Series: Beyond the Truth. This is story #3. (preceded by #1 Lost and Found, and #2 High Stakes; both are on this site, find them through my profile)

Spoilers: any episode of the nine seasons is fair game, probably will spoil parts of the first two BtT fics as well.

Timeline: This story takes place post-season nine, beginning three months after the events in High Stakes. (In other words, beginning the first March following "The Truth")

Rating: PG-13 to R (for language and/or violence)

Summary: Reyes, awaiting the birth of her baby, becomes obsessed with knowing where she came from.

Disclaimer: These characters all belong to 1013 who, though they probably don't realize it, have lent them to me.

Elegy for Origin

It was a nice day, especially for March. Reyes stood in the middle of the bright, airy, and utterly empty kitchen, watching the parade from the window by the sink. She volunteered to get everyone drinks, but she'd really just wanted to get away from everyone for a little while. It was becoming harder to not resent the fact that no one was letting her do anything useful. I don't blame Scully for waiting so long to tell Doggett she was pregnant, she thought.

Eventually she turned from the window and opened a cupboard. Though the moving in had barely begun, she'd insisted that the first things into the house would be plates and glasses, since it was inevitable that someone would get hungry or thirsty. She was just pouring glasses of soda when she heard someone at the door.

She let Scully and the kids in. Though Mulder was part of the amateur moving crew, Scully had planned to arrive later, so the kids wouldn't be underfoot. Unfortunately she'd over estimated the guys' motivation. Reyes didn't mind though, she could an ally at the moment.

Emily and Will were all smiles, and she noticed that the little boy was holding a brightly wrapped package. He scampered over and pressed it into her hands. "For your new house!" He exclaimed. Then he turned and gave his mother puzzled look. "This house?"

"Yes, this house." Scully laughed, giving his head a fond pat. "I don't think he really understands the concept of moving yet."

"Give him time, he's not quite two, after all." Reyes told her. Then she asked William, "Should I open this now? Or should I wait for John?"

"Wait for John." He said, with a definitive nod of his head.

"Oh, ok. Guess what? There's a tv upstairs in the baby's room. Do you want to go watch tv?" She asked as she set the gift on the counter.

"Sure." Emily said, taking her brother's hand, and following Reyes. When they got to the stairs, Reyes bent to pick William up, but Emily stopped her. "Are you sure you should do that?" She asked her with a concerned look.

Reyes picked him up anyway. "Oh no, not you too. Emily, do me a favor. Let me worry about what I can pick up, ok?"

"Ok." The little girl said, looking sheepish.

"Thank you! Now, if only it was that easy with all the helpful men in my life..." She said with a shake of her head.

Scully appeared behind them on the stairs. "So they've being bossy, I take it?"

"You know how they are." Reyes sighed, as she put William down and showed the kids which room.

"I remember quite well, yes." Scully smiled.

"Scully, do you mind putting the baby-gate in the doorway? I was supposed to be getting people drinks when you arrived."

"No problem."

Doggett smiled to himself as he watched Mulder and Scully carry their sleeping children out of the house hours later. All the boxes and furniture had been moved in, so unpacking and setting things up was all that remained to be complete. Not that either were small tasks. As he watched the other family leave, he couldn't help but think that in a short time he'd be a father to kids those ages again. Not that he'd ever had an eight-year-old before.

Reyes came up behind him and touched his shoulder. "What are you thinking about?" She asked as he continued to watch from the doorway.

"Baby-sitting those two back before Christmas." Doggett told her with a rueful grin.

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" She asked him with a concerned look.

Doggett thought about it. Mulder and Scully had brought the kids by late, so they were both sleeping when they got there. William was carried in, and Emily was just awake enough to stumble in under her own power. Doggett took the baby from Mulder so Mulder could set up the playpen for Will, and lead Emily into Gibson's room. He figured that it would be a quiet night. With Will still sleeping, and Emily looking like it would take mere minutes to fall asleep, what could go wrong? Emily crawled into Gibson's bed and was already asleep by the time Doggett turned off the lights. He left the room happily, he might have to forgo the beers he'd planned on, but at least he'd still get to watch TV.

Within fifteen minutes of Mulder's departure, Doggett relearned a very important fact about children: asleep now does not mean a likelihood to stay sleeping. William woke up first, and immediately showed his disapproval at waking up in a strange place. "Daddy! Mommy! Where Daddy?!"

Doggett rushed back to the room, hoping to get him before he woke Emily up. His hope was disappointed, because Emily was already sitting up, bright- eyed. "William, lie down." Doggett said sternly. The toddler ignored him. Doggett shrugged, then went over and laid him back down in the playpen. Within 30 seconds he scrambled back to his feet. Doggett tried again, with the same results, except this time Emily giggled at him.

After twenty or so minutes of issuing commands for them to go to sleep, along with intermittent attempts to get William to lay down- Emily at least laid down though she continued to giggle at him- Doggett finally admitted defeat. He never did end up watching the races, since the Disney channel ruled the rest of the night. Though he was bleary-eyed when Mulder picked the kids up the next morning, you'd never know that the children had only slept 15 minutes.

Reyes poked him. He startled, shaking his head to clear it. "No, it wasn't so bad."

On Monday afternoon, only Reyes and Scully were still in the office. Since it was temporarily a testosterone-free zone, the two agents felt free to indulge in a little girl talk. Reyes put a hand on her swelling belly as she got up to get a file. "I can't believe how much weight I've gained already." She complained.

Scully shrugged. "Some women start gaining a lot at the beginning of their second trimester, others don't even show until they're almost to their third." She told her, delving into the facts she learned in med school.

"But I've gained almost twenty pounds and I'm only four and a half months." Reyes said, grimacing. "You only gained around 30 pounds all together, didn't you?"

"Yes. But you were very thin to begin with." Scully pointed out reasonably. "Some thin women gain more."

"Oh, and you were such a moose yourself before getting pregnant, right?" Reyes retorted, giving her petite friend a measuring look.

Scully shrugged. "Maybe your baby will be bigger than William was."

"I hope not! He didn't seem so little when you were in labor." Reyes shuddered. "I guess I'll have to talk to my doctor about my weight at my appointment this week. Is the doctor going to scold me? Mama said that they scolded her mother something fierce for gaining forty-five pounds." She fretted, thinking about her adopted mother's stories; none of which made her feel any better.

"Probably not. They stopped giving women a hard time about putting on too much weight a couple decades ago, since they concluded that worrying women caused them to gain too little and have small babies." Scully said. " You'll be fine, you know."

"I hope so." Reyes said, but, like all first time moms-to-be, she was still worrying. The fact that she didn't have any of her birth family's medical history at hand didn't help matters any.