Title: Halloween Eve

Author: Girlie_girl7

Email: Girlie_girl74@yahoo.com

Date: 10-30-03

Rating: PG

Category: bit o’fluff

Spoilers: VS 11, anything up to JS

Archive: Anywhere after two weeks at VS 11

Disclaimer: Fox owns ’em

Summary: Mulder’s paranoia takes over on Halloween.

~ Halloween Eve ~

Mulder and Scully were standing in line at Grover’s

Market in Georgetown. Scully was in need of groceries

and as much time as Mulder spent at her place, she

figured he might just as well come along to pick out

his own junk food and carry the bags.

Mulder was leaning over the cart while standing on the

bottom rung, much like a small child would. “Scully,

did you buy any caramels and apples? The best part of

Halloween is eating caramel apples.”

Scully checked her grocery list one more time to make

sure she had gotten everything. “Yes Mulder, I bought

apples and caramels. I always give out apples to the

trick-or-treaters.”

Mulder wrinkled up his nose, “Apples, plain old

apples? Scully kids hate getting apples.”

Scully had finally made it to the end of the conveyor

belt and placed the little divider between her

groceries and the customer’s ahead of her. “Mulder, I

am not contributing to the poor eating habits of

children.”

Mulder looked around and mumbled, “I’ll bet your trick

or treaters wonder where you park your broom.”

“What?” Scully asked.

“Nothing,” Mulder answered.

Scully was getting exasperated with her partner,

“Mulder, will you stop climbing all over the cart and

help me unload it.” Scully could have sworn she heard

him whine. He began to put the groceries on the belt

when he stopped and stared at the clerk, then pulled

on the hem of Scully’s sweater. “Mulder, stop that!”

She said as she batted his hand away.

Mulder looked down at his partner with his back to the

clerk, “Scully, who does that checkout look like?”

Scully tried to look around Mulder but he grabbed her,

“Don’t look, don’t look!”

Scully got up in his face, “Mulder, how am I supposed

to look at her, if you won’t let me look at her!”

Mulder glanced up then looked back down, “Okay, but

look really quick.”

Scully turned her head slightly, as she put a head of

cabbage on the belt, “So.”

“So?” Mulder repeated while he looked at Scully in

amazement, “Don’t you see it?”

“See what?”

“Don’t you think she looks like Eve 6?”

Scully whipped her head around to look at the woman

who was currently scanning a case of Yoo-hoo. “No, I

don’t think she does,” Scully whispered while she

placed the last of her groceries on the belt and began

to dig out her coupons.

“Scully! She looks exactly like her.”

Scully laughed, “She does not.”

“Scully look again, she is even chewing her gum in the

same manor as Eve, when she showed us how she bit that

poor guards eye ball.”

Scully stared at her partner, “Mulder, are you sure

the spirit of the holiday isn’t getting to you?”

Mulder was busy rearranging the groceries on the

conveyor belt, trying to act nonchalant while he gave

the clerk the once over.

He leaned against the counter and whispered in

Scully’s ear, “It’s an Eve, same dumpy posture, thick

thighs, round face, it’s gotta be.”

Scully glanced up from straightening her coupons,

“Mulder, I’m sorry but I just don’t see it.”

The clerk began to scan Scully’s groceries, “Do you

have any coupons ma’am?”

Mulder was leaning against the counter mouthing, “It’s

her.” Scully frowned and hit him with the back of her

hand. He huffed out a lung full of air and moved to

stand behind her.

“Yes, I do,” Scully said, as she handed the Eve clerk

her neatly clipped little pieces of paper.

Mulder walked around Scully and began to pick up the

bags and drop them into the cart when she frowned at

him, and he carefully placed the next bag in. “So

have you worked here long. . .” Mulder looked at the

clerk’s nametag and swallowed hard, “Evelyn.”

He looked over at Scully; she raised her eyebrow in

fact she raised both, he knew now her interest was

peaked.

“You worked here long, Evelyn?”

The clerk continued to scan Scully’s groceries, “About

a month, I moved here from San Francisco.”

Now Mulder’s eyebrow raised, as he spun a can of cream

of mushroom soup Scully had placed on the counter,

“Nice area to live, why’d you move?”

Evelyn shrugged, “I lost my husband.”

Mulder stopped the spinning can, “You did, how did he

die?”

Evelyn scanned Scully’s bag of apples, “He didn’t, he

run off with a twenty year old nurse.”

Mulder looked over at Scully, who shrugged her

shoulders. He grabbed another bag of groceries and

placed them into the cart. “Halloween’s tonight, I

love Halloween.”

“Me too,” Evelyn chuckled in what Mulder would

describe as an evil chuckle, “I’m going to a party.”

“Oh really,” Mulder feigned surprise, “what are you

going as?”

“A mad scientist.”

Mulder was not feigning surprise now; even Scully’s

little ears had perked up with that last statement.

“That will be 68.52,” Evelyn told Scully.

“What?” Scully replied, lost in the thought that an

Eve might be bagging her avocados.”

“68.52,” Evelyn said, as she snapped her gum.

“Oh right,” Scully got out her credit card and ran it

through the terminal.

Mulder placed the last of the groceries in the cart

and waited for Scully next to the exit while he never

took his eyes off Evelyn.

Scully walked over to him and looked back at the

clerk, “I have to admit Mulder, she does sound a lot

like Eve.”

Mulder’s eyes narrow, “I’m getting to the bottom of

this.”

Scully looked around as they walked to her car,

“Mulder are you sure this isn’t just a machination of

your imagination gone wild?”

Mulder opened the trunk and began to put the groceries

into it. “Scully! You said yourself, she sounded a

lot like an Eve.”

“A lot, not exactly,” Scully responded.

Mulder slammed the trunk lid shut and set his jaw,

“I’m going back in there.”

“And do what?” Scully sarcastically asked, “Buy some

Halloween candy?”

“Good idea!” Mulder said, as he turned on his heels.

“Well, aren’t you coming with me?”

“No, my feet hurt, but if she turns on you and takes

your Goobers, you yell.”

Mulder tossed back his head in a silent laugh. He

walked back in the store and grabbed a cart. He eyed

Evelyn as he walked to the candy section of the store.

He tried to keep his eye on the evil clerk as he

tossed bags of M&M’s, Tootsie Rolls, Dumb-Dumb’s,

Sweet Tarts, and Candy Corn into the cart. He picked

up the bag of Candy Corn, wrinkled his nose and tossed

it back on the shelf, then he added a bag of bubble

gum and Hershey’s Kisses.

So far Evelyn hadn’t done anything extraordinary

except shift her underwear out of her crack. Mulder

pretended to be reading the nutritional information on

a box of Milk Duds, while he continued to surveil the

evil clerk. A boy around fourteen had been digging

through the candy section next to Mulder, he looked at

the older man and said, “Hey, if you got to check out

the fat content, you’re to damn old to be eatin’ that

shit.”

Mulder looked down at the pimply faced kid and

frowned, “Go away.”

The little geek wasn’t deterred, “Oh yeah,” he stuck

out his pointy chin, “what cha gonna do to me old

man?”

Mulder pulled out his badge, “Well, I could run your

ass in for that bike you stole or get you for smokin’

weed in the school crapper.”

The kid looked wide eyed at the agent, “How’d you know

about that stuff?”

Mulder towered over the little punk, “I’ve got my

sources.”

The kid backed away from Mulder and started to run for

the entrance. “And get a haircut!” Mulder yelled after

him.

He pushed his cart of candy to Evelyn’s checkout but

another clerk was waving the good-looking agent over

to her aisle. He tried to ignore her. “Sir, sir, I’m

free if you would like to step over.”

Mulder coughed and looked down at his shoes and

coughed again, nearly winding himself on that last

one. Figuring he must be a carrier of walking

Pneumonia the clerk finally gave up. He moved a

little closer to the head of the line and picked up a

National Star Midnight News and pretended to glance

through it. He watched her slap a calf’s liver on the

scales and weigh it then she pulled a tissue out of

her bra and blew her nose. Finally his turn had come.

“Hello again,” Evelyn said.

“Hello,” Mulder smiled, as he tossed his bags of candy

on the conveyor belt. He looked up at the clerk; “We

forgot to buy candy for trick-or-treat.”

Evelyn frowned, “I thought your wife said she was

giving out apples.”

“She is,” Mulder said struggling to rationalize his

purchase, “but these are for me to give out. She is

highly allergic to candy so I have to buy it when she

is not around.”

The clerk raised her eyebrow, “You each give out

treats?”

“Yeah,” Mulder lied, “she gives out apples to the

unhealthy kids and I give out candy to the healthy

ones.”

“Okay,” Evelyn frowns.

“Since I come in here a lot and will probably be

seeing you, let me introduce myself, “I’m Fox Mulder,

and you are?”

“Evelyn Lichfield.”

“Lichfield?”

“Yeah, from the Marin County Lichfields,” Evelyn said,

while she cracked her gum.

Evelyn scans Mulders candy; “You sure must have a lot

of trick or treaters in your neighborhood.”

“Yes we do,” Mulder lied, “we have a family with eight

girls.”

“That’s a lot of kids,” Evelyn said, as she hoisted up

Mulder’s first shopping bag of candy.

“Do you have any siblings, Evelyn?”

“One brother Adam.”

Mulder very nearly dropped his second bag of candy.

“That will be 40.15.”

Mulder pulled out his wallet and gave her two bills

and a handful of change. “Thanks, Mr. Mulder.”

“You’re welcome Evelyn.”

Mulder grabbed his last bag and started to head for

the door when Evelyn said, “tell your wife I hope her

feet feel better.”

Mulder looked at her, “How. . .”

Evelyn gave him an evil grin, “I just knew.”

Mulder nearly ran into a patron while leaving the

store. “Hey watch it!” The man frowned. “Mulder?”

“Sir?” Mulder looked up to find he was staring at

Walter Skinner.

“Sir! Am I glad you’re here, I have discovered an

escapee from a mental hospital working in this store.

I’ll need your help in apprehending her.”

Skinner shrugged in his trench coat, “How do you know

she’s an escapee?”

“Because years ago Scully and I apprehended two of her

sisters.”

“Triplets?”

“No octuplets but each one was mad and

institutionalized.”

“And just where is this escapee?”

“She’s the third clerk from the end.” Mulder pointed

her out.

Skinner stared at the woman and then looked out over

the agent’s head, “Mulder that’s my cousin, Evelyn

Lichfield. Her husband left her a few months ago, so

I got her to move to DC from San Francisco, and I got

her this job.”

“So she’s not a genetic scientist?”

“Mulder, she’s not even a good clerk.” Skinner looked

down at his shoes; “Does Scully know you’re here?”

“Yeah, she’s out in the car.”

“Then I suggest you join her.”

“Right sir, I don’t suppose she comes from a family of

eight girls and eight boys?” Mulder was grasping at

this point.

“Nope, only a brother Adam.”

“Thank you sir,” Mulder dejectedly said.

He pushed his cart full of candy toward Scully’s car

and pulled out his keys, unlocking the trunk and

tossed in his bags of candy.

He climbed in the passenger side and slumped down.

“Mulder, what happened?”

Mulder sighed, “It wasn’t an Eve, Scully.”

“How do you know?” Scully asked, without humor in her

voice; she sensed that he was upset.

“Because she’s Walter Skinner’s cousin, Evelyn

Lichfield,” Mulder muttered as he looked out the side

window.

Scully laughed and Mulder glared.

“Sorry Mulder, but you have to admit that is pretty

funny.”

“Can we just go home?” Mulder pouted.

Later that night a small child dressed as a pirate,

rung Dana Scully’s doorbell. Mulder pulled the door

open as the kid yelled, “Trick-or-treat!”

Mulder handed him a grocery bag full of candy.

“Gee thanks mister!” The kid said, as he tried to

drag the heavy bag down the hallway.

“Yeah, yeah,” Mulder grumbled as he shut the door.

~ The End ~