Title: 'Till Death Do Us Part Author: Doc Key Word: A/R/S Category: Mulder/Scully romance, Angst, Character Death Disclaimer: Mulder and scully own eachother Dedication: Hiya Didi, this one's for ya (aren't they all) Summary: "I have cancer" Spoilers: Memento Mori, Dwayne Barry, Itty bitty one for Tooms ----------------------------------------------------------------- "I have cancer." She says and the words echo in my brain, refusing to come out. When I looked into her eyes then, I saw fear and uncertainty. Now, as I look at her triumphed heart, I see hope and the will to go on. "Scully, you know that I'll be there for you when you want me to. And I'll also be there when you don't want me to." I say as she smiles. "Thank you Mulder." "For what?" "For being there when I need you most." She says as she pulls me into another embrace. The next two weeks are grueling. She has let me inside of her heart like no other time before. This illness just may have put the Ice Queen's stone wall around her heart down for all to see. She lets me come to her chemo appointments, and I don't leave her until it's over. I hold her so close to me as she pukes her guts out. One night I'm sleeping not too well I hear my cell phone ring. "Mulder" "Mulder, it's me." I hear a frightened voice of Scully, almost the whimper of a child. "Scully, what's wrong?" I say, my heart rate speeding up. "I don't know, I just need to talk to somebody," she said "I'll be right over." I say as I put my left shoe on. I was about to go out the door when I felt a breeze. Oh yea, putting pants on sure would help. I get to her apartment in a mad rush, wondering what the hell could be wrong. I open the door with the key she gave me and I find her curled up in a ball on her couch, staring off into space. "Scully, what's wrong?" I ask as I sit down on the couch next to her. She seems to not know that I'm there, but then she turns slowly to me. Her eyes are red and cheeks puffy. I can tell she was crying. "I'm going to die, Mulder. That's what's wrong." She says as her face is scrunching up, and she leans on my chest and sobs her heart out. This was the first time she's cried since Penny Northern died. "No you're not. I promise you are not going to die." I say, trying to comfort her. "Don't make promises you can't keep Fox William Mulder." She says as she yells at me. "Okay, I won't. But I believe that you won't die. You even said it yourself two weeks ago." I said, not wanting to fight with her. "Shut up, Mulder. I don't want to remember that day," she said as her voice raised a few levels. She then looked and me and frowned. "I'm sorry for yelling at you, Mulder." She said as she put her head on my lap and sighed deeply. I pushed her hair out of her eyes. "Scully, really what's wrong?" I asked as she sat up and looked at me. "I had a bad dream," she said. She shook her head not wanting to remember. "If you don't want to tell me, that's okay. I know my dreams are horrible to remember." I said, sympathizing with her. "No, I need to. I remember a grave. You were there, crying. I died I guess. And there was a little boy too. You left flowers and told me how much you loved me and just walked away. I yelled so much to tell you to come back, but you didn't. You never came back," she said as she cried, making my shirt wet. I held her, held her until she fell asleep. I could hear her softly snoring. I then picked her up and put her into her own bed. She struggled a little bit, and then stiffened in her sleep. I sat on a chair near her bed and made sure that her demons wouldn't get her. I guess I fell asleep in that chair because the next thing I know, I hear screaming. "MULDER, DON'T LEAVE ME! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME!" She yelled, as I went over to her, and shook her softly. She bolted upright and breathed hard, trying to familiarize her surroundings. "I won't leave you, Scully, I never will." I said as I hugged her. "Mulder, what are you doing in my house?" she asked as I smiled "You wanted me to come over here." I said as she hugged me again. "It was so real, Mulder. Too real." she said, as her breathing became regular again. I looked and saw in the flicker of dimness that there was a trickle of blood coming from her right nostril. I put my hands on her neck. "Hold tight, I'll be right back." I say as she touches my cheek and I see a true Scully smile. Reluctantly I get up. I enter her bathroom, so empty and dead. Her claw footed tub still stands there, as I search the closet for a washcloth. I find one and turn on the faucet. I turn back to Scully's bedroom and she is there, her little hands clutching to the sheets, which are now soaked with blood. Her blood. "Hey there." I say as I sit down on the bed. She looks at the washcloth, and then at the bed confused. She puts a hand up to her nosed and looks at it. She tries to take the cloth away from me, but I don't let her. "No, let me do it." I say, comforting her with one hand, while the other pats her nose to stop the bleeding. In just a few minutes the bleeding hasn't stopped and the washcloth is velvet red. "Scully, I think you need to go to the hospital." I say, as she shakes her head. "No, I'm fine. Really, Mulder, this happens to me all the time. It should stop in a few minutes." She says, but I am still reluctant. I turn on a light to see her better, and I had to stop myself from gasping. She is so pale, almost as pale as when she was just returned. "Mulder, stop it. I'm fine." She says, as I nod. "All right, but would you at least come to the bathroom so we can take care of your nose?" I ask as I help her up. Halfway to the bathroom, she gets nauseous and runs to the bathroom. I hear her retching and sympathize with her. She emerges a little while later. Her nightgown is now caked with blood. "Mulder. I feel really dizzy." She says as she sways. I am next to her, so thankfully I catch her and put her back on balance. "Okay, come on. You are going to the hospital right now." I say, as she looks at me funny and then collapses in my arms. She says one last thing before she blanks out completely. "I'm fine." Pacing the hallway, furiously, Mrs. Scully has to stop me. I pull away from her and keep pacing. "Fox, you can't do this to yourself. You couldn't have done anything." She says as I stop grueling the floor and look at her sadly. She knew that her daughter was going to die. I knew that as well, but I wasn't ready to admit it yet. She wasn't going to die, not while we have so many things left unsaid, undone. Then I heard the door open. "Are you the family of Dana Scully?" The young balding doctor asked us. "Yes, we are." Maggie said, knowing that I truly was family. "Ms. Scully is very weak. A CT scan showed that the tumor has grown. Another two centimeters and it'll kill her. We tried asking her to go into radiation treatments, but she refuses. I just hope you can talk some sense into her. I'm not sure how long she'll last without treatment." "How long do you think?" I asked, getting worried. "I can't say for sure. Perhaps a matter of weeks or a matter of months." He said, as I nodded. "I'm sorry this couldn't be better news." He said, and then he added. "She wants to see you both. She's in room 1056." He said as he walked away. I took the time, not to pace, but to sit down and bury my hands in my face, hiding all of my pain. I feel arms come around me, and I hear myself muffle soft sobs. The nicest mother I'd ever known was comforting me right here. My own mother never ever did that. Well, there you have it. Straight from the horse's mouth. She was going to die. I would never see her smiling face greet me in the morning down in that lonely basement office ever again. Never playfully argue with her over a case, no matter how silly or irrational it was. I should have treasured those moments. Now in a few weeks, I'll only have memories. "Fox? You can go see her now. She's asking for you." Maggie said as she exits her daughter's room. I nod and slowly walk inside. My courage was reeling out on a limb, but I had to overcome that. I enter and she smiles at me, one of those smiles that you just want to picture, because it's rare and valuable. I can't help but smile back. "Hi beautiful." I say as I take her hand and plant a kiss on her cheek. "Are you talking about me or yourself?" she asks as she smirks. I couldn't bear to tell her, but I know that I had to. "Did the doctors tell you what's wrong? Because they didn't tell me." I squeeze her hand, and I see the urgency in her voice. I start to speak, and I can feel my voice quivering. "Dana, the doctor's said you aren't improving. You're tumor has grown." I spit out, as she frowns. "That's what I thought." She says as I see the tears brewing up in her eyes. "I can feel it growing inside of me, knowing that it can kill me at any moment." She says as the tears finally spill over. She now takes my hand and looks deeply in my eyes. "Mulder, promise me something, okay." 'Anything for you, my love.' I think as I just nod. "Okay." "You know how every girl has dreams. You know, like children, marriage, stuff like that." She says as I nod, trying to make sense of what she is asking. "Will you help me fulfil those dreams?" she asks, as I nod. "Anything for you, Scully." She says as she looks into my eyes again and this time, with passion. The moment is on us. I lean in and our lips touch. Four years, four glorious years, of passion in this one kiss. Our first and won't be our last. "Marry me, Scully." I say as she looks at me, confused. "What?" "You and me get married, in four days." I say, quite proud. "You want me to get married in four days?" she says and she looks very mad, (I hope she doesn't have PMS) like she'll say no. Then her frown turns into laughing. "Okay, let's do it." "I want you to fulfil at least one of those dreams, now don't I?" "If you are a gentleman, then yes, you would." She said as she smiled widely. I know that I made her happy. Two weeks later: Standing there, in my tuxedo, nervous and anxious as ever, I wait for my bride. Skinner agreed to be my best man (I didn't really have anybody else that I knew) and Scully's mom is going to be her maid of honor. Her brother, Bill agreed to walk her down the isle as well. I am just standing there, and then I see her come into the room. My breath is taken from me. She looks gorgeous in that wedding gown. Her face looked less pale as I had seen it normally, and as always, she was wearing her gold cross, that symbolized our relationship so very well. She saw me staring at her, and smiled (I didn't notice that my mouth was open). We recited our vows, made by the heart, and we promised all that stuff that the priest says, but one thing I really thought about after the ceremony. "In sickness and in health, until death do us part." That night, she told me the most beautiful nine words a man could hear. "Mulder, I want you to make love to me." The next morning, she was up before I was. I could hear the pitiful sounds coming from the bathroom. Then I heard a kind of clunk noise on the tile flooring as if something hit it with force. I knew what happened even before I saw it. She had collapsed on the floor. I picked her up and put her on the bed. I was about to call 911 when she spoke. "Mulder, no. I want to go here." She said, and at first I didn't know what she meant, but later I know that I did. I felt the hot tears in my eyes and the lump in my throat. "Scully, you need to go to the hospital." I said in an almost panic. "You think that they can actually give me something to make me better? All I need is right here. Please, Mulder. I want to die at home." She looked into my eyes and for perhaps the last time, she saw my soul. My mind had a million things to say, but my mouth couldn't speak but one word. "Okay." Two hours past and all she did was stare at the ceiling and breathe. "Dana, please let me take you to the hospital. At least they can make you feel comfortable." I try to say, but she simply ignores me. "Mulder, when was the first time that you realized that you loved me?" she asked, turning to look at me now, but I could see that even that caused pain. I thought about my answer for about a second and then I answered her. "If there's iced tea in that bag, Scully it could be love." I said and I smiled but went on. "No, actually Scully it was the first time that I looked into your eyes." I said and she took my hand. "You know I love you Mulder, with all my heart and soul, but when I do die, I want you to get on with your life. Get married, have a son that you'll play baseball with, a daughter that sits on your lap and asks you to read her a story, and a wife that you love almost as much as you loved me." She said sadly and I couldn't take it anymore "Why do you have to die, Scully. We have so much going for us right now. So much. We're in the prime of our lives and we are so in love. I found myself through you and you are leaving me. I wish I could erase all the times I ditched you, because I'm beginning to know what it feels like to be the ditchee." I say, tears finally escaping where they were hidden for so long. She brushes away my tears with her left hand, the hand that the ring is on. She kisses my left hand, the one with my ring on it. She kisses my forehead, a memory of the past, and she kisses my lips. She lies back down for her final journey. Before she flies away to be with the angels, she leaves me with these words. "I promise to take you Mulder in sickness and in health, until death do us part, Amen." She whispered, and then Dana Scully, my Dana left this world and entered another.