Sorry About the formatting...I am trying to fix this annoying Wall 'O Text. This is something I wrote for myself after watching Deadalive and seeing Maggie and Walter standing on either side of Dana. It's taken on a bit of a life of its own, so I thought I would share.

Feedback: Please let me know what you think. I will continue posting if people seem interested. Thanks!

Part 1

Walter Skinner was a man used to handling crises. Like any other agent who'd reached the position of Assistant Director, Skinner was often the first call in times of trouble.

But, like any other human being, he enjoyed the odd quiet day. Days where he could catch up with his own paper work and attend to the other mundane details of his job.

Blessedly, today was such a day. A "Nothing Important Happened Today" type of day. But, as everyone knows, sometimes when you're having an ordinary day, the colonists are declaring independence across the ocean and your whole life is about to be turned upside down.

Skinner's quiet day was interrupted by the ringing of his office phone. The call came directly and not through his assistant as the majority of his calls did, meaning it was a call of some importance.

"Skinner" Skinner barked his name into the handset, daring the person on the other end of the phone to ruin this rare, quiet day.

Listening for only a moment, he sighed as they did just that, "I'll be there as soon as I can." Skinner stood, grabbed his suit coat and car keys and strode out the door, into the outer office.

"I'll be out for the rest of the day Kim, Agent Scully's been in a car accident." Skinner's assistant shook her head in wonder. Agent Scully and her partner, Agent Mulder, seemed to get themselves in more trouble than ten other agents.

Part 2

The first person Skinner saw upon reaching the hospital was Agent Sully's partner, Agent Fox Mulder, who was standing in the hall outside what was presumably Scully's room. But, before Skinner could speak to him, another voice called out from the hall behind him.

"Fox, Fox!" Skinner could think of only one living person who referred to Mulder by his given name, Agent Scully's mother, Margaret.

Skinner turned and looked at the petite brunette who was hurrying down the hallway. She was a nice looking woman in her mid 50s, but she seemed to always have a worried frown on her face.

*Hell,* Skinner thought to himself, *you've never seen the woman outside of a hospital, how do you know possibly know what she's normally like?*

Margaret Scully hurried past Skinner, barely glancing at him, though she surely recognized the man who always seemed to turn up when there was catastrophe in her life.

"Fox," she reached Mulder who opened his arms to embrace the woman. "How is Dana?" Mulder smiled reassuringly at her as he bent to kiss her cheek. "Maggie, she's fine. Fractured arm and a bang on the head. They're going to keep her a day or so for observation." "Oh, thank God. Can I see her?" Maggie relaxed visibly as

Skinner joined them in their conversation. "She's getting a CAT scan done now, but she should be back in her room within the hour."

"Did the accident have anything to do with the case?" Skinner, now assured of Sully's positive prognosis, brought the topic back to the job. "No sir, just your run of the mill accident caused by a guy who doesn't think red lights apply to him. I was following behind her, saw the whole thing." Mulder, who saw conspiracies around every corner declaring it a fluke accident was immensely reassuring to Skinner.

Maybe this day wouldn't turn out so badly after all.

Mulder turned to Skinner, cocking his head in Maggie's direction. "Keep an eye on her until Scully gets back to her room? I left Pendrell in the garage with the evidence we were trying to get to the lab."

"Uh, sure." Skinner replied at the same time Maggie uttered an exasperated, "Oh, Fox." Skinner felt sure that Maggie was probably quite capable of "looking after" herself, but Mulder was being protective of her, so Skinner felt obliged.

Mulder kissed Maggie's cheek once again and said, "I already gave the nurse your cell phone number, Maggie, why don't you get a cup of coffee and relax until they finish up with Dana? I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, Mulder jogged down the hall, seemingly eager to get this task done and get back to his partner's bedside.

With Mulder gone, Skinner and Maggie Scully regarded each other as one does someone they are not sure how to talk to.

"Forgive me, Mr. Skinner, for being rude before, I was a little preoccupied with Dana's condition."

"Understandable, Mrs. Scully. Think nothing about it. With all of the bad news I have delivered to you over the years, I don't ever remember you being rude."

"Well," Maggie laughed slightly, "I am positive that I *felt* rude a few of those times!"

Skinner didn't actually hear the words she said. His attention was caught by the remarkable change in her features as she laughed. Gone was the worried frown, a pretty smile graced her face and her silvery laughter washed over him.

*I wonder what she looks like when one of her children isn't laying in a hospital bed.* Skinner caught himself staring after only a second and shook himself out of his reverie.

"Coffee, Mulder suggested coffee, right? I happen to know that there is a decent coffee shop in the lobby and a bench with a pretty view right outside."

Maggie smile slightly, "That sounds lovely, but honestly, Mr. Skinner, I will be fine on my own.

"Nonsense," Skinner replied, as he led her by the elbow toward to elevator, "Mulder has entrusted you to me until he gets back. That is not a trust that I take lightly. And," Skinner winked at her, amazingly them both with his forwardness, "Please, call me Walter."

"Well then," Maggie was enjoying the attention, however unexpected, "you must call me Maggie."

Part 3

Alas, a little harmless flirting does not a deep relationship make and their coffee time was spent mainly in silence, watching ducks glide on the pond in the park outside of the hospital, a pretty mask for a place that was quite often tragic and painful.

"So," Maggie tried making small talk with her daughter's boss. "I don't think that I have seen you since Dana was at the hospital when her cancer went into remission."

"I think you're right." Skinner nodded, wishing he was better at regular conversation. He shook his head, recounting the day. "God, that was a hell of an emotional week."

Slowly, as people getting to know each other often do, Maggie Scully and Walter Skinner began discussing deeper topics, specifically, past spouses and other family relationships.

...Skinner shook his head introspectively. "Sharon and I were happy once. But, I was too stubborn and too stupid to open up to her during the hard times and she divorced my ass. I deserved it."

Maggie shrugged her shoulders, "Being married is hard. Dana's father and I were married for 32 years. Most of them were good, of course he was usually gone to sea most of the year, but there were hard times. Nothing like since he's been gone though..."

Maggie laughed once, considering everything that she had faced alone in the last several years. "Sometimes, I feel like he checked out on me right before life got really weird."

Skinner nodded, "Being single isn't any walk in the park either I have found." Maggie found herself once again agreeing with him. "I have been on exactly three dates since I lost my husband. Each time I spent half the night talking about Captain Bill Scully, Sr. Needless to say, I never had any second dates, not that I really wanted them. Maybe you are only allowed one true love in your life. I was blessed to have mine for as long as I did."

"But," Skinner tried to lighten the mood a bit, "you have your children, your boys and Dana." He bit his tounge once the words were out of his mouth, leaving the unspoken name of Maggie's deceased daughter Melissa to hang heavily between them.

Maggie shook her head. "My children have their own lives now. Dana has her work and Fox, Bill and Tara are reliving my and Bill's early Navy life with small children. And Charlie...For Charlie, I am just a place to stop off for a hot meal and someone to do his laundry in between epic trips for his next travel book or journal article. It's what Bill and I always wanted for them, to be independent, but it does leave me alone most of the time."

Maggie, suddenly realizing she was being maudlin, shook her head, "Walter, I am sorry. I didn't mean to be so depressing."

Skinner, for his part couldn't remember the last time he'd had an honest conversation with someone, where he had opened up to them, and they to him, and answered her apology with a small smile, "It's nice to have someone to talk to every once in a whole."

Maggie returned his smile with a small but sincere one of her own, "Yes, yes it is." Maggie's cell phone rang suddenly, startling them both.

They laughed nervously as the nurse on the phone told Maggie that Dana was back in her room and ready to be seen.

Mulder reappeared at the same time, so after a few pleasantries, the Assistant Director said goodbye to his agent's mother. To the passing eye, the exchange may have seemed commonplace, but both Maggie Scully and Walter Skinner left the exchange slightly intrigued by the other and not really understanding why.

Skinner caught himself whistling on the way back to his car. *Not such a bad day after all.*