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Dana Scully | The X-Files 1x09 “Space”

this is so real ohmygod

i am a big believer in letting music (and other media) come to you when you're ready for it. you may only know vaguely of an acclaimed beloved artist and suspect that you'd be into them but just... not ever get around to it. and then in 15 years one of their songs just hits you the right way and what a gift to suddenly have all of their works to explore! there is no hurry; what is good is always good.

The Anthology - Chapter 7: But Daddy I Love Him

Artwork by @faith2nyc Read on AO3

“What the hell were you thinking?”

Steve looks up to see Maria’s typically collected expression overcome with incredulity, and from his seat in front of her desk, he can only shift in place. “I don't know how much clearer I can be, Maria,” he says, watching as his agent remains unfazed by his clipped tone. “She was drunk and in no condition to go home alone. It was the right thing to do. Anyone-”

"Anyone would have done it," Maria finishes for him. "That's what you were going to say, right?" He lifts his chin up, as if daring her to say what they both know she truly wants to. She scoffs. "Be that as it may, not just anyone would have stayed the night. And even worse, been stupid enough to get caught!" 

“I didn’t realize whose couch I crashed on was anyone’s business but my own,” he volleys back, crossing his arms over his chest.

“It is when it’s Natasha Romanoff’s couch,” Maria says, only to sigh at the dagger of a glare he sends her way. “For God’s sake, Steve, these pictures of you two are already tanking your follower count-”

“I don’t fucking care about my follower count!”

“Then what about future projects? Do you care about that?” Maria asks, undeterred. “Because just yesterday, I had a meeting booked with the studio to look into extending your three-picture deal. Today, they suddenly need to take a raincheck?” Maria shakes her head as she reaches for the tablet on her desk before handing it to him. “That’s not a coincidence, Steve. Not in light of all this... protest.”

“What are you talking about?” he says, his brows furrowing in confusion. Maria’s only response is to extend the tablet further out to him, and reluctantly, he takes the device to see the Twitter trending page pulled up on the screen, his name in bold font at the very top. An exasperated sigh falls from his lips as he taps on it. Call him old fashioned, but he had never come to understand the allure of an online presence. He had resisted building one for as long as he could, acquiescing only when the subject had become a sticking point in the new age of contract negotiations. Even then, he was only too happy to hand over the reins to Maria and her team. And as he skims through these responses now, he couldn’t be more thankful that he did.

“Jesus,” he says as he haphazardly drops the tablet back onto Maria’s desk, shaking his head as though the action will erase what he’s just seen. For those comments he’s just read – if they could still even be called that – are nothing short of vitriolic. How people could have the courage to release such vile things online, opining about matters they not only haven’t a scintilla of a clue about, but also absolutely no business casting judgment on, he couldn’t comprehend. “Where was all this outrage when I put my hands on that pap?”

Maria’s expression softens a touch at that, her silence a resounding confirmation of what he already knows. “Steve, I know you… care for her,” Maria carefully begins a beat later. “But, rightly or wrongly, they’ve already decided who and what she is. Don’t let her drag you down with her.”

A cold, humorless chuckle falls from his lips. “How is it that the person who’s supposedly dragging me down is the only one that actually lets me breathe around here?” Now more than ever, he could see it. The way people conflated him with the paragon of virtue that was Captain America, a mere character he plays. He gestures towards the tablet. “Am I even an actual person to these people, Maria?” He shakes his head. “And I’m just supposed to believe that all of this is just, what? Because they care about me?”

His hands curl into fists at the very thought, and before him, Maria can only press her lips into a line. For the reality is bleak. These strangers pontificating about their disappointment in his choices are the same ones who claim, adamantly, to have his best interests at heart. It didn’t matter that what they ask of him, what they feel ever so entitled to implore him to do, is the one thing that will break him. They’ve already set the rules, the price of his defiance already outlined – live up to the perfect, impossible image that they’ve built of him in their minds or be at their perceived mercy.

To hell with that.

The response comes to him instantaneously. For it's all clear to him now. In the end, it doesn’t matter. None of it does. Nothing about what the sanctimonious, faceless keyboard warriors say online changes the fact that he’s never been happier than when he’s with Natasha. It doesn’t diminish the joy he feels when he hears her laugh or when her verdant eyes are the first thing he sees when he opens his. Or the spark that rushes through his veins, making him feel more alive than he’s ever felt, when he has her hand in his. And, above all else, it won't make him forget that it wasn't until he had her in his arms, the both of them sprawled out in comfortable silence on her couch this morning, that he finally felt whole for the first time in weeks.

There isn't anything in the world that could hold a candle to any of that. He isn’t going to let there be – no matter what it costs him.

He rises from his seat, watching as a knowing yet still apprehensive look crosses Maria’s face. She sighs. “Steve.”

“It’s my life, Maria,” he says, squaring his shoulders. “My choices are just that, mine. And I choose her.” 

Chapter 6 | Chapter 8 (Coming Soon)

Julie Andrews

new txf fans warm my heart

i started watching the x files, dude this show is so insane one episode scully and mulder are trying to find some 100+ yr old serial killer and scully almost dies by said serial killer and then the next episode an elementary school boy is thought to be a threat to national security and then god is made into an aliens metaphor

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THAT SMUG LOOK SHE GIVES HIM AFTER HE CORRECTS HIMSELF HAHAHAHHA OMG I AM LEGIT DYING RN #JulieAndrewsIsGoals

the x files is maybe the funniest show ever cause almost always if they do something crazy to mulder or scully in an episode they do roughly that same thing to the other at some point.

were you disappointed that mulder spent all of unusual suspects messing around with the gunmen but scully didn't get to? three of a kind.

angry that scully keeps getting kidnapped or held hostage like in irresistible and our town? kill switch and drive.

annoyed that mulder went crazy in pusher and pulled a gun on scully instead of the other way around? wetwired.

tired of only mulder's exes showing up in fire and the end and making scully jealous? lazarus and all things.

mad that mulder was the only one to be intensely invested in the cases in conduit and paper hearts? beyond the sea and all souls.

frustrated that mulder got to have an ill-advised affair with a murder suspect in 3 and scully didn't? never again.

wish it had been mulder obsessively calling scully while she ignored him in favour of the case in war of the coprophages? chinga.

feel it's unfair that one of mulder's relatives got shot in anasazi while scully's family were all perfectly healthy? the blessing way.

find it odd that only scully had a brain tumour throughout her cancer arc? the gift.

irritated that in duane barry, ascension, and one breath, only scully got abducted and experimented on by aliens, then returned with little to no explanation and stuck in a weird coma for a while? requiem, this is not happening, and deadalive.

“In Winter Soldier, what we found so compelling about pairing her up with Captain America was that he is this paragon of morality, and she is a paragon of gray. But they’ve grown together, and I think when you find them in [Infinity War], they’ve been the Secret Avengers for two years… they’re like a tight-knit family now. Her, Sam Wilson, and Steve Rogers. It’s hardened all of them in a way.” – Joe & Anthony Russo

insp