mulder, it's me

by: mldrgrl rating: PG Summary: For the @xfficchallenges Fic is Medicine Number 9 prompt.  Set a week after Irresistible.

She’s anguished a lot about knocking on his door, almost turning back several times on the drive to his apartment, but it’s something she needs to do because she hasn’t slept in over a week.  Not really.  Maybe she’s gotten in a few minutes here and there, but she always jerks back to consciousness, paralyzed and terrified that the reality is that she’s still trapped in the trunk of Duane Barry’s car or Donnie Pfaster’s closet, and her escape was the dream.

Tonight, as she trembled in bed after a brief and fitful nap, she remembered the week before when Mulder had untied her hands and touched her chin, how she fell apart and he put his arms around her and held her together.  She’d felt relieved and protected and safe.  She wants to feel like that again.  No, she needs to feel like that again, just for a little while.

She knocks softly on his door, almost hoping he won’t answer.  Maybe he’s asleep, maybe he isn’t home, maybe he won’t hear her.  She can walk away and tell herself that she tried, but it’s only moments later after her knuckles have lightly rapped in triple succession next to number 42 above his peephole, that he opens his door.

“Hey,” he says, his brows shooting skyhigh.  The blue dress-shirt he wore to the office today is unbuttoned, revealing a white undershirt.  He’s barefoot and his hair is rumpled, flat on one side and spiky on the other.

“Sorry to show up like this,” she says, dropping her eyes.  She presses her thumb into the jagged edge of her car key and closes her hand into a fist.

“Come in?”

She hesitates before stepping across his threshold, keeping her gaze on the floor.  “Did I wake you?” she asks.

“I was just listening to some late night infomercials.  Or maybe I was just dreaming that Cher was trying to sell me hairspray.”

One corner of her mouth twitches into a slight smile.

“Everything okay, Scully?”

“Um.”

She’s too embarrassed to ask him if he’ll put his arms around her again, so she lifts her face and lets him see her bloodshot eyes and the telltale dark smudges of sleeplessness that she’s been hiding under carefully applied foundation and Visine.  He blinks at her with an expression of stunned silence.  She averts her gaze again and then steps close enough to lightly butt her head against his chest.

“I can’t sleep,” she whispers at their feet.

His hands rest lightly against her back and her body shudders as she takes a deep breath.  Before she knows it, his arms wind around her like strong vines.  His lips press into her crown and she sighs.  When she unfurls her fists, her keys clatter to the floor and they both ignore it.  Her hands are numb and her thumb throbs, but it’s okay because she can still hold on to the back of Mulder’s shirt.

When she closes her eyes, she doesn’t feel trapped or claustrophobic, she feels sheltered.  When she takes a deep breath, she doesn’t smell exhaust fumes or mothballs, she smells Mulder’s cologne.  When she turns her cheek, her face doesn’t sting from carpet-burn, there’s only the softness of Mulder’s t-shirt.  She sags against him, so tired.

“Come sit down,” he says.

She doesn’t want to let him go, but the exhaustion is starting to overwhelm her and she knows she won’t stay upright for too much longer.

“I should go,” she murmurs.  It’s reflexive though and only a half-hearted protest.  She can’t leave now, even if she wants to, she’s liable to pass out at the wheel.

“Come on.”  Mulder keeps an arm around her as he guides her to the couch.  He sits them down together so she’s leaning against him.

Scully squints at the flickering light of the television and rubs one eye.  It’s muted, but Mulder was right, Cher is on a loveseat, surrounded by hairspray.  She chuckles and rubs her eye again.  Mulder reaches away from her for the remote to turn the TV off and she clings to him, suddenly panicked at the idea of being away from him.

In the dark, he twists back towards her and tucks her under his arm.  He pulls a blanket over them and leans back so they’re a little more reclined.  It takes a few minutes to calm the racing of her heart, but eventually it slows.  Her head gets heavier.  Sleep starts to pull her under.

In the morning, she’ll wake alone on his couch, rested and content.  Mulder will be showered and shaved and there will be a bag of bagels on the table and coffee to go.  The bag she keeps in her trunk for sudden excursions out of town will be by the door.  The only acknowledgment they’ll give to last night is when she whispers a quiet ‘thank you’ to him as she picks apart an everything bagel, and he’ll say ‘anytime’ and they won’t speak of it again.  She’ll know though, should she ever need his arms again, he’ll be there.

Like, we know he and Howard weren’t close. We know Howard was cold, and that he could have been a much better parent. As someone who’s grown up in similar circumstances, one of your biggest fears is that you will do to your kids what your parents did to you. That you’ll never break the cycle.

Yet here Tony is, breaking the cycle, and his daughter ADORES him. She loves him 3000, and I think it’s so beautiful how Tony having a daughter was portrayed. That after all this time he finally got the child he wanted, and that he is content knowing he showed her the love he didn’t receive.

Howard was abusive, neglective, and altogether a horrible father. He always acted as if Tony was some annoying pet, that always got in the way. His work was more important to him than Tony ever was. Sure, he loved Tony, but he never cared to show it.

Tony, on the other hand, was a hero. He did what his father didn’t. He said what father never bothered to. He spent time with Morgan, he loved her, and never let her think he didn’t.

Tony will not be there to raise her, but Morgan will have a loving family - Pepper, Happy, Peter, May, Rhodey, The Avengers - who will. They will never let her forget him, and who he was.

Rhodey will tell her the story of Ironman, and how Tony Stark built a whole of armour that could fly, with a box of scraps.

Pepper will tell her about the mandarin, and all about how tony saved the world without the suit.

Peter will tell her about the time they went to space, and Peter died, but Tony brought everyone back and saved the universe.

Bruce, Thor and Clint would love to tell her about how her father flew a nuke into an alien wormhole, in the battle of New York.

Morgan’s family will never let her forget who her father was, and how much of a hero he was.

CONTAINS ENDGAME SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT, BEWARE

Summary: Peter ponders the legacy left by a hero and makes a new friend. Or, I try to heal from the trauma of Endgame by writing fic.

Warnings: Canon compliant. Enough said. 

Words: 875

Written for @gaycrouton for the Easter exchange. Also on AO3! 

Easter Sunday, the perfect day for Mulder and Scully to run into trouble. And… Scully can’t save swim and Mulder has to save her. 

“All of this,” Scully spews the words, water everywhere, “is your fault, Mulder.” She is right. Of course, she is right. For once, he’d even admit it. If he could speak. He can’t. His mouth is half opened, mid-apology, totally stunned. Her dress, her beautiful sundress that he’s marveled at all day, clings to her body. Oh, and how it clings. It highlights the contours of her body, the angry muscles, her… nipples.

No, Mulder can’t speak. He tries not to stare and he can’t do that either.

“All your fault!” she yells and stomps off, giving Mulder a clear view of her perfect behind. Yes, it’s his fault. Is he sorry? He considers this as he follows her in small steps, slowly, definitely not coming to close. She’s fuming and rightfully so. But is he sorry, is he really? Staring at the way her wet dress hugs her ass cheeks, he can’t be sure.

How did they even get here? he wonders, stuffing his hands into his pockets. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not at all.

The X-Files Rewatch | Season 4

“fine”

“fine”

“FINE”

“it’s fINE”

https://www.paypal.me/mybalanceiskillingme

Those of you who know me know I don’t don’t this often, if ever, but last week I came out to my parents and now my girlfriend and I have to move out. We have nowhere to go.

The stress of it all has landed us BOTH in the hospital, with infections that we can’t fight off on our own bc our immune systems are worn down from the events of the past week.

We could really use your help, anyone’s help, to get on our feet. We have $25 between the two of us and will have to use most of it on parking (yes, even as patients) and don’t have food. We’ll soon be getting medical bills and need to be able to pay rent. We’re running out of time.

So far it looks as though we need about $500 to get on our feet until one of us is able to work again.