Climate Change

AUTHOR: bcfan
FEEDBACK: bcfan@shaw.ca
CLASSIFICATION: MSR
310 words - notes at the end.
SUMMARY: You don't need a weatherman.

They'd come to the botanical conservatory to meet with an expert in exotic insects, but Mulder seemed distracted by the colour and flash of butterfly-laden tropical vines. He stopped in front of a small banana tree and bent low to examine yellow fruit.

"Mulder," she whispered in the quiet scritch-scratch of unseen movement. "Dr. Valencia is waiting."

Mulder straightened, moist air clinging to his upper lip and dampening the neck of his shirt. A bead of sweat trickled down his temple and under his loosened tie. His eyes crinkled as he breathed in the humidity, then exhaled with a playful gust.

"I'm breathing life, Scully. Can you smell the tang of new growth? New possibilities?"

After the briefest of hesitations, Scully shrugged out of her stifling jacket. There was a time to be a serious professional and a time to - not. Mulder was leading her thoughts astray down the indoor jungle path.

"What's on your mind, Mulder?"

"It must be at least 80 degrees in here, and outside it's raining and icy. We've got three days before all the lab tests are complete and nothing to do but paperwork. What would you say to a short jaunt down to the Keys?"

"Well, I don't know." Scully couldn't stop the hint of teasing in her voice. "Are there hurricanes? Sea monsters? If not, what's the appeal?"

Mulder's chuckle was interrupted by their host's appearance. It was only after their meeting, bundled up in the car with the heater turned on high, that Scully reconsidered his suggestion.

"I don't have anything to wear."

"Hmm?" Mulder's eyes slanted at her from the driver's seat.

"I don't have anything to wear for a quick trip to the Keys."

"Really?" Mulder's delight was impossible to resist. "Super K-Mart, here we come."

Scully grinned. Time for a climate change - in more ways than one.