Collector's Edition: Never Again and the
Endless Line
Got some Never Again angst for the phile populace. Step right up and take a whirl!
Loose chronological order below~
Beshter's Seasons: Fourth
Scully watched Mulder whip around the doorway to the office, bag in hand, partly envious of his time off, partly irritated. He wouldn't be taking it if he didn't have to, she knew that, and it was disgusting that he was forced to it. Mulder had no concept of "vacation." She wasn't much better. What was she doing instead of vacationing? Checking up on Moose and Squirrel? Is this what her life had devolved into, back and forth, up and down, her life in a standstill chasing one false lead after another, and all the moments of life passing her by. Her fingers slipped into her coat pocket, pulling out the delicate rose petals she found the night before. They looked even more ephemeral in the wan, florescent light of the dim office. She felt as dry and desiccated as they were, fragile and empty.
Part of Beshter's fill-in series: post-Kaddish Scully begins to examine her life, its choices, and consequences... and (momentarily) runs away from the endless line.
Stephanie Davies's Insufferable Sting
It was as she was pulling up behind her brother's Volvo that she felt it: a cold tickle on her upper lip. And her fingers came away bloody.
Pre-Never Again Scully's questions about her desk and that endless line began at her brother's birthday party.
Anne Haynes’s (Gossamer) Ishmael
What smacks me in the face is that, no matter how much I tried to distance myself from him and his influence in my life, no matter the uncharacteristic lengths to which I went in my quest for rebellion, I am less free of him than I was before we parted.
Never Again Scully is consumed by her partner.
@scenes-in-between/@scullywolf's (Ao3) Never Again
Telling Mulder would make it real. And she wasn’t ready for that, not yet.
Post-Leonard Betts Scully's fear drives her to Philadelphia.
Chibiness87's Transient
Following a suspect into a tattoo parlour dressed as she is may appear a little unwise, but she is intrigued despite herself. The design of the ouroboros calls to her; a direct contrast to what she claimed in the office the previous day about life. Here the snake is constantly reborn, life continues on forevermore, a constant loop.
A symbol of infinity.
Of permanence.
She likes it immediately.
Never Again Scully wonders if she has cancer.
Clementinewoolysocks369's The Problem - Chapter 1
Maybe she just wants to take a normal risk for once. Maybe she just wants to reassure herself she’s alive. It’s a side effect of being one of the few people her age who has had the privilege of seeing her own gravestone. “Dana Scully. Loving daughter and friend.” Her life summed up in a few words.
Post-Leonard Betts Scully feels disconnected from life.
@bakedbakermom/lonegunga1's Ouroboros (Ao3)
It was the first place Mulder ever really touched her, on that first case in his dark Oregon motel room with rain sheeting down outside, as Scully stood trembling in the candlelight and the tiny flame flickered in the warm cloud of his breath. She had trusted him enough, even then, to bare her body, and he in turn trusted her enough to bare his soul.
It is still the place he touches her the most, the place she has come to think of as “his.”
Never-Ever--Again
This is a moment of truth. Another, and so soon after the last. My life is crowded with them these days. I stand outside our office, ready to enter for the first time since returning from Philadelphia.
All the delicious heat I'd felt when I was close to Ed Jerse was, it seems, a mere precursor to his nearly incinerating me, then toasting his own arm.
Never Again Scully ruminates on her avenging anger.
After
For the tenth time, she wondered what they were doing here. It wasn't as if blood was allegedly pouring from human flesh, and she doubted that Skinner had assigned the case. Where was the *crime*? Had Mulder brought her to Philadelphia to watch her squirm? Had he chosen this bogus- looking religious case purely to poke fun at her faith? Was he really that cruel, and were they that far gone? She tried to shake off the depression this thought spread over her like a pall.
Pre-Never Again Mulder and Scully fell into bed, never talked about it, and are now grappling with her Philadelphia weekend-- in resentful silence, on a case.
@syntax6's (Gossamer, FFN, omniscribe) 20 - Chapter 4
Snow is falling again when he picks her up from the hospital. Tiny little flakes drift from the silent sky, illuminated briefly by the yellow street lamps before settling softly on the cold white world around them. Scully shivers insider her coat as she waits for him to open the locked car. Snow catches on her black shoulders and dull, burnished hair, and he barely recognizes her. The red seems muted to him now in the wake of all those pictures - her body and Jerse's, catalogued as evidence.
Never Again Scully, injured, asks for help.
defnotmeyo's It's My
And it’s the with who that driving you particularly crazy, right? Because you kind of think that maybe if Ed Jerse wasn’t completely off his rocker, he might be a little bit better than you. He was certainly more stable, outwardly, despite the failed marriage. He was certainly suaver, getting her to open up to him. He was certainly at least as good looking as you, a little more ripped, a little bulkier.
That goads you, doesn’t it?
Never Again Mulder can't finish his sentence.
@mldrgrl's (Ao3) Seeing Red
“Get out, Mulder,” she mumbles, trying not to move her lips too much. Blood seeps into her mouth anyway and she grimaces at the coppery tang on her tongue.
“Keep your head back,” he answers, as though he didn’t hear her. He turns the faucet on and turns to the paper towel dispenser.
“I said get out!” she says again, and the force of her voice causes the blood on her lips to splatter on the sink and mirror.
Mulder freezes with a paper towel fluttering in his hand.
Post-Never Again Scully has a nosebleed (in front of her partner.)
@thursdayinspace's (Ao3) fic: five times Mulder doesn't ask Scully out on a date (and one time he does) (Ao3)
She’s right to be mad at him. He deserves it. He’s mad at himself. He doesn’t know if he’s ever been angrier.
Amongst other opportunities thoroughly fumbled, Mulder misses a glaring one during Never Again.
@incidental-ao3/incidental's
Febuwhump 2023: The Truth is Out There (And the Fic is In Here) - Chapter 8
But eventually, the yawn came, unbidden, and he reached for the remote.
“You don’t have to do that,” she said hurriedly. He had already flipped it off.
“Nah, you need your beauty sleep,” he joked. He turned his lamp off, but she hesitated.
“Uh, Mulder, can I… can I confide something in you?” she asked, setting her book aside. He propped himself up on his elbow, brow crinkled.
Post-Never Again Scully is plagued by night terrors.
Nothing Else Matters
“You… are all that I care about, Scully. All. Nothing else matters without you.”
“Oh,” was all she could manage to say in response. It was disarming, how quickly the energy between them had changed.
AU-- Post-Never Again Mulder and Scully yell out their anger (and finally, finally communicate.)
Diana Alexander's The Vain Shadow of the Past
He walked over to Scully's desk, and she looked up at him as he spoke softly. "I'm sorry, Scully."
Post-Never Again Mulder reflects on their complicated relationship.
@frogsmulder/Brynstein's Love Me Tender
The shadow of Phoebe Green was his ghost. He had collected others since, they always seemed to follow him, stitched to his heel. But Phoebe had been his first. In every sense of the word. When they had been together she had completely and utterly shattered him. In a way that was both exhilarating and terrifying, but now it was just terrifying. Or so he tried to tell himself.
Post-Never Again Scully realizes Mulder is afraid.
@jessahmewren's (Ao3) Mulder & Scully, #15
Scully watched he scenery slide by in green/blue flashes. They’d been driving for ages. Her tattoo itched, but she couldn’t discreetly scratch it without Mulder noticing, and it was still a sore spot for him.
Ed Jerse was a sore spot for him.
Post-Never Again Scully is ready for a fight.
@suitablyaggrieved/ScullyLovesQueequeg's #4 Come Here, Let Me Fix It For You
“Thank you,” She said that lowly, as if forbidden, and that’s when Mulder noticed it. Her cross was not on her neck.
“Scully, what happened to your necklace?” He asked.
“It broke. After all these years, and you wearing it some, it finally broke."
Post-Never Again Mulder does his best to fix things (literally.)
@just-a-donut-who-reads/just_a_donut_who_reads's Unnamed
Pacing done, she stands on her toes, arms above her head, stretching her shoulders and mid-section and twists at the waist, allowing the tension to seep out of her body. The action makes her cropped sweatshirt ride up, and from the corner of her eye, she can see Mulder's eyes following its hemline. Suddenly, he looks away, and his hands tighten almost imperceptibly on the cushion he's holding. Scully lowers her arms and turns to him.
"What?" She asks, examining her abdomen. He shakes his head but she continues, lifting up the back of the sweatshirt and twisting to look at her back.
Oh.
Post-Never Again Mulder glimpses his partner's tattoo.
@scullysexual/PostApocolypticAlien's
30 Ways To Say "I Love You" (1/30)/How It Was Before. - Chapter 1
You return from the little café down the road and venture over to her area.
“It was two sugars, right?” you ask.
Startled, she glances up at you and the coffee cup in your hand.
Post-Never Again Mulder apologizes.
A Ghost Inbetween
It's a tiny dab of red. You could of easily missed it, would of if you were anyone but yourself yet, either way, you wouldn't miss anything when it relates to her, especially recently. Recently something had been very off with her if the last case was anything to go by.
Post-Never Again Mulder sees blood on Scully's shirt.
Michelle Kiefer's The Bar Scene - Race the Wind
When she raised her eyes, Mulder's smug look had been replaced with concern and perhaps a little guilt.
Post-Never Again Scully and Mulder aggravate each other on their next case.
@aloysiavirgata's Snow Carefully Everywhere Descending (LJ)
Mulder eyes her sidelong; her height requires her to shimmy to the edge of the tall stool and hop down in an undignified fashion. He watches her stride through the room - linoleum the color of old computers, of old bones - and resents the pairs of eyes that follow her dark, trim figure. They have no idea about her, he thinks. They can’t possibly begin to imagine her, the complexity of the brain cloistered behind that bruised and lovely face. They cannot fathom the things her sea-deep eyes have watched unfold.
Post-Never Again Mulder and Scully, prickly still, begin to slowly
open up.
@h0ldthiscat's (Ao3) 7 (things you said while we were driving)
She shoves the sunshade back up and clears her throat. “Can we go?”
He notices for the first time that her eyes are wet, that her chin is quivering despite her best attempts to control it. Remorse and guilt wash over him as he remembers an offhand comment from earlier in the week that explains her makeup, her nicer-than-usual suit, the set of her jaw."
Post-Never Again Mulder realizes Scully feels used.
AUs
@seepunkrun/Punk/runpunkrun's (site, Gossamer) Across a Desk (Ao3)
She waited to see what he would do. It occurred to her that he wasn't going to say anything on his own. She had to decide if it would be worth it to flush him out of his hole.
Foxhole.
Something in her appreciated how much that remark could hurt him. She held that power inside of her: She could hurt Mulder.
AU-- Post-Never Again Scully's tattoo can talk.
@writingwell/RocketMan's (site) I Hurt
"Scully, did you hear me?"
I shake my head no. I hurt, I hurt, I hurt, I hurt
"Scully, would you like to have dinner with me tonight?" he asks.
AU-- Post-Never Again Scully, still saddened from the Tunguska-Terma fiasco, is shocked by Mulder's question.
Brandon D. Ray's (Gossamer, xffics) No Place Like Home (Gossamer)
"Tell you what, Scully," her partner said as the chuckles finally died down. "You ever decide you DO want a tattoo, give me a holler and we'll go get one together, okay? We need to spend more time social time together relaxing, anyway -- the stress is getting to both of us."
AU-- Never Again was all a dream.
@swinging-stars-from-satellites/bravest_person_in_Wonderland's even more of exactly the same (Ao3)
It might hurt too much to acknowledge that she walked away from her best friend of four years over a stupid fight, a pointless desk and the point of a needle dripping ink into her skin. A part of her misses him, the part that wakes up panicking and praying she won't find blood on her pillowcase, but another part is still angry.
He has no claim on her. She has no claim on him. That makes her sad.
AU-- Post-Never Again Scully leaves without a goodbye... and calls again after her diagnosis.
BONUS
@kateyes224's Mulder’s real panic face.
Whatever you do, do not think about how Mulder had answered Scully’s phone call early that morning with one of his usual pithy Mulderisms, eager to regain a tenuous balance with her after she had reduced him to ashes and unfinished sentences in the wake of the Ed Jerse case. Don’t think about how Mulder’s face fell as the words “Can you meet me at the oncology ward?” slowly floated into his ears, his smile fading, as it took his brain several long moments to play catch-up before the words actually made sense.
Post-Never Again Mulder is given bad news.
Meredith's Backhand
Her life was his as much as his was hers. And she was waiting to tell him until after she was dead.
Two and a half days of nonstop searching and five hours in a variety of uncomfortable chairs had brought him to his knees. He had been moving so fast for so long that the reality of the situation hadn't sunk in; his brain had been processing the facts nonstop since Scully's call back in D.C., but his heart hadn't been able to keep up.
Memento Mori Mulder understands Scully's Philadelphia excursion.
@cecilysass's We’re Not Here To Get Involved in Personal Problems - Chapter 6
“Blood-related sexual activity!” Scully finds herself getting belatedly frightened and angry. “Mulder, did HIV/AIDS cross your mind?”
“I guess I probably forgot to review the pamphlets that night. Hey, maybe you can tell me for the future, Dr. Scully, how safe are kinky contaminated tattoo needles?”
Scully notes by the bright quality in his eyes that he is a little angry, too, and she questions if Mulder’s fear monster theory is right after all.
Post-X-Cops Mulder and Scully walk the neighborhood, eat mangoes, and delicately discuss past trysts.
@leiascully's tattoo
He grazed the snake on her back with one fingertip. She could hear the question in his quiet.
Hearts now open to each other, Mulder and Scully discuss her tattoo.
Antonius the Gaul, Ventrue methuselah, and The Dracon, the favorite childe of the Tzimisce Antediluvian. They inspired the Dream and ruled Constantinople in Triumvirate with Michael, or Beshter.
Thoughts on design. Going to make a chronicle about France during Albigensian Crusade where the Trinity will have its influence.
do you have any good mulder hurt/comfort fic recs? Specifically scully comforting mulder? I feel like most fics on ao3 are mulder comforting scully
Collector's Edition: A Tormented Man, At Last, Is Comforted
Sorry this took so long, anon! These recs are nowhere near all.
If you want an entire catalog of fics in that genre, I'd highly suggest reading through @baronessblixen's work-- hurt/comfort and fluff are her specialties; and she writes incredible an Hurt!Mulder (or Mulder post-latest-shenanigans) and Caring!Scully. (I've rec-ed a lot of her fics in the past, so if you search up #BaronessBlixen on my page, they should all pop up.)
I also recommend the "Mulder, Scully, and Season 8 Healing" and Dad!Mulder rec lists on my pinned page; but Injured but In-Charge Scully is practically required reading for this topic (@sarie-fairy's Skamania County is the first that comes to mind.)
Loose chronological order below~
@thursdayinspace's
the ginger invasion
He just about manages to lift his head and there she is, Scully, in his bedroom doorway; she turns on the light and it hurts his eyes, but even as he squints against it the glow of her red hair in the sudden brightness is enough to make him let out a relieved breath. "Hi." He hates to admit when he needs help. But he needs help. And help just showed up.
Early partnership Scully helps Mulder recover from an illness.
travel in style (Tumblr)
She lifts her head and twists around trying to look at him, and when that doesn’t work, she sits up and rubs her eyes, yawning. “That doesn’t look comfortable.”
He sighs. “That’s probably because it isn’t.”
She looks at him for a long moment, obviously thinking.
Scully helps Mulder sleep in the car.
Beshter's Seasons: Second: Chapter 118
"No, come on. I want you to lie down." She tried directing him to her bedroom, but her steering threatened to tumble him over. "Whoa, come on I want you to lie down, let me take your coat off." She began to work off the long sleeve of the jacket he wore. It was summertime in DC, sticky and humid outside. What did he need with a coat in the first place?
Anasazi Scully cares for Mulder's fever after his father's death.
@bytethehand/homecomingserf's fragility
Scully can hear him pacing through the wall. Back and forth, back and forth on the creaky motel floors. He’s got a tendency to pace at night, of course, she knows this, but never this long and never this late and never this fast and loud and anxious-sounding.
Post One Breath Mulder finally lets Scully in.
@welsharcher's The X-Files: The Field Where I Died
With a sigh, Scully walked over and dropped the plastic evidence bag on his desk, savoring the resounding thud it made. Mulder casually looked up; his apathy undisturbed.
Another sigh escaped as she pulled out the book, “Sarah Kavanaugh’s journal was found hidden under a loose floorboard in Melissa’s room.”
Post TFWID Scully attempts to give Mulder comfort.
@officialmulder/specialagentpao's broken hearts, paper hearts
He buried his face in his hands. Scully sat in front of him on the coffee table. “We can talk about it if you want.” Her voice barely a whisper.
AU-- Paper Hearts Mulder finds Samantha's body.
@agent-troi/AgentTroi's Still Walking Into That Room
Mulder remained limp and passive throughout all of this, not reacting in any way except to follow numbly as Scully led him out of the house and back to her car. He sat down when she opened the passenger side door and gently nudged him inside, but he made no move to buckle his seat belt, so she did it for him.
Post Demons Scully needs to know that Mulder will be okay without her.
@seek-its-opposite/seek_its_opposite's
photosensitivity (Tumblr)
“You don’t have to stay in here,” he tells her, trying to sound casual. “If anything happens I’ll just scream in agony.” He doesn’t pull off the joke.
“I’m good,” she soothes.
He called her in the middle of the night with blood down his shirt and she came to find him. It’s been too late to leave for years.
Post Demons Scully and Mulder are confronted by his seizures and her mortality, his past and her present.
folie imposée (Tumblr)
He’s straining, struggling against his restraints to reach her. She unhooks the belt across his chest and he grasps for her, pulling at the straps around his wrists. When she takes his arm in her hands his skin burns hot and pink, rubbed raw by cheap canvas.
She could play his scrapes on a turntable and the vinyl would sing a slow tragedy, a myth reborn in jazz. Cassandra the cursed prophet, reincarnated as a boy who believes in aliens.
Folie a Deux Scully spirits Mulder away.
@amplifyme/wonderland/Lydia Bower's
Affinity/Affinity 01
"Scully. You really thought it was me that night. Right?"
We've covered this ground before. It's one of the few questions he's allowed himself to ask, and one of the queries he continues to make. It's like he's stuck on these few questions like a needle in the groove of an old record.
"Yes, Mulder." I wait for the question that will inevitably follow, the one that never directly addresses what he saw when he burst through the door. He can afford to be vague: we both know what almost happened, what he interrupted.
"And you… you were okay with that."
Second verse same as the first.
"Yeah, Mulder. I was okay with that."
He nods. I haven't changed the answer to that one, either. I think he finds that reassuring, in some odd Mulderish way.
AU-- Post Small Potatoes Scully and Mulder redo that night.
Burning in Heaven
No, not asleep. Her head swung around and he was greeted with a smile. "Mulder. You're still here."
He took another step into the room and stopped. A small part of his brain got busy trying to figure out what it was about Scully that calmed him. Simply walking into her room had settled and centered him. He could feel the threat of shattering begin to reverse itself, his pieces coming back together to make a whole. Scully was his glue.
Post Redux II Mulder and Scully process their raw emotions.
@settle-down-frohike/settledownfrohike's
Missing Scenes (1/3, 2/3, 3/3)
“Mulder…are you sure you shouldn’t have someone examine you?“ he waved her off, scanning the floor for her shoes, doing his best not to appear frantic.
Mulder's journey through the final days of the cancer arc. (Scully comforts him in Part 3.)
120 for the drabble prompt
When he returns Scully is ensconced in pale pink silk, drunkenly slurring at her mother that she’s fine. She attempts to reach for the stack of drenched journals, winces, and that is just about enough for Maggie Scully. She enters the bedroom, raises a hereditary eyebrow at the hulking figure trying to decipher a fitted sheet from flat.
“Fox. Thank you. I think I can take it from here on out.”
It’s not Maggie’s style to be brutish or cruel, but she’s tired, and her tone is a bit more clipped than usual. Mulder remains mute, and nods a yes m’am. He gathers the empty Macy’s bag and passes her as she resumes the preparation of the bed. When she exits, he’s sitting crosslegged on the floor, coffee table askew to make room, trying to peel apart pages from The Lancet mumbling, “just a second, I’ll find it...”.
Her daughter’s hands are roving the top of his scalp, petting and combing through his hair like a beloved dog.
Post Tithonus Scully is not exasperated with Mulder's efforts.
Luctus
She looks over at his sleeping form, studies the exaggerated bow of his upper lip, and thinks what a nursing blister it must’ve made. She gazes back down at the somber toddler in the faded image clutching his mother’s leg and sucking his thumb, her with one hand on his scalp, the other cradling her belly. His humanity is real and disconcerting at this moment. All this time, it felt as though she were merely patching up this omnipotent, otherworldly force, acting as an aid to propel him toward an epic destiny. There’s proof before her now that somewhere, he had a beginning.
Post Sein und Zeit Scully cares for Mulder in the aftermath.
5 Pt. AU Prompts
The words “small cell” are anything but small. They are Goliath, and David is no where to be found. She feels the words rather than hears them. Malignant, it feels like quicksand.
AU-- Mulder has cancer; and Scully is ready for war.
Headcanon (Tumblr)
It started after her first disappearance, on a flight to nowhere North Dakota. She was flipping through a dossier and he was dozing, as per usual. She heard a mumbled version of her name and threw a distracted “Hm?” his way without glancing up. “Scully.” Firmer, more forceful this time. She looked over, annoyed, and spat “What Mu-“ and realized he was still asleep, but fitfully so. His breathing was coming in pants, nostrils flared and his brow was beaded with perspiration.
Mulder's name is a comfort to Scully.
@o6666666's (Ao3)
8, 52, or 89!!
“I think you should go home.”
He shrugged, but in the way small boys do when they are lying, and his eyes were wet.
“You need sleep.”
She knew, and he knew, that he had not been sleeping. She pet his hair and he blinked like it hurt to be treated gently.
He shrugged again.
“Don’t lie to me,” she admonished, and pinched his ear so he knew it was only that she cared for him tremendously.
He laughed but it knocked loose some piece of the great thing inside him that hurt and hurt, and in a moment he was crying.
Post Paper Hearts Scully tries to call in Tena Mulder for support.
AU where Mulder is the one who gets sick in season 4 instead of Scully and Is... is it cruel to request more of the Sick Mulder story?
She wipes his mouth with her sleeve.
“Open your eyes,” she whispers, and he blinks and blinks.
“It’s blurry,” he sniffs.
She wraps herself all around him and lays her cheek to his, adopting his vantage point.
“I don’t wanna wrestle,” he says.
“In a second you’ll see the cabinet,” she says. “Just the plain brown cabinet. And our feet, and my other shoes.”
He sniffles.
“Tell me when you see it.”
AU-- Post Terma Mulder has cancer.
I love you prompt 14?
If you asked Scully whether she crashed Mulder’s disciplinary hearing to be his hype man, she’d tell you no.
But she did.
Scully refuses to let Mulder feel chastised.
@mulder-fight-him's Spiderwebs and Butterflies
She doesn’t know what exactly woke her, but blue eyes snap open suddenly and quickly fill with confusion, suprise, and maybe a little hint of love.
Less than two feet away her lanky partner is sprawled out on her bed. At least she thinks it’s her bed. That’s where she fell asleep last night. She gently lifts her head and takes a quick inventory. Yes. Her bed.
S5 Scully lets Mulder stay after a nightmare.
Anne Haynes's (xf-redux) Irrevocable
I watch her walk away from me, and I try to comfort myself with the picture of how life would have been for her had she not been thrust into my world. I try to see myself, sitting on one of the benches outside the Hoover Building, maybe eating lunch on a sunny day, and looking up to see Dana Scully walking down the sidewalk, a beautiful little tow- head little girl clinging to her hand, laughing and whole. I want to see this. I need to see this.
But I can't.
Because in this future, I don't exist. In this future, I am dead a thousand times over because Dana Scully wasn't there to save me.
There is no comfort to be found.
Scully finds Mulder mourning Emily's death.
Chibiness87's Seeing is Believing
He blinks harshly, gaze trapped by her intense stare. Four points of sensation appear on his neck, and he suddenly realises she is digging her nails in, making him focus.
Chocking, he manages to gasp out, “I can’t stop.”
Scully nods, tightening her grip on the nape of his neck. “Can you keep your eyes open for me?”
He squeezes his eyes closed, feeling his chest tighten. “I can’t… I can’t calm down.”
Her voice is the only anchor he has, and he latches on to it. “I’m not asking you to calm down. I’m asking you to look at me.” Her grip changes, making his face tilt more towards her. Her voice is still gentle, but firm. “Look at me, Mulder. Come on.”
Post Kitsunegari Scully guides Mulder through a panic attack.
DanaScully77's Night Hags and Restless Sleep
“Scully, is it bad the pills didn’t work?”
“Yes.” Scully admits, not wanting to lie to him. Her palm strokes through his hair, a normal occurrence for her when she’s tending to him and worried about his health. Much like his hand on her back, his hair is her calming space. “If you don’t sleep within the next twenty-four hours, you’ll need to be admitted to the hospital.”
“ Scully .”
The whine in his voice is almost childish, but Scully doesn’t comment on it. With how little rest he’s gotten, it’s only natural to resort to young behaviors. “I know, Mulder. But your body can’t survive with no sleep.”
Post-case Mulder cannot fall asleep.
saltringangell's the time it would take (to fix my heart)
He doesn’t stop, doesn’t look back.
“Mulder, slow down.”
He swings open the front door to the FBI building, wind whipping his hair back and causing her to practically stumble across the threshold. She lets the cool air sting her face, a nice change from the smoke and fire that licked at her skin just moments prior. Mulder continues down the pathway to his car, a little slower now, but still just enough steps ahead so she can’t see his face.
“Mulder, please, just let me-”
“Just get in the car, Scully.”
Post The End Mulder falls apart.
Emeraldsoleil's Beginning to Thaw
His body rippled against hers as he attempted to put distance between then, but a gasp of pain arrested his progress and he relaxed back against her. "I realize this is an awkward position we find ourselves in, partner, but I, uh...I can't move."
"I'm not surprised. Your muscles are tied in knots. I'll try to get the nurse in her to give you a muscle relaxer. Until then, don't try to move to much. You might tear something." She tugged on his hair again. "Doctor's orders."
"Yes, ma'am," he answered. The silence grew heavy, curling around them in a cloud of frustration.
"What is it, Mulder?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
Fight the Future Scully and Mulder have a conversation at the bottom of the world.
@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s
mondays on an endless loop (Tumblr)
“Scu… ly,” says Mulder. He takes another breath, and he sounds horrible, inches away. His eyes are half-closed.
“Don't try to talk, Mulder,” she whispers. She moves her hand back to his face, brushing his sweaty hair away, touching his cheek, his forehead. She's forgotten everyone else in the bank; it's just the two of them. “Just… just keep breathing, Mulder,” she says. “Hang on, okay? Keep breathing, Mulder, please.”
He doesn't listen, because of course he doesn't. He rasps, “I'm… sorry,” and then his mouth shuts and he says no more. Heartbeats slowing, slowing.
Mulder, Scully, and the endless Mondays that could be (and were.)
Foxsong 's Ruego
The words were easier to say than she had expected, not shattering as she'd thought they'd be. They were sweet in her mouth. "I love you, Mulder," she said again, marveling at how freely it left her lips. "I love you, love you..." It became a chant, a prayer. She whispered it over and over into his ear and felt how it calmed him, how he steadied against her, how his trembling eased. "I love you." It seemed so important to tell him. Why had she waited so long?
He had finally stopped crying, and was still; and she became aware that he was praying with her, echoing her whispered words. "I love you, Scully... I love you. I love you..."
Post Milagro Scully and Mulder alternate their breakdowns and caregiving.
@baronessblixen/Baroness_Blixen's Lucky
I know what I’m doing, Scully,” he told her, amusement apparent in his voice – famous last words,
“I grew up around here, you know.” If only he hadn’t tried to look good while climbing down the steep trail from the cliffs to the beach. Scully told him to take the long, official way. Of course Mulder dismissed her idea as silly and unnecessary. He insisted on walking ahead, naturally, and Scully let him. He was telling her something about crabs when it happened. One moment she watched his head bob up and down while she tried to find the best, least dangerous path, and in the next instant he slipped.
S6 Scully nearly laughs over Mulder's tumble.
@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's
How about a super shippy MSR fic?
Amongst the pain and the fear and the sensory overload, hers is the mind that shines like a beacon in the night.
It is a revelation.
Biogenesis Mulder is comforted amidst the chaos.
@nowwhateinstein's (Ao3) things you said that made me feel real
He pauses, worrying his bottom lip, as if searching for the right words. “It’s what led me to start looking for her. The desire to find her was my coping mechanism, I suppose. Knowing that she’s out there, somewhere, keeps my fear at bay.”
Something - perhaps it’s intuition - urges me to glance at clock on the nightstand. Of course, I realize with a sinking feeling. 11:21pm, November 27, 1998. The anniversary of Samantha’s abduction. Twenty-five years later, and he’s still searching for her.
Scully realizes her partner is "off."
@greekowl87's (Ao3) No One Is Perfect (Tumblr)
She opened the door and saw the television had gone to a late night infomercial with playing in the background on mute. Mulder was wide awake, laying across his couch with legs crossed, staring at some unknown fixed point. She recognized that look. He was lost in his own thoughts, mulling something over, and he needed to be brought back to Earth.
Post Orison Scully assuages Mulder's guilt.
aRcaDIaNFall$'s Longest Night
"I feel lost." It's the first he's spoken in almost forty minutes. I've been silent, too.
I don't speak, just wait for him to go on.
Sein und Zeit Mulder has a hard night.
@incidental-ao3/incidental's Verlust
She held his head against her chest, fingers stroking his hair, and rocked with him. It was instinct, an act buried deep within her, as she breathed in the smell of him and kissed the crown of his head. He hung onto her like a life raft, his weight bearing down on her as she crouched on the floor in front of his chair. When her shoulders and knees began to scream for relief, she gently extricated herself from him and took his hands in hers, encouraging him up out of his seat. He followed without words or hesitation, letting her lead him across his apartment and into the bedroom.
He sat on the edge of the bed with a vacant expression on his face, his eyes a million miles elsewhere. It scared her, seeing him that way, so completely drawn into himself.
Sein und Zeit Scully opens up to help Mulder process.
@bohoartist/Bohoartist's The Healing Power of Touch
Mulder adjusts his body so he is facing ahead and she turns her face to look at him. She can see the shininess in his eyes and understands perfectly well how the grief of losing a loved one creeps up on you in the most random of times. She thinks of the days and weeks after losing Ahab and how her eyes would well up with tears for no discernible reason as the weight of her loss would crash down on her. She thinks of how he would notice her grief but knew better than to say a word in an attempt to comfort her, instead choosing to brush his hand across her back a little more than necessary, or to push a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.
Sein und Zeit Scully keeps vigil.
@writingwell/RocketMan's (xffics) I'll Be Waiting for You
I creep slowly to the sound; I think it's coming from the bathroom.
The door is closed.
I hear . . . the shower running.
I scramble back to my window, the one overlooking the parking lot, and see with relief that Mulder's car is right next to mine.
I must have been too preoccupied to notice it.
Mulder distances himself when emotionally troubled.
@brenayla's (Ao3) 6. He has a nightmare
Scully’s voice says, “Mulder?” She’s groggy; there’s a small, warm hand against his flexed bicep.
He whips around. “Scully?” He echoes, frantically pressing the length of his finger into the divot under her nose.
Scully comforts her partner after his nightmare.
@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack's If She'd Known
Is it a miracle from God or a gift from the devil? Some hellish combination of mad science and corporate greed conspire to rip his lungs to shreds and in doing so, strap him down to a North Carolina hospital bed. Scully is tracking down his other records, his brain scans, when they administer the nicotine or it never would have happened. She’s not there when he is poisoned back to life, but first to death. She never would have left him but… His heart stops for a moment. For a moment he is dead. A moment. Then a minute. A full minute. And then it beats again.
AU-- Scully works hard to save Mulder from his brain disease.
Lolabeegood's (mulderscreek) Five Months Lost (Ao3)
"Mulder," she said softly as she walked toward him and stopped his forward motion. She grabbed his wrists and made him look her in the eyes. "I have been, we all have been, looking for you for over five months."
"Five months?" he said disbelieving.
"You didn't go to the conference in Philadelphia, or spend time with the Gunmen, or feel the baby kick until you put your hand on my stomach this morning," she said softly.
AU-- Post Requiem Mulder is returned with false memories.
@monikafilefan/MonikaFileFan's
Pre-IWTB at the unremarkable house
“Doctor Dana Scully?” he asks, head bowed. “I’m here to see Dr. Scully.”
He knows Scully’s shift ends in twenty minutes so they can leave together after she pokes and prods him to her liking, but the waiting room is packed full with injured people. A man with a rag covering a bloody hand sits by a woman with a red welt on the side of her face where half her hair is singed off. Fireworks are as dangerous as lovesick men on ladders.
The intake nurse arches a bleached brow. “And you are?”
Mulder tugs the brim of his Knicks hat lower on his forehead, a niggle of paranoia creeping up his neck.
A familiar voice interrupts, “I’ll take it from here, Margo, thanks.”
Pre-IWTB Mulder's best laid plans go awry.
@greycoupon's (Ao3) Hello Teacher
“Mulder, if you don’t open up I’m calling 911!” That he knew she wouldn’t actually do...would she? THEY were still looking for him. They had been in the house for almost a year and Mulder had left it exactly twice. They weren’t running his profile on America’s Most Wanted anymore but he was still a wanted man. Scully would never risk exposing him like that unless she had to save his life.
Slowly, as his limbs felt like they weighed 200 pounds, he dragged himself to his feet.
“Mulder!” He could hear her sobbing through the door. Quickly he unlocked and opened it. She had been leaning against it and fell into the bathroom in her rush to get to him.
Scully grabbed him and hugged him tightly.
Pre-IWTB deeply depressed Mulder locks himself in the bathroom.
@msrafterdark's (Ao3)
Can you write a fic where Mulder finds some gray hairs
“I feel old,” He confesses, “I feel…like I’m less of what I used to be, like there’s even less to offer you.”
The teasing is gone; the spark of honesty that always frightened yet thrilled him when they were younger is now alight in her eyes. He can’t help but smile softly at her.
“I love your gray hairs, Mulder,” she murmurs, “I love your frown lines, I love your laugh lines, I even love your achy back.”
Scully catches her partner checking for gray hairs.
@oceanofthesky/noifsandsorbees's open door. (Tumblr)
she leaves the key, leaves a way for him to know that if he can ever do what she couldn’t, if he can pull himself out of his head, that she is still right there.
it’s three months before he uses it. she comes home from a long day of work in the height of summer to him in her bed, snoring lightly under the sheets. she thinks she should be annoyed, that she should tell him that she can’t handle the emotional toll that has become their relationship tonight, but instead she is just grateful to have his warmth to crawl in beside.
Breakup Scully leaves the door open for her partner.
@audriesfic/audries's battle scars
it’s a cry of pain and then her name, curving up at the end to become a near pitiful whine. she’s out of the bathroom and taking the stairs two at a time before he even gets past the the first syllable. she’s never been the creative one, in her family or her marriage, but her mind conjures impressive images of sniper bullets through windows and sudden cardiac arrest. she’s breathless by the time her feet hit the cool tile of the kitchen.
his name is on her lips as he turns to her, one hand covering half his face. he fixes her with one puppy dog eye and pouts, points an accusatory finger at the cabinet where she keeps the glasses. it’s eye level, (because who puts glasses on the top shelf, mulder. how do you expect me to reach?) and he looks as though he’s been terribly wronged.
Revival Scully "heals" Mulder's cabinet injury.
BONUS
The Emergency Room is a site compiling Mulder in distress and Scully taking care of him fics.
Collector's Edition: Happy Birthday,
Dana Katherine Scully
A belated fic list in honor of Scully's birthday.
Loose chronological order below~
@foxmulders/@audriesfic/inkspl0tchess's (Ao3) under neptune
It’s not her birthday.
“But they don’t know that, Scully,” Mulder assures her as he tugs her into the ice cream parlor. It is uncannily warm and smells like sugar and whipped cream.
“I’m not in the habit of lying for no reason, Mulder.”
“You once lied to a courtroom full of people. You lied under oath at a congressional hearing,” he counters.
Eight Scully birthdays.
@syntax6's (Gossamer, FFN, omniscribe)
The Birthday Stories (Scully 1994, Scully 1995, Scully 1997, Scully 1998, and Scully 2000)
He broke off and coughed heavily, and she could see he had pilfered a latex glove from the nearby table.
"Mulder, you shouldn't be--" She broke off as he wheezed into the glove again, blowing it up like a balloon.
He held his hand out for the rubber band. "Give me one," he said, his voice almost gone. When she didn't immediately respond, he made an impatient grabbing motion.
She set a red one in his palm and he twisted it around the base of the glove. Pleased with his efforts, he smiled at it and flicked it back and forth with his fingers. "Ta da!" he said in just the barest whisper. He handed the glove balloon to her. "Happy birthday, Scully."
A collection of Scully’s birthdays post-Young at Heart, post-End Game, pre-Tempus Fugit, post-Kill Switch, and post-Sein und Zeit.
@h0ldthiscat ‘s (Ao3) Unnamed
She’d turned thirty-one last week. Her mother had taken her out to a nice dinner, she’d received cards from the few med school friends she still kept in touch with, and after two glasses of wine she’d fallen asleep on her couch, only to be woken by Mulder calling past two AM. If it weren’t for the birthday cards it could have been any day.
Post-Humbug Scully remembers a lonely birthday.
Ten’s (xffics) Candles of Ice
Scully had forgotten her own birthday before, when doing her killer medical exams. This was different. She was away from home and she didn't even have Mulder. She was stunned and upset and wanted to cry tears of frustration and fear. How could she celebrate?
"I sent some presents up for you in a big box," Maggie continued. "Some from me and some from the rest of the family. Ben made a drawing for Fox to look at as he gets better. Lots of bright colours."
Post-End Game Scully spends her birthday in vigil for Mulder to wake (and calling her mother.)
@lotsoforangesoutside/lots_of_oranges_outside’s
Wednesday 100s (Ao3)
He wanted to make a big deal out of it, so he made sure he didn’t.
Hence, the Hershey’s Bar.
Scully’s 30th birthday.
Friday
"You plan to go to the bank today, Mulder?"
"Nah, I got you. Here," he opened his wallet and handed her two twenties. "I probably don't need to make a trip to the bank until next week. You wanna, um, have your birthday dinner sometime this weekend?"
"I thought we did that already, in Florida?"
"Nope."
Post-Monday Mulder covers Scully’s bank card (and takes her out
to dinner.)
@neednottoneed/neednot’s An Act of Fearful Symmetry
They started towards the truck.
“Oh Mulder, you’re kidding,” she said. “Where’d you even get this?”
“Borrowed it from a family friend down in North Carolina,” he said, adopting an awful Southern accent.
“I didn’t know you knew how to drive stick,” she said as she climbed in, knowing he was laughing at her on the other side as she practically jumped into the seat.
AU-- Post-The List Mulder and Scully eat a picnic, take a tumble, and give in to their feelings.
Whumpay Day 15: self-hatred (Ao3)
Scully is alone in the office in late February, 1996, when there's a hesitant knock at the door. It's Saturday, she's already got plans for the weekend — she's meeting up with Mulder tonight to catch him up on the case she's been studying while he was out complainingly recovering from a sprained ankle, then dinner with her mother tomorrow, because it's her birthday and Maggie wanted to do something.
Post-Pusher Holly wishes Scully a happy birthday.
how to live, not how to cry (Ao3)
When Scully walks into the office on the morning of February 23rd, 1997, she is shoving a reddened tissue into her pocket to throw away when Mulder isn't looking. There is a rhythm to how they go about office days, now, a different one than before her illness. She would have forgotten her own birthday if first Charlie — at far too early, forgetting the time difference between them — and then her mother hadn't called to wish her a happy one. She wishes it could be happier, without the shadow of her impending death hanging over her and reminding her that likelier than not, this will be her last birthday.
AU-- Tempus Fugit Scully tears up over her gift.
@gaycrouton/OnlyTheInevitable’s
Breathe, Pendrell
When he first saw just exactly who Agent Mulder was, he knew he didn't stand a chance. It only got worse when he found out they were married from the office grapevine. "Mr. and Mrs. Spooky are coming for the results on that monster goo." He presumed Spooky was just a nickname because they work on the cool, weird cases, but the Mr. and Mrs. never failed to stab at his heart. Not that he needed that as confirmation really. Anyone who looked at them could tell how close they were, it was how they were when they were together.
Pendrell takes Scully out for her birthday.
34 (Ao3)
"After last year, I figure you deserve to enjoy a birthday sans-governmental conspiracy," Mulder teased. Then, sombering in a way she wasn't used to, he said, "Besides, I'm… I'm really glad you made it to see 34, Scully."
Seeing as 33 was plagued with cancer scares, she knew exactly what he meant. "Me too."
It wasn't until later that night that she realized Melissa was still 33.
Scully outlives her sister.
Quirky
Scully awoke to the sun beaming down at her through the curtains. Looking at her alarm clock she sighed in contentment when she saw 10:10 glaring back at her in red neon. However, her tranquility was extremely short lived. As soon as her head was back on the pillow, she heard a loud crash in the kitchen, followed by a voice grumbling something unintelligible.
Scully’s burglar makes her a Valentine’s Day-birthday breakfast.
sarah_segretti/Sarah Segretti’s Just Send the Card
What if she took that the wrong way? What if she was the sort to see sexual harassment wherever she looked? Heaven knew there were enough women in the Bureau who would. Then again, that partner of hers would have been out on the street by now, from what he'd heard, if she was the sort to mind --
Oh, no. Her partner.
Pre-Tempus Fugit Pendrell drafts a birthday card.
@vgcam/veredgf’s The Gift (Ao3)
Behind him he could hear as Agent Scully was thanking her colleagues for the presents she was receiving. He turned around only to realize he was next in line. He quickly hid the tiny box behind his back. Maybe he could still somehow run out of the lounge and save his face. He looked behind him only to find a rather large gathering, all eagerly waiting to reach the birthday girl. There was no escape route whatsoever.
Pendrell’s bad day goes from bad to worse (and then better.)
joanswritings’s Mulder, the Party Planner
“I haven’t skated in such a long time, want to?” Scully asks.
“I don’t think we have time.”
“Time? We have all night.” Scully says.
“Actually, I have tickets for us for 9:30.”
“For what?” Scully asks.
“It’s a surprise.”
AU-- Scully’s Tempus Fugit birthday isn't interrupted.
Beshter‘s Seasons: Fourth
"For what it's worth, Scully," Mulder murmured against her hair, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head. "Happy birthday."
A deep, body shaking laugh erupted out of her, bittersweet and appreciative. "Thank you. Some birthday, huh?"
"Not one of your finest ones. But hey, at least I wasn't trying to shoot you this time around."
"There is that." She smiled, turning to look up at him. "No Pusher creating havoc, convincing you to turn your gun on me."
His arm tightened briefly, almost spasmodically, before he let her go, rubbing her shoulders briefly before stepping away. "All right, Scully, we got to get out of this burgh and to someplace with food. I'm not about to raid Max's leftovers for sustenance."
Although Season 4 Scully and Mulder battle a long and weary year, there are still bright spots-- be they birthday snowballs or Apollo 11 key chains-- wedged in the madness.
@libbytxf/LibbyT’s My Funny Valentine (Ao3)
It’s a birthday gift and a Valentine all the same. It’s a Sno-Ball and a sparkler at The Headless Woman’s Pub, and it’s his silent regret that he’s lost so many chances to celebrate her birthday already.
In the midst of year-by-year snapshots, Scully has a Tempus Fugit birthday.
@sunflowerseedsandscience‘s (Ao3)
"Things You Said" prompts - Chapter 2
With his ears deadened by the inane chatter of strangers all around him, Mulder almost misses the quiet snick of Maggie Scully’s back door closing. He’s pretty sure there’s only one person it can be, and a quick glance around the room, at all the distant relations and family friends he’s never met- or heard of, even- confirms it for him: Scully’s fiery hair is notably absent. Looking over at Mrs. Scully, he sees her daughter’s exit has not been wholly unnoticed, and with a quick jerk of her chin, Maggie gives Mulder permission to go after her. Which he does. Gladly. He’s a curiosity to these people, Dana’s crazy partner who believes in flying saucers. More a museum exhibit than a real person.
Post-Max Scully withdraws from her family’s celebration.
shannono’s (xffics) Happy 34th
Dana Scully pushed open the door to the office, took one step inside -- and froze in astonishment. A bunch of balloons were attached to the back of her chair, a gaily wrapped box sat on the seat, a card on top of it, and two cupcakes with burning candles in them sat on the table next to her computer.
Standing behind her chair, a silly grin on his face, was her partner, wearing a party hat and holding a blowout noisemaker in his hand.
Mulder and Maggie have their schemes.
@aloysiavirgata/Aloysia_Virgata’s (Gossamer, LJ, WBM) Unnamed
“You accused me of never remembering last year,” Mulder says, attaching a final piece of tape to the HAPPY BIRTHDAY! banner across the back of the boardroom.
Scully turns in a slow, queasy circle. He has sprinkled the conference table with confetti, has put an enormous sheet cake emblazoned with HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPECIAL AGENT DOCTOR DANA KATHERINE SCULLY, MD in the center. The writing is bright purple and rather squished.
Mulder and Skinner conspire on Scully’s birthday.
Malibusunset/Malibu Sunset’s All That is Dark and Bright
Scully looks from one to the other and back again. “Plans? What kind of plans? I’m not invited?”
Grabbing a plate from the cupboard, Mulder scrapes a pile of fluffy yellow eggs onto his plate. “Nope.”
“It’s a secret,” says Emily, her smile nearly leaping off her apple cheeks.
AU-- Post-A Christmas Carol Emily survives, kicking off a whirlwind engagement, wedding, and custody fight jointly spearheaded by Mulder and Scully.
somekindofseizure’s (WBM) Unnamed
She holds the handle on the heavy hotel room door when she goes out for the night, lets the latch slip into its cradle. Mulder is just next door, most likely napping. Her new perfume trails down the hallway, wallpaper hugging the scent of loamy fields and bejeweled queens, neat bespoke suits and desperate paisley bursts of repressed desire.
AU-- Post-FTF Scully flies to London for her birthday (and Mulder
joins her.)
pokeitlikejello’s A Birthday Reset
“Wonderful,” Scully muttered, not that she felt she needed to say anything. Mulder seemed to be speaking more for himself than her, plotting out their day once they arrived.
Scully fumes over having to spend her birthday in manure.
@cecilysass/cecily_sass/Cecily Sasserbaum’s Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like It’s 1999 (Ao3)
“No, you’re stalling. You’re making us late to your own birthday dinner on purpose.”
“What are you talking about?” Dana sighed wearily, examining the jawline of her uninteresting baby face again.
Missy sprung to her feet and leaned over Dana’s shoulder, looking at her reflection in the mirror, whispering playfully in her ear. “You’re waiting for something.”
AU-- Young Scully nervously waits for a birthday call from young Mulder, believing (while afraid to believe) what he’s repeated over the years. (Conclusion to The Boy on the Beach, Ao3.)
@television-overload/ContentsPriceless’s rain (Ao3)
His cheek rests against her damp hair, breathing in the scent of rain and lingering notes of her shampoo, and he closes his eyes, feeling his heart leap in his chest.
"Happy birthday, Scully," he says, and he thinks maybe next time, she won't mind the rain so much.
Mulder and Scully cross that line in the rain and the mud.
@o6666666‘s (Ao3)
Five in One Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3
There is a photo in Mulder’s bedroom, on his dresser, that Scully always lingers over: him at four, maybe five, holding Samantha. She was a big baby, Samantha. He remembers lugging her around to show her matters of importance: worms in the garden or the nest of baby bunnies their mother found once, under the porch steps. He used to sit the baby Samantha on a beach towel on the lawn while he dug, for the two of them, a tunnel to go under the ocean. In the photo they are blonder than they ever were as older children. In the photo no one has tamed the cowlick at his crown. He is nuzzling his sister, smiling. Baby cheek on baby cheek. He doesn’t remember how she smelled—perhaps both of them like sunscreen, or ivory soap, or sweat.
Scully touches the photo now with reverence, as if stroking his cheek.
Mulder makes up for years of missed birthdays.
Untitled
Why are we flying all the way up in the middle of winter, you just came to check on the house last week, and the kid was stowed away at Maggie’s. Had been since they dropped her off on the way to Scully’s grown-ups only birthday dinner Friday night. Earlier Friday afternoon they had come to Scully’s office at the hospital and urged her with kisses and baby arms round the neck and promised lunch at her favorite deli to cancel her afternoon appointments. Scully agreed and returned her kisses, as usual far more agreeable than she pretended to be. Now she stood staring at her boat in island wind, red nosed in his fifteen-year-old barn jacket. She wiped her eyes.
Scully is gifted a boat for her 40th.
@baronessblixen's (Ao3)
I have a 3 sentences prompt
She finds the first few sunflower seeds right by her shoes and doesn't think too much about it. That's Mulder for you. Then she finds more of them in her kitchen on the counter and in the living room next to the remote control.
Mulder leaves a trail for his romantic partner.
Happy Birthday, Baby Girl (Ao3)
“Are you sure?” He holds out his hands knowing how heavy she feels, how difficult it is for her to get up from the couch. She takes his hands and he pulls her up. Her stomach bumps against him.
“I’m so ready for this to be over,” Scully says, sighing. Two seconds on her feet and they’re complaining already.
“You hear that, baby? Do your mommy a favor and get ready, too.”
Post-MSIV's baby has her own timing.
@mappingthexfiles/Apostrophic’s The Law of Large Numbers
Tonight, Mulder was tired, not asleep. Scully placed a dripping dish on the rack by the sink and picked up the next one to scrub with the sponge. What was left of the cake was in a heap on the counter and Mulder popped a bite in his mouth, licking whipped cream and jello off the end of his thumb. “Why’s that your favorite cake?” he asked, mouth half full, as if it had never occurred to him that he should ask her that question. William proved contagious.
“I don’t know,” Scully said. She let a second dish drip. “My mom used to make it. She’d use my favorite jello, and pile strawberries on top. Thank you,” she said, mouth suddenly full with a strawberry Mulder put there. She ate it, swallowed, and said, “I remember Bill hated it.”
Mulder grinned. “Well, that’s reason enough,” he said, but the old rivalry had worn out, it was just something familiar and funny to say.
“We’d have it on the Fourth of July,” Scully said. “And sometimes on my birthday, if we could find strawberries that time of year.”
AU-- Scully, William, and Mulder are together (if cautiously.)
@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys’s Funfetti Universe
“Yeah,” Mulder finally said, clearing his throat. “One second.” He stood up to excuse himself and Scully was worried she needed to go make sure he was okay when he came back to the table carrying three plates. On each, sat a fat, pink Hostess Snoball.
“I was saving these for your mom’s birthday,” Mulder said, winking at his wife. “But I think this calls for a celebration, and these are the only pink things in the house.”
“For now,” Scully said, winking back.
In the Funfetti Universe, Mulder and Scully support their struggling son, learn the gender of their next baby, and celebrate Scully’s birthday.
@melforbes/everdaymsr’s (Ao3, WBM) reazione
“i wrote a research paper on this in undergrad,” she answers the unspoken question. “it was a long time ago, i know, but it stayed with me. you spend so much time focusing on things like this, but they’re just out there, you know? they feel celebrity and unreal. they don’t make you feel as though you can be this close to them.”
she takes her hand back, dries her face on the wool of her coat, leaves a little line of brown mascara on the sleeve.
“i just didn’t expect it to feel this real,” she says. “that’s all.”
For Scully’s 50th, Mulder takes her to Italy.
XSketch’s (mulderscreek) Soledad Para Dos
"Mommy say you gots to stop cwying," the boy sniffled, climbing up onto his father's knee and reaching to wipe the damp, grey-speckled beard. "Mommy upset you upset."
AU-- Mulder and William weather his late-partner’s birthday.
@mollybecameanengineer/Sareki's A Cup of Kindness (Ao3)
It had been easier last year, on the first birthday after she died, because Will had still been home. Mulder suggested they watch The Exorcist , without making reference to Scully. But Will knew his mom’s favorite movie. So they made popcorn and watched, and Mulder held in his tears until after Will went to bed.
He took a big swallow from this drink before writing (in complete sentences with proper punctuation and spelling, unlike his spawn), I love you, Will. Goodnight. After hitting send, the three typing dots appeared from Will’s end, then disappeared. This happened a few more times, like Will was typing and erasing. Finally: u ok?
AU-- Mulder works hard to be the father William needs (but some days, he just needs a listening ear.)
hello! I have a hankering for protective scully. Do you have any fic recommendations? Preferably against mulder's bullies?
Collector's Edition: Dana Scully, Partner and Protector
Couldn't include Bill Scully's bullying on this list because that's a category all its own; but tried my best to scrounge up fics specifically wired around your prompt.
Loose chronological order below~
Beshter’s X-files Seasons
"How was I supposed to know," he murmured in a low voice. "I mean, liver-eating mutants? Do you really still believe...?" She knew that his entire career at the FBI was flashing before Colton's eyes and that he was begging her to see the same reason he saw.
She glanced over at Mulder, who was now speaking with one of the other agents on the scene. "Well, Tom, if you had even considered the remote possibility that there might be something to Mulder's theory, I might still have a front door."
An in-depth fill-in from Scully’s perspective-- winding up to the Pilot and supplanting every loose end with a slice of her consciousness.
@leiascully's (Ao3) Squeeze
The other agents saw only gawky, crazy Mulder, the epitome of all they sought to avoid, dragging down one of their own. They liked Scully, or at least, liked what they could see of her, heedless of the depth of her. They invited her to work with them, as if the Bureau were a junior high microcosm of an adult world. Mulder, disgusted, played the fool. She slid her hand gently up his arm, gentling him with her touch. He was a rogue agent in their eyes. Scully was what kept him from lunging, fractious and unbalanced.
S1 Mulder takes in Scully, the first agent who views him as “more.” (Part of a larger series of ficlets.)
Solia (FFN) Smudge (FFN)
It was so not the time, but from the moment he rubbed his nose with his ink-stained fingers she felt the internal itch to wipe the dark smear away.
People were judging him harshly enough already. Their eyes bore into him like he was dirt; they said his name like it was unclean.
S1 Scully feels pressured to defend Mulder.
@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66's Work Party
“Why aren’t you still up there? Still about a half hour left.”Mulder asks through a mouthful of cake.
Scully rolls her head back and stares at the ceiling, “I just wasn’t enjoying it. Figured I’d have more fun watching you get frosting on every surface in the basement. I’ve got my own little pool going about the most creative places I’ll be finding it for the next few days.”
S1 Mulder realizes Scully's reputation has been tarred with the same brush as his.
@suitablyaggrieved/ScullyLovesQueequeg's Fictober Day 10
“Sir, with all due respect… why can’t I have Scully back?”
“We’ve gone over this, Agent Mulder. We’re a little short on forensic pathologists. You’ll have Agent Scully back in no time. Now do you want to tell me why I’m getting several complaints that you’re making things down there a hostile environment?”
Post Little Green Men Mulder is alone.
Snits's Here, Now
"He's resting his ankle," Scully lied smoothly. A woman on her left, Laura, giggled suddenly, leaning into the conversation. "I saw him, hopping about earlier," she said wickedly, "how'd he do it?"
"Chasing ghosts," Jacobs supplied, provoking laughter. "Ruh-roh, Scully," a man across the table mimicked Scooby-Doo. "Nah, he probably just fell after the aliens let him off the space ship," another woman sniggered, reaching for the wine bottle. "Seriously, Scully, any time you want to be out of that nuthouse, you just mention it," the man beside Jacobs said solemnly, as though he were the voice of reason in the group.
Scully finally understands why Mulder never goes to FBI parties.
Philiater's The Stronger Monster
The strongest, that's what Mulder had said; the monster had taken the strongest of them.
For a moment that comment had dug at her a little bit; a part of her had automatically protested that *she* was strong. But she was a fish out of water in a deep forest.
Detour Scully is willing to be a monster for Mulder.
@starwalker42's (Ao3)
febuwhump day 23: "you'll have to go through me"
As the creature approaches him, creeping forward so slowly it’s almost like it’s biding its time, almost as if it’s enjoying toying with him, Mulder wonders how long it might take to bleed out from a bite wound. Maybe the pain will be strong enough that he won’t make it that long, anyway – maybe he’ll pass out before it gets to that point. Maybe those jaws will tear right through him, and he won’t feel anything but a flash of pain and the sensation of his body being ripped apart.
Bang! A cloud of dirt flies up into the wolf’s face, and it turns away, whining in surprise. After a moment of confusion, Mulder realises someone’s fired a gun.
Scully stares down a wolf.
Anonymous's (mulderscreek, annex-files) Silence, Sea and Sky
Dana Scully watched her partner closely but his face betrayed no emotion. If she didn't know him so well she wouldn't have noticed the tiny tremble of his hands, the dull look in his usually expressive eyes.
Mulder (and Scully) is invited onto a case where he has to work alongside an old VCU foe.
@o6666666's (Ao3) Phoebe takes a job at the fbi
“Mulder is incredibly passionate.”
“He’s myopic. Small-minded for anything that’s ever shown him tenderness.”
“I think he’s a genius.”
“Do you show him tenderness, Agent Scully?”
With that, Scully shoves her chair back from the table.
AU-- Phoebe Green is back, as an FBI agent.
@wendelah/wendelah1/avesuvianface’s (Gossamer, Live Journal) When light is put away
While Mulder stepped into his trousers, she walked over to the window and peered out through the shattered glass. "There's no sign of it—him—anywhere."
Mulder nodded. Whatever he was, man or monster, Pincus moved fast. He pulled a T-shirt over his head.
"This time—" Her voice was firm. "—I'm not leaving here without you."
Folie a Deux Mulder is rescued by one Dana Scully.
Dawn’s (Ao3, Gossamer) Broken (Ao3) and Restored
I turn around to face the now-thoroughly-irritated
officer. "Agent Mulder has been through quite an ordeal
tonight and is feeling under the weather. I'm taking him back
to the motel now. We'll come down to the station tomorrow
and you can finish asking your questions."
The kid can't be more than twenty-five, baby-faced and lacks
the self-assurance of Detective Webster. Still, he actually
scowls and opens his mouth to argue with me until I flash
him what Mulder refers to as "The Look."
Folie a Deux Scully and Mulder's thoughts after the bug flees and the cops show up.
Wylfcynne's Imagine
"You aren't getting free until we have a clear MRI," she said calmly.
Mulder exploded in rage, screaming, cursing, struggling violently. On the status monitor, everything began to escalate. Three Project doctors came running in, alerted by the system alarms, and stopped, awed at the violence they were witnessing.
Post S.R. 819 Mulder and Scully are captured while on a Kersh detail; and Scully must break out, somehow sound the alarm, and purge Mulder from a black oil invasion.
@baronessblixen's (Ao3) imagine some other agents playing a trick on Mulder
"I was getting coffee for us and then this one guy, Agent Peters, he said I didn't need to bother because, because," he stops, panic slipping back into his voice. Scully squeezes his hand to let him know she's here. "Because you were in a car accident and that... that you were... didn't look good." Tears fall from his eyes as he looks up at her. The way his bottom lip quivers breaks her heart.
Mulder rushes down to the basement, distraught.
Pattie's They Call Him AGENT Mulder
"I guess you're not too proud of me today, Scully. Sorry I reacted the way I did."
"Don't be sorry," I told him, as we got into the car. "He had it coming. It was a rotten thing for him to do to you."
S6 Mulder and the various methods of aggravation fellow FBI agents use.
LuminousPie's
Five Times Mulder Got Injured and One Time Scully Did
She looked up and frowned, debating whether to answer. She much preferred it when Diana didn’t speak. “I was just thinking about how many times Mulder has been in the hospital in the last 5 or so years.” She didn’t allude to her own ailments. She suspected Diana already knew.
Diana put down her magazine and crossed her arms, “Is it a lot?”
“I’ve lost count.”
“Mulder was never injured when I was with him.”
Various Mulder injuries through the years.
What Goes Up Must Come Down.
She whispers softly in his ear as she assesses him, “It's going to be okay Mulder, I’m right here.” She almost calls him ‘sweetheart’ but it’s not just Diana that stops her, it's the fact she also has to be a doctor now.
Mulder and Scully try to hide their secret relationship from Diana while all three are trapped in a malfunctioning elevator.
@seek-its-opposite (Ao3) nothing to hide (Ao3)
"Your irresponsible theories nearly got my officer killed, Agent Mulder.” The sergeant gestures at the crack house, the door splintered on the floor. “To say nothing of how my department looks on camera for taking you seriously.”
“But you did take him seriously.” Agent Scully’s voice sharpens to a stiletto point. Her partner absorbs chaos; she refracts it.
Post X-Cops Scully is incensed when the local cops lay blame at her partner's feet.
ScullyLikesScience's He is the Master of His Fate, She is the Captain of Her Soul
Mulder and Scully sat in their rental car in the parking lot of the Sheriff’s department. She sat, shaking her head. What a waste of a perfectly good weekend. He cleared his throat. “Okay, so he was actually crazy. For real crazy. Do you think the Phoenix bureau called me as a joke?”
Scully sighed, clicked one of the overhead lights, and opened the file on her lap.
Spanning from Amor Fati to IWTB, this series tracks the growth Mulder and Scully experience as they come into their own.
@neednottoneed/neednot's Unnamed
What she can't get over is the staring.
Mulder keeps tapping his fingers on the table. They sit across from each other, her foot occasionally brushing his, and it really does feel like everyone in the building is watching them.
Post all things Scully decides to hold Mulder's hand at the FBI.
@brenayla's (Ao3) midnight gold and moon shadows
Scully brushes past the group to get to the trash can, where she tosses a paper takeout coffee cup.
Agent Chang nods at her in greeting. “Agent Mulder,” he says with all the confidence of a recent Academy grad.
The being before him gives a wary look.
“It’s Scully, actually.” Not cold but certainly not friendly either.
Mulder and Scully, cryptids.
@mldrgrl's (Ao3) Tumblr drabble prompts of various shades of MSR
She heard laughter as she approached the door to the office. A cluster of agents surrounded Mulder’s desk with handfuls of files, laughing together. One of them was wearing a hat that was clearly not his own. Scully bristled. Her heels struck the ground with angry blows as she strode across the room.
“Take it off,” she said, holding her hand out to the agent with a withering glare.
S8 Scully will not stand for Mulder mockery in his absence.
Gina Rain/gina rain's Circular File
They were all assembled around the conference table. Creative bookkeeping couldn't solve some of the problems that appeared in the past year's budget. Explanations had to be given. Even Agent Scully had to attend to justify costs that were incurred during her time with the X-file division. She entered the conference room and some people stopped talking and looked up at her and then, with small smiles or sidelong glances, resumed their rapt attention of the closed files in front of them.
But Agent Scully did not sit down.
AU-- S9 Scully is having a hard time letting the FBI go (or, as she realizes, go without speaking her mind.)
@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's Three Part Harmony (Ao3)
“ --der ,” he heard, in what was unmistakably Scully’s voice. But he didn’t hear her voice with his ears, but rather in his head, where the buzzing was emanating. It was remarkably similar to when he could hear others’ thoughts, pushed into what bordered on madness by an alien craft. But this didn’t feel like lunacy; it was warm and euphoric.
“ Mulder, ” he heard again in Scully’s voice, this time more clear, the buzzing lessening. “ Is that you? ”
AU-- Mulder and Scully save their son while on the run; and the three of them continue perpetually forward with the FBI on their heels.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
@scenes-in-between/scullywolf's TXF: Scenes in Between (Tumblr)
One scene per episode: Mulder and Scully and the mysteries they encounter.
@cecilysass's (Ao3, Gossamer) The Boy on the Beach (Ao3)
Post Amor Fati Scully is trapped in the past-- and believes she can save Mulder's future by sacrificing her own.
Keleka’s Gray Ghosts
Post Theef– Mulder, Scully ,and TLG investigate the violent deaths of the 47th Brigade. As Mulder plunges headlong into the alternate dimension of a vengeful demon (undeterred by his earlier proposal and recent injury at the hands of a possessed soldier), Scully grapples with her faith in religion, her father, and her military-- all of which comes to a head when she witnesses a cathedral full of praying ghosts.
Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane’s (Ao3, mulderscreek)
An Acceptable Level of Happiness (Site)
AU-- Post Requiem Scully is helping Mulder adjust to a world post-trauma. Fatherhood may be a breeze, but ptsd, triggers, and others' judgments are not.
Shooting Star (Gossamer, mulderscreek)
AU-- Post Requiem Mulder is returned to "his angel" seventeen years later, waking to an addled brain, clone confusion, and a distant son.
And last but not least: long-form fic series spanning the first nine seasons of the show.
