References to (1) Muppets, (2) Star Wars Episode I, (3) Sliders, (4) Scream, (5) Voyager and (6) Gillian Anderson's change in hairstyle. 1993 was the start date of the X-Files series, and this story was written and published in 1999.

This story sprang from my desire to "fix" The X-Files. I thought the series had a lot of great aspects, but I couldn't get past how static Mulder and Scully were. Every damn time they walked into a situation it was like they hadn't learned a thing from all they'd encountered before. They never bought body armor, loaded up on silver bullets or even learned to shoot straight. Frankly, they shouldn't have survived the first season. At the very least, they shouldn't have escaped some permanent scarring, physical and emotional. (By the very end of the series, Mulder is indeed emotionally scarred, but that was aired years after this story began.)

And the whole will-they-or-won't-they thing just struck me as totally implausible, given their close partnership and how many times they faced death in a year. Military couples will back me up on this: if you're really risking death on a day-to-day basis, you don't waste time like that. You grab what life you can.