Monica Reyes sat in the basement office of the FBI Headquarters, the home of The X-Files, her head resting on her arms and her eyes closed. It had been a long few weeks for herself and partner John Doggett and anyone else involved in the case of ritualistic killings they had been investigating for the past three weeks. Both she and her partner had been placed undercover in a small town where cult behaviour was suspected. They had been posing as a married couple, and both had seen horrific scenes unfold in front of them as individuals claimed possession by a demon spirit preying on the life of innocents. Sacrificing their own loved ones in order to obtain eternal life.

After investigating further it was discovered that a collection of the older town residents, motivated by their own sadistic and terrifying interest in death and the procuring of eternal life, had been drugging villagers. These drugs had been prompting hallucinations forcing them to kill. While many details of activities in that town remained unclear, and while the people responsible had been put away for what all agents involved hoped was a very long time, memories were still clear and grotesque in the agents' heads. Memories of children sacrificed by their loved ones under the influence of the powerful hallucinogenic drugs administered by those same ringleaders who were now locked away from the world. Memories of how one of their own had been ready to sacrifice Agent Reyes while under the influence of the same drugs as the townspeople, Agent John Doggett laying wounded at her side and pleading for his own life to be taken instead of hers, him rather dying himself than losing her and having to carry on with his life without her.

Reyes sighed, brushing her dark hair out of her brown eyes.

As Doggett pleaded for her life FBI agents had surrounded the area and proceeded to arrest those responsible and search for the source of the drugs, which had been destroying so many lives. Doggett had been taken to hospital suffering a stab wound to the upper arm and a minor head injury. Those responsible meanwhile had been taken to prison, and since the arrests life in the town had gotten back to normal. For herself and Doggett though she wondered if life ever was going to be normal again. Posing as a married couple, while being strange and challenging for both of them, hadn't been as hard or outrageous as they first assumed.

The pair of them had shared a bond ever since she had worked on the case involving the death of Doggett's son Luke, an intense bond which at times threatened to develop into something so much more than the close friendship they shared. If she was honest she loved that man and if he was honest and listened to his heart rather than running away he loved her too and with the whole depth of his soul. Being in that situation, and being around him so much had confirmed it even more with her as it had with him, though neither were ready to admit it. It was almost a shame the time was over and everything was back as normal as it could be.

Rubbing her tired eyes Reyes leaned back in the chair, glancing round as the door opened behind her. She smiled softly as her partner entered his eyes tired and his arm in a sling.

"Skinner says it's okay for us to go. I handed the report in and he says it's fine. The unexplainable is just gonna have to stay unexplained for a little while longer."

Monica nodded.

"How's the arm?" She asked him quietly getting up out of the chair and walking over to her partner's side, and touching his injured arm tenderly as if hoping she could heal it with just her thoughts.

"Fine. A little sore. How you doin'?" He asked her softly, looking deep into her brown eyes with his intense blue ones prompting her to look at the floor.

"I'm okay. I'll be better when I get home. I take it you want a lift?" She then commented glancing at his arm and clearing her throat.

"You offerin'?" He asked her smiling.

"Yeah. I don't want to be responsible for you driving your truck into a ditch or something because you can't use both your arms. What kind of person would that make me?" She joked.

Doggett walked over to his desk and picked up his jacket, trying to pull it on with his one working arm. In his frustration he threw it back down on the desk angrily.

"Let me help you with that." Reyes told him gently, walking to his side and helping him slide his good arm into his jacket and pulling the other side over his shoulder. For a moment they stood there looking into each other's eyes, unmoving.

"Thank you." He told her gruffly as if unable to catch his breath, taking in every detail of the face in front of him.

Monica looked at the floor.

"Come on we better get going cos soon I'm not gonna be able to see straight I'm so tired." She told him yawning.

John picked up her jacket and handed it to her.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked her softly tilting her chin up with his good hand so she was looking right at him.

"John don't freak out, I'm fine...I'm just..."

"What Mon?" He asked her sitting down on his desk looking at her.

"It's just hard getting back to this after...some of those things we saw John...those little kids... everything, it just...I don't know how to digest it you know?"

"I know what you mean. Sure wasn't my idea of a good vacation." He joked, then clearing his throat and looking at the floor feeling uncomfortable when she didn't even crack a grin. "It did have its good points though." He said softly looking at her, and then quickly looking away as if

scared she would catch on to what he meant.

He was the kind of man who while being emotional was scared to show them, though he knew she could always sense exactly how he felt and he hoped those roles were reversed. He was so worried that she would see that what got him through all those horrific events, and all those others that he had encountered in his life, was that he had gotten to spend those hard days and nights with the one woman who he couldn't imagine not having in his life. One whose inner beauty and outer enchanted him so much that every time he saw her his breath caught in his throat in wonderment. A woman whose little quirks and mannerisms never ceased to bring new amazement every day about how he'd come to deserve someone with such a beautiful and warm soul in his sometimes dark and lonely life.

Monica smiled sensing within him exactly what he was trying to say but couldn't bring himself to; a habit she had grown accustomed to having him as a partner.

"Yeah it did." She agreed getting up and offering a hand to her partner. "C'mon." She told him pulling him up by his good arm and giving his hand a gentle squeeze before making their way through the many halls of the headquarters to the SUV that would take them home.