Scully watched her son sleeping soundly in her arms and she was fighting the urge to run and hide. Nobody was taking her baby away from her, not after how she fought to get him back. She was trying to convince herself that Gibson was mistaken, that this time he was wrong. The only saving grace was that Mulder appeared to be safe.

They didn't want him now, but They still wanted her son, and what about Reyes? The two women had grown exceptionally close, and she knew how important it was to Mulder to have found the truth. To have found family. She would never make him choose between William and Monica, but she prayed that Mulder would provide the strength and safety she craved when she had felt compelled to give her son up before.

Mulder had left Reyes and Doggett feeling awkward about being with them. Half of him had wanted to comfort Reyes himself, his sister. But it would have been inappropriate, he knew that. He had been trying to talk to her all day, but someone else would say something to him and his chance was gone. No matter how awkward they all felt about this, Monica was his family, and she needed his help now. Along with his son.

Mulder watched Scully for a long while, thinking about what she had lost, and what they had fought to gain. Her desire to be a mother to her son was what had made the last few months of his life the best he'd ever had. There was no way he was going to let anyone or anything ruin what they had rightfully claimed as theirs.

He walked into the room and Scully looked up at him. He was pleasantly surprised to see a smile on her face. He didn't want to have to be the guy to make it disappear.

"How's everybody doing?" Scully looked back down to her boy as Mulder knelt on the floor beside her.

"Mulder..."

"I know. It's ok."

"How is it? How is any of this ok?" Mulder stroked his son's hair and felt the awe he had for this tiny person he had helped to create grow as he slept peacefully in his mother's arms.

"So I jumped ahead a little, what I should have said was, it will be ok. I promise. I would never let anyone hurt you or William."

"I just want this to be over. I want us to be a family."

"We are a family. No amount of government or alien conspiring will ever change that. Not now, not after what we've already seen and done. We'll get through this together. But I do need to talk with Gibson..."

"Mulder no..."

"It's ok, I'll be there and back in a few days..."

"I won't let you leave, not again. What use are you to William or I if you're not here? If you go and They know we're alone and vulnerable They'll take him. You're here this time, I shouldn't have to do this alone again."

"You won't. I swear to you, I will not let anything bad happen." Mulder leaned forward and kissed Scully softly before standing up as his legs began to cramp. He looked around the room and admired at how well lived in it appeared. Anybody that didn't know the family would think that William had lived here his whole life. Mulder didn't want for him to not spend the rest of his life with them.

As much as he kept telling himself it was a duty and he felt he owed it to people, he was just as eager for this to be over as everyone else, he wanted to be a father and for his son to be safe. But right now he had to help figure out how to fight. He'd fought for so long and won so many battles. Now he had to win the war, for his own sake as much as those around him.


Doggett was relieved to be out of the apartment when he and Reyes had finally left. When she had stopped crying she had expressed a need to leave, and he had informed Mulder who saw them to the door with Scully after putting William down.

Doggett saw the different way in which Scully looked at Reyes, no longer as a friend, but as a threat to her peace in life. Another 'problem' for her to deal with as she continued to pay for her time and work on the x-files. Doggett understood completely how this had disrupted everything that they all had planned for their lives, but he didn't want it to disrupt the way they were with each other.

Mulder had spent the day reassuring everybody that he would fix this, but Doggett had seen in his eyes that this news had shaken him as much as the rest of them. They all needed to come together on this, not let it pull them apart.

Everybody's concern had immediately been for William's safety. Doggett had a great deal of affection for the boy, but the woman he loved had been told that she was in danger too. How could he make her his priority without making everyone else think that he didn't care for William? He had hoped to talk more with Reyes about this and about how he felt, but he was getting nothing out of her, at least not tonight.

As they arrived home they went straight upstairs to get ready for bed. They were tired but both knew they wouldn't sleep, Doggett had thought maybe Reyes would like to talk instead, but no such luck. Reyes placed herself as far to the edge of the bed as she could and Doggett didn't try to do anything to bring her closer. If she needed space she could have it, he'd give her anything she wanted and do anything she asked, he just wanted them to be happy. As he glanced at clock by the bed and saw the time show 1.52am, he closed his eyes and somehow fell into a dreamless sleep.

Monica couldn't sleep at all. She knew that Doggett had dozed off around 2am, and she finally got up so as not to wake him with her constant movement, at 4.30am. She went down the stairs and made sure the dog saw her before he started barking thinking someone had broken in. She made herself a mug of hot chocolate and curled up on the sofa with Oliver.

The living room curtains hadn't been drawn and she could see the stars twinkling in the sky. It was absurd but she found herself wondering if there really could be anything out there. Flying around in space, travelling around planets and galaxies, a whole other world where they weren't the invaders they were the invaded. Humans poked around in space too much, trying to understand things they had no business to want to know, and now space was fighting back, the other life forms out there were standing up for themselves.

Reyes wanted to laugh at herself for being so ridiculous and she tried to think about something else, but whenever her mind wandered onto another topic it was William she thought of. And it was the look on Scully's face as they had left her apartment. It was all she could see when she closed her eyes and finally drifted off to sleep just a short hour before the sun was going to rise on a whole new day.