Disclaimers in Part 1.

Part 03a of 11.

Motel
6:09 p.m.

Scully frowned as she looked at the thermometer in front of her. 103. She
blinked. It didn't change. How could his fever have gone up so fast? she
thought, as her medical mind tried to come up with a cause.

Mulder looked miserable. Of course, he does Scully thought, You would too,
if you just spent the last fifteen minutes retching. This was it. Scully
placed the thermometer on the nightstand and went for Mulder's coat. She
placed it next to him and sat down on the bed. She wiped some hair out of his
face and spoke softly.

"Come on, G-Man. We're going to the hospital."

Mulder shook his head, wincing at the shooting pain it sent through his
temples. "Please, no hospital," he croaked weakly.

"Mulder, you have a temp of 103. You need to get checked out." She spoke
gently.

But Mulder shook his head again. Fever bright eyes met Scully's. Just like
in the piano hall his eyes pleaded silently.

Scully just shook her head. "The sooner you feel better, the sooner you can
go back to your files. And you will feel better after a trip to the ER."
Scully's own eyes pleaded. Her eyes softened. "Please, Mulder."

Mulder just reached weakly for his coat.

"Good boy," Scully said and handed it to him.

ER
9:12 p.m.

"Well, Dr. Scully, I'm not sure what's wrong with him. We'll know more when
the test results come back. But there is good news, his temperature dropped a
degree."

Scully turned toward Mulder, who was laying down, with his eyes closed. He
hadn't protested since Scully brought him here, except for the "look" he gave
Scully every time a nurse approached him with a needle.

"That's good to hear." Scully shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
"How much longer do you think it will be for the bloodwork to come back?"

"Maybe another 20 minutes or so. Meanwhile, I've want to start a course of IV
antibiotics while we are waiting for the results," the doctor continued.

Scully nodded. "Mulder won't like that. He _hates_ IVs."

The doctor smiled. "Don't worry I've had patients like that before. I'm
going to check on that bloodwork." The doctor walked away. Scully approached
Mulder just as the nurse approached with the IV equipment. The nurse reached
for his arm. Mulder promptly pulled his arm away.

"No," he said and looked up at Scully. "I came. I gave blood. I let the
doctor poke and prod me. But I'm not going to give in to an IV." Scully just
raised her eyebrows and placed one hand over her gun. Five minutes later the
IV was in.

Mulder just frowned and looked at Scully with the same "look" he had been
giving her all evening. Scully smiled a little. If Mulder was complaining, he
must be feeling better.

"I've got the results of the bloodwork, Dr. Scully." Scully turned to see the
doctor holding a piece of paper in hand. He walked over to her and Mulder.

"It looks like a virus. Of what origin, I'm not sure. I'd like to keep him
overnight, have him on fluids. There are signs of mild dehydration." As soon
as the doctor said "overnight" Mulder's eyes widened and pleaded with Scully.

"Actually we've on a case and need to get back. Since I am a physician, I
think I could care for him back at the motel. Monitored closely, of course,"
Scully added.

The doctor nodded. "We'll pump him full of antibiotics here, and I'll write
you a script for orals. They should be taken for 10 days. That should kill the
infection." He handed Scully the prescription along with another. He pulled
her away a little and spoke softly. "This one is for a sedative." Scully
opened to her mouth to ask how he knew, but the doctor just smiled. "I've had
patients like him before. He's exhausted, but I'm willing to bet my pension
that he's isn't a good sleeper." Scully nodded. "Make sure he takes one
tonight. A good night's sleep will help out the infection." Scully nodded
again and thanked the doctor.

She walked to Mulder and smiled. "Doctor says as soon as they get a good
amount of antibiotics into you, we can go back to the motel. Good news?"

"Thanks, Scully," Mulder said gratefully.

"Anytime partner." Anytime seemed to more frequent then Scully would like,
but with Mulder, what could she do?

Motel
10:23 p.m.

Scully sat on the edge of Mulder's bed, holding a glass of water in one hand,
and two pills in the other.

Mulder eyed the pills. "I thought I was supposed to take only one pill," he
said suspiciously. "What's this other one?"

Scully eyed him and replied calmly, knowing he would protest as soon as she
said it. "It's a sedative, Mulder."

Mulder shook his head strongly. A dull ache remained from the concussion. "I
knew that doctor was letting me off a little too easily," he muttered.

"I'm not leaving until you swallow both pills," Scully said firmly, feeling as
if she were a mother trying to coax her child to take cough medicine.

Mulder eyed them again. "Don't make me get my gun, Mulder," Scully teased.

Mulder slowly took the two pills from Scully's hand and swallowed them. He
laid back on the pillows.

"I still want to talk to the Martins' and Katie," he said, his eyes straying
to the files on his dresser.

"There will be plenty of time to do that. But first you get well. If I bring
you back damaged one more time, Skinner's going to be pissed at the insurance
premiums you're costing the FBI. You think you expense reports are legendary,"
she said with a smile.

Mulder just nodded. The sedative was taking effect. Mulder closed his eyes.

"Good night, Scully," he whispered.

Scully shut the lights. "'Night, Mulder."

Scully laid a hand on Mulder's forehead before she left. It felt much cooler.
She was still puzzled on how quickly Mulder had gotten sick, but now she was
puzzled as how much better he seemed. Guess a trip to the ER really did help
she thought as she closed Mulder's door.

Motel
8:04 a.m.

"Rise and shine, Mulder." Scully was overly cheerful on a dreadfully overcast
morning. When that go no response she shook his shoulder roughly. "C'mon,
partner, we've got work to do. C'mon-- wake u-up."

A groan emitted from the heap under the covers that was Mulder. He muttered
something Scully recognized as, "Too early."

"Nah, it's after eight." That earned her another groan. "Hey, I thought you
wanted to talk to the Martins'."

Mulder buried his face in the pillow. "I was just kidding."

"Ooooh, I don't think so." She yanked the covers down. "Get up and take a
shower, Mulder. Then we can get some breakfast and you can take your pills!"

"Oh joy." With the covers gone and Scully's voice echoing in his once again
pounding head, Mulder sat up. He ran a tongue over his teeth; they were sticky
and dry. "What time did you say it was?"

"Um... eight-ten."

"Scu-lly," he whined. "Katie's at school, there's no point in going over."
He dropped back on the bed, fully prepared to go back to sleep.

"Nope, you see Mulder, it's a special day of the week called Saturday where
the children don't go to school and the grown-ups-- the grown-ups with normal
jobs-- don't work. It's a family time for love and play and--"

"Oh, shut up." Mulder threw a pillow at her and stumbled into the bathroom.
Scully heard the water running then a minute later a yelp. "SCULLY! You used
up the hot water!"

Scully grinned, knowing he couldn't see her. "Sorry!" She shrugged.


The Martin's
Rutherford, NJ
8:50 a.m.

Samuel Buster Martin could hear his youngest daughter's voice from all the way
downstairs.

Correction, your ONLY daughter Buster stared down at his hands. He wasn't a
sensitive man, but the thinking of Sarah still caused him to shudder. How
could she have died just like--

"I wish they were dead." A pause. "Yes I do!" Pause. "I'm not taking
this... why don't YOU fuck off?"

Buster frowned. "Katie?" He walked down the hall and to the foot of the
stairs. "Katie, come down, what are you doing?"

She appeared from the door of her room, her face flushed, hair tousled. "In a
minute dad," she said. He stood there, a confused expression glued to his
face, listening. A minute later the heated conversation picked up once again.

"Listen, I don't want to KILL him.... I just... will you let me FINISH?? I
want to incapacitate him for a little bit. Yeah I know I... you... whatever,
already have. Yes I'm perfectly aware this is an butt ugly sweater. I have to
wear it cause Aunt Martha made it and it's polite to...." She sighed. "Yeah,
I know. Don't worry, I won't wear it to school."

Buster was so intrigued with his daughter's conversation with herself he
didn't hear his wife come out of the kitchen. She stood behind him and wrapped
her arms around his waist.

"What're you doing, honey?"

He turned around as best he could in her grip. "Just listening to Katie."

"Hmm?"

"Oh, nevermind. Honey, you know that sweater you're sister made Katie last
year? Do you like it? Cause..."



Restaurant
Rutherford, NJ
8:40 a.m.

"Mulder, may I remind you that just last night you were dehydrated?"

He shrugged. He had swallowed his pills dry on the way to the restaurant,
despite Scully's objections, and was now refusing to eat or drink anything.

Scully sighed and tried a different approach. "Plus, this is the second time
in two day you've gone to a restaurant and not ordered anything. In some
places they kick you out for that." That earned her another indifferent shrug.
"Fine," she said and returned her attention to her coffee.

Across the table, Mulder was having a blast exploring straws and water. He
dipped his plastic straw into the glass, squeezed with his third and fourth
fingers and covered the top with his pointer. He then lifted the straw, pulled
his pointer finger away and eased the vice that squeezed it shut. The water
flowed out and back down into the cup in a single curved, fluid, graceful
motion. Mulder then repeated the process, bringing the straw up a little high
every time to see it he could get it to a point where the water missed the cup,
or spread out of the neat traveling line.

"Will you stop messing with that?" Scully pushed away her plate. "C'mon,
let's get to the Martins' while it's still early."

They walked through the parking lot, a thin layer of rain dampening their
hair.

"Hey, Scully?"

"Mm?" She turned around.

A cold wind picked up his hair in a cow lick. "Think we'll get to meet
Buster?"

Scully smiled. "Could be."

The Martin Household
9:30 a.m.

Scully sat on the floral printed couch. Mulder sat beside her.

"Would you like something to drink?" asked Mrs. Martin. "Coffee?"

"That would be great," Scully answered. Mulder just looked at Buster. He was
a _very_ well built man. Mulder gulped. I better stay on this guys good
side Mulder reminded himself. He put a hand to his head, still feeling the
remains of last night's headache. Scully had told him that his fever had
broken at about midnight last night. Not that he remembered. After he had
gone to bed, the night was kind of a blur.

"Are you all right, Agent Mulder?"

Mulder looked up to see Mrs. Martin looking at him. She held out a cup of
coffee. Mulder took it gratefully.

"I'm fine," he said, but Scully put in her two cents in.

"Agent Mulder's just nursing a cold," she explained. Mrs. Martin smiled
knowingly. Mulder opened his mouth to start asking questions, when he was
interrupted by a yell from upstairs.

"You SAID you'd incapacitate him for awhile!! but.....yeah, he's h-"

Mulder turned his head to the stairs, to see if that was where the noise was
coming from. He frowned.

Buster sighed. "Not again," said Christina Martin. Buster immediately went
to the stairs. "KATIE!" he yelled, "What IS going on up there??"

Some more muffled words followed. Then Katie appeared, at the top of the
stairs, and looked down at her father. "Nothing, Dad. Sorry about the noise."
Katie saw the two agents and her eyes narrowed, partically on Mulder.

As soon as Mulder saw Katie Martin, his suspiciousions were confirmed. He
knew she was hiding something. The key to this case his tired mind told him.
He needed to solve this case, but the fact that all he wanted to do was crawl
into his bed and sleep till next week was _not_ helping him.

"Katie, come downstairs please," Christina instructed.

"Yes, Mom." Katie walked down slowly, not taking her eyes off of Mulder. I
don't want to talk to him. I want him gone. Make him go away. I wish he
would go away.

Mulder watched Katie watch him as she walked down the stairs. Suddenly the
room begun to spin. It swirled. Mulder blinked and shook his head, awakening
a new bolt of pain Mulder thought he had seen the last of. He reached up to
his head gingerly. The room suddenly got very dark at the edges of his vision.
He squinted.

"Katie, Agent Mulder wants....to you......nice." The words seemed to fade in
and out, like an echo. Mulder felt himself start to teeter. He watched as
everything went by in slow motion. He saw Scully rush to him, then nothing.

End part 03a of 11.


Part 3b