Part 2 of Second Chances by Carol Jenner 
(agntcj@aol.com)  See Part 1 for legal information, 
synopsis and thank yous.


Chapter Four

        Time has lost its meaning.  I have been here a few 
days or a few weeks in this limbo state, watching those 
around me, watching old friends and people I have come to 
know only in this state come in and out and say their good 
byes.  I wonder what I'm waiting for, wondering when I 
will die, or be asked for the decision.  But then, Charlie did 
say that the waiting was the worst part.
        
          Scully looks better.  She is walking steadily now 
and the bandages are gone, showing very fine lines where 
there were stitches.  

        Skinner has come a few more times, always alone, 
always when others are least likely to be here and he never 
says anything.  Always mumbles something in Latin before 
he leaves.  Probably telling me I'm fired.

        Mrs. Scully has stopped by a few times and of 
course my mother.  Poor mom.  She was the worst.  It hurts 
me so much to see her like this.  

        Charlie is stilling hanging in there.  I think the 
nursing staff has bets on who's going to go first.  Some of 
the others, the essences of those in the other beds, have 
shown up and left, and still Charlie and I are here.

        Charlie is right; the waiting is the hard part.  A 
couple times I consider walking out of the room, just to 
see what would happen, but I guess I'm afraid that may be 
it.  I can't quite decide whether or not I want to die or 
not.  There's so much I still have to do.   

        I must've weighed that decision a million times.  I 
feel like it's committing suicide, which has never been a 
repugnant thought to me, frankly.  At least I'm choosing my 
own fate.  But it's so...final.  So I continue to think and 
ponder.  But I can't stand the waiting.  While I can't feel 
time move, I can feel waiting.  That's strange.  

        At one point I decide to go to the doorway.  I went 
there and I stuck my head out and saw the hallway.  Ah, 
Charlie's full of it.  I could roam the hallways.  I went to 
put my foot out and the floor fell away, and people were 
walking on air and they were fading away.  I quickly pulled 
myself back in and decided that Charlie was right after all 
and if I left that would be it.  Something was nagging me.  
There was something I couldn't put my finger on.  
Something that was telling me that I had to stay and will 
myself to live. 

        So this afternoon, while I wrestled with "the big 
decision", I got a mysterious visitor.  It was a man I've 
never seen before.  He was dressed in a trench coat, very 
government looking.  He came in, looked and left.  Then he 
returned with a friend.

        "I thought you said he be dead."  Well, boys, wait 
around, there could be a floorshow any moment.  It's no 
secret that my body's life signs are weakening.  The longer I 
stay in the coma, the longer the odds are that I'll ever wake 
up, I heard the doctor tell my mother that but yet, I haven't 
tried to go back.  

        "Well, I..." You just can't get good help these days. 
The guy next to him is obviously a lackey of some sort who 
apparently has a lot to answer for.  

        "Does he look dead?"

        "From the nurses say, he will be.  Soon."  Or what, 
you'll help me?

        "If he isn't dead by the end of the week, kill him.  
Got it?  And don't screw it up this time."

        I can't believe they're having this conversation by 
my bedside, where anyone can hear.  This is just too B-
movieish.  Story of my life. 

        "How?"

        .  "Put this in his IV."  Ah, the old 'deadly toxin in 
the IV trick. 

        "Then when you're done, go after Red.  Got it?" 

        Red?  Scully!  I felt the waiting time slough from 
my mind like dead skin.  For all these days or weeks or 
whatever they've been I couldn't bring myself to walk out 
the door, into the hallway, away from my body, away from 
life. Yet I couldn't find it in myself to want to live. But now 
I had a reason.  Red obviously meant Scully, and while I 
could let myself be killed - hell I'm halfway there, all I need 
is a little push.

        Time passes - I think and Red shows up.  Red - I 
kinda like that name for her

        I come up close behind her.  "God Scully, please 
hear me. I have to tell you something and you have to hear 
it."  But she doesn't blink, she doesn't move.  Just keeps 
looking at me with such sadness and regret that my guts 
twist.  "Jesus, Scully, please! Listen to me, concentrate!"

        "She might be able to hear you."  I turn to see 
Charlie behind me.  He hasn't been talking to me lately, 
guess it was something I said earlier, I dunno.  Don't 
remember why really.  He was getting to be so moody 
lately. Well, that's not fair.  He's had a lot on his mind.  He's 
losing his battle, and his body's about ready to give out.

        "How?  I tried everything.  I've tried concentrating, 
willing, and screaming.... But nothing works."  

        "Try with your heart.  Open your heart.  She'll hear 
you."  I tear my eyes from Scully to look at him, but he's 
fading before my eyes as his essence lays down next to his 
body in the bed.  There's an alarm sounding and then a 
team of people rush over to his bedside.  

        I no longer see him, but I can hear him, just above 
the shouted orders of the code team.  Tiredly, he sighs, "It's 
time.  Good bye, Mulder." Then he was gone. 

        "Charlie?  Charlie!"  I turn back to my own 
bedside and the now familiar me in the bed, to try to reach 
Scully.  But she's leaves.  "No!  Scully, come back!  Oh, god - Scully."

        Scully leaves and Charlie leaves.  My lips move in 
prayer that Scully will be safe until I can somehow get her 
to hear me. For the first time, I feel totally alone and afraid.  
No one to advise me.  I know I have to go back now.  My 
living and dying wasn't an issue anymore?  Now it was 
Scully's life okay, so how do I get back in there?

        Every movie I have ever seen is going through my 
head, every book and case, but none of them tells me how 
to do whatever it is I need to do to live.  I saw Charlie lay 
down inside his body.  I stretch out on the bed.  I lay here 
and wait and wait.

Chapter Five

        "Mulder?"

        I open my eyes and feel an intense pain.  I hear my 
name, coming from the sweetest voice I've ever heard.  

        "Mulder?  Can you hear me?  It's me, Scully."

        "Red?"  It dies on my lips. 

        "My god!  You're gonna be all right, Mulder.  
You're awake.  You're alive!"

        Oh god, my head!  I think it is going to explode and 
my whole body feels like just one raw, exposed nerve.  My 
God, the pain, take it away, take it away....
 
        Several hours later I think I hear her voice.  There is 
something urgent I need to tell her but I can't remember 
what it was.  It is like when you see someone and you know 
them but their name is nowhere in your memory. 

        The doctors come and go each of them saying I am 
lucky to be alive, as if to change my mind about that luck, 
they test me over and over.  X-rays, CAT scans, blood 
tests, and the like.  But the damn nagging feeling never 
goes away.  Maybe I forgot to turn off the iron or 
something, because that's what it feels like.  

        I learn from the doctors that I was in a coma for 
about a month and that they were giving up hope on me.  
Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.  And I also learn 
from Scully that we were in an automobile accident.  
Apparently we blew a tire, which I remember, then we hit a 
deer which smashed the windshield, which I don't 
remember, then I was thrown from the vehicle and was 
found a few yards away laying in water.  Again, I don't 
remember that.   I also learn that because the water was so 
cold, that was what probably saved me, because it caused 
hypothermia.  Well, thank God for small favors, I guess.  
Now I'm battling pneumonia on top of the head injury, 
chest injury and other odd and end injuries I'm suffering.

        Scully, who was wearing her seatbelt, got her leg 
pinned and bumped her head a good one.  As usual I'm the 
basket case here.  

It is Friday, or so I'm told and should my lungs clear 
up more I will be moved from ICU to my own room.   As I 
lightly doze when I feel a strange presence in the room.  I 
look up and see a funny looking small man, who looks 
vaguely familiar, staring back at me in surprise.   I have a 
bad feeling and felt I was in some sort of danger so I try to 
grab for him, but can't find the energy.  I start to yell for 
help, but he puts his hand over my mouth.

        "Hold it right there."   It's Scully's voice.

        "One more step and he dies."

        "One move and you die.  Step away from him."  
The man looks bewildered. He didn't know what to do.  
Then I realize why I have this nagging feeling.  He was 
going to kill Red.  He was supposed to kill me, but why?  I 
see Scully come over and grab the syringe. 

        "You okay, Mulder?"  I was too dumb struck to 
speak.  

        "Mulder?  Did he hurt you?"

        "No.  No.  I'm fine."  I was suppose to come back 
and save her but she saved me - again.  How does she 
know?  Was it luck?  I am vaguely aware of her turning 
him over to someone.  I feel her hand on my arm.

        "It's alright.  We got him.  Apparently they tried to 
run us off the road and over the drop-off, but they didn't 
count on the deer.  They were after those samples you 
wanted analyzed.  That factory was a cover for a nuclear 
defense project that no one supposedly heard of.  You did it 
again Mulder, you uncovered another government 
conspiracy."

        I barely understood what she is saying.  A cover 
up?  Nuclear?  Samples?  I know my face expressed the 
confusion I feel. "How?  How did you know?"

        "I felt you were in some sort of danger.  I also had 
the strangest dream.  There was this guy his name was 
Charlie.  I don't know.  He kept talking about this theory of 
will or something.  But I just knew you were in some kind 
of danger.  Plus, there was this guy who tried to run me off 
the road and we nabbed him and he confessed to 
everything."

        "Charlie?"

        "Never mind, Mulder.  Everything is fine now.  
Ssshhh...Go back to sleep.  I'll be here when you wake up."  
She pulls the chair closer and sits down, never once 
moving her hand from my arm.

        "Scully..."

        "Mulder be quite, try to rest.  It's over."

        "Scully..." Thank you.   



The End