"I thought I'd find you here," Skinner jumped right in, not noticing the stunned expressions on the two agents' faces or apparently the pencils that had just etched their way into the ceiling either.

Acknowledging Mulder briefly first, he turned purposefully towards Scully. "There was a phone call from your mother that just came through. She was wondering where you were."

"Okay, thank you, sir," Scully replied, attempting to keep her voice as natural as possible. Despite her best efforts though, it came out quite raggedly. "I'll call her back right away."

Skinner nodded slowly, catching on. "Is there something wrong, agent?" he asked curiously.

Mulder quickly stepped in, seeing Scully's cornered expression. "No, sir," he said. It finally occurred to him that they were no longer locked in. "We just had a little trouble with getting the door unlocked earlier," he explained with a small smile. "Everything is fine now though. Right, Scully?"

Scully glanced up at the mention of her name. "Oh, yes. It's fine now."

"If you're sure?" Skinner eyed them suspiciously.

"Yes, it's fine," Scully repeated, just as her pencil unstuck itself from the ceiling and plummeted downwards. Skinner watched amusedly as it collided noisily with Scully's desk, inches away from where her hand rested.

Scully jumped back startled and looked up at Skinner with an expression on her face that she hoped passed as innocent. Maybe he'd think that Mulder had been the one to put the pencil in the ceiling. Maybe.

"Are you in need of more stationary?" Skinner asked, straight-faced. "A pencil holder, for example?"

Scully groaned as Mulder collapsed in a fit of laughter at his desk. "No, sir. I'm sure we have enough supplies and such already," she informed him. "But thank you."

Skinner nodded and allowed a small smile to break out onto his face. "If you change your mind…" he faded out meaningfully.

"No, I'm sure we'll be fine," Scully repeated.

"Well, in that case," Skinner smiled at them, "I'll see you tomorrow." Nodding a quick 'goodnight' to them, he exited the office, closing the door behind him.

Scully immediately turned to her partner, who was now clutching his chest from laughing so hard. "I am going to kill you!" she glared at him. Pulling herself to her feet, she headed to the door and put her coat on. "Tomorrow," she added. "And I'll take a raincheck on dinner if that's alright. I'm really tired tonight and I don't think I'd make very good company."

Mulder nodded. "Sure, tomorrow it is then," he said with a grin. He watched as Scully adjusted her coat slightly, and then moved over to the door. "G'night, Scully."

Scully shook her head wearily in amusement and returned his 'goodnight'. Smiling to herself, she tried the door again, slowly turning the knob in her hand. It wouldn't budge. Again. She tried the other way. Nothing.

With a reluctant sigh, Scully turned back to face Mulder. He stared at her questioningly for a moment before realising what must've happened. "Locked in?" he asked.

Scully rolled her eyes in response, obviously exasperated by the goings on of the night. "Yup, we're locked in," she confirmed. "Again."