The flight to Pittsburgh was a quick one, thank God. Mulder had at least given up scowling or attempting to change my mind. I had to get him in the field with me. I had allowed myself complacency where his condition was concerned and things had gone entirely too far. My urgency for Mulder to snap out of it was back in a big way. But, I wasn't handling well. We sat next to each other on the plane, not speaking, not even touching in the tiny confines of our airline seats. Our last exchange hadn't ended well.
Mulder had been trying to talk to me out of meeting Doggett and investigating Ray Hoese's disappearance a reappearance. I had tried convincing him that was in his best interest that we find out as much as we could.
"Mulder, for God's sake! Hoese disappeared at the same time as you and was a multiple abductee. Surely you see the significance here. If Ray can tell us anything, anything at all, about where he's been, we can get a break in figuring this out."
He looked at me, nonplussed, but then rolled his eyes. "Scully, if we haven't been able to figure this out and bring anybody to justice in the last, what? Seven years? What makes you think this is going to be any different? You can't really believe that doing the same thing over and again will bring about different results."
So, I lost my cool. I didn't really think I had resented him for the insane journey we had been on. We had made progress, we had solved unsolvable cases. We had uncovered truths, exposed lies and been in danger a thousand times. I'm still amazed that the government kept paying our health insurance premiums. Perhaps I did harbor some resentment and it showed, loud and clear.
"I spent those seven years following you around listening to your crazy theories and banging my head against a wall trying to get you to see reason. Now, its your turn to follow me!"
Those were the last words we spoke in the car on the way to the airport, through the airport, boarding the plane and sitting next to each other in the cramped space. I was tempted to take the aisle seat just to make him suffer, crammed into the space between me and the window.
The next time we spoke, Mulder was nudging me awake, telling me we would land soon. My conscious mind was upset with him, but I found that in sleep, I had still turned to him, head on his shoulder. At some point, as I dozed, he had taken my hand in his.
I gave his hand a light squeeze and said, "Mulder, I'm..."
"I know, Scully," he interrupted and returned the squeeze. "Me too."
As soon as I was able, I called Agent Doggett to get an update on Ray Hoese's condition. It wasn't very positive: wounds on the face, wrists, abdomen, and in the oral cavity. I could tell Mulder's ears had perked up at that. They were the same wounds he had suffered. But there was a drastic difference. Ray Hoese was in and out of consciousness and having violent seizures.
It wasn't anything I had encountered in hearing hundreds of abduction stories. Once again, the only connection was the anomalous brain activity Hoese and Mulder had had in common. Mulder's miraculously disappeared. Hoese's, it appeared, was much worse.
"In what condition was he found? How did he end up at the hospital?" I inquired.
Agent Doggett sighed in response and confirmed my suspicions. "He just showed up at this Butler Memorial Hospital. No one can tell me exactly when or who brought him in. Hoese himself isn't with it enough to say much of anything except ask after his wife and baby. As to his condition, much the same as it is now. They transferred Mr. Hoese to UPMC in the city. He should already be there. You're closer than I am right now, but I'm not far behind."
Mulder and I arrived at the large hospital complex and began our search for someone who could give information on the whereabouts of Ray Hoese. We finally made it to the right floor and the right nurse's station. I assigned Mulder the task of finding the doctor who had been treating Ray Hoese while I made my way down the short corridor to the room a nurse indicated. I was met at the door way by a familiar yet startling face. Krycek came out of the room, took one look at me, scowled and grabbed me by the upper arm.
"You shouldn't be here," he hissed at me. "This man isn't your concern. I'm taking care of this."
I tried to extricate myself from his surprisingly rigid grip and failed. I hissed back, "This most certainly is my concern. Deputy Hoese disappeared at the same time and place as Mulder." Krycek's response startled me. He pushed against the opposite wall of the hallway and loomed over me. I cursed the lack of my usual height boosting heels. But the height differential afforded me a good look at what he carried under his affected arm: a clear box full of syringes containing an amber colored liquid.
"Listen, Scully, you do your part, I'll do mine. Is that clear? We can't keep showing up at the same places at the same time." Krycek was entirely too close and whispered the last bit into my ear. "People will get suspicious."
I jerked under his grasp, once again to no avail. "What's in those syringes," I nodded at the box. "And who is going to get suspicious?" I gave him an icy glare indicating I expected answers. I also managed to move a hand towards my weapon, but Krycek was pushing me against the wall too hard for me grasp the butt of the gun.
"I don't have time right now. Stay out of my way and call off your Doggett, got it?" Krycek leaned even closer so that we were nose to nose. He gave a soft chuckle and said, "damn, Mulder is a lucky son of a bitch." Before I could register what he had said his mouth was on mine, practically bruising in my lips in his attempts to gain access.
From the other end of the hallway I heard a bellowing, "hey! You! What the hell..." I gave an almighty shove off the wall and sent Krycek backwards, slightly off balance. I reached for my weapon and was seriously considering shooting him when Mulder's voice rang out again, closer, "Krycek, you bastard!"
Krychek's head snapped around and he let out a heartfelt, "oh shit!" Before taking off, sprinting down the hallway. Mulder took off after him and they disappeared around a corner, feet thundering and sneakers squeaking on the linoleum floor. I let out my own oath in the form of a quick short, "shit!"
Doggett appeared from the direction Mulder had come. "Agent Scully, what's all the shouting about?" He caught sight of my weapon in my hand and made to drawn his own. I put a hand up to stop him and re-holstered the gun at my back. Doggett hurried toward me. I was anxious to be gone and search for Krycek and Mulder, but needed to convey at least some information first.
"Get a doctor in there! Hoese may have been injected with something." I practically shouted at Doggett and the nurse who was on his heels. The nurse ran into the room that Krycek had exited and began checking vitals. Doggett immediately snapped into action with an, "oh shit," of his own. He turned on his heel and was halfway down the hall in what seemed like an instant shouting for, "a doctor, dammit!"
I took out at a dead run in the opposite direction, after Mulder and Krycek. I turned the corner I had seen them take to see a T at the end of that hallway. I thought I knew where Krycek was headed and briefly consulted the arrow signs before sprinting off again. At the next corner, I nearly crashed into a tall blond woman. I was about to give her a cursory apology and take off again when she grabbed my sleeve and addressed me.
"Agent Scully, I've been looking for you." The blond said in hushed, husky tone.
I was startled and began a question, "who the hell-" but thought better of it. "Now isn't a good time." I made to leave but she stopped me short again.
"I'm tasked with keeping tabs on Alex Krycek. I have reason to believe..." She had my attention, but I needed to be gone.
"If you're keeping tabs on Krycek you should know my parter is about to kill him," I barked at her.
"Agent Doggett? Why?" Her voice rose in pitch with surprise.
"No, Mulder," I corrected her.
She looked bewildered and said, "Oh shit."
I rolled my eyes. "That seems to be the consensus, come on!" And we both took off in the direction of the parking garage.
