TITLE: Frown, you're on Candid Camera!
AUTHOR: Steck
EMAIL: steck@publishorperish.com
SUMMARY: Skinner's pain during Biogenesis I
RATING: PG at most. 
SPOILERS: Big-time for Biogenesis I (season 6 finale)
CATEGORY: SkinnerAngst, a touch of angst for Mulder and 
Scully too.
DISCLAIMER: The characters belong to Chris Carter, 1013, 
Fox TV, etc. If I had them, we'd have more fun and this Lone 
Gunman would have more help around the shop!
 
Why didn't I break him in two when I had the chance?
I knew as soon as he stuck his ratty nose back into my life, with 
his not-quite Palm Pilot in his hip pocket, that the time had come 
to be the bad guy again. Not quite as bad as he is, but there'll be 
no one for the next year glaring accusingly at *him* over this. It 
must be big, though, for Krycek to call me in.
Now I sit yet again, head in my hands, waiting in the hospital for 
Scully to appear, waiting for Mulder to come back to us from 
wherever his head is in the psych ward. I've signed Sandoz' 
death warrant after my phone call to Scully. Damnit, if only she 
hadn't led off her call that she was with Sandoz! Was this 
Krycek's plan, too, to break his former partner, and cut them 
both off from me? I'm sure he was shadowing Mulder and 
tipped that bitch Fowley off that Mulder had collapsed. There's 
no way that he would call her and not call Scully - or, I hope, me 
- had he been able to use his cell phone at all.
Then we're in the observation room, Fowley spreading her 
insinuations about being with Mulder all night, targeting Scully 
with her poison. I draw a breath and look away, balling my 
hands into fists. Better that I hold my tongue - and those fists - 
than have her suspect how she could use Mulder against me, 
too.
"Scull-ly!" he shouts at the camera, and I realize he *knows * 
that she's there. How? After they leave the room, I look 
longingly at his monitor. Nothing. He's shut me out already, and, 
based on the partial information he's gathered, I don't blame 
him... If he'd only known about Krycek before, I'm sure he 
could've put it together, find the extra meaning between the 
words I growled in my office. Stay away, Mulder. Don't say 
anything, Mulder. You're on Candid Camera, and you don't 
want to know who's replaced Alan Funt.
The pained look on Mulder's face; how did he know what I was 
holding back? Just like him, too, to blurt it out in front of Scully. 
Could Krycek have heard it all from the other room, heard my 
thoughts as Mulder must've heard them? 
And why hear only my betrayal, and not my heart breaking?
 
THE END