(House/X-Files) Some Truths for pukajen
Title: Some Truths
Author: etoile_dunord
Fandoms: House/X-Files
Characters Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Kritschgau, mentions of others; House, Cameron
Pairings: Implied Mulder/Scully, canon House/Cameron undertones
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Wordcount: About 5,250
Spoilers: Up to and including X-Files 7.02, general season one House
Warnings: Mentions of imprisonment, canon character death, lots of precarious science
Disclaimer: House and The X-Files belong to their respective creators.
A/N: Firstly, a huge thank you to motsureru for beta reading this. Secondly, this piece draws directly from specific X-Files canon events from the seventh season and prior, and while everything’s explained for the purpose of the story, a general knowledge of the X-Files “mytharc” is useful.
Summary: During the events of “The Sixth Extinction,” Kritschgau and Skinner manage to get Mulder out of the DC hospital. They take him, of course, to see Dr. Gregory House.
2:30 PM
“Dr. House, my name is Michael Kritschgau.”
House looked up from his computer. The man standing on the other side of his desk was around his age, balding, and very serious-looking. “Okaaaay,” he replied.
“I understand that you’re the expert in diagnostics,” Kritschgau said. “I have a colleague with an unknown condition.”
“Interesting,” House said, turning back to his computer. “Why don’t you try the clinic downstairs?”
“I need this to be handled discreetly.” When House didn’t respond, Kritschgau continued. “He was exposed to trace amounts of radiation.”
“Then his condition is called ‘fine,’” House replied.
“It triggered something in him. He’s in some sort of prolonged mild seizure-like state.”
Against his better judgement, House was intrigued by this. He looked up from his monitor again. “Keep talking.”
“I think it would be better if you heard the rest from my colleague,” Kritschgau stated. “He can communicate for short periods of time when medicated with phenytoin. The circumstances of his illness are... unusual, and I think he’d like the chance to give you his own version of events.”
House frowned. “Where do you two work, exactly?”
Kritschgau frowned back. “I’m formerly with the Department of Defense. My colleague is Special Agent Fox Mulder, with the FBI.”
For one second, House was dumbfounded. Then he scoffed loudly. “Oh, come on!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “You actually had me interested for a minute! But then you went and blew it by claiming to be some kind of man in black!” He sighed and turned back to his computer, muttering “Special Agent Fox...”
“I can assure you, Dr. House, that I am telling the truth,” Kritschgau countered. “I’ve seen people like this before-people in the care of the CIA. They get used in Military tests until they die from the amount of phenytoin in their system.”
House continued to stare at his computer.
“I’ve heard things about you,” Kritschgau went on. “You don’t like authority. I need proof of what’s wrong with Agent Mulder so I can expose what the government is doing to innocent people. So that I can expose what they did to my son, what killed him. You can help me, Dr. House.”
There was a moment of uneasy silence. Then House looked over at Kritschgau and spoke. “You’re saying that your son was killed in covert medical tests run by the American government?” he asked sardonically.
“Yes,” Kritschgau stated firmly. “But, without proof... Like I said, I’m former Department of Defense.”
This time, House shut off his computer monitor entirely. He sighed. “Well, if you’re crazy, at least you’re the interesting kind. Bring him in. I’ll round up my team and have them take a look.”
“It would be in everybody’s best interest if you could involve as few people as possible,” Kritschgau replied.
“I don’t work without my team.”
“My request is for their safety, Dr. House. But if you’re going to ignore it,” Kritschgau sighed “I hope you’re certain of your team’s loyalty. And their open-mindedness.”
House considered that for a minute. “All right. You go get your colleague, and I’ll go find one member of my team to help. Meet you at the secret clubhouse in half an hour.”
~~~
3:15 PM
“Agent Mulder, my name is Dr. Cameron.”
Cameron quickly took a look around the room as she entered. Two middle-aged men were leaning against opposite walls, on either side of Mulder’s hospital bed. One of them was likely the man House had spoken to, but she had no idea who the second was.
She had no idea about most of this case, really. House had pulled her out of clinic duty, told her briefly about the bizarre conversation he’d had in his office, and put his hand on her shoulder while he informed her that Chase and Foreman weren’t going to be working with them on this one, and to not tell them about it. Then he’d given her a room number and told her to go take a history.
“I understand you’re having seizures?” she asked Mulder, sitting in the bedside chair with her pencil and clipboard.
Mulder looked at her. “No, that’s not it,” he said. “House wasn’t joking-this is as weird as he said it was.”
Cameron was confused. “You’ve spoken with Dr. House?” That didn’t seem likely.
“No,” Mulder answered.
One of the men against the wall took a step towards her, cutting off the next thing she was going to say. “Dr. Cameron, I’m Walter Skinner, Assistant Director at the FBI,” he said. “Agent Mulder doesn’t have much time before the phenytoin wears off. I think it would be best if you just let him tell you what’s happened to him.”
Cameron bristled a bit at being told how to do her job, but Skinner looked more worried than annoyed, so she decided to go along with his suggestion. “All right. Why don’t you explain to me what’s going on, uh, Agent Mulder.”
Mulder grimaced. “Don’t call me Fox,” he said.
“I didn’t.”
“Just Mulder is fine, for future reference.”
Cameron was again confused, but decided to let it go. “Okay... Mulder.”
Skinner gave an agitated sigh. Mulder glanced at him, then back at Cameron.
“Three years ago,” Mulder began, “I was exposed to a virus that I believe is extra-terrestrial in origin. It’s called Purity. It looks like black oil, and it can move around and possess a human host in between long periods of dormancy. I had been captured in Russia, and the exposure to the virus was part of experiments being conducted by the Russian government for the development of a vaccine. They gave me the vaccine, or at least the version they were testing at the time. But it only worked as a cure when administered during infection, and repeated treatments killed most of the other prisoners.”
Cameron stared at Mulder. She wasn’t sure of what to say. Obviously, this man was crazy. What kind of game was House playing? Was this a test to see how far she’d blindly follow his instructions? Or was it maybe a test to see how long she’d take to diagnose a condition he’d already figured out, despite the insane story the patient was giving? She started going through a mental list of disorders that could cause seizures and delusions.
“I know you don’t believe me,” Mulder said, “but you should at least write this down.” He gave a small rueful smile.
“Oh!” Cameron exclaimed, embarrassed. “Uh, yes. Right.” She picked up her pencil and quickly scribbled down what she’d just been told. When she was finished, she asked “Is that the whole story?”
“Not by a long shot,” Mulder replied, smiling again. “But you don’t need to hear all of it. The next part that matters happened just recently.”
“And what was that?”
“I came across an artefact in my work-a piece of stone with symbols carved on it. Being near it gave me a headache, made me feel dizzy. We had it tested and found that it gave off traces of cosmic galactic radiation. I believe that stone was part of an alien ship.
“I wound up in the hospital in DC. My symptoms got worse until I couldn’t talk or move, except in huge bursts. My brain was working furiously, though, full of thoughts and information I’d never experienced before. I can read your mind.”
Cameron’s pencil slipped.
“It’s fuzzier right now because of the drugs,” Mulder added in a tone he obviously intended to be reassuring.
“...Oh.”
“I left the DC hospital this morning to come here. My partner’s a doctor, but she’s in Africa right now, where the stone was found, trying to learn more. She can’t be reached.”
There was a moment of silence as Cameron wrote down the last of what Mulder had told her.
“Ok, then.” She took a deep breath. “Are you on any medication?”
“Just the stuff they give me to let me talk.”
“Right, the phenytoin. How much have you been getting?”
Mulder looked away from Cameron and over at the other man, Kritschgau, who hadn’t yet spoken.
Kritschgau stepped towards the bed. “He’s been given three doses of one thousand milligrams in the past two days, as well as a dose of twelve hundred milligrams to get him inside the hospital and talking.”
Cameron gaped at him. “That’s enough to kill him!” she admonished.
“It’s also enough to give him symptoms that look like both a seizure and a coma,” House said from the doorway. Cameron spun around in surprise to look at him. “My guess is that Fox and Mr. Former Department of Defense here wanted a little vindication. They dose him with phenytoin to make him sick, then use a placebo to appear to make him better when the symptoms abate.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Kritschgau snapped, moving towards House.
“Sir-” Cameron tried to interject.
“If I were looking for vindication, why would I ask you to be discreet?!” Kritschgau demanded.
“Because secrecy makes conspiracy theories so much cooler,” House retorted. “And so there would be fewer people in your way when you went to dose him again.”
“You son of-”
“Kritschgau!” Skinner shouted, interrupting him. The two of them glared at each other for a moment, then Kritschgau relaxed and stepped back from House.
House looked at Skinner. “And you would be?” he asked.
“Assistant Director Walter Skinner,” he replied. “I’m Mulder’s boss.”
“So you’re the enabler?”
Skinner removed his glasses and ran a hand across his face. “Sometimes I wonder,” he said, then shot a pointed look at Mulder.
Mulder stared at House in silence.
“Well, we’ll see,” House said. He turned to Cameron. “Give him a round of hemodialysis and monitor his vitals. And keep him away,” he added, gesturing at Kritschgau. Then he turned and left.
~~~
4:00 PM
Cameron walked briskly into House’s office. “Kritschgau’s been escorted out and dialysis has started,” she announced. She leaned forward and put her hands on House’s desk. “Our patient is crazy,” she told him.
“Lots of people are crazy,” House replied. “Most of them aren’t this entertaining, though.”
“Seriously, though,” Cameron insisted. “He was claiming to have been infected with an alien virus, cured with an experimental Russian vaccine, and exposed to radiation from a chunk of a spaceship!”
“I know,” House said.
“Were you eavesdropping the whole time, or can you hear my thoughts, too?” Cameron asked.
“I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
“You’re really spending time and resources on someone because they’re fun?” Cameron asked suspiciously. “I don’t buy it.”
“Don’t worry,” House told her. “The dialysis won’t do much.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Cameron insisted. “Why are you treating him?”
“Mostly to annoy Cuddy.”
“You don’t believe him, do you?” Cameron asked.
“No,” House answered.
“But...?”
“But his boss does. And there’s got to be a reason for that.”
Cameron sighed. “His heart rate, BP, and O2 stats look fine. I’m not convinced he’s even been given any phenytoin.”
“Well, if he’s miraculously cured by this treatment, we’ll know he faked everything,” House reassured her.
“And not just half?” Cameron added.
“Exactly.” House leaned back in his chair and lifted his right leg so he could put his feet on his desk. “This should all be over by the time Chase and Foreman remember that they work for me.”
“Chase hasn’t surfaced from NICU, and Foreman was going to meet with Dr. Lithgow to discuss an article he’s co-authoring,” Cameron told House. “They should be occupied for the rest of the day, so they’ll be safe from the aliens.”
House shrugged. “It’ll be a boring night, then.”
Cameron smiled.
“Uh, excuse me, doctors?” came a voice. Cameron turned around to find Skinner at the door.
“Hello, Assistant Director,” House said. “What can we do for you?”
Skinner grimaced. “I just thought you’d like to know that Mulder’s gone, uh, catatonic again. The phenytoin wore off.”
“Really?” Cameron asked before she could stop herself. “I mean, uh, I didn’t get a page,” she quickly added.
“I didn’t alert anybody,” Skinner explained. “He looks like he’s just resting, but I need you to get him out of there before someone notices or he gets violent.”
Cameron shot a bewildered glance at House, who shrugged again. Turning back to Skinner, she said “Okay, let’s go,” and started heading to the dialysis room.
~~~
5:00 PM
Cameron walked into the conference room. She’d just left Mulder alone in his hospital room, hooked up to even more machines than before. “His brain activity is way above normal,” she said. “Especially if he’s had large amounts of phenytoin.”
She took a seat at the table, where Skinner was also sitting with one elbow on the table, resting his head against his hand. Cameron had expressed surprise when House had invited him to their meeting, but House just shook his head in response, dismissing her concern.
“Okay,” House said, standing at the whiteboard with marker in-hand. “What causes increased brain activity, headaches, dizziness, intermittent catatonia, and delusions?” He wrote down each symptom as he spoke.
“They’re not delusions,” Skinner interrupted quietly.
House sighed. “This is why I don’t usually let non-doctors sit in on the differentials. Where did the aliens probe you, Assistant Director?”
“Mulder’s believed in this stuff for decades!” Skinner snapped, looking up. “Even if it’s not true, it’s not a symptom of what’s happening now.”
“Brain cancer,” Cameron interjected before the argument could go any further. “A series of tumours inhibiting some regions of the brain and pushing others into overdrive.”
“That doesn’t explain the intermittent motor functions,” House countered.
“Fungal brain infection, then.”
“No fever.”
“Immunodeficiency could account for that. And it would explain the severity of the symptoms.”
“True.”
Both House and Cameron turned to look at Skinner. “Has Mulder ever been tested for HIV?” Cameron asked.
“I don’t know,” he responded, “but the doctors in DC ran all kinds of tests and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. What about Mulder’s theory about the radioactive artefact?”
“Radiation doesn’t do this,” Cameron told him kindly.
“Even that cosmic radiation?” Skinner asked.
“It all has the same effect,” Cameron said.
“Besides,” House interrupted, “people are exposed to trace amounts of radiation all the time. Even if radiation poisoning did fit the symptoms, his ‘spaceship’ wouldn’t have been enough to cause it. And even if it was enough to cause it, some other source of radiation would have done it sooner.”
“And the virus?” Skinner asked.
“It’s possible he might have an infection,” Cameron said, “but he probably contracted it more recently... and it’s probably not an alien virus that he’s been cured of.”
Skinner sighed.
“Okay, then.” House turned back to Cameron. “Assuming the other doctors didn’t do their jobs properly, rerun blood tests and get a head CT. And in case they did do their jobs properly, do a brain biopsy, too.”
~~~
5:30 PM
Cameron flipped the light switch as she entered the room. At the same time that the lights came on, Mulder opened his eyes, already looking at her.
Coincidence, Cameron told herself.
She gathered supplies from the drawers and went to stand beside the bed. She checked the bandage on Mulder’s throat where the dialysis catheter had been inserted. “We’ve got some new theories about what’s wrong with you,” she told him. “I need to draw a few vials of blood for some tests, and then I’m going to take you down for a head CT. We’ve also scheduled a brain biopsy for a few hours from now.”
Mulder stared at her impassively.
“Or maybe you already know all that,” she muttered.
Cameron worked in silence. When she was done, she took the blood samples and turned to leave for the lab. As an afterthought, she spun around and gave a quick “I’ll be back in a minute” to Mulder.
As she exited into the hallway, she saw Skinner sitting on a bench outside the room. Cameron noticed that he looked even worse than he had at the end of the differential diagnosis meeting.
“Are you alright?” she asked him.
“Not really,” he replied. “Michael Kritschgau’s body was found six miles from here. He was shot in the head.”
~~~
10:00 PM
House had been thinking. And he decided he needed to know more. So he was going to go talk to Special Agent Fox Mulder.
He stopped short when he entered Mulder’s hospital room. Skinner and Cameron were absent, but Mulder was not alone. Lying alongside him on his hospital bed was a small woman with red hair. She was dressed in rumpled linen, and her lack of makeup showed freckles on her cheeks. She seemed to have taken care to move the monitor wires out of the way before lying down, and her head was resting on Mulder’s shoulder and her left arm was across his stomach. She was asleep. Mulder’s eyes were closed, but his head was turned towards the woman.
“A-hem!”
She woke up with a small jump, looking all around herself, but as her eyes focused, recognition crossed her face and she relaxed back onto the bed.
“You must be Dr. House,” she said.
House approached her. “And you must be the one cuddling my patient,” he replied.
“I’m Dr. Dana Scully. I’m Mulder’s partner. I’ve just come back from Africa.”
House quirked an eyebrow. “Interesting. So are you a doctor or an FBI agent?” he asked.
“Both.”
“Well, I guess it’s good you’re here,” House said, noticing the dark circles under her eyes. “I need to talk to your partner, but he doesn’t seem to be in a chatty mood.”
Scully sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “I looked at his chart, but the test results weren’t attached,” she said. “What do you know?”
“Not much. That’s why I need more information.”
Now it was Scully’s turn to quirk an eyebrow. “The tests all came back clean? Even the brain biopsy?”
“The only thing we found was some phenytoin that was still in his system,” House told her. “No infections, no parasites, no tumours.”
Scully tried to yawn discreetly and failed.
“Were you expecting us to find something?” House asked.
“No,” she sighed. “I guess not. It’s just that I didn’t get any answers in Africa, so I was hoping there would be some here.”
House pulled the bedside chair over to him with his cane. “Well, maybe you can still tell me about a couple of things,” he said, sitting down.
“Like what?”
“How about we start with your alien ship?” House suggested.
He was expecting the defensive expression that Scully suddenly adopted, but she surprised him by simply saying “Go on.”
“How do you know it’s alien?”
“We don’t know that,” Scully answered. “But we do know that it emits trace amounts of cosmic galactic radiation, which does not exist on this planet.”
“And how do you know it’s cosmic radiation, specifically?” House pushed.
“The proton percentage,” Scully said confidently. “The radiation was composed almost entirely of individual protons, with only a small amount of helium nuclei and electrons. Terrestrial radioactive sources that have decayed that much don’t have that many protons.”
House shrugged. “Well, I guess I’m more of an organic chem kinda guy,” he said. “Speaking of which-the virus.”
Scully reached behind her and pulled Mulder’s hand into her lap, where she held it. “There are different accounts of it,” she told House. “I’ve heard of it possessing someone, incapacitating them, irradiating them... and of it gestating a new life form inside a human host.”
“Cool,” House replied.
Scully stared at him. “You believe me?”
“No,” House answered, “but usually my patients come up with boring lies.”
Scully pinched the bridge of her nose between the thumb and forefinger of her free hand for a moment. “I suppose that’s not the worst response I’ve gotten,” she said, sighing again. “I was once exposed to a version of the virus that had been adapted for widespread release. I was unconscious for days before I was given a vaccine developed by the American government, which cured me.”
House looked at her quizzically. “Huh,” was all he said.
“Why are you asking for more information about all this if you don’t believe any of it?” Scully asked.
“I had been considering...” House started. “If your partner was describing an illness that actually existed, but was twisting it to make it spooky by adding things like space radiation, then getting him-or someone who believed him-to tell me more might have given me an idea of what it actually was.”
“So you believe that there was an illness of some kind?”
“I believe that you all believe what you’re saying,” House answered. “Which suggests that there’s something behind it.”
“But not something alien?” Scully asked.
“You didn’t claim any of this was alien,” House pointed out.
“True, but it’s not like anything else I’ve ever seen.”
House leaned forward in his chair and looked intently at Scully. “Doesn’t that bother you?” he asked. “As a doctor, not knowing what this is?”
Scully smiled sadly. “Yes and no,” she responded. “As a scientist, I know that there is a rational explanation for all of this. Even though I don’t know what it is, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” She looked down at her hand, twined with Mulder’s.
“That sounds like just a no,” House prompted.
“It bothers me because I can’t do anything about it. Not enough, anyway. I can fight and fight, but the people I care about, and myself, we’ve all lost so much. All because I don’t know where to go for answers, or what to believe, or who to trust...”
House leaned back in his chair. “It’s my job to find answers others can’t,” he said. “And I’m good at it. And if you hang around here a while, you’ll realize the implications of that.”
~~~
10:30 PM
Cameron was sitting at her desk doing paperwork when House returned to the conference room.
“Agent-slash-doctor Scully has returned,” he told her.
Cameron’s head snapped up. “Mulder’s partner?”
“The very same,” House answered. “Just got back from having a little chat with her.”
“Did she tell you anything useful?”
“Nope. Not anything I believe, anyway. She claims to have been exposed to the virus, too, but cured by an American vaccine. I guess she’s a patriot.”
Cameron sighed. “So much for that,” she muttered, turning back to her paperwork.
House looked around the conference room. “Where’s Skinner?” he asked.
“Don’t know,” Cameron answered.
“Is that coffee I smell?”
“Just brewed a fresh pot.”
House walked over to the machine and poured himself a cup. He inhaled the warm aroma. “Caffeine is a glorious substance,” he said to no one in particular.
Cameron raised her head and gave House a serious look. “Why is Skinner here?” she asked.
“Quiet,” he replied. “You’re ruining the experience.” He took a careful sip from his red mug. “Ahh.”
“No dodging the question.”
“Didn’t you just tell me Skinner’s not here?” House retorted.
“You know what I mean.”
House shrugged. “Don’t all Assistant Directors of the FBI keep vigil while their pariah agents are in the hospital?”
“Obviously,” Cameron replied sarcastically. “Because patients’ bosses always sit in on our differential diagnosis meetings.”
“He’s lying about something,” House declared.
Cameron hadn’t been expecting that. “Skinner? He’s the only one not claiming to be the victim of a government conspiracy!”
“And yet he’s here. He helped get Mulder out of DC. He’s keeping this as quiet as possible. He got a phone call that Kritschgau was dead and wasn’t surprised. This isn’t just concern for the health of a subordinate.”
“Then what is it?” Cameron asked.
“I don’t know,” House said, taking another sip of coffee. “I’m hoping he’ll say something that will help me figure it out.”
Cameron remained unimpressed. “That sounds a lot like a conspiracy theory, House.”
House rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, though,” Cameron persisted. “Skinner doesn’t believe the things Mulder does, and he hasn’t been infected with this virus. You think there’s another part to these stories that he’s not telling you about?”
“He’s here for a reason,” House repeated.
“All right, then.” She picked up her pen to resume her work. House began to head towards his office.
“Maybe he just doesn’t know what else to do,” Cameron mused absently. “He’s caught in between the fact that he’s already involved and the fact that he’s looking at the situation from the other side.”
House froze mid-stride.
“What?” Cameron asked, looking up.
There was no response.
“House? What’s wrong?”
House moved to put his coffee down slowly on top of Cameron’s paperwork. He looked at her with a captivated expression. She gave him an inquisitive look.
“That’s it,” he said quietly. “We were looking at the situation from the other side.”
Just then, the door opened, and Cameron looked over to see Scully and Skinner walking in. They stopped when they noticed the look of concentration on House’s face.
“Dr. House?” Scully asked.
House spun in place to face her. “The vaccines,” he said urgently. “What do you know about them?”
Scully was somewhat taken aback. “Almost nothing. I’ve never been able to study a sample, and we can’t test for them if we don’t know what they are.”
“They could have been anything?” House asked.
“Well, in order to cure the virus, they would-”
“Yeah, yeah, skip the virus part,” House interrupted. “You don’t know what was in the vaccines, and they didn’t work properly, right?”
Scully was confused. “Right.”
“But they cured you and Mulder when you were infected.”
“Yes.”
“What’s this about?” Skinner interjected.
House looked at him. “The problem isn’t the virus, it’s the vaccine. You might think it was faulty, but Mulder doesn’t have an infection. He might, however, have some experimental Russian vaccine floating around in his system, just waiting to wreak havoc.”
“The vaccine is making him sick?” Skinner asked.
Cameron stood up, realization dawning. “The vaccine probably had a genetic component, which could have mutated,” she said.
“And the mutated version is attacking his body,” House finished.
Skinner rubbed the pads of his fingers across his forehead. “How did this happen?”
“It could have been a lot of ways,” Cameron answered.
“It might even be that the radiation from the alien spaceship did it,” House quipped.
“Oh, my god,” breathed Scully.
“Seriously?” asked Skinner.
“We need to do more tests to figure out exactly what part of Mulder’s body is being attacked,” Cameron explained. “But we should start him on steroids for now.”
“Do it,” House told her.
“Wait,” Scully said.
Everybody turned to look at her, confused.
“What for?” House asked.
“I believe...” she started. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head back and forth quickly. “This isn’t something we should try to stop,” she said. “Given everything I’ve seen, I think this is what is supposed to happen.”
House gaped at her. “What?!”
“I think the vaccine is working,” Scully stated.
“Are you sure you’re a doctor?!”
“His body is adapting itself,” she replied. “To prevent infection. He and I received different versions of the vaccine, and his reacted to the artefact while mine didn’t. It looked like the virus had been triggered because the artefact had a synergy with everything that Mulder had been exposed to, and it’s allowing him to become immune.”
“You’re being completely illogical,” House accused her.
“Once his body has finished adapting, I believe he’ll be fine.”
“He won’t survive this.”
Scully met his gaze confidently. “He will,” she said. “No treatment.”
“Agent Scully-” Cameron started.
“I understand what I’m doing,” Scully insisted, turning to face Cameron. “And I’m Mulder’s medical proxy, so this is my decision to make.”
Nobody replied.
“Thank you,” Scully said. She turned back to House. “I was wrong,” she told him. “I did find the answer in Africa. I found that some truths aren’t for us to know. Faith is what we need.”
House walked out of the room.
~~~
7:00AM
“Scully?”
There was no response.
“Scully, wake up.”
“Hmm?” she asked sleepily.
“Morning, sleepy-head,” Mulder said, smiling.
“Mulder!” Scully exclaimed. Though she was already snuggled up next to him on his hospital bed, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him even closer.
“I was so scared,” she said.
“I know.”
“How are you feeling?”
Mulder kissed the top of her head. “I’m all right,” he assured her. “Back to normal.”
“Oh, thank god,” Scully sighed.
For a while, they stayed as they were.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. They looked up and saw Skinner enter, followed by House.
“Agent Mulder!” Skinner said, stunned. Beside him, House stared, flabbergasted.
“Hi,” Mulder said. He smirked at House. “I can’t read minds, but I take it you're surprised to see me awake and lucid?”
House blinked, pulling himself together. “Honestly, yes,” he said. “It's rather ironic, considering that people you know keep dying.”
“What?” asked Scully.
House pulled an envelope out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “A nurse gave this to me a few minutes ago. Woke me up. Your boss seems to think it’s bad news.”
Mulder and Scully both looked at Skinner. “What is it?” Mulder asked.
“It’s from Agent Fowley,” Skinner told him.
Scully tensed.
Mulder held out his hand, and House handed him the envelope, hastily addressed to “Fox Mulder, care of Dr. House.” Opening it, Mulder saw that it was a letter, hand-written by Diana. He held it so that Scully could read it with him.
Fox, she wrote
I tried to mislead them as much as I could, but when Krycek got to Kritschgau, it got their attention. They’ve realized that I was lying to them about knowing where you are, and I don’t know how long I can distract them with chasing me before they manage to kill me. I’m sending this as a warning. Hopefully Assistant Director Skinner and Agent Scully can get you out of there before it’s too late. I’m so, so sorry. For everything.
Love,
Diana
Mulder dropped the letter onto his stomach. Scully closed her eyes and squeezed him tighter.
“I’m sorry, Mulder,” she said.
Skinner sighed.
“So I have a question,” House announced suddenly, making Mulder wince in surprise. “Your buddy Michael Kritschgau told me he’d seen people in your condition before. If what happened to you was really as big a deal as Dr. Scully would have me believe, how does that fit with what Kritschgau said?”
Mulder frowned. “Kritschgau has never really seen the big picture,” he told House. “I asked Skinner to find him for me because I needed whatever help I could get. Like he told you, he was former Department of Defense. He’s gotten himself into trouble before because he didn’t understand just how far-reaching this all is.”
“Far-reaching? There’s more to this?” House asked
“More than you can imagine,” Mulder answered.
“I knew you were hiding something from me,” House said to Skinner.
Skinner glared at him. House smirked back.
“Ok, get out of here,” House said, moving to the door. “Before you bring this all down on me. I have to go lie to my other employees about what I did last night, and that would be a lot more difficult if somebody came to kill me.”
He didn’t look back at them as he left.
-END-
Prompt:
This is based on an assortment of prompts, some of which I adapted slightly. The ones that are most recognizable are “A character from another series is treated by House” (though X-Files was not listed among the suggestions for those), and “sharing a bed.”
Author: etoile_dunord
Fandoms: House/X-Files
Characters Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Kritschgau, mentions of others; House, Cameron
Pairings: Implied Mulder/Scully, canon House/Cameron undertones
Rating: PG-13 to be safe
Wordcount: About 5,250
Spoilers: Up to and including X-Files 7.02, general season one House
Warnings: Mentions of imprisonment, canon character death, lots of precarious science
Disclaimer: House and The X-Files belong to their respective creators.
A/N: Firstly, a huge thank you to motsureru for beta reading this. Secondly, this piece draws directly from specific X-Files canon events from the seventh season and prior, and while everything’s explained for the purpose of the story, a general knowledge of the X-Files “mytharc” is useful.
Summary: During the events of “The Sixth Extinction,” Kritschgau and Skinner manage to get Mulder out of the DC hospital. They take him, of course, to see Dr. Gregory House.
2:30 PM
“Dr. House, my name is Michael Kritschgau.”
House looked up from his computer. The man standing on the other side of his desk was around his age, balding, and very serious-looking. “Okaaaay,” he replied.
“I understand that you’re the expert in diagnostics,” Kritschgau said. “I have a colleague with an unknown condition.”
“Interesting,” House said, turning back to his computer. “Why don’t you try the clinic downstairs?”
“I need this to be handled discreetly.” When House didn’t respond, Kritschgau continued. “He was exposed to trace amounts of radiation.”
“Then his condition is called ‘fine,’” House replied.
“It triggered something in him. He’s in some sort of prolonged mild seizure-like state.”
Against his better judgement, House was intrigued by this. He looked up from his monitor again. “Keep talking.”
“I think it would be better if you heard the rest from my colleague,” Kritschgau stated. “He can communicate for short periods of time when medicated with phenytoin. The circumstances of his illness are... unusual, and I think he’d like the chance to give you his own version of events.”
House frowned. “Where do you two work, exactly?”
Kritschgau frowned back. “I’m formerly with the Department of Defense. My colleague is Special Agent Fox Mulder, with the FBI.”
For one second, House was dumbfounded. Then he scoffed loudly. “Oh, come on!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes. “You actually had me interested for a minute! But then you went and blew it by claiming to be some kind of man in black!” He sighed and turned back to his computer, muttering “Special Agent Fox...”
“I can assure you, Dr. House, that I am telling the truth,” Kritschgau countered. “I’ve seen people like this before-people in the care of the CIA. They get used in Military tests until they die from the amount of phenytoin in their system.”
House continued to stare at his computer.
“I’ve heard things about you,” Kritschgau went on. “You don’t like authority. I need proof of what’s wrong with Agent Mulder so I can expose what the government is doing to innocent people. So that I can expose what they did to my son, what killed him. You can help me, Dr. House.”
There was a moment of uneasy silence. Then House looked over at Kritschgau and spoke. “You’re saying that your son was killed in covert medical tests run by the American government?” he asked sardonically.
“Yes,” Kritschgau stated firmly. “But, without proof... Like I said, I’m former Department of Defense.”
This time, House shut off his computer monitor entirely. He sighed. “Well, if you’re crazy, at least you’re the interesting kind. Bring him in. I’ll round up my team and have them take a look.”
“It would be in everybody’s best interest if you could involve as few people as possible,” Kritschgau replied.
“I don’t work without my team.”
“My request is for their safety, Dr. House. But if you’re going to ignore it,” Kritschgau sighed “I hope you’re certain of your team’s loyalty. And their open-mindedness.”
House considered that for a minute. “All right. You go get your colleague, and I’ll go find one member of my team to help. Meet you at the secret clubhouse in half an hour.”
~~~
3:15 PM
“Agent Mulder, my name is Dr. Cameron.”
Cameron quickly took a look around the room as she entered. Two middle-aged men were leaning against opposite walls, on either side of Mulder’s hospital bed. One of them was likely the man House had spoken to, but she had no idea who the second was.
She had no idea about most of this case, really. House had pulled her out of clinic duty, told her briefly about the bizarre conversation he’d had in his office, and put his hand on her shoulder while he informed her that Chase and Foreman weren’t going to be working with them on this one, and to not tell them about it. Then he’d given her a room number and told her to go take a history.
“I understand you’re having seizures?” she asked Mulder, sitting in the bedside chair with her pencil and clipboard.
Mulder looked at her. “No, that’s not it,” he said. “House wasn’t joking-this is as weird as he said it was.”
Cameron was confused. “You’ve spoken with Dr. House?” That didn’t seem likely.
“No,” Mulder answered.
One of the men against the wall took a step towards her, cutting off the next thing she was going to say. “Dr. Cameron, I’m Walter Skinner, Assistant Director at the FBI,” he said. “Agent Mulder doesn’t have much time before the phenytoin wears off. I think it would be best if you just let him tell you what’s happened to him.”
Cameron bristled a bit at being told how to do her job, but Skinner looked more worried than annoyed, so she decided to go along with his suggestion. “All right. Why don’t you explain to me what’s going on, uh, Agent Mulder.”
Mulder grimaced. “Don’t call me Fox,” he said.
“I didn’t.”
“Just Mulder is fine, for future reference.”
Cameron was again confused, but decided to let it go. “Okay... Mulder.”
Skinner gave an agitated sigh. Mulder glanced at him, then back at Cameron.
“Three years ago,” Mulder began, “I was exposed to a virus that I believe is extra-terrestrial in origin. It’s called Purity. It looks like black oil, and it can move around and possess a human host in between long periods of dormancy. I had been captured in Russia, and the exposure to the virus was part of experiments being conducted by the Russian government for the development of a vaccine. They gave me the vaccine, or at least the version they were testing at the time. But it only worked as a cure when administered during infection, and repeated treatments killed most of the other prisoners.”
Cameron stared at Mulder. She wasn’t sure of what to say. Obviously, this man was crazy. What kind of game was House playing? Was this a test to see how far she’d blindly follow his instructions? Or was it maybe a test to see how long she’d take to diagnose a condition he’d already figured out, despite the insane story the patient was giving? She started going through a mental list of disorders that could cause seizures and delusions.
“I know you don’t believe me,” Mulder said, “but you should at least write this down.” He gave a small rueful smile.
“Oh!” Cameron exclaimed, embarrassed. “Uh, yes. Right.” She picked up her pencil and quickly scribbled down what she’d just been told. When she was finished, she asked “Is that the whole story?”
“Not by a long shot,” Mulder replied, smiling again. “But you don’t need to hear all of it. The next part that matters happened just recently.”
“And what was that?”
“I came across an artefact in my work-a piece of stone with symbols carved on it. Being near it gave me a headache, made me feel dizzy. We had it tested and found that it gave off traces of cosmic galactic radiation. I believe that stone was part of an alien ship.
“I wound up in the hospital in DC. My symptoms got worse until I couldn’t talk or move, except in huge bursts. My brain was working furiously, though, full of thoughts and information I’d never experienced before. I can read your mind.”
Cameron’s pencil slipped.
“It’s fuzzier right now because of the drugs,” Mulder added in a tone he obviously intended to be reassuring.
“...Oh.”
“I left the DC hospital this morning to come here. My partner’s a doctor, but she’s in Africa right now, where the stone was found, trying to learn more. She can’t be reached.”
There was a moment of silence as Cameron wrote down the last of what Mulder had told her.
“Ok, then.” She took a deep breath. “Are you on any medication?”
“Just the stuff they give me to let me talk.”
“Right, the phenytoin. How much have you been getting?”
Mulder looked away from Cameron and over at the other man, Kritschgau, who hadn’t yet spoken.
Kritschgau stepped towards the bed. “He’s been given three doses of one thousand milligrams in the past two days, as well as a dose of twelve hundred milligrams to get him inside the hospital and talking.”
Cameron gaped at him. “That’s enough to kill him!” she admonished.
“It’s also enough to give him symptoms that look like both a seizure and a coma,” House said from the doorway. Cameron spun around in surprise to look at him. “My guess is that Fox and Mr. Former Department of Defense here wanted a little vindication. They dose him with phenytoin to make him sick, then use a placebo to appear to make him better when the symptoms abate.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Kritschgau snapped, moving towards House.
“Sir-” Cameron tried to interject.
“If I were looking for vindication, why would I ask you to be discreet?!” Kritschgau demanded.
“Because secrecy makes conspiracy theories so much cooler,” House retorted. “And so there would be fewer people in your way when you went to dose him again.”
“You son of-”
“Kritschgau!” Skinner shouted, interrupting him. The two of them glared at each other for a moment, then Kritschgau relaxed and stepped back from House.
House looked at Skinner. “And you would be?” he asked.
“Assistant Director Walter Skinner,” he replied. “I’m Mulder’s boss.”
“So you’re the enabler?”
Skinner removed his glasses and ran a hand across his face. “Sometimes I wonder,” he said, then shot a pointed look at Mulder.
Mulder stared at House in silence.
“Well, we’ll see,” House said. He turned to Cameron. “Give him a round of hemodialysis and monitor his vitals. And keep him away,” he added, gesturing at Kritschgau. Then he turned and left.
~~~
4:00 PM
Cameron walked briskly into House’s office. “Kritschgau’s been escorted out and dialysis has started,” she announced. She leaned forward and put her hands on House’s desk. “Our patient is crazy,” she told him.
“Lots of people are crazy,” House replied. “Most of them aren’t this entertaining, though.”
“Seriously, though,” Cameron insisted. “He was claiming to have been infected with an alien virus, cured with an experimental Russian vaccine, and exposed to radiation from a chunk of a spaceship!”
“I know,” House said.
“Were you eavesdropping the whole time, or can you hear my thoughts, too?” Cameron asked.
“I couldn’t let you have all the fun.”
“You’re really spending time and resources on someone because they’re fun?” Cameron asked suspiciously. “I don’t buy it.”
“Don’t worry,” House told her. “The dialysis won’t do much.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Cameron insisted. “Why are you treating him?”
“Mostly to annoy Cuddy.”
“You don’t believe him, do you?” Cameron asked.
“No,” House answered.
“But...?”
“But his boss does. And there’s got to be a reason for that.”
Cameron sighed. “His heart rate, BP, and O2 stats look fine. I’m not convinced he’s even been given any phenytoin.”
“Well, if he’s miraculously cured by this treatment, we’ll know he faked everything,” House reassured her.
“And not just half?” Cameron added.
“Exactly.” House leaned back in his chair and lifted his right leg so he could put his feet on his desk. “This should all be over by the time Chase and Foreman remember that they work for me.”
“Chase hasn’t surfaced from NICU, and Foreman was going to meet with Dr. Lithgow to discuss an article he’s co-authoring,” Cameron told House. “They should be occupied for the rest of the day, so they’ll be safe from the aliens.”
House shrugged. “It’ll be a boring night, then.”
Cameron smiled.
“Uh, excuse me, doctors?” came a voice. Cameron turned around to find Skinner at the door.
“Hello, Assistant Director,” House said. “What can we do for you?”
Skinner grimaced. “I just thought you’d like to know that Mulder’s gone, uh, catatonic again. The phenytoin wore off.”
“Really?” Cameron asked before she could stop herself. “I mean, uh, I didn’t get a page,” she quickly added.
“I didn’t alert anybody,” Skinner explained. “He looks like he’s just resting, but I need you to get him out of there before someone notices or he gets violent.”
Cameron shot a bewildered glance at House, who shrugged again. Turning back to Skinner, she said “Okay, let’s go,” and started heading to the dialysis room.
~~~
5:00 PM
Cameron walked into the conference room. She’d just left Mulder alone in his hospital room, hooked up to even more machines than before. “His brain activity is way above normal,” she said. “Especially if he’s had large amounts of phenytoin.”
She took a seat at the table, where Skinner was also sitting with one elbow on the table, resting his head against his hand. Cameron had expressed surprise when House had invited him to their meeting, but House just shook his head in response, dismissing her concern.
“Okay,” House said, standing at the whiteboard with marker in-hand. “What causes increased brain activity, headaches, dizziness, intermittent catatonia, and delusions?” He wrote down each symptom as he spoke.
“They’re not delusions,” Skinner interrupted quietly.
House sighed. “This is why I don’t usually let non-doctors sit in on the differentials. Where did the aliens probe you, Assistant Director?”
“Mulder’s believed in this stuff for decades!” Skinner snapped, looking up. “Even if it’s not true, it’s not a symptom of what’s happening now.”
“Brain cancer,” Cameron interjected before the argument could go any further. “A series of tumours inhibiting some regions of the brain and pushing others into overdrive.”
“That doesn’t explain the intermittent motor functions,” House countered.
“Fungal brain infection, then.”
“No fever.”
“Immunodeficiency could account for that. And it would explain the severity of the symptoms.”
“True.”
Both House and Cameron turned to look at Skinner. “Has Mulder ever been tested for HIV?” Cameron asked.
“I don’t know,” he responded, “but the doctors in DC ran all kinds of tests and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong. What about Mulder’s theory about the radioactive artefact?”
“Radiation doesn’t do this,” Cameron told him kindly.
“Even that cosmic radiation?” Skinner asked.
“It all has the same effect,” Cameron said.
“Besides,” House interrupted, “people are exposed to trace amounts of radiation all the time. Even if radiation poisoning did fit the symptoms, his ‘spaceship’ wouldn’t have been enough to cause it. And even if it was enough to cause it, some other source of radiation would have done it sooner.”
“And the virus?” Skinner asked.
“It’s possible he might have an infection,” Cameron said, “but he probably contracted it more recently... and it’s probably not an alien virus that he’s been cured of.”
Skinner sighed.
“Okay, then.” House turned back to Cameron. “Assuming the other doctors didn’t do their jobs properly, rerun blood tests and get a head CT. And in case they did do their jobs properly, do a brain biopsy, too.”
~~~
5:30 PM
Cameron flipped the light switch as she entered the room. At the same time that the lights came on, Mulder opened his eyes, already looking at her.
Coincidence, Cameron told herself.
She gathered supplies from the drawers and went to stand beside the bed. She checked the bandage on Mulder’s throat where the dialysis catheter had been inserted. “We’ve got some new theories about what’s wrong with you,” she told him. “I need to draw a few vials of blood for some tests, and then I’m going to take you down for a head CT. We’ve also scheduled a brain biopsy for a few hours from now.”
Mulder stared at her impassively.
“Or maybe you already know all that,” she muttered.
Cameron worked in silence. When she was done, she took the blood samples and turned to leave for the lab. As an afterthought, she spun around and gave a quick “I’ll be back in a minute” to Mulder.
As she exited into the hallway, she saw Skinner sitting on a bench outside the room. Cameron noticed that he looked even worse than he had at the end of the differential diagnosis meeting.
“Are you alright?” she asked him.
“Not really,” he replied. “Michael Kritschgau’s body was found six miles from here. He was shot in the head.”
~~~
10:00 PM
House had been thinking. And he decided he needed to know more. So he was going to go talk to Special Agent Fox Mulder.
He stopped short when he entered Mulder’s hospital room. Skinner and Cameron were absent, but Mulder was not alone. Lying alongside him on his hospital bed was a small woman with red hair. She was dressed in rumpled linen, and her lack of makeup showed freckles on her cheeks. She seemed to have taken care to move the monitor wires out of the way before lying down, and her head was resting on Mulder’s shoulder and her left arm was across his stomach. She was asleep. Mulder’s eyes were closed, but his head was turned towards the woman.
“A-hem!”
She woke up with a small jump, looking all around herself, but as her eyes focused, recognition crossed her face and she relaxed back onto the bed.
“You must be Dr. House,” she said.
House approached her. “And you must be the one cuddling my patient,” he replied.
“I’m Dr. Dana Scully. I’m Mulder’s partner. I’ve just come back from Africa.”
House quirked an eyebrow. “Interesting. So are you a doctor or an FBI agent?” he asked.
“Both.”
“Well, I guess it’s good you’re here,” House said, noticing the dark circles under her eyes. “I need to talk to your partner, but he doesn’t seem to be in a chatty mood.”
Scully sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “I looked at his chart, but the test results weren’t attached,” she said. “What do you know?”
“Not much. That’s why I need more information.”
Now it was Scully’s turn to quirk an eyebrow. “The tests all came back clean? Even the brain biopsy?”
“The only thing we found was some phenytoin that was still in his system,” House told her. “No infections, no parasites, no tumours.”
Scully tried to yawn discreetly and failed.
“Were you expecting us to find something?” House asked.
“No,” she sighed. “I guess not. It’s just that I didn’t get any answers in Africa, so I was hoping there would be some here.”
House pulled the bedside chair over to him with his cane. “Well, maybe you can still tell me about a couple of things,” he said, sitting down.
“Like what?”
“How about we start with your alien ship?” House suggested.
He was expecting the defensive expression that Scully suddenly adopted, but she surprised him by simply saying “Go on.”
“How do you know it’s alien?”
“We don’t know that,” Scully answered. “But we do know that it emits trace amounts of cosmic galactic radiation, which does not exist on this planet.”
“And how do you know it’s cosmic radiation, specifically?” House pushed.
“The proton percentage,” Scully said confidently. “The radiation was composed almost entirely of individual protons, with only a small amount of helium nuclei and electrons. Terrestrial radioactive sources that have decayed that much don’t have that many protons.”
House shrugged. “Well, I guess I’m more of an organic chem kinda guy,” he said. “Speaking of which-the virus.”
Scully reached behind her and pulled Mulder’s hand into her lap, where she held it. “There are different accounts of it,” she told House. “I’ve heard of it possessing someone, incapacitating them, irradiating them... and of it gestating a new life form inside a human host.”
“Cool,” House replied.
Scully stared at him. “You believe me?”
“No,” House answered, “but usually my patients come up with boring lies.”
Scully pinched the bridge of her nose between the thumb and forefinger of her free hand for a moment. “I suppose that’s not the worst response I’ve gotten,” she said, sighing again. “I was once exposed to a version of the virus that had been adapted for widespread release. I was unconscious for days before I was given a vaccine developed by the American government, which cured me.”
House looked at her quizzically. “Huh,” was all he said.
“Why are you asking for more information about all this if you don’t believe any of it?” Scully asked.
“I had been considering...” House started. “If your partner was describing an illness that actually existed, but was twisting it to make it spooky by adding things like space radiation, then getting him-or someone who believed him-to tell me more might have given me an idea of what it actually was.”
“So you believe that there was an illness of some kind?”
“I believe that you all believe what you’re saying,” House answered. “Which suggests that there’s something behind it.”
“But not something alien?” Scully asked.
“You didn’t claim any of this was alien,” House pointed out.
“True, but it’s not like anything else I’ve ever seen.”
House leaned forward in his chair and looked intently at Scully. “Doesn’t that bother you?” he asked. “As a doctor, not knowing what this is?”
Scully smiled sadly. “Yes and no,” she responded. “As a scientist, I know that there is a rational explanation for all of this. Even though I don’t know what it is, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” She looked down at her hand, twined with Mulder’s.
“That sounds like just a no,” House prompted.
“It bothers me because I can’t do anything about it. Not enough, anyway. I can fight and fight, but the people I care about, and myself, we’ve all lost so much. All because I don’t know where to go for answers, or what to believe, or who to trust...”
House leaned back in his chair. “It’s my job to find answers others can’t,” he said. “And I’m good at it. And if you hang around here a while, you’ll realize the implications of that.”
~~~
10:30 PM
Cameron was sitting at her desk doing paperwork when House returned to the conference room.
“Agent-slash-doctor Scully has returned,” he told her.
Cameron’s head snapped up. “Mulder’s partner?”
“The very same,” House answered. “Just got back from having a little chat with her.”
“Did she tell you anything useful?”
“Nope. Not anything I believe, anyway. She claims to have been exposed to the virus, too, but cured by an American vaccine. I guess she’s a patriot.”
Cameron sighed. “So much for that,” she muttered, turning back to her paperwork.
House looked around the conference room. “Where’s Skinner?” he asked.
“Don’t know,” Cameron answered.
“Is that coffee I smell?”
“Just brewed a fresh pot.”
House walked over to the machine and poured himself a cup. He inhaled the warm aroma. “Caffeine is a glorious substance,” he said to no one in particular.
Cameron raised her head and gave House a serious look. “Why is Skinner here?” she asked.
“Quiet,” he replied. “You’re ruining the experience.” He took a careful sip from his red mug. “Ahh.”
“No dodging the question.”
“Didn’t you just tell me Skinner’s not here?” House retorted.
“You know what I mean.”
House shrugged. “Don’t all Assistant Directors of the FBI keep vigil while their pariah agents are in the hospital?”
“Obviously,” Cameron replied sarcastically. “Because patients’ bosses always sit in on our differential diagnosis meetings.”
“He’s lying about something,” House declared.
Cameron hadn’t been expecting that. “Skinner? He’s the only one not claiming to be the victim of a government conspiracy!”
“And yet he’s here. He helped get Mulder out of DC. He’s keeping this as quiet as possible. He got a phone call that Kritschgau was dead and wasn’t surprised. This isn’t just concern for the health of a subordinate.”
“Then what is it?” Cameron asked.
“I don’t know,” House said, taking another sip of coffee. “I’m hoping he’ll say something that will help me figure it out.”
Cameron remained unimpressed. “That sounds a lot like a conspiracy theory, House.”
House rolled his eyes.
“Seriously, though,” Cameron persisted. “Skinner doesn’t believe the things Mulder does, and he hasn’t been infected with this virus. You think there’s another part to these stories that he’s not telling you about?”
“He’s here for a reason,” House repeated.
“All right, then.” She picked up her pen to resume her work. House began to head towards his office.
“Maybe he just doesn’t know what else to do,” Cameron mused absently. “He’s caught in between the fact that he’s already involved and the fact that he’s looking at the situation from the other side.”
House froze mid-stride.
“What?” Cameron asked, looking up.
There was no response.
“House? What’s wrong?”
House moved to put his coffee down slowly on top of Cameron’s paperwork. He looked at her with a captivated expression. She gave him an inquisitive look.
“That’s it,” he said quietly. “We were looking at the situation from the other side.”
Just then, the door opened, and Cameron looked over to see Scully and Skinner walking in. They stopped when they noticed the look of concentration on House’s face.
“Dr. House?” Scully asked.
House spun in place to face her. “The vaccines,” he said urgently. “What do you know about them?”
Scully was somewhat taken aback. “Almost nothing. I’ve never been able to study a sample, and we can’t test for them if we don’t know what they are.”
“They could have been anything?” House asked.
“Well, in order to cure the virus, they would-”
“Yeah, yeah, skip the virus part,” House interrupted. “You don’t know what was in the vaccines, and they didn’t work properly, right?”
Scully was confused. “Right.”
“But they cured you and Mulder when you were infected.”
“Yes.”
“What’s this about?” Skinner interjected.
House looked at him. “The problem isn’t the virus, it’s the vaccine. You might think it was faulty, but Mulder doesn’t have an infection. He might, however, have some experimental Russian vaccine floating around in his system, just waiting to wreak havoc.”
“The vaccine is making him sick?” Skinner asked.
Cameron stood up, realization dawning. “The vaccine probably had a genetic component, which could have mutated,” she said.
“And the mutated version is attacking his body,” House finished.
Skinner rubbed the pads of his fingers across his forehead. “How did this happen?”
“It could have been a lot of ways,” Cameron answered.
“It might even be that the radiation from the alien spaceship did it,” House quipped.
“Oh, my god,” breathed Scully.
“Seriously?” asked Skinner.
“We need to do more tests to figure out exactly what part of Mulder’s body is being attacked,” Cameron explained. “But we should start him on steroids for now.”
“Do it,” House told her.
“Wait,” Scully said.
Everybody turned to look at her, confused.
“What for?” House asked.
“I believe...” she started. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head back and forth quickly. “This isn’t something we should try to stop,” she said. “Given everything I’ve seen, I think this is what is supposed to happen.”
House gaped at her. “What?!”
“I think the vaccine is working,” Scully stated.
“Are you sure you’re a doctor?!”
“His body is adapting itself,” she replied. “To prevent infection. He and I received different versions of the vaccine, and his reacted to the artefact while mine didn’t. It looked like the virus had been triggered because the artefact had a synergy with everything that Mulder had been exposed to, and it’s allowing him to become immune.”
“You’re being completely illogical,” House accused her.
“Once his body has finished adapting, I believe he’ll be fine.”
“He won’t survive this.”
Scully met his gaze confidently. “He will,” she said. “No treatment.”
“Agent Scully-” Cameron started.
“I understand what I’m doing,” Scully insisted, turning to face Cameron. “And I’m Mulder’s medical proxy, so this is my decision to make.”
Nobody replied.
“Thank you,” Scully said. She turned back to House. “I was wrong,” she told him. “I did find the answer in Africa. I found that some truths aren’t for us to know. Faith is what we need.”
House walked out of the room.
~~~
7:00AM
“Scully?”
There was no response.
“Scully, wake up.”
“Hmm?” she asked sleepily.
“Morning, sleepy-head,” Mulder said, smiling.
“Mulder!” Scully exclaimed. Though she was already snuggled up next to him on his hospital bed, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him even closer.
“I was so scared,” she said.
“I know.”
“How are you feeling?”
Mulder kissed the top of her head. “I’m all right,” he assured her. “Back to normal.”
“Oh, thank god,” Scully sighed.
For a while, they stayed as they were.
A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. They looked up and saw Skinner enter, followed by House.
“Agent Mulder!” Skinner said, stunned. Beside him, House stared, flabbergasted.
“Hi,” Mulder said. He smirked at House. “I can’t read minds, but I take it you're surprised to see me awake and lucid?”
House blinked, pulling himself together. “Honestly, yes,” he said. “It's rather ironic, considering that people you know keep dying.”
“What?” asked Scully.
House pulled an envelope out of the inside pocket of his jacket. “A nurse gave this to me a few minutes ago. Woke me up. Your boss seems to think it’s bad news.”
Mulder and Scully both looked at Skinner. “What is it?” Mulder asked.
“It’s from Agent Fowley,” Skinner told him.
Scully tensed.
Mulder held out his hand, and House handed him the envelope, hastily addressed to “Fox Mulder, care of Dr. House.” Opening it, Mulder saw that it was a letter, hand-written by Diana. He held it so that Scully could read it with him.
Fox, she wrote
I tried to mislead them as much as I could, but when Krycek got to Kritschgau, it got their attention. They’ve realized that I was lying to them about knowing where you are, and I don’t know how long I can distract them with chasing me before they manage to kill me. I’m sending this as a warning. Hopefully Assistant Director Skinner and Agent Scully can get you out of there before it’s too late. I’m so, so sorry. For everything.
Love,
Diana
Mulder dropped the letter onto his stomach. Scully closed her eyes and squeezed him tighter.
“I’m sorry, Mulder,” she said.
Skinner sighed.
“So I have a question,” House announced suddenly, making Mulder wince in surprise. “Your buddy Michael Kritschgau told me he’d seen people in your condition before. If what happened to you was really as big a deal as Dr. Scully would have me believe, how does that fit with what Kritschgau said?”
Mulder frowned. “Kritschgau has never really seen the big picture,” he told House. “I asked Skinner to find him for me because I needed whatever help I could get. Like he told you, he was former Department of Defense. He’s gotten himself into trouble before because he didn’t understand just how far-reaching this all is.”
“Far-reaching? There’s more to this?” House asked
“More than you can imagine,” Mulder answered.
“I knew you were hiding something from me,” House said to Skinner.
Skinner glared at him. House smirked back.
“Ok, get out of here,” House said, moving to the door. “Before you bring this all down on me. I have to go lie to my other employees about what I did last night, and that would be a lot more difficult if somebody came to kill me.”
He didn’t look back at them as he left.
-END-
Prompt:
This is based on an assortment of prompts, some of which I adapted slightly. The ones that are most recognizable are “A character from another series is treated by House” (though X-Files was not listed among the suggestions for those), and “sharing a bed.”