All weekend, cooped up in this office. Staring at the walls in between X-files and cups of very black coffee.

I can't take it another minute.

What the hell am I getting into here?

It appears that I'm being punished, I think. Agent Scully is not exactly Princess Charming. And her missing partner is as crazy as a loon. According to what I've read so far, he thought the sky was falling. In the form of government conspiracies and UFOs. A class-a loony.

It seems that has rubbed off on his formerly-sane partner.

Upstairs she had a rep. I lied a bit about what I heard about Mulder. I didn't ever believe the crap I heard about him from various secretaries. However, truth be told, I believe what I heard about Agent Scully.

Ice queen. Stone-cold bitch, according to one guy in VCS, Colton is his name. A few of the guys in the crime lab liked her okay, I guess. But they'd be the first to admit that she had developed a penchant for believing in Mulder's "extreme possiblities".

I found that out almost the minute I met her.

Funny. She doesn't seem like the stone-cold type. She just lost her partner to God-knows-what. I'd think anyone would go a little crazy after seven years. But I read those files, you see, and now I think maybe its not Mulder's absence that is driving her batty.

Oh well. I'm stuck with her.

Seven already? Jeez.

Coffee needs a refill.

Who the heck would want to work in this god-forsaken basement?

You know, except for a faint smoky smell around the cabinets, you can't tell this place was set on fire once.

Elevator. I can't imagine ever wanting to take the stairs.

"Hey, Doggett! How's it goin?"

"Mornin, Crawford. Its goin'."

"Where you comin' from?" Oh, he knows. Why else would anyone be coming up from the basement?

"My office." I don't like the way that sounds. Its not really mine.

"You mean, Mulder's office?"

See, even they know its not mine.

"Yeah."

"Is it true what they say?"

"What do they say?" I know, of course.

"Ol' Spooky and his ice queen. They were, uh..."

"I wouldn't know."

"Yeah."

Crawford always was a nosy SOB.

"Johnson?"

"Hey, Crawford. What's shakin?" By the look on Johnson's face, I just know what he's gonna ask me.

"Hey, Doggett. So, how's life down under?"

Hahaha. Very funny.

"Can I come down, take a look?"

What harm will it do? "Sure, I guess. Its not much to look at."

"The lair of the fox. You know, he had a nickname."

Damn elevator.

"Has a nickname. He's not dead, Crawford."

"Still working on the manhunt, John?"

"Yeah."

"Hear Kersh stuck you in the basement to teach you a lesson about humility."

"Nope."

"What's Scully like? Is she as cold as they say? Is she as spooky as Mulder always was?"

Will it not stop? I never shoulda come up for coffee.

"No."

I really regret it now. Scully's in there. And no doubt she sees Crawford and Johnson. No doubt she heard some of that conversation.

I coulda sworn she was about to put that nameplate away. Guess the presence of the others bugged her. If I have learned nothing else, I know that she is fiercely protective of Mulder. I can understand that.

But as I look at her face I know that I don't understand it. This was more than a partnership. I found that in those files, with Scully's cancer.

She's looking at me like I'm a new type of insect. Or a government plant.

Now I know why Colton called this place the haven for the FBI's most unwanted.

Scully's eyes broadcast her emotions, even though her body is rigid and unyielding. You learn to notice details like that as a cop. I can't tell what she's thinking, though. I can't tell what she's about. And I can't tell why she suddenly looks so vulnerable, and so damned sad.

"I am not a curiousity, Agent Doggett."

Bullshit.