Setting their dishes aside, Scully moved closer to Mulder.

"Cold?" Without waiting for her answering nod he pulled her back against his chest and looped his good arm around her belly. "The sky looks so different." He whispered in her ear.

"I know… I think the bombs have effected the ozone. The sun is so much stronger. And sometimes the wind changes, like now, doesn’t it feel different."

Mulder nodded in her hair. "Yeah. I don’t know what it is but you are right." With a small sigh he pulled her closer and kissed her neck.

A tingle of excitement ran down Scully’s spine. She arched her neck, encouraging him. Mulder quickly pushed the stray hairs away with his nose and placed soft opened mouthed kisses on the curve of her neck. A happy murmur left her throat as she reached back and buried a hand in his hair. With an awkward hand Mulder turned her cheek so he could kiss her lips.

She smiled against mouth and twisted to face him, without breaking contact. Being careful of his arm she pushed him down onto his back.

One handed Mulder unbuttoned her jeans and slipped his hand into her heated folds as she pulled at his waistband and gripped his sex at the same time. "Still cold?" He asked softly as he pressed a finger up into her body.

Biting her lip she shook her head and smiled. Because he couldn’t with only one hand she pulled down both of their pants only to the needed amount. Awkwardly she settled by his side struggling to find an angle so he could keep his hand on her but not lean on his injured arm.

Not that it mattered. Mulder couldn’t feel anything but Scully’s hand around him. Determined to bring Scully over the edge with him he sped his pace up on her body. With a small whimper Scully buried her face in his neck and clenched around his fingers. Mulder quickly followed in a choked gasp.

After a few moments Scully helped him redress then pulled the blankets around them both. Mulder quickly fell into a deep sleep. But not Scully. She laid awake for a long time, watching the lightening, listening to the thunder around them and Mulder’s heart under her ear.

Day 42

Scully ran her brush through her damp hair noticing she needed to trim it. She only had a small mirror that she happened to grab when packing, which was probably for better so she didn’t notice the extent of the changes in her body. She knew she had lost weight, but she had also added muscle. And it seemed every time she did look in the mirror she was dirty, even though she washed at least twice a day. She just felt different. Like she did while fighting her cancer. She felt like herself, only altered.

They both had changed. Mulder had become so much more open with her. Not hiding his feelings behind jokes. She felt more comfortable with him then ever before. But she had forced herself to open up to him, it wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be.

She looked over at him. Mulder needed a trim also she noticed as he dozed beside her. Reaching over she ran her hand front and back of his head, the damp strands standing on end. He stirred slightly from her caress but did not wake.

She didn’t bother to wake him this morning. It was still raining and he needed his rest. It bothered her that he pushed himself so hard after being injured. He’s chased bad guys with bumps, bruises and sprains more times then she could count. Willingly letting scientists drill holes into his head, other numerous head injures-not all by his choosing. The one that always came to mind was brain surgery by a certain smoking friend of theirs. He seemed to have a tendency to be near bombs as they ticked closer and closer to zero. He managed to drive recklessly and barely miss head collisions, people, buildings, even an airplane or two. She wasn’t sure how many times he’d been shot. His list went on and on.

Her list wasn’t much better. Cancer, numerous kidnappings, the target of mutants and madmen alike… She stopped thinking about that. It didn’t matter… It just really didn’t matter now.

With a sad sigh she placed her hand back into his hair, caressing his scalp with her fingertips. A slight hum came from his throat.

Scully smiled softly at his sleeping form. She worried about him more then he could ever realize. He was constantly thinking of her safety before his own. She loved him for that. No one had ever put her first as much as he did. It still amazed her, after almost seven years of knowing he cared, that he could care that much. But sometimes he just didn’t think before he acted. As much as she loved him, she could hate him at the same time. Always leaving her behind for ‘her own good’. She whole heartily believed he thought that was what he was doing. But it didn’t make it any easier. Strangely enough, every time he did something crazy thinking it was right, she loved him a little more. Maybe it was because it made the fact that she could loose him any moment clearer. Or maybe it was just that she loved him and he gave her a reason to think about the fact. Three years ago she started to think about it constantly. So it took the destruction of the world for her to realize it. Maybe it was a small price to pay for this important insight: time was up, live life now or die regretting what she didn’t have the guts or opportunity to do.

Mulder opened his eyes and smiled up at her sleepily. "Hey."

She returned his smile and caressed his hair more. His eyes closed at the contact and he leaned into her touch. "It’s still raining." She informed looking out into their dark surroundings.

"Mmm." He mumbled, too content with her attention to care.

She let out a soft ironic laugh. At the moment he was fine with it, but when he was fully awake and in a few hours restless he would think differently. But for the moment she didn’t care either. She was happy to sit by his side, in the cold damp air, in the bitter wind, in a destroyed building, in the chaos this world had turned into and just be alive.