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frangipanidownunder · 7 months

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X-Files Collector's Edition: Requiem AUs (Poll Results 4th)-- Mulder Didn't Leave

Part 2 of the Requiem AUs (from this poll): Mulder returns in Requiem whether before, during, or after he finds out about his and Scully's miracle.

Loose chronological order below~

Requiem AUs

@mihosayuri/neytirijade’s This was in response to a prompt

""“I, uh… I’m actually here—we’re here—because I’m about two months late, and um… I took two at home pregnancy tests, and I know those things aren’t always 100%–""

Pre-Requiem Mulder and Scully are back in the IVF office, waiting with bated breath to see if they have surprise, miraculous, positive news.

@drbedeliadumaurier/heartsfilthylesson‘s

isolated systems - Chapter 2 (Tumblr)

""In Bellefleur, shock and dread give way to anticipation, to delight almost. She holds Theresa Nemman’s baby and remembers the one growing inside her, wonders.... She needs to tell him.""

Pre-Requiem Scully finds out about her pregnancy before she and Mulder leave for Oregon. She mulls over the news during their investigation; finally tells when they end up back where it all started: his motel room.

@starbuck09256‘s (Ao3) Back to the Beginning to find the Truth

""Everything in his search had just been leading him back to her. She whimpers in his arms and he feels a sudden gush on his chest[.] [L]ooking down as he gently strokes her bare back he see bright crimson.""

Scully's nose bleeds in Bellefleur; and Mulder zips her to the ER to get a checkup. Both are overjoyed.

@gilliansanderson/spensierata's Strange Trails (Tumblr)

""It was quiet in the car. It was a comfortable quiet. They were comfortable being quiet, it was how they processed the inevitable. The radio crackled and screeched in search of a signal, it reminded Mulder of when they’d lost nine minutes, they’d gotten soaked, he’d marked the ground with an X. We Were Here. He’d screamed it at the sky. Mulder turned it off in frustration so all that was left to fill the silence was the rhythmic pounding of the rain against the roof.... It was nine minutes to the hospital. He reached over to thread his fingers through hers. She only barely squeezed back.""

Mulder and Scully sit in the waiting room in Bellefleur, their absorptive silence morphing into peaceful joy at the good news.

@lokisgame’s (Ao3) Late

""Mulder,” she whispered..., calling him back from the edge of sleep, “I’m late.” “For what?” He mumbled, half conscious, “we just got back.""

Mulder and Scully return from Oregon, dozing on the couch... until Scully drops the gentle "I'm late" bombshell. (I adore this fic.)

a_steady_wish's Alternative Ending to Requiem - Chapter 1

""It’s only three minutes later but seems like an hour when the lines appear, clear as day, and you exhale loudly. You close your eyes for long moments, open them again: it hasn’t changed. You begin to pad back out to the bed, suddenly think you were mistaken, and go back to the bathroom to check again. You were not mistaken: two pink lines. You check the box a fourth time. Making sure you have read the results properly: You have. You are. You are pregnant.""

Scully takes a pregnancy test after their return from Oregon, unable to sleep with her suspicions. Mulder notices her mood when she comes back, teary and happy. (I adore this fic, too.)

TheAddict4Dramatics's Untitled Requiem Ficlet

""The banging continued until it was starting to echo inside her skull. She wiped her eyes and checked her face in the mirror before opening the door. Clearly she did not do a good enough cover-up job and he frowned as soon as he saw her.

“What’s the matter?” There was such sincere worry in his face as he stepped into the bathroom and relocked the door behind him.

“I’m…” But the fine died on her lips and to her utter horror she felt her face begin to crumble in on itself.""

Requiem Scully leaves the conference room where Mulder, TLG, Skinner, Krycek, Marita, and Diana all game plan about Oregon. Mulder insists on joining her, reiterating his loyalty; and is there to catch her when she faints.

@frogsmulder/Brynstein‘s 1. “I love you, please don’t go.”

""I love you,” she murmurs from a distance.

He looks up at her with wide, mossy eyes, flecked golden in the orange light of the lamp. In earnest, his innocent gaze captures her heart in a fist of fiery iron, melting her final resolve. “I love you too,” he answers simply, letting the weight of his affection carry his words.""

Requiem Mulder only wants Scully; and Scully finally admits to wanting him to stay. both are happy to be together for the news.

@mldrgrl’s (Ao3)

MSR 38

""Skinner was already on the phone calling for an ambulance. The gunmen hovered, giving orders to each other to give her air, get her water, find a pillow. Marita knelt down next to Mulder and put a hand on Scully’s ankle.

“Alex,” she said. “Find a blanket.""

Requiem Scully passes out at the Bureau; and Mulder, TLG, Skinner, and Marita all jump into action to take care of her until the ambulance arrives. (I adore this fic, too.) Mulder's intent doesn't end there, dropping a bombshell of his own.

Resignation

""He’d never been so glad about trusting his instincts as he was in that moment.""

Requiem Mulder resigns on the plane (to Skinner's own resigned frustration), returning to Scully's side and happily soaking in her announcement.

Not Again: Part 1 - Gone (Tumblr)

"" The Scully imposter cocks her head to the side and then almost with a shrug, turns and steps off the edge of the cliff.

“No!” Mulder screams, knowing full well it isn’t Scully who’s just fallen, but it looks like her, and he knows it’s an image he’ll never be able to shake. He stands rooted to his spot while Agent Doggett runs to the drop site and peers over the edge.""

AU-- Requiem Scully is abducted instead of Mulder. He carries on through the events of S8, trying his best to find her and finally accepting the help of Doggett and Reyes as well as Skinner and TLG.

XScribe/Red's (Ao3, Gossamer) The End of Time

""He is silent. The echo of her words dies away into the walls. His eyes open wide and he draws his bottom lip between his teeth, biting on it. He releases her from his grasp to run a hand over his face as he closes his eyes. She waits patiently for him, feeling suddenly very peaceful and calm, all panic draining out of her. She listens to the ticking of his watch in the quiet hallway, second by second dragging past them both.""

Requiem Scully tells Mulder in the FBI hallway. He wants to stay, but she insists he go.

Lapsed_Scholar’s Variations

""Mulder had sounded giddy and distracted over the phone.... This, though, was in an entirely different category. Mulder, of all people, Mulder was having obvious difficulty paying attention to a case full of shady conspiracies, paranormal phenomena, abductions, and UFOs. If Skinner had been forced to classify the look on his face, it would have been lovedrunk.

Scully was better at hiding it, but she was also remarkably non-productive and was prone to gazing off into space...at her partner. She would periodically come back to herself, whereupon she at least had the decency to blush and look back down at the papers before her.""

The best-- the best-- collection of Requiem unfolding in many more satisfying ways. The humor is unparalleled, the characterization exquisite, and the different stories gripping and heartwarming. Perfection. (I adore this, too.)

@allyinthekeyofx’s (Ao3) Finding Miracles

""And as I led her to the bed to properly take a look at her, I had to face the fact that she looked sick. Not sick like she looks when she has a cold or the flu or a stomach bug. The way she looked radiated from somewhere deep inside her, reflecting from those limitless blue eyes, the way her expression had faded, chasing away the essence that was Dana Scully as she battled with unfamiliar territory that had laid her emotions bare. Right there for me to see.

Because this woman, my perfect other and centre of my world was afraid...""

Requiem Mulder is called by Byers in the airport; and Skinner has to steady him as he sways from the potentially bad news.

Forte's (The Basement Office) Half an Hour

""He is breathing heavily himself, probably more from panic than from the four-block run, and slaps his palm against the wall as though that will make the elevator rise faster. He is too manic, even for him, and I remember all the caffeine he's ingested in the last several hours. I wonder if I should take his weapon away from him.""

Requiem Mulder creates havoc and mayhem after panicking in the airport; and Skinner corrals him (and later TLG) into orderly behavior all the way to the hospital.

@moonprincess92's (Ao3)

Are you up for writing some season 7 fluff?

""He’d agreed to swing by her apartment and collect the things she’d scribbled down for him on a hospital note pad. The only comforting thought he’d had on his drive was that she’d asked him to go ‘home’, rather than to ‘her apartment ’.

At least any news would be broken by her, and not another faceless doctor.""

Requiem Mulder leaves the airport, afraid Scully's cancer is back. Her joy and muddled responses comedically further this thought.

xphilernj's (Ao3, Two Close for Comfort) Find the Future - Chapter 1

""And, Scully, I wanted the IVFs to work. I truly *did* have those hopes and dreams ... but with you. Only with you. You ... you never knew it, but I grieved with you, for you, for us..." Mulder squeezed her fingers lightly, and reached up to wipe a stray tear away...""

Requiem Mulder rushes back to Scully's side; and Skinner leaves them both happily bantering about monkey babies.

HumphreyWrites/sure-fine-skullz/spookysadsophie/s-humphrey/sophie-writes-things/sophiewrites/SophieRobbins's (Alt. Tumblr , Ao3, WBM)

Requiem Redux

""Her breath hitches, and she smiles. “I’m fine, Mulder.”

He raises an eyebrow, “You know what’s wrong?”

She bites her lip. “In a manner of speaking,” she begins, as he looks at her curiously.""

Requiem Mulder left the airport, too worried about Scully to leave with Skinner.

@tatooedlaura-blog/tatooedlaura/Laura Sprys’s Oregon

""...I will punch you if you do not take your hand off that door right now.”

“Then drive faster.”

“I drive any faster and we’re both going to die long before we reach the airport.""

Requiem Mulder chooses not to leave with the ship, stepping out of the woods to a flood of texts from TLG. Skinner gets him back ASAP; Scully assures him over the phone that everyone has prematurely panicked.

@cutelilcurtain/cutelilscully/cutelilwanda's (Ao3)

For the headcanons prompt: Mulder isn't abducted?

""He cannot process or read the expression on her face, and nothing could have prepared him for the softness of her voice, the hope that filled her watery gaze.

“Mulder, I’m pregnant.”

He freezes and she has to pull him into a sitting position on the bed for fear that he’ll collapse right there.""

Requiem Mulder finds nothing in Oregon but everything back home with Scully (who forgot to ask him about his trip until months later, wrapped up as they both were in their baby.)

Erin Blair/Erin M. Blair’s The Blessing

""Mulder sat stunned for a moment, certain he had misunderstood her words. This was *not* possible.

"You're what?!" he asked.""

Requiem Mulder is shell-shocked by Scully's good news in the hospital.

bellefleur's Arms Wide Open

""I open my eyes and for the first time take in the speckled gray linoleum at my feet. The lifeless tones are such a contrast to my spirits that I can't help but laugh to myself, and with the laughter comes a fresh round of tears. It seems I just can't stop them from streaming down my face, and right now, I don't care. With my head bowed, my hands buried in my hair, and my elbows propped on my knees, no one can really see my face anyway. I need what privacy I can muster, here in this public hallway, to come to terms with this all.

I still can't believe this is happening. I'm going to be a father.""

Requiem Mulder bolts after he and Scully are told she's pregnant. Maggie finds him in the hospital hallway, relieved he is just overwhelmed with happy, anticipatory nerves.

isamariposa's Bullfrogs and Jello

""He feels like throwing up when he steps into the hospital. Maybe he's allergic to the smell, whatever. He walks to the reception and swallows hard not to choke when he asks for Dana Scully. How many times has this happened, how many near-misses? She's on the third floor, they say. Mulder punches the button on the elevator, startles a child holding a balloon shaped like a bunny. He still thinks he's going to throw up. At least the ward is not the one for the terminally ill. He remembers that pain. It had toppled him in half.""

Requiem Mulder is replaced at the airport by Doggett, getting back to Scully as fast as he can. He, however, does not react positively to the pregnancy news, afraid it might be caused by CSM tampering.

@all-these-ghosts/all_these_ghosts’s Say Yes (Tumblr)

""I told you I love you,” he points out.

A smile flirts with the corners of her mouth. “Once,” she says.

“Now it’s twice. You haven’t even said it once.”

The smile fades, and her eyes are dark and trained right on him. Scully says, “I love you”, and his heart does this thing that makes him feel like he’s sixteen years old, even though of course he’s known all along.""

Post Requiem Mulder is not abducted in Oregon; but he does almost scare Scully to death, barging in gun drawn and frightening her into dropping her beloved watermelon.

@frangipanidownunder’s (Ao3) Already Special

""Scully’s news is a thunderbolt. That the impossible truth of their quest is revealed as a collection of growing cells in her uterus. It is both absurd and entirely right. The tears he cries with her are hard to quantify....

So, when Diana makes an appearance at the basement, it’s like the door to their secret world is blown off, leaving them exposed.""

Per Manum Mulder was never abducted; and he and Scully tackle the Lizzie Gill saga with a special addition... Diana Fowley.

@rationalcashew/RationalCashew's

Dark is the Way; Light is the Place - Chapter 26 (Ao3)

""As though it had a mind of its own, his hand reached out to cover her flat stomach. Her eyes, however, never left him; her smile didn’t wane.

“You okay over there?” She asked, after allowing him his moment. Her voice jolted him back into the room.

“Yeah,” he said, awkwardly removing his hand from her body. He let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. In disbelief, he said, “We’re having a baby.""

AU-- Mulder and Scully are sinking into domestic bliss when a serial killer case pulls them out of town. Mulder's paranoia for Scully and their baby's safety begins to put a wedge in their relationship, finally driving Scully back to D.C., trying to give them space while he gets into deeper and deeper trouble.

@cecilysass/cecily_sass/Cecily Sasserbaum's Pause

""Home pregnancy test. 99% Accurate. Results in minutes.

For thirty seconds the box sits there in Scully’s hands. She stares at it.

This box that her mother bought. This box that she put in her daughter’s bag. Her daughter whom she knows is infertile.

Somewhere in the apartment is the sharp sudden sound of Mulder turning off the shower.

Like a ghost, Scully stands up.

She takes the box and holds it under her arm, crosses the room, and steals Mulder’s keys from the entry table.

Without a sound she leaves the apartment.""

AU-- Scully wakes in her car, amnesic and unknowingly pregnant. Mulder at first doesn't believe it's her; and it's not until Maggie verifies and Diana Fowley leaves evidence for the duo to find that he can fully accept that his partner, who was "dead" for a year, is back.

DKSculder's Sweetest Devotion

""I, I had hoped you would be here, when the baby was born. So I put these in my hospital bag, to give to you here.” She took a deep breath, staring at the frayed pages in her hands. “These are my notes, on the x-files, on you. This is a documentation of every case we’ve worked, before I typed them up in reports. It’s mostly shorthand, just my own jotted down notations...."

“What’s the other one?”

“These, are my personal notes. More of a diary, if that’s how you want to look at it. The dates all coincide with the other.” She said softly, handing him the second binding of tattered pages.

He stared at them for longer than he probably should, she had just handed him the truth, her truth.""

AU-- Scully has been a spy since the Pilot; and she finally confesses it to Mulder after she gets pregnant with their child. Mulder MIA, Mulder returning for a case then ghosting, Mulder arriving in time for the birth of their son, and Mulder crawling back to a form of trust in Scully unfolds painfully slowly.

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

#txf fanfic #i have no recollection of the fic of mine on this list #but it is humbling to be on a list #wild that people still read my fic #thank you!

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frangipanidownunder · 8 months

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Thanks to @storybycorey and @randomfoggytiger for tagging me.

last song: my daughter's iPhone takes over the car music system so it was something by The 1975. No idea of the title.

last movie: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and it was huge fun!

currently watching: Women's World Cup, baby! And Mr Mercedes.

currently reading: Hopeless Kingdom by Kgshak Akec, about the relationship between a mother amd daughter from Sudan, who settle in Australia. I'm listening to Black Lies by Mercedes Mercier, a fast paced crime thriller featuring a prison psychologist.

last thing I researched: haha, I am writing a crime heist story so my search history is full of dodgy pharmacy questions. 🤣

No clue who has done this, but I will tag @scapegrace74-blog and @ellivia and anyone else feel free if you want to.

#personal

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frangipanidownunder · 9 months

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All Along, Like Fire (Part 6)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Mature | 2.9k words | MSR, AU

A/N: I’m sorry this part took so long, I’ve been working at it bit by bit for like 2 months 😣

—

September, 1995

Washington D.C.

Diana Fowley knew that her life was in danger. She’d failed in monumental fashion, and she could insist to her dying breath that it hadn’t been her fault—that Fox’s stumbling onto the DAT tape happened while she was out of town and there’s nothing she could have done to stop it, but it wouldn’t matter. They would crush her like an empty soda can if she ceased to be useful, and especially if she proved a liability instead.

The city was under a late-summer heat wave that made the air feel even thicker than the tension around her alone. Violence seemed imminent as tempers so easily flared with the temperature. Diana paced the apartment she shared with Fox, a man that she told herself she still loved, despite the lies between them: her secrets, his shifting devotions. His basketball peeked out from the closet and his dirty clothes were in the hamper. Diana picked up one of his shirts and fingered the ratty collar above its FBI logo. She held it to her nose and felt a wave of sadness, of longing. He was a good man, and she’d lost him, let him slip away from both herself and the project she’d hoped he would come to embrace. But in the last year, the deceptions had become too much. She’d had to spend more and more time away in order to live with herself, and after the plan for Scully’s abduction had backfired, she knew that he had crossed some kind of invisible barrier. He would never be hers again. Everything she had done to try and put a wedge between him and his partner had only drawn them closer together.

Diana had a right to be jealous, didn’t she? In spite of her lies? At least she hadn’t fallen in love with someone else. She sat on the bed worrying her lower lip between her teeth. She knew she’d lost her husband, but perhaps she could still make it through this with her life.

What she needed was leverage.

—

Farmington, NM

The public library had three computers connected to the internet for public use. Mulder and Scully sat huddled around one of them, carefully wording an email to the Gunmen from a temporary account.

“Where should we meet?” Mulder kept his voice low.

“I don’t want to put the Hosteens in any more danger,” Scully said. “Maybe Albuquerque?” She oriented herself to the map in her head. “Or we could head north into Colorado.”

Mulder nodded. “Yeah. Get the map.”

They decided on a tourist town called Pagosa Springs, where they could blend in like late-season vacationers. “Hey, if things go downhill, we can always hide out in the mountains,” Mulder said.

“Too bad I forgot to pack my skis.”

He smiled at her, but it was only a half-smile. They both knew how dangerous this was—how much was a stake. They had aligned all their pieces on the board, and now it was the other team’s turn. He just hoped Skinner was really on their side.

—

FBI Headquarters

Everybody wanted a damned meeting, had a plan, had a dog in this fight, it seemed. Walter Skinner was giving himself a headache with all this jaw clenching. He was everyone’s middleman, though he was just as vulnerable to the powers circling them all like sharks. This playing field was full of snares and trapdoors.

“Agent Fowley, you said you had reason to believe your life was in jeopardy? Why not go to your own AD about this?”

The woman seated across from his desk maintained perfect composure, but cleared her throat before answering. “My work has put me in a somewhat compromised position—something I’m sure you can understand, Sir.”

The eyes were so deliberate. Skinner frowned, not liking either her implications or the fact that she seemed to have a lot more information than he realized. “How do you mean?”

“I’m afraid that Fox’s acquisition of the D.O.D files has put more than a few lives at risk, my own included. I was out of town when the DAT tape was handed over to him, but certain… factions,” she paused to choose her words carefully, “seem to think I can be held accountable.” Again, she looked directly at him. “They’re willing to set more than an underground train fire to keep that information in check.”

Another jaw clench. That cigarette smoking bastard had been in here again today trying to weasel information out of him, and Skinner had no doubt that there would be more bodies if the tape, and the information on it, didn’t reappear soon. “I didn’t realize you were involved at all,” he said.

“Not with the tape directly, but it’s been made clear to me that I need to protect it,” she said cryptically. “I have to get in touch with Fox. It’s essential that I arrange a meeting soon.”

Skinner grunted. “Well, you’re in luck on that front.”

Diana’s eyebrows raised. “You know where he is?”

“Not exactly, but I know someone who does.” He eyed the brunette suspiciously—so cool, always—and wondered if it were safe to bring her to a meeting with her own husband. It was a risk he thought he'd have to take if they were going to make any kind of bargain. “Meet me at Dulles tomorrow morning at the United counter. Seven o’clock.”

Diana nodded briskly and stood. “Thank you, sir.”

—

Pagosa Springs, CO

Mulder and Scully sat at the back of Brenda’s Diner, which looked like the kind of restaurant Cracker Barrel was trying to be. The tables were glass-covered wagon wheels, and there were more than a few cowboy hats between their booth and the door. The two agents barely looked away from the entrance to sip their coffees.

“There,” Mulder said when he spotted Skinner’s bald head and glasses. Then he stiffened when he saw the brunette with him. “Shit.” He reached under the table to quickly squeeze Scully’s knee. “Diana is with him.”

Scully forced herself to breathe deeply, to keep her anger tucked inside her, despite everything they now knew. She watched Mulder’s face as Diana approached, as he bottled his own rage into a careful mask.

Skinner spoke first, nodding at them and sliding into the booth. “Agents.”

Diana reached out to touch Mulder’s arm. “Hello, Fox.”

He didn’t meet her gaze or reciprocate her touch, but instead focused on his boss. Diana glanced at Scully only long enough to take note of her husband’s protective position and body language toward the other woman. She sat beside Skinner, and the wooden table was like a vast ocean between the two parties.

“First,” Mulder began, “you should know that we’ve read everything in the files.” He looked pointedly at Diana, who paled, but to her credit, didn’t flinch.

Skinner nodded. “I had assumed as much, based on your prolonged absence.”

“But we're not the only ones who have read it. If their plan is to kill us, all of that information will go public. We have multiple contingencies in place.”

"And you don't think the men we're dealing with could hunt all of those down?"

"No," Mulder said, displaying a confidence he was only half sure he felt. "Not all of them."

The older man grunted in acknowledgement.

“We want to go home,” Scully explained. “And we want to keep our jobs. But there are things we learned from that tape that we can’t pretend we don’t know. Personal things.”

Skinner cleared his throat, as if to speak, but Diana beat him to it. “I realize that you’ll want to distance yourself as much as you can from me,” she said to Mulder specifically, her eyes pleading, "Especially after the things you read." She couldn't bring herself to look at his partner. “But I can also help you make your bargain with them.”

Mulder had tried to keep his calm, but his anger bubbled up beyond his self-control. “Diana, why are you here?” he asked in a sharp whisper. “Are you representing the project’s interests? You’re gonna take our bargaining chips back to that smoking son-of-a-bitch so he can twist us around even further?”

“No.” Her voice was firm and steady; she had her own anger to contend with. “You don’t know what they have on me, Fox. You don’t know what they threatened me with, how I worked to keep you safe—keep you alive—by stopping you from knowing too much.”

Mulder’s jaw dropped open for a moment before he barked out a humorless laugh. “So that was your role in this sham of a marriage? Gatekeeper of what I was allowed to know?”

“Partially,” she said, perfectly frank. “Their plan was to bring you in slowly.”

“Bring him in?” Skinner asked.

“To the project. He’d always been slated to take his father’s place.” She locked eyes with Mulder, and there was something pleading and earnest in her gaze. “Fox, whatever you may think about the things you read—about me and about the project—no matter how horrible they sound, you have to know that the goal has always been to save humanity. The project has always been about helping people survive.”

“Which people?” Scully asked, her voice sharp. “The women you abducted and rendered infertile? The children and family members you took as collateral? Or the hapless people you’ve tortured and experimented on in the name of ‘progress’? How are you any different than the Nazi scientists you’ve collaborated with?”

“I’m not the devil here,” Diana said quietly. “I didn’t devise these methods or decide who would suffer.”

“No, you just carried out their orders,” Mulder said. Their voices were hushed, but some restaurant patrons had noticed the tension at their table. Mulder sat back and took a sip of his coffee.

“Look,” Skinner said, “we could argue about this all afternoon, but we need to decide—“

“Tell me about the babies,” Scully interrupted, unable to contain the question any longer, to let the conversation move too far away from her burning need to know. “The children. Do I—“ her voice caught. “Are there babies out there with my—“ and she couldn’t finish.

“Yes,” Diana said. “Just one viable specimen at the moment, an eight-month-old in California.”

The breath went out of her lungs, and Scully squeezed her napkin so hard, it was shredding to pieces. Specimen. The word was like a hot fist crushing her heart. Mulder’s face had gone grey, and even Skinner looked stricken. Her baby—genetically, at least. An experiment. A specimen.

“Is it… okay?” This from Mulder, who was also trying to find words. Scully heard the subtext in his voice: is it human?

Diana fidgeted, like she didn’t have time for this, like she wanted to talk about more important things. How she’d weasel out of this situation with her own life, for example. She sighed. “Yes, for the most part. It’s a girl.”

“What do you mean for the most part?” Scully asked. It’s a girl, it’s a girl, it’s a girl, she heard over and over in her head. She couldn’t help it: she thought of pink blankets and solemn blue eyes looking out of a round face. At eight months the baby would be crawling, smiling, almost pulling herself to stand. Then Scully imagined cold surgical gloves reaching down to pick up the child and hold her with curiosity and detachment instead of love, to poke her with needles and test her in a cold white place.

“The child has an induced condition that manifests as a form of anemia. She requires regular treatment from a specialist.” Diana’s voice was deadpan, but Mulder and Scully both caught what she was saying. A “specialist,” meaning a project doctor. They locked eyes in understanding.

Skinner, however, was confused. “Induced condition? What does that mean?”

Mulder turned to him, his voice low. “They made her sick on purpose,” he said. It wasn’t a question, and Diana said nothing to either confirm or deny.

“So they can keep her on a leash,” Scully added. “So they can keep anyone who tries to love her on a leash.” She looked across the table and met Diana’s eyes. The fury inside her was grounding her, keeping her still, like ice-water, but inside she was screaming. “Isn’t that right?”

Diana gave the barest of nods and looked down at her hands. Silence around the table grew heavy, broken only when their waitress came to refill their coffee cups. The woman must have sensed the awkwardness, because she left without a word.

“I want what they took from me,” Scully said after a long moment. “All of it. Every strand of my DNA, even the ones in your specimen.”

With that, she stood and walked out of the restaurant.

—

Outside, back to the setting sun over the San Juan mountains, Scully leaned against the hood of their rental car. She wanted a cigarette. Barring that, she wanted to smash something into pieces and scream into the wind. But when Mulder came up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder, she just deflated. Her head drooped, and she stared at the dust and rock of the parking lot that flecked her leather boots.

“You okay?”

She shrugged one shoulder, not sure she could ever really be okay again. “What did Skinner say?”

Mulder had shoved his hands into his pockets, but he leaned his left side along the length of hers—a gesture of comfort that maintained the boundary between them. “He said they’re going to want a deal. Well,” he clarified, “Diana explained that our silence wouldn’t be enough, not if you really want… everything back.”

Scully reached up and touched the scar at the back of her neck. “They already have me on a leash too, don’t they? What else could they want?”

There was a long pause, and when Mulder didn’t answer, she looked up at him. He had a look of far-off anguish, of dread.

“Mulder.”

He chewed his lip for a moment, and then said, “My work.”

Oh. Scully swallowed hard. So the price for the truth was the power to do anything with it—the power to prosecute these men, to hold them accountable. “Your badge, too?”

He shook his head. “Just the files.”

Scully nodded. “They mean to drive us apart, then.”

She felt him turn to look at her in the dimming light. “What do you mean?”

The breeze coming from the mountain chilled her, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “They know I could never ask you to do that, Mulder. Or they should know it. If you give up your work, our work, you’ll come to resent me, if you don’t already.”

He tried to speak, but Scully cut him off.

“And if you let them keep my…” She couldn’t say future children, couldn’t say baby. “…ova,” she swallowed, “and everything they create from them in exchange for the X-Files…”

“How could you ever stay with me?”

She nodded again. “The thing is, I don’t even want children right now. That wasn’t on my radar, not for a while, anyway, because I have so much other work to do. I’m committed to our work too, Mulder, and I know it’s not compatible with a baby. I mean, maybe in a few years but…” She was rambling, but God, it was impossible, wasn’t it? Every choice seemed wrong, seemed designed to push them apart and alter their lives irrevocably. She chuffed out a humorless laugh. “I guess they’ve kind of won, haven’t they?” She couldn’t look at him, imagining the gears churning his thoughts into a steady resentment toward her.

He was shaking his head. He didn’t want it to be true any more than she did, but they were only two people standing against a tidal wave of power and corruption. “They can’t have won,” Mulder said, but his voice came out defeated.

She looked toward the restaurant, where she assumed Skinner and Diana were waiting for their reply, two sore thumbs in their east-coast suits drinking tepid coffee. “How long do we have to decide?”

“Diana said we should make a call tonight. They know where we are now. We need to play our hand while we can.”

Scully wanted to tell him that he should decide, that he should take this terrible decision away from her and leave her alone to lick her wounds. But of course that wouldn’t be fair to him. She watched his face, silhouetted by the setting sun, and ached for him, for things to have been different between them—no conspiracies or wives or impossible ethical dilemmas. When he looked at her, met her eyes, she thought she felt the same ache coming off him in waves.

“I love you,” he said without warning, and it made her heart skip and slam against her ribcage—warm and unexpected. “I could never resent you for wanting back what they stole from you. Never.”

Scully felt tears filling her eyes, and she bit the inside of her cheek to try to stop them from falling. “Okay,” she said, voice raspy.

“I love you,” he told her again. She was trying to believe him, beginning to, maybe. He reached out a hand to hold her cheek, and it almost undid her. She sucked in a quick breath, a half sob, and a tear escaped down her cheek. He wiped it with his thumb.

Her fingers found his against her cheek, and she turned her head just slightly to kiss his palm. Though he’d said it first, she was terrified to tell him how she felt. But now was the time for bravery, for playing their hands, wasn’t it? Scully closed her eyes and concentrated on the sensation of his skin on hers. “I love you,” she told him back.

He let out a breath into the cooling air that brushed her face. “Good,” he said. “That’s good.” He leaned his forehead down to touch hers. “They won’t force us apart, Scully. We’ll find another way.”

Despite all her rational objections and her skeptical nature, she believed him.

—

End Chapter 6

#txf fanfic #to read

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frangipanidownunder · 10 months

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Singing of Mount Abora

Title: Singing By: Aloysia Virgata Rating: NC-17 Category: MSR Timeline: S7 Summary: Casefile, follow up to Petrichor, both of which are set in the same universe as Waters of Babylon. It also works fine as a standalone. Notes: Endless heart-eyed thanks to @slippinmickeys and @icedteainthebag for unbelievable editing, suggestions, and generally keeping me honest when I tried to get away with being lazy. And to @red2007 and @scullymakesmefeelautopsyturvy for being supportive and lovely and kind as I patched this thing together. I appreciate all of you more than you can possibly imagine for helping me get back into the swing of things after a long time away. I simply couldn’t have done it without you all.

***

“You’ve been requested specifically,” Kersh says, and the disgust in his voice is evident. Why anyone with the clout to make requests of the FBI should request Mulder is clearly baffling, like asking a genie for a urinary tract infection.

#txf fanfic #to read #super excited for this #love a case file

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frangipanidownunder · 10 months

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

No introduction necessary, I think.

Loose chronological order below~!

astronaught's Equilibrium - Entr'acte

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

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

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

And he thought she was the same.""

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

red2007's Icarus

""One breath. Two breaths. Chest compressions.

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

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

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

@leiascully's (Ao3)

OctoberFicFest Day 6: Frost (Ao3)

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

Mulder ruminates on twisted fairytales while saving his frosted partner.

To The Ends Of The Earth (Ao3)

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

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

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

@scapegrace74-blog/scapegrace74's Walking After You

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

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

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

@all-these-ghosts's (Ao3

if i am hopeful - Chapter 6

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

He has already stopped shivering.""

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

unfinished business

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

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

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

@scully/humancredentials’s

a series of tumblr prompts - Chapter 8 (Ao3)

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

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

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

@frangipanidownunder’s (Ao3

I Love You Prompts: Tiny Fics - Chapter 2

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

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

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

Cold, happy, tired.

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

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

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

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

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

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

@scullydubois/scully_dubois's txf prompts - Chapter 2

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

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

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

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66’s

Never Let You Go

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

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

Helpless

""I’m too late.

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

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

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

@i-gaze-at-scully’s (Ao3)

Tundra

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

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

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

Pad Thai and poison apples

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

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

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

Fight the Good Fight

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

"Mulder. It's me."

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

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

@allyinthekeyofx’s (Ao3)

Small Considerations Between Partners - 6 (Ao3)

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

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

@danascullysrationalism/ARoadInCapeCod's Whatever's Left

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

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

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

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

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

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

Singing_Violin's This I Can Do

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DanaScully77's Delirium

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

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

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

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

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

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

""Mulder, it's me."

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

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

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

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

The Cretan Paradox

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

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

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

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

AUs

@oceanofthesky/noifsandsorbees’s White Noise (Ao3)

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

“What are you talking about, Mulder?”

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

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

@starwalker42 (Ao3

can't stay awake

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

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

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

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

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

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

2plumsandagherkin's Like You Wanted to

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

“No, what happened in the hallway?”

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

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

@frostbitepandaaaaa/FrostbitePanda’s Four Days AU

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ann Ripley's Any Resemblance

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

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

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

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

Enjoy!

#txf fanfic #fight the future fanfic

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frangipanidownunder · 11 months

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X-Files Collector's Edition: Dad!Mulder, His "Mini Me"s, and Sports

Mulder deserved to bond with his "mini me"s over any sport under the sun. Here are a few fics that do just that.

Loose chronological order below~

Canon Timeline

Susan Proto’s Memory's Promise

""His first, real baseball glove. He smiled at the fond memories he held of his father and he going to the sporting goods store to pick out the perfect glove. He remembered the arduous process of breaking in the glove and trying to follow every single direction his father had given him to do it just right.

He oiled it. And he rubbed it. And he placed the baseball inside to make the perfect pocket and flinched slightly at the memory of how his hands stung when he'd tried to wrap the rubber band around it to hold the ball in place and the band snapped and stung him to the point of tears. He remembered his father found him whimpering slightly, and gently guided him into his den, all the while telling him he had just the thing to keep that ol' ball in place. His dad pulled out the biggest rubber band he'd ever seen; Mulder smiled at the sweet memory of being so taken with something so simplistic.""

Pre-Empedocles Mulder remembers a happy childhood memory of becoming Samantha's protector and learning baseball from his father. He's ready.

@folieadeux1121-blog's What Might Have Been

""Hips before hands!” came a little voice in front of Mulder. William glanced over his shoulder, up at his dad, his smile wide. Now four years old, he was excited for his first baseball lesson, and had been ever since Mulder had told him it was happening.

“That’s right kiddo.” Bending down, Mulder wrapped his arms around his son to take hold of the bat the little boy was holding. It was almost as big as William was. “Just remember that and when the ball comes towards you…” he nodded at Scully, signalling he was ready for her to pitch. “You follow through like this…” Scully threw the ball, as gently as she could, and with Mulder’s help William did as his dad asked, the bat connecting with it and sending it a short way to their left. “That’s it!""

Mulder teaches his four-year-old son how to play baseball under the happy eye of Scully. It's not real (that is... if you read the last part.)

Lara Means's (Alt. Ao3) Unrealized Reality

""When he had just turned ten, he practically begged his parents to let him try out for Little League. His father thought it was a great idea, but it seemed to her he was more suited to basketball. Tall and thin, but graceful, like his father. No matter. Her husband had already decided their boy would be the 2025 World Series MVP.""

S9 Mulder returned from the run one year later, married Scully, fathering another baby, and taught his son how to play baseball. Alas, it was all false (or not if you skip the last part.)

@frangipanidownunder’s (Ao3)

Son

""Mulder hoisted the hoop set up to his son, handed him the drill, watched him work. That floppy hair, the gritted teeth, the flashing smile every so often. Pure Mulder. But the steely eyes, the surety of his hands, the precision, that was all Scully.

Back down on the handstanding, admiring his handiwork, Jackson span the ball on his left index finger. A genetic throwback or a learned thing?

“One on one, old man?""

Post Finale Will shows up to fix Mulder's basketball hoop and start to bond over their mutual interest.

Micro Fic Series - Chapter 8

""Mulder have been able to gather them up, press them, ready to keep like a journal of his days without them. When Mulder discovered he’d never hit a ball, he went all Fox Mantle and now they head out every afternoon, bats slung over shoulders, careful smiles on ruddy faces. She watches as her son, their son, bat propped against his legs, hands on hips, flexes his jaw and listens to the instructions. A willing young Mulder outlined in an orange glow. A proud father finally able to share precious moments, in the autumn years of their lives.""

AU-- Post My Struggle II(?) Mulder is recovering from the virus, taking time to teach William to play baseball.

@moldyandskuller's team spirit

""She opens the lid and rifles through it, pulling out stray t-shirts, two pairs of jeans – she’ll steal some boxers and basketball shorts from his drawers. And when her eyes fall on a piece of shiny gray fabric, she wonders what it’s doing in the box, why it doesn’t have a hanger – its own frame, and she pulls it free from its hold.

She looks at her son. “You like baseball?” But it’s more of a statement than a question.

“Yeah.”

She folds the jersey, places it on top of the pile of clothes she’ll lend to him. “When he gets home, you should ask your – ask Mulder to tell you the story about this,” she says. “it’s a good one.""

Mulder and Scully pack a relationship's worth of history into his Gray's baseball t-shirt, passing it onto Will in sundry parts of his life.

@mchalowitz's (Ao3) endearments, part 5

""He swears to Scully that he’s encouraging her interest, not influencing it. He only concedes to listening to sports radio during many sleepless nights during the first year.

“Katie Mantle steps up to the plate,” Mulder murmurs. “Even in the pre-season, she is playing a perfect game.”

Katherine purses her lips at him, slightly lifted at the corners. Her eyes are all determined concentration.

Mulder pitches slow, underhand, and he can’t help but be amazed by his child when the ball flies behind him.""

Post Finale Mulder bonds with his little girl, naming her and not influencing her to be a baseball star (but also...) He's always proud of his growing girl.

@atths–twice/ATTHS_TWICE’s (team spirit

Baseball Showdown (Ao3)

""She held her bat and got into her stance, ready to hit the ball. He smiled and threw the ball into his glove a few times.

“The pitcher readies his pitch, the batter holds the bat tight and sure, they are both waiting.”

“Daddy,” she laughed, smiling and happy, tilting her head to the side.

“And the pitcher sees the sign from the catcher,” he said, shaking his head as he looked at the net set up behind her, not wanting balls to get lost in the field. “He doesn’t like that one, so he waits for another sign. Oh, he must like that one as he nods and gets ready. And… here’s the pitch!”

He threw the ball underhanded to Faith and she swung, but missed.

“Striiiiiiiike!” Mulder yelled in a deep voice and Faith laughed as she bent to pick up the ball and toss it back as it bounced off the net.""

Mulder lets his Revival daughter win at baseball, celebrating her indoor success and taking her out for ice cream.

Canon Divergent Timeline

Cathey Scully's Ballgame

""Mulder produced 3 tickets for dugout level. He grinned, picking up one of William's hands. "Can't you see it Scully? You, me, and this guy on the big screen that looks over centerfield, while we watch a bunch of guys slap a piece of horsehide with a stick."

"Mulder," Scully sighed in affectionate exasperation. "This is his 'half-birthday' present?"

"Yep." Mulder grinned down at her. Scully rolled her eyes until William called for her attention. She looked down at him to find him grinning a nearly toothless grin at her.

"You too?" she asked, already caving.""

AU-- Mulder drags Scully out of bed for a baseball game to celebrate Will's first six months of life.

Defnotmeyo’s (WBM, Alt. WBM)

122 Days iv

""Kid’s gonna look good in Yankees gear,” he thinks aloud, and tries to eat his words for a second when her hand stops.

There’s a heavy minute of silence shattered by another whap of the bat, and she slowly resumes ruffling her hand across his chest.

“Bill already bought her a Padres onesie...""

Post Empedocles? Mulder (in this many part miniseries) is warming up to his impending fatherhood. During a baseball game, he's scared he's overstepped by laying claim to the baby's team. Scully smooths the awkward moment. (Love this one.)

Unnamed

""He’s four, the first time it happens.

“Mulder, he’s too young to be slapping horse-hide with a stick.”

“How else you think we’re gonna be able to afford to put this monkey through college?” his Pops lobs back at his Mom.""

AU-- Mulder savvily teaches his son the art of baseball.

An Anon's Unnamed

""Where is he, anyway ? He had a good reason, apparently, but didn’t want to tell her. Scully walks to Will’s bedroom and swears she can smell paint in the hallway.

At this moment, Mulder opens the bedroom door, and she’s face to face with his grey stained tee. She starts speaking when he grabs her shoulders and immediately cuts her : « Wait, wait. Close your eyes, ok ? »

It takes her 1 or 2 seconds to do it, but she obeys, silently praying he didn’t blow up their son’s room.""

AU-- Mulder-- faint of heart-- skips Will's vaccinations; but he made up for it by decorating his son's bedroom in style.

andsocanshe's Of Pitches and Pondering

""There��s a bag of sports equipment off to the left by the bench, Scully’s leaning against the gate, and Mulder is crouched down on the ground with a toddler in front of him. The five minutes it should have taken to explain the concept of baseball have turned into nearly twenty, but William’s interest in every detail about the game and the park around them is worth it.

He’s at the age of “why’s” and everything is one question followed by another and so on. The questions “Why do we have to go to bed?”, “Why do you go to work and not Daddy, too?”, and his personal favorite, the word “Why?” with no additional context have ruled Scully and Mulder’s day-to-day lives for the past few months. Her mother, psychology, and all the parenting books say that it’s just a phase, one that every child goes through, but Scully often wonders if her son gets this from his father; the constant search for a truthful explanation.""

AU-- Scully observes her sporty Mulders, father and toddler, bonding over Will's first baseball lesson.

Girlie_girl7’s Day in the Life, A 35

""He holds the bat high making small circles in the air. He stops, stands still, and then swings. An imaginary crack is heard as the invisible ball sails higher and higher matching the pitch of the make believe crowd. Mulder throws his bat down, makes a fist and pumps it in the air. He lopes to the sandbox making sure to tag it then hustles to the end of the pool fence touching an imaginary second base. He jogs to the barbeque grill and taps the propane tank with his foot. He rounds third and begins his trek to home plate tipping his hat and waving to the crowd. He makes one final leap and lands on the flagstone home plate. He is turning to bow to the crowds when he hears, "Da-dee, wha' ya doin'?""

AU-- William is NOT interested in baseball; and accidentally hits Mulder in a very sensitive area.

Polly's (Ao3) Believing in Miracles (Ao3)

""I took my seat as Mulder slid the glove onto Will's left hand. He beamed with fatherly pride as Will punched his fist into the pocket of the mitt a few times before holding it up to his face to inhale the aroma of the well-treated leather.

Lately Will insisted on wearing his mitt when we watched baseball on television, wanting to be prepared in case a foul ball came hurtling out of the set. It didn't surprise me that Mulder hadn't explained to Will that the glove wasn't necessary; it was only surprising that Mulder wasn't wearing one too.""

AU-- It's the World Series: Mulder and Scully and Will celebrate in style-- throwing popcorn, guitar riffing to the anthem, and delving into Mulder's relationship with his father and acting on his hope that, after their day of miracles, he and Scully will be able to pull off another one. (I love this fic so much.)

@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66’s

Baseball and Horror (Ao3)

""She poked her head out of the kitchen and saw William sitting on the couch wearing a Yankees hat and leaning forward concentrating on the game.

Mulder had his hand on their son’s back and sat back cracking sunflower seeds. She smiled happily at the quaint image before her and decided to move herself and her work to the couch.

William happily moved over when he saw her, “You’re gonna watch?""

AU-- Mulder and Will watch a Cubs game while Scully works on paperwork. She gives in rather quickly.

@blackcoffeeandteardrops‘s (Ao3) Dulcet (Ao3

""After the cake they'd gone outside for party games and a water balloon fight. The other kids and Maggie had all gone home, leaving she and Mulder to clean up the debris in the yard. William was “helping”, but so far seemed more interested in trying to con one of them into giving him more cake. She'd been telling him no and stooping to collect pieces of popped water balloon from the ground when she heard Mulder come up behind her. “Where did you even find that?” she asked, gulping as she realized the object in his hands was a water balloon, still filled and threatening to burst.

“Oh, around,” Mulder replied with a shrug.""

AU-- William spends his birthday spamming Toy Story and throwing water balloons (that's a sport, right?)

Enough For Now

""Did I ever tell you guys that back in Wyoming I was on the basketball team? I even got the ball in the net from the middle of the court facing the opposite direction,” he said, walking backwards towards the booth. He cocked his head and pointed in Mulder’s direction. “You wanna play?”

In reality, shooting a ball through a tiny hoop on a wall wasn’t much like the actual game of basketball, but Scully leaned her hip against the booth and smiled, watching in amusement as William and Mulder raced to get more balls through the hoops as a timer slowly counted down.""

Part of a great AU series post My Struggle II(?): William and his (new) parents bond over basketball and other family-building activities.

@jewish-mulder/@anders-hawke/@iwtbscully/BananaChef‘s

The In-Between - Chapter 12

""Good one, Dad,” William calls with a grin, tossing the ball back to his mother. “I thought you were the baseball champion of the house.”

“Oh, come on now, don’t gang up on me.” He lifts the bat and Scully whips the ball at him again. It’s a repeat of the first time.

She goes easy on him the third time, allowing him to get a good bat out of it.""

AU-- Mulder, Scully, and William have a baseball game in the tall grass growing wild all over the Unremarkable House.

Maidenjedi’s All That Once Was Good

""And yes, it was, for both of them. William hit the ball for awhile, Mulder throwing him rather weak, easy pitches so there could be home runs and the elation, the catharsis that goes with them. Mulder knew why William came out here, after all, even if they never talked about it, never said a word about it out loud.

Mulder felt a bit spooked, though, after awhile. William hit a particularly long ball, what would have been a triple had there been a game going on a real field. And he shouted and threw the bat, ran imaginary bases in celebration. He had every reason - but Mulder heard his own voice in that shout, and felt his own reasons for this long-lost escapism flood his heart. Samantha may be dead, but it didn't matter. She haunted him as often as she could, danced in his thoughts and made him long for a reason to search for her still.

He decided it was his turn at the bat.

William took up the pitcher's post with ease. He tossed the ball in his hand, behind his back, expertly searching for the seams so he could line up his fingers exactly. Mulder laughed at him from the plate; what's taking you so long, meat? William smirked and wiped the sweat from his brow with his forearm.""

AU-- Will is re-adopted after his parents died in a fire. Mulder establishes a mutual bond over baseball, astonished that this wonderful boy is his son. (Love this.)

@all-these-ghosts/all_these_ghosts's the son you always had (iv)

""... In real life Will likes the Nats best, but for one weekend a year, he’ll be a Yankees fan for his dad.

His dad, who is practically glowing with excitement. Once a year, they take the train up to New York, stay in a hotel, and see at least one Yankees game. The first year they went the Yankees went on to win the World Series, so now it’s good luck to keep the tradition. Of course, the Yankees haven’t won since, but every year Will’s dad believes.

For his part, Will is mostly excited to be out of school. He likes playing baseball - and he’s actually really good, thanks to all the afternoons spent playing with his dad - but he really likes playing parent-sanctioned hooky.""

AU-- The Mulder family enjoy a baseball game; but their happy mood dips after Will overhears their fears for him and Colonization.

@aloysiavirgata (Ao3, WBM, Gossamer, LJ, Alt. LJ)

By Falling In and In

""He comes closer and sits down next to her, his rolled-up sleeve brushing her bare, brown arm. "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" His worn shirt is soft as flannel, and his long legs appear even longer in the frayed khaki shorts.

"Hey. Where's William? I wanted to show him how to fix the flange on the sink."

Mulder works his toes into the warm sand. "He has no time for plumbing. Jesse finally got the projector working again, so Will and Lusiani went to a movie. Though the pickings are slim. Tonight it's either Little Shop of Horrors or the second Austin Powers."

"Better than the solid month of Star Wars prequels. I noticed Lusiani had been hanging around quite a bit lately. She and William have been playing H-O-R-S-E a lot since you got the basketball hoop back up.""

AU-- Mulder, William, and Scully have a happy life together, trying to balance normalcy with Will's powers and the impending end of the world. Sports is in there, somewhere.

a father’s day ficlet/A Pretty Good Investigator

""Luke brightened. “Did you go to Georgetown?”

“Nah. But the Wizards are a joke, so Georgetown was the next best thing. You a basketball fan?”

“I played in high school,” Luke said. “Point guard, varsity.” He blushed. “Not that there was much competition. I grew up in a really small town. It’s not like I’m gonna play here.”

“That’s great.” Mr. Mulder was smiling now, and it was weird - it transformed his entire face. For some reason it bothered Luke.

“My dad said I had to play a sport, and I’m tall, so,” he said shortly, making sure to emphasize the my dad part.

The smile faded. Good, Luke thought.""

AU-- Revival Will (called Luke) tracks his biological mother down for a "research project", astonishing Scully and actively forging a bond. He slowly strikes up a bond with Mulder, finally inviting him out to see one of his bball games.

Mentions

@greekowl87’s (Ao3) Fic: Day of the Dead

""He was just a big ball of orange polyester fluff. He could roll away if he really wanted to. Of course, he was too young.”

“He might as well have been a basketball. A slam dunk into my heart. Just like his mother.""

On the Run Scully and Mulder observe Mexico's Day of the Dead. She tells him about William's first Halloween; and the two address some of their pain in this sad but beautiful story.

@baronessblixen's (Ao3) Our Son Loves Baseball

""He smiles against his will, thinking of their son. He is out there now doing his own thing, going his own way. Mulder wishes they could be by his side, guide him. It is not meant to be. Not now, anyway. He gets up to use the bathroom. On his way back to the bed he sees something stick out of his pocket: a picture. Mulder picks it up, swallows hard. It’s one of the photographs Scully found earlier. The ones he didn’t dare look at, then. Now he can’t tear his eyes away. There’s William, around eight or nine years old, grinning into the camera. His hands around a baseball bat, his stubborn hair hidden under a cap. The picture before him blurs as tears cloud his vision. One falls down right on the little boy. Mulder wipes it away carefully, afraid that the moment, although frozen in time for forever, might disappear.""

Revival Scully draws closer to Mulder, giving him the baseball photo of Will and deriving comfort from their mutual bittersweet feelings.

@sportsnightnut's (Ao3) she has good taste in dinner options

""He comes around the desk and rests his hand on her belly, and his expression changes immediately. Moments ago, he looked focused, intense. Now, he is practically beaming as he feels her kicking against the palm of his hand. “Our daughter has good taste in dinner options.”

Scully nods. “She would like lots of sour cream, too. And cheese. The full-fat kind.”

“Do you think she’d also like to watch some basketball tonight?” Mulder asks, picking up an umbrella as they approach the door.""

Post Revival Scully gets lost in thoughts while waiting for Mulder to wrap up his work day, marveling at his focus and devotion.

I'm missing my dad a lot right now

""Though her eyes are still open, Caroline yawns.

“I can’t be boring you already, can I? Nah. You don’t even know what boredom is yet. I’ll just keep talking. Here’s the second thing you need to know: in this family, we are Yankees fans. The Red Sox are scum. You are so lucky that you were born a fan of the best team in major league baseball.""

Post Revival Mulder scoops up his newborn daughter, chatting to her about everything and anything. But mostly about his love.

@melforbes/@claup/everydaymsr (Ao3, WBM) hesitation

""though they have a television, the only time it’s ever on is during baseball games, and even then, it simply plays in the background while they go about doing other things. in the kitchen, he keeps basic cookbooks, and recently, he’s been trying to learn recipes, to fry and sauté and simmer in ways he’s never managed to master. hand-stitched curtains, a gift from her mother, billow against a breeze in the living room, and light through glass casts a rainbow along the hardwood floor; the couch is plush and so comfortable that he’s watched scully fall asleep on it more times than he can count....

though he wants to call out in search of her, he stays quiet, leaves the paper on the kitchen table, heads upstairs to see if will’s asleep.""

AU-- Mulder contemplates his new family's "starting over" house, slowly easing himself into domesticity and out of anxiety while on a morning coffee run. (Such a soft, peaceful atmosphere. Beautiful.)

@xfiles-behind-the-scenes/YouMadeMeAWholePerson's

Watching the Paint Dry

""Scully checked the time as she finished blow-drying her hair, and quickly headed into the kitchen to tell Mulder he could leave for his basketball game. She found him and Will sitting and staring at something on the table. It was unusual for their three year old to be so still, so she approached them cautiously.

“What’s going on?” she asked, coming up behind Mulder and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“We’re watching the paint dry.""

AU-- Will wants to watch paint dry in their new house; and Mulder skips his game to spend time with his little tyke.

@we-mad-guys's forgetting the future

""After a short stare down, Mrs. Scully shrugs. “Well, thank you for taking care of him. I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday.”

“It was our pleasure,” Frohike says. “We love the little guy.”

That afternoon and evening, the Scully family and their close friends have to cajole the boy into having a good time. They manage to get him to swim in the kid’s pool, bribe him with sweets, get him into a game of basketball. It all works, for a few minutes. But as soon as an activity’s ended, he’s gone right back into his funk.""

AU-- Skinner, TLG, and the Scully family fill in the blanks for little lonesome Will when his parents have to take extended trips to try to save the world. They join him in time for the 4th; but happiness will always be tempered with sacrifices. (LOVE this.)

all things bright and beautiful

""Scully laughs. “Mulder, I can see the wheels turning in your head. How about you open it? It might be easier to find out what it is that way.”

“You’re no fun,” he pouts, and she nudges him with her shoulder.

Mulder tears the paper off and crumples it into a ball so it doesn’t blow away, and lifts the lid off of the small white box. He stares down at what’s inside.

The tiniest baseball jersey he’s ever seen.""

AU-- IWTB? era Scully surprises Mulder with a pregnancy announcement. Each season gracefully turns while their baby grows. (Love this so much.)

@o6666666's (Ao3) Untitled — 20

""The Earth will burn. After, they will come up from underground.

Will wiggles around until he’s comfortable. “Can you do the story where Mommy hits a baseball all the way into the sky?""

AU-- Will and his parents bunker down during Colonization; and he falls asleep to Mulder telling him about Scully's baseball date.

@scullyphile's (Ao3) Unnamed

""Their son towered over them. He looked very much like Mulder, tall with his father’s distinguished profile. He did, however, have Scully’s red hair and freckles. He looked like he could play basketball, and for a moment Mulder imagined playing basketball with his son. Let’s work on your lay-up, he’d say. Pass me the ball; I’ll show you. The image made him smile. William smiled, too, and Mulder wondered if the boy was hearing his thoughts.

As if in answer, William nodded very slightly and smiled.""

AU-- Monica reunites Mulder and Scully with their son and his parents, ready to forge a healthy dynamic now that he's old enough.

Enjoy!

#txf fanfic #my fanfiction #dad!mulder #i liked writing this one

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