Overweighted Chapter Twenty By RocketMan ~~~~~ "It's me who is my enemy, me who beats me up. Me who makes the monsters, me who strips my confidence. And it's me who's too weak, and it's me who's too shy to ask for the thing I love." --Paula Cole ~~~~~ Scully stopped before the bridge, turning her head to check behind her, the nervous feel of her stomach making her want to throw up. Helen clutched at her with a ferociousness she hadn't seen before, a connection to the outside world that Scully had never witnessed in this blind and deaf little girl. She kept asking for Sam. Scully didn't want to tell her that Sam was gone, all she said was that Sam had gone someplace safe. Truly, Scully had no idea where the dog was. He had run off on their way to the boat house while Helen was asleep, and she and Mulder had not really had the presence of mind to notice until they had settled in. It was a sad omen for their little family. A sound behind them made her twist awkwardly to jerk around, her eyes quickly ravaging the landscape, looking for anything that told her they'd been found out. The crawl of ants started across her neck, slithering into her skin and down her back. She shivered and began to walk around, away from the bridge, sure that this was the signal being given to their enemies, the betrayal of their location. Helen dragged her down a bit by latching onto her leg and trembling, refusing to move. Scully couldn't stand it anymore. The feelings washed over her and she couldn't control it anymore. Too much fear, too much hiding and running and looking over her shoulder. With the desparation borne of enforced fear, Scully grabbed Helen up and began sprinting away from the bridge. She couldn't let them even get close to her daughter. ~~~~~ Mulder scanned Castle Bridge once more, his mind replaying the horrors he knew could have befallen them. It'd been an hour since they had talked. An hour. He rubbed his forehead and slumped back into the bushes, feeling his legs collapse under him. Now was not the time to let his sleep deprived body shut down. He licked his lips and poked his head back over the bushes. Still no sign of them. Earlier, thinking they might be hiding, he had blatantly showed himself all around the park associated with the bridge, but she had not come out. She wasn't there. That was the blindingly clear suggestion that his mind turned over every single second. She wasn't there. He felt the panic surge again, threaten to blind him in the sheer volume of intense fear he felt for his family. This was altogether a different panic that infused him, different from the panic of Scully getting cancer again, or taken. This time it was for his wife, his baby girl. His family. ~~~~~ Scully hunkered down further into the bushes, trembling with the cold, keeping her body wrapped around Helen as best as she could. Helen was shaking in the chill of the evening, her pale skin frighteningly white in the moonlight. Peering once again to the main road, Scully found it deserted. No guards, no men in black waiting for her. No dark sedan following her either. The tickling in the back of her skull had disappeared for the moment. Everytime it went away, she attempted to go back to the bridge, and every time, it had started back again, right before she got there. She hoped Mulder was still waiting. It had been three hours. Had he given up, assumed the worst? She shivered and darted for the road, travelling quickly up to the actual bridge, darting between the lengthening shadows for protection from the moonlight. Suddenly a figure shot from the park, barrelling into her with a force that knocked her breath from her. Gasping, attempting to escape the crushing hold, she yanked Helen away from her assailant's hands. "Scully!" She relaxed and let his embrace support her. "Mulder . . . you stayed . . ." Mulder moved her back into the trees, away from the road, and led her to a bench. "What happened? I thought you were . . . gone." "I can feel it Mulder. When it starts to give me away. I couldn't take the chance that it would lead them straight to you. So I ran. I kept trying to come back, but whenever I got close, they'd turn it back on again." "You're okay? Helen?" Scully hugged her little girl harder and kissed her forhead. "She's cold. But we're both okay." With a slow reluctance, Scully pushed Helen into his arms. Mulder stared straight into her eyes, promising to come back for her, no matter what. "Take care of her, Mulder. I'll be fine." Mulder shook his head and cradled Helen to his chest, not letting her move away from him. Helen obviously knew she might not see her mother again and she was trying to squirm away from them. When he glanced back to her, he saw the beginnings of tears in her eyes, but she was valiantly pushing them back. "Scully, I can't do this without you," he muttered, choking back his own tears. "Yes, you can." she said calmly, laying a hand on his arm, granting him an odd sense of peace with her movements. Leaning forward, she guided his mouth toward hers, teasing his tongue with her own and the promise of a tomorrow. The sharp tickle crawled through her neck and shot electric like pain into her eyes. Wincing, she realized something with the sharp clarity of a woman's last moments. "Get out of here. They've trapped us. Oh, God, please." Her prayer cut short as she felt herself tumble to the ground, then the cold of the grass soaked into her shirt. Mulder fell beside her, urgently whispering her name. "Leave . . . leave . . ." He shook his head. "No, no, I can't leave you." "*Leave*" she hissed between the waves of pain originating from her neck. He hauled her up, pulling her to her feet and holding her close to him. "Helen," she vaguely recalled, shaking her head. "She's okay." Helen was clinging tightly to his back, letting him free his hands to pick Scully up. He began pushing forward, half dragging her, half carrying her. She struggled at first, tried to get him to leave her behind, but when it became evident he wouldn't, she stopped, seeing that her struggle made them slower. The sounds of a helicopter thwacking through the air made her skin break out in goosebumps and she attempted to put away the grinding in her brain and concentrate on running, moving forward. One step, then another. The far away feel of grass under her sneakers, the foggy touch of Mulder's hands grasping her shoulders, the whispery touch of air in her mouth. She wasn't going to make it. When he had to stop and sweep her up into his arms, she knew she would not make it. And neither would her family. She beat on his chest, yanked his ear with the last of her stregnth. "Dammit, Mulder. Leave me NOW." There was warmth and then, the cold, cold wet of park grass. The cold cold wet of surrender. ~~~~~