Title: Farewell 1/1
Author: XFilerN
E-Mail: xfilern@worldofx.de
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Season 8 – Alone
Timeline: End of Season 8
Category: DS-UST, MS-UST, Friendship, Scully POV
Keywords: S, D, M
Archive: Anywhere, please just ask first.
Disclaimer: Scully, Doggett and Mulder don't belong 
to me and never will. They belong to Chris Carter, 
20th Century Fox and 1013 Productions. I am making no 
money off of this story.
Special Thanks to: Fay, my thank you goes to you. 
*cuddle* Thank you so much for always being there for 
me, for giving me advice, and for being my beta 
reader. I am so happy to have you. :)
Summary: It is time: Scully says goodbye to Doggett, 
Mulder and the FBI.
Translator: L. M. Shard [lsshard@home.com]. Note: I 
translated this story from German. This is my first 
time translating and I hope I did this wonderful 
story justice.
Author's note: Thank you sooo much for the great 
translation, Lisa. I love you, Honey!!! :)


FAREWELL


They sat across from each other in the small basement 
office and nobody uttered a word. It was as if a dark 
cloud hung over the two of them. They knew that there 
was no alternative, none that Agent Scully would 
consider. She had to leave the FBI, for the baby and 
for herself. She had sacrificed herself for the X-
Files for more than seven years, limited her private 
life to small family get-togethers, and now it was 
time for her to make up for all the lost years.

Deputy Director Kersh made sure that only Agent 
Doggett had control of the X-Files and that Mulder 
was unceremoniously dismissed, serving only as a 
fill-in for Scully during her absence. In fact, 
Scully had handed in only her maternity leave so far, 
so she would be able to be there for her baby solely 
for the first three months. But whether this was 
going to be a leave of absence or eventually the end 
of her FBI career, that was still in the stars. She 
didn't know herself what would happen after the first 
three months.

Scully had asked herself often what would happen to 
Mulder if she did decide to come back. Would they 
transfer him, prevent him from getting his hands on 
the X-Files? Or would they remove them? Would they 
not allow them to walk down the street anymore 
without worrying about danger? Would a desk job be 
satisfying enough after everything that they had 
been through? No, that would not be anything for 
them.

The other possibility was that Assistant Director 
Skinner could use his connections so Mulder and she 
could have the X-Files under their sole care again. 
Even though this option was very unlikely, what would 
happen to Agent Doggett? Would he perhaps receive 
more job recognition; would he then have a better 
chance to get a promotion? It was no longer a 
secret that working on the X-Files prohibited the 
climb up the corporate ladder. Even commendations 
wouldn't help. The mysterious cases of the 
FBI were a curse that burdened anyone who came in 
contact with them.

She couldn't influence the future of the X-Files or 
the careers of either of her former partners anyway. 
How that would be handled lay in Doggett's and 
Mulder's hands. Scully really couldn't be worrying 
about that anymore. She had made up her mind that if 
she left this office, she would leave it in spirit as 
well, disconnect herself from it and enjoy life and 
be happy.

Slowly she stood up and pushed the swivel chair back 
under the desk. Agent Doggett still said nothing, as 
if he was trying to postpone the inevitable, the 
goodbye. She actually learned to respect and trust 
him during their partnership of barely three quarters 
of the year. She quickly recognized his capabilities 
and was ready to leave the control of the X-Files 
with him, even with Mulder's opposition – but that 
was another story. He would never accept that someone 
other than he would ever be here in this musty little 
basement office.

"Agent Doggett," she began finally, although her 
voice was barely above a whisper. He stood up from 
his place too and came towards her. He smiled 
painfully and drew his lips into a small straight 
line. She took a deep breath. "It is time. My workday 
already ended five minutes ago and…" He nodded and 
cleared his throat.

Contemplatively, Scully took her jacket from the back 
of the chair, put it on, and grabbed into her left 
pocket. With a smile on her lips she took the object 
that she had brought for Doggett out.

It had been years since she had received this key 
chain from Mulder for her birthday. To her it was a 
sign of friendship, partnership, and trust – although 
Mulder had just given it to her because he was of the 
opinion that it was cool. At least that is what he 
had told her at the time, after she had interpreted 
all kinds of things into this key chain. Yet she 
thought the purpose of his comments were just the 
result of her monologue for she had said everything, 
making more words unnecessary.

"I would like to give you this, John." Scully had 
called him by his first name intentionally to bolster 
up the gesture of the gift, to show him that she 
really enjoyed working with him, and that she would 
miss him not only as a partner but also as a friend. 
Yes, she had developed feelings of friendship toward 
him during the past months.

She handed him the key chain and he accepted it 
somewhat uncertainly.

"Apollo 11," he quietly read the inscription of the 
key chain and looked from the little gift in his hand 
to Scully. "Why are you giving this to me?" He asked 
and looked at his hand again.

Carefully Agent Scully took a step closer to him and 
laid her hand in his covering the key chain. "It 
should always remind you of our partnership, of our 
shared time, of the trust we both had to work hard 
at…. I know that in the beginning I didn't make it 
easy for you, John, but you didn't let yourself be 
scared away and you showed me that you are worthy of 
the trust I have put in you. You are a very good 
agent and were a big support to me." Agent Doggett 
swallowed and bit his lip, then nodded 
appreciatively. She smiled at him and after a moment 
he returned her smile.

On an impulse Agent Doggett took her in his arms and 
pressed her gently to him. She had not expected such 
a gesture from him. Being reserved suited him, but 
not such an…affectionate gesture. It occurred to 
Scully that maybe he was worried that he would not be 
able to build such a good relationship and stable 
partnership with Mulder.

Her field of vision became hazy as she returned his 
embrace, surrendering to the moment to the feeling of 
security and warmth that she felt. Then she loosened 
herself from him and wiped the tears that she could 
no longer hold in from her face and forced herself to 
smile.

"Thank you for everything, John."

"I thank you, Agent Scully," he replied. She hadn't 
counted on that nor did she think anything of it, but 
suddenly Doggett took her head in both of his hands 
and gave her a kiss on the mouth. At first it simply 
seemed like another friendly gesture of affection, 
but the kiss, even just on the lips, lasted a bit too 
long to be meaningless. A strange tingle followed by 
a pleasant warm shiver flowed through her and Scully 
could feel on her cheek that he still had the key 
chain in his hand. In contrast to the kiss, the metal 
was shockingly cool.

The slamming of the office door startled them for a 
moment and they separated, looking toward the 
direction the noise came from. All of a sudden Scully 
felt like someone was strangling her, suffocating her 
slowly and torturously. Mulder stood in the doorway 
and scrutinized her and Doggett with a look that 
could easily be put in the category of jealousy. 
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Agent Doggett cleared his throat and pushed the key 
chain in his pants pocket. "Agent Mulder," he greeted 
his future partner coolly. Mulder simply shut his 
eyes and gave him no further attention.

Scully felt as if she had deceived Mulder, but 
actually she was not to blame. Even he had kissed her 
once out of pure friendship, longer than necessary, 
but purely platonic. Or had he perceived it 
differently? Scully did not know and she did not want 
to think about it anymore right now. She had to get 
out of this embarrassing situation and quickly.

"Mulder, you are too late," she tried to steer the 
attention onto him.

He shook his head and threw an ice-cold glance in 
Doggett's direction. "I waited for you outside in the 
car. But you were, as I can see, detained."

Ignoring his cutting remark, she took the small box 
containing a few of her personal things that she had 
left in the office from her almost eight year stay. 
With a few large strides Mulder was next to her, 
taking the box from her and they both made their way 
to the door.

Scully turned around one more time and let her eyes 
sweep the room, lingering first on Mulder's "I want 
to believe" poster and then stopping on Agent 
Doggett.

Again he nodded to her. "You'll be back, right Agent 
Scully?" He didn't have to ask the question loudly 
for she stood plainly in his view.

She forced another smile and tried hard not to let 
him know that she was going reluctantly, but failed 
miserably.

"Are you coming, Scully?" Mulder asked somewhat 
louder for he was waiting for her at the elevator.

"Yes, I'm on my way," she called back and turned to 
Agent Doggett again. "Goodbye, John." Not being able 
to withstand his gaze any longer, she closed the 
office door after herself and went to Mulder.

"What was that supposed to mean?" He inquired. She 
knew he was talking about the kiss and it seemed he 
did not care at all that he sounded very jealous. 
Even Doggett couldn't avoid noticing his jealousy, 
for one didn't need to know Mulder for well to see 
this.

"That was a purely friendly gesture, Mulder. A 
goodbye, nothing more." Slightly irritated from the 
kiss and Mulder's resulting reaction, Scully shook 
her head and stepped into the elevator.

"Yes, of course, purely friendly," repeated Mulder 
sarcastically. "What else."

The door closed after them and the elevator started 
moving. It was over; she was leaving the office. Deep 
inside she knew that it would be best for all 
concerned if she never came back.


The End