Disclaimer: NO infringement on ANYONE's copyrights is intended. Feedback appreciated and answered: Spoilers: General Knowledge; post The Gift & possible episodes. Archive: Gossamer, Xemplary OK All others please inform me so I can send you the latest revision. S: PG: V: Summary: Why did Scully sign the false case reports? Episodes dialog: Chris Carter and 1013 writers IN OTHER CONTEXT: Honorable Lies IN OTHER CONTEXT: ISMS ARRANGED by Mary Greten ORIGINAL MATERIAL by Mary Greten Many thanks to Carol A. for the quick Betas. "Wake up. John." John Doggett heard his name spoken softly as if it were cocooned in a breeze. More, he smelled the coffee. "Who could be making coffee for me? I don't remember bringing anyone home with me," he thought. He pushed his fingers through his hair and realised he was sitting up. "Holy Crap. I didn't go home." "Wake up, Agent Doggett. I can only hold your hot 'I love NYC COPS' cup for just so long." He kept his eyes closed. "Agent Scully, please tell me I wasn't snoring." "Why should I? I do." He opened one eye at a time. Yellow. She was wearing a pale yellow turtle neck sweater. Everything else except her hair and eyes was her normal dark blue or black. Scully handed him his cup brim full of a coriaceous brew. "Thank you. I didn't hear you come in. Usually, I hear your heels." "You were dead to the world, Agent Doggett." He splattered coffee on the computer keyboard. Hastily, he looked to make sure the screen was blank. Scully handed him a napkin. "You may need this." She waited till he finished his first long swallow. "Mulder was here last night, wasn't he, Agent Doggett? At least, you...saw him." Doggett jaw dropped. He scowled at her glancing upwards. She caught his meaning. "The Lone Gun Men swept the office yesterday." "Jesus, Agent Scully, how do you know what I saw?" "I had a feeling when I stood in front of Mulder's desk earlier. My sensations are extremely strong over people I care about and Mulder exudes psychic energy. You've read the files. I'm in several." Doggett pinched the bridge of his nose. "Have you got an analgesic, Doc? I have the mother of all headaches." Scully smiled and rummaged in the center draw of Mulder's desk. "I'll let you call me that only when we're alone and you are under similiar circumstances. Here you go." She handed him three aspirin. "These and the caffeine in the coffee should make an Excedrin headache disappear. I do want you examined thoroughly later today. You've been to heaven or hell or in between and I want to learn all I can about it." "Thank you for caring. It's been awhile since anybody has." "Mulder has a ditty bag in his desk. Disposable everythings. I don't think he'd mind. We have a meeting shortly. Since you slept sitting down, I think, your clothes are presentable enough to get you through the day." "What time is it?" "What time is it? Time for me to tell you the truth while we finish our coffee. Oh! Here. I brought doughnuts." She reached for the paper bag behind her. "An assortment. Hand me a Jelly, I got a craving for one...in the bakery." Doggett found her a Jelly doughnut and placed it on a napkin from the bag. Scully took it and nibbled at the filling aperture. "Agent Doggett, I asked you once before, I'll ask you again. Any Questions?" "How did you know?" Doggett began his queries and his breakfast. "Whenever you want the Lone Gun Men not to reveal something, tell them. They will use their best judgement if or when to tell me. Their best judgement, Agent Doggett, is quite considerable in spite of their affectionate nickname of the "Three Stooges". "And Dr. Burks?" "Him, too. He told me how quick you apologized for doubting his 'dabbling' in our last case." "Why are you telling me all this now? "Assistant Director Skinner became convinced of your sincerity and I am convinced of his. He is an X-File. And, you are now unofficial X-File. That and your adamant unwillingness to besmirch me or Mulder." Doggett turned pale. "Agent Scully, I signed out a car." "Breathe deeply, Agent Doggett. Skinner has already reported that he sent you to scout a possible but dubious X-file that was based solely on a misunderstanding due to distance and bad telephone connections. He argued it would not have been worth the full financial force of the department if it turned out to be a mistake. In short, 'money sometimes forgives the lack of discretion'. "By the way, Frohike and I cleaned Mulder's apartment after your search. One gluttinous fish went belly up thanks to your liberal feeding." "Sorry. I'll replace it. Did you know that Mulder was ill?" "My first inclination in medicine was to be a diagnostician. I was offered a residency in several fields. These past two years or so Mulder and I became...very close. I was able to watch him unguardedly. "When I found him left for dead last year, his head was haphazardly bandaged after a hurried if not bungled butchery much like Gibson Praise. Whereas Gibson has youth on his side, Mulder's body and mind is much older and battleworn. "I had tests done on Mulder and my suspicions were confirmed three times that Mulder had two years at the outside. The progession would be slow at first but any shocks, emotional or physical, could speed it up before the original prognosis. "Then, there were further hospitalizations for multiple snake bites and insects in his lungs that impugned his immune system, the stress of his mothers suicide and finally, the end of his search to determine of his sister's fate." "Mulder didn't come to you as his doctor in the later stages either?" "No, and I didn't expect him to. Mulder could not bear to see people suffer and would not want me to suffer with him. He endured my cancer by working day and night to find another chip to replace in my neck. Even then, when I could have made a deathbed confession and spared him probable censure and discharge, he would not permit it." "Why didn't you tell him?" "For the same reason he couldn't tell me. If we formally acknowledged it, I would have been honor bound to report it. He would have been put on disability, depression would have set in. Believe me, nobody could be depressed like Mulder. The longer he could stay active in the X-files in my pseudo-custody, the longer he would live." "You knew nothing of his trips to Pennsylvania or North Carolina?" "We were close, but not joined at the hip. I do have other concerns. I knew only that he was tending to his mother's estate in North Carolina and I was busy with personal and family matters the weekends he traipsed to Pennsylvania." "So, you signed the false reports to keep up his illusion that you didn't know of his illness." "Yes. But, his tombstone you had brought up from North Carolina pretty much shattered any illusions I might have harbored." "Agent Scully, do you really expect to see Mulder again?" "The hope I still have left, feeble at best, is that one very same creatures I killed...remember the morphing and the green goo?" "Oh, yeah." "Well, the Bounty Hunters and their renegade cousins the Jeremiah Smiths have healing powers to put your souleater to shame, so to speak, although I am grateful to him for giving you back to us. If the Grays want all that Mulder is and knows, they are going to have to help him survive." "You're right, that is an awfully long shot to hang your hopes on, Agent Scully." Noticing Dogget had finished his donut an coffee, Scully handed Doggett Mulder's ditty bag. "It's better than no hope at all. You'd best fix yourself up now, Agent Doggett." Ex-Marine John Doggett left the office to 'shit, shower, shave, slick, spit and shine'. Scully continued to lean against Mulder's desk and stare dejectedly at the floor. Dogget returned in snap-to-it double time. "Agent Scully?" Scully, having not moved in the past 15 minutes except to polish off her jelly donut, looked up. "Yes?" "I didn't write up a report about this weekend." "I appreciate that. Agent Doggett. I am very aware that by not reporting my transgression to OPR you became an accessory after the fact and surrender any chance at the directorship. Why?" "I'm a 'soldier', Agent Scully, I live in the trenches where honorable lies are a fact of life. But, I don't think I want to dabble in the duplicities of diplomacy. Not if I have to become like Kersh to do it." "Maybe, by then, you won't have to, Agent Doggett, maybe you won't." ~~~