From: "Denise Morgen"
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 11:09:29 PDT
Subject: How She Moves Me by Denise Morgen
Source: direct
TITLE: How She Moves Me
AUTHOR: Denise Morgen
EMAIL: meadora@hotmail.com
DISCLAIMER: The characters of Mulder and Scully are the exclusive
property of Fox, 1013 Productions and Chris Carter. The song "You
Move Me" that I have so blatantly plagiarized is the copyrighted
property of Polygram International Publishing, Inc. and
Piercepettisongs (whatever that is) and is performed by Garth Brooks.
SPOILERS: Post-ep Pusher, Tooms, Fire, One Breath, Pilot
CATEGORY: Songfic, MSR, Mulder POV
SUMMARY: Mulder wades through the mental aftershocks of the Pusher
case.
ARCHIVE: Sure. Just drop me a line so I can visit.
RATING: PG-13 for adult language
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so this isn't a regular songfic. You aren't
gonna find any kareoke or lilting radio tunes moving our heroes to
brave new emotional heights here. In fact, if you've never heard this
song before, you're gonna be like, "Songfic? What the hell is she
talking about?" So email me if you want the lyrics so you can go
through and see where I worked the words to it in. Keep in mind that
I have taken some artistic license and warped the lyrics to suit my
purposes just a *little.* ;p Also, I'm well aware that I might just
have my X-Files timeline a little skewed here. Sorry 'bout that if
such is the case!
Visit my fanfiction, it gets lonely!
www.geocities.com/Area51/Nova/5635
How She Moves Me
by Denise Morgen
This is how it seems to me: life is only therapy. Real expensive and
no guarantees. You could say I'm the resident expert on it, in fact.
Too bad there's not an award for Most Time Spent with the Staff
Psychologist, I'd have it in the bag. I can't help but grimace when it
occurs to me how many more hours I'll be adding to my self-proclaimed
title thanks to this little escapade. I bury my face in my hands
before sliding them up quickly to scrub through my tangled sweat-
stained hair. I can practically feel myself rambling in an effort to
hold down the hysteria I feel clawing impatiently at the back of my
mind. And I stink. Nothing like having a showdown with a borderline
telepathic, homicidal maniac and almost killing your partner to put
your deodorant to the test. I violently shove down on the sharp
twinge of pain that shoots through my body as I remember the single
tear that slid down her cheek as I stared down at her from the barrel
of my gun. The shrink I carry around in the back of my head is
muttering nasty little words like "sublimation" and "avoidance," so
I decide to do something that at least LOOKS productive. A shower
would be good right about now, wash off some of this sweat and
perfume - wait, PERFUME? I drop back down abruptly and sniff the air
violently like some kind of rabid wolf. That scent, I'd know her
perfume anywhere...where is it coming from? I run my hand through my
hair in annoyance...and there it is again! I snatch my hand down from
my head and thrust it under my nose. There...there it is. But how did
it get on me?
Suddenly nothing is more important than remembering what chance
encounter led to her scent attaching itself to me. Hmm...maybe
having an eidetic memory is a good thing after all. My mind flips
through a blur of memories in my mental rolodex, searching
frantically for a corresponding image. *Click* *Click* *Click* The
mental slide show snaps to a triumphant halt. *Click* a darkened
hospital room the unwitting stage for the crumpled figure lying
useless on it's regulation bed *Click* the wafting combination scent
of jasmine and vanilla herald her sudden entrance to this darkened
domain more vividly to me than the opening of the door or the
resounding tap of her heals as she comes to my side *Click* Her soft
voice answering my rugged whisper, the silken slide of her fingers
threading mine. We touched...held. *Click* My mind snaps abruptly back
to the present as a wave of dizziness crashes over me. Whoa, head rush
- maybe productive isn't such a good idea after all. Out of nowhere
the realization that I'd been trying to avoid all evening slams into me
like a physical force: I almost lost her. AGAIN. And this time it
wouldn't have been to some liver eating mutant or shadowy government
conspiracy but BY MY OWN HAND. The aftermath of this revelation
leaves me weakened and shaking and as I lay back slowly I can feel
the hysteria I'd been fighting slip its leash and run rampant over my
already fractured psyche:
Killed-her-I-almost-killed-her-the-bullet-was-in-that-chamber-if-she-
hadn't-run-I-would've-blown-her-fucking-brains-out-DEAD-dead-dead-
dead-Model-you-sick-bastard-how-did-you-know-what-she-means-to-me-I-
didn't-even-know-I-would-have-lost-her-AGAIN-for-good-and-then-I__
I cut off my internal rambling when I realize that was exactly what
he wanted. Because if I had shot her my life would have then been
comprised solely of two distinct but connected acts: 1.) I would've
immediately killed that son of a bitch with my bare hands and
2.) I would've killed myself. And Robert Patrick Model would've
gotten exactly what he wanted: death by a 'worthy adversary' and my
ultimate defeat all in one tidy little package. Shit.
So I lie here on the couch with my heart hanging out trying to come
to terms with the hitherto unrealized depth of devotion I hold for my
partner. I've always known she's important to me, but when did she
become my air? When did even the thought of life with out her first
start to leave me frozen solid with fear like rock in the ground?
When did I first fall in -- no, not yet, I'm definitely not ready for
THAT thought yet...
Model thought the power to 'push,' as he called it, could make him a
great man. He thought that the lifetime of mediocrity he'd lived
could be washed away by the path of death and distruction he left in
the wake of his poisonous gift. But greatness doesn't come from
'pushing' or from forcing your will upon others. The truly great know
that the ability to influence or 'move' others through respect and
admiration is the true power. And it can't be bought or sold. Some
people are born with it and some people can learn it, but it has to
come from inside. Scully has it. Was that another part of why you
wanted me to kill her, Model? Could the presence of that spark of
greatness that you'd been denied been just another motivation for you
to remove this woman from the planet? That's why you failed. You'll
notice I didn't even hesitate when you told me to point that gun at
myself. One bullet. That's all I could think. One bullet. And if it
ended up embedded in your skull or mine then Scully would be safe.
You see, Model, she moves me. You can push all you want but she
*moves* me...she gives me courage I didn't know I had. She makes me
a stronger person and a better man. She forces me to search for proof
and plausibility, she validates me. I remember standing with her in
a darkened cemetery on our first case in the pouring rain when she
threw back her head and laughed. I'm used to being laughed at, people
do it to me all the time, but this was different. It was different
because she wasn't laughing at me or about me but at herself for
believing me. And in that moment, when she was willing to throw away
rationality and plausibility for the sake of the truth she was my
partner. And suddenly I knew that I couldn't be that groundless
lunatic in the basement anymore. She lent me her credibility and the
benefit of her doubt and it hit me that I couldn't go with her and
stay where I was so she moved me. And it wouldn't be the last time...
This is how love was to me: I could look and not see. Going through
the emotions not knowing what they mean. I'd had a string of
meaningless and often painful relationships of which Phoebe was only
the first. Finally I built the walls of my fortress high around my
heart and locked everyone out. Nothing mattered to me except finding
Sam and the X-Files. If I didn't let anyone in then they couldn't hurt
me, they couldn't leave and I would be safe. It worked for a while,
even after they'd partnered us together. It wasn't until they'd closed
down the X-Files the first time that I began to get an inkling of how
important she was to me. And it scared me so much that I just wouldn't
budge. I might've stayed there forever if not for her touch. If she
hadn't drug me kicking and screaming to secret rendezvous and
challenged me with quiet phone calls I might never have risen out of
the funk I'd fallen into. And then they took her from me...took her
from me and plunged my entire world into darkness.
Oh but she moves me. Out of myself and into the fire. And so I held
on throughout all the pain and despair, if only by the slimmest of
margins, because I knew I had to be there when she came back to me.
And come back to me she did, with a smile that brought the sun back
to my world and a joke to bring an answering smile to MY face. "I
knew there was a reason to live" indeed.
It was then that I realized that this is how she moves me: for the
first time in my life since losing Samantha I'd found something,
SOMEONE who meant more to me than my egotistical self-interests. And
now after having almost lost her again I'm burning with the love and
the hope and desire that we both try so hard to deny. Some days it's
like a fire inside me, the wanting's so great that I fear spontaneous
combustion might make an appearance in an X-File next to the name Fox
Mulder. But it's the respect and love that win out over the desire to
make her physically mine. I already have her friendship, her
partnership, I can wait to have her desire.
You would think that all the horrible things we've gone through would
have broken her, that all the horrors we've encountered would've
shattered her spirit and left her an empty shell of the woman she
once was. Not Dana Scully. She takes everything this world can throw
at her and keeps on coming. She goes whistling in the dark, making
light of it, making light of it. And I follow with my heart laughing
all the way. Oh cause she moves me. She gets me dancing and she makes
me sing. She moves me, now I'm taking delight in every little thing. How
she moves me...
And this is how we survive, because I'd like to believe I move her
too. Between the two of us we can take anything fate throws our
way. So you can keep you pushing cerulean blue, Modell. She's got a
sapphire that moves my world...
Fini.
"i carry your heart with me, i carry it in my heart. where ever i go
you go and whatever is done by only me is also your doing, my
darling..." - e.e. cummings
Wow. You're still with me? I'm well aware this was a meaningless,
rambling little piece; not my usual style at all. You all get extra
cookies for making it through this empty bit of tripe! Please, come
visit my website so I can prove that I do have a modicum of writing
ability!