Title: Fight or Flight 1/?
Author: Anita
E-mail - Boilerella@aol.com
Category: S/O, M/O, Mulder/Skinner friendship,
Scully/Skinner friendship
Rating: Pg-13
Spoilers: All up until after the funeral in DeadAlive.
After that, it's all me (and Kristin) ;-)
Disclaimer: I do not own them. I'm not making any money from this. And
if you do take any money off me, then I can't buy your DVD boxsets.
So you'll be the ultimate losers.
Summary: Sometimes the Truth Hurts
Authors Note: This is my first X-files fic,
so please send feedback and be gentle. Constructive criticism appreciated. Special thank you to Kristen for her help and beta reading.
Couldn't have done it without ya! All
the hours I have complained and moaned to you. I KNOW i'm not the easiest person to work with. This is for you.
Hope you enjoy....
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Fight or Flight 1/?
Prologue.
19-11-2001
Skinner still couldn't believe what she'd told him. She was leaving, leaving
Washington, leaving the X-files, leaving the bureau. The box on
the table was filled with all sorts of novelty items that she and Mulder had collected over the years. He could help
but feel somewhere in his gut that this was a mistake, but was it a mistake for
her to go or a mistake for him not to try harder to stop her?
Are you sure you have to go away?" he asked, hoping that maybe if he asked
her again, he'd get a different answer. He wanted her to be here, where
he could watch out for her. It was the only way he could repay Mulder.
"Yes. I have to get away from this. This whole room is him. His name on the door. His posters. His photos. All him. I'm surrounded
by him."
Scully took a deep breath, an attempt to regain her composure. As her
anguished speech spilled from her mouth, her voiced had begun to crack and
tears had started to fall. She had to regain her composure quickly, so
she did so in her usual manner, the way she'd done so many times with Mulder, they way she'd done it in Montana performing
that autopsy. She'd only lost her he control once in her superior's
presence and she vowed not to do so again.
"What are you going to do about money?" he asked after a moment.
"I have a job offer from St. Stephen's Hospital in Oklahoma. I'll be fine sir. I'm finally going to practice
medicine." She gave a small laugh.
"You're so close to your due date, Dana. Only two months away, what about
that? What are you going to do for money until you're able to work
again?"
"I have some rainy day cash set aside. I'll be fine, Sir. Please,
don't worry."
"You be careful. Do you hear me."
"Thank you sir. I will be."
Skinner closed the small gap between them with two long forward strides, and
grasped her shoulders firmly, but gently.
"No! Look at me. Do you promise?"
She lifted her head so that her watery blue gaze met his probing brown one,
"Yes. I'll be fine. I have your number, I'll
call you. I have to go now or I'll miss my train. I'll call you as
soon as I get settled. Thank you, Sir, for everything."
"Take care of yourself. Goodness knows you deserve it," he stately
fiercely, fighting a losing battle with his emotions.
Scully didn't say anything else, she just stood on her tiptoes and place a
chaste kiss on his cheek, then promptly picked up her box and left the X-files
and Mulder's memory behind for good. Or so she
thought.
Chapter I
02-05-2004
"Hi, Sir, I mean Agent Mulder. Can you check
this out for me?" Ross begged.
Mulder looked at his partner of a little over three months
and smiled, sometimes this guy was even more hopeless than he'd been in his
glory days. Since when had he become the one who did the paperwork.
Since Scully disappeared and his track record with partners had resumed itself
full force. Three years, eight partners. And now
the new one, still green from the academy. He was an annoying,
scrawny little thing, but he sure had two things that could make him almost
bearable as partner; an open mind and, most importantly, heart.
"Sure, what is it?" Mulder asked.
"It's a file that I should have given in about four weeks ago. Please,
Night of the living dead man? Skinner will let you off anything!"
Mulder, while pissed off that he has called him that
dreaded nickname was again, smiled at the comment. It was true,
Skinner would let him get away with anything. He'd been fairly easy going
with the X-files pair while Scully was working with him, but since he'd came
back to work for the bureau, Skinner had been even more lax with him.
Sometimes, Mulder thought Skinner's new found blinders were a result of his desire to keep Scully's
location from him. Mulder knew deep down that
Skinner new where she was, but he'd give up long ago trying to pry it out of
him. Nothing ever came out to Skinner's mouth that wasn't supposed to, not even
when drinking on Friday night.
"Fine. Fine. Just don't
call me that again. EVER. Ok?"
"You got it."
"I'll go now and then go home. See ya
tomorrow."
"Bye"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Sarah, I'm home!"
Mulder surveyed the room. Scanning
it with his eyes. Not a lot had changed. Same sofa.
Same t.v. Same coffee table.
Same computer. The only things that had changed were
the phone and the fish. He had to get rid of the phone. It had her number on it
and having discarded the phones manual many years before,
he'd given up trying to erase it and erase her from his
mind. The fish, those poor fish, had finally died.
"Hey honey. How was your day?"
Mulder stared at her. God she was beautiful but he
couldn't help himself and compare her to... NO he mustn't go there. It would
kill him to go there. She had long, wavy blond hair that shined like a
waterfall.
She had deep green eyes that swallowed you in if you chanced a glance at them.
She was tall. About 5ft 10 but it didn't put him off. There was only one short
person he could ever love. NO! Here he went again. She ruled his whole life.
A psychiatrist would have a field day with his thoughts.
"Fox?"
He started and realised she was waiting for an
answer.
"Oh it was good. Caught a new criminal."
"That's wonderful!"
"Hey, um. Skinner and I are going out for a drink at Pete's Bar ok?"
Sarah sighed, "Of course it's okay, Fox, you
do it every Friday. Just don't let him drink to
much, I don't want him to spend the night here again."
"Okay, I promise I'll watch him and I'll try to keep him sober. And
if he does get drunk, I won't take him here, okay."
Sarah really hated Skinner. Absolutely hated him.
He reminded her of the days when Mulder had Scully a
part of his life that she would rather forget existed. Sometimes when Mulder went out and had too much to drink he would come
home and start telling Scully stories, and God forbid if Walter was with him,
it would be a regular trip down memory lane, a trip that did not include
her. Sometimes, Sarah realised it wasn't really
Skinner he hated, but the time in Mulder's life he
represented, the connection to Dana Scully, someone who had hurt Mulder deeply. She hated her for that,
she hated her for living, but most of all she hated her for holding the heart
of the man she loved.
"I better go get ready, you know how Walter hates
it when I'm late."
Mulder went to the bedroom and started to change his
clothes. He walked over to the closet and slid open the door. While doing so he
noticed something on the floor that he hadn't seen before. Mulder
leaned down and scooped up the small object into his tight grasp.
Ten minutes later he emerged from the bedroom clad in a black v - neck tee shirt, black jeans and black boots.
"I'd better be off cause I'm already late as it is," said Mulder giving Sarah a kiss before he headed out to his car
seemingly distracted.
"I love you". Called Sarah as he walked through the
door.
He turned and have her a half salute and slowly sauntered
to his car lost in his own thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Skinner spied Mulder as he came through the door but
immediately noticed that something was wrong. He wasn't walking in his usual
cocky way. He seemed troubled. Skinner tried to remain tactful and not mention
it right away...
"Anything wrong?" Asked
Skinner.
"Why would anything be wrong? I'm fine". He signalled
to the waiter and ordered a dry Martini for himself and a scotch on the rocks
for Skinner.
"I don't know you seemed..." Skinner stared in amazement as Mulder downed the whole glass in one. Know he KNEW
something was up.
"What did I seem like?"
"I...." replied Skinner and was then interrupted by Mulder as he rambled on
"Wait I can answer that." As he downed ANOTHER Martini that had
appeared from nowhere
"Today, as I bent down to the bottom of my closet. I found this." Mulder reached into his pocket and extracted a small round
object. He stared at it for a couple of seconds and then showed it to Skinner.
"It's Scully's apollo medallion." Said Skinner.
"That's right! Oh another one of these please!"
Mulder called to the waiter again.
"Maybe you should take it slowly Mulder. You're
just getting yourself worked up for no reason."
"I have EVERY reason to get myself worked up. God i
hate her!" He spat this confession out with immense anger.
"Mulder i know how you
feel but..."
"NO! You DON'T know how it feels to wake up after being DEAD for 3 goddamn
months and then find out that your best friend and
the woman you love has gone and left you! She didn't have to go! If she had
wanted to leave she just had to say. but NOOOO. She
does it behind my back!"
"Look Mulder, you're drunk. You don't know what
you're saying. Look i'll drive you back. SLEEP on it.
You'll feel better in the morning". With that Skinner hauled up his
partner in crime, paid the bill and dragged a still mumbling
Mulder back to the car. He decided to let MULDER
explain what had happened to Sarah in the morning...Skinner did know one thing for sure, one of these days he was
going to have to tell Mulder the truth, and it seemed
that day was coming much sooner than he wanted it too.
~*~ End of chapter 1 ~*~