Title:  The Chilmark Project - Part IIIf - Foxhunt   
   Authors:  Wylfcynne & Ravenwald   
      
   For Authors' notes and Disclaimers, see Part I -   
   Demonology   
      
      
      
   Nick  could feel Fox sobbing in darkness and Dana,   
   terrified, was trying to reach him.  He wrenched   
   open the bedroom door and skidded, on his knees,   
   to a halt beside them.   
      
   Fox did not react, but Dana did, looking up startled.   
      
   "Nick!  Thank God...!  Nick, what's happening?!  He   
   can't tell me, and he can't touch me..."   
      
   "He's an idiot, Dana." Nick found the energy to   
   smile wanly at her. Then he focused on Mulder.   
   ("Fox!")   
      
   There was no answer, no apparent reaction.   
   Mulder was withdrawing from them both, curling up   
   on the floor with his arms wrapped around his head.   
      
   "Nick?"  Scully's voice was a bit more calm, but he   
   could feel the panic and grief she was suppressing.   
   "What's happening?"   
      
   Nick looked up at her.  "He's laboring under a   
   misapprehension."   
      
   Scully shuddered.  "Don't play games with us,   
   Nick."   
      
   "You propositioned him, didn't you?"   
      
   She could only stare at him.  "He's in no condition   
   for that, Nick."   
      
   "He refused you because sex without the ultimate   
   intimacy of telepathic connection is a lot more like   
   bestiality than lovemaking."   
      
   Scully could only stare at him in horror.   
      
   Nick laid a hand on Mulder's shoulder, hoping for a   
   response.  He got none, but he left his hand there   
   as he continued.   
      
   "He hasn't made love to anyone since the accident   
   that took Anni from him, Dana.  He does love you,   
   and he wants and needs to love you. But he can   
   only actually do it with a bondmate. Anything else is   
   sickening perversion."   
      
   Scully stared at him.  "Never?" she whispered.   
      
   "Never."   
      
   Desperate, she turned to anger, turned on him.   
   "Have you had sex since Molly died?" she   
   snapped, her tone derisive.   
      
   "Yes," he said readily. "I used a few females for my   
   relief. I have not made love to anyone since Molly   
   died. I can't. The very idea is difficult to entertain.   
   And I won't just fuck around with any person I   
   respect. That's perversion, too: to reduce that   
   person to a mindless speechless animal and then   
   mount her like an animal, rutting like an animal with   
   something I can't talk to...?" He shuddered. "No. I   
   won't, and Fox can't treat you like that."   
      
   "Blair told us Mulder's a Sentinel and I'm his   
   Guide," she explained hurriedly. "If we don't   
   consummate this relationship, he says Mulder will   
   die. And Mulder says he'd rather die than love me!"   
   She heard the wail in her voice and clamped down   
   on it, trying the regain her control.   
      
   "The last time I tried was five or six years ago,"   
   Nick said quietly. "But it was still the same. I almost   
   killed her."   
      
   "How?" Scully could only whisper.   
      
   "What started out as straight consensual sex turned   
   into sexual assault. I couldn't climax without that last   
   bit of shared communication from her. I just kept   
   pounding into her, listening for a mind-touch I   
   couldn't get. I never heard her start to whimper and   
   then to sob, and finally to scream. It wasn't until she   
   hit me with the phone that I realized what I was   
   doing to her." He stopped, looked away, obviously   
   still disturbed by the incident. "I apologized, I called   
   an ambulance for her.  She was bleeding.  I didn't   
   realize until just now why it happened."   
      
   Scully's shoulders slumped. "Then Mulder's right,"   
   she said numbly. "He's going to die and there's   
   nothing we can do about it."   
      
   Lermontov watched her cover her face with her   
   hands and belatedly realized she was, finally,   
   allowing herself to cry. Moving slowly, hampered by   
   not having a prosthetic, he shifted the dead weight   
   that was Mulder and laid the limp form in her lap.   
      
   Her hands moved of their own volition, taking his   
   weight off Nick's arm and settling her partner   
   comfortably against her breast. His eyes were   
   closed, his jaw slack. He was barely breathing, and   
   his pulse was not detectable. She tightened her   
   hold on him, buried her face in his chocolate silk   
   hair. Lermontov moved to cradle her, held her as   
   she was holding Mulder, tears running down his   
   own face. ("Oh, Fox, Fox,") he moaned.  ("I just got   
   you back...  Don't leave me alone, again...")   
      
   "He's dying, Nick," she whispered, unaware of how   
   her words lacerated Lermontov's soul. "Mulder...   
   I'm so sorry...! Sorry I can't be what you need...   
   Sorry... Sorry I ever pushed you this far..."   
      
   She gave up trying to talk, even to herself, and just   
   cried, mourning him already as she felt his   
   respirations slowing.   
      
   "Dana?"   
      
   She looked up, and he resisted the urge to wipe   
   her tears away. "Yes?"   
      
   He smiled at her.  "Don't quit on him now.  He's   
   wrong."   
      
   Scully felt a surge of hope.  "Wrong?"   
      
   "Wrong.  You are his bondmate, Dana.  You were   
   born into the Project just like we were."   
      
   Her hands went still.  "No, that's not possible.  We   
   were never taken for testing like you were. My   
   parents would never have consented..."   
      
   Nick shook his head.  "Your parents were never   
   consulted, Dana.  The Scullys were part of Phase   
   Two. Families of career military officers were   
   selected because they could be tracked through   
   the military dependents' medical system.  I found   
   several sets of minutes from case status review   
   conferences they did of Fox.  They knew he   
   needed a replacement for Anni; he was   
   disintegrating psychologically.  First they sent him   
   Diana Fowley..."   
      
   Scully stiffened.   
      
   Nick grinned.  "Don't worry.  She was from a   
   side-project; she didn't get any of the treatments   
   until she was seven, and it was a complete failure.   
   Her attempts to create a relationship with him were   
   a complete failure, too.  By that time he had even   
   given up masturbation, and was just existing.  His   
   only focus was work, and finding Samantha.  Other   
   than that, at a very real level, Fox Mulder did not   
   exist.  After a year, they reassigned her, went back   
   to the drawing board, and sent you."   
      
   She shivered, suddenly chilled.  "Why me?" she   
   asked faintly.   
      
   He told her about the incident in the morgue at   
   Quantico.   
      
   Scully had no recollection of it.   
      
   He shrugged.  "They were watching; they recorded   
   it.  And they used it to decide that you and he would   
   make a good pair of bondmates."   
      
   "That's...  That's ridiculous!"   
      
   Nick studied her.  "Do you want him, or not?"   
      
   That question was so stunning that she could not   
   find words with which to respond.  She could only   
   stare at him.   
      
   "So tell him so."   
      
   Her emotions all morphed into rage.  "You think I   
   haven't?!"   
      
   Nick lifted one hand to forestall her.  "Dana.  You   
   can't use your mouth.  Voiced words are   
   meaningless in this context.  The point of this is that   
   you have to accept the telepathic contact. You've   
   accepted that he can pull thoughts out of your   
   mind.  You have to accept that the contact goes   
   both ways.  Talk to him, Dana. Nothing can bring   
   him out of this but mind-to-mind bondmate linkage."   
      
   She could still only stare at him.  It was so obvious,   
   she was annoyed that she had not figured it out for   
   herself.  Deliberately she turned away from Nick   
   and focused on her partner.   
      
   ("Mulder?") Scully tried to think loudly. ("Can you   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)