Chapter 10
x-x-x
The following takes place between 8:00pm and 9:00pm Pacific Time.
x-x-x
Helipad
Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base
Palm Springs, CA
8:00PM
"Get him on his side." Scully said as she took off her jacket.
She stuffed it under Mulder's head as Doggett helped roll
Mulder on his right side.
"What the hell is going on here?" Jack asked, seeing Dr. Scully
and Agent Doggett kneeling on either side of Mulder.
"Mulder, it's me. I'm here." Scully whispered in Mulder's ear.
She started rubbing his back. "Mulder, come on."
"Call an ambulance." Doggett told Jack.
"What is this?" Jack was suspicious.
"Obviously, it's a seizure. Call an ambulance." Monica told
him.
"Mulder, talk to me. I'm here."
Jack knelt next to Scully, across from Doggett. "If this is a
trick...."
Doggett backhanded Jack so hard he nearly fell on his ass.
"Monica, get on the helicopter's radio, tell the tower we need an
ambulance, now."
"Got it." Monica headed back to the helicopter.
Jack brought his hand to his nose and pulled it away. There
was a good amount of blood. "What the fuck...." Jack pulled
at Doggett's jacket.
"I don't need this." Scully turned to Jack. "Neither does he."
Scully turned back to her husband. "Hey, they're fighting over
you. You haven't been the center of a fight in years."
Mulder's seizure started to abate.
"Hey, you done showing off?" Scully gently chided. "Mr.
Bauer isn't all that impressed."
"Ambulance is on its way." Monica took her jacket off and
drapped it on Scully's shoulders. "Should I call for one for
you?" Monica asked Jack.
Jack just glared at her.
x-x-x
LAX
The loaned CTU Buick
Los Angeles, CA
8:05PM
Charles Scully was hoping Walter Skinner would finish his
call. He had no idea what the plan was once they got to the
airport and he was just one right turn away from LAX.
"We'll meet you outside the American Airlines terminal."
Skinner snapped closed his personal cell phone.
"American?" Charlie tried to maneuver the car into the right
lane. "We're going to the American terminal?"
"Yes, be ready to jump out. William, are you up for an
adventure?"
"Yes." William replied.
"Today's already been an adventure." Charles added. "Why are
we jumping out?"
"Two agents will be getting in the car. We've had a tail since
we got on the 105."
"Where?" Charles started to turn around.
"Eyes front Mister....Charles. You need to act like there's
nothing w-r-o-n-g, because there's not. I've got this handled."
"We can't get the boy out of the car that fast."
"They're going to have a little trouble getting into the airport.
That's the break we need."
x-x-x
LAX
CTU SUV
Los Angeles, CA
8:07PM
"This assignment sucks." Tom Baker wasn't happy. Five years
as a Navy SEAL, another five with the NYPD - three in ESU -
and now he was following two unknowns in an old car with
Jack Bauer's pet rookie, Chase Edmunds. Talking jumpers off
the George Washington Bridge was much better than this.
"Jack seems to think..."
"Chase, I know Jack's your mentor or something, but there are
some assignments that just...shit!" Tom tried to swerve out of
the way of a Ford pick-up making an illegal turn. He failed.
The SUV plowed into the cargo area of the truck, deploying the
airbags.
As Edmunds tried to shake some of the cobwebs out of his
brain, one booming voice broke through the confusion.
"FBI, get out of the vehicle with your hands up."
The four agents with guns pointing at him cleared his head as
well.
x-x-x
Helipad
Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base
Palm Springs, CA
8:10PM
"Let me help you in, ma'am." The Navy EMT took Scully's arm
and helped her into the back of the ambulance. A semi-
concious Mulder was already strapped into a gurney and
secured in the ambulance.
"Thank you." Scully gave a small smile to the man. "We're
ready to go now."
"I'll be going with you." Jack advised.
"No, you won't." Scully turned her full attention to Jack.
"We're going to the hospital because of you. This hasn't
happened to him in years but a few hours of cooperating with
you and he's flat on his back."
"He's not getting into the ambulance, Dana. We'll follow you
to the emergency room." Monica signaled to the EMT to close
the door.
The EMT looked at Jack, shrugged his shoulders and hopped in
the ambulance. He mumbled a "sorry, sir" as he closed the
door.
Jack turned to Monica, "The FBI is not running this
investigation."
"No, but if you want Dana and Mulder to help, you'll do what
she wants, especially when it comes to Mulder."
Jack looked to Doggett. "You ever touch me again."
"Yelling at a doctor during a medical emergency, great way to
manage things. I heard you CTU guys were only mostly
incompetent. Guess I have my proof."
"And exactly what desk were you driving before you got out
here, Agent Doggett?"
"Excuse me, Dana and Mulder are well on their way to the
hospital and whatever is wrong with him and whatever the
reason we're all here is riding away with them. But if you boys
would rather figure out whose is bigger, we can waste some
more time here. Really, this is quite, I'm looking for the word
here, dull." Monica started to walk to the driver's side of the
car. "I'm going to the hospital, anyone care to join me?"
Jack started to say something but Monica cut him off. "I'm
driving. You're bleeding, he's pissed off. Let's keep Mulder as
the only patient tonight."
x-x-x
LAX
FBI Jet
Los Angeles, CA
8:20PM
Walter Skinner walked to the front of the plane as Charles
Scully worked to settle his nephew in for the flight. He saw the
end of the accident as they were pulling onto the ramp for
departures. While they had the time they needed to get
William out of his carseat, the three were still hustled through
the airport by the FBI and TSA. Inter-agency cooperation to
put off a third goverment agency - his tax dollars at work.
"Is there a way to file a flight plan after we've left Los Angeles
or file one and make a change in mid-air?" He asked the pilots.
"We can file a 367:B, a protected government witness flight
plan. We'll be given clearance to leave Los Angeles air space,
no questions asked and when we land, we won't appear in
anyone's logs until after the 7th or 8th." The co-pilot never
looked up from his pre-flight routine.
"Where are we going tonight, sir?" asked the pilot.
"McCarren."
"Of course," the co-pilot joked as he finished his tasks,
"because whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."
x-x-x
Road
Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base
Palm Springs, CA
8:30PM
"What the hell is wrong with him?" Jack asked as he watched
Monica cut the distance between their car and the ambulance.
"How long have you got?" With Mulder sick, Doggett decided
to crack-wise from the back seat. It was fun, maybe Mulder
was on to something.
"Excuse me?"
"Fox Mulder has had a number of health issues over the year."
Monica wasn't sure she could keep driving and the peace at the
same time but she was going to try.
"I saw their personnel files, her medical records were longer."
"Her medical records were longer because it can be explained."
Doggett told Jack.
"I don't understand."
"After Mulder disappeared a few years ago, he was brought
into a hospital in April of 2001."
"Right, the file said he was found in a field, near death."
"No, he was found in a field dead. In December."
"That's not in his file and obviously he isn't dead."
"How do you say in an FBI personnel file that a man who was
found dead in a field in Montana, buried in a cemetery in North
Carolina and dug up a few months later on a hunch was alive
and not so well?" Monica asked.
"Isn't it just easier to say he was found in a field in April?" John
asked.
"It is an official FBI file."
"It is Fox Mulder's FBI file...." Doggett started.
"...which means it is a charming piece of fiction." Monica
finished.
"So what could be wrong with him?" Jack wasn't sure how
much of this was even worth believing.
"I don't know. I doubt even he knows."
x-x-x
Emergency Room
Twentynine Palms Hospital
Palm Springs, CA
8:35PM
As Mulder was taken from the ambulance, he grabbed Scully's
wrist, trying to get her attention. "No tests." He whispered,
"no tests."
"What have we got?" The Emergency Room doctor grabbed
the gurney's handle by Mulder's feet.
"The patient is a 43 year-old male who had a seizure on the
helipad after a helicopter flight from Los Angeles."
"Ma'am, I need you to..." the doctor started to dismiss Scully.
"I'm Dr. Dana Scully, this man is my husband."
"What happened?"
"Just what the corpsman told you. One minute he was fine, the
next minute he was on the ground."
"Does he experience these..."
"He hasn't had a seizure in nearly ten years."
"Any special stressers today?"
"Nothing but stressers today."
"Enough to cause the seizure?"
"Doctor..."
"Commander Kerr."
"Commander Kerr, twelve hours ago he was at home with our
son. In Utah. It has been a very stressful day."
"I want to run a CAT scan."
"Can we get him comfortable first? I'm not sure how he'd react
to any tests right now."
"Dr. Scully, we need to see what's going on. As a family
member, you may not be in the best position..."
"Commander, nobody wants him back on his feet and back to
normal more than I so you need to trust me. Let him get
acclaimated before we do anything."
"I'll note my objection in his chart."
Scully looked at Mulder as they started an IV drip. "I hope you
know what you're doing, Mulder."
x-x-x
LAX
Sideroad shoulder
Los Angeles, CA
8:45PM
"Ford, CTU Agent Tom Ford. This is CTU Agent Chase
Edmonds. We were ordered..."
Special Agent Don Thompson didn't like inter-agency
squabbles. "Sir, I don't know who you are or what's going on
but Assistant Director Walter Skinner reported a car tailing him
while he was transporting a pair of witnesses...."
"Sir, we were working with the Assistant Director, making sure
he made it to LAX." Chase explained.
"Perhaps, but Assistant Director Skinner was the person who
reported you two so until we can contact him I'm afraid you'll
have to come down to our offices."
"You can call CTU." Ford suggested.
"We could. In fact, we will. If you two would get into those
cars, we'll be happy to make that call from our offices."
"You have no right..." Chase objected.
"Agent Edmunds, is it?" Thompson stared calmly at the young
CTU agent. "You and Agent Ford have no paper work or
supervising agents with you as you were tailing an Assistant
Director of the FBI and a pair of FBI protected witnesses.
Don't be concerned about our rights, be happy no one is reading
you yours."
x-x-x
LAX
FBI Jet
Leaving Los Angeles airspace
8:50PM
"Where's Daddy?"
"Daddy and Mommy are helping someone."
"Sick people?"
"Yes, William."
"We'll call Mommy and Daddy a little later, how's that?"
"Ok. Coloring?"
Skinner pulled out a pad and a couple of markers. "Are these
OK?"
William smiled and started to draw.
"William, half-an-hour and then you need to go to sleep."
Charles Scully knew that this little boy was well past bedtime.
"When we get home."
"No, half-an-hour."
x-x-x-
Emergency Room
Twentynine Palms Hospital
Palm Springs, CA
8:55PM
"I'm looking for a patient." Monica pulled out her credentials.
"Mr. Mulder is in bay six."
"How did you know?" Jack asked.
"Dr. Scully said the FBI would be here for Mr. Mulder."
"What's his condition?"
"You'll have to ask Dr. Scully. She is very much in charge."
In Bay Six, Mulder opened his eyes and told Scully "They're
heeeereeeee."
"How do you know that?"
"Pick a number, one to one-hundred."
"Mulder, I don't want to..."
"Pick a number. And a reason."
Scully made a face but decided to play along.
"89. Two plus 23 plus 64."
"Mulder?"
"I can hear you." Mulder tapped his finger to his temple. "I
can hear all of you."
-30-
Tom Baker was played by Daniel Dae Kim, who is
now Jin on "Lost" now. The guy just has no luck but was working
at CTU in seasons 2 and 3.
Yeah, I know, it's been a while. A long while. A stunningly
long while. Life got very crazy. But I'm trying. I don't deserve
feedback - you've all been too kind for too long - but if you feel
the need, I'm still at maureen_b_ocks@yahoo.com
I will try to get Chapter 11 done in some sort of a timely fashion.