all things must pass - george harrison // robert frost // sahani madihage // nothing gold can stay - robert frost // rsaulyte (istockphoto) // icicles on warm sun - weris7554 (adobe stock) // nothing lasts forever - flora cash // we keep going - alyssa etoile // rainer maria rilke
in every au mulder and scully should be toxicly codependent coworkers. doctor and nurse at a hospital. manager and assistant manager at target. night security at a museum. hair stylists at a salon. they should always be talking -2 inches apart and saying they wouldnt risk their lives for anyone else
AO3 Summary: Having diverted from FBI field work to forensics, Dana Scully realises her Quantico self-defence skills could do with a tune-up after an unlucky encounter leaves her shaken. When she decides to start training in martial arts, an exciting world opens up, offering her increased strength and confidence, new friends, and as she starts to get to know someone she connects with like no other, maybe something even deeper than friendship…
My Thoughts: I love a canon-divergent fic where Mulder and Scully still meet even though they aren't on the X-Files together (they're soul mates so of course they will find each other in any universe) and this one is excellent. I like that the author used her own experience in martial arts to write this fic, especially becaues it is an area where my knowledge is limited! But it makes perfect sense why Scully would seek out a gym to improve her self-defense skills. This story is a good mix of fluff and angst (wonderfully brought on by our favorite character to hate, Diana Fowley), and the ending is worth the wait.
Scully was in the kitchen, putting away dishes from dinner, and talking to her mother on the phone.
"Don't forget about brunch this Sunday," Maggie reminded her.
Scully winced. She had definitely forgotten about the plans they made a few weeks ago. Luckily, there was no out-of-town case she was working on, so she wouldn't have to cancel. Scully always felt guilty cancelling plans, especially with her mom.
"And bring Fox with you," Maggie requested.
Scully sighed, "Mom, I don't know if he'd want to come." She wouldn't mind spending time with him outside of work, but Mulder was not the type to sit at Sunday brunch when he could be chasing cryptids in the woods.
"Dana, tell him I insist. He'll come."
She rolled her eyes at her mom's confidence. "Okay, Mother."
Scully hung up with Maggie and immediately phoned Mulder. "My mother requests your presence at brunch this Sunday," she said without introduction.
"Oh, she does?" Mulder answered. "What about Miss Dana Scully? Does she request my presence as well?"
"I suppose I'll tolerate your presence," Scully said exaggeratedly, with a smile that Mulder wasn't able to see.
"Okay, I'll leave my dance card with the butler and hope that you fill one of the boxes. What time should I pick you up?"
"10:30 please, since brunch is at 11."
"It's a date," Mulder confirmed, and ended the call before Scully could argue.
--------
For brunch, Maggie made a spinach and mushroom quiche and had fresh fruit, juice, and coffee laid out on the table. It was quite the spread for three people, but Scully appreciated the effort her mom had put in. Mulder seemed to appreciate it, too, as he complimented Maggie many times throughout the meal. Scully remembered Mulder’s upbringing on Martha’s Vineyard and how that most likely contributed to his good manners (when he wanted to display them, that is).
After brunch, Maggie shooed Mulder and Scully into the living room so she could clean up but quickly returned with old photo albums that she clearly wanted to show Mulder.
"Mom, we don't need to look at these," Scully protested. She didn’t need Mulder to see her frizzy hair and terrible fashion sense in her younger years.
"Fox, doesn't mind, do you?" Maggie asked Mulder directly.
"Not at all! In fact, I insist you find me a picture of Dana with braces,” he implored.
Scully groaned – she was outnumbered.
She suffered through baby pictures, school portraits, and graduation photos, until Maggie stopped on a picture of Scully and Melissa, at a wedding about ten years earlier.
Maggie put her hand on the photo and got misty eyed. "I have the two most beautiful daughters in the world."
Scully rolled her eyes. "Every mother says that."
"Well, it's true!” Maggie insisted. “Fox, don't you agree?"
Scully swung her head to Mulder. She wanted to tell him that he did not have to answer, but he spoke too quickly. "I think Dana is the most beautiful woman in the world,” he said confidently.
"Mulder!" Scully exclaimed, covering her face in embarrassment. What would possess him to say something like that?
Maggie smiled smugly. "See, Dana. I'm right!”
"Can we please stop talking about my appearance?" Scully asked, feeling her face redden even more. Luckily, Mulder and Maggie acquiesced, and they moved on to the rest of the album.
-------
When Mulder and Scully departed, heading towards the car, Scully felt she had to comment on Mulder's proclamation from earlier once they were in the car. "You don't have to humor her, you know. She already likes you."
That latter statement was quite evident, as Maggie had given Mulder leftovers and a hug on their way out.
"Humor her?" Mulder questioned.
"You know, when she was talking about having the most beautiful daughters? I hope you didn’t feel like you were put on the spot."
"Scully, I wasn't humoring her because I was telling the truth.”
"Mulder, you cannot possibly think I'm the most beautiful woman in the world. While very flattering, it's a ridiculous statement."
"I don't think so."
"Really? Well, what about Marilyn Monroe?"
"She doesn't do it for me."
"Naomi Campbell?"
"She's pretty, but..." he shrugged and opened the passenger door for Scully to get in.
"Pamela Anderson?"
"Scully, you could list every woman featured in People magazine and it’s not going to change what I think. Why can't you take a compliment?"
Scully paused to buckle her seatbelt, not sure how she wanted to respond. She decided to be honest. "Well, no one's ever said anything like that to me before," she admitted quietly.
"I guess I need to say it more often," Mulder said with a wink, then pulled the car away from the curb.
They were quiet for most of the drive, mostly because Scully was ruminating on Mulder's comment. Could he really believe she was that beautiful? It was really sweet if he did. Mulder had this peculiar habit of driving her absolutely crazy, and then being so kind and gentle the next moment.
When Mulder pulled up to Scully's apartment, he put the car in park and unlocked the doors so she could exit.
Scully leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Thanks, Mulder." She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car before he could comment on her out-of-character behavior.
Mulder rolled the window down. "Thanks for the ride?" he asked.
Scully rolled her eyes. "Thanks for being so nice to me. And for the compliment..." she trailed off, still slightly embarrassed by Mulder's earlier pronouncement.
"You're not so bad looking yourself," she said, almost unwillingly. Scully tried to keep her feelings about Mulder (appearance and otherwise) buried deep, but since he made the first move, she thought it would be okay to let him know that the sentiment was reciprocated.
Mulder grinned through the open window. "Most handsome man in the world?"
Okay I don’t usually post stuff like this often, but please, please, pretty please stop using AI when making fandom content. It’s so prevalent in The X Files community and it genuinely disturbs me. Please, for the love of god, stop.
@calimanc I loved these tags so much I'm reblogging this again:
#you do not have to justify taking up space in the fandom by 'creating'#you can leave comments on fics and like and reblog fanart and gifs and meta#you can talk to people and share your thoughts or just gush#you do not need to bring ai slop here so you can claim to be an artist or a writer#your value as a person does not derive from what you can produce#you are enough#free yourself from the capitalist frame of mind that says you can only be here if you are contributing a product#your enthusiasm is a better contribution than anything you ask ai to make for you#using ai is extremely alienating to the human people in the fandom who work hard to make art to share#and also to the human people who show up in the fandom who are just excited to be here and to see the amazing art people are making#don't abdicate your humanity just because you feel like you don't matter if you aren't producing something
It's so true, though. Fandom needs people who create things, sure, but there are SOOOOOO many ways to do that. And fandom also needs people who participate in other ways, like commenting and making rec posts and reblogging stuff with interesting tags and just generally reading things and looking at things and sharing them around with other people to say, "Hey, wow, how cool is all of this?" Fandom isn't for capitalism and it never was. I know everything is monetized today - people charging for their Patreons before they'll finish a story, companies making merch that sells out in two seconds because people buy it to resell, concert tickets for stars who can't sing, all of that - but fandom is SUPPOSED to be a gift economy community, where we share and share alike. You don't need merch to be in fandom. You don't need to show up at this potluck and bring something. You just need to say, "I really liked this, thanks!" about the things you put on your plate. It's not about consumption. It's not about production. It's about joy and sharing and playing together in this big sandbox.
And AI is like shit in that sandbox. Nobody wants a turd.
y’all all I wanna do is make them make out, maybe some cute snuggly mornings, a bit of post-ep angst and comfort. analyze microexpressions and tones of voice, odd turns of phrase, fits of rage, moments of breathtaking compassion. the greatest deepest hottest most beautiful bond in television history.
do you have any fics of Mulder being especially needy/clingy?
Fox Mulder Needs His Scully
Off the top of my head, you'd love @baronessblixen (Ao3) and Jenna Tooms (Ao3): the former specializes in tender, tactile MSR while the latter focuses on longer, chaptered AUs. I recommend either
An Acceptable Level of Happiness (domestic AU after Requiem) or Shooting Star (Mulder is returned nearly twenty years after Requiem) from Jenna. Baroness is recced below.
(Also, I have many fic lists fitting your criteria, in various forms, here.)
Now! Injured or loopy or scattered (or devoted) Mulder, here we go!
Loose chronological order below~
@swinging-stars-from-satellites/bravest_person_in_Wonderland's Whumpay Day 20: Broken bone (Ao3)
Mulder is a surprisingly docile patient. She's a little bit surprised, considering everything else she knows about him so far; he's much more relaxed about the whole think than she'd expected. Maybe that's just the pain meds, though. She supposes she'll find out eventually.
Post-Fallen Angel Scully cares for Mulder.
@wexleresque/hellsteeth's backseat driver (Ao3)
She shakes her head and pulls out a travel-sized bottle of Tylenol. “Here.” she holds it out to him, an olive branch.
Mulder blinks at the bottle before grabbing it and shaking a few pills into his hand. “Thanks.”
Scully shrugs and pulls back onto the road. “Don’t mention it.”
Scully is behind the wheel, and irritated with her partner.
shawntaw's Typing
Scully frowned. As she approached wakefulness, she gasped and scrambled upright and away, falling off the bed with a thump as she did.
Aghast, she rose to her knees and looked into her bed. It was Mulder alright. Surprisingly, her antics had not awoken him. He lay so peacefully, his arm still outstretched from where it had been around her.
Post-Born Again Scully learns more about Mulder's night terrors.
@leiascully's (Ao3)
Adrift (Ao3)
But her bed cradled him and his eyes were closing. He caught his breath in panic, a sob catching in his throat. She put a cool washcloth on his forehead.
There was nobody like Scully.
He wanted to tell her.
But the body, the body, the red blood and the white sheet. The air was smeared with color.
Anasazi Mulder feels safe with Scully.
Mulder just looks at Scully and genuinely say 'you're soooo pretty'
“I won’t forget that you’re beautiful,” he says, after a moment. He’s looking at her like his eyes can’t quite focus. He reaches out and touches her arm. It seems to reassure him that she is where he perceives her to be.
Scully dissects diction with her loopy partner.
@o6666666's AU where... and Is... is it cruel to request more...
He’s freezing cold.
He wants to be next to her, on her couch, under a blanket so badly he shakes with it; it brings tears to his eyes; he wants to feel warm; he just wants to rest his head on her shoulder; he just wants to rest.
By the time he reaches Quantico, he wishes he didn’t drive there himself, what with his blurry vision, his migrainous head.
AU-- Mulder has cancer instead.
@fbismostunwanted1158's What if during Demons, Scully had gotten in the bath with Mulder to warm him up?
“Mulder, let’s—“
“Mm...c-can you ju-st ho-ld me, Sc-cully?” Tone so innocent. Raw. Void of anything but need and honesty.
AU-- Demons Mulder can't warm up.
spookycc's Vixen's Valhalla
She tried to swallow, and her throat hurt, but other than that, there was no pain. Trying to remember what had happened, trying to ascertain where she was, she glanced over to her right, and befell a sight that brought a very weak smile to her paled features. At the end of her right arm, obscuring her hand, was a very tousled, sleeping Mulder's head.
Scully takes a bullet for Mulder.
@i-gaze-at-scully/i_gaze_at_scully's Sarcasm 113
By the time she closes the door behind them, she only has a hand on his forearm, and he’s very intently, very deliberately lifting her fingers off one by one. He examines each of them with wide eyes, searching her crop circle fingerprints for some sort of clue, before dropping them off his arm.
Scully tries to manage a partner strung out on pain meds.
ofmulder's Just a Cold
"A dog???" He seemed overly excited for some reason beyond her comprehension, "Where?"
"There, Mulder." Scully pointed at the silhouette of the dog who'd stopped right in front of the car and was now staring at the car.
"You see, Scully?" Mulder began with a very serious voice, one she knew as his 'lecturer voice', "The forest isn't the only place where ancient Fauna and Flora reside..."
Scully is frustrated then amused.
baronessblixen's
44 Msr please!
“I thought you might not be home.” Scully was prepared to be angry with him; it’s late and he is, albeit unknowingly, crashing her solitary movie night. But all her complaints fly out the door when she sees his pale complexion, his glassy eyes.
“Mulder, what is the matter? Are you sick?”
Mulder turns up with an injured wrist (on pain meds.)
When It Rains
“Not drunk,” he repeats. “I wasn’t feeling well,” he says. “I just- there were pills in the medicine cabinet. I took them. The first didn’t do anything, so I took something else.” Her alarm bells are ringing.
“What did you take?” she asks and he just shrugs.
“I thought it was Tylenol. Wait. I think the other was Benadryl. My throat was so itchy.”
“Mulder, you don’t have any allergies.”
Post-Triangle Mulder winds up at Scully’s doorstep.
something set during Per Manum (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. Right now, at this very moment, her egg and his sperm are getting to know each other, deciding whether or not there’s a future for them. Mulder, always the believer, hopes there is.
After their IVF procedure, Mulder vows to pamper his partner for the weekend.
Berries
“Is he drunk?” Bill mutters into Scully’s ear.
“No,” Scully tells him and wonders if she’s maybe said it too quickly, “he hurt himself on a case and they gave him too many painkillers."
"You expect me to believe that?” It does sound stupid, she realizes.
S6 Scully brings her loopy partner to the family Christmas.
Cow-incidences
He closes his eyes, only to pop them open again after a few minutes. It could be wishful thinking, but she thinks they look clearer already; the dark clouds moving away, making way for his brilliant mind to shine through.
“Will you stay?” he asks, his voice deep and gravelly.
“Of course I’ll stay,” she assures him, taking his hand in hers. “I’ll be here when you wake up again.”
Mulder has yet another accident involving a cow.
Healing Powers
“I can feel my nose,” he explains. “Is that normal? Scully, do you feel your nose?”
“You can have another dose of med before bed, Mulder.”
“Your nose, Scully,” he says, touching his finger to her nose, booping it softly. “You have a cute nose. Do you feel it?”
Mulder wants a kiss to heal faster.
A New Beginning (Ao3)
“In how much pain are you?”
“Right now? None. I’m looking at you.” Any other time, she might have rolled her eyes or call him crazy, but he’s so serious, so earnest.
“You still need to take them, though, all right?” He nods at her.
“Doing everything you say, Dr. Scully.”
“Since when?”
“Since last night.”
Post-Millennium Scully and Mulder and the new year.
Chilly Nights (Ao3)
He knocks as quietly as he can and waits. There’s no noise on the other side of the door. Fear starts niggling at him. What if Scully is not well and she’s all on her own? He knocks again, this time more forcefully.
“Mulder?” There she is. The love of his life in a winter coat and a comforter that almost dwarfs her.
“I was worried,” he says. “I texted you and then you didn’t open the door.”
“It’s 2 a.m.,” she says with a yawn.
Revival Mulder and Scully bundle up in her cold motel room.
Lea Nicci's (LJ) West of Sunrise - Part 1/2 and West of Sunrise - Part 2/2 (Gossamer)
"I was worried about you," she said, gently, trying her hardest not to sound accusing. "Are you okay?"
He laughed dryly. "I'd say `okay' is a relative term." With a grimace, he rolled over and reached for a bottle sitting on the table next to the abandoned plate. He handed it to her with a glum expression. "But the FBI shrink thinks I could use a round of this."
AU-- S5 Scully realizes her partner is severely depressed.
35-leukothea's Tell Me
“Sit up and drink all of that,” she instructs, trying to be gentle but still firm, and holds out the medicine for him. He takes it, swallows it dry, then downs half the glass in one go. Then he takes out the straw and bites on it.
“The water, Mulder,” she reminds him.
He finishes the rest of it, then lies back on the bed and pulls her down with him. She inhales sharply, surprised, but does not move away. His hand curls around her bicep like he wants to make sure she’s still real, and Scully thinks he doesn’t realize how much he anchors her to reality by doing so.
Post-The End Scully is there for her partner.
@msrafterglow/msrafterdark's 92 :)
But something is different now. Ever since he breathed those frightening, precious three words into the shell of her ear three nights ago, something has broken open in her, become raw and new and vulnerable. They haven’t slept together yet, but he knows it’s going to be any day now, if the open longing he keeps seeing on her face is any indication.
Post-Triangle Mulder notices some changes.
@is-on-its-way/Ophelia_is_a_nun's Sea Mystery (Ao3)
She picked her head up and rubbed her face. He wouldn’t have said it if he hadn’t been drugged. And thats all that mattered.
Post-Triangle Mulder and Scully navigate his loopy confession.
@sunflowerseedsandscience/sunflowerseedsandscience‘s Someday Your Child May Cry: Chapter 9
In the hallway outside of Mulder’s hospital room, Scully leans up against the wall, covering her eyes with a shaking hand. Skinner and the Gunmen have, thankfully, already gone down to the hospital lobby to wait for her, and are not here to witness her mini-breakdown following Mulder’s unexpected confession.
He’s drugged, she reminds herself firmly. He has no idea what he’s saying. The best thing you can do for both of you is to go downstairs, go back to the hotel, let him sleep and sober up, and not speak of this again unless he brings it up first.
And yet, her feet are carrying her back into his hospital room.
AU-- IVF arc Mulder and Scully stumble their way to success.
@sunlightscully's north to the future (Beautitudes)
He cradles his hand and shakes, almost imperceptibly. She can feel it through his clothes, could feel it from across the room when she first walked in.
He’s alive, she thinks, alive, alive, alive, and can think of nothing else.
Later, in private, he clutches at her with his good hand. She can feel him shaking now across the expanse of his mattress. “Thank you,” he’d said when she offered to drive him home, and she’d wanted to say it back a thousand times, ten thousand times, because earlier she’d had time to think about what her life would be like without him and it had been difficult to imagine.
Now he trembles. You’re alive, she thinks to him. It will be okay because you are alive.
The FBI duo support each other through tragedies.
@cassiopeia462/Cassiopeia12727's One Bed. one Night.
There was a moment in which they were just gazing at each other, her body frozen mid-movement, not quite lying and not quite sitting, with his hand still firmly, but gently, around her wrist. Scully's heart was beating more rapidly again, not knowing where this was going. The night had been humming with the sound of crickets and racket from the AC unit, but it suddenly seemed as if everything had fallen silent.
Scully helps Mulder fall asleep... and is surprised he doesn't want her to go.
@thatfragilecapricorn30's (Ao3) laughing gas (Ao3)
A wave of affection swept through Scully. She looked down at Mulder, who seemed ready to fall asleep, and squeezed his hand. Even though his eyes were mostly closed, he still smiled and squeezed her hand back. Oh boy, was Scully in trouble now. She had been in love with him for some time now but seeing him act so sweet and happy towards her was making all her buried feelings rush to the surface in an overwhelming swarm of emotion.
Mulder has a dental procedure.
@laurencem's (Ao3) besotted (Ao3)
“Maybe. Maybe I’ve been thinking about taking you out the right way for a while. Maybe I don’t know why I’ve waited so long.”
Clatter on the roof - a sudden downpour. She startles upward, pulse racing, and his arm tightens around her, pulling her back to earth.
A loopy Mulder (and Scully) makes dinner reservations.
@starwalker42's (Ao3) "can you hear me?"
In the real image of me, my body relaxes, and I sway towards her – she reaches for me – that’s it, Mulder, it’s me, it’s okay – and then the door opens.
Biogenesis Mulder focuses on Scully during his torment.
Sarah Segretti's (Ao3) A Less Certain World (Ao3)
When I finally open my eyes again, the apartment is dark. Soft lips press just above my left ear. "You're doing better, Mulder," Scully whispers, her mouth forming a small smile against my cropped hair. "That one only lasted about half an hour."
A few cracks about length and stamina and endurance cross my raw and bleeding mind, but I'm too exhausted to organize them into a sentence. "Stop keeping score, Scully. I've already done the lab rat thing."
"Sorry." She kisses me again and sits up. I know her. She'll still keep track, but she'll keep the results to herself. There's a lot she's still keeping to herself - to protect me, I think, the way I used to protect her from things I thought she didn't need to know.
AU-- Amor Fati Mulder was able to be cured... at a cost.
Defnotmeyo's What does the frog say?
“Sounds like my vacuum cleaner.”
“Like you’d know what a vacuum sounds like.”
He grins loopily at her and she’s torn under the tide in affection for him. His stupid tie and his stupid yellow pajama pants and his stupid hair cut.
Signs and Wonders Mulder is shocked at bullfrogs.
Andrea's In Amor, Vis Vires
Most of the time Scully seemed so remote; keeping her feelings closely guarded. But earlier, during the shave, for a split second I thought I'd finally seen how she felt about me. I could have been mistaken. I was probably only seeing her concern for my health, but it felt like something deeper.
Post-En Ami TLG and Scully spirit an injured Mulder away to England where she doctors him back to health. Their mission: to uncover yet another Consortium plot. His mission: to prove his feelings for Scully.
@singeart/singeart's For What Ails You
“I came over today to make you feel better, " he chided, making her laugh.
Scully calls in sick, Mulder drops by later, and both discuss their sisters.
@sagan-starstuff/sagan_starstuff's And how did that work out?
“I swore I labelled that takeout.”
“You did. A week ago. And how did that work out for you?”
Mulder is sick, and Scully is there.
A. Kelley Nolan's Have a Nice Trip
"Mulder, look at me," she says quietly. I do, of course, because she's Scully and I'd do anything for her. And there she is, looking at me. I feel a little misty myself, just like that geeky kid in the lab. Scully looks deep into my eyes. Oh, hey, baby. I'm right here. She frowns a little.
"Agent Scully?" Skinner prompts. "He'd better be having a stroke."
Mulder's colorblindness causes a minor problem.
xraelynn/Rachel Noble‘s Breathing Room
"Stay...with me, Scully," he says.
Scully's smile is genuine and a little sad. "Always, Mulder," she says softly. She rubs his fingers with hers as his breathing begins to even out, some of the wheezing sounds gone from it.
Scully's eyes are somehow apologetic as she turns to me.
Brand X Mulder doesn’t want his partner to leave.
RivkaT - MustangSally‘s Syadiloh 3 : Y2K (Ao3)
Mulder sniffled and turned to go into the bathroom. I heard banging noises as he raided the cabinets, but I knew how Mulder usually dealt with sickness and I wasn't going to brave the lion's den unless he was in actual danger of bleeding out on the floor.
When he came back, his lips were red and sticky with syrup, but he was coherent enough to drive us over to Zippy's for the party.
AU-- Mulder helps deliver their child while high on drugs.
@touchstoneaf's (Ao3) Amor Fati: Destinata (The Fated Love) Act Two
and Amor Fati: The Fated Love” Act III
“I was there,” she murmured into his shoulder. /I’ll always be here./ He could accept it now. She was finally able to press her arms about him in the night. Feel the strong bones beneath unblemished flesh; amazed that he was even alive for her to hold after an ordeal that had indeed taken him from her for so long that she had lost all hope. She shuddered and cinched her arms tighter; felt his ribs shift beneath the silky envelope of his skin. They creaked in protest, but he did not move, and she spoke like one driven. “I was there hurting for you, holding you against the nightmares, even when you couldn't ask me to be there. I was with you every night until you came back to me.”
AU-- S9 Scully, who left home with William (Act One), is at last reunited with her partner. They dodge danger, attempt to dismantle the Conspiracy, and carefully discuss their respective trauma.
MaybeAmanda/maybe_amanda's (LJ, xffics) Under Construction (xffic)
"It's okay," she said, without missing a beat. "I'm glad you called." We rolled past the playground on the corner, the best- in-district red brick grade school next to the ball field, and splashed our way through the pothole on Drury Lane that the town was supposed to have fixed by now. A jet of only slightly filthy water shot up and spread-eagled itself against the window beside me and I didn't flinch. Go me.
I looked down at my hands. The knuckles on my right hand were raw and bloody. I hadn't hit anyone, but Scully and I had been discussing renovations before I went out for my run, so in my own misguided way I might have tried to take out a wall. "I took my meds." My voice was small and scared and at that moment, suited me perfectly. I hated it.
AU-- A recovering post-NIHT Mulder must sort between his faulty memories and upended existence: a medicated family man uncertain where he fits.
@monikafilefan's (Ao3) Pre-IWTB at the unremarkable house
Scully scoffs, and his cheek suddenly feels bereft without her thumb arcing across it. “You’re high, Mulder.”
“High on my love for you,” he coos.
Pre-IWTB Mulder injures himself at the Unremarkable House.
@atths--twice's (Ao3, FFN) I’ve Got You
“Mulder, we’re not going to talk about this when you’re doped up on painkillers.”
“I think you would make a lovely bride,” he said, licking his lips. Rolling his eyes to look at her, it took him a second to focus on her face. “Hi. When did you get here?”
“Mulder,” she said, shaking her head and laughing.
Post-IWTB Scully is alerted after Mulder injures himself.
@sisterspooky1013/SisterSpooky1013/Sister Spooky‘s
The Things We Lost
“Mulder, you’re overreacting. I’m sure you’re fine. You’re not going to miss anything.” Normally she’d be annoyed at his catastrophizing and dramatics, but he seems so genuinely afraid that she can’t be mad at him. “Let’s think back through the morning and when you started feeling unwell. What did you do today?”
He closes his eyes to aid in his memory recall.
“I got up and went for a run. Took a shower. Made coffee. Smacked your ass when you were getting things out of the fridge to make breakfast.” He cracks an eye to catch her smirk, then closes it again. “Sat on the couch. Took my blood pressure medication and brought you your vitamin. Ate breakfast. That’s when I started feeling sick.”
Post-MSIV Mulder flashes over the failures of his past, afraid he'll miss his family's future.
