TITLE: Trying To Do the Damned Job  
AUTHOR: nikki, 2/01  
ARCHIVE: Gossamer, Xemplary, yes. Others, please contact me-I  
like to come visit.  
RATING: PG  
KEYWORDS: Doggett, Kersh, Scully, Mulder, Skinner  
SPOILERS: Within  
DISCLAIMER: They're still not mine. But if they were, I'd treat them  
better.  
THANKS: Heaping thanks to Snark, CindyET, Gerry Hill, Sarah Ellen Parsons and Suzi.  
SUMMARY: It's blasphemous, I know, but give it a chance...What if  
we're not the only ones who think the search for Mulder has been  
bogus?  
FEEDBACK: nikoleaw@aol.com  
Come visit me at http://www.reocities.com/the_xproject  
 
 
"You requested to see me, Agent?" Although he didn't look up from  
the document he was signing, the Deputy Director's tone was  
courteous, if not exactly welcoming.  
 
Agent Doggett squinted against the glare of the sun reflecting off  
the highly polished surface of Kersh's cherry wood desk. For a  
fleeting moment, he wondered if Kersh readjusted the angle of his  
blinds throughout the day to ensure that anyone unlucky enough to  
find themselves on the other side of his desk had to contend with the  
glare of both Kersh and the sun. Ordinarily, he would have dismissed  
the thought as nothing more than baseless paranoia, a little bit of  
Agent Scully and the X-Files rubbing off on him, but considering why  
he was here right now, he wasn't so certain.  
 
Returning his mind to the task at hand, Doggett answered, "Yes, I  
did."  
 
Doggett had considered numerous approaches to the issue and had  
finally decided that his normal straightforward method was the best  
route to follow.  
 
Sitting down, Doggett cocked his head slightly and continued. "I'm  
hoping you can tell me what the hell I'm supposed to be doing."  
 
Kersh raised his head slightly at the statement. His voice held no  
amusement as he replied, "If you haven't learned how to do your job  
after six years..."  
 
Doggett shook his head slightly as he cut Kersh off. "That's not  
what I'm talking about and you know it."  
 
Clasping his hands together on top of a small pile of papers on his  
desk, Kersh leaned forward and impatiently answered, "No. I don't  
know. Enlighten me."  
 
Leaning back in his chair, Doggett studied Kersh carefully before he  
spoke. Other than the limited information available in the Bureau's  
databases, Doggett knew very little about him. A few brief exchanges  
defined the extent of their interactions. Doggett did know that  
Kersh, like him, had discovered and honed his instincts and wits  
first to survive in a war-torn land far from home, and then to thrive  
in the often treacherous environment of law enforcement. Sitting  
before him now, Doggett found himself wondering which one of them  
would prove to have the better instincts when all was said and done.  
 
"I'm talking about the task force that was created to look for Agent  
Mulder. The task force I was supposed to be heading up?"  
 
"What about it?"  
 
Doggett hunched forward in his seat and began speaking as if he was  
sharing state secrets with a co-conspirator. "Well I don't know  
about you, but I'm wondering what happened to it? We investigated  
for a week, then I was reassigned to the X-Files. Now, at first,  
that seemed to make sense. I mean, that was Agent Mulder's  
department, and working there ensured that I'd have unrestricted  
access to Agent Scully, the person who supposedly knew Mulder better  
than anybody else. But Agent Scully wasn't on the task force.  
So she kept getting new cases assigned. And since I'm supposed to be  
her new partner on the X-Files, it's my responsibility to help her  
investigate these new cases. Which means that the task force  
suddenly has no leader. Now, I know all the other agents on the task  
force, and I know they're all good agents, folks who hate leaving a  
case unsolved. So even though I'm not there to hold meetings with  
them every day, I figure, they'll keep following up leads, and when  
they find something, they'll let me know. But then a week goes by,  
two weeks, I don't hear anything from any of them. I did some  
checking around and guess what I found out? They all got reassigned  
on the same day that I did. Which means that no one's been out there  
trying to find out what happened to Agent Mulder."  
 
Doggett returned to his earlier, more relaxed position as he  
finished. "Now I don't know about you, but I know that if it were me  
that was out there missing, maybe hurt somewhere, I'd certainly hope  
the Bureau would be making more of an effort to find me. In fact,  
I'd expect it."  
 
Kersh's dark eyes were unreadable behind his glasses as he replied,  
"Well then I guess you should be grateful that you're not the one  
who's missing."  
 
"Goddammit, this is a man's life we're talking about here! And like  
him or not, he was one of us. We owe him better than this."  
 
It was Kersh's turn to sit back in his plush leather chair. "What is  
this really all about, John? You're concerned about how your failure  
to locate Agent Mulder is going to look on your record?"  
 
Doggett blinked rapidly in offended surprise. "What I'm concerned  
about, is why everyone suddenly decided to start pretending that  
Agent Mulder never existed. Hell, even Agent Scully can hardly stand  
to say or hear his name. But at least I can understand her  
behavior. It's you and everybody else that's got me confused. You've  
all turned him into the biggest damned pink elephant I've ever seen.  
And actually, yes, I am concerned about how not finding Agent Mulder  
is going to look on my record. What happened to 'Just do the damn  
job'?"  
 
"You did the job. And I've said as much in your file. That's why  
you got a new assignment. As for Agent Scully, perhaps she's hoping  
to put her unfortunate past behind her and revive her career. It's  
not a bad choice to make. But you know that already."  
 
The wave of guilt that washed over Doggett. Thankfully, over the  
years, he'd learned how to deal with it. Kersh was right in his  
implication that he, more than anyone, understood what it took to  
bury the memory of a lost loved one and focus on a stagnant career.  
It had taken him four years to be able to bear hearing his son's  
name. Another two before he could safely carry his photo in his  
wallet without fear of breaking down when he saw it. His  
primary concern for Agent Scully was less that she was focusing on  
unrelated cases in the hopes of salvaging her career, and more that  
she was trying to torpedo it by trying to become more like Agent  
Mulder. But even that wasn't at the heart of why Doggett had come to  
this office today.  
 
Doggett wasn't certain if the smirk he'd thought he saw on Kersh's  
face was real or imagined. He found it didn't matter. His eyes  
narrowed and his voice lowered in understated menace as he answered,  
"This is different. We are talking about a federal agent who  
disappeared while on duty..."  
 
"Agent Mulder disappeared while out on one of his countless wild  
alien chases..."  
 
Standing up, Doggett placed his hands on Kersh's desk and leaned  
forward. "I don't care if he disappeared while he was getting a lap  
dance! The point is that he's missing and my job was supposed to be  
to find him, but you and everybody else seems to be doing their  
damnedest to make sure that I can't. And I want to know why."  
 
Kersh's mouth formed a thin, angry line before he responded. "If  
you're having a problem with your case load, or the resources  
allocated to you, I suggest you take that up directly with your  
division supervisor. Or maybe I should start looking for someone  
else better suited for your job?"  
 
Doggett stood back, forcing himself to soften his tone and relax his  
posture. "I've already talked to Assistant Director Skinner. He  
said that it was out of his hands. That I should talk to you. And I  
agreed."  
 
Kersh gave a small nod. "Agent Doggett, I appreciate your  
frustration at your inability to solve this case outright. But you  
uncovered more evidence in just a few days than..."  
 
"Evidence? Everything I found pointed in some other direction. It  
all pointed out the need for continued investigation..."  
 
Kersh went on in a tone that clearly implied that he would not  
tolerate being interrupted again. "As I said, you uncovered a great  
deal of evidence that clearly indicated that Agent Mulder's  
disappearance was not all that it first appeared to be. With an  
undisclosed terminal illness and his obvious preparations for his own  
death, the most likely scenario was clear."  
 
Both Doggett's voice and statement conveyed his confusion. "But  
what about Assistant Director Skinner's testimony? And what I saw in  
the desert--the man who may or may not have been Agent Mulder? The  
woman who looked like Agent Scully but wasn't? That little boy,  
Gibson Praise?"  
 
"Those leads are being followed up by the appropriate parties."  
 
"What appropriate parties? I asked you once before if there were  
other people I didn't know about working this case and..."  
 
Kersh selected a pen from the brass holder on his desk and looked  
down as he resumed skimming a document on his desk. "Agent Doggett,  
if you have no other matters to bring to my attention, I have work to  
do. As do you."  
 
Doggett sat in a furious and stunned silence. Unbidden, Skinner's  
warning in the cool Arizona desert night came back to him. "You're  
being made a pawn in a rigged game...You've been set up to  
fail...Kersh will ruin you. I'm betting that was his plan." Until  
this moment, Doggett while not forgetting it, had chosen not to  
accept it. But now, as he did a quick mental review of the  
answers Kersh hadn't given him, Doggett found himself reconsidering  
Skinner's words.  
 
Doggett nodded slowly before responding, "Yeah. I do." Then, he  
turned to leave.  
 
He'd begun to open the door to let himself out of the office when he  
heard Kersh speaking to him. "Agent Doggett, you don't know the  
assignments of every agent in Bureau. Just because no one in your  
network of associates is active in the investigation of Agent  
Mulder's whereabouts doesn't mean there's no one on the case."  
 
Something in Kersh's tone sounded suspiciously like a warning, and  
Doggett thought it best not to turn back around as he nodded and  
quietly answered, "I'll keep that in mind, sir."  
 
Once outside the office, Doggett stopped and ran his hand through his  
hair as he tried to figure out what had just happened. He still  
didn't know why his task force had been disbanded and he'd suddenly  
been reassigned to the X-Files and he still didn't know who, if  
anyone, was conducting the search for Mulder. Kersh's responses had  
left him with more questions than answers. But they'd also renewed  
his determination to uncover the truth-he'd promised as much to Agent  
Scully, and he owed it to himself, and more importantly, to Mulder.  
 
Inside, Kersh picked up his phone and dialed. Skipping any greetings,  
he simply said, "He told me to call if there were any problems.  
There are."  
 
The End  
 
Sending feedback is easier than trying to understand the motivations  
of Alien Bounty Hunters, Deputy Directors, pregnant Special  
Agents... nikoleaw@aol.com