This chapter is for Kenikigenikai, on her birthday ;)

To every one else, sorry for taking so long to update, school has been very hard on my year level about homework.

John was silent the rest of the trip up into the forest, he was lost in thought and torn between either or not he hoped to find Monica.

I want to find Monica and tell her what she means to me, and ask her why she did what she did. But on the other hand, I don't know if Monica really wants to see me at all, by me being here, I might just inflame the situation…

I still love her, I will never stop. But I don't get why the sudden change of heart? And how could I not have noticed that she was upset? She must have felt this way for some time, so how did I not see that? What did I do wrong?

What went wrong? Why doesn't she love me any more? Why does she want to end our relationship? Why am I not good enough for her anymore? Have I not expressed that I love her and will do anything for her? Does she not think I love her? Why? That is the big question, why?

"Doggett, we're here." Mulder said, and John looked out the window to see the surrounding trees, and the cabin up ahead. Mulder stopped the car, and the agents got out drawing there guns and ran to the front door.

Mulder broke the door down, and Scully and John followed him into the house, each going separate directions and checking each room.

A chorus of the word 'Clear!' could be heard through out the house.

They all met back up at the front door and John spoke, "She's not here." He said stating the obvious.

"Maybe she was never here at all." Mulder said.

"Then how did the trace say that she called form here?" Scully asked Mulder.

"There are two phones in the sitting room, they were used so that if we tried to trace the call, it would show up as here, the call was diverted through those phones to throw us of the trail." Mulder said.

Scully went to check out the phones and John walked out side. He breathed in deeply, holstered his gun and then ran both his hands through his hair. He looked down and studied the rocks at his feet.

Then he noticed not far to his left a spot of blood. He walked over to it, and found a blood trail, he followed it into the trees, and it took him a while but, he followed the trail until it stopped in the middle of the trees.

Looking around he wasn't sure where the person went to, then he turned to the tree behind him, and saw a blood smear a few branches up. He climbed up to the branch and inspected where the person would have been sitting.

Then he heard Agent Mulder call out "Agent Doggett?" Climbing down from the tree, he jogged back to the pair of agents that were near the car.

"Wait, we can't go yet, I found a blood trail, it leads into the trees over there, and it ends where the person has climbed a little way up a tree. I think it was Monica." John said.

Mulder and Scully followed John as he showed them where the trail starts, and all the way through to the tree that Monica had been sitting in.

Mulder climbed up to the branch and took a sample of the blood for analysis, even though they were pretty sure that the blood was Monica's.

XXXX

Monica had stopped crying, but her head still rested on her arms and Follmer was rubbing circles on her back. Monica tried to shake his hand from her, but he just kept putting it back. She sighed and tried not to think about John, although that was pretty impossible cos it was all she ever thought about when they weren't on a case.

"Let it go Honey, let him go-"

"It's not that simple, John means everything to me, he's the reason that I get up in the morning, the reason that I live on, we draw strength from each other and it's not something that you get over in an instant, it takes time for the wounds to heal."

"Meant, Monica, past tense implies. It's over between you and him, you and I are together now." He said, and then he noticed that Monica was unconsciously fiddling with the ring on her finger.

"That will need to come off now that you've broken it off with him." Brad said.

At first Monica didn't get what he meant, but then she realised that she was playing with the ring John gave her. When she finally understood what he meant, she half sobbed and half gasped.

"No…" she murmured so softly that he didn't hear her. "No, I can't please no…" she said in a low whisper.

"Monica… it's over, who can't wear it."

Monica's already shattered heart burned with a renewed pain, and tears stung her eyes again. But she knew that if she didn't do what he said, that he would most likely have John killed. As much as it pained her, she looked at the ring, and slowly slid it off her finger. The tears leaked from her eyes again, and followed the previously made tracks down her face.

When she had it all the way off, she put it in the pocket of her jeans.

"Monica." Brad said warningly, "Give it here."

"No Follmer, no, I want to keep it. What are you goner do? Kill John, that'd be over kill for such a small mater."

"Brad." He corrected. "The drugs are still in your system, you should rest, and I'll wake you tomorrow."

"What's happening tomorrow?"

"We fly out to Mexico." Follmer said and then he got up and walked out of the room, locking the door behind him. The second he was gone, Monica pulled the ring out of her pocket and slipped back onto her finger.

Mexico… hmm always wanted to go see my parents again…but I can't fly with them to Mexico, I have to get back to John, to tell him that I am sorry, I have to tell him everything that's happened. I need to get out of here.

At least now my hands aren't tied. Well, not in the physical sense anyway. But how am I going to get out of here? Monica felt in her other pocket and her face lit up. Yes! They didn't find the paperclip! They may have taken my gun and badge, and taken me away from John, and tried to make me leave him, but I am goner walk outta here!

Monica began forming a plan in her mind, she would wait until dark, and then using the paperclip she would unlock any locked doors, some where between the room she saw being held in, and the front door she would find a gun a if any one tried to stop her leaving, she would shot them.

Might just work… didn't work so well the first time I tried that, but I could give it a go… or… I could try the window… Monica looked at the window.

Monica got to the window and checked if it was unlocked, and much to her amazement, it was. She pushed the window up as far as it could go, then she climbed onto the window sill and slowly lowered her self out the window.

It's the smart ones that always do something stupid… Monica thought.

The house was only single story so she was able to lower herself down almost to the ground. She let go and dropped neatly to the ground. The burning in her shoulder started up again and Monica started walking away from the building.

As Monica walked she realised that she was only a block away from where she was originally abducted. Hey… if I am only a block away from where I was taken, then I'm close to the hospital, and the hospital is close to home… Home. The word sounded great to her.

Because of the drug still being in her system, she was slightly disoriented, and was walking on auto pilot, as she focused her attention on staying awake.

XXXX

John's House
3:22 am

John was at home asleep on the couch when a light knock on the door woke him. He got up and opened the door.

John gasped, eyes widening in shock, "Monica? How did you get here? Are you alright? My god what happened to you? How did you escape? Where were you? Are you injuerd?" He asked in a rush, and still in shock. And why would she come back here after what she said yesterday?

"John…" Monica slurred and fought to stay awake. "John…I'm…sorry…" It was all she could manage before she passed out. John caught her as she fell and carried her over to the couch.

John checked her over and looked her shoulder, noticing the blood stain on her shirt. How could you not? It covers her whole shoulder? It's not exactly easy to miss. John saw all the little cuts and bruises forming all over her arms, face, and neck.

"Monica, Monica I need to get you to a hospital, and we need to talk." John said as Monica's eyes opened slightly,

"No…" Monica shook her head, "No hospital…only… trust Scully…"

"Scully's not here right now, she's at her moms' house."

"Please… no hospital… without Scully…" Monica fought to stay awake.

John sighed, "Fine, but first thing in the morning and we are going to the hospital, okay?"

Monica nodded, and succumbed to the urge to sleep. John picked her up and carried her to their room, and put her on the bed. Next he called Mulder and told him that Monica had shown up at their place and in the morning he was going to take her the hospital, but she wouldn't go if Scully wasn't there. Mulder said he would inform her of the situation.

Then John went to bed and for the first time in a week, he could sleep knowing that Monica was there with him.

XXXX

When John woke up the next morning, the spot beside him was empty. Did I just dream it? No I held Monica last night, I need to get her to a hospital. Where'd she go?

John got out of bed and quickly got dressed. He looked around the house, starting with the bathroom, then the lounge room, but she wasn't in either. He walked into the kitchen, and found Monica lying on the floor.

"Monica!" He called as he came to her side, and rolled her onto her back placing two fingers on her neck, checking for a pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief; her pulse was thready, but there.

He called the ambulance, and while he waited for them to arrive, he quickly pulled on his shoes and stayed beside Monica until the ambulance arrived.

Ten minutes later and an unconscious Monica was being loaded into the van. John jumped in with them to go to the hospital. He didn't hear a word of what the paramedics said, he was only focusing on Monica.

When they go to the hospital, they wheeled Monica into surgery and few nurses stopped him to fill in the paperwork.

After John finished filling in forms, he called Scully.

"Scully."

"Hey it's John, I assume Mulder told you what happened last night?"

"Yeah, is Monica okay? What happened?"

"Monica said that she didn't want to go to the hospital without you, so I told her first thing in the morning we would go, but this morning, I woke up and Monica was unconscious, I called the ambulance, they've taken her into surgery."

"Okay John, Mulder and I will be there in fifteen minutes." Scully said and hung up.

XXXX

Two hours later and the doctor came back. John, Mulder and Scully stood up.

"Is she alright?" John asked immediately.

"Miss Reyes has dislocated her right shoulder, and the bullet wound, in the same shoulder is infected. But it will heal in time; you said you're FBI right?" John nodded his head and the doctor continued. "Well she won't be able to work until she shoulder is healed."

John breathed a massive sigh of relief "Thank you, what room is she in?"

"216."

John raced down the hall to find her room. When he found it, Monica was asleep. Scully picked up the chart on the end of Monica's bed and read through the data.

"John, she has had something injected into her, not by the doctors though, it says that what ever it was, it was in her blood stream when she arrived. They also have her on some pain meds, so she'll be out of it for a while. Do you want to go home and grab some stuff?"

"Yeah okay, you'll stay here with Monica?"

Scully nodded her head and John left to get some things so that he could stay at the hospital with Monica for as long he could.

XXXX

When I got back, Scully was sitting in a chair, but the expression on her face did not look good.

"Agent Scully, what's wrong?" Scully got up and walked over to John.

"It's Monica, because of a hidden concussion that the doctors didn't know about-"

"Is she going to be alright?"

"Maybe John, she ah…she fell into a coma."

John gasped and covered his face with his hands, and sank into the chair that was previously occupied by Scully.

XXXX

I sat there for 3 days, waiting for some sign, something to tell me that everything was going to be okay, that Monica would pull through this.

I was lost in thought as I stared into space, but was looking at the love of my life. I snapped out the trance I had fallen into when I heard the shrill beep of Monica's heart monitor. The lone never ending beep that signified Monica's heart had stopped.

Tears sprang to my eyes, but I was not giving up, I pushed every button I could that would alert the doctors of what was happening. I yelled out to the nurses, but by the time they arrived, they said she was too far gone. They called it- Time of Death 5:16 pm.

My heart froze over and it felt like a piece of me died with Monica. My whole world had just crashed and I was in despair.

The one person in the world whom I would do anything for, who meant everything to me, and now she was gone.

Just by thinking those words, the water that had built up, slipped from my eyes and now it had started, it wasn't going to stop. I held Monica's body and rested my head against her chest as I cried.

I heard someone behind me, but I didn't care, all that mattered now was that my Monica was dead, and the person responsible was going to pay for what he did. I heard Scully's voice.

"John, you need to let go of her body, she's gone John. I know it's hard to accept, but it's true." Scull laid her hand on my shoulder, but I shook her off.

Mulder came into the room, and the two of them tried to pull me from Monica, I fought against him, I pushed him away and held Monica again. Oh how I would do anything to bring her back.

I sat there, half lying half sitting, crying over Monica's body and I felt it getting colder, but I still refused to accept that she was really gone. Monica could not be dead, I just got her back and I can't lose her again.

The doctors had turned off the monitors, and machines. There is not a sound in the room other than my sobs for the woman I love. Scully tries to get me to leave, but I won't.

"Wait." I say desperately, and put my ear to Monica's chest. I'm sure that I can feel a faint beating of her heart. My face lights up as I am about to tell Scully,

"Scully… I think she's alive…"

Scully just looks at me like I've finally lost it, "John, you're imagining it; you want to hear it so your mind has conjured up the idea that you can hear her heart beating. But John, it's not, she's dead." Scully's voice wavered the last few words, as the full force of what just happened hit home. She left to go find Mulder, who was out side the door. Special Agent Monica Reyes – a co-worker, a friend, and John's lover, and now she is dead. Scully thought.

John still refused to accept it, he was sure her heart was still beating. "Scully come back in here, check her pulse." He asked.

Scully came back in and slowly walked over to her friends body, and laid two fingers on her neck, praying that she would feel the skin jump, but it didn't. Scully knew it would be no good, but she had hoped. "John… there's nothing, You're so sad about this that, you so badly want to want to feel her heart beat, that you've confused your self into thinking it's real, but John, she's gone." The words were hard to say, but they had to be said.

John looked deflated; Scully couldn't hold back the tears anymore, so she walked back to Mulder, burying her head against his chest.

John put his arm over Monica's body and half lay on top of her. His heart felt like it had been crushed, torn into a million tiny pieces, set alight and burned.

Monica, come back, I need you. John thought as he closed his eyes to prevent more tears from falling.