Title: The Recovery Period

By: Licy

Feedback: Yes please! Good or bad.

Disclaimers: I don't own any of these characters (maybe the waitress), I'm just playing with them for a few minutes. When I've finished I'll put them back in the history books.

Summary: John's worried about Monica after the events of Audrey Pauley, so he suggests a day off. What do they get up to? DRR

Spoilers: Nothing really. You need to know who John Doggett and Monica Reyes are, and a little bit about Audrey Pauley, but nothing major.

Category: DRR/humour (little bit)/fluff-ee-ness Rating: PG, nothing too bad in here.



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It didn't take long for things to settle down again after that night, that night when John thought his world was about to come crashing down, then it was restored by a kind and generous soul who gave her life to save another. This was, of course, Audrey Pauley, the woman to who he owed not only his partners life, but his own, for he would not have been able to go on without her. John was mulling over how somebody could be so completely selfless as he walked into work on the cold March morning. It was, in fact, unusually cold and John found himself relieved to get into the Bureau's warm reception, and then annoyed when he remembered that his office heating wasn't working. Maintenance had promised to come and fix it, but as the weather had been reasonably good over the last couple of weeks, it had not been high on their list of priorities. By the time he got down to the basement he was starting to feel the chill in the air again and so put back on the coat he had taken off as he entered the building. He found his partner already at her desk, focusing all her attention on the screen, so she did not see him come in. He moved across the room to see what it was she was working on and was highly amused to see the later stages of a game of Solitaire up.

'Working hard I see, Agent Reyes?' Monica snapped her head round so fast he was surprised it didn't come off.

'God John, I thought it was Skinner.'

'Sorry, couldn't resist. I take it we have no more cases to work on.'

'I guess the paranormal only come out for Mulder and Scully. Maybe they are afraid of new faces.' John smiled at this, all the while knowing how ironically true it was. Mulder and Scully were the ultimate and if the conspirators and aliens were going to know anyone, it was them. Still, it was a little inconsiderate on evil's part to leave the two agents stranded in an office colder than Chicago at Christmas.

'What do you wanna do then?' he asked, bored of sitting still.

'I want to win a game of Solitaire.'

'Sitting in front of that thing all day will turn your brain to mush and give you carpel tunnel in your hands.' For this comment he was hit with a scrunched up piece of paper, 'Hey, good aim. You didn't take your eyes off the computer either.' She just smiled an evil grin and continued to click the mouse.

An hour later John was re-organising the filing cabinet for the third time when he heard a shout from the other side of the room.

'I did it! I won! Go me!' Monica got up out of her chair, jumped and punched the air, when she landed, she sat down again, 'Okay, excitement's gone from that. what can I do now?'

'I think you should go home and rest.'

'Not this again.'

'Monica, I'm serious. You got out of hospital a week ago after being declared brain dead, you should be resting.'

'John, do I look brain dead to you? I am fine. Now stop re-organising that thing before we can't find anything.' He reluctantly moved away from the metal box and sat back down behind his desk. Monica followed him over and leaned on the edge of the desk so she was facing him.

'There has to be something we can be working on,' he commented after a few moments.

'I rung Skinner before you got here. He says there is nothing for us to do.'

'Okay then, if there really is nothing, then let's get out of here.'

'What?'

'Let's go to Skinner, ask for the day off, then I'm taking you for a day out.'

She looked at her silver watch, 'It is only ten am, there's still time.'

'Is that a yes?'

She eyed him suspiciously, 'You're up to something.'

'I'm trying to get you to do something fun. They say relaxing speeds up the recovering process.'

'I'm not recovering.'

'Who said it was you doing the recovering? I was practically incoherent for three days.'

'Dana said you did just fine.'

'I was a wreck.' He inadvertently caught her eyes and didn't seemed to be able to break the connection. Eventually, she turned away and looked down at the desk.

'Let's go see Skinner,' she announced after a few moments. John smiled and, after allowing her to go first, followed her out of the door and towards the elevator.