#john doggett
The fourth series reads as follows:
Apple Balancing…Potential…The Newbies…The Dessert…Dinosaurs and Cannibalism…Sassy Sprinklepants …The Secret Vault of Mudlerness
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Doggett and Harrison had been around for a fair amount of time at this point and Scully, while sitting on the balcony, rocking Will with her foot and reading several potential casefiles for Mulder and company, she called to him through the screen door, “hey, Mulder?”
Mulder, never really out of earshot of her because, well, it was Scully and he could listen to her forever, called back from the kitchen where he was washing the dinner dishes, “yeah?”
“We should have them over for dinner.”
He had to think for a minute, then, still not sure if he knew who she meant, walked out, dishtowel in hand, “who’s them?”
She looked at him with a grin before waving the file at him, “your people. Doggett, Harrison … do these names ring a bell?”
She received a flying towel to the face before he sat down in the other chair, “you mean, like, have them here and make them food and eat it with them?”
Apparently, he was not well versed in guests, “yes. That is generally how dinner works.”
He would make her pay later, somehow, “I get that but I guess it never occurred to me to socialize with them, outside of the office or a case, I mean.”
Adorable crazy person he was, “well, I think you should ask them over for maybe tomorrow or Wednesday. I can make fail-safe spaghetti or even just have taco night.”
Looking at her as if she were the most fascinatingly complex person alive, “Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, dinner hosts. Weird.”
She shoved him with her free foot, still rocking Will with the other, “just go call them.”
&&&&&&&&&&
Being the ‘new in town’ and ‘workaholic but needs to see daylight every so often’ partners they were, both Doggett and Harrison accepted and sooner rather than later, Wednesday evening rolled around, with Mulder freshly laundered, Will unsticky, Scully wearing her fancy flipflops but planning on being barefoot before long. Just as Scully finished drying her hands, she suddenly stopped mid-motion, “shit.”
“What?”
“What do I call them? I can’t call them Agent Doggett and Agent Harrison, that would be to … just … to. Do I call them John and Leyla? What do you call them? What do they call me? Am I still Agent Scully? They can’t …”
Mulder stopped her with a hand to her mouth, “take a deep breath, would you? You’re gonna freak me out.”
Before he could get any further in his statement, the doorbell rang, Scully letting out a nervous giggle, which surprised them both, “fuck, this is gonna be awkward.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Doggett followed Mulder through the door a minute later, greeting Scully with a head nod and a, “hi ya, Agent Scully.”
She had to smile, “call me Dana, if you’d like or just Scully. The agent part of my life has been on hold for quite awhile at this point.”
With a nod and a crooked smile, “Dana, then. I’m John.”
“Nice to have you, John.”
Mulder desperately wanted to interject something here but the doorbell rang again and soon, Layla and John were standing in the living room, making small talk about families, pets, and the general DC area. Soon enough, Will decided he needed to meet this John person and immediately leaned towards him. To Mulder’s nerves and Scully’s nod, Doggett picked him up, snuggled him to his shoulder, then let out the largest smile any of them had ever seen, “I haven’t held a baby since my son was this age. I’ve forgotten how light they are.”
Will took to him like glue, chewing on Doggett’s collar with Doggett standing there, the most content-looking, scary, gruff FBI man since Skinner to melt under the influence of one William Walter.
“He likes you.”
Settling down on the kitchen chair, Will on his shoulder, “the feeling is mutual.”
Mulder relaxed after Scully subtly told him, via lightning-fast eyeball exchanging, to calm himself down. Harrison was quieter at first, which shocked them all but soon, the taco fixings needed cutting and the meat needed cooking and she jumped in, talking a mile a minute about when she ran a taco truck for the summer in Ocean City with her uncle.
For all the words the small woman sped through in a minute, Scully liked her.
That said a lot.
&&&&&&&&&&
Doggett didn’t seem at all put out when offered a bottle to give Will but eventually, before the adults settled in for food, he had to relinquish him, “catch you later, little man.”
Scully, honest to God, felt like she would be comfortable leaving her little boy with the lanky man in the button-down shirt.
Once Will had fallen asleep, dinner began, the talk lagging every so often but then Mulder off-handedly mentioned Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy, which is quite impressive considering how hard it actually is to work Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy into a conversation without simply saying, “so, ever heard of Jim-Jim the Dog-faced boy?”, the conversation took on a life of its own, jumping from sideshow murder to fetishists, which Scully steered them away from, to eventually landing on satanic cultists and the Devil himself.
Doggett argued amicably that that was all nonsense but in a way that didn’t imply that everyone else was fucking stupid for believe in the nonsense. Harrison fought back passionately, citing statistics and documentation of Devil possession and worship. Mulder argued on Harrison’s side while Scully, sipping her Margarita, fell in the middle, arguing both believer and skeptic.
Her brain stretched like it hadn’t in years, keeping up with the greenhorns and loving it.
It really was like seeing “MulderNScully: The Early Years” from the seat of a well-versed elder.
It was after 11 by the time both said their goodbyes, heading to vehicles and into the night, leaving Mulder to lock the door before coming back upstairs to lean on the kitchen wall, watch Scully nibble at some guac and chips, “well?”
“I’m exhausted.”
Laughter ringing quietly, “they are a handful.”
“But it was fun. I’ve never watched us argue before.” Waving a chip in his direction, “they’re gonna have Walter quitting within a year.”
“I told him I figured he would last about nine months.”
Snorting, she went in for another chip, “if I tell you something, will you promise not to get mad?”
“You like Doggett more than me, don’t you?”
She nearly threw the chip at him, but smiling, “of course not but I do have the weirdest feeling that I could leave Will with him and I wouldn’t worry.”
“He’d come home with a New York accent.” Sitting down across from her, “but I can see it. Not saying I’d ever let Will out of sight, but if necessary, Doggett could be a decent stand-in if we run out of relatives.”
Both continued to chew in silence until Scully yawned, “you know what we are?”
“Adorable?”
Shaking her head at him, “we are untrained at the art of hosting.” When Mulder looked blankly at her, she rephrased, “do you realize those two are the first people we have had over here that aren’t related to us. We don’t have friends, Mulder. We have family and we have adopted family.”
“What about the Holy Trinity?”
“Frohike has knitted my mother an afghan. Langley had slept on my mother’s living room floor and Byers taught her how to cook standing rib roast. They are Scully whether they like it or not.”
Two more chips, “yeah, we’re pathetic.”
“The problem is, one day, they’ll be at my mother’s for dinner and Layla will have her tongue dyed blue and Doggett will tell a story with that accent and my mother will swoon and then they will be brought into the fold as well.”
Three chips and a stolen sip of Margarita, “I’m beginning to believe the Scully family is some kind of cult.”
“We do basically drink the Kool-Aid every Thursday.”
Wiping his hands on his pants, Mulder stood, kissing her forehead before beginning to put whatever was still out, away, “and damn good Kool-Aid it is.”
The piece-de-resistance of the evening came about 10 minutes later in the form of a text from Doggett, “thank you for dinner. I believe I stole little man’s pacifier. Do you need it back tonight because I can run it right over? Can’t have him waking up crying without it.”
Mulder held up his phone to show Scully, “I think Doggett’s well on his way to becoming one of us.”
“Or at least Will’s.”
Replying that it could wait until the next day, Mulder hugged Scully close before turning off kitchen lights and guiding her toward the bedroom, “bed, please. All this politeness has worn me out.”
the fourth series reads as follows:
To catch up: First series…Second series … Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Home after dark, waking up in the dark, getting dressed, eating, changing a wayward diaper, double locking front door, Mulder stretched as he walked towards the car, wondering just how long his day would be quiet.
Not as long as he expected.
Apparently, his day was good for 1 hour, 22 minutes then hell arrived in the form of short, blond pep.
He’d called Agent Harrison as soon as he made it to the office, leaving her a message saying he’d like to meet with her sometime in the next day or two to discuss her file and the work of the X-Files. Instead of calling, setting up a time, following protocol, she arrived in the basement with a speedy click of heels and teeth … lots of white, smiling teeth.
That’s all he saw of her at first: rows of white, pearly teeth, straight, shiny.
Then her hand arrived, out to shake before he managed to stand up straight, brush off his donut crumbs, remember how to focus on something more than four inches from his face. Taken aback, he stared at the tiny hand, cheap watch, sleeve of suit jacket pulled up above narrow wrist …
Holy fuck …
Scully had re-enlisted in the form of Leyla Harrison.
Just, as he would learn in the next two minutes, a little, well, hell, a shitload more, enthusiastic.
Scully had begun arguing with him within the first two minutes.
Agent Harrison gushed about the X-Files and all their virtues and beauty for the first five minutes before he finally cut her off, “hi. You must be Agent Harrison. I didn’t expect you here quite so quickly. Would you like to sit down?”
Oh, God, as soon as the words left his mouth, he cringed. He offered her a chair. A place to settle in, talk until she used all the air in the room, suffocated him with words of undying devotion.
He let her ramble a few more minutes before pulling her back in again, “I’m sorry, Agent Harrison, would you like a cup of tea, coffee?”
Giving her something to hold did the trick, her hands occupied, her mouth slowing until he could process the words and sentences rolling towards him, “yes, thank you, Agent Mulder, coffee, please. I’m sorry.” Looking down at the cup he handed her moments later, “I have a tendency to blather, a lot, when I meet people I admire.”
And with that, she held her tongue.
Good lord, he actually liked her.
He really’d been hoping he wouldn’t.
But he did.
At least for now.
&&&&&&&&&&&&
She left an hour and a half later and the first thing Mulder did was shut the door and call Scully, “what did you do to me?”
And feeling just a little bit saucy and a wee bit riled up, “nothing today but I have plans for you that’ll make your eyes roll back in your head.”
His mouth went dry for the slightest second then, grinning, “tell me more.”
Watching her son finish his bottle, she stood and headed into the kitchen, “I will once you get home but for right now, what did I do to you that I don’t know I did to you?”
“You sent me a woman who is enthusiastic, doesn’t shut up, adores everything about anything weird, supernatural, or out there, and thinks that both you and I are the shit.”
“Sorry. I’ll keep combing the files. There has to be somebody out there who hates you with every fiber of their being. I’ll find them. Don’t worry.”
“Sarcasm is your thing, Scully, let me tell you.” Sitting back in his chair, looking up at the sparse pencils still stuck in his ceiling, he made a mental note to add more in the future, “I will say though, once I began sifting through her babble, I found some good theories, ideas, directions I might not have taken.”
“Did you show her some cases?”
“Yeah. She did pretty well given she’s only every really worked in accounting. She’ll need a lot of handholding in the field but I’m seriously considering trying her out.” Because she was Scully and he was Mulder, he answered her before she could even ask, “but she doesn’t hold a candle to you.”
Seriously, she had to get these hormones under control, “I was going to ask if she believed in Big Blue.”
“Uh-huh. Sure you were. So, you want to hear about her?”
“No. It’ll be more fun with a live re-enactment.”
Not wanting to let her go just yet, “then tell me what you’re doing with that kid of ours.”
“We got up late so he just finished his bottle and I’m about to eat,” having warmed frozen pancakes and rolled them around some science-oven sausages, “dirty things for breakfast.”
“Sausages in sweaters! Without me? How dare you.”
She liked to make him smile.
&&&&&&&&&
John Doggett, on the other hand, called back and set up a time to meet, the next day, 1:30 in the afternoon.
He arrived 3 minutes, 10 seconds early and stepped off the elevator with about as much trepidation as a seasoned police officer could muster surrounded by copy paper, handcarts, and the prospect of working with Fox Mulder. Namely, he figured he’d get to see what all the fuss was about surrounding the X-files and what he hoped would be a decent cup of coffee. He’d been searching out re-assignment to the DC area, looking for a change of scenery, a change of boss, a change of his life in general …
And why not do the interview? It would be a temporary assignment, get him used to the city, allow him to meet other agents, see if the Hoover Building tickled his fancy.
Then he registered the yelling.
But it wasn’t angry yelling …
It was a good old-fashioned shouting match argument like the ones he used to have with his guys back before the Bureau.
Eyebrow raising slightly then dropping back in place, he listened to mention of bats, invisible snakes, bite marks, and some science-y jargon he could neither spell nor repeat even with gun to head. Wondering if he should just get the hell out now, the voices suddenly stopped, then the door opened further, “ahhh, see, I told you I thought I heard the elevator.”
John Doggett was confronted with a cautiously friendly Scully smile as she stepped slightly aside, “come on in … welcome to the basement.” Holding out her hand once he was inside, “I’m Agent Dana Scully and my partner there is Fox Mulder. If you heard mention of giant vampire bats, don’t hold it against him, the bite marks are remarkable similar.”
Mulder moved to shake his hand yet directed his words at Scully, “so you admit vampire bats exist, just not giant ones?”
Leaning over the car seat stationed safely dead center of a cluttered desk, she made sure their arguing hadn’t woken Will, “I never said they didn’t, Mulder. Common, hairy-legged, and white winged are well document in their species and while I don’t subscribe to there being ones with six-foot wingspans and the ability to drain a person of their entire blood supply, their faces have a slight resemblance to pigs and that amuses me enough to allow you to ramble on without me killing you with a stapler.”
Glancing sidelong at a silent Doggett, “he’s still here.”
“That’s a good sign.” Finally turning her attention to the new guy, “would you like a cup of coffee?”
&&&&&&&&&
They talked to him for over an hour, drilling him about cases, opinions, past alliances, and why he drank his coffee black. Mulder analyzed every little quirking finger twitch, non-invasive nose scratch, and random, rapid blink. Scully kept Mulder reigned in enough to not send Doggett screaming into the hallway.
Doggett wondered what the hell kind of circus ride he might be getting himself into and how long it would be before both the agents in front of him were carted off by the lovely men in white coats with caged-lined vans.
Finally, the pair seemed to have finished their interrogation and Doggett got to open his mouth, his first sentence being, “I think the pair of you are thick as thieves and crazy to boot.”
Honest-to-God, Scully liked him and she thought that maybe Mulder might, too, “I keep his crazy in check.”
“She needs a little crazy every now and then. It works well for both of us.”
Doggett couldn’t help it. He had to smile, hang his head while doing it mind you, but smile, “I can only promise that I’ll do my best to solve these cases. I won’t be buying into the whole paranormal thing and I will never believe that Casper or Chuckie did it in the basement with magic herbs and a summoning circle but I will catch the bad guys, I guarantee it.”
Mulder folded his arm in a loose gesture of agreement to Scully’s unspoken question hanging between them, “he knows what a summoning circle is and whether he learned it on TV or from his hippie big sister, he used it properly in the sentence.”
“Mulder.”
Holding his hand out to Doggett, “feel like giving it a trial run?”
Without hesitation, he shook back, “when do I start?”
the fourth series reads as follows:
To catch up: First series…Second series… Third series
&&&&&&&&&&
Sitting on the back porch of the beach house, sun lower than the roof, throwing them in shade and a semi-cool breeze, Mulder veed his knees up, propping Will, his miniscule baby bum wrapped in an impossibly small diaper, on his thighs, tiny feet wiggling and occasionally making contact with Mulder’s belly.
“You have the most adorable feet,” catching one and leaning forward to kiss the heel, then the barely there toes, “but don’t tell your mother, she’ll get jealous.”
Scully, files stacked on her folded legs, “I shall contain my rage.” Holding the top folder up, “John Doggett. New York cop, detective, now works for the FBI in Investigation. Military man, Marine …”
Mulder cut her off, mouth still nibbling Will’s feet, “he’s got that damn DoD rec letter. It just doesn’t sit well.”
“I know,” pulling the letter out, “but it looks like a standard thing and remember, Skinner picked him for us originally. I trust that, Mulder, almost as much as I trust if you’d have done it.”
Sitting back, now playing with Will’s finally fattening legs, “how old is he?”
“40, I think.”
“Beats the toddlers I’ve dealt with so far. Married?”
“Divorced. One son who died a few years back.” She’d forgotten that part and with sudden shooting fear in her heart, she looked over to make sure Will was still there, “um, it’s why he left New York.”
Mulder felt the same chest-compressing panic and with a deep breath, kept an eye on his boy as he nodded, “I’d like to talk to him.”
Simultaneously cheering and praying, she opened a second folder, “and then we have Leyla Harrison. She dropped her resume off to Skinner a few days ago and mom dropped it off yesterday morning. She’s incredibly green but apparently has enough enthusiasm to keep the home fires burning in the basement for decades to come.”
“So, she’s you but might actually believe me one day?”
She would have thrown the file at him had Will not been within papercut vicinity, so she settled for a smirking glare and full-on ‘bite me’ eyebrow, “don’t push it, Sparky. You may never see me naked again.”
“I’ll take that bet ‘cause I don’t think you’d be able to follow through.”
Returning to her papers, “yeah, probably not.”
Mulder held his finger near Will’s hand until matchstick grippers grabbed him tightly, squeezing the bejeezus out of pointer, well, Will-size bejeezus, which, really, felt like almost nothing and fairly close to heaven at the same time, “your mama likes me.”
“Don’t listen to him, Will, I’m just here for the beach house.”
Shaking his head and grinning at both wife and son, “read me out this Harrison person. Let’s see if she’ll make it through the first week.”
&&&&&&&&&&&&
It took a fair amount of arguing, but in the end, Mulder begrudgingly admitted that both Doggett and Harrison might possibly be a semi-decent fit for his life’s work. That out of the way, he followed Scully into the house, ready to eat the dinner, ready to bathe the kid, ready to snuggle with the wife, ready to spend one more night on vacation in king-size perfection.
It wasn’t until they’d reached the snuggling part that the lightning began flashing off in the distance, thunder rumbling low at first but becoming louder and closer with every minute. Soon, the windows were rattling as the wind and rain pummeled the little house. Will, like his parents, didn’t sleep through the onslaught, but unlike his parents, Will cried his pitiful cry, Scully nuzzling him close, fitting him safely between her breasts, close to her heart, leaning back on the pillows Mulder shoved behind her. Repeatedly kissing Will’s head and whispering nonsense love to fall on his ears, she glanced over, seeing Mulder settling beside her, “I’ve changed my mind. We should move here right now.”
“Give me time to train the newbies and ween myself from the guns and the monsters and we’ll talk.
Knowing that was about as likely to happen as her ever liking pie, she sank into the fantasy for a moment, then, “how about we meet in the middle and just come back here in a few weeks? Maybe bring the rest of the kids out sometime.”
“I’d like that. Have sandcastle contests and beach bonfires and hot dogs and s’mores …” trailing off, “damn it, I’m hungry again.”
With a chuckle, “I’ll take half of whatever you go get, if you don’t mind.”
“Sandwiches, coming up.”
&&&&&&&
Once fed, half-asleep and jelly-boned, Mulder slipped an arm over her belly, soft whisper in her ear, “I could get used to this.”
Pulled back from oblivious dreamland, she asked into the darkness, “aren’t you already used to this?”
“I question perfection, Scully, you should know that by now.”
Turning her head enough to kiss his temple, “don’t question this, Mulder. Whatever else happens in that head of yours, don’t question this … ever.”
“We should have another.”
“Kid or cottage?”
“Kid. Cottage. Both. House in Baja to surf whenever we want, kids to teach.”
“You’re dreaming, aren’t you?”
Breathing out a long sigh that signaled full-on sleep mere moments away, “you taught me how to hope, Scully. Unleashed a monster.”
She was awake the rest of the night, visions of a future out of her reach forefront in her ever tumbling mind.
&&&&&&&&&&&
They were so close to having a completely phone-free weekend but right there, smack dab in the middle of breakfast, Scully’s phone vibrated: across the table, onto the floor, plastic thump, then across the wood, stopping only when it hit a rug. Both stared at it silently, just the other side of amazed, “persistent little bugger, isn’t it?”
“I’m not looking at it until we are finished eating.”
Not about to cross her, he did set a little timer in his head to keep track of just how long the phone hiatus would last, knowing her and her familial connections wouldn’t allow her to ignore a possible issue with one of them for more than a few minutes.
3 minutes, 49 seconds.
She did pretty well in all honesty and he didn’t chide her about getting up, leaning over, retrieving electronic nonsense from the floor, “don’t say a word.”
“I’m not.”
But he would say more later, when she was a few hours from having caved to technology and could see the humor in the 3 minutes and 49 seconds.
“So, who’s yelling at you?”
“Mom.” Listening to the voice mail, she smiled, “she says she’s planning a surprise party for Walter in a few weeks and you are expected to keep him out of the house beforehand.”
Mulder studied the air above her head for a moment, then, “instead of dread, I feel something akin to gleeful anticipation. Is that wrong?”
“You’re going to make him crazy for the whole day, aren’t you?”
Nodding with an enthusiasm that made her just a little bit nervous, “Oh, your mother never should have given me her Walter.”
&&&&&&&&
Waiting until the very last possible moment to start the drive home, Mulder locked the door behind them, Scully standing still beside him, Will in her arms. When she didn’t move down the steps to the Jeep, he peered around her shoulder, “Scully?”
And then he saw tears streaming down her cheeks, soaking chin, shirt, kid, “do we really have to go home?”
He grabbed them both in the softest, bone-crushing hug he could, “you are adorable, you know that?”
One giant sniff later, she got herself under control, “I hate hormones.”
Squeezing her a second time, “come on, woman, we’ll be back in two weeks and how does staying a whole week sound?”
“Perfect.” Moving towards the car, “and just to remind you, if you breathe a word about this to anyone, I swear to you, you will never, ever, see me naked.”
Holding her hand down the steps, “we just had this talk yesterday, didn’t we?”
“How about I will never, ever, ever, share another bag of M&Ms with you so long as we both shall live.”
“Now that’s just mean.”
