X-Files Book Club

My favorite comfort food writer is Kel. When I first got into the fandom, "Basketball Therapy" was recced to me by writers as diverse as Penumbra and JET. That's because Kel is a writer's writer, with a fluid, readable style, witty dialogue and careful plotting. She combines humor with heart in a way that few writers can, in this or any fandom. I miss her. Terribly.

She sells this story better than I ever could.

Summary: Set shortly before "Tithonus," this story explores life in the bullpen, where tedium and background checks are the order of the day. When Scully gets drawn into an investigation at a Maryland hospital, Mulder gets trapped in a deadly hostage situation.

Didn't Mulder seem relaxed and well-adjusted in "Tithonus"? How was that possible? Why wasn't he out looking for alien colonists, fighting the future? Read on; it will be revealed.

Now, Chris Carter would have us believe that one day Mulder came home to find a waterbed in his previously nonexistent bedroom and barely gave it a second thought. "I don't know what to tell you. I think it was a gift," he says in "Monday." Well, I don't buy it! Whatever happened to the "I" in FBI? Let's suppose that Mulder had been a little more inquisitive. "With every choice you change your fate." Let's examine what might have developed if Mulder had chosen a different "fork in the road."

Read Basketball Therapy. Also at Gossamer, if this link goes down.