Basketball Therapy

Fanfiction
Title:	Basketball Therapy
Author(s):	Kel
Date(s):	August 1999
Length:	273K
Genre:
Fandom:	The X-Files
External Links:	online here, and here
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Basketball Therapy is an X-Files story by Kel.

Summary

"Set shortly before Tithonus, this story explores life in the bullpen, where tedium and background checks are the order of the day. When Scully gets drawn into an investigation at a Maryland hospital, Mulder gets trapped in a deadly hostage situation.

Didn't Mulder seem relaxed and well-adjusted in Tithonus? How was that possible? Why wasn't he out looking for alien colonists, fighting the future? Read on; it will be revealed.

Now, Chris Carter would have us believe that one day Mulder came home to find a waterbed in his previously nonexistent bedroom and barely gave it a second thought. "I don't know what to tell you. I think it was a gift," he says in Monday. Hey, whatever happened to the "I" in FBI? Let's suppose that Mulder had been a little more inquisitive. "With every choice you change your fate." Let's examine what might have developed if Mulder had chosen a different "fork in the road.""

Reactions and Reviews

Unknown Date

This story strikes a great balance between an involved, tense casefile and a romantic, believable relationship for Mulder and Scully. At times it's sweet, at times it's scary, and sometimes it's both. Plus there's basketball. A terrific long read!

2003

I soooo love Mulder and Scully in this story. The case is intriguing, the relationship wonderfully touching, and the humour, well the humour is in a league of its own. I laughed out loud several times at the snappy dialogue between our two favourite agents. Enjoy!

2004

Kel's fics are as tightly written as an episode of Seinfeld and as smart as a Connie Willis novel. Every detail matters, and even the most trivial of jokes end up being relevant to the story. Her infodumps are a thing of beauty, so organic that you don't realize you're reading an infodump until you know more about arteriovenous grafts than you ever thought possible. Her sense of humor will make you laugh out loud, and then the unexpected sweetness between Mulder and Scully will knock you out of your chair. Yes, she's just that good.

This fic is a masterpiece of plot. Full of bizarre, yet real, characters, and a Mulder and Scully that actually laugh once and a while in between all the angst and drama.

2014

My favorite comfort food writer is Kel. When I first got into the fandom, "Basketball Therapy" was recced to me by writers as diverse as Penumbra and JET. That's because Kel is a writer's writer, with a fluid, readable style, witty dialogue and careful plotting. She combines humor with heart in a way that few writers can, in this or any fandom. I miss her. Terribly.

She sells this story better than I ever could.

I love, love, love this story. The first time I read it, it may have been the first Kel story I read and I had no idea what I was in for, so when I found myself laughing, I wasn't really sure what was going on - I mean real humor? And then there is so much more - it's a great story, I like this Mulder and Scully, and I'm pretty sure I shed a tear, too. Wow, I just love this story. I will re-read, in between watching the Scullyfest episodes (although I'm already behind!).

I really liked this. I think I'd always avoided it in the past because of the title (classic case of judging a book by its cover), as I thought it was going to be a vastly different story than what it turned out to be. I enjoyed the descriptions of life in the bullpen, the little rituals that formed among the agents, like the smoke breaks and the coffee pot rules. Anyone who has worked boring office jobs knows that these are the kinds of codes that develop between coworkers, and it really anchored the story in reality.

I also liked how Scully's very non-paranormal side investigation turned into an X File. Because in their world, it always would. The mystery was well-plotted, the villain heinous, and the climactic end scene simultaneously tense and touching. I found myself skimming a little bit through the Mulder/Scully domestic scenes, particularly their quest to have sex on the waterbed. It was funny, but domestic MS really isn't my cup of tea, so that was more of a personal issue for me and not a story flaw.

I'm off to seek out more Kel, now. I don't think I've ever read her.

This is one of her shippiest stories, which is probably why it gets recced everywhere. But she wrote more stories that were Mulder/Scully friendship or at least weren't overtly MSR.

I have such a huge gap in my XF literary history. I grew up with the fandom and read a tremendous amount of fic posted in the show's heyday (most of it was shipperfic because, let's face it, I was a teenage girl and the looks that Mulder and Scully shared on screen made me go weak in the knees.)

I didn't read a lot of casefiles back then, because at the time I was looking for something to fill in the gaps left on screen, whereas now I seek out casefiles almost exclusively because I miss the show so much that it's nice to stumble into something that captures that feeling again. This was a really great read.

I'd read this before but it must have been a long time ago because I remembered almost nothing about it. Other than the basketball playing.

I enjoyed the case file a lot, and the level of detail (especially medical detail) was more than I often see in fanfic without being infodump-y. I actually found the scene of Scully doing a physical observation of Rose Tarses's body prior to autopsy really confronting. I am getting delicate in my old age.

Like discordantwords, I am a tiny bit less enthusiastic about the relationship plotline (although I do like the running joke of "gazebo", and I actually find Mulder's obsession with the waterbed meaning something in the grand scheme of things that he just hasn't figured out yet quite in character).

I enjoyed the case file a lot, and the level of detail (especially medical detail) was more than I often see in fanfic without being infodump-y. I actually found the scene of Scully doing a physical observation of Rose Tarses's body prior to autopsy really confronting. I am getting delicate in my old age.

It was obvious to me from the accuracy of all things medical in her fanfic that Kel was in the field. I can see how reading that scene could be difficult. I think it's meant to be disturbing, to create a sense of foreboding about this surgeon. The guy's practically operating on auto pilot. No judgment, no conscience. It's an unflinching portrait of the ordinary face of human evil. You don't have to be a serial killer, or do anything illegal to commit unspeakable crimes against humanity.

Because she knows medicine, she can create a Dr. Scully who does, too. It's a refreshing contrast to what shows up on the little screen.

I am a tiny bit less enthusiastic about the relationship plotline (although I do like the running joke of "gazebo", and I actually find Mulder's obsession with the waterbed meaning something in the grand scheme of things that he just hasn't figured out yet quite in character).

One reason I like Kel's fanfic is that everything fits together by the end. The use of the word gazebo is set up early because at the end, Mulder has to use it to convince Scully to do the opposite of what he's saying. Even the love scenes have a purpose! And yeah, I think it's Mulder's belief that everything is connected which allows him to see those connections that other people can't. It's also about his limitations, too. He can believe in anything, as long as it doesn't involve the spiritual realm. Even after the spirit-being of his grandfather saves his ass, Mulder still doesn't believe it was really him.

It's even better than I remembered it being. When I wasn't laughing, I was smiling so hard my face hurt except when that turned into a few tears towards the end with the post-basketball conversation (yup, really, I'm kind of a sap).

The original characters are really good - Alice Cardin, Bobby Z, Jerry Luskin, and even the nurse taking care of baby Adam all seem incredibly real. Love the conversation between Alice and Jerry in the car on the way to the hospital where they are discussing the Bureau's dental plan while Scully is completely focused on Mulder being potentially in danger (and Jerry *has to pee*!).

It has a M-S relationship that is really not that hard to imagine. They have their disagreements - about the case and about the spirit of Mulder's grandfather. ("Are you trying to drive me crazy?" Scully asked. She used to think Mulder believed everything, but now she knew that he believed everything except what she believed.) They are over-protective of each other, sometimes to a fault - Scully totally overreacting to Mulder's basketball injuries to which Mulder responds "But you weren't supposed to get angry, you were supposed to kiss it and make it all better" and Mulder trying to not let Scully get too attached to baby Adam (which she sees right through, and which backfires when he's the one who gets attached). The conversation they have after leaving the hospital where Scully calls Mulder on his behavior ("The point is that if you thought I should avoid the baby, you should have said so. You've done that before, when you thought I wasn't ready for something, and I've done it for you too,") is what makes things keep working between them (and I would say it's a departure from canon to some extent).

Other things I love: Mulder gets overly worried that he is mooching off Scully even while he is making her a fantastic dinner of "post-autopsy foods." Scully talks to Mulder's mom and they share a little moment about the Mulder men and their Sunday night shoe-polishing. In this universe, Mulder realized he belonged with Scully because of something Diana, of all people, says! And the waterbed! Mulder is trying to appease what he believes is his subconscious wish to use the waterbed with Scully (even though it's making him seasick!) and Scully is trying to be a good sport for Mulder's sake even though she thinks it's a "torture chamber" (and doesn't realize the seasickness factor until he admits it later). And this part: Once Scully was asleep, he might even fast forward through some of his videotapes, not for the thrill, but for research. There had to be a lot of ways to make love on a waterbed with one foot on the floor, but he could only think of three.

There are too many funny part to list, but I especially like this Scully funny: When Scully is going to examine Rose Tarses, she needs someone to help her move the body, and Alice Cardin says "I'll try to get the administrator on duty to find someone for you. Otherwise I'll have to send down one of my people." She smiled. "I don't know if any of them can handle it."

"I understand," Scully said. "I don't think I could handle all those ledgers."

You have actually pointed out all the wonderful things I would have pointed out. The Kel universe/technique is unique in fandom. It can hardly be praised enough, but it is difficult to describe. I guess I'd say that Kel insists on the ordinariness of her characters, while most writers focus on their extraordinary circumstances and heroic behavior. She does this without denigrating them in any way, but she allows them to be childlike and petty at times (and lovers can be childlike and petty during a freshly begun affair). Sometimes her M/S interactions are over the top--I'm thinking of the food fight at the beginning of whichonewendy??, but they are so funny and so slyly described that you can't help but love them. And I think the love the characters hold for each other, which includes affectionate patience, is what defines all her stories and makes them radiant. That moment when Scully perceives that Mulder has been sexually used by women is truly poignant. Although you can't help chuckling that the older woman who initiated him made him finish mowing her lawn.

Kel is a born writer. Even in this quite long casefile she doesn't waste words. And she does the whole thing in "author omniscient," which is quite the trick. There is a lot of he thought/she thought during that Gift of the Magi situation, but every once in a while we get a glimpse of what's going on in other interesting minds: Bobby, Jerry, Alice. And Jerry Luskin goes on to become a star in his own right. "The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking" makes him the primary observer of a subtly told but moving love story.

One thing I can't help but wonder. Bobby's mil is a lovely person, but what do we imagine about his wife? I wouldn't have minded getting stuff on her. She probably deserves a story of her own.

By now, it should be obvious that my favorite writer is Kel. When I first got into the fandom, “Basketball Therapy” was recced to me by writers as diverse as Penumbra and JET. That’s because Kel is a writer’s writer, with a fluid, readable style, witty dialogue and careful plotting. Kel’s playfulness is one of the things I like best about her work, but she’s not afraid to let a story turn more serious, without being message-y. Her emotional climaxes are deeply felt and observed but not sentimental. She balances the light and dark elements as well as anyone in fandom. The link is to Fugues Fiction archive but this can be read at Gossamer, the Annex, and IOHO.

2016

Remember the first few minutes of the Unnatural? We got to see flirty bantering between Mulder and Scully, who just seemed so at ease with one another physically and emotionally, as though the transition from partners and friends to lovers would be seamless whenever it eventually happened. That’s what we love about today’s casefile. Set during Season Six, our favorite agents are in an established relationship (this is the Mulder and Scully we never got to see but really, really wanted to, thanks for nothing Chris Carter) when they suddenly find themselves dealing with a case from two different ends. The case culminates in a hostage situation that leaves both agents reeling. Bonus: This fic also deals with the infamous waterbed and how that jives with Mulder’s alleged bouts of seasickness.