Story 77: "Dirty Water" by Naraht

[wendelah1]

This week's selection, nominated by amyhit, is set in an AU where Fox Mulder was abducted instead of his sister. Samantha Mulder goes to Oxford, gets recruited by the FBI, and finds the X-Files. In "Dirty Water," we meet up with Special Agent Samantha Mulder and her partner, Special Agent Dana Scully, in Boston, where they have gone to investigate the reappearance of J. Edgar Hoover's secret files. In the course of the investigation, Samantha finds out more about her family's history than she wanted to know. In "Such Devoted Sisters," also set in the same universe, Dana has invited Samantha to spend Thanksgiving with her family. I enjoyed both stories and keep hoping Naraht will give us more of this fascinating AU. I believe "Such Devoted Sisters" is first chronologically in this series.

Please give the writer some feedback, then come back for the discussion. You can leave suggestions for next time in our nomination post.

"Such Devoted Sisters"

"Dirty Water"

Comments

Re: Still Not Quite a Gender Discussion, But We're Getting There.

[amyhit.livejournal.com]

I also think it would be a less interesting story were it to turn into femslash, but, hello, noromo in the house. One of the things I liked about this universe was the possibility of it being and staying gen fic.

oh goodness, yes. I in no way want to have the scully/sam relationship (whatever it may be) explained to me or spelled out or placed in a box/circle/shapeofyourchoosing. in fact, part of what i found so novel about TXF to begin with, and have continued to cherish now that i realize how rare it is, is that the canonical telling of the story was, for so long, a nearly gen story. shippers often seem to move towards the idea that because the romanti-sexual aspect of the M/S relationship was eventually (vaguely) established, the show itself was always definitively romanti-sexual towards mulder and scully. i don't see that as the case. for years it was entirely up to the individual viewer to decide what they thought was 'going on' in that respect.

and actually, something that draws me to naraht's fic universe is its similar gen aspect. it takes what is indefinite and complex and runs so deep between mulder and scully and seems to derive potency from that. the sam/scully dynamic seems preternatural, founded in something under the surface that the characters themselves can't know about.

"I don't think I know what to make of you, Sam," she says finally.

The right answer. Sam smiles and squares her shoulders, shaking off the memories. "That makes three of us. I don't know what to make of me either."

then again, i've always seen gen as an invitation to speculate. in this fic it feels to me like all but a dare to speculate, and i find that delicious.