NEW: Martin's Head
Date: 5 May 1996

My first fanfic posting (hope it works)!fox42@ix.netcom.com
Gerry Hill 5/5/96

Disclaimer: This story is based on the characters and situations
created by Chris Carter, Ten Thirteen Productions, and the Fox
Network. As such, the characters named are the property of those
entities and are used without permission, although no copyright
infringements are intended. The following work is for the
distribution and entertainment of newsgroup members only. Any further
distribution of this work without the author's consent is in
violation of federal law.

R rated because of certain scenes in this story.
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MARTIN'S BRAIN (Written PRIOR to "Pusher", Honest!!)

CHAPTER 1

2:25 AM
February 4, 1996
Apartment #42

FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder has once again fallen asleep on his
sofa while reading through background data on an X File. He is
very soundly asleep after being active and awake for more than 36
hours.

Several miles away, Martin Hapscomb is settling down in a recliner,
getting comfortable. He is a fairly attractive man in his
thirties, and somewhat resembles Agent Mulder in his coloring and
height. He smiles as he strokes "Skipper," his elderly tabby cat,
and he slips even more into a relaxed state.

His mind begins reaching out, out toward the sleeping brain of Fox
Mulder. He enters it and glides through thoughts, dreams,
memories. He calls to Mulder and starts to pull the sleeping
agent's soul/spirit up and out of the body. A bright mass forms in
the air above Mulder's body and slowly floats out into the night
air through his apartment wall.

Martin sighs as he directs the Mulder-mass out over the city, then
down into a moonlit bedroom. There, he allows it to re-form into
Mulder's figure.

Something is bothering Scully as she tosses and turns in bed,
shoving the sheet off, pulling it back up, then shoving it off
again. She gradually becomes aware that someone is standing by her
bed. She gives a sharp gasp and scoots back against her pillow in
alarm.

Almost immediately she recognizes Mulder and gives a shaky laugh.
"You scared me to death, Mulder. What on earth are you doing here
at this hour? Not an alien mind-meld case, I hope."
She pulls the forgotten sheet back up around her chest as she
realizes how exposed she is in her shrunken t-shirt and panties.

Then it hits her that Mulder hasn't spoken or moved.

"What's wrong, Mulder? You're really beginning to scare me."

As she stares at him, he just suddenly isn't there anymore. He
literally disappears in front of her wildly staring eyes.

"OK, Mulder," she unsteadily asks. "I give up. How did you do
that?"

She hears only silence.

"That does it." She gets out of bed and turns on every light she
can find. There is no sign of Mulder, and all the locks on the
doors and windows are secure.

She grabs the telephone, hits #1 for Mulder's number, and listens
to the ringing go on and on.

Now she is worried. She remembers how almost a year ago she had
could have sworn that she was seeing her father sitting in the
chair in her living room, smiling at her; then her mother's call to
tell her he had died after a heart attack that evening. "Mulder,"
she whispers.

She pulls on some pants to wear with the t-shirt, slips on shoes
and a jacket, grabs her purse with her gun in it and runs out the
door.

Meanwhile, Martin is madder than hell. He had successfully taken
Mulder from his body, placed him, and was ready to proceed, when
some loud noise in the street outside had broken his concentration.
Two cars had collided right below his window at the corner, and the
noise was incredible, with sirens and people yelling.

"Let's get a snack", he tells Skipper. They head for the kitchen.

2:35 AM

Mulder wakes up with a monster headache. He manages to get several
aspirin down, but then is wide awake.

"Crap," he states to the world.

He is still dressed, so all he needs is a jacket to take a walk and
to see if he can get rid of the headache and get back to sleep.

When he steps out onto the sidewalk, it is foggy and chilly, so he
decides to make it a short walk, just around the block. He sets
off, thinking of his partner, Scully, for some reason. Maybe he
would call her when he returned....no, it was the middle of the
night, for God's sake. She would be sound asleep.

As Mulder makes the turn around the corner that would bring him
back to his apartment complex, he suddenly feels like his head has
been smacked with a brick. He falls against a wall as he puts his
hands to his head. He half-consciously wonders if he is having a
stroke. The pain is so bad, he can't see.

Martin is sweating and exerting his will as hard as he can on
Mulder, but finally gives up and heads for bed. He realizes that
Mulder is awake and stronger, resisting with all his might against
Martin's intrusion. "Time for bed, Skipper," he calls out to his
cat as he locks up for the night.

2:55 AM

Mulder can hardly make it back to his apartment. By the time he
reaches his door, his hand shakes so hard he can't get the key to
enter the lock. He drops the keys and feels like weeping, knowing
he can never muster the strength to pick them up.

His door suddenly is opened and Scully is standing there looking
apprehensive. Seeing his condition, she blurts, "My God, Mulder,
what on earth happened to you?!"

She grabs the keys from the hallway floor, and then helps him get
to the sofa where he collapses. His face is ashen and he is
shaking all over. Scully looks into his eyes and notes that they
are dilated, and his hands are icy. "You need a hospital, Mulder.
At the very best, you're having a hell of a migraine." Silently,
she added, "or at worst a stroke."

He grabs her arm and croaks, "No."

He closes his eyes and breathes deeply to try and calm the shaking.
Something just wasn't right about all this. He remembers the
impression of someone else's thoughts in his head just before the
pain hit. The milder headache he had earlier had echoes of someone
speaking, pulling at his thoughts....something.

He is trying to focus on what Scully is saying, then asks, "What
are you doing here at three in the morning?"

She looks surprised; she had forgotten the weird event that had
brought her to his apartment in the first place.

"Well, it was very strange. I woke up to see you standing silently
by my bed. Then you....vanished into thin air." She winces at the
absurdity of that statement, then added, "I checked the whole place
out, but there was no sign of anyone, and everything was locked up
tight. It had to have been a very vivid dream."

At first she thinks Mulder hasn't been listening, but then he looks
up at her with such an intense gaze that she pulls back a few
inches.

"You're sure it was me standing by your bed?" He bites his lower
lip, then says, "There was someone in my head with me, Scully." He
smiles/grimaces, and adds, "That sounds like a believable defense
for a burglar to use."

"Pardon me? Mulder, I think you really need to go to a hospital.
You are obviously unwell, and now you're telling me someone was
inside your head with you. Listen to how that sounds."

He gestures impatiently with his hand and says, "Not any more goofy
than what you just said you saw in your bedroom." He gave a groan
and lay back on the sofa with his eyes closed.

"I'll be all right. Just let me think this through. And I could
use some more aspirin."

CHAPTER 2

After an essentially sleepless night, Scully is not the most
chipper and wide-awake agent in the FBI building the next morning.
Finally giving in to Mulder's wish to be left alone, she returns
home, showers and dresses, eats some cereal, and gets to work at
6:00 AM. At 6:30 she calls Mulder's home phone but no one answers.
Then trying his office downstairs, she get a gruff, "Mulder."

"Oh. You are here early. How are you feeling?"

"Scully, I've found a lot of material that could have a bearing on
what happened to me last night. Got to go pick it up." Scully
hears the phone disconnect.

She sighs. "Back to normal....or, actually that would be
abnormal."

She spends the day finalizing several overdue reports and manages
to do some checking with a friend of hers in personnel. She learns
that someone has been inquiring about Mulder, but there is no
record of who that had been, nor had the caller been given any
information other than that Mulder is indeed an FBI special agent.
She then has to stand in for an absent agent in performing an
autopsy around 5:00 PM. By the time she gets home, she is really
exhausted. Kicking off her shoes and putting on a sweat shirt and
pants, she is rummaging around in the refrigerator for some orange
juice when the phone rings.

"Hello," she answers, as she is balancing the receiver under her
chin while pouring some juice into a glass.

"Scully!" Mulder sounds enthusiastic. "I've found all sorts of
stuff. If the guy tries something tonight again - it seems he
would have the most success when my mind is resting, while asleep -
I'll be ready for him. Maybe I can use his own tricks against him
to find where and who he is. Otherwise, I can't see how to track
him down."

Scully thinks about this for a moment. She decides to take the
"let's humor him for now" route, and replies, " Do you want me to
be there in case you need any help?"

"No. I just wanted to let you know what's going on. You've chewed
my ass in the past for not keeping you up to date."

Scully winces at his snotty tone, and says, "OK, I may deserve
that, but we are partners, last time I looked."

"Thank goodness for small favors, I always say. Look, Scully, you
have to know how much you mean to me. I may not say it often..."

Scully thinks, "Often! You mean seldom if ever." Aloud, she just
says, "Be careful," and disconnects.

She has a plan to get Mulder into the FBI psychiatrist's office, as
well as have him undergo a thorough physical examination as soon as
possible. She is still very worried about him.

Around 10:30 PM, Mulder flops down onto his sofa to watch a tape of
"Raising Arizona." He has seen it several times already, and
thinks that he can drift off during the tape. However, as the
movie progresses, he finds himself thoroughly engrossed in it.

11:21 PM

Martin decides to try once again. He has become totally relaxed
and sends his thoughts out to Mulder.

Mulder suddenly snaps upright with his hands to each side of his
head, wincing with the pain. He feels someone there and
desperately tries to hold onto the snaky, oily presence that is
gliding and slithering through his brain.

Martin blinks and shakes his head; something is not quite right.
There is more than resistance. Something is pushing back at him.
That cannot be. He pulls back for a moment to regroup, and then
thrusts forward with all his mind's strength.

Mulder screams and falls unconscious to the floor. His nose begins
to bleed.

Scully is reading in bed when she gets the odd feeling that she is
not alone. Looking over at the shadowy right side of the bed
toward the closet, she jumps in surprise when she sees a figure
standing there.

At that point, the figure moves toward her, into the lamplight.

"Mulder. It's you again," she says, unsure of what is going on.

He says nothing, and moves up next to Scully. His hand reaches out
to caress her hair, moves down to her cheek, then travels to her
right breast, which is covered with a loose, oversized t-shirt.

"Mulder!" Scully backs up to the other side of the bed in
confusion, realizing that this is not the normal Mulder and that
something is terribly wrong with him. She is not certain she would
have objected to his caress under other circumstances, but not here
and now.

Mulder seems not to hear her. His gaze is fixed and creepy, and he
gets slowly up onto the vacated side of the bed from Scully. She
realizes with a shiver that he is bare-chested and wearing sweat
pants and apparently nothing else.

Suddenly, with a swiftness she finds hard to believe, Mulder has
thrown his weight onto her body, knocking the breath out of her
lungs. Pushing up against his chest, she fights for air.

Mulder slips his hand under her t-shirt and pulls it up around her
neck. Then he rips her panties away with one strong tug. Scully
is now essentially naked and in semi-shock. This is Mulder, after
all, but not Mulder, either. As he is shifting upward with a hand
occupied with her body, she follows through with a sharp knee jab
and a stab at his eyes with her fingernails. Nothing she does has
any effect whatsoever.

"Mulder. Stop. You said you could get into the guy's mind, right?
Well, do it now!!"

Martin is startled to hear this. He momentarily loses his grip,
and Mulder begins to waver and lose substance like those heat
mirages you see on a road sometimes. This terrifies Scully more
than any sexual threat Mulder is posing.

She takes the opportunity to shove away from Mulder and scoot off
the side of the bed. She runs into the living room, grabbing her
robe on the way.

Martin decides to shut things down for the night and ponder what
Scully has said. This Mulder may have hidden talents and be more
intelligent, thus more dangerous, than anticipated. "How
delightful," he murmurs.

Scully waits for further developments, but no sound reaches her
ears, and there is no sign of the "Mulder thing."

CHAPTER 3

Mulder groans and opens his eyes. He is on the floor and feels
cold. His head doesn't bear thinking about, he decides, since it
hurts so much.

"It happened again. Now, let's see what I can remember." He makes
no move to get up, but continues to lie on the floor as he tries to
reach back into foggy memory for clues to his tormentor.

And it abruptly hits him: He remembers the close, disagreeable
feeling of the alien brain in contact with his. "Martin...Martin
Hapscomb." A vision of a cat comes to mind for some reason;
"Skipper." A flood of thoughts assail him unexpectedly, mostly
consisting of a raging hate, and the sudden, "Rape her....then kill
her." His eyes flew open. "Scully!!"

As he remembers tearing her clothes off, he struggles to his feet
and stands shakily for a moment. He is trying to remember more,
but nothing will come. He absently brushes the back of his hand
over the wetness on his face from the nosebleed. He absently looks
at his blood-smeared hand, but his mind is on Scully.

"I can't have hurt her," he worriedly thinks as he reaches for the
telephone. When there is no answer, he tosses the phone onto the
table and sits on the sofa with his head in his hands. The
headache is so bad that he is unable to orient himself, and he
feels nauseated. He is unsure how long he has been sitting there,
trying to feel up to moving again, when he hears a key in the lock
at the door.

Scully walks in as he looks up.

"Are you OK?," he manages to ask.

"More to the point, how are you doing?" Scully kneels by his side,
sees the blood and heads into the kitchen. She returns with some
wet paper towels, and kneels again by his side.

"Other than my brain being in a vise after being dropped off a
twelve story building, you mean?"

As she cleans his face with the towels, she can see that he is
aware of the near-rape, and is uncomfortable with bringing it up.

"Don't blame yourself, Mulder. You're not in control of whatever
is happening. I'm fine, other than being scared out of my wits."

Mulder looks into her eyes and puts his hand over hers, where it
rests on his knee.

"I got his name."

Scully is surprised. "How...oh, when he was in your mind tonight."
She still is thinking that Mulder's own mind is the only brain
responsible for the recent events, but holds her opinion to
herself.

"It's Martin Hapscomb. He lives not far from here in an apartment
with a cat named Skipper. He has some sort of job to do with a
hotel." He stops abruptly, then looks in surprise at Scully.
"It's you he hates. You killed his brother. He's using me to get
back at you, Scully."

She doesn't know how to respond. This is really sounding weird.

Mulder gets up and makes his way into the kitchen. Finding a
glass, he gets some water and takes three aspirin. Picking up
where he left off, Mulder adds, "The brother shouldn't be hard to
figure out, should it? I mean, you have only killed one or two
people in your life, right?"

Scully says, "No one named Hapscomb, however. And I wish you would
put some clothes on, Mulder."

"Oh." He looks down at his droopy old sweat pants, and blushes.

"That's OK. It's just the association with my earlier encounter
with those pants. And it's nice that you can still blush."

He indignantly protests, "I'm not blushing!"

He reaches the closet without further mishap, but, once there, he
can only stand slightly swaying, looking like he is about ready to
collapse.

Scully quickly runs to his side and puts her arm around his waist.

"Mulder!" She knows she won't be able to hold him up if he falls,
and is looking around for the safest direction to land.

But she sees that won't be necessary, as he straightens and opens
his eyes again.

He turns as she still has an arm around his waist, and he puts his
hands on her shoulder.

"Scully....Dana. I've never had anyone who is closer to me than
you are, not even my parents. Just this once, I want you to go
somewhere, anywhere, without telling me your destination. I have
to know that I can't hurt you if this thing with Hapscomb isn't
resolved right away."

Scully gazes back up into his eyes, dark with concern, and says,
"I'm not going anywhere, you should know that by now." She looks
away for a second, then her eyes lock onto his and she adds, "And
you know how I feel about you."
They don't move for almost a minute, each lost in the other's eyes,
feeling the magnetism and longing.

Scully is the first to pull back, and says, "You really need to get
dressed. Then we'll talk about what we are going to do."

Mulder responds, "I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to look
up Mr. Martin Hapscomb and pay him a little visit before he tries
the Yappi stunt on me again."

Scully would rather take him to the doctor's office, but, partly
because it is the middle of the night, she agrees to go along with
him for the time being.

Searching in the phone book while Mulder dresses, she finds only
one listing for their man: "Hapscomb, M." She comments, "This is
almost too easy, Mulder. Only one listing, and his address is
within a mile or two of your apartment."

He clips his holster and gun to his shoulder harness, slips on his
jacket, then grabs his overcoat. "Do I look like I'm about to drop
dead from a terminal headache, Scully?"

She surveys the GQ-esque figure before her, and shakes her head in
wonder.

"How you do it, Mulder, I have no clue. You look ready for
anything."

CHAPTER 4

Driving over to the Hapscomb's, Scully keeps a wary eye on Mulder,
but he seems to be almost normal.

They find a parking spot a block away from the address, and walk up
to the building. The front door is open, so they enter the hall
and look for a directory.

"Here we are," Mulder says, pointing to his name on a list of
apartment numbers. "Third floor, number 2."

They both have their guns out by the time they reach apartment #2.

Martin has been sleeping, but awakes when he senses the nearness of
the mind he has been trying so hard to control. Smiling into the
dark room, he begins concentrating his attention on that mind once
more.

As Scully covers him, Mulder kicks the door open. They move in
quickly, but Mulder suddenly turns, takes Scully's gun from her
hand, and throws both guns into a corner of the room.

"Mulder...," and Scully realizes that Mulder is not Mulder any
more.
He viciously backhands her across the face, knocking her hard
against the wall. He moves toward her, but stops when Martin comes
into the room.

"So, you're discovering that my control is much stronger the closer
you are to me. I don't even need to pull your "essence" from your
body to do my work."

Scully could only look up at him through a fog. Her arms and legs
don't seem to want to work.

Martin laughs at her and says, "You'll die at your partner's hands
tonight. You murdered my brother in the hotel basement when you
were looking for your 'psychic killer.' Remember?"

He turns to Mulder and gives him a silent command.

Mulder approaches Scully, bends over and picks her up in his arms.
He turns and goes out the door, down the hallway, and stops at the
window at the dead end of the hall. Without bothering to open the
window, he throws her out. Or tries to throw her out. She grabs
onto the window frame, cutting her hands on broken glass. Hanging
on for dear life, she can see that Mulder has only been told to
throw her out. He has turned and is returning to Martin's
apartment.

She tries to keep as quiet as possible while climbing back into the
hall. She is bleeding from various cuts, but mostly from her
hands. She picks out some larger glass shards, wipes her hands on
her trousers, and reaches into her waistband at the back to pull
out a small revolver. Carefully and quietly she makes her way back
to Martin's apartment.

Martin is expounding on something or another to a subdued Mulder
when she puts her ear to the door. She figures she will have only
one good chance to take out Martin before he gets Mulder to attack
her again. And she just doesn't think she could shoot Mulder in a
serious enough place to be sure of stopping him.

Since the door lock has already been broken, all she has to do is
to give it a hard push. The door bangs against the wall, and she
screams, "Get away from him, Mulder. Now!"

She sees Mulder turn toward her as Martin tries to take cover
through the door to the kitchen. She has never shot at an unarmed
man before, but he was just as deadly as if he had a gun in his
hand. She fires as she sees Mulder out of the corner of her eye
coming up on her right.

Mulder hits her like a freight train, and they both go down hard.
The gun, loosened by the slippery blood on her hand, goes spinning
out of reach. She knows everything depends now on whether she put
Martin out of the picture.

Mulder groans and rolls off Scully, seemingly in considerable pain.
Scully sits up, walks to the kitchen door, and looks inside.
Martin had only gotten a foot inside the room before falling dead,
with her single bullet making a neat round hole in the middle of
his forehead.

She sags in regret and relief both, then turns back to Mulder.

"I would like to have a talk with you, Mulder. It's about this
habit you're getting into of attacking me every once in a while.
It's beginning to piss me off."

Mulder opened one bloodshot eye, not quite fully conscious yet, but
somehow knowing he was in trouble again.

THE END