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Change Of Opinions IV by Bridget
Summary: A change of attitude.... Mulder/Diana friendship, Mulder/Scully friendship. See also Changes Of Opinion I, II and III.

Well, this is story four in the unexpected series that began over two
years ago. I posted part one and two long ago and recently while
re-reading them I was struck with inspiration to add to it. Also, I
haven't contributed to the fanfic world in about the same amount of
time. (It's amazing what meeting a non-obsessed true love can do to a
person.) So please keep these facts in mind when you undoubtedly get
a weird disjointed feeling while reading.... Anyway, hopefully you'll
enjoy these extra pieces either way, as individuals or as part of the
series.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, they are not mine. First and foremost,
they
belong to Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny. Chris Carter, Fox and
1013 Productions come in second, third and fourth place, respectively.
Although if anyone is offering up ownership....

Archive: Anywhere and everywhere. : )

Title: Change of Opinions IV
Author: Bridget
E-mail: msathenaxf@aol.com
Rating: G
Category: V
Summary: A change of attitude....

Change of Opinions IV
************************

Mulder wasn't sure how long he sat at his desk staring across the
room. The one phrase, along with the haunting look she gave him as
she left, continued to run through his mind.

<'He was my partner....'>

Scully had dropped this little bomb right before she left for the day.
Diana had left right after, noticing his attitude. And ever since he
had been able to think about nothing else.

How could she call another person her partner? What right did she
have to say something like that? After everything he had done for
her? After five years she dared to call Sheriff Mike Olin her
partner?

Eventually Mulder managed to process the rest of the sentence. '...on
that case.' Quickly he jumped up and his memory led him unfailing to
the file drawer with that case's file. Sitting back down, Mulder
skimmed it quickly. Strange disappearances, radiation evidence at the
scene...classic evidence of possible alien activity. He remembered
that Scully had--true to form--dismissed the idea. She thought it was
obvious that it was a recently released sexual offender. Diana had
come with them on the investigation and agreed with Mulder that the
alien theory deserved some checking out. When another woman
disappeared, Scully went with the sheriff to question their suspect.
Diana went with Mulder to a nearby UFO site to wait for the woman
there.

As it turned out, Scully had been right. Apparently they had found
the missing woman and Sheriff Mike Olin was forced to shoot to kill.
Mulder turned the page and found a yellow carbon copy of a memo sent
by Skinner to Scully. It was dated two weeks after the case was
closed. At first Mulder thought it had been misfiled. Reading it he
saw that it was a request for Scully to conference with Skinner
regarding her late report. Right below it there was another carbon
copy requesting Scully to conference regarding the events described in
the report.



He found it last buried under his own report and read it quickly.
Then he read it more slowly. Then he read it again. A dark feeling
of betrayal started to settle across his limbs. Scully had written
everything about his and Diana's portion of the investigation; it had
nothing to do with the end result. Not only that, she had never told
him that she herself had almost been killed by the suspect.
Deliberately she had kept information from him and she had managed to
make him look like a fool to Skinner.

Mulder shoved the file back into its drawer and walked around the
room. He kicked his desk once and kicked Scully's desk a few times.
He felt as though he didn't even know her. She had no right to
mention that Diana was in the investigation; Diana wasn't even
supposed to be there. And she never should have put the issue of them
staking out the alien abduction site; it had nothing to do with the
investigation's end--.

Abruptly Mulder stopped in mid-stride. That was the whole point.
Diana wasn't supposed to be there. The stakeout had nothing to do
with the investigation. Scully had done all the real work on this
case. There was more than enough evidence to support her theory of
the human suspect and far too little to support his own theory. If he
had not gotten caught up in the search for little green men, he would
have seen that.

Slumping into his chair he finally acknowledged what he had read in
her report. She had almost been killed. Another man saved her life.
But Olin had saved her because Mulder had not
been there like he should have been. Olin was her back up that night,
her partner.

Resting his head in his hands, Mulder thought about the last few
months. He considered the number of closed cases and who had closed
them. Of all the cases he had asked Diana to assist on he had not
been present for the final arrest. He had been there for only three
of the last ten. The agent of record had been Scully in each of those
cases.

His mind drifted past these thoughts. When was the last time he had
taken Scully out for a drink after a hard day? He could not remember.
When did he last hear Langley's voice on his answering machine?
Scratch that--when did he last speak to any of the Lone Gunmen for any
reason?

Where had he gone?

Thinking seriously about the question, Mulder tried to figure what had
happened to his partnership with Scully. He tried to realize where
his judgment had gone. Glancing up, he caught sight of his calendar.
It occurred to him that he had been living in a continual time warp,
where he saw everything as he had on March 5, 1993. The day before
Dana Scully entered his office.

Grabbing his jacket off the coat rack, Mulder left the office quickly.
It was just past eight o'clock. He could be at Scully's and waiting
for her long before she got home from her date. Then they could talk.
He would wait for as long as it took for her to come home. And he
knew she would spend the rest of weekend talking if that was what it
took to get things settled.

It was what partners did.

----