O.K. This is my very first story so I'm really new to this. Actually, I've written other stories, but this is the only one I got up the nerve to send. I know it's kind of short, but I'm not a very good writer. All comments are welcome, but please be gentle. If its so bad that nothing nice can be said about it go ahead and let me have it. Well, hope you enjoy it. Disclaimer: The X-Files, and Agents Mulder and Scully are all property of Chris Cater, Ten Thirteen Productions, and the Fox Network. No infringement intended. blah, blah, blah, etc., etc. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Something Strange By Starbuck2 F.B.I. Headquarters 1/12/96 7:46 p.m. "Morning, Scully," Mulder mumbled as he walked through the door to their small basement office. He was skimming through a file that he seemed very interested in. "Good morning," she mumbled back. She glanced up from her computer and saw the intense look on his face. "New case?" she asked. "Yeah, it was just assigned to us by Skinner. It seems a man has claimed that he has been visited by 'little green men' at his house. It appears that he's the only witness." "The only one? Mulder, this sounds like an article for the National Inquirer, not a case for the F.B.I." "No, it says here that this is a very well respected man in the community. He has two well-behaved children and a loving wife. He doesn't seem like the type of guy to make up something like this." Scully sighed. She knew there was no point in arguing further. Once Mulder had his mind set on something he always followed through. "Come on, Scully. Our plane leaves in two hours. Go home and pack, and I'll meet you at the airport in 45 minutes." "Where are we headed?" "Chicago, Illinois." ********************************** Chicago, Illinois 1/12/96 6:01 p.m. Mulder and Scully stood in front of the small two story house. A tall, broad-shouldered man answered the door. "I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder and this is Agent...." "Hold on a minute," the man interrupted. He shut the door and from behind it Scully could hear the man say something to his kids about hiding the "stuff." She looked at Mulder with a with one of those "I told ya so" looks. The man opened the door again and said, "What do you feds want?" "We're looking for a man named Al Bundy," Mulder responded, a bit irritated. "What? Is he in trouble?" he asked frantically. "No, we're here to question him about his alleged encounter with extraterrestrials." "What?" the man looked puzzled. "Extraterrestrials." Mulder repeated. The man stared at him blankly. "Aliens?" Still no expression. "Moon Men?" "Oh! We'll, I'm Al Bundy." He turned around and spoke to a woman sitting on the couch in the living room. "Laugh at me now, Peg. The F.B.I. is here." "Oh, shut up, Al," the woman retorted. Mulder cleared his throat loudly. "May we..." "Yeah, sure come in." Al responded. He seemed a little excited. "Peg, get up and get our guests some coffee." The woman got up, laughing, and went upstairs. "Curse you woman!" Al yelled up after her. He turned around to the agents and told them to have a seat. They came in and noticed a blond headed girl and a dark headed boy were sitting at the kitchen table. They were fighting about something. "At least I'm not a dateless little pimple," the girl was saying. "Yeah, well at least I'm not a cheap little sex toy for men." "No, but you wish you were." "Why you little..." At that point the boy had his hands around the girl's neck, choking her. "Kids! Daddy's got company so shut up before I kill both of you," Al shouted. Mulder, sitting on the couch, began the questioning. "Mr. Bundy, could you tell us about your encounter?" "Five or six little green moon men came through my window a couple of nights ago." "Can you describe them?" "They were short, green, and they wore little silver suits. They're heads were real big, and they only had four fingers." "Mmhem, and do you know the reason for their visit?" "No, but I think it had something to do with my socks." "What?" Scully looked up. "They came in and stole the socks right off my feet." "Yeah and they were his best socks, too. They only had three holes in 'em," the girl said sending her and the boy into fits of laughter. "That was a good one, Kel," the boy said when they finally calmed down. "Shut up, little sea urchins." Scully gave her partner another look, but this time it was the "I'm gonna kill you" look. He shrugged his shoulders and turned back to face Al. "So...what were you saying about your socks?" Mulder was seemingly unfazed by the previous events. Scully couldn't believe it. She personally was disgusted. "Oh, yeah. Those little thieves came in and took my socks. That's why I called the F.B.I. I can't afford to get anymore socks stolen." "I'm sure you can't," Scully spoke up. She was about ready to get back on a plane and go home. They stayed for another hour or so asking questions and listening to Al babble on about other things. When they were outside and just about to the car, Mulder suggested that they go talk to the neighbors. He turned around and walked off before Scully could say anything. She sighed and followed him. A short man answered the door. "Yes?" "I'm sorry to disturb you, Sir, but I'm Special Agent Fox Mulder and this is Agent..." "Did you call me sir?" A taller man walked up and stood behind the shorter one. "What's wrong, Honey?" the taller man asked. "This man just called me sir," she whined. "Did you call my wife sir?" "You mean that's a woman? I'm sorry, but the short hair and flat chest threw me off." Mulder was blushing from embarrassment. "Oh, don't worry about it. It's an easy mistake. You should try waking up in the morning and nearly getting the hell scared out of you thinking another man is in the bed with you." The man broke out into laughter. "Jeff-er-son!" his wife yelled at him. The man stopped laughing, and tried to hold back a grin. "Aw, Marcy, I was just..." "If you say another word we won't have sex for two days." "Um, can we ask you a few questions?" "Sure. What do you want to know?" the woman said. "Have you noticed any kind of strange activity in the area lately?" "Al told you his U.F.O. story, didn't he?" Scully grinned at Mulder. "Yes, we have spoken with Mr. Bundy. Have you seen anything?" Mulder asked again. "No, but if we see any little green men around we'll be sure to call you." The man and woman laughed and shut the door. "Well, they were helpful," Mulder commented sarcastically. Finally, after they were in their car and on their way to the hotel, Scully began the usual skeptical questions. "Mulder, do you honestly believe his claims?" "About the aliens?" "No, about him being a shoe salesman. I mean who in their right mind would sell women's shoes?" "Scully, why can't you ever believe? How could you think anyone would want to lie about something like that?" "He's obviously a liar. Did you hear his story about high school football? No one can make that many touchdowns in one game." "Have you ever played high school football?" "No, but I know enough about it to not believe what he says. His story's full of holes, Mulder. That whole business about his socks was ridiculous. Of all the alien stories I've heard, this one had to be the worst. Please don't tell me you bought into it." "And why wouldn't I Scully?" Scully rolled her eyes and looked away. "The aliens may have had some purpose for his socks. What if they used them for fuel or something." "Mulder, that's outrageous, even for you. Now, I'm gonna go back to the hotel, get some sleep, and I'm leaving on the first flight out tomorrow morning." "O.K. Scully, if nothing else happens tonight, we'll go home, but if something does, we stay." "O.K. I'll go ahead and book us on that flight for tomorrow morning," and she added, mumbling under her breath, "I hope I won't have to cancel it." Mulder glanced at her, and smiled to himself. ********************************** Scully's hotel room 11:21 p.m. Scully was sleeping peacefully in the comfortable hotel bed, but she was suddenly jerked out of sleep by a loud sound. It took her a second to realize it was the telephone ringing at an ear piercing volume. "If this is Mulder calling to tell me he can't sleep again, I'm gonna kill him." She reluctantly picked up the phone. "Hello." "Scully, it's me." "Where are you?" She could tell from the staticy reception that he was on his cellular. "I'm at the Bundy's house. I was out driving because I couldn't sleep, and Mr. Bundy called and told me that the aliens are at his house right now. I think you should...oh God." "What? Mulder, what's going on?" She heard a click on the other end. "Mulder! Damn." She jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes. Her gun was laying on the nightstand in its holster. It would take too long to try and put that thing around her waste so she just grabbed the gun, and her keys and took off out the door. "Good thing we decided to rent two cars," she thought to herself. ************************************ The Bundy's house 11:42 p.m. Scully pulled up in the driveway and saw that all the lights in the house were off. She jumped out of the car, gun in hand, and ran to the front door. She tried the doorknob, but it was locked. She thought about knocking, decided against it and ran around to the back of house. She found a sliding glass door. As she was trying to peer inside the dark house she heard a noise coming from somewhere behind her. She spun around and saw nothing. Then a bush off to her right moved slightly. With her gun pointed to the sky she crept slowly over to the bush and saw a man lying on the ground next to it. It was Mulder. "Mulder!" Scully ran and knelt down next to her partner. He groaned and opened his eyes. "Mulder, are you all right? What happened?" "They took them, Scully. They took my socks." "Oh my God. Those bastards. What did they look like?" "They were dark brown and white argyle with..." "No, Mulder, I mean the people who took them." "I don't know, Scully. I can't...I can't remember." "Come on, let's get you ought of here." "No, wait Scully. I want to talk to Mr. Bundy." She sighed but didn't argue with him. She helped him up, and they walked back over to the glass door together. Scully slid it open, and stood aside for Mulder to go in first. Al was coming down the stairs when they had gotten into the living room. "Well, it's about time you feds showed up. They're gone now, but not to worry. I got plenty of pictures before they left. I'm gonna get them developed tomorrow, and I'm gonna be a rich man." He giggled excitedly. "Mr. Bundy, we just came in to tell you that we're leaving for Washington first thing in the morning." Scully spoke with irritation. "Scully, we..." "Mulder, we are going home." He didn't say another word. He knew not to mess with her when she got in one her moods, and she was definitely in one now. "Do whatever, I don't care because this Bundy's gonna be rich." "Let's get out of here, Mulder." ******************************** F.B.I. Headquarters 1/15/96 8:15 a.m. "Morning, Scully," Mulder mumbled as he walked through the door to the small basement office. "Good morning," she mumbled back. "You're late again." "Overslept." "Did you find out anything else about the Bundy case?" "Yeah. He took his film and dropped it off to be developed, but when he came back he found out that they had overexposed his film. Turns out that the power had gone out at the developing place and they accidentally shined a flashlight at the film as it was being developed. We still have nothing." "So what else is new." End. For those of you who may not watch Married With Children or who missed this episode, there was an ep. once where Al was visited by aliens who really did take his socks for fuel. It's kind of an old one, but I thought it was really funny. My sister's actually the one who thought of a crossover between that ep. and X-Files, but I decided to write about it. I guess that's kind of my disclaimer for the writers and whoever else is involved with Married With Children. The basic story line and characters did not belong to me. So I guess that's all. Hope you didn't think it sucked.