Scully approaches the situation rationally

Still crouched down behind the washing machine, alert for any sign that someone was about to walk into the laundry, excruciatingly aware that she was wearing nothing but her shoes and her peach-coloured underwear, Scully did her best to rationally assess the situation.

There was something very funny about all this. Something almost... contrived about her situation. The convenience of the coin laundry, the sheriff's strange behaviour, the temperamental washing machines... it was almost like she was being toyed with. Like some mischievous **** was arranging events to tease and frustrate her as much as possible, amusing itself at her expense, dangling clothes in front of her face only to snatch her away.

Of course, that wasn't possible. As a scientist, she knew there was no such thing as mysterious forces capable of arranging events. There were only the laws of chance and physics, and nothing that had happened today violated those laws at all. Even the disappearance of her blouse and her pants was bound to have some mundane explanation.

Like, perhaps she'd just forgotten to wear them. She was absolutely sure she remembered having her blouse on only a few minutes ago, before she'd made her daring pantsless run across the street. But memory could be decieving. If she could forget to put on her clothes before she left the house in the morning, maybe she could also have a false memory of wearing them. It was at least theoretically possible.

Anyway, it didn't matter now. She could figure out the mystery of the missing pants later. For now, she had to concentrate on the immediate problem.

She was in her underwear.

Stuck, out in public, in a small town full of strangers, in her bra and panties. With nowhere to hide. And in only a handful of minutes, dozens of those strangers were going to pour into the laundry and catch her in her bra and panties.

The townsfolk would be bound to ask here what she was doing in their laundry, all alone, wearing just her bra and panties. And she wouldn't know what to say. She could hardly tell them she'd forgot to put her clothes on before leaving the house this morning. She'd just have to stand there, mouth hanging open, looking like the silliest little schoolgirl in the world, while they pointed and giggled and inspected her bra and panties.

They'd be sure to call the police. So Sheriff Rosario would come back. She could hardly tell the sheriff she was a federal agent, not while she was standing before a crowded room in her bra and panties. The Bureau would be sure to find out. Word would get around, and she would forever be known as Special Panties Agent Dana Scully. That couldn't be allowed to happen.

But what else could she say? If she just said nothing, she was pretty sure she'd be arrested as a pervert. She'd be marched back to the station through the streets of Redford, in her bra and panties, and locked up in a cell, still in her bra and panties. And then who knew what would happen? She might even be sent to jail! Federal agents didn't do well in women's prison, she knew. The other inmates liked to target them, and they wound up spending a lot of time in their bra and panties. Or worse.

Damn it, she was a doctor! And now, just for a silly mistake, she was only a few minutes away from being reduced to a public little blushing bra-and-panties girl! It wasn't fair! There had to be a way out!