45,000 Words
A Normal Halloween: This is a stand-alone story of Mulder's and Scully's
'normal' 1999 Halloween. Set after "The Sixth Extinction" but is a prequel for "Winter I: The Riddle"
Winter I: The Riddle: Mulder finds an X-file to distract him from the pain of Thanksgiving memories and Scully unexpectedly agrees to join him in investigating it. The experience turns into more than the simple diversion they planned. A darker mystery presents itself and threatens to expose more of their own emotions than they want to reveal.
Winter II: More than Glass: Mulder and Scully find themselves dealing with the issue they have successfully avoided for seven years -- their exclusive attachment to each other and their mutual physical attraction.
With this Halloween fic you get an extra Thanksgiving story, so keep that in mind when I forget to do one for Thanksgiving. 🙂
Branwell gives us a Mulder and Scully who have been worn down both from years of fighting malevolent forces and being unable to share the repeated trauma with anyone else without ridicule and disbelief. They're reluctant to trust anyone, including each other for fear of inflicting more pain. They're ruled by their own insecurity and question whether they can even trust themselves.
I don't mean to put you off at all; it's actually a very real Mulder and Scully considering what they've been through, and there is such beauty in their tragedy. Branwell doesn't put them through too much torture in these stories, but their actions and reactions are those of tortured souls. There is real feeling in the way they treat each other, and underneath it all there's their deep abiding love. Eventually they find what they need in each other.
Theresa at Mind's Eye has also done a couple of illustrations for Winter, which can be found on her website.
