Mexico

10am Saturday

When they get to the airport, they sit there in the car for a moment, making no move to get out. A brief glance at Gibson's face tells Reyes that he already knew, despite her having gone through the motions of packing and checking out of the hotel room. Loud thoughts.

"What do I tell John when he calls?" Gibson finally asked her.

"Tell him I'll be home as soon as I can." She answered with a brittle smile. Not knowing how long it would take made her feel guilty and helpless.

He nodded. "I hope you find what you're looking for."

Reyes hugged him once they got out of the car. "Listen, if I'm not home before the tenth, all of the bills for the coming month are in the top drawer of my desk. They're all written out and stamped, so all you'd have to do is drop them off in a mail-box."

"Ok."

"And if you have any problems, or don't think you can handle being alone at the house, I'm sure Skinner or Mrs. Scully-"

Gibson rolled his eyes. "I'm seventeen, you know. You don't have to worry so much about me."

Reyes shook her head slightly. She remembered seventeen; it wasn't as grown up as Gibson seemed to think. "I'll try...I'm sorry to ditch you like this, but you have school on Monday..."

"It's ok. Really. You'll be home as soon as you can, I know that."

His affectionate trust nearly broke her heart as she watched him board the plane alone. From a distance he seemed so small.

Sunday 9am

Vermont

"What's wrong?" Scully asked as Doggett took the bags from her to put in the car. He'd been eager to call home, even volunteering for shopping duty, but now that he had, he looked completely out of sorts.

"I called home and talked to Gibson. Monica's not there."

"Maybe she's running some errands." Scully suggested.

"Oh, she's running an errand." Doggett said flatly. "She's in Mexico."

"What?"

"It seems that she talked to someone at the agency that handled her adoption, and the woman gave her the impression that showing up in person would make a difference when it came to getting her parents names from them. So she took Gibson with her to Mexico last week during his school vacation. She never even mentioned it when I spoke to her the day before she left."

"Did she find out their names?"

Doggett shook his head. "No. The people at the agency refused to give her any information. But Gibson said they met a cleaning lady or something who took an interest in them, and offered to help...if Reyes met her today. So Monica sent Gibson back alone and told him she'd be back as soon as she could."

Scully gave him a measuring look. " Are you mad?"

He sighed, but shook his head. "How can I be? I'm the one who initially suggested she try to find her birth mother...After Maria and I encouraged her to look, how could we fault her methods?"

"Still...That's very understanding of you."

"Yeah. So far. Who knows how long she'll be gone? Every night this week I laid awake wishing we'd solve this damn case so I could go home to her, but she wasn't even there."

"I'm sorry."

"We are never going to solve this case. If it wasn't for those poor dead cows, I'd swear that this is just a wild goose chase to keep us out of the way." Doggett gripped.

"Now you're starting to sound like Mulder."

"You really know how to kick a man when he's down." But despite his wounded tone, he cracked a smile.