A/N: Anyone interested in a POV other than Scully's? Me too... A little change up. As always, I love reviews. ;)
I made my way back across the large hospital campus to the emergency department only to find that Mulder had been transferred to a regular room. The nurse told me that Mulder had been asking for me and for, "some guy named Skinner. Said he should have been with the Skinner guy in some other state and you should be home where he told you stay. He sounded kinda controlling, really. Are you sure you're okay with seeing him?"
I was more than concerned at this revelation, but smiled at the nurse nonetheless. "Yeah I'm sure, he's going to want answers. He can try all he wants to keep me at home, but I'm really the one who wears pants." The nurse looked at me like I had grown a third eyeball and I turned toward the main building again.
From what the nurse had said, it seemed Mulder's encounter with Krycek had done the trick to bring this ridiculous dissociative fugue to an end. I just hoped he remembered something of our last week together. If only so I could berate him some more for wanting to quit.
I knocked softly on the hospital room door, much as I had a week ago, I was met once again with a smile from Mulder. But, this time he was on the phone. At Mulder's nod, I came into the room, closed the door behind me and leaned against it, not wanting to seem to intrude on his call. From Mulder's end of the conversation I deduced he was talking with Skinner. During a long pause in his contributions, Mulder eyed me while listening to whatever Skinner was saying to him. His gaze lingered on my breasts as he unconsciously, I hoped, ran his tongue quickly over his upper lip. I crossed my arms in a meaningful manner and gave him a dirty look.
He continued his appraisal with a shrug of his good shoulder, but stopped short, eyes widening considerably as he took in the view below my crossed arms. He glanced sharply at my face, chin tucked in and eyebrows raise in question. I let the answer to show in my face with a small smile as I relaxed my abdominal muscles, allowing the fullness of my belly free reign, and swept a hand over the resultant curve.
"What was that, sir?" Mulder jerked his attention back to the phone call, but his gaze strayed back to me, well my waistline at any rate. "Sure, she's standing right here, I'll let her know."
With a few more quick exchanges, Mulder set the phone down, but didn't speak again, just stared. I was beginning to feel decidedly uncomfortable with his scrutiny and cleared my throat. Mulder shook himself a bit, grimaced at the pain it no doubt cause in his arm and opened his mouth only to shut it again abruptly.
"Hi to you too," I said sarcastically and his eyes finally returned to my face. "I gather that was AD Skinner. What are you supposed to tell me?"
Mulder blinked several times as if trying to recall the message he was given just seconds before. "Call Skinner. Kersch is pissed, wants you and someone named Doggett back in DC."
I rolled my eyes so hard they nearly fell out of my head. "Well, Mulder, I think you're not in any condition to relay such and important message. You must have forgotten to tell me."
"Skinner did just lay a whole lot of information on me at one time. But, I think maybe he might have left something rather important out. Speaking of conditions, that is."
I took the few steps necessary to reach the chair by his bedside and sank into it. "Skinner is sworn to secrecy," I said. I took Mulder's good hand. He didn't resist, but he didn't make a move to return the gesture, so I let it go again and sat back.
"I thought you gave up, Scully." His tone was flat with no emotion, completely unreadable. This time he was shocked. Not surprising considering he now had the full back story and could better appreciate the implications.
"You told me not to," I replied with a shy smile. I couldn't believe I was feeling shy, yet again.
Mulder's tone was still flat, eyes hooded as he looked away and down at something he seemed to find fascinating on the rough hospital blanket that covered him. "So, I did. I guess I have to start believing in miracles now."
"Well, if you don't on my account, you might on your own. Have they had a neurologist in to see you?" I asked, wanting to change the subject before the apprehensive atmosphere became unbearable.
His eyes snapped back to me finally, but he adopted a sheepish look. "No, I know what they're going to tell me. I suppose you know now too?"
I sighed and ran fingers through my hair. I was beginning to feel rather aggravated that he had kept his condition from me.
"Well, no Mulder, you don't know what they're going to tell you. And yes, I know, I reviewed your medical records shortly after..." I faltered a bit at having to reopen the wound of Mulder's deception. Aggravation was turning to anger as I remembered what he had put me through. "Shortly after you were taken. Agent Doggett brought them to my attention shortly before your headstone arrived at headquarters."
He had the decency to look slightly ashamed, but my temper was well and lit by this time. I vacated the chair so that I could turn away from him. I didn't want to look him.
"Why in the hell didn't you tell me, Mulder? I could have helped. I at least could have been there for you. You left me in the dark. When I was sick, I was honest with you. You could have returned that respect."
I glanced over my shoulder at him and only then realized I hadn't told him the most important thing. "You're not dying, Mulder. Whatever they did to you... And I don't what that is. But, your EEGs have come back normal, there's absolutely nothing wrong with you."
The silence in the room behind me was so deafening, I could have sworn Mulder had disappeared into thin air. Of course, when I turned back to him, he was still there. Silent and still as a statue, staring at the fading scars on his wrist. He finally spoke.
"Aren't you going to tell me that's medically impossible, Dr. Scully?"
"Mulder, there are countless things that you have shown me that I would have considered medically impossible." I put a hand to my belly, thinking of the impossibility of my own situation. "You've shown me that impossible and improbable are far from the same thing."
Mulder caught my gesture and smiled, but his eyes held a depth of regret, maybe even sadness. I went to him again and pressed a quick kiss to his forehead.
"For what its worth, I'm glad you're not dying."
He looked up at me, with the same look still on his face. "I think I'm glad too. I had resigned myself to it and thought I was ready for it. I wanted my time left to be good, well spent. And..." He closed his eyes tight for a moment, but opened them again. "And I wanted you to move on, Scully, stop this roller coaster ride of the X-Files. You've made a step toward that, and I'm glad. I'm happy for you." But his eyes told me he wasn't happy at all and my heart seemed sink into the pit of my stomach with a thud.
"I'm not moving on, Mulder. There's still work to be done and I need your help to do it. Doggett was assigned to the X-Files after royally pissing off Kersch. Doggett's a good cop, but he's bullheaded and doesn't believe a damn thing."
"Getting a taste of your medicine, Scully?" I might have slapped him, but the smile finally reached his eyes with his sarcasm. It heartened me and the nausea I had begun to feel at Mulder's confession of his readiness to die eased a bit.
"Yeah, I guess I have. But, Doggett doesn't get to replace me as resident pain in your ass just yet. We're close Mulder. I can feel it."
A knock came at the door and Agent Doggett hesitated in the threshold. He carried my bag with him and set it down as he entered the room. Mulder looked up at him, face a blank unreadable mask.
"Agent Doggett, I presume," Mulder said dryly with a nod of acknowledgment.
"Agent Mulder," Doggett nodded back, obviously uncomfortable with having a man he'd talked with on several occasions seem to meet him for the first time. "How's the arm?"
The mask Mulder had put on was beginning to dissolve and I didn't like the look that was forming. I had seen it all too many times: insolence mixed with defensiveness and a little arrogance thrown in for flavor. "So, you're the agent assigned to my partner. How's that working out for you? And what did you do to piss Kersch off so badly to get a detail like the X-Files?"
Doggett was obviously surprised at being so addressed, but rallied admirably. "Well, it seems I can't scratch my ass with out ticking off the Deputy Director and I don't mind the detail so much. I'm learning a lot and getting some interesting insight. But, I just came by to drop off Agent Scully's bag." Doggett turned to me and handed me a small envelope with a key card. "I booked you a room at the hotel a few blocks down. I'm gonna head over."
Doggett turned back to Mulder and was amazingly polite. "Good to have you back with your memory this time, Agent Mulder." Doggett turned on his heel and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"You should go with him, Scully. You probably have case files to go over." Mulder's look was cold, but reserved and the nausea returned.
"Are you asking me to leave, Mulder?" I asked, not really wanting an answer, but needing for him to actually say that wanted me to go.
"Yeah, I am. You should get some rest. Take care of that..." he nodded at my midsection and swallowed. "Take care of that baby of yours."
"Mulder its not..." I began but was immediately cut off.
"Go, Scully. Just go."
So, I did. Anger and rejection beginning a slow burn in my chest, I picked up my bag and left the room, striding purposefully down the hallway and trying to ignore the growing fire that had ignited with Mulder's dismissal. I caught up with Doggett who was waiting on the elevator. He was looking down at his shoes, hands in his pockets and gave me a sideway glance as I stepped up next to him. Neither of us spoke until the elevator had emptied of its passengers and we stepped on. Agent Doggett looked me full in the face, his usual hard features softened.
"Agent Scully, I uh, I don't mean to presume here, but I think I got a good read on you and Mulder. It was a little on the tense side in there and I just, uh. Well, look, I can keep a confidence and if you wanted someone to unload on, I can take it."
The hesitance in his words didn't at all take away from their sincerity and I was grateful. I was also surprised at my desire to fall apart all over him and allow him to pick up the pieces. I obviously wasn't feeling at all myself. Looking at him, I could feel tears start to prick at my eyes, I quickly looked away and bit into my lower lip to keep it from trembling. With a deep breath, I replied,
"Thank you, Agent Doggett. I appreciate the offer, but there's simply no time right now."
He nodded his head slowly and returned to matters concerning our case.
"Well, I know its late, but there's a great sandwich shop not too far from here. I can't come to Pittsburgh and miss out on it. How 'bout I grab us a bite and you can fill me in on the long story about your last meeting with Alex Krycek."
This was entirely agreeable to me. He had to know what kind of side operation I was running. No more secrets. Well, mostly no more secrets, for now. He also needed to know how deep this particular rabbit hole went, for the sake of preparation. I still held the envelope Doggett had given me, containing two key cards. I handed him one of them and said,
"If you're talking about Primanti Brothers, you have a deal. Come on up to my room and I'll tell you as much as I can about the assignment Krycek gave me."
I shed most of my clothing upon entering my hotel room and was intent on taking a much needing shower. But, I needed to get the information Krycek had given me out for Doggett's review and to put together an email to the Gunmen. Having strong faith in their abilities and their speed, the task of tracking down the women on the list would take a fraction of the time in their hands.
Having composed and sent the email, I sat back in the chair at the tiny desk provided as, what the hotel was pleased to call, a work station. I had just made up my mind to get up and into the shower when my laptop dinged to alert me to an instant message. Frohike was working late and had questions, which I did my best to answer considering the limits of my own knowledge.
Agent Doggett cautiously knocked on the door of room 214. He waited a few seconds, but didn't hear anything from inside the room. Shrugging and fished the key Agent Scully had given him out of his back pocket. He was hesitant to use it, but she had given it to him. He had pondered the meaning of that during his sojourn to the restaurant, but had abandoned it. Shaking his head in an attempt to dispel the thoughts that had come unbidden to him, he pushed down the handle of the door, opening it slowly.
"Agent Scully?" he called, still not in the room and with the door halfway open, braced on his shoulder. The last thing he wanted to do was walk in on her in a state of undress. She'd probably kick is ass from here back to DC. She wasn't too shy in that locker room earlier... he heard his thought distinctly and imagined it had come from a devil sitting on his left shoulder.
He received no reply and entered the room, looking around, but didn't see his red haired partner anywhere. The sound of the shower running came to him and he felt his blood rise, the normally quiet process of his circulatory system suddenly making itself acutely known with thumping heart and pounding pulse.
"Christ, man, get it under control. Acting like a damn teenager." Doggett scolded himself. The door of the bathroom was ajar and he leaned, back against the wall so as to obstruct his view and called out to Scully again,
"Hey, Scully, I'm here, but I can go and come back later if you want... If you would rather I... That is, if you need more time."
An echoing reply from his unseen interlocutor filtered through the steamy atmosphere. "Start with the file on the bed. I'll be finished here in a minute."
Doggett made his way to the bed and rifled through the papers there. It was a list of names, dates, and other particulars. Leafing through them, he came across a familiar name: Scully, Dana K. This intrigued Doggett quite a bit. It seemed his new partner kept strange company. His attention was distracted from the papers in his hands when the laptop on the desk made a dinging sound. Doggett made his way over to the computer, squinting to see the screen. There was a message box flashing with a new IM from someone using the screen name JFByers.
JFByers: Scully, I just got the scoop from Frohike. Does this mean what I think it means?
The laptop dinged again and another message appeared in the same box.
JFByers: Scully? You there?
Doggett muttered a sarcastic, "no," and another chat box caught his attention. This one was a conversation between SAScully and KungfuNinja. Doggett looked surreptitiously at the bathroom door, noted the water still running and scrolled to the top of the message box. It wasn't a long exchange, but it certainly pique his curiosity about this KungfuNinja.
KungfuNinja: G-woman, just got your email. You just need current addresses?
SAScully: Yes, for now. I may need you to find medical records at some point, but I'd like to talk with them before I violate their privacy.
KungfuNinja: Regular spoilsport, you are. Census and SSA data is easy-peasy... Medical records on the other hand, that's fun stuff.
SAScully: Keep your pants on, shorty. Just addresses for now. You can have your geek fun later.
KungfuNinja: You spend too much time with Mulder. You used to be nice. I'll have something for you in the morning.
SAScully: You might earn yourself another kiss.
KunfuNinja: I think my heart stopped, Dr. Scully.
SAScully: You're out of luck, I'm in Pittsburgh. Get to work!
KungfuNinja: Worse than Mulder...
The sounds of running water coming from the bathroom ceased and Doggett tore his attention away from the odd conversation. He strode back the few feet to the bed and sat down with the list of names, looking at them, but not seeing. His mind was busy surmising that Scully had been talking to her hacking source, or sources, there seemed to be two people in on this.
Scully emerged from the tiny hotel bathroom clad in long knit pants, a t-shirt and a robe that looked like it probably had belonged to a much larger man at some point. The towel perched a top her head hid her flaming locks and Doggett was practically entranced. Kersch had to pair him with this most intriguing and beautiful agent at a time when his loneliness was threatening to get the better of him.
His thoughts were pulled back to the case at hand when Scully hesitantly began an explanation of her meeting with Krycek and its significance to the case.
"I've known for quite sometime there are others who were experimented on as part of a secret project. It seems that strange and impossible things have begun happening to those women. Krycek said they need protection. But, how? Before I worry about the how, though, I need to find them. I've enlisted the help of a source. The same people who hacked into the NRO, FBI, and NASA systems to life those satellite images," Scully concluded. She looked at Doggett with an eyebrow arched as if waiting for a barrage of questions from him.
"So I was right, then. You are in danger because of what was done to you in the past. If you're supposed to be protecting those other women, who's gonna protect you?" Agent Doggett peered at Scully who obviously hadn't come to the realization that she, herself, may need the protection she was about to offer others. Scully didn't offer a response beyond a negligible shrug of her shoulders. So, Doggett continued,
"And what kind of strange and impossible things are happening? Are we in the realm of the supernatural here, Agent Scully?"
Scully stood, turned her back on Agent Doggett, and began unwinding the towel covering her wet hair. "Only supernatural in the sense that our science has no way of explaining it."
"Scully," Doggett insisted, "what's happening to them?"
She didn't turn to face him for fear that her face would give way to the emotions that threatened to bubble to the surface, but responded while rubbing the white linen over her moisture curled hair. "They, like me, were left barren after the experiments done on them. But, according to Alex Krycek, they've miraculously become pregnant. I have to find them and speak with them and..."
Doggett interrupted, "and try to figure out how their infertility was reversed?"
Scully finally turned to look at her partner, to find a movingly sympathetic look on his rugged features. "I am interested in how. But, what I really need to know is why? The genetic material that was taken from us was used in a project to create hybrids." A distinct shadow crossed Scully's countenance, her thoughts turning to the daughter she had know too briefly. "The project failed and was exposed by Agent Mulder. The men who spearheaded all of these secret programs are dead. I'm under no illusions about the nature of the research that was done. It was brutal, unjust, and has ruined people's lives. But, why are we being given back what was taken from us?"
Scully's use of we didn't go unnoticed and puzzle pieces seemed to click together in Agent Doggett's mind. The picture that was becoming clearer left him with a hollow feeling in the his gut. Not to mention even more concerned for his partner's safety. He still buy into the alien colonization of the planet stuff, but he more than believed in the capacity of men to do evil deeds.
"I'm guessing the answer isn't altruistic good will," Doggett intoned with a touch of sarcasm. "But, I think in this case, the how might just lead us to the why. Let's start with the cancer curing chip," but Doggett thought better of talking through the information at hand right then and there. If the puzzle pieces were giving him an accurate picture, and his gut was telling him it was, he should wrap it up for the night. "Scratch that. Its been a long day, I'm beat. We should start with clear heads in the morning."
He had made the right call. Agent Scully's shoulders slumped in relief and she nodded her head in agreement. She was still beautiful, but with out the tricks of make-up Doggett could see the shadows around her eyes. Her work on the X-Files had put her through hell and she kept persisting. Doggett seemed to find something new to admired about Dana Scully every day. What he didn't appreciate was the secrecy and sidestepping of the truth.
Doggett had turned to go, but spun around on his heel and took the few necessary steps to reach Scully.
"Agent Scully," he began, and tried to tone down his demanding nature at the look of near alarm on her face. He stood, rooted to the spot, mouth open.
The look of alarm faded from Scully's face and she stared back.
"Yes, Agent Doggett?"
He couldn't help it, he went with gratitude hoping to illicit guilt. "I'm glad you're sharing things with me now. Its good to have all the information I need so that I can do my best to always have your back."
It worked. Scully broke eye contact with him and turned away from her partner.
"Good night, Agent Dogget."
...
