Scully makes an unfortunate discovery

Dana Scully was standing in a phone booth outside Harry's Diner in Redford, Virginia, right in the middle of town, clearly visible to the window-shopping housewives and the old-fashioned cars rolling down the street. She was wearing a black suit jacket, a crisp white blouse, black pumps and peach-coloured, lace-trimmed panties, cut high to show off her long lovely thighs.

Usually, the last item of clothing wouldn't become relevant in the course of an average work day. Usually, however, Dana Scully wore pants to work. Today was an exception.

She let out a small sound, a quiet squeak of alarm and despair. The phone fell from her hand.

The diner's doorbell jingled as a couple of customers, middle-aged men in plaid shirts, stepped out into the street. Scully bit her lip. They turned left and walked right past her, deep in conversation, unaware of the beautiful, pantsless woman standing no more than a few feet away from them.

She'd forgotten her pants.

No. She'd left her apartment early that morning, gotten coffee, done some work at the office, then driven all the way out to Redford. She couldn't have done all that without pants. Could she? Had she visited the office, gone through security and checked in with Director Skinner, all without realising her underwear was on display? It didn't seem possible.

But there she was. Out in public. Standing by the side of the road. Without any pants.

She'd come to work with no pants on.

It was almost like... no. It couldn't be.

The doorbell jingled again, as a salesman in a fedora with a newspaper under his arm strode out. As he glanced left and right, Scully sank back into the relative security of the phone booth. She had suddenly become aware of an overwhelming desire not to be seen.

What would happen if she was caught? Caught by a total stranger? The smart, tough FBI agent, coming out from the big city to show the local yokels how it's done, and the moment she arrives, she's caught walking down the street without her pants? She'd never live it down.

And what if Mulder found out?

Scully wiggled her way back into the booth, still feeling the wind on her legs. It barely hid her at all. This wasn't going to work. And she had a meeting with the sheriff in half an hour.

Somehow, before then, she had to find some pants.