Title: Flight Delayed (4/4)
Author: Tesla
Address: gah1093@hiwaay.net
Rating: NC-17 (sexual situations, adult language & lawyers)
Category: Mulder/Other
Spoilers: Assume that this alternate universe careens off track after "Field
Trip,"
But spoilers for "Orison".
Archive: Sure, everyone, I would be in a tizzy of pleasure and tell everyone
I knew.
Feedback: See above, only I'll also write charming replies.
Disclaimer: If Ten Thirteen is even reading this, settle with Duchovny!
Summary: Continuation of "Flying Under the Radar", "Gaining Altitude", and
"Some Turbulence Expected"
THANKS to Emerex for excellent beta work, and general encouragement, and for
creating my little webpage: www.home.hiwaay.net/~gah1093; and to the small
select band of folks on my reading list-and Fran58's site, at
www.atmosphere.be/media/fran58, which has my other stories.
Tuesday, Assistant Director Skinner called Scully into his office and went
over the ground rules for the expected inter-agency investigation. He seemed
fairly nonchalant about it. "This is just routine, Agent," he said. "You
know that; any time an agent fires her weapon, the Bureau investigates.
However, since you haven't been charged, there's no need to worry. You and
Mulder don't have anything pending out in the field. I'll authorize another
stint at Quantico. Or take some time off; Mulder won't, but that shouldn't
stop you." He picked up a letter. "Mandatory counseling, I'm afraid, but you
know the drill." He picked up a business card. "I'm giving you my private
number, Scully." (When he called her Scully in that tone she knew she was
home free.)
In the elevator down to the basement, Scully wondered what Skinner's
girlfriend called him-not Walter. Sergei? And Skinner was such a skinny
name, like an old man's name. Walter Skinner. Set Janet Durrell up with
Skinner.
She paused. No. She didn't like that idea at all. Set Janet up with
Frohike-he'd like those long legs wrapped around him.
The elevator door opened. Her bawdy thoughts didn't surprise her. Karen
Kossoff had told her years ago that one way the mind processed
life-threatening situations was to turn to sex. Well, Karen had meant
actual sex, not mental sex; but that was the only kind she had. And life
with the X-Files had certainly given her enough fantasy scripts for shelves
of MulderPorno Lite.
She squirmed mentally. Yuck. Don't go there. Be firm, make Mulder accept her
repayment of Janet's fee. Besides, she didn't (and let's be honest, Dana)
like the idea of owing either Janet or Mulder. Not so much Janet-Janet was
another professional. Scully couldn't bear the idea of one more item on the
mental tally of Who Owed Whom, a list already seven years long.
It would be nice if she and Mulder could wipe the slate clean, and start out
by neither one of them owing the other anything.
Mulder was at his desk, writing furiously on a legal pad. He raised his
eyes as she came in. "You've got a letter," he said, and went back to
scrawling notes. On Scully's desk were a lidded cup of Starbucks coffee, and
an envelope.
Scully picked up the envelope. From Janet, "Hand Delivery" was typed as the
address. Inside, Janet enclosed Mulder's check, saying that ethically, as
Mulder wasn't the client, she was pleased to return his check, per Scully's
request, and would Scully forward a check for the agreed amount? And that
Janet had Mulder's copy of Bureau regs and OPR procedures. Please let Janet
know as soon as Scully was given her hearing date, and make an office
appointment as soon as said hearing was set. And she was very truly Scully'
s.
"It feels weird having a lawyer," Scully said conversationally, watching
Mulder's face like a flyfisher watching the success of her cast.
Mulder didn't give her the quick quip. Perhaps, he being the veteran of
many sessions with the review board, Mulder (at last) wasn't going to joke?
He didn't even look up. Scully's teasing feelings left her. "Skinner acts
like nothing's going to happen."
"Something always happens," Mulder said, looking up now. He seemed
exhausted. Scully felt protective of him. He would worry much more than she
did. He always thought everything that happened to her was his fault.
"Really, Mulder, Janet and I can handle it."
But at that, Mulder gave her one of the blankest stares in his repertoire.
He hadn't slept at all the night before. Not because of the hot reunion sex
or even a Knicks game running overtime, but because he lay awake imagining
all the dire things that could happen to Janet. True, the Consortium was, to
all appearances, dead, but who could say? What if various mutants began
breaking into Janet's apartment? His apartment certainly had been violated
more than the DUI laws in Fort Lauderdale.
This is sick, he had told himself, turning his pillow, while Janet slept
with an annoyingly satisfied smile. You're transferring all of your anxiety
about Scully onto Janet. Which must mean that he really did love Janet. And
he couldn't be sure whether she really believed all the weird shit he said
had happened to him, or whether she had decided he was demented but cute.
But Frohike told her, he comforted himself. She thinks Melvin hung the moon.
In fact, their little mutual admiration society was a little scary. If
Scully had ever joined forces with Frohike, his life would not have been
worth living.
But if Scully had ever given a thought to him as a person with feelings,
instead of some kind of comic relief/fighter against injustice, he wouldn't
be in Janet's bed now.
Janet had opened her eyes then, proving that she had been awake all along,
and climbed back on top of him. And all of Mulder's arguments had
disappeared, subsumed by sensation.
Which was why he couldn't even respond when Scully mentioned Janet's name.
He felt like a traveler in a foreign land, one in which he didn't know the
language or the rituals.
He wanted to tell Scully that he was changed; that he had joined the ranks
of the ordinary male; that he wanted an ordinary life; that there was no
single bad guy, and that even finding Cancerman would never bring back the
dead. That he had grown up.
That someone loved him.
Instead, he kept writing his reports.
At lunch, in a suburban strip-mall restaurant, a tall bald man met a shorter
man with a neatly trimmed beard. Businessmen among other businessmen, all
with cell phones and briefcases.
John Byers handed AD Skinner a floppy disk. "That's all I've found on Janet
Durrell," he said. "There is nothing to indicate that she is anyone other
than what she is supposed to be."
The Assistant Director frowned. "She's representing Agent Scully in this OPR
investigation. Is she still seeing Agent Mulder?"
"Not that I know of."
Skinner hesitated fractionally. "You understand why I couldn't risk using
the Bureau to check her out?"
Byers nodded. "Believe me, Mr. Skinner, we wouldn't have given you this
information if we didn't think you had Mulder's best interests at heart."
Skinner's shoulders raised and lowered a fraction of an inch. "I hope so."
####
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"Some days it just doesn't pay to chew through the restraints."---Anonymous