TITLE:  WHERE IN THE WORLD... ANTARCTICA?
AUTHOR: RAVENWALD
DISCLAIMER:  Anyone you recognize belongs to Chris
Carter, anyone you don't belongs to us. 
CLASSIFICATIONS:  Movie fic, MRS/UST, Mulder
Angst, Scully Angst, Lone Gunmen Angst. 
RATING:  Mostly, PG 13, except for part 9 which is
NC-17 
KEYWORDS:  Mulder/Scully, Frohike/other (yeah you
read that right!) 
SPOILERS:  FTF, Slight for:  PILOT, FIRE, EBE, END
GAME, DEMONS, THE END 
SUMMARY: Mulder goes to Antarctica to search for
Scully.  The Gunmen go along.  Frohike has some fun.

AUTHOR NOTES: I swear by everything I hold dear, that
this was supposed to be an MSR. Really.  I just wanted
to write a nice, little story that explained how Mulder and
Scully made it back from Antarctica.  Somehow,
somewhere along the line, Frohike and company just
took over.

Thanks to my writing partner, Wylfcynne, as always for
telling me  'hey, they wouldn't do that!' and 'those are
run-on sentences,' and occasionally expanding on what
she calls 'my outlines,' (Okay, so I took it as a
compliment when my history prof told me:  'you write
succinctly.' He'd never believe my output now!  And
please god, no one tell him I'm writing this stuff!)  And for
Frohike51 for the final close edit - thank you very, very,
very, very, very, very much much! <g>  A person couldn't
ask for two better betas.

Someday, I'll pay Wylfcynne back for getting me involved
with X-Files and it isn't going to be pretty!  For that
matter, someday I'll get back at my sister for introducing
me to Highlander which started me writing when I had
resisted the blandishments of all other fandoms!  For
twenty-five years I managed to keep myself aloof from
this time-consuming and wretched pastime and she
wrecked it with one sentence:  "Can you tape Highlander
for me?  I'm out of tape."  Gloria, I'll get you for this
someday!

 Where in the World...?  Antarctica? by Ravenwald

Prologue Part I - Arrival

Australian Base Somewhere in Antarctica Minus 36 hrs.

"Carmen asked me to tell you that there was an
emergency pickup at the Canadian base, their chopper is
down for maintenance and their Doctor came down with
appendicitis.  He's being evacuated here."  The speaker
met them at the airfield and ushered them inside the
closest building. They were now walking through dimly lit
halls of the quiet base.  Most everyone was asleep this
late at night.

"Not a problem, Jack. Things like that have a way of
happening to me." Mulder turned to the three men
accompanying him.  "Boys, I want you to meet the base
Doctor, Jack Kepper.  Jack, this is Frohike, Langly and
Byers."

"Gee, the Lone Gunmen in person!" He breathed, but
with a touch of sarcasm.  "Mulder, what's going on? 
Carmen told me: 'help him.  Do whatever he wants you
to, give him whatever he needs.'"

"I have to get to these coordinates in the next 18 hours." 
He pulled out the slip of paper that the Well-Manicured
Man had given him.

"That's a ways from this base.  You would have been
better off going to the American base."

"Yeah, but I don't know anyone at the American base,
and they wouldn't help me without a lot of red tape.  You
guys at least know me well enough to trust me without
me having to go into a long explanation beforehand."

"Well, Carmen does, at least.  I've got a 'Cat ready for
you.  Are you sure you're okay to do this by yourself? 
Shouldn't you take someone along?"

"Will the Sno-cat make it to the coordinates and back on
one tank of gas with the extra weight?"

Jack sighed.  "No, it probably wouldn't and you wouldn't
be able to carry enough extra fuel to compensate. Hell,
you might not even make it back to base with the extra
fuel I already loaded.  I hate it when you're logical."

Mulder just shrugged.  "Let's get me ready."

He continued to follow the Doctor through the hallways of
the Aussie base and into the large room that made up
the motor pool.  "Mulder, Carmen said to give you this to
be on the safe side.  Hopefully you won't need it, but just
in case."  The Britisher handed Mulder a small GPS unit:
one with a transmitter.  "If you run into problems, use it. 
Carmen says they'll be back by tonight.  Are you sure you
won't wait?"

Mulder looked grim.  "I won't chance it, Scully's only got
36 hours left."

"It'll take you almost ten hours to get to the coordinates
by 'Cat, Mulder."

"Yeah, but it's better than waiting and not being able to do
anything in case Carmen's held up.  Thanks."

While he was talking, Mulder rifled through the
emergency supplies in the 'Cat, nodding when he found
everything he'd asked for.

"Mulder?"

He looked over at Frohike, somehow not surprised by
the look of intense concern on the other man's face.

"What?"

"Bring her back."

"You know I will."  The silent addition of 'or I'll die trying'
did not need to be said between them.  Frohike knew that
Mulder would move heaven and earth and anything in
between to save Scully.

 Prologue Part II - Who in the World...

Australian Base Common Room Antarctica Minus 26
hours

The Gunmen were waiting, mostly silent with their
thoughts.  They were shown to a bunk room and they had
tried to sleep, but their worry over their friends made
sleep an elusive commodity.  Finally, giving up, they
found their way to the common room where coffee was
brewing.

Langly was pacing the small room's perimeter, muttering
about surveillance cameras and hidden microphones. 
Byers was standing, staring at a satellite map of the area
that was hanging on one wall, and Frohike was sitting, his
head in his hands, worrying that this time Mulder and
Scully wouldn't make it.  He absently got up to get his
umpteenth cup of coffee when the door to the room blew
open and a small whirlwind entered.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?  Where's Mulder and
who the hell are you three jokers?"

The Gunmen were speechless.  The whirlwind proved to
be a short woman with close cut, brown, curly hair and
intense, dark blue eyes She wore a form-fitting jumpsuit 
and was carrying a helmet under her arm. Frohike was
immediately captivated both by her 'don't fuck with me'
attitude and her shape which was far from the current too
thin style.

(*God, this woman has a real shape!  Tits and an ass to
die for!*)

Unfortunately, in his distraction, he said it out loud.

"What did you just say, you little gnome?" she asked
through her teeth.

He looked disconcerted at the woman who was now
standing within inches of him staring up belligerently into
his face, and backed up slightly as he felt his body
respond to her nearness.  (*Oh, shit, Mulder's going to kill
me if she doesn't first!*) he thought to himself even while
absently noting that she was even smaller than and her
eyes were even bluer than Scully's and that she was not
wearing a wedding ring.  Before the woman could
continue, Byers broke in gently turning her from his friend
to introduced himself.  "I'm John Byers.  We're friends of
Mulder's.  Come and sit down and I'll tell you all I know
about what's going on.  May I get you a cup of coffee?"

The woman gave Frohike one last, scathing look and
muttered "troll" under her breath as she followed Byers
over to a table.  Frohike just stood there, entranced.

"How much did Agent Mulder tell you?" Byers asked,
setting down the cup of coffee and the sugar and cream
in front of the aggravated woman.

"Just that his partner had been kidnapped and that she
was being held down here on a secret base.  Right,
yeah, secret base.  Does this have something to do with
Mulder's little grey men?" she asked suspiciously. "The
ones that kidnapped Sam?"

Byers was rather taken aback by both her attitude and her
knowledge of Mulder and his sister.

"How well do you know...?" his question was interrupted
by Frohike sitting down on the other side of the table.

"What do you want, worm?"  Carmen asked him.

"Nothing but to bask in your glory, oh..."

Carmen couldn't help it, she started to laugh.  "You have
*got* to be Frohike!  Mulder warned me about you!"

Frohike's face immediately fell getting to his feet and
backing away.  "He did?"

"Oh, yeah!  Said that you were paranoid and a nut case,
but he'd trust his life to any one of the three of you.  Oh,
hell, sit down and tell me about what's really going on. 
First off, introduce your friend over there?"

Byers and Frohike called Langly over and introduced
him.  The four of them sat while the Gunmen told her
everything they knew about the current situation.  Langly
was just starting to get antsy again when a pair of blond
teenage surfer-types broke into the room and giving into
his nervousness, he bolted from the table to resume his
pacing.

"Dr Santiago, Jack said he'd like to talk to you," they told
her, in chorus. "He asked if he could meet you in your
office in about fifteen minutes."

Carmen put her head down on the table at the look on
Frohike's face. (*Great, the teenage-interns from hell
have just found an ally*) she thought, as Frohike started
humming the theme to 'Where in the World is Carmen
Sandiego'.

Byers looked confused and Frohike was about to
enlighten him when Carmen raised her head and gave
him a look that was worthy of Scully herself.  "Don't!"

"But..."

"I said don't... not if you want to survive until Mulder gets
back and tells me why I shouldn't sling your sorry ass out
into the ice and snow."

Frohike reluctantly shut up, but Carmen knew, deep
down, that she had not heard the last of this.  She turned
back to the teenagers.

"Carter, Chris, go tell Jack that will be fine."  She was
silent as the twins left, then turned back to see the
question in the two men's eyes.  She sighed.  "*They*
are yet another cross this base has to bear.  That and
their lab partners.  The four of them won a contest
sponsored by The Discovery Channel and the University. 
So now we're stuck with the surfer-scientist interns from
hell for the next six months.  Do you know they brought
their snowboards?  No one told them that it's nearly flat
around here.  They were so disappointed.  They keep
harassing us to go out on the 'Cats to find some
mountains so they can tell their friends that they
snowboarded in the Antarctic!  Kids!"

She shook her head wearily and took a sip of her coffee. 
"The trouble is, they really are brilliant kids, but they are
going to drive me insane before their internship is over." 
She took a look at her watch.  "Well, it was... interesting
meeting you three.  I, at least, have work to do.  I'll let you
know if we hear anything from Mulder," she told them
before they were able to ask.  She got up to leave and
Frohike stood and watched as she left.

Byers turned and smiled faintly at the absolutely besotted
look on the other man's face.  (*Well, at least he won't be
bothering Agent Scully for a while!*)

 Prologue Part III - Waiting of Mulder... or someone like
him.

Australian Base Common Room Antarctica Minus 8
hours

Eighteen hours later, there was still no word from Mulder
and the Gunmen; Carmen were frankly getting worried
about their friend. Carmen started pacing the common
room with Langly, while Frohike and Byers tossed back
numerous cups of coffee.  Frohike could see how
worried Carmen was and wondered yet again about her
history with Mulder.  It did not seem to be the worry of
someone in love with him, more like the worry for a
beloved little brother.  Figuring he could get her mind off
Mulder for a bit, he started singing *the* song.  Byers had
been catching up Carmen on some of Mulder's more
*interesting* antics, but all it had done was make her
worry more.  Frohike's singing set her barely held temper
off.

"Frohike!"  She bellowed from across the table, "if you
sing that damned song one more time, I'll..."

"You'll what, Carmen, my sweet?"  he asked hopefully.

"I don't care if you are Mulder's friend, he's going to
come back to find a Frocicle."

"Ooow, promises, promises!" he retorted, looking her
over with a lascivious grin.  "When?"

"Arrrrghhh!"  She stormed away, throwing over her
shoulder, "I'm going to go see if the chopper has been
refueled."

Melvin Frohike sighed longingly as she stalked away
from him.  (*God, she's even hotter than Scully!*)

 Part IV -- Awakening

Somewhere in Antarctica Minus 2 hours

Scully looked up into the cold, blue sky, at the clouds
starting to gather and shuddered  It was beginning to get
dark and darkness would bring more cold still.

"Mulder... Mulder... wake up!"  She shook the
unconscious man in her arms carefully and was rewarded
when he opened his eyes.

"Scully..." Mulder smiled faintly and raised his hand to her
cheek.  He rubbed his thumb gently across it. "Where are
we?"

"I was hoping you could tell me, Mulder.  The last thing
*I* remember is being stung by a bee."

"Bee, hall, kiss..." Mulder paused, a soft, silly smile
crossing his face. Then it faded.  "Ambulance, gunshot... 
Antarctica.  We're in Antarctica," he finished triumphantly,
proud that he could connect everything.  His eyes started
to drift shut again.

She shook him gently.  "That doesn't tell me what we're
doing here."

"I'm here to rescue you."

"Mulder!"  she smiled ruefully.  Only Mulder would take a
life-and-death situation and try to turn it to make her
smile.  "Try again, you know I never went for the little
blond heroes."

"Okay, I'm Han Solo, I'm here to rescue you."

She gave up.  "Okay, Han, where's the Millennium
Falcon?"

"Over that ridge." Mulder pointed toward the setting sun. 
"And we'd better get moving," he commented as he
noticed that even the twilight had faded away.

(*It took me almost twenty four hours just to find her.*) 
He shuddered when he realized just how close he had
come to losing her.  Looking at his wristwatch, he saw the
countdown blinking at him. (*A couple more hours and it
would have been too late.  I *would* have lost her!*)  He
twisted around in Scully's arms and wrapped his tight
around her, burying his face in her neck.

"Mulder?"  She heard a sound that could only be a
whimper.  It frightened her.  "What's wrong?"

"I could have lost you."  His voice was harsh.  "Two more
hours and it would have been too late for the serum to
work.  You..."

(*Serum?  What the hell is he talking about?! Oh, well, I'll
find out eventually.*)  "You weren't too late and I'm... I'll
be okay, Mulder.  Come on, lead me to the Falcon."

They struggled to their feet and followed Mulder's
footsteps up over the ridge to the Snow-Cat.  When they
got there, Mulder noticed the access panel to the motor
was open.  He peered in, but could not see anything
wrong.  "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Mulder, get your mind out of that movie and help me into
this machine."

He turned slowly back toward her and saw her dilemma.

He grasped her about the waist .  He lifted her straight up
and placed her on the top of the tread.  "There you go,
Princess.  Go on in and get changed, there are dry
clothes back behind the seat.  I'll come in when you're
done."

"Mulder, don't be ridiculous.  Come in here out of the
cold."

"Actually, Scully, it's probably colder in there.  Besides,
I've got to fill the tank up."

"Well, when you're finished, come in.  You've already
seen me naked today; you can just turn your back if
you're worried about it.  I'm not."  She looked up at him
and grinned faintly.  "Frankly, if we don't get somewhere
warm soon, it just may be raining sleeping bags," she
muttered to herself.

Mulder  stood and stared up at her, his mouth hanging
open. (*Did she just say what I think she said?*)  Shaking
his head in an attempt to clear it, he refilled the gas tank
from the jerry cans then climbed up after her.

Scully was already rummaging through the duffel bag that
was stashed behind the driver's seat in the cab of the
Snow-Cat.  She pulled out a sweat suit and thermal
underwear.  There was an extra parka in her size hanging
off the back of the other seat.  Unconcerned at this point
about modesty, she stripped out of the oversize parka
and snow pants that her partner had dressed her in, dried
off as best she could, then pulled on the clothing that he
had provided for her.

"Get this thing started and get some heat in here or we're
both going to end up hypothermic."

Keeping his attention on the control panel, he inserted
and turned the key. Nothing happened.  He tried a couple
more times and then spoke up.  "Uh, Scully?"

"What?"  Her voice was muffled as she pulled the
sweatshirt over her head.

"They did something to the 'Cat.  It won't start.  It won't
even turn over."

"Do you have an alternate plan for getting back to
civilization?"

"I've got a GPS with a signaling device just in case. 
Check the pockets of the parka."

Scully picked up the coat she had been wearing and
started going through the pockets.  The first thing she
came up with was her cross, its broken chain dangling
through her fingers.  The next thing was a bottle that had
about a half-inch of straw colored liquid in it.

"Mulder, what's this?" she asked.

"That's the end of the vaccine that he gave me for you. 
Be careful.  There may be enough to have it analyzed."

"Why didn't you give me the full dose?"

"I figured that it was a dose for a normal sized adult and
considering how small you are, I didn't want to overdose
you on the cure.  I... I was afraid of poisoning you." 
Mulder started to shiver.  Scully put the items in her hand
down and went through the rest of the pockets.  Finally in
one of the zippered pockets in the snow-pants, she
came up with the GPS.

"How do we trigger this?"

"P-p-p-push the b-b-button, Scully."

Scully pushed the button and set it down next to the other
items on the seat.  She turned and pulled the rest of the
clothing out of the bag.

"Put these on, Mulder.  The ones you're wearing are
wet."

"I'm f-f-f-ine, Scully.  You put them on.  You've been
colder, longer."

"But I'm dry now, you aren't.  Am I going to have to get
rough with you, Agent Mulder?"

"P-p-promises, promises." Mulder muttered as he turned
but started stripping off the damp clothes in question. 
He jerked when he felt Scully's cold fingers touch him as
she rubbed him down with the towel she had found in the
tool box.  It wasn't very clean, but it did dry him off and
started the blood circulating.  Unfortunately, it started
pooling down below his waist.

"Uh, Scully... I... you can stop now.  I'm okay... really."

"Mulder, you're freezing.  Turn around."

"Scully!"  Mulder turned from her as she tried to squeeze
between him and the seat.  The contact of their bodies
made things worse.

"Mulder, you..." Scully's voice trailed off when she
realized  what it was that Mulder was trying to hide.  She
placed her hand gently on his bare shoulder and draped
the towel over the other.  "Okay, partner, you do it."

Grateful for her forbearance, Mulder took the towel and
rubbed his arms and chest vigorously.  He did not notice
Scully watching him in the rear view mirror.

(*I'm impressed!*) Scully thought hysterically, as she
stood mesmerized. She had seen Mulder naked before,
but never aroused. (*I'm in the middle of a snow field in a
vehicle that doesn't work, we don't know if we're going to
be rescued and I'm getting turned on by the fact that my
partner is hung like the proverbial horse, even in this
cold.  God, what would he be like... how does he hide
*that* in tailored slacks, much less jeans?*)  She
pondered those thoughts, and then shook her head to
clear it. (*Later, girl, when you're both warm and out of
danger.  You can jump him later,*) she promised herself.

Mulder finished drying off quickly and put on the dry
clothing.  He pulled the parka on, leaving off the
snow-pants because they were damp with green goo. 
Rolling them up carefully around the ampule of remaining
serum, he put them into the now empty duffel.  Zipping it
shut, he turned around with the extra parka in his hands.

"Put this on, you're starting to shiver." Scully had not
noticed the cold that much once she had the dry clothing
on, but it was now starting to seep into her very bones.

"OK."  She pulled the coat out of his hands and put it on. 
She started to zip it up but Mulder stopped her, zipping it
for her.  Then, he pulled up the hood and tucked her hair
in, gently caressing her face as he did so.

He pulled the emergency kit from under the driver's seat
and placed the large, thermal blanket from it down on the
seat.  He pulled out two chemical heat packs , then he 
sat down and pulled Scully into his lap. Tucking the
blanket tight around them, the last thing he did was grab
Scully's feet and started rubbing them gently.  He had
had no way to protect her feet barring the socks which
would not be adequate protection for them.  He was
worried about frostbite.  When they felt a little warmer, he
activated the heat packs and placed one in each of her
socks.

"You should have saved them for later," she protested.

"Later won't help, if you die from cold feet before that,"
he said.  Scully smiled and decided to throw an innuendo
at Mulder for a change.

"I'm not going to get cold feet, Mulder," she promised. 
She snuggled into his embrace as they stared into the
dark sky around them.

Speechless, Mulder tightened his hold on her and
together they drifted off into sleep.  Even though both
knew that it was a bad idea, exhaustion has a way of
superseding good sense.

PART V

Australian Base Common Room Antarctica Minus 1.5
hours

Carmen stuck her head into the room where the Gunmen
were waiting restlessly for word of Mulder.  "He signaled!
And there was an earthquake or something that was
epicentered very near to where the signal is coming
from."

"We're coming with you!" Frohike announced.  The other
two men trailed out behind him as he ran after the pilot
and caught her by the arm.

"I don't need help!" she told him firmly, aggressively,
attempting to pull away.

"I didn't say you needed help, but he's our friend, too. 
So's Scully.  And you *might* need help.  You don't know
what you're going to find there." Frohike faced her down,
the pair of them staring at one another until Carmen,
seeing the need and worry in Frohike's eyes,
acquiesced.

"All right, but you do what I say, when I say it.  Go get
dressed and meet me outside the hangar  in no more
than ten minutes.  Any longer and you get left."  She
would have preferred to take men from the base, but she
understood the Gunmen's need to be involved in the
rescue.

They ran off to the bunk room where their outer clothing
had been abandoned.

"God, I hope everything is all right with them," Byers
commented.

"You know we wouldn't have gotten a signal if he hadn't
recovered her," Frohike responded sadly.

"Too true," Byers answered.  The three men pulled on
their boots, grabbed the rest of their snow gear and
headed for the hangar.

 PART VI

Snowfield Somewhere in Antarctica Plus 1 hour

"Scully, Agent Scully, wake up."  The worried voice finally
penetrated her weariness and she opened her eyes to
be confronted from less than a foot away by Frohike's
concerned visage.

She recoiled, then realized where she was... held in
Mulder's lap in an inoperable Snow-Cat in the middle of
the Antarctic. Shaking her head to try to clear it, she
noticed Byers behind his friend.  "3PO, R2.  Where's
Chewie?"

"Dr. Scully?" he questioned gravely, worried at her
disjointed response. "We have to get the two of you out
of here.  There's a storm coming up. We're just very
happy to have reached you when we did.  The
meteorologist back at the base said if we didn't get out
here and back within four hours, we'd probably be stuck
until the storm passed.  This storm blew up out of
nowhere and he's afraid that it's going to be a bad one."

Scully noticed that it was still dark.  "How did you get
here?"

"Carmen flew us here.  Mulder has some pretty good
friends back at the base.  Come on, let me help you up."

Scully extricated herself gently from Mulder's embrace. 
She was worried because he had not awakened.  She
found herself being carefully helped to her feet by
Frohike.  He passed her back to Byers, who in turn,
passed her out of the Snow-Cat and into Langly's arms. 
Langly carried her to the rescue helicopter and after
helping her inside,  returned to help the others with
Mulder.

"Come up front.  Let the guys freeze their balls off back
there."

Scully turned to find a short, heavyset woman motioning
to her.  She was rewarded by a sudden blast of warm air
as she entered the pilot's cabin of the helicopter.  She
sighed and snuggled down in the co-pilot's seat.

"How much time until the storm hits?"

"About twenty minutes... it's going to be following us into
the station.  We may or may not make base before it
hits."  The pilot looked at Scully's white face. "Don't
worry, we'll be fine."  She looked back to where the
Mulder's three friends were manhandling his body toward
the helicopter. "Well, we'll make it as long as the Three
Stooges there get a move on and get Mulder on board."

Scully snorted at the pilot's description of their friends. 
She had often thought the same thing, privately, and to
hear it voiced somehow comforted her.  "Yeah, but what
they're good at, they are  *very* good at."

"Nice to know they're good at something besides
causing trouble.  God knows they've been into enough of
it back at the base.  By the way, I'm Carmen Santiago...
and don't say it... your friend Frohike has made enough
jokes about my name in the past twenty-four hours to last
me for the rest of my life.  I hate that show!"

"Dana Scully," she answered, holding out her hand.  "You
don't have to tell me about Frohike," she told the pilot,
smiling at her in commiseration at Frohike's lack of social
graces. "The first time I met him, he turned to my partner
and told him that I was hot!"

Carmen grimaced.  "God, he is such a gnome!  He's
been trailing me around like a puppy for the entire time
they've been at the base."

Scully sighed.  "Yeah, well, he can be *really* annoying,
but he's been a good friend, too.  I sometimes wonder
what we would have done all these years without their
help.  Putting up with his teasing is little enough payment
for all he's done for us."

Their conversation was interrupted by rattling of the
outside door as the Gunmen hauled Mulder into the
helicopter's rear cabin. "Okay, Carmen, my love, we're all
set to go!" Frohike called out.

"How's Mulder doing?"  Scully started to get up, but sat
back down when she heard the report from the rear
cabin.

"He's breathing okay.  He just seems to be out of it.  He's
got a really sappy smile on his face and he keeps
murmuring Agent Scully's name over and over.  I can
guess what *he's* dreaming of!"

Scully and the pilot exchanged glances.  Carmen shook
her head before she put her helmet back on and readied
the aircraft for takeoff.  Scully put her own helmet on, but
almost immediately started coughing.

"That sounds nasty."

"Feels nasty too, like I'm breathing lime Jell-O!"

"Yuck!  That was a image I could have done without."

"Tell me about it."


Continued in Part 2


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From ravenwald@aol.com Mon Mar 31 14:26:20 2003
Date: 2 Mar 2003 18:40:04 -0800
From: ravenwald@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: [all-xf] Where in the World... Antarctica! - Ravenwald 2 of 4

See Disclaimers in Part 1 

PART VII

Over the snowfield Antarctica

Scully spent most of the trip holding onto the armrests
tightly, her face alternately white from fear and red from
coughing fits.  As the flight went on, the time between
coughing fits became shorter and they blended into one
continuous spasm that wracked the small woman's frame
cruelly. Carmen watched her carefully.  When they were
about five minutes out from the base, she switched
channels,  radioing ahead to  have gurneys ready to take
them to sickbay.

By the time the helicopter landed, Scully's breathing was
erratic and labored.  The door opened up and the cold
blast of air sent her into a coughing fit that she was
unable to recover from.  Two of the staff members lifted
her out and onto the gurney.  They carried her inside
while two others, with help from the Gunmen, extricated
Mulder from the rear of the craft.  While all this was being
done, Carmen shut down the helicopter and got out to
assist the ground crew in securing the aircraft hangar for
the quickly approaching storm.

 Antarctica Australian base Sickbay Plus 3.5 hours

Carmen entered the main building where the sickbay was
located and went to see how the two FBI agents were
doing.  She was greeted by a scene of controlled chaos.
The Lone Gunmen were wrapping Mulder in blankets
while the entire medical staff of the base worked on his
partner.

"She's congested and not getting enough oxygen.  Her
blood O2 level is 86."

Carmen went over to where Jack Kepper, was
overseeing the process of getting the red-head settled.

"Hi!  She seemed to be okay when she first came into
the helicopter, but the longer she was up in the cabin with
heat, the harder it was for her to breathe.  Then she
started coughing.  She said it felt as if she was breathing
lime Jell-o."

"Well, considering what's she's coughed up so far, that
doesn't sound too far off... except it looks more like
lemon.  I'm going to put her in an oxygen tank with one
hundred percent humidity, but drop the temperature
some. Maybe that'll help.  If what you observed is true,
this stuff may liquefy on contact with cooler air."

They had already started an IV drip with a hydrating
agent, a mega-dose of antibiotics and an expectorant.
"If she doesn't improve in a half hour we can try
nebulizing her.  I just wish her friend would wake up and
tell us what she was exposed to.  I'd almost say it looks
like an environmental toxin, but as far as I can see, there
isn't any tissue damage.  When we stabilize her
breathing, I want to run a full set of chest X-rays."

Carmen wandered over to the bed that Mulder was in and
looked down at him.  He looked exhausted, his face
drawn and he was shivering.  She turned back to the med
tech.  "Hey, Jack, I think Mulder here is either in shock or
he's hypothermic."

"Well, you know the drill, take his temp, and take care of
it.  I've got my hands full here!"

"Here, let me help, Carmen."

Carmen turned to find Frohike at her side, worry etched
on his face. (*Maybe he isn't such a gnome, after all,*)
she thought.

"Mulder was shot in the head four days ago; he really
shouldn't have come after her, but we couldn't stop him,"
Frohike told her soberly as she took Mulder's
temperature.

"They're really close, aren't they?"

"Yes, and no.  They aren't involved, if that's what you
mean, at least not that way.  Not yet, anyhow.  Neither
one of them wants to take the chance that the other
doesn't want them in the same way... and then, too, they
have enemies."

"That isn't a reason."

"It is for them.  Both of them have had siblings taken
from them by the people that they're fighting.  You seem
to know about Mulder's sister, Scully's sister was killed a
couple of years back."  Frohike was speaking to himself
now.  "Why can't they just leave them alone?"

"Who?"  Carmen was distracted by his mutterings from
reminding Frohike that Mulder was an old friend of hers.

Frohike's face was a study in pain.  "Our governments."

Melvin Frohike watched the shock and then the disbelief
spread across the pilot's face.  He sighed.  He had come
to like Mulder's British friend and the sadness he felt at
having to be the one to disillusion her surprised him.

"How long have you known Mulder?" he asked her,
attempting to change the subject.

"Since he was seventeen.  I was finishing up my
doctorate and they assigned me to him as his student
mentor.  Brilliant kid, but no social skills whatsoever.
Which surprised me, given his background, his father
being an employee of your State Department and all.  I
didn't find out until a couple of years later what he had
gone through as a kid.

"He has the world's worst luck, doesn't he?"

Carmen looked toward the bed where the oxygen tent
was being set up. "Mostly, yes, but maybe this time, his
luck has changed."

"Maybe.  I hope so, anyway," Frohike agreed.

Frohike and Carmen, with some hesitant and uncertain
help from Byers and Langly, stripped Mulder to his
skivvies.  Carmen dredged up all the refreshers and
in-service classes she had had since her first aid
classes, and went over her friend's body hurriedly,
checking for injury, looking for some reason why he was
still unconscious.

The bullet graze on his skull looked angry, but there was
no CT or MRI scanner on the base; an X-ray would not
do them much good at this point. If his skull was
fractured, he probably wouldn't have been able to
accomplish everything he apparently had done since the
injury had been incurred.

The bruises that covered him were frightening, and
Carmen found herself wondering what could possibly
have caused them.  After all, all he had done was drive
the Snow-Cat out onto the plateau.  He had been waiting
there for them, still in the 'Cat.  But he looked as if he had
been severely beaten, or had suffered a terrible fall.

"Oh, my God."

Langly's voice, thick with horror and nausea.  Carmen
and the other two Gunmen looked up.  They looked
where he was looking, and each, in their own way,
reacted much as Langly had.

Mulder's left leg, from just below the knee to his heel,
was ripped open by four deep, ragged parallel cuts.  The
boot was also slashed, and buried in the thick sole was
the evidence of the cause of the damage.  Langly pried
out the bit of broken claw tip with a small forceps, and
held it up to show it to his friends.

"I wonder what almost got him?"

Byers produced a small Lexan vial and encased the claw
tip efficiently.  "I think that wound needs to be cleaned
really well," he said intensely.

Carmen frowned.  "It should be bleeding more; what is
this gelatin in here?"  She was about to poke at it with her
finger when Frohike grabbed her wrist and pulled her
away.

"No. Level One quarantine," he said harshly.  "Latex and
masks.  That virus doesn't pass easily from human to
human, but it might, especially if it gained entrance
through blood or mucus membranes."  He turned to stare
at Byers.  "What can you remember about what Scully
told us she had to do in Alaska to keep him alive?"

"Blood thinners, cold temperatures and tailored
experimental anti-viral medications," Langly growled
harshly.  "He was on a respirator for nine days, and didn't
regain consciousness for twenty-four days after that.
She had to defibrillate him twice."

"He should have antibodies for this virus," Byers said
softly.  "He survived his two previous exposures..."

Frohike blinked.  Then he studied his unconscious friend
a little more closely.  "Okay.  Look, he's breathing okay,
and he doesn't seem to be in any particular distress right
now.  Let warm him up a little, and clean and bandage
that wound.  If he shows distress, we can always lower
the temperature.  We don't have the anti-virals it'll take to
kill it if it really gets a hold of him, but maybe he can fight
it off if we support him."

That made sense to the other two Gunmen, and they set
about cleaning Mulder up.  Carmen, having had the most
medical training, worked on the wounds on Mulder's leg,
wearing doubled latex gloves and two masks. She used
every disinfectant and antiseptic they had, and was
cautiously pleased when, after she had irrigated the
wounds clean of all the blood-red gelatin with which they
were filled, they began to bleed a little.

"Well, look at that."

Frohike looked up, saw the blood seeping, and allowed
himself a pleased expression that did not quite measure
up to being called a smile.

"That's great, Carmen.  The virus causes the blood to
gel; if he's bleeding, maybe the virus has no toehold
there."

"If we use blood thinners, he's going to be in real pain,
considering all the bruising he's sustained," she was
thinking out loud as she coated the wounds with a triple
antibiotic ointment and started laying on squares of
sterile gauze.  "And I'm not even sure if we have any
blood thinners beside aspirin."

"Uh, guys?"  Langly interrupted them.

"Yeah?"

"Let Scully handle it, okay?" he suggested nervously.
"He should be okay for awhile if we keep his temperature
down. She'll kill us if we hurt him messing around with
stuff we don't really understand."

Byers straightened.  "You're right, Ringo.  This is her
area of expertise. We'll leave it to her."

They  helped Carmen bandage the long claw marks, and
they put him to bed in the same room beside Scully,
knowing that both would rest more easily if they were
together.

The base had only minimal telemetry capability, and the
guys had to kludge some of the electronics, but they
cobbled up a blood pressure and pulse monitor, hooked
Mulder up, and were finishing up the last of the
bandages.

Suddenly, the day hit Carmen;  she sighed slumping
against the wall, closing her eyes.  She was shocked
when an arm came around her shoulder to turn her.

"Come on, the important stuff is done.  You're
exhausted, Byers can finish up."

With Byers's assurances that he could cope, she allowed
Frohike to lead her out of the sickbay and down to her
room.  She collapsed onto the bed and allowed Frohike
to put her feet up and remove her boots and socks. She
lay there in bewilderment as he hitched himself up on the
bed and pulled her feet into his lap.

"Frohike!"

"Mel, I think you should call me Mel." Frohike murmured
in equal bemusement as he began to massage her feet.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm massaging your feet.  They've got to be sore after
the day you've put in," he replied, as he continued his
ministrations.

Carmen sighed, but could not tell if it was in resignation
or in bliss as Frohike's strong fingers kneaded the cramp
out of her right foot. (*How did he know?*) she wondered.
Then, she let down her guard and abandoned herself to
the sensations the strong fingers engendered.

After a little while, Frohike noticed that Carmen's
breathing had evened out and that she had fallen asleep.
(*I should leave,*) he thought, as he undid the laces of
his boots.  He was almost as drained as the woman,
though, so he crept up next to her and snuggled down,
pulling her back against him. He took off his glasses and
set them on the footlocker next to the bed.  His final
thoughts as he pulled the blankets over them were:
(*She's going kick my ass and stake me naked outside
for this when she wakes up!*)  But he realized that he did
not really care.

Sometime during the night, Carmen woke up,
disoriented. (*What the hell?*) She looked down to see
an arm wrapped around her and she was using the other
for a pillow. (*He is a gnome!*) She thought, recognizing
the hands in the fingerless gloves.  She started to turn,
but the arm tightened and drew her snugly back against
the compact body behind her. She sighed, shaking her
head, and nestled into the embrace. (*I can always kick
his butt in the morning!*) she decided fuzzily and fell
back asleep.

 Part VIII Australian Base Sick Bay Plus 9 hours

It was dark in the room when Mulder woke up.  He sat up
suddenly, staring around the room in a panic.  "Scully!"

"Calm down.  She's going to be fine."  Byers answered in
a quiet voice, pushing his friend back onto the mattress.
"They've got her on oxygen and antibiotics.  She's
breathing much better than when we got you two here."

Mulder pushed against the restraining hand of the
Gunman.  "I want to see her," he said firmly, swinging his
legs around.  He tried to stand up and then sat back
down again as he gasped.  Pain raced up his leg and
exploded into agony.

"Take it easy.  I'll help you.  Stay put for a minute."  Byers
knew just how worried Mulder was about Scully and knew
he would never keep him in the bed. "Let me put a chair
next to her bed first."

Leaving Mulder sitting on the edge of the bed studying
the bandaging on his leg, Byers went to the next room
and came back pushing one of the easy chairs from the
Rec Room.  He set it up on the side of the bed away
from the IV lines, then went back to help Mulder limp
over.  Mulder held on as Byers eased him down and into
the chair.

"I'm going to go tell Jack you're awake.  He wanted to
know."

"Fine." Mulder said, distractedly, his attention riveted on
his partner.  After Byers left, Mulder got up, pushed the
chair flush against the bed and picked up Scully's hand.
Holding it between both of his, he started rocking back
and forth, tears falling.

"Oh, Scully, oh, Scully.  Why does all this happen to
you?" Finally, not being able to bear being apart from
her, he crawled into the bed with her and pulled her back
against him, being careful not to tangle the IV line.

"Mulder?"

"Scully, you're awake!"

"I have been for a while," she whispered.  "It just hurts to
talk. I was coughing earlier and I could hardly breath.
They nebulized me twice.  The doctor wants to know
what the yellow goo is."

"Oh, yeah, he's going to love being told that it's alien
slime."

"Alien slime!"  A merry voice interrupted them from the
doorway as Dr. Kepper entered the room.  "What are you
on, and where can I get some, Mulder?"

"I told you," he whispered to Scully.  He released her
gently and climbed out of the bed, favoring his injured
leg.  "It *was* alien slime, Jack.  Scully was infected with
a virus after being stung by a genetically engineered bee.
I followed her here to Antarctica and found her in the
bowels of a very large spaceship.  You can ask Carm just
how big the hole was that it left when it took off.  I found
her in a pod..."

"I knew pods were going to come into it somewhere," Dr.
Kepper muttered.

Mulder ignored him.  "...smashed it open, injected Scully
with a serum that I obtained from a contact.  I pulled the
umbilical out of her throat and we got the hell out of
there."  Mulder was defiant as he told the story of Scully's
rescue.

After listening to the entire story, Dr. Kepper sighed.
"You're delusional, Mulder."

"I'm not, and like I said, ask Carmen just how large that
hole was she found us next to." Mulder repeated.  "And I
have a sample of the serum I injected Scully with that we
can analyze.  And while you're at it, why don't you analyze
the stuff she's been coughing up?"

"We have," Dr. Kepper shrugged carelessly.  "As far as
we can tell, it's mucus.  Just plain old ordinary mucus.
Nothing strange about it other than it's color."

Mulder was getting angry when Scully sat up and
distracted both men from the argument.

"He isn't lying, at least as far as the pod and the rest of
*that* is concerned," she said didactically.  "And
whatever it was where I was being held, something
happened to it, because it's gone now."

"Dr. Scully, you were oxygen deprived when you were
brought in here. You were probably hallucinating."

"Why don't you analyze the rest of the serum?"

"We don't have the facilities for that here."

"Then how do you know that the stuff Scully coughed up
was 'just mucus'?" Mulder demanded.

"Our equipment can handle that...

"Jack..."

"Mulder!" Scully broke in.  "Let it be for now.  Come back
to bed. We're both tired and nothing is going to be
solved by fighting.  Let it go."

Mulder's shoulders slumped in capitulation and went
back to stand beside Scully's bed.  "You need your sleep
more than you need me around. I'll just..."

"Mulder, get in here." Scully told him firmly.  She put a
hand and pulled at his arm.  "I don't care what anyone
thinks. Right now, I want and need you beside me.  I want
to know that I'm here and I'm not in a pod somewhere
dreaming all of this."

Mulder turned to Jack Kepper and shook his head.  "She
bullies me like this all the time," he sighed.  "I guess we'll
finish this discussion in the morning."

"You're not going to fight with the doctor, Mulder.  You're
going to be polite and do exactly what he tells you,"
Scully told him calmly, ignoring his original aside to the
doctor.

"Yes, ma'am."  Mulder slid into bed with his partner.  He
laid down on the bed and carefully hugged her to him.
"And in the morning, we're going to have a discussion
about insubordination, Agent Scully."

"Yeah, right, Mulder."  Scully grinned and snuggled close.
"Hey, Byers?"

"Yes, Agent Scully?"

"When you see the boys, tell them thanks."

"I will, if I ever find where Frohike went.  He disappeared
about four hours ago and no one has seen him since."

"Ask Carmen, she can tell you where she buried the
body," Mulder told him, laughing.  The others joined in
and Dr. Kepper and Byers left the room, leaving the
agents their privacy.

Scully squirmed carefully around until she was facing
Mulder, one hand on his chest.  "I thought I lost you out
there on the ice."

"I thought I lost you when that damned bee stung you
and then again when you stopped breathing in the ship."
He tightened his arms around her. "I don't think I could
go on if that were to happen.  I need you, Scully."

Continued in Part 2 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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From ravenwald@aol.com Mon Mar 31 14:26:26 2003
Date: 2 Mar 2003 18:40:05 -0800
From: ravenwald@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: [all-xf] Where in the World... Antarctica! - Ravenwald  3 of 4

Disclaimers, etc in part 1

Part 9

Australian Base Carmen's Quarters Plus 12 hours

He opened his eyes slowly, wondering where he
was and who was in bed with him.  Waking up with
another person in bed with him, much less
snuggled close to him, was an occurrence that had
been rare in recent years. (*In fact, I can't
remember the last time I woke up in bed with
someone!*)  Usually women were put off by his
paranoia, his looks, or the attitude he had cultivated
when he realized that no one was going to fall for
him for his looks.

(*Oh, hell, what's the worst she can do to me?*)
and he tightened one arm around Carmen while the
other pushed the curls back from her forehead. He
ran a finger across the side of her face that was not
buried in his chest.

"What do you think you're doing, Frohike?"
Carmen's voice was muffled from her position but
did not sound angry, just curious.

Taking heart from the fact that she had not sprung
out of bed or his embrace, he let his hand drift
down her neck to her back where he started
massaging little circles on her shoulder blades.

"Frohike?"

"I told you last night, call me Mel, and I'm just taking
up where I left off last night."

"Why?" Carmen's voice was toneless, her body
limp with resignation.  "It's not like you and your
friends need my help any more.  Besides, I would
have done it for Mulder, anyhow."

Frohike's hand stilled abruptly.  "Do you think I'd do
this just to get you to help us?"

"C'mon, Frohike.  Give me a break.  I'm 43, I'm
sixty pounds over-weight, and I've got a mirror; I
know I'm no beauty.  Why would anyone, even you,
want me, unless they wanted something from me?"

"Maybe because I like you?  Possibly because,
when I look at you I see the lovely person you are.
Maybe because I'm as lonely as you seem to be."

"I don't need your pity." The words were wrenched
from Carmen, the pain in them evident and he
could feel her body begin to shake as she tried to
pull away.

"Right, like you'd need *my* pity!  Carmen, look at
me!  Women call me, troll and troglodyte to my
face and probably a lot of other, less
complimentary adjectives behind my back.  Who
am I to pity you?  I felt a connection when we met;
something told me that we could be friends. Maybe
more than friends, but at the very least friends."  He
combed his fingers through her curly, light brown.
"Why do you think I couldn't want you?"

"Why should you, no one else ever has."

"Then they've all been blind."  Frohike ran his
thumb across her cheek and followed it with his
lips.  He caught her gaze and she stared into his
warm, brown eyes as he bent his head to kiss her.

She sobbed as she turned in his arms and
encircled his body with hers, clutching him tightly to
her, burying her head in his chest.

He threaded the fingers of one hand into her hair
and gently forced her to meet his gaze.  "I'm going
to show you just how much someone could want
you," he told her firmly and he began to kiss his
way down her throat.

Bemused at the firmness in his voice, Carmen
allowed Mulder's strange little friend to take
liberties that she had never allowed any man to
take. She gasped as his lips closed over one,
cotton-covered nipple, her back arching in reaction.

"Oh, my God!"

"Carmen?" Frohike was rather taken aback at her
reaction.  It suddenly dawned on him that given her
attitude, there was a very good chance that he was
dealing with a virgin and frankly, it scared him.

"Don't stop!"

"I'm not going to stop, but I am going to slow down.
Carmen, talk to me."

She looked up into his eyes and started to draw
back.  "I..."

He tightened his hold on her.  "No... I'm not
stopping, but ..." Frohike was at a loss for words.
(*How do you ask a 43 year-old-woman if she's a
virgin?*)

"Carmen, are you... have you ever..."

Her reaction when she realized what he was asking
would have been comical if Frohike had not been
so deadly serious about what he decided that he
really, really wanted to do.  She blushed beet red,
the blush spreading down her neck disappearing
down the neck of her shirt.  She tried to pull away
from his embrace.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," he
mused as he tightened his grip on her.  "Stop trying
to get away." he murmured as he began kissing her
again.

"But...."

"But nothing.  I'm going to make this good for you if
it kills me!"

"But..."

"Carmen?"

"What?"

"Shut up and kiss me."

Ten minutes later, they were still kissing, Frohike
having found that he *liked* kissing Carmen.

"Are we ever going to do anything else?" Carmen
asked breathlessly.

"Yeah, but I figure you've got at least twenty years
of foreplay coming to you," he told her, an evil grin
spreading across his face.

"Oh, my!" she responded faintly, as she realized
that while he had been kissing her, he had taken
advantage of the fact that she was distracted and
stripped off her shirt and bra and had worked the
zipper down on her jeans.  "How...?"

"You seem to have been preoccupied," he told her
as he stood up and pulled her jeans and panties
off.  He purposely did not stare at her body, but
took off his vest and pulled his sweater and t-shirt
over his head.  His fingers moved to his belt before
he got a reaction out of Carmen.

"Uh..."

"Well, I just thought you'd be more comfortable if
we both had the same amount of clothes on."

"Oh."

"You know, you almost sound interested.  Is there
something I could show you, little girl?" He grinned
again as the blush spread across her chest again
as he waggled his eyebrows at her, leering.

"I'm not little, and I'm certainly no girl," she
answered, trying to keep the smile out of her voice.

Frohike's voice grew serious.  "Carmen, I don't
want to do anything that you're uncomfortable with.
I want this to be good for you and if we have to
spend the next week in this bed..."

"A week!"

"Well, your weather guy said the storm is going to
be around for at least a week and I can't think of a
better way to spend the time.  Can you?"

"Well, we could always overhaul the helicopter... it
takes a lot of maintenance to be able to fly it down
here."

Frohike opened his mouth, then shut it again, when
he realized that she was putting him on.  He pulled
her to her knees on the bed and wrapped his arms
around her, burying her face in the valley between
her breasts. He grinned at her sudden intake of
breath as he licked first one, then the other.

"I think I'd rather do maintenance right here."

"Are you good with your tool?" she asked, shocking
another grin out of him.

"Well, it's been quite a while, but I think I still know
how to use it."

"And, it hasn't rusted away from lack of use?"

"Carmen!" Frohike was laughing out loud now.
"What would give you that notion?"

"Well, when I talk to Mulder he's told me about you,
and he said you were waiting for his video
collection.  I know about that collection!  That, and
he says you keep propositioning his partner."

"Well, as far as the video collection goes, it's
purely scientific interest." Frohike told her laughing,
but then he became serious.  "And as for Scully,
she needs someone to make her laugh.  Mulder
tries, but they're too bound up in this conspiracy;
they have very little to laugh about.  So, I made it
my job to play court jester for her."

"Truly?"

"If you're asking am I pining for Dr. Scully, the
answer is no.  I've always known she belonged to
Mulder.  From the first time we saw them together
we all knew.  Hell, the only people that don't know
that Mulder and Scully belong together are Mulder
and Scully."

"I like her.  I think she's been good for Mulder."

"I know she's good for him.  She'll never treat him
like Diana did."

"Good Lord, is that harpy still around?"

"Yeah, but why are we talking about Mulder's old
girlfriend?  Hell," he said, pulling away and yanking
off the rest of his clothing, "why are we talking at
all?"

Without giving her a chance to escape, he slipped
into bed and pulled her down on top of him.

Carmen's eyes widened at the feel of him pressing
hard against her.  She tried to look down, but he
took her head in his hands and began to kiss her
again.  Starting at her forehead, he kissed his way
down to her lips and lingered there.

His hands gravitated to her back again where he
began rubbing small circles on her shoulder blades
and continued their movements as he turned them
over.

Carmen let her hands slid around him to touch his
back, echoing his movements.  They froze when
they felt the distinctive ridges of scar tissue.  "Oh,
my God!  What happened to you?" she gasped.

Frohike stilled as her fingers lightly traced the scars
that criss-crossed his entire back, then tried to pull
away.  This time, it was Carmen's turn to hold tight.
She forgot her own nervousness as she slid out
from beneath him and straddled his thighs.  She
held him down, then began to trail kisses along the
jagged lines.

(*How did he survive this?*) Carmen wondered.
Frohike's back was a mass of scar tissue... more
scar than skin, in fact. (*It almost looks as if he was
flayed!**

"Mel...?  How... when...?" she questioned... tears
beginning to fall at the thought of the pain he must
have gone through.

"Vietnam," he answered in a tight voice.  "I spent
four months as a guest of the Viet Cong, and the
commander enjoyed inflicting pain.  And he was an
artist at it.  He could whip you and keep you
conscious for hours on end.  The pain never
became quite bad enough to let you pass out.  And
it went on and on."  He took a deep breath and
continued. "Those four months seemed like an
eternity.  Then the camp was liberated by a Ranger
unit.  They were on a mission in the area and they
stumbled across us by accident.  Their leader
decided that they could manage to use the mission
as a diversion to rescue us, too.

"I spent six months in the hospital afterwards."  He
squirmed and she allowed him to turn over.  "I was
lucky.  The commander only got as far as my back
and hands."  He stripped off the fingerless gloves
she had never seen him without, and she caught
her breath again as he turned his hands for her to
see.  "Most of that time they spent doing skin grafts
and reconstructive surgery on my hands.  The
Commander had started on them first and by the
time we were rescued, they were infected badly
and the bones in the hand itself were healing
crooked.  I was damned lucky, though.  Some of
the men rescued didn't survive the trip out, others
lost hands and feet.  One of the men, he had been
there the longest, over eighteen months, had
wounds and scars over his entire body.

"What happened to him?"

"He committed suicide.  He just couldn't take
looking at himself in the mirror.  At least gloves and
a t-shirt cover my scars."

"Tell me the rest of the story."

"The Ranger commander caught Lieutenant
Nguyen working over one of the other prisoners
and he put a bullet in his gut.  Then he walked
away. The guards were shot cleanly, but Captain
Childress told his men to let the Lieutenant die like
the scum he was." [[ Frohike pulled Carmen down
to him and she laid there, listening to the beat of his
heart as he finished his story.  "Childress was
court- martialed for rescuing us.  'Disregarding the
orders of a superior officer' were the charges
brought against him, because they had been under
orders to make no contact with the VC beyond their
objective.  I've often wondered since if someone
hadn't known we were there all along.  It was while I
was in the hospital and I listened to the stories
some of the other soldiers told, that I began to
wonder about our government.  Stories about
experiments being done on unsuspecting soldiers,
entire units disappearing, stuff like that."

Carmen had no answer for that.  She simply twined
the fingers of his right hand with her left and
brought it to her mouth and kissed each finger then
the back of it.  Frohike ran his other hand up her
arm to her neck and pulled her back down to him,
kissing her hungrily, all embarrassment erased by
her actions.  After a few minutes, he pushed gently
at her shoulder and she rolled off him onto her
back, gasping for air.

"Now, where were we?" he asked and proceeded
to kiss his way down her neck.  He stopped and
paid special attention to each breast, rolling the
nipples to attention between his fingers, before
fastening his lips to one of them.  Again, Carmen
arched off the bed.  As he continued his assault
with his mouth, he trailed his fingers down her side,
lightly, but with enough pressure not to tickle.  His
fingers slipped between her legs and she
shuddered as they slid across her clit.

"What did you just do!?" she panted. (*It never
feels like *that* when I touch myself!*)

"If you have to ask, I'm obviously not doing it right,"
Frohike responded and slid his body down hers to
bury his face between her legs.

"No, no!  Whatever it was, do it again!  Now!"

(*Now, let's see if I can remember how to do this.*)
Frohike thought, maniacally.  Placing his hands on
her knees, he pressed softly and was pleased
when they fell open for him.  Then he grasped her
softly around one ankle to ground her.  He used the
other to open her, and stared in awe at the warm,
moist wonder before him.  Tentatively, he reached
out with his tongue and swiped from bottom to top,
flicking gently at her clit.

She moaned.

He grinned and settled down to enjoy himself.  He
licked her again, she moaned again... and kept
moaning, slightly louder each time his tongue
touched her.  He slid one finger to her opening and
felt her tense.

"Let it go, Carmen..." and rubbed her with his thumb
while he stroked gently in and out.  He could feel
her begin to shudder and he pushed a second
finger inside.  Twisting and stroking, widening the
fingers into a V to try to stretch her... (*She's tight
and I don't want to hurt her...*)  Plunging deeper, he
used his other hand to expose her and blew across
her clit. She pushed up, into his hand and cried out
softly, shuddering violently.

Not waiting for her climax to end he removed his
hand and positioned himself at her entrance.

"Carmen, look at me," he commanded.

It was difficult, but she focused her eyes on his and
they never broke contact as he slowly sank into her.
She bit her lip as he entered deeper, fighting the
pain below with pain from above.

He suddenly felt the resistance give way and
continued until he was fully sheathed.

"Relax, sweetie... just let me love you."

"Sweetie?"

"You tasted pretty sweet to me," he told her with a
grin and bent down to kiss her.

She groaned as he began to move. (*Oh, my god,
I'm really doing this.*) And as she felt the pleasure
build once again... (*If I had known what I was
missing...!*)  Carmen thought as he bent his head
to take a nipple between his teeth and worry it
gently.  She started breathing harder as she felt the
tension in her body begin to crest again. "Mel...
Mel... Mel..."  she started to chant until she stiffened
and exploded around him.  "Melvin.....!" she
screamed and collapsed back against the bed as
Frohike finished right after her, wrapping her tightly
in his arms as if he would never let her go.

Part 10

Australian base Sick Bay Plus 12 hours

Byers came in to the sick bay, a serious look on his
face. Mulder was sitting next to Scully's bed, the
doctor having decided that she would probably
recover faster if she lay propped up on the bed
instead of her partner.  After much grumbling on
both agent's parts, they reluctantly complied.

Mulder had to admit that Scully was breathing better
and consoled himself with this thought as he sat in
exile in the uncomfortable chair, his wounded leg
propped up at the foot of her bed beside her feet.

"Mulder, how's Agent Scully?"

"Better.  Jack is a real pain." Mulder added as the
doctor in question entered behind the Gunman.

"I told you she would be.  I'm surprised either one
of you listened." Kepper glanced at the two
American men, and growled.  "Do you know where
your friend, Frohike is? No one has seen either him
or Carm since they left here last night."

Byers and Mulder exchanged startled glances.
Silent thoughts occurred to them both at the same
time but they both dismissed their wildly differing
thoughts at the same time.

"Nah, couldn't be."

"Couldn't be, what?" Jack asked.

"She wouldn't have thrown him outside, would she,
Mulder?"  Byers asked worriedly.

Mulder shrugged helplessly.  "Well, if he pissed
her off enough, yeah, Carm is fully capable of
doing something like that."

Byers looked even more worried.  "But she
wouldn't really do it, I mean, she'd just threaten to,
right?"

Mulder began to answer when the morning quiet
was broken by a female voice screaming a name.

Byers looked puzzled. "What do you think Alvin's
done to piss Carm off?"

Dr. Kepper frowned.  "We don't have any one on
the base named Alvin."

(*No, it couldn't be... she wouldn't...*) Mulder
thought, amazed. (*But if there's no one named
Alvin, and she and Frohike supposedly
disappeared about the same time...?  And come to
think of it, that wasn't a scream of anger that we just
heard.  That was the voice of a woman well and
truly fucked.*)  Mulder burst into laughter.

"What?" both Byers and Kepper asked at once.

"I think I know where Carm and Frohike got to.  I
don't think we have to worry about them."

Jack looked confused, while Byers just stared at
Mulder.  "He didn't!"

"I'd say the odds are pretty good that *they* did.
God, I would have laid odds that Carmen would
have killed him first."  The look on Mulder's face
changed subtly as he settled back in his chair, but
he let no clue as to his thoughts. (*And if he hurts
her, I'll kill the little troll myself!*)

"Would someone kindly tell me what the hell the
two of you are talking about?" the doctor almost
shouted.

Scully's voice was filled with silent laughter as she
took pity on the poor man.  "I'd say that Carmen
and Frohike spent the night together... and not
sleeping."

Jack looked shocked... "But Carm doesn't..."

"I'd say Carm did." (*Frohike and Carmen; who'd've
thought it,*) she mused shaking her head.  Her face
turned to Mulder's and a small smile crossed it.
(*Poor Mulder.  Everybody's getting some except
him.  Well, maybe we can change that.  I'm
certainly willing to give it a try.  Let's see if I can
embarrass him.*)

She pulled his hand into hers, startling him out of
his thoughts.  "Hey, Mulder?"

"What?" he said, shaking his head to clear it of the
vision of one of his oldest friends wrapped in
Frohike's torrid embrace.  He leaned toward her,
searching her face. "Is anything wrong?"

She pulled him down closer.  "How does it feel to
know that even Frohike is getting some?  Maybe he
won't be wanting those videos that aren't yours
after all."

"Scully... You're talking about *Frohike* and one of
my oldest friends!  If he hurts her..."

She realized just how upset he was, but could not
bear not teasing him just a bit more.  "Oh, well, you
never know, she might be a black widow spider or a
preying mantis... I mean right now she could be
chomping poor Melvin's head off."

Mulder smiled.  "Which one?"

"Yeeew!  Mulder!"

Part 10

Australian Base Carmen's  quarters plus 13 hours

"Now, tell me why you could possibly think that no
one would want you." Frohike commanded as he
rolled onto his back and fought to catch his breath.

"No one has.  Certainly not my father -- he wanted a
boy as first born. My mother wanted someone
graceful not the klutz I turned out to be.  I was
forever breaking things, tripping over things that
weren't there.  My sister despised and hated me...
Hell, I couldn't even keep the husband they bought
for me."

Frohike's hand stilled as she was speaking. (*No
wonder she and Mulder are friends!  They both
know what it's like to be rejected by their family and
lovers.*)

"What happened?"

"I actually thought he loved me.  I adored him.  He
was gorgeous and I was dazzled that someone like
him would want someone plain like me.  I didn't
know about the arrangement he and my father had
come to.  He got drunk at the wedding reception.  I
thought it was nerves.  I helped him to bed and
then I went to my old room sleep because he was
passed-out, sprawled across the bed in our room.
At least I thought he was passed out."

"And the next morning?"

"My illusion of happiness didn't even last that long.
I woke up at two in the morning with my sister
screaming at someone for interrupting her fun.  Our
rooms connected and I went in to see what was
going on and to ask her to be quiet because the
house was filled with guests and I didn't want a
scandal.  I found my naked sister sitting astride my
equally naked husband.  And there was poor
Mulder, standing there in a robe with a bottle of
champagne in one hand and two glasses in the
other, looking equal parts shocked, angry and sick.

"He just stood there, saying over and over, 'How
could you betray your sister this way?' Not, how
could you betray me, but 'how could you betray
your sister.'"

"He would see it that way," Frohike interjected.
"What did you do?" he asked gently, never letting
up on the small circles he was making on her back.

"Me?  I just stood there shaking, not able to say a
word. My sister turned when she noticed that I had
come into the room and asked me what I expected.
'It's not like he's in love with you!  Father wanted to
get you and Phaedra out of his hair and Jorge and
Raoul needed their debts paid. Everyone's happy!
At least Phaedra was woman enough to keep a
hold on Raoul!'  I'll never forget those words."

Carmen rolled out of his arms and pushed the
pillows behind her, propping herself up so she was
sitting against the wall.  "Mulder stood there staring
at her for the longest time, then he turned to me
and told me to get dressed and pack a bag.  She
looked at him as if he had grown second head.  No
one had ever gone against her... much less
supported *me* against her.  And certainly not one
of her men!  She'd forgotten about Mulder's sense
of honor and that he and I had been friends first.
She tried talk to him, but all the while still snuggled
up to Jorge.  Mulder ignored her and repeated
himself and told me to meet him at the front door in
ten minutes.  I didn't even bother to pack.  I got
dressed and waited for him in the hall.

"Phoebe and Jorge never left her bedroom.

"One good thing came out of that debacle.  Mulder
finally realized just what kind of crazed bitch my
baby sister could be.  He took me back to Oxford
and helped me get settled.  As far as I know, he
never saw Phoebe again."

Frohike jerked as her sister's name finally
registered.  "Wait a minute, you're Phoebe Green's
sister?  But... but you're so... so... nice!" he told
her, shocked.  He remembered Scully's story of
what happened when Phoebe had come back,
though temporarily, into Mulder's life.

Carmen smiled at him then, a brilliant smile that lit
up her face, and made him forget where he was
and what he was doing.  All he could see was the
smile that turned her ordinary face, extraordinary.

"I think that's the nicest, most amazing thing anyone
has ever said to me," she told him as tears
streamed down her face.

Frohike had been laying on his side leaning on one
elbow.  Now he settled himself next to her and
pulled her back into his arms, settling her snug
against his side.  "Tell me the rest."

"Not that much more to tell.  Mulder got me settled
back in Oxford.  He let me stay at his place for a
couple of weeks until I could find a place of my
own; I had let my rooms go when I went home to
get married.  He helped me find a lawyer and
helped me realize just what it was that I wanted."
Frohike raised his eyebrows in query and she
continued.

"I wanted freedom from my family to do what I
wanted and for that, I needed access to my trust
fund.  We found a lawyer who wasn't put off by my
father's position, and we spelled it out for my
darling father.  I then found out that the money that
he had been going to settle on Jorge was actually
mine outright from my grandmother.  There was no
trust fund.  My father had just told me that so he
continued to have access to the interest. I wanted
the money, as well as the property she had left me.
He was going to fight it, but I pointed out that I
could prove that the marriage had not been
consummated and that I would.

"I thought he was going to have a stroke right there
and then.  I got my annulment in exchange for
agreeing not to release any of the dirty little details.
God forbid that any of the friends or family find out
what had happened.  Of course, everyone did find
out and I got blamed for everything.  Jorge's father
was the Consul General for Spain... they were a
really *old* family, with lands and ancient titles;
totally unlike my upstart family.  We had the money,
but we'd only had the title about two hundred years.
His father was a bloody duke!"  Her eyes were
closed in pain, remembering.

"You know, I thought I had been happy before
that... I mean I had friends at University and I had
come to terms with the fact that my family basically
had no use for me.  It wasn't until after I got my
second doctorate that I realized that nothing I had
done before had been for myself... it had always
been a hidden attempt at trying to prove myself to
my parents."  She shook her head.  "Before the
debacle with Jorge, I was just another society child,
and unwanted one, but it was there in my
background and I always tried to fit myself into the
mold.  I'm glad it happened the way it did, because
it woke me up.

"There isn't much more to tell, Jorge came into the
court room screaming that I was a frigid bitch that
no one would want anyhow.  Well, a foreigner
screaming at My Lord Justice didn't go over very
well.  So, I got what I wanted and I never went
back.  I haven't seen any of them since.  I went
back to school and studied something practical this
time and I ended up here."

"Title, money..." Frohike was dazed as he stared at
her.

"Didn't Mulder ever tell you anything about
Phoebe?"

"He never says too much about his old girlfriends.
They all seem to be the same type, though: Tall,
brunette, busty bitches."

"Well, that describes my sister Phoebe, all right.
He finally seems to have gained some sense,
though.  I like Dana."

"So do I, but you're trying to change the subject.
Tell me the rest."

"I got the annulment, changed my name legally; I
kept his last name as a reminder not to be a fool
again, and Carmen just kind of went along with it. I
wanted to reinvent myself totally, though if I had
known they were going to make that wretched
television program, I would have picked a different
first name," she commented with a faint grin.

Frohike has the grace to look abashed and he
started to apologize for his actions of the past
couple of days.

"Don't worry, I'm used to it.  If you think you're bad,
you should have heard the last set of interns we
had.  They got together and practiced the song and
during one of the impromptu talent nights, they
trotted it out.  I thought Jack Kepper was going to
have a stroke trying not to laugh."

"What's your birth name?  What did the evil fairies
christen you?"

"Sure you want to know?"

"Come on, it can't be as bad as Melvin Nathaniel
Frohike."

"Wanna bet?  Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you."
Her lips curled up into a smile. "Melvin Nathaniel
Frohike, I'd like you to meet Lady Penelope
Ermintrude Emmaline Catherine Green."

Frohike started at her.  "Penelope Ermintrude?
Why in heaven's name would anyone saddle a child
with Ermintrude?  God, no wonder you and Mulder
get along so well!  Weird names and dysfunctional
families." He shook his head and hugged her to
take away the sting of his words.

"It's family tradition that the eldest daughter is
always named Penelope Ermintrude."

"Why?"

When she didn't answer immediately, he shook her
gently.

"God, getting information out of you is a tough as
getting information out of the US Government.
Yes, I want to know."

"Well, the family's title dates from the time of
Charles II.  He used to give out titles for..."

"Yeah, I know about Charles II  'Services rendered
to the crown' is what I think they termed it, wasn't it?
But what does that have to do with you? Don't tell
me...?"

"Yup.  The titles were sometimes given to women
in their own right.  And some of them were not just
courtesy titles, but real peerages, depending upon
the services that were rendered."  Her grin
widened.  "A very few of those have a codicil to the
inheritance. If there are no direct male heirs, but
there are direct daughters, the eldest daughter
inherits.  So the first son is always named Charles
but the first daughter is always named Penelope
Ermintrude after the First Countess of Middlesex
and Thames.  Well, Father hasn't been able to sire
a son yet.  He's had three different wives and they
all have spawned girls.  So..."

"So!?"

"Unless he manages to get himself a son before
he dies, and from what I've heard he isn't at all well,
I'll be the next Countess of Middlesex and Thames
and won't that piss off little sister Phoebe!"

Frohike sat there holding Carmen, for once in his
life totally speechless.

Continued in part 4


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From ravenwald@aol.com Mon Mar 31 14:26:31 2003
Date: 2 Mar 2003 18:40:12 -0800
From: ravenwald@aol.com
Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative
Subject: [all-xf] Where in the World... Antarctica! - Ravenwald part 4 of 4

Disclaimers, etc in part 1

Part 11

Australian Base Sick Bay Plus 13 hours

When Jack and Byers had left the room, Scully
turned to Mulder.  "We're going to have to do
something about this, you know."

"About wha?"

"Frohike getting some and you not getting any."

"Scully!" He took a deep breath.  "Are you sure?"
he asked, hesitantly.

"I've never been more certain of anything in my
life," she told him, pulling him tighter to her.  "I
promised myself back in the 'Cat that if we
survived, we weren't going to let anything keep us
apart.  It may not happen right away, but we are
going to do this!" (*I'm certainly not going to tell him
that I was watching as he got dressed!*) she
thought to herself with a grin.

"What?"

"What, what?"

"Why are you grinning?"

Scully thought quickly.  "Just imagining the night
that Frohike and Carmen had, that's all."

"Now we don't *know*..."

"Mulder, you've watched enough of those videos
that aren't yours to know a scream of ecstasy when
you hear it," she asked, eyebrow crawling toward
her hairline.

"Scully!"

"Just making sure," she told him, the serious look
on her face barely made it past the end of the
sentence.  "Come on back to bed.  I want you fully
rested for later."

"I think I'll sleep in my own bed for awhile.  You
know Jack said he wanted you alone in bed and
propped up.  Here." He straightened her blankets
and adjusted the slope of the bed until she was
comfortable.  Bending down, he placed a kiss on
her forehead.

"Hey, I'm not that sick," she told him, pulling his lips
down to hers.

The kiss was so intense, and he was so
unprepared for it, that it buckled his knees and he
hit the floor beside her bed.  "Oh, damn...!"  He
caught himself with his forearms on her mattress.

"Mulder?!"

"My leg..."

This was the first clue she had had that he was
injured.  "Mulder?  What happened to your leg?!"

His head was still down; he was forcing the pain
under control.

"Mulder?!"

He heard her voice going shrill and inhaled, held it,
knowing he had to get himself together before she
called Jack back.

"Scully, calm down.  It just hurts.  It's okay."

"Mulder, pain means it isn't okay!  What happened
to you?!"

He sat down in the chair again, and used both
hands to lift his leg up onto the mattress again.
Then he sagged back into the chair, panting, letting
his head fall back, his eyes closed.

Scully could see, now, a bit of white gauze
bandaging visible below the pale pastel pajama
pants Mulder was wearing.  She stretched, and
managed to get a hold on his hand.  "Mulder..."

"When we were climbing up that chute?"

She frowned, trying to remember details that were
blurred by pain and anoxic distress.  "Yeah...?"

"There were aliens chasing us.  They were hatching
in that corridor, and there were a couple chasing
us.  They even climbed up the chute after us. One
of 'em clawed me up a little."

"A little?!  How much is a little, Mulder?!"

"From just below my knee to just above my ankle,"
he admitted reluctantly. "Could've been worse; my
boot protected my ankle and foot."

"How bad is it?"

He rolled his head over to look at her.  "It's okay,
Scully.  They're just deep scratches.  No arteries,
no tendons, nothing important.  And," he glanced at
his watch, "I'm an hour late taking the pills I'm
supposed to be taking."

"And that includes the painkiller, right?"

"Yeah," he admitted.  He did not mention the fears
he had shared with Jack about the virus; he had
wanted to warn Jack in case the virus got out of
hand.  He was glad that the Gunmen had been alert
enough to recognize the first stirrings of viral
activity in the jelled blood.  He had been terrified of
the virus getting loose here, where they had nothing
more than, effectively, a MASH unit for medical
care.  If the virus got loose down here, they all
would have died.

"Take 'em, Mulder. Then come back here."

He glanced at her, still a little unnerved at the
sudden appearance of a Scully persona he had
never met before, and whose existence he had
only suspected.  But it certainly looked as though
Horny!Scully was here and running the show.

(*I couldn't get this lucky when we're home and
healthy?  When we could order in pizza and have
all the privacy we wanted?*)

"Mulder..."

"Be patient, Scully.  I'm not firing on all cylinders,
here."  He pushed himself out of the chair, and took
a cautious step.  The pain was present, but he
could handle it.  He made it across the room and
found the bottles there.  He deliberately stood so
that Scully could not see everything he was taking.
He tossed back the handful of antibiotics, immune
boosters and the non-NSAID painkiller that had a
name he couldn't pronounce, and swallowed them
with the end of the glass of juice that sat on the
table next to his bed.  Then he went back to the
bed and swiped her water glass to wash the taste
out of his mouth and throat.  Only then did he look
at her. "Happy?"

"Delirious," she drawled sarcastically.  "Come back
here, Mulder..."

"Are you going to molest me?" he asked her warily.
"Because if you are, I'm calling for help.  You're
supposed to be resting..."

"...and you're injured."  Scully sighed, and then
ostentatiously pouted.  "I never get to have any
fun."

Mulder smiled, and lay down beside her.  She
snuggled close, and he put his arm around her.

"You'll have fun soon," he promised.  "If it kills me."

"That wouldn't be fun!" she protested.

Part  12

Australian base Carmen's quarters

plus 28 hours

"What time is it?" Carmen asked sleepily, from her
position snuggled on top of Frohike. Turning his
head from where it was buried in her curls he
searched for a clock.

"Um..." squinting he tried to make out the small
clock on the side of her bunk.  "Looks like it's 11."

"A.m. or p.m.?"

"Damned if I know.  I can barely read it.  I don't
have my glasses on."

Carmen sighed, and turned over and immediately
pulled away.  Getting out of bed, she frantically
searched for clothing.

"Hell, how did we lose over 24 hours.  It's 11 a.m.!
Why didn't anyone come to find me?"

Frohike grinned at her. "Well, as to losing the time,
three rounds of really intense sex can do that.  And
as to why no one came looking for you... You were
pretty loud there that first time."  As he was
speaking, he propped himself up against the wall
with her pillows, and his grin widened as he
watched the blush wash down her face and neck,
across her breasts.  "I often wondered how far a
blush went."

Carmen turned with a stricken look on her face.  "I
didn't think... Oh, God. What they must think of me!"
She buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
"I have to command these people."

(*Aw, shit, Frohike, when will you learn to keep your
mouth shut!*)  He climbed out of bed and pulled on
his jeans then went over to take the distraught
woman in his arms.

"Carmen... Carmen, look at me."  Suiting his action
to his words he took her chin in his hand and turned
her head to look at him.  What he saw there upset
him.

"Carmen, what you do in your free time is your own
business.  Ignore them.  Just don't ignore me.  I
wouldn't be able to stand it."  His voice was shaking
in reaction to her sobs.  "Please don't regret this!
Please don't be having second thoughts." he
pleaded, as he pulled her back into his arms and
hugged her tightly to him.

She looked at him in wonder. (*He's upset because
I am?  God, he really did mean those things he
said last night!*) In that moment, Carmen Santiago
aka Lady Penelope fell in love with the troll and
their fairy story began.

But the troll, being a troll, had to have the last word.
"Now what's this about you being the base
commander?!"  Frohike asked with a raised
eyebrow that rivaled any that Scully had ever
managed.  "I thought you were the chopper pilot."

Carmen grinned back at him, thoroughly smitten.  "I
am.  I'm also the assistant cook and I really do, do
my own maintenance on the chopper. Down here, it
helps to have back up people.  Most everyone
except the Doctor has a second speciality and
some have two or three."

Frohike shook his head and hugged her tighter.
(*Shit!  Beauty *and* brains.  How did I get this
lucky?*)

Part 13

Australian Base Sick bay Plus 28 hours

She opened her eyes and looked around the small
sickbay.  A smile spread across her face as she
saw her partner, the object of her desire, of her
obsession, asleep with his back to her in the next
bed. (*Wait a minute, we fell asleep in this bed!*)
Carefully getting out of bed she crept over and
stood over him, her eyes tracing the elegant lines
of his body.  He had kicked the covers off as he
slept and she frowned as she noticed the massive
bruising on his legs and back.

She tentatively reached out a finger and traced the
bruise across his back and up over the side of his
chest, her finger hovering just above the surface of
his skin.

"Like what you see, G-Woman?"

"As a matter of fact, no, I don't.  Has the doctor
checked you out?  This looks like you cracked
some ribs."

"It's not as bad as it looks," he told her grumpily,
not liking the fact that she had dropped into doctor
mode.

"How did this happen?"

She seemed genuinely puzzled, and he frowned.
"I fell through the ice onto the ship, then slid down a
helluva long chute.  Then we both fell off the ship
onto the ice, so I'm not sure which bruise
happened when.  I don't suppose it matters.
Frankly, I don't care.  All I care about is that you're
here and you're safe."

"And so are you..."

"How are you both?" Jack inquired as he entered
the sickbay.

"I don't like the way Mulder's bruises look."

"Well, we X-rayed him and nothing's broken... he's
just going to be incredibly sore for the next couple
of weeks.

It was time for Mulder's bandage to be changed.
Scully made a point of watching as Jack cut the
gauze and eased it away.  There was no sticking,
and Mulder did not flinch.  Scully sucked in a short
breath as she saw the gashes for the first time.
Then she studied them more closely.

Jack was checking them, too.  Mulder was lying flat,
not even trying to watch.

"Mulder?"

"Hmmm?"

"How does it feel?"

Mulder blinked.  "It hurts, but less every time the
bandage is changed. They've been checking it
every four hours.  It doesn't bother me much
unless I bang it on something."

"Did the bandage hurt coming off?"

"No."

Scully leaned forward.  "So, what's the red jelly
there?  Some new ointment?"

Jack looked pensive, and Mulder pushed himself
up onto his elbows.

"Jack?"

"Not as much as last time, Mulder.  It's getting
better."

Scully heard the note of concern in Jack's voice,
noting for the first time the double gloves but was
really alerted by the thread of fear in Mulder's.

"Jack, what's going on here that you aren't telling
me?"

Mulder let himself fall back against the pillows.
"The virus was on the thing's claws, Scully.  So far,
its staying localized in the wounds.

He heard her gasp in fear, stretched his hand out
and grabbed hers, pulling her closer.

"Scully, calm down.  All the blood tests show
clean."

She held onto him tightly and turned on Jack.  "This
is the same virus that affected in him Alaska?"

Jack spread his hands.  "I think so.  I isolated some
of his white blood cells and on a slide, they killed
the virus.  The Three Stooges all said that the virus
caused the blood to gel like this and we found quite
a bit of it when we first got you two back.  But each
time we've checked, there's been less of it.  I'm
pretty sure his immune system is winning."  He
finished bandaging the leg and stepped away.

Scully sighed with relief and crawled into Mulder's
bed, hugging him back. Jack left them that way, and
the two of them slipped into sleep.

 Part 14

Australian Base Carmen's quarters Plus 3 days,
5:00 a.m.

"Do you have anything left to eat in here?"  Frohike
asked Carmen as he came up for air from
underneath the blankets.

Carmen was still shuddering from her last orgasm
and was rather taken aback at his question.
"Excuse me?"

Realizing what this must have sounded like to her,
he quickly qualified his statement.

"Food, I meant food!" he squeaked.  And Carmen
started giggling at his obvious embarrassment.

"Sure you did.  But no, there's nothing left in here."
She pouted at him. "You ate all my candy, you dirty
old man!"

"Yeah, I did, didn't I?"  Frohike started to grin.
Then he threw back the blankets.  "Well, you know
what that means."

Carmen ducked her head and began to blush.  He
watched entranced as it spread across her body,
following it with the lightest of touches.

"I thought you were hungry?" Carmen inquired.

"Oh, I am!" the little man told her, leering down at
her, "but as much as I'd love to stay here for the
rest of the winter/summer/whatever," he said softly
as he toyed with one nipple, "I really do mean for
food."  He sighed dramatically and Carmen
captured the fingers that rove across her body and
brought the hand up to kiss his palm.

"Well, I suppose if you can face the music, so can
I," and she got up and started searching the room
for a change of clothing.

Australian Base Sick bay Plus 3 days, 5:30 a.m.

Byers entered the room after knocking, having
interrupted Mulder and Scully in a rather vociferous
argument the last time he had visited them in
sickbay.  Mulder was of the opinion that he was
perfectly able to get out of bed and 'Dr. Scully' had
decided that he was not.  Normally, Mulder would
just lie there and enjoy the extra attention that his
partner was showing him, but he was feeling
frustrated.  Scully had finally admitted that she
wanted him as badly as he wanted her, and now
she was withdrawing from him as she had so many
times before.

He was worried that by the time they got back to
civilization, Scully would have rationalized away her
feelings as a reaction to their near-death
experience and pull back into her shell.

In part, he was correct.  Dana Scully was feeling
overwhelmed by everything that had happened,
and was becoming scared at her reaction to the
events of the last three weeks.

"I can't, Mulder," Byers heard as he stood just
inside the doorway, the two inhabitants of the room
oblivious to his presence.  "I just can't.  I know what
I said, and I know how this is hurting you, but I need
more time."

Mulder looked away, sad and a bit angry that his
partner could not trust him enough to let him stay
within her walls and feeling his world crumbling in
on him yet again.  "I would have thought seven
years was enough time, Scully," he said under his
breath as he got up from the bed and limped
passed Byers.  "Stay with her?"

Byers just shook his head and watched Mulder
retreat slowly from the battlefield.  He walked over
and stood over Scully where she had sunk into a
chair, her face buried in her hands.  She looked
hopefully up at his touch, but her expression fell
when she realized that it was not Mulder and tears
began to slowly fall.  Not knowing what else to do,
he placed a hand on her shoulder and stood guard
as Dana Scully cried.

Australian Base Common Room Day three 6:00 am

Mulder  followed the scent of coffee and entered
the room to find Carmen, Frohike and Langly sitting
around a small table, laughing, as Frohike and
Carmen wolfed down sandwiches and soup.

"Any left for a poor starving FBI Agent?" he asked,
trying not to sound too despondent.  He must have
succeeded because Carmen looked up and smiled
when she saw him.

"You look a shit-load better than the last time I saw
you," she told him after she swallowed.

"Well, that was three days ago, according to what
I've been told.  What have you been doing?"

Mulder was amazed when Carmen did not blush at
his question but brought her head up sharply trying
to find disapproval in his tone or attitude.  "Why?"

Mulder was taken aback.

"Carmen, this is me, Mulder.  If this troll hurts you,
I'll kill him."

"No, you won't, Fox Mulder.  This is my own
decision," and then surprised her friend yet again
by breaking into the smile that had so enchanted
Frohike.

It was then that Fox Mulder finally understood what
meeting Melvin Frohike meant to his friend.  All he
could force out was:  "Penney?" before he crossed
the room to hug the friend that had been hurt and in
hiding for almost fifteen years.

Over an hour later, Scully and Byers entered the
room and she was taken aback to see Mulder
laughing with Frohike, Carmen and Langly.  Carmen
saw them and smiled and got up to go over to
them, but Frohike put a hand on her arm and shook
his head.  Mulder turned around to see the look of
desolation in Scully's eyes and his heart broke
again.  He got up and went over to her.  Without a
word, he opened his arms and she scurried into his
embrace.  They stood there, silently, as the
Gunmen and Carmen looked on.  Finally, he put his
hands on her shoulders and pushed her away just
enough for him to see down into her eyes.

"Forgiven?" he asked.  "I acted like a real jerk."

Scully wrapped her arms back around his waist and
hugged him tightly. "You always do, it's one of the
things I've always like about you.  I must, or I
wouldn't still be here."

 Epilogue

Australian Base Day eight  5:00 a.m.

Frohike was lying with Carmen in his arms, thinking
hard about their impending separation.  Neither one
could see a way around it.  Frohike could not just
stay here and Carmen had a contract that ran for
another six months that she could not, in good faith,
break.

"Well, there's always e-mail," she said hesitantly,
not really ready to let him go, afraid that he would
disappear.  Afraid that the last week had just been
a dream.

"And telephones and radios, though they can be
listened in on, and even e-mail isn't really safe.  I'll
have Langly set you up with an encryption program
for your e-mail.  He hugged her tightly.  "It isn't the
end of the world, you know.  It's only six months
until your contract is up and then we can figure
something out.  You can always come and live with
us."  He laughed at a sudden thought.  "Byers
always said the place could use a woman's touch."

"I have to warn you, I don't do windows," Carmen
said lightly.

"Not a problem... there are none."

She pulled away and stared at him in consternation.
"No windows... what kind of place do you guys live
in, anyhow, a cave?"

"No, though Scully *has* called it the BatCave a
couple of times, now that I think of it.  No, it's just
that windows are a security problem... no windows,
no security problem."  He looked down at her and
saw the beginning of disbelief in her eyes and
hastened to explain himself.

"We do have enemies, they really are out to get
us," he assured her and then realized what it
sounded like.  The only trouble was, it was the truth.
They had made enemies during the ten years they
had been together and if the Consortium or the
Military could figure out a way to get rid of them
without consequences, they would not hesitate to
do so.  (*Is it really fair to bring her into this?*) he
wondered to himself.

Carmen saw the way his face changed, saw an
echo of the look of desolation that Mulder now
wore and felt him start to pull away.  She hugged
him to her hard, and started talking.

"I don't care if the Pope himself is after you, he
can't have you, you're mine now, and you're not
going to escape."

Frohike hugged her back, then rolled her over and
pinned her to the bed. "And I won't ever, ever, let
anyone hurt you again," he promised and sealed it
with a kiss.