Sharon's Surprise
By Mona Ray
knik@eonet.com
Rated R for language / S / SSR
I've decided to start writing stories because I'm a Skinner/Scully fan, and
can find very few stories about them. My first two stories will be linked
as I write my version of how Skinner and Scully get together. I'm a died
in the wool S/S fan and a firm believer Mulder and Scully should remain
only friends. I hope my poor attempts at writing will inspire all you fine
writers out their to pen more S/S romance stories. My version of TV shows
may vary from the actual plots a little as I didn't start watching until
the third season. My second story with this one is titled Walter's
Inquest. (Archiver's note: The two stories stand alone and are not part
of a series.)
All credit for creating the x-file characters goes to Chris Carter, 1013
Productions and Fox Network. I mangled them without permission and for no
gain except the writing experience.
Fourth season spoilers.
Sharon's Surprise by Mona Ray
The mall near downtown D.C. was bustling with noon-time shoppers
using their lunch breaks to scurry around like Santa's elves before the big
day. Sharon Skinner hurried to the mall with her friend from work, to take
advantage of their hour long break. This would be her first Christmas as a
single woman in eighteen years. She and Walter had been separated last
Christmas, but were still technically husband and wife, even though she had
spent the holidays without him, at her parents. This year was different.
She had shed the guilt associated with being the instigator of ending ones
marriage. She had a bounce in her step and a carefree manor making her
seem younger than her forty one years.
"Mandie, it's been so long. I don't know if I remember how."
Mandie laughed and dragged her into another store. "You'll do
just fine. If you falter, follow my lead and we'll have those men dancing
to our tune all evening. Besides, I overheard Jim say he thought you too
good for Walter and he didn't know why you stayed married to that bore for
so long. Jim really has the hots for you Sharon, and it's long past time
someone's paid you 'that' kind of attention, lord knows I've never seen
Walter look at you in that way."
"Oh, Walter has had his moments, just not many these last few
years." Sharon defended. But, she couldn't deny the truth behind Mandie's
words. The spark between Walter and herself had burned itself our years
before, and they were left with going through the motions of marriage, the
passion and suspenseful longing for each other fading into a distant
memory. She preferred the memories of Agent Walter Skinner, coming home
from a case after being gone for several days, to those of Assistant
Director Walter Skinner, bringing home the silence and obscurity of his
elevated position.
"You mean a moment like the dinner at our place when you pleaded
with Walter to join the conversation, so he told that awful story about
those inbred people in the Appalachians. I must say, I had nightmares that
night. If stuff like that really happens, it's a wonder that man is sane
at all." Mandie's remarks snapped her out of her reverie.
"That, Mandie was the final straw. We had a major fight that
night and the next day I re-filed for the divorce. He hadn't wanted to get
together with my friends and was acting like a spoiled six year old. I
would have rather he just sat there looking bored than share that
particular story. Being exposed to horrors like that, it's no wonder he
has an aversion to communicating his feelings to me, but still, he could
have chosen a less graphic antidote for after dinner conversation. Come,
lets move on. The perfect dress is not here."
They departed the small dress shop and Mandie wandered over to
the railing of the five story mall. Leaning against the second story rail
she took in the shops and eating locales spread through out D.C.'s largest
mall, each trying to surpass its neighbor with a prodigious amount of
Christmas lights and decorations. Suddenly Mandie's gaze centered on one
bald headed man, sitting at a small circular table situated in one of the
many coffee shops which adorned the mall. The tables of this particular
shop were located on the first floor of the mall, in the corridor, and
coffee was dispensed from a cart on wheels, strategically placed near the
wall. Sharon and Mandie were up high enough so as to watch unobtrusively.
"Speaking of the devil" Mandie gestured to the form of Walter
Skinner who was impatiently looking up and down the corridor and then at
his watch.
"I haven't seen him since the divorce," Sharon said quietly.
"He's looking well. It never ceases to amaze me how that man can stay tan
all winter."
"Do you want to stop by and see how he's doing?" Mandie didn't
wish to see the man again, but would make the sacrifice if Sharon insisted.
The few times she found herself in his presence, his intense looks and
unsmiling countenance intimidated and frightened her.
"No, I can see he's fine from here, besides I know that look.
He's waiting for someone who's late, and I don't want to be his punching
bag today." As she spoke she noticed the petite form of Dana Scully
hurrying through the throng of shoppers and stop at his table.
"Who is that?" Mandie was very interested all of the sudden.
Sharon had always vouched for Walter's fidelity during their marriage, but
this was an incredibly beautiful woman.
They watched as Walter half rose and then sat again as Dana
Scully took the empty chair across from him. "That's one of his agents,
Dana Scully. She and her partner, a man named Fox Mulder, questioned me
during Walter's trouble over that dead prostitute." The sarcasm was not
lost on Mandie who shot her a sympathetic look.
Walter said something to his agent and soon a heated exchange was
taking place as they were unaware of the two women watching from above.
"Did he ever use that tone with you?" Mandie couldn't hear the words as
the two below were arguing in subdued tones as not to attract attention
from passerby's.
"I never took any of his crap, although he tried once or twice
and found himself sleeping on the sofa. He himself admitted when he went
into 'full A.D. mode' as he called it, that most grown men ran for cover.
Agent Scully appeared to me, the type of person that could hold her own in
the 'good ole boys society'. I know Walter trusted her and asked for her
protection when he got himself shot. Beyond that, Walter was pretty closed
mouthed about the character of his agents."
"Looks like she's winding him up now. His tan has a red hue to
it." Mandie smirked, "I think I like her. He shouldn't be top dog all the
time. Someone needs to deflate him sometimes."
As they watched like two voyeurs, Walter lost all sense of
decorum, half stood and leaned over the table into Scully's face. His
words were clear and stopped many conversations in his immediate vicinity,
"Are you 'FUCKING' him, Agent Scully?" His deep, angry voice rose clearly
to the second floor causing the two women to look, startled at each other.
"This is better than any soap I've ever seen," Mandie murmured.
"I wonder who he's referring to and why is he's so upset."
Before Sharon could respond Agent Scully's reply came back, her
voice carrying as plainly as the one preceding. "No, I am not….nor have I
ever….nor do I ever intend to…. 'FUCK HIM'…. Sir. As I JUST told you….HE
IS NOT MY TYPE!!!" The last words were carefully pronounce as if she
were speaking to a mentally impaired person. They could see Scully, nose
to nose, with Walter returning his glowering scowl and demeanor with equal
furor and passion.
"My my," Sharon smiled.
They watched as Scully rose and marched to the cart to place an
order. Walter sank back into his seat with metamorphosing emotions playing
across his handsome features, anger quickly turning to amusement mixed with
relief, as her words finally sank in.
As they watched the play unfold before them another character
entered onto the scene. A tall, extremely handsome man with dark hair
walked swiftly towards Walter and slid into the now vacated seat. Walter's
countenance darkened upon this new intrusion, but his voice had returned to
a normal range, leaving the spectators from the balcony up above wishing
they could read lips.
"That is Fox Mulder, Walter's biggest headache, or so he used to
tell me. I found out differently during Walter's troubles. He was the
only one Walter would confide in, and I've never seen him worry about
another man like he does that one."
"Do you think he was the one they were shouting about?" Mandie
looked appreciatively at the handsome man now speaking in an intense manor
with Walter.
"Probably, I know the bureau frowns upon partners becoming more
than friends, but I've never seen Walter loose control in public like that
before. I'd bet money Walter has more feelings involved here than just
that of a concerned supervisor. He usually conducts such meetings in his
office, but once he told me he thought it was bugged. What ever is going
on down there, Walter doesn't want his superiors to know about, until he's
ready to inform them."
"OK junior sleuth, you can tell all that by watching them?"
Mandie sounded skeptical.
"I didn't live with super sleuth down there without learning a
few things along the way." Sharon's attention was diverted back to the
corridor café.
Walter had gotten up and had made his way to where Dana Scully
was placing a plastic lid on her coffee. She turned as he spoke to her.
His back was to the balcony, but from the expression on Scully's face, his
apology must have been heartfelt and sincere, because she gave him a smile
which lit her countenance up with the unmistakable look of a woman who had
just been told the words 'I love you,' by the man she loves. And with a
wrenching pain somewhere between jealously and disbelief, Sharon watched as
her ex-husband gently placed his large hand under Dana's chin and lifted
her head for a long and passionate kiss. His hands went on to cup her face
as his thumbs stroked softly along her cheek bones.
Mandie was trying to take in everything at once, so she wouldn't
miss anything in the retelling back at the office. The kiss, the handsome
mans reaction, and most of all Sharon's. Finally, the kiss ended as the
one called Mulder made his way to them and offered a comment which garnered
him a smack from Scully and a grin from Walter. This time Walter drew Dana
into his arms for an intimate hug and another kiss. While they were still
pressed together, Mulder wrapped his arms around both of them, and in
humorous tone which carried to the two women, now straining over the
balcony to catch any stray crumbs of conversation, stated, "And this Sir,
is what I mean by TWO ARMS to hold you."
With that statement he kissed Dana on the forehead and pecked
Walter swiftly on the cheek and beat a hasty retreat out of Walter's
swinging range. The women could see his grin as he made his escape.
Walter and Dana started to look around to see how much of a spectacle they
presented as they slowly disengaged from each others arms.
Sharon and Mandie quickly stepped back from the balcony's edge to
avoid detection and looked at each other hard for the first time since
spotting Walter. Sharon finally spoke to ease the uncomfortable silence,
"I think we just witnessed Walter getting over me. Come on, lets take the
other exit. I don't want to bump into them just yet. I need time to
digest this."
Mandie, wisely didn't add to the conversation, letting Sharon
speak as she worked through the complex range of emotions one has when
faced with seeing ones ex-husband and lover in the arms of the 'next'
woman. Sharon continued, speaking rapidly as her thoughts tumbled out, "I
don't know why I didn't see it before, it's starting to make since now, she
was called to his side when he got shot last year and didn't leave it for
very long at any one stretch, and he's always spoken well of her, never in
the same tones he reserves for her partner, although it looks like their
relationship will improve now. He talked more about Mulder and Scully than
all of the rest of the bureau agents combined.
When they hurt, he hurt, when they were missing, he never came home, just
stayed at the office until all hours waiting for their calls. Let's face
it Mandie, he's already married to those two, maybe not Dana, yet, but
definitely to the x-files, their traumatic lifestyle and their search for
truth. When Walter spoke about his work at all, it was always centered
around those two. Before he met them, he was a different man. Oh, he was
always reticent to talk about work, but in the last few years he changed,
from the man I fell in love with to……well someone a person like Dana Scully
could love, another bureau agent who would understand. I tried to change
him back, I really tried, but he had already been sucked into their world,
and believe me, from what little Walter told me it reads like a Stephen
King novel. He even told me that Scully actually shot Mulder." At
Mandie's disbelieving look she continued, "What Walter didn't tell you that
night during his gruesome story, which he related to me later, was the fact
it was an x-file case and that means Mulder and Scully. He never, ever
acknowledges that the FBI has such a department, to investigate the
paranormal or UFO's, but knowing of its existence was one of the perks of
being Mrs. Walter Skinner."
With that off her chest, Sharon stopped to catch her breath and
notice they had long exited the mall and were almost back to their place of
employment.
Mandie took Sharons pause to interject, "Are you going to be all
right with this, Sharon. I know this has to be quite a shock. The ink has
barely dried on the papers, but you're both single now, and that means both
of you have a life to get on with, and I for one know a certain man who is
just waiting for a chance to make you smile as big as the one Dana gave
Walter."
At those words Sharon smiled weakly and agreed. "It was just a
little sudden. I hoped Walter would find someone, but so soon? I think
this is what he needs, so he doesn't turn to the bottle again. I guess
it's time to relegate Walter to an 'ex' status, and besides Jim likes to
talk about his job." She wondered to herself, as they entered the
building, what it would be like to run her fingers through his hair.
THE END
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geocities.com/hollywood)