Reyes was pacing the floor in Doggett's apartment and couldn't decide if she was more upset or angry. She had trusted Mulder with personal information that she had only ever shared with a small group of people and he had abused that knowledge to get at her past. Why? What did he think he was doing? If he thought he was doing her a favour he had another thing coming. She had wanted so badly for Mulder and Scully to get William back so that he could grow up knowing that his parents loved him and hadn't abandoned him at the first sign of trouble. She had not thought about her birth parents in years, there was no reason for her to, she did not care where they were or who they were, it was of no concern to her, and it certainly didn't concern Fox Mulder.

She had explained to Doggett what the woman on the phone had told her and he sent her to his place saying he'd tell Skinner she wasn't well and he'd come straight home after the

meeting. He was trying to be supportive and stay calm in front of her, but inside he was a

ticking bomb. This time Mulder had gone too far and if he saw him whilst he was this angry he wouldn't make it in one piece any further through his life. He had no right to screw with people's lives like this.

When he got home Doggett went inside and found Reyes in the kitchen cooking with Oliver asleep around her legs. He smiled when he saw her and she tried to smile back.

"Did you call him?"

"Yeah. There was nobody home. I've been calling all afternoon and there's no reply, the longer I leave it the less pissed off I'm gonna be."

"Well there's no danger of him not knowing how pissed I am with him."

Reyes smiled and walked over to Doggett with the dog following her as she'd woken him up. She inserted herself into the curves of his body and held him close and he pulled her against him hoping it was helping her a little.

"I love you so much John."

"I know, and I love you too, are you ok?"

"I don't know."

Doggett kissed the top of her head and they just stood for a while holing onto something that made them happy. Oliver fell asleep around the two of them and was fastly developing a habit of lying down in the most inconvenient of places.

After they had eaten Doggett and Reyes sat down on his couch with a glass of wine each and cuddled up in front of the fire as the rain hit the windows hard. Reyes had calmed down and as much as she had hoped to talk to Mulder whilst she was at her full rage mode, she knew that nothing would come of a yelling match, so it was better that she was calm enough to talk and not shout. She wasn't sure if Doggett felt the same though. He already had a hard enough time making himself like Mulder, but when Mulder gave no reason for anybody to want to be friends with him how could he be surprised when people gave him the cold shoulder?

Reyes half wanted to just ignore him altogether and cut off all ties to Mulder, it wasn't as if Scully was making any effort to be friends with she or Doggett anymore, so they wouldn't lose anything. Mulder was still well known throughout the FBI as the man that almost tore the whole government organisation down, and nobody thought he was clever or brave for doing it, they all thought he was an idiot to have risked his and Scully's lives for what they could all only see as a waste of time. Over the last ten years things had changed and it wasn't that people didn't believe everything that Fox 'Spooky' Mulder had been saying, it was that they didn't see a point in trying to punish the government for doing their job.

Doggett got up to do the dishes and left Reyes sitting and thinking in his living room.

He wanted so badly to go and see Mulder right now and tell him to stay the hell away from her, but he knew that he ran the risk of pissing off Reyes if he did this so he left it all in his imagination to think about how satisfactory it would be to punch his lights out. When Doggett went back into the living room Reyes had fallen asleep with the dog sitting next to her where Doggett had been sitting before. He put a blanket over her and left her to sleep whilst he took the dog for a walk.

For the first time in six months Scully was enjoying her job, and she had even called her

mother to go for lunch so she could tell her what had happened with the lawyer. She had told her they had an appointment, but it had taken her almost ten minutes to stop crying after initially hearing that Mulder and Scully were going to try and get her grandson back. At lunch Mrs Scully was pleased to see her daughter smiling for a change, but she did worry that she was getting her hopes up a little.

"Dana, please be careful."

"Mom..."

"I know, I know, I'm just overreacting and worrying about nothing. But I can't see you get hurt again."

"I know mom, and I wont. I know this isn't going to be easy, but I would rather try and lose than not try at all."

"Are you sure?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I'm sure. He's my son."

"I know. What does Fox think about all of this?"

"I told you, it was his idea, he was the one who took the first step."

"And have you talked about getting married?"

"Mom!"

"Well..."

"No we haven't."

"It couldn't hurt your case to show that you're committed to each other."

"We are committed to each other, we don't need to get married to show people that."

"You do to show the courts."

"Mom Mulder and I have known each other for over ten years. And we have never in those ten years betrayed or not trusted each other. I don't need to get married to know that I'll be with him until I die."

"Well that's all very romantic, but if you got married, in court they could see that you really are in this for good."

"Can we please change the subject?"

Mrs Scully smiled and nodded her head, and proceeded to ask her daughter how work was. As they spent the rest of their lunch date talking about the mundane things in life, it was obvious to both that all the other could think about was the possibility of getting William back.