Title: A Love Meant for Him Alone
Author: MissAnnThropic
E-Mail: miss_annthropic@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Requiem
Summary: Mulder's back and Doggett thinks back on the search to locate him.
Disclaimer: I own nasing! Really, I don't. All you see here (that you recognize, anyway) is the creation of someone else. I take no credit.



The FBI building's bureau indoor pool was moderately crowded on that Wednesday afternoon. Not many people managed to get out of the office for a swim in the middle of the week, much less the middle of the day.

Agent John Doggett was one of the men who happened to make it to the pool that afternoon. He needed time to think, anyway. So much had happened in the last year and a half of his life that it was taking a long time for it to sink in and sort out. The least of his worries were getting back to work immediately.

A year and a half ago he had been assigned to the X Files. Partnered with a hostile and pretty temperamental woman named Dana Katherine Scully whose only concern in work and life was to find her missing partner, Agent Fox Mulder.

Doggett had heard about Mulder. Mostly that he was a paranoid borderline lunatic who was nonetheless a brilliant psychologist and criminal profiler who believed UFOs existed and that his own sister had been abducted by aliens. The female staff indulged in a much more lengthy discussion about his looks (apparently the women, despite Mulder's sometimes odd construction, found something in him dashing and boyishly irresistible), but it was always followed by comments that he was cordial and kind at initial meeting but had a very dark, hidden side that sent any other woman who glanced upon it screaming. Not much else circulated about Mulder for a long time... until, of course, he started to open up his world and heart for one little red-head.

Doggett knew the story, of course. Dana Scully, a wet-behind-the-ears newbie barely out of Quantico assigned to Fox Mulder for the purpose of debunking his work. As contrary to what the prestige of the FBI seemed to let on, there were many boring and tedious days like in any other workplace. Without really knowing it or attempting to, Mulder and Scully became the soap-opera stars of the bureau. They were setting themselves up for it just from the circumstances behind their pairing and the nature of who they were. And that fact that this was going to be someone FORCED to see Fox Mulder's dark side and bound by duty not to run... it would no doubt become VERY interesting. People who caught snippets of their arguments circulated them. Doggett had heard some of them, and he had to admit the partnership was intriguing with a dynamic he was sure burrowed into a dozen different psychological layers in both parties. It seemed, from the biting disagreement and sometimes stubborn bullheadedness of both agents that all they did was fight.

But strangely, somehow they became friends... best friends. Dana Scully, barely 23 when she was partnered with Fox Mulder, saw his dark side and instead of running, she embraced it... found in that monster something she could believe in and trust. Mulder's beast became dependent on his assigned partner... some creatures were tamable by only one person's hand, it seemed. After a while, you normally didn't see one without the other. Doggett had seen them in the halls a few times himself, passing through close by each other, a stony and determined look on their faces as they seemed oblivious to the others around them. Always on a mission, it seemed. He never paid much attention... it was just something to muse on in his spare time when he was siting at his computer running boring background checks. But that's all it ever was for him... a curious thought in the back of his mind that got no more attention than the lifespan of a flea.

Doggett had heard stories about Dana Scully too. She was driven, determined, and devoted wholeheartedly to Fox Mulder... THAT was not to be questioned. There had been rumors spread of Scully unleashing a veritable dragon on people when they tried to belittle or ridicule Mulder to her (got to wonder if Mulder's personal dark dragon taught Scully's how to be so brutal). Of course, the same rumors spread around about Mulder. That you could say anything you wanted to about him, but the minute you disparaged Scully he was all over your ass to protect her honor. How fucking chivalrous. What was the point of all that, anyway? Doggett never understood it... this was work and Mulder and Scully always treated it like the entire world was at stake. Definitely two loyal workaholics.

Scully had been presented around the water coolers as an 'Ice Queen', cold, piercing eyes, dry and quick (sometimes rude) humor, and an intellect as sharp as a whip.

Doggett, of course, never gave it much thought. So they were two rather unpleasant people who were able to put up with each other because of their similar personalities... not that he thought any of this would be necessary for him to know.

And then Agent Fox Mulder disappeared and he was assigned to the task force in charge of finding him. Thus was his introduction into the dark and mysterious world of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully... soap stars of the FBI.

So he had not really lied to Scully when he first met her... he sort of knew Mulder... everyone in the building did. He had tried to coerce her to admit the nature of their partnership, under the guise of being someone other than himself. He knew it had to do with the case, but he was also curious to know on a more gossip-oriented level (he couldn't escape hearing them, so he was a little curious).

He had approached her, after having just lost her partner, and thought she looked incredibly calm and collected. A cold stare that seemed to warn others to keep a personal and physical distance from her, but not the kind of grief one might expect a suddenly abandoned woman to show. It made him question the nature of their friendship. Was it merely one to ward of loneliness? She really didn't look distraught.

So he had been thoroughly surprised when, after his personal attempt at interrogation, she had shot him a look. A completely murderous and burning look. So THAT'S the fire-breathing dragon the other agents spoke of... maybe he should have listened to the rumors and not stepped on Scully's toes about her partner.

Scully had stood, unceremoniously and without regard for the others around thrown the cup of water in his face, and so started their rocky road. Seemingly, Scully never got over his initial deceit in the office when she'd thrown water on him.

Doggett avoided another person who swam by him and thought, 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'

Doggett had never met a person more hostile and slow to trust than that woman. Agent Dana Scully never looked at him with trust in her eyes... always just below the surface lied anger and distrust. She was snappish, barked commands as soon as he entered the basement office (don't touch Mulder's desk, what were you doing going through Mulder's files?), and any time she was asked to test her faith in the work-arranged partnership she pulled away and went on her own path. Her attitude, though she never said it aloud, was pretty much 'fuck you, John Doggett.'

That pissed Doggett off, but more than anything he was completely confused why Mulder would have become so close to her, especially when Scully's stoicism seemed to suggest she didn't need Mulder so much in her life. He'd never met such an angry, bitter woman in all his days. He was almost just as anxious as her to find Mulder, just so he could get out of the X Files division and away from her.

And then the bombshell during all this searching. Dana Scully was pregnant!

Strangely, the affect on Scully as her body began to show the evidence of the life growing inside her was that she became not more placid and gentle, but withdrawn. Hell, as much as he hated her tone when she was disregarding his skeptic theories, he got to the point where he just wished she would say SOMETHING.

Scully was very quiet about the parentage of her child, never confessing who the father was, though no one who had seen the way Mulder and Scully were solely devoted to each other had a doubt in their mind who the dad was. Doggett tried to be as supportive as he could of his 'partner' (hell, he couldn't just leave her to the wolves, she was his partner and under duty partly his responsibility), but she rebuffed most of his offers. In light of his offers, however, she did let up on him... wow, and only 9 months to get over that original deception.

He knew he was being forgiven as much as he was going to when Scully reached him in the office one morning, four days after beginning maternity leave, to call from the hospital and let him know that dark-haired, hazel-eyed Savannah Vixen Mulder was born perfectly healthy last night. He had been stunned, speechless... she had just admitted outright to him that her partner, the AWOL Fox William Mulder, was the father of her baby. Scully had been quiet a while, then asked him a favor... the wildest favor anyone could ask and somehow so fitting from someone like Dana Scully. She asked him to spread the rumor. So he did... he told everyone he met in the halls that Dana Scully had given birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl... a little brunette, hazel-eyed girl named Savannah Vixen Mulder.

Strangely, the response he got from all he met was a smile and requests that he send her their best regards. The reaction should have been accusing, shaming, and appalled. Partners weren't supposed to fraternize... they were NOT supposed to have a sexual relationship, and they certainly weren't supposed to have children together. But strangely, perhaps in some form of dutiful camaraderie, no one begrudged them this. Dana Scully ended up calling back to ask Doggett to ask people to stop sending her flowers, her hospital room was getting full, and that she greatly appreciated the gesture.

When Scully returned to work (though it was against the rules and any number of books could have been thrown at her if she did), she was begged and half-teasingly bribed by so many people to bring in her daughter that one day she did. During a slow Friday, Dana Scully walked into the FBI building with a small bundle in her arms. The guard smiled down at the little baby and let her through. Nearly everyone stopped Scully in the halls to take a look at the little baby. Crooning and grins were abound. Their two favorite secret-TV soap stars had finally gone and done it... about damn time, and everyone wanted to see the end product.

That day Doggett had found Scully standing outside Assistant Director Walter Skinner's office. Skinner was standing next to Scully, looking for all intents and purposes like an overjoyed uncle as he beamed at the little bundle in Scully's arms. Uncle Walter, man, the kid would have high-power family. While there was obviously no blood relation between the newborn Savannah Mulder and Walter Skinner, Doggett need only look at the A.D.'s face as he crooned and smiled at the new baby to know he fully intended to adopt uncle responsibilities concerning the child. Doggett had never seen Skinner smile before.

Doggett had stepped up to Scully, a little apprehensive to actually see the baby; the result of an unpermitted act that was grounds for dismissal or separation of the two dark and moody agents. But he couldn't help it, and when Scully said nothing to keep him at bay as he inched closer, Doggett peeked inside the blanket at the small creature. The eyes that peeked open from the tiny face to look at him dazed and confused were Fox Mulder's eyes... she looked amazingly like her father. And it was then, at that strange moment seeing that new baby who did not have her father (which was under Doggett's jurisdiction to remedy), he knew he had to find Fox Mulder. Redouble his efforts, backtrack all his steps... whatever it took. The innocent child in Scully's arms deserved that... she deserved her father.

In the basement office that day, while Scully sat behind Mulder's desk rocking the baby in her arms (often whispering softly to Savannah that she was sitting at 'daddy's' desk, which twisted at Doggett's heart despite himself) she said the first personal, gently spoken thing to Doggett she ever had. With a soft smile on her face she mused aloud, "Mulder's not going to be happy."

Doggett had been so stunned by the intimate conversation being initiated by the Ice Queen that he was silent a moment, then moved closer cautiously and asked, "Why's that?"

Scully looked up at him, for the first time the fire and rage gone from her eyes, "He hates his name... Fox, and I named her after him. Vixen, her middle name... he's going to be mad about that."

Doggett watched the mother and daughter, then answered, "I'm sure he'll forgive you. I know he will."

Scully nodded faintly, then said sadly, "He should have been here for this."

After that, mostly on his own as Scully spent a lot of time at home taking care of Savannah, he worked fervently to find Mulder. No more tender, soft-spoken moments between Doggett and Scully followed, but Doggett hadn't expected them to, not from cold-emotions Dana Scully. The Ice Queen shut out everyone, everyone but her new daughter Savannah.

And then, four months ago, a break had come. Someone had found a man wandering around naked in the Oregon woods. A man who fit the description of Fox Mulder, though he was disoriented and confused and at the time the call was placed and had not verified who he was to authorties or hospital staff.

Doggett and Skinner had flown down there immediately, telling Scully to stay behind until they were sure it was him. Doggett knew Skinner's practical reason was so she didn't have to travel with such a young baby or find a babysister on a minute's notice for what may be someone other than Mulder, but Doggett could tell Skinner's real motive was he didn't want to get Scully's hopes up if they were just to be dashed. Skinner didn't want to see a hopeful Scully standing in a strange hospital in Oregon, Savannah in her arms, with no one there to greet her, no celebration of return. No Mulder to share the reunion with.

Skinner and Doggett stepped into the hospital room in Portland, Oregon and for the first time since the start of this investigation Doggett sighed a real breath of relief. The man in the bed was indeed Agent Fox Mulder.

Upon seeing Skinner, Mulder had jolted from the bed. Doggett remembered twitching, even about to go for his gun, thinking perhaps Mulder had gone crazy in his time away and was bolting to attack them.

Instead, Skinner strode in two large steps to Mulder and the two men threw their arms around each other in a strong, powerful hug. Doggett had never seen field agents and their superiors get so close. While Mulder was missing and they were searching for him, Doggett was all too aware that Skinner had been looking out for Scully, giving her more than just professional support, treating her almost like a kid sister. Then the way he'd been all over the baby in the hallway, and now the return embrace before Doggett... Skinner was obviously very close friends with both agents.

Mulder pulled away from Skinner, looked kind of absently at Doggett for a split second, then asked, "Where's Scully?"

Skinner had not told him the big news, that he was a father, but told Mulder to get dressed in the clothes that Skinner had brought with him for Mulder. He was signing out of the hospital and flying home with them that day... Scully was okay and wanted to see him. Mulder needed not another word of prompting.

Doggett, while Mulder was hurriedly dressing, had gone into the hall and called Scully. She answered her phone, talking over the sputtering sobs of a baby in the background, "Scully."

"Agent Scully? This is Agent Doggett. We found him."

A long silence followed... one filled only by the cries of the baby Savannah in the background who was finally going to be united with her long-lost father. Doggett had felt a personal great pride in bringing a family home.

Doggett asked, "Scully? You there?"

"Yeah... yes..."

"We're coming in tonight, flight 351." He couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. No tears, no incoherently muttered 'thank you's, no hysterical screams? How close did Scully let this Mulder guy get to her heart, anyway? It made him wonder if some people were just closed off to deep, soulful love.

Scully had muttered something weakly about being there, then hung up the phone. When Doggett went back into the hospital room he told the now dressed Fox Mulder that Scully was going to meet them at the airport. His face had been passive... almost neutral. It almost gave Doggett the creeps, but then again, in a way it made the two agents perfect for each other.

The car ride to the airport, the boarding process on the plane, and the actual flight were taken in complete silence. Mulder said hardly a word, just sat there staring out the window. Probably an overload... so much to think of and so many questions to answer.

When their plane landed Doggett, having been seated near the front of the plane, disembarked before Walter and Mulder once they reached D.C... He didn't wait up for them on board, he just got off the plane. He immediately saw Scully in the terminal, watching the gate with baited breath as passengers began to disembark. She didn't have Savannah with her... the baby must have been with Scully's mother. She gave Doggett the slightest of looks, returning her eyes to the gate. Doggett stood back, willing to just watch the reunion of two agents who didn't seem that exuberant or ecstatic at the prospect of seeing one another again.

Every notion and preconception Doggett had for Fox Mulder and Dana Scully was about to change dramatically. He was about to be forced to reinvent the way he had always seen the two FBI agents.

After what seemed like an excruciatingly long wait, Mulder's form finally emerged from the terminal gateway. His eyes fell instantly on Scully and they not once left her figure standing twelve feet from him as he was halted dead in his tracks by the sight of her.

Scully caught her breath when she saw him, staring at him as if she couldn't believe it, didn't want to let herself see what she wanted to see only to find later it was not real.

A disbelieving and heavy tension hung in the air, and then they both cracked. Ice Queen Scully and Spooky Mulder lost control of their facades... for once they let what they felt show externally as the same raw, powerful feelings they were inside.

Scully charged toward Mulder... Mulder moved quickly to her, and when they collided together, bodies crushed into each other, their arms closed around each other with a vice-liked grip. And they both cried.

Doggett was stunned... he could not believe what he was seeing. Scully was clinging to Mulder, gripping him as strongly as she humanly could, crying into his shoulder with abandon... no restraints. Mulder was clutching her just as strongly, tears streaming down his face. Never had Doggett seen such heavy sobs in two adults bodies. The raw emotion being displayed was staggering.

And that was the moment he realized what he'd not understood before. Neither of these agents were heartless or cold to emotion as they had previously seemed, they merely were expert at masking their feelings from others. There was no way one could say they did not feel as strongly as any other person in love... they felt that tenfold as they cried in each other's arms without shame in the airport.

Scully's legs grew weak and she faltered, depending on Mulder to hold her up. He tried, he did, but his own overwhelming emotion of relief was just as strongly weakening him, and together they sank to the floor in each other's arms, sobs still controlling their bodies.

Doggett had moved forward to suggest they get out of the airport, but Skinner placed a strong and halting hand on his shoulder. He practically was telling him, 'let them have their cry.'

The sobs of relief abated, and Mulder held Scully to him and slowly began to rock, whispering gently to his partner, calming her and reassuring her, "I'm here, Scully... I missed you... I love you, Scully... I love you so much... it's okay... I'm never leaving you again... Scully, you mean everything to me... I'm sorry... I love you..."

Scully practically curled into him like a kitten, right there on the terminal floor. Mulder pulled her closer until she was almost cradled in his lap. Mulder rocked her softly, gently, whispering tenderly to her in his deep, soothing voice.

Scully, after getting control of her sobbing, sat up and pulled away from Mulder enough to see his face. She stared into his eyes, as he did hers... locked in each other's gazes. Then, bringing her hands up to his jaw, she cradled his face in her hands and rested her forehead against his. Mulder stopped rocking and brought his own hands up, at first holding her face in his hands as she held his, but then he took one of his hands, pulled one of Scully's hands from his face, and guided it to his chest. With his own hand still on hers, he held her hand over his heart while they still sat with heads together, eyes closed.

It was profound... it was almost so obvious what it meant that one need not speak it. They were one in mind, heart, and body...if ever two people belonged to another out of love, it was these two people.

Mulder and Scully were the ones who made the call when they left. They chose when they were bold enough to get off the floor and out of each other's embrace to return home, walking through the terminal with hands unabashedly entwined together.

That was the last time Doggett had seen Mulder or Scully. He was pulled from the X Files division a few days later, of which Scully had not come in to work. Mulder was reassigned on to the X Files as department head again, and Scully continued to work with him as his partner. There were still talks concerning what to do about the obvious breach of protocol as evidenced by Savannah Vixen's birth, but no one was in a hurry to sort it out.

Doggett was treading water, head tilted back... thinking. Thinking about the amazing combination of coincidences that had to have happened to arrange these two people in a situation where they could fall in love as they had. It was almost clear that neither would have found such a relationship with any other person... hell, neither one were really seen as pleasant or nice people on their own to most.

Doggett was musing on this when he heard an almost familiar voice (familiar in that he knew the tone but not the level of happiness and exuberance behind the words) call out, echoing off the pool room walls and water, "Mulder! Don't!" It was a woman's voice, and between/through her forceful words she was gigging.

Doggett pulled his head up, as did most of the others in the pool (about 8 people) when they heard someone yell out in the relative silence.

From the doorway leading to the locker room, Dana Scully burst through the door. Her face... she was smiling! Dana Scully was absolutely beaming. She was dressed in a swimsuit, a black one-piece. She must have been going to the gym after Savannah was born, she almost had her figure back.

That was another thought to wonder about, how was Mulder handling the sudden responsibility of being a father without having the months of pregnancy to prepare himself for it? Everyone had pretty much heard that he was currently living with Scully, not that anyone could blame him. He would want to be close to his partner-now-obviously-turned-lover and daughter... besides, he'd been gone so long his own apartment was rented out to someone else. Doggett had heard one piece of gossip (overheard by Skinner's secretary Kimberly as Mulder and Scully were telling 'Uncle Walter' how Savannah was doing) that Mulder called his daughter Vixy. As much as he hated his name Fox, the cute pet-name he called his own daughter by was Vixy, from her middle name Vixen. Interesting... cute really. The female staff thought so, anyway. He could usually elicit an "aww" from any woman once he told them about Mulder calling his daughter by the term of endearment 'Vixy'.

Scully stopped at the water's edge, turning her head quickly to look behind her. Her hair swirled around her, her entire body seeming to glow and move as she breathed through laughs and smiles. She was alive as no one had ever seen her before. Doggett wondered if Mulder got to see this side of Dana Scully a lot... in some ways the paranoid social outcast seemed like a lucky man.

From the doorway emerged another figure... a black swim-trunks clad Fox Mulder. He was grinning at Scully from ear to ear. His eyes were mischievous, twinkling like the fox he was named after.

Mulder stood a moment in calculated suspense at the doorway, then crept slowly toward Scully. Neither agent even seemed to notice there were other people around... their world consisted solely of each other.

Scully shuffled on her feet, no where to run. "Come on, Mulder, cut it out!" She was barking at him, but her tone was anything but serious. She didn't want him to stop... and he wasn't about to.

Without warning, Mulder flashed her a smile then moved quickly toward her.

With the momentum he had behind him, it wasn't hard for Scully to guess what Mulder had in mind and to know she was pretty much helpless to stop it. She tensed and suppressed a squeal as his body reached her. He barreled into her, capturing her around the waist with his arms, and threw them both headlong into the water.

The huge splash caused everyone who HAD been trying to be courteous and not eavesdrop and watch the soap stars to look up.

Two now-drenched heads poked to the surface. Mulder shook his head of water, opening his eyes and seeking his partner. Scully was a foot away from him, wiping her eyes of water.

Mulder laughed at her, knowing he'd gotten the better of her using superior muscle and bulk.

Scully scowled playfully at him, "Oh you!" and sent a small bucket-sized portion of water his way with a strong and heart-felt splash of her hand.

Mulder turned away from it, then started swimming toward her. Scully smiled wickedly and dipped underneath the surface.

Mulder stopped swimming, looking around for her, then jolted. Scully came up directly in front of him from underneath, laughing as she caught the look on his face that he sent her. From his expression and her amusement, Doggett had no doubt whatever she did could have been considered sexual harassment if it hadn't been under the consent of both parties.

As Doggett watched the two agents engage in childish water games, he moved toward the edge of the pool as he thought in confirmation to himself. 'Yep, Dana Scully was always capable of love, it was just a love meant for him alone... a love reserved solely for Fox Mulder.'



END