Skeletons

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Mulder cried.

Skinner frowned in consternation. Scully rushed to her partner’s side.

“Mulder…it’s okay. We know you get upset talking about Samantha’s abduction.” She held his hand.

“No…you don’t understand.” Tears welled in Mulder’s tragic hazel eyes. “When she first went missing…the police thought that…I was responsible.”

“YOU?” Skinner was shocked. He put a manly hand on Mulder’s shoulder to comfort him.

“They said…” Mulder gulped, “that I was jealous because my parents loved and noticed her more because she was cuter, younger, naughtier. I mean how likely is that?”

“That she was naughtier? Not at all likely,” Skinner mused.

“And that I had an attention seeking disorder…I mean, me? Attention seeking?” Mulder tried to hold back a sob as one tear squeezed through his dark lashes. “They thought I’d killed her in a fit of sibling rivalry. They even took up the floorboards in my bedroom to look for her body.”

That was too much for Skinner. He enveloped Mulder in his big arms and rocked him.

Mulder smiled to himself as his surrogate parents gave him their full attention…

The End

Index