A.D. Walter S. Skinner

 

"You Have a Friend at The F.B.I."

-- X

 

SCENE 13 

X-FILES OFFICE;

FBI HEADQUARTERS; WASHINGTON D.C. 

Mulder sits at his computer and is typing something.

He clicks a button on the mouse and the printer fires up.

He takes the paper out and signs it.

It reads: 

 

"To Assistant Director Walter S. Skinner 

Please accept my resignation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation effective immediately. 

Sincerely, 

______________ (Mulder’s signature.) 

Fox Mulder." 

He leans back in his chair.

Later, Mulder takes his microscope and puts it in a box.

Skinner walks in and sighs. 

SKINNER:

When I started out,

this is where they kept the copier. 

 

MULDER:

At least back then,

it wasn’t just wasted space. 

 

Skinner walks towards him and tears up Mulder’s resignation form.

SKINNER:

It’s unacceptable. 

Mulder continues packing books into the box. 

Look, I know you feel responsible for Agent Scully,

but I will not accept resignation and defeat as self-punishment. 

 

MULDER:

All the forensics, the field investigations, the eyewitness accounts...

to still know nothing.

To lose myself... and Scully.

 

I hate What I’ve Become. 

 

Skinner sighs and takes his glasses off.

He walks a little bit as Mulder continues

putting folders and such in the box.

 

SKINNER:

When I was eighteen, I, uh...

I went to Vietnam.

 

I wasn’t drafted, Mulder, I...

I enlisted in the Marine Corps

the day of my eighteenth birthday.

I did it on a Blind Faith.

 

I did it because

I Believed it was The Right Thing to Do.

I don’t know, maybe I still do.

 

Three weeks into my tour, a ten-year-old North Vietnamese boy

walked into camp covered with grenades and I, uh...

I blew his head off from a distance of ten yards. 

 

Mulder looks at him, shocked.

He listens intently now.

 

I Lost My Faith.

Not in My Country or in Myself, but in everything.

There was just no point to anything anymore.

 

One night on patrol, we were, uh... caught...

and everyone... everyone fell.

I mean, everyone.

 

I looked down... at My Body... from outside of it.

I didn’t recognize it at first.

 

I watched the V.C. strip my uniform,

take my weapon and I remained...

in this thick jungle... peaceful...

unafraid... watching my...

my dead friends. Watching myself.

 

In the morning, the corpsmen arrived and put me in a bodybag until...

I guess they found a pulse.

 

I woke in a Saigon hospital two weeks later. 

 

He walks towards him.

 

I’m afraid to look any further

beyond that experience.

You? You're Not.

 

Your Resignation is Unacceptable.

 

You’re a Better Man than I,

Special Agent Fox Mulder.

 

 

He starts out. 

 

MULDER:

You. 

Skinner turns back.

Mulder sighs.

You gave me Cancer Man’s location.

You put Your Life in Danger. 

 

SKINNER:

Agent Mulder, every life, every day is in danger --

That’s Just Life.