Rated R, DSR

Just making sure nobody reads what they don't want 
to. ;-)

This part's short but I felt like I had to post -
something- ...

Disclaimer in part one. If anyone's missing previous 
parts, yell at me and I'll send you the story.

~

They let her in to see him the next morning. They'd 
moved him to a smaller room, still close to the ICU 
but with the added bonus of privacy. Jody, one
of the nurses, told her, "Your husband's doing so 
well! He must be holding on just for you." She was 
tempted to correct them, but then her mind began
to stray into fantasies of being married to him. 
Somehow, when she'd imagined a married life with 
Mulder, there had been aliens and informants 
everywhere, but this fantasy was different. She could 
see herself and Doggett as the parents of several 
smiling, blue-eyed and blonde or red-haired children. 
His house was big enough to hold a family, and there
was the added bonus of him already having been a 
parent once. That distant dream, of stability and 
motherhood and all the other perks that went with
them, suddenly seemed a little closer to her. She 
began to hope against hope that it might come true.

She had to stifle a gasp when she saw him, hooked up 
to a dozen different tubes and wires at once. His 
skin was the dull gray of a winter's afternoon.
It hurt especially not to be able to see his cerulean 
blue eyes. Although he wore a hospital gown, she 
could still see the bandage they'd put on his
wound. He had not yet gained the ability to breathe 
on his own, so he was on a ventilator. Had he ever 
opened his eyes since his arrival in the ICU? Half
of her hoped that he had, that he would have at least 
been able to do that, but the other half hoped that 
he had not, so she could be the first thing he saw.

She pulled a chair over and sat down, resting one 
hand on the railing and the other in his own hand. 
Feeling for a pulse with her thumb, she was
relieved to find it strong. She still could not get 
over what Mulder had done to him, all because she'd 
chosen to love another. It was like a scene out of 
"West Side Story."

Skinner entered the room, dragging two chairs: one 
for Scully's feet and one for himself. "How is he?" 
he asked.

"He's fine," Scully said. "Well, not completely fine, 
but not dead either. I don't know anymore what to 
think."

"He'll live," Skinner said. "And if he doesn't, 
remember that you have many people around you to help 
you out."

"The man who gave me a baby is lost to me. Must I 
lose the man who would give me a future as well?" Her 
chin quivered as she stared at the figure on the bed. 
"I'd give anything just to see him alive and well."

"No, you wouldn't," Skinner corrected her. "You 
wouldn't sacrifice the life inside you, would you?"

She smiled. "No, I wouldn't," she acknowledged. 
"You're right. I could never hurt this baby. It's 
mine, and to some extent, it's John's baby too. He
didn't father it, but he will help me raise it. He 
will live to see it born."

From far away in the haze of his injuries, he heard 
her speaking. *Dana, hang on,* he thought. *I'll come 
back, I promise. I'll see your baby... our baby. Just 
don't give up on me.*

It was too small a motion to be noticed, but his free 
hand twitched, as if to reach out and touch her, to 
reassure her that he would come back. Unfortunately, 
one millimeter was all it could move.

~