perhaps it’s just because (tmi:) I was on my period at work today and feeling miserable about it, but I was thinking about Scully dealing with her period at work;
about her working for years in a male-dominated workplace, with a male partner, often ending up in strange places at strange times of day without her usual shops available, and i was thinking about all the precautions she would have had to have taken to deal with it quietly without mulder knowing.
because to be honest I doubt scully ever let mulder know when she was on her period. at least not before they were together.
because she’s a woman in the FBI, she doesn’t want to give anyone any more reason to think her emotional, or to disregard her, or to make jokes about ‘being on the rag’ etc.
and this isn’t to say I think mulder would ever dream of saying such things to scully, but I think, like her nosebleeds and her cancer symptoms, her period is something that Scully, (the fiercely private and independent individual that she is), would never think of telling mulder about. or anyone for that matter. (except perhaps missy. 🥲 that’s what sisters are for after all.)
but then I was thinking about the IVF arc. and how brutal that first period back at work after the IVF failed must have been.
And how, this time, Mulder would have known.
because of course he’d been paying attention to her cycle and her fertility appointments lined up in the calendar, hoping beyond all hope that he could give Scully what she so desperately wanted.
And so; on that day when he knew her period was due after she had told him the IVF had failed, even if he never said a word, and even if she never acknowledged it, I like to think he took extra special care of her that week.
that he brought her thai food, cut back on his more annoying banter, silently did an unusually large amount of overdue paperwork without being asked. and I like to think Scully noticed and was touched.
