When Reyes finally went back to work it felt great. She'd been off for over six weeks and although Skinner had cleared the leave of absence for her (wanting to cover his ass after going through her private life), she felt guilty for neglecting her career. Life on the X-Files may have been hard work and subject to ridicule, but she loved it, it was good to be back.

As she sat at her desk going through some of the work she had missed during her absence she was surprised to look up and see Scully standing in the doorway of the office.

"Dana, I'm surprised to see you down here."

"I needed to talk to you."

"Ah, I see." Scully walked in and sat down opposite Reyes. Reyes was impressed, she had never had a confrontation with Scully before and she was intrigued to find out how she would react if Reyes refused to tell her anything. But then on the other hand, she had a lot of respect for Scully, and she was a good friend.

"I need you to tell me, or to tell Mulder what happened in Mexico."

"I know. I knew that was why you were here. But I just don't think that I'm ready."

"He has a right to know Monica, it was his father too."

"Yeah, which apparently he only discovered from the DNA test. Before then he didn't even think Bill Mulder was his father."

"Through no fault of his own, and you have no right to withhold information about him."

"But what Mulder's father got up to in New Mexico is of no concern to him. There's no need for him to be involved."

"He became involved the minute his father and your mother conceived you. Like it or not Monica you and he are half brother and sister. He has a right to know." Reyes looked at Scully and didn't want to push this any harder. If she told Scully then she wouldn't have to talk to Mulder about it herself. She could let Scully tell him and that would be the end of it.

When Scully got home Mulder looked at her with such expectation in his eyes that it broke Scully's heart to have to tell him his father ruined a woman's life and didn't care about his unborn child.

Scully told him everything that Reyes had told him, and when she finished talking he stood up and starting wandering around the room. He was thinking, she could see that. But she didn't know what he was thinking.

"I need to see her."

"No Mulder."

"But this is all my fault."

"No it isn't, your father loved you and was a good man in your eyes." Mulder laughed sarcastically at Scully describing his father as 'a good man'.

"You had the man in your life until the day he died Mulder. He was a father to you. She never knew him, and only knows him as the man who didn't want to have anything to do with her. Leave her to come to terms with this before you try and build any bridges with her yourself." Mulder smiled and sat down to kiss Scully. They had other things to worry about. Like William.

Reyes and Doggett spent an hour with Collin Winters before appearing in court. He prepared them for any questions they might be asked, and informed them of the kind of things that judges like to hear about a family. Reyes was happy to be a part of this, she adored William, but she avoided Mulder's eye at all costs. She couldn't bring herself to look at him.

The judge looked fierce as he listened to Reyes and Doggett answer questions and make their statements. But he looked satisfied with what he heard, and he even managed to smile at Reyes as she finished talking. She did a great job in making Mulder and Scully seem like the only people in the world that William should be being taken care by. It was an easy thing for her to do because she believed that it was true. William hadn't been brought to court because it was no place for a two year old to have to spend hours on end. But the judge was here to make his ruling, and he took a short break to make his decision.

Reyes took the opportunity to step outside for some fresh air. It was a cool day and there was a wind that made her eyes water, but it was worth it just to try and gather her thoughts. She had half expected somebody to come looking for her, so when she felt someone beside her she wasn't surprised, and she knew exactly who it was without turning to look at him.

"What can I do for you Mulder?"

"I'm sorry. It's all I came to say to you because it's all I can say. I'm sorry." Reyes turned to look at him and she could see in his eyes that he deeply regretted everything that had happened over the past few months. But it didn't change anything.

"You had no right to do what you did Mulder."

"I know. It was wrong of me to push you, it was wrong of me to go behind your back, and most of all it was wrong of me to force you in to having to face your past and find your birth mother when you weren't ready to. If I could take it all back I would, in a heartbeat. But you came here today, you want to help Scully and I and I can't tell you what that means to me."

Reyes looked away from him again as she spoke, almost as if she wanted to try and pretend that she was still just thinking out loud to herself.

"You know what the real pisser is? I'm more angry that you were right to push me into finding what I did than I am for you going behind my back and snooping around."

"You are?"

"Yeah. Thanks to you I can't hate the mother that gave me up because she didn't. And as for the man who laughingly called himself a father..."

"Bill Mulder wasn't perfect. But who is?" Reyes looked at Mulder again and wanted to ask him so many questions, but now wasn't the time or the place. There was one thing that she really needed to know though.

"How did you even know? How did you know that something like this would happen, that you'd get this kind of result?"

"I didn't. I had no idea. I don't know what I was thinking. It was crazy of me to think you were Samantha, I was just so confused about William and the thought of getting him back or losing him forever, I needed something else to lay a claim to."

"But why me?"

"I don't know. I can't tell you what it was that made me search for the information on you that I did. It wasn't as if I saw some deep family resemblance, I imagine you must look a lot like your mother." Reyes smiled slightly and turned back to the busy road.

"I just can't seem to get everything straight in my head. I have a whole other family living in four states around the country. And I have a half brother that I've known for three years already who's a pain in my ass, I guess that's what brothers are for."

"I am sorry. This is all very surreal for me too. I never imagined that you and I would end up related. Not in a million years."

"Well some part of you must have to have gone to the extreme measures that you did."

Mulder nodded his head a little and was suddenly taking in the fact that he was standing having a conversation with a sister that he had never even known existed. He wanted to get to know her and to be able to have her as a part of his life. But he was afraid too, of what this meant about the X-Files.

"Monica, I swear I'm not going to push anymore, or ask you anything or do anything else until you're ready, but just be careful." Reyes looked at him and he was glad he had gotten her attention.

"There is a reason that Scully and I were allowed home, I still don't know what that is, and I still believe that you were abducted when you were four..."

"Mulder..."

"I know, I know, but hear me out. Somebody somewhere knew that you were Bill Mulder's daughter, I really think that because you're on the X-Files something is waiting to happen." Reyes was about to say something back when Scully appeared behind Mulder at the entrance to the building.

She looked nervous as she approached them and took Mulder's hand.

"The judge is back."