In the x-files office nothing had changed over the past couple of years, so when Mulder walked in and looked around he felt a thousand ghosts hit him. He walked around every last inch of carpet and even sat down at his old desk. Doggett had explained how he and Reyes had fought effortlessly to keep the x-files open when Mulder and Scully had left, the bureau came down heavy on Skinner and anyone associated with the x-files, it took seven months to get them up and running again, and to refurnish the office.

Mulder was grateful. He'd have been even more grateful if it were still him running things down here. But no one at the bureau would allow that to ever happen, and he had promised Scully that he would not have any business with the x-files now that they were off the conspirators wanted list. She had even said that she had hoped Doggett and Reyes would have left things closed for the x-files.

She couldn't hide her disappointment that they were still open. But to her relief the cases they dealt with were far from the extreme cry that she and Mulder had dealt with. And there were no UFO's or 'little green men' to report on, so she allowed her mind to rest at ease. However she hadn't stepped foot in the office during the six months she and Mulder had been back.

Mulder stood up from the desk and walked around it just as Doggett walked into the room.

"Mulder, surprised to see you down here."

"Surprised or disappointed?"

"Surprised. What can I do for you?"

"Actually I was looking for Agent Reyes. Is she around today?"

"Yeah, we just had a meetin' with Skinner, she'll be down in a sec."

"Do you mind if I wait?"

"Not at all. Make yourself at home."

"I am home."

"You miss it?"

"Would you?" Doggett looked at Mulder. He had a great respect for this man, but at the same time he couldn't help believing that he was a complete ass.

"So what is it you're lookin' for Monica for?"

"It's a private matter actually."

"It about you lookin' for William?" Mulder tried hopelessly to hide his surprise.

"She told you?"

"She tells me everything. That's what two people do when they're in love."

"Ah yes, I keep forgetting the two of you are 'together' now. Guess it just doesn't sit right

in my mind."

"That right?" Mulder shrugged his shoulders and was saved from Doggett's retaliation as Reyes walked into the office.

"Mulder? What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you, about what you said last night."

"About getting William back?"

"No, I mean not directly anyway, I actually wondered if I could ask you about your own

adoption."

"What in the hell does that have to do with your son?" Reyes put a protective hand on Doggett's arm as he voiced his concerns.

"With all due respect Agent Doggett, I'm trying to work out what is best for my son, if I can understand how Agent Reyes felt when she found out she was adopted then maybe I can better decide on whether I should get my son back or not."

"You need to hear another woman's pain to decide whether you want your son? All due respect Mulder, that sounds a little crazy, but then I guess we should expect that from you right? Either you want your son back or you don't." Reyes tightened her grip on Doggett and he knew to let it drop. Reyes turned to Mulder and smiled bravely.

"I don't mind talking to you about my own adoption, but like I said last night, I don't think that I'll be able to help you at all."

"I just need to know what William will feel if he finds out in eighteen years that his parents aren't actually his parents." Doggett understood this and he sat down behind his desk to show he wasn't going to interfere anymore. Mulder watched him and envied him for being paid to sit at the desk that was rightfully his. Reyes sat down at her own desk and Mulder sat down opposite her. He was ready to hear whatever she had to say.

"I was twenty-one when my parents sat me down and told me they had adopted me when I was four."

"And you don't remember your birth parents?"

"No. My parents had a daughter who died when she was four years old, two years before they adopted me, so they used the first four years of her life as mine. It was so easy for me to live as the daughter my parents had lost, if I had never been told I was adopted I would never have doubted the memories that had been planted in me by my family. My parents accepted me into their lives without question and took me home as their daughter Monica Reyes. When they told me I was adopted I was shocked and upset.

The anger I felt was to my birth parents for letting me go, not to the parents who had lied but raised me for seventeen years. They loved me as their own daughter and I am forever grateful to them. I hated my birth parents, yet I could never console myself with hating a person I had never even met. The adoption agency I had been placed in collected me from a hospital after local police had found me sleeping in a nearby field. The best thing my birth parents ever did was leave me in that field."

"And you've never tried to find them?"

"Once. About a year after I found out the truth, but I couldn't follow it through. I didn't

want to see them. I have a family and parents who love me; I don't need to know the people that were prepared to let me go. It wasn't even the fact they let me go that upset me, it was the fact that they had chosen to take care of me for four years and then let me go without a care in the world, just by deciding we don't want a daughter after all. Those are things that no matter how old you get you can never understand an adult doing to their child, someone they're supposed to love."

Reyes was getting upset and Doggett got up and walked to stand protectively over her. He looked at Mulder and he knew that it was time to leave. Reyes stood up and excused

herself. Mulder stood up and looked at Doggett.

"Agent Doggett."

"Yeah?"

"Thanks." Mulder walked out and after a few minutes Reyes came back. Doggett walked over to her and she welcomed his strong arms around her as he held her close.

"Thank you, I needed this."

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You'd think after all this time I could talk about it without crying."

"It's ok to cry Mon."

"I know. But I've told this story a few times now. Do you think it'll ever get easier?"

"I hope so." Reyes stayed in Doggett's arms and was grateful for his honesty. He never told her beautiful lies, he told her the possibility of a beautiful truth.

Mulder tried contacting the woman that had dealt with William's adoption case, but she had moved jobs and left no forwarding address. He still felt that he was clutching at straws, and he felt incredibly guilty for bringing Reyes to tears about her personal life. It was wrong of him to push her, and if he was honest one of the reasons he had pushed it was to piss Doggett off, when in the end all he felt was guilt and admiration for how much Doggett loved Reyes. He still didn't want to talk to Scully about it; he needed odds on their chances before he brought her into it.

Mulder actually found himself wanting to help Reyes find her own birth parents. It wasn't his place and it had nothing to do with him, but he felt the need to help her face her demons. Maybe he could find them and surprise her with their location then she could make the decision of whether she wanted to meet them or not. Even as the idea was running through his head he knew how ridiculous it was. But if he was so hell bent on getting his son back, then surely he should be ready to help any child find their birth parents whether they thought they wanted to know them or not.