From: Erinstone1@aol.com

Shrink - Chapter 9
ErinStone1@AOL.com
Rated: R
Spoilers: none
Category: Scully/Slash
Archive: Yes-please make me aware of any final posts to a site.
Feedback: Any/all is welcome
Disclaimer: Scully and Mulder are not mine. I make no profit from this story.

Summary:  Scully decides she needs to take responsibility for her unhappiness.





'When I consider this logically it's actually quite normal. Of course I'd 
have some misdirected feelings toward Dr. Aris. She's my therapist. There's 
an illusion of intimacy between her and I, probably do to my telling her very 
personal things about myself. It can't be uncommon for a patient to feel this 
way about their therapist. I should have even expected it.'

Scully was back in her living room, on the couch, trying to sort herself out.

'And she's physically beautiful. I'm attracted to beauty. Everyone is 
attracted to beautiful people. It's human nature. In this case those 
instincts just got a little convoluted.'

'Nothing to worry about. Just chalk it up to emotional stress. It was a 
fantasy that my subconscious mind somehow tapped into. For god's sake, I was 
probably half asleep anyway.'

She picked up the recorder again along with her notebook and hit 'play'.

The next call was a solicitor wanting to know if Dr. Aris' would like an 
executive subscription to 'Psychology Today' magazine.

After that a call from a patient changing her appointment time due to a son's 
illness.

The rest were fairly mundane. Scully rewound the tape and replaced it with 
one dated April 20.

Again the music...

"You think you know me don't you?" A long pause. "You don't." Another long 
pause. "But you will doctor." The caller hung up.

A chill creeped across Scully's back.

She listened through several non-related calls and then heard the doctor's 
voice. She sat up. 

"Marlene, pledge call. Get rid of the cat. It put a live mouse in bed with me 
this morning. A most unwelcome gift. I bought it to kill the mice not deliver 
them to me still kicking."

She heard a scuffling noise in the background, then the doctor's voice 
directed away from the phone, "Yes, I'm talking about you ya furry little 
terrorist."

Then back to the answering machine.

"It may be that he's giving me commentary on the science diet I'm feeding 
him. Like he's saying, 'could you buy something that tastes a little more 
like this?' Anyway - the pledge, I need to get rid of the four-legged 
delivery boy. I urge you not to talk me out of it this time. See you soon."

Scully smiled at the recorder. 

The rest of the calls on the tape were neither the doctor nor the perp. She 
rewound the tape and replaced it with the next. It was becoming evident that 
the caller made the calls in the late evening; meaning for them to be found 
the next morning. She imagined that she'd find his voice at the beginning of 
each tape.

At the beginning of the next tape:  "Hanging up on me only makes it worse 
doctor. We'll see how well you can ignore me when I've got my dick in your 
mouth."

Scully winced. 

If the caller was being hung up on by the doctor then it was safe to assume 
he was calling her at home. He had her home number. 

He probably knew where she lived.

Scully had assumed that these calls would result in no action taken. If fact, 
she thought she'd listen to them to appease Marlene but didn't honestly 
expect the caller to be a real threat. 

This last message, however, made her believe the contrary.

She thought about Marlene's 'parts' comment. She was sure now that Marlene 
had been right. This was indeed a male caller. Even with the voice modified 
she knew that a woman just wouldn't make a call like this. It was definitely 
a man, most likely a man the doctor saw often; perhaps at his weekly 
scheduled appointment.

The first of the calls had seemed innocuous enough. These later calls however 
were disturbing. When a caller goes from simple annoyance to threatening 
actual acts of violation it was a bad sign. Normally prank callers are 
harmless. They are inherent cowards who use the phone to harass those they're 
too frightened to speak to in person. Calls are made as a form of contact 
with their desired victim and for the most part the victim is someone they're 
fond of.

These calls were escalating to something more than 'crush' calls. He was 
becoming rapidly angry. He wasn't getting what he needed from the calls 
anymore. He wasn't getting the doctor to respond to him, positively or 
negatively.

She listened through the rest of the tape. No more perp calls but there was a 
call from the doctor.

"It's me Marlene. This isn't a pledge. It's more of an observation. I'm 
wondering if you've talked to Dr. Scully before or after her appointments. I 
feel as though... well, I can't get a read on whether I'm heading in the 
right direction with her therapy. I'd be interesting in knowing what you 
think."

Scully sat back on the couch. 'So the doctor has doubts about her abilities. 
Interesting. She puts out such a confident image.'

Then she thought: 'Marlene must have known that comment was on there. Was I 
supposed to hear that?'

Then she remembered Marlene mentioning that if she erased one message she had 
to erase them all. 

'I'm reading too much into this. She's concerned about my mental health, 
nothing else.'

Scully rewound the tape and put the last one in.

"You fucking bitch." No music this time. "You saw me, I know you did." Then 
he screamed, "AND STILL you won't talk to me. How am I gonna get your 
attention doctor? What do I have to do?" 

Scully's brow furrowed. She stopped the tape and got the phone.

*************************

"Hello?"

"Marlene it's Scully."

"Dr. Scully. Any news?"

"Not yet. I should have the phone records soon. Listen Marlene, this last 
message about the Dr. Aris seeing this guy; what do you make of that?"

"I just figured he followed her and that he's some kind of nut who thinks she 
should know who he is..."

"What if she does know him?"

Marlene let it sink in. "You mean what if she knows who's making the calls?"

"Yes. What if she knows for sure who the guy is but doesn't want him caught 
for some reason?"

"Why would she do that Dr. Scully? It makes no sense."

"I wonder if she's trying to protect a client Marlene. Maybe she thinks she 
can help this guy. Maybe she doesn't think he's that dangerous. That would 
explain why she's not taking the calls seriously. And why she's not calling 
the police about the calls."

"She's mentioned to me that she thinks she knows who it is. What you're 
saying is that she knows exactly who it is?"

"That's right. Maybe she thinks he's harmless."

"I listened to those calls Dr. Scully. I think he's anything but harmless."

"I agree."

"Dammit. She'd do that. She'd think she could help someone like that and 
ignore the danger in doing so."

"I think she is in danger Marlene. He's showing signs of escalation here that 
go beyond phone calls."

"What should I do?"

"Talk to her. Try to get her to go to the police. Do you have any idea who it 
might be?"

"I know who she thinks it is, yes."

"You're obligated to keep his name private aren't you?"

"Yes. But if it were to come up on some phone records and he were the caller 
I wouldn't have a problem giving his name to the police myself."

"On Monday I think you should bring it up to Dr. Aris. Work on her Marlene. I 
don't think this guy is going to go away."

"Alright. I'll do what I can. But you should know, she's stubborn."

"Do your best. I'll get back to you when I know more."

"Please do, I'll be in all evening. Even if it's late Dr. Scully, please 
don't hesitate to call. I'm really starting to worry."

"Talk to you soon Marlene. As soon as I hear anything on the phone records."

"Thanks."

************************************************************

The phone rang twenty minutes later. The lab tech whose sole job it is to 
track down phone numbers was very little help. Apparently the caller was 
routing his calls through a PC. The PC was hooked up to a trunk that split 
into several extended trunks. The long and short of it was that the calls 
were untraceable and no amount of digging would turn up an address or name 
for the caller. The tech added ruefully that what normally turned up on PC 
based phone calls was a stolen cell phone number. Even if they got a number 
it would most likely be a dead end.

Scully thanked the tech and rang off. She called Marlene once more.

No answer. No machine. 

She glanced at the clock. It was 7:30 pm. 

She sat for another 10 minutes and redialed Marlene's number. Still nothing. 
She dialed the doctor's office, hoping Marlene had gone there. She got the 
machine and hung up.

She grabbed the phone book and looked up Marlene's address, then gathered her 
keys and phone, along with her badge and holster and headed out the door.

*************************************************************



Scully pulled her government issued vehicle into Marlene's neighborhood and 
slowed down to get a look at the addresses. The homes were modest but well 
kept. The street was well established and had a canopy of trees that gave it 
a tunnel-like feeling.

For 8:17 pm on a Friday night in early summer it seemed pretty quiet. No 
children were playing in their yards. No mowers or weed-whackers were going. 
Scully wondered if it were mostly retirees in this area; people who'd now be 
in front of their TV's watching news magazine shows.

She pulled up in front of Marlene's house and parked in the street in front 
of it. From outward appearances everything seemed normal. The porch light was 
on. It looked like there were more lights on inside.

Scully felt a little silly. Marlene had probably just fallen asleep and 
hadn't heard her phone ringing. She walked up the brick path and rang the 
doorbell.

No answer. 

She peaked through the decorative side windows on either side of the door but 
the cut of the glass made it impossible to get a clear image of what was 
inside.

She pulled her cell phone out and dialed Marlene's number, hearing the phone 
ring inside. She peered through the glass again, looking for movement.

Nothing.

Scully made her way around the garage to the back of the house. The light was 
on inside over the kitchen sink and she fought some shrubs to get to the 
window. She peered through and saw Marlene on the kitchen floor.

Instinctively her hand opened the cell phone and she dialed 911.

She gave her location to the 911 operator and went to the back sliding door. 
It was locked. Scully, fearing that Marlene needed immediate medical 
attention, used the butt of her gun to break the glass.

She went directly to where Marlene lay on the floor and grabbed the woman's 
wrist. She found a thready pulse and very gently turned her over. 

"Marlene, it's Scully, can you hear me?"

She smoothed the older woman's hair back. Her hair was matted along the left 
side of her head; blood had run from a gash behind her ear. Scully was sick 
to her stomach, 'there should be more blood here. This is not good, not good.'

"Marlene?" Scully tapped her face lightly with the palm of her hand, 
"Marlene?"

No answer, again, not good. Head wounds are notorious for bleeding in excess. 
If Marlene took a blow to the head there should have been an obscene amount 
of blood all over her and the floor as well. There wasn't. Scully knew that 
there was a possibility of internal bleeding, blood on the brain. Instead of 
an excessive out flow of blood there could be massive hemorrhaging inside the 
skull.

Marlene could be faced with severe brain damage, coma, or any number of life 
threatening conditions.

She could hear sirens running and bounded to the front door. She quickly 
pulled on her latex gloves and opened the door, securing the screen door as 
well. 

Scully addressed a surprised EMT crew:  "Kitchen floor, female, mid 50's. 
She's got a head injury. Possible internal hemorrhaging. BE CAREFUL."

Two policemen walked up to the door, confusion playing on their features.

The older of the two spoke first, "And you are?"

"Special Agent Dana Scully - FBI". She flipped her badge toward them.

"Can you tell us what happened here?"

"I can if you'd like to ride to the hospital with me. I'm going in that 
ambulance along with the victim." Scully pointed toward the EMT vehicle.

"Agent Scully, we need you to answer some questions, you're going to have to·"

"No. You listen to me. I'm going with the victim. You want to ask questions 
you can ask me at the hospital when I'm finished. I'm a medical doctor and a 
friend·" Scully moved out of the way of the EMT crew as the pushed a gurney 
with Marlene's unmoving form through her front door. She then fell into step 
behind them. "I'm a friend of hers. I'm not going to leave her alone."

Scully stepped into the back of the ambulance and shut the door behind them.

-end-