Papercut By Obfusc8er aobfuscata@hotmail.com DISTRIBUTION: Ephemeral, Gossamer, and Mulder in Jeopardy. All others welcome, but please let me know first. SPOILERS: None RATING: PG CLASSIFICATION: MT fluff/humor (or at least an attempt), hint of UST KEYWORDS: None SUMMARY: Nature attempts to teach Mulder a lesson. DISCLAIMER: Characters owned by 1013/Fox, not me. WRITER'S NOTES: Written for Tornado! theme week at the Enigmatic Dr.'s site. I apologize to the residents of Broken Arrow, OK. I'm sure it's a fine place! :) Thanks to Jenna for the instant feedback, and thanks to everyone at Mulder's Refuge for the support. ******************************************************* 'Paper, floppy discs, a few pens...*good* ones, not the cheap kind... and something to eat, for goodness sakes.' The words echoed mercilessly in Mulder's head as he guided the rental car west along a terminally boring stretch of I-44. A discomforting pain threatened to overwhelm Scully's nagging words and displace them from his mind. Mulder groaned, squeezing the bridge of his nose. His sinuses were throbbing. 'Figures', he thought. 'I *would* be allergic to this place. Wonderful''. He sniffed and blinked deliberately, concentrating hard to avoid a potentially fatal case of highway hypnosis. He almost started to feel sorry for himself, but then he decided that it would be childish. Besides, he deserved it. After all, if he had bothered to book the rooms farther ahead of time, they could've been staying at the Marriott in Oklahoma City instead of the Econo Lodge in Broken Arrow. He winced, recalling the silent but deadly expression on Scully's face when he had informed her that they were going to be staying sixty miles from the conference. She had trusted him, on a trial basis, of course, to be mature and handle their arrangements, and he had failed miserably. On top of that, he had waited until the last minute to write the mandatory presentation he would be presenting at the conference. He had conceded to her that her mere presence was sometimes so motherly that he reflexively reverted to such juvenile behavior as procrastination. That admission didnÇt make her happy, either, for some reason* Mulder shook his head. He hadn't even thought to pack the required office supplies. That had cost him this trip to and from Tulsa. Everything in Broken Arrow was closed on Sundays. The trip itself wouldn't have been so terribly boring if he hadn't just been driving across 1300 miles of the most featureless part of the country for the past two days. He had even offered to let Scully drive, but she wouldn't. He just *had* to open his mouth and mention something about readjusting the driver's seat and forgetting to bring the Yellow Pages... His ruminations were interrupted when he looked up at the sky. It hadn't really registered before, but the thunderheads looked fairly menacing. Mulder felt slightly intimidated and awed at the same time as he craned his neck to see black, roiling clouds rising to form a gargantuan pyramid and stretching back as far as he could see. Darkness had spread over the horizon slowly before him, but he was driving west, rushing straight toward the storm. The clouds had just expanded suddenly and now formed a growing wall of uneasy turbulence. Mulder could see the lip of the cloud being sucked toward the ground as the two air masses collided. His eyebrows rose when fanned out fingers of lightning coalesced and slammed into a repeater tower just a few miles away. The metal structure glowed blue for an instant afterwards. 'Scully!' His mind flashed obediently to her. It was a reflex. 'That storm has already passed over Broken Arrow...It's probably fine.' He turned on the radio, and was immediately rewarded with a National Weather Service report. "...had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for the areas along the path of Interstate 44 until 5:30pm. At 4:15 this evening, Doppler radar detected a line of clouds moving..." Static interference interrupted the broadcast. It persisted for a while. Mulder couldn't take the noise anymore, so he turned the radio back off. In the matter of two or three minutes, the sky before him turned an unnatural green color...a pea soup green that almost made him nauseous just looking at it. "Not a good sign." He started to become nervous, tapping his hands on the steering wheel to the beat of a non-existent song. He noticed that the pastures along the route were devoid of animals, in contrast to the trip to Tulsa. The main cloud before him cast a totally opaque shadow upon the flat ground, and it was moving toward him rapidly. The edge of the thunderhead seemed to shift suddenly. Mulder watched as the clouds began to pull downward in a lazy spiral pattern. "Not good at all." He began scanning his surroundings for possible shelter. The only visible building was a maintenance facility at the base of a cross-country electrical tower. "Hm. No thanks." He pulled over to the interstate's shoulder and stopped, turning on the hazard lights. There was a wide, shallow drainage ditch running diagonally across the middle of a field about 100 yards away. Mulder got out of the car and stood next to it for a moment, shocked by the sense of insignificance imposed by the massive storm. Then, he saw something that made him move a little faster... The swirling edge of the cell solidified and took on a more defined appearance. The funnel cloud hovered about halfway to the ground, arcing to one side. Mulder stumbled, then made a mad dash for the ditch. His feet seemed to hardly touch the ground. He could feel the air pressure rise as the stormfront extended forward. The air seemed especially thick, weighing down perceptibly on his shoulders and forcing his lungs to work harder. He continued sprinting through the eerie silence, his own huffing the only sound for miles. His ears began to hurt again, but he ignored them this time. A low rumbling to his left piqued his curiosity, and he turned his head for a moment to look. The funnel cloud swooped down, then bent back parallel to the ground. The tail whipped around like that of an angry cat for a few seconds. Mulder could feel his heart tighten at the sight. He reached the ditch and dove headfirst into it, rolling down the embankment to splash in the shallow water. The gravel lining the ditch dug into his elbows, but he barely noticed. He pulled himself up and peeked over the edge to see what was going on. The funnel cloud extended downward, completing its "S" shape as it reached the earth. Mulder's eyes widened as a sheath of twisting debris rose around the base of the cyclone. The ground shook under the touch of the tornado. Mulder could feel the bass rumbling in his chest as the vortex spontaneously turned the small grove of trees into a million toothpicks. He began to feel very, very small. The spinning cloud seemed to hesitate for a second, then it headed straight for him. Sparks flew and cables snapped at the air as the tornado began to neatly devour the line of electrical towers. 'An appetizer,' Mulder thought, 'and I'm the main course.' The deafening roar became unbearable, and Mulder crouched down on his knees with his hands over his ears, eyes squeezed shut tightly. The wind whipped at his dress shirt, nearly pulling it off his body. It was becoming difficult for him to breathe as the wind robbed his lungs. A sharp pain stabbed at his back, followed by another and another. The pelting soon became intense. He cautiously looked up again and saw that he was being pummeled by hail. Icy spheres the size of a nickel bounced off of the grass in front of him. A shrieking began to emanate from the countryside, nearly drowned out by the rushing sound of the tornado. Mulder had to process this for a moment before he realized what it was. 'Oh. Tornado sirens. Thanks ever so much.' He heard a sudden crunch that made him look up. The tornado had veered off to one side, crossing the road close to him. The windows in the rental car spontaneously popped. A synchronous increase of pain in his ears confirmed the extreme pressure change. It hurt so bad that, for a moment, he forgot that there was a tornado nearby. He writhed uncomfortably with his forehead pressed against the grass. Finally, the build-up became too much, and a sickening popping sensation in his head caused him to yell. Both of his eardrums burst, allowing warm fluid to drain out. He gasped, surprised by the acute agony. Mulder's body continued to shake as the tornado drew close. He glanced sideways just in time to see the rental car spin once, then disappear into the black mass of destruction. 'Oh great. That's the third rental I've lost this month! I'm toast now.' He winced, feeling pain both from his ears and from the idea of what Scully might do to him when she found him...*without* the car. Again. His feeble attempt at self-levity was interrupted when the tornado drew up to the mouth of the drainage ditch. The vibration nearly made Mulder bounce off of the ground. A sudden blast sent him sprawling on his back, scraping along the gravel as the updraft pulled him toward the skittering base of the funnel. He felt terribly dizzy, grabbing desperately for something to hang onto. His hands blindly snagged the opening of a tile pipeline, and he held on for dear life. His feet were sucked into the air, and everything seemed to turn to a cloud of solid grit. A cold fear gripped him as he realized that he couldn't hold on like this for very long. The vacuum pulled at his feet as they floated upwards, but the tornado passed by the ditch quickly. Mulder's feet slowly lowered to the ground again, but he didn't let go of the pipe. He had leaned forward, his sigh of relief lost in the whipping wind, when something large and hard whacked the side of the head. He saw the ground, then the sky. There seemed to be a strange formation of flashing lights up there in the dark clouds. He squinted. Yes. He decided that he would have to investigate those lights. Later, though. In the meantime, he had other plans...like passing out. ******************************************************* Wet. Wet and cold. Not good. Mulder shivered, wishing only to slip back into the happy nothingness that had felt so comforting moments ago. He was just about to fall under when one of his eyelids was pried open, and he found himself staring into the world's most obnoxious penlight. He groaned. 'Does she *always* have to do that?' Mulder's other eye was pulled open and violated by the intrusive light. 'Oh, please, Scully. Stop it.' "Ssshtop," he managed to mumble. 'Wait a minute. Scully. Scully is *here*!' his befuddled brain finally realized. "Mulder? Can you hear me?" "Mmm. Yeah. Guess." Speaking aggravated his head injuries, and the pain exploded in his left temple. His ears had quit hurting, but he felt a disorienting sensation of vertigo with each tiny movement. "Why're you yelling, Scully?" He could feel her pat and prod his body. Searching for injuries. Yeah, right. 'Is it a coincidence that she pokes every single bruise? Is that what they taught her at the University of Maryland?' He tried to open his eyes. The right one worked okay, but the left one was more difficult. It felt like the eyelids were stuck together. "Don't move, Mulder. I'm not yelling. You have a concussion...among other things." He winced as he felt fat raindrops falling on him with stinging force. Everything before him was a blur. He waited, and ScullyÇs form slowly took shape. "How many fingers am I holding up?" He looked at her, but his thoughts were clouded by pain in his head. "Yeah. Fingers." His teeth chattered when he tried to talk. She frowned at him with a concerned look. He saw Scully produce a capped syringe from her jacket pocket. "Whassat?" "This is lidocaine. It will keep your shoulder from bothering you, hopefully." Scully pulled a pair of bandage scissors from the same pocket. She tapped the needle, then produced an alcohol swab. Mulder closed his eyes again. He tried to shrug away from her, but she held him still against her knees. Something tugged at his shirt, and he heard the scissors working to his left. The stinging wetness of the alcohol dabbed at his skin, soon followed by the jab of the needle. The medicine burned a little, but it barely noticable next to his headache. "I've tried to call for help, but the cellphone repeater tower was destroyed by the tornado. No one is likely to pass by here, either. I heard on the radio that the tornado touched down on the far north side of Tulsa. All of the area emergency crews are concentrating there. We're on our own, it seems." "Mmmph." He knew he should pay attention to what she was saying, but the throbbing in his head pushed it out. "Where does it hurt, Mulder?" She leaned closer, making sure that she had his attention. He found her wet hair and the concern in her eyes surrounded by the backdrop of a roiling storm suddenly very attractive. "Head. Face. Hands. All over. Unnnngh..." He rolled his head to his right, trying to still the rollercoaster inside it. "Oh. And my left shoulder feels...funny." "Well, at least I got some actual words out of you. You don't appear to have any broken bones. Do you think you can stand? We need to get you out of this water." Water? What water? Mulder tilted his head, looking downward. His legs were mostly submerged in the rushing overflow left by the storm. No wonder they didn't hurt. They were numb. Scully took a firm grip on his right arm with one hand and reached across his back and under his left arm with the other. "I hate to move you, but you need immediate medical attention. Let's try it on three. One...two...three." Scully tugged and Mulder strained to sit up straight. He tried to get his feet underneath him to take advantage of the momentum, but they were too numb to control. He slid back onto his butt. The jarring made him so dizzy he almost passed out sitting there. While his eyes were still closed, he heard Scully's dubious-sounding voice next to him. "What is this on your ear, Mulder?" A pause. He could feel her warm fingers stroke around his ear. He smiled. "Do you feel dizzy? It looks like your eardrum burst" He could hear her feet sqeak on the wet grass as she walked around behind him. "Both of them. Oh, Mulder... That must feel terrible." "Yeah. They popped for sure," he said without moving. "If we can just get you on your feet, you can lean against me, and I'll get you to the car." The car! He hadn't told her about the car yet. "Sorry, Scully. I lost the car." "It's okay, Mulder. I brought another one. Now, let's try to get you up. I'll pull and you push." "Now you're talking," he replied with a sly grin on his face. She looked at him and shook her head with a grin on her own face. "You're hurt. I'll let that slide." She supported him under the shoulders again and counted to three. She lifted mightily, grunting with the effort. Mulder scrambled to stand up. His cold, numb feet finally made it to the right place, and he straightened his legs. 'It worked!' He thought he might even be able to walk to the car on his own until he realized that he was sinking back down again. His knees were giving out. He stopped before he hit the ground, instead leaning hard against his deceptively sturdy partner. She paused to catch her breath. "Okay. Now you have to try to walk. Think you can do that?" He nodded silently, trying to reserve his strength. He shuffled forward cautiously. The gravel-covered slope made it especially difficult, but Scully was still supporting him. They moved slowly along the ditch, parallel to the water. By the time they were halfway to the road, Mulder had to stop and rest. "Breathe deeply and slowly. That's it." She held him close. Just her presence helped chase the cold away. "I feel better now." "Good. Let's keep moving." He felt her squeeze him around the back slightly before gently guiding him forward. 'Was that a hug? What have I done to deserve that?' He wasn't sure, but it gave him the energy to continue the awkward trip to the car. "Funny. It didn't seem this far when I ran out here..." Scully smiled and patted him on the right shoulder. "Just keep walking." He stumbled a time or two, but she caught him before he totally lost his balance. "Very dizzy." "I know." He saw her cringe. Her voice was quiet and empathetic. Finally, they reached the end of the ditch. "Let's go this way...the slope is more gradual here." He allowed her to steer him to the right. Ascending the slight incline was more difficult than he had anticipated. His stiff legs did not want to cooperate, but Scully was there to make up for his deficiencies...'Like usual,' he realized. "Scully..." "What is it, Mulder?" "You're the best." She blinked and raised her eyebrows, but recovered her clinically stoic expression immediately. "I know it. I have a partner who keeps me on my toes." Mulder bit down on his response to her statement. One more short-person joke today, and she'd make the tornado look like a gentle spring breeze. Mulder gazed at her silently instead, soaking up every detail. She noticed and looked up at him. "What is it? What's wrong?" "I just realized that you probably thought that I'd ditched you again." 'Nice save,' he thought to himself. She gave him the eyebrow. "I'd say that you ditched *yourself* this time. Don't even think about pulling the self-guilt trip right now, because it's not going to work. This was an act of nature, not an act of Mulder." 'Okay, so maybe not a nice save. Guilt trip? Is it that obvious?' He never ceased to be amazed by the way she could read him like a book. It was comforting in a way; it made him feel wanted. Everything she did made him feel wanted, actually...a feeling that had been very elusive before her. "Scully, I want to tell you something." The pain from his injuries had seemed to fade. All he saw or felt was her. She stopped and opened the back door of the replacement rental car and guided him toward the seat before his words sunk in. She looked up and tilted her head slightly, waiting for him to speak. Her expression was blessedly neutral. "I've been waiting a long time for this, but I think you should know..." She walked around him and positioned herself before and to the left of him to help with entering the car. His gaze followed her, and his swollen left eye finally began to pry open as he talked. She was so perfect, so... "...that I have a piece of paper sticking out of my shoulder?! What the heck?" The presentation, Page 33. So *that's* what the lidocaine was for. 'She's a sneaky one.' She knew he couldn't see in that direction, and he wouldn't have been worried about it. 'Too late now.' Mulder felt blood heat rise to his head, and he heard his heart thumping away in his ears. Scully appeared before his narrowing vision, guiding his sinking body onto the back seat of the car. "Just take it easy, Mulder. Try to stay with me." "It's okay...I don't need that page. Memorized it." His own voice seemed to diminish beneath the pounding of his heart. He felt himself being dragged further onto the seat and his legs were folded unmercifully tightly before the car door thumped shut. The jarring made those mysterious lights appear again, and he passed out while staring at the fuzzy tan felt on the ceiling. **************************************** "Hmmmm." 'What was that? Oh. I woke myself up groaning. Great.' Mulder stayed still for a moment, savoring the warm sensation accompanying his pain medication. 'Oh yeah. The good stuff.' "Mulder?" A sharp exhale. 'She's been holding her breath this whole time?' "Can you hear me? Squeeze my hand if you can hear me." 'Hand. Sure. I can't feel them but I know they're there...somewhere.' He sent the appropriate signals along blindly. He couldn't tell which hand she was holding, so he tried to flex them both, just in case. "Good! That's great. Just stay with me. I'm going to push the call button and get some help in here for you." 'The help's already here,' Mulder thought. He began to feel a tingling sensation spread through his limbs. The cloud of head trauma was lifting. Something was in his ears, blocking them up. A dull ache resided inside his skull, and vague pains seemed to encompass his body, but he didn't care. All that mattered was that he could feel Scully's hand holding onto his. Scully. He had to look, just to make sure she was real. He lifted his heavy eyelids. His eyes felt gritty and watery at the same time, and it required some concentration to focus them. "Glad you've joined us. You had me worried for a while." She clutched his hand between both of hers. "Wha.." His voice was too scratchy to work. Scully knew exactly what was wrong and offered some ice chips that he gladly accepted. They felt absolutely heavenly as they melted and soothed his throat. 'Bless you, Scully.' She waited patiently for him to continue. "What happened? I remember the storm...then you stuffed me in a car..." "You had a pretty serious concussion, Mulder. The swelling didn't all happen immediately, but it was a cause for great concern when it did. You were in a coma for two days." She gave him "the look". Not the look he recieved when he was in trouble, but the one that said "Please don't ever do that to me again." He could see her eyes sparkle with controlled tears. She inhaled deeply and continued. "The hospital took care of everything else in the meantime. They plugged your ears to prevent infection, but your eardrums are expected to heal up in another week or so. Your eyes had to be flushed out with saline several times to get all of the sand particles out. Also, they stitched up your shoulder quite nicely, and they put you on some really strong antibiotics, just in case. On top of that, Mulder, you're basically one big bruise, but I'd say you were pretty lucky." 'More than you know,' he thought. 'I have you.' "The doctor's on his way up to do your preliminary post-concussion mental exam. You know...the usual." She gave him a half smile. "You saved my sorry butt. Thanks." She squeezed his hand. "Anytime, partner." A pause. "Scully?" "What?" "Think the paperwork's trying to tell me something?" ******************************************************* The End Thanks for reading!