From: ephemeral@ephemeralfic.org Date: 28 Nov 2002 05:56:31 -0000 Subject: A Reason for Caring by ling Source: direct Reply To: lifebounce@yahoo.com DISCLAIMER: The X-Files is property of 10-13 Productions, 20th Century FOX Television, and Chris Carter; its use in this original work of fiction generates no profit, and no infringement is intended. ARCHIVE: Take it, just leave my name and email on it. RATING: PG (This isn't pretty.) SPOILERS: One Breath SUMMARY: Skinner has a reason for caring, but he can only admit to himself what that is. As Mulder calmly packs away a life unraveled, the Assistant Director stops to make a plea, and hopes to give Mulder a reason for caring. A short sketch for One Breath - with a twist. ===== A REASON FOR CARING ===== "This is unacceptable," Skinner says. When he was promoted to Assistant Director, the Violent Crimes unit threw a gala in his honor. It was prepackaged, totally arranged, and not in a meticulous way. There was pouring champagne and constant introduction. "Hey there, this is Walter Skinner. New AD of the Violent Crimes unit. Vietnam vet, this one, nothing he can't do." Mulder doesn't remember this - or maybe he does, his memory is uncanny, though not, as he continually claims, totally eidetic. He was, then, still the FBI's golden boy, and by extension, invited to entertain himself well at all the bureau's little parties. All the higher-ups observed his attendance with puffed chests and pride: they held the keys to the most brilliant vault of talent in the world. The man, who Skinner remembers firing several years ago, was introducing the exhausted and embarrassed AD to a gangly, dark-haired man. The man didn't look hospitable, nor happy to be there at all; Skinner felt an instant kinship. They should have skipped and gone for drinks, Skinner remembers thinking, maybe complained about their wives. "Jesus, the bureaucracy here," Skinner thinks he would have said, "is sucking the life and fundamental goodness out of the FBI." Though, he might have been less eloquent than this. "Special Agent Fox Mulder of the Behavior Science Unit," the unimportant man added. Assistant Director Skinner remembers thinking that it must have been new bureau policy for everyone to have a God-awful long name with no actual relevance to their job description. What the hell was an "Assistant Director" supposed to do, anyway, he still wonders. The man had looked at the Assistant Director for a moment before saying quietly, "Vietnam veteran, huh?" Skinner had nodded. And with a vague, distracted smile, Agent Mulder had said, "Welcome home, sir." Skinner thinks that he hears some vague protests from Mulder, but doesn't put them too much at heart: Mulder can not leave. There is a fire in that man, a wit and a greatness on the brink that Skinner can not bear to think will be wasted writing research papers on abnormal sexuality at some small, New England university. Skinner has this gaping fear every time he opens Newsweek that he'll find Fox Mulder's name listed as one of the writers that month, and will have to be revived with smelling salts when he thinks about who is left to defend the country and Truth. Who else will welcome men home? Vietnam, despite what the government might tell Walter Skinner, was a real war, in which horrible, unspeakable things happened. Walter Skinner is not brave like some of his friends, and he does not do speaking engagements with disinterested high school students who do not understand. But Walter Skinner does not want them to understand; he wants them to go to school, and skip study hall, and keep having their constitutional liberties, whether or not they care about what he did. But Walter Skinner also fought and died (once) for America, and was never welcomed home by his government. He cannot imagine how many times Fox Mulder has welcomed men home from Vietnam; Skinner can only hope that he can keep Mulder here. So Walter Skinner takes a deep breath, and tells Mulder about His Story. He's not really sure how The Story will make Mulder stop packing all of his unreadable and obscure books on abnormal sexuality and alien abduction into a box, but Walter Skinner knows that it *has to*. Otherwise, Skinner might find himself chaining Fox Mulder down to a chair, breaking both his kneecaps; some people might find the former kinky, and the latter just downright rude. Walter is depressingly missionary about sex, and is always polite as a rule. Skinner wants his reputation intact, so The Story has to work. Maybe it does, because Mulder seems to stop for a while, and just stares up at the Assistant Director with sad, solemn eyes. There is only one other thing he can add: "Besides," he finds himself saying, "if you leave now, when she comes back, who's going to be waiting?" Both men stare at one another solemnly, contemplating this. Dana Scully is the X factor here; if Dana Scully told Fox Mulder that he had to unpack all his books on abnormal sexuality and alien abduction because she didn't like the way the box blocked her light, Fox Mulder would do it. Fox Mulder will do anything for Dana Scully. Walter Skinner isn't really sure what to make of *that*, yet, but decides that as long as it makes Mulder stay, it doesn't really matter. Besides, there are worse things than falling in love with ones partner. Worse things like no homecoming. Mulder sets a reference book on spontaneous combustion down, and regards the cement ground with great interest before asking, "What are you going to do with that paper?" Skinner realizes that Mulder is talking about the torn resignation. "I can't really stick it in my pocket. That's not very suave." Mulder nods and offers up a trash can. Skinner raises an eyebrow. "You allowed to touch FBI property? You're a regular person now." Walter Skinner, for the first time, sees Mulder scowling. "You haven't processed it." No, Skinner hasn't. So he throws those pieces away, and turns to leave. "Mulder," he says, not entirely of his own volition, because Walter Skinner is cooler than this. Walter Skinner, on his own, would have kept his mouth shut and preserved the purity of the moment. This is the devil, or maudlin sentiment, they are one and the same. "Yeah?" the Agent replies. "There's reasons," Skinner stutters, "to care." Walter Skinner, for the first time, sees Mulder grinning. "Yeah, yeah," Fox Mulder says. "Yeah, I know." ===== All feedback welcome at lifebounce@yahoo.com