PROMISES KEPT

By Sara Lynn

 

*DO NOT ARCHIVE. DO NOT POST TO A.T.X.C.*

SPOILER WARNING: This is a pre-episode story for Redux II. So I guess Redux and the Promo of Redux II would be the episodes I’m spoiling.

RATING: PG, nothing bad . . . for a change

CONTENT WARNING/CLASSIFICATION: S, Angst, and MSR -- cause I don’t write anything else.

SUMMARY: A nurse’s shift during Scully’s hospital stay.

DISCLAIMER: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, Walter Skinner, Maggie Scully, Bill Scully and Cigarette Smoking Man are owned by Chris Carter and 20th Century Fox. The unnamed nurse is mine and damnit; I’ll name her some day.

* * * * *

What a rush! Tonight I only took care of one patient, but with her came quite a mess. Pretty young thing as well, couldn’t be more than thirty or thirty-two. I was just coming off my coffee break when I noticed the ambulance sirens and saw a few orderlies get an ER room ready. Since we began the shift, I had treated a stab wound and helped set a broken leg. Then came this woman. The FBI agent who was losing blood through her nose and was currently unconscious. The doctors were concerned and I barely got a look at her before I was pushed out of the way. Rookie nurses aren’t wanted in these situations.

I was fortunate to have her in one of my rooms. She interested me. I checked the machines near her in hopes of getting a look at her face. She was beautiful. Not in a Pamela Anderson kind of way. More of a natural, eternal woman type. She had strawberry hair, the color I’ve always wanted instead of this ash blonde. Some strands were caught above her lips, stained by blood. I reached over and pushed them away. That’s when I saw her eyes.

The real classification of their color was aquamarine, but these blue eyes turned to me and I saw the thin pale lines of her mouth curve in my direction. She murmured a thank you I believe. Unfortunately a man yelling in the hallway cut her off. I excused myself and went to check.

A man, tall with brown hair was yelling at Dr. Young. He was shouting, saying he wanted to know where she was. The doctor pointed in my direction and the man took off in a jog towards me. I ducked back in the room wondering exactly who he was. The woman murmured again. "Mulder?"

The man reached the door at the same time as the older man did. He had come into the hospital with the woman and looked scared as they admitted her. I watched as he approached the younger man and instantly began yelling at him. I couldn’t understand what they said. Only bits and pieces about the lies and the younger man’s death. I was tucking the sheets under the mattress when they came into the room.

"What’s wrong with her?" I looked up and saw the young man’s face contort with fear. He was worried. I had seen that face on mothers when their son’s came in with bullet wounds. It was from the possibility that they were about to lose a loved one.

"She’s dying, Agent Mulder."

Dying? No, this wasn’t that bad. She only has a nosebleed, right? She had fainted, that’s why she was in the hospital. I picked up her chart to record her condition at the hour and it was then that I noticed the notes on her chart. She had cancer. She was dying of a cancerous mass in her nasal cavity. I wanted to cry. I hated working with the terminal patients and she was barely expected to live past tonight. After my mother’s own battle and loss of life to cancer, it was a sore spot in me. I refused to leave this woman, Dana Scully’s, bedside.

The younger man sat on the edge of the bed taking the woman’s hand between his. He spoke soft sweet words when she began to speak. "I’ve been thinking about this. I want you to tell them I was the one that killed Ostelhoff."

"What?!" He was looking at her in shock. I even looked up at that point.

"You have to tell them I was the one that killed that man.

"I can’t do that."

"Mulder, If I can save you, let me." The man went through an internal struggle, but I turned away before I lost it myself. I looked back quickly catching the man leaning over and placing a kiss on her forehead. Then he placed a small one on her lips before he left. I noticed the older man cringe slightly, perhaps out of jealousy, as he and the young man went in to the hallway.

Dana turned her head towards the door, a small tear coming from her eye. She wanted privacy and I respected that. Exiting, I heard another man shouting to know where she was as well. It was a big man with a small, older woman at his side. She looked like Dana and, by the way she rushed into her room, I assumed that to be her mother. The big man confronted Mulder and stared him down.

"She’s here because of you, isn’t she? Was it worth it? Is it worth my sister’s life for your work?"

Mulder couldn’t say anything. That was probably why he belted his across the mouth. The blow knocked down Dana's brother and Mulder was about to hit him again when the older man grabbed his arms and pulled him out of the fray. I followed trying not to get caught. I listened as the man Mulder called Skinner told him what had happened prior to Dana’s admittance.

I dropped off my clipboard at the counter and stood listening to the two men talk about what they were going to do to save Dana. That’s when Mulder’s cell phone shrilled. I over heard parts of the conversation. A man on the other end was offering Mulder a cure and I watched the young man leave in a hurry. Skinner walked towards the waiting room; his hands tucked in his pockets. I was left standing in the stark white hallway alone.

When the Scullys’ went to find the cafeteria, I went back to Dana’s room. She was asleep, so I didn’t bother to wake her. I took a seat next to her bed. What was it about her that reminded me so much of my own mother? I took hold of her hand. I couldn’t release the thought of how such small, delicate hands could hold an oily gun and face the scumbags down without blinking an eye. I can’t imagine doing something like that for a living.

"Y’know Dana, I didn’t want to be in this position the first time. I sat in a chair next to my mother as she lay dying of cancer. She was a fighter and wouldn’t let the cancer overtake her, but it was too strong. I want you to fight, Dana. There’s a man that would die along with you if you give up. He cares deeply for you. I cared for my mom like that and it broke my heart to let her go. Don’t do that to Mulder." I reached up and wiped a tear from my eye.

"Promise me, Dana. Promise you won’t give in." I released her hand and went to leave the room. I had a feeling this would not be the last word I would say to Dana. She was a fighter, like my mother.

THE END