From: Barbara Osen Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 21:24:24 +0300 Title: Zippity Doo Da Author: babos Category: MSR, angst, M/S/SK friendship, with a splash of Muldertorture for taste Rating: PG Spoilers: bigtime for "Monday", small ones for other eps Disclaimer: I wish I owned them, at least Mulder. But these great characters belong to CC, FOX and 10-13. They especially belong to Gillian Anderson, Mitch Pileggi, and the gorgeous and talented egg-player, David Duchovny. (Did he look good in those w et pj pants, or what???) owe you everything and you ..." Summary: alternate version of the episode "Monday" Zippity Doo Da "Stay with me, partner, OK?" Scully spoke softly as she held Mulder's head in her lap. She gently caressed his cheek with her thumb, smearing more of his precious blood onto his face. He looked up at her through blurry, pained-filled hazel eyes and tried to smile. She could tell he was hurting but that he didn't want her to worry about him when she had to deal with this desperate kid. He moved his lips as if he wanted to say something to her. She bent down closer to his mouth to listen. His breathing was shallow and labored. She had kept a finger on the carotid artery on his neck to check his pulse. She didn't need a medical degree to know that he was slipping away. His life's blood was creating a pool on the floor of the bank. As she leaned over to hear his labored breathing he whispered to her. "Zippity doo da." He attempted to give her one of his famous smirks but it came out more of a grimace. Then he choked a little and closed his eyes. A bit of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. "NO! You will not die, Mulder! I won't let you." Scully tried to stay clam. He was semi-conscious. She had to get him to a hospital immediately. She looked at the crazed young man wearing the belt of explosives around his chest. He seemed so afraid, too. She hoped that she could reason with him and get him to surrender before the team stormed the bank. It was their only hope. She was sure he would pull the switch if the SWAT team came too close. Then there would be nothing left but a pile of rubble. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Bernard looked at the woman on the floor. How had this gone so wrong? He really hadn't meant to hurt anyone. The explosives were just a scare tactic. He didn't want to die either. He just wanted to get the cash and give Pam a better life. He loved her. He knew she had given up on him but he thought that he still had a chance. If he could just get a fresh start somewhere else, away from this stinking city. The woman on the floor looked up at him through the tears in her eyes as she cradled the bleeding man. She'd said he was her partner. And they had both had guns. The J. Edgar Hoover Building was just down the street. They must be from the FBI. Damn it all to hell. Killing a federal officer meant the gas chamber for sure. He had just two choices. Neither was a good one. If he let them all go he would be arrested but the guy might live. Then he wouldn't be charged with murder. But the guy looked pretty bad. There was so much blood on the floor. The guy was probably going to die anyway and he would be charged with murder and already be in jail. No chance to get away. His other choice wasn't much better. He could hit the switch and they would all go up in dust. It seemed to Bernard that either way he was probably a dead man. So, the choice was more of which way did Bernard Oats want to die. At least he would go out with a few headlines and some fame. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Scully shifted her legs a little to get the circulation going again. As she did so Mulder's head moved on her lap and he groaned. He opened his eyes a little and tried to focus on her. "Sorry, Mulder," she said gently. "Still here, huh?" he whispered with the little strength he had. "Yup. You hang in there. We're going to get out of this. Don't we always?" Scully said to him with a soft smile. Mulder tried to nod. She tried to give him some of her strength and hope but she didn't have much to spare. She had to convince Bernard to give himself up or get him in a position that a sharpshooter outside could take him out. She had already tried that when she told him to show himself at the window. He'd known what she was trying to do. By this time she was sure that he had figured out the different possibilities. He seemed to be a smart enough kid who was caught in a bad situation. One that he hadn't counted on. He didn't know what to do either. "Bernard, please listen to me. The best thing you can do is to give yourself up. Let everyone go. Save my partner's life. It will be easier for you if you help him live. He doesn't have much time left. Please. You have to act quickly. He is bleeding to death." Scully hadn't wanted to say that while Mulder was coherent but she figured that he knew he was in bad shape. Her unconquerable partner was dying. He had survived sewer mutants and retro-viruses and moss men and so many other things she had tried to refute. He'd gone to the ends of the earth to save her. He could not be surrendered to a punk with a scruffy beard and a shaky voice. She would not let him. He was too strong for that. He was too important to her. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ As Bernard considered the woman's words he looked into her teary eyes. He saw that she was being honest. She was desperate for her partner's life. Just as he had been desperate for a better life. A better life for Pam. The woman he loved. This woman on the floor was fighting for the life of the man she loved. "Get on the phone. Tell them I am going to surrender," Bernard said with resignation. Scully pulled out her cell phone and dialed. She was surprised when she heard the familiar voice of AD Skinner pick up. "Sir?" "Scully? Is that you? What is the situation in there?" asked the AD. "He is going to surrender. Tell everyone to hold back. He has a bomb strapped to him so don't let anyone act rashly." "And we need EMT's immediately. Agent Mulder is seriously injured. Gunshot wound to the chest. It may have knicked the lung. He's lost a lot of blood." Skinner could hear Scully's voice crack as she told of Mulder's injuries. That damn Mulder! He couldn't even cash a check without getting hurt! The AD figured he had done something heroic for it to happen but how did the man manage to get into these situations all the time. Mulder was just a trouble magnet. Skinner told Scully that the ambulances were standing by as they were aware of at least one injured person from the time the police arrived. He should have figured it would be Mulder. He was concerned for his agent as well. As much as Mulder frustrated and tested him, Skinner did admire the obstinate young man. He was stubborn and didn't follow orders but he was also compassionate and empathetic and brilliant. Skinner also knew that Mulder would give his life for his partner. Which may be the reason that Mulder was now lying on a bank floor bleeding. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Bernard began to take off the explosives vest and walk toward the front door with his hands over his head. Scully told everyone to stay down on the ground until he was in the arms of the police. Several officers came to the door and grabbed Bernard. They took him off toward the police cruiser. Almost immediately the EMTs came in with their kits and several other officers began leading the other hostages to safety. By this time Scully was sure that Mulder was unconscious. He hadn't done much more than try to keep breathing during the past few minutes. She was surprised when he looked up at her as she gently lowered his head to place it on the pillow of her crumpled up, blood-stained suit jacket. "Hey, partner. It's all over. We're going to the hospital now so they can patch you up again." Mulder gave her a small smile and closed his big hazel eyes. Scully held his hand all the way to the hospital. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Zippity doo da," Scully said quietly to herself as they took him to surgery. She looked down at her blood-soaked suit. Her hands were still covered with his blood as well. At that point her adrenaline left her. She crumpled into a chair and let the tears flow freely. That was how Assistant Director Skinner found her. She was a mess. He brought over a cup of coffee and sat down next to her. "Agent Scully... Dana. It is going to be OK. Mulder will be fine. He has the best doctors working on him. You did a good job. Let them take over now. Mulder is a fighter and we both know how stubborn he is! He will make it." Scully looked up at the AD and wiped the tears with her sleeve. She didn't like him to see her this way. She had to be in control of her emotions. "It's OK. Let it out. You've had a rough day." Skinner put an arm around her shoulder for support. He knew how she felt. He's lost a partner before. But these two had a partnership like he had never seen. They were more than partners. They were each half of the other. He had seen it on Mulder's face as he was dragged away from Scully's ICU room when she had almost lost her battle with cancer. He saw it now on her face. If Mulder died she would be lost. She was strong but ... Skinner repeated his earlier words. "We both know how stubborn Mulder is. He isn't meant to go out this way. He IS going to make it." Scully gave the AD a small smile and allowed herself to sink into his strong massive shoulder. She was so tired. She began to drift off as much as she tried to fight it. Assistant Director Skinner looked down at Agent Scully as she dozed off on his shoulder. He would give her some time to rest before he attempted to get her story about the hold-up. He drank his coffee and waited. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Scully was walking toward the bank. She figured she could take Mulder's place in the line and deposit his check for him while he went back and gave his report to the panel. She chuckled a little as she thought about Mulder's story about his tardiness for the meeting. A waterbed? She didn't even think he had a bedroom. She had only known him to sleep on his couch. Not that she'd had the opportunity to check it out personally. The man was full of surprises. When she opened the door to the bank things seemed to shift into slow motion. She was met with a gun pointed in her face, then a scream and a gunshot. As she focused she saw Mulder's shocked expression as he fell to the floor. Suddenly there was blood everywhere. It was flowing over the floor and out the doors and things seemed to be covered in it. It was like being in a swimming pool of blood. She screamed. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Dana! Wake up. It's OK. You were having a dream," the AD held her upper arms as she shook herself awake. "Oh my God! It was so horrible." Scully suddenly realized where she was and why. "I'm sorry, Sir. I guess..." she stammered. "It's all right. Just try to relax," he said to her in a calm voice. "Any news on Mulder?" Scully asked. She knew it was a dumb question. If there was any news she would be the first to know. The doctors would have told her. "It's been almost 3 hours." She looked at her watch. Some of Mulder's blood was smeared on the crystal. She let out an involuntary shiver. "That is probably good news, isn't it? He's still holding his own or they would have told us. Right?" Skinner said hopefully. Scully just nodded and got up to stretch her legs. She looked down at her clothing. "Why don't you get cleaned up a little? I will be right here if there's any news," Director Skinner told her. Scully gave him a look of thanks and headed down the hall in search of a ladies room. When she looked in the mirror she saw her blood shot eyes and tear streaked face. "Oh, Mulder," she sighed. She proceeded to clean up as best she could when a Candy Striper came in with a set of light green hospital scrubs. "The Assistant Director of the FBI asked to let you borrow these," the young woman said with an impressed voice. "Are you an FBI agent?" "Thank you. Yes, I am." Scully said, taking the scrubs into one of the stalls to change. "That is so cool. What do you do there?" the Candy Striper continued. Scully really wasn't interested in making small talk but the girl was sweet. She was about to respond from behind the closed door of the stall. What could she tell this girl? My partner and I work on unexplained cases. Cases involving the paranormal. Like aliens and werewolves and bugs that eat people and 100 year old serial killers that eat human livers and killer trees and ... it just sounded so weird, even to her. Scully decided to keep it vague and hoped the girl wouldn't probe any further. "We're investigators," she finally said. "Very cool. What kind of stuff do you investigate? Did you hear about that attempted bank robbery downtown?"the girl pressed on without pausing for breath. "Did you know they shot an FBI agent? He is here, in surgery. Sounds like he's in pretty bad shape. Got shot in the chest. They aren't sure if he is gonna make it." Finally the girl stopped rambling. She waited for answers from the stall. All she heard was sniffling and a nose being blown. The stall opened and the FBI agent came out wearing the scrubs. She threw a few wads of damp toilet paper into the trash bin and splashed some water on her face. "Yes, I heard," she stated simply. Realization dawned on the young girl. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Is he a friend of yours?" "Yes, a very good friend. Thank you for the clothes. I have to go now." Scully walked out of the ladies room and back to where AD Skinner was waiting. They sat in silence for a long time. Finally Skinner asked her what she was expecting. "So, Agent Scully, what did happen in the bank?" "The holdup was in progress when I got there. As I opened the door Bernard was aiming his gun at me. I saw Mulder for a split second before all hell broke loose. I think Mulder pulled his gun, someone screamed and Bernard turned and shot Mulder. It all happened so fast... but yet it seemed like slow motion, too." "I think Mulder distracted Bernard so he wouldn't shoot me. Mulder took the bullet for me. There was so much blood. He was so still, struggling to breathe..." Scully got a far away look in her eyes as she continued the story. "I got to Mulder and he was still conscious but bleeding badly from the wound to his upper chest area. He was bleeding a little from the mouth so I was concerned that the bullet may have hit his lung. He never said a word about the pain. I know he was in lots of pain but he tried to make jokes, to keep me from worrying." "Ha. Like I don't worry 95% of the time when he is around. Mulder has a way of getting hurt in any situation. He is a walking disaster area." There was a long pause and a soft sigh before she continued. " No, that isn't fair. Usually when he gets hurt it's in the process of helping someone, protecting someone. This time it was me he was protecting." Her voice wavered again but she regained her composure to continue. "The kid was scared shitless. He didn't know what he wanted to happen. I don't think this was in his plan. The bomb vest was just a scare tactic. He was terrified himself. I managed to talk him into surrendering." Skinner looked at Scully's professional demeanor and seemed to accept her verbal report. He knew she would be able to give him the details later on paper when she didn't have so much to deal with. So much at stake. He hoped they would have some news fr om the doctors soon. After about 45 minutes a doctor wearing surgical scrubs came down to the waiting area to speak to them. Scully tried to read his face as he got closer. She could see neither sorrow nor confidence. She had taken that course in med. school, as well. 'Don't give them too much hope in case things go sour.' She swallowed her fears as he approached. "Agent Scully, I'm Dr. Moore. We have just finished up with your partner. He is being taken to CCU." Director Skinner introduced himself. "How does it look?" he asked. "Well, we repaired the lung damage. It wasn't extremely serious. But he did lose a lot of blood and it was a long time before he was brought here. We are hopeful but he isn't "out of the woods". The next 24 hours are critical. If he gets through that without complications we have every reason to expect full recovery. I'm sorry. I wish I could be more confident." Scully tried to contain herself. She would not break down again. "He is in good physical shape and that is certainly in his favor. He is young and strong," the doctor continued. "May I see him?" Scully asked. "Sit with him for a while?" "He's in the CCU so that means only one visitor for 10 minutes each hour. Yes, go ahead. The CCU is on the fifth floor, take a left..." Scully was gone before he had a chance to finish his directions. Dr. Moore looked at AD Skinner and noted the concern on his face as well. "They are very close partners," Skinner said simply. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Hey, partner. Here we are again. Me holding your hand. We have to stop meeting like this." Scully whispered to the still form on the bed. The various monitors indicated that he was holding his own. She sometimes wished she didn't know what they were all doing. He was on a respirator that was not breathing for him completely but assisting his injured lungs. The heart monitor, the catheter (sorry, buddy!), the blood pressure monitor. He was wrapped in bandages all around his chest and shoulder. But she could still make out the scar from the bullet she had put through him so many years ago. It seemed like decades. She felt very old all of a sudden. She felt as if she were an old woman sitting at the deathbed of a husband of a 70 year marriage. She continued to hold his hand and speak softly to him until a nurse told her that 10 minutes had passed. Scully didn't argue. She went back to the waiting room. Skinner had left a message that he had been called back to the office. She sat for a few minutes and then used her cellphone and called her mother. She only got the machine. Just as she finished her message - "Mom, I am at Georgetown University Hospital with Mulder. Please come as soon as you can," she looked up and saw Maggie Scully walking toward her. AD Skinner had called Mrs. Scully before he left the hospital. Dana ran to her Mom and they hugged each other for strength. Maggie took Dana to the couch and brushed the hair back from her daughter's face. "Tell me what happened." Scully wanted to cry but it seemed like she was out of tears. She relayed the story about the robbery. How she felt Mulder had tried to protect her and how his chances of recovery looked. "Dana, honey, Fox Mulder is a fighter. He's going to make it through this. Don't you give up on him. He never gave up on you." Scully looked into her mom's eyes and understood what she meant. She had told Dana of the way Fox had tried to persuade them to not follow her Living Will too early, to not give up on her will to live. "I won't, Mom. But... what if this time... I don't know what I would do if he..." she found more tears rolling down her cheeks and fell into her mother's arms for comfort. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The hour until the next visitation passed and Scully went to sit with him again. He looked so pale against the white sheets of the hospital bed. The bed. If it hadn't been for a bed none of this would have happened. A leaky waterbed. A stupid, son-of -a-bitch, leaky waterbed that she didn't even know he had. He really didn't seem like a waterbed kind of guy. What was it he had said about fate? If he didn't have the waterbed it wouldn't have leaked and he wouldn't have had to write a rubber check so that he had to rush off to that stupid bank to deposit his paycheck blah, blah, blah... Then he had said that something about if she hadn't joined the FBI he wouldn't have met her and blah, blah, blah... What had that meant? Was it a good thing or a bad thing? Was he happy they had met and become partners? She was determined to pursue that topic with him. He just had to wake up first. And he would. She was not going to let him skip out of that conversation. "Mulder, don't you dare think you are going to leave without finishing that conversation. You just get your cute little butt back to reality so I can find out what you meant by that," she scolded in hushed tones. Suddenly the heart monitor started beeping slightly faster. Not by much. Scully wasn't concerned that he was crashing. She felt that maybe she had gotten through to him. She took his hand more firmly and continued, "What exactly did you mean by that? Especially the blah, blah, blah part? I want to know, partner. Don't you ditch me. Give me a sign that you can hear me." She felt the hand she was holding twitch slightly in her grasp. His eyelids started to quiver as well. He was coming around. A CCU nurse came to his bed and checked his vitals. " He seems to be regaining consciousness. But he should still be way under. He's only a few hours out of surgery," she said in surprise. "My partner is full of surprises," Scully said with a smile as she watched him slowly open his expressive hazel eyes. Scully was pushed out behind the curtain as the doctor and nurses checked him over. They removed the respirator and felt he was stable enough to move to ICU. She walked along side the bed as they rolled him to the other unit. He hadn't spoken but had looked at her very clearly focused. She gave him her best "Mulder regains consciousness" smile as they got him settled into his new room. After they had him hooked up to the monitors and attached a nasal canula, the medical team left them alone for a few minutes. Scully could see how tired he was and told herself she wouldn't stay long. He was still watching her closely. He licked his lips with a dry tongue and she got the hint. She poured some water into the glass and let him take a little through the straw. He wanted more but she pulled back the cup. He gave her his best puppy dog look but she did not relent. "You know how you react to the anesthetics, Mulder. Take it easy. You can have more in a little while if you keep that down." "Thanks," he rasped. "What happened at the bank?" "Oh, no. You need to rest. I will just tell you that everyone else is fine. Bernard is in jail and you were the only casualty." Scully gave him a quick kiss on the forehead and pulled the sheet up over his chest bandages. "Rest now. I will be back later to give you all the details." He gave her a sleepy look and tried to keep his eyes open. She was right, as usual. He did need the rest. He could barely keep his eyes open. But he did have to ask her one thing before she left. "Scully. Ah, um... do you really think I have a cute butt?" he asked with a small leer. Scully gave him an exasperated look and responded the only way she could think to, " Now, where on earth did you get that idea, Mulder?" Then she closed the door and smiled as she walked back to the waiting area. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Thaz all folks. Hope you liked it. Feedback is received gratefully. Lots fewer calories than Hershey's Kisses! E-me at br_osen@hotmail.com