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 6/?
Date: 19 Apr 1995 17:37:32 GMT
Message-Id: <3n3hos$7fd@srvr1.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.

No re-formatting has been done in this section.

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

Subject: Leap of Faith 6
 
Mulder sat crosslegged on the floor, holding pizza in
his left hand and a colored pen in his right.  Maps were
spread out all around him, marked up to show the UFO
sightings he'd gotten from some hotline or other.
Something vaguely familiar was on the TV, a horror
film with three silhouettes delivering rapid-fire commentary.
 
"Are you paying for that out of your own pocket, or
are the taxpayers picking up the bill for that?"  Sam
was trying to recall why the program seemed familiar.
Mulder pulled half the cheese off his pizza and grinned
like his namesake.
 
"I'm making sure aliens and Republicans don't insert
subliminal messages to brainwash liberals watching
the Comedy Channel."  He yawned on the last word.
About time, with three Tylenol 3's worth of codeine
in him it was amazing he hadn't nodded off where he sat.
 
"Go to bed, Mulder.  You're going to fall asleep sitting
there and spend the night on the floor.  You can take
your maps with you if you want."  Sam got a sleepy
smile in response.  Mulder finally gave in and dragged
himself into the bathroom.  Fifteen minutes later he was
sound asleep, curled up around a pillow.  Sam went back
to the list of hospitals and garages he was ranking for
phone calls the next morning.  He'd like to find whoever
ran Mulder off the road, without a military base in the
area they were likely to take a damaged truck to a local
garage.
 
The hospitals were a common sense follow-up on local
police work, looking for the missing couple, Kateras and
Benning.  Sam had about finished locating all of them in
the phone books when he heard Mulder's breathing
change.  The physicist looked up, noting that his patient
had rolled onto his back and no longer seemed relaxed or
peaceful.  The FBI man was lying there, muscles rigid
with tension, soundless.  Sam wandered over, wondering
if he should wake Mulder up.  Clearly he was in a
nightmare like the one Al had seen.  His T-shirt was dark
with sweat and his jaw was clenched, teeth grinding.
 
"You gonna wake the kid up?"  Sam nearly jumped
out of his skin when Al peeked over his shoulder.
 
"Would you stop that?"  Sam was hissing to keep from
waking Mulder.  Maybe if he left him alone the Tylenol
and exhaustion would get him past the nightmare and
through a night's sleep.  Sam headed for the bathroom,
his usual refuge for conversations with Al.
 
"Oooh, you gonna take a shower? I can tell you if you
miss a spot?"
 
"Al, are you just here to pester me or do you know
anything?"  Sam turned on the taps and leaned over the
sink to inspect the cut the rock splinter had left on Dana
Scully's cheek.  Healing beautifully, she wouldn't even
have a scar.
 
"I know plenty of things.  I know UFO activity is
supposed to hit a fifty year high tomorrow, I know
Scully gets very grumpy when she's hungry, and I
know that Kateras and Benning are in Mercy Hospital
in Springfield.  Anything else you want to know?"
 
"Mercy?"  Sam brightened.  Thirty miles away if he
remembered the map correctly.  "If we go see them,
won't that get us out of the area long enough, get him
safe?"
 
Al sighed.  "No such luck.  We already ran that one.
You still get back and the kid still disappears."
 
"He's hardly a kid, Al.  He's thirty-four and been
getting along on his own for some time."
 
Al snorted.  "To me, you're all kids.  Look, Sam.  I want
to suggest something, and I don't think you'll like it
much."  The hologram suddenly looked nervous.  "When
you're at the hospital tomorrow, well, you might want
to check Mulder in for a stay.  For his own good."
 
Sam watched him, then sighed.  "I'd be lying if I said
I hadn't thought of that, but I just can't do that, Al.
He's got problems, sure, but I don't think a hospital
would do him any good.  Mulder's problem isn't that
he's so strange, it's that he's so normal.  He's having a
perfectly normal reaction to the kind of stresses that
nobody should ever have to go through.  A psych
ward isn't going to make his sister come back, or the
strange things he's seen go away.  It's just going to
undo all the coping mechanisms he's developed and leave
him at square one.  It'd get him out of range tomorrow,
but it wouldn't put things right.  I can't do that.  That's
no solution."
 
Al shook his head.  "Then you better come up with
something good, because he still goes AWOL tomor-
row.  Anything you want me to ask her royal
agent-ness?"
 
Sam grinned.  "She giving you a hard time?  You
probably deserve it.  Thank her for the tip about her
sister, it really did the trick today."  He watched Al
wink out, and turned off the tap.
 
When he left the bathroom Mulder had relaxed back into
drugged sleep.  Sam watched him for a few minutes, making
sure he was in normal sleep, and thinking.  He'd stick to Mulder
 tomorrow like a cop to a donut shop.  Sam liked most of
the people he Leaped to help, but Mulder struck a
chord with him.  Helping Mulder and his partner wasn't
 business anymore, it was personal.
***********************
Day 4
 
Sam woke up with the kind of stiff neck that only
comes from sleeping in chairs.  He wondered, bleerily,
which exam he'd been up late to study for, then felt
his heart jump as he heard the unmistakeable sounds
of someone taking a shower.  His reflection in the
mirror across the room snapped time back into place.
He was sure Scully would be horrified to be seen with
her hair like that, but Sam had bigger concerns.  The
bed was empty, that better be Mulder he heard in
there . . .
 
"Mulder, you okay in there?"
 
"Fine," his voice was muffled.  "Except I can't reach
the middle of my back, want to help?"  Sam rolled
his eyes.  It seemed appropriate somehow, when
Al's voice rasped behind him,
 
"Yeah, that I'd like to see!  That way you'd know
it was really him and not a tape recorder in the
shower."  Al leered hopefully.
 
"Go away.  Unless you have something useful I can
do without your fantasies before lunchtime."
 
"We found out why Scully, or maybe it's you, won't
be there tonight when . . . " Al was waving his hand
like a drifting saucer.  Sam raised his eyebrows to
encourage him to continue.
 
Apparently he leaves you stranded in Springfield
after visiting the sleeping beauties today.  Forewarned
is forearmed.  Oops, better be off!"  Al punched a
button and stepped back through his door.
 
"Hi," Mulder's eye had gone black on the side where
he'd hit his head.  Not uncommon, the skin around the
eyes was soft and bruised easily.  He looked like his
head still ached, but the sweat suit and sneakers on
the floor by the bed were testimony to the strength
of the urge to jog.
 
"You do know you really should be taking it easy?
You were in a serious crash yesterday."
 
"I needed to work some of the stiffness out, Scully.
Come on, I didn't fall over dead in a ditch out there.
What have you got?"  He was looking over Sam's
shoulder.
 
"I may have our missing persons.  We've been so
busy chasing your phantoms we didn't do the basics."
 
"Why should we?  The locals had already done them
very well."  He had a point, but Sam wasn't going to
concede it.  Mulder had to be kept away from here
today, out of the path of trouble.
 
"Obviously they didn't do it well enough.  I found
two patients matching the descriptions of our couple.
Let me get ready and we'll go," Sam headed for the door.
 
Mulder had taken the note with the hospital names
and was staring at it, clearly puzzled.  "Alright, you
followed up my leads.  Let's go follow up yours."
 
************************
9:35 a.m.
 
"Scully, could you pull into the next gas station, I need to
get my caffeglobin levels up."
 
"Caffe-globin?  Where did you get that?"
 
"New England Medical Journal.  Haven't you been keeping
up, it's been all over the news.  The red blood cell
receptor site that binds with caffeine to improve brain
function?"  His deadpan was perfect.  Sam sighed and
headed for the nearest gas station.  He could do with
breakfast, too.
 
Sam grinned, "I'll get the coffee if you pump the gas.
How do you want yours?"
 
"High octane, no additives.  And could you pick up some
Twinkies(tm) and sunflower seeds for me?"
 
"Right."  Sam pushed open the door, managed to miss the
five foot tall Twinky(tm) display entirely, and left several
minutes later with the coffee, two yogurts, a bag of seeds,
 and several apples.  Mulder scowled at him, and fished
suspiciously for the fruit on the bottom.
 
"This won't work, you know.  I'll only eat this stuff under
duress."  Sam rolled his eyes and wondered how Scully
coped.  Another half hour of yogurt complaints and file
 synopses saw them at Mercy Hospital, where a quick
inspection of badges got them ushered in to see the
returned couple.
 
There wasn't much to see.  Both were unconscious,
seemingly comatose.  Sam picked up the chart for Joan
Kateras and confirmed that, but also learned something
more startling.
 
Mulder looked up at his quick gasp, "she's pregnant?"
 
"Yes, did you know before, or . . ."  The FBI man shook his
head.
 
"It's not uncommon.  Not universal, but I have a stack of
x-files like this," he might have been telling a fish story
from the size he indicated, "where abductees are
returned pregnant.  Frequently there are unusual
complications involved in the pregnancy, too.  That's
where the woman doesn't simply vanish, of course."  He
looked sour, and Sam got the distinct feeling that Mulder
had lost more than one returnee to unnamed causes.  He
didn't have a chance to ask, however, as a short, balding
man in glasses and a white coat nearly plowed into him.
 
"Excuse me," the words sounded more hostile than polite.
"This is a private room, what are you doing here?"
 
"I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder," the badge was out again,
 "and this is Special Agent Dr. Dana Scully."  Hmm.  Extra
title.  Sam admired the tactic for getting this man's
cooperation.  "Do you mind answering a few questions?
This couple was reported missing over a week ago."
 
"I'm Dr. Corbett.  I'm a neurologist, I was called in to
consult several days ago."  Sam knew his cue and stepped
in, questioning Corbett closely about Kateras and Benning,
while Mulder reviewed their charts and histories.  It
didn't take Sam long to learn that Corbett really had no
idea why the young people were in comas, none of a
battery of tests showed any reason, they just *were*.
 
Mulder had looked up and was watching the doctor
closely.  "You took x-rays, did you find anything
unusual?"
 
"Unusual how?"
 
"Mm.  Metal implants, possibly with what seem to be bar
 codes on them.  They'd be very small."
 
Corbett hesitated, then shook his head.  "Of course, we
weren't really looking for such a thing either.  You can
see them, if you like."  Which was how Sam and Fox Mulder wound up spending the
next several hours going over x-rays with magnifying glasses.  After the first
ten minutes Corbett excused himself to resume his normal life, satisfied that
two FBI agents weren't likely to make off with x-rays, or to loot the supply
closet.
 
"Scully, come look at this."  Mulder's voice was low and
intense.  Sam leaned down to see what he had found.  A
tiny rectangle, clearly not natural, shadowed Benning's
hip.  Sam quickly found a similar mark on Kateras' x-
rays.  He looked up to find Mulder staring at the tiny
shape with fascination tinged with dread.  He looked up,
meeting Sam's eyes.  "Do you remember the last time we
found this?"  His voice was soft, concerned.  Sam wished
he had some idea what the man was talking about.  Al's
voice suddenly sounded like a triphammer behind him.
 
"What're you kids up to in here?  Did he finally make a
pass at you?"  Sam started, violently, and saw a look of
guilty anguish flicker across Mulder's face.  Curiouser and
curiouser.
 
"Excuse me, Mulder.  I think I need to take a break."  Fox
nodded, and ran his hands through his hair as Sam
escaped down the hall to the ladies' room, his refuge of
last resort.
 
Water on and door locked, Sam turned to glare at Al.
"Don't you ever get tired of doing that?  Can't you give me
some warning?  I nearly jumped out of my skin in there!"
 
"What was all that about, Sam?  You two were wearing
too much to be doing what *I* would have been doing in
there.  And x-rays?  Very kinky."
 
"We were looking for something.  I don't have any idea
 what it is, but Mulder found something."
 
"Hold on, let me get Scully in here."  he winked out, to
Sam's relief.  Sam took advantage of the respite and was
tidy and decent again when Al poked his face out of the stall, followed by Dana
Scully, more or less.  "Okay, tell her what you found."
 
Sam looked into Scully's eyes, concentrating on the
person behind the face.  "We found rectangles, small ones,
on the x-rays of both Kateras and Benning.  They were
brought in two days ago, in comas.  The paperwork just
hasn't sifted down far enough for the . . . " Sam had been
thinking of how the sheriff could have missed the returned people, but broke off
at the look on Scully's face.  Her face had gone paper-white in the light of the
Imaging Chamber, and she seemed stunned.  "Are you all right," Sam almost
reached for her, she looked awful.
 
"Her hands just went ice-cold, Sam."  Al was moving,
keeping a hand on Scully to keep her visible, but trying
to keep her steady on her feet.  "I'd better get her out of
here."
 
"No!  Give me a minute."  She made an effort, gathered
herself.  "These pieces of metal, do they have bar codes?"
 
"I don't know, they're still implanted.  Mulder thinks so."
 
"Sam, last year . . ."  Scully swallowed, collected herself, "I
went missing for a more than two months.  I have no
memory of what happened, but I know I don't ever want
it to happen again.  If the ones who did that took Kateras
and Benning . . . You have to keep close to Mulder.  He
won't want you there.  He'll try to protect me, you, leave
us behind.  You stay close to him."  She looked awful.  Al
looked up and grimaced.
 
"I'm getting her out of here, Sam.  You better get back
before the kid thinks a sewer thing got you.  Be careful,
Sam, I don't like this."
 
He wasn't the only one.
**************************