Title: The end of the affair.

Spoilers: Requiem especially, some for
Tithonus and Tempus Fugit & Max, blink
and you'll miss em though!

Summary: Skinner finds out the truth
about Mulder & Scully's relationship
and her mysterious pregnancy. AD Skinner
POV.

Rating:  PG I guess for some implied
violence

Disclaimer: If you recognise characters
they don't belong to me, if you don't
they're mine, no infringement is intended
and no profit it being made from me
messing around with their lives!

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The end of the affair.
 

I approach the basement office slowly,
there's no rush, I have no new information.
I'm not going to see Scully as her superior,
just as a friend.  It has been a week
since Mulder disappeared and we are no
nearer to finding him.  The investigator
half of my brain is telling me that if we
don't find some trace of him soon statistically
we are nearing the point where we are unlikely
to find him alive, if at all.  However, I know
agent Mulder, and I know it will take more
than a little alien abduction to keep him down,
or away from agent Scully for that matter.
Many have tried to separate them, and now it
appears they have cemented their bond in the
one of the most binding ways possible, by
conceiving a child together.  A child that should
never have been possible for Dana Scully.
A brief image of Mr & Mrs Mulder flashes
through my mind.  It isn't them, it never
will be.  They have no need of wedding rings.
They have proven their bond to each other time
and again in ways that can never be broken.
Or so I thought.  But, now I have only one half
of what I consider to be one complete entity to
supervise.  Scully is lost without him, just
as he was when she disappeared.  Since none
of us can seem to find any clue as the where
on earth, or perhaps not on earth he is, I am
going to do whatever I can to make this more
bearable for her.  I'm going to make sure she
takes care of herself and doesn't burn herself
out like Mulder almost did, falling asleep
at the wheel of his car, madly waving his gun
around demanding to know who had done this to her.

As I enter the office I see Scully staring at
the computer screen.  I wonder if she is reading
something, or just staring passed it.  She doesn't
seem to have noticed me entering.

"Dana?"  I use her first name deliberately, I want
her to know I haven't come here with news of Mulder.
I want to squash her hopes before they get too high,
so the fall is not so far.

"Sir?  What can I do for you?"  She obviously gets
the message, but refuses to use my first name
anyway.  Even after the numerous times she has
saved my life both with her medical and investigative
skills she insists on always calling me sir.
She has also doubted my allegiances many
times, I remind myself, but, she had good
reason most of the time.

"Nothing, really, I just came down to make sure
you're alright."  I'm hedging, I know came down
 here with something specific in mind.
My psychological training analyses what I've
just said, I'm prompting her toward a positive
answer, I revise it quickly, if I hear her say
'I'm fine' just once more.... "I mean how are you?"

She leans back in her chair and meets my eyes.
I certainly am not at a loss for why Mulder was, I m
ean is so captivated by this women, neither was agent
 Pendrell, may he rest in peace.

"I don't know really." She replies.  I am glad
she did not chose to use her stock reply, I'm
fine.  "It's strange being down here without
him.  And I am very sick of interdepartmental
meetings.  I feel like we're wasting time
treading over how he disappeared.  That isn't
really the issue here, we need to find him."
She sighs deeply, and once again I feel guilt
stab me about losing her partner.  She trusted
me to go with him when she couldn't and I lose
him about 20 minutes into our investigation.
Facing her in that hospital room I didn't think
I could feel any worse about what had happened,
then she told me she's pregnant and I discovered
I was wrong.  She's assured me that she doesn't
blame me and that it probably still would have
happened if she had gone with him.  But would it?
Then I felt guilty because she was comforting me
when she undoubtedly need some comfort herself.
I remind myself that guilt isn't accomplishing
anything and isn't helpful to anyone, especially
Mulder or Scully.  But then, that's why I'm here
today to try to do something helpful.

"We will find him, Scully.  Or he'll find us, you
know Mulder."

"Yes I do" A smile flutters across her face and
I wonder what she is thinking about, which private
moment she is remembering.  I am glad she can
think about him and smile.  It was a long
time before I could think of Sharon and smile,
not that she disappeared off the face of the
earth, just out of my life.  Perhaps it would
have been easier if she had.

A clear my throat to dispel those thoughts,
they are counter productive to why I have
come here.

"Dana, I want to help you any way I can, if
 there's anything I can do."

"Thank you."

"I was thinking, with Mulder not around,
at the moment, I know you're close to
your mother, but if you need anyone to go
with you for check-ups, or sonograms, or
whatever, I would be happy to-" I stop in
my tracks.  She looks utterly perplexed,
like she doesn't understand a word I am saying.
Am I missing something?  She is pregnant isn't
she?  Mulder is missing?  Am I speaking a

foreign language?  Perhaps she just finds the
thought of her supervising agent doing something
like that too strange a thought to comprehend.

"What?  I mean why?"

I'm starting to feel like I am really missing
something here, still I dig myself in
 deeper, "You don't want to go alone do you?"

"I won't be, Ethan, the baby's father..."
she trails
off and her eyes widen, "you thought Mulder
was the father?"

How could I have been so wrong?  I was sure
Mulder was the father.  Who else would it be?
"Well, yes," I stammer out, "you said you
had to find him then in your next breath
told me you're pregnant.  I thought those
 two statements were directly related to
one another."  I don't think I have ever
been so embarrassed.  I have probably
just severely insulted her by assuming
she was sleeping with her partner.  My
secretary is always telling me she's
sure they are sleeping together.  I
would have to agree, the way they look
at each other, the amount of time they
spend together, how can they have
worked together for seven years and never.....?

She's blushing, "Well, they are, just
not in the way you think."  She takes a
deep breath, I think she's trying not to
laugh at me as I want to ground to open up
and swallow me whole, "I have to find
Mulder, I owe him that much.  He moved
heaven and earth to find me when I disappeared
and I owe him nothing less.  But, when
we were in Oregon we both decided it was time
we went our separate ways.  Mulder said it
had to end sometime, and he's right.  And now
I know I'm pregnant I tend to agree with
him more.  But I can't just walk away until
I know he's safe."

I am virtually speechless, "But, I mean,
you've never, in seven years?"  I can't
help myself, now she's sharing some details
I want to know them all.

She actually laughs at that, "To be honest,
our partnership seemed to be on the edge of
something more for years.  Then we realised
why it had stayed on the edge, because it
just wouldn't work.  Why would
we now suddenly start sleeping together after
seven years, I think we've worked too
hard on our friendship to jeopardise it
like that."

That thought hadn't occurred to me, but
they could have been sleeping together for
years and I would never have known.
Mulder was a pretty good liar when he wanted
 to be, and Scully, well she didn't lie
 unless she had to, or Mulder asked her to.
How do I know she's not lying now?  She is
talking to her supervisory agent, perhaps
she's afraid she'll be reprimanded, or taken
off the search for Mulder.  I dismiss that
thought pretty quickly, by now she isn't
afraid of damage to her career, both her and
Mulder have been fired more times than I can
count in the last seven years.

I am surprised Mulder has allowed another
man into her life.  They were separated
briefly last year when Scully worked with
another agent on a murder case.  Mulder
had managed to call her every half an hour
the whole time she was away on the case.
Perhaps it wasn't a bad idea though, I
seem to remember that case got her shot pretty
badly, it was a miracle she had survived
the blood loss.  I can't remember how she
got shot though, it wasn't by the suspect I know
that much, it's tickling the back of my mind.
Ah, yes, the agent she was working with shot
her, accidentally of course.  I witnessed I
brief exchange between him and Mulder outside
her hospital room, Mulder told him he was a
lucky man, I suspect that agent would have
found himself staring at the business end of
Mulder's service weapon if she had died.  He
was so territorial he might as well have peed
around her to keep other males away.  So how
had Scully even managed to become involved with
someone else, let alone fall pregnant by him?

"Does Mulder know?"

"That I'm pregnant, no."

I shake my head, "No, does he know about ...,
um," I'm trying to be delicate, but I don't
know how to phrase it, "well, about the father?"

Scully raises her eyebrow at me again, I think
I may have just overstepped the mark, I
reprimand myself, this really is none of
your business, why do you need to know?
It's not the first time you've worked with
a pregnant agent, and did you feel the need
to question the others?  Actually it is the
first time I have supervised a pregnant agent,
but even if it wasn't, this is different, this
is Mulder and Scully and they have their own
rules which they usually keep very well
guarded, and if she's willing to answer me
then I should be grateful for that.  Of course
she may decide to ask me to leave the office
and avoid me for the next week.

"Of course he does."  She replies.

I am shocked, I admit it, I thought no man
would pass the Mulder test, if Mulder didn't
shoot them, he would probably manage to drive
them away some how, this guy must be serious
about her to stick around despite Mulder's,
well, unusual behaviour and ideas.

"In fact, he introduced us."

Now I am very shocked, Mulder, setting up a
date for his most fiercely protected partner,
this guy must be special.  "But, I mean, Mulder
loves you, you know that."

"Yes, and I love him.  And we have a wonderfully
romantic relationship, just not a sexual one.
He loves me enough to realise that I want a normal
life, and he knows as long as we are working on
these cases together I can never have that.  So,
he set me up with one of his
best friends, whom I also happen to love very much.
Mulder loves me enough to give me up."

We talk for a few minutes more and I leave with
my grip on reality adjusted somewhat.  Her
words are ringing in my ears; we have a wonderfully
romantic relationship, just not a sexual one.
Well, whatever works.  We should all be so lucky
as to find someone who loves us so unconditionally
that they would deprive themselves so that you
can be happy.
 
 

Authors notes: I was inspired to write this by a
mixture of things.  One was the headline of an
article about requiem, which had the title The end
of the affair.  The other was Chris Carter's much
repeated statement that Mulder and Scully have a
wonderful romance, it's just not a sexual romance.
I guess the title doesn't refer to the end of an
affair between Mulder and Scully but to our affair
with theirs.  I honestly am I shipper and would
love nothing more than to see Mulder and Scully
end up together, but I would wage that an answer
to that question (are they or aren't they) is
coming in season eight and I thought I would kind
of hedge my bets a bit about the outcome.  I will
never entertain the possibility this baby is an
alien though, that would be far too cruel even
for the x-files.  Anyway, I love feedback, tell
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