"Mulder-Mulder!" Scully nudged Mulder and broke him from his daydream.

"Huh? What?" Mulder looked around and realized he was at work. He was thinking about her again. Samantha.

"Like I was saying." Scully continued, she had been talking the whole time Mulder was staring off into space, so she repeated herself. "We're due at the airport in forty five minutes. I booked us on the 2:55 to Denver."

"Uh huh." Mulder tried to listen as intensively as he could. He rubbed the back of his neck and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. His throat was sore and dry. He tried to clear is as quietly as possible so that Scully wouldn't hear. He'd been trying to shake a flu all week, but it seems that he was finally coming down with it. It just had to be happening on the one day when he had to travel. Mulder hoped that Scully wouldn't notice he was getting sick. She'd insist he not go to Denver with her, and then he'd be stuck home with nothing to keep him company but thoughts of Samantha. The thought of the coming few days gave Mulder a sense of dread. He knew he was going downhill fast. He'd have to keep working, so the next few days he was going to suffer.

"Alright, I'll get my things and meet you in a half an hour." Scully said as she left, closing Mulder's office door.

"Uh huh." Mulder groaned. He put his heavy head down on his desk.

"And Mulder--" Scully poked her head back in the office.

"Yeah." Mulder grunted, lifting his head and keeping his eyes closed.

"I said thirty minutes, get a move on." Scully slammed the door behind her.

Forty minutes later they were both in the car heading out to the airport. Mulder drove and Scully sat in the passenger seat going through some case files.

"eshhoo!" Mulder sprayed a wet sneeze all over the dashboard. He could feel himself getting worse by the minute, and now his nose joined in with an intense tickle and constant running. He sniffed hard and his anger at being sick at the worse time grew.

"Mulder?" Scully asked.

"Yes, Scully." Mulder said trying to tone down his anger.

"Something wrong?" Scully sounded concerned. "You're not your joking, eccentric, sarcastic, usual self."

"Oh don't worry yer pretty little head about it, I'm fiiiiine." Mulder flashed a large cheesy smile.

"Ok...fine...don't tell me what's wrong." Scully said unsatisfied at his response.

They drove on in silence for a few more minutes until Mulder erupted into sneezes. "Huhshooo huh huh huhsssshhoooo!" He rubbed his nose violently until it hurt, taking his anger out on it. He was trying to beat this bug out of him. Scully looked at him sideways and furrowed her eyebrows.

"What?" Mulder asked, defensively.

"Nothing." Scully sighed.

Finally they reached the airport and boarded the plane. Mulder sat in the window seat and Scully took the aisle. The takeoff was painful for Mulder, his stuffy head nearly exploded. He sat rubbing his temples and popping his ears and soon the flight attendant came around with the beverage cart.

"Something to drink ma'am?" the flight attendant said to Scully.

"I'll have some coffee please." Scully said.

"And for you sir?" The cheerful woman turned to Mulder.

Mulder cleared his throat and said. "I'll have some tea." The flight attendant dispensed the drinks and headed back down the aisle.

"Tea?!" Scully said in complete disbelief. "Since when do you drink tea?!?!"

"*cough* I just felt like tea ok? No need to analyze it." Mulder said in a scratchy voice. "Ehchhhht!" Mulder caught a sneeze in the crook of his elbow. But it was too late. He froze with his nose in his elbow and looked over at Scully with wide eyes, he knew what was coming.

"Oh my God, Mulder!" Scully said in disgust. "You're sick aren't you?"

"No, uh, *cough* it's just allergies." Mulder tried to compose himself.

"Allergies in January?" Scully said accusingly.

"Ehchooo! *sniff* Yeah." Mulder said stuffily.

"Come here." Scully put her hand on Mulder's forehead and took his pulse from his wrist. "Your pulse is a little fast, and I think you may be getting a fever." Mulder looked around the plane, embarrassed at being mothered.

"Pretty bad allergies huh? *cough*" Mulder slumped in his seat. Scully produced 2 aspirin from her purse and told Mulder to take them and then get some sleep.

"Yes mother." Mulder joked. Soon he was passed out. He awoke to the jolt of the plane landing in Denver. They left the airport and through his groggy haze Mulder saw that it was night time, and he noticed he was very cold. He shivered as he tried to wake up. Scully drove to the hotel.

"How are you feeling? You slept like a baby after you took those aspirin." Scully said when she parked the car in front of the hotel.

"Yeah, I never said thank you." Mulder's voice was very harsh and raspy, this concerned Scully even more. She felt his forehead again.

"You're still warm." Scully said. Mulder took her hand off of his forehead.

"Really, Scully, I sound alot worse than I feel." Mulder coughed, this wasn't helping his case, especially since he was lying.

"I just don't want you to get worse. They are a lot of infections associated with the flu, and I would feel partly responsible if you got even worse while I was on assignment with you." They both got out of the car and got their bags. Scully went up to the reception desk in the lobby to get the keys to their rooms. Mulder stood in the background and had a terrible coughing fit. Scully looked behind her at Mulder repeatedly while she talked to the receptionist.

They got the keys to their adjoining rooms and settled in. Mulder dropped his bags on the chair, flipped the TV on, and collapsed on the bed with his clothes, coat, and shoes still on. He was freezing. Scully settled into her room and then went to check on Mulder. She shook her head when she saw the state he was in, pale and shivering uncontrollably.

"Do me a favor and turn the heat up Scully." Mulder groaned through chattering teeth.

"That's your fever making you cold, you're getting worse." Scully went over to Mulder and helped him off with his jacket and shoes. Then he took his pants off and got into bed. "Uhchooooo! Uh uhhhhh uhchooo!*sniff*" Mulder started a coughing fit when Scully emerged from the bathroom with a box of tissues.

"I don't like the sound of that cough either." She placed the tissues by the bed and put a pillow behind Mulder's back to prop him up. Mulder blew his nose and tried to get comfortable.

"For the love of God Scully!" Mulder said between coughs. "I can take care of myself."

"Yeah right." Scully said as she hung up Mulder's clothes. "Anyway, it's getting to be almost midnight, why don't you--" She turned around to find Mulder drifting off to sleep. She turned off the light and went back to her room.

The next morning Mulder awoke to find Scully standing over him with a thermometer.

"Morning." Scully said, taking Mulder's pulse. "How are you feeling?" Mulder thought to say, 'Absolutely horrible.' but good thinking prevailed and he said:

"Better." he then erupted in a fit of awful sounding coughs. He put a fist to his mouth and sat up until they subsided. Scully could tell he had gotten a lot worse over night, there were used tissues all over the bed. Who was he kidding?

"Better you say." Scully raised an eyebrow. "Sure, I believe that." She shoved the thermometer into his mouth.

"Ehfooooo!" Mulder sneezed through his nose to keep the thermometer from shooting out of his mouth. Scully took it out and held the thermometer up to read it.

"It says a hundred. I think you should stay in bed." Scully said, looking down at the pathetic shadow of her partner.

"No chance." Mulder said getting out of bed. He went into the bathroom and closed the door. He started the shower and Scully could hear him blowing his nose.

"You sound really bad Mulder!" Scully yelled through the door. "You're going to regret this. We'll get all the way up to the mountains and there will be no turning back."

"I'll be fide." Mulder yelled back, but the effort made him cough again.

They both finished getting ready and then got in the car and headed up to the mountains to check out a lead on an elitist alien cult that claimed to have direct contact with extraterrestrials. As Mulder drove down the highway he sniffed and wiped his runny nose on the cuff of his jacket.

"Here." Scully produced a pocket-sized pack of tissues from her bag.

"*sniff* Thanks." Mulder looked relieved and he was halfway through the tissues when they finally reached the mountains. They got out of the car and Mulder looked puzzled. "Where's the cult?"

"Up there." Scully pointed to the top of the mountain. "No vehicle access, we have to hike."

"*cough*Fabulous, just what I wanted to hear." Mulder rolled his eyes.

"I told you to stay in bed." Scully looked up at him. Mulder zipped up his jacket and swallowed hard.

"Let's get this over with." He started up the trail.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I won't hold it against you if you want to head back!" Scully yelled up to him.

"C'mon! I don't want you to lag behind." Mulder yelled.

"Here we go." Scully sighed to herself and headed off after him.

After a couple of miles, Mulder's pace slowed drastically. The cold mountain air made his cough a lot worse, and he was wheezing. He was down to his last tissue, and his constantly running nose was no match for this final tissue either. He approached a tree and leaned up against it, crossed his arms close to his body, and shivered. Scully could see his breath like steam coming from his mouth in short gasps. His face was pale except for his nose, made red by the cold and the constant nose blowing. Scully went up to him looking concerned.

"Mulder?" She rubbed his arm to try and warm him up.

"Yes Scully?" He coughed hard.

"I'm getting worried about you. I can hear you having trouble breathing, I think we should head back and get you to the hospital." She was serious, Scully over reacted sometimes but he could hear the drastic nature in her voice.

"I'm fine." Mulder said breathlessly. "Just let me sit down for a minute." Mulder slid down and sat against the trunk of the tree he was leaning on. He brought his knees up to the rest of his body to keep himself from shivering so much. "Ehshoooo! Ehchhhhooo! Hahchhhhhooo!" he sneezed into cupped hands. Scully bent down and felt his forehead.

"You're really sick, I can't let you go on. Mulder?" Scully saw Mulder sway a bit, and then he passed out. "Oh no! Mulder?!!" Scully got down on her knees to where Mulder had fallen from his sitting position to belly up. She lifted his head up and lightly slapped his face. He opened his eyes and groaned. Everything was spinning. He blacked out.

Mulder looked around to find himself on a metal table. He tried to move and discovered he was in restraints. He blinked and tried to focus but the bright lights about him were blinding. Mulder squinted to try and make out the form above him. It was someone or something with a big oval head and a small body. He panicked at the thought of being abducted by aliens. Just like Samantha. He tried to free himself from the restraints when he saw the blurry figure come towards him with a long metallic object. He felt a cold rubbery hand touching his forehead and holding him down at his shoulder.

"Noooooooo!" he screamed at the strange figures coming towards him with intrusive instruments. "Where is she? What did you do with Samantha!?!?"

"Mulder," One of the beings said. "Mulder calm down." It sounded like Scully.

The frightening scene faded and Mulder opened his eyes to find himself back in bed at his hotel room. The alien face he saw talking to him before soon faded into Scully's face as she stood over him holding an ice pack to his forehead. He opened his mouth to try and ask what had happened when Scully cut him off.

"Mulder, it's ok." She put a finger to his dry lips.

"How-" his voice was dry and raspy, he coughed. "How'd we get back here? I remember the trail, and then--" he whispered weakly. Scully helped him sit up.

"You collapsed on the trail. I shouldn't have let you go." Scully said sitting down at the edge of the bed.

"LET me go?" Mulder coughed.

"You were too run down. I called for some help and we got you back to the hotel. You were unconscious for about 12 hours. You kept talking about Samantha, asking someone to tell you were she was." Scully said.

"Yeah," Mulder felt embarrassed at being so helpless and vulnerable. "I was dreaming I guess." Suddenly he felt a familiar tingle at the back of his nose that soon exploded. "Ehshhoooo! EHH EHH ERshoooo! *sniff*" Scully tossed the tissues in Mulder's lap, got up and patted him on the head.

"So you'll stay in bed now?" Scully cocked her head to the side and put her hands on her hips.

"Maybe just for a little while." Mulder said wiping his nose.

"If you need me I'll be in my room." Scully went to the door.

"Yes mother." Mulder joked.

"Oh ha ha." Scully started out of the room.

"Scully?" Mulder said.

"Yes?" She popped her head back in.

"Thanks, I'd be dead up there if it weren't for you." Mulder settled back down in bed and turned on the TV.

"I know." Scully left and shut the door.