Welcome To The Harem

Exeunt by Jess
Summary: It's Dianafic. No Scully. Pre-Scully, in fact. There are rings, though not for long. Just read.

From: JessLB@aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 1999 15:56:22 EDT
Subject: Exeunt - 1 of 1
Source: xff


TITLE: Exeunt
AUTHOR: Jess JessLB@aol.com
RATING: PG, for language
KEYWORDS: Pre-XF; Mulder/Diana relationship
CATEGORY: VA, R gone bad...
SPOILERS: Possibly for Unusual Suspects and Travellers. Any and
every Diana Fowley episode is up for grabs. Allusions are made to
the Pilot.
DISTRIBUTION: Sure, fine, whatever. Let me know, too, okay?
SUMMARY: It's Dianafic. No Scully. Pre-Scully, in fact. There are
rings, though not for long. Just read.

FEEDBACK: Yes, please. Be sure to include your theories on the
whole Mulder/Diana relationship. I'm interested.

DISCLAIMER: If I owned them, this fic would not exist because
*Diana Fowley* would not exist. So please do not insult my
shipperness by insinuating that I would a) give Mulder any past love
besides Scully; b) put Scully through such obvious torture; c) put a
ring on his finger. N-o no. Point: I don't own them.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written aftter listening to Jewel's 'Deep
Water' too often. Maybe it doesn't strike you as a Mulder song, but they
did for me.

------------------------

She didn't look him in the eye as she slapped a file down on his desk
and strode purposefully over to her own.

He glanced at the stack of papers briefly with one eye, the other
focused on the smooth, meticulous way she was putting things into
her briefcase. His hands reached out, took the papers, and read over
the first page carefully.

Bill of divorce awarded...

"What the hell is this?"

If she was startled by the loud echo his voice created, she didn't
flinch. "You can read, can't you, Fox?"

"What the hell is this, Diana?" he said through gritted teeth, waving
the file. "What are you doing?"

"I'm leaving," she replied simply, bending over to retrieve a fallen
pencil.

"Leaving what - leaving me, leaving the house, leaving the X-files?
What?"

"All of the above. Did you want to keep this?" She held up his
poster, the poster that spoke the words he lived by. He stared at her
in shock, unable to answer. "Fine, it's yours. Tacky, anyway."

"You're leaving," he repeated blankly, feeling like a jackass and
barely able to contain the emotion in his voice.

"Yes."

"Okay. Why?"

"For Christ's sake, Fox, our entire life is a sham! I married you, not
these goddamn files," she spit out, throwing a nearby file at his desk.
"I stood by you through Patterson and the BSU. I brought you back
from the not-so proverbial edge when you were with Violent Crimes.
They were nothing like this, Fox, nothing. You want to find your
sister, fine. You want to try to help people that no one else can help,
fine. You want to chase your little green men, that's great. Just don't
expect *my* career to be dragged down with yours."

There were a thousand thoughts in his mind, swirling together and
tangling up in a mess of confusion and heartache.

Divorced. Like my parents.

Did she take the coffee maker?

Will she want the house?

If she leaves, I'm not walking after her.

Her words hit him finally, with the strength of a dozen knifes. "This
is about your *career*?" he bit out angrily. He pushed his chair back
and stood up, using his height to intimidate her from across the
room. "You career, Diana? Jesus Christ! You don't divorce people
because of goddamn careers!"

"I do," she replied coolly, stuffing the last of her personal items into
her bare brown box. She approached him almost warily, pausing a
few feet in front of him. Her hand reached out to touch him, then fell
away just short of its goal. "Look, Fox --"

"Mulder," he said between clenched teeth.

"What are you talking about?" she asked tiredly.

"I hate my first name. You know that."

She gave him a disapproving look for a moment, then softened her
gaze. "I'm sorry. But we both know this wasn't something that was
going to last forever. You're too demanding, Fox. I can't keep up
with this guilt complex you have. I won't follow you off to Everycity,
USA to watch you interview every crackpot and drunken fool who
sees lights in the sky. I'm your partner, I'm your wife." She shook
her head. "Things haven't been right for a year. I can't do it
anymore. I won't, Fox. I deserve more than a basement office and
alien conspiracies and missing sisters. So do you. You should get out
while you can."

She was leaving him. She was truly leaving him. His mind struggled
to wrap itself around these new developments. He said the only
coherent words in his mind.

"But I love you."

"I love you, too, Fox. But we don't love each other enough, do we?"
She tiptoed slightly, her lips gently grazing his cheek, scraping
against the slight stubble of hair that was growing. "I'm going to
Europe. Please don't try to reach me. I won't return your calls. I
moved my things out before I came here. I gave you the couch." She
smiled slightly. "You've slept on it enough." She walked away.

He grasped at one last straw. "What about the truth, Diana? Our
truth?"

Diana stopped at the door, turning slowly to face him. "It's not my
truth to find. It's yours. It always has been."

The door shut with a slight creak behind her, and he sank back onto
his chair. His eyes strayed to his desk-calendar, a small circle around
the number 27. His hands drifted absently over his face, trying to rub
away the pain of her betrayal. The day before his goddamn sister's
disappearance. Two losses on one anniversary.

On the other side of the door, Diana leaned against the solid oak,
closing her eyes. She drew strength from the absence of tears from
her ex-husband. She remembered why she was doing this in the first
place. Fox Mulder wanted to search for the truth.

She was having it handed to her on a silver platter.

The loss of her husband was a small price to pay for the knowledge
she would acquire without him. He would mourn for his loss, surely,
and continue on. She sighed and opened her eyes, gasping a little
when she saw she was not alone anymore.

He stood a few inches above her, giving her a casual once-over. She
straightened her back and gave him a slightly distasteful glare.

"Is it done?"

"It's done."

"You told him what you were supposed to, I presume."

"I read the script line by line."

"You forget that I didn't write it alone, Ms. Fowley. No regrets, I
presume?"

She shook her head slightly, her lips lifting up in a triumphant smile.
"Of course not. Is my plane ready?"

"Waiting only for you."

"You aren't joining me?"

"Plans must be made for Agent Mulder's new partner."

"I thought -"

"Those have been changed. We have someone else in mind.
Someone better. A woman."

Her heart hesitated a beat at his last words, then resumed its steady
rhythm. She nodded briskly and walked past him down the corridor.
Her companion took another delicate puff on his cigarette before
joining his newest associate in the elevator.

The doors closed behind them, the faint whiff of a Morley lingering
in the now empty hallway.


the end.

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