I Feel Betrayed

Part 2

by Trycee

Timeline: Season 8 between episodes after Dead Alive, starting from Three Words and ending before Vienen when Mulder makes a simple statement of acknowledgement of the baby.

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Files, it is owned by Chris Carter. This is written for fun not profit.

I was so tempted to ask Skinner who the father of Scully's baby was but I thought that would be too personal to ask him and so I kept my mouth shut. He looked at me several times out of the corner of his eyes but we both said nothing. After he parked in the Hoover Parking structure, Scully joined us but she wouldn't look at me. Her head was cast down slightly and she stood closer to Skinner as they both looked at me, knowing where I would head...down to the X-Files though I guess I should report to my new A.D and my desk but Skinner and Scully had a meeting to attend at the FBI Task Force Briefing Room and so I was left to my own devices. Scully gave me a look that conveyed, No Mischief Mulder...but right now, it mattered very little what she wanted from me. I took the stairs and was surprised to find the office door closed and so I opened it with my key and walked in. It looked nearly the same but there were a few changes. My name plate is still on the desk but its been pushed aside just as I have been. I expected Agent Doggett to stroll in at any moment and I wasn't exactly sure if my emotions wouldn't take over when I did see him. I searched through my desk and found one of my old cell phones in my desk and so I turned it on and noticed a few recent phone calls from Scully. I tried to dial out but this must have been one of my busted cell phones. It did let me text though, I was grateful at least for that. I sent a text telling her to message me when they were done and then I went about looking through the files to see what occurred in the last few months since my disappearance and subsequent death six months before.

Out of all the years I've had this office, I never felt more alone in here searching through files as I did now. Even with Scully's abduction, I still clung to the hope that I would one day find her, but now I knew she belonged to someone else and that hurt me more than words could say. I swallowed hard and tried to focus on the files...but it didn't feel like the office belonged to me any more. I might as well be a ghost because I felt a connection to the space but someone else was now occupying it. I pushed that thought out of my head as well...Focus, Mulder...Focus...But Scully and Skinner's meeting lasted a lot longer than I expected and so I text her, "Where is everybody? Come on Down. Mulder."

As far as I'm concerned this is still my office, my life's work, whether Kersh wants to pull me off of it and send me to some desk like a Jerry-new agent or not. I pulled out the photo of Samantha and put it on my desk and put my feet up, making myself comfortable. I searched the photo of the abductees I'd been found dead amongst when Scully and Skinner walk into the office. I put on my best fake smile.

"Hey," I say as they walk in.

"Mulder...," Scully said with a tone.

"Who says you can't go home again? "

"What are you doing here?"

"What's it look like?", I say harshly. What, am I not welcomed in my own office anymore?

"It looks like you want to give them real ammunition to use on you, that's what it looks like."

I lean back in my chair and try to sound light hearted. "Hey, I am just down here visiting my buds."

I then focus on Scully. "Where is this Agent Doggett anyway? What kind of hours does he keep?"

Scully looks firmly at me. "Please, you do not want to stir that up right now."

I'm very curious now. "Why?"

" Because we have a manhunt in progress and I want Agent Doggett running it."

I pick up the photo in my hand and let it sway in my hand a little. "Anything to do with this? This Absalom abductee class picture?"

"Yes... It does. Why?", Scully asks, scanning the photo.

" Because I noticed that the man who was shot on the White House lawn is one of the men in that photograph. Top right hand corner. In profile. Howard Salt, if I'm not mistaken."

"He's right," she said, turning to Skinner. "You're right," she said slightly annoyed.

"Consider that a freebie. The next one's going to cost you.," I say looking at Skinner.

They're both standing very close., a little too close for my comfort, I think.

"Why? What else do you know?", Skinner asks me. I shrug my shoulders. "Oh, I don't know anything. But you know me, I got a real big hunch. This Howard Salt was a multiple alien abductee, worked for the U.S. Census Bureau. Wanted to get word to the President, unspecified grievances. What do you want to bet those grievances were?"

"You think he knew something?", Scully asks.

"I think they killed him for it," I answer.

Skinner seemed annoyed as well. "The man jumped the White House fence. He had a gun."

"Once again, I'm a betting man. I'm betting he had more than that," I say as I lean back into my chair and swivel it slightly.

"Mulder, you make it sound like this was a conspiracy.

I turn to focus on her. "Ooh. There's that word again."

"You're being paranoid, Mulder. Even for you."

I focus completely on Scully and if we were ever connected psychically like we were she should know I'm speaking directly to her. "Do you want to hear something really paranoid? The FBI gets its way, there's going to be nobody down here to ask the paranoid questions. Nobody to find those faces in those photographs. Surely not this Agent Doggett." She looks stunned as I round the desk and walk out the office, I don't have time for this.

Everyone knows I have a temper...Skinner knows it, my parents knew but Scully... Scully was the one that knew me the most even before we became lovers she knew my moods, she knew to just wait things out with me. I rarely directed my anger towards her but it was bubbling out like a volcanic eruption right now and I needed to calm myself down before I exploded on her.

I am surprised though that she's following me into the Evidence Room. What do you want, Scully? I want to say, What, are you scared I'll get in trouble? No one's even here...it's nearly 10 at night...I've done this countless times without you!

She doesn't say anything as she follows me. I walk slowly for her to catch up to me though I'm still in the lead. I expect to her a lecture and I'm not disappointed. She stood at the doorway, glancing back into the hall as I made my way through the room.

"Mulder, I know you know this, but if anything leaves this room you could be in violation of the law," she says.

"Really? When I was dead I was hoping maybe they changed the rules."

"Mulder, just being here could be used by Kersh as cause for dismissal."

I turn to look at her still standing in the doorway. "Then why don't you shut the door so he doesn't find out."

Scully glances again at the hallway and then closes the door. I find what I'm looking for and use a knife to start cutting the plastic off of a stack of boxes. Scully decides to walk over to me. "I just don't know what you're hoping to find in Howard Salt's personal effects."

"Neither do I, really. But maybe it's like Howard Salt's picture. I'll know it when I see it," I say as I open the box. This is probably the first time she's stood so close to me since the hospital.

"So you'll risk the consequences even though there may be nothing here?" I glance at her but I don't stop rummaging through the box. "You don't get it, do you, Scully? The man shot at the White House, the prison escapee, there's something bubbling to the surface here. I want to know what it is."

"Mulder, you've been through an ordeal that defies all logical explanation. How can you think that these two men have the answers when they defy all standard of credibility?" I concentrate on the files and then notice a laptop, I pull it out and open it up but I turn to look down at her, my face stern.

"Since when has an X-File not defied a certain standard of credibility? At least that's the way it used to work." I stare at her for a few minutes and she looks wounded. But I continue. "Look, Scully, I need to make sense of what happened to me. So that I can stop it. Because if I can't stop it, it could happen to anyone. It could happen to you. And who's to say it's going to stop there?"

"Mulder, if you go down the X-Files will go down, too. I mean, theoretically, they could put you in prison for what you're doing here."

I shrug it all off. "Yeah, well, compared to where I just was, prison would be a Princess cruise."

Scully sighs and then turns to walk over to the door. But I see something on the laptop. "Ho. Hey. What the hell is this?"

Scully stops in her tracks, obviously she was debating whether to stay or leave. "The entire hard drive is taken up with this. Ten gigabytes of memory." She turned and walked back over to me to look at the hard drive.

"It's been encrypted," she notices.

"Mm," I say as I flip it over and remove the hard drive. I've got a plan.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm going to book myself on that Princess cruise."

"I'll book it for you," she says snatching the hard drive from me. I smile slightly because that part hadn't changed, she was still on my side. I cover up the box and follow her out of the room.

It's late and I follow her to the X-Files office. I hadn't eaten all day and I'm surprised to find that she had ordered a sandwich for me and placed it along with a bottle of ice tea in the little fridge we keep. She hands it to me along with something for herself, I guess the baby is hungry and she eats at the desk while I sit uncomfortably in where she used to sit, at least, when we were still partners. We don't speak, I know she can't leave and I don't have a ride as of yet so I'm sticking around, plus she has the hard drive so I need to be patient. An hour turns into two and she's asleep on the desk and I'm watching her.

The phone rings and she sits up and answers, "Scully! Yes sir, he's still here...Okay...", she says and then hangs up. "Skinner wants to see you..."

"You think he knows?", I ask her.

"I don't know...", she says standing up and heading for the bathroom. "I'll know where you want to take this," she said, touching the hard-drive in her coat jacket. "When you're done with Skinner, I'll take you home. Your car should be parked there for you by then. I'll have the Gunmen meet me at my apartment in the morning..."

Under normal circumstances I'd tell her no, you're too tired, I'll make sure your home first...but instead I just watched as she waited for me to say something more and then she turned and walked out, heading for the ladies room. I got up, leaving my suit jacket on the chair and went up to Skinner's office.

"Sir," I say as I enter his office. I see an older but attractive guy, he's definitely Scully's type, he's a little roughed up.

"Agent Mulder," Skinner began but I cut him off.

"Is this John Doggett?", I say approaching him. "You Agent Doggett?"

He has a big wide fucking smile on his face outstretching his hand like we're friends. We're not friends you son-of-a-bitch! I push him down back into his seat. He looks shocked.

"I hope you're not commending him as a hero for what he did!", I yell.

"Agent Mulder, back off," Skinner says as he grabs me and pushes me away from him but I'm fuming.

"In this thing, 'cause he's not," I continue.

"Back off! I'm not about to referee a boxing match.", Skinner places his shoulder in front of me as if he were a barrier between us.

The son-of-a-bitch looks like a deer caught in a headlights. What, you think I wouldn't be pissed that you stole the love of my life and then took the X-Files from me?

"Just what's the problem here?", he wants to know.

"The problem?"... I want to ram my fist down your throat, I think to myself. "You occupy an office that used to be devoted to finding the truth and now you're busy burying it. That's the problem!", I explode.

"Whoa, you must've got your wires crossed somewhere, Agent Mulder."

"You got that man killed!", I scream.

"I got him killed?", he questions me in a thick New York accent.

"Because of what he knew. What he was going to expose!", I continue to yell.

"You see this, Agent Mulder?," he says, pointing to the wound on his cheek.

"I see you sitting there, Agent Doggett! That's good enough for me!", I said pointing at him.

I give one last look to Skinner and then turn to walk out the door. I made my way back down to the X-Files and snatch up my suit jacket and Scully rises up from beyond the desk. "What happened?", she questions me.

"Nothing," I tell her. "Let's go..."

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