Coming Home-The Walter bit

Walter was not having a good day. He woke up with a hangover, he came into the office to find that no matter how much he tried to ignore Mulder, it was nearly impossible, and on top of that, his two new agents were acting strangely. Skinner was already very leery of Spender Junior, and Diana Fowley was one woman who had the balls and strut to face down even the toughest marine. 

Walter wondered when it had all gone wrong for him. He couldn't believe it was just the alcohol. But he decided he had to start by putting away the booze for a while as he went in search of something that he had been familiar with before all of *this * in his life occurred. He wasn't exactly sure what *this * was, but he knew it was definitely a killer. Getting knocked on his ass was certainly something he needed, but the fact that he was woozy before that occurred told him something was definitely up. He wasn't sure what it was.

Even after visiting his doctor, he still could not shake the wooziness he felt. Lying on the staff lounge's sofa wasn't even a help. Mulder came along and found him there. 'Great, all I need is for Mulder to help me like a damsel in distress.'  He did not like Mulder's hands on him…it almost made him sob. If he hadn't felt like someone had kicked his side in, he would have pulled him down and kissed that concerned look away. He was very grateful that Mulder decided to call Dana in to help when he'd found the large bruise on his side. 

Being the central figure in an X-file was certainly not his idea of a good time nor did he consider it a chance to get back together with Mulder. Since his former lover and agent seemed totally distracted with the case, he had no other course but to follow along and try not to look too needy. Luckily, the fact he was still a bit woozy and his vision blurred occasionally helped to distract him from other more personal thoughts he was having about the agent helping him.

Going with Mulder to find the man who had slipped him whatever it was working in his body was not the best idea he'd had. Not just because it could have possibly revealed to Mulder that he really wanted him back in his life, but because he had nearly fainted and had to have Mulder see him like that.

'Chasing after someone in your condition is no way to behave,' he chided to himself, and then wondered what in the world his condition was anyway.

When he ended up in the hospital, still unsure what was going on with him, he was not in the least surprised. The pain was getting unbearable, but he felt like he deserved every bit of it. Acting so stupidly, as he had recently with Mulder, with his own body, with Alex…he felt like sobbing but the pain was too much even for that.

When he finally began to remember seeing a man who had apparently been tailing him all day, he realized that he had been so wrapped up in his own self-pity that he just hadn't really been paying attention enough to recognize the longhaired drifter. He was bearded, that's all he could remember, the only clue he had. He sighed and suddenly the pain seemed to intensify more than he could bear. Then all went black.

When he awoke again, he was in the hospital and being told that he had died but, for some unknown reason, he was now alive again. He looked around the room groggily, caught movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked over to see a man looking at him through the glass window. It was the same bearded man. He closed his eyes, not sure what the man wanted, but he knew the answer wouldn't be long in coming.

When he was discharged from the hospital a few days later, the
doctors were puzzled by his sudden instant recovery, but had no more clues as to what had happened to him than they'd had at the start of this case.  He had an idea that the mystery man would be contacting him. He almost staggered at how grateful he was that Mulder wasn't his lover any longer. Now he was alone and, whoever that man was, he could not use his lover against him. He shook his head. 'Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Skinner.' His thoughts were bleak and bitter.

When he staggered into his condo, glad he was given medical leave from his office, he made a bee-line for his bed and hoped the mystery man wouldn't come knocking until he'd slept for at least a week, which is how long he felt he could sleep for, uninterrupted.

When he awoke, the first thing he did was curse his marine training. Then he blearily looked at the clock and saw it was nearly midnight. He had slept for about nine hours. Something had woken him, though. He groaned inwardly as he tried to move stiff muscles. He didn't remember putting his glasses on top of the clock radio, but there they were. He sighed as he placed them on his face. He struggled to disentangle himself from the bedsheets, and then winced as his bladder screamed at him. His mouth tasted like cotton dusted with baby powder, and he stumbled to the bathroom to relieve himself, then try to rinse the taste out of his mouth. He felt drained but not in the sick, hungover way he'd been experiencing recently. He was exhausted, but his mind felt clear, and he hoped that, come what may, he would not be making any rash decisions, like trying to contact the mystery man. Then he remembered the military alertness with which he had awoken, and he wondered if maybe the mystery man was the cause of the interruption of his sleep. 'Let's get this over, mystery man,' he thought grimly.

He felt better as he walked down the stairs to the kitchen then 
stopped dead in his tracks. There on the sofa lay a man-*the* man. He moved closer, quietly. The man was obviously asleep. He stopped just short of the couch, and realized that he recognized the features of the man on the couch. The man's body was…oh god…no.  "Alex?"

The man stirred and woke, and when he saw those eyes open, he knew. Just as he fell backward he couldn't believe a former Marine and Assistant Director of the FBI would faint, but he found that he had no way of stopping himself...
 

(Just a note: You can find all of Bertie's amazing Possibilities series archived on the Slashing Mulder site)