#nowwhateinstein

@welsharcher's The X-Files: The Field Where I Died 

With a sigh, Scully walked over and dropped the plastic evidence bag on his desk, savoring the resounding thud it made. Mulder casually looked up; his apathy undisturbed.

Another sigh escaped as she pulled out the book, “Sarah Kavanaugh’s journal was found hidden under a loose floorboard in Melissa’s room.”

Post TFWID Scully attempts to give Mulder comfort.

@officialmulder/specialagentpao's broken hearts, paper hearts

He buried his face in his hands. Scully sat in front of him on the coffee table. “We can talk about it if you want.” Her voice barely a whisper.

AU-- Paper Hearts Mulder finds Samantha's body.

@agent-troi/AgentTroi's Still Walking Into That Room

Mulder remained limp and passive throughout all of this, not reacting in any way except to follow numbly as Scully led him out of the house and back to her car. He sat down when she opened the passenger side door and gently nudged him inside, but he made no move to buckle his seat belt, so she did it for him.

Post Demons Scully needs to know that Mulder will be okay without her.

@seek-its-opposite/seek_its_opposite's

photosensitivity (Tumblr)

“You don’t have to stay in here,” he tells her, trying to sound casual. “If anything happens I’ll just scream in agony.” He doesn’t pull off the joke.

“I’m good,” she soothes.

He called her in the middle of the night with blood down his shirt and she came to find him. It’s been too late to leave for years.

Post Demons Scully and Mulder are confronted by his seizures and her mortality, his past and her present.

folie imposée (Tumblr)

He’s straining, struggling against his restraints to reach her. She unhooks the belt across his chest and he grasps for her, pulling at the straps around his wrists. When she takes his arm in her hands his skin burns hot and pink, rubbed raw by cheap canvas.

She could play his scrapes on a turntable and the vinyl would sing a slow tragedy, a myth reborn in jazz. Cassandra the cursed prophet, reincarnated as a boy who believes in aliens.

Folie a Deux Scully spirits Mulder away.

@amplifyme/wonderland/Lydia Bower's

Affinity/Affinity 01

"Scully. You really thought it was me that night. Right?"

We've covered this ground before. It's one of the few questions he's allowed himself to ask, and one of the queries he continues to make. It's like he's stuck on these few questions like a needle in the groove of an old record.

"Yes, Mulder." I wait for the question that will inevitably follow, the one that never directly addresses what he saw when he burst through the door. He can afford to be vague: we both know what almost happened, what he interrupted.

"And you… you were okay with that."

Second verse same as the first.

"Yeah, Mulder. I was okay with that."

He nods. I haven't changed the answer to that one, either. I think he finds that reassuring, in some odd Mulderish way.

AU-- Post Small Potatoes Scully and Mulder redo that night.

Burning in Heaven

No, not asleep. Her head swung around and he was greeted with a smile. "Mulder. You're still here."

He took another step into the room and stopped. A small part of his brain got busy trying to figure out what it was about Scully that calmed him. Simply walking into her room had settled and centered him. He could feel the threat of shattering begin to reverse itself, his pieces coming back together to make a whole. Scully was his glue.

Post Redux II Mulder and Scully process their raw emotions.

@settle-down-frohike/settledownfrohike's

Missing Scenes (1/3, 2/3, 3/3)

“Mulder…are you sure you shouldn’t have someone examine you?“ he waved her off, scanning the floor for her shoes, doing his best not to appear frantic.

Mulder's journey through the final days of the cancer arc. (Scully comforts him in Part 3.)

120 for the drabble prompt

When he returns Scully is ensconced in pale pink silk, drunkenly slurring at her mother that she’s fine. She attempts to reach for the stack of drenched journals, winces, and that is just about enough for Maggie Scully. She enters the bedroom, raises a hereditary eyebrow at the hulking figure trying to decipher a fitted sheet from flat. 

“Fox. Thank you. I think I can take it from here on out.” 

It’s not Maggie’s style to be brutish or cruel, but she’s tired, and her tone is a bit more clipped than usual. Mulder remains mute, and nods a yes m’am. He gathers the empty Macy’s bag and passes her as she resumes the preparation of the bed. When she exits, he’s sitting crosslegged on the floor, coffee table askew to make room, trying to peel apart pages from The Lancet mumbling, “just a second, I’ll find it...”. 

Her daughter’s hands are roving the top of his scalp, petting and combing through his hair like a beloved dog.

Post Tithonus Scully is not exasperated with Mulder's efforts.

Luctus

She looks over at his sleeping form, studies the exaggerated bow of his upper lip, and thinks what a nursing blister it must’ve made. She gazes back down at the somber toddler in the faded image clutching his mother’s leg and sucking his thumb, her with one hand on his scalp, the other cradling her belly. His humanity is real and disconcerting at this moment. All this time, it felt as though she were merely patching up this omnipotent, otherworldly force, acting as an aid to propel him toward an epic destiny. There’s proof before her now that somewhere, he had a beginning. 

Post Sein und Zeit Scully cares for Mulder in the aftermath.

5 Pt. AU Prompts

The words “small cell” are anything but small. They are Goliath, and David is no where to be found. She feels the words rather than hears them. Malignant, it feels like quicksand.

AU-- Mulder has cancer; and Scully is ready for war.

Headcanon (Tumblr)

It started after her first disappearance, on a flight to nowhere North Dakota. She was flipping through a dossier and he was dozing, as per usual. She heard a mumbled version of her name and threw a distracted “Hm?” his way without glancing up. “Scully.” Firmer, more forceful this time. She looked over, annoyed, and spat “What Mu-“ and realized he was still asleep, but fitfully so. His breathing was coming in pants, nostrils flared and his brow was beaded with perspiration. 

Mulder's name is a comfort to Scully.

@o6666666's (Ao3)

8, 52, or 89!! 

“I think you should go home.”

He shrugged, but in the way small boys do when they are lying, and his eyes were wet. 

“You need sleep.” 

She knew, and he knew, that he had not been sleeping. She pet his hair and he blinked like it hurt to be treated gently.

He shrugged again. 

“Don’t lie to me,” she admonished, and pinched his ear so he knew it was only that she cared for him tremendously. 

He laughed but it knocked loose some piece of the great thing inside him that hurt and hurt, and in a moment he was crying. 

Post Paper Hearts Scully tries to call in Tena Mulder for support.

AU where Mulder is the one who gets sick in season 4 instead of Scully and Is... is it cruel to request more of the Sick Mulder story?

She wipes his mouth with her sleeve.

“Open your eyes,” she whispers, and he blinks and blinks.

“It’s blurry,” he sniffs.

She wraps herself all around him and lays her cheek to his, adopting his vantage point.

“I don’t wanna wrestle,” he says.

“In a second you’ll see the cabinet,” she says. “Just the plain brown cabinet. And our feet, and my other shoes.”

He sniffles.

“Tell me when you see it.”

AU-- Post Terma Mulder has cancer.

I love you prompt 14?

If you asked Scully whether she crashed Mulder’s disciplinary hearing to be his hype man, she’d tell you no.

But she did.

Scully refuses to let Mulder feel chastised.

@mulder-fight-him's Spiderwebs and Butterflies

She doesn’t know what exactly woke her, but blue eyes snap open suddenly and quickly fill with confusion, suprise, and maybe a little hint of love.  

Less than two feet away her lanky partner is sprawled out on her bed. At least she thinks it’s her bed. That’s where she fell asleep last night. She gently lifts her head and takes a quick inventory.  Yes. Her bed.

S5 Scully lets Mulder stay after a nightmare.

Anne Haynes's (xf-redux) Irrevocable

I watch her walk away from me, and I try to comfort myself with the picture of how life would have been for her had she not been thrust into my world. I try to see myself, sitting on one of the benches outside the Hoover Building, maybe eating lunch on a sunny day, and looking up to see Dana Scully walking down the sidewalk, a beautiful little tow- head little girl clinging to her hand, laughing and whole. I want to see this. I need to see this.

But I can't.

Because in this future, I don't exist. In this future, I am dead a thousand times over because Dana Scully wasn't there to save me.

There is no comfort to be found.

Scully finds Mulder mourning Emily's death.

Chibiness87's Seeing is Believing

He blinks harshly, gaze trapped by her intense stare. Four points of sensation appear on his neck, and he suddenly realises she is digging her nails in, making him focus.

Chocking, he manages to gasp out, “I can’t stop.”

Scully nods, tightening her grip on the nape of his neck. “Can you keep your eyes open for me?”

He squeezes his eyes closed, feeling his chest tighten. “I can’t… I can’t calm down.”

Her voice is the only anchor he has, and he latches on to it. “I’m not asking you to calm down. I’m asking you to look at me.” Her grip changes, making his face tilt more towards her. Her voice is still gentle, but firm. “Look at me, Mulder. Come on.”

Post Kitsunegari Scully guides Mulder through a panic attack.

DanaScully77's Night Hags and Restless Sleep

“Scully, is it bad the pills didn’t work?”

“Yes.” Scully admits, not wanting to lie to him. Her palm strokes through his hair, a normal occurrence for her when she’s tending to him and worried about his health. Much like his hand on her back, his hair is her calming space. “If you don’t sleep within the next twenty-four hours, you’ll need to be admitted to the hospital.”

“ Scully .”

The whine in his voice is almost childish, but Scully doesn’t comment on it. With how little rest he’s gotten, it’s only natural to resort to young behaviors. “I know, Mulder. But your body can’t survive with no sleep.”

Post-case Mulder cannot fall asleep.

saltringangell's the time it would take (to fix my heart)

He doesn’t stop, doesn’t look back.

“Mulder, slow down.”

He swings open the front door to the FBI building, wind whipping his hair back and causing her to practically stumble across the threshold. She lets the cool air sting her face, a nice change from the smoke and fire that licked at her skin just moments prior. Mulder continues down the pathway to his car, a little slower now, but still just enough steps ahead so she can’t see his face.

“Mulder, please, just let me-”

“Just get in the car, Scully.”

Post The End Mulder falls apart.

Emeraldsoleil's Beginning to Thaw

His body rippled against hers as he attempted to put distance between then, but a gasp of pain arrested his progress and he relaxed back against her.  "I realize this is an awkward position we find ourselves in, partner, but I, uh...I can't move." 

"I'm not surprised.  Your muscles are tied in knots.  I'll try to get the nurse in her to give you a muscle relaxer.  Until then, don't try to move to much.  You might tear something." She tugged on his hair again.  "Doctor's orders."

"Yes, ma'am," he answered.  The silence grew heavy, curling around them in a cloud of frustration.

"What is it, Mulder?" she asked.  "What's wrong?"

Fight the Future Scully and Mulder have a conversation at the bottom of the world.

@ghostbustermelanieking/skuls’s 

mondays on an endless loop (Tumblr)

“Scu… ly,” says Mulder. He takes another breath, and he sounds horrible, inches away. His eyes are half-closed.

“Don't try to talk, Mulder,” she whispers. She moves her hand back to his face, brushing his sweaty hair away, touching his cheek, his forehead. She's forgotten everyone else in the bank; it's just the two of them. “Just… just keep breathing, Mulder,” she says. “Hang on, okay? Keep breathing, Mulder, please.”

He doesn't listen, because of course he doesn't. He rasps, “I'm… sorry,” and then his mouth shuts and he says no more. Heartbeats slowing, slowing.

Mulder, Scully, and the endless Mondays that could be (and were.)

Foxsong 's Ruego

The words were easier to say than she had expected, not shattering as she'd thought they'd be. They were sweet in her mouth. "I love you, Mulder," she said again, marveling at how freely it left her lips. "I love you, love you..." It became a chant, a prayer. She whispered it over and over into his ear and felt how it calmed him, how he steadied against her, how his trembling eased. "I love you." It seemed so important to tell him. Why had she waited so long?

He had finally stopped crying, and was still; and she became aware that he was praying with her, echoing her whispered words. "I love you, Scully... I love you. I love you..."

Post Milagro Scully and Mulder alternate their breakdowns and caregiving.

@baronessblixen/Baroness_Blixen's Lucky

I know what I’m doing, Scully,” he told her, amusement apparent in his voice – famous last words,

“I grew up around here, you know.” If only he hadn’t tried to look good while climbing down the steep trail from the cliffs to the beach. Scully told him to take the long, official way. Of course Mulder dismissed her idea as silly and unnecessary. He insisted on walking ahead, naturally, and Scully let him. He was telling her something about crabs when it happened. One moment she watched his head bob up and down while she tried to find the best, least dangerous path, and in the next instant he slipped.

S6 Scully nearly laughs over Mulder's tumble.

@slippinmickeys/SlippinMickeys/Slippin' Mickeys's

How about a super shippy MSR fic?

Amongst the pain and the fear and the sensory overload, hers is the mind that shines like a beacon in the night.

It is a revelation.

Biogenesis Mulder is comforted amidst the chaos.

@nowwhateinstein's (Ao3) things you said that made me feel real

He pauses, worrying his bottom lip, as if searching for the right words. “It’s what led me to start looking for her. The desire to find her was my coping mechanism, I suppose. Knowing that she’s out there, somewhere, keeps my fear at bay.”

Something - perhaps it’s intuition - urges me to glance at clock on the nightstand. Of course, I realize with a sinking feeling. 11:21pm, November 27, 1998. The anniversary of Samantha’s abduction. Twenty-five years later, and he’s still searching for her.

Scully realizes her partner is "off."

@greekowl87's (Ao3) No One Is Perfect (Tumblr)

She opened the door and saw the television had gone to a late night infomercial with playing in the background on mute. Mulder was wide awake, laying across his couch with legs crossed, staring at some unknown fixed point. She recognized that look. He was lost in his own thoughts, mulling something over, and he needed to be brought back to Earth. 

Post Orison Scully assuages Mulder's guilt.

aRcaDIaNFall$'s Longest Night

"I feel lost." It's the first he's spoken in almost forty minutes. I've been silent, too.

I don't speak, just wait for him to go on.

Sein und Zeit Mulder has a hard night.

@incidental-ao3/incidental's Verlust

She held his head against her chest, fingers stroking his hair, and rocked with him. It was instinct, an act buried deep within her, as she breathed in the smell of him and kissed the crown of his head. He hung onto her like a life raft, his weight bearing down on her as she crouched on the floor in front of his chair. When her shoulders and knees began to scream for relief, she gently extricated herself from him and took his hands in hers, encouraging him up out of his seat. He followed without words or hesitation, letting her lead him across his apartment and into the bedroom. 

He sat on the edge of the bed with a vacant expression on his face, his eyes a million miles elsewhere. It scared her, seeing him that way, so completely drawn into himself.

Sein und Zeit Scully opens up to help Mulder process.

@bohoartist/Bohoartist's The Healing Power of Touch

Mulder adjusts his body so he is facing ahead and she turns her face to look at him. She can see the shininess in his eyes and understands perfectly well how the grief of losing a loved one creeps up on you in the most random of times. She thinks of the days and weeks after losing Ahab and how her eyes would well up with tears for no discernible reason as the weight of her loss would crash down on her. She thinks of how he would notice her grief but knew better than to say a word in an attempt to comfort her, instead choosing to brush his hand across her back a little more than necessary, or to push a stray strand of hair out of her eyes.

Sein und Zeit Scully keeps vigil.

@writingwell/RocketMan's (xffics) I'll Be Waiting for You

I creep slowly to the sound; I think it's coming from the bathroom.

The door is closed.

I hear . . . the shower running.

I scramble back to my window, the one overlooking the parking lot, and see with relief that Mulder's car is right next to mine.

I must have been too preoccupied to notice it.

Mulder distances himself when emotionally troubled.

@brenayla's (Ao3) 6. He has a nightmare

Scully’s voice says, “Mulder?” She’s groggy; there’s a small, warm hand against his flexed bicep.

He whips around. “Scully?” He echoes, frantically pressing the length of his finger into the divot under her nose.

Scully comforts her partner after his nightmare.

@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack's If She'd Known

 Is it a miracle from God or a gift from the devil? Some hellish combination of mad science and corporate greed conspire to rip his lungs to shreds and in doing so, strap him down to a North Carolina hospital bed. Scully is tracking down his other records, his brain scans, when they administer the nicotine or it never would have happened. She’s not there when he is poisoned back to life, but first to death. She never would have left him but… His heart stops for a moment. For a moment he is dead. A moment. Then a minute. A full minute. And then it beats again.

AU-- Scully works hard to save Mulder from his brain disease.

Lolabeegood's (mulderscreek) Five Months Lost (Ao3)

"Mulder," she said softly as she walked toward him and stopped his forward motion. She grabbed his wrists and made him look her in the eyes. "I have been, we all have been, looking for you for over five months."

"Five months?" he said disbelieving.

"You didn't go to the conference in Philadelphia, or spend time with the Gunmen, or feel the baby kick until you put your hand on my stomach this morning," she said softly.

AU-- Post Requiem Mulder is returned with false memories.

@monikafilefan/MonikaFileFan's

Pre-IWTB at the unremarkable house

“Doctor Dana Scully?” he asks, head bowed. “I’m here to see Dr. Scully.”

He knows Scully’s shift ends in twenty minutes so they can leave together after she pokes and prods him to her liking, but the waiting room is packed full with injured people. A man with a rag covering a bloody hand sits by a woman with a red welt on the side of her face where half her hair is singed off. Fireworks are as dangerous as lovesick men on ladders.

The intake nurse arches a bleached brow. “And you are?”

Mulder tugs the brim of his Knicks hat lower on his forehead, a niggle of paranoia creeping up his neck.

A familiar voice interrupts, “I’ll take it from here, Margo, thanks.”

Pre-IWTB Mulder's best laid plans go awry.

@greycoupon's (Ao3) Hello Teacher

“Mulder, if you don’t open up I’m calling 911!” That he knew she wouldn’t actually do...would she? THEY were still looking for him. They had been in the house for almost a year and Mulder had left it exactly twice. They weren’t running his profile on America’s Most Wanted anymore but he was still a wanted man. Scully would never risk exposing him like that unless she had to save his life.

Slowly, as his limbs felt like they weighed 200 pounds, he dragged himself to his feet.

“Mulder!” He could hear her sobbing through the door. Quickly he unlocked and opened it. She had been leaning against it and fell into the bathroom in her rush to get to him.

Scully grabbed him and hugged him tightly.

Pre-IWTB deeply depressed Mulder locks himself in the bathroom.

@msrafterdark's (Ao3)

Can you write a fic where Mulder finds some gray hairs

“I feel old,” He confesses, “I feel…like I’m less of what I used to be, like there’s even less to offer you.”

The teasing is gone; the spark of honesty that always frightened yet thrilled him when they were younger is now alight in her eyes. He can’t help but smile softly at her.

“I love your gray hairs, Mulder,” she murmurs, “I love your frown lines, I love your laugh lines, I even love your achy back.”

Scully catches her partner checking for gray hairs.

@oceanofthesky/noifsandsorbees's open door. (Tumblr)

she leaves the key, leaves a way for him to know that if he can ever do what she couldn’t, if he can pull himself out of his head, that she is still right there.

it’s three months before he uses it. she comes home from a long day of work in the height of summer to him in her bed, snoring lightly under the sheets. she thinks she should be annoyed, that she should tell him that she can’t handle the emotional toll that has become their relationship tonight, but instead she is just grateful to have his warmth to crawl in beside.

Breakup Scully leaves the door open for her partner.

@audriesfic/audries's battle scars

it’s a cry of pain and then her name, curving up at the end to become a near pitiful whine. she’s out of the bathroom and taking the stairs two at a time before he even gets past the the first syllable. she’s never been the creative one, in her family or her marriage, but her mind conjures impressive images of sniper bullets through windows and sudden cardiac arrest. she’s breathless by the time her feet hit the cool tile of the kitchen.

his name is on her lips as he turns to her, one hand covering half his face. he fixes her with one puppy dog eye and pouts, points an accusatory finger at the cabinet where she keeps the glasses. it’s eye level, (because who puts glasses on the top shelf, mulder. how do you expect me to reach?) and he looks as though he’s been terribly wronged.

Revival Scully "heals" Mulder's cabinet injury.

BONUS

The Emergency Room is a site compiling Mulder in distress and Scully taking care of him fics.

Thanks for reading~

Can you do a drabble for Irresistible please?

He still has a hard time thinking of her as a potential victim on these cases. He’d only done it once, the second time they’d dealt with Tooms. They were supposed to stop the bad guys, not fall prey to them. Scully was so untouchable that it still startled him, even now after Duane Barry. He hated thinking about anyone hurting her. But now he can’t stop imagining her in every case they’d ever solved. Scully with a handprint carved into the skin above her liver, Scully handcuffed to a radiator, shot by Barnett, Scully bound and gagged in the trunk of a car (gone, gone like Samantha), Scully with her hair and fingernails missing…

He shudders. He has to stop this.

Post-Irresistible Mulder and Scully talk in the dark.

Msr + 31? (I'm in the mood for pain apparently lololol)

His hand comes down on her shoulder again, softly. “I didn’t mean to…”

“I’m fine,” she hisses, but the tears keep coming. The fight is leaching out of her and all that is left is weariness.

Unruhe Mulder is there when Scully begins to fall apart.

mondays on an endless loop

“I'll shoot you, too!” Bernard shouts, nearly hysterical. People are crying around him, behind him, he thinks someone screamed. “Don't think I won't! I ain't afraid to shoot you!”

On the floor, Scully says, “Mulder, do—” but she breaks off, coughing wetly. She's got a hand to her chest, awkwardly trying to put pressure on the wound, and she's silently pleading with him not to do anything stupid, her eyes desperate.

Tears are stinging the backs of his eyes; he swallows harshly and says, “Don't try to talk, Scully.”

AU-- Monday Scully and Mulder and the days that they suffer.

christmas 2000 /// emily au second installment in this series of christmas ficlets. (Ao3)

One minute, she's standing by a festoon of Christmas decorations in the hallway (the FBI has Christmas decorations?) and arguing the authenticity of Mulder's toxic slime theory, and the next, her vision is spotted and her legs are weak, the room spinning as she falls and darkness falling like a curtain.

Mulder catches her clumsily before she hits the floor. When she comes to, his hand is on her cheek, thumb moving over her cheekbone, and his eyes are filled with worry. “Scully,” he says frantically.

AU-- Pre-Requiem Scully and Mulder navigate parenthood with Emily (and a surprise baby.)

oregon forest

She remembers it in chunks, but mostly, she doesn’t remember it at all. She remembers Mulder’s voice whispering—I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… She remembers screaming his name. She remembers the lights. She is just so cold.

She remembers Mulder is there, for some of it. That he’s there. That seems to be all that matters, in this giant mess: that they’re together.

AU-- Requiem Mulder and Scully are abducted together.

cold desert nights (Ao3)

Scully was still groaning when they came in the room, either in pain or in an attempt to talk through the gag, but she quietens as soon as she sees him. Her eyes widen. Something like fear flickers over her face.

Does she not recognize him? Head pounding, heart thudding, Mulder unknots the gag and pulls it away, whispering, “Scully, it’s me. It’s me. It’s okay, we’re going to get you out of here.”

AU-- S8 Mulder is returned during the events of Roadrunners.

AU where it’s Mulder who drives Scully to Georgia rather than Monica

He scoops up his gun and aims it, shouting the threats he'd been biting back before. The baby cries behind him. But the people don't get any closer, don't take the baby; they leave, filing out of the building one by one. 

AU-- Essence Mulder goes with Scully.

AU where most of the events of the struggles take place in like 2008/around IWTB

He finds Scully unconscious, pale with a spot of blood at the corner of his mouth. He takes her hand and it is cold in his. Her doctor tells him that she’s had a seizure, shows him the monitor of her brain. It’s almost like a one-sided communication, but Mulder has no idea who it could possibly be. He excuses himself to go and sit with her, knotting her fingers with his.

AU-- The Struggles take place around IWTB.

@wtfmulder/@momdadimpoppunk​‘s (Ao3) 

Only A Little Something? - Chapter 7

“Scully?” She heard his surprised voice over the other concerned agents and ignored the searing pain to shoo them all away. Limping as fast as she could, she met Mulder halfway while he was jogging back to help her. “Hey, take it easy. That looked like a nasty fall.” He cupped her elbow in one hand and her shoulder in the other to get her to stop moving.

“We have no time. We have to talk now,” Scully demanded, dragging herself to her full height to glare up at him.

S1 Scully stumbles while running after Mulder.

drabble; let me tell you bout my best friend

They’ve been at it for three hours and Mulder is getting to the best part, using polaroids instead of his slides to illustrate -- something about colorectal balloon animals in the 1970s -- when he turns to find Scully gently tipping forward and nodding her head. Her eyes flutter shut and she slumps over.

He quickly catches her by grabbing her shoulder with one hand and using the other to cup her cheek. “Scully? Hey.” He taps her face twice. “Scully, are you okay?”

Her eyes snap open and she scrambles back into the couch, her wide eyed stare flitting around the room like a sightless moth. When she comes back to herself, she shoots him an apologetic look.

Post-Sleepless Mulder realizes he needs to care for Scully, too.

What We Do in the Trees

“Ma’am! Are you okay? You’re bleeding!” Suzanne scrambled out of her chair and ran into the kitchen. She came back with a wad of paper towels as Mulder helped Scully sit up straight, hand firm on her back while she pinched her nostrils and fought the urge to double over.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Y’all ain’t mountain folk, I’m guessing,” Suzanne said, gently pulling Scully’s hand from her face. Scully took the towels, cupped them under her nose, and stood up too quickly. She felt a fresh wave of dizziness and the warm tang of chamomile and bile flood her mouth.

“Suzanne, thank you for answering our questions,” Mulder said, guiding Scully towards the front door by her shoulders. “We’ll make sure to contact you if there’s anything else we need.”

Late-cancer arc Mulder and Scully investigate a case of mountain folk superstitions.

What about Scully fainting and Mulder catching her and then joking with her when she wakes up?

She came to in his lap. His hand was warm and heavy in her hair.

Scully faints.

fic; old testament

Suddenly they were pacing down the hallway. Mulder was not quite dragging him, but his feet were so heavy his shoes squeaked on the tile. “Better reception downstairs,” the man explained, but Ritter was hardly listening.

They passed the elevator. “Where are we—”

“I like taking the stairs.” Mulder’s hands were on his back now, shoving him along. The hallway lasted forever, but he wanted it to keep going. The closer they came to the exit door the harder his heart pounded.

This was a gallows walk.

AU-- Tithonus Mulder wrecks vengeance on Agent Ritter.

Prompt: MSR - FLUFF -scully is pregnant, Mulder looks after her.

She knows Mulder, clingy, one-track, obsessive Mulder, always knocking down each lead in his lifelong match of alien invasion dominoes, always foiling the plot, and so if he’s doing everything he’s always done, why should she think anything different?

This is why she doesn’t question his near-constant presence in her apartment. Why it doesn’t seem all that weird he drives to her place every morning to pick her up for work, even when he’s not supposed to be in that day. And they’ve always done the food thing. That’s just common courtesy when you interrupt someone at dinnertime. If he’s a little jumpier than normal, hopping off couches and rearranging pillows for no apparent reason, making them way too many cups of tea, calling her… a lot, for no good reason, it’s all just a throwback to the manic Mulder she knows and grudgingly loves.

Post-Empedocles Scully realizes her partner is taking care of her.

@dreamingofscully’s (Ao3) Stolen Time - Chapter 1

He’s beside her. Duane Barry’s blood spreads around the wound in his head, crimson spray on her pale cheeks and ruining the half-torn sandy coat draping from her body. She crawls backwards, kicking out and pushing Mulder away in desperate reflex.

When her blue eyes soften in recognition, he wraps his arms around her, pulls her tight to his chest and breathes into her neck.

AU-- Duane Barry Mulder saves Scully.

@kateyes224's (Ao3) 27 from the 'things' prompt list (Ao3)

Silence.

She’s allowing him to hang.  He feels the noose tighten.

Gulp.  “Scully…”

“Mulder, I will not allow you to blame yourself for this.”

He squeezes his eyes shut.

S2 Scully confronts Mulder on his shadowing habit.

@catarinquar's (WBM)

transient luminous events (Ao3)

“Here.” His fingers brush the side of her neck. “Your necklace is tangled.”

“I got it.” She stops him with a hand to his wrist, her heels sinking in the gravel as she takes a step back. Mulder just stands there, palms flat against the sides of his jeans, watching her fumble with the clasp. He just stands there.

She will not be his dead girl walking.

“You know Mulder, this was pretty transparent.”

“What?”

“This case,” she emphasizes, like it’s in quotation marks. “Did Skinner even approve this?”

Mulder closes his eyes.

S2 Mulder and Scully have a talk.

photosensitivity (Ao3)

At this point—because their lives are a divine joke—they’re rudely interrupted. In the low light Scully tastes the warm blood on her upper lip before Mulder can see it. A nosebleed. She cups her palm beneath her nose and lunges for the sink, leaning over it, knuckles white around the counter. 

“Oh, Scully,” Mulder sighs. He stands.

“I’m okay. It’s not that bad.”

It’s really not, considering. She pinches the bridge of her nose and takes stock of her body. There’s a dim ache in her head, a low throbbing just between her eyes. Her neck is stiff. Her limbs are sore; her ankles will probably be bruised tomorrow from sitting on the tile, even with socks on. She bruises so easily now, her soft, bad-apple skin. She’ll need a full night of sleep tonight. She should eat something that doesn’t come from a vending machine, but that might be pushing it.

Mulder reaches for the toilet paper, and she holds up her hand to stop him.

“Give it a minute,” she says.

Post-Demons Scully attempts to juggle Mulder's lingering seizures and her own noticeable symptoms.

defnotmeyo's

The Door Kicker

He shifts in front of the door and braces his left leg before hammering his right foot into the door, right by the handle and close to the frame. There’s a satisfying snap as the door bursts open and before Skinner can even move Scully is under Mulder’s right arm, gun drawn, and into the room, slicing the pie and clearing opposite corner. Mulder’s instantly behind her, checking the other side. Symmetry.

Early-seasons Skinner observes Mulder and Scully's dynamic.

Do you think now that Mulder and Scully had sex again that his perspective has changed?

Customer service looks to rue putting him out.  

It doesn’t matter.  

Because in two seconds, his face is up and to the right, his spit is knocked out on the table next to them, and he is flat on his back.  

S11 Mulder is mocked by an IKEA worker.

Unnamed

“Mulder… you… you hurled a raccoon down our stairs.”

Revival Mulder saves Daggoo's life.

Unnamed

How?  

How doesn’t matter.

Mulder takes a deep breath, drags his face up.  Stands up.  Is really… very, very glad he boxed and fought and bench pressed his way through his depression.  It’s time to get his kids back.  

Both of ‘em.

The house echos when he racks the slide of his gun.  

“Let’s go.”

AU-- Mulder is Jackson and Emily's father.

@nnyyssssaa/dksfwm/Nyssa23's Victus

You see him there, sitting on the bed before you. He’s always there. It should startle you that he has found you in this hospital, especially since it’s after visiting hours (like that’s stopped either of you before), but it doesn’t. “Mulder,” you squawk out before another wave hits. Your lungs feel like they’re on fire, and truthfully you think this might be the end. Your tears escape, you’re so tired of crying and appearing weak, but he shushes you and brings your head to his shoulder until your shuddering subsides. He coaxes you into lying back down in the bed, brushing away a strand of hair that has stuck to your face. He replaces the tray with a cup of water and brings the straw to your lips. You drink laboriously, but the contrast of the cool liquid against your burning throat is soothing and reaffirming.

Zero Sum Mulder visits Scully after her treatment.

FridaysAt9's Tea and Ice Cream

The driver behind her honked the horn a few times, and she took her foot off the brake, turning onto her street. She wanted to get home, crawl into bed, and sleep for a week, but as she pulled in front of her building, she realized her night wasn’t going to follow that plan.

With a sigh, Scully got out of her car, walked over to the familiar sedan that was parked a few spots down, and used her knuckle to rap on the slightly open window. Mulder turned to look at her through the car and smiled.

Post-Elegy Mulder brings ice cream and tea.

@lyndsaybones/Lyndsaybones's AU where Scully is shot instead of Diana

“Mulder, I’m being discharged today. I...I’d like to see you. Maybe you could come by?”

10 days after she called, there she is. And even from half a block away, he can see that she's in trouble.

Thump, thump, thump, his heart, his feet, his head.

“Scully?!” he calls, terrified that she’s about to fall.

She turns and he can see the fear and the relief on her face. He closes the distance between them wraps his arms around her in a clumsy attempt to keep her upright.

AU-- The End Scully is shot.

@gaycrouton/OnlyTheInevitable's

Nurse Mulder

There was no moment of silence as she closed her mouth that time. As soon as her voice cut off, she could hear bounding footsteps from his room followed by the adjoining room door slamming open. "Scully?" he called out nervously.

She felt bad at the worry her shouting must have caused him, so she made her tone sweeter as she gently called out, "I'm in here." What was an attempt to ease his worry sounded like a harsh comedy bit in the tonal difference, and it didn't seem to calm him much as his footsteps were rushing to the bathroom door.

"I'm coming in," he called before bursting through the door. She watched his eyes scan the room, probably looking for her bleeding out body or an intruder before they fell to the sight of her head peeking out from the curtain. He cocked his head and walked towards her slowly, still trying to assess the situation. "Did you fall?" he asked in concern.

Mulder takes care of his injured-then-medicated partner.

Never Quite As It Seems

"Mulder?" she whimpered, her voice sounding pathetic to even her own ears.

His expression of relief quickly morphed into concern as he stepped toward her. "Scully, what's wrong?"

She looked at her hands, surprised when they weren't covered in his blood, before glancing around the room to see if maybe it was someone else's body she'd been hovering over. There was nothing. It was just an average, empty storage space.

The mixture of adrenaline, confusion, and paranoia caused her to shy away from him, falling gracelessly onto her a**. "Y-you-" she stammered.

"It's me. I'm here," he assured, crouching in front of her.

Mulder tries to help Scully after she hallucinates his death.

LuminousPie's

Five Times Mulder Got Injured and One Time Scully Did

“Why did you do it?”

Mulder looked up at the disapproving face of his partner and shrugged. He knew exactly why, he wasn’t sure he was quite willing to admit it to her yet though. She would only reprimand him, say that she could look after herself and Neill wasn’t worth it. Entirely true of course but that didn’t mean that Neill didn’t deserve a fist to his face.

He hissed as she placed an ice pack over his hand. “He deserved it.”

Mulder takes the time to defend Scully's honor, despite his own series of unfortunate injuries.

90 Minutes

He liked to spend his 90 minutes watching Scully fall asleep. 90 minutes was all it took for the human body to go through the stages of a sleep cycle. 90 minutes was all it took for him to know she was at peace. Born of a childhood wonder that had never receded he was fascinated by watching people and Scully was no exception, always had been, especially in sleep. All the sounds she made, the movements, the breathy words. Her routine, everything she did during each stage comforted him. His desire to watch over and protect her as strong now as it was when he’d first met her all those years ago. 90 minutes to put him at peace.

Revival Mulder loves watching his partner sleep.

@nowwhateinstein's (Ao3) Seeking Warmth (Ao3)

Everyone around us on the plane is either reading or sleeping. I glance over at Mulder. He chews thoughtfully at his bottom lip, the way he does when he’s deep in thought. Perhaps he’s thinking about the thing he saw out on the ice: the thing that left a crater five hundred feet deep and a half-mile wide. The thing I didn’t see, much to his chagrin. Or maybe he’s musing on what fate awaits us back in DC. I have an awful premonition that it’s not what either of us hope it will be. I must catch his eye, because he turns his head to look at me.

“You should get some sleep, Scully,” he says, his tone one of concern.

“If anyone needs it, it’s you,” I respond, raising an eyebrow at him. Now that we’re finally homeward bound, I’m beginning to feel more like myself again. “When’s the last time you slept?”

“I caught some shut-eye while you were in sick bay.” He says it with the faintest trace of a smile, as if he, too senses the change in me.

AU-- FTF Mulder keeps his patched-together partner safe.

@o6666666's (Ao3)

headcanon prompt: mulder washes

“Alright,” he says, scanning the kitchen and clapping his hands together. “We got this. We’re gonna be casual, we’re gonna be crafty.”

“Mulder.” She huffs a laugh, then winces. “It’s fine, you don’t have to do this. Let me just call my—“

“Your mother? You wanna wake her up at, eh—“ he checks the microwave clock “—8:30? It’s laaaaate, Scully.”

Post-Tithonus Mulder takes care of his partner.

AU where Diana (or Phoebe returning later on in the series) lies to Scully that the reason she and Mulder broke up was because he wanted to settle down and have kids but Diana/Phoebe didn’t.

It was a rotten pit in her heart, and it grew into her memories. I’ve never seen you as a mother before, Mulder said.

I’ve never seen you as a mother.

“You wanted a baby,” Scully finishes lamely, embarrassed to know a fact so intimate as the cause of Mulder’s separation from Diana when, after all, he hadn’t even wanted her to know they’d been together. She sniffs, wiping her eyes.

“A baby?” Mulder looks stunned. He glances around incredulous, as if there is someone else nearby to confirm he’d heard correctly. “With Diana?”

Post-The Unnatural Mulder is appalled.

What’s my headcanon for if Samantha was found?

He stomps right over there and pries the gun from her fingers. She flinches as soon as he touches her, and with her gun in the back of his pants, he guides her to the sofa. Scully tenses when he puts a hand to her back. She talks to Samantha over his head the whole time: 

“Did he cut you?” 

“He only hit me…” 

“Don’t try to sit up, just stay where you are—” 

“I’m okay…” 

“Samantha,” he interrupts, “I’m coming, okay?” 

“I’m okay…” 

He clutches Scully’s hands to his chest, for one moment, after she sits. He puts his forehead on hers. “I will be right back,” he tells her, in a whisper, very seriously. In one more moment, you don’t have to be strong. 

She nods at him, unblinking, like she understands. 

AU-- Samantha returns early Season 7.

au where Mulder didn't go back to Oregon....

He picks her up like a bride. “We’re going to the ER.”

“What, no, Mulder, you need to—your flight.”

“Ha ha,” he says. “Very funny.”

AU-- Requiem Scully passes out in the FBI garage.

Slow Returns

The moment it clicks for him that she is not totally with it, perhaps hasn’t been for weeks or months, she sees it in his eyes.

She has failed, because she was supposed to stay awake to protect them. She remembers all her previous failures—all day today, and every day, for months. He is mad at her, she thinks. She is scared. He is going to leave her. She hasn’t even told him: I can’t do it. She needs some air. She needs to beg, she realizes. She unlocks the door. 

In a second, he yanks it open. His hands on her face. She sighs; it is such a relief to feel him. “Scully?” Feeling all around, fingers to her neck, checking her vital signs, checking the baby. “You okay, Scully?”

AU-- Scully has to be medicated after This Is Not Happening.

soulmate au + time travel

“You have to take care of yourself,” she reminds him.

“I play basketball on the weekends,” he offers. “If I’m home.”

She chuffs. Nuzzles his hand a little more.

“I run.”

“I’m sure you’re very fast.”

“Do you want me to call you a cab?”

“No,” she says, and stands up from her stool. “No thank you.” Tenderly, she smooths a lock of his bangs between her thumb and index finger. “You’re alright?”

It feels suddenly imperative to be truthful. Then even more so to protect her. “I’m alright.”

Pre-Revival Scully travels back in time to see her partner.

Untitled MSIV fix-it fic 

“Get her over here,” Mulder says, “there’s a ladder.” 

“Alright,” Jackson calls too loudly into her ear, panicked. “It’s alright,” he tells her. Her son’s voice. “Breathe.” This is what her son sounds like. 

He swims them to the ladder, which Mulder has descended to the penultimate rung, soaking his jeans to the knees. “Jackson,” Mulder pants, reaching for them when they are close enough. “Give her to me.” 

Scully makes a blind grab for Mulder’s neck and then he’s lifting her out of the water with one arm and she’s so cold; her whole body shakes. “Come on,” Mulder tells her, “hold on, Scully,” and she wraps her legs around his middle. 

“Jackson, let’s go,” Mulder orders, the sternest she has ever heard him in her life. Their son obeys, ascending first. Then Mulder climbs. 

AU-- My Struggle IV Scully jumps in the water after her son.

swimming in the eighth month (Ao3)

There is a pond on their property. (“Adjacent” to their property, she tells him.) He proposes they swim.

“Mulder,” she says at first, “no.”

But he gets her in the end. “Come on, Scully. Jackson’s been swimming in it all summer with the dog. It’s fine.”

“Amoebiasis, Mulder. Cholera.”

He gives her a look.

Post-Finale Mulder takes his partner swimming to relieve her back.

@sigritandtheelves/DarlaBlack’s

In Milford (Ao3)

Five hours have stretched like an eternity between her first phone call to him this morning and the moment that Fox Mulder stomps in to find her sitting at the edge of the hospital bed. He radiates red rage. His energy is wild and uncontained. He shakes like he wants to either grab and hug her or start smashing every object in the room, but he does neither. Instead she watches him force himself still, force himself to find human words rather than animal rage.

“What happened?” He asks.

AU-- En Ami Scully leaves.

Ground

“With my…” he said, trailing off, his face utterly inscrutable.

“I’m sorry to tell you like this. Before you were taken, I didn’t know.” She watched his face, anxious for any sign. She began to pull her hand away, but he held it tight. He lifted his eyes to hers: hooded, lost, vulnerable, but also… hopeful.

“My baby, Scully?”

Another twitch of a smile, her own hope irrupting. “Yeah.”

He did let go of her hand then, but only to touch her further, to pull her arms away so he could gaze at her middle, to pluck at the buttons of her black blazer. “How… how far along?”

AU-- TINH Mulder is returned whole.

(III) Three Iterations of a Birth (and Death) (Ao3)

In the mountains of West Virginia, a place called Willowdale that sounded beautiful and safe, they were Kate and Richard Mulvey for two and a half weeks. They made quiet preparations in a rented vacation cottage, paid for in cash to a widow named Ruth. Maggie took no pseudonym, put her name on nothing, and stayed with them in the second small bedroom. She was a steadying maternal presence bearing folded blankets and cloth diapers, years of accumulated knowledge, and endless gratitude for being asked to come.

Scully had been having little contractions off and on for days until, on a Sunday afternoon in late May, they gripped her hard, forcing her to bend over the kitchen table and bite her lips together. “Mulder,” she whimpered, voice high, and he was beside her in a second.

“Okay,” he said. “We’re ready. We’re ready,” he told them both, willing it to be true.

AU-- Essence-Existence Mulder and Scully slip away for the birth.

Lifeline (Ao3)

He drives a beat-up junker into Georgetown and feels terribly out of place. Mulder has grown scruff into an almost-beard that is streaked with small patches of gray. He wears oil-stained jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, but he enters under the cover of darkness in the hope that no one will notice him. It’s almost three in the morning. He brought practically nothing with him, but his back pocket holds a photo of William, his small pack the phone he used to call her. He’s home now. He sees her apartment and his heart slams in his chest.

She’s a wreck, man. She’s not okay. Keeps talking about giving up the baby to keep him safe. Frohike’s words had been like slow punches to the gut. How bad it had been for him in all these months—he never thought about how bad it could have been for her. For them.

AU-- William Reyes and Frohike contact Mulder before the adoption.

Fever

“In sickness and in health,” he murmurs, and she can’t help it, her eyes well with tears against her will.

“Mulder—“

“It’s okay,” he says, shaking his head. “Let me get your soup.”

He helps her sit, would feed her if she let him, which of course she doesn’t, and stays when she is finished.

“Nice place,” he says when he can’t think of anything else.

She gives him a look.

“What? It’s not so bad.”

She realizes he must have seen the photos on her dresser. “It’s not home,” she says with a thick voice, unsure if it is from swelling or tears.

“No,” he says. “It’s not.”

Post-breakup Mulder nurses Scully back to health.

Thanks for reading~

Post 3 Mulder is so guilt-ridden that he accepts Tena’s “please”s to join her for Thanksgiving. On his way over he finds Scully’s French language tapes and listens to them emptily. His misery only continues with Maggie’s next call.  

Juliettt’s 

All I Want for Christmas 

“Sometimes he would pick up the phone after hearing the caller identify him- or herself.  Usually he did so when it was Margaret Scully on the other end of the line.  Funny -- he would have thought she would be the one person with whom he would be afraid to speak, but it hadn't been like that at all.  The Lone Gunmen tired him with their overly enthusiastic theories and vain attempts to cheer him.  Mrs. Scully never tried to cheer him.  She would call him when she felt particularly blue or had an idea he might be.  She was usually right.  And he would answer and sometimes they would just sit there listening to one another breathe because there was nothing to say.” 

Pre-One Breath Mulder’s birthday wish-- for Scully’s return-- turns into a Thanksgiving wish turns into a Christmas wish as he dodges invites from Maggie and mires himself in guilt. A tombstone and a phone call end his cycle. 

Lullaby 

“If he found us awake he would sing old ballads to us.  Melissa was usually asleep." 

Mulder looked at her.  "But you stayed awake," he said softly. 

Scully nodded.  "It was the one time I had him all to myself.   I grew to miss that -- even years later when we had grown apart a little.  Even after we fought about my joining the FBI.  He couldn't understand -- I don't know if he ever really understood. 

AU Post Anasazi 1-- Mulder’s return from NM is rolled into a Thanksgiving celebration (incidentally, Melissa never died so no drama.) He overhears Scully singing lullaby, and she relates how her dad used to sing it to her. Mulder later hears it himself, but decides not to mention it.

(BONUS! i.e., Part 2 of the above fic:)

Marriage- Lullaby For a New Generation 

“No, Mulder showed his affections in rather more unique and creative ways.  Up until a few months ago he had routinely accompanied her in to work for early morning autopsy calls just so she would not have to go alone, and then he would slip out and buy her an extra large mocha and a croissant to be consumed after she was finished.  He'd make certain the car was always full of fuel when he knew she would need it.  Or he would sneak home during lunch when he knew she was going to be in meetings or the lab all afternoon and put a pot of spaghetti sauce or a casserole on to cook so that when they arrived home, hungry and exhausted, there would be a hot meal waiting.  And then, if she were especially tired, he would insist on doing all the dishes instead of simply drying them as he usually did, and maybe even run her a hot bath and leave her to soak the stress of the day away.  And then, too, he gave a mean backrub. . . . 

So what if he didn't give her flowers and candy and soft music?  He gave her his love and respect and time and gratefully accepted the same from her.”

AU Post Anasazi 2-- Mulder is happily married to Scully, and loves to sneak Will from the FBI nursery to his office as much as he can. Scully overhears him singing her father’s lullaby; and stuns him with her belief when he relates his past experience. 

httpspotter’s The Key to My Heart  

““Would you hand me the key for a second? I forgot something.”

She did, a bit confused. Was he mad at something now and regretted giving her the key? But Mulder just wrote his name on a piece of paper, glued on the key with duct tape and gave back to her. “There you go.”

“Thank you” she said, softly.

Scully knew that gesture meant how much he trusted her. Mulder was trying to say it was okay for her to go without him at his apartment, to pick up a file of a case they were investigating, or anything else. If he wasn’t home, she could still go and wait for him there. It meant a lot of things, and definitely it wasn’t about the fish.” 

Post One Breath Mulder is going to be out of town for a family Thanksgiving; and gives gives Scully a key to his apartment. She sees the motive under it all, and rewards his trust with mac and cheese. 

@sunsoakd/agenderleadingplayer’s up (where the world won’t let us down)

“he notices how no one says thanksgiving, wonders if it's a nebraska thing. she still hasn't said anything and he's almost worried until she takes a sip of her cocoa and the whipped cream gives her a white mustache and he laughs, and so does she, and he reaches out with his napkin to wipe it off and underneath it all she's smiling.”

S2-5? Mulder and Scully spend Thanksgiving in a diner, thankful for each other. 

@wexleresque/hllsteeth’s thankful  

““No, uh, it’s not cold,” He says. Scully raises an eyebrow at him but goes back to eating, looking perfectly content and unbothered. Mulder squints at his plate as if it’s done something to offend him before taking an experimental bite of the stuffing, drizzled with gravy. This bite is as bad as the last, oversalted and overpeppered. He didn’t even know it was possible to add too much pepper to gravy until this very moment.”

Post Redux ii Scully is deeply embarrassed by her recovering sense of smell and inedible Thanksgiving meal. Mulder is supportive, and the two strike a deal. 

@nowwhateinstein’s (Ao3) Don’t Know Much About History 

“But no amount of complaining would change Mother Nature’s mind. She’d be spending Thanksgiving alone and away from her family this year.

A knock at the door startled her out of her melancholy thoughts. Perhaps it was her building super, come to tell her to expect power outages due to the storm. She padded over to the door in stockinged feet and opened it. She was surprised to see Mulder standing there. He held two paper grocery bags, each full to bursting.” 

Gobble, gobble, Scully,” he said by way greeting, sidestepping his way into her apartment.” 

After Post Modern Prometheus, Mulder joins Scully for Thanksgiving after her flight is snowed out and she is left behind in DC. 

Pattie’s This is The Way Thanksgiving Should Be  

“A kitchen full of women. Why was that always the case? Scully reached for a small dish of chopped parsley. "Mom, how much of this do you want in the potatoes?"

"All of it, honey.  I measured it out." Margaret Scully smiled a knowing smiled at Tara.

"Navy wives, Dana!  Remember how you grew up? So many things timed just right and organized as good as a ship?" Scully felt a longing for that sort of arrangement. A family routine. "Yeah.  I do. It's been so long. But I do have my own routine down pat. Everything is to the letter as long as there are no surprises."

S5 Mulder pretends to have something better to do, but scoots over to the Scully Thanksgiving as a surprise.

@all-these-ghosts’s (Ao3) Thankful (Ao3) 

““I don’t think my mom has the wrong impression about anything,” Scully says slowly, and he has absolutely no idea how he’s supposed to interpret that, no sir, and then she continues, “She set up the air mattress for you.”

“Right,” he says, and finally puts his bag down. “Thanks for letting me…”

Her eyes are almost soft. “Of course.””

S6 Mulder somehow gets slotted into the Scully Thanksgiving; and further didn’t expect his “Truth or Dare” to be answered honestly, if mildly. 

@softnow’s (Ao3) thankful

“It has been twenty-five years since he celebrated Thanksgiving—really celebrated—and he’s never had one like this. There were so many people crammed into Maggie’s modest house, aunts and uncles and cousins he’d never even heard of. They hadn’t all fit at the dinner table; he’d eaten on the living room floor, styrofoam plate balanced on his knee, iced tea nearly knocked over more than once by one rambunctious kid or another.

He’d told Scully he was fine, she could sit at the table with her mother and brothers, but she’d refused to leave his side.”

It’s S6? Thanksgiving, and Mulder joins Scully for her giant family gathering. He’s surprised that she wants to eat with him on the floor, and even more surprised that she is happy to do so. 

@baronessblixen’s (Ao3)

Be Brave - Chapter 1

““Mom, we work together.”

“So? He’s your friend, isn’t he?” Maggie wonders if Dana realizes that she’s scrubbed the same plate for over two minutes. It’s clean. Carefully she takes the dish from her.

“It’s just not something we talk about.” But she wants to. Dana thinks she’s hard to read, difficult to understand. Not for Maggie. She glances through the window and sees Mulder and Charlie laughing together. Even Bill looks peaceful.”  

Maggie has decided enough is enough; and pushes Scully to make a move after their peaceful Thanksgiving dinner.

Unnamed Prompt 38

“This is exactly the kind of family gathering Mulder is used to. Yelled accusations. Past missteps. Oh yes, he knows this. Except it’s not his family. And no one, for once, is yelling at him. He’s outside on the porch, the sun trying to hide, too, disappearing quickly, going to sleep. Under him the wood creaks softly. No one but him hears it. They’re in the kitchen, Scully and her brother Bill. Mulder was in there with them moments ago. He doubts either of them even noticed when he slipped outside. Out here, their voices are muffled, but he can still hear them, word for word.”

Scully and Bill are at each other’s throats. Maggie finds Mulder disturbed outside; but convinces him to come in with pie after Scully drops the “boyfriend” word.

Rainy Thanksgiving Aren’t As Bad As They Seem

“He's sated, he's tired, but most of all, he's happy. There on the couch are Jackson and Katie, their two miracles, both pretending to watch TV, both struggling to stay awake. Mulder merely smiles at them and tiptoes out of the living room to find Scully in the kitchen drying the dishes.”

Post Revival-- It’s the first Thanksgiving as a knitted-together family; and Mulder and Scully soak it in as they miss Maggie and banter freely.  

@lotsoforangesoutside’s (Ao3, Alt. Tumblr) The Turkey Special (Ao3)

“One corner of her mouth perks up as she recalls that Bill was absent from the dinner table today; her Mother gushed over Mulder for the majority of the meal and packed Tupperware after Tupperware of food for Mulder and her to enjoy later.

Somehow, her mother knows with firm convictions that they have plans to spend the rest of the Thanksgiving weekend together.”

Mulder had always been a bum at his friends’ Thanksgivings. He is moved to finally belong at someone’s-- Scully’s.

@suitablyaggrieved/ScullyLovesQueequeg’s Avoidable Feast

““That—that is a large bird,” He says, and she glances over at him, to see what he means. He points in his leather gloves to the display of frozen turkeys that are stacked precariously for Thanksgiving, which is only in a couple of days. Scully feels a slight fluttering in her belly that she dismisses immediately, but there is no quelling the thoughts that she would soon vocalize:

“It’s going to be our first Thanksgiving together as a couple,” Scully says, brushing her fringe out of her eye.”

Both Mulder and Scully have a near-miscommunication over Thanksgiving plans; but assure each other they do, indeed, want to celebrate together.

@msrpolaroidproject’s Thanksgiving with Mulder and Scully 

““I had such a wonderful holiday, Mulder,” she murmurs, “Thank you.””

Scully had to skip out on Thanksgiving with her family to spend it with Mulder. It shocks him that grateful she is to do so. 

@msrafterdark's (Ao3) home for thanksgiving

“Dana is... Dana’s different now. She seems a little firmer, a little more stoic, and he’s sure from what little she’s told him about her current line of work thta is HAS to have an effect on her. The last several years have thrown so much at this family...agruably her most of all.” 

Charlies observes his sister; and is glad she is (finally) happy.  

@jinjoint/Jintian’s Seven Days 

““Maybe if you tell me what bothers you so much about visiting her.... Won't this be the first time you've seen each other since you were in the hospital?"

"Yes. But Scully, nothing bothers --" He stops. "Fine. Something bothers me. But I want to see how it goes before I say anything."

"I want to know how it goes, too, whatever it is," she says.

"I will tell you. Soon.””

Post Amor Fati Mulder is visiting his mother for a week. He calls Scully here and there to deal with Tena’s lack of warmth (and to mildly discuss their new relationship.) His worry for his paternity comes to a head over her birthday dinner, and leaves both with a fallout uncomfortable to both. 

Blueswirl’s The Simplest Explanation 

“She doesn't have to ask who he's talking about. She knew before the words even left his mouth. An ordinary boy, his sister gets abducted... 

"If you want to look at it that way," she says, gently. "But we both know it's more complicated than that." 

"Is it?" he wonders. "Maybe it's not. Maybe it's just that simple. And, just like with Weems, everyone who gets involved in his life becomes an integral part of his luck. It's just not much fun when it's all bad."

Post The Goldberg Variation, Scully finds Mulder in a dour mood over darker reflections on cause-and-effect and luck. She insists it doesn’t reflect back on his life; and struggles alongside him on a missing girl’s case. As the anniversary looms-- on Thanksgiving that year-- and the case has no conclusion, Mulder is able to answer some questions and find a measure of peace. 

@atths--twice‘s (Ao3, Alt. Ao3, FFN)

Thanksgiving on the Run 

““Hmm, yeah,” she hummed with a nod. “Though I think I would like to find a motel tonight. With a real bed? And a toilet we don’t have to drive to?”

“Yeah. I think we could do that,” he said with a smile, looking around and noticing the decorations adorning the walls. “Hey, Scully, is it… I think it might be Thanksgiving.” 

She too looked around and then let out a deep sigh. “I think you might be right,” she said quietly....

On the run, Mulder and Scully pause their mobile living in time to catch Thanksgiving. This spills over in a beautiful visit to the botanical gardens. 

A Thankful Morning  

““What time did you say Skinner would be here?” she quietly called to him.

“Uh.. he said three, I think. He’s bringing everything and he seemed pretty excited about it,” he answered, as he poured water in the coffee pot. He added the coffee and turned it on, walking back toward the couch and sitting next to her.

“It was nice of him to offer a home cooked Thanksgiving meal. I was set on cereal and toast,” she said, looking at him again.”

Post Revival-- Mulder and Scully, proud parents of their daughter, are enjoying a nice Thanksgiving with the company of Skinner.

@agentwhalesong/sadandangstyagent’s (Ao3) The Past is the Past 

“Bill saw him as soon as he entered the living room, the person who was the very reason why his sister had been away from home for so long. Mulder was helping Maggie with bringing food to the table, smiling and making her laugh as she ordered him around. He couldn’t believe how lenient his mother was with him, even after all the mess he had made not only in Dana’s life, but also in the lives of everyone else she had relations with. Maggie had been the one to suffer the most when she realized her daughter had simply vanished, leaving only a note in her wake that said she would be fine and that no one should go looking for her. Even if she didn’t say it, they all knew it was because of Mulder, so it didn’t make any sense to Bill that Maggie didn’t seem to hold any grudges against her daughter’s partner. Maybe she knew details about their story that Bill didn’t because, ultimately, he didn’t know a lot. He didn’t know anything, actually, if he was being honest.”

Post IWTB-- Bill is tired of picking fights, and finally, simply, OBSERVES. 

@this-is-surely-tru/your_truly’s Side-Effects May Include  

““How do you feel?”

He stroked his thumbs over the skin above his eyebrows. “Hung over. Like I told you I would.”

“You hadn’t slept more than three hours a night for almost a week, Mulder,” she said. “You needed to take the pill.”

Who could sleep when there was less than a month until the end of the world? Mulder couldn’t stop the spinning, no matter how desperately he wanted to get off the ride, and they both struggled with how alternately listless and manic he’d become in the past six months.”

Post IWTB Mulder is on the brink of depression; but Scully dutifully cares for him with sleeping pills and funny, lively nephews. 

@aloysiavirgata’s (Ao3, WBM, Gossamer, LJ, Alt. LJ) Unnamed (only link)

“The dishes are stowed away, leftovers marinating in their own juices and seasonings for the days ahead. Mulder has plans for turkey stock and a cranberry granita.” 

Mulder and Scully eat themselves into an over-stuffed stupor. 

2nd Anonymous’s Unnamed

“On this thanksgiving day Mulder falls asleep, his tummy full of sweet potato and Turkey on the couch cuddling with his equally full daughter.”

S11 Mulder and his daughter nap on the sofa; but still manage to lure Jackson and Scully to join them.

@fridaysat9′s (Ao3) Just a Thursday in November 

“Melissa smiled and placed her dish stack next to the sink. “Bill never changes, does he?”

Dana laughed a little and closed her eyes. No, he did not.

“I’m proud of you, Dana,” Melissa said. “Not everyone is brave enough to change careers. And beyond that, take a step off the beaten path and work in a department and with someone that others aren’t always fond of.”

“Mulder is a good partner,” she said, sensing her sister’s concern mixed in with her praise.

“I know he is,” Melissa said. “I can feel it.”” 

The Scully family’s full Thanksgivings slowly shrink as the years pass; but Scully still finds happiness as Mulder is added to her holiday. 

Canon-Divergent or AUs 

Sukie Tawdry’s The Way Things Are (2/2)

““You and your partner spend a lot of taxpayer money on wild goose chases.  How do your superiors justify that?"   Bill Mulder asked, voice sharpened to a fine edge.  

"We've solved some serious crimes, Mr. Mulder."  Scully knew she should keep out a family dispute but she couldn't bear to hear her partner's work denigrated.

"So far, our superiors are satisfied with our progress, Dad."   Scully detected an undercurrent of anguish beneath the calm determination in Mulder's tone.  Her partner placed his fork on his plate, perhaps having lost his appetite.

Was this a typical Mulder meal?  Tension hung in the air, as if a palpable presence.  Teena Mulder kept conversation moving, undoubtedly as she'd been taught to do as a proper hostess.”  

S1-- Mulder and Scully are in a committed relationship in consequence to a surprise pregnancy. They are happy, TLG are happy, her family is happy-- but Mulder’s job continues to brutalize him in his quest for answers, and his parents remain cold and indifferent. Scully sympathy and dry wit helps patch him back together and soldier on. And all ends happily (and hilariously) throughout. Thanksgiving is the big climax of the fic, so it counts!

Love this fic, and constantly return to it (while skipping part 1 entirely-- but that’s my preference.) Mount St. Scully is a downright hilarious terror.

@broadcastnews1987/inspl0tchess‘s (Ao3) At the Close of the Day  

“She’s cold and annoyed and shoeless and she is alive, alive, alive.

She balances on one foot on the log, still holding one of Mulder’s hands. “Well,” she says, her voice soft and even, “that settles it. I’m going to have to kill you.”

The snow is coming down harder around them. Mulder wipes his eyes, and she resists the urge to stomp her sock foot at him.

“I’m sorry.” He is not. “I’ll buy you new boots.” He’ll do no such thing. “Come here.” Because that went so well last time.” 

Scully is recovered from her cancer, and is happy to spend Thanksgiving on the road with Mulder, “slotting into place.” But she immediately stops him from pedestalizing her recovery; and makes moves to seal the deal. 

@cecilysass‘s (Ao3, Gossamer)  

How to Eat Pleasant Holiday Meals With Co-Workers (Ao3) 

“The last idea makes her stomach clench ominously, bringing to mind fears she’s been holding back. What if a baby does come between them, just as he worried? What if he feels trapped by the prospect of being the actual parent of a child? Kept from the work he’s always made clear is his top priority? What if she will eventually have to set him free to raise this child on her own?

She subtly tilts her head to look at her partner, watching goofy dancing reindeer on TV. His eyes are bright and amused by the spectacle. He looks like a boy himself.” 

IVF timeline-- Scully gets the stomach flu two days after transfer, and skip her family’s meal to watch the Macy’s Parade with Mulder. Scully spends all day worrying too much about burdening Mulder with obligation; Mulder, meanwhile, is being hit the reality of a possible successful transfer. His worry for both their health stuns Scully, finally and opens a conversation between them.   

How to Eat Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 4 (Ao3)

““Mulder.” His voice sounds broken, like an old man’s.

It’s Lionel speaking. Lionel of Lionel and Reyna, who live in the farm house adjacent to their property. Lionel and Reyna, their nearest neighbors. Lionel and Reyna, his nearest neighbors.

Lionel seems to be asking him to dinner tomorrow. Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, pumpkin pie.” 

Mulder is depressed, alone, after his breakup. Scully won’t call, and he knows she won’t answer his calls. He tries to preserve the last ounce of dignity he has left while avoiding his neighbor’s pity invite to a Thanksgiving meal.

How to Eat Holiday Meals With Co-Workers - Chapter 5 (Ao3) 

““What if Mick sees ghosts?”

In tandem they both turn back again to watch their small daughter. She has a stick and a leaf in each hand, and she is gesturing with them, making some kind of point to a group of unseen people.

“She could be surrounded by ghosts, Scully,” whispers Mulder. “So many ghosts.

“Oh Mulder, she thinks, turning back towards him and reaching out with her fingertips to trace his face. She’s not the only one.”

Mulder and Scully and their daughter Mick-- the nickname sticking until it wore Scully down-- are enjoying a peacefully reclusive Thanksgiving in their new home on the Vineyard until he sees her talking to imaginary friends and deduces they’re ghosts. When Mick says one of them is named Samantha, Scully has to pull him aside to prevent him from losing it. 

@catarinquar’s (Ao3, WBM) of saturdays secrets and maybe-babies (Ao3)

“Mulder bites his lip. “Maybe. Tell you what, though, your brother had us figured out.” At Thanksgiving, he had liked Charlie well enough, but he’s been a little—perplexed, since. Married with kids, but not bringing them for the holiday. Showed up for his father’s burial, but not for Melissa’s. Not when Scully lay dying. Still. “I didn’t know you were so close.”

She shrugs. “Just… younger sibling solidarity.”

“Yeah?” he says, thinks, absolutely not . ... “Scully, let me see you. Tell me about Charlie.”

It is minutes before she draws back far enough for eye contact.”

Early S7 IVF timeline-- It’s the Per Manum arc and a new relationship and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. Mulder is wrapped up in silent hopes and dreams before the transfer; but once the holiday is over and the process started, his questions about her family help elucidate his own role to Scully and their future to himself.

MD1016′s (FFN) The Sins of the Father (FFN)

“I glared at Mulder until he reluctantly looked my way, and then shrugged and offered up a lame, "What?"    

"Is this where you tell us Dana has developed some sort of eating disorder, or something?" I asked, ready to nail him with the blame the moment the words came out of his mouth.  He drove her crazy, that much was clear.  She easily could have developed all kinds of psychological disorders because of her associations with this guy.    

"She's not feeling well," he said slowly, carefully.  There was no way I could miss the extra flexing he did with his jaw.   Interesting.”

S7 IVF timeline-- Bill loved both his sisters; but as the years roll on, he found he could no longer understand them. After a huge uproar at Thanksgiving over Scully’s health, he finds out how much he truly didn’t know.

JET’s (Gossamer, mulderscreek) Small Lives Awake

““Scully," he said the night before.  He was turning a tea saucer over and over in his hands.  "Really, it's too much trouble.  I'm sure your brother didn't plan for extra company."

"Nonsense.  They as much as invited you anyway when they called a month ago."

She wrung out the rag and the wire scour while soapy water glugged down the drain.

He finished putting the pans in the drawer beneath the oven and sat down at his kitchen table.

"It's one week.  You need to get away, see your family."

"You're my family too," she said in a rushed breath, as though they were arguing.

He seemed slightly startled.”

S7-- Scully and Mulder aren’t dating (yet), but she wants him to come with her to Charlie’s. There she rediscovers pieces of herself, and even finds a little X-File for her and Mulder to preoccupy themselves with on their breaks from nephew chaos and migraines from the haunted curiosity shop. All is well, and moves are made.

(*Note: I personally think our duo began dating after The Unnatural; BUT, despite the timelines, it all shakes out to not be canon-divergent, or AU. Speaking of--*) 

1st Anonymous’s Unnamed

“William’s guilty eyes cross hers ; his fingers are sticky with yam topping.”

S9 AU-- 4 year old William wants ALL the food. 

Shoshana & salliejohn‘s

Empty Place Settings  

“I was happy to do anything they asked.  I wanted and needed to see my sister.  She's the closest thing to Mom I have right now, and I miss Mom desperately.  I miss her phone calls and her visits and her advice on child rearing.  I miss her care packages and long letters. I miss everything about her, even her curt responses to my snide remarks about Mulder. 

Of course, I'm not angry at Mulder anymore.  Just at the FBI.  The military, too, I guess.  They were in cahoots against him, permitting some hastily organized kangaroo court to sentence him to death.” 

A piece from a larger S9 AU-- Bill and his family reunite with Scully and Mulder for Thanksgiving. Both Scullys bond over the painful ache of their mother’s absence (she is in hiding with William), and even manage to bridge some gaps between Bill and Mulder. 

This is such a cool series-- it works up to Bill reuniting with Scully, beach-blonde Mulder, Scully’s new research job to (hopefully) work on a vaccine with the risk of getting caught, and deep emotional connections between all the characters. 

Girlie_girl7′s

Man to Man Talk 07 

“Will fussed on the way to grandma's house but at least he wasn't screaming like he had been 12 hours earlier.

"You okay Scully?" Mulder asks as he adjusts the rear view mirror so he can see her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine Mulder but you must be dead on your feet. You walked the floor most of the night."

"It's part of the job Scully and besides I don't take much sleep."

Post Existence Mulder, Scully, and Will are sleep-deprived and battling the baby’s infection; but Thanksgiving awaits, and it’s not too bad after all.

A 40 Day in the Life

““My foot is getting better," Scully tells her son as she usually does at least four times a day but she shows him her foot anyway.  It's still swollen and slightly purple but it does look much better than it did one week ago.  William seems satisfied and takes off out the bedroom door and down the stairs.

Next to annoy Scully is Mulder.  He comes in carrying their daughter.  Scully does admit he has the baby dressed cute.  She has on her black Mary Jane's with white socks and a blue velvet dress trimmed in white lace and somehow Mulder has been able to gather up enough of her 'brother cut' hair to put a barrette on top of her head.  "You sure you feel like going, Scully?  I mean if you're tired we can stay home," Mulder says trying to weasel out of this Scully tradition, 'Thanksgiving dinner at moms'.”

Mulder and Scully have (currently) two children, a busy career, and many, many close calls. Having recently recovered from flesh-eating disease on a case, Scully just wants a relaxing Thanksgiving without Bill ribbing her or any kiddo meltdowns. She gets neither. 

@blackcoffeeandteardrops‘s (Ao3) 

Mashed Potatoes 

“She thought about his comment regarding not remembering Maggie and nudged him in the side with her elbow. “You were a baby. Despite whatever circumstances that might have occurred to allow you to recall things from back then, it’s okay that you don’t remember her, let alone anything else from before,” she said, watching the way he tapped a finger against his leg, still staring at the floor rather than at her. “And Will?” she said, drawing in a deep breath, wanting what she said next to sink in. “It’s okay if you’re not okay today. I know that we...haven’t talked about it much, and I didn’t know if you really wanted to, but if you did, that would be okay.”

William shook his head, darting his tongue out to moisten his parched lips. They had talked about his life in Wyoming some, but it was always such a tricky situation. What had happened with his adoptive parents was his own experience, but given the lengths Scully had gone through to keep him safe, he felt a connection with her he wasn’t completely sure he understood.” 

AU My Struggle 2-- This is the last part in a longer series (1/ 2/ 3/)-- Will has been settled with Mulder and Scully in the aftermath of the world being saved from the deadly virus that, unfortunately, killed Will’s parents. Thanksgiving approaches; and, while Mulder recovers strength, Scully and Will bond over honoring their lost relatives while prepping for their Thanksgiving feast. 

This series is gold. Absolutely wonderful!