As Mulder and Scully walked through the park, with William watching the world go by from his stroller, they felt like any other ordinary family having a day out. It was a cool day and they all had coats on but were enjoying the refreshing breeze that blew against them. Mulder had persisted in them going out instead of climbing the walls at home worrying when there was nothing they could do just sitting there. Scully knew he had raised a valid point but had refused to say so and had just silently placed William's coat on before sitting him down in his stroller getting him excited about going outside.

Mulder still insisted that he was going to go and see Gibson. Back when Mulder had been protecting the boy they had made a deal for Mulder to always know where he was and when he was on the move. Right now he was staying put and Mulder was determined to get to him without making Scully too unhappy about it. He even thought about asking her to come with him but he wasn't sure that was such a good idea.

"So when do you think you'll go?"

"I don't know. I'll call Skinner again this afternoon and see how it went with Doggett and Reyes, and then I'm gonna go and see her."

"Monica?"

"Yeah. If she won't come and talk to me then I have to make her talk by going to her. Maybe we should all go?"

"No. You go if you need to see her. My mom said she'd drop by tonight anyway, I hope you realise she's going to be spending a lot of time here now. Forever in fear of any of us getting hurt."

"Well whatever makes her sleep easier at night. I just hope she doesn't tell Bill what's going on. I don't think I could cope with him right now."

"Well I have no intention of telling him anything about my life that he doesn't need to know. This is one of those things he doesn't need to know." A small whimper from William drew their attention from their conversation with each other to their son staring up at them. He was waving his arms up at them and clearly had had enough of being pushed around and wanted a little freedom. Scully stopped pushing and Mulder bent down to unfasten the small boy. He stood him up and grabbed his arm before he ran off.

"Sorry little guy, you're not going anywhere."

"Da!"

"Yeah that's me. Come here." Mulder picked him up and despite the fact he still wasn't walking around of his own accord he seemed to be just as happy with his new found height as he looked around him seeing things from a whole new perspective.

William liked it when he was bigger, he hadn't quite figured out how it worked though and why he always seemed to get shorter again no matter how hard he tried to avoid it.

"I don't want to lose you or William, Scully. The sooner I see Gibson and find out exactly what's going on the sooner I can come back to protect you both and put a stop to this for good."


When there was a knock on his door Doggett was so relieved. He and Reyes had been sitting in silence since they got home from work three hours ago and it was driving him crazy. But she was still pissed at him wanting to tell Skinner about their relationship, and he wasn't going to risk saying anything else that she wouldn't like. He had learnt his lesson for today.

He opened the door to Mulder and was only half surprised to see him there. He was glad that someone other than him was eager to move on this and get something arranged in order to prevent any disasters. Reyes heard them talking and was tempted to leave via the back door. All day she had known that Mulder would persist in demanding answers from her about her past until she gave in and told him.

The worst part was the craving she had for a big family, whilst fighting her compulsion to ignore this entire situation. But she couldn't get her head around the fact that she and Mulder were related and that this meant something, it meant something to him she could see that, but right now she didn't know what it meant to her, she had chosen to forget about blood for months now, and it was working. But now all that mattered was who was biologically related to whom, and she knew it.

When Mulder walked into the room he looked at Reyes and she tried to look at him, to show that she wasn't intimidated, and that he couldn't force information out of her, but she couldn't do it for long. Her conscience now had to face the fact that her past was not only important to Mulder, but also to William. The reasons for her disappearing at four years old, and for her not remembering her biological mother, she could no longer carry on as if this didn't matter.

"Can I get you a drink Mulder?" Mulder looked at Doggett and shook his head.

"No thanks, I'm fine. I'd just like to talk with Monica. If that's ok?" Reyes looked at Doggett and he looked awkward, he excused himself saying he needed to walk Oliver and Mulder stood completely still as Reyes sat staring into the fireplace.

"How long can you keep this up Mulder?"

"I got a lot of will power, I can stand here all night if I need to. But I'd prefer that it didn't come to that."

"Well I don't know what else you can possibly expect to achieve here."

"Monica, don't keep pushing me out. The sooner you talk to me the sooner we can start to make this go away."

"Make this go away? You sound like Skinner. He was convinced that some magic spell would make this all go away."

"Yeah, I think he's been hitting the Harry Potter again."

"Well you just said..."

"I said we could make this go away, I didn't say it would be easy. So unless Skinner has a version of the Harry Potter books that includes hidden chapters on how to fight a government conspiracy without anybody getting hurt, this will be hard. It's a fight Monica, and you know by now how these fights tend to turn out on the x-files."

Monica looked up at Mulder and he was glad that they were finally making eye contact. She looked tired and he wanted to just leave and let her rest, but he couldn't go back to Scully empty handed. They needed something to go on.

"What exactly is it you want from me?"

"The truth, as ironic as that phrase is now. I want to help you, I want to protect you."

"Why?" Mulder's eyes softened and he knew it was wrong but he felt so many of the emotions he had had regarding Samantha come flooding to the surface whenever he was near Reyes.

"Because you're my sister."

"I'm not Samantha, you can't save my life and think that that will make your feelings for her and your guilt over her death go away. I'm a whole other person who until five months ago was just someone that worked in your old office and was friends with your girlfriend."

"I know that, and my need to protect you has nothing to do with Samantha. I'm here for William's sake, because for some reason the two of you are in the same danger. If you won't talk to me for me, then talk for him."

"That's unfair."

"Well I'm running out of fair cards to play. I tried nice, I tried caring, I tried honesty, I got nothing left but my son. Your nephew. So talk to me Monica. Talk to me so we can both protect William." Monica looked away from him again and back at the fireplace. Mulder didn't move, he had meant what he said, he was staying put for as long as it took. However it seemed that this wasn't going to be as hard as he had feared.

"Ok. I'll tell you whatever you want to know. Have a seat."