Chapter Text
At first, it was at the insistence of her friend Ellen.
“Dana, you’ve gotta listen to this guy.”
‘This guy’ refers to a radio show host who simply went by ‘Mulder’. Ellen thought he was a hoot, although from what Scully has heard, the guy was completely serious in his topics.
She happened to be home that Monday night, so she turned on the radio while she cooked and bustled around the kitchen, tuning into her first “ Monday Nights with Mulder” show. Spooky theme music played as an intro, and then the man introduced himself as well as the night's topic.
Mothman.
Was this guy for real?
Scully chuckled to herself as she chopped carrots, listening to the man’s albeit nice voice do a deep dive into the legend surrounding the ‘creature’ known as Mothman. He certainly sounded serious, even as he took callers- some who had blatantly tried to cuss him out or call him an idiot. She had to hand it to him, he seemed to stay calm and collected and stood his ground.
“How would you explain the sightings of a large, man-like creature with wings and red eyes?” Mulder asked a skeptical caller.
“Liars. Those people are liars, the whole lot of ‘em.” The caller was a man with a slight twang, and he was getting more riled up by the minute. “Folks see something and their first thought is a monster, well the world don’t work like that. One person sees it and the sheep follow the herd, everyone wants to create mass hysteria.”
“While that is certainly possible, I think the most unexplainable detail is that this being was sighted before several major catastrophic events. These things could not have been predicted by anyone, and yet the sightings exactly coincided with the scene of these disasters.” Mulder goes on to say, and his angry caller is quiet.
Even Scully thinks that’s a little bit interesting, although it’s obviously complete bullshit. She supposes she can understand why Ellen and several others have mentioned the radio show- it’s definitely entertaining.
~
The next week, she happens to actually be at Ellen’s. The pair are having a quiet wine night, when suddenly her friend looks at the clock and jumps up.
“Just in time!”
The now slightly familiar music fills Dana’s ears and she almost rolls her eyes.
“You’re obsessed.” She raises an eyebrow at her friend over her wine glass and takes another sip.
“What can I say, that’s the price of entertainment.” She smirks and they share a laugh. This week's topic is Bigfoot and the origin of Sasquatches. When he refers to hunting for these mythical creatures as ‘squatchin’, Scully and Ellen burst into another fit of laughter.
“See? It’s fun. You need more fun, you’re always cooped up at your place with a medical textbook or at work. It’s not healthy.” Her friend shakes her head in mock disapproval.
She’s not entirely wrong; Scully had landed a job at a medical center six months ago and since that day, her social and personal lives had dwindled down to nearly nothing. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a date, or did something purely just for fun.
She missed the next Monday night show, but she did manage to catch the one after that. Mulder’s voice kept her company as she stayed late at work to finish her patient files for the day. He had a nice voice, soothing. Although the genre of the radio show was not Dana’s usual style, there was something about the man that kept her listening. He was intelligent- he had bashfully mentioned an Oxford education briefly during one of his spiels- and funny too. Something about him was charming in such a base way.
She tried Googling him once, although she would never admit it out loud. She didn’t know his first name, but she did find several articles in a newspaper called The Lone Gunman. It seemed he had a cult following online, but other than that, there wasn’t so much as a picture of the man or a mention of anything identifying other than his surname.
Scully briefly thought about searching ‘Oxford’ cross-referenced with ‘Mulder’, but that seemed a little too close to stalking for her liking.
~
It turns out that the authors of The Lone Gunman newspaper were guests on the show just a few short weeks later. Scully isn’t sure whether she should feel weird about being ‘in the know’ and recognizing them.
She settles onto her couch with a cozy blanket and a warm mug of tea. She lazily paints her nails, listening to the newcomers banter back and forth with Mulder.
“The story of a man who walked away from the D.C. county morgue has many locals crying ‘zombie’. It’s quite interesting, he had been pronounced dead for more than seven hours before he was relocated to the morgue. When the technician began the autopsy, he had just begun recording his testimony when the body sat up from the table. The physician was so freaked that he left the room and when he came back, the body was gone . ” Mulder introduced his conversation piece for the evening to his audience as well as his guests.
Scully sets down her mug of tea and picks up the phone before she can even register. She can’t believe this civilian is reporting news to who knows how many listeners that includes tall tales of people rising from the dead.
The number is dialed before the rational portion of her brain can catch up with her fingers.
“Monday Nights with Mulder, whom am I speaking with?”
“This is Doctor Starbuck.” She cringes at the obviously fake name, but it was the first thing she could think of. No way was she letting this stranger know her real first or last name.
“Dr. Starbuck,” Mulder repeats, playing along. “Would you like to weigh in?”
“I would actually, as I can’t in good conscience let you proclaim that there are zombies amongst us, when there are several logical, scientific explanations for the phenomena. Causing hysteria among anyone who is listening is not helpful. Bodies are proven to move on their own after death due to any number of causes, including but not limited to: bloating, relaxation of rigor mortis, bugs or larvae, or gases, to name a few.” Scully doesn’t think she’s taken a breath her entire monologue until the very end, and she breathes out to relieve some of the tension she had harbored during her outburst.
The line is quiet for a moment, as Mulder and the Lone Gunmen process what she has said.
“Well, Dr. Starbuck, those are certainly facts, however, I don’t believe any of those factors can explain a body getting up and walking away .” He doesn’t say it in a condescending way, in fact, Dana isn’t sure she’s ever even heard him raise his voice or change his tone.
“There have also been instances where a person has been falsely or inaccurately pronounced deceased.” Scully points out. She refuses to back down- this isn’t Lazarus in the Bible, this is a simple case of either misinformation or sloppy medical work.
“I appreciate your call, you have unquestionably made valid points that I think are important to consider. I would also like to say that I do not subscribe to one theory nor the other, I simply think it is a very intriguing story that may have more under the surface than a black and white answer. As always- the truth is out there.”
Scully hangs up in a panic, unsure of how else to close out her statements. Furthermore, he just used his ‘famous’ line on her, and she was more than a little struck by it.
Her phone rings and she knows that it will be Ellen.
“Hello?”
“Dana, I can’t believe it!”
She sits down on her couch heavily, wondering if she should be embarrassed, if she has totally overreacted.
“You were great!” Ellen assures her. “It was awesome, the way you gave him the facts like that. The show needs more of it, I think- both sides. Then the listeners can decide for themselves what they believe instead of automatically leaning one way.”
“Maybe.” Dana concedes dubiously. “I don’t know, I just got so angry, I just wanted to get my point across. He always says things aren’t always what they seem, but sometimes they are.”
~
Scully’s cheeks burn as she reads the latest Lone Gunman online article.
Dr. Starbuck gives Mulder of “ Monday Nights with Mulder” a run for his money.
She can’t believe anyone even paid her any mind- all sorts of people call in every week. Maybe it was her obvious pseudonym, she thinks with amusement.
Week after week, Scully tunes in for the radio show. Mulder does thorough research on each topic, and at the very least, the show is interesting. At the very most, it challenges her to view everything through a different lens.
She thinks of her own views as binoculars, and his are comparative to a kaleidoscope. It’s fascinating, and it keeps her coming back every Monday to the same spot on her couch with the radio turned up.
The comments online regarding ‘Dr. Starbuck’ have dwindled, and she had all but forgotten her call in to the show.
Until, the show calls in to her.