#lapsed_scholar

@leiascully's (Ao3) Mulder told Scully he would do whatever he could

Mulder gives the address of the house his father left to him as their address.  When the social workers ask if they’re going to continue with the FBI, Mulder tells them he’s independently wealthy and they’re both moving into the private sector.  Scully shoots him a look and he reaches out without looking back and squeezes her hand.

AU-- Mulder and Scully get married and leave the FBI, for Emily.

@foxmulders/foxmulders's au where mulder and scully get married

Her voice is new scar raw, pink and open from crying. The sea is black in the dark and she leans hard against him. Her fingers dig into the sand, to touch it feels the same as it had in Emily’s casket. Her ring is cold against his hand....

AU-- Mulder and Scully get married to better her adoption chances.

@neednottoneed/neednot's The Upside of Right

It’s been in her head since, a tune she keeps tucked in her back pocket like a worry stone, as familiar and comforting to her as the cross around her neck. She’s sung it to herself as a sort of lullaby over the years when her father wasn’t around to—at prom when her date stood her up, in college when she failed her first exam. 

And now she finds herself singing it again, but this time the comfort isn’t for her. It’s for the girl lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to tubes and fighting for her life, the little girl with Scully’s cross around her neck.

It’s for her daughter. 

AU-- Scully reminisces over the song each Scully daughter is sung.

Malibusunset's All That is Dark and Bright

“You’re looking at me like it’s the craziest idea I’ve ever had.”

She blinks several times. She can’t think of a single thing to say. Not one.

“Let’s just consider it objectively for a moment,” he presses. “You just told me that you’re being discriminated against as an adoptive parent because you’re single. And right or wrong, that seems to be the way things work. But we have the ability to change that if you want, Scully. If you could get custody of your daughter, then maybe we should consider it.”

Her hand withdraws from the purse, empty. The mint no longer seems to be the most pressing thing on  her mind. “Mulder, I…” she shakes her head, her lips forming words that are just out of reach. “We can’t just…I mean, it would be…”

A small chuckle escapes him, a hint of recklessness in his eyes. “Brilliant, actually.” The palm of his hand comes down onto the tabletop, audibly. “It would be brilliant.”

AU-- Mulder and Scully and the slow, united effort to adopt Emily. (Thanks to @two-birds-alone-together's for the addition~)

EXTRAS

Donna/donnah’s (Gossamer, mulderscreek)’s

I'm On My Way (Ao3, Gossamer)

He had crossed his arms and wiggled slightly to scratch his back and settled into the worn leather of the couch. Then the phone had rung.

"Hello?"

"M-Mulder."

Every hair on his body had jumped to attention at her voice. His glad reply had stuck in his throat. Had he heard a sob?

Post-A Christmas Carol Mulder reels from the implications of Scully's call.

@is-on-its-way/Ophelia_is_a_nun's Unnamed

“I promise Emily, Im going to come back tomorrow. Ill see you at 10am, thats when visiting hours start okay?”

The girl nodded tears staining her face.

“Oh baby.” She couldn’t help herself as she wiped at Emilys face and drew her in for a hug. This time Emily curled in and let herself be comforted instead of clinging on like she might lose her. 

“And guess what?” She looked down at her. “Tomorrow, I have someone special who wants to meet you, his name is Mu.. his name is Fox.”

Post-A Christmas Carol Scully tells her daughter about Mulder.

@i-gaze-at-scully/ i_gaze_at_scully's Chapter One: Protect

Emily has spoken two words to him: “a potato.” She has sort of smiled at him exactly once. But when they burst in the room and Scully tenderly feels the girl’s forehead, he is compelled to hold her. He picks her up from the bed instinctually, cradles her on his shoulder, vividly imagines–for the most fleeting moment–bouncing her to sleep or bringing her from the couch to bed. He feels a rush of intense emotion, something so deep and primal he isn’t sure he’s ever experienced anything like it. He has to protect this child. He will protect this child.

Mulder's thoughts as he bonds with Emily Sim.

@o6666666's (Ao3) Unnamed

“Scully,” he begs, “I just killed a man in cold blood. Please, please get in the car.”

Her heart leaves. 

Her eyes glaze. 

“SCULLY,” Mulder snaps. Emily jerks and moans at the loud noise, confirms her sentience, and Scully gasps, bursting into tears. 

AU-- Post Mulder finds Emily, alive, on his rampage for revenge.

@blossom-ofsnow/blossomofsnow65's Sick days

One night, while Emily was laying on the floor on her stomach with a colouring book and they were sitting on the couch watching T.V., Mulder proposed to Scully.

AU-- Mulder holds down the fort while Scully is out of town.

gianta's The X-daughter

Mulder was just as upset as Scully’s brother. He already made a scene at the laboratory, yelling at everybody and demanding explanations. They repeated the tests on his insistence, but the results remained the same.

He had a child.

A little girl.

AU-- Mulder, Scully, and both their biological children (adopted and IVF, respectively) have a happier-than-canon ending.

@incidental-ao3/incidental's Abide With Me

“You okay?” she asked, resting her chin on the seat as she looked back at the girl. Emily looked up, giving her that hesitant, Scully-patented smile that didn’t quite reach her anxious eyes.

“I’m fine,” she said in a little voice. Scully sighed through her nose, giving the little girl– her little girl–an encouraging nod.

“Sounds just like you,” Mulder observed from the driver’s seat with a smirk. Scully swatted playfully at his arm.

AU-- Little Emily is fearful of her first communion.

@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack’s Their First Girl (Ao3)

Scully’s eyes fall closed as Em’s meaning washes over her. She sits up, pulls the girl to her—all gangly arms and legs in a cutoff Foo Fighters t-shirt and Chucks. She is growing out of hugs like this, but not tonight. “Emily, you are really ours. You are completely and totally ours, mine and dad’s. The how doesn’t matter to that part of it.”

Against her shoulder, Emily sobs. “But you didn’t know me when I was born. It’s not the same.”

Scully rubs her back. “No,” she says. “It’s not. It’s different. It’s special.” Another choked sob like yeah right, and Scully can only squeeze her daughter tight. “Em, you brought us together. You made us a family.” Fingers over silky hair, knobby knees raised up onto the bedspread, resting against a rounded belly. “Without you,” she says, “dad would probably be out hunting werewolves, too afraid to even kiss me.”

AU-- Emily is there for her little sister's birth.

@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s 

christmas 2000/Christmas Ficlets - Chapter 2

Mulder sits on the edge of the bed and holds her hand like a lifeline. Scully tries not to worst-case-scenario. She tries to focus on Emily and Mulder, thinks about Christmas morning in a couple of weeks, Emily clutching Mulder’s hand excitedly and jumping up and down at the stack of presents, her nephew's sticky fingers when he hugs her hello, the warm familiarity of her mother's house. Her mind wanders treacherously back to being sick again, and her stomach twists painfully.

AU-- Pre-Requiem Scully nearly faints at work.

Lapsed_Scholar's Family Stories

“What’s up, Em?”

“Did you have a bar mitzvah?”

He startled and stopped typing, pulled off his glasses, and turned to look at her. “I, um, no. Why, uh, why do you ask?”

She was more confused by his reaction than the answer. “But...you’re an adult.”

He smiled a little at that. “Yes. Well, I like to think so, anyway.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “And you’re Jewish,” she pointed out.

“Ah.” He sighed and tilted back in his chair. He looked as though he were thinking.

AU-- Mulder, Scully, Emily, and William are a family, navigating fractious Father's Days, childhood curiosities, differing cultural practices, and the in-stride pangs of growing up. (Pairs well with the author's cancer-arc fic Atonement.)

where the love light gleams (Ao3)

William and Emily are siblings, somehow. Except William hasn’t been here forever - Emily still remembers the day they brought him in, a babbling baby who’d the nurses attended to almost constantly. She’d leaned over his crib and told him stories, and he’d giggled like he’d found her fascinating. When she was younger, Peter Pan had been a favorite of hers, so she’d thought fairies. Now she realizes that this is the closest they will ever have to magic in this grimy little room of theirs. Whatever they can do is not normal, but it’s definitely not magic.

AU-- Pre-IWTB Emily and her little brother escape from captivity.

AU headcanon: Scully, Mulder, Emily, and William preparing for Season 11 miracle baby

Both of the kids are a little more than surprised when they hear about it. Mulder and Scully both tell William, who is still living at home, but Emily actually finds out FROM William, when she calls him to check on him and he more or less blurts, "Did Mom and Dad tell you that they're having a baby?" Emily thinks he's kidding until her mom calls her later that night. 

AU-- Post MSIV Mulder and Scully and their kids.

@muldersfingers's (Ao3) Delirium snippet

She wondered if he received a lot of unwanted attention, extra suspicion, for his name. Fox. It was highly unusual, not the kind of name a Cured would give their child.

Dana led the man towards the room occupied by Emily and stopped him just outside.

“She’s very anxious about seeing you.”

“Okay,” Mr. Mulder said.

AU-- Dr. Scully is left little choice but to recruit Dr. Mulder.

prufrockslove/plenilune’s (Ao3, Alt. Gossamer, Geocities, Colonization HQ) Paracelsus

"I am going home, Ma'am. This time, I am not going to return. I cannot hide in the swamps forever." He hesitated, watching the sun teasing them through the weathered gray boards. "I have a house, a business. My mother is alive. Life will go on, but differently."

"I will miss you," she said without looking at him.

"I will miss you as well. Very much."

"Very much?"

"Very much. You are my friend. And Ma'am-" He inhaled, didn't think, and said it all in one breath. "Mrs. Waterston, despite what I have said, I do think I would be happy if you were my wife."

Turning her head, she stared at him. Mulder re-wrapped his arms around his knees and continued staring purposely at the hints of amber sunset flickering in from outside.

AU-- Civil War era soulmates Mulder and Scully marry and move back to Virginia after he finds her alone (and delivers her daughter.)

BONUS

@limnaea recommended The Mallards (an AU after Christmas Carol.)

Thanks for reading~