Gossamer | Story: "Generations 23: Too Close for Comfort (1/2)" by Evenstar, Eowyn & MacspookyThe Gossamer Project Author - Title - Date - Spoilers - Crossovers - X-Files - Adventures - Stories - Vignettes Other stories by: Macspooky - Evenstar, Eowyn From: eowyn7@ix.netcom.com(Gail Moore) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Generations: Too Close For Comfort by Macspooky and Eowyn 1/11 Date: 1 Mar 1996 13:49:30 GMT We're back.... This all started because Mac and I each had a story idea for the time leading up to the birth of Meg and Walter's child. So we each wrote our story and then merged them together, rewrote the whole thing and we like what we came up with. Hope you will too. Lots of angst lots of comedy. (Now do I ever write anything without some comedy?) There are two other stories in mind for this time frame but heaven knows if we will ever get them written 'cause we have a couple of great ideas as for what to do for sequels to this one. This is the last part of what I call my trilogy. It started with Nothing But Trouble and Baby Trouble followed it and now Too Close For Comfort submitted for your reading pleasure. Rated R for that word. Not too many third season spoilers--mostly just hints--like I said in the last story if you've been reading much off the newsgroup they shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Romance--of course it's me--isn't it? No real case just life. E-mail me at 72620.3447@compuserve.com or Eowyn7@ix.netcom.com Eowyn CC: macspooky@erols.com if you get a chance. Disclaimer stuff. I don't own Mulder, Scully, Skinner or Meg. I'm just borrowing them to play. Chris Carter is the person who I borrowed them from and I promise to give them back when I'm done, only slightly dented. The other characters you find in this story don't belong to me either. They belong to Macspooky and her most excellent Generation series and are used with her full permission. This is not part of my Fusion series. Please feel free to circulate this or any of my other stories around with only two conditions. One: keep my name and address attached and two: if you want to put it in a zine or something like that let me know because I want a copy. Deal? Okay. On with the show... Completed Feb. 4, 1996 "Too Close For Comfort" By Macspooky and Eowyn Chapter 1 It had been a long and difficult day, and Walter was glad to be lying in bed with his wife, finally having the time to talk to her. He pulled her close, not to make love, but just to feel her presence against his body and rubbed her bulging "tummy" idly. He was still worried about this pregnancy, worried about the baby, worried about her, but everything seemed to be going all right physically. He knew that she had something on her mind though. It was subtle, but he had come to recognize the look she always wore when she was worried about one of her children. She had been pensive all night. "What's wrong, Meg?" he asked her finally. "Nothing, Walt," she replied. There was no way that she could bring up what was really bothering her. It wouldn't be fair. Her family relationships were unbelievably complicated since she had gotten married again, not that she was sorry she had done so. "Now don't tell me that... one of the kids is on your mind. Worried about Melissa?" "No. She'll do fine." Melissa was due any moment and really gung ho on natural childbirth. The very thought made Meg chuckle. Lis was in for the surprise of her life. "Okay, well everything is fine with Bill and Chris and Kevin, so that only leaves one... Dana... now what is it, love?" he asked. "I can't really talk about it with you, Walt. It wouldn't be fair. I mean... I have to keep your job separate...." He suspected he knew what was coming. Meg had a very strong sense of ethics, and would never interfere in his job, but her pregnant daughter was also one of his agents working in a very dangerous position, more so than even Meg knew. "No, Meg, you can't interfere with my job, but you can talk to me about it. I can't always tell you everything either, but that doesn't mean we can't try to communicate." She sighed. "Okay, it's Dana. You know how she is....stubborn as a mule. From the day she could walk, she always wanted to keep up with the big boys. She never let the fact that she was a girl stop her from doing anything. I'm not saying she wasn't all female, but nothing angered her more than being told that girls couldn't do something..." "I believe it." "I worry about her. She'll go chasing all over with Fox until the day she delivers and won't think twice about it. The fact that she is pregnant isn't going to stop Dana Scully from doing anything. She'll have to keep up with the boys, never mind that she is getting big and awkward. I've tried to discuss it with her, but she changes the subject very quickly." Skinner didn't say anything for a long time. He was well aware of Scully's stubborn nature. He had never told his wife about the time she had pulled her gun on him and wouldn't back off. There was no doubt in his mind that she would have pulled the trigger. Mulder had rescued him that time. Scully had held her own with the ole boys network, and had done it while working with Spooky Mulder, a feat in itself. And she had managed to be respected as well. She was a 5' 2" dynamo, and Margaret was right. Nothing would stop her from following Fox Mulder to hell if need be, except possibly the birth process itself. He had known that this was coming and that he was going to have to do something about it and soon. The truth was that she simply couldn't go out in the field anymore. She was getting too unwieldy and it was simply too dangerous. "You don't have to ask, sweetheart," he sighed. "In fact, I know you never would. It's time for Scully's boss to brace himself and chain her to an autopsy bay for the duration. I've put it off for far too long. I'll call her in and talk to her tomorrow." "Thank you, Walt. I don't envy you the task. I love you, you know." "I know. I love you too. Now, if I could just figure out how I ended up with Mulder for a son-in-law..." They both chuckled. He did not tell Meg that he was being pushed to assign Mulder a new partner, a very attractive partner by the name of Heather Schmidt who believed in the paranormal and was eager to work with Spooky Mulder. The pressure was coming from somewhere in the White House. He hadn't quite been able to track down it's source yet, but he might be forced to bow to it, at least temporarily. Her credentials were impeccable, but he knew it wasn't going to go over well with his stepdaughter, and he was going to be in the middle of it one way or another. Walter Skinner put on his most professional face when Dr. Dana Scully entered his office the next morning. "You wanted to see me, Sir?" she asked formally. She suspected that she knew what was coming and hadn't quite decided how to handle it. "Yes. Please have a seat," he told her. He put his signature on a report and set down the pen. She looked well. Dana was one of those women that actually glowed from pregnancy. She hadn't gained a lot of weight, but she was big, not surprising for a woman of her small stature. He knew she would have found it easier to stand than to get up out of the chair. That was why he had insisted that she sit. He hoped it would help him make his point. "I have a new assignment for you, Agent Scully," he informed her. "From now until the time of your maternity leave, you will be in charge of overseeing all autopsies." "But Sir....." she started. "No arguments, Agent Scully. You are the best forensic pathologist we have. Dr. Bates is currently out on her maternity leave, and Dr. Sims is still in the hospital recovering from his gallbladder surgery. You are needed here, and here is where you will serve. That is all. You may go." Dana got to her feet and looked at her boss. "But I can still do field work, Sir," she protested. "I... what about my partner?" "I have a meeting with your partner this afternoon. I said, dismissed...." "But..." "Would you like a reprimand for insubordination? I can arrange it." Skinner glared at her daring her to say another word. "Make my day, Agent Scully. Go ahead." "No, Sir... that won't be necessary, Sir," she replied and left the office. Skinner looked after his daughter, for that was how he was coming to think of her. That had gone too smoothly. She hadn't protested enough. Hmm..... why was he waiting for a shoe, or the other shoe, or whatever, to fall? Scully slammed into his office to find Agent Schmidt bent over the file cabinet. The younger woman didn't seem to appreciate her entrance, but then she seemed to spend a lot of time hanging around when she didn't expect Dana to arrive. "Excuse me, Agent Schmidt," said Dana, "but I need to talk to my partner." "That's alright. I won't disturb you." "I need to talk to my partner in private... please..." she replied keeping a careful lid on her temper. Giving her a scathing look, Agent Schmidt left them alone. Quickly, Dana let down her hair, moaning and cursing... insisting that she was still capable of doing field work... how she didn't want to be chained to the office... how she wanted to be with her partner. She didn't mention how difficult it was becoming to get out of the chair in Skinner's office, damn the man anyway for making her sit and making it so obvious. He only thought he had been subtle. Mulder sat silently and let her rant until she had calmed herself down... more or less. "It's about time," he said finally in a gentle tone. "About time for what?" she demanded. "About time Skinner used a bit of common sense and put you on office duty. Look at you." "What's wrong with the way I look?" she demanded. "I'm pregnant. I'm not sick. I can shoot as well as I ever could... I..." "Enough," he told her holding up his hand. "You look beautiful. You look pregnant. You are carrying around a baby who faintly resembles a basketball, my basketball. It is too dangerous for you in the field right now..." "But who is going to look after you?" she asked. "I'm a big boy. I'll just have to look after myself. I'll miss you, but it is only temporary." "Did you ask Skinner to do this?" she demanded. She was still angry. "Never said a word," he replied. He didn't add that he had intended to by the end of the week if Skinner hadn't taken the initiative. "Great... that's just great...." She started to rant again. Fox got to his feet and walked over to her. "It's alright, sweetheart," he whispered. "I know you are angry and upset, but I will be able to function far more efficiently if I don't have to worry about the baby... okay. It's only for a short time." Dana nodded and gave in. There was a part of her that knew they were right, but that didn't mean she had to like it. The bottom line was that she didn't trust anyone else to watch Fox Mulder's back. She wouldn't protest too loudly, but she was going to keep her eyes and ears open for sure. As much as she liked Walter Skinner, he wasn't invincible. Someone could be trying to pull the wool over his eyes too, and at this point in time, she had no wish to be a single parent. Mulder watched her leave. She hadn't ranted and raved quite enough. His wife had given in far too easily... hmmm... Mulder stood before his boss. "But, Sir, I don't want another partner.... I don't need another partner..." Jeez, Dana was going to be pissed. She had this jealous streak... "What you want and what you think you need are irrelevant, Agent Mulder. I am assigning Schmidt to work with you. She is open to your ideas, and she even has more field experience than Scully did when she was assigned..." "That was different...." "Right... she was sent to spy on you. Schmidt is going to work with you. Her credentials are impeccable. It's only temporary, and the match makes sense. You have your orders." Skinner didn't add that he was glad he wasn't the one that was going to have to inform Scully that Mulder had an absolutely gorgeous new partner. Thank God, some problems were not his. He suspected that Scully had a jealous streak..... "But...." "You are dismissed, Agent Mulder. Good day..." Walter Skinner returned to his reports. "But..." "Agent Mulder, would you like some sort of a reprimand? I can arrange it you know." "Quite frankly, Sir, I don't give a damn..." he replied. He didn't want a damn partner. "Fine... consider yourself on loan to VC for next 6 weeks. You and Tom Colton should get along famously. You'll be working on the same case. Now get the hell out of here before I have you dragged out and get the hell back to work. You can report immediately to VC and inform them about your new partner." Skinner sighed as Mulder left and reached into his desk. Damn Mulder anyway. Now he was going to have to fill out yet more forms. Was that man ever going to learn when to keep his mouth shut? Boy, had he ever been lucky he had been born in a time of no draft. If the army had ever gotten hold of Fox Mulder, he probably would have ended up spending the rest of his life in the stockade for disobeying orders. No discipline. That's what it was. Why couldn't Mulder have just left quietly? Then he could have just made a brief note that Mulder had protested the partner and left it at that. He was sick of being accused of playing favorites. Fox knew it was happening, so why did he insist on putting him in a position where he had to discipline him? Well, if he had gone quietly, he wouldn't have been Mulder. His rogue agent could still manage to be a royal pain in the ass. How come he hadn't gone to work for the DEA or ATF or something? Skinner reached into his drawer and chewed on a couple of aspirin. End Chapter 1 =========================================================================== From: eowyn7@ix.netcom.com(Gail Moore) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Generations: Too Close For Comfort by Macspooky and Eowyn 2/11 Date: 1 Mar 1996 13:56:36 GMT Chapter 2 Dana Scully sat uncomfortably in the coach seat of the airplane on the way back from Arizona. Her husband sat on the opposite end of the plane with his partner, her shoulder heavily bandaged and still under mild sedation. She knew she was going to have trouble to deal with when she got home, lot's of it... but she was also confident that she would be able to calm him down and get him to see her point of view once they had arrived back at the house. She had been furious when she had found out that Skinner had assigned Heather Schmidt to be Mulder's partner. Part of it, she knew, had been jealousy, but another part of it had been that she had been suspicious of the young agent's record. Her credentials were impeccable. She had graduated at the top of her class from the University of California and the academy at Quantico. She held a degree in psychology. Still, she had been an agent for less than two years and Washington DC had been her third assignment. There was a Presidential Advisor, an uncle, pulling for her from the top. Dana had smelled a rat. She and Fox had been sent to a wooded campground outside a small town in Arizona. There was a serial killer on the loose. He went after campers, always physically beautiful young married couples camping in desolate areas. He apparently disabled the man and made him watch while raping and murdering the wife in heinous fashion, and then killed the man as well. One had lived long enough to give a vague description. An undercover couple had been set up with plenty of backup. They had been found dead the following morning. At a loss, the local sheriff's office had finally called in the FBI. Fox had done the profile and then he and Heather had been assigned to the case. If Fox had just kept his mouth shut in Skinner's office so that Skinner hadn't loaned him to VC.... Dana had begged Fox to let her come, just to be there in the background, but he had refused. He had taken her wedding ring for Heather to wear and they had headed out to Arizona as man and wife. He and Heather would be the next bait. Dana had tried to talk to Skinner to no avail, so she had hunted through records, called supervisors, gone to personnel, and finally called upon an old friend in the field office where Heather had last been assigned. He had immediately become uncomfortable, but several hours later, Dana had received an e-mail from an office supply store that couldn't be traced to an individual. According to Heather's records, she had received a commendation for bravery on her last case out of that office. In reality, her old friend had explained anonymously, it had always been rumored that it hadn't happened that way, that she had in fact frozen. There would be no proof or no way to check it out. Her former partner had never betrayed her exactly, but in any case had been killed in a car accident shortly after Heather had been reassigned to the DC office. Dana had literally stormed Skinner's office. It wasn't a lot to go on, but it was a start. Skinner had contacted the field office immediately and had been told that Schmidt and Mulder were already in their persona and out at the isolated camp ground. He had ordered them to send extra backup and had Angela make travel arrangements. He had told Scully that she could take leave and come along, with the understanding that she would remain at the hotel and let him handle it. He had thought she would be easier to control that way. Then, just as he had been ready to leave, he had been called to a meeting at the White House. He placed another call to the field office and told Dana to arrange for a later flight. She had... for him. She had taken her ticket and gone. What had happened had been a nightmare, something Dana wouldn't soon forget. She had found Fox and Heather alright, but hadn't approached them. There didn't seem to be anyone else in the area. She had hidden herself carefully in some bushes within sight of them, but she had dozed off. She had very nearly missed what she had come for. Suddenly she had heard a moan... Fox's moan... It was low and pained. She sat up and crawled forward on her side, her belly suddenly in her way. In the dim light of dawn, there lay her husband tied and gagged. The killer was over Heather, her clothing ripped but her gun within reach. She made no move to go for it. She was frozen in terror, unable to move.... unable to scream.... Dana thought she saw blood on her shoulder. "I'll stab you in other places... bitch..." "Federal Agent.... stop or I'll shoot..." Dana had screamed pulling her weapon. It had been awkward to get to her feet... awkward and slow. The perp had grabbed the gun but had miraculously charged her with a long machete like knife instead of shooting. He was like lightening, the sharp blade aiming directly for her distended belly, a wild creature that seemed barely human in his speed and cunning. Dana fired and fired again. She pumped four rounds into him before he fell, so close the knife had very nearly penetrated her. Fox had watched it all bound and helpless. Then, and only then had the sheriff's men appeared, two young green deputies who had been on the force less than six months. The FBI was no where to be seen. Dana had very calmly stepped over the body of the perp, released her husband and went to check on Heather who had a nasty stab wound to the shoulder. Skinner had arrived with backup and an ambulance. Fox had not spoken a word to either one of them since. He had dictated his report and left it with Skinner who had stayed behind to deal with why the backup had been called. Mulder had gone with Heather to the hospital. Dana realized now that she should have tried harder to find backup. It had been stupid to go without it. She had allowed her paranoia to mar her judgement and her stubborn independent streak to keep her from asking for help. Skinner had traced the cancellation of backup to DC and then the trail vanished, but she still would have been able to get someone in the Phoenix office to help. Dana had come to realize that as long as she was pregnant, she was going to have to accept help. The fact that she had nodded off on her vigil, and that her ability to rise and react had been so slow, had brought that home to her. She hated the idea, but for the baby's sake.... Why couldn't I have realized this earlier... then maybe Fox wouldn't be so angry, and she wouldn't have to face what she knew was coming when they arrived home. When she had killed the perp, she had turned to see the horror on her husband's face and knew that the image of that crazed man attacking her would be with him forever. And now, in his fear and anger, he had, she knew, built an immense wall around his heart. She sighed, he was always so afraid of getting hurt, she could understand it, but she was tired of getting hurt as well. Although she had forgiven him for last Christmas, she hadn't forgotten it... the terrible fight... the treatment she hadn't deserved. It was as though he had to feel guilty every time some joy came into their lives and then he took it out on her. She had a feeling that this was going to be another one of those times and sighed. She suddenly hated his father for what he had done to Fox, and his grandfather as well for the way the family had been destroyed. The cycle of misery had to stop, but she was beginning to wonder if her love for him was enough to overcome it. Fox sat with Heather silently. There was some anger that was so intense that it couldn't be expressed in public. He knew that for the rest of his life he would have nightmares about the man with the knife charging his pregnant wife, aiming right for his child and nearly succeeding. He already had enough in his life to have nightmares about. He hadn't needed more. His wonderful life with the woman of his dreams was over. He was never ever ever going to be able to forgive her... or Skinner for that matter... who should have been able to stop her actions. He thought bitterly about just how perfect his profile had been. The killer had been a Viet Nam vet who had done four tours of infantry duty and lived to tell about it before finally being sent home and hospitalized for post traumatic stress disorder. Early on his first tour of duty, he had married a young Vietnamese girl. They had been out walking one day in an area deemed safe. They had been attacked. The young woman had been raped and murdered before the man's eyes. He had never been the same. He had been released from the mental hospital, had stopped taking his meds and had immediately begun reliving the attack... acting it out over and over again... nearly killing Dana.... nearly killing Heather. "I'm really sorry about losing your wife's ring and...." Heather started say for the hundredth time. "Doesn't matter," he replied once again gruffly. Poor girl was devastated by everything that had happened. How could a woman who had been decorated for bravery have frozen like that? The personnel file just didn't match the young woman he had gotten to know on this case. And who the hell had pulled the backup.... The word Cancerman echoed through his mind over and over and over again, but Cancerman had supposedly been neutralized... so who else? No sooner did they get in the house than Fox slammed the door and cornered her against the wall. Dana hadn't expected this.... a fight, yes, but not the hate she saw in his eyes. "I will never.... ever.... ever... forgive you," he hissed. "Never.... do you hear me?" "But, Fox....." "Don't but Fox me....." he actually raised his hand to hit her. He could feel it, the smash of his fist across her face, and it felt wonderful, but he backed off before he could do it, barely stopping himself in time. "You had no right, Dana.... no right...." he yelled angrily hitting the wall near her head instead. "But you were in danger...." she said quietly not flinching... not allowing herself to. "Goddam it, Dana, I'm a f**king trained agent and a big boy. I can look after myself...." "I found you bound and......" she started to remind him her own temper beginning to flare. "Fox, you can't argue with results..." "Oh, and you had to play fairy godmother I suppose?" he inquired sarcastically. "Well, I don't want your protection. You put the baby in danger. You didn't give a damn. For months and months and months I listened to you whine.... Fox, I want a baby.... I listened to you beg, Fox put a baby in me... Oh, God, Fox, make me pregnant...." Dana looked at him wide eyed, his sarcasm brutal... his voice a perfect imitation of how it had been when they had made love.... It hurt... God it hurt. She had always known that this side of him existed. She had seen it in the past, but never like this, oh, God, not like this... "Fox, you aren't being...." "I'm not being nice. I know. I don't want to be nice to you... You aren't always nice either.... there's a cold streak in you... Lucy Householder....." he choked remembering that case, then refocusing his mind, "Jeez, Dana, when I woke up in Martha's Vineyard, the first damn thing I heard was you whining about not being pregnant.... so I make you pregnant, and what do you do... you turn around and nearly get the kid killed and don't even give it a second thought... I could have done without all these complications in my life.... jeez... a jealous whining woman... a miserable mutt, a monstrosity of a house that I never wanted... and a mother to my child who doesn't give a s**t if it lives or dies.... You have choices, Dana. The baby doesn't. If keeping up with the boys was so important to you, you should have had your tubes tied. You are a woman. You have babies, and the choices you have to make are sometimes different, but that's just the hell the way it is.... and I can't stand your goddamed jealousy." He picked up his suitcase. "Are you leaving, Fox?" she asked overcome by an unnatural calm. He was being a real bastard. He was hurting her worse than if he had hit her. He knew all the buttons to push and in the course of this argument, he hadn't missed one. She had always wanted to keep up with the boys... always... and she had hardened her heart to Lucy... and she was jealous.... but she loved him... No one had ever loved him or stuck by him the way she had..... "No f**king way. I bought this f**cking house and I'm staying. You can sleep on the goddamed couch... If you have anything to say to me, you can get yourself a lawyer because that is just what I'm going to do... get a lawyer and get custody of my kid so she'll be with someone who cares about whether or not she lives or dies." That's what she did, for two long and painful nights. She slept on the couch and nursed her anger and pain. Then finally, unable to to endure his silence any longer, unable to tolerate the withdrawal of his love, she left and checked into a hotel. He hadn't stopped her, hadn't said a word. She had gone and the flu she had felt herself incubating hit her with full force. Lying alone at night, her body aching and feverish, she had thought and thought about his words. He had been mean and cruel, but the problem was that there had been a great deal of truth in what he had said. It wasn't that she hadn't thought of the baby. She had, but all too briefly. She had gone off in a quest to save him, and she had done so, but deep down inside of herself, she knew she had been wrong. The baby could have been killed, and in her love for him, her frenzy of concern for him, and in all honesty, her desire to prove that Dana Scully could do anything, pregnant or not, she had not thought of the child, the innocent person growing in her, hard enough. Fox had been right. She had made a choice when she had opted to become pregnant, a choice only women had to make, and once she had made it, she should have weighed the consequences of subsequent actions all the more carefully. She hadn't. She had viewed the baby as an extension of her body, but it wasn't. It was it's own person, helpless, in need of nurturing and protection, and she had failed to do her job, the job she had undertaken voluntarily. On the other hand, a part of her rebelled against this. She was after all highly trained and competent. There was no such thing as complete safety. Even performing autopsies was associated with some danger. She couldn't wrap herself in a plastic bubble. She didn't even have the excuse of saying that it was an unplanned pregnancy. The argument raged on in her mind, and for perhaps the very first time, she found herself hating being a woman until the baby would kick inside her, and she would once again fall in love with the wonder of being able to carry immortality inside herself. It had been something of a miracle that they had all come out of it in one piece, but they had. Why couldn't he just let it go at that? She lay there awake feeling sick and miserable and heart broken, and dragged herself to work each day hoping that he would approach her and want to talk.... hoping that his anger would begin to fade and that they could communicate again, but he didn't. His single mindedness was a wonderful trait in many ways. It gave him the strength and conviction to endure more than any man ought to have to in pursuit of his goals. On the other hand, it didn't always serve him well. He had focused so much on the danger to the baby, that he failed to look beyond it to the moral, ethical and emotional dilemma that the woman he professed to love so much had found herself in. She vacillated between self loathing and growing anger at his single mindedness. The only thing that gave her hope was that she hadn't heard from a lawyer. End Chapter 2 =========================================================================== From: eowyn7@ix.netcom.com(Gail Moore) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Generations: Too Close For Comfort by Macspooky and Eowyn 3/11 Date: 1 Mar 1996 14:09:03 GMT All disclaimers still apply. "Two Close For Comfort" by Eowyn and Macspooky Chapter 3 "Agent Mulder is calling, Sir. He would like to meet with you at your earliest convenience." Walter Skinner's assistant Angela informed him. The Assistant Director of the FBI smiled ruefully to himself. He wondered how often Angela diplomatically rephrased such requests. If Fox Mulder hadn't said that he wanted to see that f**king bastard as soon as possible Walter Skinner didn't know Mulder. And Walter Skinner knew Mulder, too well for either of their comfort. "Tell Agent Mulder that I'm very booked up with meetings today but that if he can come this evening at seven I'll wait for him." The intercom was silent for a few minutes. Skinner imagined that he could hear Angela placating Fox. "Agent Mulder says that that will be acceptable sir." Angela informed him. He could hear the sympathy in her voice. He didn't like putting her in the middle but his next meeting with Fox had to be after hours with no witnesses. He sighed and got down to the mountain of paper work on his desk. He hadn't lied to Mulder, he was swamped with meetings today and no time to prepare for them. Ruthlessly he pushed thoughts of the upcoming confrontation out of his mind. "Wait here, Mr. Christiansen, I'll see if Director Skinner has time to see you." Angela Mastrangelo said to the rather nervous young man in Skinner's outer office. She knocked on the door and entered when the AD called come in. He looked up at her impatiently. She knew he was under a lot of stress. First the mess in Arizona, then new budget hearings, and now a meeting with Fox Mulder to look forward to tonight. Angela thought to herself. "Sir, Mr. Christiansen, Dr. Scully's assistant, would like a few minutes of your time." "I really don't have time right now. Tell him to schedule something later in the week." "Sir, I think you should see him." Skinner looked up at her tone of voice, she rarely contradicted him and he trusted her judgement. "All right, show him in." She opened the door and allowed the lab assistant to enter. When Mr. Christiansen told Assistant Director Skinner his problem the AD was not a happy man. As he showed the young man to the door of his office ten minutes later he listened to him conclude. "Sir, I hope I haven't gotten Dr. Scully in trouble but I thought you should know. She is far too sick to work with this flu bug and it's affecting her performance. I realize that we have way too many people out but maybe we should request help from some other offices until the flu passes." "Thank you, for informing me of the situation. I'll see if I can get some help from the New York or Philly offices. I think this bug hit them last month so their people should be immune. We loaned them a few agents so I'll call in the favor." Skinner saw the concerned look on the young man's face and decided to unbend just a little. "Don't worry about Agent Scully, Christiansen, I'll make sure she gets some rest." After the young man had left he turned to his assistant. "Thank you, Angela. You were right I did need to talk to him. Could you tell Agent Scully that I want to see her now." Half an hour later Special Agent Dana Scully walked into the AD's outer office. She felt like hell and from the last look in the rest room mirror she looked like hell as well. Clamping down on that thought, she didn't want to start crying in the AD's office, she faced Angela and forced down the wave of nausea that assailed her. "Skinner, wanted to see me." Angela fought down her mothering instincts. She was well aware that Agent Scully wouldn't appreciate them, "Oh, before I forget, in case you need to contact me after hours here's where I'll be staying." Dana wrote down the address and phone number of a local DC hotel. Angela took it without comment and then buzzed Skinner. "Agent Scully is here to see you, Sir." She turned to Dana. "He'll see you now. Go right in." Skinner finished signing off on the report he was reading and looked up as Dana Scully walked into the room. He had to fight the urge not to get up and help her to the chair. Her assistant had not been exaggerating when he said she was sick. "You wanted to see me, Sir?" Dana tried to collect herself. "Agent Scully, you are obviously ill and need to take sick leave." "That isn't your concern, Sir." "On the contrary, when it begins to affect your job performance it very much becomes my concern." "It hasn't..." "I met with Agent Christiansen a little under an hour ago and he described coming in and finding the blood and tissue samples from the Baker autopsy exposed on the counter and you returning from throwing up to finish your tests." As the reality of what she had done struck Dana she turned whiter. He hadn't thought that possible and found himself hoping the she didn't faint. Considering the mood Mulder was all ready in his wife fainting in the AD's office would be the coup de gras. "Agent Scully, not only could the samples have been contaminated but they could have been tampered with as well. While we both know that that is unlikely, think of what the defense could have made of it if this case goes to trial. The chain of evidence would have been broken and at that late of a date it is unlikely that retesting would be allowed even if the body was still available and in a preserved enough state. A serial killer might well have walked. As it is Agent Christiansen redid the tests and signed off on the report so that the chain is again intact." "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't realize." "Of course you didn't, Scully. My god, woman, you are very ill and shouldn't be working. It was irresponsible and unprofessional of you to try to do so, I don't care how understaffed we are. I expected better of you, Agent Scully. As of right now you are relieved of duty for the next four days. I want no arguments. Go home and get some rest." Dana fought not to cry. The only home she had to go to now was that awful barren hotel room, but she wouldn't tell Skinner that. She nodded and struggled up. "Will there be any thing else?" "Scully. Don't try to push yourself so hard. You have nothing to prove, you're one of my top agents. Being pregnant in no way changes that. When Mulder broke his leg, did that make him any lesser of an agent? No, of course not. Agents get sick or have physical conditions arise that restrict them temporarily it doesn't change who they are or the quality of their work. Hell, I spent three days at home in bed with this two weeks ago. I'm still playing catch up but it's ridiculous and irresponsible to try to work when you're this sick." Walter saw no point in mentioning that Meg had threatened to handcuff him to the bed if he tried to go in to work. Normally he wouldn't have let even her bully him like that but he had felt so bad that he was afraid that if they got into a tussle she'd win. He did not want the humiliation of losing a struggle with his petite, pregnant wife. He looked at Dana trying to reach his erstwhile daughter. She wouldn't look at him. "Very well, Scully, dismissed. Oh. This incident won't go on your record. Your assistant was very loyal and said that he would deny everything if pushed. He was just afraid that another mistake would be made that he didn't catch and that it would hurt your record. But if I ever have to deal with a situation like this again it will go on your record. Is that clear." She nodded and left. Very proud of herself for managing not to cry or throw up. That would be all she'd need. If you looked hard you could still see the blood stain from her miscarriage in the carpet, she did not want to add puke to the AD's rug. Walter Skinner sighed and ran his hand through what little hair he possessed. Sometimes he conceded that his bosses had a point about him supervising his step-daughter. That had been very hard to do. He looked up at a knock on his door and said, "Come in." Angela came in and shut the door. She looked reluctant. he thought. He waited and the longer he waited the worse he felt. When his assistant was this reluctant to discuss something it could only mean trouble. She had a way of knowing things that astonished even him. "Sir, I thought you should know... I mean... I know it isn't really any of my business but..." "Oh god, Angela, stab it to the heart and get it over the suspense is killing me." "Agent Scully gave me the address of a hotel where _she_ is staying, sir. In case we needed to reach her for anything." "I see. Please give me a copy of the address and phone number and then make note of the fact for future reference. Did she indicate how long this would be?" "No. She didn't. I got the impression that the length of her stay had not been determined." Angela turned and started to leave. She paused in the open doorway at the sound of Skinner's voice. "Thank you for telling me. I'll see what I can do." His assistant nodded and left. He sat back and sighed trying to decide what to do about the situation. Two hours later Walter Skinner stood outside the hotel door of his step daughter's room. He'd been arguing with himself for the entire time. This was not his business. She wouldn't appreciate his interference. He had too much work to do. If any of his bosses found out. But in the end it all had come to naught. Walter realized that he wasn't the unfeeling hard-ass that he'd thought he was, he couldn't get Dana Scully's image out of his mind. He had to make sure that she was all right. So he cancled a couple of meetings and headed over to her hotel. Finally he knocked. It seemed to take forever but just as he was about to knock again the door opened. "Sir?" "May I come in, Dana?" She didn't look too pleased but she nodded and stepped aside to let him enter. "What can I... Excuse me." Running to the restroom she fell to the floor and dry heaved into the toilet. There was precious little left in her stomach to come up. Finally the nausea pill and the swallow of water to wash it down came up and she felt some relief. As she started to get up she found Walter's arms around her lifting her up and carrying her to the bed. He then got her a wet wash cloth and a glass of ice water. At her wry look he explained. "I had lots of practice with your mom a few months ago. I take it you can't keep anything down." At her nod of yes, he asked. "Have you talked to Amy?" "No it's just the flu." "Flu or not you can't afford to get dehydrated when you're pregnant. I'm going to call her." She started to protest but stopped at the look on his face. He was right. Fox wouldn't have let her go this long without calling her OB, Amy. At the thought of her husband tears started to roll down her face. Walter was on the phone with Amy's nurse giving her the details. Every now and then he would shoot a question at her and then communicate her answers to the person on the other end of the phone. "Good... yes... that's fine. I'll pick up the prescription in half an hour. Yes, thank you very much." He turned to her and explained, "Amy is going to call in a prescription for the nausea to the pharmacy for some medicine to stop the throwing up." As she started to protest he held up his hand for her to allow him to continue. "It is much more risky for you to continue to throw up and risk all the side effects of dehydration including early labor than to take this medicine. You're going to have to trust your doctor on this, Dana." "It's not just that, Sir. I can't keep anything down." He smiled. "She's aware of that and I get the impression that this isn't designed to be taken orally." He kept himself from chuckling as she rolled her eyes. Taking the wash cloth from her he went into the bathroom to rinse it out and get more cool water. Returning he sat on the bed and gently washed her face before continuing. "I take it Fox is being difficult?" "He won't talk to me, he glares at me and looks like he hates me. I couldn't take it anymore so I moved out. Why won't he understand that I couldn't let him be killed. I had to try and do something to stop it." "You should have gotten back up. Every agent needs backup and a pregnant one even more so." "I know that now. I was too focused on Fox and the danger he was in and didn't think enough about the baby. I've tried to tell him that and that I've learned my lesson but he won't listen, he just shuts me out. Today... the autopsy... I wasn't doing it to prove I could keep up. I just couldn't bear the thought of being here alone. I honestly didn't realize that it would affect my work. I wasn't this sick when I left for work this morning it's gotten worse as the day's progressed. I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." Her voice broke and tears started to flow. Skinner put the wash cloth down and took her in his arms and rocked her back and forth. "It's all right, little one, shhh... it's all right." Walter used the term of endearment he used on his niece when she cried. "Shhh... It'll be all right. You know Fox, it'll take him awhile to come around." He sat and rocked her until he realized that her breathing had evened out and she was asleep. Gently laying her down he brushed the hair out of her face and got up. He spotted the room key on the nightstand and grabbed it before leaving to pick up her prescription and some food and drinks for her to have when she felt better. He ran by his co-op to pick up a cooler, thankful that it was in storage in the basement so that he didn't have to tell Meg what was going on just yet. Then a quick trip to the grocery store for some crackers and a variety of juices for her to eat and drink when she started feeling better. Finally he stopped by the drug store and picked up the prescription. Knocking softly he let himself into the room hoping to find her still asleep in bed. Instead she was throwing up in the bathroom again. When she finished he helped her into bed and handed her the prescription. "Promise me that you will take it when I leave." She looked at him and the prescription in disgust but nodded yes. "Dana, why don't you come and stay with your mother and me. We've got the room and you really should have someone taking care of you." "No, I don't want to worry mom like that and she's in no condition to take care of me." "She's doing a lot better than you are, Scully, and I won't keep secrets from her so she is going to find out about this. She's already been exposed through me." "No. Absolutely not. I don't expect you to keep this from her but you don't have to go into all the gory details. Besides if she didn't catch it from you there is no sense risking exposing her again. I'll be all right and if I need anything I promise to call. Okay?" "I don't like this. Not one bit." He gave her his best cold Skinner stare. She only smiled up at him. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised that it didn't work, "Dana, your mom and I love you very much and we don't want to see you go through this alone." Dana fought back the tears. "If it gets to be too much then I'll call but right now I'm probably going to spend the next twenty-four hours sleeping. I can do that here as well as I can at your place." "You are so damn stubborn. Just like your mom. All right, but be warned I won't let this go on indefinitely. I picked up some bread and crackers for when your appetite comes back along with plenty of juices to drink. I'm going to call down to the desk and have a spare key brought up to you because I'm taking this one so that I can check on you. I'll be back later tonight and then again in the morning. No argument? Good. I'll see you in a few hours." After he left she took her medicine and fell asleep thinking how lucky her mom was to have found such a wonderful caring man. So much like her Fox.... End Chapter 3 =========================================================================== From: eowyn7@ix.netcom.com(Gail Moore) Newsgroups: alt.tv.x-files.creative Subject: Generations: Too Close For Comfort by Macspooky and Eowyn Date: 1 Mar 1996 14:19:22 GMT All disclaimers still apply. "Too Close for Comfort" Eowyn and Macspooky Chapter 4 Walter Skinner paced back and forth in his office. Six forty. Twenty minutes to go. He was glad that the meeting had ended early, it had given him time to get some food in him. Unfortunately it also gave him time to think. Skinner figured if he made it through the next hour without a black eye, sore jaw or gut that it would take a miracle. He wondered if Fox would even bother to say anything first. He was trying to remain calm, not get emotional but he was having trouble. He'd spent the day... hell make that the whole week, living on Malox. It was at times like this that he figured he had his twenty in and maybe he should give it up and retire. His other voice told himself, And here was the root of the problem Walter Skinner was running interference for Mulder and it was getting harder by the month. The closer Mulder got the worse it became. The first answer was easy, he believed in what Fox was doing. The human experimentation had to stop and Mulder was stopping it, one damn project at a time but he was making a dent. Also, his probing was probably making others so nervous that they thought twice before starting any new experiments. There were at least half a dozen projects that had either major set backs or were totally stopped because of Mulder's work. And that was just fine with Walter Skinner. The second answer to why he didn't quit had to do with personal reasons and those he preferred to ignore. At first he had watched from a distance as Blevins had gone after Mulder puzzled by the man's enmity for the agent. He'd remembered Fox Mulder from the academy. Hell, even before that from the recruitment interview. Skinner had been one of the interviewers and he had really liked Fox Mulder. Ignoring his credentials, which were top notch, he liked the young man and his outrageous sense of humor. The interview had gone normally, meaning boringly. Walter was bored, Mulder was bored and Walter got careless, slipped and cracked a rather sarcastic comment about one of the other interviewers. Walter looked up hoping that the interviewee hadn't noticed, the comment had after all been subtle and Skinner had hoped that the young man would have missed it, but Mulder's eyes were suddenly alive with amusement, a half smile was on his lips. Walter had thought to himself but made no comment. The tone of the interview had changed, however, Mulder relaxed and started, well not exactly cracking jokes but he had a subtle wicked wit and he had let it surface. Fox's final crack as he went out the door had been that one of his goals while at the bureau would be to find Elvis. Walter must have looked stunned. Mulder had delivered the line with a strait face and voice but when Skinner had looked up in shock he'd seen that wicked grin on the young man as he went out the door. It had taken Walter five minutes to stop laughing, he had recommended Mulder, but a voice at the back of his mind had told him, even then, that the naive young man would not have an easy time in the bureau. He was too much of a maverick. Mulder had never really fit in. He was way too brilliant for his own good and what he could do with a profile had scared the shit out of most of the agents he worked with and for. But as Skinner had watched from a distance he had seen the toll that profiling serial killers was taking on the sensitive young man. Perhaps if he'd made real friends easier, but he was too shy for that. Walter Skinner had been trying to figure out a way to head off Mulder's burnout when Mulder found his own. The X-Files. They challenged and fascinated him. It hadn't taken too long for those in power to realize that one of the areas Fox Mulder was interested in was the possible existence of extra-terrestrial biological entities, EBEs, most including Skinner thought he was crazy. Most, not including Skinner, thought that that meant that all of his work was suspect, but not Walter. Walter figured it was part and parcel of his agent's openness to extreme possibilities that he accepted the possible existence of EBEs. It was that very openness that allowed Mulder to solve cases that no one else could, to come up with solutions that most would consider crazy but in the end proved correct. What Skinner couldn't understand was a certain element in the Bureau that wanted to get him out. It hadn't made sense to him. So what if Agent Mulder was opened to extreme possibilities, had some crazy ideas, or did things his own way on occasion. He never risked lives unnecessarily, cases were being solved and people saved. There were a lot worse rogue agents in the AD's opinion. Agents who risked civilian lives unnecessarily, agents who were more interested in who got the credit for solving a case than seeing a serial killer behind bars and yet these agents actions were often ignored or let slide with only warnings. True, Mulder tended to be tactless but still even with everything combined it didn't make sense that so much attention was being paid to him and his work by people in power, not only in the Bureau but in other government organizations as well. And then there came Dr. Dana Katherine Scully. On paper it had looked like the worst match up in history. Brilliant scientist teamed with radical believer. They should have been at each other's throats by the end of the first case. That had been the plan, from what Skinner could make out, but here the higher ups had goofed. They had missed the common bond underlying the motivations of both agents. Both were truth and justice seekers. Truth supported by fact drove both Mulder and Scully and although they didn't always agree they both respected the other's search and recognized a kindred soul. Skinner had signed her transfer papers into the X-files and when pressured from above had refused to transfer her out. He'd been a marine and knew how to hide behind SOP's, standard operating procedures, when he needed to. Neither agent had requested reassignment, their work was exceptional, a solve rate well above most teams in the bureau, forget about how astronomically higher it was for X-file cases. He was not about to break up a good team. It was this pressure that had begun to bother him the most, it made him wonder if maybe Mulder wasn't so crazy after all and that had been a very scary thought for Assistant Director Walter Skinner. It was fine to ignore many of Agent Mulder's theories as being silly, or farfetched but if they were so silly and ridiculous why were certain forces in the government so determined to stop his work. At one point he had been ordered to shut down the X-files after Mulder had been involved in a case that he claimed involved injecting alien DNA into humans. What a ridiculous theory Skinner had thought. Mulder's way over the edge but if it was so ridiculous why was Mulder injured, and several people dead. Skinner hadn't believed for a minute in alien DNA but he also wasn't a gullible fool either and didn't believe all the deaths surrounding the case were coincidental. Damn it, a woman scientist and her family had died in a car crash right after she had done some research work for agent Scully. It may look like an accident but he didn't believe for one moment that it was. Still orders w ere orders and he had no proof so he shut Mulder down and continued to watch. Scully went back to Quantico and Mulder got assigned grunt work that a bloody secretary could have done better. Mulder put up with it for awhile, longer than Skinner had figured that he would, but then suddenly he had disappeared. Off on another UFO chase. The AD had read the riot act to him then, he was so mad at him that he had been ready to can him on the spot. Risking everything for another stupid alien hunt, so what if he was being under utilized that was no justification for walking out on an assignment for a whim. Any other agent would have cowered in his shoes and said nothing but not Fox Mulder. That was the funny thing about Mulder, Walter could tell that his agent felt regret for walking out on his assignment for letting him, Skinner, down. Not that he wouldn't do it again. His regret was that in his quest for the truth he had hurt the AD's opinion of him. For some strange reason Skinner had noted that it mattered to Mulder what he thought of him. Had from the beginning, it beat the hell out of him why. Mulder was a maverick who barely tolerated authority, Skinner included, but while the agent showed contempt for most of the others over him he didn't have that same contempt for Skinner. He would push him to the limits but he never insulted him or his intelligence, never treated him with less than respect. None of Mulder's other supervisors could make the same claim. To some, especially those who had gotten their jobs more by political savvy than by investigative skills he had been down right contemptuous. The only reason he was tolerated was because they needed his brilliance, his deductive abilities. Skinner thought sarcastically. So when the AD had finished censoring him Fox had talked back. Mulder accepted responsibility for his actions, there had been no excuses, Skinner admired that in a man, he had simply stated that he was surprised that anyone missed him. Walter had fought a smile on that one and wondered how much Fox knew or had heard. The truth was they hadn't missed him, not for hours. Mulder had also been right about the fact that he had gathered enough evidence days ago for a case to have been made. Even Skinner couldn't figure why they had just let him sit. Still, he was about to tell his agent that that was irrelevant when Mulder had hit him between the eyes with his last bit of news. The government had bugged his phone and established an illegal surveillance. One look at that smoking bastard, who by this time he was coming to thoroughly dislike, had told him that Mulder's accusations were true. Walter Skinner had thought to himself. That day had been a turning point for Skinner. He didn't know what Fox Mulder was on to but he began to believe that he was on to something. They were not going to get away with bugging one of his agents and then getting rid of that agent. Assistant Director Walter Skinner had kicked that smoking bastard out and sent Mulder back to the wire tap. That was enough punishment as far as he was concerned. The AD had been surprised by Mulder's reaction to watching him throw Cancerman out. There was no look of triumph just calm quiet acceptance of the fact that Skinner would, when presented with the facts, back him up. Maybe that's why Mulder respected him because he recognized that down deep they were a lot alike. Both wanted to help people and both were more interested in the truth than lies. Walter was a by the book man but Fox seemed to respect that because the motives were pure. At least that's what Walter had come to believe, Mulder wasn't talking on the subject. From that point on their relationship had changed. Their next encounter had involved that thing in the New Jersey sewer. He smiled at the memory. Mulder had come blazing in furious at the assignment, right into the middle of a meeting, and Skinner had let him. He could tell from the gleam in Fox's eye that he appreciated how the AD had allowed him make an ass of himself in front of an audience. But even with an audience he hadn't backed down, toned it down a bit maybe, but he had stuck to his point. Mulder had been wrong, it was precisely the type of case that he was best at and once he got over his anger he was quick to spot the fact and catch the culprit at some risk to his own life in the process. Then had come the disappearance of Scully. Skinner had been aware that the two were still working together whenever possible. Hell, the expense reports alone were a dead giveaway, the powers that be had given the AD grief about the matter but he again hid behind SOP's. A special agent was allowed to call for assistance whenever he felt it was needed and the people at Quantico were there for precisely that reason. Then she had been taken and Mulder was shouting conspiracy. By this time Skinner could no longer discount Mulder's paranoia. Somebody was out to get him and discredit his work. He'd done the best he could for Mulder and when the agent came up with that ridiculous idea about Krycek, Skinner had been ready to investigate. It was Skinner's turn to be shocked. Krycek had disappeared and research into his background showed that he was a plant. The AD was so mad that he quit giving a damn about what the higher ups wanted. He couldn't give Mulder back Dana Scully but he could give him a reason to keep going and at the same time send a message to those in power that Mulder was still not alone. He reopened the X-files and placed it under the direct supervision of his office. If they were going to come after his agents they were going to have to come through him to do it. He backed up his own. Dana's return had changed both his and Fox's lives. Because of it he had met Margaret Scully. He owed Mulder a lot on that alone. Again it was his agent's stubbornness and lack of tact that had led to the meeting. The doctor in charge of Scully's case had called to complain about Agent Mulder's behavior. He intimated that Mulder was causing problems for the family. Skinner couldn't allow that if it was true. Fox wouldn't deliberately set out to hurt Scully's family but in his zeal for revenge and justice he might be blinded from realizing the pain he was causing. So Skinner had called him in and laid down the law. Mulder had barely heard so Walter had decided to find out how the Scully family felt before taking stronger action against Mulder. He had gone to the hospital and into Scully's room. Her pale inanimate face accused him. Guilt overwhelmed him. He had always liked Dana Scully, she had a sharp intelligence, courage, determination and dedication to the truth that were rare in most agents. FBI agents were bright but most placed career advancement over and above all else. Scully never allowed ambition to blind her to the truth. he had thought to himself. As he was fighting down grief and guilt a woman rose out of a corner chair. "May I help you?" "I'm Assistant Director Walter Skinner and I wanted to speak with one of Agent Scully's family members." He said holding out his hand. "I'm Margaret Scully, Dana's mother." She took his hand and he looked up into the most beautiful and strong eyes he had ever seen. As Walter shook her hand he took a minute to get his breath. For some reason he couldn't seem to get enough air into his lungs to support his voice. As she continued to stare at him he found himself getting further tongue tied. He thought, He turned again to look at Scully and collect his thoughts. He was amazed by this woman's quiet strength in the face of such devastation. It occurred to him that she had lost her husband not many months before, yet in waiting for him to speak she was calm and patient. Finally he reacquired his voice. "I'm sorry about your daughter. She is an excellent and admired agent, Mrs. Scully. How is she?" The controlled sadness underlying her voice broke his heart. "They don't expect her to recover. But there has been no change for quite some time." Saying that he was sorry again wasn't enough. It seemed so inadequate in light of her loss. He turned to look at her, again at a loss for words, but as their eyes met an understanding passed between them and he realized that words weren't necessary, that she understood how deeply he felt. She smiled at him with such a sweet smile that he lost his train of thought again and couldn't speak for several minutes. "Mrs. Scully." She turned and met his eyes and he quickly looked away before his mind decided to go on vacation again. He hadn't know it at the time but Margaret had also been experiencing some strange reactions to him. She later confessed that she had been surprised that Dana hadn't mentioned what a handsome man her boss was, and had been embarrassed by that thought. She didn't normally notice men in that way. Well maybe her daughter's boyfriends but not for herself. Walter she was noticing for herself. "There have been reports that Agent Mulder is causing the family some difficulties in the pursuit of his investigations. I wanted to ask you the accuracy of those reports before I spoke again with Agent Mulder." It was at this point that Walter Skinner was to discover where Dana Katherine Scully got her temper and to realize that it didn't have a thing to do with red hair. Meg Scully's eyes got angry. They were very expressive. And her face acquired a look that made the AD want to cringe. It reminded him of his drill sergeant at boot camp back when he was eighteen. "Fox Mulder has been a great friend and support to this family since this ordeal began. He has called me to report on the progression of the case when no one else bothered." Here Skinner felt considerable guilt. Families were often left out of the information loop and he suddenly realized how frustrating that could become. "He never gave up hope on my daughter even when everyone else did and still hasn't..." here her voice broke and she took several deep breaths to control her emotions before continuing. "The only people who have been bothered by Agent Mulder are those who have given my daughter less than competent care or who have treated her as less than human. I would very much appreciate the names of the people who complained about Fox because I would like to deal with them personally." Walter Skinner was suddenly glad that he didn't fall into that list. This was a very formidable woman. After that interview he had left Fox Mulder alone and ignored the reports from the hospital. Which became much less hostile towards Mulder. Obviously Margaret Scully had had a talk with the doctor. It was somewhere during this ordeal that Skinner had come to realize that Mulder's feelings for his partner might be more than professional. Maybe he noticed this because his own feelings for her mother certainly weren't professional. After their initial meeting he found himself calling Margaret on a daily basis, supposedly to inquire about Dana. As Dana got better the calls continued until they finally gave up the pretext that these calls had anything to do with her. A few weeks after she came out of the coma Skinner was informed by Mulder that he and Scully were going out of town on a case. Walter took several deep breaths, called Margaret and asked her out for the night they left. They had taken it slowly. Her husband had been dead only a year and the grief was just starting to lessen. They had had a very good marriage. For his part Skinner felt very uncomfortable dating one of his agents close family members. Especially Scully's mother. He felt guilt for what had happened to her and knew that his objectivity had already been compromised because she was Mulder's partner. Dating her mother would only make the situation worse. Several times during their early relationship he had decided not to call her and to distance himself from her. Looking back on it if it hadn't been love at first sight it sure hadn't taken him long after to fall. The first time he had pulled away had been at Christmas. He figured that the busyness of the season would give him a good excuse. He had missed their daily talks. His plan had been to go from the week before Christmas without talking to her and then call after the first of the year and then only occasionally after that. He'd made it to Christmas day and a rather stern lecture from his sister. She didn't know what the hell he was moping about but he'd been moping for days and she was tired of it. If he didn't want to talk about it, fine, but do something about it, Wally, it was getting on her nerves. An hour or so later he had called Meg. Fortunately Scully hadn't answered the phone. If she had he would have hung up and not said a word. One of Meg's sons had answered and he had asked to speak to Margaret. He had heard the man yell for his mother and then when she came in the room he heard him teasing her about a man calling. Skinner had smiled to himself. From the sound of things her son didn't believe for a minute that there was anything romantic going on. Well he'd sorta been right at the time. "I wanted to call and wish you a Merry Christmas, Margaret." Skinner had said. He'd had to restrain himself, because what he really wanted to say was that he'd missed her like hell. Then he'd found himself asking her out for New Years. He figured she would have plans with her family and was shocked and pleased when she accepted. They had gone on from there. Three days without talking to her and he was a bear to work with and more than a week without seeing her and most of the agents under him were running for cover. No one knew what was affecting his moods... hell he hadn't even realized that he was particularly moody until Margaret had gone to visit some relatives out west. She was gone for two weeks and towards the end of the second week he noticed that the halls of the FBI building had become strangely deserted. He had mentioned something to his long time assistant Angela about it and had seen her sneak a measuring look at him. "Out with it, Angela, are a lot of agents sneaking vacation time or what?" He watched her struggle with how to phrase her comments and then give up on tact. "They are aware that something is upsetting you, Sir, and when they see you coming they duck and run for cover." "That's ridiculous." She hadn't argued, just shrugged her shoulders and left the office with a motherly smile. He'd decided to take a late lunch and test out her supposition. Angela had been right. He noticed that when agents saw him coming they suddenly remembered something in another direction, needed a drink from the water fountain or a quick trip to the restroom. The only one who didn't duck and run had been Mulder. Fox obviously found the situation amusing. It also suddenly explained some of his comments over the last week. Mulder smiled at the retreating back of the agent he had been talking to and headed down the hall towards Skinner. "Having a good week, sir?" Had been his only comment as he passed by his boss. The AD had headed into his office and not come out until everyone was gone. He didn't want to probe too deeply into the source of his bad mood. Meg had returned the next day and life had gone back to normal. Until the kiss. After her trip their dating became much more regular. At least once a week, often twice. Through an unspoken agreement they kept their relationship from her children, particularly Dana. Neither wanted to subject their fledgling relationship to too much close attention and family gossip. On one occasion Walter got tickets to a Kennedy Center performance and they were making a special night of it. Because of work he was unable to pick Meg up at her house so she took the train into the city to meet him at the restaurant for dinner. She ran a little late so he was sitting at the table waiting for her. When a beautiful, graceful and very sexy woman walked into the restaurant he looked on appreciatively. As she approached his table and he realized it was Meg he lost it. He was enchanted and the night was magic. They had been going out for several months but he had told himself that they were merely friends and companions. The most physical contact they had had was him taking her arm briefly to guide her or a gentle steering hand on her back. But as he drove her home late that night he found himself fighting his arousal. When he walked her to her door and before he realized what he was doing he took her into his arms and was kissing her passionately. She returned the passion with a fire that he hadn't realized that she possessed. At the thought of that fire he felt himself getting hard. That kiss really shook him. In the years since his wife's death he had not been involved with anyone. There was the occasional sexual encounter but his emotions weren't touched. No one clicked. Then Margaret came along and he found himself a friend, or so he told himself. That night and that kiss blew all his carefully constructed delusions away. He said goodbye swiftly and had left almost running from her house. That time he had made it three weeks without calling. The halls had gotten empty again. Then came Dana's kidnapping, again, Fox's supposed sister and finally Mulder's disappearance. Walter felt so alone. He was worried about Mulder and had taken special measures to find out his whereabouts and then sent Scully to help. Then he sat and waited. After only a few hours he could no longer take it. He called Margaret. Although he couldn't tell her what was going on he derived comfort from her mere presence. She didn't pry and was content to be there for him. Two days later when Dana called to inform him that Mulder had been found and, although injured, would recover he finally released the breath he was holding. He sat in Meg's living room and gratefully accepted the love and support her arms brought. It was then that he realized, irrespective of the complications the relationship was going to create, he could not give up Margaret Scully. After that initial first kiss they backed off a little. They held hands and kissed but kept the passion in check. It had scared both of them. He hadn't felt both love and passion for someone in over ten years and she had never felt that way about anyone but Bill. End Chapter 4 =========================================================================== The Gossamer Project Author - Title - Date - Spoilers - Crossovers - X-Files - Adventures - Stories - Vignettes Other stories by: Macspooky - Evenstar, Eowyn Please let us know if the site is not working properly. Set story display preferences. Do not archive stories elsewhere without permission from the author(s). See the Gossamer policies for more information.