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Summary: Scully M.D. to Doggett in distress.
Episodes dialog:  Chris Carter and 1013 writers

IN OTHER CONTEXT: House Call 
ISMS ARRANGED by Mary Greten
ORIGINAL MATERIAL by Mary Greten
Many thanks to Carol A for the quick Beta.

Scully always dropped her keys on her desk and checked for messages
immediately upon her arrival home.  Then, before she left her
apartment, in reverse, she checked for messages and picked up her
keys. 

Habits her missing partner had only acquired this past year after
his near lethal lapse for Scully.  She wondered fleetingly if he still
had his cell phone with him on the alien ship.  Her nightmares
indicated he did not and she did not want to think about what else
her nightmares revealed.

Now, she had a new partner.  Tenacious down to his skeletal
structure - as his name implied, Agent John Doggett.  In a rare
moment of self disclosure to calm her, he told her that his Marine
buddies called him Bulldog.  It was accurate if not original.  

He saved her life already by not ignoring his instincts.  Now, she was
following hers.  When she rebuked him earlier for refusing to
rest, he said he had just grabbed a few winks.  His breathlessness
sounded like he had grabbed three rounds with Mike Tyson.  

Hearing the dread in Doggett's voice on her tape machine, she
immediately dialed his number.  She let the phone ring ten times or
more.  Then, she tried his cell phone in case he had left his house. 
No answer at either phone.

Her fingers tapped her desk telegraphing an uneasy feeling swelling
her stomach that had nothing to do with her pregnancy and everything
to do with an agent in probable danger.  She holstered her gun,
pocketed her flashlight and lockpick tool set and conjectured why
single agents didn't live in a single condominium for convenience
sake if nothing else.  From Washington General Hospital to Georgetown
to Falls Church.  At least Falls Church is a village, not a... well
she stopped that line of thought fast enough.
  
***

Assistant Director Skinner filled her in on Doggett's reactions
during the case.  Skinner told her about Doggett's fright when he
awoke him to take her call earlier. He also spoke to her how 
Doggett had objected to Kersh's closing the Tipit Axe Murders case
on such flimsy evidence including finding no axe. 

But, Skinner revealed more. 

"Scully, Doggett was much more than concerned.  I sensed that same
wariness in him that I felt on patrols in Nam.  That 'Charlie' was
around the bend or in the next reed patch."

The closer she got to Falls Church, the more urgent she felt the
need to be there quicker.  She dialed the code for the state troopers
to request an escort or at least let them know she was flying through.
A trooper met her at the next exit.  The local police department
took over at Falls Church.

Finally, she reached Doggett's house.  She expected the doors would be
locked.  They were.  She was ready for a Valium now.  She turned to 
the cop who followed her. 

"Check around the back," she ordered.

The veteran cop saw her reach into her pocket.  He needed no
prodding.  Scully hurriedly picked her way in.  Gun drawn, she
called out for him.  No one answered.  She checked the bottom floor,
then worked her way upstairs.  Aware that her escort would be coming
up shortly, she knew she couldn't be as forthright about her entry
as she would like and hoped Doggett wouldn't contest the issue. 

She re-holstered her gun as soon as she found him.  He was sweating 
deep in Rapid Eye Movement sleep.  This nightmare was a definite
lalapaloozer, a humzinger.  

"Agent Doggett,"  Scully called from the bedroom doorway.

Doggett began to move his head side to side while the rest of him
remained rigid.

Scully moved closer.  "Agent Doggett?" she said louder.

Quickly, she moved to the side of the bed and pressed the mattress
near his shoulder with her hand.  

"Agent Doggett," she repeated firmly.

That did it.  Doggett awoke shaking and steadied himself by
slightly raising himself on his elbows.

"Hi," Scully whispered.

"How'd you get here?"

"Your door was unlocked."  

He didn't press her.

"You saved my life, Agent Scully,"  his voice trembled.

"I just woke you up, Agent Doggett," Scully smiled weakly.

"Tipet's in my dreams.  If you hadn't woken me up just now..."

"Anthony Tipet is dead.  I got the call from Skinner on my 
way over here.  He never regained consciousness."  

Doggett absorbed the information, then remembered Scully just got out
of the hospital.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I seem to be, yes."

"Well, if you need some more time off... "

"No. I'm, um... I'm back at work now.  That must have been 
some nightmare you just had."

"Tipet thought he'd find God by looking in the darkness inside
himself."

"You don't think he succeeded?"

"In my dreams, I see... I saw terrible... violent images that... 
scared the living daylights out of me.  These things are a part of
me. I can't deny that, but... maybe... maybe they didn't come from
me."

"Then, where'd they come from?"

Doggett had no answer to give her.

"It was a bad dream, Agent Doggett, but that's all it was."

As Doggett processed her diagnosis, he noticed the uniform in the
door frame.

"Who is he?"

"One of your co-rescuers.  He and a trooper got me here fast when you
didn't answer your phones."

"I know you are a medical doctor, Agent Scully, but I don't buy your
diagnosis.  Not when you drove like a bat out of hell,  excuse the
expression, to get here."

Scully's right eyebrow arched.  Few people argued with her when she
went into doctor mode.  

"Officer, if Agent Doggett is arguing with me I think he is out of
immediate danger.  If you need me to tend to any paper work, here is
my card.  Call me and I'll come as soon as I can.  Thank you for you
help."

The officer took her card which he recognized as more a professional
IOU than a piece of information. 
  
"Happy to oblige, Agent.  Good Day."  He tipped his hat.

Scully pulled a chair up to Doggett's bed.

"You don't look as gray as you did a few minutes ago.  You almost
matched your shirt."

Doggett made a move to get up.

"Stay down, Agent Doggett," Scully barked like a drill sergeant, "I
don't know what your blood pressure is.  I am going to feel your
forehead.  And your hands."

She took out her flashlight.  "I'm going to check your eyes." 

"So, you do carry one of those."

"Shh!  Right eye.  Look up.  Roll the eye.   Left eye, now.  Roll. 
look up."

She leaned back, folded her arms and stared at him.

"What?" he queried nervously.

"Your skin doesn't feel clammy.  No sign of a fever.  Eyes clear. 
Pulse regular and normal."

"Can I get up now?"

"No.  If you want me to believe you, you have to tell me what made
you nearly jump out of your skin when Skinner roused you yesterday
and what did when I came in?" 

"No propositioning here, but you might want to lay down for this."

"Try me."

"Dropping your dismembered head and swinging an axe at your head
while you slept."

"Whoo!  I take no offense, but please talk to Karen Kosseff about 
those images.  That's an unofficial order I could get made official. 
I think you need to know the why of them more than I do."

"I read you, Agent Scully."

"Good.  But, why did you say I saved your life if you were swinging
at my head?" 
  
"Because, I couldn't, wouldn't kill you.  So, I turned the blade
around and swung up at myself.  You woke me mid-swing.  I have no
doubt that in one more second you would have found me with my head
split open."  

Scully nodded, pursed her lips and pondered a course of action. 

"To be on the safe side, I'll order a tox screen for any traces
of that 'super amphetamine' as Skinner described it.  You may have
absorbed some through your skin.  Then, I'll check you into a
sleep clinic.  We need to have a neurologist present during REM
sleep analyzing the read-outs to detect any anomalous second
presences.  The technicians will wake you late in REM sleep so you
can describe what you were dreaming to them." 

After eighteen years as a marine, Doggett recognized a higher
jurisdiction when he saw one.  More than that, if he truly wanted to
be free of Tibet's influence, her's was the path to follow.

"I agree to all of it,"  he said.

Doggett feigned an original thought, "Do you suppose that it
was a bad dream, Agent Scully, but that's all it was?"  

Scully almost grinned.

"I think you're right, Agent Doggett.  To ease your mind though, I'll
phone in the hallway for appointments while you take a hot shower
and dress.  Move it.  Daylight's burning."

"Use a chair while you make those calls, Agent Scully.  And, that is
an order."
~~~~~
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