#it's a new life WITH MULDER!!!!

[leiascully]

Rewatching Pilot and realizing how red Karen Swenson's hair is and something something Karen-Billy-Theresa/Scully-Mulder-Samantha parallels. It's not a fully formed thought. But there's something.

#the x-files #yes i know they end up married #tell me that samantha isn't the great love of mulder's life before scully #no one ever said the man was modeling or modeled healthy relationships #at first glance they look like a naive victim a pawn/perpetrator and the heir to a crime who learned too much and couldn't be tolerated #but they're really all victims #the adults around them are the perpetrators #as if anyone would have believed theresa if she'd revealed what she suspected #and then scully with the same marks as karen (almost) #billy woken from his long sleep to a world in which he's both a bad guy and an innocent (oh hello mulder-style baggage) #and theresa spirited away from her conspirator parents in order to protect her #damn after 30 years i'm still seeing something new #oh AND #karen seems like a silent victim #but she's the key to cracking the whole case #meanwhile scully is supposed to be a spy/mole and ends up as mulder's greatest ally #and karen sees billy for who he is - she knows him

[atths--twice]

Chapter Twenty Two

Fifteen months have passed... what have they been up to?

Here we are, at the end of the journey.

I am so thankful for all the support and excitement over this story. I had such a fun time writing it this past year and even these past few weeks. I have loved living in this universe so very much and I'm glad you have as well. Thank you for reading and for all the comments and encouragement. 💓

Epilogue 

Fifteen months later 

Fox looked at Ivy and smiled. She had been rather quiet during their early lunch at the diner, where they had come in to visit and catch up with Joe and Manny. She had not eaten much and even turned down the chocolate pudding Manny had offered her, which they all knew she loved. Glancing at Dana as they left, calling goodbye to everyone, she nodded in understanding. Suggesting they take a walk around their old haunts, he took Ivy’s hand, and gave it a squeeze. 

“You okay? You’ve been quiet. It’s not like you to not be talkative.” 

“I’m feeling a little nervous,” she said quietly, squeezing his hand twice. 

He stopped walking and turned to her, still holding her hand. She looked up at him and he smiled. 

“You want to talk about it? Or just take a minute?” 

“What if I mess up the words? What if I don’t read it perfectly?” she asked, taking a deep breath. 

“Hmm,” he hummed, squatting down and nodding. “I know that feeling, believe me. I used to have to give speeches for school sometimes and readings for my books. I also worried I would mess up somehow.” 

“So what did you do?” she asked, biting her lip and stepping closer to him, her hand going to the collar of his sweater, twisting it gently, and he bit back a smile. 

She had to be feeling even more nervous than she let on if she was holding onto his collar, something she only did under distress. The last time of which had been over seven months, when she had missed the first week of second grade. 

A cold that lingered had kept her home and feeling miserable. Even through fevers and a stuffy nose, she had worried about all she had missed, crying sadly as she had lay on the couch. 

Hating to see her so upset, Dana had contacted the teacher and asked if there was any chance that they could come in after school once Ivy had recovered, to meet her and to see the classroom. Her teacher had kindly obliged and when Ivy had finally been better, they had all gone to the school to meet her new teacher. 

Ivy had been excited and fairly bursting to get out, but once she had, she had stood by the car and looked up at him, reaching for his hand and squeezing it twice. 

Squatting down, she had put her arms around his neck and twisted the collar of his shirt in her fingers as he held her. 

“Take your time, honey. No rush,” he had told her softly and she had nodded against his shoulder. 

Taking a few deep breaths, she had held onto his collar as he had looked up at Dana with a small smile. She had stuck out her bottom lip and sighed as she had stroked Ivy’s hair. 

After a couple of minutes, Ivy had released her hold on him. Stepping back, she had taken a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

“Okay, I’m ready now,” she had said and he had smiled. 

Standing to his feet, they had each taken one of her hands and gone inside to meet her new teacher and tour the classroom. 

Smiling at that memory, as he felt the tug of her fingers in his collar, he smiled at her. 

“What did I do to not be worried about speaking and reading in front of people?” he asked her and she nodded. “Well, the most important thing I did was practice what I would be reading, just as you have done over the past few days.” 

“And that was enough to make you not feel nervous?” she whispered, twisting his collar gently. 

“Well, yes and no,” he said. “It helped for sure, but I usually felt calmer after I got to the place where I would be speaking. I knew what I was going to say, but not where I would be. Sometimes it’s nice to have that visual, like when we went to school after you’d been sick? It helped you feel better about going to school the next day, right? You knew your teacher and where your classroom was so you felt more confident, right?” 

“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head. “Could we do that now? Go to the bookshop early?” 

“Oh… I don’t see why not,” he said. “Let’s talk to Mommy about it.” 

“Okay,” she said, as she released her hold on his collar and he saw her visibly relax. “I’d like to do that, please.” 

“Okay,” he said, smiling and kissing her forehead again. 

Standing up, he took her hand and they rejoined Dana, telling her of their plan.

“Would it be helpful to you, honey?” Dana asked her. 

“Yes, Mommy.” 

“Then I think it’s a good idea,” she said, smiling at her. “But I’m not quite ready to go yet. Would it be okay to meet up with you and Daddy in a little bit?” 

“Yes, that’s okay with me,” Ivy said with a smile and Dana smiled back. 

“Okay, you two head over and I’ll meet you there soon, okay?” 

“Sounds good, hon,” Fox said, kissing her softly and winking at her, knowing what her plans included. “See you soon.” 

Taking Ivy’s hand after she had hugged Dana goodbye, they began to walk towards the bookshop. He considered taking a cab, but thought Ivy could do with a bit of a walk to clear her head and talk more if it was needed. She seemed better however, pointing out things and places that she remembered along the way, bringing up memories and laughing. 

Joining in on the reminiscing, he squeezed her hand as they reached the steps to the basement bookshop and hopped down each one. He smiled as he read the sign on the door, written in Mary’s beautiful cursive. 

Closed for a special engagement. 

Turning the handle, the familiar sound of the bell tinkled above the door, greeting them as they walked inside. 

“Fox!” Mary cried, as she rounded the corner, smiling broadly. “And Ivy. It’s so good to see you both again.” 

“Mary,” he said, embracing her with a happy smile. “It’s good to see you too.” 

“Is Dana not with you?” 

“Oh she is, but she’ll be here a little later,” he said, his hand on Ivy’s head as she leaned in close to him. “We decided to come here early and see the bookshop to calm our nerves a bit. We were feeling a little nervous about today.”

“Oh. I can understand that feeling. Doing something we’ve never done before is definitely a little scary, as we don’t know what it will be like until we do it.” She smiled at Ivy and Fox smiled at Mary, knowing she understood. “Would you like to see where you’ll be reading, Ivy?”

Fox felt her nod against his side and he smiled as he looked down at her, stroking her hair. 

“Come on, honey,” he said and they followed Mary further into the shop towards the children’s section. 

Ivy gasped as they reached it, stopping and standing frozen to the spot. 

“Oh my gosh,” she said softly and Fox grinned at Mary before looking at Ivy. “It’s so beautiful. Daddy… it’s Pandy’s castle! Look! It’s Pandy! And Butter! And Funny Bunny! And Arlo!” 

She ran into the children’s section, squealing loudly as she looked at everything. Fox smiled as he watched her, tears stinging his eyes at the happiness on her face. 

“Maggie, Will, and Bill were here last night setting it all up,” Mary said to him quietly and he nodded, knowing they had been. “You married into a good family.” 

“That I did,” he agreed, wiping his eyes. 

As he watched the joy on Ivy’s face, her nervousness all but vanished, he let out a deep breath as he thought about the last few months and what it took to reach this moment. 

The day he had proposed the idea of creating a real book, one to publish and share, Ivy had been excited and agreed immediately. They had gone to the copy store and created a rough example of the book to look at together and to show Dana. 

Over dinner, they had discussed the idea and Dana had been just as excited as Ivy at the prospect of it. 

They had decided on the main central characters, a storyline, and setting. Creating another book, they added more information and illustrations. Reading and then rereading it for the final time, they had all been together when he pressed send on the email to Susan with the book pdf attached to it. 

“Now we wait,” he had said, looking at Ivy who was holding Pandy in her hands.

“It will be simply splendid,” she had responded in Pandy’s high pitched British accent and they had all laughed. 

And Pandy had been right… or Ivy had. 

Susan had loved it, finding it incredibly endearing and sweet. 

“It has a good fun story, a lesson to be learned, empathetic characters, and eye catching illustrations,” she had said, calling two days later when Ivy had been at school. 

“You think it could work?” he had asked, walking into the kitchen and waving at Dana to get her attention as he had put the phone on speaker. “You think people will like reading it?” 

“Yes, Fox, I do,” Susan had said and he and Dana had high fived silently. 

What had followed had been a flurry of activity. 

He had been in the middle of writing his own novel, but The Adventures of Princess Pandy and Her Friends took precedence. They had worked hard, Dana listening to new ideas or tweaks, offering her opinion, and letting him rant when needed. 

In April, as he had been waiting on an email from Susan with the final draft of the cover of the book, Dana had walked into his office as he paced. 

“Hey,” he had said, letting out a sigh. “It’s funny that I feel so nervous. I’ve published four books and I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way. Even with the first one. Isn’t that weird?” He had laughed and looked at her, but she had not joined him. “Dana, is everything okay?” 

“Uh… yes?” 

“You don’t know?” he had joked as she had taken something from her pocket, held in a sandwich baggie. “What is that?”

“It’s a…” She had handed it to him and he had known instantly what it was. 

“What?” he had asked, looking at her and then the item in his hands. “You… oh my God!” He had laughed and held it tightly as he had lifted her off the ground and spun her around. 

“Fox!” she had shouted, holding onto him, laughing and crying at the same time. 

“Oh, honey,” he had said, stopping and shaking his head. “I can’t believe it.” 

“Hmm,” she had hummed, her arms around his neck as she had kissed him. 

“How…?” 

“How?” she had said, a teasing smile on her lips. “Well…” 

“No,” he had laughed loudly. “I know how.” 

“Well, that’s good,” she had said, kissing him again. 

He had set her down and shaken his head, unable to stop smiling. Dropping to his knees, he had laid his forehead against her stomach. 

“Hello in there,” he had whispered. “I’m your daddy. You’re going to have such an amazing life with us, little sweetheart. Mommy, Ivy, Hazel and Willow are out here waiting for you, not to mention a huge family that will love you so much. Oh, my love… I can’t wait to meet you.” 

His email alert dinged, but he had not heard it as he had wrapped his arms around Dana’s waist and she had run her fingers through his hair and they both cried. 

For two weeks they kept it a secret, waiting for a doctor's confirmation. When they had gotten it, a due date of November thirtieth given, Fox had held the sonogram picture as they stood in the elevator. 

“It’s just…” he had said, staring at the small bit of grayish white floating in a black circle. “They’re so tiny. So… it’s amazing how procreation works.” 

“From the smallest seed,” she had teased and he had smiled. 

“To break it down to basics, yes,” he had said as they left the elevator and walked through the main floor. “Ivy’s going to be so excited.” 

“I can’t wait to tell her,” Dana had said, hooking her arm with his and laying her head on his shoulder. 

They had picked Ivy up from school and gone to a cupcake shop she loved, letting her pick out anything she had wanted. When they each had a cupcake, they had sat at an outdoor table and ate them. 

“Ivy,” Dana had said, setting her cupcake wrapper and dirty napkins aside. “Daddy and I have something to tell you.” 

“Okay.” 

“I went to the doctor today and… Ivy,” Dana had said, taking Fox’s hand. “I’m going to have a baby. You’re going to be a big sister.” 

Ivy had stared at her, looked at Fox, and then back at Dana. 

“A… baby? You’re going to have a baby? Like Auntie Tara?” 

“Yeah. Like Auntie Tara,” Dana had said with a smile. 

“A baby girl?” 

“Well, that we don’t know yet,” Dana had said. “It could be a boy or a girl. What do you think, honey?”

Ivy had smiled, frowned, and then burst into tears. 

“I’m really happy,” she had cried, coming to Dana and climbing into her lap and clinging to her. “I love the baby.” 

“Oh, honey,” Dana had said, holding Ivy close and rocking her. 

Later that evening, as they had gone to bed, on Dana’s pillow they had found a note for the baby from Ivy, covered in heart stickers, happy faces, animals, and rainbows. 

I love you little baby. I hope you are a girl but a boy will be good too. I love you so much. Love Ivy Mulder. 

Dana had cried as she had handed it to Fox, her hand on her stomach. 

“She’s going to be the best big sister,” he had said, sighing as he placed the note on the nightstand and smiled. 

The Adventures of Princess Pandy and Her Friends, had been released in late May and they had gone to all the local bookstores and taken pictures with them, Ivy grinning as she had held them up. The pictures had then been hung on her bedroom wall beside the ones taken of her and Fox as they had worked on the book. 

Riding high on the excitement over the book, and the coming arrival of the baby, planning for the nursery took center stage. They all had ideas and opinions when it came to decorations and items that would be needed. 

Learning in July that the baby was a girl, Maggie and Will had come over and painted the nursery a pale blush pink. To it, Maggie had painted a large, brown branched tree with darker pink and white flowers on it. In each flower, she had written the names of people in their families, creating a beautiful family tree for the baby. 

All the necessary items had been purchased as Fox had continued working on his novel and also the second book in the Pandy series, of which the first had been met with great reviews and interest. 

Ivy insisted that the second one had to be about Arlo the anteater, who no longer wanted to eat ants, but was interested in trying new things.

“I want it to be that one,” she had said, sitting beside him in the chic pink office chair Fox had purchased for her to use, as they looked at the table of contents they had created, all of their stories organized for easy reference. 

“Okay,” he had said, clicking on it and looking through it, smiling at their illustrations of anteaters with horrified expressions at the thought of not eating ants. “Any particular reason why?”

“Because people have to try new things. Sometimes kids forget that and adults have to remind them. Maybe if another kid tells them, or a cute little anteater, they will think about it more.” 

“Well,” Fox had said, smiling and nodding. “I can’t argue with that logic.” 

“And then we’ll do Leon the Lion next,” she had said, clapping her hands as he had laughed. 

In early November, with the baby’s due date fast approaching, he had finished his novel, which he felt may be his favorite that he had ever written. Arlo the Anteater and Leon the Lion, a story about a lion who was far too bossy, had also been finished and turned over to Susan’s very capable hands. 

Feeling a sense of relief that it had been completed, the focus then fell on waiting for the baby. 

“I can’t get comfortable,” Dana had moaned late one night, getting up from the bed, her due date three days past. “I feel so huge and weighed down. Ugh… and I have to pee, again.” 

“Can I get you anything?” Fox had asked, closing his eyes against the light coming from the bathroom. 

“No,” she moaned. “I just need this girl to… Oh, Fox! You need… shit! My water just broke!” 

Never had he gone from half asleep to wide awake in his life faster than when he had run into the bathroom and seen that her water had in fact broken.  

A moment of panic and then he had sprung into action. A call had been placed to Maggie, his calm exterior hiding his inner worry and anxiousness as he had watched Dana pace in the bathroom. 

Maggie had arrived within fifteen minutes, smiling and calm, as he had hurried through the house, grabbing the bags that had been packed in preparation. 

Dana had one contraction as they had driven to the hospital, squeezing his hand tightly and breathing through it. 

“Another December baby,” she had said with a small laugh when it was over. “We’re going to have to have so many advent calendars. The girls' birthday ones, the animals, Christmas…” 

“Yeah,” he had said, gripping the steering wheel. 

“You need to breathe, Fox,” she had said, smiling as she looked at him. “Everything will be fine. Please don’t faint on me.” 

“Huhuhuh,” he had said, mock laughing as he had exhaled and stopped at a red light. 

“Honey, it’s going to be okay. I promise,” she had said, her tone serious as she had squeezed his hand. He had raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles with a nod. 

At six thirty in the morning, on December fourth, a tiny baby girl had been placed onto Dana’s chest and Fox’s knees had given out as he had stared at his daughter through the tears in his eyes. 

“Hello, my sweet Ella,” he had said softly, holding her later as she slept, wrapped snugly in a blanket. “Welcome to the world.” He had smiled at Dana and she had smiled back tiredly. 

“Ella Marie,” she had said and he looked from Ella to her with a slight frown. “We hadn’t really discussed middle names, but I want her to have part of your mom’s name. Ella Christeena is too rhyme-y, but Ella Marie, that has a much better ring to it.” 

“Yes,” he had said, smiling as he had looked at the baby again. “Ella Marie… named for two amazing women.” 

“Hmm,” Dana had hummed, her eyes closing as she fell asleep. 

Ivy had been brought in by Maggie a few hours later, looking nervous at the sight of the hospital room. 

“Come here, my love,” Dana had said, opening her arms to her as she sat on the bed. Ivy had hurried over and climbed up beside her, snuggling close. “Did you have a good day with grandma?” 

“Yes. Did you have the baby?” 

“I did. Are you ready to meet her?” 

“Yes.” She had pulled back and smiled, her eyes wet. “I was worried about you. And the baby.” 

“Oh, honey,” Dana had said, smoothing Ivy’s hair back and kissing her forehead. “I’m fine and so is the baby.” 

“Good.” 

“You ready?” 

“Yeah.” 

She had scooted back onto the bed and crossed her ankles, looking at Fox with a nod, and he had smiled as he lifted Ella from the bassinet. Kissing her head, he had walked over to Ivy and laid Ella into her waiting arms. 

“Oh…” Ivy had breathed. “She’s so tiny.” Smiling, she had stared at Ella and shaken her head. “Was I this small when I was born?” 

“Hmm. Yeah, you were,” Dana had said, smiling as she ran her thumb across Ella’s capped forehead. 

“She’s so cute. I love her so much, Mommy. Thank you for my sister.” 

“Oh, honey,” Dana had said, shaking her head and sniffling. “You’re so welcome.” 

Once home, they all had loved and spoiled Ella, who was a happy little thing. Ivy especially loved her, always asking to feed, hold, or rock her. 

One afternoon in January, tired and unsure as to why he had come into his office, Fox had heard Ella crying from her nap in the nursery. Another cry and he had heard Dana sigh deeply and start toward the stairs. 

But the crying had stopped and he turned around in the silence and left the office. Meeting Dana’s eyes, they had then looked upstairs and back at one another. 

Together they had gone up the stairs, not speaking, and walked to Ella’s room. Pushing the partially open door to completely open, they had both stopped in their steps. 

Ivy’s purple bathroom step stool had been placed in front of the crib, which she had obviously used to climb in beside a swaddled Ella to lay beside her and quietly read her a story. 

“What are you doing, honey?” Dana had asked Ivy in a whisper, as they stepped closer to the crib, and saw that Ella had fallen back to sleep, her pacifier hanging out of her mouth. 

“Ella was crying. She needed me,” Ivy had stated, looking at them and then back at the book, as she had continued reading. 

“Oh,” Dana had said, looking at Fox with a smile and he had grinned back. 

After that, anytime Ivy had heard Ella cry for more than a few seconds, her shout could be heard from anywhere in the house. 

“I’m coming, Ella Wella. Your big sister is on the way!”  

Ella grew every day, laughing and cooing at them, but especially Ivy, who she already adored. 

Everyone living under the roof of the “Ivy house,” which had been changed to be known as the “Ella and Ivy house,” was happy and healthy. 

When the second book, Princess Pandy and Her Friends Introduce Arlo the Anteater, had a release date set for March, Mary had called Fox, asking if they could do a launch party at Lantern Books. 

“Mary, I would love that,” he had said, glancing at Ella’s books sitting upon the shelf, and recalling the evening he spent with Dana in Mary’s bookshop. 

An idea began to take shape when he had hung up and he had called Maggie, who had then called Bill. The three of them had decided on a plan, and Maggie, Will, and Bill- when time allowed- had begun to build pieces of a castle that would be used to turn the children's section of the bookshop into Pandy’s Palace. 

Four medium height, thin, wooden turrets had been cut and painted pink. Details of stone, small windows, and weathering had been added by Maggie, making it look amazingly realistic. Three green rolling hills, the three main characters of the series and Arlo, had also been made from the same thin wood. 

Fox had gone over to Maggie and Will’s, in awe of their garage workshop as ever, and helped where and when he could, mainly when Ivy had been in school. 

He had always felt he was a decent, if not above average artist, but as he had watched Maggie create and paint, headphones on and lost in her music, he had known he would never measure up to her level of talent. 

“She’s amazing,” he had said to Will two nights before the launch party, as Maggie hummed to the music only she could hear, double checking all the pieces, and they cleaned the workshop. “Both of you are. Thank you so much for this, Ivy’s gonna love it.” 

“She will at that,” Will had chuckled. “I was happy to do it. It’s been awhile since I could spoil that girl properly, and this was something easy and fun to do.” 

They had driven down yesterday Will, Maggie, and Bill, the pieces secured and covered in the back of Bill’s truck, and gone straight to Mary’s shop to set them up. 

Melissa, Artie, Tara and the kids were taking the early morning train in and meeting up with Dana, Maggie, Will, and Bill, to come to the reading at one thirty. 

And Ivy had no idea they were coming. 

“It looks so good,” Mary said, and he nodded. 

“Maggie is an amazing artist,” he agreed and Mary nodded. 

“And a hoot and a half,” Mary laughed. “She has a fantastic sense of humor.” 

“She does,” he agreed with a chuckle and then stepped into the children’s section to look around. 

Fairy lights were strung above them, and across the turrets at the entrance to the cozy children’s section and the two in the back to make it feel as though you were really inside of a castle. 

“Do you love it, Ivy?” he asked and she nodded enthusiastically. 

“It’s so beautiful, Daddy,” she whispered. “It’s like Christmas lights. It feels slow and reverent.” She smiled and he scooped her up, hugging her tightly. 

“I love you, Ivy Mulder,” he whispered. 

“I love you too.” 

They helped Mary set up the snacks she had purchased, along with coffee urns, and dispensers full of ice water and lemonade. 

Coloring pages that pertained to the story, were set out on a long, child height table to color once the story was finished. Gift bags holding the new book, a bookmark, a stamp pad, and a smiling panda stamp, had been tied with pink ribbon and were placed on a table near the door for the attendees to take as they left the bookshop. 

Twenty minutes before it was scheduled to begin, a knock sounded at the door and Ivy gasped, looking quickly at Fox. 

“It’s not time yet, honey. Maybe it’s just someone wondering why the shop is closed today,” Fox said, knowing full well who was on the other side of the door. 

“Oh, okay,” she said, looking relieved. 

Mary opened the door and Ivy gasped when she saw Dana and everyone else standing outside and smiling at her. 

“Surprise!” they all yelled and Ivy ran to them, laughing happily. 

They all trooped in, exclaiming over the ambiance of the bookshop. Mary flushed as she accepted their compliments, thanking them profusely. 

“How did you like the castle, Ivy girl?” Will asked, grinning at her. 

“It’s beautiful! Did you see it?”

“I did!” he laughed. “Grandma, Uncle Bill, and I made it for you.” 

“You did?!” Ivy asked, her eyes wide and mouth dropping open. 

“We did,” he said, laughing as she hugged him. 

“Thank you, Grandpa! I love it.” 

“You’re welcome, honey,” he said, as Maggie walked up and Ivy hugged her too, thanking her for the castle. 

Everyone talked over one another, looking at the books and decorations that had been set out. The kids ran around, Delilah taking pictures of them with Melissa’s phone. 

When other people began to arrive, Fox, Dana, Ivy and Ella waited near the bookshelf of “hallowed treasures,” enjoying the petit fours that Dana had picked up from her old favorite bakery, until Mary would be introducing him and Ivy. 

They listened to the sound of excited chatter as the children saw the castle and the animals, calling out to their parents to take their picture. 

Fox looked around the bookshelf and smiled as he saw two little girls standing in front of the large cutout of Pandy, their grins wide as they held hands. A little boy was looking at the cutout of Funny Bunny, reaching out to touch his nose. 

“Ivy,” Dana said, smiling at her as she gently swayed a sleeping Ella held in her wrap. “You ready?” 

“Yeah,” Ivy said, with a nod, wiping her hands and mouth on a napkin. “I was feeling nervous before, but Daddy helped me feel better about it because we came here early.

“That’s good, honey. You’re going to do great.” 

“Thank you, Mommy.” 

“And how about you?” she asked Fox, smiling softly at him. 

“Oh, I’m very excited,” he said, also wiping his hands and she laughed quietly as she rubbed Ella’s back. 

“Ladies, gentlemen, and kids of all ages!” Mary said, the chatter in the room quieting almost immediately. “How are you all doing today?” 

“Good!” they all shouted and Ivy looked at Fox.

“You still doing good?” he asked and she nodded with a smile. “Great.” 

“Are you all ready to hear the new book in the Pandy series?” Mary asked and the crowd chorused again, shouting that they were very ready. “Then let me introduce the people who have come to join us today, the authors of the book, Fox and Ivy Mulder! Please give them a warm welcome!” 

Everyone clapped and cheered as Fox took Ivy’s hand. He smiled at her and she smiled back. 

“Go get ‘em,” Dana said, and he gave her a quick kiss as they walked out and into the castle. 

They took their seats, the new book sitting on a small table between their chairs, waiting to be read aloud. 

“Thank you all so much for being here, it’s nice to meet you,” Fox said with a smile. “I’m Fox and this is Ivy. We’re so happy you liked the first story and we’re very excited to share the new one with you. Are you all ready to hear it?” They all cheered and he smiled. “Wonderful. Ivy, could you please read the story to us?” 

“Yes, Daddy.” 

Fox picked up the book, smiling at the cover of the three friends, plus Arlo.

“Here you go, honey.”

“Thank you, Daddy. Okay, here we go,” Ivy said as she took the book from him and let out a breath. “Princess Pandy and Her Friends Introduce Arlo the Anteater. Written and illustrated by Fox and Ivy Mulder.” He smiled at their joint names as she opened the book and turned to the first page. 

Listening to her read, stumbling over some of the words but continuing on, he smiled again at her persistence. 

Looking out into the audience, he watched the children laughing as Ivy read the story. They answered back when a question had been asked and he chuckled softly. 

The adults sitting behind their children also seemed to be enjoying the story. He saw Maggie whispering to Melissa and Tara and they both smiled with a nod. Will and Bill were also smiling as they watched Ivy reading. Artie was taking a video with his phone and for some reason, that caused Fox to draw in a deep breath. 

They had all taken a two hour trip to listen to a story they had already heard as it had been discussed while they were working on it and each of them had been given an advanced copy of it. They were all happy and smiling as they listened to Ivy reading, encouraging her by their presence alone. 

He looked at Ivy again as she showed everyone the illustrations in the book, her eyes sparkling as she giggled, and he smiled. 

Sudden movement from the back of the room caught his eye and he watched Dana swaying with Ella. She smiled at him with a wink as she kept swaying, running her hands slowly up and down Ella’s back. 

“I’ll be right back, Ivy. Okay?” he asked, searching her face for any signs that she was uncomfortable. 

“Okay, Daddy,” she said, barely looking up. 

He got up and walked straight to Dana, pulling her carefully into his arms, mindful of Ella between them. 

“What’s going on?” she whispered and he shook his head. 

“I love you,” he whispered back as he closed his eyes. 

“I love you too.” 

“Thank you,” he whispered again, opening his eyes with a smile as he heard Maggie and Will laugh along with the children, as Ivy reached a funny part of the story. 

“For what, honey?” 

“For giving me purpose. For loving me and making me whole.” 

“Fox,” she whispered as they began to sway slowly. 

“Thank you so much for loving me.” 

“Thank you for being so easy to love.” 

#the x files #xf fanfic #msr #alternate universe #modern setting #diner #bookshops #epilouge #catching up with the Mulders #happy life #new adventures #family #love #happiness

[freja-with-a-j]

DAILY DOSE OF FOX PICS

#red fox #fox mulder #megan fox #fox news #whiteboard fox #animals #animal paintings #cute cats #cutepets #cuteness #meme #funny post #daily life #engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics #help my brain #lgbtq #lgbtq positivity #mental health #advice #what am i doin with my life #heavens official blessing #hualian #tgcf icons

[woundlingus]

Mulder is so crusty mr drinking out of date orange juice and eating bar snacks while watching porn like it’s a sport

#he’s my new blorbo #childhood trauma can’t explain away all your poor life choices mulder please get it together #the x files

[thursdayinspace]

There is something about the way Mulder learns to accept and seek out emotional support and comfort throughout the course of the seasons. With all the casual physical contact that they have going on from the beginning, he seems ready to reach out, but doesn't seem to expect others to do the same. He feels deeply, but he keeps it to himself; something he seems to have learned from an early age. He's had to build his life around other people's pain since his sister disappered. He doesn't want to burden others with his needs.

Scully's "I wouldn't put myself on the line for anybody but you" in "Tooms" is met with a joke immediately to lighten the mood -- a flirty joke, but still. He doesn't think he deserves how much she cares about him. Caring is his job. It's everyone else's job to disregard and dismiss his feelings and not take him seriously.

Scully setting up their secret meeting in "Little Green Men" -- he seems almost a little confused that she really just wanted to see him. He doesn't react when the touches his hair before she leaves. He doesn't react when she briefly takes his hand at the end. I don't think those little gestures of comfort don't register with him. They do. He simply doesn't quite know how to respond to them. He doesn't hesitate to gently cup her cheek and offer comfort when she wants to come back to work after her father's death. But he would never expect her to do that for him.

In "Anasazi" when he says "Thank you for taking care of me," it seems like he has to think about that sentence for a long time. Not because he isn't grateful, but because he doesn't really understand why she did it. Nothing more embarrassing than thanking someone and hearing "Oh, I didn't do it for you." And he said some pretty rude things to her when he was drugged, accusing her of betraying him. Who knows how much of it he remembers, but apparently enough to feel mortified. He never wanted to hurt her, but he must have, and then, after all that, she saved him and risked so much for him?

The scene in "Detour" comes to mind, the night in the forest when she tries to pull his head into her lap so he can get some rest and so that she can keep him warm, and he jokes "I don't want to wrestle." She doesn't have to do this, he's fine. He's not being a manly man who doesn't need anything, it's just that she's offering something that's hard to accept for him. She offers him a place to let go and stop pushing on. And he doesn't think she needs to do that, he is not fatally injured or anything, he'll be fine. But she wants him to be comfortable. She sees him, and is there for him.

At his mother's hospital bed in "Herrenvolk," she reaches for him and he lets himself cry into her shoulder. It's not just an emotional scene because of what he's going through. It's that he's allowing himself to truly let himself go in front of her. She reaches for him and he gives in and leans his face against her shoulder, holds onto her, letting her hold him. Letting her hold him. That's the really crucial point. Who has ever done that for him before? Who has ever allowed him his pain and told him it's okay, I know you have to feel like this right now, I know you're hurting, and I will be your tether for as long as you have to lose yourself in this?

"Sein und Zeit" -- he clings to her so tightly, lets her be his lifeline in this moment, as he knows she wants to be that for him. Letting go like that is so, so scary. There is always the fear that it will change someone's opinion of you. Make them think you're weak. Let them know what gets to you, and then you will always always always have to deal with them looking at you trying to asses how okay you are in stressful situations. It leaves you wide open and vulnerable. Learning that she doesn't expect him to be strong, that she doesn't believe that things don't affect him, that's a new concept. It requires so much trust.

Being able to take an offered hand is really fucking difficult, especially when you've been conditioned to be the one doing the reaching out. Leaning on someone is terrifying. Some patterns are hard to unlearn. But her steady presence finally allows him to show weakness and trust her to catch him when he falls. It lets him understand that he's allowed to fall sometimes.

#txf #the x files #fox mulder #msr #mulder and scully #they teach each other trust in a way #such an important skill to have #txf meta

[its-short-for-jackalope]

Happy New Year, I've decided to move on with my life & stop making memes about Hatchetfield 😇🙏🏻

...yeah just kidding this is like. the whole reason I exist, I can't stop now! So here you go, first incorrect-quotes-or-whatever dump of 2024:

(thank you @adhd-mulder for assassins Max lmao <3)

#jack jabbers #hatchetfield #hatchetfield memes #starkid #tgwdlm #the guy who didn't like musicals #npmd #nerdy prudes must die #nightmare time 2 #nmt2 #zoey chambers #sheila young #frank pricely #max jägerman #emma perkins #grace chasity #paul matthews #ted spankoffski #incorrect quotes

[quiet-nocturne]

^^^utterly obsessed with how Arakawa said Mustang has a couch in his house, and not much else. He's so pathetic, he's a sad dumb uwu baby, he's self destructive and doesn't care about his own health and won't bother to buy himself a fucking bed, he's literally the incarnation of fox mulder. What an absolute idiot. I bet he sleeps head down on his desk in his office like an absolute sad dork. I bet hawkeye has to wipe his drool off the paperwork and he complains of a stiff neck in the morning like a big grumpy baby. I'm dying, this little look into his life is absolute gold.

(and also really sad as he probably didn't give a fuck about buying a new bed once he moved to central, utterly obsessed with hunting down hughes' killer. asjkhahsjsja my heartttt 😭)

#roy mustang #my bby #riza hawkeye #royai #fma #fmab #colonel matchstick #my fma ramblings #it kills me tho #whatta loser (/affectionate)

[actual-changeling]

One breath, but Mulder shows up in Scully's hospital room with tear tracks still drying on his face and his first real smile since she was taken. He's out of breath, probably broke several dozen traffic laws on his way back to her, but she's awake.

Not Fox, Mulder, Scully corrects her mother, and she is reaching for him before she can think better of it. His hands are warm and shaking and familiar, and he sits down next to her like she's made of glass. Like he is going to break her if he allows his fear to spill out onto the floor.

His mouth opens and closes repeatedly until he finally manages a hi, watching her lips move into a smile. hi. Mulder tentatively lifts their intertwined hands and kisses her knuckles while squeezing his eyes shut.

He wants to fall to his knees and thank every god he doesn't believe in for bringing her back to him, he wants to hold her and press her to his chest until he no longer feels empty inside, he wants to bury his face in her hair and fall asleep with her safe in his arms. At some point during the last few weeks, he must have slept, even if only for a few horrifying hours, yet all he recalls is suffocating darkness and her screams echoing in his mind.

I missed you, Mulder whispers against her skin, but she hears him—she always does.

I heard you, she responds, tugging on his hand to pull him closer. I heard you, Mulder. I felt the strength of your beliefs.

Maggie and Melissa are silently watching the exchange, but they've never cared less about prying eyes and unsatisfied curiosity. Scully's gaze catches on something, and Mulder follows it to the glinting gold cross around his neck. The chain runs through his fingers like water, thin and fragile, and the only thing that helped him stay sane enough to keep going.

Kept it safe for you, he tells her, and takes it off to fasten it around hers instead; it's finally back where it belongs. Tears burn new, glistening paths down his cheeks, and he doesn't bother wiping them away.

I was so scared. It's a confession, it's an apology, it's a promise, and he shuffles closer and closer and closer.

I was so fucking scared, Scully.

Her fingertips are cool against his flushed skin, and he closes his eyes at the contact, fearing that if he moves, she will disappear again. For so long, nothing in his life mattered more than the nebulous truth hiding the fate of his sister. Then she walked into his office with a smile and trust in her heart, and suddenly she wasn't simply helping him discover the truth—she became the truth.

Scully squeezes his hand and traces the line of his jaw, and two warm pairs of eyes look away when she tilts her head upwards, meeting Mulder in the middle as he leans in close, closer, touching.

She kisses him softly because she wants to. Because she can. Because she can taste salt, relief, and light on his tongue, a sunrise swallowed and hidden away throughout the night.

Thank you for not giving up. He couldn't have lived with himself if he had, and it's written across his face and woven into his soul. Losing her would have meant losing himself, and there is nothing that could have stopped him from following her to wherever they would have gone. Together or not at all, and he has no idea why she stayed, why she is still staying after everything he put them through.

You found me, he cannot say; you found me and brought me home. You found me and you saw me, and I don't think I will ever know why you decided I was deserving of your grace and your presence in my life.

They press their foreheads together, and a by now familiar hand lands on his shoulder as Maggie reaches for both of them—family, she had called him, over and over—and there is nothing but warmth offered to him.

Thank you for coming back.

#alex writes x files #txf #the x files #x files #dana scully #fox mulder #scully x mulder #mulder x scully #msr #msr fanfic #txf fanfic #wrote this while my meds kicked in so any mistakes can be attributed to drugs

[cecilysass]

The Penultimate Partner Episode: Analyzing the Second-to-Last Episodes of Seasons 3-7

So I was thinking about the show’s tendency to do an episode that is explicitly about the Partnership—about the deep abiding bonds between Mulder and Scully—right before the season finale.

This doesn’t seem to happen in season 1 and 2 (the penultimate episodes are Roland and Our Town, respectively, which don’t seem to play the same role). And something different is happening in season 8 and 9, so I don't think they fit as well.

But during the show’s peak popularity, seasons 3-7, the second-to-last episode seems to be setting up baseline emotional stakes for whatever plotline is about to hit. These episodes are giving us the state of the partnership, reminding us how devoted they are to one another. They also tend to have to do with one or both partners having a distorted perception on reality that requires the other partner's intervention in some way. I’m calling them the Penultimate Partner episodes.

So can we look at the themes of each of these Partnership episodes and see development over time? I think yes. It’s gonna be long. I rewatched them all, so buckle up.

Season 3: Wetwired - partnership as trust Season 4: Demons - partnership as loyalty Season 5: Folie a Deux - partnership as shared madness Season 6: Field Trip - partnership as touchstones Season 7: Je Souhaite - partnership as happiness

Season 3: Wetwired  (right before Talitha Cumi)

This episode, like several in the Penultimate Partner episode category, involves a X-file that distorts perception. Because Scully can’t trust her own senses due to the mind control, she also can’t trust Mulder, calling into question the key tenet of their partnership. (And by season three, they have definitely established trust as the bedrock.)

Her gradual mistrust of Mulder in this episode is tense and painful; you can see on her face how much she argues with herself about it even as her mind is tricking her. Others who fall victim to this mind control phenomenon wind up murdering their romantic partner, but in the end of the episode, when they’re discussing what happened in the hospital, they both seem pretty unsurprised that Scully’s paranoia focused on Mulder. They both know, late season three, how crucial trust is between them. They understand that it’s Scully’s worst fear that Mulder would betray her. It’s not even news to them.

What Mulder’s worst fear might be is also hinted at, although it’s unsaid. He’s furious that her life is put at risk by the mysterious informant. When Mulder believes Scully may be dead and he’s going to identify her body, his reaction is chilling. He seems to completely shut down emotionally, not even showing any reaction to the Gunmen. Tellingly, when he is offered a choice between getting answers and going to ID Scully’s body, he doesn’t hesitate—he chooses Scully. (Sometimes people claim Mulder doesn’t show this kind of commitment to her until much later, even until Home Again in season 10, so it’s interesting to see it so unequivocal here.)   

I want to say that Scully’s anxiety about trusting Mulder in this episode is foreshadowing aspects of the cancer arc in the next season, but I don’t think that’s really what’s happening. This episode seems more like an entirely season 3 cap to the Anasazi / Blessing Way / Paperclip storyline, especially the murder of Melissa. Scully’s paranoia calls back Mulder’s in Anasazi, and Scully explicitly blames Mulder for her sister’s murder when she’s drawn a gun on him. Even just the fact that we're there with Maggie, who has a picture of Melissa displayed prominently, tells me that loss is supposed to be on both partners' minds. (Actually, the interaction between Mulder, Scully and Maggie is pretty amazing in this scene; they’re an emotionally complex trio who seem to be communicating on some other level. I love how when Mulder and Maggie are talking to freaked-out Scully they almost sound strangely unreal, almost like they really are speaking falsely. It allows us to imagine the scene as it looks from Scully’s point-of-view, as a massive betrayal.)

Wetwired is, technically, a mytharc episode, as this whole mind control thing seems to tie back into X and the Syndicate. Personally I think the episode’s ending, emphasizing the mytharc-related plot and X’s involvement and whatever tf was happening there, was a little misguided. For my tastes they would have done better to play up the more personal, character-based themes a little more. But I also think this episode was the first real Penultimate Partner episode, and it was setting some patterns that were going to be expanded on.

Season 4: Demons (before Gethsemane)

From the cold open, we can already tell this is already a more personal episode than Wetwired. Mulder is the one having perception problems now; he wakes from a disturbing dream, covered in blood, muddled memory. This is also technically a mytharc episode, but much more concerned with direct impact on character than Wetwired was. 

Scully instantly rushes to Mulder’s aid—walks right into his shower, for heaven’s sake—and absolutely never wavers in loyalty to him, even when he looks real, real guilty and a "rational" person would be suspicious. She is in fierce, must-protect-Mulder mode throughout this entire episode, from the moment she shows up palpating his head with her hands to her back-off behavior with the cops to her badass cold “I know what you do” comment to Dr. Goldstein. She also helps Mulder see through his distorted perception, telling him "this is not the way to the truth" as he holds a gun on her.

In this Penultimate Partner episode, we see something more than simple trust going on, although there’s trust, too. Maybe the word is loyalty or devotion. We see Mulder coming apart and Scully completely and utterly devoted to him. It’s actually very clear foreshadowing for the following week’s episode, Gethsemane. Mulder isn’t stable, and he needs Scully to keep him from “los[ing] his course,” as she says in Demons’ end narration. Gethsemane will follow up on the Mulder losing-his-course idea, and also will explore the idea that Scully’s bottomless support of Mulder isn’t always good for her. (This idea is voiced especially by Bill.) 

There are some ways in which this episode is a neat little bookend to Wetwired. In Wetwired, Scully flees to her mother’s house, desperate and paranoid; in Demons, Mulder, similarly unhinged, seeks out his mother at her house. In Wetwired, Scully sees things that aren’t there, and in Demons, it’s definitely implied that Mulder may be seeing things in his past that weren’t actually there. In Wetwired, Scully pulls a gun on Mulder, and in Demons, Mulder pulls one on Scully. 

I adore this episode, even though it’s definitely vulnerable to the critique that Mulder acts like a self-obsessed loon and Scully a hopeless enabler lol. Especially because it comes before the Gethsemane / Redux three parter, I wish the episode would have explicitly connected his behavior to the cancer arc, as I feel like that would have made his wild choices seem more understandable. If he felt like he needed to find answers faster because he knew Scully’s time was running out and he saw it all tied together with her fate, then we would get why he was acting so rashly. It would also tie more nicely into Gethsemane, which misleads the audience into thinking Mulder has killed himself, in part, because he believes she’s been given cancer to make him believe. But again, I love this episode. Scully showing up and putting that blanket around Mulder when he’s shaking. Her hugging him at the end when he’s desolate on the floor. This shows a partnership that’s been through Paper Hearts and Memento Mori—that’s moved beyond trust alone.

Season 5: Folie a Deux (before The End)

This is another episode about perception—about one partner seeing things the other can’t. Unlike in Wetwired or Demons, however, in this episode the altered perception actually represents the real truth, something everyone else fails to understand. The episode plays around with the tropes of earlier episodes like Wetwired, at first encouraging us to think that it's a delusion that Pincus is a monster, but then convincing us, through Mulder’s eyes, that the delusion is actually reality.  

As other people have observed, this episode ends up being a nice little metaphor for the whole show: Mulder knowing what no one else does, being ostracized and considered insane, asking Scully to find evidence to corroborate him and ultimately convincing her to believe him and see what he sees. Their partnership is, quite precisely, a madness shared by two. 

It’s a monster of the week, not a mytharc, so there’s no distraction of elaborate mytharc plot, just characters and monster. And this is a Vince Gilligan operation, so our focus is definitely on character. From the first scene with Mulder and Scully, we sense that we’re going to be talking about the partnership. Skinner gives them an assignment in Chicago that Mulder doesn’t think is worth it, and he complains in a particularly self-centered way to Scully, which she observes (“You’re saying I a lot.”) The episode is going to be very explicit that while Mulder might be monster boy, they are in this unhinged partnership situation together. Another important moment comes later, when Scully is calling the perp crazy for thinking he saw a monster, and Mulder says, “Well, I saw it, too.” Scully’s careful about-face after that, her delicate avoidance of implying she thinks Mulder is actually crazy, is part of the dance they’re doing at this late season five stage of their partnership. She doesn’t quite believe him, but she doesn’t knee-jerk not believe him either. 

And the foreshadowing of what’s to come in this one, whoo boy. Most obviously, we must acknowledge that 1013 knew exactly what they were doing when Mulder tells Scully “you’re my one in five billion.” A mere seven days from now, a mysterious beautiful ex who believes his theories is going to show up to immediately cast doubt on that claim. And this episode is also toying with the question of whether Scully actually does always back Mulder up when it’s important, when she has to accept she saw something illogical. At the end, does she tell Skinner she actually saw a giant bug in Mulder’s hospital room? We don’t know, but I think it’s implied she doesn’t. That’s all presaging what will happen in The Beginning coming off of Fight the Future. It’s Scully’s little way of resisting the madness, but it also hurts Mulder and damages the partnership, which will be a problem in season six. 

Season 6: Field Trip (before Biogenesis)

Full disclosure: this is my favorite episode. So I’m going to make some big claims about it. This is the ultimate Penultimate Partner episode—the one that best knits together what it wants to say about their partnership and what it wants to establish for the finale. It's a monster-of-the-week episode (another Vince Gilligan ep, with John Shiban) but refers to the mytharc often. It’s also one of the best episodes about their partnership, period. 

This is yet another episode about distorted perception. This time, however, under the influence of a giant mushroom, both partners are unable to perceive clearly, to determine what is real and what is a lie. And when they’re confused, they critically turn to one another to help them see what the truth is.

Coming off of season six, the partnership is rocky. Mulder is frustrated that after so many theories of his have borne out, he still can’t get the benefit of the doubt from Scully, something he explicitly says in the dialogue here. Scully has felt like she’s not been trusted or heard, like Mulder has turned to others (Diana Fowley, for example) rather than his partner.

This is an episode about how they absolutely need one another to be able to make sense of the world—that individually each of their points-of-view are not enough. In Mulder’s hallucination, Scully accepts his claims about alien life forms too completely, not applying enough skepticism, not pushing back against him. In Scully’s hallucination, a world without Mulder, everyone is unacceptably unquestioning of the status quo, refusing to dig deeper, lacking Mulder’s critical acumen and drive. Neither partner likes the feeling of being unopposed, and it makes both of them suspicious about the hallucination’s reality. They may think they want their own view to prevail, but they need one another to be a whole person.

The theme of what’s real and what’s not – and needing one another to discern the truth–is exactly what is picked up and developed further in the Biogenesis-Sixth Extinction-Amor Fati arc that follows this. Scully’s skepticism has to stretch to incorporate more of Mulder’s worldview to make sense of what she sees in the Ivory Coast, and of course, Mulder calls on Scully’s worldview to see through his misleading dream world in Amor Fati. In fact, you could argue Field Trip is really about the idea that Mulder and Scully are one another’s touchstones—the people they need to know what’s right and real. 

Incidentally, this episode also plays around with some of season 6’s other subtextual throughlines: Mulder and Scully’s anxieties about possibly entering a non-platonic relationship, their unease about what a normal, domestic life might even be for them. For the entire episode they’re directly compared and juxtaposed with the Schiffs, a young married couple who died on Brown Mountain. The Schiffs are a tall man and a redheaded woman. They even die hallucinating lying together on a hotel bed after she asked him to “hold her” (although I do seriously doubt 1013 was intentionally foreshadowing a full year ahead). The last shot is of Mulder reaching out to take Scully’s hand across the ambulance, suggesting a kind of partnership beyond just, you know, partnership. Which takes us to the next season.  

Season 7: Je Souhaite (before Requiem)

Truthfully, I don’t think this episode fits quite as well in the Penultimate Partner category. It doesn’t share some of the same traits as these other episodes—it’s not quite as notably about perception, for instance—and it’s not fundamentally about the partnership in the same way. But it does end up commenting on their partnership (even their relationship, really) as part of its theme, so I think we can include it—especially because its position right before Requiem ends up being important. 

Je Souhaite (btw, written and directed by Vince Gilligan) has a bit of an unsettled feeling to it because it was kind of treading water, waiting to see what happened with DD and the series. Nothing too monumental could happen with the partnership or the plot because it wasn’t clear to anyone what would happen next with the show: whether it would end or continue, whether DD would be involved or not.

So we have a story about Mulder and Scully making peace with not having a significant impact on the world—e.g. not bringing about world peace, not introducing invisible bodies to science. Instead, they are content to delightfully share a beer and comment that they have made one another “pretty happy” (as Scully says about Mulder). Through the jinni character, they seem to take the lesson that they can enjoy being with one another, accept the simple happiness that their relationship brings them. Rather than wish for success that comes too easily, they take joy in the little things with one another.

Comparing this episode to the Penultimate Partner episodes that come before, we can really see how Mulder and Scully’s dynamic has evolved by season seven. We have a Scully who is much more open to supernatural phenomena, for example, and whose skepticism seems more like a reflex or a defense mechanism now. Scully’s move towards belief is partially reflected in the plot of the episode: the X-file here really isn’t even science fiction. It is just straight up fantasy or magical realism. Aside from Scully's brief mention of a disease to explain what happened to the mouthless man in the cold open, no plausible scientific explanation for the jinni's long life or wishes is really even floated.

Scully is delighted by the discovery of the invisible body, and Mulder is visibly delighted by her delight. He’s also frustrated by her retreat into doubt when the body disappears, of course. But even the reversal into her old skepticism is half-hearted, as she soon after she's engaging in discussion with Mulder about what his final wish was. This is consistent with the overall blurring of the old hardline believer-skeptic dynamic we see in season 7. It’s also peeking ahead to Scully’s coming role as resident basement believer in season 8. 

The last scene, with the beers and Caddyshack, is meant to be a callback to djinni Jenn’s comment that she wishes she could “live my life moment by moment... enjoying it for what it is instead of... instead of worrying about what it isn't.” Mulder, we see, is taking a cue from her. (And good for him, as we almost never see these characters do this. Except on rare baseball-related occasions.)

However, this episode’s position right before Requiem—and right before the events of season 8—ends up giving this scene a real bittersweet bite. We know, after Requiem, that they were probably a romantic couple at this time. We know, after Requiem, that this time is going to be their last happy time together for a long while. Later in season 8, we learn that one lingering wish of Scully’s in season 7 is that she wanted to conceive a child with Mulder. And of course we know, after Requiem, that she gets her wish—but with a vicious catch, with a terrible side effect, much like what happens with the jinni’s wishes. 

So that’s my academic thesis on that. I know others have pointed out the existence of this type of episode before. What did I miss? Do you think I am wrong to leave out seasons 1, 2, 8, and 9? Why do we think these episodes focus so much on distorted perception? Interested to hear others’ thoughts (if they make it through this lol).

#the x files #x files meta #penultimate partner episodes #wetwired #x files #demons #season 3 x files #season 4 x files #folie à deux #season 5 X files #field trip #season 6 x files #je souhaite #season 7 x files #mulder and scully #fox mulder #dana scully #MSR

[sixhours]

Remnants

Everything that’s left of her broken dreams is standing at the counter, returning her smile.

Rated: PG Length: 1k

Notes: Post-episode for Per Manum

Originally posted on AO3 1/6/2016

~*~

The apartment is shrouded in gray when she returns, the last of her hopes printed on an appointment summary in her coat pocket. Upon seeing her face, he wishes he’d thought to turn on a light, so she wouldn’t have to come home to more darkness, his slumbering form on the couch not enough to fill this newfound emptiness.

“It didn’t take, did it?”

Disappointment shines in her eyes. Forehead to forehead, he waits until her breathing is calm to offer something more substantial than a promise, but the warmth of her skin under his fingers disarms him, gives him pause.

His hands cradle her face as their lips touch for only the second time, her arms wind around his neck like an anchor, pulling him down into her sorrowful sea.

~*~

Dr. Parenti’s delivery was kind, but she felt the news like a gunshot. It’s worse than Emily, this intangible loss. Failure hasn’t washed away the image of a young girl with auburn hair and almond eyes, or a boy with a shy, quirked smile.

She loves them, the ghosts of her unborn children and all they represented: The intimacy of family life, ringing laughter and a mantle lined with photographs.

A child’s cry cutting through the night, hushed lullabies and the love-drunk smell of a downy newborn head.

Saturday morning cartoons followed by pancakes and bacon, spilled milk and syrup-sticky fingers.

The stillness of reality plays a harsh contrast to her imagination as she listens to the silence of what could have been.

~*~

He wants to punch a hole through her pristine apartment wall. He wants to hunt down the faceless men who did this to her and kill them with his bare hands, until he’s bloody and sore and near death himself. He wants to run, to put miles and years between them, until his bad luck can’t touch her any more.

Sometimes he wishes he’d never followed when she tried to resign from the Bureau, that he wasn’t so chickenshit as to ask her to stay after paying the price for her loyalty several times over.

He’d signed away his rights, but the thing that makes his face burn and his stomach clench with shame, is that he’d wanted this for himself as much as her. Selfish bastard, he thinks. Still a chickenshit.

So he steels himself, grits his teeth and holds her until she pulls away. He takes her hand, leads her to the couch, offers to make tea.

He’ll stay, because he doesn’t have the courage to let her go.

He’ll stay, because he doesn't have the right to mourn what was never his to lose.

~*~

Mulder is opening cupboards, running water. Sleeves rolled to the elbows, he washes the dishes and waits for the kettle, then swipes at his forehead, leaving a trail of suds across one cheek. The sight brings an unexpected smile to her lips.

Her heart sinks with the enormity of her grief and the weight of too many unspoken words. Everything that’s left of her broken dreams is standing at the counter, returning her smile.

~*~

He settles on the opposite end of the couch, letting the mug warm his hands. She stares into hers for a few minutes before taking a slow sip, closing her eyes. When she opens them, she’s looking at him with an expression he’s seen only once before in real life, and too many times to count in recent fantasy.

“I love you.”

He blinks. His mouth must hang open, because she’s smiling at him now, a sad, tired smile.

“Don’t look so surprised,” she murmurs, hiding what’s left of her pride in her cup.

~*~

“What would you have done?” she asks. If it had worked, she doesn’t have to say.

“I’d have asked you on a date.”

She pauses to steady her cup on the coffee table, the tea sloshing in her startled hands. “A date?”

“You know—nice clothes, awkward conversation, an expensive wine list, at one of those places that mixes the salad dressing while you watch.”

“Really.”

“Really,” he returns, ducking his head.

“You’d ask your newly impregnated, platonic friend and colleague on an honest-to-goodness date.”

His smile is embarrassed enough to be convincing. “Yeah. I, uh…I thought…if I could give you…give you that…”

He stops, frowns. Her throat is tight when she finally breaks the silence. “Give me what?”

The tea goes cold before he can answer.

~*~

He wakes with a sore neck and Scully’s nose pressed into his hip, a throw tangled around her shoulders. The Late Late Show plays in the background, casting muted shadows on the walls.

She stirs when he stretches, blinking up at him from beneath sleep-addled lashes, as if seeing him for the first time. He wonders if this is what it’s like to hold a newborn; heart filled to bursting with terrifying awe.

“Mulder?”

“I’m here,” he murmurs, stroking the hair from her temple. “Sorry I woke you.”

“Mmph,” she says, her breath warming his abdomen through his t-shirt. “S’OK. I should get up, anyway.”

He nods in agreement, drawing his thumb gently along the plane of her cheek, but neither of them move for a long time.

~*~

She emerges from the bathroom just as he’s finished washing the mugs. Bare feet peek out from oversized silk pajamas, and she surprises herself, wrapping her arms around his waist before she can lose her nerve.

“I’ll stay, if you want,” he murmurs, and she loves him for offering so she doesn’t have to ask.

She loves him for so many reasons. Someday she’ll count the ways, line them up, and tuck them away; programmed, categorized, and easily referenced.

“I’d like that,” she says instead, words muffled by the thrum of his heart.

~*~

She fits perfectly in the circle of his arms, the way he always imagined she would. He times his breathing to the rise and fall of her chest and whispers a blessing into her hair.

“I wanted more for you, Scully.”

Her arms tighten around him, but she doesn't answer.

He holds what little hope is shared between them, and prays that it's enough.

~*~

cc @today-in-fic

#the x-files #mulder x scully #fanfic #per manum

[pennyserenade]

i love season one mulder and scully. i love how earnest and goofy they are. i love how scully smiles big wide grins and mulder cracks stupid jokes, and half of what they say to each other borders on flirting. i love the friendship too, i do. i love that they click immediately and never stop, how he trusts her more than anyone in the world and how happily and quickly she shields his heart from hurt. i love how they learn about each other, both quickly and slowly. i love that they learn about the interior of each other's home, the things that scare each other most. i love that they take notes of the points of weaknesses and the strengths in each other, that they learn one another's blind spots and make themselves harder, more tough, during the times when they know the other is struggling. she learns he likes iced tea, that his name is mulder and never fox, and that he doesn't do well being isolated. he learns about the seas of her childhood, what grief looks like when its new and nothing to do with him, and that her favorite movie is the exorcist. he meets old friends of hers, finds out what the world of dana scully looked like before she walked into his office and changed his life. he learns what it looks like to have a friend, someone to tell secrets to, some place to hide his devotion without worrying it'll be twisted and turned against him. i love season one mulder and scully because they are about discovery and friendship and quiet love. about finding your person and relishing in the treasure of it

#misc. #x files

[atths--twice]

Imagine The X-Files reboot happens. We’re introduced to new agents working in the basement. They find themselves stumped on a case and they look at one another and nod.

Cut to a coffee shop and we see Mulder and the agents. He’s smiling, looking at the file, and thinking of so many things as he listens to them.

“Wow. The case sounds incredibly interesting. I definitely would be all in a few years ago. But now…” He checks his watch and smiles again. “I gotta pick my daughter up soon. I’ll offer what advice I can, but I can’t be late for her.”

When he leaves, we see him watching them, somewhat wistfully, but then his watch beeps with a previously set alarm to pick up his daughter. At the same time, he gets a message from Scully about dinner, asking if he’s still cooking or if he wants her to pick something up on her way home. He grins and nods his head, knowing he’s made the right choice.

And then maybe a young female agent comes to the hospital seeking out Scully, needing some additional advice. She hints at what she knows of Mulder and Scully.

“Oh,” Scully laughs softly, shaking her head. “You have no idea.”

And she crosses her arms and we see that she’s wearing a wedding ring.

These two deserve happiness and family and love- everything they haven’t been able to have. I would love to watch a new group of people working cases so long as the story is good and the chemistry is there.

And if we got to have little chances to look in to Mulder and Scully‘s life… yes please. ❤️

Let me make an addition especially for @baronessblixen because I completely agree with her. 💕💕

I want to see them with their kid. I want to see them enjoy their time with her. Maybe we see her schooling the agents somehow and Scully looks at Mulder and he looks at her and they both say “that’s all you” and then everyone laughs.

I want to see both of them interact with her together doing something as simple as just being at home. Like I NEED it so badly. If we got that, like the “what if” scenarios we saw in the revival, (minus the alien aspect of it) I would be so incredibly happy. ❤️❤️

#the x files #msr #love #possible reboot #I would love to see this

[scintillyyy]

can i say something. i am kind of scared to say something bc dick ship wars kind of scare me even though i have absolutely no preference and care extremely little about dick ships. but. hm. the thinking about 80s and 90s medias as products of their time got me thinking a bit.

so. the interesting thing to me about dick-kory in the 70s and 80s vs dick-babs in the 90s and early 00s os how much each of those couples was entrenched in the media ideals of the time and what people were looking for in a ship.

so like, if you look at dick-kory, theirs is a larger than life love that is destined from the moment she kissed him to learn human language. and theirs is a dynamic and relationship dripping in the popular soap opera tropes that were very pervasive a the time. you can't actually divorce their tribulations (dick being kind of condescending to kory as the Man of the relationship, she's a princess who has to get married for political reasons and dick gets mad, kory gets mad at him for supposedly cheating when he was raped by mirage, the epic wedding that gets literally blown up by raven to name a few) from the media norms that were very popular. they fight passionately and make up passionately very frequently. this is a very common dynamic in the 80s, where soap operas were topping the charts. everyone was watching general hospital. *30 million* people tuned in to see luke and laura get married and their relationship started with him raping her (which was later turned into "seduction") and they were considered like THE couple ever. everyone was watching dynasty. dallas was hugely popular. falcon crest. knots landing. dick and kory's relationship mirrors a lot of what people were eating up back then in the soap opera type media the new titans was emulating. luke and laura. gary and valene. bo and hope. bobby and pam. dick and kory. can you really talk about dick and kory if you don't know what was going on with "bope" back then? for reference, here's what was going on with bo and hope:

anyways. enter the 90s and the soap opera fervor died down in a massive way. soap operas were no longer prime time material and their popularity died down in a massive way & actually people started more making fun of the overwrought storylines and soaps in general. the ideas of destined, one true love was suddenly far more unappealing to people who thought it was cheesy & tired. what people in the 90s were looking for was not true love that is constantly tested and put through the wringer--what was gaining in popularity was UST and will they won't they dynamics. enter dick-babs. and while i wholly disagree with the idea of diminishing kory's importance in dick's life just to uplift babs, i don't entirely disagree with the notion that kory probably wouldn't have really worked in batbooks, so i understand why batbooks wanted to focus on a loveline for dick for a character they had full control of and could work into the stories. and, hm. moving dick away from the destined one true love at the time that was kory allowed them to put him in the romantic situations that 90s audiences were vibing with instead. because you can't suddenly do a will they won't they with a couple who's been solidly dating for *years*. so with dick and babs you're able to do that. he's interested while she's dating someone else. he flirts with someone else for a bit while she's single. while the entire time they're still good working partners while circling around each other. will they? or won't they? and this was super common in late 90s/early 00s sitcom shows that people loved and were at the top of the charts. the x-files with scully and mulder. friends with rachel and ross. fran and mr. sheffield from the nanny. it's still very much playing to what people wanted to see back then.

anyways as someone who truly has no horse in this race i do think media norms of the time around couplings are interesting to dissect.

#anyways i think you can make similar comparisons to bruce-talia and bruce-selina #in that o'neil had created talia as this grand epic love for bruce #in the 80s but under his editorial directorship in the 90s there was still a move away from bruce-talia to instead focus more #on the more flirty bruce-selina dynamic in accordance with what the viewers at home wanted #anyways. just some thoughts of mine. #i do think there is a push in media once again towards the romanticism of destined lovers

[slippinmickeys]

Totality

Fiona made me write an eclipse fic.

Scully gently shut the door behind her, the crisp blue duffle with leather handles in her grip; the go-bag she always left in her car, just in case. It had been a just-in case, Mulder had to admit. They’d had to fly to Idaho with no time to pack, and had worked a grueling five days straight on a series of local murders with only enough time to catch maybe four hours of sleep a night and pop into a shabby JC Penneys once for more underwear. They were both overworked, overtired, and their suits–of which each of them only had two–were overworn; ripe with the scents of stale sweat and stale coffee and stale eau de morgue. 

Scully looked weary as she handed over the bag to where Mulder stood in front of their rental car’s open trunk. 

“How far away is the airport again?” she asked, squinting up at him as he deposited her bag next to his and slammed the trunk closed. 

“Only about an hour,” he answered, mentally girding himself for what he was about to tell her. “But, I uh,” he went on, “pushed back our flights to this evening.”

Her posture visibly slumped. “You…what?” 

Mulder bit his lip, hoping he hadn’t made a horrible miscalculation. He knew she wanted nothing more than to get home, slide into a hot bath and pull the covers over her head for three straight days. She’d certainly earned it. 

“Hop in the car,” he said, moving to the driver’s side door. “I have a surprise.”

He was exhausted himself, his nerves shot. He was running on caffeine and cortisol, his skeleton rattling with every step. But this…she would like this. He was sure of it. 

“Mulder,” she said wearily, a whine in her voice that he’d rarely had the opportunity to hear. But she said nothing more and reluctantly dropped into the passenger seat, leaning her head against the headrest and rolling it to look at him beseechingly after she’d clicked her seat belt on. 

Mulder turned the ignition and the sedan growled to life under them. 

“It’s a good surprise,” he assured her. 

She only sighed, and they bumped out of the hotel parking lot and onto town’s main drag, the sun shining on the shabby line of depressing suburbia. Ten minutes and five stop lights later, Mulder pulled into the mostly empty parking lot of a dying mall, the tires popping over stray gravel and broken glass. He cranked the wheel and the car swung over the cracked asphalt in front of a defunct Frederick & Nelson, turning in a reflex angle and stopping when the sun shone in full through the windshield. He killed the engine. 

Scully opened her mouth to say something, but he reached into the inner pocket of his suit coat and pulled out a couple scraps of cardboard, handing one over before she could voice a complaint. 

It took her a moment to register what he was handing her. 

“Eclipse glasses?” she said, sitting up a little in her seat. 

Mulder had found the black polymer lenses next to the cash register at a local coffee shop that morning, the bespectacled co-ed working it disinterestedly telling him he could have two pairs for a dollar. 

The upcoming eclipse had been in the news recently, but he’d mostly ignored it–back east it would only be partial at best, the path of totality only hitting the Pacific Northwest and parts of Canada. Four murders and a rough case later, he hadn’t given it another thought. Until that morning in the coffee shop. 

“We’re in the path of totality here,” he explained. “We’ll only get it for about a minute and ten seconds according to the local newspaper, but I thought you might like to see it.”

A look Mulder couldn’t read crossed over her face and he swallowed.

“The next full eclipse over North America won’t be until 2017,” he went on nervously. “I can probably change the tickets back if you-”

Scully reached out and put a warm hand on his arm, cutting him off. 

“I’d love to see it,” she said delicately. “Thank you.”

Despite the dark smudges under her eyes, the soft smile she gave him quieted any lingering apprehension about his decision, and he gave her a smile back. 

“I figured we could get on the hood, lean against the windshield,” he said.

“What time does it start?” she asked, popping her wrist out from her sleeve to look at her watch. 

“In about five minutes,” he grinned. 

Scully fingered the glasses and then opened her car door. Energized, Mulder did the same. 

“I ask you to avert your eyes,” he said drolly, putting a hand on the warm hood of the car before awkwardly lumbering his way on top of it, the metal plane thumping loudly under him as it dented to accommodate his weight and then popped back into place. 

Scully, opting to watch, looked on primly. 

Once he was settled, he held out a hand. 

“Milady,” he said, and she settled her warm palm onto his, grabbing on while she put a foot on top of the tire and dexterously swung herself up next to him. 

“Nimble,” he complimented her, reluctantly letting go of her hand. 

She shrugged and leaned back gingerly against the windshield, mindful of the smear of desiccated bugs across the face of it. 

“Here, wait,” Mulder said. He sat up quickly and peeled off his suit coat, rolling it into a ball to tuck behind her head, pillow-like. 

“Thanks,” she said quietly. 

“Don’t mention it.” 

Mulder could feel something ineffable pass between them. He coughed once awkwardly, and then pressed his eclipse glasses to his face, the sharp cardboard edge digging into the skin behind his ear. 

“How do I look?” he asked. 

“Like a dork,” Scully said, delicately donning her own, in, Mulder hoped, solidarity. 

She looked nothing like a dork, Mulder thought, eyeing the sharp lines of her face. She looked like a space girl, sleek and silver, an otherworldly beauty. 

He cleared his throat. “So do you.”

Scully’s face was tilted to the sky and he turned to follow her gaze. 

“It’s starting,” she said, her voice a little irreverent. 

Mulder looked at the sun, dark through polymer lenses of the protective eyewear. The moon was just beginning to edge itself in front of its celestial sister; incremental, pendulous. 

Lacking the pillow he’d given Scully, he raised his arms up and bent his elbows, resting his head back against cupped hands. Beside him, Scully breathed serenely.  He caught a whiff of his fusty clothing and hoped his jacket had fared better in the olfactory department than his shirt. 

They were silent for long minutes, watching the gradual procession of moon across sun. The day was bright but began to take on a verging luminosity, and Mulder raised his glasses up to take a look at the dark shadow of the car under them, which took on an off-putting sharpness against the dusty asphalt. 

“What do you think ancient peoples made of solar eclipses?” came Scully’s voice, a little dreamy. “What must they have thought?”

It was an invitation to oratory. A small gift. Mulder smiled. 

“Cultures throughout the world had wildly different theories,” he said, and Scully turned her head towards him, her eyes hidden behind the dark lenses. “Most of them, obviously, wildly incorrect.” Despite the fact that he couldn’t see her eyes, her look was encouraging. 

“The sun being devoured was popular,” he went on. “From the Norse mythology of Sköll,” at this she smiled. “To Asian cultures like in Java and Vietnam that variously had creatures or monsters swallowing the sun. It was commonly held in ancient China that a celestial dragon attacked and devoured it. Here in the Northwest, the Pomo people’s name for a solar eclipse is ‘Sun got bit by a bear.’”

The bear, Mulder mused, was widening its jaw. It was getting gradually darker, and he could feel the temperature start to dip. He put his glasses back on and looked back at the sun. 

“The Inca and Ancient Greek believed eclipses were a sign of a wrathful and unhappy god.”

Scully hummed. “The word ‘eclipse’ comes from the Greek word meaning ‘abandonment.’”

“Right,” Mulder said, “though I think I prefer mythologies of a more solicitous nature.”

Scully raised her glasses to give him a look. “Solicitous?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Mulder couldn’t help his grin. “In Australian oral traditions, the moon falls in love with the sun and chases her across the sky. If caught, the sun plunges the world into darkness. Medicine men recite magical chants to combat the evil omen. In German mythology, the sun and the moon are married. One rules the day while the other the night. When the moon is lonely, he’s drawn to his bride and they come together to create a solar eclipse.”

She looked at him frankly. “You know a weird amount about eclipses.”

“I like to impress you.”

“Is this why you were so late getting back to the hotel this morning? Research? My coffee was cold.”

“But are you impressed?”

“I wasn’t impressed by the coffee…”

Mulder gave her a long look, the odd light turning her hair a hazy copper wool.

“I like the German one best,” she finally said, plunking her glasses back on and leaning back to gaze at the sky. 

“Me too,” Mulder said. 

More long minutes of silence between them with the occasional car whooshing past on the roadway. Mall security drove by them slowly and Mulder gave the rent-a-cop a small salute. It was impossible to see Scully with the glasses on, so he kept taking them off. 

“You’re going to permanently burn your macula,” Scully said from beside him, not taking her eyes off the welkin of the heavens above them. 

He ran his eyes over the brushstroke of freckles on her nose. She was goddess-like; as luminous as a star. If he was the moon, he’d chase her through the sky, too. 

“You lose enough photoreceptors you won’t pass your next firearms recertification.”

He was tempted to tell her that in all the years he’d known her, her shine hadn’t damaged anything but his poor, lonely heart, but pulled his glasses back down and looked to the sun. It was nearly covered.

He sighed and felt her hand reach for his. His heart beat hard once against his sternum. 

“You can take them off during the totality,” she said, squeezing. “And should. It’s supposed to be incredible.”

“You ever seen it?” He asked her quietly. She was still holding onto his hand. 

“I missed the one in ‘79.”

“Me too,” he said. 

Around them, the air had taken on a distinct chill and the light shining down had grown metallic. Next to the car, in the long shadows of the trees along the edge of the mall driveway appeared little crescents. The colors on the mall’s signage dimmed and brightened. Mulder sat up and pulled his glasses off and blinked, shaking his head. The world felt odd, he couldn’t properly adjust his vision. It felt decidedly like the moment after someone takes your picture with a bright flash.

Scully still held his hand and squeezed it. 

“It’s called the Purkinje effect,” she said calmly, pulling off her own glasses with her other hand, and looking around with a wondrous smile. “As we near totality and the light dims, our eyes transition from photopic vision–which uses the retina’s cone cells to deliver full colors and fine detail–toward scotopic night vision, which relies on rod cells to detect objects in low light. When the light’s intensity dims in an eclipse, colors with longer wavelengths like red will look darker as the cones become less active. But rods are sensitive to shorter blue-green wavelengths, and those colors will appear to shine. It’s not just you. It’s the rod and cone cells in your eyes trying to make sense of the sudden dimness.”

Scully put her glasses back on and looked up at the eclipse. Mulder felt a surge of something so like love that his eyes burned. 

Scully pulled in a sudden inhale of breath. 

“The totality,” she said, pulling off her glasses and gazing up. “It’s starting.”

Mulder raised his eyes to the heavens. The world was dusk-like, the stars in the top of the dome of the heavens were winking on. In the bushes nearby, crickets began to chirp. 

The eclipse itself was like nothing he’d seen before outside of a big budget movie. The moon was utter blackness, but along the upper edge of the eclipsed sun was a hot pink half-ring that erupted into a single bring spot along the edge of the moon’s shadow like the diamond in a giant engagement ring formed by the rest of the sun’s atmosphere.

And then the flaming plasma of corona as the moon reached complete totality. Second contact. It was a living thing. Streams of white light danced around the ring of the black moon. Scully gasped in pleasure and Mulder couldn’t help but exclaim: “Wow!”

He pulled his eyes from the eclipse itself and looked around. Along the entire horizon, all 360 degrees of it, was in full, brilliant sunset. Everything else was the darkness of post golden-hour. He turned toward his partner and locked eyes with her. Her smile was brilliant, and she held his gaze for only a moment before canting her face back to the eclipse itself. 

“This is incredible,” she said breathlessly. 

He had found, as the years of their partnership wound on, that their job turned them into ecstatics, subject to mystical experiences. This was perhaps the most transcendent of them all. He would remember the moment forever. 

 “It is,” he agreed. 

A sharp flash, and Scully squeezed his hand. 

“Third contact,” she said. “Put your glasses back on.”

He did as she asked, and they leaned back and watched in silence as the moon continued its journey, as the sky relit and the nighttime animals calmed, as the world came back to itself. 

Eventually, Scully sat up. The light was still odd, seeming to come almost from inside her, and she lowered her glasses and leaned in to him. For a heady, divine moment, Mulder thought she was about to kiss him, but instead she pressed her cool lips to his cheek, her hair falling down to brush along the skin of his jaw. 

“Thank you, Mulder,” she said, and then straightened, the cool air rushing to fill the space she’d just been. 

“You’re welcome, Scully,” he said, his voice a little rough. He lowered his glasses slowly and watched her slide off the hood of the car, watched her stretch and smile to herself; a Mona Lisa grin gently stretching the planes of a face with the same faultless symmetry of the celestial bodies sliding across the sky.

#the x files #fanfic #my fic #ficlet #prompt #msr #please forgive the scientific/historical/canon inaccuracies #i really should have been working

[randomfoggytiger]

Do you have a list of comfort fics? Not them comforting each other but for when you're feeling wrecked and you just need something lovely to make it better?

randomfoggytiger's Comfort Fics

I'm not joking: I've reread more fics than I'll ever read new ones. My usual routine is to pop open Google docs, select an author, and mow down their list.

These three pieces were the ones that started it all; but I forgot to include @seek-its-opposite's photosensitivity. A+s, all of 'em.

Authors that I can't single out comfort fics from and can't tag because Tumblr is restricting my tag options: @baronessblixen, @settle-down-frohike, @onpaperfirst, @markwatneyandenesemble, Lapsed_Scholar, Apostrophic, @ghostbustermelanieking, @o6666666, touchstoneaf, @welsharcher, @scenes-in-between, @mldrgrl, @spooky-nerd, @melforbes, etc.

**Note**: Will ghost edit later~

PART I

Bittersweet Comfort Fics

misslucyjane's Scully seeks insomnia advice from Mulder, and Mulder dies, then lovingly watches Scully live the rest of her life

Kipler's cancer arc set casefile involving WWII vets and letters

melforbes's cancer arc Mulder takes his new bride to the sea for her last spring, and Pre-IWTB Mulder and Scully finally have a home

MldrItsMe's AU Redux II Scully is REALLY suffering, and Sein und Zeit Mulder's suicidal confessions

@discordantwords's Mulder and Scully are almost killed by the Fiji mermaid

mixiz877's Mulder and Scully fight off a gryphon

@fbismostunwanted1158's Scully is beaten down ala Stella Gibson in The Fall

Joyce's S5 AU Mulder is killed, comes back to life to save Scully, and Mulder dies but stays as Scully's partner solving cases with her (Part 1, Part 2, and-- my favorite of the three-- its Halloween sequel)

@teethnbone's post Travelers fic with Mulder and Scully

@sarie-fairy's AU Tithonus love confession, Post Milagro Scully realizing what it feels like to be Mulder, and Post The Unnatural Scully is bleeding out on a failed Sasquatch hunt

@sigritandtheelves's Post Monday Scully remembers Mulder's death

whatliesabove's Post Milagro Scully stays dead (or does she?)

ChaneenW's Pre-IVF arc Mulder is shot into a parallel timeline, reliving the Small Potatoes adventure with Scully

dee_ayy's post Amor Fati recovery fic (with baseball)

@bohoartist's Sein und Zeit through Scully's eyes, and Post Closure Scully rescues a photo of baby Mulder

Lolabeegood's AU where S8 Mulder is returned with false memories (would also recommend Lolabee's IWTB era fics, btw.)

@dreamingofscully's AU S9 Skinner entices Mulder back into profiling... and it doesn't end well

@television-overload's Pre-IWTB Mulder surprises Scully with a baseball field (and his old self again)

@queeenpersephone's AU where IWTB Scully stuck it out with Mulder

@danascullysjournal's Post IWTB bonding fic between a discouraged Mulder and uplifting Scully

@kateyes224's Mulder and Scully content in their UH, and Mulder sells the UH, and Scully buys it

@realmofextremepossibility's Breakup Mulder waiting for Scully's return Part I and Part II.

vulcanscully's Post Breakup Scully stops hearing from Mulder and assumes the worst

enigmaticdr's AU post IWTB Scully thinks she has cancer again (she's pregnant), Breakup Mulder is defeated at their anniversary dinner, AU where Revival Scully gets cancer, and The Revival baby laughs for the first time

prufrockslove's AU Mulder is a Welsh prince, Scully is his betrothed bride, and lots of Prince John high court drama ensues (part I of a sweeping, interconnecting AU series)

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

#txf #fic #randomfoggytiger's Comfort Fics #asks #calimanc #Comfort Fics #xfiles #x-files #the x files #xf fanfic #mine

[thursdayinspace]

So much to say about the Duane Barry episodes and Scully's abduction, but mostly I find it amazing how much relationship development they managed to pack into a handful of episodes that Scully is barely in at all. It's already set up nicely: the hostage negotiation, Mulder being frustrated because first he's asked to help and then has to find out they're withholding information from him. Once again, he's not being taken seriously; he has to turn to Scully again even though they're not even partners anymore. He still relies on her, she's still the only one he can really trust. She comes all the way out there with the information she digs up when she can't reach him. She talks into his ear to help him resolve the situation. Afterwards, when they find that implant in Duane Barry, they try to figure that out together as well. As we've seen throughout all the episodes before, they fall back into their partnership easily, like it's the most natural thing in the world for them. And then she's abducted and everything falls apart. That's where it really picks up and it becomes clear that everything up to this point has been little more than a (very well done and important) prologue.

Mulder's silence at the beginning of "Ascension" is almost frightening. It's certainly intense. Somewhere between withdrawn and hyperfocused, with a good dose of fear mixed in. He tells Scully's mother that she's not in her apartment, and after that we don't hear him speak again until a good way into the conversation in Skinner's office the next morning, a good five minutes into the episode even though he's in every scene before then. And when he barely puts up a fight when Skinner tells him to go home, you know he's going rogue. He does not trust them to find Scully, and he certainly can't sit and wait while she's out there with Duane Barry.

He pushes himself beyond his limits, almost falling asleep at the wheel but refusing to let Krycek drive -- he doesn't give up the tiniest sliver of control. When the tram operator won't let them take the tram up the mountain, Mulder has no problem showing him his gun. He pushes the tram beyond safety limits. Does his acrobatics out in the open who knows how high up in the air -- risking his life -- after Krycek stops the tram.

And holy shit the way he loses it when he spots Scully's blood and hair on Duane Barry's hospital band is truly scary, I don't think we've ever seen him that angry before. But on second thought, maybe angry is the wrong word. He's acting out of fear and panic. I don't think even an angry Mulder would choke anyone. He isn't thinking straight anymore, his responses are almost primal at this point. He hasn't slept, he's running on adrenaline, he's no closer to finding Scully and now he knows she's injured.

Finding out about Krycek, Skinner reopening the x files . . . it all seems almost secondary. Not as important as his meeting with Scully's mother and her telling him to keep the cross necklace. He didn't have anyone this entire time to lean on or to talk to. And he still doesn't, but this is the closest he gets. He and Scully's mom are in similar places. For them, this is personal. I love that they're bonding over this, over their love for Scully and their worry about her. (Whatever meaning you want to read into the word "love" between Mulder and Scully at this point.)

The beginning of "One Breath" is so intense, Mulder running into that room in the hospital to find her lying there unconscious, hooked up to a respirator. Anger fueled by blind panic. "Who brought her here?" "How did she get here?" "Who did this to her?" "Listen, if you’re hiding anything, I swear, I will do anything, whatever it takes, I will find out what they did to her!" I love the scene and I absolutely love the way it's acted, big thumbs up to DD. Getting her back could have been the emotional release of that arc, but she comes back in a coma. It spikes the angst to a whole new level. Before, he didn't know whether she was okay or not, he could hold onto hope. Now he knows she's not okay. Getting her back does not let him finally sit down and take a deep breath and process any of it. Nothing is resolved, the fight is just taken elsewhere.

I just want to take a second to think about the fact that he sigend her living will as her witness. That is. A very intimate thing to do. And that moment needs to get the credit it deserves. Knowing that they have talked about the event of her being unable to decide for herself, knowing she let him in, let him sign it, and the fact that he did it? That is a huge HUGE thing.

What is really intriguing is that Mulder and Melissa clash in the way they do, because you'd expect them to get along. I wonder if they would have gotten along better had they met under different circumstances. But here, Mulder is in a very different place. He tends to go to extremes when the stakes are high, his single-minded focus in this moment doesn't allow for anything but action. He still believes he can do something. He doesn't even go in with them when they decide to pull the plug -- he refuses to accept a reality where she dies. We see that again in the cancer arc, where he tells her as much when she tells him her cancer is untreatable.

If anyone would go to the trouble of putting together a list of the top ten most heartbreaking moments from the entire show, Mulder's visit to CSM and the way his voice breaks when he asks "Why her?" would have to be on it. "Why her and not me?" It's the way he says it, but it's also what's in that question that makes it so heartbreaking. Because that's what it all boils down to. He feels guilty. He asked in the hospital "Who did this to her?" And throughout these episodes, in his head, he has always considered that person to be himself. He did this to her. Something we get to hear again and again all the way into the revival when he tells her he wishes she'd left that basement earlier so she'd have been spared from all the things that happened to her. He feels responsible.

(Just a short digression: He is not responsible. I feel like that's a very important thing to remember. Something her brother should have been told in the cancer arc too. Holding Mulder responsible robs Scully of all agency and makes her nothing more than a loyal puppy. But unpacking Bill Jr.'s implicit misogyny, and why the way Mulder feels responisble for everything is not the same thing, that is for another post. If anyone has thoughts on that though, I'd love to hear them.)

A real Mulder moment is him choosing not to take revenge on the men responsible for Scully's abduction, after X pretty much hand-delivers them to him on a silver tray, but rather to go to the hospital after Melissa tells him it might be his last chance, that Scully is dying. He will choose Scully over everything every time. Sitting at her bedside, taking her hand, the way he speaks to her -- it becomes clear how deep the feelings go but also how fragile and undefined it all is between them. They're friends, they're partners, they've flirted, they've told each other some of their deepest secrets, and he has no idea how to be around her now. "I don’t know if my being here . . . will help bring you back. But I’m here." His pause there before "will help bring you back" kills me. He honestly has no idea. He can hope, but he just doesn't know if he'd be a contributing factor in her decision to come back or move on, if she even hears him, if it's even in her control. (I've always wondered when he says in the revival that he invented wishing someone back to life when she was in the hospital, whether he was talking about her cancer or about this moment, or maybe both.)

He gets his breakdown once he comes back home to his destroyed apartment. Sliding down the wall crying -- such a moment. There's no anger in that anymore. No action. He expects to be losing her at that point and all the fight has left him. Until he gets the phone call that she's okay.

Could the episode have benefited from a slightly longer scene at the end? Maybe. It seems a bit anticlimactic, after all he's been through, that he walks into her room, gives her that silly tape (such a Mulder thing to do), hands her the cross necklace back, and that's pretty much it. On the other hand, considering the scene by her bedside before, maybe it fits. He doesn't know where he stands with her, and she's with her family.

I do think the ending is a bit abrupt, but that can easily be forgiven with all that those episodes provided before that. If anyone can see more in that ending than I do, I'd love to hear it because I really don't quite know what to make of it. But they seriously sent Mulder on a journey there, and it worked. And it sets so many things in motion, for the plot and for their relationship.

#txf #the x files #x files #fox mulder #x files meta #thursday's x-files rewatch #I think I have to rewatch them again