I do not own the X-files or make any money from this writing
"I hate the cold" Sam was already complaining and they were still only on the airfield waiting to meet with the rest of the people that would make up the team. She bundled up in a hunter green parka coat with hat scarf and gloves her grumpy face only just peeped out so she could look around. Her trousers had been specially brought and were heavily lined and she wore more layers than was probably necessary.
"Seriously? Already?" Dana laughed up at her, she seemed very amused at Sam's reaction to everything. "You do realise that it's only just going to get colder. It's called the Arctic Core project for a reason."
"Maybe one day we'll get the warm summer beach project"
"Well you'd be on your own for that one" Scully told her "Or the office would have to reimburse me for a LOT of sunscreen."
"It's probably for the best our cases are never too hot or too cold"
"So what we're Goldilocks now?"
"I have always wondered how I'd look as a blonde." Actually she's tried it with an at home bleach kit when she was in high school and it had gone horribly wrong ending up more of an orangutan orange. Her mother had dragged her straight to the hairdresser when she'd seen it and Sam had been annoyed but a little grateful. "So come on you've had some time to think about it any other ideas?"
The case involved the Arctic Ice Core Project Team The team of scientists that made up the Arctic Ice Core Project had gone to Alaska as part of the government's Advanced Research Project Agency nearly a year ago to drill into the ice. Their work was a success, nearly completed and their contacts back home had not had any reports or indications of problems then a week later they had received a video of the team leader Richter sitting at the chair, saying 'We're not... who... we are. It goes no further than this. It stops... right here... right now.' And then he'd been attacked. Nothing more had been heard from the team since then and they were to be the first team to arrive there. Sam had decided they were being sent either because the higher ups thought they were either brilliant or expendable on being given the assignment.
"I still suspect it could be isolation distress, even the most experienced people can suffer from it but there's also a chance they suffered from an infection due to poor hygiene and have experienced delusions as a result." She then pointed to a man with headphones "Is he one of the people we're meeting?"
They waked over together in time hear the man say "Fout's is God!" he noticed them and smiled apologetically "Sorry. My team scored."
"There's no football on Wednesday." Dana sounded a little confused
Sam was just as confused as she added "And didn't Fouts retire a while ago?"
"No, this is just some of my all-time favourite plays on tape. You two F.B.I.?"
"Agent Mulder and Scully, you?" Sam held out her hand and they shook before the man turned to Dana and did likewise
"I'm Danny Murphy professor of geology at U. C. San Diego."
"You get much of a chance to study ice in Sandiego?"
"Just what's around the keg." they laughed and were soon joined by an older man and a women around their own age, the man had a trolley of equipment
"Can I assume you're Dr. DaSilva, Dr. Hodge?" Scully asked smiling politely
"Yeah, sorry we're late. " they all exchanged names and there was more handshaking when Dr Hodge asked "Can I see some identification?" seeing the confused looks on everyone's faces he added "I just want to make sure we are who we say we are."
They all held up various forms of ID, Sam and Dana using their official FBI badges and Sam taking the time to really view the ID's presented and then giving Dana a smirk as she looked from ID to face as though doubting what she sees.
"Well I guess we are all who we say we are" Sam grinned wondering why the man thought someone might try to fake their way onto this trip.
"Yeah, anybody care to take a guess as to why we're going?" Dr Hodge asked
"Well, two federal agents one of whom is a medical professional, a geologist, a medical doctor and a toxicologist. That should give us some idea what they're thinking." Sam said "Or it's the most elaborate set up for a joke I've ever seen."
"Can I assume you all took a look at the tape?" Dana asked, DaSilva and Hodge were exchanging a look that made Sam suspicious
"Something you want to share with the class?"
"Come on, you're F.B.I. You have to know more than we do." the woman asked
At that moment a long haired well built man drove up music blaring wearing a cap and sunglasses,
he walked over to them "You folks the ones going up to Icy Cape?
"That's us." Sam agreed indicating the group
"Then I'm the one flying you, my name's Bear. The plane's across the way provisions are loaded grab your gear."
"Oh, could we see some credentials?" the nervous professor didn't seem to notice the pilot's sneer curled lip.
"Credentials? The only credentials that I have is that I'm the only pilot willing to fly you up there. You don't like those credentials...? Walk!"
The man strode away and Sam catching Murphy's eye and seeing him tamping down a laugh smiled to him in recognition of the shared amusement as they collected their bags.
(m–s)
The door was not only locked but frozen shut, with brute force Bear shoved it open and they all followed in grateful to get out of the wind and all waving their flashlights around the room trying to get a look a the abandoned building. In the centre of the floor two men are lying on the ground with guns next to them. The whole facility is in darkness and it looks as though no one has cleared up in a while.
"Anyone know anything about generators?" Sam asked "I think we need to see if we can get the power started."
"I got it" Bear raised a hand and ambled off muttering "Anything to get out of here!"
"Body bags are on the plane." Hodge gave a sigh "Should have brought them with us, I don't know what else we were expecting."
"Before we touch anything, we have to document everything." Sam and Scully began to photograph the scene. "No one move anything." They moved around the room whilst Hodge and Da Silva left for the plane to get the equipment they needed. Sam opened the fridge to take pictures of what was inside and found labelled flasks inside "I guess this is what they were drilling for. Quarter of a million years melting away in just a couple of days."
Murphy arrived at her elbow "I want to preserve some samples." Sam nodded and let him take a container. Da Silva and Hodge returned as they finish documenting, they had just come through the door when there is a bang and a rumbling sound filled the air startling the blonde woman who dropped the body bags she was carrying.
"It's the generator." Sam spoke to the room but she was watching the blonde woman out of the corner of her eye who looked relieved at the statement.
The lights flickered on around them and they start to walk around the building able to see it all better now. There is a strange growling noise and suddenly Sam hear "Agent Mulder! Look out!" Spinning defensively Sam is ready as the dog springs at her, she holds her arm up the thick coat a barrier to the gnashing teeth. Soon the body is lifted off her and she sees Bear, pulling the dog off her as the rest of the team run in.
"Hold on."
The dog twists in Bears arms knocking him down and the man cried out in pain, Murphy took off his coat and threw it over the dog's head preventing the dog from biting anyone else. With urgency Hodge ran over carrying a needle and yelling for them to Hold it down! He injects the dog and the animal whimpers as he is pulled bodily away from the scene.
"Sam are you okay?"
"Yeah, he didn't break the skin. Bear, you okay?"
"He got me".
"Let me help you" Dana moved forward but the big man moved away
"Just give me the stuff, I'll do it myself."
Sam hears Da Silva ask "Is it rabies?" and she hopes it isn't, the last thing they need is for their pilot out to unable to fly. It's a selfish thought but given the situation they're in a fair one.
"I don't see any indication of glottal spasm, if it is rabies it's certainly not a strain I'm familiar with." He lifted the paw up "What's this?"
Dana came forward and inspected the discovery "Black nodules. Swollen lymph nodes."
Da Silva looked at the animal and whispered "Symptoms of the bubonic plague." The woman sounded terrified and Sam sighed wondering why they'd send someone so nervous into an obviously dangerous situation.
"I'll do a blood test, we'll take it from there." Hodge was calm in the face of his co workers fear
"This dog has got a skin irritation on it's neck." Dana touched where the dog had been biting itself
"It looks like it's been scratching off it's own hair." Murphy looked over her shoulder
"Look at this, look at this!" Sam and the others come over and there is an obvious shape moving under the skin.
"What the hell was that?" They all look at each other in confusion.
"Look we're here to find out what happened, Murphy you need to look at those samples, Dana you need to get the autopsies done..." Sam started issuing orders and she was relieved when everyone followed suit without questioning her.
(m–s)
Later they all regroup to talk about what they've learned Dana found she was having trouble making them all see thing from her perspective, except Sam but that was par for the course. Only Murphy seemed to be on her side about the organisms she's found in the blood of the dead team, even better he backs her up with his own discovery in the ice. She has to confirm that yes the men had all killed each other but she had no idea why and that was the most important thing in this case. The organism she's found is completely new and they don't know the ramifications yet, the deaths could be related and they might need quarantining. She feels like banging her head against a brick wall when Hodge has decided she's wrong.
Finally Bear had had enough of the science and broke in "Look-it, I don't see why you're squabbling over some bug. You said it yourself those men killed each other. That's it. Now I say, let's just get the hell out of here while we still can."
Hodge nodded "I agree. We can have the bodies sent to a facility where they can make a definitive diagnosis in the event that something was missed by Agent Scully."
Oh my god she was starting to understand how a group of people could go mad and kill each other "Look! If those bodies are infected with an unknown organism we can't take them back. We can't go back without proper quarantine procedures or we risk bringing back the next plague."
"Let's say you're right they came down with something. We haven't and I ain't waiting around until we do." Bear told them determined
Again Hodge agreed "I think it's safe to go back. There's no reason why we'd be infected. We've taken all the necessary biological safeguards."
Nancy quietly said "The dog did bite Bear."
"It jumped her too!" the pilot spat pointing at Samantha's
"It didn't break the skin -"
Dana stood up to her full if somewhat small height "There's only one way to proceed, Dr Hodge a good doctor eliminates every possibility. We must determine if any of us is infected."
Appealing to his scientific side seemed to have worked and Hodge finally nodded "OK parasitic diagnostic procedure requires that each of us provide a blood and a stool sample."
"A stool sample?"
Murphy looked embarrassed "Well, this kind of travel always makes that kind of tough... for me."
Bear came forward seemingly calm and then declared "I ain't dropping my cargo for no one." He threw the jar into the far wall causing Da Silva to jump "What I'm doing is getting my gear, getting my plane and flying the hell out of here."
"You can't go!" Sam called after him and he turned back using his height and build to try and intimidate the woman.
"I got hired to fly you up here and fly you back. No one said this might be part of the deal so the deal is over." he shot the words at her and then stormed away.
Dana grabbed Sam's arm "We can't let him leave without him being checked."
Nancy Da Silva scoffed at this "Who's going to stop him?" the blonde was too ineffectual and Sam ignored her
"Dana's right We can't risk infecting the rest of the population."
Da Silva shook her head "He gets on that plane, I'm gonna be on it with him."
"Look lets take a vote. Whoever believes we should confine Bear until he agrees to an examination raise your hand." Sam announced putting her own hand in the air, Dana immediately follows suit and breathed a sigh of relief when Murphy backs them up.
When Bear returned Sam approached him trying to seem unthreatening "Bear please we just want to check you out. If we don't find any trace of the parasite or the virus we just all go home."
"All right, give me the damn jar." He picked up the jar and Dana was just starting to relax when she saw his expression change
"SAM!" She is not in time and Bear breaks the jar over Sam's head, the big man starts to make a break for it. Without thinking twice Scully dove at him, Sam soon joins her and Murphy is the only one to move as he brings a rope and helps tie the man down. It takes four of them to get the man on the table and then Nancy shrieks pointing.
"Oh my god" Dana looked around making sure they all see something moving under the skin like the dog everyone seems to be sharing her fearful expression.
"Hold him" Hodge declares "Nancy get my bag" she didn't know where Sam had run off to, Dana was using most of her weight to help hold the man down and they could have used her strength. The other three of them have to hold him down whilst Hodge operates, everyone is shouting, Nancy is panicking and Hodge yells "It's killing him!" and Bear is screaming as the scalpel goes in. Hodge uses forceps to dig around and then finally he catches hold of something, he pulled removing a creature from his neck. Dana is stunned to see it's a worm and Hodge is having difficulty with it as it seems to have attached itself. Finally Bear moans and the worm is ripped out and then the big man goes limp. Hodge turned away to store the creature and the redhead began to worry that Bear was too still.
"Help me flip him" she cried not getting off the table, turning the man over they realise he's stopped breathing "Hodge! Check his eyes" Dana is already mostly on top of the man so she started CPR, Murphy and Nancy back off as Hodge shines a torch into the unconscious man's eyes "Well?" Scully asked breathlessly as she put her weight into the compressions.
"Fixed and dilated" Hodge moved back shaking his head "If we had more equipment..." he trailed off and Dana knew what he meant. Climbing off the man she dropped to the ground and ran a hand through her hair.
Sam came running back into the room "Is Bear in any condition to fly? We don't get out in an hour, we don't get out for days?"
"He's dead Sam" Dana shook her head sadly "Taking that thing out of him must've done it."
"Dana... what the hell is it?"
"God only knows"
(m–s)
The heating malfunctions raising the temperature, in no time everyone is snapping at each other even Sam and Dana find themselves arguing. Recognising that they are stressed and afraid Dana suggests that they all check each other out looking for the nodules on the skin and then for anything moving under the skin. The women and men separate and check each other over Sam made a few jokes but Dana gave her a sharp look to silence her. Thankfully no one had any nodules or anything moving under their skin and they all breathe a sigh of relief.
"Look" Sam had managed to hold onto her tenuous position as de facto leader for now and even though she could see Hodge was chafing under her command she decided that the best thing to do was pretend she had more authority than she did. "We need to examine this but we need to be careful, we also need to ready to stay awhile. We have enough supplies with us to last a couple of weeks and we don't touch anything the last team had. In fact we'll destroy anything they left behind to avoid accidental cross contamination."
"We can't stay here weeks!" Nancy's voice was at a higher pitch than usual
"I'm not suggesting we do but I am saying we have plenty of food and water should we have to."
"We certainly can't use the snow for water without filtering and testing it" Hodge agreed "I want to get on with studying what happened here. It will tell us more about what to do next."
"I will recheck the bodies" Dana offered "see if there's anything we missed?"
"Good plan Dana" Sam looked over at the geologist "Murphy is there anything more you can tell us about the ice samples?"
"I had more tests that were going to wait till we got out of here." the man put his headphones on and moved away "I'll get on with them now".
"I'm going to look at that thing we found in Bear, Da Silva if you can help me collect blood samples?" Hodge asked looking at the toxicologist "Nancy?" the woman nodded still looking nervous.
"Alright" Sam nodded to the team "And I'll get together evidence for what happened here" over the next few hours they are all distracted from their situation by work and it helps them. Tempers lower and they are all calmer, Sam is amused to see Dana and Hodge getting along well and Nancy getting a little jealous for a little while they are back to normal.
Unfortunately when they all regroup the news is not good. They sit like a council of war around a table, in the centre are two beakers of ammonia each containing a worm, they seem to try to get at each other every time the jars are close to each other so they've pulled them apart. Sam stand and runs the place like an FBI briefing asking questions and commanding her team.
"It's similar to a tapeworm in that it has a scolex with suckers and hooks." Hodge tells them "But that's all I know."
"So then it's familiar?" Murphy asked "Something we can deal with?"
"No it's a very different organism." he picked up the two jars and took them over to the freezer putting them on separate shelves. "Their behaviour is unlike anything I've heard of."
"Have you figured out how it's transmitted yet?"
"Could be anything. An exchange of fluids seems most likely but I don't know."
"When I rechecked all of the dead bodies I found they all had the creature, we only found one still alive and that barely."
"Were they in the spine like Bear?"
"No. It appears that they were in the hypothalamus gland deep in the brain, there's a chance Bear's was heading there itself."
"Hypothalamus gland, hormonal stuff right?"
"Yes it's a gland that secretes hormones although I don't know why a parasite would want to attach to it."
"The hypothalamus releases acetylcholine, which produces violent aggressive behaviour. That might be a connection everybody that's been infected certainly seems to act aggressively the Dog Bear, all the people here at the base. Maybe the worm feeds on the acetylcholine flooding our capacity to control violent behaviour."
"Surely a parasite shouldn't want to kill it's host." Scully interjected
"Maybe it doesn't kill you until it's extracted, Bear was fine until we pulled it out" it was clear Hodge regretted his actions
"So maybe the worm makes you want act violently even to kill other people which is what happened to the first team."Sam summed up "I can't find any evidence saying they had any other reason to do so."
"So you're saying that it could happen to us?" Nancy asked looking terrified.
"It's just a theory" Dana reassured her
"And five dead men" Samantha's statement earned her a harsh look from her partner "But yeah just a theory."
"If the worm makes people violently aggressive then why did Richter and Campbell kill themselves?" Dana asked "If it made them suicidal the dog is showing no signs of any harm to himself other than where it worried it's skin"
"Maybe they did it to save us." Sam looked around "The notes and the final recording seem to suggest they knew something was happening. Look I recommend we all get some sleep" Sam finally said "We can try again alter but we need sleep."
They all agree to get some rest and make their way to the bedrooms set up at the back of the base. As Dana and Sam head to the the sleeping area they don't talk much, Sam is all for studying the creature thinking is a scientific discovery and Dana does not agree preferring any destructive force they can think of so they can protect themselves and get home.
"Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite." Murphy teased
"Yeah, good night." at her door Dana paused "Night Sam"
"Good night Dana."
"At least everyone's okay."
"Don't forget, the spots on the dog went away."
"Well aren't you just a ray of sunshine" Dana rolled her eyes and disappeared into her room. Sam grinned to herself, inside her room she pulls a bag of gummy worms from her back and settles in knowing she probably won't sleep, she rarely does.
(m–s)
Sam awoke suddenly, she lay in the silence for a moment and then there it was again, it sounded like talking not far away. On instinct she checked her gun, then staying as quiet as she could she shoved on her shoes and coat. Picking up her flashlight she made her way along the corridor to her partners room "Dana?" Sam knocked at her partner's door, she hears a scraping noise then it opens and the bleary eyes of Scully soon met her own
"What?"
"I heard something, come with me?" a door nearby opened and Hodge looked out
"What's going on out here?"
"Sam heard a noise" Dana responded for her "We're going to investigate" She was suddenly wide awake and already pulling on her coat.
"Give me a second" Hodge went back into his room and reappeared in seconds wrapped in his coat and wearing shoes.
"It's better with three, if that thing makes people act crazy we'll need all the hands we can."
The three of them walked out into the main room and started to look around, Sam and Scully held their guns ready as they moved as one group. There was a clatter and as they walked into the lab room they discovered Da Silva forcing the body of Murphy into the Fridge, upon seeing them she jumped back looking guilty
"Nancy? What happened here?"
"He attacked me" she exclaimed pointing at the dead body "He went crazy and I just panicked"
"Nancy" Hodge looked at her with concern
"I didn't mean to" she screamed as Sam and her friend advanced on her "He was infected. He must have been!" as the two continued to approach she started to scream her innocence but in moments Sam and Hodge had her by the arms she continued to struggle fighting them.
"Dana open that door" Sam instructed struggling with the woman and between them they managed to shut her in the closet where the woman continued to scream pounding on the door as they and calling out desperately.
"Oh God" Hodge leaned against the door and then slid down to the floor looking lost "What are we going to do?"
"Well we can't properly inspect her until she calms down" Dana told him "It could be that what she says is true and she's panicking as a result. She's been nervous this whole trip and an attack might have sent her over the edge."
"Dana" Sam looked unconvinced and Dana gave her a look
"It's unlikely but if we wait till she's calmer we can try."
"We can't let her out but we need to find a way to help her." Hodge ran a hand over his face looking distressed
"I'm going to look at Murphy's body" Dana declared "If he was infected it might back up her story."
(m–s)
"Exhausted having not had a full nights sleep Dana was struggling with cutting through the skin and breaking through the bone. She'd already done four post mortems with minimal help and without the proper facilities in this place. She wondered how many more autopsies she'll have to do in this place, shaking off the thought she cut into where she'd found the worm in the others. If Nancy was infected they'd find a way to help her she was sure. What she found surprised her and in moments she was walking back into the room another flask in hand inside is a live worm just like the others.
"He was infected!"
"So Nancy's fine?" Hodge stood looking relieved
"We don't know that for sure" Sam told him "We just know that Murphy was infected. For all we know Nancy is as well and until she lets us get close to her we can't know for sure."
"And when we do examine her we need too know what we can to help if she is infected." Dana felt for Hodge but the fact was that they didn't know what was happening yet.
"How is the testing going?"
"I'm looking at how the infections happen, I've found something interesting with the blood" he pointed to the microscope it has two dead larvae in it. "I was testing blood and one of the vials broke spilling onto a slide" he took a new slight and put two separate samples of blood on them "These are both infected blood form different people" Dana looked through microscope and watches amazed as the larvae start attacking each other viciously. Suddenly they both go limp and die.
"Hodge this is amazing." Scully walked over to the freezer and moves one of the jars from the bottom shelf right next to the other one. The worms try to get at each other through the glass "Look at this, we thought they were trying to get to each other but what if they're trying to attack each other."
"Is it possible one worm will not tolerate another invading it's host." Hodge asked staring at the evidence before them
"It's very possible" Dana agreed "It does to the invader what it did to humans, it makes them kill."
"It doesn't make sense for a species to kill it's own." Sam told them, "It would surely make reproduction difficult."
"Worms are hermaphroditic. It can reproduce by itself."
"No sex?" Sam asked smirking
"No time for sex" Dana told her "Look at the evidence in the microscope." Dana was smiling now "This thing does not like company."
"So the way to kill it is to introduce another worm into the already infected body?"
"And I think I know how we can test it." They watch as dog in the cage started shaking until it grows quieter and lays down whimpering. Without waiting for the OK from anyone else Hodge opens the door and to take the dog's heartbeat with a stethoscope.
"He seems OK" Hodge ran a hand over the dog's fur, the animal seemed a little subdued compared to other dogs she'd known but Dana had to agree that the animal certainly alive and they'd found some dog food and served it up.
"I think our theory might be correct" Dana agreed as she looked at the animal "but I think we ought to keep an eye on the animal before we think about doing the same to Nancy."
"I also want to be sure she really is infected, if we put it into her and she's not."
"We need to get close enough to her to examine her and then I think we might need to re-examine each other just to be on the safe side."
"Well as I have no idea how she would have been infected as Murphy didn't bleed I think you might be right . If this thing has the ability to get in through more than just blood we will all need to check each other here and then do it again when we've left."
Sam who'd been letting the medical professionals do all the talking spoke up then "Well I did tell them we had a biological hazard so they should come with a full team to cover us." She stood and stretched "I'm going to try the radio again and see if they have a better idea of when we might be picked up"
"Good idea" when Sam had left them Hodge sighed nervously
"We might all have to go into quarantine after this is over. I'm not sure what we're going to tell people about this."
"Welcome to my world" Dana smiled at him "I've seen some strange things since I started working with Agent Mulder" Dana related what she could of the Eurisko case, it had been a very public affair and though she couldn't release certain information it was certainly interesting, Sam returned
"Still at least forty-eight hours till they can come get us" she ran a hand over her eyes "I'm going to try get some more sleep"
"Good idea" Dana agreed
"I'm going to stay awake a bit longer" Hodge told them his eyes on the dog "Just to keep an eye on him"
"OK" Dana looked at him nervously "You won't go in to see Nancy until we're all together will you?"
"No, I promise."
Scully barely felt like she's fallen asleep when there was another knock at her door, this time she pulled on her shoes and coat before grabbing her gun and pulling the dresser away from the door "Hodge?" the man held a beaker in his hand
"The dog passed these in his stool" she blinked at him and noticed that he looked haggard "Did you try to sleep at all?"
"I couldn't with Nancy locked up like that" he held up the beaker again "But look he passed the worms, dead!"
"I'm coming" Dana almost decided not to bother Sam but she was aware that although Hodge was acting normal if he changed she'd need back up and so she knocked on her door. They all trooped together down to the lab and whilst Dana and Hodge did the testing Sam said she'd go and check on Nancy. The two scientists examined the new samples and rechecked the dog who now seemed friendly and jumped up to meet them it's long tongue licking at them. To be on the safe side both avoided the tongue but petted the animal and were careful as they drew blood to test.
"He's completely clear" Scully said surprised but pleased "It looks like we've got a cure"
Hodge looked relieved and despite the exhaustion they both felt Dana knew they were invigorated by this new knowledge. "I need to know she's actually infected before I do this"
Dana took Hodge's hand "I understand, if it were Sam in there I'd feel the same way"
"She's become calm while she's in there, there's been no further attacks out here. We might all be clear."
"As Murphy was infected there's a chance she was just attacked and fought back but without more testing and more time we can't know without more."
"We need to examine her again" he agreed "If I can just talk to her let her know everything's OK."
"If she'll listen, if not we may have to sedate her in order to…" there was a crash from the other room followed by shouting. Jumping to their feet Hodge and Dana ran towards the noise Dana pulling her gun as she went. When they arrive don't he scene the door that had locked Nancy away had been forced open and Sam was rolling on the floor with Nancy fighting frantically.
"Get the worm" Hodge commanded and joined the fray, Dana did as she was told and ran out of the room, when she returned Sam and Hodge were holding Nancy down as she screamed that it wasn't what they thought.
"Come on Dana!" Sam yelled struggling with the other woman "You need to do it now."
She was lying bodily across the blonde almost flat on top of her "She must have been infected when she moved Murphy's body"
Dana was about to put the parasite in Nancy when she saw the creature moving in Sam's neck, looking up she realised Hodge had seen it too. Changing tactics straight away Hodge dropped Da Silva's arm and threw himself at the FBI agent. The worm was knocked to the ground but as Sam was fighting hard and Hodge was struggling to keep her down Dana slammed herself onto her partner holding her down. Finally letting them see her anger Sam started screaming and the two of them were struggling to hold her. Da Silva looked stunned lying on the floor, she just watched the other two as they struggled with the woman trying to get her under control.
"Nancy!" Dana tried to get her attention "Damn it Nancy! Either help hold her or get the worm."
The blonde didn't move for a little while and then with shaky hands made her way to where the forceps lay and picked up the worm as it slithered across the floor. "bring it over" Still looking bewildered Da Silva followed the instruction.
"Get over here, put it in." Hodge commanded beneath them Sam was screaming, threatening to kill everyone and it was hard to hold her still.
Once again Dana found herself bodily holding someone down either her partner was a lot stronger than Dana had thought or the organism made her stronger. As the worm went in Sam screamed and then seemed to go limp, Hodge and Dana backed away and shared a look as Nancy declared "I told you" again and again. After a few moments Hodge made his way to Nancy and pulled her into his arms, Dana wanted to snap at her that she'd still killed a man but she knew the realisation and repercussions of this would catch up to her eventually.
Hodge stroked Nancy's hair whispering "It's all right. It's all over. It all stops right here. Right now." and Sam saw him carefully examining the woman's neck without her noticing. The doctors shared a look and he nodded, on the floor Sam remained still, clutching at her cross Scully prayed as she often did in times like this, no scripted prayers just the phrase 'please let her be ok' on repeat in her mind.
(m–s)
Later on when they were picked up by a full medical biohazard team Dana almost expected to see the older Mulder show up with the team. They were all examined and Sam was placed in a containment suit and wheeled into an ambulance. Dana looked at the others before climbing inside to join her. "I'm sorry we locked you up like we did Nancy, I had no idea Sam was infected."
"It's OK, I mean it's not," The woman's smile was still very brittle "But I think this has convinced me to remain in the lab in future."
"I think it's safe to say none of us suspected Sam. She didn't act all that different." Hodge placated
"I wonder if the creature was dormant in her or if she was only infected for a short time." Dana still felt a need to defend Sam
"There were plenty of times she could have been infected without our knowledge we were apart quite often" Hodge nodded in agreement "Of course, Nancy wasn't ever infected so the parasite that entered Sam must have been the reason she busted the door open and attacked her like she did."
"I am not looking forward to calling her brother." Dana admitted "We seem to end up in hospital more than any other department. She's going to be put in quarantine along with the dog. We'll keep them both there until we're sure they aren't a risk to the rest of the population."
"I hope she recovers soon" Nancy told her "Luckily, our tests came back normal"
Dana laughed to herself "It's probably a good thing she needs care or she'd be going back to the site. There's still a lot of research to be done on that things genetic structure, it's origin..."
"Well that would be impossible didn't you know?"
"Know what?"
"You were so busy with Sam I guess you didn't hear" Hodge looked apologetic "45 minutes after they evacuated us, they torched the place. There's nothing left."
"Who was it? Do you know?"
"The military? CDC...? you ought to know. They're your people."
"Probably a good thing, like I said Sam's gonna want go right back there so maybe it's better it gets left under the ice" focussing on the other two survivors she smiled "Nancy, Hodge" they shook hands "Thank you"
"It was certainly an experience" the man said "I'd say anytime but I really don't mean it."
(m–s)
Upon landing Dana saw the tall figure of Fox Mulder with the medical staff waiting for them, he strode towards her and going ahead to meet him she felt awkward "I'm so sorry" she apologised "I didn't want to bring her back like this" To her utter surprise the man leaned down and wrapping his arms around her picked her up off the ground in a crushing embrace.
"Thank you" he muttered "I read the report, without you she wouldn't be back" sure her face was bright red Dana was relieved when he put her back on the ground and turned straight to his sister on the gurney still carefully protected from the outside world.
"Hey Sammy" he knocked on the protective glass and the young woman smiled up at her brother
"Fox? You're here?" he nodded his head
"You're going to age me you know that right?"
"Well I can't think of any other way to make you stop being a big kid" her voice was weaker than usual and softened by the barrier but her usual attitude was there and it made Dana a smile
"Shut up kid" he stuck his tongue out childishly and as the medics moved their patient on he walked with it. Knowing that her partner was now well looked after Dana left them to it. She had a lot of paperwork to do and for once she couldn't force Sam to help her.
I hope this makes sense, when I first wrote it it made zero sense but I wanted to change who got infected just a bit, so Bear Murphy and Sam were the only ones infected, in my mind Murphy was infected when no one was around and was too nervous to tell, I didn't write it because I didn't want it to be too obvious that Nancy wasn't infected. I hope that was clear.
OK so Space is the next episode but I don't think it's too important and I know it's not generally thought of as one of their best episodes. Re-watching it I see why, the story is dull and the graphics are appalling so I'll probably just put in a short paragraph to cover it then we switch to fallen angel that I think could be more fun to write.