XxXxX – Chapter 7

Joshua smiled at Monica and she felt even more unsettled as he approached and stood beside her.

"Hey Baby, how you doing?" He asked as he stroked wet hair.

Monica's eyes watered over and she felt so ashamed of her self as the tears slipped from her tired eyes.

Joshua smiled wickedly down at her, clearly pleased by this latest development, "Very good..." He mumbled to himself and sat down on the edge of the concrete slab, "Do you know what I realised Baby?" He asked and Monica shook her head, her eyes closed from the sheer embarrassment of crying, but she just felt so out of control and on edge, "I realised," Joshua continued, "That I don't even know your name Baby," He said, moving his hand from her hair to the concrete beside her head, so that he was leaning over her, "So Baby, what's your name?"

Monica hesitated and then opened her eyes.

"What's your name?" He asked again in a warning tone.

"Monica," She chocked out, shifting her arms uncomfortably when Reed ran his hand up and down the inside of her arm.

"Monica…" He said to himself, testing the sound of her name, "Okay Monica, well, how about we get to know each other a little better? Hm?" Joshua said as more of a rhetorical question, his fingers trailing down Monica's shirt just so he could watch her squirm uncomfortably, he dismissed the quiet, but audible, small sound of distress that she made, "So where do you work?"

Monica hesitated again, her confused brain going a million miles an hour, she knew that answering the question truthfully could put her life at even more risk, while she didn't want to think of the consequences of being caught out on a lie considering the horrors she had been put through for challenging him.

Joshua looked down at her, taking her hesitation as a stubborn streak.

"Um, I-I don't work," She lied.

"Oh reeaallllyy?" Joshua asked rhetorically, "Don't lie to me!" He suddenly yelled, and Monica tensed up, expecting him to hit her again. But instead Joshua put his hand on her shirt and he undid the first button, Monica's eyes welled up again.

"No!" She cried out desperately, pulling on the binding chains that rendered her powerless to the mans attacks, "Stop! Please stop!" She begged, more tears sliding out of her eyes as he had opened the first three buttons.

"Then tell me the truth," Joshua said calmly.

"Okay, I work for the government," Monica answered, using her arm to wipe away a few of the tears.

"Come on Moni I can call you Moni right?" Joshua asked rhetorically, "You gotta give me more detail than that," He teased, fingering the forth button and eyeing the exposed skin, tilting his head he could see the edges of her black bra. Monica knew where his eyes were and what he was thinking. It made her burn with shame. She wasn't overly self conscious with her figure, usually, although this was far different from a comfortable situation. This was different and the shame burned her skin like fire so that not even the useless tears that suicided down her face and dispersed upon impact with the concrete below her, could extinguish the burning shame.

"FBI," She choked out, trying to turn away from her tormentor.

"Oh I know Baby, I know," He said and watched the confusion set on her face, "I read your badge. I had to test you to be sure that you wouldn't lie to me again… But there is hope for you yet Moni."

Monica was still confused, "W-wait, i-if you read my badge then how come you said that you didn't know my name?"

"I didn't read the whole thing, but the big blue letters that read 'FBI' kind of stand out you know?" Reed answered, "But moving onto my next question, how old are you?"

Monica hated it when people asked her that question, it was so rude, "Thirty-five," She whispered.

Joshua smiled down at her, absently stroking her hair again he watched her as he thought of his next question, "Hmm, okay… next question… oh! Your hair."

"My hair?" She asked half in fear, she rather liked her hair.

"Mmm, you hair, do you colour it?" Joshua asked, feeling the soft tresses of her hair and hardly even noticing that Monica was practically hyperventilating from the extreme fear and anxiety of the situation presented to her.

"Yes," She breathed out, desperately trying to control her emotions but failing.

Joshua's face changed and he became very serious, he had not foreseen this answer, "What?" He said quietly, "No this can't be, this messes it all up- no no no no no no no no NO!" He raised his voice and got up as he spoke, slamming the door on his way out.

Monica breathed a little easier and realised she had tensed her arms, she relaxed her muscles but the adrenalin running riot through her veins kept her eyes dilated (despite the level of light she was in) and her senses hyper alert. She heard something crash and flinched as another drop of water hit her and made her feel cold, the fear that she was going to die or be in that house for the rest of her life grew. She knew that there were only so many leads, and once the trail grew there would be very little chance of being found. She knew her time was limited and that her time to be rescued was running out, as was her hope.

XxXxX

"And our latest victim, your agent-" Wolfe started but was interrupted.

"Special Agent Monica Jullietta Reyes, 35, born and raised in Mexico, English is her forth language but don't be mistaken, you wouldn't know it if you were to speak to her because she is extremely fluent in Spanish, her first language, English, French, and German. She graduated from Brown at 18 and has been an agent for over ten years. Most of her family lives in Mexico with the exception of her brother and his wife and child who moved to America four years ago just before their daughter was born," John said and went to continue but saw the weird looks that everyone was giving him.

"How do you know all of that?" Wolfe asked suspiciously.

"Agent Reyes told me and I looked at her file once," John said but they still looked at him oddly.

"Okay thank you for that, ah, insight Agent Doggett," Mulder said "But getting back to the more pressing details, she was taken two almost three days ago now. We found her badge, gun, purse and phone in the car but there was no actual evidence of foul play until we found Reed's prints on her phone.

"What's your plan?" Kane asked.

"We don't have one, we hoped you did because we haven't heard about this case until our Agent went missing," Scully said, "What do you plan to do?"

"Well there's nothing we rally can do, we've hit a dead end until we get something more on Joshua Reed," Wolfe said.

Mulder, who had been staring into space for the last few minutes, suddenly got up and silently left the room.

"Where's he off to?" Wolfe asked and Scully just shrugged, but she had a feeling of where he might be going. John then got up and left the room as well, frustrated as hell that they weren't getting anywhere, "Where's he going?" Wolfe asked.

"Maybe he went to do his job," Scully said and then also walked out of the room.

"Not a very nice or happy bunch of Agents are they Eric?" Kane asked her partner.

"Ah they work for the government," Wolfe replied.

"So do we, but you've heard the stories about them, I hear Reyes and Doggett go back a long way and there is speculation that they are in a relationship," Kane said.

"Eh, it wouldn't be too surprising, I hear she had a relationship with her boss," Wolfe replied.