Quick fix Part Three – disclaimers and warnings in Part One

Dr Palmer flexed Walter’s forearms. ‘They’re healing really well. Are they still sore?’

Skinner shook his head, trying to avoid looking at his scarred forearms. ‘No. They ache if I’m tired though.’

‘Which is most of the time, right?’

Seeing Palmer’s smile, Skinner nodded. ‘I feel like a sick puppy. You know…’

‘Dizzy, weak, angry.’

Skinner’s head snapped up. ‘Angry?’

‘You are used to being independent. Fit. Healthy. This must be really annoying for you.’

Skinner smiled. ‘That doesn’t even come close.’

‘Maybe when one of your friends comes later on, you could go outside. It’s cold, but it’s dry. If you wrap up well, you could get some exercise and some fresh air.’

Skinner looked doubtful. ‘I can barely stand up.’

‘You might surprise yourself.’

Skinner’s face clouded. ‘I don’t want Mulder propping me up.’

Palmer put a gentle hand on his arm. ‘Then go with Dana. There’s no way she could ‘prop’ you up.’

Skinner smiled. ‘You’d be surprised. She’s stronger than she looks.’

‘So are you. I don’t believe in my clients sitting around feeling sorry for themselves.’

Angrily, Skinner snapped: ‘I’m not.’

Palmer looked into his eyes. ‘Really? If you can walk to the dining room, you can walk around the garden.’

‘It’s different.’

‘Yeah. There’s no food at the end of it.’

Skinner scowled, turning away. ‘You don’t understand.’

Palmer sighed. ‘Yeah, I do. You can walk to the dining room on your own. If you go outside, you’ll likely need help. Why is today any different from all the days you’ve been here?’

‘It just is.’ Skinner snarled.

‘I think you’re feeling better. A little better. But not enough to do everything by yourself. And that’s worse than not being able to do anything for yourself. Well?’

Skinner scowled. ‘What number am I thinking of?’

‘What?’

‘You think you can read my mind, go ahead.’

‘It doesn’t take a mind-reader Walter.’

‘I wanna get outta here. Where do I sign?’

Palmer put up his hands. ‘Okay. I’ll get the paperwork done. By the way, where will you go?’

‘Home.’

Palmer nodded slowly. ‘Okay. Just do one thing for me.’

‘What?’

‘Stand up and walk to the door.’

Skinner slid off the bed and moved slowly across the room. Halfway, he stopped, swaying unsteadily. Palmer moved quickly to support his weight, pressing the emergency call button as he crossed the room. Moments later, two staff came in quickly and took Walter’s weight as he moved away. ‘I’ll be a while with the paperwork.’

When he came back, Palmer said carefully: ‘The two men and the woman who visit. They’re obviously good friends of yours.’

Skinner nodded, guessing where the conversation was leading. ‘Yeah. The agents under my command are loyal.’

‘They seem very familiar. Not how I imagined they would interact with their boss.’

‘We’ve known each other a while. I guess we’re quite close.’

‘Particularly close to Mr Mulder and Mr Doggett.’

‘Could you just say whatever it is you want to say and get it over with?’ Skinner’s discomfiture gave an edge to his voice.

As he listened, Palmer had tried to think of a delicate way of phrasing his question, and decided there wasn’t one. ‘Do you all live together?’

Skinner flushed. ‘No. Agent Scully has her own place.’

‘But Mr Mulder and Mr Doggett share your home.’

Skinner nodded, squirming inwardly.

‘And your bed?’

Skinner cringed at the humiliation he felt. ‘Just Fox.’

Palmer kept his face completely blank, maintaining a professional air to his voice. ‘Then we need to talk about some things.’

**************

‘What this?’ Doggett picked up the stack of papers.

‘It’s my discharge.’

Doggett skimmed the top sheet. ‘This says AMA. You’re discharging yourself before your doctor thinks you should.’

‘Yeah.’ Skinner continued to pack his things into the case.

‘No way.’

Skinner turned. ‘You can’t stop me.’

Doggett pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He dialled, waited, then said sharply. ‘Fox, get over here. Superman’s discharging himself.’ Even from several feet away, Skinner heard Mulder’s angry reply.

Crossly, Skinner snapped: ‘This is none of your business John.’

‘Yeah, it is, sir. The doctor told me you can’t even walk ten feet in a straight line. How the Hell d’you think you’re gonna manage?’

‘Slowly.’

Doggett moved to stand in front of the closed door. ‘You wanna leave, you’re gonna have to get past me sir.’

Skinner scowled. ‘Get out of the way John.’

Doggett stared at a spot on the wall opposite. Skinner reached for the door handle, hissing at the pain as he tried to push Doggett aside. ‘Agent Doggett, if you do not move out of my way right now, I’ll have your badge.’

Doggett reached into his jacket. Tossing the leather wallet onto the floor, he nodded down at it. ‘There.’

Skinner reached down, swaying slightly as he picked the wallet up. Forcing himself upright, he fought an overwhelming nausea. Through gritted teeth, he managed: ‘That’s Federal property Agent Doggett. I could have you disciplined.’

Doggett nodded. ‘Yup.’

Skinner wasn’t sure what to do. It was clear that he couldn’t force John out of the way. It was also equally obvious that his threat had not been taken seriously. He moved to the window, lifting it.

‘You gonna climb outta there?’

‘Yeah.’

Doggett shrugged. ‘Okay.’

Skinner barely had time to wonder why Doggett was letting him leave before he had a leg over the window ledge and was working out how big the drop was. A few feet at most, he guessed. Then he looked down. They were several floors up. The drop was probably thirty feet or more. Doggett’s hand on his arm steadied him as Skinner climbed back inside, his whole body shaking from the sudden exertion and the knowledge he’d almost not looked before he jumped.

Calmly, Doggett said: ‘I guess we’ll wait for Fox now. They moved you from the ground floor a couple of days after you came here. They were worried you’d break out. Guess they were right sir.’

************

‘Hello Mr Mulder.’

‘Hi Dr Palmer. Is everything okay?’ Mulder was still breathless from running from the car into the building. And he was worried.

Seeing the man’s fear, and unaware of John’s call, Palmer said quickly: ‘Mr Skinner’s doing really well. Can we go into my office for a moment?’

Mulder followed the doctor into his office and sat down. ‘What is it?’

Palmer was silent for a moment, then looked up, searching Mulder’s nervous face. ‘If Mr Skinner is preparing to leave, we need to talk about a few things.’

‘I can take care of him.’ Mulder said defensively.

‘I’m sure you can Mr Mulder. That wasn’t what I wanted to talk about.’

*************

Skinner looked up as Mulder came in. ‘Hi Fox.’ He frowned as he saw Mulder’s angry expression. Of the emotions he’d expected, anger hadn’t been on the list. He guessed Palmer had, as they had agreed, caught Mulder as he came in.

Sensing the sudden tension, Doggett looked at his watch. ‘I’ve got a meeting. I’ve gotta go.’

Distracted, Mulder nodded. ‘Okay. See you later.’

‘Bye John.’

‘Bye sir. No more climbing out of the windows, okay?’

Skinner smiled, his smile fading as he saw Mulder’s reaction to his earlier behaviour.

When they were alone, Mulder said: ‘I talked to Palmer. He’s agreed to sign you out at the end of this week. Friday, we’ll take you home.’

‘Okay.’ Skinner was tired and lay back on the pillows.

‘Scully’s gonna come by tomorrow. John and I are gonna be busy all day. If you need anything, let her know, okay sir?’

Skinner nodded. ‘Thanks.’

Mulder smiled. ‘You’re gonna be home. Wow.’

Skinner smiled. Then he was suddenly serious. ‘Was that all you talked to Palmer about?’

‘No. But it’s okay.’

Skinner took a deep breath. ‘I’m sorry Fox.’

‘Hey, you don’t have anything to be sorry about! Those bastards could’ve infected you with anything!

Stunned by Fox’s angry outburst, Skinner said nothing.

More calmly, Mulder said: ‘It’s just hepatitis. You’ll get treated and get over it.’

Realising that, as usual, Fox had absorbed only part of his conversation with the doctor -- the ‘good’ part, if there was a good part -- Skinner said gently: ‘It could be months. Or never. I won’t be up for much until the symptoms are under control.’

Wanting to end the conversation, Mulder said firmly: ‘Then you’ll just have to take it easy until you’re better.’ He had taken in what the doctor said about the danger of contracting the disease from Skinner. At least some of it. He had been too embarrassed by the doctor’s uninhibited use of phrases like ‘intimate contact’ and ‘appropriate protection’ to ask questions about those things he didn’t understand. Suddenly, something Doggett had said came back to him. ‘When did you climb out of a window?’

**********

‘Agent Scully.’

‘Sir. How are you feeling?’ She had only recently overcome her urge to flick through Skinner’s chart when she walked into his room. She sat in the chair at the side of his bed and stared at him. Apart from the dark circles under his eyes, he looked almost as she remembered him. He’d put on some of the weight he’d lost and his arms were almost completely healed, just the faintest reddening of his pale flesh visible under the recently-regrown dark hair covering his forearms.

‘Like I’ve been here forever. I can hardly remember what my office looks like.’

Scully smiled. ‘Mulligan keeps asking when you’re coming back. I guess he’s not as self-confident as I thought.’

‘Sam Mulligan?’ Skinner frowned. ‘His wife died in childbirth about a year back. It changed him.’

Scully looked sad. ‘I didn’t know.’

‘He didn’t share things easily.’

Scully couldn’t help her smile. ‘Remind you of anyone sir?’

Skinner smiled. ‘I don’t know what you mean Agent Scully.’

Scully laughed. ‘I wonder how Mulder and Doggett are getting on. I offered to do it, but they insisted.’

‘Do what?’

Scully blinked nervously. ‘They didn’t tell you?’

‘No.’

‘They…er…are…tidying your apartment.’

Suspiciously, Skinner said: ‘My apartment was perfectly tidy when I left it.’

Scully felt her cheeks burning. ‘There was a break-in sir.’

‘Someone broke into my apartment? When?’

‘The day after you were abducted.’

Skinner lay back against the pillows, closing his eyes. ‘How bad was it?’

‘Not too bad sir.’ Scully lied.

‘Agent Scully, I can cope with the truth.’

‘It was a mess sir. We cleaned it up as best we could as soon as it happened. They’re just in there today to make sure everything’s okay and there’s some food in your fridge. We left the insurance forms on your desk for when you were better.’

Skinner sighed. ‘Was it the people who kidnapped me?’

‘We got a partial print from one of your closets. It didn’t match with any of the men arrested at the house. And they’re not talking.’

Skinner shrugged. ‘I wouldn’t in their situation.’

Scully nodded her agreement. ‘They were just hired muscle as far as we can work out. I doubt they even know who you were.’

Skinner stared at the ceiling. ‘Man’s inhumanity to man Scully. Never ceases to amaze me what one human being will do to another.’

‘I know sir. But you’re leaving here tomorrow. You’ll be back at work soon.’

‘I’m not sure I wanna come back Agent Scully.’

‘Sir!’ Scully was horrified. ‘Have you told Mulder and John?’

Skinner felt his face burning. Scully put a hand on his arm. ‘It’s okay sir. I know. When you were taken, that first night, they were both way more upset than two men whose boss had just been abducted. Apparently they talked about it and decided to tell me. Just me. No-one else.’

‘Kim knows.’

‘How?’

‘We took her out to dinner. She didn’t seem all that surprised.’

Scully stared at him. ‘I was.’

Skinner smiled. ‘We’ll have to take you to dinner one evening.’

‘I’d like that sir.’ Scully smiled. ‘I have to get going. If John isn’t there, Mulder’s idea of stocking your fridge will be to buy a six-pack of beer and a couple of microwaveable TV dinners. I want to at least try to convince him that vegetables are food too.’

Skinner laughed. ‘Good luck with that one Agent Scully. Thanks for coming.’

‘No problem sir. We’ll see you tomorrow.’

‘You’re coming too?’

‘Unless you’d rather I didn’t sir.’ Scully said quickly.

‘No…not at all. Thanks.’

************

If Mulder had been asked to show what he’d achieved at work on the day before they were due to collect Walter from the clinic, he would have been hard pressed. He read a couple of reports, made a few phone calls and had a long lunch. Eventually, just after five, he had had enough. ‘Scully, I’m gonna cut out early. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?’

‘I’ll be there at eight Mulder.’

‘Don’t be late Scully.’

*************

‘Agent Scully would you excuse us for a moment please?’ Although he had phrased it as a request, Scully recognised an instruction when she heard one. ‘I’ll go gather up your notes sir.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Do you have something to tell me? John? Fox?’ Skinner fought a smile as both men squirmed, finding interesting spots on the carpet to stare at.

‘Your apartment was broken into.’

‘Yes Fox I know. Agent Scully told me. Anything…else?’

‘No sir.’ Doggett really couldn’t imagine what Skinner was angry about.

‘Really? I understand you had an interesting conversation with Agent Scully. On a topic we all agreed would remain private between us unless we all discussed it first.’

‘Scully made me tell.’

Doggett groaned. Fox was so easy to break.

Skinner thought of the past few weeks to stop himself laughing out loud. Fox hadn’t even lasted ten seconds. He also heard Doggett’s disgust at Fox’s easy capitulation.

‘Agent Scully *made* you tell her *what* Fox?’

Fox made a pained sound before whispering: ‘About us.’

Skinner sighed loudly, shaking his head. ‘I see.

‘You’re gonna punish me, aren’t you.’ Mulder’s voice was soft, resigned.

‘I think you would agree you broke our rules.’

Fox nodded miserably. ‘I’m sorry.’

Feeling suddenly guilty that Fox was taking all the blame, Doggett said quickly: ‘I was there too sir. I didn’t stop him in time.’

‘John, this isn’t about you. It’s about Fox. Go wait in the car, both of you. Take my case with you.’

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