First, we get this cute little moment. Mulder was totally chill about Scully sleeping on his shoulder for who knows how long. He seems awfully close with his pretty partner, indeed.
Next, we get an extremely underrated emotional scene when Mulder is hooked up with surveillance equipment. He sees the apprehension and concern in Scully’s face, so he kneels down in front of her and tells her to smile.
He doesn’t have to do this and not too long ago he wouldn’t have. They’d have made eye contact, nodded at each other, and he’d have been on his way into the building. But not anymore. There’s been a shift.
When he gives her his gun, she places her hand on his.
*Note that Mulder gives Scully the gun with his right hand and starts to pull it back. When he sees her face, he not only keeps his hand on the gun, he places his left hand on her knee.
Their eyes… I could write 1,000 sonnets about their eyes in this scene. There is concern there, yes. But there is also love- it is undeniable and unabashed.
Then we get the Russian roulette face off. Mulder so easily pulls the trigger on Modell and himself-
-but he shakes with the effort he puts into not shooting Scully.
He cares so much more about her life than his own and we get to see it play out on screen. If she hadn’t pulled the fire alarm, he’d have shot her. Mulder is so affected by this, he pulls the trigger of the gun over and over on Modell even though he knows it’s empty. He’s so upset with himself for almost shooting her, he slumps into the chair and surrenders the gun.
Then we get the end. Hoo boy. Mulder is, of course, racked with guilt and beating himself up over almost killing Scully. And she knows it. So what does she do? She takes his hand and says, “I say we don’t let him take up another minute of our time.” She lets Mulder know with both touch and words that she doesn’t hold him accountable, she still trusts him and they can move on from this unscathed.
“scully, you are the only one i trust | “detective, i trust you”
"is that your real name?”
“you shot me”
“i would never lie”
“he’s my partner”
a lonely, tortured man and a powerful, compassionate woman
partnered by forces beyond their control
torn apart over and over
choose each other again and again
despite the pain and longing
to spite those who conspire to keep them apart
hey remember that one time you were innocently watching this new alien show and it was like season 1 and you were vibin’ the spooky man and the science lady and then all of a sudden they were seriously into this huge government conspiracy but also if there’s an iced tea in that bag it could be love, but it was root beer, and you were like, it’s cool, i’ll wait ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
alright let’s try this official-like and shit. if you’re still into spooky stuff and want some weird nerd posting about x-flies and aliens and lying governments, lmk.
Title: The Evolution of Fox
Author: @campaignofmisinformation
Rating: PG
POV: Third Person: Mulder
Timeline: Post Season 9 AU, Canon Divergent after Scary Monsters
Summary: Four times William calls Mulder Fox and one time he doesn’t.
Author’s Notes: @noamchimpsky‘s head canon about Maggie being the reason William calls Mulder Fox, along with Toddler actor William and Gillian’s Daddy/Fox exchange inspired whatever this is. And of course, @tofutti-rice-dreamsicle is bae as beta. Even though we completely devolved into horrifyingly terrible alternate endings there at the end.
i.
The thump of his tattered bag on the floor makes him wince. He feels like an invader in this place that used to feel more like home than his own. What was once an immaculate living room is now cluttered with colorful toys and toddler paraphernalia. So much has changed, more than he had imagined during long, lonely nights spent far away from here. From them.
“Mulder?”
He hears her calling from the guestroom, the one he’d slept in during late night cases and post parental deaths, and tries to find his voice.
“It’s me,” he whispers. But he isn’t sure who “me” is anymore. He’s lived 10,000 years in the last 367 days.
“William, wait!” Scully yells, two seconds before a toddler appears in the hallway. The boy halts as soon as his eyes catch the stranger in the living room. Mulder can’t breathe. William points at him.
“No! Mama!” the boy yells and Scully scoops him up from behind. He buries his face in her neck.
At the sight of her, Mulder’s lungs resume functioning and he gulps down air. He’s eternally thankful he’d spent the previous day reuniting with her, alone. It’s the only thing dulling the tightness in his chest. His son is afraid of him.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Scully soothes, kissing the boy’s head. “He’s not going to hurt you.” She throws Mulder an apologetic look and resumes stroking William’s hair. “Remember Grandma’s pictures?” William nods. “And the stories she tells you about Fox?” “Foss?” William asks and pats Scully’s face. Mulder’s eyes burn.
“Yes, baby. This is Fox. This is your daddy,” she says, voice breaking. William studies Mulder intently.
“No.”
ii.
Lying on the couch with one arm over his eyes, Mulder broods. He’d spent the last year dreaming about his son—holding him, kissing his hair, reading him stories, loving him—but the toddler with the blocks across the room won’t come within five feet of him. Earlier, he’d tried to sit on the floor and play but William had gathered all his toys and put as much space between them as possible.
So, he’d retreated to the couch, the only place in the apartment he feels at home.
There’s a knock at the door and William squeals.
“Gamma!”
Mulder lets his arm fall from his eyes. It stings that to his son he’s a stranger while Mrs. Scully is a treasure but he knows it’s his own doing. For the past year, she’d been filling the hole he left.
Sighing, he stands and stretches while Scully opens the door.
“Hi Mom,” she says and goes in for a hug but William throws himself between them.
“Gamma! Up!” he shouts, arms stretched over his head.
“Hi little one.” Mrs. Scully scoops up her grandson and receives a sloppy kiss as she turns to hug her daughter. “Hi honey.” With a hand on Scully’s shoulder, her eyes begin to scan the room. “Is he here?”
Mulder steps forward, eyes cast down, and clears his throat. “Hi Mrs. Scully.”
“Fox,” she whispers and rushes toward him, William still on her hip. “You’re okay. Dana and I were so worried.” Wrapping an arm around his waist, she pulls Mulder close and rests her cheek on his chest. William simply stares at him, his eyes large and wary, but curious.
“I’m sor-” Mulder starts to respond when she steps out of his embrace and cuts him off.
“None of that, Fox. That’s between you and Dana. I’m just happy you’ve returned to us. For both your-”
“Foss?” William interrupts, pointing at Mulder. “Foss?”
“Yes, honey. Fox. You know all about him, don’t you?” She turns to Mulder. “Dana wrote story after story about you for me to read to William. He loves them.”
Mulder looks to Scully and tears cloud his vision. When he blinks them away, she’s smiling at him. He loves her so much it hurts.
“Foss! Foss!” William squeals, bouncing and clapping his hands.
Mulder turns to his son and smiles. “Hi,” he says quietly.
“Hi,” William all but shouts and grabs at his nose.
iii.
“Scully, are you sure you want to do this?” Turning toward the mirror, he knots his tie. “We can wait for a night when your mom is available.”
The bathroom door opens and Scully sticks her head out.
“Mulder, for the last time. We. Are. Going. Out. You’ve been back for weeks and hardly left the apartment.” She opens the door, revealing an unzipped, low-cut blue dress and what he refers to as fuck me heels. “Not to mention, I would like a night with you all to myself. To do,” she steps toward him and pulls on his tie, “adult things.”
He swallows. “Believe me Scully, I would like nothing more. But overnight at the Gunmen’s? I cannot picture them changing a diaper.”
She turns her back to him and lifts her hair. “Zip me.” Slowly, he drags the zipper up. His knuckles graze the soft skin of her back, and she leans into him. “They’re very good with William, have watched him countless times with no trouble, and he adores them. Especially Frohike.” She drops her hair, turning to face him. “And Mulder, William is safer there than at my mother’s.” She tugs on his tie again, bringing him down for a kiss, and starts to retreat into the bathroom. “Go get his stuff ready while I finish up, okay?”
Mulder walks quietly down the hall, shoving down feelings of unease at the possibility of erasing the slow, yet steady inroads that have been building between him and his son. For the first time, William had requested that Mulder read his bedtime story. While Mulder sat stunned, his son had crawled into his lap and shoved The Very Hungry Caterpillar in his face.
It feels wrong to leave him tonight, but Mulder knows he’s being irrational. William would be asleep the whole time anyway, he tells himself, as he creaks open the bedroom door.
“Foss!” William is awake and standing in his crib. “Up!” Reaching toward Mulder with one hand, he balls the other and shoves it in his mouth.
“What’re you doing up, little man?” Mulder asks as he lifts his son from the crib. William burrows into his neck and he feels his heart inflate. Rubbing the boy’s back, Mulder sits in the rocker beside the crib. “Are you excited to see Frohike?”
“Hit-ee,” William whispers. Leaning back, he puts his hands on either side of Mulder’s face and smiles. “Hi.”
Mulder smiles back. “Hi buddy.”
iv.
“Fox. Socks. Box. Knox,” Scully reads with William on her lap. Mulder points to himself, the pair of socks on the floor, a box next to the socks and William’s stuffed hippo. “Mulder, you’ve been doing this routine every night for the last month. It’s okay if you want to change it up.” “Foss, Sauce, Boss, Noss!” William squeals and claps.
“No way! He loves it.”
Scully rolls her eyes and smiles. “Your Daddy’s silly, isn’t he?” she whispers in William’s ear, but he just points to the book. “Okay, okay. Knox in box.” Mulder puts the hippo into the box. “Fox in socks.” Sitting on the carpet, Mulder pulls on the socks.
“Foss Sauce!”
“Knox on Fox,” Scully reads, trying mightily to keep William from ripping pages as he flails his arms. The hippo takes his place on Mulder’s head. “In socks in box.” Attempting to step into the box while balancing the stuffed hippo, Mulder’s socks lose traction and he crashes to the floor.
Scully laughs, and William hurls himself out of her lap toward Mulder.
“Foss owie,” William says and places open mouth baby kisses on both Mulder’s knees and then his face. “Aw ettah.” Mulder feels no pain.
v.
William is finger painting in the kitchen when Mulder arrives home from his run. Scully always lets him paint on Saturdays which means the entire area is covered in plastic and William has used himself as a canvas. Mulder kisses his head as he passes on the way to the fridge. Grabbing a water, he pops the top and drains it in three gulps.
“How was your run?” Scully asks, pouring herself a coffee behind him.
“Good,” he replies, striding over to pin her against the counter. “Missed you.” Tucking a hair behind her ear, he kisses her and grabs a coffee mug. “How long has he been at it?”
“Awhile. I’m surprised he hasn’t tired of it yet.” She takes a sip of coffee while Mulder pours himself some and joins his son at the table.
“Whatcha painting bud?” He tries to make out something recognizable but it’s mostly a giant brown blob. “Foss.”
Mulder tries to see any likeness of himself, but it’s the art of a toddler so imagination is important.
“Ohhh, it’s beautiful. It looks just like me!”
William stops painting and stares at him. “No. Is Foss.” “Fox?” Mulder asks, pointing to himself.
“No!” William leaves the table and disappears into his room. Mulder glances at Scully, worried she’s going to freak about a paint covered toddler traipsing around the apartment. She isn’t. She looks wistful, a small smile gracing her lips. William returns with a book and hands it to Mulder.
“Foss sauce.”
Mulder’s confused, he thought he was Fox in socks. Sure, they hadn’t done the routine in a few weeks, but the kid is already replacing him? Sheesh.
He points to himself again. “Not Fox in socks?”
“No,” William says and climbs in his lap. Brown paint covers his sweats as William points to his chest. “Dada.”
Scully lets out a little sob and Mulder stops breathing.
He points to himself once more. “Dada?”
William grabs his face, gurgles and erupts into a grin. “Dada,” he squeals and burrows into his father’s neck. Mulder smiles, misty eyed, and wraps his arms around his son.
Unnoticed by all, Fox in Socks slips to the floor.
My first response to someone saying anything remotely illogical is “are you suggesting…?”
I get inappropriately turned on when someone looks into my eyes too long, touches their fingers to mine or, god forbid, puts their hand on my lower back.
I expect love to be a long, slow burn of unresolved sexual tension and all consuming devotion. Co-dependency is necessary.
I find meaning in the most inane of gestures. Clearly the guy at the grocery store is secretly in love with the woman across the aisle because he side eyed her and handed her a bag of chips. Their fingers totally touched and they’re just in denial.
If anyone utters the words William, Estranged or Chris Carter, I will either cry, scream or hit them. Maybe all three..
I don’t give a shit that bees are good for the environment, I hate them.
My automatic response to anything I don’t like is, “I don’t want that darkness in my home.”
While someone is talking to me, I am thinking about Mulder and Scully. It’s a safe assumption that no matter what I’m doing, I’m thinking about Mulder and Scully.
I believe “Oh, Brother” to be an appropriate response when someone says “I love you.”
Aliens are here and the government is in on it. Question me on this and I will fight you
There was so much going on in Home Again that I don’t feel like I even absorbed half of it. And I’ve only seen it once so I’m sure I’m missing a lot, but what is really getting to me the most are all the parallels showing how just much Mulder and Scully’s relationship has evolved from early seasons to now.
In The Jersey Devil when Scully’s life gets in the way of a case Mulder asks “Can you cancel?” and in season 10 Mulder immediately tells her to go.
In Beyond the Sea when Scully’s father dies, he says “I’m sorry about your father” and places his palm on her cheek. In Home Again when Scully’s mother dies he says “Scully” and pulls her into a protective hug.
In Beyond the Sea when Scully says “I need to work” Mulder nods. In Home Again when she says the same, his immediate response is "No.”
In One Breath when she wakes up, Mulder says “ I just came by to see… how you were doing and say hi” with no mention of his bedside vigil or emotional break down while in Home Again he admits to wishing her back to life.
THEY ARE COMMUNICATING FEELINGS OUT LOUD AND IT IS A LOT
I’m sure there are a ton more of these and I can’t wait to look for them all in my second watch but WOW Glen Morgan saying he did his homework is the understatement of the century.
imagine mulder trying to teach william how to swing a bat but he just doesn’t get it so mulder tells him it’s okay because everyone is good at different things. william gets really into microscopes and science and mulder supports him and loves him but is still a bit sad that he can’t share baseball with his son. then he comes home from work one day and william says he has a surprise so scully drives them to the batting cages and william hits every ball. mulder is too in awe with tears in his eyes to say anything other than “how?” and william says “mom helped me practice. she says you taught her.” scully smiles and mulder hugs his son and cries because it’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for him and now they can all share baseball together as a family.
If there is a foreign subject present, origins unknown, stick your gloved finger in it and bring it to your nose for a sniff. If you still aren’t sure, taste it.
Always dust for fingerprints in the most out of reach, illogical places. Ask yourself, “Would a human of average size fit here?” If the answer is no, dust it.
If there is an object or piece of technology that you have never seen before, assume it is of alien origin. Let no one dissuade you on this.
Make the biggest leap possible in your explanation of the crime.
Listen as your partner argues with you over the science, but know that you’ll be the one who’s right.
Try not to break anything.
If you do break something, attempt to cover up your mistake and leave immediately.
Do not utter any sexual innuendos. They will get you nowhere in this environment. Save them for later.
If someone insults you, play into it. The need to mess with their heads outweighs the millstone of humiliation.
Always remember that you are there for the victim. Even if the victim isn’t human.
