Another Night in Roswell by Elizabeth Rowandale (R)

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Fandom: THE X FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: rowan_d
Author Website: @ tripod
Why this must be read:

This is the story of one night. It begins at the moment The Truth ends and weaves the story until the morning of the following day. It's about love and hurt and creating some kind of victory out of suffering. It's what I like to think happened after the cameras stopped rolling. Mulder and Scully are stripped down to their elements and built up into something even stronger than they were before. The characterisations are rich and complex. The dialogue is by turns raw, sly and sweet, but always real. This fic just has a great deal of emotional resonance for me and I hope it will for you too.

"Maybe true love is being able to let someone go at your suffering, but...true need. That outweighs...But it's just us now, Mulder. Just us. At a certain point, love is also respecting the other person's choices. And me being able to trust you to do so. And if I say to you, that I don't want to be safe...if it's without you..."

She was fighting it with every fiber of her being, it was painful to watch--but she was starting to cry.

She was shaking.

Mulder watched, but didn't speak.

She was focusing hard on some nameless point at her feet. She drew several careful breaths. Mulder breathed with her, willing the silence and nearness to pull them closer, pull them into synch.

"I can't do this without you." Her whispered words closed his throat.

"This...what 'this'? Going underground? Continuing our fight? What... Can't do..."

Her tongue slipped across her lips. "My life."

Read Another Night in Roswell.