This is a little (belated) birthday something for @agentmcarters who wanted an X-Files: Fight the Future inspired drabble. Happy birthday!!!
When Ben heard that The X Files was coming back, Leslie did her best to be supportive. Her husband was a media nerd, and she loved that about him, she really did. She listened as he freaked out over the return of Star Wars and went with him to see the midnight showing, smiled and nodded while he talked about the Twin Peaks reboot, and now it was the X Files’ turn.
He knew she was busy--between her long hours at work and three screaming one-year-olds at home, so he really only asked that they watch the movies together. She could do that. She figured she knew enough about the show from Ben to watch it without being confused.
It was pretty straightforward, right? Tall, good looking male agent believes in aliens and hunts them for the FBI and smart, red headed agent/medical doctor that Ben was madly in love with makes sure her partner doesn’t die and goes around blinding people with science.
Yeah, that sounds about right.
“Ok, so, babe,” he said as he popped in the disc, “Mulder and Scully just found out that the X Files have been closed and they have been reassigned. All they’re trying to do is uncover the conspiracy and hope that by proving it exists, they can convince the FBI to open the division back up.”
She snuggled under the blanket and nodded. “Okay, I think I got it.”
He skipped--yes skipped--back over to cuddle next to her on the couch and waited as the X flashed across the screen.
So far the movie was better than she thought. Some of it was a little gross--alien black oil that possess people’s bodies? What? And there were times that Ben said the lines out loud without even realizing it, but it was good. It definitely caught her attention. It had conspiracies and helicopters and cornfields and...Bees?
“Wait, so after all of that, they’re going to reassign her?” she asked during the emotionally charged moment in Mulder’s apartment.
“They want to, yeah.”
“UGH, well I for one hate that they make the government look that evil. When I’m president, if they tell me any of this weird stuff...” she trailed off. “Wait! She’s gonna quit? She can’t quit. She can’t leave Mulder.” She was yelling at the screen now. “Don’t just sit there Mulder! Go after her, you idiot and tell her you love her!” She slapped Ben repeatedly on the arm once he saw Mulder get up. “Oh God! He’s gonna do it, isn’t he! He’s gonna do it.”
She was fairly quiet throughout Mulder’s speech in the hallway, and she even had to sniff back a few tears. “She makes him a whole person...” she whispered to herself before pulling Ben’s arm around her.
She grabbed his hand when she saw that they were just about to kiss, and with each second that they moved closer and closer, Leslie’s nails dug into Ben’s skin.
“Ow, babe-”
“Shhh they’re about to kiss--WHAT THE FUCK!”
“Honey, calm down. You don’t want to wake up the babies.” He was amused, she could tell, but she was pissed.
“How do you expect me to calm down?” she said in a harsh whisper. “Five years of sexual tension and it’s obvious they love each other and their only chance for a kiss is ruined by that damn bee! And now she’s being carted off to god only knows where and Mulder just got SHOT!? What the hell?!”
Ben finally managed to calm her down enough to sit relatively quietly through the rest of the film. She still jumped in her seat when the aliens starting chasing after them, and she snuggled even closer to Ben and shivered as though she was the one facing the Arctic cold.
When the screen faded to black, after Mulder and Scully walked away together with a new fierce determination, after the final shot of the letter saying the X Files was reopened, Leslie sat in stunned silence.
“Did you like it?” Ben asked, nudging her shoulder.
“Yeah...I did actually. But I’m kind of sad, too.”
“Why?”
She looked over at him and jumped into his lap for a tight hug.
“Because that could have been us.” At his raised eyebrow she sighed. “I mean not literally us going around hunting aliens and fighting global conspiracies, but I mean they refuse to admit how they feel about each other because of their jobs, right? That was us. We could have ended up like them. Madly in love with one another and miserable because we couldn’t be together because of how important our jobs were. We barely lasted a few months. They had to do it for five years.”
“It was actually closer to seven and even then there was some ambiguity and it’s implied they were together for the second movie but that may not be the case for the revival, and-”
He stopped when he saw her confused look, but she just nodded. “Okay, uhm yeah! See that! All of those years. It just makes me sad, that’s all.” She rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t like thinking about what might have happened if we let that happen to us.”
He smiled and kissed her forehead. “But it didn’t. We’re married and have great jobs and three amazing children.”
She smiled at that, because he was right. That wasn’t what ended up happening to them.
“But yeah,” she said, pulling away and giving Ben a soft kiss. “I liked it. I might watch a few more episodes with you, actually, so I understand better what’s going on.”
He smiled that dopey, excited little smile, and she could already tell he was listing the ones he wanted to show her in his mind.
She kissed him again because she loved her sexy, nerdy husband.
And for some reason, she had the uncontrollable urge to make out with him in a cornfield...
agentmcarters replied to your post:so in order to wipe out the bitter taste of...
YASSS to Sarah Waters. Welcome to the club.
ealperin replied to your post:so in order to wipe out the bitter taste of...
YEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!! :)
Haha love the enthusiasm. My expectations are very high and I’m sure I won’t be disappointed. Also Tipping the Velvet partly takes part in a town 15 minutes from where I’m sitting right now and that I’ve been to a few times so it’s the perfect book to start reading now.
Yeah they discluded Margaret because of that. I've never read the original study...if it was just focused on the piv or was more inclusive.. so there very well might be a hollywood bias going on with the show atm. Which is very disappointing for all the reasons you pointed out in your message. hmm.
I was googling around for an answer and it just freaking amazes me how many articles there are on helping women climax from piv sex. So apparently Shere Hite published 10 years after M+J’s Human Sexual Response book and I think she was the one to really challenge not being able to climax from piv as a dysfunction. She was still in their time so maybe the show will bring it up later? Both Kinsey (who came before them) and M+J recognized importance of clitoris in sex but they tied it to piv so I don’t know.
This site has, “Masters and Johnson supported Kinsey’s views. In their laboratory observations of the female sexual response, Masters declared, “All orgasm involves direct or indirect stimulation of the clitoris.” Thus, if a woman had an orgasm from coitus, Masters and Johnson claimed that her clitoris was being stimulated inadvertently during intercourse, producing orgasm.“
I’m surprised because I don’t remember any mention of Kinsey on Masters of Sex either even though he was a few years before them and was probably some kind of influence. Anyway, I feel much more knowledgeable about US sex history now haha.
Really I just watch the show for Ginnie-Bill interactions and I need Libby to be happy, but the show is based around sex research and educating people so I think the show makers have a responsibility to bring it up.
Fic Requests: Ben/Leslie "You remember how she used to stick her tongue out when she was colouring?" angst please.
LOVE the Inside Out quote! I don’t know if this is what you wanted, but it’s what came and stuck with me after reading this prompt. Mainly Ben angst.
This is my gift to you before I leave for vacation <3
There are days when he just doesn’t want to get out of bed in the morning. Days when he spends hours in the bathtub ignoring April screaming profanities at him through the door.
There are days where the world passes by him in nothing more than a blur, nameless and faceless. Except for her.
She is sharp, defined, perfectly clear against the nothingness. She stands out everywhere she goes, and it kills him.
Sometimes he wonders if those sadness baths are just him trying to wash her off of his skin. But it always fails. She leached herself into his pores, became so ingrained with him that he isn’t sure if she’ll ever leave.
The whole damn city just reeks of her presence. Every place has a memory that stabs at him like a million tiny daggers, over and over again.
He’s never sure what will send him spiraling. The quick whiff of warm waffles. Flowers that smell so much like her perfume he swears she’s standing right next to him.
That bench in front of the wildflower mural on the second floor. That damn bench where he sat next to her eating hamburgers and wished more than anything that rules didn’t exist.
But no, it’s not any of those things that makes him want to weep like a child in the middle of the supermarket. It’s a coloring book. A stupid, fucking coloring book.
One thing about Leslie Knope is that while she is sharp as a whip and has a mind unlike any other, she is also very much in touch with her inner child. There are whole closets in her home devoted to glitter, beads, and construction paper. Bins and bins filled with markers, pencils, and crayons of every color imaginable.
And yes, she loves coloring books.
Granted, her tastes are little more sophisticated than your average 7-year-old, books filled with intricate and complex designs and optical illusions, animals and landscapes so lifelike that they look like photographs once Leslie is done with them.
As he stares at the book, he can picture her sitting at her dining room table with her brow furrowed in deep concentration as she chooses her colors. He remembers the way that her tongue would stick out of the corner of her mouth as she carefully stroked to stay within the fine lines.
She is always creating something. Beautiful and wonderful things. And that’s why he had to let her go, so she could go out and create things that are even better.
But the fact that it’s the right decision doesn’t make his heart hurt any less.
He’s not sure what possesses him to pick up the book, but it soon joins the other items in his cart, and it’s not until he’s unpacking his bags at home that he fully realizes what he’s done.
The book burns a hole in his desk drawer for nearly two weeks before he summons up enough courage to do something that he knows he shouldn’t. But Leslie has been under so much stress lately with her campaign that he just wants to something nice for her. He reasons that it’s only a fair exchange. She gave him her book, so he can get something for her.
He can’t give it to her face to face, though. He isn’t sure he’ll ever be ready for that, so instead he wraps the book in a few layers of tissue paper, ties a bow around it, and leaves it at her desk while she’s in a meeting.
Under the guise of talking to Donna about meaningless paperwork, he loiters in the office, waiting. Leslie gives him a strained but polite smile when she returns, and he does his best to inconspicuously spy on her through the office window.
She grins when she sees the gift on her desk, reaching for the little card that bares his familiar scrawl.
‘Congratulations on the book’ is all that it says, and after she reads it, her head snaps up.
He quickly turns his gaze away, but out of the corner of his eye, he can see Leslie bite her lip and tear off the paper.
His heart breaks at the small smile that graces her lips because it’s happy, but so, so sad at the same time. She wipes at her eyes, and even from this distance, he can see the tears pooling.
She clutches the book to her chest and briefly closes her eyes before looking up to find him again.
This time, he allows their eyes to meet, and it’s the best and worst mistake he could possibly make.
She is still holding the book tightly to her chest, her eyes most definitely red, and she mouths a heartfelt ‘thank you’.
He gives her a small smile and the briefest of nods before he has to turn away because that feeling is back in his chest, and he needs to leave before he does something he’ll regret.
He excuses himself, and just like that, the world is blurry again. It’s blurry because all he wants to do is make Leslie smile like that for the rest of her life, but he can’t. Not now, and maybe not ever.
He can only hope with all of his heart that maybe, someday, he can watch her color again.
