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Entry tags:
The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking by Kel (PG)
Fandom: THE X-FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Length: Novella?
Author on LJ: No
Author Website: Author's page at Gossamer.
Why this must be read:
Kel is one of my favorite authors in The X-Files fandom. She writes superb dialog, her plots are tight, her characterizations are excellent, and her stories are in turn funny and suspenseful. I would recommend anything by this author; since this latest was just posted in April I get to do the honors here. Making his third appearance in a Kel fic, FBI agent Jerry Luskin may be the best original XF fanfic character I have ever read. In this story he has retired from the FBI, hung out his shingle as a PI, and (gulp) hired Fox Mulder as an investigator. As Jerry will soon find out, you can take Mulder out of the FBI, but you can't take him out of the game. Here is a snippet of dialog from the story's opening:
Six years ago when I hired Mulder, I told my wife how the FBI had sacked him, stripped his benefits, and screwed with his security clearance. And my wife looked me right in the eye and asked, "So when did Mulder's problems become your problems?"
"He's good. I can use him."
"He knocked up his girlfriend and then vanished."
We were sitting at the kitchen table, the remains of our dinner pushed to the side. I knew that out of everything, Roz would focus on Dana going through pregnancy alone. "He can't support his kid if he doesn't have a job," I said.
"He ran out on her," she said. "What was his excuse?"
"He doesn't like to talk about it," I said. I tried to smile, but she was really steamed now.
"He finds out there's a baby on the way, he disappears for months, he has nothing to say for himself, the FBI figures out he's a worthless louse, and *you* give him a job."
"Roz, listen. If he really was a louse he would have come up with a story. He didn't say a word, and that means something else. Remember the old days? Back in New York, or in DC after my transfer?"
She cooled down and took a minute before she answered. "I remember how your first ASAC said you'd never last if you couldn't even keep your wife from working. I remember late at night, waiting for you to come to bed while you sat in the kitchen smoking cigarettes. I remember you saying we could read whatever we wanted from the newsstand, but we couldn't have any subscriptions."
I'd forgotten about that. "*TV Guide* was okay. *Reader's Digest.*"
"It was like the ghost of Joe McCarthy moved in with us. You never told me, but I was afraid to sign a petition or answer a survey, and I didn't even know why. Is that what you mean?"
"That and more." I couldn't speak about it while it was happening, and afterwards it was ancient history. For the first time I told her what used to happen to FBI agents who got noticed in the wrong way. How guys would lose their job and get blackballed from ever getting another. There was no way to defend yourself.
"J. Edgar Hoover is dead, Jerry," she said quietly.
"Hell, yes. You think I'd have the guts to give Mulder a job if he was still around?"
She relented: "Far be it from me to tell you how to run your business."
"The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking" is so new that I have to post it with links from atxc.
Part 1/2
Part 2/2
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Length: Novella?
Author on LJ: No
Author Website: Author's page at Gossamer.
Why this must be read:
Kel is one of my favorite authors in The X-Files fandom. She writes superb dialog, her plots are tight, her characterizations are excellent, and her stories are in turn funny and suspenseful. I would recommend anything by this author; since this latest was just posted in April I get to do the honors here. Making his third appearance in a Kel fic, FBI agent Jerry Luskin may be the best original XF fanfic character I have ever read. In this story he has retired from the FBI, hung out his shingle as a PI, and (gulp) hired Fox Mulder as an investigator. As Jerry will soon find out, you can take Mulder out of the FBI, but you can't take him out of the game. Here is a snippet of dialog from the story's opening:
Six years ago when I hired Mulder, I told my wife how the FBI had sacked him, stripped his benefits, and screwed with his security clearance. And my wife looked me right in the eye and asked, "So when did Mulder's problems become your problems?"
"He's good. I can use him."
"He knocked up his girlfriend and then vanished."
We were sitting at the kitchen table, the remains of our dinner pushed to the side. I knew that out of everything, Roz would focus on Dana going through pregnancy alone. "He can't support his kid if he doesn't have a job," I said.
"He ran out on her," she said. "What was his excuse?"
"He doesn't like to talk about it," I said. I tried to smile, but she was really steamed now.
"He finds out there's a baby on the way, he disappears for months, he has nothing to say for himself, the FBI figures out he's a worthless louse, and *you* give him a job."
"Roz, listen. If he really was a louse he would have come up with a story. He didn't say a word, and that means something else. Remember the old days? Back in New York, or in DC after my transfer?"
She cooled down and took a minute before she answered. "I remember how your first ASAC said you'd never last if you couldn't even keep your wife from working. I remember late at night, waiting for you to come to bed while you sat in the kitchen smoking cigarettes. I remember you saying we could read whatever we wanted from the newsstand, but we couldn't have any subscriptions."
I'd forgotten about that. "*TV Guide* was okay. *Reader's Digest.*"
"It was like the ghost of Joe McCarthy moved in with us. You never told me, but I was afraid to sign a petition or answer a survey, and I didn't even know why. Is that what you mean?"
"That and more." I couldn't speak about it while it was happening, and afterwards it was ancient history. For the first time I told her what used to happen to FBI agents who got noticed in the wrong way. How guys would lose their job and get blackballed from ever getting another. There was no way to defend yourself.
"J. Edgar Hoover is dead, Jerry," she said quietly.
"Hell, yes. You think I'd have the guts to give Mulder a job if he was still around?"
She relented: "Far be it from me to tell you how to run your business."
"The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking" is so new that I have to post it with links from atxc.
Part 1/2
Part 2/2