Fast, anxious footsteps suddenly broke Mulder out of his reverie and he glanced towards the door as his partner rushed in, worry lines marking her face. Something bad had obviously happened since she'd left him there earlier – her eyes were red from crying and she wore no make-up as she usually did.

"Mulder!" she sighed in relief when she saw him. "I heard that…" Scully let her words fade out, unable to finish. She moved over to stand by Mulder's bed and looked down at him, studying him carefully to make sure he was still in one piece.

"Scully," Mulder said comfortingly, catching her concerned gaze. "I'm alright."

Scully nodded, seemingly more at ease. "Good," she whispered, placing her suitcase on the floor and glancing around the room. She finally saw what she was looking for and moved across the room to pull a chair over. Settling down into it, she blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall and rubbed tiredly at her eyes.

"I was told that the gunman had escaped…" she explained to her partner finally.

"Escaped?" Mulder sat up quickly, suddenly wide-awake. He groaned as another round of pain hit him and Scully reached over and caught his hand in hers.

"Mulder! Are you sure you're okay?" Scully asked, leaning in over him.

He nodded and eased himself back down into bed slowly, careful not to disrupt his injury again. "I'll be fine," he assured her. "Just…tell me about the gunman."

"Um…okay…" Scully nodded. "Skinner has word that the guards down at the detention centre were slacking off and the gunman managed to get past them. No one has ever escaped from there before, so they don't know how he did it."

"Do you think it could be an X file?" Mulder questioned, looking up thoughtfully.

Scully shrugged. "It's doubtful but I wouldn't cross it out."

"And what has Skinner got you doing? You're not continuing the case on your own, are you?"

"Oh, no. Agent Bailey and his partner have the case now. They passed it on to him when you were hospitalised," Scully informed him. "I've been putting together some notes of my own, though…"

Mulder nodded appreciatively. "What've you got?"

"Not much. I couldn't get access to most of the files," Scully said as she reached into her suitcase and pulled out a sheaf of papers. She flipped through them and handed several of the files to Mulder.

"His name is Thomas Wall. He's 35 years old, lives alone in an apartment on Seagrove Avenue and has no living relatives."

"He's clean?" Mulder asked, scanning the pages in front of him.

"Yup. No criminal record," Scully replied. She wiped her forehead with the palm of her hand and pushed a strand of stubborn red hair behind her ear. "There's nothing of use here as far as I can tell."

"Okay…no, wait…" Mulder muttered.

Scully glanced at him curiously and leant over to look at the file he was currently studying. "What is it?"

"It says here that he's been hospitalised 8 times in the past 3 years, each time for cardiac arrest."

"Are you saying that he's had 8 heart attacks?" Scully looked at him sceptically.

Mulder opened his mouth to answer, but immediately closed it as a nurse wandered in. Scully turned to face their intruder, too, nodding a quick hello to her.

"Oh, you have a visitor!" The nurse smiled apologetically. "Mrs Mulder, is it?"

Scully turned a deep shade of red and shook her head furiously. "No. I'm Mulder's partner. We work together," she explained hurriedly.

"Right," the nurse smiled enigmatically at her. Scully noted the disbelief in her voice and sighed wearily. Why was it that people thought they were a couple? It had happened several times before and each time was just as unnerving as the last.

Beside her, Mulder grinned widely at the nurses' comment and went on to introduce them. "Yeah, this is Agent Dana Scully," he told the nurse. "And, Scully, this is Marissa Davies, my nurse. She's been sneaking me magazines and the like in her breaks."

"Speaking of magazines…" Marissa smiled at him and handed over a stack of the most recent publications and a copy of the daily paper. "I bought them for you when I went out for lunch a few hours ago."

"Mulder. You've only been here one day!"

"One day? It feels more like week!" He grinned playfully at her and turned his attention back to Marissa. "Thanks for these! It's been beyond boring since our last chat, this morning."

"No problem!" Marissa winked at him and gestured at Scully. "I 'spose you want some privacy now, so your girlfriend here can fuss over you."

"Girlfriend?" Scully protested, weakly.

Marissa just gave her a knowing look and without another word, left them alone.