Doggett sat down after carrying the empty dinner plates into the kitchen, he took Reyes into his arms and she lay back onto him on the sofa. They hadn't talked about the fight, or the blood test. In fact they hadn't talked much at all apart from discussing plans for dinner.

Doggett felt incredibly guilty, but he didn't know what else he could do but continue to tell her he was sorry. Reyes was thinking about what she had done and what it could do to her life. She knew that it was ridiculous that she was really Samantha Mulder, she was four years younger for starters. But why did she have a niggling feeling that something wasn't right.

"Mon, you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm just thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"Your split lip. I don't know how I'm going to explain that to my mom."

"We could tell her that I walked into the door."

"Then she'd think I was abusive."

Doggett laughed slightly at the thought of Reyes mother thinking her daughter was hitting him. Reyes felt his laugh and turned around to accuse him of thinking she wasn't strong enough to take him on.

"I know damn well how strong you are, I sure as hell wouldn't want to go up against you."

"Damn right."

Reyes smiled and kissed Doggett softly so as not to hurt his ever-swelling lip. Her smile faded though and he could see there was something wrong.

"What is it?"

"I don't know. This whole blood test thing. I'm not sure I've done the right thing."

"At least we'll get Mulder off your back."

"I know, and I know it's crazy, but what if there's something in what he's saying?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. And I know it can't be true, I wasn't born yesterday, but I never realised how contagious Fox Mulder's paranoia and suspicions could be. I'm afraid of what this test might show."

Doggett sat up straight and Reyes turned to face him.

"Listen to me, this blood test will end this ridiculous notion once and for all. The sooner we get Mulder to realise how completely wrong he is the better."

"What if he isn't wrong?"

"He is. You wanna know how I know?"

Reyes nodded her head and Doggett took her hands into his own and kissed them.

"I know that you are in no way related to Fox Mulder because I hate the guy, and I absolutely adore you. There's no way I could have such strong and yet opposite feelings for two people that were related."

Reyes smiled and felt a little reassurance sweep through her. She kissed Doggett and lay back down on him, it was Christmas Eve, why let this ruin their Christmas together?

Mulder watched as Scully packed her bag. It was over. She threw all of her essentials

into an overnight bag that was big enough to spend a week away from home, and she didn't look at him once. He'd really done it this time. He'd told her about the files on Reyes and going to see Skinner. He couldn't wish any harder to be able to take it back. And now he was going to be alone for Christmas. Scully walked to the front door and didn't even hesitate as she opened it and headed to her mom's.

Mulder looked at the clock. It was 5.00am. Christmas had snuck up on him in the last five hours and caught him off guard. He had hoped that this was going to be his last Christmas without his son, as it turned out it was probably going to be his first Christmas without Scully. He got up and got dressed, he couldn't be bothered to try and sleep any longer.

As he sat in the front room flicking through the TV channels full of the usual rubbish that's broadcast on Christmas Day he felt around in his pocket for whatever it was that was making him very uncomfortable. The engagement ring.

His original plan had been to ask Scully to marry him the night before. For them to spend Christmas Day together as a betrothed couple. He laughed to himself for thinking of he and Scully as betrothed. But that was what he wanted. He wanted a wedding ring and a certificate to say that they belonged together, he wanted the whole world to be able to see they were in love, and he wanted them to celebrate their love with their friends and family. There was only one way that he could fix this.

At 1.30pm Mulder knocked on Mrs Scully's front door and prayed that Bill Jnr. didn't answer it. No such luck.

"She doesn't want to see you."

"Well it's important."

"I don't care, this is a family day and we're about to have dinner."

"Well then I wont take up much of your time, and for the record, your sister is my family."

Mulder pushed his way past Bill and tried to pretend he didn't hear what Bill called him as he walked behind him into the dining room. Scully looked up and couldn't believe that Mulder was really there. The room was full of Scully family members and Mulder suddenly felt very awkward. Scully's nephew Matthew sat glaring up at Mulder with his mouth wide open as if he was waiting for Mulder to do something funny. Mulder looked from one face to another before settling his eyes on Scully and preparing himself for what he had planned to say to her.

"Dana, could I talk to you for a second?"

Scully nodded her head and wasn't going to make things that easy for him. He saw in her eyes what she wanted him to do, and it terrified him.

"Ok... Here it is then..."

He walked around the table and stood a little closer to Scully so he could try to block out some of the people around the table, especially all the faces that he knew.

"Scully, I know that I screwed up, yet again. And I know that there is absolutely nothing that I could say or do to make this all go away, but I like a challenge and I'm going to try anyway because you mean the world to me, you're all I have, and I can't live another day if I have to do it without you. I'm so sorry for what I've said and what I've done over the past week or so, I can't tell you how much of an ass I feel. And I just need you to know that I love you, I love you more than anything else in this whole world, and I don't care about Monica or this God damn DNA test, I wont even ask about the results, it was stupid of me, and I know it was. I'll drop it, I swear I'll drop it, but please, come home. I need you. You and William are all that I want from this world, my family."

Scully looked at Mulder and had actually managed to forget that anybody else was sitting around the table. Mulder walked right over to her and got down onto his knees as he took her face in his hands. She smiled at him through her tearful eyes and she kissed him. She held him close and didn't realise how much she had hated walking away from him until he had come after her. As he looked into her eyes and smiled he reached into his pocket and took out the small black box that had been concealing the ring he had so carefully picked out. He opened it up and lifted one knee up so that he could do this properly.

"Dana Katherine Scully, will you marry me?"

Scully looked at him and could barely keep back her tears of joy to say her answer quick enough.

"Yes."

She came down from her chair and kneeled next to him as he slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her. Now this was the kind of Christmas that he had been hoping for.