going to bed is great because you can have mulder and scully time. this is when you create scenarios where mulder and scully are doing things until you fall asleep.
This is an abstract one, so ignore it if nothing comes to you, but I'm curious if there's any fics you can recommend that have the vibe of the dancing sequence at the end of Post Modern Prometheus.
Like carefree, happy, totally in love but repressing it (or not), suave, smiley, that kind of thing. Not actually a tag to the episode itself.
I have innumerable fics that fit this vibe-- so innumerable, in fact, that this category had to be whittle down to dancing stories, then cut down further to only include Post Modern Prometheus scenes. (But don't worry, there'll be a Part II sometime soon~.)
Partying and Pondering Post Post Modern Prometheus
@scenes-in-between/scullywolf's The Post Modern Prometheus (Ao3)
PMP Mulder is still foggy from the drugs (a precursor to the dancing fics; but begged to be included nonetheless.)
@purrykat/mylifeinshadow's The post-modern prometheus (pretty please)
PMP Scully looks up to see Mulder inviting her to dance.
Diana Alexander's Time Slows Down
PMP Scully's thoughts as she dances.
@agentwhalesong (Ao3/Alt. Ao3) Throughout The Years - Chapter 5
PMP Mulder's bittersweet thoughts as he and Scully dance.
Madeleine Partous's (The Annex) Unbound
Post PMP Scully ponders her druggie-like existence as she and Mulder part ways with the Mutato on a highway surrounded by fields.
a_steady_wish's Things You Said on the Highway
Post PMP Scully enjoyed her dance, bantering with Mulder about doing it again some time.
@leiascully's (Ao3) OctoberFicFest Day 16: Dance (Ao3)
PMP Scully has their dance seared into her memory.
@i-gaze-at-scully/i_gaze_at_scully's
Alter the Ending
AU PMP Mulder dances with Scully under the streetlight.
In black and white
AU PMP Mulder and Scully dance under the streetlight, but with a little more existentialism.
@syntax6/syn's (Alt. Tumblr)
Post PMP Mulder beaten down by Mutato's imprisonment and the fact that "Samantha" hasn't reached out again.
@nowwhateinstein's (Ao3) Don't Know Much About History
Post PMP Mulder invites Scully over for a Thanksgiving movie night. (Does it count if it's not Mulder and Scully dancing?)
@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s Unnamed
Post PMP Mulder and Scully celebrate Thanksgiving on the road.
Mulder42Scully5's Getting Out of the Car
Post PMP Mulder pulls over so he and Scully can dance in the rain.
CSM's C'est La Vie
AU PMP Scully invites Mulder along on a luxury couples cruise.
Are there any MSR fics where Mulder and Scully go through the adoption process to adopt a child after IVF fails? Ideally still platonically (for the pining 😅) but I'll read anything 😂
Not quite; buuuuuuuuut there are a few where they contemplate adoption.
The Only Choice - Chapter 16/The Only Choice - Chapter 21: The Only Choice follows Scully and Mulder after All Things, but focuses more on their future together-- including multiple chapters on adoption.
marked maybe: Mulder hints at adoption post IVF failure; and assures Scully he'll do whatever it takes.
@baronessblixen's What We Are (tumblr.com) mentions Mulder's willingness to adopt if Scully wants.
Do You Want to Believe?: Chapter 19 of this entertaining Choose Your Own Adventure mentions it in.
auld acquaintance/under the stars/encephalon - Chapter 2/ashes and dust - Chapter 1: Times Mulder or Scully thought of or mentioned adoption.
Bonus fics!
Reflections: Not IVF, but post Folie a Deux Mulder and Scully adopt a child which she'd previously dreamt about.
happily Alt. Tumblr: AU where Samantha was adopted by the nurse in Closure; and after Scully finds her and the siblings catch up, she and Mulder have a conversation about the failed IVF.
www.whispersofx.net/whispersofx/stories/quissi.txt: a bonus AU where pre-S1 Scully had married an abusive Jack Willis and adopted his child. Now, she and Mulder work towards a normal, healthy relationship.
Mulder and Scully Adopt an Alien/ 100 days of 100 word dialogue prompts - Chapter 43 One of my favorite crackfic pieces: Mulder finds an alien in his apartment eating his cereal.
Petition for Mulder and Scully to adopt and raise... (tumblr.com): AU Colonization Mulder, Scully, and William adopt a tiny Flukeman.
I have a couple other adoption flavors-- William recovery or someone in canon had been adopted by someone else, etc.-- that I'll probably put into a fic list some time in the future~.
What each Mike Flanagan horror series represents:
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)
Midnight Mass (2021)
The Midnight Club (2022)
The Fall of The House of Usher (2023)
X-Files Collector's Edition: S8 Mulder Resurrects to a Miracle
Thanks for @goodshipsmulder for the suggestion~.
Mulder finds out about Scully's pregnancy off-screen between Deadalive and Three Words. What was said? How might that have gone down? These ideas are explored in these fics (and a few extras thrown in because.)
Loose chronological order below~
@agentwhalesong/sadandangstyagent’s (Ao3) Could It Be Any Harder? - Chapter 4
""He doesn’t seem to understand anything, so he just stays there, accepting the love that is pouring out of her.""
Post Deadalive Mulder's groggy questions aren't able to be fully answered before he drifts back to sleep.
Agent L's (mulderscreek)
Duet
""Scully...?"
"Yes, Mulder?"
"Will I be able to play the piano again?"
"Well, Mulder, I...You don't play piano.""
Post Deadalive Mulder hasn't felt the effects of PTSD yet, cracking jokes and willingly reaching to feel his child move.
Wish List
""I want my life back. Sounds selfish for a guy just raised from the dead, I know, but I've never been one to be satisfied with the status quo.""
Post Deadalive Mulder's impatience-- itching to leave and itching for answers-- is soothed by the balm of Scully's presence.
@lyndsaybones’s (Ao3) Oh
""Like a breath. Like a secret wound opening up. He pulls his hand away.""
Post Deadalive Mulder responds to Scully's announcement with an "Oh."
@leiascully's (Ao3) Part of Us (Tumblr)
""He raises her hand to his lips. It’s an effort, but he manages. “I’m here and I’m staying,” he tells her. “What happened while I was gone?""
Post Deadalive Mulder responds to Scully's announcement with an "Oh", take two.
@msrafterdark (Ao3)
Five Sentence Fics (Tumblr Prompt) - Chapter 2
""She was mute for a moment, and while he easily recognized the softness in her eyes, he also noted a slight glimmer of impatience, as though she was insulted by his not believing this miracle belonged to him.""
Post Deadalive Mulder is shocked with the baby's paternity confirmation.
""He looked up, confusion and yet a sense of incredible wonderment lighting up his beautiful hazel eyes. He looked at her and she didn't say a word. He shook his head, looked away, looked back at her again. She smiled, and a hot tear fell down her cheek before she could stop it. He reached out and caught it with a finger.
"Scully?" His voice was small, almost boylike, fearful yet hopeful.""
Post Deadalive Mulder wakes, surprised and grateful Scully didn't leave. Both of them tear up at her paternity confirmation.
ScullyLikesScience's He is the Master of His Fate, She is the Captain of Her Soul - Chapter 85
""They stared at each other. Mulder counted backwards in his head. Scully hoped for some kind of positive reaction. They were still silently gazing at one another when the door opened, and Mulder’s physician, Dr. Nelson Lim, entered the room to go over some test results.""
The events of Deadalive unfold, which eventually leads to Mulder waking a second time to a whirlwind of confusion... and it all becomes too much.
@scullys-right-eyebrow-txf/ScullysRightEyebrow's The Only Choice - Chapter 40
""Just as a soft smile appeared on his face, Mulder recognized apprehension in her eyes. His brow furrowed in concern and then he took in her appearance. In that moment every thought in his mind melded into a mass of bewilderment and confusion. He didn’t understand. He didn’t understand anything and the fear brought about by his nightmare seemed to crash down on him.""
Post Deadalive Skinner lets the news slip to Mulder; and his death and resurrection and Scully's sudden pregnancy catapult Mulder's PTSD, beginning the cycle of distancing himself.
@alldolleduppink-blog/AllDolledUpPink's Reditum
""I ran every test," she assures him. "I know it's hard to believe, but you are-"
"No," he interrupts her with a shake of his head. "No, I didn't- I wasn't implying that it's not mine. I- why did I leave?""
Post Deadalive Mulder has an immediate and severe PTSD-induced panic attack at the news of his baby; and begins to distance himself from Scully and their child-- terrified he will hurt them both.
Shoshana's
Skin Deep
""Is this real?' Mulder had asked, not certain what to say. Her affirmative response brought a grin to his ashen face, a sparkle to his tired eyes.""
Post Deadalive Mulder is happy about his baby, more worried about what Scully thinks about his scars than her miraculous pregnancy.
After Dinner
""Her unworried countenance told him all he needed to know, all he cared to know at the time.
He'd had worries later, when left alone with his thoughts....
When he was feeling particularly morose one night he imagined she wouldn't need his help at all with the child. That she was humoring him now while he was ill and would be ready to move on once he'd recovered.""
Three Words Mulder and Scully are okay after TLG leave her apartment; and he muses over his worries as they banter their way back to a reestablished relationship.
emmbright/Emma Brightman's (LiveJournal) Low Tide
"""You're really here." She walks toward him, carefully lowering her bulk into the chair and grasping his gray-skinned hand in hers. Her voice holds a note of wonder he's rarely heard before. Invisible men, visions in Buddhist temples, resurrected lovers -- Scully's a tough one to impress.""
Post Deadalive Mulder wakes from a fruitless nightmare of his sister, wanting no visitors but Scully as he plunges back into more.
dee_ayy's Burdened
""It had to be a lie, I decided once they'd left in search of help. A cruel joke.... Maybe Scully hadn't been lying, I had been in a coma, and this woman saying "dead and buried" was some sort of euphemism I wasn't familiar with. It couldn't be literally true, I decided. It just couldn't. It was the only rational explanation that would allow this threat to pass.
And I'd almost managed to convince myself by the time Scully came back.""
Post Deadalive Mulder overhears nurses talking about his resurrection; and the stress of that lie and Scully's pregnancy paralyzes him into numbness... until he sees his apartment.
Erin Blair/Erin M. Blair's Mine
""You know?"
I nodded, looking at her round belly. "I'm very observant, Scully.""
Post Deadalive Mulder tells Scully about the boy in his Amor Fati dream.
greycoupon’s (Ao3, WBM) Baring Fruit
""He was focused on Scully’s face and her hand in his, but not the rest of her. She was just another body in the room. Then one of the nurses asked her to move so they could check his blood pressure and she stood up. He saw all of her.
He saw her very pregnant stomach. For just a minute he couldn’t see or hear and worried he was back on the ship, that this was all a dream.""
Post Deadalive Mulder's eyes adjust enough to notice the obvious; and Scully lays his immediate fears to rest.
ML/ML_is_me’s (Ao3, Gossamer, DW, Invidiosa)
Do You Know?
""Come on, Scully, give me a break. Don't keep me in suspense," I rasp. You're smiling a little more broadly now.
"Well, you asked for it," you tell me, and push away from the bed to stand up awkwardly.""
Post Deadalive Mulder hates that he kept his brain disease a secret; but is so happy when Scully tells him about their baby.
Found Faith and Lost Time
""She's carrying a cardboard box in front of her, perhaps hoping to obscure her burgeoning belly for a few moments longer.
I give her a big smile as she catches my eye. "Hi, Mom," I greet her.
She looks a little crestfallen. "You KNOW? Did you know last night?" she asks me.""
Post Deadalive Skinner keeps vigil by goofily happy Mulder's bedside-- who peeked at Scully before anyone knew he was awake and is endlessly pleased with himself about it.
David Hearne's Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here
""So, Mulder," Langly interrupted. "this is...what?...your third resurrection?"
"Actually, it's my second. Technically."
"Whatever," Frohike said.""
A post Deadalive crackish experience-- TLG and Maggie and Skinner descend upon Mulder and Scully before they can thoroughly talk about their baby, having a grand time and letting him tell off Krycek on the phone.
Donna’s (Gossamer, mulderscreek) Meeting the Other Man
""His lips moved, but no sound emerged. His eyes returned to her stomach. Her hand came up and smoothed the fabric of her maternity top.
"It's not very subtle is it?""
AU-- Post Deadalive Doggett gets Scully to rest and meets Mulder in the hospital. Jealousy is soothed; and Mulder is overjoyed at the baby news.
Far Away, So Close
""The morning after his revival, Mulder woke up not long after Scully. He looked up at her as she stood and stretched by his bedside. He focused first on her face and then drifted lower. Scully could practically see his pupils dilate as they rested on her belly. He said nothing, however, and then the doctors came in, and the poking and prodding and questions began again.""
Three Words Mulder doesn't feel like a hero-- only a very distantly confused left behind. Scully finally tells him about the paternity later.
@admiralty-xfd’s (Ao3) Culmination - Chapter 12
""They stay together like that for a long time, holding each other. Eventually she gets up to check his vitals and the sight of her enormous pregnant belly hits him like a ton of bricks.
How…?
...The machines are going wild and Scully looks panicked. “Mulder?! What’s wrong?” The last thing he sees is her screaming for assistance and a team rushing in to help as the darkness takes him.""
Post Deadalive Mulder is afraid it's all a dream, that his brain disease will kill him, and that the baby isn't his.
theficisoutthere/pen-paper-aliens/PPA 's
post-"deadalive" I NEED to…
""His thoughts were interrupted by a soft twitch near his thigh. It was an odd twitch, more forceful than a shiver, but softer than a hit. Something was kicking against him.""
Mulder's reestablishing relationship is put on pause when he misconstrues Scully's pregnancy as replacement.
44. Puh-lease! ❤️ (Tumblr)
""He didn’t even question her fidelity. As soon as he noticed her bump in the hospital room he softly smiled and said, “So, we’re going to have a baby.” and squeezed her hand when she nodded. He turned his gaze back to the TV above them and the subject was never brought up again.""
Three Words Mulder hasn't mentioned the baby since the hospital until, finally, he and Scully open up about their fears and pain, crying it out together.
Marguerite’s (Ao3) Always Through the Changing
""Mulder's eyes were huge, with an odd shimmer, but he said nothing as he took the offered sip of water. He kept the cool liquid in his mouth for a moment as if savoring a fine wine. When he swallowed, it was the only sound in the room....
"Whoa, Scully. You been eating all my jello?""
Post Deadalive Mulder struggles with jealousy and anger-guilt-depression about Scully's baby as well as Skinner and Doggett's capable and active presence in his absence.
Lapsed_Scholar’s That Day Is Done
""Most people have nine months to come to terms with their impending parenthood, but he already has something of an unusual situation, and he really wishes he had not started the clock missing and dead. How is he supposed to prepare for this? How is he supposed to support her, or care for an entirely new, helpless person when he’s lost the ability to function as himself?""
Mulder, Scully, and Skinner navigate the rough waters of This Is Not Happening, Deadalive, and Three Words.
Diana Alexander’s Distant and Strange
AU/Post Three Words//INTP has false memories of months w/ ISTJ, #1/doesn’t know what is real/PTSD feels like new experiences/ESTJ gets him to laugh/will always meet halfway-- Gossamer | Story: "Distant and Strange" by Alexander, Diana
@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls's
ashes and dust
""It takes effort, but he does move, sliding to the other side. The corners of Scully's mouth lifts, just a little, and she stands to climb in behind him. And that's when he sees it: the curve of her belly under her sweater.
Anything he wanted to say catches in his throat, freezes there. She is pregnant.""
Post Deadalive Mulder wakes, shocked at Scully's baby. Life moves too quickly for him to process, let alone sink back into. Fortunately, he and Scully are able to iron out the kinks later.
Unnamed (Alt. Tumblr)
""She tries to tell him early the morning after their reunion, but she can tell he’s already noticed. He’s quieter, won’t meet her eyes. “Mulder, I got my miracle,” she tries, immediately regretting the singular pronoun. She slips her fingers through his, and lifts his heavy hand to press against her abdomen.
“I’m happy for you,” he says, almost devoid of any emotion, and that’s when she feels like she’s lost him again.""
AU-- Scully moved into Mulder's apartment after his death; and can't figure out a way to tell him after he's resurrected.
""He’s grateful for her restraint, because he can’t handle sudden movements right now. If she were to approach too fast in his direction, he’d end up curled in the fetal position somewhere in a corner, protecting his vital organs. He doesn’t know how he knows this, he just does. He’s like one giant Pavlovian experiment.
Stimulus.
Response.
Repeat.""
Mulder's PTSD starts to ramp up throughout Three Words; but Scully is, as always, there to be his constant in an upside down world.
soverysesual's Kleptomania - Chapter 1
""Uh, Scully, where are all my clothes?”
She could feel her cheeks burn as she realized that she had never brought them back from her apartment.""
Three Words Mulder and Scully have to retrieve some of his things from her apartment; and he is touched she found and utilized his former IVF baby stash.
Michelle Kiefer's Second Wind
""I wonder if Lazarus found reanimation a chilling experience. Did he shiver and pull his burial shroud closer around him? Was he chilled to the core despite Judah's hot sun? Unfortunately, I have no one with whom to compare notes, as old Lazarus is no longer among the living.
Besides, Lazarus was in the tomb, for what-four days? I could do four days standing on my head. Try three months, buddy, and we'll talk.""
Mulder feels the coldness of death always lingering; but finally finds a personalized heater (and pillar of strength) in Scully.
""Ah, Scully," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "We got our
miracle, didn't we?"
Her breath caught and she faltered as the tears fell. "Yes... yes, we
did."
Mulder and Scully slot themselves back together as he sorts through what are and aren't his true memories, one loving interaction at a time. And, of course, every good day must end with a bedtime story.
Her fingers splay on his back. Jimmy’s shoulders are firm and unmoving, as firm and unmoving as one of the distant gray walls. She strokes down his spine, and the fabric of his sweatshirt gathers before the pad of her thumb like small hills.
She smoothes it flat again, then drops her hand. “You ready to get going?”
Chapters: 17/?
Wordcount: 114k
Relationships: Jimmy McGill/Kim Wexler
Warning: Pure Fluff. Christmas Fluff. Christmas Kidfic Fluff
Tagging @today-in-fic
Night 1
Physically and emotionally exhausted, Dana Scully pulled her aching body through the front door of her apartment and promptly tripped over a large toy dump truck.
“Dammit,” she whispered as she regained her footing and kicked the row of trucks out of her path before resuming her trek down the hallway.
It was 1am, three days before Christmas, and Scully was finally off work. After a week of late nights at the hospital, she was done until after the holidays and she only wanted to celebrate with eight full hours of sleep.
She stumbled into the bathroom and stripped off her scrubs before stepping into the shower to wash away the hospital odor, and then pulled on the clean pajamas that Mulder had set out for her. (Sleeping naked had stopped becoming an option once William began to walk and had a tendency to show up in their bedroom at daybreak.)
Speaking of the little 4 year old bed-hog, he was planted firmly on her side of the mattress when she made it into the bedroom. Scully softly pushed William to the middle of the bed toward Mulder and climbed in tiredly beside her boys.
I was so encouraged by the response of my latest Christmas fluff that I thought I’d share last year’s fic.
It’s just a lot of fluff, this time with a dog, so if that’s your thing, read on!
A Speedy Christmas
It was 10:00 on a Friday night and Dana Scully was already in her pajamas. There might have been a time in her life where she would spend her Friday nights out with friends, at a bar, or god forbid on a date, but those days were over. Well, except for the date part. If you count cuddling up with Mulder on the couch while he watched the Knicks game on TV a date, but considering how her romantic life had gone the past seven years, she definitely counted it as a date. Plus, she might even open that bottle of wine she’d been saving, and she definitely had an idea about what activities they could partake in after the game. They may be like an old married couple in some respects, but their relatively new sex life was rather spectacular and enthusiastic.
From her place under a warm blanket on the couch, Scully glanced across the room at the small Christmas tree that had magically appeared in her apartment a few days ago. Mulder was aghast when she mentioned that she wasn’t putting one up, despite the fact that he himself wouldn’t decorate his own apartment, and the next day the four foot tree was standing in the corner when she arrived home from work. They had been together all day, so he must have recruited three little elves in his scheme; a fact that had her slightly regretting giving him a key to her apartment all those years ago. After some requisite grumbling, Scully located an old box of lights and ornaments and they decorated the tree together. In the end, she had to admit that it was a good idea; it did brighten up the place.
I was so encouraged by the response of my latest Christmas fluff that I thought I’d share last year’s fic.
It’s just a lot of fluff, this time with a dog, so if that’s your thing, read on!
A Speedy Christmas
It was 10:00 on a Friday night and Dana Scully was already in her pajamas. There might have been a time in her life where she would spend her Friday nights out with friends, at a bar, or god forbid on a date, but those days were over. Well, except for the date part. If you count cuddling up with Mulder on the couch while he watched the Knicks game on TV a date, but considering how her romantic life had gone the past seven years, she definitely counted it as a date. Plus, she might even open that bottle of wine she’d been saving, and she definitely had an idea about what activities they could partake in after the game. They may be like an old married couple in some respects, but their relatively new sex life was rather spectacular and enthusiastic.
From her place under a warm blanket on the couch, Scully glanced across the room at the small Christmas tree that had magically appeared in her apartment a few days ago. Mulder was aghast when she mentioned that she wasn’t putting one up, despite the fact that he himself wouldn’t decorate his own apartment, and the next day the four foot tree was standing in the corner when she arrived home from work. They had been together all day, so he must have recruited three little elves in his scheme; a fact that had her slightly regretting giving him a key to her apartment all those years ago. After some requisite grumbling, Scully located an old box of lights and ornaments and they decorated the tree together. In the end, she had to admit that it was a good idea; it did brighten up the place.
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
amandla
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
