#sean pendrell

[writerxwren]

NOOOOOOOOOOO 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[all-eyes-lead-to-the-truth]

All Eyes Lead to the Truth | Teliko (4x03)

He was a puzzle solver. He had been ever since he was a child. That’s how he spent his days– eyes glued to a microscope or a computer screen, finding patterns, making connections. At home he watched Wheel of Fortune, figuring out the words before the contestants had even had a chance to buy a vowel. It was what he was good at, piecing together the details and clues to answer life’s questions.  

At the FBI, Sean mostly studied blood samples, prints from work boots left at crime scenes, and broken tech that may be significant to an investigation, but sometimes… sometimes he got to do something really fun. Agent Mulder—and Agent Scully— never failed to add excitement to his days. 

There were so many computer programs and devices in the lab that went unused. Day in and day out, the team ran DNA samples, looked at strands of hair or pieces of fiber. But with his favorite agents, Sean got to play. 

There was that one time he was able to reconstruct facial structures from an airbag deployment. He’d heard of things like that in peer-reviewed studies, but he never dreamed that he would get to it himself. 

And the research! With them, it was never something simple. It was a computer chip so fragile he could barely study it. It was a complex string of numbers and letters tracking a smallpox vaccination program for reasons he couldn’t even begin to fathom. 

This was what he went to school for. 

Of course there were other perks to working on X-File cases. There were the perks of a petite stature, heels on the tile, and amazing red hair. A strong voice and a kind nature. Bright blue eyes and the hint of vanilla that filled the air when she visited the lab. 

Sean doubted Agent Scully saw him as anything more than the scientist who ran the tests she requested, but she made him feel seen. With her, he wasn’t an oddball kid who memorized the periodic table during his summer break. When she came to see him, he felt like he’d found a peer, an ally in the field that he loved. 

Today, it had been Agent Mulder who’d brought samples to the lab, but Sean knew, often to his chagrin, that he and Agent Scully were never far apart. And she was usually the one who came to pick up the reports. 

As he worked, Sean imagined himself asking Agent Scully to dinner. It would be casual, something that came up organically as they discussed his findings. It didn’t need to be fancy, maybe just the bar down the street, but she would agree with a smile. 

His heart raced, imagining the way he would ask her, how his voice would be confident and she would look relieved that he finally asked. He was so wrapped up in his own mind that he almost missed the small seed in the sample he’d been given. He’d logged asbestos, pollen, soil, and other unremarkable substances, but this one jumped out at him. 

His heart began to race for an entirely different reason. The thrill of the chase. 

“What are you?” he mumbled under his breath as he placed the pointed seed on a slide. One look and he knew he’d found it. What it was, he wasn’t sure, but he knew it was what his favorite agents were looking for. 

***

Two hours of evaluations, tests, computer searches, and finally a phone call to a botanist at UVN, and he was ready to give his findings to Agent Scully. He’d called their office when he’d completed his research, as was his typical course of action, and then he waited. He tried to focus on the bullet fragments lodged in tree bark that had been brought in earlier in the day, but he was only going through the motions. 

12-gauge shotgun. Buck shot. Quercus velutina, common in forests across Virginia. No sign of blood. Probably a hunter. 

He waited, looking to the hall, hoping to catch a glimpse of her hair. He was grateful that everyone else in the lab was buried in their work so they wouldn’t notice. 

Just when he thought maybe he wouldn’t hear from them until the next day, Agent Mulder called to say he was on his way. Sean jumped from his chair, moving to the door so he would have a clear view down the hall to the elevators. If anyone asked, he would just tell them he needed to stretch his back out after being hunched over for too long. 

As it turned out, no one asked, not even Agent Mulder, who walked towards him not five minutes later. 

“Agent Pendrell,” he said. “Thanks for turning this materials analysis around on such short notice.”

Agent Mulder patted his shoulder as he walked through the door into the lab. He was alone, no partner in sight. 

“Shouldn’t we wait for Agent Scully?” Sean asked, hoping he sounded cool and nonchalant. “Just so I won’t have to repeat myself.”

“She’s not coming.”

Sean froze in his spot. “Why not?”

“She had a date.” 

Deflated. He was absolutely deflated and he didn’t care if Agent Mulder knew it. He lumbered forward into the room, the weight of the blow pushing him down. 

“Breathe, Agent Pendrell. It’s with a dead man,” the other agent said, his hand finding Sean’s shoulders in comfort. “She’s doing an autopsy.”

Sean huffed a laugh, momentarily embarrassed until Agent Mulder got them back on track. “You said you found something?”

He had found something, and even though it wasn’t Agent Scully who’d come to get his findings, he was proud of his work. 

And who knew. Maybe next time, it would be Agent Scully who came to the lab. And maybe next time would be the time he asked her out on that date. 

Read the rest of All Eyes Lead to the Truth on Archive of Our Own!

@fridaysat9

[katiecomma]

Shipping: what’s a ship (if any) that you started out with but have fallen away from and Why? Is there a pairing that freaks you out/is completely uninteresting to you? What songs come to mind for Mcdanno and macdalton?

Ok... so the first ship I really REMEMBER was Scully/Pendrell in the X-Files fandom... I even WROTE a fic for them like 16 years ago and posted it on fanfic.net... no you cannot have the link because it’s TERRIBLE... I still love them... I just  A) am not really in the X-Files fandom... and B) haven’t really been watching the show since it was pulled from Netflix in Canada. I still think Scully and Pendrell deserved more than they got... but oh well.

Uninterested in: In the Mac fandom I have seen some Mac/Thornton pairings in fic... it’s not my favourite. But I think the big one is Mac/Murdoc... I definitely headcanon that Murdoc is obsessed with Mac in that way... but I don’t feel like Mac would ever reciprocate just because of who Murdoc is and the things he’s done... and I just... it kinda gives me the wiggins... I feel the need to state that I have 0 issue people shipping what they want and that this is just a personal opinion. I totally support people shipping them. I just don’t ship them myself.

Songs:

MacDalton - Simple by Florida Georgia Line (thanks to @lavendersblues for this one) OR Clean Eyes by SYML for PTSD reasons

McDanno - What I Wouldn’t Do by Serena Ryder - I just... all the ocean and water imagery... and about crossing the world for each other... just... hits me hard for them.

[writerxwren]

DO NOT TALK TO ME I AM IN MOURNING 😭

[writerxwren]

Agent Pendrell is too good for this world 😭

[writerxwren]

Oh honey I know you don't stand a chance given that Scully has basically been married to Mulder for three years but I will gladly take you on a date, you seem very sweet 🥺

[writerxwren]

NOOOOOOOOO NOT AGENT GOLDEN RETRIEVER MAN HOW DARE YOU LET HIM GET SHOT 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[stepchildofthesun]