Title: All I Want For Christmas
Author: Rev. Anna send feedback to
ataylorsweringen@yahoo.com
Category: Vignette
Rating: G
Spoilers: One Breath, Requiem
Keywords: angst, holiday, Skinner
Disclaimer: 1013 owns him.  That's all I care to say
on the subject.
Summary: Only memory can cure what ails Skinner these
days
Author's Note: My response to the X-OK 155-310 word
challenge.  Quoted dialogue was written by Glen Morgan
and James Wong.

All I Want For Christmas
by Rev. Anna

Skinner hated parties in general and Christmas parties
in particular.  This year's green Christmas tree
butter cookies and rum punch were nauseating as ever. 
Surrounded by drunken ADs and special agents singing
All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, he
felt drained and demoralized.

With no Scully to act as a buffer and no smart-mouthed
Mulder to provide distraction, Skinner fled from the
conference room in search of a balm in Gilead for his
sin-sick soul.  A balm, a tonic, anything to make this
party -- hell these last incredible months -- less
surreal.

He beat a hasty retreat down to the X-Files office,
hoping he would find a cure in the basement.

Using Scully's key, he unlocked the door and stepped
inside.  The room's comforting quiet welcomed him back
with a soothing memory of a time five years ago when a
point of contact was made...

"When I started out, this is where they kept the
copier."

"At least back then, it wasn't just wasted space."

And a risk was taken...

"I lost my faith.  Not in my country or in myself, but
in everything."

And two truths were shared...

"I'm afraid to look any further beyond that
experience.  You?  You are not.  Your resignation is
unacceptable."

And an alliance begun...

"You...you gave me Cancer Man's location.  You put
your life in danger."

"Agent Mulder, every life, everyday is in danger. 
That's just life."

Hot tears spattered his lenses.  Skinner took them off
and wiped them against his shirt as the memory of that
encounter renewed his strength to believe in the
future.

He put his glasses back on and looked over at Mulder's
poster, remembering all he wanted for Christmas then
was to be an ally.

And now?

Now all he wanted for Christmas was Mulder back.

End