protective mulder fics plssss <333
Collector's Edition: Fox Mulder, Partner and Protector (Part I)
There are so many. So many.
I've included quite a few of them on this post-- I recommend any Emily, Tithonus, Requiem, or Dad!Mulder/Father ones, for starters-- but right now, I'm going to type up a list that isn't (mostly) reruns.
Loose chronological order below~
@amplifyme's One Breath fic
He hasn’t had more than four consecutive hours of sleep since she was taken. No food. Not for as long as he can remember, though his belly is as hollow as his bones. Time has lost meaning. He only leaves her bedside when he has to. The Scully women take their turns while he’s there but don’t seem to have the stomach for his urgently whispered arguments to run just a few more tests, give it just one more day, don’t give up – it’s too soon.
One Breath Mulder churns through turmoil and pain.
@baronessblixen's
Could you please write them cuddling...
“Mulder, it’s me. I hope I didn’t wake you.” Her voice sounds robotic in her own ears. How often have they done this? Nighttime calls hoping the other one wouldn’t be angry. Usually it’s Mulder who calls her and she has to assure him that she doesn’t mind.
“Scully, are you all right?” Unlike her, Mulder sounds alert. And, just like she suspected, terrified.
“I’m fine, Mulder. I just- I’m probably overreacting but…,” she takes a deep breath and hears Mulder hold his, “there’s a car in front of my building. It’s the second time I see it and I’m sure I’m overreacting, but…”
“I’ll be right there, Scully.”
Post-One Breath Scully notices a surveillance car.
Bruises (Ao3)
“That’s not what I was - are you all right, Mulder?”
“Yeah,” he answers too quickly. “Why wouldn’t I be? Are- are you? Are you all right, Scully?” This is the first time he’s glancing over at her. His eyes, like everything else about him, are restless. They land on her wrists, linger for a second too long to be an accident.
“Are you?” he repeats.
Post-One Breath Mulder spots bruises on Scully's arms.
35) things you said that made me feel real (Ao3)
"I haven't been sleeping well." He pulls up a chair and sits close to her bed, but not too close. She can see him better now; shadows playing on his face, his eyes alert and curious. But she keeps quiet. Scully can tell he wants her to admit the same. She flushes with horror thinking he might have heard her scream out from her nightmare. The first few nights her mother had stayed with her and after her Melissa. Both, with teary, pitiful eyes had told her about her night terrors. What are those dreams about? Her sister had wanted to know. Scully had not told her. Could not tell anyone.
Post-Firewalker Mulder helps ward off nightmares.
Early season MSR, #30 (Ao3)
“Mulder, you’re not the problem.” Her whisper in this dark, quiet closet could have just as well have been a scream. He is silent after that and Scully is convinced she can hear him think. He is going through their files in his mind, searching for any indication why this is so difficult for her; it takes him a while, longer than she thought it would, and she knows exactly when he gets it. His gasp is audible, sounds painful in her ears, and almost immediately his hand is back on her shoulder.
“Duane Barry.” It’s not a question. “He- when you – when he…” Scully nods, hoping to shut him up.
“I’m so sorry, Scully.” His apology is different this time and his hand leaves her shoulder, lands on her back, and gently starts stroking up and down; Scully is uncertain if he’s even aware of what he’s doing.
Pre-Red Museum Mulder helps his partner cope with Duane Barry flashbacks.
Anything For Her
“Oh hey,” Mulder stumbles over his greeting. He swallows and sits upright on his couch, as if that would make a difference. He turns down the volume of the TV. “How – how are you feeling?” There’s more silence, graver than before. Mulder expects the worst, even if he can’t say what that would be right this moment. His throat is dry and he swallows again.
“Can you… I don’t think I should be alone tonight.” Even now she can’t ask him. But Mulder, after all this time, can’t blame her. He turns off the TV, searches for his shoes.
“I’ll be right there, Scully.”
Cancer arc Mulder makes bread for Scully.
Whispered Words (Ao3)
“Scully? Are you okay?”
How many ‘I’m fine's’ are too much, she wonders as she stares at him, leaning against the wall. She’s breathless, can’t take in enough air. Her stomach revolts against everything and she prays silently like she never has before to please, please not be sick right here, right now.
“Hey.” Mulder is by her side, crouching down to be eye-level with her. She doesn’t want to look at him. She wants to tell him that she’s fine. She wants to be okay.
“I’m- I don’t-,” she breaks up, sobs; she doesn’t want to cry but her tears fall anyway. If she doesn’t say it, if she doesn’t admit she’s sick, then she won’t be, right?
“It’s okay,” Mulder says and touches her arm. “Do you- can you walk on your own? Do you need an ambulance? I’m gonna call-”
“Mulder, no.” She puts her hand on his where it lays on her arm. “I just want to go home. Just… home.”
Cancer arc Scully nearly collapses after too many hours on her feet.
So I'm on the 3rd day of my field work and sharing my room with a colleague.
She keeps telling him that she’s fine of course, and while he believed her at first, wanted so badly to believe, he sees it’s a lie. No amount of make-up can cover up her pale complexion. The exhaustion that follows her around, palpable in every move she makes.
Cancer arc Mulder shares a room with his waning partner.
39 - scully
"Scully!" She hears the breathless desperation in Mulder's voice and the rustling sound his boots make, running through the leaves surrounding them.
"I'm fine," she yells back, hoping he'll slow down. If they both fall and hurt themselves, then how are they going to get out of here? But he doesn't slow down; his pace increases.
"There you are." Mulder comes into view, out of breath, and falls to his knees right in front of her, a tree limb breaking under his weight. The sound reverberates. "What happened? You were gone and then- Scully?"
Scully falls down a hole and twists her ankle.
Fine (Ao3)
She hobbles away from him as best as she can on one foot. He stares at her, dumbfounded.
“You’re not carrying me.” The way she says it leaves no room for negotiation.
“Then how are you planning on getting back?”
“I’ll walk,” she says, hopping on one foot.
“Let me help you, please,” he begs her. “Just… let me make sure you don’t break your other ankle, too.”
“It’s not broken, Mulder.”
“Potato, potahto.” He puts his arm around her waist and lets out a sigh of relief when she doesn’t fight him. “Are you happy now?” He asks her as they hobble along at a snail’s pace.
Scully sprains her ankle.
Some h/c! Late season 6-ish. (Ao3)
She’s on the ground holding her throbbing leg when she sees Mulder rush towards her. He’s a blur as he falls to his knees in front of her, swirling up a bunch of leaves.
“What happened?” he asks, his hand finding hers on her hurt leg.
“I tripped,” she says through gritted teeth.
“Can you get up?”
“Yes,” she says and tries to put weight on her leg. The pain shoots through her whole body, blinding her. “No, I can’t,” she admits sheepishly.
Scully breaks her leg while in cryptid pursuit.
Scully is attacked and Mulder helps her.
After five years on the road with Scully, Mulder knows that motel room walls are paper-thin. So thin in fact that sometimes Mulder imagines watching Scully’s silhouette on the other side of the wall. They’re so thin that Scully can reiterate whatever movie he’s watched to fall asleep the night before. One of the reasons why, at least when they have adjoining rooms, Mulder no longer watches porn movies in his room.Tonight, they’re so thin that Mulder is woken by a gentle thumping noise against the wall. Thump, thump it goes without rhythm, hard, then harder. He rubs his eyes, listens. Thump, thump. Various scenarios run through Mulder’s mind as he gets up; he pays them no attention. Thump, thump.
Mulder intercepts a violent attack on his partner.
Always Partners (Ao3)
She doesn't know if she's happy or sad that Mulder is here at the crime scene too. They weren't working together - again. And he shouldn't be here. She doubts that anyone called him. Even Skinner wouldn't dare. But now he's here. Much to her chagrin, he's not alone. She catches the exact second when Mulder spots her. One moment he's walking and smiling with Diana, the next he’s sprinting toward her, his face a mixture of terror and anger.
“What happened here?” he asks, his voice close to a bark. The paramedic working on Scully jumps back in surprise. But Mulder pays him zero mind.
“What happened to you?” His voice and his expression soften. He only has eyes for her.
Post-Tithonus Scully is injured on a Kersh assignment.
Hi, do you take prompts for Fictober? ;) (Ao3)
“Mulder,” she says, suppressing a giggle, “I’m not made of glass.”
But she’s wrong there, he thinks, as he keeps his arms around, leading her inside her apartment by taking tiny steps as if he’d just learned to walk. In many ways, he feels like he has. There’s precious cargo between them.
Mulder pampers Scully after her first IVF round.
The Space Between Words (Ao3)
He doesn’t know how much time has passed when his cell phone lights up, flashing Scully’s name. His head throbbing, he reaches for it and presses the phone to his ear.
“Hi,” he says softly, his tone full of tears and dreamless slumber.
“Hi.” Her voice is barely more than a whisper.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asks, trying to get comfortable. He may be used to sleeping on a couch, but he’s not used to sleeping on one that’s designed for someone much shorter.
Post-Per Manum Mulder waits for Scully to let him back in.
Prove It (Ao3)
She should have known he wouldn’t leave her alone once they get back. His hands are on her as soon as she’s out of the car. His concern, while exaggerated, is sweet, and she smiles up at him.
“Now that’s what I like to see,” he mumbles, his own lips curling into a smile. “I’ll get you some painkillers and a glass of water. Do you need anything else?” It doesn’t happen often that Mulder pampers her. Not because he doesn’t want to; she knows he does. Tonight, she decides, she will indulge him.
“Just you,” she says, surprising him.
Post-Theef Mulder cares for his partner.
The whole room is asleep... (Ao3)
The whole room is asleep; there’s no humming from the air conditioning, no ticking clock, no blaring TV set. Only Mulder is awake. The clock reads 10 pm, but his mind says 1 am East Coast time. The three hour time difference between this hotel room in California and home messing with his mind and body. They’re flying home tomorrow; the Peattie case now solved and at rest. Next to him Scully shifts as if reading his thoughts. He half expects her to open her eyes and talk to him about the case, Dr. Wieder or Peattie or really anything at all. But she doesn’t. She’s sleeping on her stomach now, her face turned away from him.
Post-Theef Mulder writes his feelings on Scully's skin.
Love is Not Blind
“Of course. I, um, need your key.”
“It’s in my coat pocket.” When she makes no move to take it out herself, Mulder reaches into her pocket, feeling around. The action is far too intimate, and his head is too close to hers. She must hear him breathing shallowly. His fingers come into contact with something cool and solid, so he takes it out.
“Found it,” he says stupidly and unlocks the door to her room. “Wait a second,” he says, touching her hip. “I’m just going to turn on the lights.”
“Makes no difference to me.” When he turns to her, he sees the smallest of smiles on her face. But her bottom lip quivers, trying to keep her real emotions at bay.
“Better not risk me falling over, huh? My doctor is currently unavailable.”
AU-- Theef Scully's eyesight doesn't return immediately.
There Has To Be An End, (Ao3)
“Mulder, we shouldn’t…” but what they shouldn’t, she doesn’t specify and Mulder doesn’t let go. If she wasn’t feeling so dizzy, maybe she’d get up, pretend they’re nothing but professional. The words he said to her last night still ring in her ears: there has to be an end. There is so much more than this. When will they ever not find the other in peril? Is there an end for them? What if he’s right?
Requiem Mulder and Scully decide to leave.
(There’s No) Me Without You, Ao3
“Mulder, I’m going with you.”
“Going- Scully, no. You can’t go away. You just- you just gave birth. William is only a few days old. We talked about this.” His hair stands up in all directions, and her mind is filled with the first time he showered at her place after they’d become intimate. She’d rubbed his hair dry with the towel because his arm was still sore after his New Year’s Eve attack. They’d laughed and kissed, feeling carefree for once in their lives. That is what she wants back. That is what she’s prepared to fight for.
“I can, Mulder,” she says, handing him a sleeping William and walking back into the living room.
Post-Existence Scully insists she and William run with Mulder.
@scullygazer's From Now… Until Forever
Mulder held Scully’s hand tightly (but avoided grabbing it too tightly as not to scare her again) as he walked her to the car.
Post-Irresistible Mulder supports Scully.
@agent-troi's Security Questions (Ao3)
“You know what I think? I think you’re just embarrassed that you failed to recognize it wasn’t my voice and you’re exaggerating her abilities to save face.”
Mulder shook his head emphatically. “No, Scully, it was an exact replica, and if there’s anyone– or anything– else out there that can impersonate either of us that well, we need to develop a system.”
“A system?” Scully raised an eyebrow. “Like a secret password or something?”
Post-Die Hand Die Verletz Mulder decides he and Scully need code words (which comes in handy with shape shifters.)
@writingwell's
Holding Me (xffic)
Mulder caught her as she fell back, the gun slipping from her limp fingers.
Panic seared into him, fresh with the blood soakign through his shirt and slicking his hands. He figured they had ten minutes until someone realized that they were not dead, and that their hit man was not coming back out.
Scully is shot while she and Mulder are caught on a stakeout.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
What did he have at the FBI anyway?
Ashes.
Nothing but -
Her body quaked.
He sat very stilly, very quietly, silently holding his breath.
She was seeing the detruction again, behind her closed eyes, watching the fire of nothing burn them alive.
She shivered and he held her tighter, closer, needing to comfort her too, needing to give back what she had wordlessly given.
Post-The End Mulder and Scully weather together.
Don't Quit
He ran back after hanging up, falling on all fours at her side.
"They'll be here soon, Scully. Just hang on."
Her head lolled to see him, but he wasn't even sure she was focusing too well. Her neck arched as she struggled for air and her hands scratched at the dirty hall floor. Mulder grabbed one of her hands and held her cheek with his other. She made a little sobbing noise that shattered his soul and he pushed closer to her.
FTF Scully slowly loses consciousness.
Vatic Room
"All your clothes were still on the bed and wrinkled in the suitcase--"
"Oh. I was too tired to try," she lied and turned away from him.
"That's not like you. Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. His voice was soft and hesitant; he didn't seem to know what he could say or do without threatening the tenuous connection they had established on New Year's.
Pre-Orison Scully misses the warning signs.
Noyade
"You can wear your pajamas, Scully."
He pulled her arms into the sleeves of her black coat, then tugged it over her shoulders, pulling the lapels together snugly and smiling at her. His body was radiating heat at her and she leaned in unconsciously, closing her eyes.
Post-Orison Mulder comforts his blank, injured partner.
Midnight
She likes to be touched, because she likes to know she is alive.
Mulder waits for Scully to call him after a particularly rough case.
Told You So
The motel room was lit by soft candles they'd found in the drawers, suggesting that blackouts happened often.
Scully was standing by the door, pacing as she looked over their notes on the case, glancing intermitently at him for reassurance.
His black eye was still slightly swollen, but the dazed look no longer glazed his features, and he had managed to work a bit on his profile.
For a fleeting moment, she was oddly proud that Detective Bonne had only managed one punch before Mulder flattened him.
Mulder and Scully trade turns defending each other from the local force (and an ambush of racists.)
Found
The man who comes to the door looks even worse than the woman who rises to meet him. His hands shake as they take mine, his eyes thanking me before moving to see her.
"Scully," he says, strangled.
Scully is found, bloody, on the road.
Through Time I, Through Time II, Through Time III, Through Time IV, ThroughTime VI, and Through Time VI Two
He crept forward, suddenly shy and siddled up to the bed, peering at the bundle she held. Caddy titled it so he could see and leaned toward him.
"You've got a boy, Malcolm," she whispered.
There were tears in his eyes as he bent forward and kissed his son's new pink flesh. ...
Caddy smiled and caught her breath. "Shall we name him Dryw?"
Malcolm made a face; his name meant wise fox in Gaelic and he hated it, after being constantly teased when he was a wee child.
"Nay," he said. "How about Keefe?" The name was a sign of favor for a son, meaning love, promise and good looks.
AU-- Mulder and Scully's reincarnated lives.
EllieL's
The River
I feel Mulder's arm behind the back, lifting me to the cot. It makes the pain worse. Leave me alone.
His hands are shaking. I feel his hands moving around my stomach. That must be where I was shot.
AU-- Mulder and Scully are trapped with Albert Hosteen during a prison riot.
Walls
She could hear him rattling pots, perhaps searching for the kettle, or perhaps just trying in his own blatant way to remind her of where he was.
Post-Orison Mulder gives Scully his support.
@incidental-ao3's Febuwhump 2023: The Truth is Out There (And the Fic is In Here) - Chapter 5
“It’s barely a flesh wound, Mulder,” she corrected as he nudged the door open with his foot and leaned inward as if to say, after you. “I’m really fine.”
“You were still technically shot,” he insisted, closing the door behind him and beginning the process of disentangling himself from her many belongings.
Mulder hovers after Scully's been shot.
@tatooedlaura-blog's
Our Moments
He made his way to her door to find her curled on the bed, small lump under thick covers. Stealing to the other side, he carefully lay down, sliding under the quilt in silence. If she wanted to, she could hit him later for arriving in her bed unannounced.
He would love it if she had the strength to hit him hard enough for it to make an impact.
Then again, she’d hit him before and it never made an impact.
AU-- Cancer arc Mulder and Scully draw closer during her illness.
Luck and Stubborness
He moved his forehead to hers, knowing she’d recognize the gesture if not the voice, “Scully, please, I need you to look at me right now; I need to know you’re back with me; I need to know that you’re alright.”
Her eyelids fluttered, opened once, caught sight of him, closed again, “it’s not my blood.”
Whispers couldn’t cut it right now with all the chaos surrounding them, “what?”
Voice an octave higher, “it’s not my blood.”
One mystery solved, he moved on to another, “you’re already bruising up. Did he hit you?”
Single nod.
Mulder cares for his shell-shocked partner after she survives a bank robbery.
@slippinmickeys's
Unnamed (Ao3)
He would have crumpled then and there if her nose hadn’t started to bleed. Instead he felt something in him ignite.
AU-- Samantha Mulder was Roche's last victim.
87 Shades of Black
I sit here, shell-shocked by not only what I've just seen, but by the fact that some of the things I've put my trust in over the years were all bunk. I'm such a hypocrite.
I can see why Scully was so upset now. *Is* so upset.
But she should know by now that I wouldn't be here now if I'd chosen the X-Files instead of her. She should have known that anyway, but then, Scully is a little more insecure than she lets on.
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.
We shall have to remedy that.
AU-- Mulder is forced to give up the X-Files or lose his captured (and pregnant) partner forever. Of course, walking away is never truly black-and-white.
Only Say Goodnight (Ao3)
He wouldn’t remember it later – carrying his new little family through the dusty empty streets. What he would remember, with a harsh pang of anguish and regret, was the crew telling him he couldn’t fit with Scully and the baby in the back, that if he wanted to ride with them at all it would have to be in the cockpit, in the seat he’d ridden in on.
The whole ride, he’d craned his head like a meerkat, trying to see her, see the baby, but she was strapped in behind his seat and his headset kept knocking into it, getting skewed and knocked off, the sound of the engine roaring into his ears.
Existence Mulder arrives to shepherd his family to safety.
Three Part Harmony (Ao3)
The fist around her heart seemed to squeeze tighter. “Don’t do this, Mulder. Don’t make my baby out to be-“
On her words, Mulder punched the table below him hard enough to cause the silverware on it to jump, and her jaw snapped shut. His face was thunderous, and she watched as he took a steadying breath.
“Do not,” he started, barely able to keep his anger in check. “Start with the ‘my baby’ again, Scully. I played that game before he was born, but I refuse to play it again. That boy is just as much my child as he is yours, and I will not let you or anyone else diminish that ever again.” He took another breath. “I’m not attempting to establish patria potestas here, but if we can’t agree, out loud, that he is different from other kids, we don’t have any hope of protecting him.”
AU-- Post-S9 Mulder and Scully stumble across their son in time to save him from Consortium agents, hitting the road in a desperate attempt to stay one step ahead.
North of Zero (Ao3) and More North of Zero (Ao3)
It had been ninety minutes since William had been sick and they had made decent time though the boy was clearly miserable. The both of them smelled like horse and fear-sweat, maybe vomit, and his son’s head would occasionally bump back into his shoulder, each time resting there for a little bit longer.
“It’s okay to sleep on me, Will,” he said into the boy’s ear, “your mom does it all the time.”
Seconds later his heavy head thunked back onto Mulder’s shoulder and stayed there, the boy relaxing against his chest.
Post-Colonization Mulder and Scully reunite with their son, forcing them to evade capture by alien and earth-bound pursuers.
The Mesas of Deuteronilus Mensae, Ao3
“A couple more inches and you’re there, Mulder,” she said, watching the winch’s cable closely.
“Copy,” came Mulder’s voice.
“Okay,” Scully said a moment later, putting her hand on the cable to better gauge its tautness. “I think we’re there. I’m going to back away from the anchor in case it snaps.”
“Twenty feet to your four o’clock,” Mulder instructed her. She knew he was keeping a careful eye on her so that she didn’t find a quicksand pool herself.
“Copy.”
AU-- Mulder and Scully, astronauts, are tangled up in a sabotaged Mars mission.
@wtfmulder's What We Do in the Trees
She awoke in a dark room, the blinds drawn tight against the sun outside, her mouth dry and evil-tasting. Her headache was gone, but her thoughts were impossible to catch as they swirled around her. They were dreamlike, hallucinogenic.
“Scully?” Mulder’s voice.
She blinked and tried to bring the room into focus. It was moving too fast. The bed dipped down beside her and she automatically rolled inward, like she weighed too little to offer up resistance.
“Hey, Scully.” His hand on her scalp. Warm and heavy. He petted her, breath hitching when her nails found his thigh and dug in. “You told me to bring you back here and fell asleep. Are you feeling okay?”
She wasn’t.
While cancer arc Scully's condition worsens, she and Mulder solved a case steeped in the extremities of loss, grief, and superstition.
@melforbes's
seaglass blue
“Would you mind making me some tea?” she asks, making him flinch with surprise at the sound of her voice. With her tone low, her speech dry, she sounds drained, too tired even to sleep. “There’s chamomile in the cabinets.”
So he nods and stands, looking back at her as he leaves the bedroom, seeing the curve of her body in bed, the way she sinks into the mattress. Though he’s always seen her as small, as little shoes alongside his, as skirts he could hardly fit a single leg of his in, she’s never been so frail to him, so fragmented. At first, he could deny it all, but now, she looks as if she’s dying.
AU-- Late-S4 Mulder takes his dying bride to the sea.
sunday, 3am
“It’s okay,” he whispered, the bag of ice in his hand hovering before her, his brain buzzing in the overtired way he used to feel accustomed to. If his circadian rhythms were reliable, then he and his body estimated that three in the morning, maybe half past, had come and gone. A long time ago, she’d told him that keeping lights on from the nighttime hours of ten-to-ten harmed the brain’s ability to produce melatonin, but he figured that light would be the least of their worries tonight.
Pre-IWTB Mulder cares for his battered partner.
in sickness
for hours, he knew she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t stop coughing long enough to let herself fall asleep. at one in the morning, he propped her up with some extra pillows, let her curl up next to him as she cringed against each cough. he rubbed her sore back, could tell that her chest hurt already, was glad she called in sick.
Post-IWTB Mulder whisks a very ill Scully to the hospital.
a past fill
he tried giving her soup, a plan that didn’t work because she wouldn’t eat it. he tried giving her advil, heard no end about how fever reducers only end up making fevers last longer. he tried massaging her shoulders, an action that only left her more irritable and achy. when he recommended tamiflu, she scoffed and insisted that that stuff’s controversial, that it’s a placebo. now, he has tea for her, but she doesn’t want the tea either. though she’s been sick around him plenty of times, it’s been years since either of them last had the flu, so his run-of-the-mill fever cures won’t work. if he knew what she needed in order to feel better, he would go to the ends of the world to get it for her, has done that once before already, but for now, he hasn’t a clue as to what will help.
Revival Mulder cares for his sick Scully.
shawntaw's Flight
They were about fifteen minutes into the flight when Sheila heard it.
"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you, Scully."
There was a moment of silence during which Sheila held her breath, waiting for Mulder's benefit.
"I know, Mulder. But you have to stop hovering. Its over, just let me go on with my life."
Post-Redux II agents observe Mulder and Scully's yearning, distanced relationship.
XP1's
Still Waters
She thanked him with a slow blink, and kept going.
“Listen.” she continued. “She is my child. But you were right. You were right.” Her eyes were hard as she looked at him. “She is not my daughter. This was not meant to be. We are strangers to each other, brought together by circumstance.”
His hands tensed on her bicep and he couldn’t make sounds. His mouth worked, open, confused, unbelieving. He brought his head down to her brow and his heat and his anger met her cool understanding.
"No", he said softly, kissing her forehead. “No” he mouthed wetly, angry, and he thread a hand through her hair, tilted up her mouth.
“Yes.” she said softly, and he had trouble breathing. She was working hard to stay calm, and to help calm him down.
Mulder proposes the only solution he can think of to save Emily's life.
Fire
The stress and the adrenaline that had lent her their strength dissolved from her now, leaving her aching and shakey. He felt her body begin to give in to gravity, and he carefully, if awkwardly, half carried her to the ground.
She hissed as her back arched on the cold tile and she coughed deep and phlegmatic, rolling onto her side.
“Up.” She commanded as she struggled to sit. ‘Sit the patient up, Mulder,’ she’d once taught him as they both worked together to keep a victim alive. ‘Airway straight, airway clear’ she’d instructed, showing him how.
He remembered the lesson and sat with his chest to her back, pulling her to him between his legs, holding her tight.
Mulder cares for his weathered partner after she saves a child from a burning building.
This Is Nothing - Chapter 2
A tooth passes by him unnoticed,lost in a memory, of her body on his, and her hands led by her hips. As the little kind crumbles Mulder remembers that warm summer night, as she choked up on the bat and swung for the fences. Someone is screaming in pain but all that he hears are the words that he’d said: In life, as in baseball, if you aim to connect, then make sure you follow through.
This, through Mulder's perspective.
@scullyphile's Unnamed
The art museum was crowded with children. If only they had known the sheer number of field trips that would be there that day, perhaps they would have gone somewhere else to spend the afternoon. But, alas, they were already committed to the outing. It seemed they were perpetually behind one of the groups of middle school children that was milling about.
Mulder and Scully's date to the museum doesn't go as planned.
@welsharcher's Safe
“Go to sleep.” He whispered in her ear, memorizing the way she felt in his arms as he tucked her close, “I’ll keep you safe.”
Post-Orison Mulder comforts Scully.
@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s
oregon forest
Skinner finds them. They’re somewhere in the desert, and they’re still together. They’re shivering. Scully’s teeth are chattering. Mulder is wrapped around her, his face in her neck, his fingernails digging into her back desperately. She’s gripping him just as hard, and she squints as someone shines a light into her eyes. She’s frightened all over again until she hears Skinner’s panicked voice: “Scully? Mulder?”
AU-- Requiem Mulder and Scully are abducted together.
cold desert nights
He stays by her side in the hospital, watches them stitch up the wound. Sits by her bed and holds her hand tightly. He tells them about the baby in a quivering, uncertain voice, and they assure him that they will do an ultrasound as soon as Scully wakes up. They ask if he’s the father and he says yes without thinking. It feels like a lie. They ask more questions—how far along she is, when her last ultrasound was—and he cannot answer those. It isn’t until they leave that he remembers what Doggett said before: that he was only gone a month. That he remembers that Scully was sick in Oregon, feeling nauseous, collapsing on the forest floor. He holds her knuckles to his lips and hopes that the worst has not come out of this all.
AU-- Mulder is returned during the events of Roadrunners.
bearing north (Ao3)
“Scully,” he whispers, eyes full of fear as he kneels beside her, his fingers brushing her cheek. “You all right?” he asks softly, tucks some loose hair behind her ear, brushes his fingers over the bruise along her jaw where the suspect punched her. She nods, dizzy, quivering on the cold concrete, reaches up to cover her hand with his.
Mulder grips her hands to help her to her feet. She wobbles, his arms around her keeping her from toppling back over. She’s tense in his awkward embrace, still not quite out of the panic mode that came from when she was jumped inside the house, but she presses a hand to his chest for traction, breathing shakily.
“He’s still at large,” she reminds him.
“The cops out front will stop him,” Mulder says comfortingly.
Revival Mulder cares for his partner after she takes an unexpected dive.
Spooky2u2's Only Death Would Stop Me
"Being pregnant reeks havoc on the body. It's understandable that the last few weeks have taken their toll on you. You've been under a lot of stress. Why don't I take you down the hall for a check up just to be safe."
"That's not necessary. Really," she protested.
"It's no trouble." Doctor Garrett unthinkingly took hold of Scully's upper arm to guide her out the door. No sooner had he moved his hand to her lower arm than he felt a *hard* blow to his back before his face met with the cold floor. Caught off guard, the struggle he offered against his attacker had little effect. Before he knew what was happening, he was being pummeled into the floor. He could hear the woman shouting something but he couldn't tell what. Two orderlies came rushing in after what seemed like an eternity and managed just barely to tear his assailant off of him. It was only then that he got a look at who had so savagely ambushed him....
Fox Mulder.
AU-- Post-Requiem Mulder is returned, seemingly unresponsive... until Scully and his doctor come to (mild) conflict.
Violetta_Valery's The bittersweetness of pie
He’s pacing the entrance, looking for a place to sit where he can watch her from afar without disturbing, but his eyes never leave her truly, and before he can even sit in the chosen booth at the very end of corridor, there’s no more numbness, and no more shock: Mulder’s all unfiltered rage when he sees her getting up and having her butt slapped by the smirking man with whom she is.
“HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!”
He doesn’t even know how, but when he notices, he’s standing by their booth with his hands grabbing the man by the collar. He’s pulled him up and is practically foaming.
“Don’t you dare touch her!”
Post-IWTB Mulder runs into Scully again while out looking for pie.
AUs
Sukie Tawdry's The Way Things Are (1) and The Way Things Are (2)
When they separated, finally, Scully took a good look at Mulder.
What she saw shocked her, and she understood why Paula had been so concerned about him. His face was all angles, his jaw a sharp, painful edge. His hair had become overgrown, casting shadows where it hung over his eyes. It was the pain and desperation in those eyes that took her breath away.
"When was the last time you slept, Mulder?"
He offered a wry smile and shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't matter. Nothing matters now that you're safe." Hunger radiated from his eyes, and he seemed unable to look away. His hands never left her, touching her arms, her face, her hair. Even a discreet knock on the door failed to distract Mulder.
AU-- After post-Miracle Man Scully and Mulder accidentally make a baby, the two dance around his distance, her disappearance, and their slow-burn relationship. (Yes, I'm breaking the rule by including this fic; but it's littered with protective Mulder, so.)
Deadcanons's X-Tropy
After the twins were born, the attic had been Scully’s bedroom. She had insisted on it, even against the Candaces’ argument that it made more sense for her to sleep next to the nursery. That had made sense, but back then Scully was focused on ensuring that Tamika could be the mother—the whole point of all their efforts in the first place. Scully saw herself as backup, someone who was there for emergencies, and thus the attic struck her as more than generous. She did not realize that Tamika and Bradley had already accepted her as a member of the family.
At some point in mid-2040 she had eventually moved into a proper bedroom. After that they closed the attic stairs and, as far as Scully was aware, no one had gone up there since. The only exception was when Scully had retrieved her gun to rescue Doggett—and at the time, the attic had appeared unchanged. It was only by following the vision of Mulder that she’d had occasion to go up here again.
All the missing furniture had been assembled on the far wall of the attic, so that it was the first thing someone saw when they reached the top of the stairs. To the average eye the layout was extremely unusual, but to Scully its meaning was clear. The coffee table from the living room had been placed between two chairs, a wood panel from the corner of the attic propped up in front of it to give the impression of a panelled desk. A chair from the kitchen table was in front of the “desk,” facing it, and the loveseat from the living room was behind it, as if it were an office chair. One of the bookshelves—still full of books—had been pushed into the corner behind the desk, where one might expect to see a filing cabinet in an office. But the real kicker was on the wall behind all of this. There hung one of the posters from Abel’s room, a glossy print of three cartoonish UFOs floating above a city with the caption JUST HANGIN’ OUT.
The last one had been bigger.
AU-- An immortal Scully slips in and out of a normal life-- falling into a new family and saving them (and her old basement friends) from vengeful bats and alien bounty hunters and summoning cults-- while Mulder's spirit attempts to make contact.
prufrockslove's Hiraeth
"Duana," he said, and secured her hand. "I said your name with my breeches on, so take note. Duana, listen to me. I know King John. I did not expect you to be with child by him, but you have taken me as I am. I intend to do the same. You are that anchor. I have found where I want to be and I intend to stay. I intend for you to stay."
Her face was still flushed and wet as she looked at him. "William, the King-"
"You are my wife, not the King's. By harvest, you will have a child. Perhaps, it will be born early. That happens in Wales and people pay no mind. If you agree, I will claim the child as mine and dare any man to say otherwise. The King will never know. He never knew with Dafydd."
She stared at him, her mouth open. He looked back at her steadily. He was rash, he knew, but he meant every word. He would die before he lost her.
To borrow prufrock's description: Aber, North Wales, 1215. In a world of dangerous men, she was a dangerous woman to love.
BONUS
Previously listed fics (that you can search via author tags) off the top of my head:
JenAndrews's "Skyland Mountain"
DiscordantWords's "Somewhere North of Fiji"
GingerAlchemy's "Static Codes" (VIII)
cecilysass's "The Boy on the Beach"
baronessblixen's "Five Minutes"
nowwhateinstein's "Seeking Warmth"
ElizabethJaneway1158's "The Fall, X-Files Style"
prufrocklove's "Malebolge"
Lapsed_Scholar's "Variations"
Karen Rasch's "By the Wind Grieved"
Thanks for reading~
Enjoy!
