and they were coworkers (oh my god they were coworkers)
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All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Small Potatoes (4x20)
âWell, what do you want to talk about?â she asked, swirling her wine around in her glass.
Usually, when he did this, Eddie had to tread delicately on a path someone else had already laid before him. Sometimes it was a Herculean task to get to learn little details about the women he was pursuing because it would be stuff their husbands would never ask.Â
But this was different.Â
It didnât take him long to realize heâd initially misread the situation when he saw them at the clinic. Based on the look Dana Scully shot him when he tried to hold her hand at the airport, he knew he was navigating territory Fox Mulder had yet to conquer.
It didnât make any sense to him. Such a good-looking guy, an agent of the Federal Beurow of Investigation, couldnât get with his hot, nerdy partner? When he was watching them earlier, they seemed so into each other, like they were two people living in their own little world. It was something he usually only saw with couples in love.
âEarlier, you uh- you said youâd be Eleanor Roosevelt if you could be someone else for a day. Why her?âÂ
âI thought you said it couldnât be a dead person,â she teased, giving him a pointed look.
He shot her a soft smile. âI want to hear why you chose her though.â
That wasnât even a lie, he really did. Eddie saw through the window the way Mulderâs face contorted into something akin to revulsion when she answered, presumably in response to the First Ladyâs appearance. It was the same expression Amanda had when she talked about him. Yet Dana didn't seem to judge a book by its cover.
âWell,â she started, taking a deep breath. âI think sheâs an admirable woman. She has a lot of beautiful qualities that I would love to embody.â
âShe continued her husbandâs work after he fell ill right? Motivated him to keep going when no one else would, even going so far as to take on some of the load herself despite the criticism she received?â For the first time, he was grateful one of the women from the clinic loved watching the History Channel.
She nodded, seemingly pleased. âThey were a great team.â
âFor what itâs worth, I think you already embody a lot of the First Ladyâs admirable qualities.â
She looked caught off guard by the compliment, but recovered quickly, a dusting of color on her cheeks the only giveaway that his assessment had an effect on her.
âYou never answered your own question,â she stated into the hollow round of her wine glass.
âHmm?â
âWho would you be?â
A small exhale of laughter escaped through his nose before he could catch himself and it didnât go unnoticed. âWhat?â she pried.
Eddie raised the glass to his lips and pretended to take a sip to buy time. Who wouldnât he rather be? He wanted to be someone who was funny, someone smart, someone who was loved â but at the end of the day, he truly did want to be Eddie Van Blundht. He just wished other people would want that too.
Sure, he wasnât attractive in the conventional sense and maybe he didnât have a fancy job working at the Federal Beureaw of Investigation, but he wasnât all bad.
Setting the glass back down, he remembered something heâd seen in Mulderâs apartment and it seemed as good of an answer as any.Â
âElvis,â he answered.
âElvis?â she deadpanned, her amusement showing itself in a slight grin.
âHave you heard the voice on that man? And his moves?â
âI would just like to state for the record that you also chose a dead person,â she remarked.
He shrugged in mock surrender. âMy love for the King goes beyond the grave. But what about you? What type of music are you into?â
âOh, um,â she paused, contemplating her answer. âIâve always been a fan of R&B. Dennis Edwards, Stevie Wonder, Al Wilsonââ
âWhat about Al Green?â
âOf course,â she replied with an earnest grin. âI have all his albums.â
âYou should put them on!â he encouraged.
âNow?â
âWhy not?â he countered, pleased when she nodded her head in acquiescence and got up.
His eyes trailed over her form as she walked across the room and he felt the familiar coil of arousal twist in his gut. This was probably the most beautiful woman heâd spoken to in a long time, and he wanted this to go well.
While she was preoccupied, Eddie took the opportunity and leaned over to top up her wine, pretending to do the same to his untouched glass. Itâs not that he wanted the women to be drunk by the time he made a move, he just found that it helped blur the lines between how they expected their husbands to be and what he would do for them. They were less likely to question why their husband's kiss felt different or why he was trying something new. It was just better this way.
He grimaced as droplets of wine fell onto the papers scattering the coffee table, and he looked back to make sure she was still preoccupied before snagging a couple of tissues and blotting the liquid.Â
His attention was drawn to a legal pad sitting amongst the papers. In delicate, feminine scrawl, he made out the words âDoctor Appointment - Thursday at 8:30.â His confusion only deepened when he leaned over to throw the tissues in the waste bin and saw a few others stained a different shade of red. She didnât look sick, but then again he knew better than anyone looks could be deceiving.
He quickly moved back into place when Al Greenâs voice filled the room. âI havenât played music like this in so long,â she admitted, walking back to him with a shy expression.
Suddenly he realized this might be easier than he thought. Maybe she needed this as much as he did.
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All Eyes Lead to the Truth (4x14) | Memento Mori
They are referred to as alien-human hybrids. While scientifically correct, they donât consider the title to be phenomenologically accurate. They are bound in this corporeal form, but possess no superhuman capabilities or powers to signify alien origin.Â
Down to the most minute cell, they are Kurt Crawford. They are the little boy who held his motherâs hand as they were taken from the El Rico Air Force Base in 1973. They are the innovation of men who werenât satisfied with Godâs plan and decided to make their own.
His existence is similar to a violinist who can play the second movement of Tchaichovskyâs Violin Concerto without missing a note, but who failed to imbue emotion into the song â the audience can recognize the tune, hum along to the melody, but they know deep down that thereâs something not quite right.
Perhaps itâs because they were not of woman borne. There was never a mother to nurture them, only the replicas of other missing people. They never experienced what it was like to grow up or figure out their place in the world â they knew their mission the moment electricity lit up their synapses.Â
At least Dr. Frankenstein could see his creation was a crime against nature; even Mary Shelley couldnât conjure the horror of a monster masquerading as a man. Perhaps the fact that the alien-human hybrids looked like the Syndicateâs loved ones is their punishment for defying the laws of science.
Regardless, the Crawfordsâ pragmatism began to fade alongside the health of all the women who suffered just so they could exist. He knew some of the other series didnât feel the same. The others thought this intervention in evolution was the key to a better world without considering who they would be making it better for.
Why bother with the betterment of humanity if there were no humans left?
John Locke always said that humans enter the world with a tabula rasa, that a personâs environment nurtures who they are to become. Jean-Jacques Rousseau contended that humans enter the world with a predestined morality, that people are innately good without interference.
But what about them? What is destined for a creature borne of fluid and test tubes, guided by the hands of cruel men?
But then again, it would be an insult to claim innocence in the grand scheme. The Gregor Series may have been evil when they cloned the DNA of defenseless children, but the Crawford Series was still using the genetic material harvested from the same project they sought to destroy. The ova from the MUFON women were an integral part in piecing together the genetic puzzle of who they were, but it didnât make it any easier whenever they saw the women begin to deteriorate.
The list was getting longer by the day;Â Edna Cooper, Lottie Holloway, Betsy Hagopian, Penny Northern, soon to be â
âScully.â
Kurt bowed his head and tried to pretend that their voices didnât echo around the tiny apartment. For all the bravado Agent Scully was feigning, Agent Mulder matched her with unconcealed fear. This was one of the facets of humanity that made him feel alien. She was dying, and they were fighting. Earlier she had even said she was âfineâ while blood poured out of her nose.
He saw death every day. Maybe not first hand, but every file referenced, every lead followed, and every medical chart the Crawfords looked at was laden with it. It seemed to him that wherever death tread, grief and despair were close behind. The losses of the MUFON group didnât merely extend to the women who died, but the families left behind.Â
All of the Kurt Crawfords believed that was uniquely human: the desire to live oneâs life in the company of others, to bond with others and care for each other. They wanted to believe their desires to protect the MUFON women was evidence that their existence meant something more. They wanted to exist outside the confines of what the Syndicate had planned for them.
But the Agents standing in front of him whispering with trembling breaths went against all heâd learned about human relationships. There were no hugs of reassurance or words of comfort, yet their gazes held an intimate yearning for each other that reached a depth Kurt couldnât fathom.
Even as the woman rushed out of the apartment, sparing a sideways glance in the hallway mirror to check for dried blood, Agent Mulderâs eyes never left her. The moment the door shut, the manâs entire body seemed to deflate, his head bowing down as his shoulders curved inward. Agent Mulder raised his hand to his mouth and rubbed the short hairs growing across his skin.
Agent Mulder looked like he might vomit or start crying at a moment's notice, and it struck Kurt that maybe what he was witnessing was one of the most important elements of being human he hadnât experienced yet.Â
Love.
Kurt couldnât help but think it looked painful, but maybe that was the laws of equivalent exchange at work. He supposed someone could only feel such intense despair and profound loss because theyâd known joy and contentment.
âHow soon-â Agent Mulder started, pausing to take a measured breath. âDo you know how long ago Penny found out about her cancer?â
âWithin the past year,â Kurt replied, hoping the Agent would accept this answer so that he wouldnât have to admit it had only been a couple of months.
The answer was grim nonetheless and they both knew it. Kurt could see Mulder tying to could every grain in the proverbial hourglass Scully had left, and he knew it would be a matter of time before he was crushed under the weight of the spent sand.
âDid Betsy have any files on Scully at her place?â
Kurt knew she didnât, not really, but he could tell Mulder needed to feel like there was something he could do to help her. So Kurt did the most human thing of all.
âI think she did.â
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All Eyes Lead to the Truth | El Mundo Gira (4x11)
The flame from the lantern danced around the wooden ceiling of the shack while the neighbors gathered around to hear the story of his encounter with El Chupacabra.Â
The children eagerly whispered amongst each other as they sat cross-legged on the ground, anticipation momentarily distracting them from their empty stomachs. It seemed that their parents were doing too good of a job assuaging the childrenâs fears, for if they turned around and looked at the worried faces of the adults lining the perimeter of the room, they might realize the danger lurking outside.
Juan would have to take care of that himself. With a resigned sigh, he stood up on a small apple crate they were using as a makeshift podium, and the room fell silent as all eyes looked towards him.
âGod said the Devil would come to man under the guise of a cloven-footed beast. There have been tales of goats standing on hind legs so they could look man in the eye.â Juan took a shaky breath before asking, âBut what was it we found in the field lying dead next to Maria?â
âA goat,â someone whispered.
He nodded severely, repeating, âA goat.â
His voice felt loud in the confined space, and he felt perspiration at his brow from the heat of all the bodies warming the room. He wasnât used to having this much attention on him. In fact, this might have been the first time someone cared what he had to say in years. It felt good to have his community hanging off of his every word, so he pushed down his discomfort and continued his story. âThose who have claimed God was speaking of a goat were fools lucky enough to have never known true evil. They are just servants, there to do Evilâs bidding.â
âThe only reason Maria was on the hilltop was because she was following a goat,â his elderly neighbor added, supported by several hushed affirmations.
âExactly, because thatâs what El Chupacabra wanted, and then he killed them both,â he responded.
At the simple mention of El Chupacabra, the shack erupted in a cacophony of worry, as if merely saying the name might summon the beast.Â
âHeâs going to kill us too.â
âWhat if he comes back?â
It was easy to get lost in the sea of panic, and Juan knew he had to get their attention again before he was drowned out. More forcefully than before, he shouted, âThatâs why we screamed and prayed when la migra brought him to us.â
His plan worked, and the crowd settled down, shushing each other. âWe could hear him talking to la policĂa from our cells. Eladio spoke with manâs tongue to spread the lies of the Devil, but we werenât fooled, we could hear the truth beneath his deceit.â
âWhat did he say?âÂ
âHe said he stood atop that hill waiting for Maria. That he lured that poor girl so he could devour her soul,â he exaggerated. His chest felt heavy when Mariaâs cousin wailed, but his skin was thrumming like an electrical current under the rapt attention of his audience and he couldnât stop. âMaria kissed the Devilâs friend and he ripped her lips off her very mouth.â
âWhy didnât la policiĂĄ put a stop to this madness?â Flakita cried.
âThey tried, but Eladio outsmarted them,â he sighed, rubbing his beard thoughtfully. âWhen we were being transported, they tried to put him on the bus with us, but we cried out! No, la migra! El Chupacabara! He will kill us! Please, wonât you spare us?â
He paused interruptions and took the time to come up with what to say next. âLooking at Eladio was like looking at a wolf wearing sheepâs clothing that didnât quite fit right. He was hunched over as if he was in pain. His skin was pale and sweaty like the exertion of pretending to be human was too much for his body to maintain anymore.â
âHow did he get off the bus?â a young boy asked. A vein in Juanâs temple pulsed in frustration as the kid rushed his story.Â
âAfter we begged and pleaded for la migra to keep him away from us, they let him sit in the passenger seat. We all were afraid to breathe, we didnât want to do anything that might draw Eladioâs attention to us. All we could do was sit there and listen to Eladio whimpering and begging to go to the hospital.â
âWhy the hospital?â a voice called out.
âProbably because it would be filled with weak prey for him to feast on,â another replied.
Ignoring them, Juan continued, âEventually the driver couldnât take it anymore, and he turned on the radio. Thatâs when things went bad.â
He rubbed the back of his head and stared at the floor, letting the tension build as he formulated the climax of his story. Truth be told, it smelled like someone farted, then the driver started coughing and crashed the car. There wasnât much room to see into the bed of the truck, so he was really going to have to fill in some blanks.
âItâs okay, Juan.â
âTake your time, buddy.â
âRemember how much Maria loved Selena?â he asked softly. The whole room nodded. âAs soon as la migra turned on the radio, Bidi Bidi Bom Bom started playing and Eladio lost it. A foul odor seeped through the truck and the driver started choking and gasping for air while Eladio screamed.â
He took a shaky breath and covered his face with his hands for dramatic effect while anxious whispers filled the room. âThe next thing we knew, the truck stopped and the driver was dead. We knew the federales were following behind us, and we only had a few moments to escape. We were able to break free from the truck and we ran without looking back!â
âDid El Chupacabra follow you?â
âNo,â Juan shook his head, âBut heed my warning. He is out there, and he isnât done yet.â
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Found!
Sometimes I wonder if Mulder has ever lost sight of Scully in the crowd because of her height
TXF Fanart â MSR Fanart â Tall and smol post
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fall walk
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Love their dynamic
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My favorite part of the x files was when mulder and scully said, âItâs filing time!!!â and then Xed all over the place
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Dana and her wife pookie Mulder
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this is all i could think about during that ice episode
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happy women's day!! Haven't been able to draw much this year(âšď¸), nevertheless here's a woman in stem for you :)
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The backstory of the snoball 𼳠happy birthday Scully!
All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Tempus Fugit (4x17)
The Headless Womanâs Pub was crowded wall-to-wall with red-faced employees of the Federal Government who had traveled the measly few blocks after workâ despite the fact that it was a Sunday. As far as Val could tell, these people never took a day off.
Before getting this gig, he always imagined the feds drank like they were in one of those film noirs, pulling a handle of whiskey out of their desk and mulling over it after a hard case. He thought being an FBI Agent mustâve been so cool and mysterious.
âOh shit!â a voice slurred from the other side of the room.
Val glanced over and saw that kid from the Violent Crimes Unit wiping spilled beer off of his dateâs lap.
After getting this gig, he realized everything he used to think about the feds was bullshit.Â
These were some of the most depressed fuckers heâd ever met. The ones that got the job for the glory would inevitably crash and burn, and the good ones would be haunted by the evils they saw. He couldnât blame any of them for needing to indulge at the end of the day, but, Christâ J. Edgar himself would blush at the things these people said when they were drunk. He was starting to wonder if there was a single desk in that building that hadnât been defiled. Though that was nothing compared to the guy who drank himself under the table because the âalien-guyâ stole his job. Val still didnât know what the hell that meant, but he could still hear the way that guy kept muttering âfucking grey.â
âExcuse me.â
Glancing up, he saw a tall guy easing himself in between two people sitting at the bar. âDo you have a tab started?â Val asked.
âNo, uh, I actually had a favor to ask,â the man clarified while his hands fidgeted against the barâs wooden ledge.
Glancing around and seeing everyoneâs drinks were full, Val stopped what he was doing and replied, âShoot.â
Lanky started fumbling around with the pocket of his suit coat, and he began to worry the guy was gonna pull out his badge. They were too damn short-staffed to spare anyone for a twenty-minute interrogation about some drunk guy making a fool of himself after having one too many.
But agitation quickly made way for confusion when he was presented with one of those pink Hostess monstrosities. Ho Ho? Zapper? Chocodile Kazbars? Whatever the hell it was called, it should be illegal to put coconut in anything that was supposed to be called a dessert.
âIâm on a diet,â he deadpanned.
Ignoring his comment, the man tried to fluff the pink ball back into shape after presumably squashing in his pocket. âThe woman I came in withâ itâs her birthday, and she loves these things. I was wondering if there was any way you could ask someone in the back to put it on a plate and bring it out to her?â
Now that was a new one, especially for a shithole like this place. âYa mean like Chiliâs?â
âWell, hey, I certainly wonât say no if you have any sombreros hidden away in the kitchen,â he chuckled, looking over his shoulder as if to make sure his date wasnât getting suspicious. Then, as if nervous Val would say no, he added, âThey donât have to sing Happy Birthday or anything. I know you guys are busy andââ
Interrupting the manâs rambling, he grabbed the pink cream ball. âWhatâs her name?â
âScully.â
Valâs eyebrows rose at that. âShe related to Vin? I was more of a Jerry Doggett fan myself.â
The guy exhaled a laugh, but then he shook his head. âNo, and sorry, actually.â He spared another glance over his shoulder, and this time Val looked with him. It mustâve been the redhead who was glancing around, presumably searching for her boyfriend. He watched the shy smile that spread across her lips as her eyes met the manâs, and damn if she wasnât one of the most beautiful women heâd ever seen. Her man mustâve known that too based on the nervous smirk that was on his face when he turned back around. âDana. Her name is Dana,â he clarified, straightening out his tie.
It was common for Val to see men bring women from the office out for a drink in the hopes theyâd get some. This mightâve been the first time heâd seen a fella do something thoughtful for his lady. Even if it was a 99¢ piece of garbage. âIâll pass this to your waiter. Iâm sure he can fix it up for Dana.â
âThanks, I really appreciate it,â Danaâs boyfriend replied. Val watched as he slid a five into the tip jar and started to make his way back to the table.
âHey buddy,â Val called out, causing the man to turn around. âYa told her you were going to come up and get drinks, didnât ya?â
âOh!â he exclaimed with an embarrassed wince, rushing back to the bar. Across the room, behind the manâs back, the womanâs brows furrowed and her lips quirked into an amused smirk as she watched him fumble to retrieve his wallet. âThanks. Uh, one water and one vodka tonic, please. Itâll go under the name Mulder.â
After he sent Mulder on his way, he watched him take long strides back to the woman who was digging into their shared appetizer. He mustâve said something funny because the redhead started laughing and shaking her head. Val was impressed with how suave the guy was being after how nervous he had just been.
âD-did that man say his name was Mulder?â
Val turned and saw a meek, blonde woman sitting at the bar, not far from where the man in question had just been.
Val shrugged while trying to flag down a waiter, âYeah. Know him?â
She glanced at the couple over her shoulder before turning back to face him, nervously playing with the cuff of her sleeve. âHeâs a friend of the family.â
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Happy Birthday Dana Scully!
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the year is 2024. I am watching The X Files 1x08 with my blissfully offline boyfriend. We reach the scene where, in confinement, Mulder and Scully examine each other's backs for alien marks. My boyfriend, who has never seen the show before, makes an amused noise and utters a strong contender for understatement of the year:
"I'm guessing there's fanfiction about these two"
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I canât believe this is a real ad I got
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