Title: Geometry-Point
Author: Jenrose <jenrose@compuserve.com>
Classification: V
Keywords:Point doesn't quite fit as a MSR... it's a precursor.
Geometry, when complete, will be a MSSR. That is, a
Mulder/Scully/Skinner *romance*. I probably won't ever think of
it as "slash".
Rating:PG-13 (for the vaguest mention of sex)
Spoilers: ReduxII
Distribution: Sure. Just keep my name on it, and keep it
intact. I'd love to know where it goes...
Feedback: Yes. This is my first "attempt", and my first
fiction
writing in 13 years, so be gentle. Brutally honest, but gentle.
Aw hell.. Tear it to shreds if ya want to. Send to
<jenrose@jenrose.com>
Summary: Skinner tries to keep his favorite agents out of
trouble. Post ReduxII.
Disclaimer: None of it's mine. Well, actually, Agent Wills is
mine. He's cute too... But the rest of them belong to Fox, CC,
et al. Hell. Most of it is derivitive of already disclaimed
fanfic. <grin> I'm a single mother with no assets other
than my
good looks and my computer, so if ya want to sue me, you must be
crazy or sadistic.
Note: this will eventually be a series of related shorts. I
prefer to work in collaboration, and would be *happy* if anyone
decided they wanted to "fill in the blanks" when I've
got more
pieces written. I'm just coming off a writer's block of 13
years, and the idea of writing anything longer than what you see
here is a bit daunting. I'm still rusty...
BTW.. I was about to write chapter 3, when I read Burning in
Heaven by Lydia Bower. She played the scene almost exactly as I
imagined, and better than I'd have written it. So go read it
<http://members.aol.com/XFSparky/burnheaven.txt> when
you're
done here.
Thanks go to Dawson Rambo, who has been very generous with his
constructive criticisms and editorial help. Hell, he's been
absolutely essential. This wouldn't have been nearly the story I
was trying to write without his contribution.
Geometry:
A line rotates around a point.
A plane rotates around a line
A solid rotates around a plane.
N is the rotation point for n+1.
Most people can't visualize above the plane rotating,
as a solid must rotate through the fourth dimension.
Some call the fourth dimension "time".
Why is it, with infinite space, and
infinite time to rotate it through,
we never seem to get enough sleep?
Two points connected make a line
Three non linear points connected make a plane.
How much more we are as three joined
Than as three lonely points.
*Point*
Skinner stared at the paperwork on his desk, scowling. As
usual, Scully was asking to return to active duty much to soon
for his liking.
"Damn fireball won't even take leave after almost dying of
cancer" he
muttered under his breath.
He could almost hear her saying, "I need my work."
It wasn't the work that she needed so desperately. He knew
that with a certainty.
He had watched them so many times. As far as he knew,
Agents Mulder and Scully had never, not once violated the Bureau
policy against sexual involvements between partners. Yet even
so, their bond might have well have been marriage, to judge from
the reactions each had to the other being injured, ill, in
danger.
He shook his head, realizing that there was a strong
likelihood that they would cross that line eventually, and at
the same time marvelling that they had not done so already.
It was actually, he admitted to himself, frustrating to
watch.
His fingers gripped a pencil tightly, rapping it against
his desk.
He threw the pencil down, and pushed himself to his feet.
Walking to the bullpen, he scanned the cubicles, not quite sure
what he was looking for.
Near one of the busiest intersections, Skinner's eyes came
to rest on Special Agent Teagan Wills, one of the newest
recruits,
who was struggling with some arcane bit of requisition paperwork,
periodically referring back to a mammoth three ring binder.
Skinner's eyes glittered.
"Agent Wills!" Skinner said sharply.
The young man startled to his feet like he'd been goosed.
The papers he'd been so carefully filling out fluttered to the
floor in chaos as he whirled around to face Skinner. He scurried
backward to reduce the impact of Skinner's intimidating frame on
his visual field.
"Yes sir?" he said, voice cracking as he bent down to
retrieve the scattered triplicate forms.
"Please pick up your rules and regs binder and accompany
me."
Agent Wills picked up the heavy notebook, and scurried
after Skinner, wondering what he possibly could have done in his
first 3 hours on the job to have the Assistant Director
personally call him into his office. Wild thoughts darted
through his head, and he gulped as he entered Skinner's private
office.
Assistant Director Walter Skinner sat behind his desk, and
looked at Wills with an expression the young agent hadn't a
prayer of reading.
Skinner spoke.
"Wills, would you refresh my memory about the FBI's policy
regarding, um, sexual relationships between partners?"
Wills stammered for a minute before he remembered that he
was too new to have a partner, let alone to have violated *that*
particular rule.
He found his voice and answered, "Fraternizing between
partners is strongly discouraged, Sir."
Skinner nodded, eyes glittering.
"Clarify, for me, if you will, what the general sanctions
are for those who violate this rule?"
Wills answered more quickly this time. "Reassignment,
possible demotion." He paused. "Actions up to and
including
termination, sir."
Skinner's eyes were almost dancing, and his lips spread in
what people who had known him for a long time would recognize as
the beginnings of a smile. Agent Wills did not recognize it as a
smile, but had a momentary mental flash of a lion baring it's
teeth.
"Agent Wills, I understand that your specialty is
analysis?"
Wills nodded, relaxing a bit as the words moved to more
familiar territory. <Maybe this is just a test>.
"Can you explain for me the purpose behind this particular
rule?" Skinner grasped the pencil with both hands. He
brought
his hands and the pencil toward his face absently as he waited
for Wills' response.
The thought <I wonder if he's going to bite it in two>
flickered through Agent Wills' mind.
He hesitated for a moment, and then answered. "Well, sir, I
suspect it is because the Bureau feels that partners who are
romantically or sexually involved would not be able work as
effectively in the field. There is also the concern of
fraternizing on government time, and the issue that if partners
are romantically involved, they may overreact in crisis
situations, be unwilling to put each other in danger, and
otherwise compromise investigations."
"Agent Wills, I see that the Academy has not only taught
you the rules of appropriate conduct, but has instilled in you
respect for the reasons behind the code of professional
relationships governing you and your fellow agents. I discuss
this with each new agent. I'm glad that I don't have to explain
the rule to you, as it is clear you understand the official
policy." Skinner paused.
Special Agent Wills started breathing again as he realized
he was almost free.
Skinner waved his pencil in the direction of the door. "You
are dismissed."
As the door closed behind the young agent, a rare smile
cracked across Skinner's face.
As he considered Wills' words, he began pace through his
office. He shook his head at the complete failure of that
particular rule to have its desired effect.
As he considered the Bureau policies that had been carved
in stone since before the first female Special Agent had
graduated the Academy, what passed for Skinner's grin continued
to twist the muscles of his face. The words kept repeating
themselves in his head: Fraternizing on government time. He
snorted. If any two partners *should* fraternize, Skinner mused,
but the people that penned that particular rule never had a
partnership like Mulder and Scully's in mind, that much was
certain.
Two of his best agents. Love written so plainly in every
single gesture, every look, every casual and oh-so-professional
touch. Behaving, to the best of his knowledge, as professionally
as two people could with that kind of bond between them.
Overreact in crisis? You bet. For some reason it made them all
the more effective together. Unwilling to put each other in
danger? Of course. Didn't matter a ratboy's ass whether they
slept together or not, it wouldn't change the way Scully
constantly fought to stay by Mulder's side. It wouldn't change
Mulder's desire to take the danger on himself, trying to protect
his partner from the worst of the horrors. Compromise
investigations? Well, with the kinds of investigations they were
doing, it was unlikely that anything they could do short of
screwing on an interrogation table in front of a witness could
really compromise them. Skinner sat down.
The thought of them having sex on an interrogation table
made him blink. As far as he could tell, the concept would be so
completely unprofessional that neither of them would ever
initiate such a thing. Heck, he was sure they hadn't even taken
advantage of the *usual* violation of the sex rule in discreet
hotel rooms thousands of miles from D.C.
The pencil resumed its dance on the desk.
<Well> he mused. <I guess I'll just have to take matters
into my own hands.>
An idea blossomed. The smile on his face grew wide as he
called his secretary into the room.
~~~~
Skinner suppressed the smile that had been trying to sneak
its way across his face all afternoon. His long strides took
him quickly through the halls of the hospital to the room of one
Special Agent Dana Scully.
In one hand he carried a potted plant filled with orange
mums, to which was attached a floating mylar balloon with the
words "Get well soon" scrawled cutely across what he
supposed
might be considered an adorable teddy bear. In the other, a
manila envelope.
He paused outside the door, momentarily smiling as he spied
Mulder sitting at her bedside, holding her hand while they
laughed together about something. Skinner tried to remember the
last time he'd seen Scully laugh, and failed. Returning his
usual severe expression to his face, he knocked on the open
door.
They looked up, saw Skinner, and Mulder rose to greet him,
dropping Dana's hand in the process.
Skinner could barely suppress his glee as he set the flowers
on Scully's rolling bedside table. She looked at the balloon
quizzically, as if trying to match the teddy bear with Skinner
and failing.
"Thank you.... Sir..", she said, her puzzlement evident
in
her tone.
He gestured at the balloon. "Only one they had left in the
gift shop that didn't say something completely
inappropriate."
He shrugged. "The bear wouldn't have been my first choice,
but
they didn't have any little..... grey... men."
He continued to fight back the laughter that had been
trying to break free since he'd had his flash of inspiration
earlier in the day.
Mulder and Scully flashed each other questioning looks.
"I received your request to return to active duty."
Skinner
set the large manila envelope down next to the flowers.
A protesting exclamation burst forth from Mulder in
Scully's direction, but Skinner waved him quiet.
"Frankly, Agent Scully, I am not inclined to grant your
request."
"Sir, I need my work.." she started.
Skinner mentally gave himself a point as she reacted
exactly as predicted. He could see the emotions flashing through
her... Anger, fear, concern.... He put up a hand to silence her.
"You will be free to return to work after you have
recuperated. However, I feel it is necessary that some changes
be made in the..." He hesitated for a moment to let the
words
he'd so carefully chosen have their desired effect.
"...Structure.. Of the X-files division."
He nodded to the envelope on the desk. "Your reassignment
is in that envelope."
At the word "reassignment", Scully gasped
"No!"
Simultaneously, Mulder leapt to his feet, the words "You
can't do that!" ripping from him before Skinner had finished
the
sentence.
Skinner grimaced.
"Why don't you both," he said, "read the
reassignment
before you bite my head off?"
They looked at each other, and then at him, and then Dana,
after resting her glasses on her nose, picked up the envelope in
front of her, tore it open with shaking hands, and began to scan
the words in front of her. As she read, a puzzled look crossed
her face.
Unable to stand the suspense, Mulder leaned over, put his
own glasses on, and scanned along with her.
Scully stopped reading, looked at Skinner, and said "You're
reassigning me to forensics?"
Scully was immediately concerned. Skinner had an alarming
twitch at the corner of his mouth, and she wondered if the
stress was finally getting to him. After a moment, Scully
realized his was trying hard not to...smile.
"I'm in charge of the Forensics Special Response Unit?
She looked up at Mulder, who had finished reading and
started to grin.
<Leave it to him to figure it out in a flash> Skinner
forced himself to make a poker face.
"I'm to make the X-files forensics my priority, accompanying
Agent Mulder into the field whenever my skills are
necessary?"
She stopped.
"May I ask, sir, how this is different from my present
assignment?"
Skinner spoke slowly, struggling to get the words out
without losing it in front of his agents. "The critical
difference between what was and what will be is that you
will...no longer be partners in the eyes of the Bureau."
<She still doesn't get it.> Skinner struggled to contain
his amusement at her expression.
Mulder looked like he was about to start levitating, there
was such wonder in his smile.
Assistant Director Walter Skinner spoke carefully,
precisely. "Agent Scully, have you ever violated the Bureau
policy regarding appropriate relationships between
partners?"
"No, sir!" she said, quickly. She looked up at her
partner's beaming face, and suddenly the connections fell into
place.
"Then consider this... promotion... a reward for a job well
done."
Skinner stopped, then remarked "Agent Scully, if you could
see the look on your face right now...." He grinned, turned,
and
strode out of the room to leave the two agents to consider the
reassignment.
The End (for now)