Fic Recs: Diana Fowley (The X-Files)
I originally posted most of these to Diana's post at womenlovefest, as well as links to all my own Diana-centic fic. For halfamoon, I've added a couple more recs.
Diana Fowley is one of the most neglected, misunderstood, and hated characters in TXF fandom. I guess it's no secret that I love her. I'm not writing a defense of her character (or her casting) because I suspect those of you who don't like Diana wouldn't read it anyway, and those of you who do, don't need it.
But I will tell you why I like writing her: (1.) she's an intelligent, complicated, middle-aged woman with divided loyalties, and (2.) smart as she is, she's still in love with someone she knows she can't have. Fox Mulder and Diana Fowley are a doomed ship, and I admit it, I love that about their relationship. I've been collecting the stories I've read that have her as a main character or in an important supporting role.
Five Times Diana Fowley Spoke To Teena Mulder (3275 words) by
memories_child
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Diana Fowley/Fox Mulder
Characters: Fox Mulder, Diana Fowley, Teena Mulder
Summary:
Five Times Diana Fowley Spoke To Teena Mulder
Why this must be read: Because this is a plausible, well-constructed back story for their relationship. It's not exactly the same as mine, but that's what you get for having so many fic writers on your flist. *g* I also love stories about Teena Mulder, another sadly neglected secondary character. This is a powerful scene.
She turns to her son again. The monitor is grainy, black and white, but he stares directly at them.
“Does he know I’m here?”
I don’t know, Diana wants to say. I don’t know any more than you do. But instead she takes Teena’s hands. “He knows.”
They stand, hands clasped, watching the images on the monitor. Fox is quiet now, staring blankly at the camera they have trained on him twenty four hours a day. Only his mouth is moving, repeating one word over and over again.
And we know what that word is...
Title: "Something Strange"
Author:
maidenjedi
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: Vignette
Link: http://users.pdsys.org/~maidenjedi/fanfic/something_strange.txt
Why this must be read: "Something Strange" is a post-ep for "The End," and I have to confess, if I'd read it before I wrote mine, I probably wouldn't have bothered, as I'd have been too intimidated. Her Diana is just as smart as I envision her, but she's more infinitely more vulnerable, especially in regards to her feelings for Mulder. Her cool act is just that, an act. Maidenjedi lets you see Diana's weaknesses as well as her strengths.
The door opened and a familiar profile appeared. The same distinguished nose, the same pouting lips. She wasn't surprised to find she still thought of him like he was a character in a romance novel. His hair was shorter, more styled. His tie was new. When she knew him, his taste was more for paisleys and tacky broad stripes. She wondered who had picked this one for him.
~/~/~/~
Title: "Trivial Things"
Author: winterbaby
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: Vignette
Link: http://glassonion.populli.org/archive/8/trivialthings.shtml
Why this must be read: Diana left Mulder, not the other way around, so you'd think she'd be coping better. "Trivial things bother her more than usual," is how the story begins. But quickly we see what an understatement that was.
His phone calls grow fewer and farther between. The messages he leaves are more out of exasperation than anything resembling passion. He says things like "I'm trying to understand" and "I'm sorry if I was never there" and her favorite: "I'll never forget you."
There's a note of finality in his voice.
She's heard that tone before. The first time he kissed her, he whispered her name in exactly the same way. She didn't know what it meant but she suspected that it had something to do with the way that he was memorizing her face with his fingers. She realizes now that she was his ending.
She just never thought that he would be hers.
~/~/~/~
Title: "Can't Outrun the Dark Man"
Author: deslea
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://fiction.deslea.com/cantoutrun.php
Why this must be read: I admit it, I like this fic in part because it fits with my personal canon for Diana Fowley. But it's also a fine missing scene for "Amor Fati."
I'm sorry, Diana. So fucking sorry.
I sit down at her side, and the mattress dips. Her eyes fly open. She stares at me, eyes wide, and I see two expressions warring for control of her features. Terror and relief.
Relief? Why relief? Because she knows I'll make it fast? What goes through the mind of a woman about to die?
I raise my hand, slow. Let her see it open and relaxed. The knife is on the bedside table, in easy reach, but that's not for her. Not just yet. I let her watch my hand on its course to her forehead, and I smooth back her hair.
"You're here to kill me," she whispers.
~/~/~/~
Title: "The Persistence of Memory"
Author: Foxsong
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://www.reocities.com/foxsongfiles/persistence.html
Why this must be read: This is another missing scene for "Amor Fati," with a fate for Diana that is more consistent with canon, but with a twist.
She had received her reassignment only two hours ago. There was precious little time to pack, but she didn't need much. She had come back to find Fox, and had found instead that she'd already lost him. She hadn't needed to be told what Fox and his partner meant to each other. She could see it every time she saw them together. When she'd slipped her keycard and the letter under Scully's door she was giving up more than the Project. She was giving Fox up for the last time.
She would leave this place. She would reinvent herself somewhere else. She would--no. She would never forget him.
She pushed the apartment door open. Her arms full of file folders from her office, she didn't bother to turn on the light; she turned in the darkness with easy familiarity toward the low table in the hallway. Before she could set the papers down she froze, holding her breath. Something--someone--was behind her--
~/~/~/~
Title: "Samson"
Author: aloysiavirgata
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com/28794.html
Why this must be read: This is a post-ep scene for "The Beginning." Aloysia gives us a smart and smart-mouthed Diana, who knows full well what she lost by giving up Mulder, but whose commitment to the Consortium's goals is unwavering, and by her measure, entirely justified. This time Mulder is the one who walks away from their relationship.
Diana wasn't sure how many daughters Fox had. Fifty was a high estimate, though not impossible depending on the durability of recent batches. Pity about Emily, but there had been no help for it. Diana believed in her cause, believed that it was better for some to be sacrificed than for all to perish. She was not one to walk away from Omelas.
She leaned forward and patted the blankets until she felt his discarded t-shirt. She turned it right-side out before pulling it over her head, combing her fingers quickly through her hair. Her movements stirred him and he rolled onto his back, sloe-eyed and drowsy as he blinked and yawned.
"Hello," she said, wanting to pull him on top of her and shut out the sun. He always looked good enough to eat in the morning, his skin the color of gingerbread and smelling of sex and cotton.
~/~/~/~
Title: "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"
Author:
idella
Pairing/Characters: Scully/Fowley; implied Mulder/Scully
Length: 4,062
Link: http://xf-santa.livejournal.com/48315.html
Why this must be read: If there's one pairing less popular than Mulder/Diana, it has to be Scully/Fowley, but you should give this one a chance. It's set in an AU that splits from canon after "Fight the Future." For reasons known only to him, just after being assigned back to the X-files, Mulder goes on the run, leaving Scully as the senior agent. She decides to stay, and accepts Diana Fowley as her partner. I love the ending to this, but I really wanted
idella to write a sequel. Idella? Are you listening?
"Where's Agent Mulder?" Fowley interrupts. She takes the seat across from Scully's desk, the one Scully has deliberately not offered, and tries to stare her down.
"He left the Bureau to pursue other interests," she says.
"Bullshit," Fowley says pleasantly. "I want to know where he is."
"I don't know where Agent Mulder is," Scully says. She should have fliers made up, she thinks. Or a poster. She could pin it to her bulletin board and just point. "Even if I did know, why the hell would I trust you with that information? Who are you working for, anyway?"
"The same bureaucracy as you, Agent Scully. The same Federal Bureau of Investigation that informs me on this, my first day back at work, that Agent Mulder is no longer employed here. What I can't seem to find out is why." Fowley pushes her thick, perfectly-styled hair off her face. She looks upset, whether on Mulder's behalf or because she's out of the loop, Scully can't tell.
"I should be asking you where he is," she says. "Since the two of you have worked so closely in the past." The second she says it, she wants to take it back, resentful that she's brought emotion to this argument.
Agent Fowley spreads her arms in an imitation of openness. "All I know is the official government story, the one you just tried to feed me, and if there's one thing that doesn't represent Agent Mulder's interests, it's official government stories."
~/~/~/~
Folie à Deux (5093 words) by
zulu
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Scully/Fowley, Mulder/Scully, Mulder/Fowley
Characters: Dana Scully, Diana Fowley, Fox Mulder, Gibson Praise
Summary:
This time, it's not just one more report.
Why this must be read:This is my favorite femslash pairing and it is the rarest of the rare, understandably so, I suppose. Like Idella, Zulu makes this improbable pairing work, but she takes it a little bit further. If you like femslash, please give this pairing a chance.
She tried to focus on Jeffrey, but he'd lost control of the meeting and it soon dissolved. She picked up her papers slowly, and was the last out of the room.
Scully was waiting for her.
Diana pretended a calm expectance, but this time she didn't know what to say. This wasn't part of the plan.
"What are you playing at?" Scully asked, low and intense.
Diana started walking towards the elevator. Scully paced her. "I'm not sure what you mean." Playing for time.
"You worked on the X-Files. You and Mulder..." Scully let that thought trail away. Diana considered the stupidity of marriage and divorce: it left a paper trail. "You were assigned to a counterterrorism unit in Tunisia? Exactly what kind of domestic threat do MUFON groups in Europe pose, Agent Fowley?"
Plane tickets, of course; flight records. Those, at least, Scully had been meant to find. But not yet. "I think you know exactly what threat I was tracking," she said.
Scully glanced around to see who might be listening. "And are you following me for the same reason?"
"No," Diana said, pushing the elevator call button. The answer surprised her and she smiled, almost laughed. "No. Different reasons entirely."
She held the glance long enough that Scully's eyes widened. Scully didn't expect her to admit she'd been following her. Diana hadn't expected to admit the reason she was--her reasons, not the Consortium's. Tell the truth, she thought. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
There are also two excellent novels that feature Diana Fowley as a pivotal character, "Human Credentials," by Scarlet Baldy, which was discussed at length here at xf_book_club, and "Bait and Switch," by syntax6, which we discussed here. I love both of those novels, and hope you'll check them out, too.
Diana Fowley is one of the most neglected, misunderstood, and hated characters in TXF fandom. I guess it's no secret that I love her. I'm not writing a defense of her character (or her casting) because I suspect those of you who don't like Diana wouldn't read it anyway, and those of you who do, don't need it.
But I will tell you why I like writing her: (1.) she's an intelligent, complicated, middle-aged woman with divided loyalties, and (2.) smart as she is, she's still in love with someone she knows she can't have. Fox Mulder and Diana Fowley are a doomed ship, and I admit it, I love that about their relationship. I've been collecting the stories I've read that have her as a main character or in an important supporting role.
Five Times Diana Fowley Spoke To Teena Mulder (3275 words) by
memories_child
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: Major Character Death
Relationships: Diana Fowley/Fox Mulder
Characters: Fox Mulder, Diana Fowley, Teena Mulder
Summary:
Five Times Diana Fowley Spoke To Teena Mulder
Why this must be read: Because this is a plausible, well-constructed back story for their relationship. It's not exactly the same as mine, but that's what you get for having so many fic writers on your flist. *g* I also love stories about Teena Mulder, another sadly neglected secondary character. This is a powerful scene.
She turns to her son again. The monitor is grainy, black and white, but he stares directly at them.
“Does he know I’m here?”
I don’t know, Diana wants to say. I don’t know any more than you do. But instead she takes Teena’s hands. “He knows.”
They stand, hands clasped, watching the images on the monitor. Fox is quiet now, staring blankly at the camera they have trained on him twenty four hours a day. Only his mouth is moving, repeating one word over and over again.
And we know what that word is...
Title: "Something Strange"
Author:
maidenjedi
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: Vignette
Link: http://users.pdsys.org/~maidenjedi/fanfic/something_strange.txt
Why this must be read: "Something Strange" is a post-ep for "The End," and I have to confess, if I'd read it before I wrote mine, I probably wouldn't have bothered, as I'd have been too intimidated. Her Diana is just as smart as I envision her, but she's more infinitely more vulnerable, especially in regards to her feelings for Mulder. Her cool act is just that, an act. Maidenjedi lets you see Diana's weaknesses as well as her strengths.
The door opened and a familiar profile appeared. The same distinguished nose, the same pouting lips. She wasn't surprised to find she still thought of him like he was a character in a romance novel. His hair was shorter, more styled. His tie was new. When she knew him, his taste was more for paisleys and tacky broad stripes. She wondered who had picked this one for him.
~/~/~/~
Title: "Trivial Things"
Author: winterbaby
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: Vignette
Link: http://glassonion.populli.org/archive/8/trivialthings.shtml
Why this must be read: Diana left Mulder, not the other way around, so you'd think she'd be coping better. "Trivial things bother her more than usual," is how the story begins. But quickly we see what an understatement that was.
His phone calls grow fewer and farther between. The messages he leaves are more out of exasperation than anything resembling passion. He says things like "I'm trying to understand" and "I'm sorry if I was never there" and her favorite: "I'll never forget you."
There's a note of finality in his voice.
She's heard that tone before. The first time he kissed her, he whispered her name in exactly the same way. She didn't know what it meant but she suspected that it had something to do with the way that he was memorizing her face with his fingers. She realizes now that she was his ending.
She just never thought that he would be hers.
~/~/~/~
Title: "Can't Outrun the Dark Man"
Author: deslea
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://fiction.deslea.com/cantoutrun.php
Why this must be read: I admit it, I like this fic in part because it fits with my personal canon for Diana Fowley. But it's also a fine missing scene for "Amor Fati."
I'm sorry, Diana. So fucking sorry.
I sit down at her side, and the mattress dips. Her eyes fly open. She stares at me, eyes wide, and I see two expressions warring for control of her features. Terror and relief.
Relief? Why relief? Because she knows I'll make it fast? What goes through the mind of a woman about to die?
I raise my hand, slow. Let her see it open and relaxed. The knife is on the bedside table, in easy reach, but that's not for her. Not just yet. I let her watch my hand on its course to her forehead, and I smooth back her hair.
"You're here to kill me," she whispers.
~/~/~/~
Title: "The Persistence of Memory"
Author: Foxsong
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://www.reocities.com/foxsongfiles/persistence.html
Why this must be read: This is another missing scene for "Amor Fati," with a fate for Diana that is more consistent with canon, but with a twist.
She had received her reassignment only two hours ago. There was precious little time to pack, but she didn't need much. She had come back to find Fox, and had found instead that she'd already lost him. She hadn't needed to be told what Fox and his partner meant to each other. She could see it every time she saw them together. When she'd slipped her keycard and the letter under Scully's door she was giving up more than the Project. She was giving Fox up for the last time.
She would leave this place. She would reinvent herself somewhere else. She would--no. She would never forget him.
She pushed the apartment door open. Her arms full of file folders from her office, she didn't bother to turn on the light; she turned in the darkness with easy familiarity toward the low table in the hallway. Before she could set the papers down she froze, holding her breath. Something--someone--was behind her--
~/~/~/~
Title: "Samson"
Author: aloysiavirgata
Pairing/Characters: Fox Mulder/Diana Fowley
Length: short story
Link: http://aloysiavirgata.livejournal.com/28794.html
Why this must be read: This is a post-ep scene for "The Beginning." Aloysia gives us a smart and smart-mouthed Diana, who knows full well what she lost by giving up Mulder, but whose commitment to the Consortium's goals is unwavering, and by her measure, entirely justified. This time Mulder is the one who walks away from their relationship.
Diana wasn't sure how many daughters Fox had. Fifty was a high estimate, though not impossible depending on the durability of recent batches. Pity about Emily, but there had been no help for it. Diana believed in her cause, believed that it was better for some to be sacrificed than for all to perish. She was not one to walk away from Omelas.
She leaned forward and patted the blankets until she felt his discarded t-shirt. She turned it right-side out before pulling it over her head, combing her fingers quickly through her hair. Her movements stirred him and he rolled onto his back, sloe-eyed and drowsy as he blinked and yawned.
"Hello," she said, wanting to pull him on top of her and shut out the sun. He always looked good enough to eat in the morning, his skin the color of gingerbread and smelling of sex and cotton.
~/~/~/~
Title: "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades"
Author:
idella
Pairing/Characters: Scully/Fowley; implied Mulder/Scully
Length: 4,062
Link: http://xf-santa.livejournal.com/48315.html
Why this must be read: If there's one pairing less popular than Mulder/Diana, it has to be Scully/Fowley, but you should give this one a chance. It's set in an AU that splits from canon after "Fight the Future." For reasons known only to him, just after being assigned back to the X-files, Mulder goes on the run, leaving Scully as the senior agent. She decides to stay, and accepts Diana Fowley as her partner. I love the ending to this, but I really wanted
idella to write a sequel. Idella? Are you listening?
"Where's Agent Mulder?" Fowley interrupts. She takes the seat across from Scully's desk, the one Scully has deliberately not offered, and tries to stare her down.
"He left the Bureau to pursue other interests," she says.
"Bullshit," Fowley says pleasantly. "I want to know where he is."
"I don't know where Agent Mulder is," Scully says. She should have fliers made up, she thinks. Or a poster. She could pin it to her bulletin board and just point. "Even if I did know, why the hell would I trust you with that information? Who are you working for, anyway?"
"The same bureaucracy as you, Agent Scully. The same Federal Bureau of Investigation that informs me on this, my first day back at work, that Agent Mulder is no longer employed here. What I can't seem to find out is why." Fowley pushes her thick, perfectly-styled hair off her face. She looks upset, whether on Mulder's behalf or because she's out of the loop, Scully can't tell.
"I should be asking you where he is," she says. "Since the two of you have worked so closely in the past." The second she says it, she wants to take it back, resentful that she's brought emotion to this argument.
Agent Fowley spreads her arms in an imitation of openness. "All I know is the official government story, the one you just tried to feed me, and if there's one thing that doesn't represent Agent Mulder's interests, it's official government stories."
~/~/~/~
Folie à Deux (5093 words) by
zulu
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The X-Files
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Scully/Fowley, Mulder/Scully, Mulder/Fowley
Characters: Dana Scully, Diana Fowley, Fox Mulder, Gibson Praise
Summary:
This time, it's not just one more report.
Why this must be read:This is my favorite femslash pairing and it is the rarest of the rare, understandably so, I suppose. Like Idella, Zulu makes this improbable pairing work, but she takes it a little bit further. If you like femslash, please give this pairing a chance.
She tried to focus on Jeffrey, but he'd lost control of the meeting and it soon dissolved. She picked up her papers slowly, and was the last out of the room.
Scully was waiting for her.
Diana pretended a calm expectance, but this time she didn't know what to say. This wasn't part of the plan.
"What are you playing at?" Scully asked, low and intense.
Diana started walking towards the elevator. Scully paced her. "I'm not sure what you mean." Playing for time.
"You worked on the X-Files. You and Mulder..." Scully let that thought trail away. Diana considered the stupidity of marriage and divorce: it left a paper trail. "You were assigned to a counterterrorism unit in Tunisia? Exactly what kind of domestic threat do MUFON groups in Europe pose, Agent Fowley?"
Plane tickets, of course; flight records. Those, at least, Scully had been meant to find. But not yet. "I think you know exactly what threat I was tracking," she said.
Scully glanced around to see who might be listening. "And are you following me for the same reason?"
"No," Diana said, pushing the elevator call button. The answer surprised her and she smiled, almost laughed. "No. Different reasons entirely."
She held the glance long enough that Scully's eyes widened. Scully didn't expect her to admit she'd been following her. Diana hadn't expected to admit the reason she was--her reasons, not the Consortium's. Tell the truth, she thought. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
There are also two excellent novels that feature Diana Fowley as a pivotal character, "Human Credentials," by Scarlet Baldy, which was discussed at length here at xf_book_club, and "Bait and Switch," by syntax6, which we discussed here. I love both of those novels, and hope you'll check them out, too.