#settle-down-frohike

@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~

Perchance to Dream

Like a cat, he scooted over until he found a patch of sun and turned his face toward the brightness, closing his eyes with a little smile of pure pleasure. She almost expected to hear him purr.

"Call if you need anything."

"Mmm hmm," he replied, already half-asleep. As she pulled the door partway closed, she marveled that this was the same man who had previously existed on two hours of rest a night.

But he wasn't the same man. No matter how desperately she wanted him to be, his experience had profoundly changed him physically and she would no doubt see other, more subtle changes in his personality as he recovered.

AU-- Post-Deadalive Mulder doesn't want to be hovered over (especially after burial nightmares.)

Duet

I put my hand over the gentle mound of my stomach.

He hasn't asked me about it yet, but he knows. I've seen the questions in his eyes, questions he is too afraid to ask, so he tells me knock-knock jokes instead.

AU-- Post Deadalive Mulder is crackin' jokes and coppin' feels.

Impasse (txt)

Mulder had always been obsessed with his search, single-minded and occasionally downright rude to anyone who dared question him or get in his way. But since he had come back to her, after those hazy hours in the hospital when he'd done little more than smile at her whenever he was awake, he'd been driven beyond reason. He was suspicious, paranoid, and seemed to care very little that he'd been given a second chance at life.

Or maybe he cared too much.

Three Words Scully and Mulder have a necessary conversation after the DOD raid.

2:00 A.M.

"I can't sleep. I've been asleep for three months. I don't want to lose any more time."

"Mulder, not that I'm not fascinated by what happened to you, and grateful you're back...but why aren't you talking to Scully about this?"

"I can't talk to Scully."

Post Three Words Frohike gets Mulder's head in the game.

Out of the Shadows

The siren screams through his restless sleep and he jerks upright like a puppet yanked by invisible strings, his own scream ripped from his throat in a human echo of the sound. For a moment he doesn't know where he is or who he is, lost in the suffocating cloak of darkness, still tangled in the suffocating folds of the nightmare. The sound of his own breathing rasps in his ears, uneven, half-sobbing as his lungs beg for air, more air, there's not enough air...Somehow he staggers to the window and throws it open, shivering as the early spring breeze dries the sweat on his skin.

His heart pounds against his chest as if trying to escape his body. His arms and legs tingle with the rush of adrenalin, his muscles trembling like a racehorse's just before the gate opens, awaiting the brain's command to run, to fight.

Post Three Words Mulder finally calls Dr. Karen Kosseff.

In the End

In the end, there wasn't a lot to show for all the years of hard work.

Post Vienen Mulder packs up his office, weary.

Opening Doors 02

"Mulder, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for that alien head mug I gave you a couple of Christmases ago."

"Any particular reason? I have a lot of other mugs, if you want coffee."

"No, I just wanted to see if it was still here."

Alone Mulder and Scully discuss the keychain (and other domestic matters.)

ML’s (xffics)

Do You Know?

My body still feels like it's not quite my own to command. It's like a block of stone, or ice. When you touched me, I wanted to touch you back, but I couldn't summon the strength. I could barely move my fingers to let you know I was aware of your presence. My eyes felt weighted shut somehow, until I heard the sudden intake of your breath and I had to see your face, make sure this wasn't a dream. I had to make sure you knew you weren't dreaming, too, so of course the first words out of my mouth were a joke. Whatever They took from me, they left me my sick sense of humor. I would like to say something reassuring to you, but all I can muster is a small smile. I want to keep my eyes open and look at you, a sight I've been deprived of for far too long.

Post-Deadalive Scully tells Mulder in the hospital.

Found Faith and Lost Time

I give her a big smile as she catches my eye. "Hi, Mom," I greet her.

She looks a little crestfallen. "You KNOW? Did you know last night?" she asks me.

Skinner answers first. "I let it slip. I thought he already knew," he explains. "I'm sorry, Dana." He takes the box out of her hands.

He's calling her "Dana"? I'm no longer sorry I called him Walter.

AU-- Post-Deadalive Skinner breaks the news to a giddy Mulder.

Far Away, So Close

At first, he thinks it's stuff reclaimed from when his apartment was searched. He wonders how Scully got hold of it so fast. He hopes she didn't do what he would have done, such as swiping it out of evidence storage.

Upon closer inspection, though, he sees that all the dates are from after his abduction. He sifts through the piles, picking up an article about the Presidential election he missed, and a videotape entitled, "Subway Series, vol. 1." It looks to him like Scully has done her best to give him back his missing time.

Three Words Mulder begins to struggle post-resurrection after overhearing the doctors discussing his "death."

155 Words - Dermatology

It took only moments. The blemish was small. The scrapings went into a specimen case. I dabbed the small amount of blood welling at the site.

"All done?" he asked.

"Yes. I'll have the results back in a few days, but I can say with confidence that finding any abnormalities will be highly unlikely."

Post Three Words Mulder gets his mole scraped.

Betwixt and Between

"Scully?" he says again after several heartbeats.

"I'm here, Mulder," she whispers, as if speaking aloud might scare him away.

Several more heartbeats.

"I'm sorry I bothered you," she hears him say. His voice sounds rusty, unused to speaking.

"Mulder, it's okay," she says quickly. Don't hang up, she thinks. Please don't hang up.

"I just. I just wanted to hear your voice," he says.

Post Three Words Scully and Mulder are both afraid.

The Tease

I was still working, though Mulder and everyone else kept telling me it was time to stay home. But until I could see Mulder completely reinstated, I felt I couldn't go. Mulder was going in to work, checking out leads, and generally making a nuisance of himself in ways that couldn't possibly help him get the X-Files back. In other words, he was behaving pretty normally.

Except that his heart didn't really seem to be in it. He investigated promising leads, and tried to hector Agent Doggett into following up on them, but he didn't seem as keen on going out in the field as he once was.

Post-Empedocles Scully gives Mulder to slip back into her life, at his own pace.

Pattie's When You Call for Me in Your Sleep

The tests must have been excruciating. I can only see the scars that still linger from their procedures. My efforts to prevent the further damage that was growing inside you have left scars. But what are marks on the epidermis compared to the horrible memories etched into your mind and soul? Mere badges you have earned. Symbols that you did not join the deceivers.

Post-Deadalive Mulder and Scully struggle along.

@alldolleduppink-blog's Reditum

When he was exhumed and she saw evidence of his chest rising, he was dependent on breathing apparatus and there was no clear sign of when or that he would wake up at all. Perhaps, this is such a vivid dream it's convincing enough for her to believe that he's conscious and speaking. She's had those kinds of dreams before only to be tormented by the reality that he wasn't even there. He was lost and then dead. He was missing for months. The state of decomposition to his body indicated several days of exposure to the elements when he was found and he was discarded like trash in that desolate field.

Post Deadalive-Three Words Scully scrambles to unlock Mulder's "normal" side after his PTSD kicks in. 

@settle-down-frohike/settledownfrohike's

Sensory Integration (Tumblr)

He hasn’t told her this for fear she’d have kept him incarcerated, but he’s still fighting waves of nausea induced by the sensation of free fall every few minutes. His stomach rolls end over end, as if on the downslope of a rollercoaster. His feet still don’t feel as if they’ve touched ground, which is ironic for a man who was 6 feet under its surface not 36 hours ago. He feels suspended above this world, tethered only by the clinical tone of her voice as she catalogues his condition. It is the only thing that feels like home right now, and God, he wants to be home, he does, but he’s an apparition, a ghost of himself, floating along a tour of his own life like Ebenezer Scrooge.

Only people don’t talk directly to ghosts about their scars and miraculous healing and their perfect health. 

Three Words Mulder is a man puppeted by shredded adrenaline and automatic impulses.

Magneticus

“Mulder, aren’t we supposed to have a wedding ring for this?” And the unintended double meaning isn’t lost on him. He can tell Scully is regretting the phrase immediately by the fact that she’s now holding her breath.

“You can use a needle too, Scully. Hold still.” Her eyes follow his hand warily as it stretches towards her cheek. “OW!!” He comes away with a single amber stand and carefully threads the eye, double loops it and dangles above her swollen middle. They wait. She sighs heavily.

“Mulder…”

“You know this practice isn’t without scientific theory Scully.” His voice has taken on that nasal quality it tends to when he’s talking mostly to himself.

Post-Empedocles Mulder discovers the sex of his son.

Prompts (Short Reads) - Chapter 3

She can't bring herself to look at him.

….because she knows he’ll hate the answer. A fitful, heavy-breathing nightmare has him probing and she knows he’ll never let up. 

Post-The Truth Scully wakes from a nightmare.

FabulousMonster's It's Been Awhile

It's getting worse.

Any touch, any incidental contact overpowers me. I don't tell anyone. The only fear greater than my phobia is remaining in the hospital. I am desperate to reclaim my life, to plant my feet in the real world once again.

I tell myself that the X-Files and Scully need me.

The truth is *I* need to be needed again.

Post-Deadalive through post-Existence Mulder and Scully work through their traumas individually and together, alongside their allies and friends.

Innisfree's

Flicker

What does it take to break a man? How many times do you have to beat him before his spirit finally dies? How many days and nights can you treat him as an object before he begins to see himself as less than human? How many things can you take from him before what's left ceases to be enough?

He is considering, trying to fix upon the exact moment when he gave up.

Three Words Mulder is disgusted at his "ugliness."

Falter

"You're not gonna fit on this couch, Scully. So if you're planning on staying the night, you'd better take the bed."

He lifts his head to find her standing perfectly still by the television. She appears to him like a statue, every muscle that is visible in the dim light rigid and still. There is a glint in her eye, but he can't be sure if it's just a reflection, or if it's something more.

"They almost killed you tonight."

AU-- Post-Three Words Scully insists on having it out.

@scapegrace74-blog/scapegrace74's The Ocean Breathes Salty

The ocean breathes salty, Scully.

It sighs and gasps on these dark rocks until my face is painted with its tears and it’s the closest thing to grief that I’ve felt since my return from six feet under.   There’s a gritty layer of rust inside me as well; in my head, my heart, my soul. None of them work as they should.  The ancient Inca embalmed their dead with salt, you know.

Three Words Mulder feels like he's failed.

@frogsmulder/Brynstein's The Anchor that Floats

As soon as the door clicked closed behind Scully, his apartment suddenly felt simultaneously very big and very small. Like the walls were closing in around him, but the room felt empty, too large for only his presence, and he could feel the walls reel away from him, swamping him in his insignificance. The push and the pull of the walls battled with every inhale and exhale he made, like reality was warping. The reality he knew was different. Things had changed without him and still they continued to change, leaving him behind in the dirt. He blinked, and as soon as he did, he knew it was a mistake. The world turned to black like drowning in a deep sea. And then he was back there again, on the ship bright light and drilling instruments his only company. And then he was back in the room but not really. And then he blinked. And then the darkness.

AU-- Three Words Mulder runs after Scully into the hallway, panic attack in full swing.

Lolabeegood's (mulderscreek) The Silent Spaces

"Scully, I want you to expect more of me." He said as he leaned toward her.

"Mulder, you can want that until the cows come home but, you need to back up that desire with action and...and I don't think you're willing to do that."

"This baby is mine, yes?" He asked as he softly placed a hand on her belly.

"Yes," she said quietly.

Three Words Mulder feels safe enough to take his feelings out on Scully.

Shoshana's After Dinner

Leftovers had been refrigerated or disposed of as the case might dictate; all eating utensils, stemware, tableware either washed and put away or were being processed at that very moment. A comfortable silence had ruled for the last few minutes as she dunked and scrubbed and he dried and polished.

He could have left well enough alone. He could have waited, could have allowed her to tell all tomorrow, perhaps the next day. He couldn't.

Three Words Mulder and Scully share a bubble of domesticity.

David Stoddard-Hunt's

Zombies in a Newer Age

So, my working hypothesis is "zombie."

If so, all my prior notions about zombies are being shot to hell. I'm not hungry, even though I'm under doctors' orders to eat high protein to gain weight. I can't drink until I'm off the current course of anti-virals but, even then, I'm not really sure that I'll touch a drop. Dancing? Only to the real Elvis. And I'm not even going near the next part. On that score, my options seem to have been reduced from one to none during my absence.

Maybe I'm a zombie who doesn't have a lighter, gentler side.

Three Words Mulder realizes Scully never gave up on him.

No, but . . .

Yo, Nurse. Right over here. I'm the not-in-the-widely-understood-sense-of-husband husband. Scully and I have been together for eight years, minus small amounts of missing time, a couple of months off each for alien abductions, oh, and the recent period I've already mentioned in which I was severely life-force impaired. Well, and some estrangement through that whole Diana mess a couple of years ago, but we worked through that.

Empedocles Mulder navigates the hospital in his own way.

secondsflat/whithersoever's Samsara

As a kid, he used to have this cheap plastic camera with a viewfinder, and it made all the pictures he took look washed-out and off by an inch. That’s how his apartment looks now, he thinks. Like one of those poorly composed photographs. Or maybe it’s more like an elaborate Egyptian tomb, with all of the things he loved in his life Before arranged carefully and artfully around him, but by other people. A monument to his death. They’d re-created Martin Luther King’s hotel room in a museum after he died, too, right down to his breakfast, half-eaten on a tray. He'd always thought that was kind of weird.

Scully stands very still against the wall. They don't let you touch things in museums.

Three Words Mulder and Scully both feel guilty.

zulu’s Musings of a Knocked-Up FBI Agent

When his eyes had opened, it was as though the shutters on a window to a different life had been opened. Something had been there--something so far removed from their work, from his ceaseless quest, that it was almost alien. But with his first words, it had disappeared, as though some ghost had twitched a curtain back into place. They had fallen into the superficial patterns of partnership.

Three Words Scully and Mulder struggle through his anger and her loneliness.

@sixhours/6hoursgirl's (FFN) We Aren't Meant to Sleep Alone (Ao3)

“They’ll take you back at VCU. Skinner said as much…you have to apply, go through recertification, but—”

He winces. “I’m not interested.”

“The X-Files isn’t the only way to help people, Mulder. Your experience as a profiler is invaluable—”

He shakes his head. “No. The X-Files were my work, my life,” he says. “They can’t take that away and expect me to come crawling back to beg for table scraps.”

“Ours,” she says, feeling a twinge of anger at his stubborn insistence. “It was our work, our life. And I’m sorry that’s no longer the case, but Mulder, things change. People change.”

“Some of us didn’t have a choice,” he says, his eyes cold.

“You said it yourself,” she says, hating the rise in her voice. “The personal costs were too high.”

AU-- Three Words Mulder and Scully struggle through the FBI's refusal to reinstate, Mulder's (accurate) suspicion that Scully didn't want him reinstated, and her (righteous) frustrated floundering to get him to reconnect and stay.

Cathey Scully's It's been Awhile

Bits and pieces of his memory were missing. Mostly memories from right before he went missing, but somewhere in there, he'd try to think of the past and would come up blank. There was one thing he knew could never in a million years forget, the feel of Scully in his arms.

Mulder sat down heavily on his couch, his hand scraping roughly over the tender spots on his face. He barely felt the pain. It hurt more than anything to think about Scully. He felt deep blinding pain thinking about her.

Post-Three Words Mulder knows he has a place in Scully's life, but can't bring himself to accept it (yet.)

@lokisgame/Lokisgame's

Thumbelina And The Nocturnal Flower - Chapter 4

“What am I, Scully?” His voice was low, the blunt honesty took her by surprise, cutting straight to the core of her fear....

Three Words Mulder is terrified he's not himself.

A Buzzing Sound

Scully kept her chant, forcing the fear and memories away. She knew the feeling well, she couldn’t stand even a thought of visiting the dentist for over a year after being returned from her abduction and she still jumped slightly when she heard the drill start. She had to constantly remind herself that she’s present and in control, that it’s just a filling and there’s nothing sinister about it.

“You’ll have to do it” he mumbled into the small space he was getting used to sharing with her growing baby belly.

“Mulder” she said slowly, trying to spread out the sting of denial.

“Please Scully, you’re the only one I can trust right now” he was trying to move closer, as if the baby would somehow back him up.

Post-Three Words Scully (via Maggie) helps Mulder trim his hair.

@peacenik0's (Ao3) Where I Belong

He feels how expectant she is around him, but also how she holds back because she doesn’t want to overwhelm him. Her uncertainty hangs heavy on her shoulders. Mulder wants to reassure her, but how can he, when he so unsure himself? “I hope you’re hungry.”

He is in this strange state of feeling absolutely ravenous for anything he can get his hands on. And alternately sick to his stomach over the shambles he finds his life in.

Post-Three Words Mulder and Scully reconnect over burgers.

muldersboyishenthousiasm's Foundation Powder

‘What are you doing...?’ she asked. But she already knew what he was trying to achieve.

He held her gaze from where he was standing in front of the mirror. He was bent over the sink, holding her foundation powder in one hand and a damp tissue in the other. His expressive hazel eyes told her all she needed to know. She observed him while he put down the makeup material and turned to face her.

Post-Three Words Mulder tries to cover up his scars.

Dawn's (Ao3, Gossamer) Harbor (Ao3)

"You were my safe place, Scully. My one reason to hang on when all I wanted to do was let go."

I struggle to speak around the boulder in my throat, tightening my embrace when the words simply won't come.

"I'd imagine I was here with you, in this bed. The feel of your skin against mine. The smell of your hair..." Mulder's fingers falter and when he resumes speaking his voice is rough with unshed tears.

"After a while...it got harder and harder to remember. Your name was all I had left, and I was so afraid they'd take that, too."

Post-Three Words Mulder and Scully, nightmares and universal invariants.

@mctaminy/McTaminy's Scars

Mulder ran four fingertips up the length of her spine, feeling each notch of her vertebrae. She stirred awake, letting out a sleepy hum, but didn’t roll over. Her hair was longer and thicker than when he’d left, and he brushed it gently aside, hoping to touch and count the twin scars at the nape of her neck, one from the chip’s removal, the other from its replacement. But his caresses stopped. Just below her cervical notch was a longitudinal cicatrix. It lay straight along her spine and was at least 4 inches in length, edged with smaller pinpoint scars, stitch marks. He touched it lightly then withdrew his hand, an ache building behind his Adam’s apple.

Post-Three Words Mulder discovers Scully's new Roadrunner scar.

@starwalker42's (Ao3) febuwhump day 20: knife wound

It’s strange, having Mulder back. She’d always known once he returned that it wouldn’t go back to how they were before; she knew, now, what he’d been hiding from her all of last year, and they had a baby (they had a baby) on the way, and he was still processing how much time he’d lost. The first few weeks were rough, but they’re through those now and… well, even if it’s not back to normal, it’s good. Strange, but good.

Post-Three Words Mulder soaks in being "home"-- until he sees Scully's Roadrunner war wound.

Hang a Shining Star (Ao3)

Thanks to my admittedly rusty tree-decorating skills, it took me nearly an hour to get the lights just the way I want them. One good yank from that pint-sized fist and I'll be back to square one. I harden my heart to soulful wet eyes and hiccuping sobs, pulling out every toy in Will's considerable arsenal as a futile attempt at distraction. Ten minutes later rattles and stuffed animals are scattered across the floor like land mines but his sweaty, flushed face and increasing decibel level indicate he's not yet begun to fight. Despite that angelic face, Will possesses the tenacity of a pit bull when he wants something.

I think he gets it from Scully.

I eventually go for the big guns and heat a bottle. 

AU-- S9 Mulder is a new father and Christmas enjoyer... and not sure if he's entitled to a happy ending.

Beduini/beduini's Legitimate

Scully exhales, the sound barely audible but the delivery enough to warrant a quick sidelong glance over at her. Under his scrutiny, her hand rests on the swell of her abdomen and her brow is slightly furrowed in thought. Lips pursed, her eyes focus inward.

Quarters at Hotel Scully are getting tight.

He is leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees. His hands form a steeple in front of his lips, tapping, and he glances up at the institutional clock mounted on the wall. Ten minutes have passed.

AU-- Post-Vienen Mulder and Scully hit up the courthouse, flashing back-and-forth between her past sorrow and his present anxiety.

Lorri's Your Father's Child (mulderscreek)

Mulder has been back for exactly 32 days, 4 hours and 51 seconds. I am 4 days from my due date and we are making each other crazy. I know, I didn't think it would be possible either. I thought I'd be so elated to have him back that I'd never complain about him again. That lasted exactly 11 days, 9 hours and 22 minutes. At that moment he asked me for the 1,000th time if it was time to go to the hospital. He has had my bag packed and ready to go for three weeks. Last night I had to break into it to get a clean bra. He immediately re-packed everything and set it just exactly in the same spot, right near the door.

Part 3 of the "Wait Until Your Father Gets Home" series: S8 Scully is driven to distraction by Mulder's attentiveness as her due date approaches. 

xraelynn/Rachel Nobel's Clearing

Wordlessly, I reached into my wallet and pulled out the photo I'd been carrying for weeks. I didn't need to look at it to know exactly what he would see: Liam with his wispy red hair, so like Scully's. A grin that exposed his front teeth. The New York Yankees overalls Scully had purchased for him. Mulder's face was impossible to read as I passed it to him, but as soon as he looked at it his face seemed to crumple. Two fingers absently stroked the glossy surface of his son's face.

"He looks like her," he breathed despite himself.

"Scully always insisted he looked like you."

Mulder looked up at me, his eyes somehow hooded and wild. "Is he..."

"Agent Mulder, I know this is hard for you," I interjected. Agent Mulder. The words slipped out before I could help myself -- before I remembered that the man sitting in front of me was not Agent Mulder but the shell of him.

Mulder shook his head fiercely. "No, it's not hard," he said brusquely. "It's not hard, it's impossible."

AU-- Post-Requiem Mulder is returned years later: father to a son, widow to his partner.

Jenna Tooms/misslucyjane’s (mulderscreek) An Acceptable Level of Happiness

I lay Malcolm in his crib, trying to think of something to say. I stay at the crib, holding Malcolm's hand and watching him sleep. I say softly, "Someday we're going to have to explain to him why his daddy won't go swimming with him or why he wears long sleeves at the beach."

Mulder doesn't say anything for a moment, then he shoves the bureau so hard a bottle of lotion tumbles off, the mirror wavers and my jewelry box falls over. "We'll tell him his daddy's too ugly," he says shortly.

AU-- Post Existence Scully and Mulder (and baby Malcolm) sift and sort a life together as their first Christmas approaches.

maybe_amanda's (LJ) Under Construction (xffic)

Hers was the only story that made sense, of course - we had defeated the Supes; she had found the vaccine; I was holding a Bob the Builder backpack, so William clearly hadn't gone anywhere. Frohike had only lifted an eyebrow and told me to quit weirding him out the day he showed up at the front door and I poked him in the shoulder four or five times trying to determine whether or not he was a ghost. And as far as I could ascertain from speaking to Gibson, to Skinner, to Doggett and Reyes, the threat of alien colonization - from without and within - had really and truly been laid to rest.

We'd saved the world. And the FBI was still paying my salary.

Fox Mulder, this is your happy ending.

Try telling my brain that, though. It stubbornly refused to listen.

AU-- The world is saved sometime during the events of Season 9; and Mulder is returned, riddled with PTSD and hallucinations. He, Scully, and William stumble progressively forward, miscommunication and handsome men with trucks cluttering up their happily ever after.

Thanks for reading~