AUTHOR: Rae Lynn
TIMELINE/SPOILERS: Pilot (Act I, Scene II)
RATING: K
SUMMARY: A second look at a first impression.
DISCLAIMER: All characters contained within are the property of Chris Carter and Ten Thirteen Productions. No profit will result from this story and no copyright infringement is intended.
ARCHIVE: Inquire within.
"You are the man
You are my other country
And I find it hard going
You are the prickly pear
You are the sudden violent storm
the torrent to raise the river
to float the wounded doe"
--"Wilderness," by Lorine Niedecker
You will choose to stay.
You can't know it yet. All the violence that will follow, the small towns, the late nights, the victims seeking justice; you can't know that you will choose him again and again, that you will trade your own logic for his passion. You can only know what is presented to you: this assignment, this office, this man.
This man will save your life. This man will break your heart.
This meeting is the last time he will ever be a stranger. In this moment he is unexceptional, a colleague; that pinstriped shirt, that unruly hair. Glasses intellectualize his face, but Agent Mulder plainly needs no intellectualizing. What he needs is validation, confrontation without compromise, powerful honesty and care. What he needs is you.
He will come to you in the dark, his words like wounds that need dressing. He will confess to you in motel rooms, demand your trust, rattle your faith like the bars of a cage. He will become cherished to you. He will become familiar.
His work will become your life.
You will defend him to supervisors and review committees, relatives and disgruntled physicians. You will dispute him and console him. You will fight to keep him alive, sane, untethered from the bonds of tragedy. His life will become your work.
You will curse this day. You will thank God for it.
All that will come later. All that will come.
end.
"Your history acts as your gravity..." --Joseph Arthur, "History," Come to Where I'm From (2000)