Doggett tapped his foot as he watched Mulder excitedly bother the person in the fed-ex place. He seemed to be having trouble deciding on which shipping method would be best for the very important fur sample.

Finally, Doggett's call went through, so he turned his guilty attention to the phone instead. "Hello?"

"Monica, it's John..."

"Did something happen?"

He hated how alarmed her voice sounded. "No no, everything's fine. Well, not fine, but there haven't been any accidents or anything."

"Oh, you just sounded like there's something wrong."

"We didn't catch the purp last night, and whoever it is slaughtered another cow. Looks like we're going to be up here at least another week." He concluded apologetically. "Thank you for letting me know. "Reyes said. "I'm sorry that you're still up there, since being in a little cabin with four people sounds like no fun. But don't worry about me, ok? I'm fine. Gibson's fine too."

"We'll be back as soon as humanly possible. I love you." Doggett said, noticing that Mulder was finally paying the clerk.

"I know you will and I love you too." Reyes told him.

Gibson's look was faintly accusatory. "You didn't tell him." He told her, not pretending he hadn't been listening to the call.

She shrugged. "You know John. If I told him we were going to Mexico, he'd only worry. He's got enough to be concerned with right now."

He did know. Doggett would worry no matter what.

The following day...

"Are you sure you don't want the window?" Gibson asked. "I don't think they'd care if we switched seats."

Reyes saw that he was just being polite, and she didn't blame him for wanting the view. "Thanks, but I'm sure. When I ordered the tickets, I asked for the isle. These kids are hard on the poor kidneys, so I'm bound to check out the lovely bathroom at least once before we get to Mexico."

A couple of minutes after they took their seats, a flight attendant brought Reyes a seatbelt extender, and carefully explained that she ought to fasten the belt under her belly, for the babies safety if there was turbulence. She dutifully followed directions, but the thought of needing the extender didn't do much for her self-esteem. Then and there she vowed to join a gym when the babies were a couple of months old.

Her rueful thoughts about her missing figure were abruptly interrupted by a heavy pressure on the back of her chair. Glancing up she saw a man staring down at her. He grinned broadly, acting as though he were doing nothing rude by looming over her.

"The kid your brother?" The man asked. "I know he can't be yours, not when you're so young and pretty." His smile was suggestive.

Reyes stared back at him in disbelief. Did the idiot hitting on her not notice that she was pregnant? At first she wanted to point out to him that she was indeed old enough to be Gibson's mother, if she'd had him right after high school, but she thought the attempt at enlightenment would be wasted on him. Then she thought of telling him that Gibson was her husband, just to see his reaction, but she reluctantly decided against that figuring it would prolong the conversation. "He's my nephew." She finally told him. "He lives with my husband and I."

The man seemed to deflate at the word "husband." She found it odd that he seemed to have no qualms flirting with a pregnant woman, but finding her to be a married one had him mumbling about how nice that was and sinking back into his chair. Shaking her head slightly, she decided that men were inscrutable.

"Are you ok?"

Reyes turned her head, and looked at Gibson. His eyes were full of concern. "I'm fine."

"You're really pale."

"This flight has just taught me a lesson, that's all. Unborn babies don't like turbulence. They can kick hard enough to hurt." She told him with a faint smile. Boy could they kick hard.

"Did you hear the announcement a minute ago?"

She shook her head, it hadn't even registered.

"They said we're going to be landing any minute."

"Thank God." She blurted out. The surprised look on Gibson's face made her grin in spite of herself.

Twenty minutes later they were off the plane and in the cavernous airport. It was nothing special, but Reyes was thrilled to be there. Mostly because it was on the ground.

Gibson looked a little stunned by the hustle and bustle of people rushing by, most speaking Spanish, a few like them speaking English. She wondered how long it had been since he'd been in an airport of any size. He must have when he'd first come to the states to play chess, but that was when he was very young.

"What do we do now?" He asked, his voice barely betraying the anxiousness that was plain on his face.

"First we go over there." She told him, pointing at a sign that said COCHE. "So we can rent a car." She glanced down at her belly. "But not a compact car."

"Ok." He seemed to relax a little knowing that she had a game plan.

"Then we'll find a hotel, since it's night time, and no one is likely to be at the agency before tomorrow."

"Do you think we'll find a place with a pool?" He asked eagerly, sounding his age for once.

"Maybe. And if not, we'll spend time at the beach."

"Wow, a beach in late April..." The happy look on his face suggested that he was pleased by the impromptu vacation plans after all.
Hey, the computer this story was on had its power source zapped =( Hopefully the hard drive is okay, and it's going to be put in my new computer as second hard drive. I'm not sure how long that'll take, so this might be the last update for a few days since I didn't have too many chapters of any of my stories uploaded before disaster struck.