Not My Lover
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| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Not My Lover |
| Author(s): | Deslea R. Judd |
| Date(s): | 2000 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | Krycek/Marita, a dash of Mulder/Krycek and Skinner/Scully implied |
| Fandom: | The X-Files |
| External Links: | first part is here |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Not My Lover is an X-Files story by Deslea R. Judd.
Awards
AWARDS/ELIGIBILITY: Top 3 Finalist, Spooky Awards 2000, Outstanding Krycek Characterisation and Outstanding Other Series Character Romance. Commended in the B.I.T.T. Awards 2001. Cover Art was a finalist in the 2000 F.O.X. Awards (Outstanding Krycek Story Cover Art)
Reactions and Reviews
You can't wander far off the beaten path (meaning MSR) in X-Files fandom without stumbling over Deslea. She first made her mark in the Skinner/Scully genre, but made it indellible when she ventured into mytharc-centric fic in which Mulder and Scully are peripheral characters at best. She almost singlehandedly invented the Krycek/Marita pairing as a serious subgenre of XF fic, and she has a grasp of the mytharc with its myriad complexities that Chris Carter could only *wish* he had. ;-) Not My Lover is one of the best examples of Deslea's work. It tells the story of the mytharc from Alex and Marita's POV from the end of the second season up through the end of the seventh. It's hard to explain why Deslea's Krycek-as-hero works when so many others' don't, but I think it's because she doesn't ignore or downplay the dark side of the character, but also doesn't play it up to a point where you can't sympathize with him at all. Her Krycek--and Marita too--are both pragmatic and Machiavellian: they have a goal, to prevent colonization, and they'll do whatever has to be done, sacrifice whatever has to be sacrificed, to achieve that greater good. But you sympathize with the very human way they are each other's buffer against that necessity. Basically it's a story of love, loss, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption for two people caught not between light and dark but between varying shades of gray.[1]
Beginning around the time of "Anasazi"/"The Blessing Way"/"Paperclip," this is essentially a retelling of seasons 2 through 5 through the eyes of Alex Krycek and Marita Covarrubias. Deslea has two great strengths as a writer: her grasp of the often-confusing mythology and ability to make sense of it for her readers, and her Krycek/Marita, and this is the best example of both. Alex and Marita are the protagonists, but they are not heroes: both know that their hands are dirty, but believe that their end--surviving Colonization, whether by themselves or with all of humanity--justifies the means. They are sympathetic without being out of character, largely because of the one good thing they both cling to in their lives--their relationship with each other.[2]