This nightmare was different from the rest.


"...his pressure is dropping."
"Get me another 10mg of...shit wait...what 
the hell?"
"She's dropping."
"There's nothing wrong with her!"


She could feel his heart beating. 


"Give her the Demerol."
"Doctor?"
"I said, give her..."
"She's convulsing!"
"Give her the God damn Demerol!"


Normally he was so far away. They always 
took him away.


"Jesus, what kind of brainwave patterns are 
those?"
"Is it broken?"
"No."
"Then what the fuck are we looking at?"
"Hell if I know."


She had never been able to see his injuries 
so clearly before. She frowned as she 
studied the damage. She watched in horror as 
cells blackened in what could only be 
cellular decay. Clutching him closer, she 
felt the rage build itself higher as it 
seethed through her veins. Fire licked along 
her nerve endings and she tried to scream. 
No air. 

No air.

More cells blackened and broke away. Dams 
formed as the dying cells choked narrow 
pathways and she felt her own heart spasm as 
Mulder's faltered. Not again. Her dream. 
This was her dream. The beast howled and she 
screamed as razor sharp claws sliced through 
bone and muscle until blood soaked paws 
could curl ivory claws around failing tissue 
and squeeze.


"Jesus fucking Christ."


This nightmare was different.

It hurt.


**************************

"Agent Scully? Agent Scully...Dana...I need 
you to listen carefully. We are moving your 
partner to another bed, but he's not going 
anywhere. He's going to be right here by 
your side. Do you hear me, Agent Scully? 
Agent Mulder is going to be right here 
beside you."

The beast lifted its head cautiously and 
twitched her ears.

"We're moving your arm now, but he's not 
going anywhere. Do you hear me, Agent 
Scully? We are not taking your partner 
away."

Shaking her head in annoyance at the 
persistent drone invading her sleep, the 
beast eyed the wolf beside her. Lean flanks 
rose and fell with reassuring regularity. He 
whined softly as she licked the wounds her 
claws had made above his heart, but did not 
awaken. Finally satisfied that everything 
was healing appropriately, the beast ignored 
the droning voice and lowered her head back 
to his shoulder to sleep.

********************************

"Dana? Can you hear me, Dana? It's Mom."

Lupine ears sprang to attention at the sound 
of the familiar voice. Forgetting infirmity, 
the scarred wolf made as if to leap to his 
feet only to drop his ears contritely as the 
female curled next to him growled.

"Dana, honey. Can you hear me? Can you open 
your eyes for me?"

The damaged wolf whimpered softly at the 
pain in that voice and his haunches tensed 
as he started once more to stand on all four 
paws. He wobbled precariously but his face 
broke out in a lupine grin when he managed 
to stay upright. He was about to take a step 
in the direction of that sad voice, when 
another growl stopped him.

Eyes slid to the female climbing gracefully 
to her own feet and he wagged his tail 
hopefully. His brush sagged when she glared 
at him angrily. Avoiding her eyes, he howled 
mournfully as the sad voice continued. He 
had promised. He knew he had promised. 

But the voice was so sad.

He took one tentative step toward the voice 
only to cry out in agony as pain lanced from 
the base of his skull to his tailbones. 
Instantly she was shoulder to shoulder with 
him, supporting him as he collapsed. He 
couldn't control the convulsive shivers as 
his mind almost short-circuited from the 
pain.

As the world receded around him, he was 
conscious only of her voice as the great cat 
pushed her nose into the fur behind his ear 
and purred reassuringly. The sound soothed 
his fears and followed him into the 
darkness.

*************************

 "...there's nothing more that we can do 
here."

Despair. Anger.

"Sir...don't listen to him. He doesn't 
understand."

Fear. So much fear. Black. Black. Blacker.

"Agent Vickery, I would appreciate it if you 
would give me a little privacy. This is Mrs. 
Scully's decision and you are not helping 
matters."

Annoyance. Petty sparks of sallow green. 
Pink edges.

"It's not her decision."

Hard edges. Brittle glass and embarrassed 
silence.

"Agent..."

"Tell him, Sir."

A sigh. A sigh. A rustle of clothing. Male 
frustration and feminine fear. Familiar 
fear. Maternal. Mother. Fear.

"Due to the unusual nature of their medical 
histories, Agents Mulder and Scully felt it 
would be ...prudent...if I held their 
medical Power of Attorneys."

Pain. Humiliation. Anger.

Don't cry.

"I see."

Male anger. Clipped. Orange. Orange and 
yellow.

"They are getting better, Sir. You can't 
separate them. You will kill them both."

Despair. Loss. Fury.

"Agent...Satinka. If this can save 
Scully..."

No.

"...if they are right and Mulder is dying...

No.

"They.Are.Not.Dying. Ask him. Ask him if 
there are dangerous levels of toxins 
building up in their systems. Ask him if 
there is any evidence of cellular 
breakdown."

Fury.

"Agents. Both of these people are in deep 
comas. Their metabolic rates are 
progressively deteriorating. In my medical 
opinion, not only is Mulder not getting 
better-he is getting worse. And somehow, he 
is taking an essentially uninjured woman 
with him."

"Satinka..."

"I've seen this before."

Determination. Brown. Brown. Furtive. 
Secret. Hide.

Secrets.

"What?"

Suspicion. Hope.

"Among my...people. It's rare. The patient 
had to be able to trust the healer enough to 
turn everything over. Do you understand? 
Everything. Or it doesn't work."

Shame. Secrets.

Pain.

"What are you talking about?"

"What she knows, he knows. He's able to heal 
himself once she shows him what's wrong. But 
it takes total concentration. He has 
nothing...absolutely nothing left over for 
anything else. Nothing. Not even enough to 
keep his heart beating or his lungs 
breathing. She's doing it for him."

"Do you even realize how that sounds?"

"You've seen something similar. With the 
mushroom case. Why is this any different?"

"Because that made sense. Sort of. "

"So does this. As far as I can tell, it was 
the same thing in theory. Think of a 
magnetic field. All the commands from your 
brain to your body are electromagnetic, and 
all are reflected in that field. Now imagine 
you can mesh the two systems so closely that 
you can override the command functions of 
one system with the other. Two bodies taking 
their cues from one mind. One mind accepting 
and filtering input from two sources.One..."

"...brain breathing for two 
people.But...how?"

Secrets.

"Does it matter?"

****************************

The room was extremely white.


Squinting her eyes against the glare, Scully 
turned her head until she could see the 
other person in the room. 

"What happened to your arm?"

Vickery's head shot up at the raspy question 
and a fierce grin broke over her face. She 
glanced down at her bandage wrapped arm and 
shrugged lightly.

"You took exception when the doctors first 
tried to separate you and Mulder. My arm got 
in the way of your teeth."

Scully stared at her, appalled. "I did 
that?"

Vickery smiled proudly,"Needed 15 stitches. 
Definitely convinced the doctors you were 
serious."

Jesus.

Before she could decide how to react, the 
door swung open and a tired looking nurse in 
pink scrubs and heavy white shoes strode 
into the room. Vickery was already on her 
feet cautiously, but the nurse had stopped 
dead in the middle of the room as soon as 
she spotted Scully.

Her mouth opened once. Gaped a second time. 
Finally a tiny squeak emerged and she was 
darting back out the door. Vickery's lip 
curled.

"I told them you weren't dying." 

Scully smiled briefly at the other agent's 
disgruntled tones. Then her eyes sharpened 
and Vickery stiffened as she caught the 
changing body language.

"Who shot him?"

Vickery flinched.

"There's...some question about that."

**************************