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The nurses literally pushed me back and out of the way once they swarmed the room with the monitors going off; I was no longer allowed bodily contact with Fox as they poked and prodded my lover, relegated to rest in the wheelchair, inadvertently sucking up IV fluids flush with the bed that was meant to be mine. “Hey,” I said angrily after a few minutes had passed with three different nurses tending to Mulder as they checked his blood pressure and lifted his once-more non-responsive eyelids in attempts to wake him. “He’s passed out again, okay? Leave him alone…hey, HEY!” I shouted, taking the slightest pleasure in their surprise.

“He only said one word and he’s out now. I need to get out of here, okay?” I half-asked, half-stated as I held up the arm with the IV lead in it, hoping that would be enough to make them understand. Between the three of them I saw two pairs of rolling eyes and heard one snort before they turned back to Fox…and it was then that I stood up from my wheelchair and pulled the needle out of my arm with a wince before falling to my ass on the bed that was supposed to be mine.

“Mr. Skinner,” one of the nurses admonished me as she took a few steps towards me with her hands outstretched, “You need to keep that line in! You are very dehydrated and stressed from today’s trauma and you-” I cut her off in mid-bullshit, pulling my arm away from her as I applied pressure to stop the tiny trickle of blood that managed to escape after I liberated myself from the IV bag and stand. “Call the doctor, please…I’m leaving right now.”

“Mr. Skinner you cannot just walk out of here – you’ve suffered a terrible shock today and we need to hold you for observvv…” I cut her off again, “Hold me for WHAT? I wasn’t the one nearly half-eaten by a mountain cat today, okay? I need to get home and check…I have to see if Jack made it home,” I finish as I strip out of my hospital gown, dropping the hated garment to the floor.

“Is Jack another…um…friend of yours? If so, we can send a search party,” she said as her cheeks visibly flush crimson, and she quickly turns her back to me in order to avoid my nudity; Christ, didn’t they all know I was Fox’s by now? I half-laughed, half-snorted at her supposed shyness as I asked, “Where are my jeans? I need something to wear home, nurse…what’s-your-name?” I asked her while she attempted to make herself useful as she joined her two buddies while they fussed over Mulder. “Nurse? One of you can answer me and you’d damn well better or I’m going to walk out of this room and then this very building stark naked!” I say with a raised voice, arching my eyebrows at the one who finally acknowledges me, standing there doing my best AD impersonation with my hands on my hips, frown in place and only one tiny difference from my Bureau days…buff as the day I was born.

“Mr. Skinner PLEASE,” the irritated young lady in white gasps, “You are not helping with your partner’s care here. If you don’t put your gown back on this instant…”

“Lady, I know that you have some sort of clothing that I can put on so I can run home and check to make sure our dog wasn’t killed out there today. Jack is the only thing Fox asked for when he woke up for those three seconds and if you don’t find me some sort of scrubs or old jeans or something – ANYTHING AT ALL – I don’t have a fucking problem walking out of here just like this to catch a cab. Now, can you help me?” Apparently I’d finally gotten my point across; she stormed out of the room and returned minutes later with matching green scrub pants and top, handing them to me with a shake of her head before she hightails it back out of the room.

I get dressed in a flash and lean over Mulder to make sure he’s resting comfortably – the harpies had taken their leave so that I could cover myself in peace. “I love you Fox, and I’ll be back in a little while. I have to go see if I can find our boy,” I whisper into his bandage-covered ear and then kiss his left cheek, pressing my forehead to his for several moments before I stand up with a groan, shove down the discomfort from all the tiny holes in my shins and the tops of my feet, and make my way down the hall – barefoot and pissed off at the entire situation, but determined to come out on top. This was FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder and Assistant Director Walter Skinner, after all…nobody fucks up our retirement...no one surviving to tell the tale, at any rate.

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The cabbie thought I was a doctor, and I told him that I’d had to come into the hospital on the spur of the moment to deliver a baby that just wouldn’t wait. I informed him that my wallet and everything else was at home and that I had plenty of money to pay him once we got there, and he didn’t so much as utter another syllable after that, merely nodded his head and stepped on the gas. Half an hour and $40 on the meter later I arrived at the ranch, hobbling inside sans shoes to get my wallet and sandals, then running back out to intensely overpay the cabbie with a $20 tip. He blessed me for the new life I’d brought into the world and sped off; I wondered what he would’ve thought had he known the truth – that I was an ex-FBI AD coddling his male ex-suboordinate before running home in a panic to check on the dog. Then I said, “Fuck it,” aloud and made my way through the house shouting at the top of my lungs for Jack.

When the cab had pulled up at the front door I hadn’t seen any sign of the great white beast; I’d hoped to find him lounging idly on the front porch, tongue lolling out the side of his massive maw in exhaustion from playing with a too-big kitty all afternoon. Unfortunately the front porch sat relatively undisturbed with the swing swaying just a bit in the barely-there evening desert breeze. I caught myself feeling more than a bit melancholy…Fox and I should have been snuggled together in that swing tonight, fingers and arms and most assuredly lips entwined in the nearly-there moonlight. Instead, he lay unconscious in a hospital bed 35 miles from home, wrapped like some movie monster because some big bad pussy fucked up our day.

“JACK,” I shouted as I literally shook the morose thoughts from my mind, my voice practically echoing in the too-empty house, “Jack, here boy…JACK,” I yelled again and then allowed my eardrum-piercing whistles to take over, my abused throat really too spent to do much more vocally. I checked his pillows in our bedroom – no Jack. I checked his food dish and water bowl in the kitchen – still untouched; he hadn’t eaten all of his breakfast, he was so excited to go out with Fox and me. I swear that dog understands every single word we say aloud…and some we don’t, but I digress.

I made my way through our entire home, whistling and shouting until what little voice I had cracked and made way for more tears to trickle down my cheeks. I was at the back door that now hung askew, busted with one swift kick from my foot earlier when I’d been panicked to get Fox inside. I walked a few more steps to the back porch and dropped directly to my ass on the landing, pulling my now-throbbing legs up under my chin so I could wrap my arms around them and weep properly for the grief this day had brought all of us. With each heaving breath I allowed, the dull pain from each individual prick in my shins and along the tops of my feet screamed new agonies, making me sob that much harder.

Exhaustion was setting in, IV’s emptied into me or not and I wept for my precious Fox lying battered and bruised in his hospital bed. I wept for the dog we’d both come to jokingly refer to as ‘son’, who was nowhere to be found after saving the love of my life…and I wept for how pitiful a sight I must be at this moment – a grown man weeping into his knees for things that had once more spun out of control. Had I really figured that once I’d left the Bureau things would resolve themselves? That life would suddenly become easier and more manageable? Had I really imagined that all I needed to do was exit the AD “Way of Life” and come out here to the middle of nowhere where no one knew anything about me OR my past, and fate would just make way for me? Christ…how stupid could I be?

“GODDAMMIT,” I raised my head and roared at the top of my lungs, my voice trailing off into more watery broken sobs, “JACK! DADDY WANTS YOU, JACK…we wuhhh…we want you back,” I sobbed aloud before dropping my chin back to my knees. “Fox,” I muttered to the blackness of the night desert, “I’m so sorry, Fox. I’m so fucking sorry for everything…I love you so much. I’ve always loved you, since the first time I saw you and I’m sorry I didn’t let you get a pony. I’m sorry I killed our daw…our dawhhh…FUCK!” I screamed once more, raising my face to the night sky and berating the stars twinkling up there, “JAAAACKKK! YOUR DADDIES WANT YOU BACK, GODDAMMIT!”

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I’d had every intention of going back to the hospital once I’d checked the ranch for Jack, but sheer exhaustion overtook me and I didn’t even have the forethought to go back in the house. I know that to be so because when I awoke the next morning, I was lying on my back on the floorboards of our back porch. “Well at least my back hurts worse than the fucking spines they pulled out of me,” I said aloud to no one as I attempted to make my way to my feet – unsuccessfully. “Shit,” I muttered, still trying to find a way to get myself up and moving…and then I heard it.

“wwwwmmmph…” trailed out from what sounded like a block away, but I could tell it was nearer (mainly because I’d heard it).

“Jack?” I asked hesitantly, praying that it wasn’t my imagination. I remained on my back on the rear porch deck because 1) it was really too much to try and move and 2) it was actually quite comfy at this point in time; my shins and feet were quite uncomfortable, truth be told and –

“…wwwmphh…boof,” was the weak, muffled response to my out-loud musings once more. It sounded like he was under the porch; wasn’t that where injured animals went to recuperate…or, I gulped aloud…die?

“Jack, if that’s you you’d better show yourself as soon as you can…if you’re that godforsaken cat I’m going to beat you to death with…” I looked around and realized that since I couldn’t even get to my own feet it would be useless to threaten some wild beast with the mere threat of death, but I digress again…

“Jack, Daddy wants to see you…if that really is you…and Daddy Fox is in the hospital but only because you are such a good boy…Jack is a goooood boyyyy, the best boy…come on Jack, come see Daddy,” I begged as I stared up at the underside of the wooden planks that made our bedroom deck overhead, frozen now more from fear than pain from my injuries. What if it was the cat? What if it was some other desert beast just waiting for an easy-to-catch meal? What if…all the rest of my fears, worries and doubts were laid to rest as I heard another whimper from below and raised my chin to my chest so that I could see my impending demise as it made its way up the steps towards me. I could hear the toenails on the steps before I could see him, and I knew he was coming for me; for better or for worse, this was it. At least Fox was safe in the hospital…we’d done our wills and I knew that he would have control of this place if anything happened to me and I was sure it was about to…

…and then the great white beast that Fox and I called ‘Son’ showed his fuzzy face – albeit matted pink with cougar blood and more than a few wounds of his own that I found moments after he pounced on me. “Jack,” I grabbed handfuls of his fur on either side of his head and kissed him over and over, allowing him the freedom to lick me on the face as I’d never done before. He actually allowed me to grab bodily onto him and he helped me to my feet despite his own whimpers of pain; I found a long slash along his left side where the fur hung in a flap, blood and dirt caked in and around the wound. His eyes shone with the agony that he felt and once I was on my feet, steady (nearly, anyway) and mobile I called 9-1-1 and insisted upon an ambulance for Fox’s & my son; hey…they didn’t need to know it was a dog until they got here…and when they did, I showed them enough green as a bonus that it didn’t matter how far it was to our veterinarian. No matter whether you’re ex-FBI, ex-Military, or ex-anything else…you never leave a man (or child, two- or four-footed) behind. Period.

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EPILOGUE

Fox spent a very painful and nail-biting week in the hospital; when I finally got back there after making sure Jack was going to be all right, my love had been hooked up to a respirator. The nurses from Hell informed me that the doctor believed – after yet another battery of tests – that at least one of the great cat’s claws had punctured Mulder’s lung, leaving behind some very nasty bacteria. It broke my heart to sit next to Fox, swaddled as he was in bandaging with the machines beeping incessantly as they kept my precious other half alive…but I was his goddamn limpet from that moment on.

I’d had the forethought to pack a bag, and when I did finally run out of clean briefs and whatnot, the docs were kind enough to supply me with an unending supply of scrubs. For the first three days, Mulder simply slept. Every so often his face would contort in pain, or some nightmare or flashback or other, but for the most part he merely rested, his body’s healing the tiniest bit more evident each time the nurses would come in to change his bandages. After three days the infection in his lungs was clearing up with all the anti-virals & antibiotics they were pumping into him and the respirator was finally removed…once he no longer gasped for air when the tube was absent. I felt as though I finally managed to release a breath I’d been holding for all three days when he no longer struggled to take a breath, merely coughing a couple of times before falling back into restful, healing slumber.

It was another way-too-long day before he finally opened his eyes for longer than an instant; even though he’d been in and out of consciousness for brief periods before, those beautiful hazel orbs never completely focused, nor was there any indication that he knew anything that had happened or was occurring at the present time. I’d been reading some Robert Frost aloud to him when I heard him take a deep breath and utter the first syllable I’d heard since this shit all went down. “Walt,” he whispered, that beloved voice too rusty from so many days of non-use to come out loud and clear. I could’ve cared less, though I felt a little guilty when he jumped bodily at the sound of the book hitting the fake-tiled floor – I’d let it go immediately so I could gently clutch his left hand in both of mine and assure him that I was well and truly there.

“Fox,” I said with a huge smile instantly pasted across my face, all the pain and trepidation of waiting for him to wake eliminated all at once with the sight of his now-focused eyes meeting mine. “How are you feeling, love? God I’ve missed you so much Mulder,” I told him as I brought his bandaged arm closer to my face so I could graze his knuckles with my lips.

“How…how long have I been here?” He asked me as he’d looked around the room slowly, still not realizing just how long he’d been in this dingy atmosphere – nor how long I’d been anticipating the very moment when I would hear him speak my name. It was a true sign that he was well on his way to recovery, and I filled him over the course of the next forty minutes or so…until he’d fallen asleep with his fingers entwined in my own, the slightest of smiles showing on his face as he’d drifted off not in pain (for the first time since our ordeal), but with both of us at peace and knowing that it was all going to be okay...finally.

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I called the vet to check on Jack; he’d been stitched back together, having been torn up nearly as badly as his Daddy Fox, and was recovering nicely. The techs told me that he seemed restless and appeared to be waiting to see us, but other than that he was doing just fine and would probably be ready for release in a day or two. Luckily, that’s all the more the hospital docs figured Mulder would be “incarcerated”, so to speak, and I hoped that we could just pick Jack up on the way home. I felt a little guilty about not visiting Jack at the vet, but I had to tend to my lover – I just…did. Besides, if what the tech told me was any indication, our son was being as spoiled as he’d ever been by his Daddies; the entire staff was delighted to have such a huge, sweet beast in-house and saw to it that Jack didn’t want for anything. I was sure we would have to put our boy on a diet once we all got home!

Mulder was up and walking (albeit gingerly) the very next morning, to my delight – and his – with no more catheter necessary. The bandages had been removed from his head, revealing a Frankenstein-like look that Fox shuddered at in the mirror, but I put my arms around him from my stance behind him, kissed him on the neck and noted the distinct lack of bolts there which had him chuckling; the loss of most of his hair nearly instantly forgotten. “It’ll grow back lover,” I’d murmured into his neck, nipping the skin there lightly before bestowing kisses to the same spot, “you could never look better to me than you do at this moment Fox,” I told him as I turned him in my arms and gazed into those hazel depths, radiating every iota of love I felt for him directly to his soul…at least that’s how it felt, especially if the reciprocal gaze I was receiving was any indication.

He wrapped his still-bandaged arms around my waist and smiled lopsidedly at me as he closed his eyes and planted a tender kiss on my love-starved lips. “Oh Fox,” I muttered into his mouth, both of us breaking into smiles while we attempted to make out, breaking out into what could only be called quite unmanly giggles as we reveled at once more being body to body, fully in one another’s arms. “I love you too Walt,” he muttered as he licked at my lips, shivers racing up and down my spine from the mere contact.

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Two days later, Fox was released – mostly de-mummified by that time (his ribs would need to be taped for another week or so, but we were going HOME!) – and we stopped at the Vet and met up with Jack. We had no more walked in the front door of the animal hospital before we heard excited howling coming from an unseen back room. “You must be here for Jack,” the front desk tech grinned as she turned and made her way to the hallway, “Follow me, gentlemen…your son is very anxious to be reunited with you. He’s one of the best patients we’ve ever had, so polite, so loving…although he did appear to be suffering from some separation anxiety,” she finished, making Fox and I both snort aloud.

“Tell us about it,” I told her with a grin, grabbing Mulder’s hand in my own as we entered the holding room where Jack had resided for the last few days. Almost automatically, Fox and I both turned towards the very kennel where our boy was being held; it was sort of unnerving, the connection we shared with this great white beast, yet welcoming at the same time. We’d all survived the traumatic experience together…each of us saving the other the only way we knew how…and I had a feeling that we’d all be more bonded forever (if that were possible) because of it.

“JACK,” Mulder shouted, dropping to his knees so quickly my heart skipped a beat before I realized he was just readying himself for the assault of 120+ canine pounds in his lap…a fact which instantly had me worried that Fox might pull something or re-injure something or…all my worries were laid to rest when the tech opened Jack’s cage and he came bounding out. He stopped directly in front of Fox, whimpering a bit at first, going down in an almost bow as he raised his butt in the air and scooted gingerly towards his Daddy, scooting forward inches at a time until he was flush with Mulder’s knees. Amazed, I continued to watch as Jack reacquainted himself with Fox, gently nudging at his knees and sniffing all around him, as though checking to make sure Daddy was okay. It was one of the most incredible things I’d ever seen…despite all of Mulder’s X-File adventures, Reports, 302’s, and so on and so forth.

Jack looked up at me and I smiled down at him, his wagging tail the only proof I needed to know that he was feeling ever so much better, and then he turned his attention once more to Fox. He stood up and placed one great white paw on either side of Mulder, proceeding to lick every inch of Fox that he could reach. My lover began to chuckle, said chuckles giving way to ‘girly-giggles’ that he still denied he engaged in when charmed beyond belief. Fox wrapped his arms tenderly around Jack’s shoulders and pulled the huge beast against him, whispering words of love and thanks into the newly-shorn fur of his neck.

I watched this with a smile on my face at first, which gave way to a huge lump in my throat, and then before I knew it there were the slightest traces of tears gracing my cheeks. Almost as though he’d smelled the salty drops, Jack backed away from Fox and came to sit in front of me, tail wagging, eyes meeting my own as though asking permission to come up. I opened my arms and he instantly jumped to his hind legs and placed his front paws on my shoulders, meeting my eyes with his own. “I love you too, Jack. You saved Daddy Fox, and you saved yourself for us. We love you so much…you are the best boy,” I finished with more tears, and Jack gently licked my face clean before getting down and sitting, looking first at Fox and then at me before he released one loud bark.

It sounded suspiciously like, “Home”.

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Author’s Notes: I truly hope you enjoyed this story! I do intend to write more and I cannot tell you how much it means to me that a few of you are still surfing here to check us out online! Thank you for all of your kind words, ALL of you who write me (and even those of you who don’t). I can’t wait until XF2 comes out…until then, Long Live Sk/M!!!

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