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PAIRING: Sk/O, M/Sk

SUMMARY: How and why Skinner became emotionally repressed, and how this affects his present relationship with Mulder. Shows Skinner as an adult and as an 18 year old Marine in Vietnam.

SPOILERS: Avatar and Folie A Deux

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: I don't own`em, Chris Carter and 1013 Productions do, but Lt. Harry Matthews and Madame Ly belong to me. I'm making no money off this story. No copyright infringement or any offense to anyone is intended.

CATEGORY: M/M Slash, Paranormal.

RATING: NC-17 for m/m sex, violence, and profanity.

WARNINGS: I had Skinner serving for eight months before he gets wounded instead of the three weeks that he said he served in One Breath. Also, my version of 18-year-old Skinner may be more vulnerable and look far different than you're used to seeing him.

THANK YOU TO: SERGEEVA, for great beta reading and fabulous feedback, FROGDOGGIE, for such thoughtful and thorough beta reading, WOODINAT, for insightful, impromptu comments, and MOST OF ALL, XANTHE, for fabulous beta reading, and encouragement. She prodded and pushed me to develop this novel far beyond what it would have been without her. Also, to Viridian 5 for asking the question that inspired the story: Why did Skinner behave that way in Folie A Deux if he loved Mulder?