THE X-FILES - THE AD'S NEW LADY #12 in X-Files

PAGEANT INTRODUCTION

Skinner, Mulder and the new agent arrived in Los Angeles later that night and was taken to their hotel in Studio City with a fancy Mercedes courtesy vehicle. They did not want it to look to obvious that they were involved with the FBI, so they ditched the FBI vehicles for the sake of the pageant. They were dropped off at the loading zone in front of the hotel and unloaded their suitcases from the vehicle before entering the hotel lobby where they were greeted by a dark-haired woman in her mid forties, dressed to the nines in a cream dress suit and high heels. "You must be Assistant Director Walter Skinner, and this must be the beautiful Miss District of Columbia. I'm Barbara Sanders, the CEO of the Miss USA organization."

"Pleased to meet you Mrs. Sanders. This is Julie McLean, our new agent." 

She turned her focus to Mulder who was standing behind Julie, almost as if to hide himself from the attention. "And you must be?" 

"Agent Fox Mulder." 

"Quite an entourage I must say."  She handed a box to Julie. "And here's your sash and crown. I hope you packed in swimsuits and evening gowns. Tomorrow we'll have our preliminary swimsuit competition. The day after that we're going to have the talent show. And after that we'll have the interviews with the contestants. We will also need a list of your hobbies and what you did after school as well as a short story about yourself." 

"Oh goodie..."

After they met with Barbara they hasted themselves to the hotel reception where they booked into their hotel rooms. They got rooms on the first floor, neatly in a row. Julie's room, next to Skinner's room, next to Mulder's room. Once again it seemed to Mulder as if Skinner was again the lucky bastard to come between him and the blonde bombshell. 

- X -

Skinner, Mulder and Julie all settled in their hotel rooms and Julie was already dressed in a little satin night dress and laying on the bed watching TV when there came a knock on her door. She got up, looked through the peeping hole in the door to find Mulder standing outside and opened the door. "Agent Mulder?"

"I just came to check if you are okay?"

She frowned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" 

Mulder couldn't help but notice the skimpy little piece of clothing she had on and his eyes raked over her legs up to where the little night dress ended and then again focused on her face. "Skinner instructed me to look after you. May I come in?" 

She hesitated for a while trying to figure out what Mulder's anterior motives were. "Don't you think it's a little inappropriate for you to come into my room? You know what the AD said." 

"You're off limits, I know, but..."

They hardly even knew each other and he was already starting to come up with excuses she thought and sighed. "Please tell me this is not an attempt to get into my pants."

"What gives you that idea? May I come inside or not?"

"No, you're not coming into my room." 

"I'll see you tomorrow morning then." 

"Good night." 

Mulder headed back to his hotel room as the blonde agent closed the door in his face, his ego slightly bruised. He opened the door, stepped inside, closed the door behind him and fell down on the bed staring at the ceiling and smiled contently. One way or the other he was going to sweep the new agent's feet right out from underneath her, he thought. He just had to figure out a plan of action to get her to fall for him. A short while later he was on the phone with Scully, who arrived in Washington D.C. that night. "I've been informed you're not in town."

"We're in California." 

"Skinner told me you're in California. What for? I'm flying there tomorrow." 

"A beauty pageant. Miss USA."

A confused look was etched out on Scully's face when Mulder mentioned the beauty pageant. "Miss USA? Since when is the FBI involved with beauty pageants?" 

"It's a long story. Miss Florida mysteriously disappeared out of her hotel room and we have to figure out how or why." 

"Interesting. I still don't see how it involves aliens and ufos or the unexplained."

- X -

Nervous about the following day's swimsuit preliminary competition Julie could not fall asleep and got out of bed. She pulled a little black dress over her head, not really worrying about her underwear and left her hotel room to go downstairs to the hotel bar and lounge. Not expecting a living soul down at the bar that time of the night, she was surprised to find Skinner seated at the bar, sipping on a beer and munching on a handful of peanuts. She hesitated first and wanted to head back to her room to dress more appropriately or put on something underneath the figure hugging dress she was wearing, when she gathered up her courage and walked up to him. "Sir?"

Skinner turned to look at her. "Agent McLean...what are you doing up so late at night?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I came down here." She took a seat next to Skinner and threw her hair back over her shoulder. "You want something to drink?"

"I'll have a white wine spritzer. Hopefully that would make me sleepy enough to go back to bed."

"White wine spritzer for the lady please," he said to the bartender standing on the other side of the bar counter. He noticed she was slightly nervous and tried to put her at ease. "You don't have to be nervous of me agent, I don't bite." 

She sighed as she felt a flutter of butterflies in her stomach. "Pageant nerves. It's not really my thing. And I don't want to make a joke out of the FBI and my state. I've heard these pageants can be quite tough. The competition is stiff and sometimes jealousy pops out it's ugly head. Last year the first runner up of a local beauty pageant attacked the winner on stage because she felt she deserved the title more than the actual winner."

"I guess these girls are more professional than that."

The bartender placed the glass with her drink in front of her and she took a sip. Skinner admired her beauty and he himself felt a flutter in his stomach as he gazed at her. His eyes raked over her body as she sat there next to him, and when she noticed the attention she was getting from Skinner she smiled nervously. After they finished their drinks, Skinner got up from his chair. "We should probably get back upstairs. It's getting late."

"Sure..."

He gently took her by her hand as she got of the chair she was sitting on and smiled. As they left the bar, Skinner pressed his hand against the small of her back as if to guide her towards the elevators. They stopped at the elevator and waited for the doors to open before they  stepped inside. On the first floor, the doors opened up again. Her heart skipped a beat and she swiftly looked at Skinner when he placed his hand just above her backside and lead her outside into the corridor. She shot up a silent prayer hoping he did not notice the absence of underwear underneath her dress. They stopped outside her hotel room and she opened the door. "Thank you for the drink sir." 

"You're welcome agent McLean," he replied with a smile. 'Did he notice or not?' she thought. He suddenly had a desperate urge to kiss her goodnight, but resisted doing so as he did not want to come across as inappropriate or offend her in any way. "Good night agent." 

"Good night sir."