Title:       Lamenta
Author:      dtg
Email:       dgoggans@earthlink.net
Website:     http://home.earthlink.net/~dgoggans/
             http://after-the-fact.tripod.com/
Rating:      PG
Category:    V
Spoiler:     Blessing Way, Anasazi
Summary:     You didn't send him out here alone. That
             was me.
Archive:     After the Fact, others please ask.
Feedback:    Worth it's weight in gold.
Disclaimer:  The characters belong to Chris Carter,
             1013 and Fox. No copyright infringement
             intended.
Notes:       Written for the After the Fact post ep
             challenge. This is a missing scene that
             takes place right after the teaser.
             The title comes from a piece written by
             Mark Snow who gave us so much beautiful
             music for the series. I was playing it 
             while I wrote this. It fits the mood
             perfectly.

             Many thanks to Michelle for her always
             perfect insight. You're the beta queen!

~~~~~~~~~~

Lamenta  by dtg

*It can't end this way.*

"MULDER!" She screamed his name into the blistering 
heat, eyes stinging with the acrid smoke that still 
poured from a hole in the red earth.  

She tried getting closer to the opening, but the  
heat drove her back. Heat so intense that it had 
warped the metal door. *Heat. Fire. Please, not this 
way.*

Albert Hosteen's grandson stood off to the side, eyes 
downcast in a swollen, bloody face that was his 
payment for helping them. For helping Mulder. She 
turned away from the stench wafting upward on sooty 
smoke, picked her way across the rocky ground. She 
stopped in front of him and touched his shoulder.

"Eric? Tell me what you saw. Please."

He raised his eyes. One was nearly closed, the skin 
purple and split along the delicate ridge of bone 
above it. His voice was tight with pain. "He jumped 
down into the car. I-I told him not to. That I 
wouldn't be able to help him back up, but he--", he 
swallowed, "He said it was okay. He said he could 
climb out, but I knew he couldn't. He could only hang 
on with one arm when we were on the bike." He looked 
down again, began toeing the earth in a half circle. 
Back and forth. "I should never have let him."

Scully smiled sadly at the image of this boy trying 
to do what she'd never accomplished: rein in her 
partner. He might just as well have tried to hold 
back the sunrise. She cupped his chin, mindful of his 
injuries. "You couldn't have stopped him, Eric. Tell 
me what happened next."

The boy nodded, then looked off into the distance 
over her shoulder. "I heard him talking down there. 
Then, the helicopter came over the ridge." He pointed 
to the cliffs to his left, his gaze meeting hers 
briefly before returning to the middle distance 
behind her. "I kicked the door shut. I don't know 
why... Then they landed, and the man in the suit ran 
over to me. There were soldiers with rifles--" He 
took a shaky breath, rubbing absently at his swollen 
lip. "He wanted to know where Mulder was. I told him 
I didn't know, and he hit me."

"Thank you for trying to protect him, Eric. There was 
nothing you could have done." The ache in her throat 
was making it hard to breathe. "You're sure he was 
still in the car when they...when they burned it? 
There's no way out?"

His eyes focused on her again. She read the answer 
there before he spoke. "It's buried in solid rock. I 
don't see how..." He shook his head. "No. I'm sorry. 
It's my fault for bringing him out here. I--"

"No, Eric. You aren't the one who sent him out here 
alone." Regret squeezed her voice to a whisper. "That 
was me." 

She forced her breathing to slow and deepen. "Go back 
to the bike. I'll-- I need to be here for a few 
minutes by myself."

The boy nodded and turned away. She watched him climb 
the steep path that Mulder must have come down less 
than an hour ago, in search of his answers...and 
hers. Weak and in pain, but here. Because she'd asked 
him to.

*Thank you for taking care of me.*

*I want you to find out, Mulder. I need you to.*

The smoke continued to rise from the opening, thinner 
now, curling lazily into a sky so blue it hurt to 
look at.

"Mulder, I'm so sorry."

*It can't end this way.*

But it has.

She turned from his grave and began to climb.

~~~~~~~~~

End