"She's Waiting" by Philippa (PG-13)

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE X FILES
Pairing: Mulder/Scully
Author on LJ: n/a
Author Website: Philippa's Fanfic

Why this must be read:

We all know about songfic, right? Beginning writers using song lyrics to evoke a mood they can't manage to convey through prose, unaware that the lyrics may not carry the same import for their readers as they do for the writer. Stories which depend on the fortuitous appearance of just the right song on the bar jukebox or the car radio. Stories which just aren't worth your time.

Except this one is.

Philippa takes you through an evening in the sad-sack burned-out bitter days of S6, when inertia more than friendship or duty or love seemed to be keeping Mulder and Scully together, and at that inertia didn't seem to be working too well. In clear, careful prose she lays out the terrible motel, the greasy diner, the smokey bar -- the stuff of a thousand fanfic clichés. Except when someone looks at the clichés this acutely, with this much judgment and this much sympathy, they don't feel clichéd at all.

The menu felt slightly greasy in his fingers, as if it was exuding cholesterol, which it might well have been. All of the entrees seemed to be battered and fried or involved intimate relations with members of the pork family. Even the vegetables were fried. And all of the desserts were cream-something. Out of habit, Mulder scanned the menu again, looking for something Scully would eat, and spotted the inevitable chef's salad, which he knew would feature iceberg lettuce, hard-as-rock tomatoes, generous lumps of cubed cheese food, and whatever ham had managed to escape from the entree section. For some reason, the thought of her having to eat something like that infused him with a sudden rush of sadness.

"She's Waiting"