Title: Cards
Author: Amatia
E-mail: beech000@uwp.edu
Classification: Vignette, Slash, M/D
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Within/Without
Archive: Gossamer. All else, please ask first.
Disclaimer: CC&Co. own them. I am but a poor college student.
Summary: John Doggett remembers someone from his past.
Author's Notes: I couldn't help it. I had to write one.

***

"Cards"
by Amatia

John Doggett stood in the drugstore, thinking. He wasn't a man who stood
and thought often. He usually acted first, and thought later. But today he
had a few seconds to think, and he was taking them.

He suppposed things would have gone better if he hadn't told Scully that he
actually knew Mulder. He'd tried to take it back a bit today, but he could
tell that it hadn't gone over well. She didn't trust him at all. But he
really didn't blame her. He couldn't blame her. He wouldn't trust him
either.

Her lack of trust in him was good for one thing, though. The further apart
he and Scully stayed, the less the chance that she would find out. Unless
Mulder had already told her. But he didn't think Mulder had said a word. He
could tell that there was a lot that Mulder and Scully had shared - and
even more that they hadn't. Her actions the first time they'd met had
proved that.

There was a chance, too, that Mulder would say something. If and when they
found him. John could just picture it. The look of shock on Mulder's face
when he saw who Scully'd been partnered with.

It had been years since he and Mulder had seen each other. Being sent to
two different field offices after the Academy would do that to people. Even
lovers.

Lovers. He still had a hard time wrapping his mind around the word. But it
was the truth, even if the truth held little value these days. He and
Mulder had been roommates at the Academy, and as their training had
progressed, so had their relationship. He'd heard it happened to a lot of
agents who'd gone through the Academy together.

Until Kersch put him on this case, John hadn't thought about Mulder in a
long, long time. Not since he'd gotten his last Christmas card from the
man... at least four years. That was the year he'd married Jane. She'd
found the card, asked who it was from. He'd replied that it was from his
old Quantico roommate. The card hadn't been revealing. They'd stopped
writing anything beyond 'Wishing you a happy holiday' when Mulder and Diana
had gotten married.

John shook himself out of the reviere and looked at the small array of
cards before him. He needed to just pick one and get out of the store. He
grabbed the nearest, made sure it said 'Get Well Soon', and headed for the
register.

*end*

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Webpage: http://personal.pitnet.net/london/
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"If there is any attempt by either contestant to cheat, especially with my
wife, who is a dirty, dirty tramp, I am just gonna snap. Do I make myself
clear?" - Billy Madison