Riiiinnnggg! Riiiinnnggg! Riiiinnnggg! Scully stopped short in the doorway, with an impatient sigh. She was going to be late! Scully hauled herself back into her apartment and answered the phone.
"Scully," she said irritably into the receiver, surprised at how brusque her voice sounded. This event must have been more important to her than she had thought! She took a deep breath to calm herself and said a little more courteously, "Hello?"
"Scully?" the voice on the line sounded confused.
"Yes, Mulder?" she said.
"Is everything alright?"
Scully's mouth twisted into a small smile. How sweet of him to be concerned, she thought. "Yes, Mulder. Everything is fine. I was just about to leave. What do you need?"
"Oh. Nothing really." Scully heard him pause. "Scully, what are you wearing?" Scully could just imagine Mulder's silly grin plastered on his face as she recovered from the short moment of confusion.
"Mulder!" she sighed, impatient once more. "I have to go. If I don't leave now I'll be late. I'll see you there." With that she hung up on her partner. From the sounds in the background, Scully could tell that Mulder was already waiting in front of the concert hall, which meant she was later than she thought she was. Scully quickly headed out of the apartment glancing at her watch. A few minutes later, Scully stormed back in and snatched up her purse that sat on the table next to the phone. She huffed out the door pulling the door shut behind her, making the pictures on the wall rattle.
Mulder paced in the foyer of the beautifully decorated concert hall. He glanced at his watch and then checked his appearance for the hundredth time in the huge wall mirror that lined most of the walls in the foyer. He owned nothing of the ensemble he was wearing, except for the shiny black shoes that sunk into the soft red carpet and the dark turquoise dress shirt he had found hidden away in the back of his closet. The rest of it, he had borrowed from Byers since all of his nice, dress clothes were a few sizes too small. The pants and blazer were a little snug, but Mulder would live, it was only for one night.
Seeing Skinner's reflection in the mirror, he turned around and waved. As the assistant director started towards him, Mulder smiled. Mulder was glad that his superior was taking the time to actually enjoy an evening for once. He couldn't remember the last time that Skinner hadn't been working in his office late into the night.
Even though Scully and Mulder had the credit of getting the tickets for the concert tonight, Mulder knew that Skinner played an important part in it. The AD had really charmed the mother of Kelsey Donnahue, who had been Mulder and Scully's latest case. When the eight year old girl disappeared one night, Ms Donnahue had called the police telling them that she thought a monster werewolf had taken her daughter hostage. Hearing that, the New Jersey police contacted the FBI, who immediately phoned Skinner, who got Mulder and Scully on the case. After a few days of searching and following false leads, Kelsey, who had been wondering around in the woods behind the yard and gotten lost a few days earlier, was found by the two in the bottom of a pit that had been created for hunting purposes. Actually, Scully had almost fallen into the trap herself, when she saw the little girl huddled in the corner of the dirty hole. The thankful mother had given Mulder, Scully, and assistant director Skinner three concert tickets to a Celine Dion out of gratitude. Mulder personally thought that Ms Donnahue, who is divorced, wanted to entice Skinner with her generosity.
"Mulder," said Skinner greeting him with a nod, "where is agent Scully?"
"Hello, sir," said Mulder trying to conceal his amusement. The bright lights in the room made Skinner's partially bald head shine. "Scully will be here soon, I just spoke with her over the phone." Skinner nodded. The two headed into the auditorium and stood in front of the back row seats to wait for her. After watching crowds of people stream by for a while in silence, Mulder spotted a red head coming through the doors. He waved his hand so that Scully could find where he was.
Scully stood on her tip-toes to see who the waving had belonged to even though she had no doubt that it belonged to her partner. She was right. She slowly made her way towards the two men. As she approached, she took in the sight of Mulder wearing what looked like Byer's clothing. After working with him for so long, Scully had forgotten how good-looking he really was. Well, she knew, but she hadn't felt like this since the dance at that Cher concert, even though Mulder did look a little silly in those pants which stopped a little above his ankles.
Mulder gave a low whistle as Scully greeted them. "Looking good, Scully," he said. He could tell she knew that he was teasing her, and she gave him a "look", but she also had a shy, pleased smile on her face, and she was blushing. Mulder couldn't remember ever seeing her blush. There was truth behind his comment though. He hadn't meant for it to sound that way. The casual but elegant satin dress that Scully wore looked wonderful on her.
The three started towards the front of the auditorium to find their seats. "Hey, not bad," said Mulder as they sat down. Their seats were in the first fifteen rows and they had a very nice view of the stage. "Sure you don't want to consider seeing this woman, Skinner?" said Mulder with a teasing grin.
"No Mulder," Skinner said exasperated. Mulder could still hear the embarrassment in his voice even though they had been over this millions of times. "She isn't my type." Mulder raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think you can get involved with my personal life anyway?"
Scully rolled her eyes, and Mulder was about to say some smart remark back when a man in an expensive looking tux rushed over to a man sitting in the row in front of them. Mulder caught a few of the frantic words that were spoken and looked at Skinner and Scully who both looked as bewildered as he felt.
"Excuse me," said Mulder interrupting the two men. "I couldn't help but overheard your conversation and I heard that you needed police assistance? We-" he said motioning to Scully and Skinner who were sitting on either sides of him "-are from the FBI."
The first man groaned, but the second, who had been sitting in the seat in front of Scully said, "Regg, they could be helpful." He got up and motioned for the three of them to follow.
They followed the man out a door near the foot of the stage into an empty hallway that lead to the back of the stage. "I'm one of the Assistant Directors at the Bureau, Walter Skinner," said Skinner. "What's going on?"
The man looked at Regg who sighed. "I'm Reginald Baker, I'm one of Celine Dion's body guards. We've been looking for Celine for the past half an hour and we can't seem to find her. She's missing and she has a show to put on in five minutes!"
Scully sighed inwardly. Another missing persons case. What was it with people all of a sudden disappearing these days?
"Why did you wait so long to say anything?" questioned Mulder.
"We all expected to find her before the show, we thought she had just gone out to get some air or something," replied Regg wiping away a bead of sweat from his brow.
"When was the last time someone saw her?" asked Scully. "About forty-five minutes ago. She was starting to warm up for her show," said Regg. "She was backstage, practicing."
The group followed the hallway down to a door that led backstage. Mulder started poking around. Skinner and Scully questioned everyone that had been backstage with Celine before she was found missing. From what Scully heard, everyone had left Celine alone by herself a little while before anyone realized that she was gone.
"She must still be somewhere in the building if the security cameras don't show her leaving," said Skinner. Scully nodded. She walked to the back near the curtains seeing an exit door hidden by the dark, heavy, cloth.
"We've already sent people back there," said Regg who had noticed Scully examining the area. Scully nodded and turned back, only to trip on something in the floor. Scully caught herself before she embarrassed herself and looked to see what had caused her to stumble. Part of the floor was about an inch lower than the rest of the floor.
"It's a trap door," said Mulder who startled Scully. He quickly dropped to his knees and put his head near the crack. "Hello?" he yelled into the crack. He paused for a moment and everyone held still. Scully saw Mulder hesitate for a moment before he lifted up his head and exclaimed, "Someone's down there."
Regg and the other man, Carl, were on their knees calling to the famous singer to stay calm and wait for help. Mulder, Scully, and Skinner tried to find the lever that would bring the trapdoor back up.
"Mulder, Scully, I found it," called Skinner from the far back corner of the room. "But it's stuck, I can't get it to work." Mulder rushed over to help Skinner. Scully started after Mulder but Carl stopped her.
"I need you to divert the audience while we get Celine out of there," he said pushing Scully towards the stage.
"What?!" she exclaimed. All she had wanted was for this evening to be nice and relaxing. She hadn't been out like this very much since she had started work in the X Files. Scully remembered when her whole life was controlled by her work, and she hated it. This was all that she had wanted before, just a night to relax and enjoy herself! "I can't do that! What do you want me to do?" Scully felt so stressed that her voice was near a shriek and Dana Scully had never shrieked in her entire life.
Carl hurriedly slipped a headset onto Scully's head and pushed her out onto the stage. "Just sing a song or something. I'll help you, just listen to my voice from the headset. Go!"
Shocked, Scully apprehensively walked to the center of the stage. She could see the thousands of eyes from the restless audience stare back at her. She couldn't do this. Wasn't Reginald supposed to help her? She couldn't hear a thing from the headset that felt awkward in her hair. She took a slow breath and tried to picture herself in front of a class full of students training in Quantico instead of an audience of over one thousand people. Sing a song, she told herself. Not sure of what to do, she opened her mouth and sang the first thing that came to her mind: "Jeramiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said, but I help him drink his wine..."
Harder, harder! Mulder, Skinner, and two other men were trying to pull the handle that would bring the trapdoor down so Celine could be freed. The handle moved slowly, little by little. Regg and Carl were getting impatient. Out from the stage, Mulder could hear Scully singing. The song made him smile. It reminded him of the night they had spent in the cold woods. The thought made him work harder, he knew Scully didn't like being out there. As Mulder pushed on the lever, he heard the band start to accompany Scully in her song.
"Come on, we're almost there," Mulder heard Skinner say. With one last grunt, the four men pushed and pulled down as hard as they could and space in the floor lowered far enough for the singer to climb up and out of her prison. As everyone huddled around Celine, Mulder slowly got up and rubbed his sore arms. He made a mental note to start working out his arms again as he turned towards the stage where Scully was still singing.
"Joy to the fishies in the deep blue see, joy to you and me," Scully sang the last part of the song with a feeling of pride inside of her. She had always had a fear of singing in front of people, and now she had just conquered the fear. As people clapped, Scully heard a voice from the headset that was still sitting uncomfortably on her head.
"Give a bow, wave, and walk off stage. Celine's out and she still wants to do her show."
Scully did as she was told and scurried off the stage. She found Mulder and Skinner with talking with Celine Dion, who turned towards her with a grateful smile. "Thank you so much for helping me out here," she said appreciatively.
Scully smiled, "You're welcome." Celine seemed like such a nice person. Scully was glad she met her.
As Regg and Carl ushered Mulder, Scully, and Skinner out, Celine called, "Please, come back and visit me after the show." No one had time to answer, but Scully decided that she would.
As the three settled back down in their seats, Celine stepped out onto the stage. "Hey, Scully," whispered Mulder as the music started. "Maybe you should start touring the world too, or start a band in DC." Scully made a face. "You sounded good out there," Mulder said.
Scully smiled and blushed again for the second time that evening. The lights dimmed as Celine started singing a love ballad and Mulder took Scully's hand. The two sat back, and enjoyed the rest of the show.
"Scully," she said irritably into the receiver, surprised at how brusque her voice sounded. This event must have been more important to her than she had thought! She took a deep breath to calm herself and said a little more courteously, "Hello?"
"Scully?" the voice on the line sounded confused.
"Yes, Mulder?" she said.
"Is everything alright?"
Scully's mouth twisted into a small smile. How sweet of him to be concerned, she thought. "Yes, Mulder. Everything is fine. I was just about to leave. What do you need?"
"Oh. Nothing really." Scully heard him pause. "Scully, what are you wearing?" Scully could just imagine Mulder's silly grin plastered on his face as she recovered from the short moment of confusion.
"Mulder!" she sighed, impatient once more. "I have to go. If I don't leave now I'll be late. I'll see you there." With that she hung up on her partner. From the sounds in the background, Scully could tell that Mulder was already waiting in front of the concert hall, which meant she was later than she thought she was. Scully quickly headed out of the apartment glancing at her watch. A few minutes later, Scully stormed back in and snatched up her purse that sat on the table next to the phone. She huffed out the door pulling the door shut behind her, making the pictures on the wall rattle.
Mulder paced in the foyer of the beautifully decorated concert hall. He glanced at his watch and then checked his appearance for the hundredth time in the huge wall mirror that lined most of the walls in the foyer. He owned nothing of the ensemble he was wearing, except for the shiny black shoes that sunk into the soft red carpet and the dark turquoise dress shirt he had found hidden away in the back of his closet. The rest of it, he had borrowed from Byers since all of his nice, dress clothes were a few sizes too small. The pants and blazer were a little snug, but Mulder would live, it was only for one night.
Seeing Skinner's reflection in the mirror, he turned around and waved. As the assistant director started towards him, Mulder smiled. Mulder was glad that his superior was taking the time to actually enjoy an evening for once. He couldn't remember the last time that Skinner hadn't been working in his office late into the night.
Even though Scully and Mulder had the credit of getting the tickets for the concert tonight, Mulder knew that Skinner played an important part in it. The AD had really charmed the mother of Kelsey Donnahue, who had been Mulder and Scully's latest case. When the eight year old girl disappeared one night, Ms Donnahue had called the police telling them that she thought a monster werewolf had taken her daughter hostage. Hearing that, the New Jersey police contacted the FBI, who immediately phoned Skinner, who got Mulder and Scully on the case. After a few days of searching and following false leads, Kelsey, who had been wondering around in the woods behind the yard and gotten lost a few days earlier, was found by the two in the bottom of a pit that had been created for hunting purposes. Actually, Scully had almost fallen into the trap herself, when she saw the little girl huddled in the corner of the dirty hole. The thankful mother had given Mulder, Scully, and assistant director Skinner three concert tickets to a Celine Dion out of gratitude. Mulder personally thought that Ms Donnahue, who is divorced, wanted to entice Skinner with her generosity.
"Mulder," said Skinner greeting him with a nod, "where is agent Scully?"
"Hello, sir," said Mulder trying to conceal his amusement. The bright lights in the room made Skinner's partially bald head shine. "Scully will be here soon, I just spoke with her over the phone." Skinner nodded. The two headed into the auditorium and stood in front of the back row seats to wait for her. After watching crowds of people stream by for a while in silence, Mulder spotted a red head coming through the doors. He waved his hand so that Scully could find where he was.
Scully stood on her tip-toes to see who the waving had belonged to even though she had no doubt that it belonged to her partner. She was right. She slowly made her way towards the two men. As she approached, she took in the sight of Mulder wearing what looked like Byer's clothing. After working with him for so long, Scully had forgotten how good-looking he really was. Well, she knew, but she hadn't felt like this since the dance at that Cher concert, even though Mulder did look a little silly in those pants which stopped a little above his ankles.
Mulder gave a low whistle as Scully greeted them. "Looking good, Scully," he said. He could tell she knew that he was teasing her, and she gave him a "look", but she also had a shy, pleased smile on her face, and she was blushing. Mulder couldn't remember ever seeing her blush. There was truth behind his comment though. He hadn't meant for it to sound that way. The casual but elegant satin dress that Scully wore looked wonderful on her.
The three started towards the front of the auditorium to find their seats. "Hey, not bad," said Mulder as they sat down. Their seats were in the first fifteen rows and they had a very nice view of the stage. "Sure you don't want to consider seeing this woman, Skinner?" said Mulder with a teasing grin.
"No Mulder," Skinner said exasperated. Mulder could still hear the embarrassment in his voice even though they had been over this millions of times. "She isn't my type." Mulder raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think you can get involved with my personal life anyway?"
Scully rolled her eyes, and Mulder was about to say some smart remark back when a man in an expensive looking tux rushed over to a man sitting in the row in front of them. Mulder caught a few of the frantic words that were spoken and looked at Skinner and Scully who both looked as bewildered as he felt.
"Excuse me," said Mulder interrupting the two men. "I couldn't help but overheard your conversation and I heard that you needed police assistance? We-" he said motioning to Scully and Skinner who were sitting on either sides of him "-are from the FBI."
The first man groaned, but the second, who had been sitting in the seat in front of Scully said, "Regg, they could be helpful." He got up and motioned for the three of them to follow.
They followed the man out a door near the foot of the stage into an empty hallway that lead to the back of the stage. "I'm one of the Assistant Directors at the Bureau, Walter Skinner," said Skinner. "What's going on?"
The man looked at Regg who sighed. "I'm Reginald Baker, I'm one of Celine Dion's body guards. We've been looking for Celine for the past half an hour and we can't seem to find her. She's missing and she has a show to put on in five minutes!"
Scully sighed inwardly. Another missing persons case. What was it with people all of a sudden disappearing these days?
"Why did you wait so long to say anything?" questioned Mulder.
"We all expected to find her before the show, we thought she had just gone out to get some air or something," replied Regg wiping away a bead of sweat from his brow.
"When was the last time someone saw her?" asked Scully. "About forty-five minutes ago. She was starting to warm up for her show," said Regg. "She was backstage, practicing."
The group followed the hallway down to a door that led backstage. Mulder started poking around. Skinner and Scully questioned everyone that had been backstage with Celine before she was found missing. From what Scully heard, everyone had left Celine alone by herself a little while before anyone realized that she was gone.
"She must still be somewhere in the building if the security cameras don't show her leaving," said Skinner. Scully nodded. She walked to the back near the curtains seeing an exit door hidden by the dark, heavy, cloth.
"We've already sent people back there," said Regg who had noticed Scully examining the area. Scully nodded and turned back, only to trip on something in the floor. Scully caught herself before she embarrassed herself and looked to see what had caused her to stumble. Part of the floor was about an inch lower than the rest of the floor.
"It's a trap door," said Mulder who startled Scully. He quickly dropped to his knees and put his head near the crack. "Hello?" he yelled into the crack. He paused for a moment and everyone held still. Scully saw Mulder hesitate for a moment before he lifted up his head and exclaimed, "Someone's down there."
Regg and the other man, Carl, were on their knees calling to the famous singer to stay calm and wait for help. Mulder, Scully, and Skinner tried to find the lever that would bring the trapdoor back up.
"Mulder, Scully, I found it," called Skinner from the far back corner of the room. "But it's stuck, I can't get it to work." Mulder rushed over to help Skinner. Scully started after Mulder but Carl stopped her.
"I need you to divert the audience while we get Celine out of there," he said pushing Scully towards the stage.
"What?!" she exclaimed. All she had wanted was for this evening to be nice and relaxing. She hadn't been out like this very much since she had started work in the X Files. Scully remembered when her whole life was controlled by her work, and she hated it. This was all that she had wanted before, just a night to relax and enjoy herself! "I can't do that! What do you want me to do?" Scully felt so stressed that her voice was near a shriek and Dana Scully had never shrieked in her entire life.
Carl hurriedly slipped a headset onto Scully's head and pushed her out onto the stage. "Just sing a song or something. I'll help you, just listen to my voice from the headset. Go!"
Shocked, Scully apprehensively walked to the center of the stage. She could see the thousands of eyes from the restless audience stare back at her. She couldn't do this. Wasn't Reginald supposed to help her? She couldn't hear a thing from the headset that felt awkward in her hair. She took a slow breath and tried to picture herself in front of a class full of students training in Quantico instead of an audience of over one thousand people. Sing a song, she told herself. Not sure of what to do, she opened her mouth and sang the first thing that came to her mind: "Jeramiah was a bullfrog. Was a good friend of mine. Never understood a single word he said, but I help him drink his wine..."
Harder, harder! Mulder, Skinner, and two other men were trying to pull the handle that would bring the trapdoor down so Celine could be freed. The handle moved slowly, little by little. Regg and Carl were getting impatient. Out from the stage, Mulder could hear Scully singing. The song made him smile. It reminded him of the night they had spent in the cold woods. The thought made him work harder, he knew Scully didn't like being out there. As Mulder pushed on the lever, he heard the band start to accompany Scully in her song.
"Come on, we're almost there," Mulder heard Skinner say. With one last grunt, the four men pushed and pulled down as hard as they could and space in the floor lowered far enough for the singer to climb up and out of her prison. As everyone huddled around Celine, Mulder slowly got up and rubbed his sore arms. He made a mental note to start working out his arms again as he turned towards the stage where Scully was still singing.
"Joy to the fishies in the deep blue see, joy to you and me," Scully sang the last part of the song with a feeling of pride inside of her. She had always had a fear of singing in front of people, and now she had just conquered the fear. As people clapped, Scully heard a voice from the headset that was still sitting uncomfortably on her head.
"Give a bow, wave, and walk off stage. Celine's out and she still wants to do her show."
Scully did as she was told and scurried off the stage. She found Mulder and Skinner with talking with Celine Dion, who turned towards her with a grateful smile. "Thank you so much for helping me out here," she said appreciatively.
Scully smiled, "You're welcome." Celine seemed like such a nice person. Scully was glad she met her.
As Regg and Carl ushered Mulder, Scully, and Skinner out, Celine called, "Please, come back and visit me after the show." No one had time to answer, but Scully decided that she would.
As the three settled back down in their seats, Celine stepped out onto the stage. "Hey, Scully," whispered Mulder as the music started. "Maybe you should start touring the world too, or start a band in DC." Scully made a face. "You sounded good out there," Mulder said.
Scully smiled and blushed again for the second time that evening. The lights dimmed as Celine started singing a love ballad and Mulder took Scully's hand. The two sat back, and enjoyed the rest of the show.