"Guess it won't amount to much, won't be long before I'll crush, I'll stand in line." -From "Pigeons and Crumbs" By Natalie Imbruglia
More than an hour later, Reyes was finally ready to talk. "I'm sorry, John, it's not your fault. I had a flashback. I used to have them all the time, but I haven't had one for a long time. This one kind of surprised me."
"A flashback to what?" Doggett asked, afraid he already knew the answer.
"Well, you see, I never really told you all of what happened between Brad and me. When we started going out, I wasn't attracted to him, I wanted to break up with him. We had only been going out for a week when one night he came to my dorm room, hoping to get in bed with me. I said no but he persisted, trying to force me. I started crying and screaming, waking my roommate. She scared him off, but a few nights later she went out to a party. He came over again and, well, he...he made me do things I didn't want to do..." She looked into Doggett's eyes. This time it was his turn to wipe tears away. "He raped me, John. I didn't tell anyone because for a long time I didn't believe it. I thought that it was okay because we had been dating."
Doggett stood up, helping Reyes off of the floor. She perched on the end of the bed and he started pacing the room. "I'll kill him, the bstard. I'll kill him!"
"Wait, John, there's more. And I don't want to say it, but you deserve to know. We're married now, which makes it your right to know." She reached out and grabbed his arm. He paused, turning to her. "I didn't break up with him. I should have, but then I learned that I was pregnant." Doggett did a double take. "No one knew but him, and he freaked out. He told me that this meant that I was his, that now he owned me. I was able to hide it, and he told me that I should keep it hidden until we could get married. But it never got that far. In my seventh month, we were fighting, as always, and he hit me. He beat me and threw things at me—I still have scars to show it—and finally he kicked me, hard, in the stomach. Then he realized what he had done and rushed me to the hospital. But it was too late. They cut the dead baby out of me...my daughter, he killed my daughter...and I almost died too." Reyes was crying again, hot, silent tears that just dripped down her face.
"Jesus, Monica. Have you ever told anyone this?" He was sitting next to her again as she stared off into space.
"Yes, once. A few years ago I was in a real depression, I wanted to kill myself. I called a crisis hotline and told the counselor everything. She wanted me to go to the police, but I didn't. And it didn't help to talk about it; it only made it worse.
Doggett pulled her close for another round of tears.
The crate was half full of woven fabrics and clothes, made in the Caribbean and shipped to all parts of the world. The young man who spoke only limited English flipped the top off and gave Mulder a leg up into it. It was about 5 feet cubed, not even wide enough to lay down flat in. Once Mulder was in, the man helped Scully up to where Mulder could reach her. He threw their bags in with them and promised to bring them food and water. Then he put the lid back on. The top was loose enough to let air in, and Mulder and Scully curled down among the fabrics.
Once the crate had been loaded onto the ship, the man came back. He placed a lower crate next to theirs to allow them to get in and out freely. He also showed them where they could find a bathroom that would be relatively unused by anyone else. They thanked the man and gave him what would be the first of several monetary payments.
The man had promised that no one would come down there, except for once a week someone would come down and inspect the cargo for signs of water damage, insect problems, etc. He would try to warn them ahead of time, however, so that they could hide themselves adequately.
The ship was large enough to keep them from getting seasick, but the first morning Scully was throwing up anyway. They figured it was from nerves. She drank some water and laid back down, and soon she was feeling better.