#i was contemplating doing an x files one of these for scully and mulder but scully's would be 2 1/2 times longer

[freckleslikestars]

Claudia Black as Aeryn Sun in every episode of FARSCAPE

#farscape #aeryn sun #farscape gifs #claudia black #claudia black gifs #aeryn sun gifs #my gifs #when I say making this gifset nearly killed both me and my laptop #a true labour of love #im planning to do one for crichton too #but i need to give my eyes a rest first #please dear god don't let this gifset flop #this took a grand total of 19 and a half hours #nine hours spent selecting and capturing footage #and ten and a half hours actually making the gifs #but i'd do anything for the love of my life #i was contemplating doing an x files one of these for scully and mulder but scully's would be 2 1/2 times longer #and like...i don't have the time or energy for that #but i will do a crichton one at some point

[carefulfears]

https://www.tumblr.com/waiting-for-the-day/724638324438024192/taking-her-to-the-liberty-bell-after-she

well you have to talk about the way mulder loves now!! it can be very subtle but also so intense (thinking about the way he looks at scully, wants to know what she thinks, when he gives her his undivided attention...)

(x) (xx) well, yes! where scully's love is very contradictory, mulder's is contemplative, i think. he's a lot more aware than people realize. but you have to get it. like you have to get what it all means. blink and you'll miss it.

a superstars of the superbowl VHS tape, an apollo 11 keychain, creepy dolls, whatever the hell was in that christmas present. everything means something. it’s like that incrementum line:

Beside him on the couch, she rips into hers with abandon - Mulder's rare gifts are always puzzling, always a challenge, more of an experience than a thing in itself. They're extensions of him and all of his complexity, like little pieces of his soul.

everything means something, and scully loves to figure it out.

he says “i didn’t know it was your birthday, scully!” with a wrapped gift in his pocket, a sparkler and song in front of her. he says “i stole these from a guy with a broken leg down the hall, he won’t be able to catch me” about flowers we watched him come through the front doors holding, always prepared with a smile and an excuse. (they both really love to adore each other, when they can get away with it).

he notices everything. he remembers everything. he’s interested, he asks questions. have you ever been to san diego? have you ever seen the liberty bell? are you gonna see that guy again? how was the wedding? if you could take out 5 people from beyond the grave, who would they be? if you could be someone else for a day, who would you be?

he can quote her senior thesis verbatim, years after reading it. references it for decades. he always wants her input, values it. it’s that moment in ice when hodge (whose partner says she feels treated like his “assistant”) yells at scully that she’s wrong, and mulder just comes and asks what she found. when they find the parasite, the first thing he does is move away from the microscope and tell scully to look.

there’s an essay in deny all knowledge about this (what do you think? by rhonda wilcox and j.p. williams); in the x-files, love is respect, and respect is curiosity. valuing what someone has to say. to her peers and superiors, she’s “mrs. spooky.” to him, she’ll be head of the bureau someday.

(and always. he tells her not to take on his flagrant plans because he doesn’t want her to jeopardize her career, have a note in her file. he fucks off to alaska alone so that she won’t risk anything. he tells her to “go be a doctor.” seven years in, both of them teary in a motel room, he tells her that there is so much more for her in her life. “there is so much more than this.” she was never just an asset to “his” quest: she’s valuable to anything, whatever she wants, whatever she sets her mind to.)

i’ve talked about this before but i think the biggest misconception when it comes to mulder and love is that nothing comes before the crusade, but the crusade is love. it’s love for samantha, yes, but the only difference between samantha’s experience and scully’s is that scully lived. it’s for samantha. it’s for scully. it’s for everyone who came before and after them both. but by nature of having survived, having returned, having come back: there’s something hallowed and fragile about scully’s spot. he would walk away from all of the rest.

when she’s gone, he signs it all away. standing on a bridge, he would trade everything. when he holds every answer that he has ever sought, he gives it up, for no deeper reason than that scully would be able to see her sister one last time. (scully by missy’s bed, crying that her sister will never know that she’s sorry. mulder whispering “oh, she knows. she knows.” and leaning up from his spot on the floor to hold her. there is no deeper conversation than that, because what matters more than that?)

when he walks into a room that holds everything that’s ever been taken from him, everything that he’s lost, everything that he’s tried to find salvation in: he keeps walking. all that he needs is one vial marked with one name.

it’s ahab and starbuck, it’s a mad captain and a devoted follower, sure: but mostly it’s a cycle. mostly it’s a snake eating its own tail.

he can’t say “no” to her for anything. he’s world’s best baby daddy because she pouted at him (because she believes he could be). complete with presents wrapped in baby paper and going to birthing classes with her and tips he learned watching oprah. bugging her about finding out the sex 😭😭 he’s worse than her mother. (“this isn't about the x-files, scully. it is only about you.“)

she feels that she failed him for the rest of her life, he never stops meeting her with absolution. he barely speaks in ghouli except to say “you have nothing to apologize for” and hug her. the original line in the the truth script, before she says that she felt he would never forgive her, is “i’m so sorry about william. i can’t imagine what you must’ve gone through. i missed you so much.”

(she spent months afraid that he would never forgive her, that she would lose everything, and then the moment comes. and all he can do is hold her, and say “i am so sorry. you have been through so much. i have missed you so much.”)

he can “feel” her thinking. he tells her that he’ll curse god for awhile, so that she can sleep. he does not believe in god. it doesn’t matter, nothing is her burden alone. (“i might not believe in god, but i believe in you. i speak to him through you.”)

he “never saw [her] as a mother” until she spoke of herself that way. when she showed up at his door in her underwear the day they met, he wrapped her up and gave her the bed, sat on the floor. matched her vulnerability. seven years later, when she invited herself into his room, he took her shoes off and slept over the sheets.

he spends his life begging to be believed, but never at the cost of her integrity, or even her peace. when she asks what her ex’s stopped watch means, he tells her “it means whatever you want it to mean.” he tells her to believe only in what’s true, what’s true to her, even when she just wants him to be “pleased.” he tells her that he won’t hold it against her if she wants to go work with someone else (even if it’s someone who’s always degrading him).

he constantly lowers himself beneath her when it’s vulnerable. if she’s standing, he sits. if she’s sitting, he kneels. he looks up to her. (and a woman who salutes her father does not know how to look down to a man, but she has to learn).

he touches her very purposefully. it’s learned, it’s earned, it’s to communicate. a gentle hand on her shoulder to say: it’s not personal, we’re friends. a light touch to her back to say: i’m here, i’ve got you.

he says “dana” so softly and deliberately. “mulder” and “scully” are terms of endearment, it’s their secret language, it’s who she became next to him. but he says “dana” to speak to who she is beneath it all. in their annoyingly austenian email love letters, it’s “dearest dana,” but it has been “dearest dana” since the very first time.

he really really likes her. even before he trusts her, when they first met, he invites her out on his run. he doesn’t go anywhere without checking if she’d like to come too. she’s his best friend. they joke about porn and go out to eat barbecue. he gets so wide-eyed and awe-struck every time she talks about literally anything, just falls dead quiet listening to her. she’s the smartest person in the world.

but the hardest thing for mulder to learn is that it’s okay to come off the cross, that it’s okay to experience something other than punishment. so they maintain so much silence, and that snake eating its tail becomes a cycle of inadvertent denial. the best way that mulder ever loved scully is trading that impossible selflessness for movie nights and popcorn. being able to just be still, to sit with her, to be present. she used to cry every time. eventually, she’s giggling over sushi.

that quote i was on about on twitter earlier? “he had the awkward tenderness of someone who has never been loved and is forced to improvise.” (isabel allende).

that’s mulder. awkward tenderness, improvisation; something that you aren’t familiar with, but never giving up on trying.

#this is so long i literally could go on and on and on #about them both #asks

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma In-Depth (Part I): Per Manum, and Waking Up to Miracles

Waking Up to Fatherhood - The Past

Before Mulder's abduction, there were two brief times that Scully almost became a mother.

Both were linked to her stolen ova; but one little girl was born weak and sickly, her only purpose to be a lab rat for her government and to be loved in-between these tests by her adoptive parents. Mulder could not be a father to this hybrid, having failed to be a brother to a clone once already. And, sadly, in spite of all of Scully's training and all of Mulder's attempts, little Emily Sims could not be put back together again.

Later-- we will never know how much later-- he finally told Scully about her other remaining ova, the ones that didn't work. But she wanted to try, anyway.

So, before Mulder's abduction, there was a short period of time where he almost became a father.

It was a simple ask from her partner; and one that Mulder took time to contemplate-- whether by his request or hers or mutual understanding we will never know. But ultimately, he'd made his decision back in Home, Pennsylvania-- "I never saw you as a mother before" (though he'd later covered that intimacy in the motel with a biting "Night, Mom.") The donation was a mere formality.

It's established in a Per Manum script here and here (thanks @dunhamhairograpy and @x-files-scripts) that Scully was rushing into the process faster than Mulder, not having taken the time to think far enough down the road. But her partner-- whose mind was more often engaged elsewhere in the hunt for the Truth-- had. He'd thought about work, and he'd thought about them. But mostly he'd thought about the answer being "yes."

Scully cracked, crumbling in desperate joy and clinging to Mulder in sheer happiness. Her eyebrow popped up as self-preservation and distance engaged, doubts swirling at all the calculations, the changes, the unsaid conversations; but Mulder continued to hold her, luxuriating in the rich satisfaction of granting his partner her greatest wish.

When he was assured that Scully wouldn't step back just yet, Mulder lost his focus in daydreams, a secret contentment spilling out of his beautiful soul. Thrilling hopes and dreams of his own little Mulder-Scully poured from his eyes; and a softer, more paternal smile settled onto his mouth. This is the face of a man who accepted, fully, the anticipation and responsibility of fatherhood-- it's a heartbreakingly tender moment that he treasured to himself, as he had (until Amor Fati) never shared his deepest joys and sharpest pains completely with Scully.

(Side note: This is why I set the IVF arc before S7: Mulder still acted on his trademark guarded manner here, an aspect of himself that is set aside after Amor Fati--another post for another time. That revelation changed his outlook, his life, literally his mind. Here he was still reclusive, reluctant, shy-- all things that were swept away in the aftermath of listening to the world and realizing he only wanted to hear Scully.)

Scully still clung, hoping against hope she was reading this-- him-- right; and finally, finally she stepped back, doing her best to project an air of nonchalance. Anything to keep this-- this IVF this-- as low-key as she could, perhaps so as not to spook Mulder or perhaps not to spook herself; but her delight could not be wholly contained.

Her partner saw right through her, giving a little twist of his lips even as his eyes fixated on her flashing emotions.

To relieve Scully's sudden jitteriness, he quipped "At that part I'm a pro" and dipped, leaving her with the solitude she craved to pull her scrambled pieces back together.

However, despite his overthinking and her underthinking, both are a tad overwhelmed-- Scully noticeably so, though Mulder still shrugged off the moment and released a tense sigh before turning his enthusiastic smile back at his partner. There was no fear or reluctance in his posture, and only heightened reservation in hers; so it's safe to assume Mr. and Mrs. Spooky would have relaxed naturally into their impending parenthood long before Spooky Jr. arrived. Both wanted this, yes; and there would still have been some awkward bumps ahead, but it would have led them closer together. They were partners, after all.

Alas, that was not to be.

In the last IVF flashback, Scully walked back into her apartment, quiet and glum. When Mulder popped up on her couch-- having fallen asleep (and still trying to take up as little space as possible on her little people couch, even when unconscious)-- she is surprised to see him there.

Mulder explained, still a little slurred, "Scully? I must have dozed off. I was waiting for you to get back." Ever the gentleman, he offered a reasonable explanation for his presence in her space: even if he owned (and owns) a key to the place, Mulder wouldn't use it without a good reason or life-saving crisis (see post here.)

Her eyes were red-rimmed with more tears on the way; and the top of her hair was messed and staticky, likely having rested on her car steering wheel as the first onslaught of tears struck (as she'd cried before in Elegy and The End.)

Realizing she'd been irreparably caught, Scully shrugged into an acceptance of her grief, pulling her mouth tight in a shallow attempt to placate her partner's concerns. Tears still barely held back (not having expected Mulder to be there to catch her in the act), she slowly walked forward, stoically (if uncomfortably) willing to give Mulder his fair and equal share in this failure.

Nothing escaped her partner's wild, wide-eyed stare, realization sinking his tentatively celebratory feelings. For a moment he just observed, eyes falling before sweeping back up to ask ,"Didn't take, did it?"

"I guess it was too much to hope for," Scully replied, pain cracking through at Mulder's overt disappointment. Her "Starbuck" guilt rose up to accuse her: when Scully loses, she's "failed"; and this personal failure went deep. Discouraged-- and not strong enough to fully engage with Mulder's pain, though she knew it was there-- Scully gave up hope.

Mulder was having none of that-- the same facial expression, too-- as he swept Scully up in his arms, not allowing her guilt to add to the burdens on her back. It's a zany comfort all Mulder's own: none of that, Scully, of course it wasn't too much to hope for; sure, we might never get that wish, but that didn't mean it was worthless to hope all the same.

But, again, his deeper disappointment cracked through once Scully could no longer see and blame herself for his pain.

"It was my last chance," Scully keened, straining with everything in her not to lose control, not to completely despair.

The brittle brutality gripped the both of them; and Mulder tightened his hold, rocking them into a calm only two souls united in this grief could experience.

His strength and comfort allowing her to settle back into herself, Scully pulled back just before being hit with a fresh wave of hurt; but Mulder settled that, too, with his special brand of soothing: a forehead kiss.

"Never give up on a miracle," he intoned in accents he'd never used before: solid, unshakeable, unwavering faith tempered by fully matured love.

It was almost too much for Scully; but she dodged last minute to plant a kiss on his cheek instead. (Another reason I believe this took place before Amor Fati: Scully had claimed her right to forehead kisses after his dream confession and revelation. Here she is still too tentative and unsure. Another discussion for another time.)

Mulder consumed her like the ouroboros on her back; and the two closed the loop, clinging to each other-- reclaiming their life and future even with the death of their dreams.

Waking Up to Miracles - The Present

Mulder spent the last three months being split open, pulled apart, and screaming for Scully's help.

Then one night, he stopped waking up.

When awareness does slowly return, his eyes open in a hospital, groggy and sluggish... and he can't remember what happened to bring him here. But that isn't unusual in his line of work; and he knows memory will return with time.

As usual, Scully is stationed by his bed, hesitantly blissful in the face of-- what he considered to be-- another of his mundane recoveries.

It's too tempting to take advantage of her eagerness; and his playfulness gets the better of him. "Who... are you?"

After he's deemed she's had the proper reaction-- shock and a possible heart attack-- he mischievously beams back at her, resuming their usual cheerful hospital camaraderie.

But... her reaction is stronger than usual: a sudden whoosh of relief, swept-aside bedside manner leaving room for open, intimate glee. Her haunted eyes almost speak for her-- "Do you have any idea what you've been through?"-- make him more serious, contemplative.

"I know what I see in your face." Feeling cared for, comforted, to the pit of his soul as his partner begins to stroke his hair, he mouths "I love you", lighting her face up with trembling gratitude.

And him knowing her, still, and loving her, still, melts Scully. He watches as she sinks down in weighted grief and heady relief by his side, soaking her tears in his hospital gown. Although he tries to move closer to comfort or cradle her, his body, he finds, is unyielding. His sober mood turns somber, trying to catch at the greater mystery snagged under so much heartache. Despite the sleep of recovery tugging at him, there is no way he can rest without making her feel better.

"Anybody miss me?"

His partner's choked laugh and her sturdier grip assure and relax him more than any reply; and he drifts off, content.

Mulder misses, however, the severity of his injuries, the signs of his partner's advanced pregnancy, and the shadow of her new partner lengthening the doorway.

But those wait, lurking, with his nightmares.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

#txf #Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma #In-Depth #Part I #Per Manum and Waking Up to Miracles #analysis #S8 #PTSD #DeadAlive #Mulder #Scully #IVF #Per Manum #mine #x-files #xfiles #xf meta #meta #the x files

[deathsbestgirl]

I’ve read a few fics where someone either in the fbi or local/state law enforcement tries to recruit scully to their team. I like the idea (though I’d never want her to actually leave, ofc), and I think it’s realistic that it would happen - if you agree, how seriously do you think she entertains such offers, at various points in the show?

oh i love this question!! i think there are three times scully considered to his. the first time being squeeze, and colton helped make sure scully would dedicate herself to the victims & mulder. and mulder is really the one who solidified it because he's so considerate. he cares about people so much and what he does really is what she wants to do. she wants to make a difference.

the second time would be around never again, right before her cancer. like i think about paper hearts, and even el mundo gira. she couldn't really help mulder, she let skinner down. they didn't find the immigrants spreading the ... mold? they were "invisible." and obviously never again, where she was contemplating her work & her life & her choices. right after na, she needs the x files. and she needs mulder, he gives her strength and she would have had a much harder time without him. and even though he wasn't ready to say what she means to him, he needs her too and i do think she's aware how he values her. he's a very show over tell kind of person, and they both have a habit of talking around important things lol

the third time...would be the end of s5, the end & ftf era where she was really doubting herself and her importance to the x files & mulder. and more than that, how she's a deterrent to him. i think she became very aware in gethsemane & reduxes how they use her against him (and all the other times she was victimized). her abduction, her cancer. and then emily happened. the red and the black? she was believing and he wasn't. she willingly did a regression which she ran from when melissa asked her to do it...regarding her abduction. scully almost died again. and while that may not have been as targeted against her & mulder, it's all connected. diana just exacerbated the problem and made her question their partnership more. but he said what she needed to hear and she was roped back in.

more than anything, i don't think scully could abandon him and leave him alone. and the x files really are hers too, whether her name is on the door or not. she has just as much blood in this as mulder does. she wants answers too. scully will always be reeled back in. we see a hint of it in iwtb and plenty in the revival. mulder & william are who she fights for. and as mulder fights for everyone else, she'll be there with him every step of the way.

#dana scully #the x files #mulder and scully #they love each other so much

[baronessblixen]

Saw your tags-- it's me, the meta contemplating tiger~-- and started pursuing a trail and thought I'd get your opinion. (There's probably going to be typos because I'm typing fast, so beware~.)

Mulder's episodes concerning his beliefs, memories, experiences are incredibly well-handled in the show; yet all of Scully's religious episodes pale in comparison to her Beyond the Sea/Never Again/All Things arc. And I get why at some level (Mulder is willing to contemplate deeper questions-- "If you could prove the existence of God"-- whereas Scully lives firmly in the present and doesn't want to poke around at something with no concrete answers-- "I don't think it can be prove") BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT that doesn't explain the... offness? of the episodes.

DD did the best, I think (besides parts of All Souls) tapping into the potential whimsical/fantastical element of Catholicism, knitting it seamlessly into The X-Files world; and he (purposefully) left in questions that will never be answered. I THINK THAT'S IT-- everything else about the show is filled with a "What just happened?" quality, even the other religious episodes that were better handled (i.e. Miracle Man and Signs and Wonders... even though that last one was badly written, it still clung to the framework of the show.)

I think Scully's episodes are framed as "THIS IS THE ANSWER" to confuse her, to test what she believes are the answers... but they're so poorly resolved because it doubles down on 'IT WAS THE ANSWER" instead of handling her crises with nuance (like Mulder's episodes-- belief, testing, fake outs, conclusions separate from the definitive Truth.) Beyond the Sea and All Things was in the same vein; but it allowed her to figure out HER definitive answer.

I guess my point is: done well, Mulder and Scully's faith/belief center-episodes give them room to figure out what THEY believe rather than what is TOLD them to believe. And I find that a little disappointing because I would have loved to have seen what Scully thought the answer was in Revelations (heavy-handed as it was) and Orison (HEAVIER handed as it was), etc., rather than having to fall in line with the "moral of the story" (which is why Irresistible shone compared to its follow-up.) There were some good stories that could have been told-- and have been in other (frankly, better) media. Her religion was personal and would have been different compared to other religious figures, zealots, normal characters, or her family because of her life experiences.

ANYWAY, mini meta over! XDDDD One day I'll break this all down because I love story-telling potential in anything; and those episodes always nagged at me.

What say you? Am I off the mark?

I'm really not the best to ask about anything to do with religion cause these are my least favorite episodes. I don't care for organized religion at all and whenever it shows up in the show in those "Scully is a Catholic" episodes, I mentally tune out. Religion is not something I understand at all. I do agree with you that it hasn't always been handled well on the show. Most of the time these episodes just felt off to me. But again, that could be because my interest in religion is just zero.

#lovely asks #i'm so sorry about this #i just can't with organized religion #i dislike all these episodes so much haha #especially like all souls #i just don't get it #in a way it's weird cause it doesn't bother me as much on Evil #in TXF it just often seems out of place #and turns scully into a different person almost for just one episode

[thatfragilecapricorn30]

confession

msr, teen | 1k words | ao3 | @xfilesbingo prompt "confession" | tagging @today-in-fic

Mulder and Scully stumbled into his apartment, dripping wet, and immediately began shucking off articles of clothing. It was Mulder’s bright idea to pick up their food in a torrential downpour, instead of having it delivered, because he wanted to go to Blockbuster too. And of course Scully had to accompany him to ensure that Mulder actually picked a decent movie for once. She wasn’t interested in his obscure sci fi films, though it had been awhile since they had actually finished a movie. Usually, one of them had a better idea in mind of how they could spend their evening, and easily enticed the other away from the screen, which Scully couldn’t deny was definitely more fun than watching TV.

Once boots, jackets, umbrellas were all left in a damp heap on the floor, Mulder grabbed the food and the video to bring into the living room, while Scully continued to shake her head like a dog to dislodge the water in her ears. Even after being inside for a few minutes, she was still shivering from the cold rain and contemplated retrieving her go bag that was always kept in the trunk of her car. When Scully was first assigned to the X-Files, she very quickly learned that she would be jet setting across the country at a moment’s notice, so she started keeping a change of clothes and a travel toothbrush in her car for convenience's sake.

Mulder must have read her mind, because he called from the living room, “Go steal something of mine to wear,” which sounded much better than going back out in the storm. Scully went to scavenge for some sweatpants and maybe his Knicks jersey if she was lucky. She loved the well-worn shirt. Honestly she enjoyed wearing Mulder’s clothes - even though they were huge on her - because they were very soft and warm and often smelled like him. Scully also knew how much Mulder liked seeing her in his clothes. So possessive, she thought fondly while rolling her eyes, as she started looking through his dresser.

Even though Scully had spent a lot of time at Mulder’s, she wasn’t exactly sure which drawer contained sweatpants. Leave it to Mulder to have no organization system and just have random clothes shoved in together. It was a wonder that he was able to get dressed at all. This weekend Scully was going to stage an intervention over the state of his wardrobe. Mulder would hate it but she’d make it worth his while, and she greatly enjoyed the fact that she could do that now. While Scully was rummaging through one of the middle drawers, her fingers closed on a velvet box. She pulled it out and stared at it, feeling shocked.

“Scully, did you get lost in the closet?” she heard Mulder yell from outside the room.

She knew exactly what kind of box it was and opening it up confirmed it. She only got a small glimpse of the jewelry before Mulder was in the doorway. She looked up at him and his expression turned into his “panic” face when he noticed what she was holding.

“Something you want to confess, Mulder?” she asked, trying to joke but ended up sounding serious.

“You weren’t supposed to find that,” he said.

Scully snapped the list closed. She wasn’t sure what he meant by that.

Off her expression, Mulder amended, “You weren’t supposed to find that yet.”

“Is this for me?” she asked, her voice only coming out as a whisper.

“No, it’s for my other girlfriend. I see her on the nights I’m not with you,” he said with a smile, but Scully didn’t laugh.

He sighed, “Of course it’s for you. I’ve actually had it for a while but I didn’t want to scare you away and I was hoping to find the right moment and make it really special…”

“Special?” she asked. This came as a surprise. Scully had always been simple when it came to relationships and she thought Mulder was the same way. She didn’t care about fancy things or big declarations of love. The little moments were more important to her.

“Yeah, special. Like fireworks and a mariachi band and champagne.”

Now Scully laughed. “Mulder, be real.”

He moved to sit on the bed and Scully joined him. “I am. Well, not about the fireworks and mariachi band but I really was going to ask you in a nice way.”

She took his hand and squeezed. “I’m sure whatever you came up with would have been great. But for the record, I don’t expect or need anything like that. Getting to be with you is already special.”

Mulder pulled his hand away, only to put his arm around her and pull her close. “That’s why I love you. Because that’s how you think. But you deserve a lot more.”

Scully could feel Mulder’s pulse racing where she was leaning against his chest. She wondered if he was nervous about asking her. Did he really not know how she felt about him? Scully decided to lay the issue to rest.

“Mulder,” Scully said, still curled up against him. “The answer is yes.”

Mulder pulled back to look into her eyes and when he realized she was serious, his timid smile changed to the biggest, goofiest grin she had ever seen.

“Scully, I haven’t even asked you yet,” he stated playfully.

She leaned up to kiss him briefly. “But now you don’t have to worry about my answer. I’ll be waiting for something really spectacular now, though.”

“Oh yeah?” he asked as he kissed her more. He pushed her back on the bed. “Something like this?”

“This is a good start,” Scully said breathlessly.

She wouldn’t be needing those sweatpants now.

#here is a treat now that fictober is over #gonna try to work on these bingo prompts more! #msr #the x files #my.txf #txf fic #fox mulder #dana scully

[harmonicabisexuals]

never again thoughts...

first of all, the airing order controversy: at the end of the day I really don’t think it matters that much. I can understand as an actor gillian being pissed about it bc it would definitely have had an influence on how she played it if it were the other way originally, but weirdly, I think it actually comes across equally as well both ways. as scully says in the final scene, it’s about her life, not the fear of death, and it makes sense that she would be contemplating her choices whether or not she suspected she had cancer, especially in the context of episodes like herrenvolk and tunguska/terma where she and mulder very much were going in circles. I do think her impulsive actions (though not necessarily the thought behind them) make a bit more sense if she’s worried about possibly having cancer, but I can also see them simply as a way to get back at mulder lol. the only issue with the original order I think is that her exasperation in leonard betts makes more sense as a build up to never again instead of as a result of it, and brings the tension between her and mulder up to a climatic boiling point in memento mori instead of a gradual cooling off.

I also think (as a mulder defender) that on rewatch he’s not nearly as bad in this episode as I remember, or as fandom makes him out to be. sure, he’s definitely an asshole to scully in the final scene, but he is (rightfully or not) angry with her and definitely jealous. he’s also not great in the opening scene but it’s more of not really being aware of and attentive to scully’s feelings rather than outright malice towards her, and his vulnerability of “you don’t want it to be?” says sooo much, especially since he later calls scully from graceland just to check in and bc he wanted to share it with her 🥺 he’s already internalizing her words and trying to be better at not only thinking about her in the context of the x files.

I also know morgan and wong frequently love to use episode titles in their scripts, even if it sometimes feels heavy handed (such as in home), and it’s interesting to think about that in the context of scully’s character arc. she starts off the episode saying to mulder that she almost wishes that they were going in circles- instead it feels like an endless line of one step forward two steps back. but her conversation with ed jerse in the bar is about fathers and cycles, and of course she gets the ouroboros tattoo. in contrast, ed gets his tattoo to symbolize moving on with his life while acknowledging that he feels like he never really can. which is better, an endless straight line, or a never ending circle? and what it mean in the larger context of the x files’ themes of fate vs. free will? scully returning to her office in the final scene may be seen by some as a lack of agency, still caught up in the ouroboros, but her final conversation with mulder makes it clear (at least in my opinion) that she has ultimately reaffirmed her choice to be there. she may be stuck in the circle, but she’s made her choice to be, and mulder, for better or for worse, is stuck in there with her.

#having memento mori after this episode feels better imo too bc she has already reaffirmed her choice to stick with mulder #rather than feeling obligated to if it had happened directly after leonard betts #stuck in the circle but dragging mulder in there with her lol #this episode is such a important turning point in their relationship and kind of an inverse of scully's realization during quagmire #was gonna talk about that too but the post was getting too long lol maybe i'll do it later #txf #txf rewatch #the x files

[amplifyme]

Reconciliation

In light of an earlier conversation here, I’m pulling this fic from 1998 out of the vault.

The X-Files. MSR. Gen. WC: 3,793. Post-All Souls. Religious discussion. Read on AO3.

He was waiting for her when she stepped out of the church and into the blinding light of day. Leaning against the railing at the bottom of the stairs, arms folded loosely across his chest, eyes hidden behind Ray-Bans, Mulder stood watch.

It took him a few seconds to notice her; long enough for Scully to successfully hide her shock at seeing him there. He straightened and turned toward her as she came down the stairs.

"Mulder?"

"Oh, hey, Scully." He pulled off his sunglasses as she reached the sidewalk, anchoring them in the neck of his t-shirt.

"What're you doing here?"

She watched as he tried not to be too obvious about the quick head-to-toe assessment he gave her. When his eyes lifted and met hers, he jerked a half-smile. "I was hoping I could buy you a cup of coffee."

Scully turned her head and glanced out at the heavy Saturday afternoon traffic. "You tracked me down to buy me a cup of coffee?"

"Yeah," he quietly confirmed. She turned back and watched as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. She sensed his uneasiness, but gave him credit for maintaining eye contact.

"Why?" she asked.

"Why not?" he rejoined. "It's a beautiful afternoon. I was a good boy and got all my chores done." He shrugged and repeated, "Why not?"

She studied him for a few more seconds before she dropped her eyes. "Mulder, I don't... It's really not a good...." She trailed off, thinking all she wanted to do was go home and curl up into a contemplative ball of tears and regret.

"I could use the company, Scully."

She glanced back up at him, noting the genuine need in his eyes, the silent plea. She was faced with a familiar decision. Be there for Mulder or do what was necessary for herself? Whose need was greater? Ingrained habit, borne of her upbringing and faith, kicked in and took over.

"Okay, one cup of coffee. But then I have to get back home."

"Great. One cup and I'll leave you alone." He curled his fingers around her upper arm and guided her away from the church and down the sidewalk. "So... There's a coffee shop down on the corner. Or we could go to my place - it's not far from here. Your choice."

Scully looked up at him, a tiny smile successfully hidden. "Let's see," she teased. "Do I pick Starbucks and a wonderful cup of latte, or your apartment and instant?"

"I bought a coffee maker a couple months ago, Scully. Didn't I tell you?"

"Are you becoming domestic, Mulder? Because I don't think I can't deal with that - not this late in the game."

"No need to worry. I'm not gonna start bringing homemade goodies into the office. I just figured it was about time I started taking better care of myself."

"Please explain to me what buying a coffee maker has to do with taking better care of yourself."

He lightly nudged her, glancing down and giving her a smile. "In the grand scheme of things, not much. But it did make me feel more like a grown-up."

"The two aren't necessarily related, you know."

"Aw, gimme a break, here. At least I'm trying."

Looking up at him, she knew he was. And in more ways than one. She hadn't figured out what had triggered this impromptu meeting of his, but she was willing to take the time to find out. Maybe it would take her mind off other more painful questions.

"Did your chores include stocking your cookie jar?"

"Oreos, Chips Ahoys, and Nutter Butters."

"Sold," she declared. "It looks like your place, Mulder."

He grinned at her and led the way to his car.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

His apartment was dimly lit and chilly. She kept her sweater on as he shed his jacket and left her in the living room, disappearing into the kitchen to start the coffee. She was standing in front of his desk, staring out the window, lost in thoughts of death and guilt and grief when he came to stand beside her, startling her. She glanced down at the mug he silently offered her, took it, and focused her attention back out the window. She was aware of Mulder presence: he was close enough to be felt, but not close enough to intrude. She was infinitely grateful for his keen sense when it came to her need for space.

"A quarter for your thoughts," he finally said. She turned to him, bringing the mug to her mouth. "Inflation," he added.

She blew into the mug and cautiously took a small sip. It was surprisingly good. She swallowed another mouthful and leaned back against the desk. Mulder was sprawled on the couch, his legs propped up on the coffee table, ankles crossed. His mug rested on one long blue-jeaned thigh.

"I thought you needed to talk to me, not the other way around."

He lifted his shoulders in a quick shrug. "Whatever."

Was he working up the courage to tell her what was on his mind, or waiting for her to spill her guts? She couldn't tell. She hoped he wasn't expecting any great revelation from her. He'd been so good about not mentioning the events of a few weeks ago, other than helping her sort through the typical bureaucratic bullshit that surrounded the deaths of the priest and the four girls.

The Messengers.

Her mind instantly supplied the image of Emily slipping from her grasp. Of the blinding light and her daughter's last words to her.

Mommy, please let me go.

Scully ducked her head and suppressed a shudder. She blinked hard, fighting back sudden tears.

No. Not here. Not in front of Mulder.

"Hey, Scully?" His soft entreaty gave her something to focus on. Taking a deep breath, she lifted her eyes to his. Mulder had on his mischievous face. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you look very nice. I don't get to see you in a real dress very often."

She was reduced to looking down at herself, absorbing this unlikely compliment. It wasn't that she didn't know Mulder appreciated her various... attributes, it was simply that he rarely mentioned them. A long-ago conversation on a rock just off the shore of Heuvelman's Lake, and his back-handed compliment then, sprung instantly to mind.

"Th.. thank you," she sputtered, and unsuccessfully muffled a tiny, nervous chuckle.

"You're welcome."

She would never understand him. Not in a million years. She thought after almost six years, she'd be used to things coming completely out of left field, but he still managed to surprise her.

"I need a cookie," she declared.

He cocked his head at the sudden change of subject, but went along with the shift with practiced skill. "Help yourself."

So she walked to the kitchen, mug in hand, and raided his stash. She shook her head in amusement at the giant alien head cookie jar (an item that never failed to make her smile) and lifted the lid, digging through the contents and making her selection. She was nibbling on an Oreo when Mulder joined her. He popped a cookie in his mouth and leaned across her to grab the coffee carafe, refilling his mug. He took up a spot next to her, both leaning against the counter, the distance between them too small to be measured.

"We used to go to church every Sunday when I was a kid," Mulder announced. He said it like he was resuming a conversation already in progress. Scully went still, waiting to see where he was going with this. "A Protestant church on the Vineyard. It was the one all the right people went to, if you get my drift. It was part of Dad's method of fitting in, of portraying us as the perfect family. More for show than substance."

He crunched up another cookie and washed it down with a swallow of coffee. "My mom's Jewish. Did you know that?"

"No, I didn't."

"Yeah, well, it's not something I talk about very much. It wasn't exactly a secret when I was growing up, it was just something we didn't discuss, especially outside the family. I think it made my mother ashamed. Not that she was Jewish, but that Dad made her set aside her religious upbringing for appearance's sake, and that she went along with it."

Mulder shifted a little and continued, "I liked going to church. There was a mystical quality about it that appealed to me. There was something very... comforting in the rituals of sermon and prayer, hymn."

Scully found herself reaching up and fingering the crucifix at her neck.

"I think I was ten or eleven when we stopped going regularly. Dad was gone a lot then. In DC doing whatever the hell it was he was up to his eyeballs in. Mom was never really big on going in the first place, and she wasn't about to try to sneak us into a temple to hear her side of the story, so we just didn't go unless Dad was home. And then after Samantha... After she was taken, we stopped going altogether."

"Did you miss it?" Scully asked.

"Sometimes," Mulder said after a while. "But it was nice to sleep in on Sundays." They traded a glance and a smile.

Scully thoughtfully nibbled another cookie and sipped some coffee. She was beginning to realize that Mulder wasn't exactly expecting anything from her. It was more that he needed someone to listen, and maybe pose the right questions. She thought about it for a minute and then asked, "When did you stop believing in God, Mulder?"

She thought she was prepared for the answer; confident she knew in advance what he'd say. But he blind-sided her again.

"What makes you think I stopped believing?"

He trained his deadpan gaze in her direction, and she knew she was gaping at him. Her eyes opened wide and one brow began an upward crawl. "I just assumed... I mean, you always seem so angry when the issue of religion comes up."

Mulder held her eye. "My disdain for religion has more to do with disillusionment than disbelief, Scully." He straightened up from his slouch against the counter and turned to face her, his arms folded across his chest. "I want to believe in the existence of God. But I don't blindly believe in everything, much as you might think otherwise. It's a nice idea and it gives people hope to cling to, but it's a hell of a lot harder for me."

Scully set her mug in the sink next to his and turned back to him. "Because of Samantha?" she quietly asked.

Instead of answering, Mulder stuck out his hand. "Let's go sit down."

Scully glanced at the offered hand and, after a second, took it. She allowed herself to be led back to the couch. She settled in while Mulder stayed on his feet. She'd felt the dampness of his palm against hers, had felt his tension, had known this wasn't easy for him. He didn't have to be sharing this with her, let alone volunteering the information, but he was. She felt a stab of guilt, recognizing how courageous he could be when it came to exposing his vulnerabilities to her. She knew she owed him the same.

She still hadn't been able to justify her fears when it came to confronting emotional issues with Mulder. He'd never given her any reason to distrust him. Just a few weeks ago, she'd confessed to him her visions of Emily. He hadn't dismissed her, or chided her, or done anything to add to her pain. He'd expressed his concern and his support, just as he'd done countless times before. There was no reason to continue being so reticent with him. And yet she was. Sometimes her actions were as puzzling to her as she assumed they were to Mulder.

"I guess it started with Samantha," Mulder acknowledged. His voice was raspy and low. "After she was abducted I spent a lot of nights on my knees, asking God to bring her back. I couldn't understand why he'd let her be taken, or why he'd let bad things happen to anyone." He indiscriminately paced the small living room, fingering objects and shuffling papers on his desk. "I was a pretty good kid. I didn't give my parents a lot of grief. And I'd been taught that if you followed God's laws, you'd be rewarded. I figured I'd earned my reward. I wanted my sister back. Obviously, God had other plans."

"He has His reasons," Scully whispered.

"Maybe so," Mulder said a little harshly. "But they sure as hell don't make sense to me."

"It's not up to us to question why, Mulder."

He barked a sharp laugh and remarked wryly, "So says the scientist."

Scully couldn't blame him for his cynicism, or his difficulty reconciling her faith with her science. She had her own problems trying to successfully integrate both aspects of her character.

"I'm a child of God first," she responded.

Mulder held her eye for a long beat and then scrubbed his face, sighing deeply. "Lambs to the slaughter," he muttered through his fingers.

Scully stayed silent, not wanting to provoke him further. He dropped his hands and studied her. After a minute he said, "I'm sorry. I'm doing it again, aren't I? Bring up religion and I tend to get nasty. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it," she said, hoping he'd take her at her word.

And he did. After a small nod of his head in thanks, Mulder said, "So anyway, where were we? Oh, yeah, okay. So I thought things were bad then, but they just got worse when I joined the FBI and started profiling. After some of the things I saw, it became harder and harder to believe in the idea of a benevolent God. It didn't... it doesn't make sense to me that a such an all-powerful deity would allow that kind of evil in the world. It was around that time I decided if there really is a God, he lost interest in us a long time ago and moved on to bigger and better things."

"You're angry with Him," Scully guessed. She could certainly empathize with that, even if she couldn't understand the depth of his pain. She didn't think anyone ever could. It was like any strong emotion: You could share it with someone, but you could never truly understand what significance it had in another's life.

"Can you blame me?" Mulder asked. "After all we've seen... The ugliness, the greed, the evil. All the lives that've been lost or destroyed. Can you blame me for being angry?"

She didn't really have time to formulate an answer. Mulder took two steps and collapsed onto the couch beside her. Tipping his head back with a sigh, he closed his eyes and added, "What amazes me, what absolutely blows my mind, is that you're not just as disillusioned as I am."

His eyes came open, and he turned his head and peered at her, obviously waiting for a response, for some kind of explanation.

Scully had been preparing herself for a query of this sort, having figured out early in their partnership that Mulder went into full attack mode when the subject of religion reared its unwelcome head. She'd been bracing for it since he'd started the conversation, all the time hating the fact that Mulder could put her on the defensive over such a personal issue. If she was to be completely honest with herself, it wasn't just the subject of religion that caused conflict between them. They were fine when arguing evidence and speculation, scientific and medical facts stacked up against theory and folklore. It was only when things turned personal that she became truly defensive.

Question my mind, but don't ever question my heart.

It was a life-long protective stance she'd taken, and was struggling to change; a decision she'd reached after her remission. It was so very hard sometimes, especially when it came to Mulder.

But there was something in the way he said the words that told her this wasn't like the other times. There was no challenge in his voice, no arrogance. Only a wistful need to understand, a yearning.

"I've been disillusioned, Mulder. I've been angry at God. Don't you think I've asked myself the same questions you're asking?"

"So how do you do it? How do you maintain your faith despite all you've seen, all you know? I don't understand that. I don't know how you do it."

"The same way you do, I suppose."

Mulder's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

She shifted on the couch, sitting up a little and turning toward him. Her knee brushed against his and rested there, the contact infinitesimal but vital. "You're puzzled by my faith and how I'm able to maintain it. But you have faith, too, Mulder, and have held to it just as tenaciously as I have mine. When I was in the hospital, you told me that your faith was in the truth, and I know that you believe it. But the church teaches us that God is the truth. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we're not that far apart when it comes right down to it. We both have faith in the same thing: we just call it by a different name."

They traded a long look, and Scully could see Mulder trying to come up with a logical (or even not so logical) retort. But then he glanced aside and closed his eyes. When he finally opened them and looked back over at her, they were suspiciously damp. They shown like emeralds in the low light of the room.

"I guess... I guess I never thought of it that way," he said haltingly. "And you may be right, Scully, but that still doesn't explain why things happen the way they do. And I still haven't seen any definitive proof that faith makes anything easier to accept."

"But that's what faith is," she argued. "It's accepting that we may never know, but hoping that what we believe in is the truth."

"And you're comfortable with that?"

Mulder said it with more than a hint of skepticism, which she supposed was only fair. How could she make him understand? She was just now beginning to come to grips with it herself. If only this could be easier for her - for both of them. But unspoken communication only went so far, and there were times when things needed to be said, no matter how hard it was to say them. No matter the potential risk inherent in allowing Mulder access to what she kept so closely guarded within her heart.

Scully pushed up from the couch and stepped to the window, her arms wrapped low around her chest, her back to him. "I'm learning to be," she replied, her answer softly spoken. She could hear the creak of leather as Mulder sat up on the couch. "It's something I struggle with, because it's hard sometimes. But I'm learning... I'm learning to... to let go."

Mulder's voice was little more than a whisper. "Of what?"

She dropped her head and closed her eyes, struggling anew with life-long habits, forcing the words out one by one. "My anger, my fears. My need to try to control everything in my life. My insistence on searching for answers where there are none to be found." She took a deep breath. "And Emily. My grief over her life and her death, and everything she's come to symbolize."

She stopped and was met by his silence; one she felt as gentle and patient. It suddenly became very important that she know what he was thinking. She turned to face him and found him hunched over, elbows on his knees. She saw her grief mirrored in his eyes, and in a rare moment of surrender, allowed herself to find comfort in it. She wasn't alone, and she didn't have to be. Not so long as Mulder was in her life.

"Mulder," she asked. "Do you believe my visions of Emily were real?"

He studied her for a long moment, his eyes moving over her face. And then he slowly stood, and she found herself looking up at him as he came to stand before her. "I think you believe they were, and that's all that matters. Isn't that what faith is?"

She smiled and Mulder returned it. She looked aside and murmured, "I suppose so."

And then she felt his fingers brush against her cheek and she glanced up at him. "You deserve to find some peace, Scully," he told her, his voice warm and low-pitched. "You've more than earned it. Whatever it is I can do... whatever it is you need to find it...." His fingers came to rest on the nape of her neck. "I just want you to have what you need to make you happy."

Scully wasn't sure where the words came from, but they felt right as they left her mouth. "I have faith in you, Mulder. I always have."

He looked more than a little shocked by her declaration, but quickly recovered. Scully felt a twinge of guilt and vowed she'd remind him more often of how important he was to her.

Finally, he shot her a bemused grin. "Well, then I hope I won't let you down."

"You won't."

His hand flew up to cover his mouth in what she recognized as a nervous gesture. He dropped it, and before she had time to react, leaned in and kissed her quickly but firmly on the corner of her mouth. A second later she was being held in his embrace. There was a moment of tension that swiftly passed before she lifted her arms and slid them around his waist.

"Thank you, Scully, for believing in me."

She released a long sigh and smiled against his chest. Mulder made it sound like such a challenge, when in reality it was a very easy thing to do. It was all just a matter of faith.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

#xfiles #x-files fanfic #reconciliation #msr #my fic

[scullyverse]

I posted 8,596 times in 2022

That's 4,628 more posts than 2021!

64 posts created (1%)

8,532 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@cock-holliday

@im-a-goddamn-cat

@ellivia

@jewish-mulder

@my-killerbunnies

I tagged 1,686 of my posts in 2022

#😂 - 47 posts

#msr - 36 posts

#😌 - 36 posts

#🥺 - 30 posts

#omg - 23 posts

#this - 23 posts

#❤️ - 23 posts

#😭 - 21 posts

#👀 - 20 posts

#dana scully - 19 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#about her contemplations about her life and how she’s tired of being forced by society and ‘fathers’ to be maintained in this certain way

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

omg it’s happening 👀

24 notes - Posted September 5, 2022

#4

my fave headcannon is scully knowing how to play baseball (having grown up playing with her brothers) and can actually play quite well, but doesn’t tell mulder on their date in ‘the unnatural’ because she just wanted him to hold her and and flirt with her 😌

43 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

#3

Kinktober 2022 Prompt List

Hey lovelies! I’m going to participate in Kinktober this year for the first time (which is both exciting and a little nerve wracking 😅) I made a prompt list and thought I would share it for anyone who wants to use it!

Personally, my kinktober will be fics focused on The X Files & The Fall (Mulder/Scully, Scully/Reyes & Stella/Scully) but please feel free to use the prompt list for whatever fandom you wish and whatever medium you want.

I tried to keep all the prompts ambiguous for different genders and sexuality pairings as well as a few extra than the 31 days just in case there’s a prompt you aren’t so comfortable exploring, so hopefully it works for you 💕

See you all with some kinky stories in October 😈

45 notes - Posted September 2, 2022

#2

Get to know you better

I got tagged by @freckleslikestars thank you so much! 💕

Rules: tag 9 people you want to get to know better

Favourite time of year: I would have to say autumn as it’s a nice break from the usual hot summer here but not cold enough yet for lots of blankets. And it doesn’t have the pollen of spring to worry about 😂

Comfort food: It would have to be Tonkostu ramen with extra pork belly. But it has to from a proper ramen booth/restaurant as it’s always the best from there.

Do you collect something?: I used to collect Lion King stuff but now it’s just books. I collect (hoard) books.

Favourite drink: A large green peach iced tea with lychee jelly from a bubble tea/boba shop. And my favourite alcoholic drink (though I rarely drink) is a Fruit Tingle.

Favourite Song: I Need My Girl by The National

Current Favourite Song: You Oughta Know by Alanis Morissette

Favourite Fic: Oh, this is just too hard!! 😭 Ummm I just have way too many. I would have to say;

My current fave fic and one that I’m obsessed with right now is — Partnership: The Fall & Rise of Dana & Stella by ee_ombra_ombra

But some all time faves are;

When The Ink Dries by somekindofseizure (this one will always stay with me)

Laws of Motion by suilven

Stella’s Rules by DanaScully77

Novel Explorations by useless_bian

Those are for my Stella/Scully shipper heart.

When it comes to Mulder/Scully my favourite fics are pretty much everything written by wtfmulder and Phillip_Padgett as well as;

Scully’s Submissive Awakening by DanaScully77

Waldron Island by SisterSpooky1013

Tagging: @scullysexual @anders-hawke @ellivia @barbarashershey @danakathrine @pawsteps @enigmaticxbee @agent-troi

46 notes - Posted August 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

omg she looks so beautiful! I can’t—

48 notes - Posted September 26, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[danascullysjournal]

If You Will Let Me

Chp. 12:  Shadows

Post-Milagro X-Files Fanfic

M

TW: Descriptions of assault and suffocation.  References to spirits/demonic beings.

__________________________

Scully peered into the bathroom mirror, attempting to fix her fluffed hair, contemplating the man waiting for her in the kitchen.  

Mulling over how he had helped her through so much.  

And the way he had kissed her, wild and hungry, hours before.  

She licked her lip, losing herself for a moment.  

Mulder was even more than she had imagined, and now that she had tasted, she felt a longing that kept building in spite of her efforts to slow it down.  Sighing, she tilted her head to one side.

Her reflection stared back, faded and punctuated with dark, aging glass lines and spots, and slightly warped by the imperceptible movement of the glass that had marched itself, particle by particle, down the pane over the past century.  

Old.  This place was very old. 

Giving up on the frizz curls that were taking over her mane, Scully turned to the aged oak door.  Time to get directions and get out of here.

Filigree patterns danced over the doorknob that had once been a gleaming bronze, and she pondered for a brief moment at the delicate curls that her mother, no doubt, would have loved.  She reached for it and twisted.  

Stuck.  

Pursing her lips, she tried again, wrenching hard.   

Nothing. 

“Embarrassing,” she muttered. The last thing she wanted to do was cause a show in this old woman’s home, acting like a helpless little thing who couldn’t  even get out of the bathroom. 

“Scully!” 

She felt her stomach sink as she heard her name at that pitch.  Something was wrong. 

“Mulder?  I’m in the bathroom… door’s stuck!” 

Furrowing her brow, she grabbed the knob with both hands and leveraged herself from one side, pulling in a parabola that, she hoped, would loosen the ancient bolts. 

——————————-

“Fox, please.”  The childlike voice, so much like Samantha, echoed around him through the wavering black sea that lapped at his shins. “Stay,” it begged. “You won’t lose me… if you stay with me.”  The voice giggled, faded and ethereal. 

Almost Samantha.  Not quite. 

“Where’s Scully?” Mulder spat.  The hallway he found himself in was darker still than the kitchen, as if the evening had come and gone hours ago. But that couldn’t be right. 

The shadows laughed. 

————————————

Pulling with all the strength in her petite frame, Scully strained against the grip of the rusted knob, cursing under her breath. 

A sudden clunk, then metal grating on metal.  The knob shifted resentfully under her grasp.  She huffed her relief, yanking the ancient wooden door open. 

“Mul-” she stopped short as she stumbled into Mulder, who was panting, breathless at the bathroom door.  

He looked down at her, eyebrows twisted with worry, his eyes wide.

“Mulder, what happened?” She grabbed his face, searching him over.  No blood.  “I- I heard you yell.  What’s going on?  Where’s the lady?” 

He looked over his shoulder, eyes darting into the darkness, and Scully gripped his shirtsleeves unconsciously, fear beginning to twist itself around within her abdomen in a familiar, uneasy knot.

“Mulder?  Why is it so dark?”

“Shhhh!” he whispered.  

He looked down at the floor, then back to her face, pursing his lips.  

She swallowed, feeling sick, and glanced to her feet.  They were lost, swimming in thick black shadows.  Smoke?  It didn’t smell like smoke.  She felt a sudden pressure on her leg, as if something was caressing her calf.  She made a short,  muffled cry, smacking at the darkness until the pressure slithered away. 

Her eyes fled back to his in confusion and dread.

Mulder held a finger up to his lips, and she nodded, attempting to collect herself, and placed one hand on her weapon.  Though, she considered, bullets would certainly have no effect on this… whatever it was.  Peering down the hall, he grasped her elbow and beckoned her to follow.  The lake of ebony swirled around their legs, allowing them to walk, then gripping with fingers.  Scully kicked at them, stifling her scream. 

Black tendrils released and faded back into the dark sea. 

No wonder he had yelled for her.  

In the darkness, she could make out a doorway at the end of the hall.  Mulder gestured to it, turning to wriggle free from the sea that followed them.  

The door at the end of the hall was narrow, and Scully’s heart sank as she processed what that meant.  It could be a closet.  Or a basement.  But certainly not an exit.  

“Mulder, are you sure this is a way out?” she glanced at him with unease.  He nodded, looking behind them again at the rising tide of black smoke.  He pulled the knob and half ushered, half pushed her through the doorway, shutting the door behind them. 

“Mulder, what the hell?”  Stumbling, her legs faltered as she tried to find her way in the dark. 

Her toes stopped sudden at an unseen barrier, and she lost her balance.  The earthy, dusty smell of old wood met her nose as staggered wooden planks met her arms and face with a dull thud. 

Stairs.  

“Mulder!”  Scully fumbled and groped for the wall, steadying herself as her eyes adjusted to the dim light.  The narrow, steep staircase wound round itself toward an unseen upper story, a claustrophobic passage that spiraled toward a faded gray light.  She checked her feet.  The smoke seemed to have dissipated.  Sighing, she rubbed her forearms and tried to regain composure. 

“Thank you,” she whispered, “I think.  But this isn’t a way out Mulder...  And that… stuff? What is it?” She squinted, surveying their surroundings.  “We might be okay for now, but this is to an attic or something.  We need to make a plan. Or we’ll be stuck.” 

Mulder sighed and nodded, staring at the closed door. 

“What happened to the old lady?” she continued in a low voice.  “Is she okay?” 

Vapors of childlike laughter trailed through the door frame, and the door itself pulsed with the pressure of, she knew, inky swells of an atmosphere with a weight and purpose of its own.  Scully shuddered, her gaze searching for her partner’s reassuring face.  In the face of complete confusion, Mulder was her rock.  If anyone could understand this being, this ethereal black sea, it was him. 

“What are you afraid of?” a voice whispered.

Scully’s stomach dropped.  

In the dim light, she saw Mulder’s form, but the silhouette of his face had shifted.  Emptied, somehow, of the humanity that had been there before.

She panicked.  

She lunged for the door, ducking around Mulder’s form.  Before she could grasp the knob, Scully felt herself being pressed hard against the wall of the narrow corridor.  Mulder’s body, or what seemed like his body, held her fast.  Her breath caught in her throat. 

“You…. aren’t Mulder.”

Mulder’s body trembled from a laugh that came from the floors and walls, and pulsed itself in a chorus from the other side of the door. 

“What are you?” she whispered, feeling terror coursing through her veins. Unseen tendrils began to coil themselves around her calves.  Her blood pulsed feverishly in her temple.  

“Get off me!”  Scully lurched forward, drawing her pistol, flicking the safety, determined to fight the shadow looming over her.

The voices laughed, as if they knew that the cold metal barrel was meaningless, and the form that had been Mulder shifted suddenly, wavering, folding in on itself like a writhing, humanoid worm.  The gun was pulled by fingers of smoke, or flesh, she couldn’t be sure, landing with a dull, muffled metal thud as it tumbled to unseen wooden planks.  

The voices laughed, bouncing in airy whispers between them, seeping up through the floorboards, floating in the dusty stairwell.  She knew, logically, that bullets wouldn’t save her, but the helplessness of being unarmed left her panicked. 

“Dammit- Mulder!” she screamed.  This was not him. But he had to be here, somewhere.

She hoped he could hear her. 

Hoped he could find her. 

She felt an icy, inhumanely strong object pressing on her sternum, pinning her back to the wall.  It began to trace itself up her chest with purpose. 

“No!  Get. Off!”  Her words choked out, hindered by the overpowering weight on her chest.   Her fingers clawed and swept through stale air, but she continued to fight and tear, spurred by terror and survival… even as she knew this was not a fight she could win. 

The pressure crawled up to her neck, and grasped.

“What are you afraid of?” the voices sang in haunting echoes from every corner.  Her feet scuffled helplessly against the wooden floor.  She felt impossibly frail against the grasping tendrils winding around her.

Memories assaulted her clouding mind.  

She felt herself losing control.  

Memories of suffocating, just as she was now.  Vivid, painful moments of terror and suffering.  

Padgett. 

The sound of air rushing pulsed over her eardrums.  It was whispering feverishly from unseen lungs of a being that was pieces of  men, segments of smoke, waves of black water, and it pulled her gaze up through glassy eyes, toward the source.  

Her vision was blurring into tunnels.  

Her esophagus choking, her shoes scraping, all was fading to a muffled background.  Her ears deafened to all but the roar of her pulse mixed with the breath of the dead.

Her eyes registered the hazy face of Philip Padgett, and all went black. 

—————————

Notes:  Full fic available on AO3.  The next couple chapters will be rough, but they will make it through.  It IS MSR, after all.  

#txf #txf fanfic #The X-Files #mulder and scully #msr #Fox Mulder #Dana Scully #horror fic

[642stories]

Story #33, The X-Files Winter Ficlets 4/28

"Cold medicine."

Read it on AO3

It’s unusual for her to turn up at work before he does, and she considers making a beeline for a coffee but then decides to give him another half an hour. Snow is coming down on the city, and it’s likely that he just hit the traffic. It’s his turn to bring breakfast which is usually her large veg milk cappuccino and some fresh-baked pastry. In the meantime, she takes care of her emails, exchanges a few words with a post clerk while scanning the envelopes dropped on their desk, and eventually goes to fetch a well-deserved cup of coffee.

The buffet is buzzing, and Scully gets carried away in a casual Christmas plans conversation with Marcy, another special agent she recognizes from her days in the Academy. By the time she finally decides to check on her partner, it’s already ten-thirty. After a few rings, she hears a familiar click of the voicemail.

Frustrated and just a bit worried, she says, “Hey, where are you? Are you playing hooky today? Thou should not leave thy partner without breakfast. That’d be low even for you, Mulder.” She smiles. ‘Pick up the phone, Mulder. I promise, whatever it is, I won’t kill you. At least, not before I hear you out. You owe me an explanation.” She skips three heartbeats before giving it another go. “Come on, pick it up.” He doesn’t, and she ends the call, flustered and much more concerned now.

Looking around the office, she spots a pile of folders resting atop Mulder’s desk.

“Goddamn reports,” Scully mutters, collecting them and heading off to their boss’ office. Being a good partner as she is, she delivers them to Walter Skinner’s secretary in person. As soon as she’s ready to leave, the Assistant Director himself shows up at the door.

“Agent Scully!” She turns to him with a smile plastered on her face. She doesn’t know if he wants to thank her or reprimand her.

“Thank you. I was just about to send someone for them. How’s Mulder?”

She’s nonplussed by the whole exchange and uncertain what the correct response would be. That passes unnoticed. Skinner goes on, utterly oblivious to her confusion.

“I bumped into him yesterday and it looked like he was coming down with some nasty virus, so I told him to take a day off. How bad is he? Do you think he’ll make it to the FBI’s annual Christmas party? I count on both of you.”

Scully clenches her fists hard, nails digging painfully into her palms. She had to leave yesterday right after lunch to spend a day in court, and thinking back, he did look like shit. So why didn’t he call her? She is a doctor and his physician for crying out loud!

“I’ll make sure he does.”

When it’s clear that they’re done with pleasantries, she nods curtly and leaves. In the basement, Scully tries his cell one more time, to no avail.  She doesn’t really think that he ditched her again, but there’s an unsettling feeling in her gut. Gathering her belongings hastily, she contemplates calling Kim but then decides against it.

The roads are still terribly snowy, and it takes her almost an hour to pull through the heavy traffic. Scully pauses in front of his door, shaking with nerves, perilously close to hyperventilating. She remembers accompanying her friend Ellen once to a Lamaze class, the soft voice of the instructor in her head steadies her. Breathe in. Breathe out. While driving, she kept calling him, and now she is terrified at what she might see behind that door. Nobody answers her urgent knocks, so Scully dives into her purse to find the key he gave her as an emergency and unlocks the door. She’s hardly used it before, but now it sure as hell feels like an emergency.

Inside the apartment is dark and quiet. She dumps her purse right where she stands, scanning the place and noting that the blinds are tightly shut. Not even bothering to unbutton her coat, Scully marches to the living room where she detects his phone on the coffee table. It shouldn’t come as a shock to see 19 missed calls – they are her calls – but it still does. The computer is humming softly behind her back, and she turns to the desk and clicks the mouse. The screen comes to life and as she enters the password, it greets her with a half-finished email.

‘Hey Scully,

Gotta take a raincheck on that little cozy office breakfast for two. And that is a real shame, ‘cause thinking about putting a look of ecstasy on your face once you dug your teeth into the donut I’d bring, was the only highlight of this evening.’

She smiles and feels tears prickling in her eyes. Rising from the couch, she heads to the only room left unchecked—the bedroom. Scully hasn’t been in his bedroom before. Until recently, she hasn’t even been aware of him having a bedroom.

Mulder lies on his side, with his back to her, hidden under the heavy blanket. At the sight of him, Scully’s heartbeat skyrockets, and she leans against a door jamb to maintain her already shaken equilibrium. It only takes her a moment to collect her wits and stride to his side. She sits down quietly at the edge of the bed and reaches out to touch his shoulder. A low growl of pain comes from his throat as Mulder rolls on his back. Scully releases a breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Tears slide down her cheeks freely, and all of a sudden she starts smiling so wide that her mouth hurts. Her heart swells with affection.

"Hey," she whispers, moving her hand to his forehead. He looks like shit, and he is deathly pale, but he’s alive, and that’s all that matters.

Mulder opens his eyes. “Can’t hear you well. Fucking ear infection.” His voice is strained but also incredibly loud. Makes sense with all those missed calls.

Scully keeps caressing his face in relief. His skin is clammy, and he’s running a fever, but he’ll be alright. She brings her lips close to his ear, so close that he can feel the hot wisps of her breath on his earlobe. She can feel him shudder.

“That’s OK. I’ve got you, partner. You’ll be fine.”

She takes one of his hands and squeezes it reassuringly. Lowering her head on the pillow next to him, lying face-to-face still in her coat, Scully smiles at him. Maybe Mulder cannot hear her now, but he can read her lips.

“Sleep.” She whispers and closes her eyes. He smiles back tiredly, squeezes her hand in return, and follows suit.

He doesn’t let go of her hand.

___

Soundtrack "Among the Stars" - AShamaluevMusic

#creative writing #xf fanfic #mulder and scully #fic writing #englishisnotmyfirstlanguage #i find solice in writing #love is in the air #christmas #winter ficlets

[paulsonsdern]

I’m missing MSR and always craving domestic content of them so here’s some straight up X-Files Smut.

——————————————————————————

The Morning Light

The morning light was creeping through the small gaps in the bedroom window, one annoyingly hitting Mulder right in the eye. It was early, Mulder could tell. In fact, he was surprised the kids hadn’t woken them from their slumber. His eyes glanced to the alarm clock on his bedside table, shocked to find it was actually 7 a.m.

The baby had only just been sleeping through the night…four nights in a row to be exact so he was pleasantly surprised to find he and Scully had managed to get a full 8 hours of unbroken sleep. A miracle with an 8 month old baby, 3 year old and 5 year old.

Mulder rolled over to find Scully, she had pushed the sheet down to her waist, her full breasts exposed to the cool air. Mulder wondered for a moment if she had been up breastfeeding the baby. He didn’t think so, he almost always woke up when they did.

He looked at her in awe. She was so stunning and beautiful. He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have her in his life, let alone get to love and be with her every day and share children with her. He genuinely felt like the luckiest guy in the world. The darkness had left them behind, replaced with light and love. Something neither of them thought they would get. He made sure to show her how grateful he was every day.

He contemplated for a moment, considering letting Scully sleep in for as long as possible while he kept the kids distracted but he couldn’t resist the alternative.

He could already feel the excitement building in his groin. He gently wiggled himself closer to her. Taking a moment to take her in, he admired her amazing body. The one he had spent so much time with, the one that had given him three amazing children, the one he got to come home to every night. Lucky. Mulder was so very lucky.

Scully sighed deeply, stretching her hands above her head. One of her auburn locks fell into her face, Mulder tucked the loose strand behind her ear and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. He was going to ravish her.

He kissed her nose, then her lips ever so gently. He worked his way down her neck, placing soft feathery kisses all over it. Scully began to wake, a gentle hum leaving her mouth. Mulder continued with his trail of kisses. He moved down her neck to her clavicle, gently sucking at her collar bones.

“Mmmm, Mulder…what are you starting? The kids will be up any minute.” Scully groaned, slowly waking from her slumber.

Mulder chuckled, “there’s a lot I can do in a minute, Scully.” He moved down, kneading her sensitive breasts with his hands, twisting her nipples between his fingers. Scully’s body rolled up off the bed.

“Ohh fuck Mulder, that feels so good.”

She ran her fingers through his hair as his mouth began to nip and suck at her breasts. He took her right nipple into his mouth, while his hand continued to paw at her left. Nipping and sucking. He continued his ministrations on the other side, before moving lower.

Mulder had now positioned his body between her legs, giving him all the access he needed. He continued to slowly trail kisses down her stomach, covering every possible inch of her skin in warm kisses.

“Mulder, please I need you now” Scully begged, but he wasn’t going to rush this. He reached her naval, dipping his tongue into her belly button his eyes darting up to meet hers to see her reaction. Scully’s eyes were rolling into the back of her head, her hands still running though his hair, desperate to touch him in any way she could.

“Mulder this is torture, I am desperate for you. I want you inside me NOW!” She groaned, thrusting her hips into the air, in a useless attempt at hurrying hum along. Mulder just laughed.

He licked down from her belly button to the top of her pelvis, teasing her. Before running his tongue all the way up her body, circling her nipples, nibbling her neck before finally darting into her mouth.

She moaned loudly, deep into Mulder’s throat. Their tongues battling with each other. Scully’s hands were gripped firmly on Mulder’s ass, forcing his groin to smack into her stomach. He was so hard, rearing and ready for her. Mulder’s hands continued to squeeze and flick at Scully’s tits. Both of them desperate to get as close to each other as humanly possible.

Scully broke their kiss apart, licking upside Mulder’s jaw.

“I need you inside me now Mulder. Please!” Scully was begging, Mulder just grinned. He sat up and straddled her hips, his large girth sitting firm on her belly.

“Be patient, I promise you it’ll be worth it” He winked at her, sliding off her and planting his head between her legs. She could feel his hot breath on her heat. This was torture for her. Mulder loved it.

He blew warm air straight into her centre, Scully’s hips rolled off the bed again. He licked the inside of her thighs, continuing with his tease. He moved his face closer to her, taking a moment to take it all in before taking her into his mouth. His tongue nipped and sucked at her clit. Scully moaned, wrapping her legs around Mulder’s shoulders. He continued his ministrations, licking up and down her centre before darting his tongue inside her. She tasted so good. Scully was getting louder and her breathing deeper. Mulder moved his tongue back to her clit before inserting two fingers inside her.

“Ohh Mulder, fuck! Keep going! Keep going!” Scully was thrusting her hips into his face, in rhythm with his fingers. She was desperate for relief. Mulder’s cock was throbbing beneath him, the friction from the sheets bringing him just as much pleasure as his motions on Scully. He could feel she was close, after all this time together he just knew when she was about to come undone. It was why the sex between them was always so good, they were always so perfectly in-tune with one another.

Mulder continued the figure-eight motions with his tongue on Scully’s clit, his fingers scraping right on her G-spot and his spare hand on her tit. He continued the motions, his pace increasing as Scully thrust her hips into his mouth harder.

He paused for a moment, “that’s it Scully, come for me baby” her returned his tongue to her clit, Scully was coming undone.

She began to scream, the feeling of pleasure overwhelming her. “Ohh fuck me Mulder, keep going, keep going, keep going…” her voice trailed off as her body began to shake with pleasure. Mulder almost came with her, the sound of her orgasm almost enough to bring him down with her. Scully’s chest heaved, as she recovered from her peak. Mulder continued to focus his attention on her centre. Swiping his tongue down it, revelling in the remanence of her pleasure.

“Fuck Scully, that was so hot. You almost made me burst”

Scully reached down and cupped Mulder’s cheeks, pulling him up to her face. They stared at each other for a moment, their chests heaving in sync with one another. Scully pulled him in for a kiss, desperate to taste herself on his tongue. They moaned into each other’s mouths. Scully could feel just how hot she had made him. His dick pressed firmly into her stomach. She reached between their joined bodies and stroked him.

“FUCKKKKK…” Now it was Mulder’s turn for his eyes to roll into the back of his head. Scully pumped him gently, a few times, their tongues still firmly interlocked.

“I want you in me now Mulder. I need you inside me. Please!” Scully pleaded, he wasn’t going to fight her on it. He didn’t think he was going to last much longer. He sat up, straddling her hips before flipping Scully over so she was on top of him. Scully climbed off of him, much to his dismay.

“Scully, what are you doinggggg….” His question was quickly answered as Scully took him into her mouth, she swirled around his tip with her tongue, tasting him as she pumped him with her hands. They loved making each other squirm.

Mulder moaned, “ Scully, please! I am not going to last long if you do that to me. I need to be inside of you, now!”

She didn’t want too, but she listened. Freeing his cock from her mouth, she climbed back on top of him. His girth was throbbing underneath her, she rubbed her centre up and down him a few times. Both of their nerve endings already sensitive, teetering right on the edge.

“Ohh god, you feel so good! You always feel so good Fox!” Scully threw her head back, enjoying the motions. Mulder reached up and grabbed her tits, thumbing her nipples between his fingers.

“Scully, I need you now!” He pushed her hips up, forcing her off him. Scully reached between them, guiding him into her centre. She looked at him as if you say ‘are you ready for this’ as if she didn’t already know his answer. She bent down, her mouth meeting with his and she guided him inside of her. He moaned, grabbing her neck and pulling her in deeper for a kiss.

She began to move slowly, her rate almost torture for Mulder. His hands landed on her hips, guiding her movements and increasing the pace.

“Ohh fuck Mulder, you make me feel so good!”

“Ditto baby, ditto.”

They continued their motions, speeding up as they both felt themselves nearing their climax. Scully grabbed the headboard for more support as they pounded into each other. Just as Scully thought she was ready to tip over the edge Mulder pulled out and flipped her over.

“Fuck me, what are you doing!” She was almost annoyed.

“Get on all fours Scully!” She did as she was told, Mulder positioning himself behind her. He knew this angle was one of her favourites. He pushed back inside her, the both of them shuddering at the sensation. Mulder gripped her hips for traction and to help guide her motions. Mulder pounded into her from behind, Scully reached her hand between her legs thumbing her clit.

“Urgh Scully, it’s so fucking hot when you touch yourself. Come with me baby!” Scully’s head rolled back, looking for Mulder’s mouth. He pulled her up so her back was flush with his chest, as he continued his motions. Scully wrapped her arms around his neck, their tongues darted for one another. He kneaded her near engorged breasts, the mix of pleasure and pain caused Scully to gasp.

“Scully, I’m gonna come.” He nipped at her ear.

“I’m ready Mulder, just keep going. Don’t. Stop.”

He could feel her walls contracting around him which was enough to send him over the edge. They moaned in unison, Mulder’s heat poured into her and Scully collapsed forward onto the bed as she succumbed to her orgasm. Mulder collapsed on top of her, still inside her. Their bodies still jolting from the sensation they’d just created for one another.

Mulder rolled off of her, and pulled her into his chest. He tucked her loose hair behind her ears and kissed her nose.

“I love you Scully. So much.” He pulled her in closer somehow, kissing her deeply.

“I love you too. I can’t believe we just had sex for 45 minutes and not a single child interrupted us. That is almost unbelievable!” Scully rolled onto her back, still catching her breath.

She glanced down at her chest, grabbing her breasts and wincing.

“Ohh ouchhh… this is one downside of getting to sleep through the night with a breastfeeding baby and not waking up to pump. I think they’re going to explode.”

Mulder chuckled, kissing her cheek before jumping out of bed and grabbing her breast pump.

“Ahh parenthood, isn’t it great. One moment we can be having mind boggling sex and then the next we’re brought crashing down to reality. I love our life, Scully.” He leant down and kissed her head and chuckled softly.

It was going to be a good day.

#xfiles #fictober21 #xf fictober #MSR #Mulder & scully #Gillian Anderson #david duchovny

[randomfoggytiger]

X-Files' Collector's Edition: Fight the Future Fics (Part I)

No introduction necessary, I think.

Loose chronological order below~!

astronaught's Equilibrium - Entr'acte

""He doesn’t like having an aversion to smallness because it means he might reject a truth for being insufficiently grand. Tall tales curdle in Kurtzweil’s mouth, and for the eighty-seventh time that year he feels dirtied by their hold on him....

If their work was going to be destroyed by anything, he didn’t think it would be because she lost her nerve. He and she share a tendency to hold their noses when it comes to dealing with the spiritually mundane, but they don’t do so childishly....

But all the same. Their intellectual honesty has always been its own kind of snobbery. It isn’t really smallness (nor practicality, nor effort) that he’s averse to, but rather inefficiency of a very specific kind. His duty is to the necessary. To the fundamentally true....

And he thought she was the same.""

Mulder and Scully spin their wheels, confused and hurt by each other's lines they draw about the work.

red2007's Icarus

""One breath. Two breaths. Chest compressions.

Molten lava was licking through his veins. Every movement he made, every memory he conjured was a four alarm fire coursing through his body. He’d been pulled closer to her everyday since they’d first met, no one else heard him or bothered to listen. No one could see him the way she did, she made him feel relevant. Her trust in him made him feel invincible. He didn’t remember what life was like before her, he didn’t care to.

He was terrified of a life without her and it was burning him up from the inside out. This partnership turned friendship turned codependency turned love…he didn’t know how to survive without it.""

Mulder's body is on fire with adrenaline as he pushes its limits to save his partner.

@leiascully's (Ao3)

OctoberFicFest Day 6: Frost (Ao3)

""He’s too desperate to revive her to think of how empty, how shattered his heart will be if she doesn’t wake up."" 

Mulder ruminates on twisted fairytales while saving his frosted partner.

To The Ends Of The Earth (Ao3)

""He’s still shivering, even in his suit in the sun in the summer. He’s seen her shivering too. They’ve both been drinking more coffee since Antarctica. He’s been watching her lace her fingers around her mugs, just letting the warmth seep into her. He hopes his hand is as soothing to her as the terrible coffee in the bullpen.

“If I quit now, they win,” she said. He turns it over and over in his mind as they walk. He doesn’t know where they’re going. He doesn’t care. They’re together. They survived. They have their work. That’s all that matters to him anymore, Scully and the work.""

Post FTF Mulder and Scully leisure around DC, he enjoying and she surprising.

@scapegrace74-blog/scapegrace74's Walking After You

""It was foreordained that Mulder be beside her.  Where fear and the improbable intersected in her life, there was her partner, vigilant defender against all her katabases.  She no longer questioned his presence there.  He simply was.

...Her beautiful Don Quixote, caring only for the quest, and not its consequences.""

Scully pulls Mulder to her on the ice, contemplating her childhood dreams and her partner's revitalized wonder.

@all-these-ghosts's (Ao3

if i am hopeful - Chapter 6

""After everything, all of the strife and regret, she will die here. In this great whiteness. They say that freezing to death is an easy way to go, but she is a doctor and a realist and nothing, nothing has ever been easy for them.

He has already stopped shivering."" 

Scully is convinced she and Mulder will freeze to death, noting his deterioration but grateful to perish with him.

unfinished business

""This is Scully, he reminds himself. Scully who follows him on every insane adventure, who pulls him back from the edge, who not even a year ago was dying in a hospital bed while he raged, unable to contend with his absolute powerlessness.

And now, here in his living room: he is not powerless.""

AU-- Scully is overthinking her rescue, questioning why Mulder went to the ends of the earth for her. He finally demonstrates why.

@scully/humancredentials’s

a series of tumblr prompts - Chapter 8 (Ao3)

""Her eyes sting, her tears freezing on her face as soon as they fall. She feels the ache in her bones and her lungs burn with every inhale of cold air. She presses her cracked lips to his forehead and tastes blood. His, she thinks, but she’s not sure....

“Mulder,” she murmurs, her voice hoarse and underused. He doesn’t react, doesn’t even move, this foolish hero of hers that followed her to the ends of the earth. He has given her his warmest clothes.""

Scully begs her partner to stay awake, thrilled and relieved when he cracks a joke.

@frangipanidownunder’s (Ao3) 

I Love You Prompts: Tiny Fics - Chapter 2

""Thank you,” she says and her voice is cracked like the ice.

He doesn’t know what to say. She would have done the same for him. Had done the same. Their rescues of each other are becoming more epic by the year. He chuffs out a laugh at the thought but it gets stuck in the frozen air.""

Mulder drags Scully to the Snocat, letting Scully off the hook for not remembering the hallway completely. They always save each other, after all.

Cold, happy, tired.

""She can recall his expression though. Standing before her in that chamber, willing her to breathe. His lips parted, his eyes wide with a mix of terror and happiness. Wet hair flopping over his face. He had saved her and himself - the relieved note in his voice told her that. In that moment, a tiny speck of time between them, she knew she loved him. Irrefutably. The thought flashed through her mind, a bolt of reality. It warmed her chest, spurred her on.""

AU-- Scully sees the spaceship; and, mind blown, helps drag her weary partner to safety, welcoming his tiny little move.

@sixhours/6hoursgirl's (FFN) Waking Hours - Chapter 1 (FFN)

""Mulder,” she tries again, jaw aching with the effort. “Wake up.”

He does, then, ice crystal lashes blinking open to reveal muddy hazel eyes. His lips form her name, a soundless whisper cast into the storm, received by mutual telepathy.""

Scully wakes Mulder up in the icefield, pulling him away from looking for the spaceship he claimed to have seen for more practical pursuits.

@scullydubois/scully_dubois's txf prompts - Chapter 2

""He is numb to everything except a weight and warmth near--one that could not possibly have originated from him, for he has known nothing except ragging breath and stillness for...well, he doesn’t know how long. There are no sunrises or sunsets here to mark the time.

He remembers, then, why he is here. That he’s not alone. That he came here to rescue the one person that’s ever believed him when he needed it, and that he did, and so she must be here, she must be that weight against his side.""

Mulder wakes to Scully, filling her while on the ice and leaving it open-ended on how to go forward.

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66’s

Never Let You Go

""For as long as I live I’ll never be able to get the image of her in that capsule out of my head. It will haunt me till the day I die.""

Mulder drags Scully back to the Snocat, both vowing to never let the other go.

Helpless

""I’m too late.

As I helplessly pump at her chest I begin to feel the sobs. My chest and my throat feel like they are being ripped open with the force of them.

She’s gone. Scully is dead and there is no point in living.""

Mulder has a nightmare; and he makes a move on Scully while she attempts to comfort him.

@i-gaze-at-scully’s (Ao3)

Tundra

""I saw it,” you whispered, holding me, as the loose wet hair around your face froze in strands.

Belief as soft and fresh as the snow we laid in insulated us from the cold.""

Mulder and Scully lay on the tundra, warmed by their belief.

Pad Thai and poison apples

""They get out together though, naturally, at the basement level. Scully wants to be smug, wants to rub it in Diana’s face that this is her office, her work, her.... she wants to, but she can’t. Not without a nameplate on the door. Or even a desk.""

Post FTF Diana goads Scully about not getting a lunch invite from Mulder. And even though he'd forgotten about Fowley, it doesn't soothe the sting.

ML/ML_is_me’s (Ao3, Gossamer, DW, Invidiosa)  and LaVa, Jacquie and Tess

Fight the Good Fight

""His cot was less than ten feet from hers but it might as well have been ten miles. She was exhausted by the time she reached his side. Collapsing onto the floor beside him, she called to him.

"Mulder. It's me."

Fear sent her heart bumping against her breastbone when he didn't stir.""

Scully is worried for her partner, both physically and mentally: it's obvious that he's losing his drive for a quest that always hurts her.

@allyinthekeyofx’s (Ao3)

Small Considerations Between Partners - 6 (Ao3)

""Because mostly what I remember is the fear; the absolute all encompassing terror I felt when I tried to swallow and discovered my throat was blocked by a tube, gagging as I tried to scream, to shout, to have someone please come to get it out of me. This invader of my prone body that stole my breath and rendered me almost hysterical as I fought with everything I had to lift my hands in an attempt to rid myself of it; the restraints that prevented me from doing so biting cruelly in to the soft flesh of my wrists even as I arched myself from the bed, the high pitched sound of alarms piercing my already aching head as I silently screamed for him to help me, needing him to find me, to save me just this one last time as scalding tears streamed down my face only to become instantly chilled against my skin.""

Scully is traumatized while recovering from her experience; but Mulder is there (as always) to comfort and reassure.

@danascullysrationalism/ARoadInCapeCod's Whatever's Left

""For too long, she had been his ripcord.... She would always bring him up and out. Alive.... It had saved him too many times when he wandered too far in the ticks of light that led him astray. She was the storm that let him live. He always knew there was something righteous inside her.

This was all he could do to thank her.""

Scully is lost in her recovery, knowing she can't follow Mulder forever; and Mulder is lost watching her recover, knowing he can't give her more.

chezamanda's The Five Times Fox Mulder Didn’t Tell Dana Scully He Loved Her (and the One Time He Did)

""Now here they are, still together even though it feels like the world is constantly trying to keep them apart. If I quit now, they win.

FTF (amongst other seasons) Mulder ruminates thrice on his awe of and love for Scully.

Singing_Violin's This I Can Do

""We are so cold. But she is alive. I am thankful for that."" 

The one thing that Fox Mulder can do is hold Dana Scully.

@broadcastnews1987/audries/@kennedyandheidi/inkspl0tchess's (WBM 1/2/3)

string theory (or seven times dana scully wore fox mulder's clothes)

""be careful,” she thinks she says as the medics move them into the helicopter. the voice in her head is cool, detached, precise. hypothermia demands gentle treatment, it says. he needs me, she tries to tell them, he told me so. she doesn’t know why they won’t let her hold his hand.

two days later and he is slouching in her doorway wearing sweatpants and a long sleeved shirt. he tilts his head to wait for permission and she uncurls her fingers to open her palm like a flower.""

Scully's hypothermia hinders her responses but not her resolve-- to care for and stay with her partner.

DanaScully77's Delirium

""Dearie, you really shouldn’t be speaking.” The nurse is kind with a calming hand on his chest. “Do you remember what happened?”

Mulder shakes his head no. His eyes are pleading with the nurse, confusion too thick in his brain to make sense of anything around him. All that keeps ringing in his mind is that Scully is hurt and that he needs to get to her.

“You both were found in Antarctica by a team of scientists exploring disturbances in the ice. Do you remember how you got there?”

Flashes of alien testing tubes fill his mind and his jaw opens. “Scully."" 

The Unnatural Mulder remembers comforting Scully during the events of FTF. Now, they enjoy hot cocoa at his apartment, happy.

@frogsmulder/Brynstein's Chapter 1: Post Fight the Future

""Mulder, it's me."

He couldn't help but let a laugh go down the line. "Never have I heard sweeter words, Scully."

"Mulder?" The was a pause of quiet, no doubt filled by the rise of a singular eyebrow. "Have you just taken your meds?""

Post FTF Mulder wanders around, bored, before calling Scully to re-patch his wound.

@mashnotesofthemythopoeic/Penumbra/The_Mythopoeic - Works/Penumbra's X-Files Fiction (Alt., Zuffy's Tripod)

The Cretan Paradox

""No minotaur," she says, as they gain the center.

"Looking for trouble, Scully?" he asks, with some intent. His soft mouth quirks.

Labyrinths, Mulder explains, are convoluted journeys fraught with dead ends and blind passages, and are solved by intuition and creativity. "But a maze is a left-brained puzzle." He looks down at her, eyes narrow and warm in the afternoon light. Not unlike you, his eyes say.""

Post FTF Mulder takes Scully to a maze, showing her how to always escape it and leading up to his tentative movie night invite.

AUs

@oceanofthesky/noifsandsorbees’s White Noise (Ao3)

""She smiles and she laughs. A lot.” Mulder says suddenly, and his eyes are faraway, lit up and peaceful. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

“What are you talking about, Mulder?”

“Scully. The rare moments when she lets herself be happy. It’s really something.""

Mulder and Scully may resolve things between them in the hallway, but she's still reassigned. Many phone calls, doubts, and insecurities plague their long-term relationship, deeply rooted by the time they're reunited.

@starwalker42 (Ao3

can't stay awake

""Underneath our cocoon of blankets, trembling fingers wrap around mine. I barely feel the contact, but I’m glad for it all the same. It’s not lost on me that not an hour ago, she was frozen in ice on the brink of death, and now she’s the one comforting me. She’s too good at this – looking after me when she’s the one in pain. I know I don’t deserve Dana Scully. I certainly don’t deserve to die next to her. But I’m glad that if I have to go, I get to go like this.""  

Mulder keeps a slurring Scully awake by bantering about penguins; but the two of them soon slow on the ice, dropping a love you before they succumb to sleep.

@o6666666's (Ao3) Prompts 1, 2, and 83

""He came with a big bottle of aloe, planning to paint her cheeks with it. How funny that his conscientious Scully should get sunburned in the dog days of August from lying out on the ice. (It wasn’t funny.)

They’d brought her all the way to Antarctica in her skirt suit. He pictured the henchmen in their parkas and gloves and boots, none of them caring how she shivered.""

Mulder's guilt over his ice-burned, clingy Scully almost destroys the potential between them. She sees past his reticence and reassures.

2plumsandagherkin's Like You Wanted to

""Do you remember anything that happened… in the hallway?” he asked, tentatively.

“No, what happened in the hallway?”

He explained about her getting stung by the bee and the ambulance crew taking her and trying to shoot him, but she had the feeling he was leaving something out."" 

Scully doesn't recall the hallway incident until later, rushing over to Mulder's and affirming her love.

@frostbitepandaaaaa/FrostbitePanda’s Four Days AU

""If she had just followed her parents’ wishes... she would be laying in a king bed right now. Safe in some boring suburb with a dog and perhaps even some handsome husband watching reruns of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and idly wondering what it would feel like to be a pioneer, a woman planted on the edge of the unknown, spread before her vast and endless and hers for the taking. 

That’s what Mulder gave her— a borderless realm, a fertile landscape lain with both the dreadful and the sublime.

“I’ve always felt… that it should interest me. That… in order to be a real person in the world, I needed to want those things.” She shakes her head, tilted back on the seat, staring at the riveted ceiling, beaded with condensation. 

A great breath shifts out of him, but he says nothing. 

“But the only thing that has ever made me feel like a real person, Mulder, is you."" 

While trapped in the Snocat for four days, Mulder and Scully reopen their hallway discussion and plan for a first date that is not over file cabbage packaged meals. Diana tries to throw a wrench in that; but Skinner is not going to sit idly by at the FBi shindig.

Ann Ripley's Any Resemblance

""The chip was reinserted and her health steadily improved. I know this because I was able to watch the process through a two-way mirror.... They cured her but also filtered out all her memory of our work, our partnership, our love.

Anna's recovery and future safety was the price I paid for my silence. Any subsequent investigation into the consortium or revelation of colonization plans would result in the cancer's return. It was not too high a price to pay. I would do it again in a second.

The show debuted a year after Mrs. Spriggs wheeled Anna out of the consortium-run hospital and started a new life.""

FTF was based on the life of two real people; but the fact was separated from fiction after the unhappy reality. The man who Mulder was based on watches the show, ruminating on all that never and really was.

Enjoy!

#txf #Collector's Edition #FTF #Fight the Future for Love #allyinthekeyofx #xf fanfic #x-files #xfiles #the x files #i-gaze-at-scully #igazeatscully #6hoursgirl #ARoadInCapeCod #danascullysrationalism #scapegrace74-blog #scapegrace74 #frangipanidownunder #Tess #Jacquie LaVa #ML #ML_is_me #starwalker42 #contrivedcoincidences6 #Spooky66 #geektime66 #astronaught #scullydubois #DanaScully77 #fic #mine

[deathsbestgirl]

do you think scully and mulder were fated to meet?

okay that's a big question. and i guess kind of? but i don't think of fate the way it's generally thought of, maybe? like scully says "i don't believe in fate. i think we have to choose our own path." as in, we make choices and those choices will lead us somewhere. and eventually we get to a point like "yeah this is where i'm supposed to be" sometimes that feeling is temporary, like medicine was for her. there were times she contemplated different paths, away from the fbi or mulder, but she always ended up back with him. despite the way mulder expected her to leave, or believing she's meant for "more," that she could climb the ladder to the top.

in "all things" mulder + scully talk about this. they're thinking about all the different choices they could have made and where it would have lead them, and some of those undoubtedly would have not lead to each other. but whiat if there was only one choice? i think they've made that one choice over & over through the entire series.

and like mulder is contemplating in "the field where i died," would it have changed the way they looked at each other? would it have been suffocating? would it have been comforting? but scully gives the best answer she could: "even if i knew for certain, i wouldn't change a day." scully made her choices, what she would have missed if she wasn't partnered with mulder. she doesn't hold anything against him and she would follow him all over again. she wants to remember everything exactly how it was while she sits next to him on his couch for the rest of their lives.

i always think, in a way, their fate was sealed from the moment she walked into his office. nothing could have happened differently. scully was always going to choose the x files because that's where her heart & values lie, with mulder & his compassion.

so. i think fate + choices are kind of one & the same. our choices alter the path, but maybe we eventually we end up exactly where we're supposed to.

so to answer your question: i have no idea. but there was never any other outcome. mulder & scully were always going to be together. every choice they made lead them directly to each other, and once they found each other, they weren't letting go.

#mulder and scully #the x files #txf meta #all things #the field where i died #christmas carol #txf quotes #y'all went on that journey with me

[sisterspooky1013]

Only One Choice, Chapter 3

Read it here on AO3 / Tagging @today-in-fic

A week passes, and her interaction with Agent Mulder fades into the recesses of her memory. She files it away under “times a cute guy hit on me,” alongside overly friendly waiters and optimistic students.

She and Ethan’s anniversary is coming up next week and she’s been grappling with the best gift to get him; something practical or indulgent? He is a prolifically thoughtful gift-giver and she feels pressure on each special occasion to select the perfect thing to give him, though the pressure comes only from herself. She’s contemplating this as she finishes up an autopsy, replacing the organs in the chest cavity and suturing up the Y-incision.

“Dana,” the pathologist about to come on shift calls out to her, “someone is asking for you.”

“I’ll just be about ten minutes, Trudy. Who is it?” she returns, gently settling the young woman’s liver back into her body.

Trudy shrugs. “Tall guy in a suit, cute, dark hair.”

She feels a flutter in her belly and then immediately chastises herself.

“Tell him I’ll be right there, please.”

She apologizes internally to the decedent as she rushes through the final steps, not taking quite as much care as she typically does.

After scrubbing her hands and fixing her hair, she steps into the hallway to find Agent Mulder sitting on a bench. His back is against the wall, his long legs crossed casually as he studies the art hung opposite him. He looks so composed and confident it unnerves her.

“Agent Mulder, what can I do for you?” she asks, forcing confidence she does not feel into her own voice.

The smile that lights up his face when he turns to look at her makes her flush, and she can feel the heat in her cheeks. Being unable to hide her emotional response behind her fair complexion has always been something she resents.

“Scully, good to see you. I wanted to follow up on the Dugan case, you said you were interested in understanding the motivation behind your autopsy findings,” he says as he stands and walks towards her, his tall frame looming above her such that she has to look up at his face. He stands close enough that she can smell his aftershave and see the stubble coming in on his cheeks.

“Oh, yes, I was curious about that,” she replies, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. Why does this man make her so nervous?

“If you’d like, you can meet with the lead behavioral analyst on the case. They can tell you how they drew parallels between the wound pattern you observed and the perpetrator profile,” he offers, a slight tilt to his head as his green eyes jump around her face as though he’s trying to commit it to memory.

“That would be great, thank you. You really didn’t have to do that,” she replies self-consciously, feeling as though she asked for something she shouldn’t have, even though she’d never requested this.

“Do you have time today?” he asks, lifting his wrist to glance at his watch. She knows it’s just past 4 pm.

“Um, yes, actually, I’m done with classes for the day and that was my last autopsy. I was just going to do paperwork for a bit, but I can defer it until tomorrow.”

A small smirk flashes on his mouth, but quickly disappears.

“Alright, why don’t you meet them at that cafe you mentioned in, say, thirty minutes?” he asks.

“Okay, that should work,” she replies, “what’s their name, so I can find them?” She should have just about enough time to change and get there by 4:30.

His eyebrows lift as though he just realized he forgot something, and he pauses before continuing.

“Uh, Fox. His name is Fox. I’ll describe you to him, he’ll find you.”

“Fox?” she asks dubiously, “is that a real name?”

He purses his lips. “Sadly, yes.”

“Alright, well, thank you, Agent Mulder. It was, um...it was good to see you again.” She extends her hand with her chin held high, trying to portray an air of professionalism and not one of a girl with a crush, which is how he makes her feel.

He takes her hand and smiles at her warmly, a little something coy behind his eyes.

“Likewise. I hope to see you again very soon,” he says confidently, and she feels her belly tumble yet again.

——————————————————————————

He stands in the hallway until Scully disappears into the staff locker room, then books it over to Cafe Adamo to get a quiet table in the corner. He’s not sure exactly what he’s after here; she has a boyfriend after all. He just hasn’t been able to get her out of his head all week. When the lead analyst on the Dugan case had a family emergency and needed to take leave, he jumped at the opportunity to take over the case, getting a little thrill from reading over her report and incorporating it into his profile. It felt as though they were creating something together.

He watches the clock, a pit in his belly as he wonders how she’ll react to learning that he tricked her into having coffee with him. He barely knows her, but gets the sense that she doesn’t take shit from anyone. That is, in fact, what draws him to her. Well, that and those plush pink lips. He hasn’t been this affected by anyone since he and Valerie split.

When the door swings open and she steps through in fitted jeans and a black T-shirt, he feels a wave of nausea. She’s even more beautiful in street clothes than she was in scrubs, her tiny waist curving up into a modest bustline. She scans the room and when her eyes fall on him, she quirks her head to the side and her eyebrows knit in confusion. His heart starts to pound and he stays glued to his seat, watching her traverse the room until she reaches him and gives him an expectant look.

He holds out his hand. “Fox Mulder,” he says with a guilty smile, and she lifts her chin before tucking it to her chest, taking his hand with a pensive expression.

“I see,” she says, her tone skeptical. It’s clear that she is unsure of his intentions.

“I am the lead behavioral analyst on this case, for the record. I am now, anyway,” he offers, and watches her doubt deepen. What the hell did he think was going to happen, catfishing an unavailable woman into a date? “Will you sit?” he asks hopefully, and she does, though he can tell by her posture that she is one wrong move away from fleeing the scene.

Someone comes by and takes their coffee order, and he sets his profile on the table, getting right to the reason he asked her here lest she think he’s completely full of shit.

“You noted that the victim was stabbed repeatedly in the exact same location, giving the appearance of one wound,” he explains, “we’ve seen something similar with the other victims, and at this time my theory is that the perp lost someone close to them in this manner, perhaps a family member or parent. I believe they’re re-creating the injury that killed their loved one, though because these crimes are so rage-fueled they feel compelled to injure the victim more extensively than just the one wound. The repeated stabbing in the same location provides an outlet for that rage while preserving the one-wound injury that is the cause of death.”

She reads over his profile with interest, nodding along as he speaks. “That’s very interesting,” she says, lifting her head to look at him, and he feels a swell of pride at her praise. “You had to trick me into getting coffee with you to tell me that?” she adds flatly, and now it’s him who is blushing.

She smiles victoriously at having made him uncomfortable, a bright, dazzling, toothy smile, and he’s overwhelmed by how attracted he is to her. He opens his mouth to speak, but closes it again and just shrugs.

Their coffee is delivered and he watches intently as she licks at the foam on her cappuccino. Her blue irises dart up to meet his and he startles at having been caught, picking up his own cup and taking a big gulp that burns the roof of his mouth.

“Your name sounds very familiar,” she begins, “why do I feel like I’ve heard it before?”

“Uh, I had a bit of a reputation at one time,” he says with a regretful tone. “Are you familiar with the X files?”

Her eyebrows lift in surprise. “Spooky Mulder,” she says with realization, “that’s where I’ve heard your name.”

He grimaces. “Not my favorite nickname, but yes, guilty as charged.”

“But you’re in the BSU now? Not on the X files anymore? I’m surprised I’ve never seen you around Quantico,” she remarks, and he can see her relaxing a bit.

“No, the X files division was shut down a couple years ago. I was in the BSU before I reopened the X files, and transferred back after I was reassigned. I’m part of a small BSU team that works out of the Hoover building, so I’m not down here all that often these days.”

“Why was the X files division shut down?” she asks before licking more foam from the rim of her mug, and he shifts in his seat.

“Well, how much time do you have?” he asks with a shy smile, “it’s a long story.”

She returns his smile. “Not that much time. So you’re into aliens and all that paranormal stuff?”

“Well, let me ask you this, Scully,” he says, leaning in, “do you believe in the existence of extraterrestrials?”

She gives him an incredulous look, but answers. “Logically, I’d have to say no.” He nods and sits back, but she continues. “Given the distances needed to travel from the far reaches of space, the energy requirements would exceed a spacecraft’s capabilities…”

“Conventional wisdom,” he interrupts, “I just happen to disagree with it.”

“On what basis?” she asks, curious but not derisive, which is what he’s used to getting in response to his theories.

“If you’d seen what I’ve seen, Scully, you’d understand why I believe in such extreme possibilities.”

She tilts her head expectantly. “Do tell, Agent Mulder. Or should I call you Fox?” she asks with a haughty tone, though a playful one, and he blushes again.

“Please, it’s just Mulder. I even make my parents call me Mulder. I’m sure you can understand why with a first name like Fox.” She makes a face that says she can’t argue with that, and he continues. “I’ve seen things, Scully, things that defy all logic and can’t be explained by the laws of science. Repeat abductees, men who can stretch their bodies and travel through the slats of a heater vent, prehistoric monsters dwelling in the woods.” She’s giving him a doubtful expression, one eyebrow cocked suspiciously. He laughs a little. “I know I sound crazy, but it’s just crazy enough to be true. When convention and science offer us no answers, might we not finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility?”

She screws up her mouth, politely suppressing the “you are certifiably nuts” expression that wants to present on her face. He’s used to it, and takes no offense.

“What I find fantastic, Mulder, is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there, you just have to know where to look,” she says in a tone that is both playful and sincere.

He smiles at her, sure he looks like a total dope. This conversation is more intellectually stimulating than any he’s had in months.

“You should come see the X files sometime, Scully. Tell me how you make scientific sense of what you see.”

“You have them?” she asks with wide eyes.

He shrugs guiltily. “I may have acquired a few on my way out.”

Her head dips lower in disbelief. “Is that allowed?”

“No, definitely not,” he answers with a chuckle. If only she knew the extent of his flaunting of bureau policy during his time on the X files.

She smiles at him in a way that he can only interpret as openly flirtatious, an acknowledgement that she finds his insubordinate behavior a little bit enticing. As suddenly as the smile appears, it vanishes and she checks her watch.

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” she says as she stands.

“Right, you’ve got somebody waiting for you,” he says with a regretful tone.

She looks at him guiltily, then thanks him for the coffee and leaves. He sits there for a long while, staring at the door she exited through.

“Shit,” he says aloud to no one.

#the x files #txf #dana scully #fox mulder #gillovny #msr #sculder #x files #alternate universe #fanfiction

[souldagger]

Hey! Do you have any story podcast recs that aren't too horror-centric? I'm looking for some new ones to dive into but I am a huge baby 😔

OH BOY DO I!

- girl in space (my favourite! scifi abt a girl just tryin to Live Her Life on a falling apart spaceship - all alone, until she isn't) - the strange case of starship iris (found family be gay do crime IN SPACE) - tides (more science-heavy scifi, abt a biologist trapped on an ocean alien planet just tryin to survive. generally chill and contemplative) - caravan (weird west adventure abt a guy who stumbles into a hidden world, a canyon inhabited by demons/vampires/banshees and all sorts of other monsters. warning: horny) - the 12:37 (scifi w mystery elements, abt a woman who accidentally boards a time-travelling train!) - supernatural sexuality with dr. seabrooke (fake radio show with dating&relationship advice for monsters/supernatural beings/cryptids! might be occasionally nsfw? cant remember. v insightful and heartwarming) - this planet needs a name (scifi abt ppl establishing a colony on an alien world, really sweet and hopeful, found family vibes) - startripper!! (another feel-good scifi, abt an alien who quits his shitty office job and goes adventuring around the galaxy instead) - arden (fictional true crime comedy loosely inspired by shakespeare plays!)

some others with occasional creepiness but generally not horror: - the bridge (v atmospheric, abt the employees of a watchtower on a mostly abandoned bridge spanning the entire atlantic ocean, telling stories abt the many weird things that happen there. kickass soundtrack) - superstition (supernatural mystery abt a bi jewish private eye investigating the disappearance of her parents and other spooky stuff in the town of superstition, arizona. my all time fav podcast protagonist) - zoo (x-files but with cryptids instead of aliens and if mulder&scully were one disaster lesbian trying her best. warning: this one had to be left unfinished by the creators, so season 2 ends abruptly and leaves a lot of loose ends, but season 1 works well as a standalone nonetheless!)

#i tend to gravitate towards shorter less popular podcasts so these are all like 1-2 seasons at most #sorry for the amount of scifi kdfjngk i hope you find something you like from these!! #agtbarton #ask