@cecilysass's tags here reminded me of an older Spotnitz quote.
April 25, 2011:
Q: How important is the relationship to the fans for you?
FS: I think The X-Files was the first series to have a deep relationship with its fans via the Internet. While we were writing the show, I’d frequently check out the newsgroups, and then the message boards, to see how fans were responding to the stories. Especially with the mythology episodes, it was incredibly useful to see what ideas were landing and which weren’t. In one instance, a fan’s question about the aftermath of Melissa Scully’s death inspired a two-part episode (Piper Maru & Apocrypha).
Mulder and Scully go feed some ducks, which should not be interesting at all, but IT IS. So is Mulder telling Scully a story she already knows. That's some magic fic writing! Also check out the author's commentary about the title.
Title: Not Orpheus, Not Eurydice
Author: cecily_sass (@cecilysass)
Summary: She suggests going to feed the ducks on the river. It surprises them both, because it isn’t a very good idea. He parks the car without hesitation. Looks over at her. “Okay,” he says. “Let’s do it.” Season 5, some time not long after Redux II and before Christmas Carol.
Length: 3,728 words
Classification: cancer arc, songfic
Rating: Teen and up
Spoilers: Redux II
Favorite line: She thinks this is probably a questionable category of touching Mulder: a category that is eminently understandable when one is dying, but not easy to explain, exactly, once one is surviving again.
Read the story!
been craving some penitent m&s lately. do you have a list of fics with either m or s apologetic/repentant/remorseful ya know, all the good stuff? one i love is 'careful' by mldrgrl it's so satisfying and scratches that angsty itch
Collector's Edition:
The En Ami of My Enemy Is My Friend
I tried to take this in many different directions; but En Ami recs panned out as the cleanest option. What can I say? They demanded their due.
Loose chronological order below~
Beshter's Seasons: Seventh
Scully had never seen Mulder so angry with her in all of their long partnership together. She had seen him angry enough to kill before, but that anger was never at her, annoyed to the point of shouting, or screaming, or sulking even, yes, but never like this. It was never to the point of the utter silence, the icy thick, frozen wall that sat between them as she perched on the edge of his couch, nor had it ever become the careful avoidance of hazel-green eyes, so pinpoint hard in an expression, dark and unmoving. That he would be angry with her, she had no doubt, but this? Hadn't he understood what she was doing? After all of the times he had run off, half-cocked, on schemes of his own, how could he possibly be this angry with her?
Following Scully and Mulder through S7, this fic tracks what led to En Ami (and what was its fallout.)
@scullywolf's (Ao3) En Ami
Initially, I thought the worst part of this whole thing was seeing the disappointment and anger on Mulder’s face. At first I felt indignant (Who was he to talk, given the number of times he’s run off on his own?), but after the blank disc and the empty office, I started thinking maybe he was right to be disappointed in me.
And then it seemed the worst part was having been so thoroughly played for a fool.
AU-- Mulder, Scully, and CSM's reflections before, during, and after (Mulder's brain disease is mentioned.)
@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack's Milford (Ao3)
“How do you take your coffee?” He is smiling like nothing has happened, like an innocent old man.
She can’t look him in the eye. Her stomach squeezes. She says nothing, but walks to the phone that hangs on the wall beside the refrigerator. Her fingers tremble, but she dials without hesitation.
AU-- En Ami Scully abandons the mission.
@cecilysass/cecily_sass/Cecily Sasserbaum's False Front (Ao3)
He suspects the smoking man likes the idea of Mulder, his supposed son, uncovering this. He probably got some sick little thrill imagining Mulder discovering Scully’s tawdry secret online relationship. Look, Mulder, your loyal girl betrayed you. What an extra little zing that must give him. In addition to the heady exhilaration of murdering his son’s adored partner.
Mulder slams his palm down on the steering wheel angrily.
En Ami Scully returns, victorious-- until she realizes the disc is empty.
Donna’s (Gossamer, mulderscreek) Destroying Trust (Gossamer)
He won‘t even look at me, but I can feel his anger wash over me. No, not anger, disappointment. He’s so horribly disappointed in me he can’t even speak it. He won’t even come into the room with me, standing there in the entrance, his hands holding onto the doorframe, holding him away from me.
En Ami's Scully's thoughts when the disc turns up blank.
@brenayla's (Ao3) ālea iacta est
A few weeks later, in a freshly abandoned office building, Scully feels foolish for ever hoping that a cure promised by a devil could be true.
Mulder demands to hear the details of her road trip and stays dangerously silent throughout Scully’s retelling of the 118 year old lady, the dinner, the man on the boat.
When she’s finished, he runs a hand over his face. “Is this payback? Were you trying to get back at me for what I said in Winslow?”
Post-Millennium Mulder and Scully start loosening the rules of their relationship.
DaniPayson's Was it Worth It?
Thirty-two minutes, and we were closer to my apartment now. Soon he would drop me off and drive off angry. How long would this continue? To eat away at him, to eat away at the bond we had formed over the last seven years.
Post-En Ami Scully and Mulder have a necessary conversation.
@mldrgrl's (Ao3) Divide and Conquer
Finally, she fumbles for the door handle and steps out of the car, one foot at a time, knees weak. She doesn’t remember getting from the car into her apartment, only that one moment she was there and the next she was running a bath, sitting in the darkness of her bathroom next to a single flickering candle.
Post-En Ami Mulder drives Scully home.
Shoshana's Pop Psychology
She's exhausted. Whatever sleep she's gotten in the last forty-eight hours could never be enough to compensate for the kind of stress she's been under. I glance over at her and see her eyelids flutter closed.
She can't possibly be alert enough to drive herself home so I double park my car behind hers and say, "Scully... let me have your car keys."
Post-En Ami Mulder won't leave his partner alone.
Trixie's (Whispers Of X) Your Love Like Thunder
This, like so many things between she and Mulder, was a moot point, one she didn't want to argue with him. The longer they drove, the less she thought of C.G.B. Spender and his motives. The longer they drove, the more she thought of the confrontation that was surely to come.
He was so angry.
Post-En Ami Scully and Mulder explore his anger (and she realizes he needs reassurance.)
@heartbash's (Ao3) As Friends
At that, she scoffed. “Yes, I do know exactly how it feels because you’ve done it to me countless times,” she said, pursing her lips and shaking her head in disbelief.
Undeterred by her rebuttal, he said, “This is different.”
“How is this different?!” she exclaimed, indignant.
Suddenly his expression shifts from frustration to something softer. His eyes darted away. That’s when it hits her.
Post-En Ami Scully won't apologize, but comes to understand Mulder's perspective.
Diana Battis's Iconoclasm
I'm a fool, she thought, pinching the bridge of her nose with trembling fingers. I trusted the devil.
Post-En Ami Mulder soothes Scully's guilt.
@greekowl87's (Ao3) Want (Ao3)
“The man who gave the chip that put my cancer in remission! The chip that almost cost me my life at Ruskin Dam,” I countered. “The chip we know nothing about! I am tired, Mulder! I am tired of not knowing and I don’t want to feel like this tomorrow and the day after that.”
I watched his poker face remain emotionless but something flickered in his hazel eyes. Even when he refused to give any clue as to what he was thinking, his eyes were literally a peek into his soul. I just wish I knew what he was feeling. I sighed pointlessly. This was becoming pointless.
Post-En Ami Scully gives Mulder some space.
haphazard method's As We Forgive Those
"No. The machine'll get it." But he looked at them like he was looking through them, like he could see whoever was calling standing just behind them. When the answering machine clicked on and a woman's voice began speaking, he bolted out of his chair.
"Mulder, it's me. I know you're angry at me but you have to let me explain why I went with him. I thought--" Her voice was cut off when he flipped the volume down without picking up the phone.
Post-En Ami Mulder has an unexpected conversation with door-to-door religious women.
Tess's (Ao3) Sounds of Silence
"I'll tell you who I'm not," I begin slowly. "I'm not Diana."
Mulder inhales sharply and stares at me.
Post-En Ami Mulder enforces the silent treatment.
httpspotter's Alien boy
She pulled him closer, caressing his back, hugging him. “Shhh… It’s okay, Mulder, I’m okay. We’re okay.” Scully kissed his shoulder, and then separated a bit, now holding his face in her tiny hands. “I’m sorry.”
“That you acted behind my back?”
“No,” and he smiled, of course she wouldn’t give up of being right. “That you were worried. Next time, I will set up a lie with my mom so you won’t ever know anything.”
Post-En Ami Scully and Mulder discuss their double standards and fears lovingly.
Lovesfox's Rifts
Despite the fact she had spurned his help just seconds ago, she fully expected Mulder to bring her a towel. Or to try and help her onto the couch or into his bathroom.
When no such aid came, she mumbled his name questioningly, tasting blood in the back of her throat. It made her gag.
Post-En Ami Mulder won't talk; and when forced, accidentally injures Scully (unawares) before he takes off.
Elanor G.'s Yo Creo (Gossamer)
"Seems like only yesterday that you were swallowing messianic claims of miracle cures," says Mulder. "But today, you lump it all together with witch doctors and snake charmers and New Age healers with crystals."
Where did that come from? "That's not fair, Mulder." She speaks to the window. Mulder gives her another dark look before returning his concentration to the wet pavement.
Post-En Ami Mulder and Scully finally apologize after a harrowing case.
@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's
87 Shades of Black (1/3, 2/3, 3/3)
I can't understand why she's still acting as if at any moment I'll leave her to fend for herself, and the child that's growing inside her.
And then it hits me.
She doesn't know that *I* know about the baby. And she thinks that because of what Diana said, that I won't want it. That I won't want her, and that I'll hate her for it.
AU-- En Ami plays out very differently: Mulder is offered one chance to get his partner back. One chance at a new life (in more ways than one.)
spookycc's High Praise
"Mulder, can you hear me?" Scully needed to make contact, to let him know she was there with him. She needed to see the light in his eyes. To know that he was still here with her, as well.
Post-En Ami CSM uses Gibson to trap Mulder and Scully.
Andrea's (xphilefic) Once Bitten
"Hi, Mulder, it's me." I smiled at the familiar greeting. "I can't make it this afternoon. Something's come up; a family emergency. I'll call you when I can."
Was this some kind of sick joke? I replayed the message; it was definitely Scully. The message was not exactly the same as the one she had left a few short months ago, but hearing those words... 'family emergency', almost took my knees out.
Post-En Ami Mulder mistakes Scully's family emergency.
@gaycrouton/OnlyTheInevitable's Those Who Wait (Ao3)
The only reason she hadn't started crying last night was because Frohike, Langly, and Byers were there. Though, by the looks of contrite pity on their faces, she might as well have been. Mulder had callously told her that the Gunmen would give her a ride home and she should take the night to put her head on straight.
Mulder and Scully face struggles and successes together through the years-- one of which includes his withdrawal post-En Ami.
ML/ML_is_me/ml_griffonnage's (Ao3, site) Though you do anything, he thinks no ill (Gossamer)
He nods to the floor, raking his hands through his hair, back and forth. "I'm sorry, Scully," he mumbles. "I was selfish, letting this happen. And I guess I thought at first that it would pass..."
He hears the squeak and sigh of the leather as Scully rises and approaches him. She kneels in front of him, and places her cool hands on his head, kissing him. "I'm so sorry," she says tears thickening her voice again. "I really wanted this for you. I really hoped..."
"I know you did," he says, looking up at her so she can see the tears swimming in his own eyes.
AU-- En Ami Mulder understands Scully wanted to cure him.
@amplifyme/wonderland/Lydia Bower's Quonochontaug (Ao3)
“Mulder… Mulder what are you doing?”
“End of the road, Scully. Just tying up loose ends.”
She dipped her head and accepted the inevitable. She’d been afraid from the onset that his fragile peace wouldn’t last. Had felt the unsettled aura that’d enveloped him the last few months, the indigo shimmer of his dissatisfaction.
She knew it was in small part her unfortunate adventure with CGB Spender; the full details of which she’d chosen not to disclose to him. But Mulder had discerned her flimsy ploy and instead of pressing her, meted out punishment by withholding his affections.
Post-En Ami Mulder sorts through the past in Quonochontaug.
prufrockslove’s (Gossamer, Colonization HQ) Alienated
All the ova – Mulder had been very specific about that. Not just many, but all; there was no way she could get pregnant the old-fashioned way, and the IVF had failed almost a year ago. Had Cancerman done something to her? The ultrasound indicated she was about four months pregnant, but the baby could be developing more rapidly than normal if it wasn't fully human.
AU-- Post-Requiem Mulder is returned, with extraordinary abilities, while Scully quietly balances her pregnancy secret and what the future of their partnership looks like.
nevdull's Timber (1/3), Timber (2/3), and Timber (3/3)
He ducked down a bit to meet her face-to-face. "We're not sure of anything, Scully. The Gunmen, Skinner, they might be okay."
"I know." Mulder knew too -- he knew that she was lying and it wasn't for the first time lately, but this was hardly the moment to press that particular case. Instead, he turned the television volume back on.
AU-- Colonization is looming; the answer to prevent is-- so Mulder, Scully, Krycek, Marita, and the Consortium believe-- was on the disc CSM destroyed.
CONCLUSION
Hope this itches that spot, too. If not, report back and I'll try to get a more specific list out!
I always feel like Mulder doesn't get enough/any comeuppance for the whole Diana arc. I know you have a list of Diana fics but do you have any specific recs for where he is truly made to suffer consequences?
Collector's Edition: One Son's Repentance
I believe Mulder's suffering and consequences were meted out in Biogenesis-Amor Fati: circumstances which forced him to confront and reform the cracked foundations in his psyche.
That aside: there weren't any on-screen scenes that addressed One Son's rift, now were there? And while the writers and actors and crew barreled onward towards more laughs and light times, viewers were left a bit short-changed, I'd say.
Which is what fanfic's for, isn't it?
Loose chronological order below~
@baronessblixen's
Never Cold With You By My Side
Her anger dissipates as she catches sight of Mulder in that too-small bed, looking like a giant sleeping in a dwarf’s bed. There’s half a smile on his face and a hopeful gleam in his eyes that disarms her. Tonight, it’s not enough. It may not be his fault that they’re locked in here, but when push came to shove, he chose Diana, the path of least resistance.
“I want to sleep,” she says, squashing whatever hope he might have had of making her laugh with his jokes tonight. “It’s been a long day,” she adds.
AU-- Mulder and Scully spend a night in Fort Marlene.
Mulder gets really mad at Scully for running from their feelings
“Look at me, Scully."
"No.”
“Why not?”
“I’m giving you privacy.”
“I didn’t ask for privacy. I don’t want privacy.” I want you, his mind screams.
“Well, why don’t you ask Agent Fowley back then. I’m sure she’d love to keep you company.” Before he can utter another word, she passes by him and walks out without a glance back.
One Son Mulder and Scully are at cross-purposes.
Fictober Day 18: At The Crossroads
“This isn’t just about us stranding here, is it?” She doesn’t answer. “Is it because of-”
“It’s not,” she says too quickly.
“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
“It’s not because of anyone,” she says, turning to him and staring straight into his eyes. She won’t say the other woman’s name. She’s not important. “It’s because of me.”
“You don’t want to be doing this anymore.” Mulder lets go of her arm as though burned by her touch.
Post-One Son tensions are heightened by a broken-down rental and scorching temperatures.
Making Progress
“No, Diana. That was all you.” Mulder’s voice picks up, is louder now over the fake laughter on the screen. “No, I did not. Not once.” If only Scully could hear Diana’s side of the conversation. Mulder is quiet, appears to listen. He sighs once, runs his hand over his face.
“Scully is my partner, Diana.” Scully stands up straight, takes her lower lip between her teeth, worrying it. She should not be here, should not be listening in on this private conversation. But why can’t she leave?
Arcadia Scully overhears Mulder's phone call.
In Sickness And in Health (Ao3)
The waitress wanders off, leaving Mulder and Scully alone with their thoughts and their silence. He starts playing with the salt and pepper shakers, his hands unable to stay still. Scully wishes she had something to say. Anything. She watches and waits for the waitress and their food. Her stomach is in knots. She knows it’s not just because she hasn’t eaten anything in a while. It’s because of whatever is happening between her and Mulder. She wants things to go back to normal, but she still flinches when he touches her. The way he treated their first case back still leaves a sour taste in her mouth. The way he treated her, as his wife, even more so.
Maybe they should have sent Diana with him.
Post-Arcadia Scully and Mulder draw back together when she's hit with a nasty case of food poisoning.
@queeenpersephone/light_loves_the_dark's
wishbone
If Diana’s a liar, then Scully will be the only person to hold him without hurting him. And as much as he loves her, the idea that only one person has ever loved him without ulterior motives is almost unbearable. Is he that hopeless? Is he that unloveable?
He’s ready to bark at Diana to give them a minute when Scully catches him by the wrist, and the fact that she’s still willing to touch him makes him hate everything a little less. He wants to touch her too: everywhere. To climb over her and into her and block out the past few months in the solace of her body. For now, he settles for turning back to her without a second thought to Diana, watching as she breathes in and out before speaking. “If you love me,” she says carefully, her voice breaking on love, “prove it.”
One Son Scully refuses to join Mulder and Diana.
in this metallic silence
“It has been six years,” Scully says quietly, like she is empty. Like she has lost a fight that he didn’t even know they were having. Lost a war while he has been on a different battlefield altogether. “If I am still just assigned to you, I should go.”
Post-One Son Mulder's trust in Diana is finally torn away after Scully is injured in the field.
Erin M. Blair's
Never Me
Does he trust me?
Sometimes, I wonder.
One Son Scully is fed up with the lies and deceit.
Mistaken Moments
"Are you going to quit?" asked Mulder.
"Is that what you think I should do?" inquired Scully. Her eyes flashed with anger at Mulder. "Sometimes I don't think you really trust me. You have droned on and on about how not to trust other people but then you placed your trust with Diana Fowley. And I wonder why." Mulder and Scully were both in the elevator towards the basement office. As Scully watched the floors go by, she turned towards Mulder, "I wonder why you trust her."
Post-One Son Skinner has to facilitate a vacation for his emotionally bruised agents.
@minuete-blog's Done
“No. We’re done. I’m done.” She looked at him slightly wide-eyed, stunned at her remark seeing the mirrored expression on Mulder’s face. Did she genuinely feel that way?
One Son Scully reaches her limit.
@contrivedcoincidences6/Spooky66/geektime66's Things you said #10 (Ao3)
He sees her there, still in her car but she doesn’t see him. Scully’s face is in her hands and her shoulders are shaking. The need to run and comfort her overwhelms him. He can count on one hand the times that he’s seen her cry.
Before he can second-guess himself he knocks on her window, startling her.
One Son Mulder promises to verify Diana's trustworthiness.
Diadem's
Scene 15 - Winner Takes All
Some little part of you must know that I love you. I never told you, it wasn't really necessary. But I'll be there when you fall, Mulder, and as always I'll be right beside you to pick you up again.
One Son Scully doesn't know what Mulder sees in Diana.
Maybe and Movement With Time
id he ever find me useful? Were my theories, my versions of events ever taken seriously, or was I simply around for amusement value? Did he ever find me attractive, as a woman, rather than a gun-toting authority figure? I thought he did. Maybe he didn't.
Post-One Son Scully navigates her complicated feelings with distance, looking for evidence of Mulder's loyalty and devotion.
Dianora's Impasse
The ride back from the Air Force hangar passed in tension-laden silence, none of the passengers in the car ready to discuss what they had seen, or the carnage they had witnessed. Despite her inner turmoil, Scully half-dozed for much of the ride, the physical and mental exhaustion of the past 24 hours finally catching up with her. She was looking forward to a long hot bath and then a good night's sleep, but when Skinner pulled up in front of Scully's apartment building, Mulder got out of the car too.
"What are you doing?" she asked, slamming the car door shut.
"I'm going in with you, so we can talk."
One Son Mulder stubbornly clings to Diana's friendship, forcing Scully to prod the limits of his loyalty.
Vehemently's Rainbow Sign
Agent Spender matched his white dress shirt, the arterial red a startling speckle on skin and cloth alike. Mulder noticed the gauze padding that blood was gluing to the man's ribcage. Scully, who had worked hard to forget her rotation in emergency medicine, saw instead the face upturned, nostrils gaping and half-open eyes revealing only the whites.
They stood together like that, in the hallway, while the elevator took on its passengers and began to close. Before the doors had closed all the way, the paramedics began shouting to each other. There was just a glimpse to be had of a man climbing astraddle the gurney before the doors were shut and all they saw were their own dull reflections.
Post-One Son Mulder pieces together the breadth of Diana Fowley's duplicity.
@is-on-its-way/Ophelia_is_a_nun's In the name of the Father, the Skeptic and the Son (Ao3)
He did have to talk to Scully. The stooges had been a little bit right. He had been a jerk at their place. But not because Scully might have been wrong, because he had so much else on his mind that seemed so dire at the time. Preventing an invasion of colonist aliens for one. That when she’d made it clear she didn’t trust his judgement, it had been the last straw for his patience. But he’d been dismissive and mean in a way he’d never been with her. He’d hurt her, and he was terrified she would leave him for good. He needed to try to make this right.
Mulder, Scully, and the aftermath of One Son.
JLB's Car Ride
We haven't spoken for the last ten minutes, but I will not be the one to break the silence. I refuse to give in first even though I know that this entire situation is strange and I should make allowances. I'm driving Skinner's car, which he graciously offered to us since he had to stick around and oversee the official investigation. Part of me wishes I that I had insisted on staying, that I had just let Mulder take the car and go by himself. I could have caught a ride with someone else later. But then I would have been avoiding the inevitable, not confronting this head on. Not like I'm actually confronting anything now, but at least we're sitting in the same car, even if it is in complete silence.
But I refuse to speak first. I will not do it. For a variety of reasons. Yes, I'm still angry with him.
One Son Scully and Mulder are goaded into tears and confessions.
@all-these-ghosts/all_these_ghosts's what happened in the scene at the Lone Gunmen between Mulder and Scully in Two Fathers/One Son?
“I went to her apartment,” he says. For a moment his eyes lose focus, and she goes very, very still. “After what you said at the Gunmen’s. I went to see if I could find any evidence that she…that she’s what you say.”
She can’t keep the hope out of her voice. “Did you?”
“No.” And the hope evaporates. “But while I was there, the Smoking Man stopped by.”
Her eyes flash up to his. “At her apartment?”
“He said he was looking for his son,” Mulder says, “but I don’t—I don’t know anymore. Diana didn’t seem surprised by any of it. Not the fact that he was there, not the fact that the world as we know it was about to end.”
There are so many things she wants to ask him, but she stays quiet, waiting for him to go on.
Post-One Son Mulder and Scully are reinstated.
Vesalius's The Estrangement of Shared Purpose
At the sound of her voice, Mulder stopped and looked up. Scully solemnly held his gaze for a moment, and then spoke again.
"And if we..." she paused briefly, placing emphasis on the "we", "are going to look for answers, we need to talk."
Mulder stiffened, blinked slowly, and said quietly: "About?"
"About our ability to continue working together."
"Are you saying you want to quit?"
"No. I'm saying I have concerns about our ability to work together effectively as partners."
AU-- Post-One Son Scully's frustration forces Mulder to open up about his past.
Brandon D. Ray's There But By the Grace of God
Diana. How could I have been so wrong about her? How could I have failed to see the signs? Especially when my own partner, the one I have come to trust as no other, my one in five billion, kept trying to get through to me, kept rubbing my nose in the unpleasant facts that I didn't want to see, didn't want to hear, didn't want to know. How could I have been so blind?
Scully... I'm so sorry.
Post-One Son Mulder's contemplation.
Shoshana's Breathing Room
Mulder glanced through the peephole, saw Scully, and threw open the deadbolt. The knock had sounded familiar but he'd been nervous all day since young Spender's blood was found in their basement office. He was less concerned about Diana's whereabouts, not wanting to dwell on her betrayal.
He didn't want to think about his ex-partner and sometime friend because he didn't want to face Scully.
Post-One Son Mulder and Scully have an honest conversation about his guilt.
Jennifer Brady's Laughing Out Loud
"That's it? I sign this, and we're back?" I ask, running my fingers over Mulder's jittery scrawl.
He smiles a bit and nods. "That's it,"
I quickly grab a pen and try to unwrinkle the paper. Mulder's right behind me, I can feel his breath. All of a sudden, I am struck with a realization. If this is going to happen, it's going to be on my terms.
AU-- Post-One Son Scully seizes an opportunity to forge her own conditions.
@agent-troi, @tofuttim, and baronessblixen's Eden
Mulder’s arms wrapped around her completely, like he was afraid she would escape.
“What are you doing, Mulder?” she whispered.
“I…” his voice was tight, unsteady. “I need you to be still for a moment, to let your guard down and hear me. Can you do that?”
“Okay…” Scully said cautiously, realizing the warmth and pressure of his wrapped arms instantly brought her comfort.
“I’m sorry.”
AU-- Post-One Son Scully is furious over the events of the past few days (if not years.)
@alienbaby-babymama's 12 Days of Ficmas (Ao3)
He didn’t want to believe it.
“You told me you loved me.” Diana barely hears his muffled statement but she’s prepared with her retort.
“I told you a lot of things I didn’t mean.”
Post-One Son Mulder has to know.
amorfati3215's
I watched AmorFati and actually had a dream about it last night.
When he’d walked into the office earlier that morning he’d hoped for an easy day; he had a headache brewing, no doubt a result of little sleep the previous night, and for once he just wanted to go eight hours without arguing with Scully.
Post-One Son Scully is not letting the matter go.
Prompt: Post ONE SON.
So instead she enquiredabout vacations further afield, and ten minutes later found herself booked on abreak to St Lucia in the Caribbean. Sun, sea, relaxation, not to mentioncopious amounts of rum and somewhere Mulder wouldn’t think to look - it wasjust what she needed.
But now she was back, and as Scully walked into the Bureau building, she felt a ball of anxiety in the pit of her stomach as she prepared to face her partner once again.
AU-- Post-One Son Scully finds herself replaced by Diana.
@foxmulders's daniel waterson just knocks on scully’s door, hoping to rekindle things
In all the years she’d known him, Daniel had never ended a lecture a minute early or a second late. Which is to say: The man had an uncanny sense of timing.
AU-- Post-One Son Daniel Waterston shows up on Scully's doorstep.
@gaycrouton's Up Close and Personal
"What part of 'I want to be alone' was confusing, Mulder?" she asked, venom lacing her tone. She took a few steps forward to confront him but was shocked at the damage her room had taken in such a short amount of time.
"Trouble in paradise?" an unexpected voice teased from behind her.
Scully jumped forward and whipped around, immediately making eye contact with the last person she expected to see: Alex Krycek.
Post-One Son Scully and Mulder's distance is broken by a particularly cruel manipulation on Krycek's part.
@cecilysass's One Hand Tied (Ao3)
Scully doesn’t see the point of this kind of charade. Surely she understands that the gig is up. Surely she doesn't think anyone is fooled by this friendly, reasonable persona she puts on. Surely she doesn't think Mulder is softening towards her. Is she actually attempting to win him back?
There's abruptly a bitter taste in Scully's mouth behind the gag. She hopes that’s a ludicrous idea. But Mulder has not been entirely predictable where Diana is concerned.
AU-- Post-One Son Diana Fowley preys on Scully's growing distrust, ferreting Mulder away under the guise of lovestruck abandonment.
@actual-changeling's
the definition of insanity
They will try again tomorrow, and maybe it will be different, maybe they will mend and heal, maybe she will slide her fingers between his and squeeze.
Maybe they will find the truth tomorrow.
Post-One Son Scully is struggling to forgive.
agent_starbuck's What You Don't Know
“Scully…” he breathes, her name rolling thickly off his tongue, and her belly flutters at the way he says it. She hates that he can do that. Even when she’s furious at him. She settles a palm against her stomach, willing the sensation to go away. It never does.
Before she realizes it, he’s made his way to the living room, planting himself on the coffee table across from her.
“I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t have second guessed you or your intentions. I don’t expect you to forgive me. But at least let me try to make amends.”
His confession is a breath of fresh air to her weary soul. It is definitely a start. But she needs more than his cool, practiced and calculated words.
Post-One Son Scully takes a personal day.
@lotsoforangesoutside's Mulder’s Chickadee (Ao3)
“Was she your partner like… I was?” Scully never beat around the bushes, he knew.
“Are you asking me…” His voice trailed off.
“The Boys called her your chickadee.” She spat. “Though I certainly don’t want to ever be reduced to Mulder’s Chickadee, yet… How personal was she to you, Mulder?”
He wondered if he should get up and put some clothes on. This is Scully, his heart reminded him, Scully will never hurt you.
His brain chose this exact moment to pipe up about him being shot in the shoulder.
Post-One Son Scully confronts Mulder over what TLG had said.
Defnotmeyo's Unnamed
Mulder will forever remember that from the last meeting in Kersh’s office, Jeffrey proved himself the bigger man.
Dribble. Bonk. Mulder rebounds the ball. The thunk of his dribble echoes in his maniac mind.
There are more apologies to be made. Considering Diana’s body was not among the remains of El Rico.
“Thou-thought they could sleep with the enemy.” A statement. A gaze. A skeptical eyebrow. And a billion apologies swallowed in Kersh’s office.
Post-One Son Mulder dribbles the ball as he processes.
Lynn Saunders's Unbreakable (Gossamer)
"Don't think, Scully. Don't talk. Just listen," he says in his rushed, single-minded manner, all in one breath. He has wandered through the grimy streets, through the storm raging outside, to stand here looming in her doorway, dangerous in his black leather jacket. His hair is slicked back, dripping rainwater down his collar.
"I don't know where things started going wrong or why we've been acting this way when we're together... but I'm not leaving until we fix it."
Post-One Son Scully brings to mind Melissa's courage.
@wtfmulder's Sharp Turn Blues
Scully looked surprised by his entrance which made him feel worse. It was her intention, then, to brush it all off, let it fester, only to add it to a checklist she could later refer to when she eventually came to her senses and left, like she’d threatened just days before. She sat on the floor with her knees tucked in, a microwaved meal going cold on the coffee table . Something dramatic and mind-numbing played on the TV.
“Mulder?” She asked, making no move to get up. She was tired, so, so tired, he could see it on her face. He imagined what it must have looked like before he’d burst in, the listless shoveling of bland food into a sullen mouth, a half hour flipping through channels only to land on something she didn’t even like.
She sat down again on the couch, farther from him this time. She stared at her fingers, which were folded in her lap. “Do you want to be with her?” Scully asked, her voice so low he could hardly hear.
He thought for a moment. Part of him did, maybe–the part that hated himself and thought he deserved whatever misery Diana had to offer up. But that part had always been prone lies and terrible self-destruction. What his heart wanted was right here, glowing in a rumpled bathrobe and bare feet, but bruised by his miserable tendencies. “No,” he said.
“Do you love her?” Impossibly, quieter. Still, she didn’t look at him.
Post-One Son Mulder's apology spills into more.
thenonexisting's life is just a game. - Chapter 1
“You smell good, Mrs Petrie,” he rumbled.
Just like that, the veneer shattered.
“Stop.”
Hands thrown up, she pulled entirely away from him and hopped off the counter. Stumbling dizzily towards the sink, she ran the water and splashed her face. Wake up, Dana.
AU-- Arcadia Mulder and Scully have a short and painful post-One Son discussion.
Anne Haynes's Friendly, Whole, and First Day Back
Her dark eyes were sympathetic. "I heard other things, too."
"Spender's resignation?" It wasn't what she meant, and he knew it, but he wasn't going to talk to her about Scully.
"Seems he's cleared out of town." She gave a little shrug, uninterested. "But that's not really what I was talking about--"
"We're just settling in. First day back." He changed the subject with a faint air of desperation. The cafeteria seemed close and small. He looked across the table at Diana and felt something dark and mean curl in his gut. Suspicion, something he'd fought against when Scully tried to bring her own doubts to his attention.
Post-One Son Scully and Mulder struggle back in their partnership, wanting to vent and understand and find their own answers.
EPurSeMouve's Dinner
She raises her eyebrows, confused. He thinks it's confusion, at any rate. He is just starting to realize that there is so much about her he doesn't understand...
"It's been a while, Diana. Three weeks. And I've been doing a lot of thinking, trying to figure out a lot of what happened... It still doesn't make a lot of sense. But I can't help wondering about what role you had in all of this."
Post-One Son Mulder realizes the old Diana is gone.
yukla's like a lonely house
Scully’s hardly listening anymore. Grab dinner, he said.
As if they’re stopping at one of the endlessly sticky dinners on the side of the road after a long day of investigation with nothing to show for it, tossing change over the counter in exchange for the country’s gummiest cheeseburgers. As if they’re doing overtime on a weekend and pulling cold, smushed sandwiches out of their bags to wolf down before returning to their paperwork. As if she hadn’t been waiting on this moment for ages now, as if she hadn’t summoned all the courage in her body preparing herself for this night, hoping that he would feel the same. She’d assumed he did.
Scully nods sharply to herself, feels her stupid, lonely, dangly earring bounce off her jaw with the movement. That strange hot feeling, high in her face now, creeps into the space behind her eyes, and with sudden clarity, she recognizes it as humiliation.
Post-One Son Scully believes Mulder no longer has romantic intentions.
Vivian's Amends
"Scully, I'm sorry."
"Mulder, this is not your fault."
"I mean for, well, for all of it." He ran an agitated hand through his hair. He took a few more steps, and stood still, his back facing her. She could practically see him struggling for words.
Despite the unremitting pain in her wrist, Scully felt the tension she'd been carrying for the past weeks slowly begin to slip away. Glancing outside, she noticed the gloom was beginning to dissipate. "It looks like it's letting up a bit," she noted. His shoulders dropped a notch, and his stiff posture eased.
Post-One Son Scully realizes Mulder is trying to show he cares, in his own way.
@leiascully's Endeavors Too Short of Desires
There are days lately that they just prickle at each other until the air is so charged he isn't sure one of them won't take a swing. He gets smug and she gets arch and he wants to remind her of Scully-that-was with the bad suits and the naivete, but the quips dry up when he looks at Scully-that-is, who might just shoot him to shut him up, her eyebrow cocking almost audibly as a pistol. It was easier when they were upstairs, Moose and Squirrel against the Badinovs. Now they've won and they're back in their weird seclusion, and he spends all day trying not to think about things. Diana and Spender and the enormous scar on Scully's stomach and a normal life and that's just for starters. Scully nags at him: he should be thinking of his knees, his cholesterol, his prostate, his geriatric future chasing phantoms, and he almost blushes under her cool stare as she dissects him and gets irritable about that.
Post-One Son Mulder ruminates on Scully's innumerable losses and the endless road pitching them perpetually forward.
@settle-down-frohike's Desert Woman
He mourns not meeting her first, before anyone. He can’t help wanting to assume the best in anyone who’s ever even pretended to understand him, but he wishes he could, for both their sakes.
Post-One Son Mulder, Scully, and TLG at a birthday party.
OnlyFoxMulder's Sunshine in the Rain
Indignant at first, it took a long drive and a greasy burger from his favorite hole in the wall to see the light. Then, he called Scully. It was late, definitely after midnight, and he found her awake and willing to finally conquer the growing space between them. In the end, it worked. After that night, the air felt lighter; they allowed themselves to joke with each other again, even flirt a little bit when the mood struck them. He was delighted to have her back, the giddiness he felt every morning returned. She was smiling again, albeit less than she did before Diana, but she flashed him many of her cute tight-lipped smiles that made his insides turn over.
Post-Milagro Mulder mulls over his and Scully's post-One Son reconciliation after Padgett's attack.
fxckthishit 's You're It
Her breath hitched as his voice twisted something painfully within her. Foregoing the feeling, though, Scully stiffened her spine and crossed her arms. “What’s there to talk about?” She got her coat, “I’m not abandoning you, Mulder, if you are worried about that. I don’t know about you, but my priority has always been my work and the X-files.” She started heading out the room before turning around at the doorway, regarding Mulder with a look. “We’re partners, Mulder. I still got your back. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at the scene,” she turned around and walked away, leaving Mulder dazed with only the receding sound of her heels, the cacophony of his muddled thoughts and an eerily familiar scent.
AU-- Post Amor Fati Diana Fowley is alive and squirming her way back into Mulder's life, forcing Scully to erect inner walls for the sake of the partnership.
Shoshana's Recovery 01, Recovery 02, Recovery 03, and Recovery 04
From my conversations with Scully and the journal entries I've made it through so far, we were both going to deny that moment ever occurred for the sake of our partnership. The indignity of having the X-Files ripped out from under us, the embarrassment of scut work like background checks and fertilizer investigations must have suppressed my libido in a big way.
Most likely, and from what I read between my own lines, I lost my nerve, waiting for her to give me some sign, show me how she felt. I wasn't willing to take the risk and lose her forever, not after she chose to stay with me, X-Files or not. She remained my partner, my best friend all last year. And I'm so very grateful for that. But something must have happened last February that shook her up, made her extraordinarily sensitive to the mere mention of Diana's name.
AU-- S7 Mulder wakes from an injury with amnesia; and, via Scully and his journal, slowly catches up on the past year's events.
BONUS
Flywoman's The Blessed One Bites the Bullet
"Here it is," he said triumphantly. "Diana Fowley, Special Agent
with the VCS from September 1985 through October 1987. Seems she was suspended from duty following a joint panel investigation into certain unauthorized extra-governmental employment opportunities."
"Drugs?" Scully asked. "Weapons? Embezzling Bureau funds?"
Frohike consulted his sheet. "Apparently she played a starring role in a soft core porn film with some nobody called David Doo-chuhvnee."
Crack-- Post-One Son Scully ends up siding with Diana Fowley.
Ryo Sen's Revanche
Pulling the antenna up with her teeth, Scully punched the Send button and answered, "Scully." She felt supremely stupid with a phone to each ear.
"Who are you talking to?" Mulder's familiar voice demanded. "Your phone's been busy for hours."
Scully paused, unsure how much she wanted to confide in her partner. Deciding to share as little as possible, she asked, "What's the problem, Mulder?"
AU-- Post-One Son Scully's nightmares begin to unravel her abduction memories.
@writingwell/RocketMan/Darkstryder's Refuge of Lies
Mulder kept too much from her. If some police department somewhere found something about Emily or the other fetuses, she wasn't confident that Mulder would tell her.
And now, she'd been e-mailed this article about an unknown virus, her contacts were reporting some suspicious stuff, and large quantities of medical supplies were being moved across the globe, through holding companies and warehouses that had no real board of directors.
The worst news of all. . .three microbiologists had disappeared, two pre-natal doctors had been lost at sea, and thirteen virologists were either reported missing or presumed dead.
She was going to be sick. This couldn't be happening all over again.
Post-One Son Scully and Mulder are caught up in the Consortium and Rebel war.
@mldrgrl's Looking Back: Nine Moments That Changed Things
“Sorry,” Scully said, jumping in surprise and then fumbling with the keys.
Mulder put his hand on her wrist and she held her breath. “You could tell me we’re going to Florida,” he said, “and I’d say my overnight bag is in the trunk. You could tell me we’re going to Switzerland, and I’d say, good thing my passport is in the glove compartment. Scully, you could tell me we’re going to McDonalds and I’d say I love French fries.”
It was quiet for the next few moments and Mulder ran his thumb over the side of Scully’s wrist. She sniffed lightly and then inclined her head towards him, but cast her eyes down to his knees.
“You know I don’t like McDonalds,” she said.
Mulder smiled at her and her lips curled slightly as well. “You could also just tell me you’re taking me home,” he said.
“And what would you say to that?”
“I’d say, maybe you’d like to come up for awhile. Unless there’s somewhere else you need to be.”
Mulder and Scully's personal journey from Alpha to Millennium.
Collector's Edition: Mulder and the
Green-Eyed Monster
Surprise-- a Part II to @cecilysass's fic list (here!)
Loose chronological order below~
@scapegrace74-blog's (Ao3) None at this time
This date was a fly in his ointment. If she had room to carry around a potential romantic relationship in her bucket, then there was less room for the X-Files and their mysteries in there than he’d thought.
The Jersey Devil Mulder is surprised that Scully wants to date.
@baronessblixen/Baroness_Blixen's
Coffee Confessions
“Scully, why is that guy calling you Dana?” Mulder asks, his eyes still on the grinning barista, whose eyes follow Scully’s every move.
“It’s my name, Mulder.” One eyebrow rises as she takes a sip from her overpriced coffee.
Post-Fire Mulder and Scully discuss names.
Mirror World
Detective Tony Black is tall, blonde and grinning with teeth so white Mulder thinks he is going blind. It’s hate at first sight.
AU-- Syzygy, but with a twist.
Likes and Dislikes
“How would you know if you like him, Mulder? You barely spoke to him. He can’t read minds.” Mulder shrugs, mirroring her stance and crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“Just a feeling.”
“Just a feeling,” she repeats silently, even though she knows he can hear her in the quiet hospital room.
Mulder may be injured, but he's still territorial.
Getting It Right and New Possibilities
“I’ll be there soon,” Sawyer now says, glancing at his watch. “I’m getting my girlfriend her favorite coffee. Remind her that we have a date tonight.” Mulder plays with the button on his coat, trying not to think too much about what he’s just heard. Girlfriend. He didn’t think they were there yet. Hasn’t it just been two dates? Scully wouldn’t lie to him about that. He can recall the moment she told him in great detail, right up to him choking, and her hand on his back. Two dates. Meaning that tonight is their third. The third date.
Mulder is jealous over Scully's new date.
Feelings You Can't Hide
“Are you gonna keep wearing that thing?” He doesn’t mean for it to come out as harsh as it does. Scully musters him, obviously trying to understand what’s wrong with him.
“No, of course not,” she says. “It’s just warm and it’s cool in here.”
“You can have my coat,” he says, taking it off.
“Mulder, you’re gonna be cold.” Except he feels warm. Hot, even. Boiling almost.
Bad Blood Mulder is in denial.
Blizzard of Emotions
Scully, however, reveled in the conversation. Dr. Benjamin Cartwright was a delight. They talked as if they’d known each other for five years and not five minutes. She asked him if he needed to make any calls home, let his wife know that he was detained. The second Benjamin said that he wasn’t married and that no one was waiting for him, Mulder had cleared his throat.
Post-FTF Mulder and Scully are trapped in a freezer.
Sometimes You Lose, And Sometimes You Win
“How about we catch something to eat?”
“As long as it’s not fish,” Scully says and the two of them laugh, Mulder watching on, wondering what he missed.
“Just an inside joke between Dana and me,” Patrick says, squeezing Mulder’s shoulder as if they were friends and not strangers who met a couple of hours ago. Mulder tries to catch Scully’s eyes but she’s avoiding him.
Mulder's afraid he missed his chance.
On Thin Ice
It’s getting worse. The instructor – his name is Steve – puts his hands on Scully’s waist. She giggles again, a sound Mulder wants for himself; he doesn’t want to share, especially not with Steve. His fingers dig into the hand rail, his eyes never leaving the scene. Steve is behind Scully, his front pressed to her back. He’s holding her, touching her, and moving them forwards. He’s smiling, positively grinning, as he leads them. So is she. He must be saying things to her, if the puffs of air are any indication. They’re moving towards Mulder and he considers just pushing Steve away and taking Scully away from him. They skate past him, but not before Scully throws him a happy grin.
Mulder is definitely going to hurt someone and soon.
Post-Millennium Mulder fumes about Skinner's FBI-mandated ice-skating lesson.
The Definition of Something
Mulder keeps pacing Scully’s bedroom and stuffs his hands into his pockets. His fingers come into contact with a crumbled-up piece of paper and he takes it out. She clearly didn’t look through them before she washed these pants. The ink is blurry, but Mulder can still read the words: ‘Had a great time, Dana. Let’s do this more often!’
S7 Scully hands Mulder a pair of pants that aren't his.
Just a Shopping Trip
“You look beautiful, Miss,” he fawns with a big fat smile on his pimply face. He’s bagging their small items, but staring at Scully as if she were a unicorn. Mulder can’t really blame him, as annoyed as he is. Scully, albeit nine months pregnant, is glowing. There’s no other word to describe her. She’s spectacular. Pregnancy suits her and she knows it. And to his greatest horror, she’s enjoying this exchange.
“Could you please hurry up?” Mulder asks through clenched teeth.
AU-- S8 Mulder and Scully and a friendly checkout clerk.
A House Is Not A Home (And A Dinner Is Not A Date)
“He’s sweet.”
“Sweet.”
“Are you parroting everything I say now? Yes, he’s sweet. It’s just dinner, Mulder. He’s sorry my house burned down.”
“Um, no, Scully. It’s not just dinner. That guy was hitting on you.”
“I could be his mother, Mulder. He wasn’t hitting on me.” But he sees doubt creep into her expression. “Was he?” Mulder nods at her.
Revival Mulder is right-- Scully was being hit on.
@lotsoforangesoutside/lots_of_oranges_outside's
Silence (Ao3)
Newbie probably rolls up his socks and folds his underwear. What’s his name again? Jax? Jordan? Jedediah? Mulder vaguely recalls that the rookie has some pretentious name. Where did the name Jedediah come from?
Scully can’t be interested in men like that, Mulder denies the possibility.
S1 Mulder is jealous.
Detoured: Chinga (Ao3)
“And I did visit the harbor with Captain Bonsaint, where we sampled some local delicacies. He ordered this—”
Mulder interrupts, “what’s on the itinerary for today, Dana?”
His use of her first name startles her a little, and she looks at his eyes, trying to read him, trying to see if she’s reading him wrong.
AU-- Chinga Mulder flies up to Maine.
Detoured: Bad Blood (Ao3)
Mulder opens his mouth, slowly. He needs to convince her that they don’t have any business here before the cowboy out there smarts up and makes his move.
AU-- Bad Blood Mulder tries to ditch the case after Sheriff Hartwell arrives.
While he was tidying up the neglected office, several more bouquets were sent down. Some were delivered by admirers, some from the accountants he knew Scully liked, but all of them were lavish and inviting. Mulder wasn't quite sure where they should go, so he decided to scatter them around the room so that she was reminded of her welcome no matter where she looked. As he moved the various vases and bouquets around, he couldn't help but nosily glance at who each arrangement came from.
Pre-Firewalker Mulder offers Scully a platonic date to counter a real offer (and flowers.)
IStanYouStan5676's The Men In Her Life
“Hi Queequeg, I missed you.” She said in a baby voice.
The dog yaped as if carrying on the conversation. Mulder walked past the little reunion and went straight for the bathroom.
AU-- Post-Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose Mulder is shocked (and a bit jealous) over Scully's treatment of Queequeg.
@gaycrouton/OnlyTheInevitable's Partners, Friends, Lovers - A Collection of Tumblr Prompts - Chapter 34
"To be so jealous you lash out? Seems a little rash," she mused.
Images of the men who gave Scully a lingering glance during their last case flashed through his mind, followed by the charming young doctor that made her laugh, and the officers who tried harder to make her laugh than solve the case – a Viewmaster of all the men that made his jaw clench as they tested his patience over the course of this case. "I dunno," he mumbled, not offering an explanation.
Mulder isn't enthused with another pathology doctor.
Nascent's Theory and Practice
Then there was the matter of Ben Hsu. He hadn't missed the man's affectionate greeting, nor had he missed the subtle glances at Scully's fingers or the way the man leaned toward her, engaged in prolonged eye contact when she spoke. _So what?_ he thought. _This isn't the first time someone's flirted with her._
Post-Demons Mulder and Scully are slowly pulled apart on a case, unable to fully be honest with each other before disaster strikes.
The man’s hair is very shiny and his teeth are very straight. Mulder bets he’s the kind of guy who puts his seat back the second the flight attendant sits down for takeoff. In any event, he sounds like Foghorn Leghorn, which Mulder assumes is performative. Do people from Virginia even have southern accents? Not in his experience, though Alexandria’s not exactly deep in the state.
Post-FTF Mulder, while irritated, has to admire the competition's guts.
Prompt Drabble Collection - Chapter 49 (Ao3)
You’d drink, too , he’d said, maybe out loud, and it took him a moment to register the warm hand that clapped his back, the presence next to his barstool.
“I know, buddy,” Frohike said, eyebrows like caterpillars crawling across his brow, his hand squeezing Mulder’s shoulder.
AU-- TLG pick up an intoxicated Mulder after Scully goes on a date.
@cosmicmulder/mechup's the green-eyed monster
It’s not her he’s upset with. She’s her own person and is entitled to like whomever she wants, in no way obligated to return the feelings he has for her. His dismay is at himself, not only for falling so completely and hopelessly in love but also for thinking, for hoping that she might feel the same way. Of course she wouldn’t. Why would she, when he’s Spooky Mulder who’s obsessed with aliens and conspiracies and is the cause of every bad thing that’s happened to her in the last six years?
Post-Triangle Mulder hears a few agents gossiping about Scully and Skinner's elevator incident.
@h0ldthiscat/h0ldthiscat's
fic prompt: mulder plays a halloween prank on scully
Mulder is struck with sudden urge to recapture their original incarnations, their first selves, those careless fools who didn't know each other but were more sure of themselves than anything else. Now, he thinks, he’s a stranger but he would know Scully in the dark.
With a childlike grin, he gets down on his hands and knees and hides under his desk. It's not comfortable; his long limbs will cramp if she's not back from the vending machine in the next thirty seconds, but the effortless laugh he knows she's going to emit will make it all worth it.
Post-Triangle Mulder feels things changing.
Unnamed
“What were you going to ask me?” she asked, dribbling as she walked back towards him, only slightly out of breath.
“What?”
“In the kitchen. You were going to ask me something and then you stopped yourself.”
Mulder shrugged. “I don’t know, it just seemed like you thought I was jealous of Mike.”
“Were you?”
“Did you think I was?” He squinted in the dim light of the garage.
Arcadia Scully and Mulder fumble over her supposition of his jealousy (and his perhaps-realization that he might have been.)
Lovesfox's Erroneous Equation
"I heard them making lunch plans for that trendy new eatery a few blocks away." Another pause, clearly for dramatic effect, and then Colton added, "I take it you didn't meet them there?"
Even knowing he should answer lightly and not give Colton the satisfaction, Mulder was unable to prevent his short and abrupt reply. "No."
Post-One Son Colton riles Mulder's jealous streak.
yukla's like a lonely house
“So…” Mulder drums his fingers on the steering wheel, stopping only when she turns to look at her. He almost seems nervous. “Are you one of those people, Scully?”
“What?”
“You…appreciate Lieutenant Harding being obvious?”
Post-One Son Scully begins to believe Mulder sees them only as partners after he runs out on their restaurant date; and Mulder begins to believe Scully only wants friendship when she doesn't discourage other advances on their next case.
@sisterspooky1013/SisterSpooky1013/Sister Spooky's
And You Are Mine (Ao3)
The lab tech who had replaced Pendrell didn’t initially strike him any kind of way. Towheaded and statuesque, he had a pithy, comedic way about him that was concurrently likable and irritating. Mulder might have noted that the man was a blonde, blue-eyed version of himself had he any reason to consider him at all. He didn’t make a habit of sizing up other men, finding it a waste of time and energy, but when Pendrell 2.0 made a joke about Luminol and Scully tittered like a school girl, he suddenly felt the need to assess the threat that had presented itself.
Mulder is jealous of Smith Ryan.
@cecilysass/cecily_sass/Cecily Sasserbaum's
The Kaleidoscope (2/4) (Ao3) and The Kaleidoscope (4/4) (Ao3)
“I have plans,” she explains.
“Oh yeah?” He removes the kaleidoscope from his eye to look at her. “Friday night date?”
She doesn’t say anything right away and seems to consider her next words. “Actually… yes.”
“Really?” He casually rolls his seat a little to try to see her more full on. “I didn’t know you were seeing anyone.”
“It’s very new. Only been a few weeks,” she says, beginning to put away items on her desk.
“A few… weeks?” He becomes aware he’s rattling the kaleidoscope a little in his hand.
S6 Mulder faces four different endings to a (purposed) misunderstanding between Diana and Scully (and Scully's new date.)
apckrfan (FFN) Mutant Deer
As Scully was conducting her external examination of the deer, Mulder observed Donald walking toward them accompanied by two other men.
"Scully, you'd better finish up real quick. Take any specimens you need quickly. I'll be right back. Put your tape recorder away as soon as you're done." He saw the questioning look in her eyes and said shortly.
Mulder gets jealous on a case.
Anne Haynes's (site)
12 Tales - Rules
"I'm saying that whatever it was that killed those people, it was not human," I repeat. "I don't know if it was actually a thought form, as Agent Mulder believes, since we weren't able to examine it more closely."
Kresge stares at me for a moment. Then he smiles. "You're just full of surprises, Scully FBI."
Mulder's expression is frozen in place at Kresge's words.
Post-Arcadia Mulder leaves it up to Scully to choose him (and their new relationship) or Detective Kresge.
Across the Rubicon (site)
"You were right. About how I'd been running from things. I had a talk with Maggie. A good talk. She helped me see how wrong I was, how selfish. She's a good girl--better than I deserve." Daniel pushed to his feet and stood, taking a step toward her. "She gave us her blessing."
Behind her, Scully heard Mulder's footsteps falter to a stop. He was close enough to hear Daniel, she guessed.
Post-All Things Scully runs into Daniel Waterston again.
@aloysiavirgata/Aloysia_Virgata's
Prompt: Jealous Mulder and Scully reassuring him, UST
“Hitting on my wife in front of me is a bold move,” he observes, even though it’s the point of this little game they’re playing out.
Scully waggles her fingers so that the ring catches the light. “Maybe you should be a touch more possessive,” she suggests, her voice just past throaty.
He looks at her, then past her out the window. “That you talking or Mrs. Daphne Tillyard?”
“What do you want?” There’s so much in the question.
Post-Field Trip ruminates on Fellig, immortality, jealousy, and his own inaction.
Daniel Waterson and his baggage come back into her now-married life
“You were there,” Mulder says, his buckskin hands woven and laced. “What did you see?”
Daniel looks at Dana, Daniel is here for Dana, because he believes she is cold and lonely and alone in the way of the outer planets. He still thinks only he can warm her.
(He doesn’t know, Daniel, not really, that there is a solid core beneath the icy mist.)
AU-- Mulder observes the man who still loves his wife.
@purrykat/mylifeinshadow's #8 and #25
You recognize him the moment you open the door. Craig, from forensic accounting. The world’s most boring person with the world’s most boring job. Any other day, you might have shrugged it off. You’d inject yourself into the conversation, make him feel awkward and out of place, until it was just business as usual. Scully would scoff, roll her eyes, but that pleased little grin would remain.
Post-All Things Mulder realizes he's not the only possessive partner in their relationship.
Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane's (mulderscreek) Reunion
"Who was with you when you gave birth?" He is trying not to feel jealous. Honest.
"My mother."
He can live with that. If it were Skinner or the faceless partner . . . Still . . . "It should have been me."
AU-- Requiem Mulder is returned three months after the birth of his daughter.
@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack Paresthesia
“Scully,” he says again.
When she’s run out of small tasks, she turns around to face him and crosses her arms over her chest. He stands awkwardly at her kitchen table, hands resting on the back of a chair. Waiting.
“Mulder, where do you think this baby came from?”
Another jab—she goes right for the heart. “I—“ he begins, then shakes his head. “I don’t know, Scully. I thought maybe you…”
Three Words Mulder struggles with his return (and the belief that the baby isn't his.)
@audriesfic/audries (WBM) sonnet 27 (Ao3)
“Why not?” He looked uncertain now, in a grey sweater and the green of the booth, frowning in a pained kind of way. “I thought you liked him.”
“I do like him. I trust him. I think he’s an excellent agent.”
Mulder nodded, that snide purse to his lips again. He nodded like, aha! Like this is what he’d suspected all along, like he’d won.
“But he didn’t know you,” said Scully.
Post-Deadalive Scully tries to wait patiently for Mulder.
@alienbaby-babymama/ABBM515's 12 Days of Ficmas (Ao3)
Mulders eyes brighten even further and makes his way down to her recovery room.
Thing 1 and Thing 2, move aside to let him through the doorway. He stops abruptly, not even a pace inside her room.
It looks like a florist came while he was gone. All different shapes and sizes of bouquets surrounded her hospital bed. His spirit deflated, he walks closer to her bed, he notices the card on one of the arrangements. “Congratulations. Love, John.”
Existence Mulder realizes he's a dad now.
MaybeAmanda/maybe_amanda's (LJ, xffics)
Under Construction (site)
The fabled Mark, as it turned out, was taller than me, younger, blonder, arguably better looking. His easy smile revealed more teeth than any one human being not named *Osmond* could possibly have use for. I could tell just by looking at him that he'd never given any thought to losing his hair or his flat stomach or his sanity. He stood in the driveway, holding my delighted son a little too comfortably in one arm and a really expensive Tonka truck in the other, looking at me like I was something that had been scraped off the bottom of his left shoe.
Naturally, I hated him on sight.
AU-- Post S9 Mulder returns to a too-perfect happy ending (his partner and son, a chipper suburban residence, and the Gunmen alive), which is further marred by medicated PTSD, a bitter mother-in-law, and a man waiting in the wings for Scully.
thextruth's Our Next Path - Chapter 4
The man notices the expression that Mulder gives him and looks at Scully again.
AU-- Mulder and Scully and the joys of family and paltry jealousies.
BONUS
@virtie333/Virtie333's Flight 814
With a roiling stomach, she began to eat, trying not to recall how she had awakened from a slight doze to find her partner breathing heavily and in an obvious state of arousal next to her. She had felt amusement upon first discovering his predicament. But that amusement had quickly changed to anger. Anger fueled by jealousy. Who had he been dreaming about? She hated the fact that she wanted to know. She hated that she wished he would turn to her and tell her he had been thinking about her.
A Scully jealousy fic I missed previously: Scully withdraws from Mulder right before their plane takes a nosedive.
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.)
Buckle up and take a ride on this imaginative fic that meshes together dreams, Mulder, Jackson (William), Clyde Bruckman, and everyone's love for Scully. This really is the post-revival Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose sequel I never knew I wanted!
Title: Jackson Van de Kamp's Not-so-Final Repose
Author: cecily_sass (@cecilysass)
Summary: A dream café. A dead old man at a table. A message for Jackson Van de Kamp. Mystery, unconventional MSR, and family feels. It’s the post-revival Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose sequel you never knew you wanted!
Length: 6,907 words
Classification: Fix-it of sorts
Rating: Teen and up
Spoilers: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, My Struggle IV
Favorite line: “Dumb in love you get from your mom,” Mulder says, his voice creaky. “I am a goddamn genius in love. I punch way above my weight.”
Read the story!
To cecilysass: an indisputable talent in the X-Files fic sphere. "Orpheus, not Eurydice" was the first to steal my heart; and your blend of winsome, affectionate, particular humor and dark, prolonged, mature pain kept it. Your work captures such specific moments-- such specific feelings-- that its impact is as sharp and distinct as a rubber stamp on new paper.
@cecilysass's (Ao3, Gossamer)
Still Feeling My Father Ascend (Ao3)
“It’s easy to make mistakes,” his father continues. “Don’t get attached too soon. You’re a… well, you’re kind of an idealistic kid. Soft. Don’t marry the first girl you fall in love with.”
By this point in his life, Mulder has already been in love. He might have gone on to marry her, had she been willing. Had she not broken his heart. His father knows nothing of this, of course. Mulder continues to pack without responding.
“You’re old enough to understand that I made some mistakes in my own life,” his father says. “A man makes a bad choice, and he’s stuck. He’s not … satisfied. For years. I don’t want the same for you.”
A deep well of anger pits in Mulder’s stomach, thinking of his silent and broken mother, but still he doesn't speak.
“I guess what I’m trying to say, Fox, is that there’s no point in trying to be a good man,” his father continues. “That’s a waste of your efforts. There’s no such thing as a good man. The more you try to be good, you only get trapped, compromised. The best thing to do is try … to avoid entanglements.”
Post Beyond the Sea Scully is stranded at Mulder's apartment during a snowstorm. Woe upon woe piles up until they both share their own "other fathers" struggles. That, and Mulder might be in love.
How to Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 1 (Ao3)
“It’s really best to get real cranberries from the Cape and make your own from scratch,” Mulder says, in a pained tone. “You add some grated orange, some cinnamon, some cloves. Next year, I’ll show you how it’s properly done.”
“Oh, will you?” she says, raising an eyebrow.
“Probably not,” he corrects quickly. He forgot for a moment that she will probably be on to bigger and better things in the Bureau by then. “Next year, you’ll be back in the arms of the Scully family, counting blessings.”
Season 1 Mulder changes his Thanksgiving plans-- he had none-- to spend the day with Scully-- who now has none after her and Ethan Minette's breakup. Things are... nice, if complicated.
How to Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 2 (Ao3)
Mulder has drawn a little lackluster pencil drawing of a turkey on a folded piece of paper, which he places at the center of the table. “See? A centerpiece,” he says. “Makes it more festive.”
“I had no idea you were an artist, Mulder,” she says, with a deadpan version of the enthusiasm one gives to a small child.
“Inspiration hits and I have to go where it leads, Scully.”
They grimly peel back the plastic on their trays. “I feel like I owe last year’s cranberry sauce an apology,” Mulder says sadly. “Because whatever this is, it doesn’t even deserve the name ‘cranberry.’”
Post Firewalker Scully spends another Thanksgiving with her partner-- under different, isolated circumstances, of course.
How to Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 3 (Ao3)
“Scully?” Mulder, ahead of her, stops to peer back. He is wearing his black leather jacket, the bowl of cranberries in his hands. He frowns in consternation. “What’s wrong?”
She spins. Runs full throttle for the bathroom, the sour taste already coming up in the back of her throat. She collapses over her toilet and promptly pukes her guts out.
It's Thanksgiving... or it would have been, if Scully hadn't gotten the flu-- a flu which reminds both of the lingering, unspoken conversation they need to have.
How to Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 4 (Ao3)
“Mulder.” His voice sounds broken, like an old man’s.
It’s Lionel speaking. Lionel of Lionel and Reyna, who live in the farm house adjacent to their property. Lionel and Reyna, their nearest neighbors. Lionel and Reyna, his nearest neighbors.
Lionel seems to be asking him to dinner tomorrow. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie.
Post breakup Mulder reflects: is there dignity in sadness?
Oblivious (Ao3)
“Can I ask you a personal question, Scully?”
“About what?” Her sideways look was suspicious.
“I have a theory about you,” Mulder ventured. “Call it a profiler’s hunch.”
“What comes out of your mouth next could not possibly be complimentary.”
Post War of the Coprophages Mulder tries to convince his partner that not only was Bambi interested in her, but that many others have been inspired with mouth-frothing intentions.
Orpheus, Not Eurydice
So they leave the store with a container of oats and some bratwurst in buns, as well as a bag of potato chips and two root beers. Scully comments that it’s as though they purchased dinner for a pair of hungry 10-year olds, and Mulder just nods vigorously and bites into his bratwurst, obviously relieved that adult Scully is nowhere to be seen tonight.
There are carved stairs set in the side of the short sandstone bluff that leads to the river. There is a narrow park on the bank, almost entirely empty of people. There is a weathered gray picnic table, the color of bone, where they settle in to eat their juvenile dinner.
The little town hews to the curve of the slow-moving river, which now sits before them, dark green, flat and wide. They are quiet as they eat, even Mulder. All around them the world is verdant, still. The sun has started to sink below the tree line on the opposite riverbed, conferring upon the sky a marigold glow.
Season 5 Mulder and Scully take a moment to sit, feed the ducks, and listen to the local church choir-- to simply absorb.
Unobserved
It really looks like she has been inside the building, which Mulder ... just can’t make sense out of.
Because she wasn’t back at Gibson’s room this afternoon -- or the psych facility at all. He would have seen her. He was there.
With an unpleasant jolt, he remembers that in fact she had called him, just about that time. She … asked him to go to the office. She said she was on her way already, that she preferred to talk to him there. There she had shown him the proof they needed, what they needed to bring to Skinner the next day.
Mulder lets his hands run slowly down the sides of his face, something falling precipitously in the pit of his stomach.
It is unavoidable: Scully had not told the truth. And Scully always told him the truth. Which raises the unsettling question: what reason would she have to lie to him today? He doesn’t like any of the answers that come to mind.
Post The End Mulder is stunned to find security footage of his partner despondent and nearly in tears.
The Kaleidoscope (Ao3)
Scully turns to Ryan. “We should probably be going, right?”
“Our reservation’s not until seven,” Ryan points out. “I was thinking we could go get a drink at a bar around here. Maybe Fox could come with us?”
Mulder can’t understand this invitation at all; he has been pretty rude, or at least awkward. But Ryan is all fluid friendliness, effortless affability, and Mulder recognizes the type: the socially generous popular kid. After all, he has nothing to lose by extending a welcome to Mulder. He perceives zero threat. He already has everything, doesn’t he? A whole evening ahead with Scully. A whole night. Morning.
Season 6 Mulder sits glumly at his desk, trying to figure out where he fits in the complex and continually confounding life of one Dana Scully. One wrong move and he might end up in the wrong ending.
The Boy on the Beach (Ao3)
“She’s not in here, Mom!” shouted Melissa. “That’s weird … I thought she was. She must have gone outside.”
Scully swallowed, breathing fast, feeling hot tears pooling in her eyes. Whatever was happening, that certainly seemed like her big sister outside that door. Very young. Very alive.
There was the sound of a child’s aggrieved sigh. And then clomping, heavy footsteps leaving the room. Scully could hear Melissa complaining as she went back down the stairs. “She can’t sneak off and not help with the potatoes at all,” Melissa called. “That was supposed to be Dana’s job. And what about the boys, Mom? Bill hasn’t done one single thing to help! Do I have to do everything?”
Her voice grew more distant—and was answered, somewhere, faintly, by her mother’s voice, high and young.
Inside the dim closet, Scully didn’t move for a moment, trying to process.
Post Amor Fati-- A sweeping, intense fic that unspools rapidly from present-day miscommunication to lost-in-time, but-perhaps-just-in-time epic. Scully, lost in the 70s; Mulder trying to trace and intercept her progress through would-be impossible polaroids; and a little Mulder and Samantha, clinging to an FBI savior as their only hope.
We’re Not Here To Get Involved in Personal Problems
In fact, Scully has seen many episodes of Cops, a life achievement of which she is not particularly proud. Her brother Bill is the real connoisseur. He has been known to sing along with the theme song and howl in laughter when suspects scream at one another. Bill loves for his sister to watch with him, since he assumes she especially can appreciate law enforcement as entertainment, but Scully herself never really gets it. She questions the officers’ heavy-handed tactics. She is uneasy that the show has a mean sense of humor about the poor and addicted. She wonders why they never, ever show anyone doing any paperwork. But she hasn’t always found it easy to get along with her brother, and she does love his raucous laugh, so she tolerates this sibling bonding activity.
She can’t imagine how it ever would have involved Mulder, though.
“You and I watched it together in the hospital,” Mulder reminds her, shoving both hands in his pockets as they walk. He kicks at something on the ground. “When you were sick -- the chemo. It’s possible that you were a little out of it.”
“Ah,” Scully nods. Her time in the hospital is a blur of surreal, half-remembered daytime TV.
Post X-Cops Mulder and Scully take a fruitful walk around the neighborhood (season of secret sex who?)
Negotiation (Ao3)
“I just don’t want an arrangement,” he repeats meaningfully. “I don’t want a negotiation.”
“I get it,” she says shortly, jerking her hand out from under his.
“No,” he says. “No, you don’t.” He takes a deep breath. “It’s not that I don’t want … what you suggest. I’ve thought about it. A lot. Maybe too much.”
Scully’s mouth twitches at the corners as she apparently absorbs this. “Okay,” she responds. A pause. “Then why not?”
Mulder rubs his temples aggressively.
“I don’t think I could do it without … all of it. I mean, that’s not strictly true. I could do it. I’m only human. But I think it would end … really badly.”
Mulder and Scully, stakeouts and a little miscommunication-- what's not to love?
Gingersnap (Ao3)
“I could help you,” he says.
At that she raises her eyes. There is a look of unmistakable hope there. It surprises him, even dazes him a little. He’d expected her to reject his suggestion out of hand.
“Is that something you’re capable of doing?” she says tentatively. “Baking cookies?”
“No,” he admits. “At least there’s no precedent for it.”
“Sounds useful.” Her eyes are still cautiously on him.
Scully's unsuccessful baking attempts are further thwarted by Mulder's eager, hands-on attitude.
The Gentle Art of Dream Interpretation (Gossamer)
In Mulder's dream, he was a French Jew from Alsace, and he wore a shabby brown coat before a panel of great men.
Angry, standing before the Great Sanhedrin in Paris, he was trying not to shout, but could feel the steady rise of his pitch as he lodged his formal complaint to the Jewish leaders:
"You bend and stretch the halakha as best fits your pocketbook," he was telling them. His hands were shaking. He was speaking French.
Mulder has a complicated dream, which leads to more straightforward revelations in a motel pool in the late-early hours of the morning.
False Front (Ao3)
“Aren’t you the same person who once told me ‘the truth is out there, but so are lies?’” Mulder pushes. “Where’s that Dana Scully?”
She walks to the window and stands in front of it, still hugging herself and looking out into the afternoon light. From Mulder’s vantage point she looks only like a silhouette, an outline of herself.
“I get it,” she says after a heavy beat. “I see what you’re saying.”
Now there’s a melancholy timbre in her voice, a sound of defeat. He hears it rarely, for all of their struggles, and he doesn’t like it.
An astonishingly "lifelike", vivid look at Mulder, Scully, and TLG's conflicted feelings after En Ami's road trip.
Pause (Ao3)
“Your mom is already here. I called her this morning—I thought it better be me that broke the news. It’s kind of a shock. She’s eager to see you. Are you ready to talk to her?”
Scully nods, her forehead creased. She crosses her arms over her chest defensively.
He regards her. “You’re nervous.”
“Of course,” Scully replies pointedly, her voice lowered. “I want her to believe it’s me. It will hurt if she doesn’t.”
Her eyes land on his face in time to see the shadow move over his features, and she regrets saying it. She doesn’t understand the full story yet, why he is so convinced she is dead. But she can hear the raw suffering in his voice as he talks to her mom. Whatever he has been through, maybe she should tread more carefully.
AU-- Pre-Requiem Scully wakes in an abandoned car with no memory of how she got there... and no memory, she learns, of the years that have passed since her and Mulder's almost kiss, Millennium's successful followup, and the blissful months that followed.
Ice Water - Chapter 3
“Gamma," he says, his voice a tiny whisper. He is feeling shy.
“Look,” Maggie says cheerfully to him, as they walk into Dana’s kitchen. “It’s your Aunt Dana, Matty. You’ll see she looks a little bit like your daddy. At least I always thought so.”
Dana has her back to them, pouring water in the coffeemaker, dressed in a sweatshirt and jeans. Strange she hasn’t made coffee already, thinks Maggie. Strange she isn’t dressed for work.
When she turns around, Maggie has to stop herself from gasping audibly.
Post Without Maggie brings over little Matthew... and notices something is most definitely not right with her daughter.
Opposition And Synthesis
It had been a particularly trying day.
And all because that morning, she had woken up obsessed with the philosophy of Hegel.
Hegel's dialectic. An old concept from college, from her philosophy and German classes. Every important idea in history is a thesis, and is naturally paired with its antithesis. Eventually they subsume one another, combine into something new. That is the synthesis.
Two wrongs, in essence, making a right.
Post This Is Not Happening Scully is continually struck by the holes Mulder left in her life.
All the Dead Mulders (Ao3)
Or maybe he just wants to touch his mom’s gravestone. And Samantha’s. A really selfish whim for him to indulge on week two of being newly undead, not to mention a risky one. He doesn’t even have a valid driver’s license anymore. An overzealous North Carolina traffic cop could really upset the apple cart.
But all that completely, cosmically just doesn’t matter. Mulder knows emotional numbness. He has had experience with several gradients of it before, dating back to early adolescence. But this? This takes the cake. This lack of feeling is a whole new level.
He sees all of the very good reasons not to steal Scully’s car and drive to North Carolina that morning—he understands them perfectly and could articulate them if someone asked—but they’re so far away from him that he can’t touch them, much less feel them.
He’s looking at them from miles above, like he never came back from orbit at all.
Post Three Words Mulder steals Scully's car and drives out to face his experiences head-on-- or, more accurately, to confront the looming shadow of his death.
Shine On (Ao3)
The pizza that Fox Mulder ordered isn’t from a pizza place Jackson has ever heard of, like Domino’s or Pizza Hut, but it’s really good anyway. Or at least it tastes good to someone who hasn’t eaten all day. Jackson eats the first piece really quickly, then he grabs for a second without thinking, forgetting his manners. When he realizes what he’s done, he hesitates.
“Go for it,” the older man says, his eyes darting sharply back and forth between the pizza and Jackson’s face. “Eat as much as you want.”
Fox Mulder has been acting much more intense ever since Jackson told him about the red-headed lady.
What would happen if Jackson had fallen into Mulder and Scully's life earlier? What would happen if he needed them because he was framed for murder, but was afraid to open up to them fully? What would happen if that reconnection was fraught with hope, and angst, and even literal pain? (And what would happen if a formerly abandoned mytharc thread wove its way back into their lives?)
