Author's note: This is a story for xfilesfanatic's birthday! Thank you so much for your wonderful friendship and constant support! Happy birthday!
"Mulder, what are we doing here? You told me we were going out for Chinese food."
He parked the car and turned the key, then dropped his hands from the wheel. "We're just doing a little investigating, that's all."
"On what?" asked Scully.
Mulder was silent, but a sly smile appeared on his face. "Yesterday morning I got a call from a British woman named Daphne Moon from Seattle who said that one day last week she accidentally shut her dog inside a closet and when she opened up the door, he was gone."
"Let me guess, Mulder, she lives here."
"Ding ding ding! Give this woman a prize."
Scully sighed. "Mulder!"
"Look, we'll just take a look around inside, see what's going on, and then we'll leave."
She said nothing as they got out of the car and stepped out into the chilly day. Soon, Mulder and Scully found themselves in front of apartment 1901, and Mulder knocked on the door.
I tall woman with shoulder-length brown hair opened the door, and they flashed their FBI identification. "Uh…Miss Moon? We're Agents Mulder and Scully from the FBI."
"Thank goodness!" exclaimed Daphne with a smile. "I thought you two would never come! Oh, Mr. Crane is awfully cross with me for losing Eddie. He just mopes around all day sulking like a sour grape, snipping at me every chance he gets!"
When Daphne saw their confused faces, she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I guess I haven't really explained everything to you yet. Please, come in. Can I get you anything?"
"Uh, no thank you, ma'am," said Scully as she and her partner stepped into the eclectic apartment.
"Oh, please, come and sit down," said Daphne. The guests complied and sat down on the luscious brown couch. She herself sat down in an unattractive easy chair that looked completely out of place in the extremely highbrow home.
"I guess I should start by saying that the reason I had to call you, Agent Mulder, is that Eddie isn't really my dog, he's Mr. Crane's. Almost five years ago I moved in here to take care of him and help him with his physical therapy. His son is my boss, and he's the one who owns this apartment. I guess that probably occurred to you right away! It isn't really me, is it?"
Mulder glanced from her to his surroundings and agreed silently.
"Uh…Miss Moon…" he began.
"Oh, please, it's Daphne."
"Daphne, if you wouldn't mind telling my partner your account of what happened, I'm sure she'd be most interested in what you have to say."
He looked at Scully and gave her a small smile.
"Well," she began. "Last week I was putting some towels away and Eddie walked into the closet, but I didn't know it. I shut the door and I heard him barking and whining as I started to walk away. When I came back and opened the door, he was gone. I looked all over the house but he was nowhere to be found."
"I see," said Scully. "Miss Moon…Daphne…are you sure that the dog was inside the closet?"
"Positive."
"Daphne, do you think Agent Scully and I could see where all of this happened?" asked Mulder.
"Of course! Right this way."
She took them to a back hallway and opened up the closet door. It was filled with towels, different kinds of soap, lotions, and bath salts, and even some hair products.
"This is the last place he was. I've been worried sick about what'll happen to me if I don't find him! I'm afraid I'll lose me job! I was going to bring in a team of psychics to find out what's going on, but Dr. Crane said I couldn't do that. Besides, I'm a bit psychic meself."
"You're psychic?" questioned Scully.
"Yes. I sense things about different people and sometimes I even have visions. I had one about Eddie's location, but I don't know what to make of it. All it was was Eddie running around this house, only everything was backwards."
"That's interesting," said Mulder. "Would you mind if I step inside for a minute?"
"Oh, no, go right ahead."
Scully was annoyed, but she let Mulder go in and close the door behind him. In her opinion, Daphne had to be making some sort of mistake. It certainly seemed like it, anyways. All of this had to be some sort of misunderstanding. The dog in question had most likely been lost at a different point in time, and Daphne had probably only imagined what she thought happened.
"Oh dear! I just remembered, I have to go pick Mr. Crane up. Excuse me, Agent Scully, but I've got to run! I'm sorry to leave you two here like this, but I'd hate to make him even madder at me! Dr. Crane should be doing his radio program now…just show yourselves out when you're finished and call me later. Goodbye!" And with that, Daphne dashed out the door.
Scully sighed impatiently and plopped herself on the couch, knowing her fellow agent might be awhile.
Mulder tried his best to look around in the dark closet, disappointed that there wasn't a light inside of it. He pushed and pulled on the shelves in case they were some sort of door, but they seemed to be normal. He pressed on the walls and knocked on them to see if they were hollow, yet still nothing.
Suddenly, he blinked and everything was switched around. Instead of facing the door like he had been a second ago, he was now facing the shelves. It was as if everything had done a 180-degree turn around him. He opened the door, and he realized that the whole apartment was the same way.
Scully sat for five minutes before she got up to check on Mulder. When she opened the closet door, there was nothing there.
"Mulder?" she said, even stepping inside the closet for a moment. "Mulder!" she yelled, walking all throughout the house, but not finding him.
She didn't even have a moment to process her thoughts before the doorbell rang, and she ran to answer it.
A short, blonde man wearing a suit and tie was standing there, staring back at her with surprise.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Special Agent Dana Scully from the FBI. And you?"
"Dr. Niles Crane."
"Dr. Crane…do you live here?"
"No, you're thinking of my brother."
"Well, he isn't here right now. I'm afraid you'll have to come back later."
"But you see, I'm not here to speak to him. I'm here for Daphne. She told me she'd be here earlier."
"She had to step out to go and pick up someone. If you'd like you can come in and wait for her."
"Yes, I believe I will," said Niles, walking in and keeping a suspicious eye on Scully. "So, you said you are an agent in the Federal Bureau of Investigation? If I may ask, I would like to see some identification."
Scully showed Niles her badge. "Ah," he said. He went over by the grand piano and poured himself a glass of sherry, asking her, "To what does my brother owe this pleasure of having an FBI agent in his home?"
"We're investigating something for your friend, Daphne."
"Really?" said Niles, suddenly very interested. He set down the sherry bottle and sat down on the couch next to Scully. "What is it? What's going on?"
"She called us to look into what happened to your brother's dog."
"Ah yes, Eddie. Any developments thus far?"
"No sir," she said, not wanting to tell him about whatever had happened to Mulder.
"Well, perhaps you will find something soon."
"Or someone, with any luck," thought Scully.
Mulder stepped out into the hall and went into the living room to be greeted by a man sitting on the couch. He set his drink on the coffee table and stood up.
"Who are you?" he exclaimed. "And where is Daphne? What have you done with her?"
"I'm Agent Fox Mulder, from the FBI," he said.
"An Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, you say? If I may ask, I would like to see some identification."
Mulder showed him, and the man sighed with relief. "I'm Dr. Niles Crane," he said, shaking Mulder's hand.
"Are you the one who lives here?" he asked.
"No, you're thinking of my brother Frasier. I happen to have an extra key to his apartment so I let myself in. And by the way, to what does he owe this pleasure of having an FBI agent in his home?"
"I'm just investigating something for Daphne. Um…have you seen a short red-headed woman around here?"
"I have not, and what about Daphne?"
"She called me to come and check out the situation with the dog."
"Ah, you mean why we have two Eddies running around here."
"Two dogs?"
"Yes, isn't that why she called you?"
"I…" Mulder began to think quickly, developing a theory as to what all of this was. "Yes, that's why. I was wondering, Dr. Crane, if you would tell me what happened the way you heard it. It could be beneficial to our investigation."
"The way Frasier told it to me was that Daphne was putting away towels last week and when she walked away from the closet after she had placed them inside, she heard barking and whining from inside of it, and after she opened the door Eddie was standing there. She thought that he had accidentally walked in there and she shut the door on him, but when she looked, she discovered that there were now two dogs running around the house with exactly the same markings and even the same collar, only flipped, as if they were mirror images. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes."
"Would you happen to know where I could find the Eddies?"
"I'll wager my father took them for a walk. Usually, they happen by to inspect guests."
"Thank you. Uh, Dr. Crane, is there any place where I can make a phone call?"
"Sure, you may use the balcony."
Mulder went out to the balcony and called Scully, hoping he would get his Scully and not the one who apparently wasn't in Seattle, or at least not at the apartment.
"Hello?" she answered.
"Scully, it's me."
"Mulder, where are you?"
"Where do you think I am?"
"I don't know, I thought you were taking a look around in that closet."
Now that he knew he was talking to the correct Scully, he began to tell her what was on his mind. "Scully, have you ever heard of a parallel universe, a place just like our own yet somehow separate?"
"I've heard of it…Mulder, what are you saying?"
"Well, I think what's inside that closet is a portal to the parallel universe, and somehow it transports living things that wander inside into the next place. I think that's what got the dog here."
"Here? Mulder, where are you?"
"I'm in the second universe, Scully. Eddie's here too. I should be able to get back to you soon and bring him back with me."
"Just one question, Mulder. If you're in some parallel universe, how is this phone call coming through?"
"Everything here is backwards. If I would have to make a guess I would say that it's the same with the phone numbers."
"So if I call my phone number backwards I'll get myself in a different universe."
"Possibly."
"Mulder, you aren't serious."
"I'm very serious, Scully."
She was silent for a moment, and then she said softly, "Goodbye, Mulder," and hung up the phone.
As Scully came inside from the balcony, Niles was still sitting there, watching her as she came in.
"Don't government agents travel with a partner?" he asked. "And also, why would Daphne call the FBI to investigate our problem?"
"Well, to answer your question sir, my partner is…temporarily detained. And…he runs a section of the FBI known as the X-Files, which specializes in paranormal activity."
"Paranormal activity?" Niles chuckled. "I hardly think that there's anything like that going on here. Not to say that Daphne isn't telling the truth, but my brother and I are more inclined to believe it was an accident."
"Frankly, so am I," said Scully, sitting down next to him.
"Then why are you here?"
"My partner…thinks that there's something going on in that closet."
"Like what?"
Scully looked at Niles and decided to tell him. They seemed to be on the same page, and since he was a doctor she knew that this man probably stemmed from a scientific point of view.
"According to him, it is a portal to a parallel universe."
"He must be joking!"
"I'm afraid not."
"That's preposterous! Even if there was such a thing as a parallel universe, I doubt there'd be a door or a portal with which to cross over from one to another."
"Exactly my point, sir. Um, if it's not too much trouble, what sort of doctor are you?"
"A psychiatrist."
"I'm a medical doctor myself."
"Ah."
It was awkwardly silent for a moment, until suddenly the door opened and there was Daphne and an older man. When she saw Niles, her mouth came open. "Dr. Crane! Oh, I completely forgot you'd be here! I had to go pick up your father from the park."
"Yeah, not that it makes much of a difference, now that I don't have a dog to walk," said the old man, frowning at Daphne.
"Don't speak to her that way, Dad!" said Niles.
"Oh, Agent Scully," said Daphne, seeing her on the couch for the first time. "Did you find anything? I thought you'd be gone by now."
"Well, I'm waiting for Agent Mulder. He had to go out and…run an errand."
"All right."
"Uh…Daphne?" Niles started.
"Yes, Dr. Crane?"
"I wanted to give you something."
"What is it?"
He got to his feet and walked over to her, reaching into his breast pocket and pulling out a small white box. "I saw this at an antique shop last week, and I thought you should have it." He gave her the box and watched as she opened it.
It was a string of elegant pearls with gold clasps, and it shined marvelously in the afternoon light. "Dr. Crane, I don't know what to say…I'm speechless. They're beautiful. They must have cost a fortune…I don't know if I can accept these!"
"Please do, Daphne. From one friend to another."
"Thank you so much, I'm not ever going to forget this!" She planted a kiss on his cheek and he grinned with a faraway look in his eyes.
The old man, Martin, was now in that hideous chair, and he looked at Scully and asked, "Do you think you'll be able to get Eddie back soon? Any idea where he is?"
"We're still sorting out the details, but if my partner's theory is inerrant, we should have your dog back to you soon."
"Great, thank you."
Mulder made small talk with Niles until the door opened to reveal Daphne and an older gentleman that he guessed to be the Crane's father, with two dogs on a leash. Niles had been right, they were exactly the same, but they were mirror images of one another.
When Daphne saw Mulder, she looked confused and said, "Aren't you Agent Mulder from the FBI?"
"Yes, that's me."
"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow! Well, no matter. Come on, I'll show you where that closet is."
"Uh…Daphne?" said Niles.
"Oh, Dr. Crane! I'm so sorry! I completely forgot you were coming! I had to go pick up your father from the park. Whatever you came to talk to me about, do you think it can wait?"
"Well I… Of course, Daphne."
"Thank you."
Daphne took Mulder back to the same closet he had entered in from and told him the same stories he had been hearing countless times in the past two hours. He just nodded and pretended to be experiencing them for the first time.
"Daphne, I think I can solve your problem and tell you what caused it," he said after she was done.
"Really? But you haven't even looked around yet."
"I know, I know. Listen, me and one of the Eddies are going to disappear…and you're not going to know where we went, but just trust me."
"All right," she said in a hushed tone. "But might I ask why?"
Mulder sighed. He knew that Daphne was an open-minded woman, and that she might just understand what was going on here.
"This closet is a portal to a parallel universe, the one that me and the other Eddie are from. Eddie accidentally happened into this universe when the Daphne Moon on the other side shut him inside the closet inadvertently, and I came here when I went inside to take a look around. I suspect that when Eddie and I get inside there again, we'll be transported back and all of this will be solved."
"I…I think I understand. Wait a minute…so on the other side, Eddie is missing?"
"That's right. That's why the other you called me."
"Oh, poor Mr. Crane! I'll figure out a way to get the other Eddie to you so that you can take him back."
"Thanks," he said.
Mulder waited while Daphne went into the living room. "Mr. Crane, where did Dr. Crane go?"
"He got a phone call from one of his patients and had to leave."
"I see. Mr. Crane, I'm going to take one of the Eddies back for a bath."
"Well, why don't you take both?"
"Because, it'll be easier to wash them one at a time."
"Okay."
Soon, Daphne was right in front of Mulder, handing him the dog. "Goodbye, Agent Mulder. I hope everything works out!"
"Bye, Daphne," said Mulder, and he went inside the closet and waited.
Nothing happened. He waited and waited, but it seemed pointless. He didn't understand why it didn't work; there was absolutely no reason why it shouldn't. Mulder put Eddie down for a moment and called Scully.
"Scully, it's me."
"Mulder, what's going on?"
"I think we've got a problem, Scully."
"What is it?"
"I'm in the closet now, and it's not working, I can't get back."
"What?"
"There's got to be a way, this is impossible, Scully, the two universes are exactly the same, it wouldn't make sense for there to only be a portal on one side." Mulder began to think quickly again, forming ideas and thoughts in his head.
"Scully, what happened after I left?"
"This man dropped by."
"Niles?"
"Yeah. We talked for a little bit, then Niles' father arrived. Niles gave Daphne a necklace and she went crazy over it, and then-"
"He gave her a necklace?"
"Yeah, is that important?"
"That didn't happen here." Suddenly, Mulder got it. "I think I know how to get back after all."
"How?"
"If I hadn't crossed over into this world, then Niles would have given Daphne that necklace. I distracted her, and then he had to leave. I think that's what's blocking me from leaving; now the two universes aren't the same."
"But Mulder, if that is the problem, don't you think he'll give it to her eventually?"
"I don't know Scully, maybe he loses his nerve and she never gets it. It's the only possible explanation there is. I'll be there soon, just a little while longer."
"All right, Mulder."
He hung up the phone and then picked up Eddie, opening the door and seeing a light on in Daphne's bedroom. He walked in and went back into the bathroom, where she was giving the other Eddie a bath.
"Agent Mulder, why aren't you gone yet?"
"Something isn't working, but I think I know how to fix it. Do you know Niles' address?"
"I do." She wrote it down, then handed him her keys so he'd have a car to get there.
When Mulder reached The Montana, he showed the doorman his identification and went to Niles' apartment. Only then did it occur to him that he might not be there. After all, hadn't Mr. Crane said he had gotten a call from a patient?
But he rang the doorbell anyways, and he got an answer. "Agent Mulder," said Niles. "This is a surprise. Please come in."
"Thank you. Uh, Dr. Crane, this is going to sound a little strange, but I know you meant to give Daphne something today."
"But how could you know?"
"It's a long story, but I need you to give it to her."
"I was going to, but I got nervous and faked a phone call to get out of the whole situation. I'm not sure if I'm going to give it to her."
"What if I told you that in another dimension, you gave Daphne that necklace and she loved it?"
"Why would you say that?"
"Because she did. Don't ask me how I know, but I don't think you're going to regret giving it to her."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Niles was silent for a moment, then he said, "Let's go, then!"
A few minutes later, Niles and Mulder were inside the apartment where Daphne lived.
Niles called her name, and she came in to meet him. "I have something for you," he said.
"What is it?"
"I saw this at an antique shop last week, and I thought you should have it." He handed her the small white cardboard box from his jacket pocket and handed it to her.
When she opened it, her face lit up. She lifted the shining pearls out of the box and she smiled brightly. "Dr. Crane, I don't know what to say…I'm speechless. They're beautiful. They must have cost a fortune…I don't know if I can accept these!"
"Please do, Daphne. From one friend to another."
"Thank you so much, I'm not ever going to forget this!" She embraced Niles and kissed him on the cheek, and he looked like he was in heaven.
Daphne then came up to Mulder, leaned close to his face, and whispered, "Did you get it taken care of?"
"Yes, I did. Everything should be fine now."
"Wonderful."
Mulder said goodbye to Niles, even though he had no idea what was going on. He grabbed the Eddie that belonged in his world, bid Daphne farewell, and went inside the closet once more.
Just like he thought, it worked this time, and soon everything flipped around and back into place. Mulder opened the door and set Eddie down on the floor. He raced into the living room before Mulder even had a chance to move.
"Hey, boy!" Martin exclaimed.
"Mulder?" Scully said, just before Mulder stepped out into the living room and a look of relief appeared on her face. Niles was still sitting on the couch looking content, Mr. Crane was sitting in his chair, and Daphne was peeking in from the kitchen.
"Are you all right?" Scully asked, touching his forearm briefly.
"Yes, I'm fine, Scully," he said with a smile.
"Agent Mulder," said Daphne. "How did you find Eddie?"
"It's a bit of a long story, but to sum it up I would say to keep him out of that closet."
Mulder and Scully said their goodbyes and went back out to the car.
"So what now, Mulder?" asked Scully.
"I've been in another universe today, Scully, I wanna eat."
"What are you hungry for?"
"I don't know…Chinese?"
The End