Title: Explosion 1/1 (okay, I hate thinking up titles :P)
Author: Katherine Scully
Rating: PG
Email: dolphin_66th(@)hotmail.com or webmaster(@)muse_tails.zzn.com(nyahh
nyahh, Yahoo groups!)
Category: Challenge response
Archive: sure, just let me know where.
Disclaimer: The X-Files and all related characters are property of Chris
Carter and 1013 productions.
Note: This is the author’s response to TWO challenges posted to the SHODDS
list: the
Scully-wakes-up-in-hospital-not-knowing-if-Doggett-is-dead-or-alive-and-has-only\
-just-realized-her-feelings-for-him-challenge
and the First Kiss challenge.
Explosion
By Katherine Scully
Abandoned Warehouse
New York City
Monday, 7:29 p.m.
“Doggett, this is crazy.” Special Agent Dana Scully had a bad feeling about
this. While it wasn’t all that late, it was cold and dark and she had a
feeling that the abandoned building that loomed before them wasn’t all that
abandoned.
“He’s in there, Scully,” Doggett returned. “The trail led right to him.”
“I know, Doggett, that’s *why* I have a bad feeling. I think it’s a trap.
It’s too easy.”
“You’re almost as paranoid as your partner sometimes, you know that, Scully?
It’s easy. All we have to do is go in there and get the sonofabitch
before he kills that girl.”
“Doggett, at least wait for backup. Please!” there was a desperate edge to
her voice but the determined way he set his jaw made Scully realize that he
hadn’t heard a word of her pleading. He took off towards the building,
moving at a dead run.
“Doggett!” she yelled, hoping he’d listen to sense and turn around, and wait
for their backup to arrive. He didn’t, and was inside the building.
“You’re as stubborn as Mulder, you fool,” she muttered as she took off
towards the building.
The force of the sudden explosion caught Scully by surprise and knocked her
to the ground. The last thought that passed through her mind was the
terrified realization that it was the building Doggett had just entered that
had just exploded.
<><><>
There was a light off in the distance, she could hear someone calling her.
A familiar voice and welcome one, but not Doggett. She couldn’t hear
Doggett. For some reason this seemed strange to her. Why couldn’t she hear
him?
The blackness was fading to gray as she approached the light at the end of
the tunnel. Then it was a glaring white, but after a moment the glare died
off some and she was able to focus on the hospital lights above her.
Hospital? Her mind questioned. Then the explosion flashed across her mind,
the worry about Doggett. She tried to speak but found she could not; it was
the oxygen mask on her face.
“Easy, now.” A man in a suit and white lab coat said to her, removing the
oxygen mask from her face. The doctor who had treated her injuries, she
presumed. “Don’t try to talk too quickly. The anaesthetic we gave you
during surgery is still wearing off,” he said. She nodded and the room
swam. She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. She turned
her head to see Assistant Director Skinner, and the three Lone Gunmen at her
bedside. Where was Doggett? Shouldn’t he be here? She tried to say his
name but couldn’t form the words. Skinner greeted her with a smile… his was
the voice she had heard calling to her in the blackness of her mind.
“Sir,” she managed to croak out after a minute. Her voice was hoarse.
“Welcome back to the land of the living, Agent Scully,” Skinner said with a
smile.
“Doggett?” she croaked. Skinner and the Gunmen exchanged quick glances, and
Skinner’s face saddened. “What?” she asked.
“Scully, Agent Doggett was hurt pretty badly in the explosion. He’s in the
ICU in critical condition.”
“Can I see him?” she asked immediately. Skinner shook his head.
“Not yet. Doc says you’ll be able to soon, but he wants to do a full
assessment of how you’re doing before he’ll let you up,” he said. She
nodded again… the room didn’t move, this time. The doctor came over to her
and did a quick examination.
“I think you’ll be just fine, Agent Scully, but before we try walking I
think you should stick to the wheelchair for a couple of days. I’ll have
one brought in,” he said. She nodded and leaned back against the pillow, as
the doctor left in search of a nurse. She let her thoughts drift to John…
Agent Doggett. She wondered why, just now, it was so easy to think of him
as John. It felt perfectly natural.
The idea of him being critically injured scared her. What if he died?
Skinner hadn’t told her anything more about Doggett and didn’t seem to be
willing to volunteer any more information. She couldn’t bear the thought of
losing Doggett too; Mulder was gone, without Doggett she and William were
alone in the world. Yeah, she had her mom but her mom wouldn’t be around
for ever. Melissa was gone, killed by that rat bastard Krycek and his buddy
Luis Cardinal, she was sure of it. How else would Krycek have known so much
about the death of her sister? It was supposed to have been her who died,
not Melissa. But she hadn’t, and now she was faced with the distinct
possibility of losing Doggett, too.
That thought hurt more than anything. It hurt more than Mulder’s abduction.
More than Skinner’s being shot. More than all the times collectively that
Mulder had run off and ditched her.
*God, please… don’t let him die,* she prayed silently. *I love him.* The
realization surprised her, and then it didn’t. She had begun to realize,
over the past months of working with John, that she was beginning to fall in
love with him. Now, though, she was starting to realize that she had been
in love with him for some time. Months, even… she was just scared to admit
it to herself.
Now she had, but he could just as easily die on her.
The nurse entered the room with the wheelchair, interrupting her thoughts.
She struggled into a sitting position, and Skinner and the doctor helped her
move into the chair. She gripped the IV stand and let Skinner push the
chair upstairs to the Intensive Care Unit.
They entered the room and she thanked Skinner as he parked the wheelchair
beside Doggett’s bed. Skinner nodded and left.
“Summon me with the button when you want to return to your room,” the nurse
said, pointing at the button hanging from a cord beside Doggett’s bed.
Scully nodded and the nurse left, closing the door behind her, leaving her
alone with him. She stared at his face, at the bandage on his arm and the
cast on his leg, the bandage wrapped around his head. He must have taken a
whack on the back of the head during the explosion, she thought. He could
have died.
She ran her hand along his cheek, touching his face for the first time, then
gripped his hand, raising his fingers to her lips and kissing them, feeling
her eyes fill with tears at seeing him like this. He was hurt bad. She
glanced around, then lifted the hospital gown he wore to examine his chest.
Though her heart pounded at the sight of his muscles, it was the large dark
purple (nearly black) bruise across his chest partially hidden by bandages
that alarmed her. He’d been nearly crushed by something very large, and had
several broken ribs. Something had landed on him.
Lowering the gown and covering him with the thin blanket again, she took his
hand again, running her hand along the muscles on his arm. She had once
been told that talking to people who were comatose could sometimes bring
them back if they were close enough to the surface; in any case, they could
hear you.
“John…” she wasn’t quite sure what she was going to say, just that she was
speaking from the heart. “We haven’t really known each other very long;
just a little over a year… but I’m in love with you. I’ve felt this way for
a long time, John. I’m not sure how long, even. I just recently admitted
it to myself. I love you, John Doggett. Please don’t leave me. I can’t
bear the thought of losing you.” The tears filled her eyes and the lump in
her throat was threatening to choke her.
<><><>
The nurse found her later that night asleep next to him, his hand in hers,
resting her head against his shoulder. Gently, the nurse shook her awake.
“Agent Scully, you need to return to your room now,” she said. Scully
nodded, and the nurse took her back to her room.
<><><>
She was beside him again the next morning when he opened his eyes. His hand
tightened in hers, he groaned, then his eyes opened slowly. He blinked in
annoyance at the sudden bright light. Scully nearly laughed with relief.
“John!” she cried. “Thank God!” it didn’t even occur to her that she’d
called him John.
“Dana,” his voice was hoarse but had never been so welcome. “You’re not
going to believe this. I had the strangest dream.”
“It wasn’t a dream, John,” she said quietly, smiling. “Anything that you
heard in there is true,” she said. He looked at her questioningly.
“You love me?” he asked. She nodded.
“Yes, John. I’ve loved you for a while now.”
“Dana…” he reached up to pull her gently down to her. He kissed her then,
long and full, on the lips. A jolt of passion went through Scully at the
touch of his lips. She closed her eyes and responded to his kiss, opening
her mouth eagerly under his. It was tentative at first, but growing with
need with each moment. Then, all too soon for either of them, it was over.
She pulled back from him and gazed into his intense blue eyes, dark with
desire.
“I love you too,” he said, smiling. She knew in that instant that he was
going to be okay.
~Finis~
