Walter Skinner/Career

===FBI Career===
====Early Career====
Skinner joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation sometime before 1986. On at least one occasion in that year, he and one or more of the organization's other members talked about the exceptionally talented , who was in the at the time. Skinner ultimately became an Assistant Director within the FBI and was appointed an office in Washington D.C.'s J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building, the FBI's headquarters. 
:In "Tooms", Skinner says to Mulder, "We were talking about you when you were in the Academy," referring to the FBI as "we." "Kill Switch" and "Unusual Suspects" establish Mulder attended the FBI Academy in 1986.
===Supervising the X-Files===
In early 1994, Skinner called into a meeting which the also attended. Skinner revealed he and the Cigarette Smoking Man had reviewed Scully's reports but had been displeased by the unorthodox investigation methods which Mulder, now her FBI partner, and she herself had been using to research the X-Files. Even though Skinner accepted Scully's claim that atypical methods ensured a high success-rate on the cases the agents investigated, he instructed her to increase the frequency of her reports and to ensure that work on the X-Files was conducted in a conventional manner.
Skinner later learned of allegations that Mulder had recently attacked . During a meeting between Scully, Mulder and Skinner with the Cigarette Smoking Man also in attendance, Skinner listened as Mulder claimed he had been framed for the reported assault on Tooms. Skinner asked Scully to leave the room after she lied to him that she had been with Mulder at the time the attack was first reported.
Once Scully left, Skinner advised Mulder to leave the X-Files for a short time. When Mulder politely acknowledged Skinner's advice, the Assistant Director brought an end to the meeting by informing him that he was forbidden to go near Tooms but, as Mulder was leaving, Skinner warned him that the incident had been "close" and that, if Mulder got any "closer" in the future, a thousand political friends of his would not be able to help him. Skinner obtained an X-file pertaining to Eugene Tooms shortly after Tooms died. 
Later that year, Skinner attended a meeting at which he told Mulder about new instructions for the pair of the agents. The directions had come down from the top of the FBI's executive branch and ordered that they were both to be reassigned to other sections of the Bureau, effectively shutting down the X-Files. 
===After the X-Files Closed===
AD Skinner continued to supervise Mulder after the closure of the X-Files in 1994, while Mulder was assigned to general assignment duties. Skinner initially oversaw Mulder's progress on a wiretapping detail and made an effort to locate Mulder – shortly after he disappeared from his assignment one morning – by questioning Scully, who did not know where Mulder was. Following Mulder's return from Puerto Rico, Skinner again met with him and the Cigarette-Smoking Man in the Assistant Director's office. Skinner seemed angered that the evidence collected due to Mulder's wiretapping assignment had been lost due to Mulder's absence and warned that disciplinary action would consequently be taken. After learning the Cigarette-Smoking Man had recently conducted surveillance on Mulder, however, Skinner ordered the Cigarette-Smoking Man to leave his office and instructed Mulder to return to his wiretapping assignment. Both of Skinner's associates complied with his instructions. 
AD Skinner indirectly relieved Mulder of his wiretapping detail and assigned him the task of investigating a murder case in Newark, New Jersey, where a decomposed corpse had been found in the sewers. Skinner was holding a meeting in his office when Mulder interrupted the gathering to complain about the triviality of the case in New Jersey. In response, Skinner reminded Mulder that the X-Files had been closed and ensured that Mulder understood his directive to carry out his new assignments, including his latest case, to the best of his ability. When Mulder submitted his final report, Skinner agreed that it should have been an X-file. 
Mulder played a recording of a 911 call for Skinner, but refused to divulge where he got the tape. In the recording, a Dr. Saul Grissom reported a fire in his apartment. When the fire department arrived, they found Grissom dead and no signs of any fire. Mulder asked to open a case on the death, but Skinner told him he'd look into it and let him know. In the meantime, he reminded Mulder he still had twenty-four hours of wiretap tape to transcribe. Skinner eventually assigned to the case, along with Mulder. 
Skinner had a meeting in his office to discuss the disappearance of and the kidnapping of Agent Scully. Mulder, Krycek and four other members of FBI personnel were present, along with the Cigarette Smoking Man, who listened while sitting across the room from the others. Skinner concluded the meeting by telling Mulder to turn over his file to HRT and go home. The next day, in Skinner's office, Mulder was questioned by the same people about the circumstances surrounding Barry's death. Skinner ordered both Krycek and Mulder to OPC for a lie detector procedure, but with Krycek absent from the meeting, Mulder suggested the military was covering up the fact that Barry was poisoned to hide the whereabouts of Scully. The following morning, Mulder presented his report to Skinner, accusing Krycek of killing an aerial tram operator and Barry. Skinner paged his secretary to have Krycek report to him immediately, then listened to Mulder's explanation and considered the evidence: a cigarette found in Krycek's car. Skinner subsequently received a phone call which informed him Krycek hadn't shown up for work and that Krycek's home phone was disconnected. In response to Mulder then complaining that "they" get away with murder, Skinner told Mulder there was nothing he could do and that he himself could do only one thing: reopen the X-Files. Skinner proceeded to do so at that point, commenting the continuation of the X-Files was what his and Mulder's opposition feared the most. 
===Continuation of the X-Files===
Over time, Skinner proved his loyalty to Mulder and Scully as well as their work. He first demonstrated this by going against the Cigarette Smoking Man and trying to use a digital tape Mulder had received from "the Thinker" as leverage to get Mulder and Scully reinstated. He even promised that, if they didn't honor that deal, he would risk his life by going state's evidence and testifying against them. Unfortunately, Krycek beat up Skinner and stole the tape. However, Skinner pulled a master stroke and told the Cigarette Smoking Man that Albert Hosteen had memorized everything on the tape and, in the ancient oral tradition of his people, had shared it with twenty other men. If anything happened to Mulder or Scully, he was prepared to recite everything in the files and, unless CSM wanted to kill every Navajo living in four states, he must reinstate Mulder and Scully. 
There were times when Skinner was unable to help Mulder. When Mulder was investigating the case of the alien autopsy in Allentown, Skinner told him he was on his own. He also warned him that the case was bigger than either of them or the FBI and that Mulder should exploit any other sources he had \However, Skinner always had Mulder's safety at heart. When Mulder became much too involved in a case involving gargoyles that John Mostow claimed had possessed him, Skinner told Scully he was as concerned as she was about Mulder's increasingly erratic behavior. 
In 1996, Skinner had to tell Scully the investigation into the death of her sister, , had been made inactive. Though Scully was angry and upset about this, Skinner told her he would appeal the decision and study the evidence himself. Later, Skinner was warned by three MIBs that he should be aware that, as an employee of the FBI, he, like those under him, was supposed to obey orders and asked, if those above him had decided there was nothing more to pursue in Melissa Scully's case, who he was to question that decision. Skinner, however, did not relent and he was shot by Luis Cardinal, the same man who had killed Melissa Scully. Since Skinner survived the shooting, another attempt on his life was made by Cardinal, when Skinner was being transferred to another hospital, though this attempt and Cardinal himself were thwarted by Scully. Skinner's actions, having risked his life and job to help Scully in her pursuit of her sister's killer, were met with gratitude from Mulder. 
On a day when Skinner was asked yet again to sign his divorce papers, he went for a drink after work and ended up in bed with someone who turned out to be a prostitute. While he was having sex with her, he hallucinated that an old woman with long grey hair was on top of him. Later, he woke to find the prostitute dead. Skinner continued to have sightings of the old woman and his wife, Sharon, was attacked by men who seemed to be setting Skinner up. He told Mulder about how the grey-haired woman had stayed with him while he was floating in the jungle in Vietnam, that she had "carried him back, away from the light," and Mulder surmised that maybe the grey-haired woman was trying to protect Skinner. 
In 1997, Skinner was saddened to hear Scully had contracted cancer. Certain that the CSM could do something about it, Mulder came to him and demanded to set up a meeting. Skinner, not believing that the CSM could be trusted, encouraged Mulder to find another avenue. Skinner, however, set up the meeting anyway on his own and asked CSM to help Scully. The CSM agreed, after a quip about him needing his help. 
Skinner was ordered by CSM to cover up evidence of Jane Brody's death at the Transcontinental Express. He cleaned up the bathroom, disposed of her body via incineration, and some bee honey. He was threatened by the CSM and, in return, confronted him about Ray Thomas' death. He later learned that his weapon was used to kill him. He brushed off Mulder's reports of his investigation while deciding to go back to the bathroom and look into the bee honey on his own. He gave a sample to Peter Valedespino to study and talked to Misty Nagatta, who told him about other men who wanted to access the room next to the bathroom and threatened her not to talk. He finally decided to confront the CSM, but decided not to kill him as he still implied he would help Scully. Together, Mulder and him proved that his weapon killed Thomas but they hid the owner of the weapon. 
Skinner talked to Scully after she identified Mulder's body, and informed her of the investigation hearing. He then followed Scully to the climatology lab to find out what she has been doing. She caught him and confronted him. He warned her to tell him the truth before the hearing, only to be accused of continuing the campaign against Mulder Skinner entered the room of the investigation just as Scully was presenting evidence of the conspiracy regarding her given disease, only to catch her feinting. At the hospital when Mulder came back, Skinner tried to talk to him and eventually took him to see forcefully, saying afterwards he had to. After Mulder refused to answer Blevins' questions, he tried to advise him to keep quiet, as he was withholding evidence of Mulder's murder. He asked Mulder to tell him why Scully lied, and learned of the leak at the FBI. At the hearing, Skinner tried to take a break when Mulder arrived for the hearing, but Mulder wanted to continue. He watched with surprise as he named Section Chief himself as the conspirator. Afterward, he informed Mulder of CSM's apparent death. 
During the Gibson Praise case, Skinner gave the case due to orders from outside the FBI. He had to manage the tension between Spender and Mulder during. Skinner held a meeting with several people, including Mulder, Scully, Fowley, Spender to hear Scully's evidence of Praise's genetic abilities, and to hear Mulder's request to ask the DA to provide immunity to the assassin on that basis. He did so on Mulder's insistence. After the assassin was killed, Mulder attacked Spender, accusing him of working with the CSM to kill him. Skinner had to defend Mulder to higher-ups who proposed closing the X-Files. 
In 1998, Skinner attended an inquiry led by Jana Cassidy into the Dallas bombing. While Scully was questioned, Skinner ducked out to talk to Mulder when he arrived, relating that the board was trying to pin blame on them. He later met Mulder in the hospital with and played like Byers was Mulder in the hospital bed so could Mulder leave unseen. He later attended Scully's further inquiry where the X-Files were re-instated. 
Skinner participated in panel to re-open X-Files. He brought Mulder a file about a dead engineer in Phoenix. 
Unbeknownst to Skinner, he was infected by a nanobot virus by Krycek. While boxing, he was knocked out and sent to the hospital. He got an odd call that made him suspicious when he woke up at the hospital. He followed Kenneth Orgel with Mulder but he eventually succumbed to the virus and was hospitalized. Scully and Dr. Plant investigated his case and watched over him. He eventually realized who really infected him and asked Scully to watch the tape again. 
Skinner heard about Cassandra Spender's reappearance and informed Spender, then the two went to the Potomac Yard to see her. He later went down to the X-Files office to see Spender, but found Mulder and Scully instead. He immediately tried to get them out, as he knew Spender was coming to find them breaking rules, but they were caught anyway. Skinner decided to reveal his thoughts on Spender not really working for the FBI in confidence in Mulder's apartment. He later went to find him at Cassandra's hospital room, but she was not there He later helped Mulder and Scully get to El Rico Air Force Base. 
Skinner met Mulder in the psychiatric room, only to be attacked. After he left the room, however, was a note to help him. He then helped get to meet him. The two took Mulder away from bed and Kritschgau convinced Skinner to inject Mulder with a drug to slow down his brain activity enough to speak intelligibly. Skinner got Mulder back to bed just as Diana Fowley was looking for him, having noticed he was missing. Skinner covered themselves, but Fowley was suspicious and Mulder confirmed it, having read her mind. 
Later, Skinner had Kritschgau perform a test to confirm Mulder's precognition. He was determined to get Mulder out of the hospital now, as Kritschgau was convinced the doctors there were giving him the wrong treatment. After they gave him something, Fowley burst in with Doctor Geoff Harriman to catch them in the act. Skinner took full responsibility. 
Skinner was at the hospital and told Scully that Mulder was gone. However, he refused to be involved in Scully's investigation into the alien artifact or Mulder's whereabouts, as his position was compromised. He was still monitored by Krycek, however, and was attacked by him in his office for information of what calls he did have with Scully. He was doubled over while Scully chased Krycek and Arlene called an ambulance. 
Skinner was given a case of Amber Lynn LaPierre's kidnapping. Mulder came by, uninvited, insisting he take the case. Skinner gave him a day to work it, but Mulder did not come through. Without contact, Skinner had to move and take parents into custody. He briefed agents on the note that Billie LaPierre wrote, but Mulder had came in during and declared the parents were not guilty, and that the handwriting of the note was inconclusively the mother's. He left to his office before hearing anything further. 
After LaPierre had asked to speak to Mulder, Skinner went with Mulder and Scully to the LaPierres' home. Oddly, Mulder emerged from the discussion asking to be taken off the case due to being too close to it. On the way back to airport, however, Scully put information together and they all headed for the North Pole Village. They found Ed Truelove's cache of videotapes. Amber was on one of the tapes. Skinner saw Truelove himself running from the area and caught him near the graves of all the children. 
Skinner looked into Scully's supposed "family emergency" trip after Mulder came to him convinced something was wrong. Scully called soon to say she was fine. Skinner took her word for it, but Mulder was convinced she was in trouble. 
Krycek and Covarrubias came to Skinner to have him bring them to Mulder, having brought the news that the CSM was dying and there was a chance to get evidence to bring him down. Skinner brought them downstairs to see him and stopped Mulder from immediately attacking Krycek. He then went back with Mulder to Oregon to help him study the area. While preparing with setting up laser traps, Skinner saw that Mulder had disappeared. Skinner soon saw the alien ship take off. He returned to D.C. and visited Scully in the hospital after her fall. He admitted he saw something he could not deny that night. He also learned that Scully was pregnant. 
Skinner met the Lone Gunmen to try to get information on the UFO after Mulder's abduction. They obtained satellite images, but claimed that they couldn't track it with what they have. Skinner did not believe the story that Mulder staged his death, despite medical records that he was dying. Based on information from the Lone Gunmen, Skinner believed Mulder was in Arizona. Scully then declared she believed the conspiracy was now removing evidence of the abduction and alien presence, including Praise. Skinner and Scully drove out in Arizona to find Praise. They reached the school, but Doggett and the task force had just arrived. 
Skinner and Scully reached the area where Mulder supposedly fell and died. Scully then admitted to Doggett that one of the things she could not explain was someone who could change their appearance. 
During the search, Skinner and Scully saw a girl conspicuously leave the school, Skinner distracted Crane while Scully went to talk to her. Skinner later saw Doggett on the phone with Kirsch and, when he realized Kirsch was disappointed. Skinner told Doggett that he was set up to fail. Skinner then saw Scully try to leave and confronted her. She drew her gun, thinking Skinner was the alien. However, Skinner revealed he knew her pregnancy. Skinner wanted Scully to go back to her life, but she said she could not. They left together to get Praise. Skinner brought him to MacLaren medical center. While watching over him, Praise got up suddenly. What seemed to be his friend, Thea Sprecher, was actually the Alien Bounty Hunter. Skinner was subdued and his body put in the ceiling. 
In 2000, Skinner was running an undercover FBI operation to go after Russian arms smugglers. The stumbled into the operation and nearly ruined the whole sting. In the end, it worked out, despite their interference with the final deal between the Russians and Skinner. He was irritable about encountering his doppelgänger at the meet, Jimmy Bond having posed as Skinner while mistakenly believing he was a crooked FBI agent. 
In 2002, Skinner defended Mulder at his trial in a military court of law for the murder of Knowle Rohrer. Skinner asked Mulder repeatedly to take the stand, which Mulder refused. 
===Later career===
In 2008, AD Skinner was contacted by Dr. Scully to assist in determining Mulder's location, after Mulder disappeared. Skinner was instrumental in stopping an illegal organ transplant before saving Mulder from hypothermia. 
Skinner was still in his position at the FBI in 2016, and convinced Mulder and Scully to return to active duty on the X-Files. 
Six weeks later following the reopening of the X-Files, Scully suffered a seizure and was taken to hospital, with Skinner heading there. He noticed blinking lights on her brain scan, and deduced it as a coded message which translates "Find him", which he believes is linked to Scully and Mulder's son William. Mulder disbelieved this claim, however Skinner pointed out Mulder has believed more ludicrous things in the past.
Later on while getting into his car, ex-agent (who was hiding in the back seat) put a gun to Skinner's head, however he got the gun off her and pointed it at her. The then climbed into the car, and offered Skinner a deal to survive his upcoming plans to wipe out the human race, in return for him helping to find Scully's son. Skinner became dismissive with the Smoking Man, not wanting any part of his deal, although the Smoking Man revealed he ensured Scully was one of those that would survive the outbreak. After Monica left the car, the Smoking Man revealed the truth about William's father: the Smoking Man himself is the father, having used alien science many years ago to artificially impregnate Scully. After his shocking meeting with the Smoking Man, Skinner returned to the hospital after Scully had been attacked, and ends up in a brief fight with Mulder who accuses Skinner of covering up the truth, having deduced he had met the Smoking Man due to the scent of cigarettes coming off him. Skinner advised Mulder to drop the matter, and proceeded to leave. 
A car driven by Monica Reyes and the Smoking Man rammed into Skinner, injuring him.
Skinner survived the encounter, and as of December 2018 began collaborating with Leyla Harrison by collecting together documentation of Mulder and Scully's cases with the X-files.(The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena)
Category:Walter Skinner