From: livengoo@bcvms.bc.edu
X-From: rkwong@engin.umich.edu (Roberta Chi-Woon Kwong)
Newsgroups: alt.tv.quantum-leap.creative,alt.ql.creative
Subject: "Leap of Faith" part 5/?
Date: 19 Apr 1995 17:33:38 GMT
Message-Id: <3n3hhi$7ce@srvr1.engin.umich.edu>
Nntp-Posting-Host: azure.engin.umich.edu

This is being posted for the author, who doesn't have access to
this group. Please direct all comments to livengoo@bcvms.bc.edu.
This story is also currently appearing in alt.tv.x-files.creative.

I've done some re-formatting to make my news system accept the line
length; the actual text remains untouched.

-----------------------------------------

Subject: Leap of Faith, 5/? I think. I don't do math.

I think this is part 5.  Beats me how it all ends, I guess we'll
just have to  see, won't we!  Glad you folks seem to be enjoying my
mode of relaxation. Now, before long I'll probably need a new idea,
I'm open to almost anything short of an X-Files/Power Rangers
crossover (Don't ask, it's been a long semester!) (I can see it
now, File-O-Saur! Accck!  Too much babysitting!)

Let me know if this one glitches, I found some gibberish in my last
post.

All the small print still applies.

Leap of Faith 5/? livengoo wasting yet more of your time.

 Sam decided early on that North Carolina only had one road and it
went in circles.  Or at least, every road  he drove looked so
similar that they could all have been clones.  Al and Scully rode
along, with Al appearing to sit in the back with a hand on Scully's
shoulder.  She was quiet and worried.

"Look, as soon as we have some kind of plan hammered out, is there
any way Al can trail Sam's act.  Sam smiled fleetingly and glanced
at Scully. 

"Did Mulder ever tell you about the Rain of Condoms at Oxford?"  He
wasn't sure why he'd asked, but her odd look was a clear no.  "I
hope you remember to ask him someday.  He'd love to tell it again."
Scully and Al were watching him with a strange mix of expressions.
Confusion on Al's face;  amusement, sadness and a little jealousy
on Scully's.  It must be strange to watch someone else step into
intimacies that were yours alone.  Maybe stranger to watch than to
live them.

"I'll do my best to remember.  You do know he'll try to get back up
to the site."  Sam nodded and swerved a little to avoid a snake
sunning itself on the road.  Have you thought of any way to keep
him away from there?"  

Sam considered a moment.  "I thought about trying to find a saucer
nut who'd only talk with him at night, maybe distract him that way,
but I don't think that would do it.  Maybe drug him?  Would he ever
forgive you for that?"  

Scully sighed.  "He might.  He's snuck off on me often enough I
could probably get away with some trickery myself, but I usually
don't carry anything that would do the job and the pharmacists here
might not cooperate."

"What about getting him arrested?" Al chipped in.  If he's in a
cell he can't get into a lot of trouble."

"Except whatever I get him locked up for," Sam's reply was dry.
"And I don't think Southern courts take Yankee malefactors well."

"Besides," chimed Scully, "I wouldn't put it past him to be able to
make bail or pick a lock."

"You could sleep with him," Al suggested.  "Easier and more fun
than jail or drugs!"

Scully and Sam gave him a perfectly matching Look and he shut up.

"I think we're back to plan Acully shook her head.  It was just as
well that they had arrived, as Sam couldn't think of another thing
to say. 

******************************

Mulder was still licking barbecue sauce off his fingers as he left
the little rib joint and sweated his way back to his car.  He'd
interviewed two hikers and answered three calls from Scully making
sure he was at his appointed rounds.  The ribs were a reward for
putting up with aggravation, hovering, and passes from the last
hiker.  He hadn't been sure he was going to get out of her trailer
in one piece.  He could have used a call from Scully when she'd
crowded onto the couch next to him, and put her hand on his knee
("You don't mind?  We southerners are an affectionate people!").
She wasn't bad looking, he was just a little put off by women who
cornered him, literally, as soon as he held still.  He'd take
Scully as a body guard if he needed to go back there.

He climbed back into his car and opened the windows, hoping teh
breeze would cool it off a little since the air conditioning
couldn't kick in right away.  He flipped through his briefcase,
wondering how to spend the afternoon without violating Scully's
prohibition on hiking.  He considered it, but after his arctic
hike, and a few other solitary excursions, he really didn't want to
directly cross her.  She seemed stressed enough at this point.  

He rolled the windows back up, turned the ignition and pulled out,
thinking about his partner and how leery she'd been of late.  He
could understand, she had good reason to fear anything relating to
abductions and visitations, but he needed to see that ship.  He
needed to know.  

Mulder didn't exactly break his word.  He didn't hike.  He did
drive around the valleys, using binoculars and scanning for any odd
movement on the hillsides.  The roads were long, with few exits,
and he tended to travel in company when anyone turned onto the road
with him, although he did notice that even the pickup drivers were
fearless about passing on the two lane highways.  

He wasn't alarmed to see another truck come flying up behind him,
at least until it was filling his rear view mirror.  He screamed a
curse as he realized it wasn't pulling around, it was going over
him.  The Ford bucked violently and he was crushed back in his seat
as the truck rear-ended him at sixty mph.  The truck hit him again,
and the car veered across both lanes of the blacktop in a wild,
barely controlled skid.  Mulder was trying to steer into the skid
but the wheel and brakes locked as the tires left black streas the
car spun off the shoulder.  The axle sheered and the left rear
wheel collapsed under the car as it rolled up onto its side and
over.  Mulder never really knew it when the car finally went over.

The truck paused, then pulled away.  Quiet descended back over the
hot road.  The only sound was the ticking of hot metal and the
buzzing of a cell phone.

*********************************

"He's not answering."  Sam felt his muscles tense.  "Where the hell
are you, Mulder.  What are you up to?"  Sam was alone, where was
that hologram when he needed it?  He broke speed records back to
the hotel and bullied the manager into opening Mulder's room for
him.  Fox's hiking boots and jeans were still tumbled in the corner
where he'd left them, so Sam didn't think he was on the mountain,
but that didn't tell him where Mulder was.  

A frantic  search of town yielded nothing.  The last time Sam had
contacted Scully's partner he'd been heading for lunch at a little
rib house.  A call to the sheriff left Sam with directions and he
left a long trail of red dust up the dirt road getting there.  The
woman at the counter remembered Mulder - the suit had made him
stand out like a whore in church, as she put it - but he'd left
over two hours before.  After that he might as well have evaporated
for all that Sam knew.  

Al showed up with Scully as Sam was turning back onto paved road
and trying to decide what to do next.

"Al, he's gone.  You told me I had another day."  Sam's voice was
tight, worried.  "Can Gooshie center you on him?"  

Al didn't need to ask who.  Scully held her tongue as he rapped an
order at the handlink.  Sam pulled over under a stand of pines and
waited, barely aware he was holding his breath.  He'd only just
drawn a new breath when Al reappeared, alone.  "Okay, Sam.  He's in
his car, and it's rolled.  Ziggy's figuring out the roads, go . . .
" Al looked up and pointed, "that way."  The only comments were
when a turn was needed, and it took far less time than it seemed to
tear down a two lane state highway and see the thick, black marks
of a skid.  To the left a car showed it's ugly belly to the sky,
rear wheels askew, facing back the way it had to have come.  Sam
pulled off, far enough to be safe, yanked Scully's medical
emergency kit out of the back and ran for the wreck.  

Sam breathed a rare curse and dropped to look through the side
windows.  There was no smell of gas, thank god.  Fox Mulder was
hanging from his seat belt and shoulder strap, and Sam could see a
smear of blood on the side window where he must have hit his head.
The blood in his hair was still red and sticky looking, he hadn't
been here long enough for it to clot all the way.  Sam climbed
around to the shattered back window and kicked out most of the
glass left behind.  He crawled into the cab and reached around,
checking Mulder's pulse, relieved to feel it strong and steady.
The agent moaned softly, and murmured something about too much
Southern Comfort, reaching muzzily for his seatbelt release..  Sam
grabbed his hand before he could release it and fall.

"Hold on, Mulder.  Had a little car trouble here."  Mulder's eyes
flew open, then he squeezed them shut again as the light made his
head hurt worse.

"Why do I feel like I'm hanging upside down?"

"Because you are.  Hold still, can you feel anything?  Does
anything hurt?  Can you feel your legs?  How's your neck?"  Sam
realized he was babbling.  Mulder turned his head very slowly to
look at him.

"I feel lousy, everything is definitely letting me know it's there.
My neck may be the only thing that doesn't hurt right now."

"Hold on, let's get you out of here."  Sam felt pretty certain by
now that Mulder wasn't badly hurt, at least that his neck was fine.
The FBI man braced his hands against the roof to catch himself
while Sam climbed into the passenger seat and released the shoulder
belt.  Mulder slid down the seat until he could follow Sam back out
the rear window, then sat in the grass and held his head.  Sam
found plenty of bruises and the lump over his ear, but nothing
worse.  He wasn't sure whether he was relieved or upset.  A
hospital stay in traction could have solved his little problem.

"Do you remember what happened?  The car looks, well, it looks like
you had help getting into this ditch."

Mulder leaned against Sam, who was trying to get both of them back
into the other car.  The tall man's weight kept knocking him off
Scully's high heels, and the dry, summer grass was scratching his
legs.  Sam wished again for his own six-foothey were both in the
car, with the air conditioning going and the other agent leaning
back against the headrest.

"I don't remember rolling over, but this truck slammed me.  I think
it was camouflage-painted, no front license plate.  I never got a
chance to see the driver."

"I think it's a hint, Mulder.  Somebody knows we're here and they
don't want us inspecting the real estate."  Sam smiled, enjoying
the relief of having found him alright.  Al had vanished, Sam had
no idea when.  "So I've been shot at and you've been rolled.  I
guess you and I can match war stories on this one, now.

**************************

Scully was worried and furious.  "Maybe if we had been there
earlier that crash might not have happened!  He nearly got killed.
Do you still think we're looking at UFO trouble? Have you
considered it might be humans who make him vanish?"

"Agent Scully," his voice was as soothing as he could make it, sort
of like hot fudge over sandpaper.  "Look, I understand how you
feel.  Believe me, I understand.  It's hard to just have to stand
there and watch someone you care about get hurt.  You want to act
and there's no way you can.  You can't let it throw your judgement
off."

"My judgement?  Look, I know Mulder believes that aliens use Earth
as the Home Shopping Network.  I've seen enough to know that things
aren't aren't always what they look like, but where there is a
simple explanation more often than not it's the right one.  The
army is a simple solution here, and I don't want you ignoring it.
Mulder's likely to do that, and you can't afford to." 

"You saw that ship as well as I did."  Al was wondering if Mulder
wasn't the only one with an obsession.  She was working so hard to
find any other explanation.  You know he won't be up there trying
to see what the latest Hum-V looks like.  Do you really think the
military is good enough to induce the state Ziggy says he shows up
in, induce it in him and the other people who've been taken?  It's
too consistent, too regular a pattern.  I am military, the guys I
know wouldn't play around inducing comas and implanting useless
metal chips.  They'd just kill.  And they don't do that without a
reason.  So why would they kill?  Why did that guard shoot at Sam?
Why did they run your partner off the road.  Fox Mulder is going to
need you, need you thinking clearly, not trying to prove a point."
That was doing it, she was backing down, letting her own pet theory
go.

"You don't really know why he vanishes.  I need to know you and
Beckett will keep an open mind, and watch for any possible danger,
Admiral.  If you're only looking for ghosts you may miss the real
monsters."

"I promise you, Agent Scully.  I'll look for more than shadows.
Sam and I both will.  We need this to work out as much as you do."

*******************************

Mulder sprawled on his bed, ice-pack in hand, and groaned.

"Skinner is going to have me writing an expense report longer than
'War and Peace' to explain the car."  Sam was somewhat bemused that
the man could be more concerned with paperwork than an attack on
his life, but happy that he'd followed orders.  They'd come back to
the motel, Sam had bullied Mulder into taking a hot bath to unknot
some of the muscles a crash could strain, and plied him with
painkillers.  Now he was stretched out in blue jeans and a jersey,
trying to prevent a black eye from the crash.  He was lucky not to
have a concussion or worse.

"God, I'll be doing paperwork until the turn of the century.  Last
time I lost a car, I almost got carpal tunnel justifying the
expense."  

Sam grinned, "does this mean you'll lie low and avoid trouble the
next couple days?"

Mulder eyed him from under the bag of ice.  "You know better than
that.  Why are you even asking?"  He sat up, slowly, watching Sam
and frowning from more than his headache.  Sam waited for it,. and
got some of his details ready, the ones Scully had given him to
defuse this particular time bomb.

"Don't go getting paranoid on me, Mulder," he said, softly, walking
through a mine field.  "It makes me nervous to hunt little green
men these days.  They're not as funny as they used to be."  Sam
found a smile somewhere, and clipped the red wire.  "Keep this
stuff up and one of these days I'll find you reading crystals with
Melissa to see if my aura's changed.  Don't be weirder than you
have to, Mulder."  

Mulder lay back down with a groan, "Don't even think things like
that.  I'm sorry, it's probably a loose connection from hanging
upside down too long." Sam relaxed, unclenched his fists.  

"Go to sleep, Mulder.  I ordered a pizza.  I'll wake you up when it
gets here." At least he'd stay put tonight.  Sam was staying with
him on pretense of making sure he had no concussion, a sensible
precaution for more than one problem.  

**********************

Heh.  Okay, that's the latest folks.  Now I guess I have to go
write more if I'm not going to leave this plot dangling here
forever.  That would probably not endear me to some of you.  Also,
I understand there's a piece on paperwork involving videotapes that
hasn't posted in my neck of the woods. If anybody wants to send
that critter my way, and happens to not recall who I am, I'm
livengoo@bcvms.bc.edu