UNAMED MOTEL, NEW JERSEY, 03:12 AM
Scully's cell phone rang insistently in to the silence. She rolled over, sleepy, and reached out a hand for it. "Scully here."
"Oh - hi. It's me." Mulder. She should have known it would be him, should been at least mildly annoyed that he phoned so late, but somehow couldn't manage anything more than what they both knew was a tone of pretend annoyance: "Mulder, have you seen the time?"
"Listen, Scully, I just got a call from Frohike." He sounded excited, like a boy on Christmas morning, and his energy transmitted down the phone. She sat up in bed.
"Mulder? What is it?"
"It's amazing, Scully." The endearing awe in his voice made her smile softly.
"Frohike hacked the government tracking site - last night, there was more UFO activity than anything that's ever been recorded."
"I don't-"
"Hear me out, Scully." She could hear the nervous energy in his voice, the kind he always got when he thought he was on the track of something new.
"Do you know what happened last night?"
"Mulder. I'm sitting in a motel in Edgewater waiting for the okay on an arrest warrant for the last psycho killer you decided to hunt. What happened - or didn't happen - last night is really not top on my list of priorities right now."
"Yes it is, Scully. Last night, the police got over 300 abduction calls. Everything fits - UFO activity, abductees, right down to the details on each abduction case."
"Okay, Mulder. Where are you?"
"This is the best bit, Scully." Damn him but his enthusiasm was catching. "I'm sitting in the Lone Gunmen's HQ watching government satellites track seven UFOs."
LONE GUNMEN HQ, 04:03 AM
"Hey, Mulder! Mulder!" Langly shoved the sleeping agent gently in the ribs.
"Mulder, you might wanna phone that chick of yours."
"Mmm?" He sat up slowly. "Hey, calm down! What's going on?" The look of alarm that spread across Langly's face was a silent counterpoint to the low hum of too much electrical equipment and the strangely unnerving beeps and whirs from the computer that Frohike and Byers were crowded around.
"Mulder, one of the UFOs is hovering over Edgewater, New Jersey."
Mulder swung to his feet in a second, the unease on his face controlled after a flickering moment. "Scully?"
At the same time, his phone rang. He snatched it from his pocket, hit the Accept button. "Mulder here."
"Something weird is happening, Mulder!" Scully's voice was breathless, awed, but still the greatest reassurance he could have gotten.
"Where are you? What's happening?"
"I'm outside the motel." He could hear the sounds of car engines in the distance, behind her voice. "There's . . . something . . . in the sky. An experimental aircraft or something. It's hovering above a building a few blocks over . . . the hospital, I think."
OUTSIDE THE MOTEL, 04:09 AM
The lights flickered like dying fairy lights in the sky. Scully watched, the phone still at her ear, as a beam of light shot down on to the hospital roof. Was that a figure on the roof, arms outstretched to the brightness? No, it couldn't be.
It was a trick of the eye.
The light disappeared, the fairy lights accelerated towards the horizon, and the stars were suddenly visible again. She was aware of her heavy breathing, the cold breeze tugging insistently at her hair, the numbness trickling down her fingers, and Mulder on the other end of the phone. "Scully? You alright?"
"I . . . I'm fine, Mulder. That was . . . amazing." She realised she was shaking, forced it back under control. "I don't know what it was . . . or how . . . ."
"UFO?" suggested Mulder, and she could hear his smirk.
"I don't think so." Across the motor courts, two police cars pulled up, their sirens and lights lifeless. A policeman stepped out.
"Agent Scully?" he called, recognising her. "Here's that arrest warrant you wanted."
"Mulder? I've got to go. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She put the phone down slowly enough to hear the click on the other end as he hung up. He never said goodbye.
LONE GUNMEN HQ, 04:15 AM
"She says it was an aircraft," Byers repeated.
"She would. She's not a sucker for UFO stories like Agent Mulder here."
Frohike sighed. "Shame. Apart from that, she'd be the perfect-"
"Shut up, Frohike." Mulder pulled his battered overcoat around him and saluted mockingly. "Thanks guys. If you find out anything more . . . ." He turned, opened the door. "Oh, and Frohike? I don't want any more of those emails."
"Fine," the short man grumbled. "I was under the impression you liked that sort of stuff."
Mulder had already gone.
WASHINGTON DC, FBI HQ, THE NEXT DAY, 09:14 AM
Scully entered the basement office she shared with Mulder, wondering as she did every time when - if ever - they'd at least get one with a window. Then again, the X-Files weren't exactly on AD Skinner's top priority list.
Closing the door behind her, she noticed a map on the back, stuck with red and blue drawing pins like a badly played game of darts. Redwood. Bloomington. Edgewater. It looked like Mulder had been doing some work.
"Morning, Scully." Think of the devil . . . . "You don't happen to know where they sell sunflower seeds around here, do you?"
"Have you tried the pet shop?" she asked with a touch of amusement. "No, I've not been out. I've been working. Hard." The lie was obvious in the twinkle of his eye - not outright, but a partial truth at best. He'd probably interspersed his work with those videos that he didn't own, or some more of Frohike's filthy emails: the morning papers were pread out in front of him, at least. 'MILITARY DENIES UFO RUMOURS'. 'NEW EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT SHOCKS TOWNSPEOPLE'. Mulder pointed to the latter. "That's what they want you to believe," he told her confidently. "The first one's closer to the truth."
"The truth?"
"It's out there, Scully. You just have to know where to look - remember?" The boyish grin surfaced, and she couldn't help it, she smiled right back at him.
"So where are we looking?"
His face fell. "I don't think we'll find anything, Scully. The Gunmen have done some digging - DoD has no record of any new aeroplanes. The satellite data we saw? It's been wiped. No-one knows who the abductees are - any record of their abductions have been destroyed."
"Why?"
Mulder shrugged, his eyes disappointed. "Why do they keep UFOs a secret from us? Why this conspiracy? There have to be answers somewhere. I know there are." He smiled at her, but it reminded her of a kid's smile, trying to convince someone they loved the present they'd been given - hiding the disappointment.
"There are other places to look," was all she said. The grateful reply in his eyes told her it was all that was needed.
EPILOGUE - WASHINGTON DC, FBI HQ, A WEEK LATER
"Did the Lone Gunmen ever get any more leads on that UFO you said I saw?"
Mulder cracked a sunflower seed between his teeth before turning to his partner. "Not yet. The guys at MUFON got a record of it, though. And there's a patient missing from the hospital. They got her name before the wipe."
"Who?"
"A Mrs C Spender." Mulder paused long enough to let Scully move across to stand in front of his desk. "You don't believe me."
"I want to believe, Mulder, but what I saw could easily be explained by a military field test of a new plane." She smiled, perched herself on the edge of the desk. "You still think it was a 'close encounter'."
He was silent for a minute, then he smiled. "Yeah," he said softly. "A close encounter." The smile broadened to a grin. "I think that sums it up."