BACCARAT PIECE: FEARED ASSYMMETRICAL EYE By Sean Spencer seans13@hotmail.com CATEGORY: VRA RATING: PG KEYWORDS: Mulder/Skinner, Slash SPOILERS: Fearful Symmetry SUMMARY: Post episode vignette of Fearful Symmetry in the Baccarat Household. DISCLAIMER: Fox Mulder, Walter Skinner and Dana Scully are the properties of Chris Carter, 1013 Productions and Fox Television. No copyright infringement is implied or should be inferred from their use in this work of fiction. All other characters are mine. ATXC: No GOSSAMER: Yes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fox Mulder hardly ever took tub baths but this evening was a rare exception. He was aching all over. He had a headache but more than that, his right shoulder was painful. He gingerly lowered himself into the tub and sank in the almost hot water. The tub was a large one, which fortunately accommodated his tall frame, and the soothing water managed to even cover his shoulder. When he and Scully wrapped up the case at Fairfield, in the Spud state, he didn't feel this bad. He even drove the one- hour to the airport. But once they were on the plane that was when bruised muscles, the black eye and the cut on his hairline started to tell on him. Scully had to drive him back to his apartment. But stubborn man he, Mulder forced himself to drive to the cabin. He wasn't going to stay one more hour in his apartment, especially on a weekend. Mulder soon relaxed enough to sleep in the tub. He was off to dreamland when he heard the scuff of leather shoes on the bathroom tile floor. Mulder opened his left eye and smiled a lopsided drowsy grin at Skinner. The thunderous expression on Skinner's face was quite a sight; Mulder tried to think happy thoughts. He just didn't feel that getting chewed out was a nice thing right now. AD Skinner angrily shook his head. He loomed over Mulder and firmly but gently held the agent's face to get a better view of the black eye under the glare of the bathroom lights. Then Skinner walked out of the bathroom, still not a word said between them. Mulder stayed in the tub for a little while longer despite the cooling water. He experimentally moved his right shoulder and it did indeed feel better. Because it was already dark outside and his stomach was growling, Mulder reluctantly left the tub to face the music. He dried himself off and padded naked into the bedroom where he got out his sweats from the bureau. All the while as he dressed, Skinner still didn't say a word, simply watching television with the same closed expression on his face. Once the agent was dressed, Skinner turned off the TV. Mulder sighed, knowing that it was about to start. "Didn't I send you to investigate zoo animal disappearances?" Skinner asked in a deceptively even voice. He had his arms over his chest. Although he had driven directly from the office most probably an hour ago, Skinner still wore his shirt and tie, the tie not even loosened. "Yeah," Mulder carefully combed his damp hair and winced when he inadvertently hit the cut in his hairline. "So would you care to tell me how you got that black eye?" "The...suspect and I were going into the storage room where Sophie was going crazy and...." Mulder tried to gather his thoughts to make a more coherent report. But this was the cabin. Didn't they agree not to talk about work here? "Sophie?" Skinner wondered out loud. "She's the resident pregnant gorilla and..." "YOU WENT INTO A CRAZY PREGNANT GORILLA'S CAGE?!" Skinner roared in his best ex-Marine bellow. "Yes, but I was pushed in and the suspect locked me in," Mulder winced yet again at the decibel range Skinner managed to yell out. "And I didn't have back up because we never seriously considered the caretaker as a suspect. It wasn't Scully's fault, she was..." "I've heard enough; I think I'll just wait for the official report," Skinner sighed heavily, defeated by the strange situations his lover always got into. "So what did the doctor say? Wait a minute, did you see a doctor?" "A paramedic saw me," Mulder said defensively. "She dressed my head and Scully said that I seemed okay." "May I remind you, Fox, that Scully's patients are all dead?" Skinner said. Mulder shrugged. "How long did you get knocked out this time?" "I don't know...hours, I guess," Mulder realized that he'd given himself away again. "It was morning when Scully found me." "You were unconscious for more than a few minutes and you still haven't seen a doctor?" Skinner was really angry this time. "I'm taking you to the hospital right now." "No!" Mulder cried. "They laughed at us, they were snickering at us last time you were there. I don't like the hospital here." Somehow, it was okay if the whole VCS teased and baited him but he couldn't stand it when Skinner was the target of similar derision. "I'll go alone tomorrow, I promise," Mulder muttered to appease the older man. "You can wake me as often as you like tonight, if that's what you're worried about." Skinner finally gave up and approached Mulder for a brief welcome kiss. He gave a start when Mulder winced as their shoulders came in contact with each other. "Where does everything hurt exactly?" Skinner asked. His jaw was set. "My head and my right shoulder," Mulder said, sighing in satisfaction that Skinner wasn't so mad after all. "Scully gave me some Excedrin before I went here." "And I bet you took it on an empty stomach," Skinner said wryly as they headed downstairs for dinner. He refrained from putting a hand on Mulder's shoulder as the younger man wrapped his good arm around Skinner's waist. Mulder didn't even try to answer that one. Skinner told him to just sit in the kitchen as Skinner prepared a quick dinner of spaghetti with bottled sauce and a green salad. Mulder wolfed down most of the spaghetti while Skinner ate most of the salad. After washing up the dishes, again with Skinner refusing his help, Mulder found that he was really tired. They watched an hour of television. Mulder dozed off against the older man. "Hey, Fox, let's go to bed," Skinner stroked his face gently to wake him up. Mulder groaned as he moved. This time, the shoulder really hurt; it wasn't just a dull ache anymore. Once in the bedroom, he found that he could barely raise his right arm to take off his sweatshirt. "You sure you didn't sprain this?" Skinner asked as he checked out the black and blue marks on Mulder's shoulder. "No, I didn't twist it or anything," Mulder said. He drank the pills that the older man handed to him. "She just bulldozed me into the wall." Because of his years in high school and college football, Skinner knew a thing or two about sprains. He made Mulder lie on his front and gently but expertly massaged the shoulder. It did feel better and as Skinner extended his massage to include the rest of his back muscles, Mulder fell into a comforting sleep. For once, Mulder woke up before Skinner that Saturday morning. He was still lying on his front. He carefully moved on the bed to turn onto his back without waking Skinner and found that a dull ache only emanated from his shoulder. He carefully moved it and smiled to himself when it didn't hurt much. The AD was lying at his side of the bed, probably not wanting to lie against Mulder to avoid jostling the shoulder. Mulder got under the comforter and cuddled up spoon fashion to Skinner, just wanting to be near him. It was nice and warm under the comforter but it was even better when Skinner was under it with him. He put his face against the broad muscular back and inhaled the combination of aftershave and Skinner's own distinctive scent. This was why Mulder hurried to the cabin instead of staying in his apartment yesterday evening. Just being here with his beloved Walter for the brief weekend was enough to recharge him for the rest of the week. He didn't tell Scully, but when he was there in the dark room with Sophie, he had been terrified for a minute especially when she butted him against the wall. It was just he and nature never mixed well, starting with that jaunt in the forest with the green phosphorescent bugs, later the volcano expedition then his latest foray in the Arctic. The last straw had been his close encounter with a pregnant gorilla abductee. He smirked and wondered what Skinner was going to say about his latest theory once he submitted his report: that animals and not just people were alien abductees. Scully still wasn't convinced up to now about his theory but that was nothing new. What truly disturbed him , was the flash of light that preceded Sophie's disappearance from the storage room. For a terrifying moment, he was back in Chilmark and in Puerto Rico, when those eye-piercing intense flashes of light meant bad things had happened. Mulder felt that Skinner was awake as the older man stirred. Skinner turned to him and with practiced ease, Mulder crawled on top of him. "I guess you're not hurting anymore," Skinner said, his voice roughened by sleep. He smoothed Mulder's soft hair as Mulder rested his head on his shoulder. "But you still have to get yourself checked out." "Yes," Mulder sighed. "I'll go to the hospital first thing today." "You must know why I was mad last night," Skinner said as he stroked Mulder's bare back. "Yes, because a gorilla beat me up," Mulder answered. "And I wasn't exactly following Bureau procedures..." "No, Fox," Skinner said with some irritation; sometimes Mulder could be so dense. "This is your first case since Alaska. It took you a month to recover from that. And now, the first case back to work and you get hurt again. I thought I was sending you to Idaho for a quiet investigation in a nice safe zoo, and I suddenly find you here all beaten up by a gorilla. I didn't expect you to try to get in the same cage as wild beasts and God knows what. Please try to be careful next time, will you?" "Yes, I will," Mulder said in his little boy voice. Skinner rolled his eyes. When Mulder used that tone of voice, the AD knew it wasn't really a promise. But he let it pass. Mulder never knew how shocked Skinner was last night, upon finding the agent soaking in the tub with the black eye and the bruised forehead. But Skinner did remember that Mulder worked in the X-files where cases weren't so clear cut. "God, how I love you," Skinner squeezed Mulder gently to him, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Just try to remember that every time you're confronted by a potentially dangerous situation. You aren't alone anymore and my heart just stops when I see you battered like this." "I love you, too, Walter," Mulder smiled against Skinner's chest as he returned the AD's embrace. "I'll try to follow Bureau protocol next time." They stayed like this for a while. Saturday mornings were always a nice and quiet time in the cabin, especially mornings like this quietly cuddling under a warm comforter with the love of your life. END OF BACCARAT PIECE: FEARED ASYMMETRICAL EYE Feedback will be highly appreciated. ------------------------------------------------ "A beacon in the night." Mulder in reference to Skinner Nisei ------------------------------------------------ If you want to see real Baccarat figurines you can take a look at www.the-forum.com/glass/baccarat.htm to give you an idea of what Skinner gave to Mulder. However, there are no fox figurines at that site. It's probably a limited edition .