From: erinpiperdane@hotmail.com   
      
   Title: Essence   
   Author: Ma'echii'   
   E-Mail address: maechii@hotmail.com   
   Date: 03/10/05   
   Rating: PG   
   Category: MSR Vignette Angst   
   Spoilers: None   
   Keywords:   
   Summary: Mulder, Nightmare.  Nuff said.   
   Notes: Just a little ditty written on the fly at Mulder's   
   Refuge for Xtreme Unction.  This was posted on ephy ahwile   
   back, but never saw it on gossy, so I?m posting it again.   
   Beta: None   
      
   Heat radiated from a darkened room, the combination of the   
   summer weather and a broken AC, broached no relief from   
   that heat, not even a breeze through the open window.   
   A huddled form lay in one corner of a large bed. Another   
   slouched in the chair beside it.   
      
   A dim grey light came in from the window and stretched   
   across the rumpled bedclothes, just touching the edges of   
   the form with vestigial fingers, revealing only the back of   
   a dark-haired head, the curved shape of a bared, long leg   
   and the elegant curve of a large, narrow foot.   
      
   The gentle fluttering sound of a box fan came from one side   
   of the room, but the contraption only served to shove   
   around the hot, dank air.   
      
   The form abruptly thrashed in the tangled bedclothes,   
   fighting dreams trapped by sleep, and turned to face the   
   window. The dim light now revealed a decidedly male face,   
   yet boyish in his slumber, despite the distress marring his   
   unbalanced yet attractive features. He moaned and huddled   
   in on himself, shivering. Cold sweat beading his brow, his   
   moans and cries now increasing in clarity and volume.   
      
   "No! Please, no! No more! Please!" He writhed about,   
   fighting off an ethereal entity with flailing arms and   
   churning legs. He gasped, throwing his arms over his head   
   and curling in on himself.   
      
   A yelping shriek pierced the dank night air as he suddenly   
   arched back, then immediately hunched forward again,   
   snapping his legs protectively up to his chin, his arms   
   still over his head. "Sculleeeee!!"   
      
   The figure in the chair bolted upright at the cry, slightly   
   dazed, shaking off the vestiges of sleep, yet immediately   
   rose and sat on the bed with the man.   
      
   Hands reached for him, fingers just barely brushing the   
   thin shirt on his back before he arched away. "No!   
   Sculleee, help me, please!" Hot tears squeaked out from   
   tightly closed lids and he whimpered, his voice a heart-   
   rending, yet quiet cry of despair and desperation.   
   "Scully....why aren't you coming for me?......Don't leave   
   me?"   
      
   He rolled back over, still huddled in on himself, facing   
   the figure from the chair, it's identity yet not revealed.   
      
   Hands touched his face and he moaned and shied away, trying   
   to escape, even in his restless slumber. "No! Sculleee!"   
      
   "Shhh, Mulder," came a soothing female alto, as she brushed   
   her fingers through his hair and leaned forward. The   
   reaching light now disclosed a pale roundish face, large,   
   moist eyes and a flash of red at her brow. For all   
   appearances she was young, but the expression in her eyes   
   and her demeanor clearly spelled out otherwise. "It's ok.   
   Wake up, Mulder. I'm here."   
      
   "Sculleee," he cried again, his whimpering becoming   
   hitched, gulping breathes, his tears running sporadic   
   trails down the sides of his face and into his hair,   
   dampening the pillow beneath his head.   
      
   Scully crawled into the bed with him, tucking her legs   
   underneath her and pressing herself into his side, as she   
   pushed and turned him onto his back, forcing his arms and   
   legs to unclamp. She took his face in both of her hands,   
   her fingers threading in the hair at his temples. She   
   leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the side of his   
   mouth. "I'm here, Mulder. It's ok. It's just a dream now.   
   Please wake up."   
      
   At her more intimate touch, Mulder gasped and arched off   
   the bed, nearly bolting upright. His eyes popped open, wild   
   and staring into the dimly lighted room. "Scully?" he asked   
   breathlessly.   
      
   "I'm here, Mulder," she murmured beside him, one arm now   
   stretched across his torso, her palm spread over his T-   
   shirt covered chest, her other arm now propping herself up   
   to peer closely into his face. When he didn't respond, she   
   addressed him again. "Mulder."   
      
   His head snapped over to face her, his eyes wide, his   
   expression clearly seen in the light coming in from the   
   window and now shining on his face. A gamut of emotions   
   played across his features. Terror turning to trembling   
   distress, total bemusement to disbelief, then to a slow   
   dawning realization at where he was and who he was with.   
   "Scully?" He barely spoke her name, as if by it's very   
   utterance she would disappear.   
      
   "Yes, Mulder, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. You were   
   having a nightmare."   
      
   He gaped at her for some moments, then his breath hitched   
   and he gulped, his face twisting with painful relief. He   
   threw his arms around her, crushing her to him, sobs   
   wracking his lean frame. "Oh, god, Scully!"   
      
   "It's ok. I'm here," she soothed, rubbing his back with   
   both hands in gentling circles. "You're back home, in your   
   own bed."   
      
   "Why did she do it?' he choked on a sob, gripping her with   
   a fierceness that bordered on the painful. He gulped again   
   and was sent into a spasm of coughing as he fought to hold   
   back his cries.   
      
   Scully pressed her face into the hollow of his neck and   
   murmured in his ear. "Mulder, it doesn't matter anymore.   
   She's gone. She can't hurt you or anyone else ever again."   
      
   "What possessed her to commit such atrocities," he went on   
   in a wail.   
      
   She shifted to kiss him behind his ear, one hand coming up   
   into his hair. "Shhh, Mulder. Easy, settle. It's only a   
   nightmare now. Shhh." She eased them back to stretch out on   
   the bed, scooting them over to the unused side of the bed,   
   pulling out the tangled coverlet from beneath their legs   
   and draping it over them, sinking into the cool sheets.   
      
   They nestled further into each other as his crying slowly   
   calmed into exhausted whimpers and sighs, then to the   
   deepening inhale and exhale of a now sheltered, dreamless   
   sleep.   
      
   She listened to him for some minutes as her eyelids drooped   
   and gradually closed, then finally joining him, in his   
   deepened slumber.   
      
   Then, at last, in the ethereal quiet, save for the   
   fluttering white noise of the fan, a cooling breeze wafted   
   through the window on velvet paws, gently kissing their   
   partially covered forms and ruffling their sweat dampened   
   hair. Both drew in a deep and slowly released breath and   
   relaxed even further, as if, even in their sleep, they   
   could feel the blessed relief of that calming zephyr.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)