Reyes and Doggett flew back to DC the next day and Doggett went straight back to work. He had promised her parents that he would have them come and stay with he and Reyes, and that he would gladly visit them again. Reyes was pleased that her parents liked Doggett. It made her even more certain of her own love for him. She couldn't have got through this if it weren't for him, she had been about ready to give up on everything before he turned up at her parents house, because she couldn't make sense of any of it. She wanted to see things clearer than they had been painted. She had to accept the facts and move on.

Sophia had asked Reyes to keep in touch and she promised that she would. How could she not. She was family now. Reyes took a few more days off work to move into Doggett's house. It was time to move forward with her life instead of looking into the past. It was over now. The one thing she didn't want was to have to explain herself to Mulder. She hadn't been able to work him into her head as anything more than a friend at the minute, the fact that they were brother and sister still blew her mind and she wanted to take this a day at a time.

So it didn't help when Mulder and Scully turned up on Doggett's doorstep one evening wanting to talk to him and Reyes. Doggett let them in but was ready to show them out at the first sign of Reyes being uncomfortable with them being there.

"Good to have you back in DC Monica." Reyes smiled at Scully, she was glad to be back and she was glad to see her friends. The truth was she wasn't as of yet looking at Mulder any differently than she had before. Unfortunately he wasn't of the same viewpoint.

"How was Mexico?"

"It was great, it was nice to see my parents."

"Did they help you with what you wanted to know?" Everybody looked at Mulder as he spoke, and Reyes was determined to not make a scene or turn this into a big deal.

"I went to Mexico to spend time with my parents Mulder, I didn't ask them anything, nor did I want to. Was there anything else that you came for?" Scully took the lead again, she was with Reyes on this one, the last thing she wanted was another fight.

"I don't know if John's told you how our case to get William back is going... But umm, we need two people to stand up in court and answer a few questions, make a statement to the judge about the two of us..."

"Yeah, John told me. We'd be happy to help." Scully smiled as if she had been expecting Reyes to say no to their request. But obviously Reyes was handling the whole DNA thing a lot better than Mulder was.

"Thank you so much."

"Anything we can do to help William be bought up by his real parents." Mulder felt the remark was personal and he looked at Reyes who was already looking at him.

"You can't hide from me forever Monica. You'll have to tell me what you found at some point."

Mulder and Scully turned to leave and Doggett showed them out. As he opened the door he put his hand on Mulder's shoulder to stop him and Mulder turned back surprised.

"Thanks." Doggett was holding his hand out to Mulder and Mulder cautiously took it.

"You're welcome." He walked out and Doggett closed the door.

The days seemed to bleed into one for a week or so after that. Scully received a phone call from her lawyer a couple of days after the welfare officer had been to see she and Mulder and told her that it had gone really well and would definitely be one of their strongest assets in court in front of the judge when he made his decision. For the first time Scully really let herself imagine William at home with her. She had missed a year and a half of his life already, to miss anymore would be a crime in her eyes. She was thrilled.

The one thing that put a dampener on everything was Mulder's thoughts about Reyes. He was desperate to know what she had found out when she went home, he didn't believe for a second that she had spent three weeks there to just catch up with her parents. But he didn't want to push her for any information she didn't want to give, despite his longing for a living family member he wasn't going to risk pushing her away. The truth was he'd have been delighted if she wanted the two of them to spend more time getting to know each other, as a family, but he could see why she wouldn't. He wouldn't expect anybody to be happy about being a part of the Mulder family.

Scully decided to take matters into her own hands and knew that all she needed to bring

Mulder out of his self containment was to get Reyes to tell him the truth. Well if Reyes wasn't going to deliver the news in person then Scully would do it for her. She would go and see Reyes and she would find out whatever it was that she wasn't telling Mulder and she would allow him to let go and to look forward.

Doggett was concerned. Reyes had locked herself in the bathroom for over an hour and showed no signs of coming out. He kept going to check on her but she just yelled for him to go away and that she was fine. He never wandered far, and he guessed she must have heard him walking around because she finally opened the door to him and he found her crying on the bathroom floor.

"Hey, hey what's wrong?" Doggett sat down and saw the empty box that was lying next to Reyes. A pregnancy test. His first reaction was 'oh crap'. But he looked at Reyes before he said anything.

"It's negative." He couldn't hide his relief so he looked away from her face as he sat beside her and tried to be supportive.

"Did you want it to be negative?" At his words she burst into tears and he couldn't figure out what he had said wrong.

"Monica talk to me, what is it?" She looked at him and took a deep breath.

"I'm six days late, and I was terrified that I was pregnant, and then when the test was negative I was so relieved and I'm so scared that that means I'll be a terrible mother. I didn't want it John, I didn't want our baby." Doggett took Reyes into his arms as she continued to cry and he wanted to laugh at the scared and fragile woman he was holding.

"Listen to me Mon, you didn't want something that wasn't even there, that's not a big deal, and it sure as hell doesn't mean you'll be a bad mother. I think that you'll make a fantastic mom. When you want children you'll know, and it'll be right for us." Reyes sat up and smiled and Doggett again didn't know what he had said to get such a powerful reaction.

"You said 'us'."

"Is that bad?"

"You'd have a baby with me?" Doggett smiled.

"I'd carry it for nine months for you if I could." Reyes smiled and wiped away her tears before kissing Doggett. And they may not have been ready to be parents just yet, but there was plenty of opportunity for practising...