Mulder sat in the basement, poring over a stack of books. A case in West Virginia had numerous people seeing strange glowing lights above their homes, but no government actions had been taken. "I tell you, we've got something here."
"Hello?" A woman pushed the door open, taking in the scene. She dressed like any other FBI agent, but her red hair made her stand out. She pushed a pair of glasses up her nose before introducing herself. "Agent Alice Hemming. I've been assigned to help you two."
"Nice to meet you," Scully smiled, shaking her hand. "Would you like a coffee? We just got a new machine."
"Yes, thank you." She set her briefcase down, looking at the pile of books on the desk, and the dozens of papers pinned on the wall above it.
"Who'd you have to piss off to get stuck down here?" Mulder asked.
"My supervisor. I slapped him," she admitted.
"And you're not being prosecuted?"
"He grabbed my ass. So I slapped him. He's in hearings, and I've been moved down here. Besides, I hear you work on the more interesting cases anyway. Thank you." She took the coffee cup that Scully had offered. "What are we looking at?"
"Sightings of strange lights above West Virginia," Mulder answered.
"They were right," Alice observed. "Thy told me you handled stuff that was out of the ordinary."
Scully sighed. "Are you a believer?"
"I haven't been to church since I left home."
"You and I both know that's not what I meant."
"I'd like to believe we're not alone. That in the billions of miles of space that we know about, we aren't the only ones."
"You hear that, Scully? She's a believer!"
"Mulder's a bit... enthusiastic," Scully had to explain as he stood up. "He wants proof-"
"Let's go. We can be in West Virginia in two hours or so. Talk in the car," Mulder instructed, grabbing his coat.
"So what did you do before this?" Mulder asked, turning off of the highway.
"We've had this discussion," Scully told him. "Like an hour ago."
"I was in the Behavior Analysis Unit," Alice offered. "My degree's in criminal psych. I used to interview the Hannibal Lecters of the world."
"Well, you didn't tell us this little town was a trailer park," Scully remarked as Mulder pulled in to a campground.
"Citrus Valley's a resort full of old hippies," Alice observed, watching a woman hang tye-dyed shirts on a clothesline. "Should we go into the office first?"
"You two go. I'm going to get a look around and stretch my legs," Scully said, getting out of the car. "I'll try to find the first guy who saw them." She headed off for the first row of trailers, waving to the woman who was hanging up her laundry and striking up a conversation.
"Don't worry about Scully," Mulder told Alice as they walked into the office. "She's still in denial, even though we've seen a lot in this job." He took out his ID, showing it to the man at the desk. "Agents Mulder and Hemming. We're here to see if anyone knows anything about those lights."
The man stroked his beard, thinking for a second before saying, "You'll think this is crazy."
"Try me."
"They appeared a week or so ago. Colin saw them first, he and his wife. Then a few more people started seeing them. I saw them myself a few nights ago. They appear and race around my trailer almost every night."
"What do they look like?" Alice asked, leaning on the counter.
"Bright blue. They zip around for a little while, then head towards some other trailers. A few of the other guys say they see different colors too."
Glancing at his name tag, Alice nodded. "Brian, you guys are a clean living, natural diet community, right?"
He smiled. "We're proud of it. We grow all of our own food, no insecticides, no fertilizer other than what we compost."
"That means pesticides are out," Mulder muttered. "It sounds like a genuine sighting."
"Where does your water come from?"
"We have it pumped in from the city nearby. We re-filter it, too. Want some bread? Mona just brought it in a little while ago." He nodded towards a covered platter on the counter. "We share pretty much everything."
"No, thanks. Can we go see the farm, though?"
"Sure. Follow me."
As they trailed behind Brian's large figure, Mulder said, "You seem like a natural at this."
"Thanks." She bit her lip, joyfully confessing, "I'm making this all up as I go along. I'm playing a TV cop in my head."
"Well, you're good at it."
"Oh my..." Thy were looking over a vast garden, roped off in different sections. A relatively large field held wheat and corn. The other side of the farm area was separated into root vegetables and vine plants, ringed by fruit trees and bushes. A few men and women were pulling weeds, one of them plucking berries from a bush and putting them in a bucket.
"Everything gets washed at least twice before even getting into the kitchen," Brian explained. "We all work in here together, and we eat together too."
"Mulder." Alice called him over to where she was standing, leaning in to whisper, "is that marijuana?"
He looked over at where the plants were growing. "Yes. Hey, Brian, do you guys ever smoke?"
Brian laughed. "That's only for medicine," he promised. "Sometimes we get teenagers breaking in to steal some of it, but we're pretty good about hiding it."
"Well, we didn't see anything," Mulder promised. "We should meet up with Scully. The sun's going to go down soon. Where's the best place to see the lights?"
"Almost anywhere."
Alice, Mulder, and Scully sat in chairs outside of the dining hall, waiting with Brian and Colin, the man who had fist seen the lights. While Mulder was discussing alien theories with Brian and Colin, Scully was filling Alice in on the X-Files. "We travel a whole lot."
"I'm not tied down. No spouse, no kids," Alice admitted. "What about you?"
Scully sighed, looking out at the sky. "When I was your age, I thought I'd be able to balance work and life. But I worked all the time. No, no family. Actually... well, it's complicated."
"Did he leave? I mean, if I'm not prying."
"We went our separate ways. That was years ago. And I still kind of love him."
"What about Mulder? Has he lived in that basement his whole life?"
"He had someone too, once. I think he still think of her sometimes. Their kid... well, that's in the past. He doesn't settle down well. I think he's been like that since... he's convinced his sister was abducted. It happened as a kid. Everyone else said she ran away or got kidnapped. He still wants to believe."
"The show should be starting soon," Mulder said, dropping into a seat next to them. "Have your phones ready to record."
"Well before the aliens show up, I'm going to go make some tea. You two want anything?"
"Can you make me some too?" Mulder asked.
"Scully?"
"Thanks, but I'll stick with coffee." She held her cup up, Alice nodding. They watched her walk away, Scully clucked, "Stop checking her out. She's gotta be like 25."
"Hey, we've got a cute new intern. I think she likes me."
"Be careful. She slapped the last guy who-"
"Agents, look! There! Right there!" Colin pointed to a spot in the sky above a distant trailer. Mulder rushed over to where he stood, Scully slowly standing. Alice returned with styrofoam cups in both hands. She set them down and grabbed a pair of binoculars, scanning the sky. "See it? Right by Joanne and Barry's trailer!"
"I don't see anything," Mulder fretted. He borrowed Alice's binoculars, Brian exclaiming that the lights were moving. "Where? Oh!" A blue light had appeared by an old trailer. Mulder ran towards it, Alice instinctively following, drawing her gun. He whipped around a corner, seeing that the blue blinking light had reappeared. She reached him seconds after he had gotten to the spot. Hanging his head in defeat, Mulder pointed to a box hung above the RV. "Bug zapper."
Brian, Colin, and Scully arrived a moment later. "It's not a UFO," Alice gestured to the bug zapper, which glowed blue again as a mosquito flew into its grate. Scully rolled her eyes, Mulder looking around for any sign of an aircraft. "There's nothing here."
"There has to be. I just saw-"
"How long have you all been eating that bread?" Alice asked, turning to Brian and Colin.
"Week and a half, two weeks, maybe. Why does that matter?"
"And I didn't have any. Scully? Mulder?" They shook their heads as Alice explained, "You've got ergot poisoning. It makes you hallucinate things. Mix it with the marijuana-"
"What marijuana?" Scully raised an eyebrow.
"They grow it for medicine, or that's what they say. Even though there's way too much there just to be used for medicine. But if you've got something growing in your wheat crop, it could affect all of you. All it took was for Colin to see a light like that, tell the story the next day, and everyone was seeing it." They followed her to the kitchen, Brian unlocking the hall. She rummaged through the extensive pantry before pulling out a bag of flour. She opened it, showing them all the black spots in it. "Ergot. Not aliens."
Mulder sat in the back of the car, halfway trying to sleep as Scully drove back towards DC. Alice took up the other back seat, her shoes on the floor on top of her bag. "Sorry we didn't find any proof, guys."
"That's okay with me," Scully insisted. "I'm fine with normal life."
"Hmm," Mulder sighed. "I want to believe. Proof would be nice."
"We'll find something," Alice yawned.
A few minutes later, Scully heard her breathing drop off into sleep. When she looked in the rearview mirror, she could see that Alice was using Mulder's shoulder as a pillow, Mulder staring out the window. "You're right. She looks up to you. Be careful, Mulder. The future of the X-Files is being molded right now. Young, impressionable minds and all that."