Title: What He Knew
Author: Gillian Leigh
Summary: What if Skinner had been abducted instead of Mulder? What would it mean for the X-Files and for Mulder and Scully themselves? Why would he have been abducted in the first place? Post-Requiem.
Disclaimer: They're not mine. If they were, would I be writing this?!
Author's Notes: The chapters will be a long time coming with this one. I have many ideas, but I'm having a hard time getting them down on paper and balancing my hectic end-of-the-year school schedule.
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Dana Scully's Apartment
Dana Scully was having a very hard time believing what she was hearing. She shook her head as though to clear it, and then looked Mulder in the eyes and said,
"Wait, so you're sure Skinner was abducted?" Mulder closed his eyes and sighed.
"Yes. I've been telling you that for ten minutes," he said, with aggravation in his tone. Scully glared at him.
"Don't take that tone with me, Mulder. I'm just trying to get some clarification here," she snapped. He was instantly apologetic.
"Sorry. I just... I went through a lot in Oregon. That case stirred up memories to begin with, and now this whole ordeal with Skinner going missing. I don't know what will become of the X-Files, or if Skinner will even be returned alive…" Scully nodded.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," she said. "My emotions have been a little wacky lately." Mulder bowed his head. He looked utterly defeated.
"This is all my fault. If only I hadn't turned my back on him…" She reached out and touched his hand.
"Mulder, look at me." After a moment's hesitation, his eyes met hers. "There was nothing you could've done to prevent this. You didn't know they would go after Skinner. All of our evidence pointed to former abductees being taken. You couldn't have known they would take Skinner..." She closed her eyes as a wave of nausea flooded over her, attempting to make it go away. She hated that they called it morning sickness when it came at any time of the day. Unable to wait for it to pass, she muttered,
"Excuse me, Mulder," before bolting into the bathroom and throwing up what little food she had managed to keep down during the day. By the time she had dragged herself to a standing position and was wiping her face and cheeks with a damp cloth, she caught Mulder's reflection in the mirror as he stood behind her in the doorway to her bathroom, looking concerned and frightened. She cringed mentally; it looked like she had to tell him.
"We need to talk," she said, guiding him back to the living room. They both sank down onto the couch, and Scully took his hand in hers.
"What's going on, Scully?" Sighing, she said,
"I've been trying to find a way to tell you this...but I guess I'll just have to come right out and say it." There was a pause as Mulder's eyes locked with hers. With a level, even voice, Scully calmly said, "Mulder, I'm pregnant." She swore his jaw nearly hit the floor.
"Oh my God, Scully. That's amazing!" he exclaimed. She paused again, knowing she needed to assure him, though there shouldn't be any doubt.
"You're the father," she said quickly. Scully had never seen him react to anything like this before. She'd never seen him so happy.
"So it was that night?" he asked. She nodded, and her gaze dropped to the floor. "Scully?" he said.
"Yes?" she said, looking up. Before she had time to react, Mulder was kissing her. That was their first romantic contact since the night the baby was conceived. They got scared, after that. They were afraid of the changes it would bring, and Scully had feared what it would do to their relationship. She knew Mulder feared it too. Their fears disappeared, and they melted into one another.
"I've never made love to a pregnant woman," Mulder mumbled in her ear as she removed his belt. She smiled and kissed him again before replying,
"Looks like it's your lucky day." He smiled. Indeed it was.
GeorgetownCentralSquarePark
Mulder sat on a bench in the park, watching all the other joggers. He'd left at just after five to begin his daily jog, and had decided that he would take a break. As he relaxed, he smiled at the sight of a couple jogging as the husband pushed a jogging stroller with a young child inside. That could be him and Scully one day.
"I thought I'd never find you." He looked up to see Scully jogging toward him. She smiled and slowed to a walk a few yards from him.
"Shouldn't you be taking it easy? Is running safe for you and the baby?"
"I'm fine, Mulder. I talked to my doctor, and she recommends moderate exercise; she says that jogging is a good idea, and perfectly safe for me and the baby," Scully said. "Right now, you're the one I'm worried about. I know you feel responsible for what happened to Skinner, and I can only imagine how much you're beating yourself up over this." She seated herself beside him. He sighed.
"I do blame myself, but what's bothering me the most is why he would've been taken. Why Skinner? Why not me? You told me about the anomalous brain activity that was the common link between the abductees, but Skinner had never experienced that, and he wasn't an abductee. You and I fit those two criteria, but not him," Mulder said, looking at her. "I can't understand why they would take him."
Scully sighed. "I know, Mulder. I don't understand it either, but we will find him. And we'll find out why this happened to him. We can't give up." She took his hand in hers and rubbed her thumb over his knuckles.
"What's going to happen to us at work, Scully? What's going to happen to the X-Files with Skinner gone? Kersh will be in charge, and who knows what kind of hell that could create?"
"Let's not talk about this here," she whispered, rising to her feet. "We'll go back to my place and order in. I've been having a craving for pizza these last two days." Mulder smiled at her and rose off the bench. The pair walked out of the park in the direction from which they came.
J. EdgarHooverFBIBuilding
As Mulder and Scully walked side by side toward Deputy Director Kersh's office they passed Skinner's office. Mulder felt physically ill as he watched the man uniformed in custodial garb removed the name plate from the door. He stopped walking and watched for a moment, and Scully put her hand on his shoulder.
"C'mon, Mulder," she said quietly.
"Are you going to tell Kersh that you're--" Mulder began, but Scully cut him off.
"No. He can't know. At least not for now... he'll put me behind a desk and we can't find Skinner if I'm stuck behind a desk," she replied in a whisper. They came to Kersh's door, and Mulder pulled it open.
"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully, please have a seat. Deputy Director Kersh will be with you in a moment," Kersh's perky secretary Elise said.
"Thank you," Mulder responded for the both of them, and they sank into chairs as they waited for the Deputy Director. Scully closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose, wishing that the Director had scheduled the meeting for any other time but mid-morning. That was when her morning sickness was at its worst.
"You okay?" Mulder asked. She opened her eyes and looked at him.
"I'm fine," she replied, feeling more nauseas as she said it. The fact that she was nervous about this meeting with Kersh didn't help settle her stomach either. She grimaced; all she needed was to have to run from the room in the middle of their meeting and throw up. It would prompt a line of questioning she was not ready to deal with yet.
"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully." The pair looked up to find Kersh standing before them. They rose to their feet. "Please come into my office," Kersh continued.
Following Kersh into his office, Scully tried to ignore the fact that she was lightheaded and that Mulder was watching her worriedly. Once inside, Kersh motioned for them to seat themselves in the chairs in front of his desk, and Mulder pulled out Scully's chair for her. She mumbled her thanks and sat down. Mulder seated himself, and then the pair turned their attention to the Director.
"I'm assuming that you know that this meeting is in regards to Assistant Director Skinner's disappearance from Bellefleur, Oregon," he began, and both agents nodded.
"Yes, Sir," Mulder responded for both of them. He glanced at Scully out of the corner of his eye, who was growing paler by the minute as she desperately tried to suppress the urge to run from the room and vomit.
"Are you alright, Agent Scully?" Kersh asked, eyeing her warily.
She swallowed, and said, "I'm afraid I don't feel very well, Sir. Will you excuse me for a minute? I need a drink of water or something..." Kersh had barely nodded affirmatively before she was out of her chair and darting out of the office.
Both men watched her go.
"Is she going to be alright?" Kersh asked of Mulder, who responded with a lie he'd already used on Maggie Scully and the Gunmen.
"She's just got a touch of the flu..."
She returned moments later, looking better than she had.
"Are you going to be able to continue with this meeting, Agent Scully?" Kersh questioned pointedly. She squirmed mentally under his gaze.
"Yes Sir, I'll be fine," she replied, sinking into her chair again.
"You two were the last two people to see the Assistant Director before his disappearance from Oregon, and we're going to need your cooperation in the search for him," Kersh continued, looking at the two of them.
"You seem to be regarding us as suspects, Sir," Mulder said. Fortunately for him, Kersh missed the insinuating tone he used.
"There's an agent in charge who is going to require your cooperation to maximize the chances of finding A.D. Skinner safe and well," he continued, ignoring Mulder. "This Agent's name is John Doggett, and he's my task force leader. I've told him to expect the two of you this morning. And if you say anything in your statements about alien abductions or anything of the like, you'll both find yourselves looking for new jobs. You're dismissed."
Mulder and Scully rose out of their chairs and left Kersh's office, not saying a word to one another until they were in the elevator.
"He thinks we were involved in Skinner's disappearance," Mulder said, sighing and letting his head fall back against the elevator wall.
"Well, whatever he thinks, he's not going to find Skinner going by any conventional means. They're not going to find him by combing the woods or dragging rivers," Scully returned.
"You know that, and I know that, but there isn't another soul in the whole goddamn FBI who's going to believe us," he added as the elevator came to a stop.
The pair walked side-by-side toward the bullpen, where the investigation was being conducted from. Mulder opened the door for Scully, and they entered the room, and stopped just inside the door, unsure of where to go from there.
Agent Sanger approached them, and said, "Agent Scully, we'd like you to come on back and speak to Agent Krane. Agent Mulder, you can wait on the wall." Scully followed Sanger back and sat down at a desk, and Mulder sank into a chair against the wall.
A male agent was seated two chairs away from Mulder, and glanced over at him.
"You must be Agent Mulder," he said. Mulder regarded him skeptically.
"Yes, I am," he replied. "And you are?"
"John Doggett," the man returned, extending his hand. Mulder offered his hand to Doggett and said,
"Ah, Kersh's Task Force Leader." Doggett nodded.
"Yup, that'd be me," he said. The two were silent for a moment, and then Doggett continued. "So you and Agent Scully have been partners for a while, right?" Mulder knew it was in his best interest to proceed with caution where this Doggett-character was concerned.
"Yes. We've been partners for right years now."
"And you'd say that you know her pretty well?" Doggett continued. Mulder was getting aggravated.
"As well as I should after working with her for as long as I have," he replied shortly. Doggett leaned in closer and lowered his voice.
"Do you think she could've been involved in the Assistant Director's disappearance?" Mulder's eyebrows went up, and he felt the anger welling up inside of him.
"No, I don't, and I don't appreciate your insinuation that she was," he said loudly, and Scully looked up, locking eyes with him.
"Calm down, Agent Mulder, I'm just trying to find the Assistant Director, same as you are," Doggett responded. "Please sit down." Mulder sat back down and looked up to see Scully still watching him worriedly. After a moment she turned her attention back to Agent Krane. Mulder then looked at Doggett.
"Well we're not going to find him sitting in this damn office," he said, rising up off the chair.
Sitting opposite Agent Krane, Scully watched Mulder leave, and flinched when the door slammed behind him. Agent Krane got up and ordered two agents to go after Mulder.
Sighing, Scully cradled her head in her hands and said only, "Mulder..."
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Additional Author's Notes: Um, so yeah, I've noticed that approximately 99.7% of my stories have pregnancies, babies and/or proposals and weddings in them... But this one isn't going to be all mushy, I promise.
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