The Domino Effect-Part 12
Headers and disclaimers in part 1
"I'll leave you all alone now. Perhaps Mr. Mulder
can get some rest." The nurse took one last look at
the IV bags and turned to leave.
"Let's hope that he can stay asleep for a while.
Thank you, Nurse Ricardo." Scully looked up from her
place beside Mulder.
"Please, call me Nita. After all we've been through
this morning, I feel like we're old friends." The
nurse gave her a big smile.
"I understand," Scully smiled back. "I'm Dana."
"And, I'm Walter," Skinner supplied.
"You know, I don't usually do this, but I'm going to
stick around after my shift to see how this turns out
for Mulder. I feel like I have a vested interest in
the poor guy now."
"Oh, Nita, thank you, but you don't have to do that.
I know you must be tired. Mulder has really kept you
on your toes during this shift," Scully protested.
"I can rest while I'm waiting. For some reason, I
feel compelled to see this through."
"Then, we would appreciate your company," Skinner
accepted.
Scully looked at her boss, a questioning look on her
face.
"Yes, agent Scully, I've decided to stay here until
the procedure is over. I just can't leave here not
knowing how he's doing. He's been through more than
anyone should have to suffer in the last few days.
I'm getting ready to call the hotel so they can
contact the participants."
"Yes, sir, we appreciate it."
"Why don't you two try to get some rest now? They
will probably come to get him around 7:15, so you
still have about two hours to take a little nap."
"Thank you, Nita. We will." Skinner assured her.
"All right, then. I'll be in and out checking on
him. Please let me know if you need anything."
Nita left and Scully pulled her chair a little closer
to Mulder's bedside. Inwardly she hoped that her
partner's abused body didn't pull its usual stunt of
shrugging off medication that would normally keep two
small elephants down for a week. She sent up a
silent prayer that he could have some respite this
time, but she knew his system all too well not to
feel anxious about it.
"Scully, why don't you lie down until time for the
procedure?"
"I'd rather stay close by his side, sir. He's so
heavily sedated that I want to keep an eye on his
breathing," Scully explained, wishing she could
simply have the pleasure of watching him breathe when
his health wasn't in jeopardy.
"All right. I understand. I'd just be wasting my
breath if I tried to talk you out of it."
"You're right about that, sir."
"You know, I think it would be proper if we used
first names in this situation," Skinner proposed.
"All right, Walter," Scully agreed, rotating her
stiff neck a little. She was still pretty fatigued
and hadn't had much real sleep for worrying about
Mulder.
"I'm going to go out and make that phone call. If
Mulder wakes up, tell him that he'd better get his
butt in gear and get over this because I'm going to
insist that both of you take some of that comp time
you've built up. I have a time-share in a condo in
Destin. It's available next week and the following
week. I'd like for the two of you to use that time
to recuperate from this and rest up, maybe even have
a little fun."
Scully looked rather surprised. "Um, I'll talk to
Mulder about it when he's feeling better. He might
prefer to make different plans for himself."
"Trust me on this one, Dana, anywhere would be fine
with him as long as you're there. I shouldn't be
gone longer than ten minutes or so." He left
quickly, a huge grin on his face.
Scully shook her head to clear it. What had just
happened here? It almost sounded like Skinner was
trying his hand at matchmaking. Now, that just
couldn't be. Could it?
Mulder stirred restlessly in his sleep and started to
mumble as he tried to pull the oxygen cannula from
his nose. Scully grabbed his hand to stop his
flailing actions. He continued to mumble as he
squeezed her hand gently.
"Love you, Scully," Mulder voiced clearly.
Scully realized that she was staring straight into
his open eyes, dull with fever and pain. She
dismissed his words as fevered ramblings until he
squeezed her hand again.
"Scully, love you. Love me back?" he pleaded, his
words trailing off as he slipped back into his drug-
induced sleep.
"Now, that's strange." Mulder was under the
influence of a lot of drugs, but she had a feeling
that those words had come straight from his heart.
Could he have discussed his feeling with Skinner?
That didn't seem likely, but Skinner's offer of the
condo to both of them was a rather confusing
coincidence. "Something's going on here," she
decided. "Mulder, I can't wait until you're feeling
better, because I sure have a lot of questions."
She realized that she was still holding Mulder's hand
and made a move to remove it. Instead, she boldly
decided to wait for Skinner to return, just to gage
his reaction.
She didn't have long to wait. When Skinner came back
in she was holding his hand lovingly against her left
cheek. Mulder was oblivious to her action, but it
wasn't lost on Skinner.
"Any change, Dana?" he asked, trying to erase the
shit-eating grin from his face, but wasn't entirely
successful.
"No, Walter. He's still sleeping," she smiled back
at him.
"Best thing for him. Are you sure you don't want to
lie down?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm quite comfortable here."
"I think that's good for him too," Skinner commented
on her open affection for her partner.
"Well, that pretty much confirmed it," she thought.
"Those two had definitely been talking." She sighed.
"I wonder when Mulder will finally get up the nerve
to talk to me?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Skinner left for his coffee date with a promise to
meet her in the waiting room. Shortly after the
shift change, Nita came in wearing street clothes and
carrying two cups of coffee. She offered one cup to
Scully. "I got this from the vendor downstairs.
It's freshly brewed and is usually pretty decent. I
didn't know how you liked it, so I brought plenty of
everything. She reached into her pocket and pulled
out packets of creamer, sugar and sweetener.
"Thank you, Nita."
"I see that Walter already had a coffee date," the
nurse commented as Scully went about fixing her
coffee.
"It seems that way. Mulder's ER nurse, I think,"
Scully answered, blowing across the very hot coffee.
She inhaled the aroma deeply and realized that for
the first time in days, her stomach actually felt
normal. "Poor Mulder," she sighed as she thought of
the living hell he was still enduring. "I wish he
felt well enough to enjoy this coffee."
"He will soon," Nita comforted her. "How long have
you two been together?"
"We've been partners for almost seven years."
"Oh, I didn't mean at work. I meant how long as a
couple."
"Nita, we're not a couple, yet," Scully was surprised
when she emphasized that last word.
"Well, what's keeping you?"
"It's . . . complicated," Scully hedged.
"How complicated can it be? He loves you and you
adore him. You're made for each other."
"I expect when Mulder starts to feel better we'll be
having a long talk about the whole thing."
"Well, let's hope you do more than talk," Nita
giggled as Scully blushed.
There was a knock on the door and soon the room was
taken over by a crew of people getting Mulder ready
to go to pre-op.
Scully and Nita met Karen Bower and Skinner in the
surgical waiting room. The female agent had to admit
that having all of those people with her helped the
time to pass. It seemed like it was almost no time
at all before she was sitting beside Mulder in the
recovery room, holding his hand again, relieved that
he was now hopefully on the mend.
The recovery room nurse said that he had been awake
briefly, but should start coming around a little more
any time. She was right. In less than five minutes
Mulder moaned loudly and opened his eyes.
"Scully?"
"Right here, Mulder. How are you feeling? Is the
pain any better?" She squeezed his fingers to let
him know she was there for him.
"Um, yeah. Pain's better. Still feel like crap
though."
"You still have a urinary tract infection, but that
should start to clear up pretty quickly with the
antibiotics you're on. The lithotripsy broke the
kidney stone into lots of little pieces. You may
still feel a sharp pain from time to time as one of
the larger pieces passes, but I think you might even
be allowed to get up and try to walk tonight."
"Too tired," he sighed, rubbing her fingers.
"That will get better. You need to concentrate on
getting your strength back. Skinner is insisting
that we use our comp time and he wants us to spend it
at his time-share condo in Destin."
"Us . . .together?" Mulder had a shocked look on his
face.
"Yes, us. I was a little shocked myself when he
suggested it."
"I like the idea though. Oh!"
"What is it?" Concern replaced the light-hearted
talk as his face twisted into a grimace.
"Um, one of those sharp pains you were talking
about."
Scully reached over and pushed a control attached to
a cord wrapped around the side rail. "This is
attached to a pump. Whenever the pain gets really
bad, just push the button."
Mulder shifted his eyes to look at the control and
then looked back to Scully. "Okay. Tired, but we
have to talk later."
"I agree. You rest now. I'll be here when you wake
up again." He leaned into her hand as she stroked
his face and brushed the hair from his eyes.
"Good, love you." He smiled sleepily and then
drifted back to sleep.
"I love you too," Scully whispered in his ear,
feeling her eyes tearing up unexpectedly. She didn't
really want to leave him, but got up to visit the
waiting room and report on his condition.
End Part 12
Headers and disclaimers in part 1
"I'll leave you all alone now. Perhaps Mr. Mulder
can get some rest." The nurse took one last look at
the IV bags and turned to leave.
"Let's hope that he can stay asleep for a while.
Thank you, Nurse Ricardo." Scully looked up from her
place beside Mulder.
"Please, call me Nita. After all we've been through
this morning, I feel like we're old friends." The
nurse gave her a big smile.
"I understand," Scully smiled back. "I'm Dana."
"And, I'm Walter," Skinner supplied.
"You know, I don't usually do this, but I'm going to
stick around after my shift to see how this turns out
for Mulder. I feel like I have a vested interest in
the poor guy now."
"Oh, Nita, thank you, but you don't have to do that.
I know you must be tired. Mulder has really kept you
on your toes during this shift," Scully protested.
"I can rest while I'm waiting. For some reason, I
feel compelled to see this through."
"Then, we would appreciate your company," Skinner
accepted.
Scully looked at her boss, a questioning look on her
face.
"Yes, agent Scully, I've decided to stay here until
the procedure is over. I just can't leave here not
knowing how he's doing. He's been through more than
anyone should have to suffer in the last few days.
I'm getting ready to call the hotel so they can
contact the participants."
"Yes, sir, we appreciate it."
"Why don't you two try to get some rest now? They
will probably come to get him around 7:15, so you
still have about two hours to take a little nap."
"Thank you, Nita. We will." Skinner assured her.
"All right, then. I'll be in and out checking on
him. Please let me know if you need anything."
Nita left and Scully pulled her chair a little closer
to Mulder's bedside. Inwardly she hoped that her
partner's abused body didn't pull its usual stunt of
shrugging off medication that would normally keep two
small elephants down for a week. She sent up a
silent prayer that he could have some respite this
time, but she knew his system all too well not to
feel anxious about it.
"Scully, why don't you lie down until time for the
procedure?"
"I'd rather stay close by his side, sir. He's so
heavily sedated that I want to keep an eye on his
breathing," Scully explained, wishing she could
simply have the pleasure of watching him breathe when
his health wasn't in jeopardy.
"All right. I understand. I'd just be wasting my
breath if I tried to talk you out of it."
"You're right about that, sir."
"You know, I think it would be proper if we used
first names in this situation," Skinner proposed.
"All right, Walter," Scully agreed, rotating her
stiff neck a little. She was still pretty fatigued
and hadn't had much real sleep for worrying about
Mulder.
"I'm going to go out and make that phone call. If
Mulder wakes up, tell him that he'd better get his
butt in gear and get over this because I'm going to
insist that both of you take some of that comp time
you've built up. I have a time-share in a condo in
Destin. It's available next week and the following
week. I'd like for the two of you to use that time
to recuperate from this and rest up, maybe even have
a little fun."
Scully looked rather surprised. "Um, I'll talk to
Mulder about it when he's feeling better. He might
prefer to make different plans for himself."
"Trust me on this one, Dana, anywhere would be fine
with him as long as you're there. I shouldn't be
gone longer than ten minutes or so." He left
quickly, a huge grin on his face.
Scully shook her head to clear it. What had just
happened here? It almost sounded like Skinner was
trying his hand at matchmaking. Now, that just
couldn't be. Could it?
Mulder stirred restlessly in his sleep and started to
mumble as he tried to pull the oxygen cannula from
his nose. Scully grabbed his hand to stop his
flailing actions. He continued to mumble as he
squeezed her hand gently.
"Love you, Scully," Mulder voiced clearly.
Scully realized that she was staring straight into
his open eyes, dull with fever and pain. She
dismissed his words as fevered ramblings until he
squeezed her hand again.
"Scully, love you. Love me back?" he pleaded, his
words trailing off as he slipped back into his drug-
induced sleep.
"Now, that's strange." Mulder was under the
influence of a lot of drugs, but she had a feeling
that those words had come straight from his heart.
Could he have discussed his feeling with Skinner?
That didn't seem likely, but Skinner's offer of the
condo to both of them was a rather confusing
coincidence. "Something's going on here," she
decided. "Mulder, I can't wait until you're feeling
better, because I sure have a lot of questions."
She realized that she was still holding Mulder's hand
and made a move to remove it. Instead, she boldly
decided to wait for Skinner to return, just to gage
his reaction.
She didn't have long to wait. When Skinner came back
in she was holding his hand lovingly against her left
cheek. Mulder was oblivious to her action, but it
wasn't lost on Skinner.
"Any change, Dana?" he asked, trying to erase the
shit-eating grin from his face, but wasn't entirely
successful.
"No, Walter. He's still sleeping," she smiled back
at him.
"Best thing for him. Are you sure you don't want to
lie down?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm quite comfortable here."
"I think that's good for him too," Skinner commented
on her open affection for her partner.
"Well, that pretty much confirmed it," she thought.
"Those two had definitely been talking." She sighed.
"I wonder when Mulder will finally get up the nerve
to talk to me?"
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Skinner left for his coffee date with a promise to
meet her in the waiting room. Shortly after the
shift change, Nita came in wearing street clothes and
carrying two cups of coffee. She offered one cup to
Scully. "I got this from the vendor downstairs.
It's freshly brewed and is usually pretty decent. I
didn't know how you liked it, so I brought plenty of
everything. She reached into her pocket and pulled
out packets of creamer, sugar and sweetener.
"Thank you, Nita."
"I see that Walter already had a coffee date," the
nurse commented as Scully went about fixing her
coffee.
"It seems that way. Mulder's ER nurse, I think,"
Scully answered, blowing across the very hot coffee.
She inhaled the aroma deeply and realized that for
the first time in days, her stomach actually felt
normal. "Poor Mulder," she sighed as she thought of
the living hell he was still enduring. "I wish he
felt well enough to enjoy this coffee."
"He will soon," Nita comforted her. "How long have
you two been together?"
"We've been partners for almost seven years."
"Oh, I didn't mean at work. I meant how long as a
couple."
"Nita, we're not a couple, yet," Scully was surprised
when she emphasized that last word.
"Well, what's keeping you?"
"It's . . . complicated," Scully hedged.
"How complicated can it be? He loves you and you
adore him. You're made for each other."
"I expect when Mulder starts to feel better we'll be
having a long talk about the whole thing."
"Well, let's hope you do more than talk," Nita
giggled as Scully blushed.
There was a knock on the door and soon the room was
taken over by a crew of people getting Mulder ready
to go to pre-op.
Scully and Nita met Karen Bower and Skinner in the
surgical waiting room. The female agent had to admit
that having all of those people with her helped the
time to pass. It seemed like it was almost no time
at all before she was sitting beside Mulder in the
recovery room, holding his hand again, relieved that
he was now hopefully on the mend.
The recovery room nurse said that he had been awake
briefly, but should start coming around a little more
any time. She was right. In less than five minutes
Mulder moaned loudly and opened his eyes.
"Scully?"
"Right here, Mulder. How are you feeling? Is the
pain any better?" She squeezed his fingers to let
him know she was there for him.
"Um, yeah. Pain's better. Still feel like crap
though."
"You still have a urinary tract infection, but that
should start to clear up pretty quickly with the
antibiotics you're on. The lithotripsy broke the
kidney stone into lots of little pieces. You may
still feel a sharp pain from time to time as one of
the larger pieces passes, but I think you might even
be allowed to get up and try to walk tonight."
"Too tired," he sighed, rubbing her fingers.
"That will get better. You need to concentrate on
getting your strength back. Skinner is insisting
that we use our comp time and he wants us to spend it
at his time-share condo in Destin."
"Us . . .together?" Mulder had a shocked look on his
face.
"Yes, us. I was a little shocked myself when he
suggested it."
"I like the idea though. Oh!"
"What is it?" Concern replaced the light-hearted
talk as his face twisted into a grimace.
"Um, one of those sharp pains you were talking
about."
Scully reached over and pushed a control attached to
a cord wrapped around the side rail. "This is
attached to a pump. Whenever the pain gets really
bad, just push the button."
Mulder shifted his eyes to look at the control and
then looked back to Scully. "Okay. Tired, but we
have to talk later."
"I agree. You rest now. I'll be here when you wake
up again." He leaned into her hand as she stroked
his face and brushed the hair from his eyes.
"Good, love you." He smiled sleepily and then
drifted back to sleep.
"I love you too," Scully whispered in his ear,
feeling her eyes tearing up unexpectedly. She didn't
really want to leave him, but got up to visit the
waiting room and report on his condition.
End Part 12