Reyes knocked softly on the door and took a deep breath. Her heart was racing and she was physically shaking with nerves as she waited for someone to answer the door. When it finally opened she was surprised to be greeted by Scully. She had been expecting, and had hoped to see Mulder.

"Dana, hi."

"Monica. Come in." She stepped inside and William came running over to her.

"Mon'ca"

"Hey William" She picked him up and gave him a small hug before turning and seeing Scully watching her like a hawk. She put him down and he ran to his toys strewn across the floor. Reyes could tell that William's parents had had more important things to worry about than the state of their home and had let the boy run loose with his toys for a couple of days. William ran back over with his train from the train set that she and Doggett had bought him for his birthday, he grabbed her jacket and pulled her over to his toys, she sat down on the floor beside him and began to play with him.

For the first time in her life Scully felt guilt about how she had treated a friend. Her best friend at that. She watched Reyes playing with William and she couldn't believe how heartless she had been. More than anything Scully wanted for her son to be safe once and for all, but she hadn't been prepared to offer a single thought to Reyes or what she must be going through.

Her life was turned completely on its head and she had no one to ask for help who would understand. It was Scully's job as her friend to offer support, Reyes loved William to pieces, it was wrong of Scully to think or them as two separate issues when in reality they were both her family. She walked over to them and Reyes stood up promising William's cries that she would come back.

"Dana..."

"Wait, I just want to apologise."

"Apologise? For what"

"The way I've been behaving, I should have been more considerate, God knows you've helped with William so much, in the past few months and when he was first born, I would imagine you were as worried about his as we all were, and on top of that you had to think about what this meant for you. I just wasn't prepared to see this as something I had to help you with as well as my son. I was wrong."

"You reacted how any mom would to that kind of news. I didn't expect you to act any differently."

"Are you always so damn understanding? Don't you want to scream and yell at me even a little bit" Reyes smiled and then laughed a little.

"No. You're my best friend, but I don't expect to ever warrant the kind of consideration that you constantly give your son."

"I wish I could yell at me for you! I was so cruel. You must be having such a hard time with all of this."

"Sounds vaguely familiar." Scully smiled slightly and was heartbroken when Reyes began to cry. Reyes' intention in calling round was to inform Mulder she would join him to New Mexico, but upon finding Scully home it had made her want to talk about the personal things that girlfriends did, the things that she and Scully had been able to discuss before. And now Reyes wanted more than anything to get her advice on her relationship with Doggett.

But at the moment she couldn't stop the tears long enough to say anything, and Scully simply sat the two of them down on the sofa and held eyes as she finally let everything out she had been holding onto for days.


Mulder was surprised to see Scully and Reyes sitting together talking on the sofa when he got home. He smiled shyly and walked in to be greeted by William who flung his arms around his father's legs refusing to let go until Mulder would pick him up.

"Hey buddy, you having fun down there"

"I play with the trains"

"Well as long as you stay away from the big real ones that could kill you I'm cool with that."

"Mulder" Mulder looked at Scully's warning expression, the expression that told him he was talking to William about something that not only he wouldn't understand but could possibly scare him and was irrelevant in a three year olds life right now. He put William back down to his toys and sat down across from the two women.

"So, you ok Monica" She nodded her head smiling bravely. Scully wished there was more she could do, but for now she could do nothing more than listen and maybe offer advice.

"I just came to tell you that I've thought about it and I'll go with you to New Mexico."

"That's great."

"But I'm not going to see my parents. I'm just not ready to tell them about any of this, none of it. So if you can live with that then so can I." Scully looked at Mulder and he saw again that just with a look she was warning him to be careful about what he said to this. He was terrified to open his mouth at all when Scully tried to silently warn him like this.

"Sure. Whatever you feel comfortable with." Scully smiled and Mulder relaxed a little. Reyes stood up and William looked at her daring her to leave.

"I should probably go, I should get into work this afternoon."

"No! Mon'ca stay and play"

"I'm sorry William, I'll play another day." William looked at his parents and was alarmed by their looks of complete adoration for him. He was always a little afraid that something bad was going to happen when his parents seemed overly affectionate. So he decided to let Monica go and didn't want to risk causing any problems.

Mulder and Scully showed Reyes out and then walked into the kitchen.

"That was a little unexpected."

"I think she was surprised to find me here. But I'm glad we had a chance to talk."

"So everything's ok"

"Yes. And well done you for not putting your foot in it. I know how much you wanted her to tell her parents what was going on." Scully walked over to Mulder and he pulled her into an embrace and they stood holding each other.

"I know, but for now I'm just glad she's gonna help us out."

"Don't let anything happen to her ok" Mulder looked down at Scully and frowned.

"I wont, but why the sudden concern"

"You were right, she needs our help, and just because she's not three years old or crawling around with a train set doesn't mean she needs any less from us that William."

"I know. As long as we all pull together we can get through this."

"Well that might be difficult. She's moving out of John's house."