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. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://members.tripod.com/~SueBridehead_2/fanfic.html