Submitted for your perusal... I hope at least someone likes this story. I can't say if I do or not. I wrote it, and am therefore biased! Please send feedback! Disclaimer: Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and associated characters are property of Chris Carter, Ten-Thirteen Productions and Fox Broadcasting Corp. The plot (or lack thereof) in the following story is mine... and therefore a figment of my deranged imagination... Author's note: I was curious what would happen if Scully had some pretty bizzare dreams and Mulder had to help her figure out why. There is no romantic involvement in this... as I am still too chicken to write one (hey, at least I'm HONEST!), but there is plenty of friendship stuff in this one. BTW, there really isn't any X-File in this one either, though I do have a story in the works that has sort-of an X-File to it, but I haven't finished it... yet. Who's got Insomnia? by Christina Shuy cshuy@netcom.com Dana Scully was running down the familiar corridor of the Bureau's basement on the way to the X-Files office where she and her partner Fox Mulder worked. Upon getting to the office, she found that the door was securely locked. "Mulder! Open the door!" she pounded on the door, wondering why it was so quiet. Usually Mulder had the office opened by quarter to nine and it was now an hour later than that. The door seemed to soften under her pounding but wasn't giving way. Instead, it seemed to reach out and grab her and then absorb her into the door itself. "Mulder!" she managed to shout out once before her mouth was covered and then she slowly lost consciousness while hearing loud banging from somewhere she couldn't see... ...Only to awaken screaming in the hotel bed where she and Mulder were staying while investigating a case. "Scully! Open the door! It's Mulder!" his voice sounded almost frantic as he continued to bang against the door. Disoriented and still very sleepy, she got out of bed and trudged to the door, grateful in the fuzzy reaches of her mind that she had worn a tshirt and shorts to sleep. "Scully!" Mulder shouted again and was about to loudly knock on the door when it opened a little. "What is it, Mulder?" she asked in a half-mumble. "Are you ok? I heard shouting... something about you wanting me to open a door?" Mulder looked at his disheveled, sleepy partner with concern. She was only barely coherent. "It's nothing, Mulder. A nightmare..." she mumbled, letting him into her room. He quietly studied her as he shut the door behind him. "Are you sure that's all it is?" he asked again. "Mulder... it was JUST a dream." she brushed it off, getting more than a little annoyed. Mulder looked a little skeptical... which was a rather interesting switch, he thought. Him being the skeptical one and Scully brushing off an incident like that as if it were nothing. It would be nothing if this had never happened before, but it seemed he had been noticing that Scully couldn't stay asleep nights. For a split second, he wondered if he were starting to rub off on her, nightmares and all. Then, he shook his head and told himself he needed sleep about as much as she did and that neither was getting any at the moment. "Would you like to talk about it, Scully?" he asked, gently. Scully turned and looked at him as if he'd just asked her if she'd seen Santa Claus. "Since when did you care what I dream?" she grumbled at him. "Since I've been noticing that you apparently haven't been sleeping, Scully. I'm a walking study in sleep depravation, you know that, so of course I would notice if anyone else was exhibiting the early signs of severe insomnia." "Mulder, get off my case about this, ok?" she turned on her heel to face him. "I AM FINE." Mulder sighed softly and decided to soften his approach just slightly. "No, Dana, you're not. You've not been yourself this past week. It seems as though you've been sleepwalking at work. Two days ago, I came back from getting my coffee refilled and found you dozed off at the keyboard. When you did wake up, you jolted and gasped, as though it were something unpleasant." As he spoke, Scully was gradually waking up and she acknowledged what he had said with a half-embarassed nod. "Not only that," he continued. "I went as far as to deliberately tell you something which didn't really make much sense and you went along with it like I'd said the sky was blue. You almost never go along with anything I say... unless it has something to do with something we'd both seen, and usually not even then!" "Well... I haven't been sleeping very well." she admitted as they sat down at the round table on one side of the room. Mulder moved to get some cool water from the bucket of ice that had been left sitting on a towel. Then, he sat back down. "So... would you care to tell me what this dream was about?" "It starts differently, but always seems to end the same. I'm down in the basement, banging on the office door which is still locked. I don't know where you are and then the door starts to suck me in... as if it were absorbing me into the wood." she finished with more than a slight shudder at the recall. "Are you trying to tell me that I suck?" Mulder asked, though Scully could definitely pick up on the extreme humour in his voice, even though she was still about half asleep. "Mulder..." she half-smiled. "I don't think the door was anywhere near your type... and it certainly wasn't mine. What do you think the dream could have meant?" "Maybe it's a representation of your fear of getting sucked into my crazy little world. After all, as you have pointed out on numerous occasions, I seem to live in a world all my own." he smiled, but the look in his eyes as well as the expression told Dana that he was pretty much completely serious. Dana opened her mouth for a moment, then shut it again when she saw Mulder watching her closely. She could tell what he was thinking and she knew that he knew what she was thinking. They seemed to be rubbing off on each other, habit wise. "I think that is the most... rational explaination I have ever heard from you, Mulder." she smiled, after a short silence. "Gee, you must be rubbing off on me." he grinned, his tone playfully teasing. They studied each other in a playful, yet tense stare. Then, without warning, Mulder smiled brightly, causing Dana to giggle but try to surpress it at the same time. Moments later, both were laughing at what seemed to be an ever-so-personal inside joke. One that hadn't been spoken aloud by either of them. "Feeling any better, Scully?" Mulder asked, after they had both managed to regain their composure. "Yes, thank you, Mulder. And I think you might be right. Deep down, there is probably some part of me afraid of getting 'sucked in', as you so nicely put it, completely into your 'world'... though it seems 'dimension' would be a better term." she teased. "Whatever the term, Scully... I don't think you'll ever get _completely_ sucked in. After all, you are you, and I am me. WE are partners in probably one of the strangest occupations, at least in this country. There is also the fact that we don't even really think alike when it comes to certain unexplained phenomena...." He watched as Dana yawned. "I'm sorry, am I boring you?" he asked. She rubbed her eyes before looking at him. "Hmm? Oh, no, Mulder, you're not. It's just that I think I should be getting back to sleep. After all, you're the insomniac around here, not me, remember?" she gave him a sleepy smile. "Now who's rubbing off on who?" Dana got up from the table and went over to the closet, pulled down a pillow and tossed it at Mulder, hitting him squarely in the face. "Go to sleep, Mulder." she said. "Is this an invitation?" "I meant next door. This is my room, not yours, remember?" "Okay, okay. I can take a hint!" he sounded mock offended. Then, he turned serious... just for a moment, as he stood up and gave the pillow back to his best friend and partner. "YOu going to be ok?" "Yeah, I think so. Thanks for the pep talk." she said, going over and giving him a friendly hug. "YOu're quite welcome." he smiled into her hair. "Good night, Mulder." she said, letting go of him. "'Night, Scully. Oh, and be careful of any really friendly doors." Mulder said, as she went back to her bed and he walked out the door. The pillow hit the door with a thud, and there was laughter which stilled to the silence of sleep moments later. No more doors ever tried to suck in Dana Scully, especially in her dreams. -The End- Okay... So, what do you think of this one? Yes, I know I'm a little weird, but that's the way I am... =) -- "The Truth is Out There. Trust No One."- from "The X-Files" "There's something about distance that gets to us all."-Latitudes(Elton John) "You're not subtle, you're not politic, and sometimes, you're a pain in the ass!" Commander Jeffrey Sinclair ("The Gathering" - Babylon 5 season 1) Pursuing a BS degree in Electrical Engineering-Nova Scotia, Canada anyone?