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This author's e-mail address has changed to: damienma@netroenterprises.com
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From: Jori  <damienma@bellsouth.net>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 22:45:44 GMT
Subject: NEW: Paw Prints: A Blue's Clues Crossover HUMOR

Title: Paw Prints 1/2 and 2/2
Author: Jori 
Rating: PG
Keywords: Blue's Clues crossover. Character death (no, not Mulder or
Scully)
Category: H
Summary: Mulder and Scully go on a case to help Steve, who's been framed
for murder. Only Blue knows
the identity of the real killer. If you have already read part one, you
can skip down to the second row of stars.
Author's Notes: After unwittingly starting a long  OT Blue's Clues
thread with my comments about sitting through another episode of Blue's
Clues, I came up with little story.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters. Scully, Mulder and
such are owned by CC, 1013 and Fox. Blue's Clues is owned by Nickelodeon
, which I believe is owned by Viacom.

**************************************
I walk into our office and discover a blue dog sitting in my chair. Not
a dog of that gray shade that breeders refer to as blue. No, I mean a
cyan blue dog. With spots. There's also a man standing near the dog.
He's in his early twenties, and is wearing a green-striped shirt and a
pair of khaki pants. He's kind of cute in a nerd-like way. He also looks
like he has had far too much caffeine already today. I must admit he
does look friendly, though, like someone you would trust your two year
old with.

"Mulder, are you going to introduce me to your guests?" I ask my
partner, who is busy flipping through paperwork.
"Scully, this is Steve and his puppy, Blue."
How original, I think.
"Blue is female despite popular gender misconceptions that a blue dog
named Blue should be male," Mulder tells me.
"Nice to meet you," I say to Steve, offering my hand. He just waves.
"They are our newest case."
"Oh, really? How?"
"Steve here is suspected of murdering, well, several household items. I
believe that Steve has been framed. Blue knows who the real murderer is.
Scully, do you think Steve looks like a homicidal maniac?"
I look closely at the man in green. I guess maybe he could.
"Why doesn't Blue just tell us who the killer is?" I ask.
"Scully, that's not how the game is played. We've got to find a paw
print, that's the first clue."
"You're kidding."
"I kid you not."
Steve spoke up from behind me. "We have to write it down in our handy
dandy notebook."
He pulls this little notebook out of somewhere. It's green with a
picture of an overstuffed red chair on the front. It has a huge red wire
binder holding it together. And a black crayon.
"Then we have to find the next paw print. That's the second clue."
"I got it," I say to him.
"Three clues altogether, Scully," Mulder adds.
"So, where did these murders take place?" I ask.
"Steve's house. We'll be heading there in a couple of minutes."
"Who...or what, got murdered?"
Mulder flips through some more papers on his desk. I try to imagine how
we got involved in a case with an animated dog. I look over to find the
little dog running excitedly in a circle around her owner. It almost
sounded like the dog was saying something.
"The victims include some bunny slippers, an alarm clock commonly
referred to as Tickety Tock, and a bar of soap, referred to as Slippery
Soap."
I know my eyebrow went up. I tried to stop it, but I just couldn't help
it.
"And Blue knows who did it?"
"Yes. Come on Steve and Blue, let's get going," Mulder says, grabbing
his coat and heading towards the door.
I follow along. Steve is singing something. I thing he's singing "We are
going on a cay-ase, we are going on a cay-ase, we are going on a
cay-ase, to find who killed Slippery."

We arrive at Steve's tiny little house. It is really small. Out front, a
mailbox says "Hello!" to me.
We all go through the front door and, amazingly, the house seems huge on
the inside. On the outside it's a tiny square, on the inside it's more
like a rectangle, with all the rooms in a row. It's a lot like a mobile
home.

"Where were the victims found?" Mulder asks Steve. They both head
towards a purple polka-dotted bedroom.
I wonder where the dog went. She zipped off as soon as we got in here.
I'm beginning to feel like Eddie in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit.'
Hopefully, this case would be wrapped up in, I don't know, 25 minutes.
"Scully, are you ready to look for some clues?"
"I guess so, Mulder."
Steve speaks up. "Should we take giant steps for Blue's Clues?"
"No, Steve, that will be ok," Mulder answers.
Steve looks slightly disappointed.
"Did anyone see which way  Blue went?" Steve asks no one in particular.
"No," I answer, "But here's a paw print."

***********************************

Excuse me? Did you say something?" Steve asks me.
"A clue," I say, pointing at an envelope sitting on a table.
"My shoe? You say my shoe is untied?"
"No, I said I found a clue. We are looking for blue paw prints, right?"
"You found a clue! Where?"
He looks to where I am pointing and, I swear upon this, a little bit of
a drum roll plays when he sees it.
"Good job, Scully!" Mulder exclaims.
"We need to write it in our handy dandy notebook!" Steve says as he
pulls it out.
Instead of writing the word envelope, he draws a picture. I now think it
is pretty clear 'who dunnit'.
Steve doesn't seem to get it, though.
"We have to look for a second paw print," he says as he heads off to
another room.
Mulder seems to agree with him, so I go along with it.
"I really want to know how we ended up with this cay-ase?" I ask my
partner, imitating Steve's infectious sing-song style.
"I met Steve at a, at uh... at the movies last night. He started to tell
me his problems afterwards. I thought with our expertise, we could help
the guy."
"The movies, Mulder? Which movies would those be?" I ask, with visions
of Pee Wee Herman running through my head.
"Never mind that. Let's go find our second clue."

We walk into the next room just in time to see Blue jump into a picture
on the wall. It is a picture of what I believe to be a store. Now I can
see Blue moving around in the picture.
"Blue just jumped into the picture," Steve tells us, "Are you ready to
Skidoo, too?"
I look to Mulder and he gently pushes me closer to Steve. Steve grabs my
hand, and I reach for Mulder, not sure what to expect next.
"Blue Skidoo, we can too!" Steve sings, and we all end up in the picture
of the store. Our balance is a little off and Mulder catches me. I look
around and notice we appear to be in a gift shop. There are all sorts of
items for sale, including green socks and turquoise turtles.
"The present store!" Steve exclaims, "I love the present store!"
Steve dances off to look at some items with Blue. Mulder is talking to
the cash register. Yes, the cash register talks. He even has this
high-brow store clerk accent. Even more strange is the fact that my
partner of above-average intelligence is talking back to it. And he
showed it his ID first. Well, he likes to do that. Mulder calls me over.

"Scully, Cash Register says he hasn't noticed anything out of the
ordinary in the last few days since the murders."
"Out of the ordinary?" I mumble to myself. I'm in a cartoon house where
people jump into pictures. Right now, Steve and Blue are discussing how
much to spend on a new hat. With this case, as with all of our cases,
the word ordinary doesn't apply.

I walk over to one of the shelves to look around. I notice a tiny snail
peeking at me from behind a picture frame. Then I see what we are after.

"Mulder, come here. I found another one!"
He comes over to my side to look at the item in question. There is
indeed a large blue paw print on it.
"Steve, a clue!" Mulder calls out.
"Glue? I'm sure they have glue," Steve calls back.
"No, a clue! Clue! Clue!" I say, almost sounding like a toddler.
Steve looks up at the shelf and there's another little drum roll.
"We found our second clue. And it's on this... stamp book!"
Once again he gets out his notebook to draw a picture.
I pull Mulder aside.
"Mulder, doesn't he get it yet? We are wasting valuable time. The
suspect could get away."
"First of all, he doesn't have our superior investigative training.
Second of all, we need all three clues, Scully."
"Mulder..."
"Scully, I think you could behave long enough to get one more clue."
Did Mulder just tell me to behave?

We all jump out of the picture and back into the orange living room with
the red chair. Blue disappears again. The telephone rings and Steve
jumps. He must not get too many calls. He answers it and says uh-huh a
bunch of times, and then hangs up.
"We have to go to the kitchen," he informs us.
"Lead the way," Mulder says to him

In the kitchen, Steve introduces us to a Mr. Salt and a Mrs. Pepper.
Mulder also shows them his badge. I look at the diminutive salt and
pepper shakers and wonder why she kept her last name. They have an even
smaller shaker next to them, and they introduce us to their daughter,
Paprika. She will be one next month, they inform us, but she is quite
advanced for her age. They speak with French accents.
"What's up, Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper?" Steve asks them.
"Steve! We are trying to teach Paprika to write. Can you help us?"
Steve turns to us. "Can we help them?"
"Sure," Mulder answers.
"Paprika is writing a letter to Shovel and Pail," Mrs. Pepper says.
"And she wants to tell them what she did today!" Mr. Salt says.
"Using pictures!" Mrs. Pepper says.
I wonder if they ever get to finish their own sentences. Maybe this is
what Mulder and I will be like in a couple more years.
"Paprika ate cereal!" The little shaker says, as Steve helps her draw a
picture of cereal.
"Paprika took nap!" Steve helps her draw a picture of her little peanut
shell bed.
"Paprika went to store!" Now he draws a picture of a cart with her in
it.
"There! We finished our letter to Shovel and Pail!" Steve says
excitedly.

As he holds it up, I notice another paw print on the back of it.
"Steve, a clue," I say.
"Flew? No, we drove here," Steve says to me.
"No, Steve, the letter is a clue."
He turns it over in his hand and there's another little drum roll.
"Our third clue! Let's write it down in our notebook."
After he finishes with this picture, he says "We have all three clues!
It's time for our thinking chair!"
Then he bounds out of the kitchen and into the living room. Mulder and I
find him sitting in the red, overstuffed chair.
"Our clues are an envelope, a stamp book and a letter. Who could the
murderer be with an envelope, a stamp book and a letter?" He asks, while
he ponders it pensively.
His eyes grow wide.
"Mailbox...mailbox is a murderer?"

All of a sudden, music starts playing and Steve starts singing.
"Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail. When
it comes, I want to wail... MAIL!"
The mailbox from out front is now in the living room.
"Steve..." the mailbox starts.
"Mailbox, do you have something to tell us?"
"Steve, I couldn't stand it anymore! They all got to be in the house
while I was stuck outside. Rain or shine, I was outside! The only time I
ever got to come in was to deliver your mail. Or for birthday parties. I
hate my life!"
I pull Mulder closer to me.
"Looks like Mailbox went postal..." I whisper to him.
He elbows me in the side.
Steve looks at us. He's in pain.
"Do you need us for anything else, Steve, or can you handle it from
here?" Mulder asks.
"I can handle it. If I need your help again, I'll give you a call."
"Take care, Steve," I say.
"Well, it's time for so long. But we'll sing just one more song. You
know, with me and you, and my dog Blue, we can do anything that we want
to do!" he sings as we walk towards the door.
Mulder and I go back out into the world, another case solved. We turn
around to see Blue waving at us from the little window. I'm sure she
said "Good-bye!"

The end

Coming soon: An X-Files/Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss crossover. See Fox
with Socks. Fox in a box. Fox in a box with only socks. Or only
lox...whatever.

Any e-mail would be appreciated. Damienma@bellsouth.net