NEW: Beyond Fragile by Leyla Harrison (0/8)
the *enigmatic* Dr. Scully
Beyond Fragile (0/8)
by Leyla Harrison
<starb...@netaxis.ca>
Important Note to the Archivists: Please archive this separately as
"Beyond Fragile". Thank you.
Summary: Scully is assaulted by a stranger and Mulder struggles to help
her deal with the aftermath.
Rating: Section one rated NC-17 for depictions of an explicit rape; all
subsequent sections rated a strong R for subject matter and language.
Spoilers: Very minor spoliers for the first three seasons, and you can
assume that this story is sometime after Melissa's death. However, this
story exists in a universe where there is no cancer and no infertility.
Other than that, though, there shouldn't be anything in here that you
don't already know about.
Also: I have changed one important fact -- in my world, Scully lives in
Bethesda, Maryland, not Annapolis. It's inconcievable to me, anyhow,
that she would drive that far to work every day. Every other location
detail should be correct.
Disclaimer: If I owned Mulder and Scully, I would be rich by now.
Unfortunately, I'm poor, so you know what that means. Chris Carter
probably wouldn't like what I'm doing to his characters. Oh well. Any
characters you don't recognize are my creation and belong to me. Alas,
they won't make me rich like Mulder and Scully would.
Classification: SA, MSR to develop later on
Archive/Distribution: Anywhere, as long you ask me first and as long as
my name stays on it.
Author's Notes (and these are going to be slightly long, so bear with
me...):
This story was originally written back in October of 1995 at a point in
time where the subject matter was still rather new to fanfiction. As a
matter of fact, I don't recall seeing any rape stories on the archives
before this point. Now, however, there are an astounding number of
stories that tackle this particular subject, and there have been
numerous threads on the newsgroup regarding rape and domestic violence
stories that you had to be living under a rock to have missed.
I don't know how many of you reading this now were around when I posted
the original Fragile. I wrote that story, then its sequel, and finally
its prequel. Confused? So was I when I went browsing on my hard
drive. I decided to put this story right, once and for all. I wasn't
thrilled with a lot of what I wrote back then. My writing style has
changed a lot in the last two years; personal events have shaped and
changed me as a writer as well as personally. So I decided to edit it.
Then I decided that editing was not enough. So I decided to do a
re-write.
What you've got now is a story that has been completely overhauled. In
addition, there are new sections that weren't in the original story --
things that I wasn't able to add for a number of reasons. I'm more
educated on the topic of rape now, and so those scenes and situations
had to be added.
Oh, yeah, and I decided to do everyone a favor and edit as well. The
bad grammar and any typos are gone. At least I hope they are.
Why am I doing this, you may wonder? I think that unfortunately, we
live in an age where rape is used as a plot device and I don't
particularly like that. I also think that was my motivation in writing
Fragile in the first place. I wanted people to understand that having
Scully get raped shouldn't be used as a way for writers to get Mulder
and Scully together, and that (unfortunately) even the strongest woman
on earth might have to deal with this in her lifetime.
The original version of this story got a lot of feedback from people who
have been raped or know someone who has. I think that the more we face
these kinds of issues head on, the more we are able to decrease their
power. I know that writing this two years ago helped me face some
demons that I'm finally putting to rest with this re-write. I hope that
it can do the same for others.
There is an element of MSR in this story. I'm not using the topic of
rape as a plot device to bring Mulder and Scully together. I don't
agree with those kind of stories. When rape happens, a woman's life is
affected completely, and her relationships are included in that. That's
why I'm inclding the MSR in this story -- to show the effect rape has on
all relationships, including sexual ones. In my mind, and in the
fanfiction stories I've written, Mulder and Scully have always been
attracted to each other, and I'm exploring here what a rape would do to
their relationship, which currently has a high degree of sexual tension
in it. Mulder and Scully's union is not being written as a way for them
to seek comfort because of the rape.
Acknowledgements: There is no way in hell I could have done this alone.
Writing this story was like fearing giving birth to a big, ugly, hairy
monster. Amazingly enough, it's done and what came out was much better
than I expected. A lot of people provided emotional support and I thank
them for it. Thank you also to Mary Ann for technical information, to
Angie who provided a lot of feedback about some of the really
emotionally gut wrenching stuff, but most of all, one person read this
and edited it and dealt with me even though I was an incredible pain in
the ass. Thank you, Miki, for your expertise; for understanding; for
being so patient; and for sticking with me and with this story.
Somewhere out there a young woman exists who made it through some
horrific things and managed to come out strong. This one is for AF, who
decided to not be a victim anymore.
One last thing: Feedback. Send it.
That said, let's move along. I'm planning on posting about one part a
day. Please e-mail me for missing parts.