Rotten Apples

“There’s small choice in rotten apples.” 

Shakespeare, The Taming Of The Shrew

Mulder’s Apartment

11:21 PM

Mulder pulled the videotape out of the VCR and pushed it into Scully’s hands.  Scully stood and gaped at him.  She had been shocked into stunned silence by the tape’s contents but the sight of Mulder securing his gun and grabbing his coat was enough to get her full attention. 

“Mulder, where are you going?”  She demanded incredulously.  Mulder stopped and turned back to her.  He pointed at the TV set. 

“To find the men that made that tape.”  He said. 

Images tumbled through Scully’s mind; the camp, the mutilated corpses, the experiments, the results. 

All of it filmed by the perpetrators. 

They may dread exposure now but it was evident that they had kept meticulously records for their own future glory. 

“No.”  Scully said softly.  Mulder reached out to touch her hand momentarily in a gesture he must, surely, have intended as reassuring.  It didn’t work. 

“You better make some copies of that.”  He told her as he moved his hand away.  Scully held the videotape convulsively.  Mulder smiled reassuringly and looked deeply into her eyes.  “Be careful.”  He said with feeling. 

“Don’t go.”  She managed to say but the tone remained flat.  He shook his head. 

“We have the evidence of what they’ve done Scully….”  He said.

“Mulder, it’s too dangerous…”  She insisted, clutching his arm.  “It’s not worth the risk.”  Her eyes begged him not to go.

“Scully, I need to confront them; for my family’s sake, for everyone they’ve hurt, for you…” 

“Don’t you say that!”  She stated angrily, gripping tighter as he tried to move away.  “Don’t say you’re going to get yourself killed for my sake!”       

“Scul…!”  He began.

“No!”  She cut him off.  “We’ve got the tape!  We just need to get it to someone who’ll listen to us.  Someone with the power to stop them!”  

“Who?”  Mulder questioned desperately.  “They can get to everyone!”

“Then what do you want to do?”  She demanded roughly.  “Kill all of them?  What good will that do?” 

“It’ll pay them back for all the people who’ve died at their hands.” He insisted back.  

“Whatever happened to the concept of justice?”  Scully asked him longingly.  Mulder swallowed deeply and looked away from her.  The slumped set of his shoulders mirrored her own feelings. 

“There *is no* justice.”  He insisted, then continued tiredly.  “In a world where a little girl – my sister – disappears and no one cares… In a world where my friend…”  He turned to look at Scully.  “…could die of cancer and no one cares…”  He sighed and shook his head.  “There is *no* justice.” 

“You’re wrong.”  Scully said as she went over to him.  “Someone cares.”  She placed a hand on his arm.  “You.” 

Mulder looked down at the gentle hand on his sleeve.

“And you?”  He asked.  She looked away. 

“Of course I care.”  She said firmly, before she looked back up at him.  Their eyes met.

“They have to pay for what they’ve done.”  He insisted.

“Yes.”  Scully answered. 

“For what they’ve done to you…”  He reiterated.

“Mulder…”  She began but he broke the eye contact and moved away from her.  He straightened his coat and walked to the door.

“I *have* to go…”  He said as he moved.  Scully raised her chin determinedly, put down the tape, and went for her own coat.

“Then I’m going with you.”  She said. 

“No.”  He returned forcefully.  The tone was so firm that Scully stopped and stared at him.  He strode back across the room to her and grasped her shoulders.  “It’s not safe.” 

“If it’s safe enough for you…”  She insisted.

“Scully…”  He began.  “I have to do this, but you don’t need to put your life at risk.”  He spoke softly and insistently.  Scully saw red.

“What?”  She demanded.  “Mulder, I’ve already got my life at risk!  I could die because of what they’ve done to me!”  Her eyes flashed angrily at him as she shook off his hands.  “If you walk out of that door without me, then I wont be here when you get back, and you’ll never see me again.” 

Mulder swallowed and let his hands drop to his sides dejectedly. 

“You can’t get out of this anymore than I can.”  He answered, not looking at her.  “I *know* that you wont leave.”  Scully shook her head in mute denial of his words but said nothing, just watched as his shoulders became set once more.  “I don’t mean this as harshly as it sounds,”   He continued softly and raised his head to meet her angry eyes.  “But you’re not coming with me and you’re not going to follow me after I’m gone.”  He stated and closed the distance between them. 

Scully stared up at him with her mouth slightly open, aghast at the rejection his words implied.  He’d ditched her many times before, but he’d never told her to her face that he didn’t want her around.  “You’re going to live,”  He whispered hoarsely and Scully saw the raw emotion in his eyes.  He wasn’t ditching her, it was just another misguided attempt to protect her.  “and you’re going to get the video tape seen, but I have to do this.” 

“Mul…”   She couldn’t hold back the attempt to say his name.  He put a finger against her lips and gave a half-smile.  The word disappeared from her throat.  His hand moved, his thumb grazing her cheek, before moving to lift her chin, her face, her lips, towards him.     Her t

“You’re going to live.”  He repeated and dipped his head. 

The kiss was so light that it didn’t seem real.  A brushing of flesh that was so gentle as to be virtually non-existent.  Scully closed her eyes to stop the tears.  Her hands remained at her sides – knowing that she would be lost if she touched him – but her lips reached instinctively towards his.  The kiss remained light and, beyond Mulder’s hand on Scully’s chin, they didn’t touch any more than their lips.  The pleasure was so sharp and bittersweet that it was more painful than if they hadn’t shared the moment of intimacy. 

Scully made a strangled sound in her throat and pulled back. 

“Don’t go!”  She whispered desperately, positive at this instant that, if she let him go, she would never see him alive again. “Don’t leave me again!”  Her voice broke on the rough spoken words.  Her eyes were blurred with tears as she looked at him.  Inches separated their lips, but it felt like miles.  His face was twisted with indecision; every fiber of his being reaching for her but always the need to run, to save her from him… 

“Dana…”  He whispered hoarsely, his hand finally leaving her skin.  Scully’s arms were unglued from their stuck position by her sides.  Her hands reached up to hold his face near to hers and he froze as she touched him.  Her thumbs traced small circles on his stubble-rough jaw-line.  Her eyes shamelessly begged him but her words were firm. 

“Don’t you dare leave me!”  She stated and drew his lips down to hers. 

There was nothing gentle about the kiss that followed.  Life and death was in way their tongues slipped against each other, exploring and memorizing every inch.  All denial between them vanished, evaporated in the heat of their mouths, of their hands, of their burning minds.  The tape was forgotten along with the Shadow Syndicate and all their crimes against the humanity they claimed to protect.  The kiss lasted for forever and then it was just over but still they clung to each other, buffeted by the atomic wind of a different truth. 

Scully rested her forehead on Mulder’s chest and closed her eyes, pain and pleasure mixing too closely inside her.  Mulder laid his chin on Scully’s head and closed his eyes too, not wanting the moment to end.

“Now I know what dad meant.”  Scully said into his chest.  “My whole life feels like the length of one breath.”  She finished on a drawn out sigh and felt Mulder’s chest heave with difficulty as he tried to draw in air to emotion-compressed lungs.

“I didn’t know.”  He admitted on a whisper.  “I really didn’t let myself think…”  Scully opened her eyes and moved back a little so that she could look at him.  He opened his eyes and met hers.  “I love you.”  He finished softly. There was a second of silence, then Scully spoke. 

“If you walk out on me after that, then I’m going to have to shoot you.”  She replied sarcastically and gave a gloriously bright smile that was all the light in Mulder’s dark world.  “I love you.” 

The kiss they shared then was wonderfully sweet and life giving.  Scully pulled out of it, leaving Mulder reaching for her blindly.  His eyes snapped open and he found her looking at him sadly.   

“I want an ending.”  She said into his eyes.  “No more death.  It has to stop, and it’s up to us to stop it.” 

Mulder sighed deeply and stared into her eyes for a long time.     

“What do you want to do?”  He asked at length.  She looked away and shook her head.

“Nothing hasty.”  She said.  “They don’t know that we have the tape…”

“I wouldn’t bet on that.”  He cut in.  Startled, she looked back up at him. He gave her a half-smile.  “Safest to assume that they know.” She acknowledged that he was probably right.

“In that case, we should get out of here.” 

“Together?”  Mulder asked, with a smile teasing the corner of his mouth. 

“Damn straight.”  She gave him a hard, fast kiss on the lips, before she went to pick up the videotape.  “Or else!”  She added firmly over her shoulder as she pointed out her gun to him. 

Mulder stood where she’d left him and smiled.  Despite everything bad in his life and despite everything he was responsible for, he must have done something good to be blessed with Dana Katherine Scully.

Just as he’d done at the time of the first choice, at the advice of another Scully; 

At the time of his second choice, Fox Mulder chose life.