Mexico

Meanwhile...

The phone on the desk in the room gave a shrill scream, startling Reyes and Gibson out of the tv-watching stupor. Since she was closest, Reyes picked it up. "Hello?"

"Ms Reyes, you have a call. May I connect you?"

She had no idea who would be calling her, but she agreed, fearing that someone had tracked her down because of an emergency. "Yes, please connect me." She quickly replied.

"Is this Mrs. Reyes?" A woman's voice asked. It sounded vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

"Yes."

"Oh good. I should have asked which hotel you were staying in when I spoke to you yesterday."

Reyes suddenly realized that it was the odd woman she'd spoken to in the hallway. "What can I do for you?"

"No no, it's what I can do for you." Isabella corrected.

"I'm not sure I understand." Reyes told her. Gibson shot her a questioning look, but she could only shrug. "Could you hold on a second?" She covered the receiver and asked Gibson to go and get her a soda.

"I work there, at the adoption agency. Nobody important, but I have keys to clean the offices." Isabella explained when she put the phone to her ear again.

"Oh." Reyes failed to see where the conversation was going.

"I think I found the file on you and your mother. Same birth date, baby girl..." Isabella said happily. "I made a copy, and I can give it to you after church on Sunday. Meet me for a bite to eat at Pasteles. It's right down town."

Reyes' elation dampened immediately. She wanted the file more than anything, but she and Gibson were leaving in the morning. "That's a nice offer." She said finally, wondering what to do.

She was thinking about brick walls when Gibson returned with her drink.

Vermont

10pm

Crickets merrily chirped in the dark. Off in the distance a dog barked angrily, probably at some four-legged intruder. There was no sign of bigfoot or an axe/pick wielding crazy person.

"Mulder, stop pouting."

"I'm not pouting." His voice was sullen.

"This case is important. Sort of. You'll have plenty of time to hang out with Barry once we solve this."

"No I won't." He declared. " He lives in Vermont, and we live all the way in DC. I'm never going to see him again. Unless we moved-"

"We are not moving to Vermont.'

"I knew you were going to say that." He replied glumly.

Scully shook her head in the dark. She'd had a conversation like this once before, but then she'd been six and arguing with her father about some other child she'd met while they were camping.

"You can keep in touch with him through e-mail." Scully said. "Maybe we can bring the kids up here on vacation this summer."

"Yeah! That's a good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of it."

Because you were too busy pouting, she thinks. "Mulder..."

"What?"

"You ever think of having another baby?" She blurted out. It had been on her mind off and on again since the doctor confirmed that she was still fertile after all, back before Mulder returned from hiding in the desert.

Mulder blinked. "Sometimes... Has hanging out with Reyes gotten you biological clock ticking?" He asked with a grin she could see in the dark.

"Something like that." She agreed. "I'm thirty-nine, Mulder, so it's getting pretty close to now or never time."

"I know...If we did have a baby, would you want a little boy or little a girl?"

Instead of saying either as long as it's healthy, which is what he'd expected, she promptly said " A girl."

"Why a girl?" He was consumed by curiosity.

"Because I never had a baby daughter."

That made him quiet. It still hurt, and not just her. Even though Scully had miraculously gotten Emily back, she'd still missed almost eight years of her daughter's life. They both had. Back when they'd first discovered that the little girl existed, he'd harbored secret daydreams about marrying Scully if it was necessary to give her a better shot at gaining custody. Then they'd raise her together...but the dreams had died when Emily had gotten sick and had been taken from them.

"You wouldn't name her something silly, would you? Like Hope, Joy or Promise."

"We'd name her something we both liked. Not Bambi."

Mulder laughed. "But what if we had another boy?"

"We'd love him too." She said with conviction.

"Let's talk about this more when we get home."

"Whenever that is." Scully sighed.

A stick cracked with a shotgun report.

"What was that?" Davies asked nervously. He and Doggett had hit it off after he discovered that Doggett had once been a cop too. Barry on the other hand, seemed to feel left out, and barely said anything.

Before Barry or Doggett could answer a loud 'whuff' came from the trees about a hundred yards from where they were huddled.

Doggett searched the area with his flashlight, and nearly dropped it when the light fell on something large with dark fur.

"Bigfoot!" Barry exclaimed in an excited whisper.

The thing heard him and swung its head towards them. It then lunged up on two legs and let loose a warning roar.

"Not bigfoot, you idiot." Officer Davies said, forgetting to censor himself. He knew Barry's reputation, and thought he was a flake. "It's a fcking bear!"

"How do we get rid of a bear?" Doggett whispered urgently. He'd never spent any time in the woods, so he was clueless.

"We make a lot of noise." Barry and Davies said at the same time. The simultaneous response did not bring a sense of camaraderie.

Following their lead, Doggett also grabbed up a thick fallen branch and began pounding on a tree while shouting entreats for it to "go away."

Eventually the bear gave what seemed like a very derisive snort and lumbered off.

"Well." Barry said glumly, watching the retreating creature. "I sure hope Mulder and Scully had better luck because all the noise we just made probably scared off every wild animal for a mile."

Doggett grated his teeth and wondered which really would have been worse, being eat by a bear or having to spend another week up there. For his sake it was good that Barry didn't mention that brown and black bears are rarely dangerous.