The Blues Are Back

The last thing Scully expects to encounter when she enters their office is exactly what she finds. For a full minute she stands in the doorway and stares, unable to do anything else.

As she is too shocked to form any intelligible words, her mouth gapes open, displaying her teeth. One has a smear of lipstick on it. In her rush to get to work that morning, she'd slipped while applying it.

Her eyes are wide and as intense a blue as the plant matter before her. (There's plant matter absolutely everywhere!)

She sees Mulder's head pop up suddenly amongst the foliage and it's the sheepish grin he wears that breaks her from her stupor.

"Mulder! What the hell is going on here?" She pierces him with a look and pulls her lower lip into her mouth to chew on. Frowning, she assesses the situation.

Mulder, approximately in the centre of their office, is tangled in the blue weeds so much so that his head appears to be floating. There's a smear of blue on his left cheek, perhaps left behind by a paint brush.

Mulder tilts his head to the side. "I sent a beautiful plant to Skinner's office on Friday before I left. It was supposed to do this," he says (an arm shoots without warning out of the foliage and gestures around), "to his office. Apparently he decided to sent it back." A short laugh escapes his lips.

"Why is it blue?"

Another ironic laugh.

"That was part two of the fill-Skinner's-office-with-a-painted-plant plan," Mulder explains. "I figured I might as well continue with it. It's a different location, but it works."

"Painted plants?" Her eyebrows shoot skyward. "Why?" She shakes her head. "And why in hell would you play a practical joke like this on yourself, on me, just because it didn't go as planned?"

A shrug.

Sighing in frustration, she turns and begins to walk away. She calls over her shoulder, "this better be gone when I get back."

Only when the elevator doors have closed behind her does she let the smile tugging at her lips take over. Unexpected and unexplainable encounters were her job and yet somehow, Mulder's antics never ceased to amaze her.

fin.