Mulder and Scully had decided to spend what was left of the day fishing out info in the two strategic places they would need for themselves: the only motel of the town and the pretty looking diner nearby. Then, if nothing held them back, they would leave the town for the enigmatic and remote Deep Valley in the very early hours of the morning.
When they got out of the car at the motel parking lot, a warm and fragrant breeze immediately titillated their nostrils. This part of the lot was delimited by a luxuriant green parcel where many flowers had blossomed and flourished by the ever magical springtime. Attracted by the scents and colors, Mulder and Scully joined in front of the most exuberant flowering bush, admiring its beauty.
"You know what it's called, Scully?" Mulder asked.
"I'm afraid not. I admit I'm not a natural botanist and I really lack knowledge in that domain," Scully replied.
"Well, if one day I own a yard, I wouldn't mind this kind of bush to pimp it out."
Scully turned around her head and smiled at Mulder's face. She recalled the first time he mentioned having a home on his own in a little town, taking her aback; those last weeks, she could more easily imagine him living the Mayberry life and she wouldn't mind digging her hands in a fertile soil by his side, seeding promises of ambrosial green beauty in their shared yard.
As bewitched by the power of flowers, Mulder and Scully then walked to the motel reception hand in hand, not even thinking of disjoining their fingers when entering the front door. It hadn't been overlooked by the clerk, who was instantly charmed by the blissfulness haloing the approaching couple.
"Welcome, Mrs and Mr! It's your lucky day! Our unique and best room, super king size bed, widest bathroom and largest tub, is available. Just… waiting for you," the young man advertised in a Pavlovian reflex.
Yet, he had stumbled on his last words, struck by a detail: The man and the woman facing him —as gorgeous and lovestruck as they might appear— weren't wearing the appropriate attire of honeymooners or tourists. They looked like officials.
Scully was the first to become aware of their unprofessional behavior through the clerk's stare; she quickly shifted to her usual FBI posture, detaching her hand from Mulder's and even slightly stepping away from him —to Mulder's regret.
"We'll take it, thanks, it seems so nice and comfy," Mulder said, slightly stung by Scully's attitude and before she had a chance to decline the clerk's proposition. "Please, add another room, the closest. The first would be for my partner, Agent Scully, and the other one for me, Agent Mulder," he completed while holding out his FBI badge.
Both the clerk and Scully blushed, one for his huge mistake, the other by the nerve of her partner against her own embarrassment.
Still leading the pace, Mulder quickly exchanged his badge for a picture of the missing couple.
"Also", he continued, his face and tone imperturbable contrary to his jumpy heartbeats, "tell us all you know about this charming couple, Lori DuBois and Roy Woods. I bet they came in about two weeks ago, and they might even have taken this unique and best room of yours."
On this, the young clerk didn't have a choice but to cooperate fully with this odd Feds couple —or team, confusing as it was.
Their visit to the dinner had completed the information they had gathered at the motel reception.
On the whole they didn't learn much, except the implication of a kind of new-agy cult that had been formed a couple of years ago. The cultists had settled the closest to Deep Valley they could by means of four-wheel transportation, and they called themselves 'Guardians and Preservers of Deep Valley', whatever it meant. Lori and Roy had most certainly been driven to the cult settlement after spending only one night at the motel, implying that Mulder and Scully would have to thoroughly start their search from there.
When our duo came back to the motel, their stomachs highly satisfied, Mulder didn't even put a leg into the second room they'd paid for. He directly followed Scully in her upper graded room.
For a few seconds, Scully froze and faced Mulder, frowning her eyebrows and taking an offended face, but —as both knew— it was all pretense and play.
They couldn't and wouldn't fight the surprising warmth in the air, the intoxicating fragrance of the flowers, the sugary desserts and the rousing beers they had feasted on, and, all above, the bright stars that had blinked at them when they had stepped out into the night.
Deepening their connection before joining Deep Valley, that seemed the only right thing to do.