Monday morning I walked into the office in the basement to see Mulder already sitting behind the desk. He was very engrossed in the magazine article he was reading and didn't notice me come in. I walked over to stand behind him, reading the headline of the article over his shoulder. As usual, it was about supposed alien abductions.
"Good morning, Mulder," I said.
He jumped, not having yet realized that I was there.
"Oh, hi Scully," he said. "How was your weekend?"
"Boring. And yours?"
"Quite uneventful," he answered.
"I hope you didn't spend it reading ridiculous articles like that one," I said.
"No, only part of it," he said. "The rest of it I spent sleeping. So, did you do anything?"
"Didn't I just say my weekend was boring?"
"Yes," he said, "But you could have done something which turned out to be boring."
"I didn't do anything," I said.
"Nothing at all?"
"I read a book."
"A whole book?" Mulder sounded surprised. "It must have been good. What was it?"
"A medical journal," I answered.
"That doesn't count as a book," he said, frowning.
"How is it not a book?" I asked.
"Well, people read books to entertain themselves, and—"
"Who says a medical journal can't be entertaining?" I retorted.
"Normal people don't find medical journals entertaining," Mulder said.
"Define 'normal people'," I said.
"The average everyday person," he said.
"So I'm not normal?"
"Not everyone is a doctor, Scully," Mulder answered.
"Maybe you should have said 'people who are not doctors don't find medical journals entertaining," I said.
"Okay. Just pretend I said that," he responded.
"Whatever," I said, not really feeling like arguing.
I took off my coat and went to hang it up. When I was walking across the room, I stumbled, suddenly feeling dizzy. Mulder was at my side in a second, taking a hold on my arm to steady me.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.
"Yes, I'm fine Mulder," I answered.
"You should sit down," he said, leading me over to the chair.
"I don't need to sit down," I protested. "I'm fine!"
"Scully, please…"
"Mulder, I'm fine," I said.
"Okay," he said, giving up. He took a file from the top of his desk and handed it to me. "We have another case," he informed me.
I didn't feel like reading the contents of the file, since I still feeling dizzy, and a bit nauseous, so I just looked at the pictures instead. What I saw surprised me, and I didn't see how this was a case at all.
"Mulder, these are pictures of a boy and a television set," I said, looking at the first set of pictures.
"Actually, both pictures are of the boy," Mulder said.
"But one of them is a television."
"Yes, I know," Mulder said with a little smile. He was clearly enjoying this.
I turned to the next set of pictures. There I saw a girl of about eight and toy horse.
"Mulder, would you please explain this to me?" I asked, irritated.
"The boy is the television, and the girl is the toy horse," Mulder said, still smiling.
"Mulder, little boys just don't turn into televisions."
"But little girls turn into toy horses?"
"No, that doesn't happen either." I answered. "Even you should know that."
"What exactly do you mean by that?" Mulder asked.
"Nothing," I sighed. "So, where exactly did this happen?" I asked, still not feeling much like reading.
"Boulder, Colorado," he said, holding up two plane tickets. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked me. He must have noticed that I was avoiding reading anything.
"Yes, I'm sure."
"Okay," he said, not looking too convinced.
A few hours later we arrived in Boulder. We checked into a small hotel on the outskirts of Boulder. After a long argument with Mulder about whether I was okay or not, I finally agreed to stay at the hotel and rest while he went to talk to the children's families. I had to admit, I was tired.
After Mulder left I lay down on the bed in my room and quickly fell asleep. I was awoken be Mulder shaking me gently and calling my name.
"What?" I whined, swatting his hand away from my shoulder.
"Sorry, you wouldn't wake up," he said.
"Why are you back already?" I asked.
"Scully, I've been gone for almost 6 hours…" he said, frowning.
I looked at the clock, and, sure enough, it was almost midnight.
"What did you find out?" I asked.
"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring my question.
"Yes, Mulder, I'm fine," I said. "How many times do I have to tell you that?"
"Sorry," he said.
"So?"
"So what…?" he asked.
"What did you find out?"
"Well, I talked to the boy's parents." He began. "They said he got the television set on his last birthday, and has done almost nothing but watch TV since then. About a week ago, his mother went into his room to tell him to come eat his lunch, and she said that he just turned into a television set right in front of her eyes."
I looked skeptically at Mulder. "Did you ask her if she had been using any illicit substances?"
"No," Mulder said. "Why?"
"Well, as I said before, little boys don't just turn into televisions."
"Okay," Mulder said. "Say he didn't turn into it. Where is he now?"
"He could have been kidnapped," I suggested.
"By whom?" Mulder asked.
"I don't know."
"So you have no evidence to support your theory?" Mulder asked.
"No, but it's a hell of a lot more possible that he was kidnapped than he turned into a TV." I said. "Did you talk to the girl's family?"
"No, they weren't home," Mulder said. "The neighbors said that they hadn't seen them in a while. They can't have gone far though, their car is still in the driveway."
During the next few days, Mulder kept insisting that I stay at the hotel and rest. He talked to the boys parents some more, but still could find no trace of the girl's parents. He also came back on two of the days with reports of other people turning into various objects. In his spare time he read any articles he could find about alien abductions.
Each day while Mulder was away, I worked on writing up the case report in an attempt to not feel completely useless.
The day Mulder came back with a report of a third person (a 25 year old man who had turned into a football), I could stop staring while he talked. I was finding it hard to pay attention to what he was saying. He looked different somehow, but I didn't know exactly why.
"Scully?" Mulder said, waiving a hand in front of my face. "Something wrong?"
"Your eyes are a different colour," I said, finally placing the difference.
"What?"
"Go look in a mirror," I said.
Mulder walked into my bathroom and turned on the light, and I followed him in. He examined his eyes carefully, leaning close to the mirror. As he did so, his fingers began to turn a pale greenish-grey colour at the tips. He noticed this too and began examining his fingers as well. The abnormal colour began to spread up his arms.
"Mulder?" I said quietly.
He didn't answer. He just kept staring as the colour continued to spread. It didn't stop until he was completely green. His hair seemed to grow back into his head, and his eyes became larger and darker.
I stared, disbelieving. In front of me stood an image I was very familiar with after seeing Mulder read all those magazine articles: a stereotypical alien. Maybe I really was sick after all.
"Mulder…?" I said again.
"Yeah?" he responded, staring at his reflection in the mirror.
"I don't think I'm okay anymore."
"Why? Because I'm an alien?" he asked.
"Okay, so you're seeing this too?" I said. "Maybe I'm not hallucinating. Or maybe we both are."
"No, we're not," Mulder said. Then he laughed.
"I don't see what's so funny about this…" I said.
"It's not funny." He answered. "I'm just relieved that I turned into something that can talk. I mean, how much would it suck to be a football?"
"I think we should go back home and get you to a hospital," I said.
"I think you're right," Mulder answered.
We quickly packed our bags and loaded them into the rental car.
"Maybe we should drive back," Mulder said. "I think that my current state could cause some panic on a crowded airplane."
"Okay," I agreed. "But I'm driving."
While we were driving back, Mulder would not stop staring at me. It started to get on my nerves.
"What?" I said finally.
"I was just wondering why you didn't turn into anything." He said.
"Because I'm not insane?" I suggested.
"I'm not insane!" Mulder said.
"I was joking." I said. Suddenly Mulder put his hands up to his head. "Are you okay?" I asked him.
"I just got a really bad headache," he said.
I quickly pulled over to the side of the road. I got out of the car and went around to open his door. "Hear, get out and lay down," I said. He did, and I sat down on the ground next to him. After a few minutes he sat up.
"Are you okay?" I asked again.
"Yeah, I feel much better," he said.
"You look better," I said, noticing the green starting to go away. His eyes had gone back to their normal size, and his hair was all back as well.
"How much better?" he asked.
"You look like a human again," I answered.
He went to the mirror on the car door and looked at his reflection.
"I do look normal again!" he said, smiling.
"You seem happy about that," I said.
"Yeah, I didn't really like being an alien," he said.
"I'm glad," I said.
The End