When Mrs. Scully returned home she quickly grew frantic. Fox was gone, along with all of his things; Dana hadn’t shown up at work. What had happened? Had he suffered a set back? Why hadn’t anyone called her? In desperation she finally called Walter, pulling him from a meeting.
"Walter, I’m sorry to bother you, but do you know where Dana and Fox have gone?"
The question hit him like a ton of bricks. He hadn’t been able to locate her all morning. Now he understood, last night had been a mercy fuck, a goodbye. She’d made her choice.
"No Maggie. I haven’t seen either of them today." He kept his voice steady, devoid of any emotion. "I’ll have her call you if I hear anything." He hung up before she could speak again. It was hard being rude to Maggie, but if he flew apart over the phone it would be even worse.
He flipped through his address book and dialed the phone. "Jerry? Walter Skinner. I need you to draw up divorce papers for me. I want them served today."
"Today? Walter, that’s not a good idea. Let me come over and talk to you."
"Today Jerry. She won’t accept alimony, just whatever we came into the marriage with. I’m sure that will be acceptable."
"What grounds? Adultery?"
"No! Put down. . . put down irreconcilable differences. Get this to her as soon as possible Jerry." It was what she wanted, what he’d been expecting if he were honest with himself. She needed space to on with her life, he could give her that. He hung up before any more questions he couldn’t handle could be asked. Meeting – hadn’t he been in a meeting? He had to get back to it, he had to throw himself into something, think about something else. Anything else.
*****
Maggie Scully was at her wit’s end. Something had obviously gone very wrong. Dana would never leave with Fox without letting her know and Walter. He had been devastated by her call, though he’d tried to hide it. She shouldn’t have called him, but why couldn’t she find anyone, all of these people had cell phones that they practically slept with, and now she couldn’t locate anyone!
When the phone finally did ring she snatched it up before the first ring had quit echoing. "Hello?"
"Mrs. Scully, its Fox. I just wanted you to know I was okay."
"Fox where are you?"
"That’s not important. I really appreciate everything
you’ve done for me these past few weeks. I can never repay that kind of
generosity."
"Fox, what is going on? Why have you moved out? Where’s Dana?"
"I assume she’s at work, or with Skinner."
"How can I get in touch with you? Tell me where you are Fox!"
"Don’t worry about me Mrs. Scully. This is what she wants, and she deserves to get what she wants. She deserves a lot more than I could ever give her. I’ll be okay. That’s all you need to know. Goodbye."
"Fox!" But he’d already hung up. What the hell was going on? She felt like she’d been out of touch for a week instead of less than half a day. Dana wasn’t with him and she wasn’t with Walter, or even at work. Now she was getting frightened. Where was Dana?
Maggie had decided to call Walter back, despite the strangeness of that conversation when she heard Dana drive up. She met her at the door.
"Thank God! Dana are you okay?"
She looked exhausted; "I’m fine. Mom, I need to talk to Mulder for just a minute."
"He’s not here."
"Not here? What do you mean?" The exhaustion was rapidly being replaced with concern.
"When I got home he was gone, all of his things are gone. And you weren’t anywhere. I called Walter and he didn’t know anything."
"You called Walter?"
"Something’s wrong with him too. But Fox did call, just before you came in. He refused to tell me where he was, just that he was okay. That’s when I realized you weren’t with him."
"What’s the call back?" She reached for the phone.
"I already tried it. He’s turned his cell phone off. You can’t trace it."
"He’s not strong enough to be on his own yet. What have I done?" Before Maggie had a chance to voice that question herself the doorbell rang.
Scully flew from the kitchen to answer it. An unfamiliar man stood in the doorway. "Yes?"
"Dana Skinner?"
"Yes."
"This is for you. Have a pleasant day." He handed her an envelope and was gone.
"What is it Dana?" She hadn’t realized her mother had followed her into the living room.
"I don’t know." She turned the envelope in her hands; the return address meant nothing to her. She tore it open to pull out the papers inside. And sank into the chair beside the door.
"Dana?"
"It’s divorce papers. Walter wants a divorce." Her voice was flat, emotionless, dead.
"You can’t be serious." Scully silently handed her the papers. "Dana what happened?"
"I can’t talk about this Mom. I just can’t. Please." She made it to her feet and headed for her room. Mrs. Scully just stood there watching her, too shocked to even move.
She gave her an hour, then she quietly let herself into Scully’s room. Scully lay with her back to the door, and for an instant her mother thought she was asleep. Then she realized Scully was staring at the wall, completely unaware of her surroundings.
"Dana? Dana, honey can you hear me?"
"Yes." She didn’t bother to turn.
"I don’t know what happened and it’s none of my business anyway, but you are my business. And as your mother, it’s my job to look after you whether you’re four or forty. This situation is killing you, I’ve never seen you under this kind of stress, even when you were ill it was never like this. Here’s what we’re going to do and I will not entertain any arguments from you. Bill’s shipping out in two days. He called and asked if I could come and stay with Tara and Matthew while he was gone. At the time I told him no because I had you and Fox here. I’ve changed my mind and you’re coming with me. You need to get away, both of these men have decided to give you space. Maybe they’re smarter than we’re giving them credit for. I’ll pack for you and we will leave tomorrow morning."
"Mom, I can’t just leave town. I have a job, responsibilities."
"You have a responsibility to yourself first Dana. Look at you. You’re a basket case and I can’t let this continue. Since you won’t look after yourself, I have taken over. No arguments Dana. We leave in the morning."