Dana Scully stormed into the tiny, cluttered basement room also known as the office of the X-Files. Her lips were drawn into a tight, determined line as she threw a manila folder on top of the mountain of papers and photographs burying what might have been, at one point, a very nice office desk. Her partner, Fox Mulder, had his hands folded behind his head, and was currently using the desk himself-as a footrest.
"No."
Green eyes opened at the uttered syllable and glinted over the toes of polished black shoes. "'Morning, Scully. Plane leaves at ten, did you pack a bathing suit?"
"Mulder, I said no. I'm not going. This is ridiculous, even by your standards."
"What, swimming in Star city ?"
"We're not going to Star city ."
"That's not what our plane tickets say. Did you read the file before throwing it at me?"
"I wouldn't have thrown it at you if I hadn't read it."
"Aw, come on Scully! It's a pretty little town. Quiet, for the most part. All the hotels are beachfront! Haven't you been wanting a little R&R?"
"Mulder, if you think for one minute that I'm going to run off to what is obviously an extraordinarily seismic-prone area to chase down reports of an alien ship landing and the rumors of this " green lantern", you're more insane than I already thought!"
"Superheroes," Mulder corrected with a lazy smirk. "So called superheroes. Come on, Scully, we'll find out who's dumping hallucinogenics into the water and spend the rest of the trip basking in the sun and catching some waves. There aren't any high-rises to fall on us in the area we'll be investigating, so what harm will riding out a quake or two do?"
Scully sighed, tapped her fingers against her folded arms. "You really think that's all it is?"
"What else could it possibly be? Actual aliens are slightly lower-key," he ignored her snort, "and if it were a PR stunt for a Superman movie, we'd know about it. There'd be a lot more news coverage, too."
"You'd think there would be a lot more news coverage over an entire town hallucinating green lanterns and aliens, too."
"So you admit, there's something going on in Coast city worth investigating?"
Scully threw her hands up—in exasperation, in surrender. "Fine! I'm going home to pack."
And she absolutely did not smile as he called after her, "Don't forget that bathing suit!"
