From: dmcintoshtx@yahoo.com   
      
   Title:  MELTDOWN   
   Author:  dmcintoshtx@yahoo.com   
   Fandom:  X-Files   
   Paring:  Skinner/Krycek  &  Mulder/Krycek   
   Rating:  NC-17 FRAO   
   Warning:  M/M sex scenes   
   Disclaimer:  These characters belong to Chris Carter.  I just let them   
   have a lot more fun than he did.   
   Summary:  Walter retires; Alex retires; Mulder gets kidnapped; Alex   
   gets kidnapped; it's one hell of a mess!  Scully loves Mulder, Mulder   
   loves Alex, Alex loves Skinner – just like Days of Our Lives!  It all   
   works out in the end and the right couple end up together.   
   Special thanks:  To Ursula for her fine Beta work!   
      
   MELTDOWN   
      
      
   Walter walked into his hotel room, dumped his wallet, keys, phone etc   
   on the dresser; pulled his tie off and loosened the top button on his   
   shirt.  He wadded his tie in a ball and tossed it towards the dresser;   
   it missed and landed on the floor.  He stared at it for a minute then   
   shoved everything off the dresser onto the floor including the paper   
   covered glasses, ash tray, TV schedule, hotel paperwork.  A foot   
   against the desk chair sent it flying across the room.  That felt so   
   good he turned over the table and kicked it up against the wall.  His   
   shoe came half-way off so he pulled it the rest of the way off and   
   threw it, bouncing it off the window; the second shoe followed with a   
   bang.   
      
   He pulled his shirt open and off, popping all the buttons and sending   
   them skittering across the carpet.  He tossed it in the vicinity of   
   the up-turned table.  He stopped and stared when he saw the wild man   
   he'd become glaring back at him from the mirror; tears streaming down   
   his cheeks and spittle on his chin; his mouth open and twisted in a snarl.   
      
   Someone knocked on the door.   
      
   "GO AWAY!"  He screamed and sat on the side of the bed, his head in   
   his hands, elbows on his knees.   
      
   A slight noise at the door knob and it opened.  Alex Krycek walked in.   
      
   "Oh God!  Go away!  PLEASE!"  He pleaded looking up and seeing who it was.   
      
   "I brought you something."  Krycek said and held up two bottles of   
   Jack Daniels.  He retrieved the two glasses from the floor, pulled the   
   paper off them and opened one of the bottles.  He poured some into   
   each glass and handed one to Skinner.   
      
   Skinner gulped it down with a gasp and reached for more.   
      
   "One more then you need to eat something."  He opened the brown paper   
   bag he brought in and took out two sandwiches.  He poured another   
   short drink for Skinner while he sipped at his own.   
      
   "I don't want anything to eat, just keep pouring or get the hell out   
   of the way and give me that bottle."  Skinner raised the glass and   
   downed it in four great gulps.   
      
   "Here," Krycek tossed a sandwich in Skinner's lap.   
      
   "I said I don't want your fucking sandwich," Skinner tossed it back.     
      
   "No sandwich, no booze.  Eat it."  Krycek righted the table and chair   
   and sat down.  "Jack Daniels on an empty stomach is not a good thing."   
      
   "I don't give a fuck.  Give me the bottle and get the hell out of my   
   room."   
      
   "Nope.  I go, the bottles go with me.  Eat."   
      
      
   The phone rang and Skinner looked at it with pain.  Krycek picked it   
   up and answered it.   
   "Yes?"   
   "He's un-available right now."   
   "I'll tell him you called."   
      
   He hung up the phone.   
      
   "So you're my God-damned secretary now?  What are you doing here,   
   Krycek?  I'm not in the mood for your games."  He scrubbed a hand over   
   his bald head and down over his face.   
      
   "I know.  I tried, Skinner.  I really did try to find him too.  There   
   was just no way we could have known that he had that farm up here in   
   his mother's maiden name.  Who could have known that?"   
      
   "We were so close…we almost made it!"  Skinner's face twisted in pain.   
      
   "I know.  You did everything you could.  Everyone did.  There is just   
   no way to out-smart a mad man."    He sat down on the bed beside   
   Skinner and handed him his sandwich again.  "Please, eat this and   
   we'll empty both those bottles."   
      
   Skinner picked up the sandwich and took a bite.  "I'm not hungry."   
      
   "I know.  Neither am I.  But we can't get drunk on an empty stomach.    
   C'mon."  He unwrapped another sandwich and started in on it himself.     
      
   Skinner took another bite and Krycek poured him a short drink; just a   
   few swallows.  He sipped at his own drink.   
      
   Skinner finished his sandwich in silence and Krycek poured him a full   
   glass of whiskey.   
      
   "I should have done something…some how I should have figured it   
   out…should have tried harder, gotten there on time."     
      
   Skinner's cell phone started ringing from the corner of the room where   
   it had been thrown.  Krycek found it and turned it off and placed it   
   back on the dresser.     
      
   Skinner stood up and began pacing the floor, kicking stuff out of his   
   path.  He sipped his drink as he went.  Krycek was glad that he had   
   calmed down enough to sip instead of gulp the whiskey down.    
      
   "Skinner, the man was a maniac.  You did everything you could to find   
   Anderson; no one could have done more."   
      
   "Yeah, I did!  But what good did it do?  He's still dead, Krycek!    
   Dead!"  His face crumpled and the tears began to stream down his   
   cheeks again.  He turned away and gulped a few more swallows; and let   
   the whiskey burn a path down his insides.   
      
   "It sucks, Skinner.  I know that.  I just wish we could have gotten to   
   him before he ate his gun.  That bastard went out way too easy."   
      
   "Fucking bastard!"  Skinner kicked the side of the bed knocking the   
   mattress askew.   
      
   Krycek came over to him and re-filled his glass.  "Drink," he said   
   sympathetically.    
      
      
   "Why, Krycek?  WHY?  He had just made agent.  I met his parents; they   
   were so proud and now he's dead just two, three months later?  It   
   doesn't make any sense.  There was no connection between Anderson and   
   the killer at all that we could find."   
      
   "Who knows?  He might have cut him off in traffic or bumped into him   
   in an elevator.  There's just no way of knowing why or how someone   
   could do that to another human being.  Something was twisted inside of   
   him."   
      
      
   Walter began his pacing again. "Did you see him?  The body?"   
      
   "Yeah, I did.  Try not to think about it." Alex said; tears stinging   
   his eyes as he emptied his glass and poured another.   
      
      
   Walter leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the window.  Alex   
   came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.  No   
   words were exchanged between them for a while; they simply stood there   
   staring out into the night as they shared their pain.   
      
   "Why would he go off like that; follow a lead alone in the middle of   
   the night without backup?"  Walter said; his words filled with agony.   
      
   "I don't know.  I think that's something we've all done at one time or   
   another in this business."   
      
   "It's so unfair.  I don't understand how things like this can happen."   
    Walter barely whispered.   
      
   "I know.  And there's nothing anyone can say that makes any sense of   
   this kind of thing."   
      
   "I wanted to kill him.  I would have killed him with my bare hands if   
   he had still been alive when I got there."  Skinner hissed out through   
   gritted teeth.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)