Above Rubies

Fanfiction
Title:	Above Rubies
Author(s):	Rachel Howard
Date(s):	1998
Length:	328k
Genre(s):	Mulder/Scully (Scully/Krycek UST)
Fandom(s):	The X-Files
Relationship(s):
External Links:	online here
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Above Rubies is an X-Files story by Rachel Howard.

dust jacket by Michaela

Author's Summary

"Summary: Biological weapons, ghosts, sex, guns, bad guys galore, Mulder, Scully, Skinner, and a partridge in a pear tree."

"FEEDBACK/EMAIL: I really don’t want people under 17 reading this. It’s full of disturbing stuff that is going to be perspective. You can only learn about love by living with/without it as an =adult=. Therefore, if you’re under 17, please don’t read this and if you do, please don’t send me email saying “I’m fifteen and I thought this story…” – I lose sleep over stuff like that."

Reactions and Reviews

Undated

this is the first full-length casefile fic I ever read, and its still amongst my favorites. Mulder and Scully are sent to NYC to investigate a domestic terrorism case. Along the way, Mulder is captured by the terrorists, and Krycek shows up asking for Scully's help - Krycek's been supplying the terrorists with explosive gas, and thet're holding his sister as insurance that he doesn't betray them (which he has - come on, this is KRYCEK). His offer - agree to help him free his sister, and he'll help Scully get Mulder back. Also classifies as a Mulder/Scully "first time" fic. Its really great, very suspenseful and angsty!

This story was just starting as I got involved in fanfic and it's one of the best I've read, a tight tale of terrorists and VX gas, with excellent characterization of Mulder and a tough, competent Scully. This Alex Krycek is a complex creation - she never downplays what he has done, yet he remains sympathetic.

2000

I did not read this as a WIP, but read it whole over the weekend. It is absolutely brilliant. The scope, the depth of feeling, the sexy quality--I can't say enough.

Y'know, I followed the first few chapters of this story like a starving cat after a big, juicy mouse, but it took so long to get new chapters that I (blush) lost interest. If it's really done, I'll go back and give it a shot, but it was this story, more than any other, that made me leery of WIPs.

Did you know it was finally finished.

I have to say that this story was the first WIP I encountered and it was the story that started my long-standing vow of not reading WIPs until they are finished.

And lo and behold after many months of ignoring the author's page, I decided to take a peek. It was finished just 2 short days ago.

Yippee.

2001

Okay. Now, the purpose of a recommendations site, as I see it, is to point out the good fic to people. So let me just say: it doesn't get much better than this. One, Rachel ROCKS, and two, "Above Rubies" (the story I consider my WIP of the year) is now FINISHED. Here's just a little of what you'll find in it (because, of course, you simply must read it): thrilling action, creepy terrorists, kickass Krycek and kickass Scully, sensitive Mulder, tough Skinner, hot FBI smut, and real resolutions to mytharc plotholes. This story is a treasure.

2003

A wonderful case file with probably the best Krycek characterisation I have ever had the good fortune to read. I almost loved him as much as Mulder - almost! Mulder and Scully's relationship is as intense and passionate as they come. I truly couldn't get enough of this. You must read.

2004

Mulder and Scully are investigating a terrorist cell in New York when they discover connections to the Consortium. (This was started in S5 and goes A/U from there; any resemblance to later canon or perceived resemblance to later real-world events is coincidental.) This is a long, satisfying thriller, well-plotted, with clean and straightforward prose. My main quibbles are that it doesn't start in quite the right place--possibly an artifact of being posted as a WIP--and the last chapter seems slightly anticlimactic, but these are minor complaints given all the virtues of the story. I haven't selected an excerpt from it here because it's hard to find a single quote that does justice to all Rachel Howard's strengths: the suspenseful plotting, the graceful prose, the plausible and complex characterization. Rachel is just as good at hot sex scenes as she is at slam-bang action as she is at quiet character moments. Her main characters here are Mulder and Scully, but Skinner and Krycek also make significant--and well-done--appearances.

2010

Though he doesn't show up for a few sections, Alex Krycek is a major player in "Above Rubies." While he is just as dangerous and sexy as he is on the show, he has also been made into a real, three-dimensional character, with a back-story and everything. There is also a great police-procedural happening and some very hot romance. Scully is kick-ass, smart and sexy, Mulder is adorable, and getting into trouble ever minute. Yeah, he is smart and sexy, too. Honestly, this story has something to please nearly everyone, assuming you like long, very plotty, well-written MSR.

One of its biggest strengths is how deftly it changes between voices. I can't imagine this story without the first person POV, which is the hardest POV to write in the XF world.... I also think this is one of the best Krycek's ever written. It really delves into how he is as a person, and how lonely it is to be him without sentimentalizing his situation. It also never lets us forget that Krycek is a cold blooded mercenary.

I was recently reading a meta dating back a few years where the writer was complaining about slash stories that white-washed Krycek's character in order to justify pairing him with Mulder and/or Skinner. That would be only one of my objections to those pairings, but yes, this story does not pretend Krycek isn't a badass. Her Krycek is complex and human.

This is the one part of the story I didn't really buy. I don't think he would play that kind of head game with her so early in their romantic relationship, and I don't think she would have even remotely thought about sex with Krycek, given that she just started a relationship with a man she's in love with, and especially not after Melissa's and Mulder's father's murders. I think sex is realistic at that point in the story, but I don't think it would be controlling/submissive kind of sex. I'd like to think it would be more gentle, drawing comfort from one another rather than him pushing her to her limits.

I think that people often entertain sexual fantasies about deadly attractive people they dislike, even about some they hate. Sex is complicated and people do not always go from A to B to C as neatly as they do in some fan fiction writers' imaginations. I do not mean to imply that Scully would contemplate actually having sex with Krycek, nor do I think the author meant to imply that. As I have said before in fan fiction discussion, there can be a big difference between one's sexual fantasies and one's real sexual practices and/or desires.

Sexy is totally in the eye of the beholder, but for my money, this is one of the hottest sex scenes I've ever read in this fandom. I may not have remembered the plot, but I certainly remembered the sex. But it probably wouldn't have worked as well for me if it seemed out of character. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I think the writer makes it clear that Mulder got very turned on seeing Scully in that skimpy pink tee-shirt he picked out for her, watching her pretending to be Krycek's girlfriend, watching Krycek put his hand over her shoulders, and especially her back, where Mulder touches her, and has touched her possessively for years. Where she got a snake tattoo when she was feeling--whatever complicated set of emotions she was feeling--during Never Again. I think there is a lot of sexual tension in that threesome anyway. I believe the writer thinks Mulder felt he got a little carried away, in playing out his fantasy. Did Scully like it? Did she find it sexy for Mulder to play out that fantasy with her? Hell, yes. Did I find it believable that she'd like it? Absolutely. I don't want to get too clinical here, but there is a feedback loop in good sex where one partner gets turned on by seeing their partner's arousal, which in turn leads to a higher level of arousal and so on. The other component is that Scully was really wanting to get out of her head, so she could stop reliving/replaying the trauma of watching Krycek bite off a chunk of the villain's face. She was relieved to talk about that to Mulder after they'd had the mind-blowing sex, but she probably wouldn't have done it otherwise. They both were able to let their guards down, and to me that is an illustration of the power of true intimacy.

It was a very carefully choreographed scene, from the set up to the, uh, climax, at least by the writer. I tend to think Mulder was improvising a bit.(; Telling it from Scully's POV was a stroke of genius, as it helped convey to the reader that she really was a willing partner and wasn't just going along for the ride this time.

Mulder's explanation to Scully of the need for a two-to-one ratio of female to male orgasms was adorable. In this instance, I was happy to agree with Mulder.

Totally dug it. The first person writing really worked for this one, the three voices were distinct and very credible. It's really really hard to write three characters (four if you count Skinner) who are so worldly, smart and complex, but this author did it well. Even though it was a longer story, it didn't feel long, mainly because it was dynamic, fast paced, action packed, and completely held my attention the whole way through.

This is a terrific triple-threat fic, and I remember waiting impatiently for the updates. It fed my Krycek jones. Pickings are slim for nonslashers.

Moreover, Howard is able to balance the ship with a complicate and convincing political adventure. (Terrorists with poison gas; what could be more timely?) Her merging of Mulder and Scully into a romantic couple is delicately done. I particularly liked this: "We are so bad at this. I skate out onto thin ice, and Mulder bumps into me. He loses his balance, I knock him over while I'm trying to stay upright."

About *the* sex scene, which can seem extreme, I look at it this way.

First, if we see Mulder and Scully as just a couple of coworkers who decide to get horizontal after years of friendship, it does seem that domMulder proceeds rather quickly toward the edge. (Didn't someone write a funny little piece about the Edge?) There are some tasty "smut biscuits" that deliver well on a benign level of coworker romance. (I was recently reminded of JHJ Armstrong's "Saturday Night Special," that rewards Scully with happy sex after she wins a shooting contest. There were lox and bagels. It was great.)

But in AR we recall why our heroes carry guns and why. It's the kind of scary, high-adrenalin, rollercoaster ride that can charge up the sex drive and even reformat it. It does not surprise me that Krycek, hated and yet unexpectedly accepted as "one of us," gets invited into the fantasy.

Second, that was one hot scene. I skipped the earlier ones, but not the fuzzy pink role-play.

2016

We so rarely come across a casefile that also doubles as part of the mytharc that when we stumble into one that’s so well-written, we get really excited to share it with you.

Today’s casefile features some of our favorite secondary characters as well, namely Skinner and Krychek, and Krychek features prominently enough that we actually came to kind of dig him in this story. His motivations become clearer, as does an obvious thing he’s been harboring for Scully. Which, surprisingly, isn’t as creepy as it sounds and is actually kinda sweet.

Also, Mulder and Scully’s UST resolves pretty amazingly and it’s…well the relationship is incredibly on point in this fic.