The phone woke them late the next morning, and even then they had probably only slept a couple of hours. They just couldn’t get enough of each other.
“We’ve got information. Can we come over?”
She looked over at him and he nodded. “Yes, please.” Byers hung up immediately. “We better get dressed.”
He ran a finger down her side, “Yeah, I don’t like the way that little guy looks at you.”
“Frohike?” She moved closer to him, her hand playing with the hair on his chest.
“Yeah.” But his train of thought was broken and he pulled her atop him.
“We’ve got to get ready. They’ll be here soon.”
“We should have told them after lunch.” He got out between kisses.
“It is after lunch.” She slipped from his arms and pulled a robe around her. He groaned but followed her out of the bed.
The trio was even more paranoid if that was possible today. He poured them some coffee while they waited for her. They refused to get into it without her.
When she entered the kitchen he rose and handed her a cup as he kissed her. She smiled shyly and slipped into the chair next to Byers. “Okay, what do you have?”
“A name.” Byers looked over at the man who had frozen into place. She slipped her hand into his and he moved closer to her. She nodded at Byers. “You’re Fox Mulder.”
“That’s a name?” His eyes narrowed.
“Yep. Doesn’t ring any bells?” He shook his head. “How about a career as an FBI agent?”
“I’m what? You have to be kidding now.”
“He’s not, Dude.” Langly spoke up. “You’ve been listed as missing in action; we’ve not been able to get to those records yet, but we’re working on it.”
“I’m an FBI agent?” He looked over at her, “Doc?”
“Well, it explains some things, Fox.”
“Oh god, no. I can’t . . . call me Mulder, okay?”
“What else do you know about him?” She looked at Byers now.
“We can pull up his file, you can check it out.”
She rose immediately and started for the door. She stopped when she realized he wasn’t following her. “Mul . . . Mulder?”
He gave a nervous laugh, “What if I’m not ready? What if there are things I don’t want to know?”
She moved to his side and took his hand. After a slight hesitation the three men left the kitchen and headed upstairs to the computer. “It will be okay. You need to know who you are. I’ll be with you.”
He nodded slightly at that and she pulled him toward the door. The guys had the computer up when they joined them. It took only a moment for his file to load.
He sat down in the front of the screen and she stood just behind him, her hand on his shoulder. “You are good, Mulder. Oxford? Commendations? Does this bring anything back?”
He didn’t take his eyes from the screen, shaking his head. “I’m not married.”
She smiled down at him and squeezed his shoulder. The men exchanged glances but kept quiet. “We need to know what happened to you.”
“We haven’t been able to hack into those files. Not yet anyway.”
Dana looked over at Byers, “Is there any mention of someone named Samantha?” He turned then and looked up at her. The three men questioned each other silently and Byers shook his head.
“What can we get into?” Mulder had turned back to the screen, staring at his own face, but not recognizing anything.
“Well, I’ll show you.” Mulder reluctantly rose and gave his seat to Langly. “This may take a little while, on this computer.”
“Okay, while you guys are working on this, I’m going to clean up in the kitchen. Call me if you find anything.” She stopped when he took her hand; she squeezed it and smiled, then left them alone.
It had been quite a while, the kitchen clear and the downstairs dusted before she heard him. “Doc? I think we found something.” She hurried upstairs; “We’ve found some information on the case that I was on when I went missing.” He put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder then moved toward the screen. “I work for a division called the X-Files. I haven’t figured it out completely, but it has to do with unsolved cases, things with a ‘weird’ bent. And . . . and UFOs.”
“UFOs?” She didn’t quite laugh, but he could hear the disbelief in her voice.
“I was in contact with a MUFON group - that’s Mutual UFO Network. I was apparently checking into some disappearances.” She had hesitated at the door. UFOs?
“I was at a place in Virginia, Sky . . . what was it?” He looked down at his notes, “Yeah, Skyland Mountain.” She made a sound, like a strangled gasp or something. He turned in time to see that her face had gone completely white. Before he could move she had crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. “Doc!”
She came to on the bed they had shared the night before, with him bending over her. His entire body showing his concern and fear for her. She saw Byers enter the room with a glass, which he handed to Mulder. “Here, take a sip.” He helped her to sit up and held the glass to her lips. He passed the glass back and Frohike took it from him then he laid her back on the pillows again.
“I’m okay.”
“Yeah, sure. You went down like a rock in there. What’s going on?”
“You were talking about Sky . . . Skyland Mountain.”
“Yeah? You’ve heard of it?” She took a trembling breath and wouldn’t meet his eyes. He turned to the men behind him, “Guys, could we . . . “
“Oh sure.” Byers moved toward the door. Frohike put the glass on the bedside table and followed Langly out.
“Doc, what happened? What do you know about that place?” He took her into his arms then as her trembling had only increased.
“It was five years ago.” She spoke low, into his chest; he had to pull her even closer to hear her. “I . . . I was taken from Skyland Mountain.”
“What? You were . . . “
“I was kidnapped from my apartment. He took me there and . . . I don’t know what happened then.”
“Wait, wait. Back up. Who took you from your apartment?”
She pulled slightly away from him then and he arranged the pillows so that she could recline more comfortably. “It was a patient. We had a gunshot victim come into the ER, Duane Barry. He found out where I lived and when he got out . . . he came to my place and, and he hit me and put me in the trunk of his car . . . He took me to Skyland Mountain, I remember him taking me from the car, then there was a light and . . . and I woke up three months later in the ICU at Walter Reed. I don’t know what happened to me.”
He kissed her, “Try to relax. Is there any way I could talk to this Barry guy?”
“He’s dead. He was killed when they tried to rescue me.” He nodded at that. “Mulder, I was . . . I was very sick when I turned up. They called my recovery miraculous; I wasn’t expected to live. I haven’t thought about . . . when you said Skyland Mountain . . . “ She shivered again and he pulled her to him.
“You don’t remember anything about that time?”
“I have dreams sometimes, but I don’t remember them when I wake up.”
“Nightmares?” She nodded.
“Please don’t tell me I was abducted by aliens.” She gave a shaky laugh and finally looked up at him again. She froze at the look on his face.
“Doc, don’t worry about this now. Okay? Let me . . . let me keep looking. You just lay here. You haven’t gotten a lot of sleep the last couple of nights.”
She started to speak but he interrupted with a kiss. “Just rest for a little while. I don’t like that you passed out. Let me keep looking.”
“If what happened to me has anything to do with what happened to you . . . “ She started to question him.
“Maybe that’s why I knew you when I didn’t know anyone else. Maybe it’s why I was drawn to you. I’m not complaining.” He smiled down at her. “Rest. I’ll check on you in a little while.”
*****
“Hey, Sleeping Beauty, it’s time to wake up.”
She burrowed her face into the pillow, “Ummm, where’s my kiss?”
“I think I can handle that.” He reclined beside her, his hands doing things that woke her up much more than the kiss.
She finally pulled away, “How long was I asleep?”
“A couple of hours.”
“Hours?” She sat up then surprised.
“You obviously needed it. I do have more news.” She turned to face him. He saw the fear in her eyes and brought his hand up to caress her cheek. “We know who Samantha is.”
That startled her and her eyes widened. “Well? Please, who is she?”
“She, uh, she’s my sister. From what the guys found she was taken from our house when she was eight years old, I was twelve.”
“Taken?”
“Yeah. Like us, Doc, but from home not Virginia. She’s never been . . . I may have joined the FBI to look for her. There’s evidence that I believe she was abducted too.”
“Mulder?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to believe. These guys have found things . . . Doc, somehow I knew it was dangerous for you to be around me. Looks like I was right.”
“How? What?” He shook his head.
“We don’t have specifics yet, and the less you know the better, for your sake.”
“No. We share something Mulder, and I want to know everything you know. Don’t shut me out.” He didn’t respond verbally, just holding her against him.
“I want the guys to check out your apartment. Do you mind?”
She shook her head, “Check for what?”
“I don’t know. But we’ve been away for a couple of days. I think it would be smart.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“Good. It’ll make you more cautious, like when you got me out of there. Doc, you’re the most important thing. I’m not going to put you in any more danger than you already are.”
“I’m not - “
“Shhh. I’m going to go ask them to check things out. I’ll be right back.” She held onto his hand until he was too far away.
His new friends left immediately to check out her apartment, not bothering to disturb her to tell her goodbye. He joined her in the bedroom again. “You doing okay?”
“I’m fine Mulder.”
“Are you? Really? There’s been a lot to absorb.” He held himself away from touching her.
She didn’t, moving into his arms, which closed around her. “It’s been more for you. Have you remembered anything?”
“Just what I already knew, that I love you.” She went very still in his arms. “Doc?”
“Love me?”
“Um hum.” Now his hands were working their magic on her body and coherent thought became difficult.
*****
The guys let themselves into the house when they returned; Mulder met them at the top of the stairs. One look at their faces was enough. “What?”
“She needs to know this too.”
He shook his head; “I want to protect her.”
“Well you can’t.” He hadn’t heard her come up behind him. “Byers, what? Was there something at my apartment?” She led them into the computer room.
Byers glanced over at Mulder, but she was in charge now. “Yeah, we found something.” He looked over at the other two. Langly nodded. “Someone’s been there. We found a bug. Someone was ready to listen to whatever you had to say when you got back.”
Mulder hadn’t really expected it. Not this soon. He looked over at her, she had paled again and he moved immediately to her side.
“Don’t worry, I’m not going to faint again. What are we into?”
“Not we. You’re out of this as of now. I don’t know what it is, but if they’re this serious about it, you are not going to be involved.”
“Mulder - “
“We’ll discuss this later. I think I need to thank your friends and get them out of this too.” He rose and after a second the other three men rose as well. “I’ll see you out.”
He was gone for longer than she had expected, but she knew that she wouldn’t get any information out of him after one look at his face. “Mulder, please.”
He shook his head. “Getting hungry? I can probably figure out how to cook something.” He grinned, “I don’t exactly remember any recipes but if you trust me I can try - “
“I trust you.” The smile faded. “Mulder, talk to me. What else is going on?”
“You feel like joining me downstairs? It might save time if I don’t have to look for the salt, you know?” He tugged her to her feet and kept his arm around her as they headed down stairs.
He did actually cook and she ate what she could. Her appetite was gone, but he was trying to keep it light for her sake and she attempted to play along.
He ran her a bath when they were through and had her soak while he cleaned up the kitchen. He joined her when he was finished, easing in behind her and holding her to him. She relaxed back against his chest as he drew pictures on her breast with the bubbles.
“I said it earlier Doc, but I want you to hear it again and believe it. I love you.”
She pressed herself against him. “You don’t have to say that. I’m not going to throw you out.” She gave a nervous laugh. His arms tightened under her breasts.
“I’ve never been more serious.”
“That you remember.” She tossed out.
“Doc, what is this? Why are you -?“
“I’m sorry. I . . . I think you’ve succeeded in scaring me, not of ‘them’, of you. I’ll think you mean it.”
“I do.” He whispered in her ear.
“You don’t know me.”
“You are the only person I know. To tell the truth, you’re the only person I want to know. I have to find out what’s going on, who I really am, but you need to know how I feel. Nothing is more important than you.” He nuzzled her hair, then turned her toward him. “Why the tears?”
“I think I love you too.” She whispered it, as though frightened to say the words out loud.
He said nothing, just holding her close, too overwhelmed to speak clearly anyway.
“I think we should move to the bed.” She kissed him gently and rose from the tub. He watched mesmerized as she wrapped the towel around herself and moved to the door. He wanted her again. Oh be honest, he hadn’t stopped wanting her since he had spotted her in the store, was it just five days ago? She had become his whole life. What was he going to do without her?
It didn’t matter; he had to leave. They were looking for him and if they found out he was with her, she wouldn’t be safe. The guys had promised to look after her and he had to trust them, hard as that was for him.
He joined her in the bedroom and showed his love for her until she collapsed from exhaustion. She curled into his chest and slept the sleep of the totally sated.
She wasn’t really surprised to find him gone the next morning.