Part 6 Echoes (disclaimer in part one.)


Early hours of the morning.

Mulder startled awake coughing, discovering 
that sometime in the night he'd been 
unceremoniously dumped on the floor. 
Wow the earth really had moved; pity 
it wasn't because of their lovemaking. 
A coy grin spread over his face as he 
remembered that well enough along with
sore muscles. 

Scatching his chest, it took a moment to
figure out where he was in the almost dark. 
As he got his bearings, something caught his 
eye as he happened to glance at the glow from 
the window, watching in awe as a volley 
of multicoloured lights flew like geese 
across the glass. What the hell is that? 

It went on for a few moments.Mulder picked 
himself up, grabbed his boxers and checked 
on Scully. She was sound asleep, face 
beautiful and serene in the glow from the 
open fire. Her hair in splayed out on the 
pillow in a pretty disarray and her lips 
still slightly swollen from the feice kissing 
of a few hours ago. I did that to her, he gave
himself an inner High five.Heart filling 
his chest with a familiar awe at the sight
of her. Rooted the the spot he just stood 
there, eyes drinking her in.       

Merlin lifted his head for all of a second 
from where he'd obviously been relegated 
to the floor as well to look at his new 
friend, whimpering a bit as the lights 
shifted patterns across the room. The dog
seemed nervous. Mulder felt a rough lick 
against his hand.     

Mulder needed to take a leak and get a
drink or something. His chest felt tight 
after all that late night exercise and 
he was beginning to feel like crap again. 
Just a quick trek downstairs and he could 
come back and resume snuggling up with 
his nice warm lover. Just holding her 
made him feel better. So blissful the way 
his skin seemed to mesh with hers like 
they were one entity never failed to 
fill him with amazement and love. 

Mulder stilfled a cough, inwardly cursing
against the ever present tickle in his 
throat and fist like ache under his 
sternum. His head was still a bit tender 
as well. Hopefully the Aga was still warm 
and there was hot water in the ever present
kettle there, maybe get some coffee. 
Might take a look outside, just a 
breather, he told himself. Wasn't going 
to ditch Scully or anything... She would 
kill him, but maybe he would just go out 
the back and get some fresh air, blow some 
of his fuzzy headedness away and check out 
those lights, whatever they were and come 
back in. The wind sounded like it had died 
down a bit now and at least it was dry 
outside. Just some cloud cover over the
moon and a little mist down near the bay.
It looked and felt magical. Exhilarating
even. 

Dressed again in warmer clothing, he 
slipped quietly out of the bedroom 
door, avoiding the creaky floorboard 
he'd discovered earlier. The dog's head 
went up when Mulder crept out of the 
room, he whimpered a little and crept 
out after his new friend. 


Mulder swallowed the last dregs of 
his coffee and washed up the mug in 
the sink, placing it on the draining 
board. It was so peaceful, no one 
around, just the odd slither of wind 
he could hear whipping across the 
courtyard outside. 

Funny, where was Katherine?  No one 
in the living room on the sofa, he'd 
checked. Just a pile of blankets neatly 
folded on the end of the sofa as she 
hadn't slept there at all. Perhaps
she'd gone to check on the generator.... 
but the power was on ok, he'd just used 
the kitchen light. A little too early for 
her to be feeding the animals surely? 

The black lab was by the door sitting 
expectantly panting with his tongue out. 
"Here Merlin..." he bent to stroke the dog, 
scratching his neck and whispering to him 
about what a good boy he was, or what he 
thought the dog wanted to hear. It seemed 
to have the desired effect as his furry 
pal went all goofy on him, licking his 
hands and jumping up his legs. "Shhh..
now. Wanna come for a walk with me, go 
find your mom?" The dog whimpered and 
backed up towards the door.

Mulder threw his thick parka on 
and stepped outside, careful to quietly 
close the heavy back door.  Immediately, 
the dog bounded off over the courtyard 
and the darkness swallowed him up, 
although he could hear the occasional 
distant bark. What a difference a few 
hours made. There was barely any wind 
at all now, but still it was biting 
cold with the fog making Mulder pull 
his parka hood up over his head to 
keep warm. Despite the warm clothing 
he still felt the freezing chill right 
down to the bone. 

Where could his host have gone? This 
wasn't a good time for an old lady to
be wandering about in this freezing weather...
it must have been the early hours of the 
morning now,  but then he had to backtrack. 
she lived  up here and looked after this farm, 
this was probably a regular necessity to 
come out if the need arose, come rain or 
shine. Checking on and feeding animals even
if it was what he considered very early,
or maybe the light show had startled her 
and she'd got curious about it like he 
had. Mulder smiled as he gazed upwards 
to the stars twinkling like frozen eyes 
in the deep indigo vista of dawn. She 
was a rather like him in that respect, 
both recognised that questing need to 
investigate the curious and unexpected, 
though he doubted she was as obsessed. 

Merlin suddenly came back to his side, 
wagging his tail, startling him a little. 
"Hey boy....you can't find her either huh?"  

He checked the shed and other outhouses, 
the barn....where he discovered the infamous
still; chuckling to himself over that. Moving 
out towards the edge of the farm, shivering 
and one hand on the dog beside him, his 
eyes scanned the fields ahead and up the 
hill.  Where there weren't ribbons of 
mist hanging he could just make out some 
of the terrain in the light of the full moon. 

Worried now because he couldn't see any sign 
of Katherine, he tried to get the dog to go 
off and find her again but Merlin got a little 
more than a yard ahead before he turned
tail and ran back to him. Tell tale signs
of a cough bubbled up into Mulder's chest, 
hurting his ribs, his hand flew to 
his mouth, biting down on his lower lip
while his arms braced his ribs. For a few
seconds he rode out the wave of breathlessness 
which bent him almost double. It was then that
he heard it. 

At first he thought it was just the wind. 
Like a faraway song, a small childlike voice 
calling even, gaining in strength and then 
snatched away by the wind that was picking 
up now. Every sense was alive inside him 
as he stood up again, gasping, feeling the 
ethereal song go around in his head, 
trickling the inside of his skull so badly 
that he wanted to scratch at it. It was 
coming from the beach and he had to get 
there. Some obsessive need took over and 
kept him running despite the frantic 
protest of his lungs, the dog still 
faithfully at his heels. 

Mulder headed across the fields, dodging 
big basalt rocks lurking in the grass and 
mossy terrain so black that he could barely
see them. He'd almost tripped a few times so 
he slowed down, breathing heavily looking 
around him. The higher he climbed over the 
gully that led down to the sea, the more he 
stumbled and the heavierhis breathing. Heart
roaring in his ears. Soon he wanted to tear 
at the sound, to snub out that burning 
irritation in his mind, his ears. The dull 
throbbing behind his eyes starting to affect
his sight now and he was mostly crawling 
over the rocks one excruciating step at a
time. Cutting hands and knees, possessed 
by the high pitched wailing banshee cry 
like every fibre of his being was being
propelled against his will, slipping 
against the rocks every few moments it
seemed until the gully seemed to even out. 

Flanked on either side by huge cliffs 
and pendulous clumps of mist clinging
to his body like icy fingers, Mulder was
now wading through a stream of near frozen 
water fed from the hills behind him. 
Going down a few times, his left knee 
hit an unforgiving boulder that made 
white hot explosions of pain shoot 
through his leg and almost made him 
throw up. Saturated with sea spray, 
numb with cold and half mad from the 
noise and pain, he staggered dizzy 
and unseeing until he could go no 
further..... 

The voices wrapped around him, mocking 
him, twisting him in their grasp, 
thundering in his head until he stumbled 
with a hoarse yell, plummeting over the 
edge of the outcrop that plunged onto 
the dark causeway into nothingness, just 
an unimaginable vibrating and cracking
noise broke over his head as he fell, 
enveloped in light, arms and legs 
desperatly pinwheeling, barely breathing 
as Scully's face punched through the 
chaos fighting for supremacy in his 
mind. 'So sorry ....Scully'.

A lone silhouette of a dog sat on top 
of the outcrop, whimpering at the crashing 
sea on the rocks beyond, his distress 
mournfully carried away on the wind and 
sheeting rain. Paws over his ears and 
occasionally barking at the lights that 
whizzed past his line of sight. Unable 
to understand what had happened beyond 
the fact that his new friend had gone.