Phoenix
By RocketMan

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Summary: Mulder goes to Diana's bedside and Scully comes too. Possible
MSR.

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"At the end of each life cycle, the phoenix burned itself on a funeral
pyre. Another phoenix then rose from the ashes with renewed youth and
beauty . . . and it was always male."
-- World Book Encyclopedia
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Diana was lying there with her breath coming in short gasps as her
pressure exerted nothing to keep her blood flowing.

He wanted her to live simply because at one point in his life, he had
loved her. But he had been correct earlier -- he had done okay without
her. He had done wonderfully without her, but he couldn't say it like
that to her. 

He wished he did not have to be here, but who else would come? Who else
knew her enough to not want her to die but him?

Scully had come too.

He had asked her and he suppsoed it wasn't too fair to her, but she was
his best friend, and right now, he needed a friend.

She was watching him with an expression in her face that he couldn't
place, yet it looked almost sympathetic or sorrowed.

"Scully?"

"Hm?"

"I don't love her anymore."

A silence seemed to knock her down, or maybe it was just his words.

Then softly, her face not looking at him she said, "Yes you do, Mulder."

He frowned. "No --"

"Yes, you do. Maybe not like you once did, but old habits die hard. You
love her, and I think that's wonderful."

He glanced cautiously to her but she was staring into her coffee,
letting the brown and cream swirl into fine art work within her cup.

"Wonderful?"

"Well, I'm glad you had a good relationship with someone. You deserve
it."

"This wasn't so good, Scully."

She nodded and said nothing and he knew that there was something more to
this than just 'wonderful.'

"Scully, what are we going to do?"

She looked up at him in shock, her face clearly showing her utter lack
of hope, her desperate plea that he be the one to figure out what they
had to do.

"I don't know Mulder. I don't know." she said, her words coming out
rushed and pained.

She closed her eyes. "All I can see is your poster, burned and breaking,
the black walls, the twisted metal file cabinets. All I can see is your
face as you look at it . . . "

He nodded, feeling somewhat ashamed that he was having this conversation
while Diana struggled for life.

It seemed that they were all struggling for life.

"Do you know what I see when I close my eyes? I see you standing in the
midst of all of it, standing like flame at the scene of the crime and I
can't help but feel that next time, the flames could be burning you, or
me, or someone else we love. It reminded me way too much of that bridge
and how I really didn't take you seriously and I should have. I'm sorry,
I should have."

She shook her head and took his hand. "That doesn't change any of today
or yesterday, Mulder. Don't be sorry for that. Be sorry that we were so
blind we didn't see how well they were manipulating us . . . "

"Scully . . . Scully, whatever happens to us . . . I'm not giving up.
I'm going to find the answers and the truth because we both deserve it.
You deserve it."

She smiled faintly at him, like a teacher accepting adoration from a
little boy.

"Mulder, we'll fix this, somehow. We'll find Gibson and he could tell us
anything . . . could tell us all the reasons why."

"Scully, back in that hospital . . . I was thinking about you."

She sat back, smiling a little and taking her eyes from her coffee.

"I was thinking about you too, Mulder."

He gave a little delighted grin and sat back, thinking only that he
could do anything with her beside him. Anything.

She leaned over and squeezed his hand. "We'll get them back Mulder. We
will."

The heart moniter beeped and then alarmed and he jerked up as Scully
rushed to get some help.

He watched Diana breathe in, then out, then not back in again, and her
body stopped, and her eyes rolled, and he knew, as she lay dying, that
he would be able to do okay without her.

Scully pulled him aside to let the doctors work on her, and he glanced
down to see her looking up at him.

"I'm okay," he assured her and then kissed her forehead.

He could see the rebirth of them among the ruins of the X-Files, he
could see their triumphant victory in her eyes that watched him.

Hell, they would be more than okay.

They were going to crack this thing wide open.

~~~~
adios
RM