"Monica hi."

"Hi." Reyes had called them back just as Scully had said she would when she had seen that the reason her phone kept ringing was because they wanted to talk to her.

"Mulder has the tickets for Mexico. You fly at four."

"Ok, well I'll come over to your place and we can leave from there."

"Sure."

"Well see ya..."

"Monica?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'll see you in a couple of hours." Scully put down the phone and Mulder pulled her back into the bed beside him.

"Everything ok?"

"Yeah, she's gonna meet you here first. She sounded, odd."

"Well, she's not exactly having the time of her life is she. Especially if she's having problems with Doggett."

"I guess so." Scully kissed Mulder and then moved to get up.

"Where you goin'!"

"Mulder, we have a son in the next room who wont be content with his train set for the entire day. Besides, it's almost lunchtime."

"Well I'm not hungry... not for food anyway..."

"Mulder! I'm getting up now." She got out of bed and quickly got dressed. She felt so guilty having let herself be so easily swept into the moment with Mulder. She couldn't resist him when he became seductive, and then she felt like a terrible mother for leaving William alone. But as she walked back out into the living room William was fine playing with, yep, trains.

William could tell when his mother and father had been alone in their room. His mom's face was red and her hair was ruffled and she made a fuss over him because she'd left him for a while to his own devices. His father would look very happy with himself and also make an extra fuss of William but that was for his mom's benefit so that she would rest easy knowing they were a family. William liked it. It felt nice when he could see his parents were happy, and he was happy too.

But he didn't want his father to go away. He had a bad feeling about it but didn't know what it meant or why he felt this way. And it wasn't as if he could sit his parents down and tell them how he was feeling. He'd just have to let the grown ups take care of this themselves. He liked to hide when he felt like this. Hide before anyone took him away again.

When Reyes knocked on the door with her small overnight bag Scully greeted her with a smile and they walked into the front room. William was sleeping on the sofa and Mulder appeared from the bedroom with his own bag. He threw on his jacket and took Scully into his arms. She blushed because Reyes was standing close by but Mulder didn't care as he kissed her and held her for a long while before finally feeling ready to go.

"Your mom's coming over to help with Will right?"

"Yes, she'll be here later on tonight."

"Ok, and you know that this isn't like last time, you can call me if you need me ok?"

"I know, you should go, you'll miss your flight." Mulder kissed her again before gently stroking William's hair and walking out of the apartment. Reyes smiled shyly and turned to leave but Scully held her back.

"Does John know you're going?"

"No."

"Do you want me to tell him anything?" Reyes fought back the tears and took a deep breath.

"If he asks. Only if he asks."


Scully sat and watched William as he played with his toys and was expecting the tell-tale signs that he was tired at any minute. It had been a long day and she was feeling the weight of it on herself so surely the three year old in front of her was ready to turn in for the night. Her mom was running late but had promised to still get there that night so that Scully and William weren't alone. Scully had told her mom to not fuss and wait until the next day but she had insisted that Scully needed her to be there 'just in case', Scully hadn't wanted to ask what the 'just in case' was her mother referred to because she was already fearing what might happen in Mulder's absence.

It was only six o'clock and Scully was on pins waiting for a knock on the door or a phone call. The phone call she expected to receive from Doggett. She felt certain that he would want to know how Reyes was and if she had been ok when she left, but she also felt that something big had happened between the two of them and she hoped that they'd be able to figure it out because she'd hate to see a couple so obviously in love go through the games that she and Mulder had been through before getting where they were now. They may still have had one hell of a fight ahead of them but they were together and in love, that counted for more than any fight they could win or lose. As far as she was concerned so long as she Mulder and William were able to live together as a family she'd already won.

William had kept himself occupied all day. He knew that his parents had needed some time alone, so that they could say goodbye to each other. He also knew that his mother was upset, it was what he remembered the most from before he'd been sent away. Of all the things he could recall whenever he saw the familiar redhead he loved so dearly he associated it with pain and worry. He didn't fully understand exactly what this meant, but he knew it meant his dad had had to go away again and that could only be a bad thing.

Playing with his toys had kept him from thinking about his dad and being scared he wouldn't come back. And it allowed him to let his mom have some personal time to sit with her own thoughts rather than entertain her son. He didn't mind, he knew that she loved him and that she'd never let anything happen to him.

Sometimes it was almost as if he could hear her thinking about him.

When there was finally a knock on the door Scully realised how much she had wanted her mom to arrive as she looked forward to some company. She hadn't spent a night without Mulder in a long while, she knew that this was going to be difficult for everyone, but she couldn't help feeling selfish and wanting people to remember how much she had already been through.

Scully opened the door and couldn't believe who she saw standing before her. Her jaw dropped and she tried to get the words rushing through her mind to form a sentence that wouldn't generate pure panic and fright in herself or her son. The person at the door just looked at her and tried to smile, something he wasn't used to doing but from the look on Scully's face a smile from him would show her that she needn't be so afraid. He just hoped he'd gotten here in time, there had been no time to call and warn Mulder, he'd had to come straight away.

"Agent Scully? Are you ok?" Scully nodded her head slowly before quickly ushering her guest into the apartment.

"Gibson, what are you doing here? Mulder got a flight to Mexico this afternoon, he's supposed to meet you."

"I know. But there was a small change of plans."