Title: Surrender I 
Author: RM >lebontrager@iname.com<
Disclaimer: Mulder and Scully belong to CC, 1013, and Fox.
Notes: M/S friendship. The first in a series about the vulnerable
moments in the night between the partners.

~~~~~
Surrender
~~~~~
His voice echoes through the hall.

She freezes, finds her breath too sharp, too loud.

He comes closer, inching through the darkness to her, hands out and
reaching for her.

She backs away with a muffled whimper of fear, every nerve in her
sensitized to the feel of darkness and and the feel of panic.

His hand brushes her; she jumps away, fast away, moving like a scared
child, moving with a speed found only in fear.

Hitching breath, choked screams, shivering uncontrollably as death comes
laughing after her.

And then she jerks-

-jerks-

into a dark room with hands clutching her softly, a voice smoothing over
her nightmare.

She breathes, finds the air delicate, unopressing.

"Mulder?"

"Are you okay, Scully? I heard you in the other room."

She nods in the dark, lets her body find normal again.

"Just a bad dream."

He lets go of her shoulders, smooths her hair with an absent-minded
caress, and pushes his body up from her motel bed.

"Okay. Sleep better, Scully."

He disappears back through the connecting door, the light from his room
showing her he had been watching television.

She turns over in the bed, realizing she was screaming: her throat is
hoarse and his TV is turned up.

Her eyes close to a more profound dark.

She shivers, feels things watching her, feels hands reaching for her.

Feels the brush of a hand across her stomach.

Panic immediately finds a clutch on her, and she shoots from the bed,
scrambles to the door, and throws it open, gasping in breath as she runs
into Mulder.

"Scully?"

She buries her head deep into his chest, trembling with the feel of a
hand across her skin.

"I can't let myself fall back asleep," she says softly.

He understands; he feels the same panic at night, the same terror
clutching hard.

"Watch TV with me, Scully," he says, saving her from having to look weak
by asking, making it seem as if she is doing him a favor.

It's what she loves about him - she always has her dignity with him.

He takes her hand and leads her back to his queen sized motel bed,
crawling in and taking her with him.

Her body is tense against him, still in the clutches of a blind panic,
still reeling from a too real dream.

She lets the blue light of late night filter over her.

He puts an arm around her softly, snuggles her up closer to him.

She lays her head on his chest, breathing as her heart slows.

Blinking, eyes scratchy, she tries to stay awake, to stay away from
darkness and hallways crowded with her own fear, to keep herself from a
hand reaching through the black.

His fingers smooth her hair, run in rhythmic circles along her skin,
stroke her until she's closing her eyes, feeling peacefulness descend.

When her breathing slows to almost nothing, he looks down.

She's asleep, secure in his strength, finding respite in his arms.

He gives her a feather of a kiss and turns his eyes back to the
television, wishing simply being in her arms could banish his own
nightmares.

Close enough though.

The night slips smooth silky hands along his cheeks, down his jaw, and
trails the dark along his chest, to swallow his partner.

She stirs, murmurs, and continues on in dreamless sleep.

Mulder lets his own eyes close, ignores the hands reaching for him, the
demons swirling around.

Closes his eyes and remembers her touch, dwells in her feel, remains in
her warmth.

Night becomes a friend, and he surrenders.
~~~~~

end
adios
RM