"Yeah! That's my ball!" Baby Bear cried happily, grinning from ear to ear. Mulder grabbed the bouncing ball, but Baby Bear began to cry again.

"Hey, that's mine!" Mulder looked down, to the crying little brown bear. He put the ball down, and patted the bear on his head.

"Sorry, here you go." The Bear smiled again, grabbed the ball and ran off. Mulder turned to Scully.

"I just gave a little blue ball to a talking bear." He shook his head in disbelief.

"Yes, well, that's all and well, but where is Paprika?" She asked in her lets-get-to-work voice.

"Don't be impatient, Agent Scully. We still have to find the first clue." Steve said. Scully rolled her eyes.

"Sure, Steve." She said. Steve continued to lead the two Agents around the backyard. Soon they came to a bright red picnic table. There was a bucket next to the table, with a blue paw print floating in it. Suddenly the unseen chorus screamed,

"Clue, clue!"

"Oh yes, I like my new shoes too." Steve said dumbly, not understanding the unseen chorus.

"No, they said 'Clue'!" Mulder yelled at Steve, who jumped a little in intimidation.

"Oh, a clue!" Steve said looking around. "Where?"

"Over there!" Mulder and the unseen chorus said at the same time. Steve, still looking, finally laid eyes on the bucket.

"Oh, it's our first clue!" He ran over the bucket, and Scully and Mulder followed.

"It appears to be water." Scully said. Steve nodded, and pulled a little notebook out of his back pocket. He opened the book and took a black crayon out.

"Now, to draw water you just make some wavy lines here, and here and here." He said as he drew.

"I'm 36 years old, I know how to draw water by now, Steve." Scully said. Steve didn't act like he heard her.

"Now we need to find our second clue." Soon there was again another call.

"Steve, Steve!" Steve turned to see a brick red Pail come running up to him.

"What is it Pail?" Steve asked, Scully noticed that the Pail was crying. After all that had happened so far, a crying Pail didn't seem all that odd.

"I asked Shovel to go find some rocks for us to build a fort with, and she went off and never came back!" Steve nodded sympathetically.

"We have been losing a lot of things lately."

"Will you help me find her?" Steve turned again to the house, talking to seemingly nothing.

"Will you help Pail find Shovel?" he asked.

"Yes!" the unseen chorus cried.

"Yes!" Mulder said as well. Scully rolled her eyes. Her partner was getting far to involved in this thing. Steve smiled with Mulder's enthusiasm.

"Well what should be our first step in finding Shovel?" Steve asked.

"Finding out where she was seen last" Mulder said, trying to act professional.

"Good idea, Mr. Mulder." Steve cried happily. He turned to Pail. "Where was Shovel seen last?"

"She went to the Far Side of the House." Pail managed through sniffles.

"Well, lets go to the Far Side of the House." Steve started to walk back towards the left, Mulder hurried after, while Scully reluctantly followed.

"I don't see what this has to do with finding a missing paprika shaker…" She muttered.

When the three humans and one pail arrived at the Far Side of the House, they came face to plastic yellow face.

"Shovel!" Pail cried, tears finally dry.

"Pail!" Shovel cried as they hopped towards each other. Steve smiled and turned to the nothing, which was actually the unseen chorus.

"Good Job! You found Shovel!"

"I don't see why if the Pail knew that the Shovel was on the Far Side of the House, he couldn't just hop over there himself and not bother us." Scully murmured. No one seemed to hear her anymore. Soon, Pail and Shovel said good-bye and hopped of back to the right. While they hopped, a colorful book lying on the grass caught Mulder's eye. He walked over and noticed a big Blue paw print.

"Steve!" he cried "A clue! A clue!" Steve looked at him, smile plastered to his lips.

"I know, I'm happy too." Scully rolled her eyes.

"No a clue!" Mulder yelled frustrated. Steve's eyes grew wide.

"Oh! A clue! Where?"

"Over here!" Mulder stopped his fed up. Steve ran over to him. He picked up the book; there was a large, brightly colored bathroom with a paw print on it.

"It's the second clue!" Steve said and started to sing the song again. From out of nowhere, Blue popped up and began to bark along with the song. Scully began to rub her temples. After the song was finished, Blue ran into the house

"If the bathroom is one of the clues, why don't we go to it?" Scully asked after Steve finished. He and Mulder ignored her as they followed where Blue went. She threw up her hands exasperated.

"What was that you said, Scully?" Mulder asked.

"Nothing…" She sighed. Mulder shrugged and began to walk with Steve to the door leading into the kitchen. As they walked into the kitchen, they saw Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper.

"Hey, have you seen which way Blue went?" Mr. Salt nodded (as only a salt shaker could) and pointed to the livingroom. His little arm was still around, and comforting Mrs. Pepper. Steve said thanks and walked into the vibrant living room. They walked towards the Big Red 'Thinking' Chair. Mulder still swore that the small table's draw's eyes were following him. He shook his head. Suddenly, a quartet-sounding chime called.

"Mail time!" Steve began to sing, ('like he does when anything ever happens in this blasted house.' Scully thought.) and Blue, again, popped up from nowhere and barked along

"Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail (where Steve appropriately shakes his rear) When it comes I want to wail, MAIL!" A Mailbox then shoot through the window, almost making Scully scream.

"Here's the mail, Steve. By the way, has anyone found Paprika?" the Mailbox asked.

"We're working on it." Scully said, rather sourly after her heart stopped racing. Steve pulled down the door of the Mailbox and pulled out a letter. Mailbox then retreated back through the window. And again, Steve began to sing

"We just got a letter, we just got a letter, we just got a letter, wonder who it's from." He stopped singing, much to Scully's pleasure

"It's a letter from our friends. Let's see what it says." Steve said. He opened a huge cardboard bright green card with a drawn picture of a dog and a stick figure man where the address should have been. When it was opened there was a video like picture in the middle of the card like a TV. Mulder's eye grew wide as the picture played out like a movie. There were two little children in the movie and it went something this:

"Hi Blue hi Steve! We're trying to find our stuffed bear." The two children started to walk around a porch searching for the bear. One kid, while looking under a bench, started saying

"My mother told me that if we start looking from were we last saw it." The other kid looked up

"I last saw it by the tree." The two kids ran to the tree and lo-and-behold there was a stuffed bear.

"We found it! Bye Steve!" The movie ended and Steve closed the card.

"What a nice letter from out friends!" Steve put the card aside, and turned to Mulder and Scully,

"Looks like we still have to find the third clue" Mulder tried to grab the card to examine it, but Steve pulled him away.

"Did you see where Blue went?" Mulder looked longingly at the card. While they walked through the Prozac ridden house, Mulder pulled Scully to him and whispered

"I want to see the card. I bet it is some sort of Alien machine…" Scully put a hand to his face and caught up to Steve, who was singing…again,

"We are looking for Blue's Clues, we are looking for Blue's Clues, we are looking for Blue's Clues, wonder where they are?"

"Well, we're damn sure never going to find them if you keep singing." Scully muttered; Mulder continuously looked over his shoulder to see the card.

As they walked, they caught a fleeting glimpse of Blue jumping into a open book with a picture of a bathroom on it. Scully was taken aback, Steve's eyes grew bright. He ran up to the book, and started to do a mock twist and semi-sang,

"Blue's skadoo, we can too!" He grabbed Mulder and Scully's hands and jumped into the book.

Scully, once she was in the book, clutched her chest, as if to stop a pounding heart.

"How…how did you do that?" She asked, stammering.

"You mean, you've never 'skadooed' into a book before?" Scully gave a look to Mulder but he was searching the bathroom vigorously trying to find how they managed to jump into a book. While Mulder searched, there was a little girl of blue paper, wearing a pink paper dress who came walking up to Steve.

"Are you looking for Blue?" She asked.

"Why, yes we are." Steve said "We are looking for Blue. Have you seen her?" The paper-girl nodded, as only a paper-girl could.

"She went that way." The girl pointed towards the bathroom door.

"Why thank you." Steve said, "Come on Mr. Mulder and Ms. Scully, we have to find the last clue." Scully rolled her eyes,

"I don't see how finding…" She was interrupted by the unseen chorus and Mulder yelling,

"A clue! A clue!"

"My shoe?" asked Steve confused "Yeah, I guess I shouldn't wear my shoes in the bathroom." Mulder ran up to Steve, grabbed him by the shoulders and started to shake him.

"Can't you hear man? We said 'clue' not 'shoe' or anything else. Can't you see?" Mulder pulled a shocked and frightened Steve to a soap dish where a white bar of soap lay with a large paw print on it. Steve, now seeing the clue, only smiled.

"Oh! A Clue!" He pulled out of Mulder's grasps. "We found the third clue!" Steve pulled out his notebook and drew a picture of some soap. Then Steve looked like he was going to break into song again; Scully plugged her ears.

When it seemed that Steve was finished, he grabbed her hand and Mulder's as Blue 'skadooed' out of the book. Steve, imitating the twisting motion, followed. Steve ran to the Big Red 'Thinking' Chair. Mulder and Scully followed. Steve pulled out his notebook.

"Let's see, where could Paprika be that has to do with water, a bathroom and soap?" As Steve said the clues, his drawn pictures came to life and danced above his head. Scully only sighed, her sense of wonder becoming nullified by the minute. Mulder walked around the chair and began to examine the pictures. Steve seemed to be talking to himself, but Mulder and Scully (and us too by now) knew he was really talking to the unseen chorus.

"What if Paprika was in some water, floating a bar of soap in a bathroom?" As Steve mentioned this, rather improbable situation, the pictures moved and bounced to visualize what he was saying. Mulder gasped in surprise, this only fueled his insatiable curiosity.

"Maybe Paprika is in the bathroom, by some soap next to a sink full of water?" Scully asked sarcastically. Steve jumped up,

"What if Paprika was playing in some water, in the bathroom with Slippery?" The pictures again moved to picture what was being said, Mulder looked on with childish amazement. The unseen chorus cheered. Steve hopped out of his chair, and began to dance.

"Who is Slippery?" Scully asked, caught unaware of Steve as he started of his song.

"We just figured out Blue's Clues, we just figured out Blue's Clues, we just figured out Blue's Clues, 'cause we're really smart." Scully rolled her eyes, Mulder went looking in vain for the pictures that vanished as Steve leaped out of his chair.

"Come on Mr. Mulder, Ms. Scully, we have to get Paprika from the bathroom!" Steve walked with a bounce in his step to the bathroom. Mulder and Scully followed.

Once in the bright white and blue bathroom they saw a small paprika shaker, playing a game with a soap bar. Scully was completely indifferent by this time.

"Paprika, it's time to go home." Steve said picking up the Paprika shaker. It made a kind of cooing, gurgling noise in response.

"Awe, Steve we were just starting." Steve turned to the soap bar that was talking.

"Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper are worried about Paprika, so it time for her to leave." Mulder said and then blinked. He looked up at Scully,

"I'm talking to a bar of soap." Scully shrugged.

"This is the X-files, Mulder, we've seen stranger." Scully's voice was strained and tired. Mulder nodded.

Upon returning Paprika to a much relieved Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper, Steve proceeded to sing the 'good-bye song' in which Scully walked out of.

That night, after far to many aspirins to cure the pounding headache, Scully wrote her concluding noted to the case:

Upon recollection of the event in the House of 'Steve' I would like to attribute all following event to a case of temporary insanity, or perhaps some kind of hallucinogen, perhaps induced by 'Steve' himself for purposes unknown at this time.

Although the site of vibrantly colored walls and ceilings were odd, the eccentrics went on under the brightly colored roof. Steve held an array of talking inanimate objects, such as a bucket, salt, pepper and paprika shaker, a bar of soap and a singing mailbox, among others. I would like to attribute these items as only side effects of the hallucinate, for otherwise, there is no reasonable explanation for this. In addition, Steve seemed to command an unseen chorus which he would talk to on occasion, strangely, these were not just voiced that only plagued Steve's mind, but were hear, clearly, to myself and Agent Mulder as well. However, none were as strange as the letter which contained a screen, much like a TV that played a movie/letter, and the pictures that floated out of a notebook and into plain view, flying above the notebook pages. Finally, there was the incident of the ability to, as Steve called it 'skadoo' into a book, and walk about in it's pictures.

Again, I have no probable explanation to the proceeding event, and can only surmise the use of a hallucinogenic induced state, I will need to investigate further.