Chapter 2

Doggett and Reyes entered Assistant Director Brad Follmer's office. Sure enough, he was sitting at his desk writing memos. Sometimes Doggett wondered if this man ever slept, he pushed the thoughts away as he closed the door behind him. Follmer looked up, "Agents."

Reyes led and sat down first, Doggett joined her and looked to Follmer to show that they were ready for what he had to say. He decided to get straight to business, he reached over his desk and picked up two manilla files, he passed them both to Reyes. She took them off him and passed one to Doggett, she opened the one she kept. A picture of a young woman looked back up to her, short cropped brown hair and green eyes, very pretty. She carried on reading, her eyes widened slightly in alarm and she exchanged a glance with her partner. Doggett's expression mirrored her own, they both looked to Follmer.

"Just what I expected," he said gruffly. Follmer sat back and looked at the two agents, the looks on their faces. "Assistant Director Skinner told me that this would be right up your alley."

Reyes glanced back to Doggett, the way he was looking at Follmer, she knew that they didn't think highly of one another, especially given the current circumstances. She gripped the arms of her seat slightly, Doggett had that look in his eye, she turned back to face Follmer and waited. "What makes you think that, Assistant Director."

Follmer looked at Doggett as he directed the question, Reyes was sure that Follmer had picked up on the condescending tone in his voice as he spoke to him. She watched him closely as he answered the question, he leaned forward and rested his hands on the desk. "Well, it's an obvious X File, Mr Doggett."

Here we go with the Mr's Reyes thought.

"Yes, it does seem that way to me." Doggett replied calmly then added, "Mr Follmer." He hated how Follmer had to act so smug about this whole situation. When Doggett and Scully worked on the X Files, Kersh ran the show and that he could handle. He glanced back to Reyes, he knew what she was thinking, he looked back to Follmer. Him running it, he couldn't handle but luckily he kept his cool.

Reyes cut the silence, "Can you give us any details about this case?"

Follmer looked to her and smiled, she was obviously becoming uncomfortable about this. "Sure, Lisa Halliwell, 26 years old, single mother, teaches biology at the local school." He said as he passed them the photos fresh from the crime scene, "Her mother, Rita called the local law enforcement early this morning," Follmer said back slightly. "She called round her daughter's apartment to find her lying dead in her bath."

"Have they any idea who did," Doggett asked seriously.

"No, and as you can see by the report's, no evidence of forced entry, no fingerprints," Follmer said. He looked at the photos as they were handed back to him. "This they can handle, what they can't handle is the fact the mud that was found in the bottom of her bath... that's when the case was handed over to us."

"Has an autopsy been performed?" Reyes spoke up.

"No," Follmer answered, "I asked them to wait, incase you guys wanted to ask a certain agent to help you out," he winked slightly. He knew that agent Scully had helped them out in certain cases. Doggett took it into consideration, he felt better having someone they knew performing it. Well, there was no further questions to ask now they had all the details.

Reyes closed the door behind her as they left the office, still reading through the reports. She looked to the picture of Lisa Halliwell then to the ones taken at her apartment this morning, she couldn't believe it. Who would do something like this? Or what?

"Monica."

Reyes glanced to Doggett, "Yes."

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, John." She replied quickly, "Just concentrating..." she looked to the picture for a moment, "Perhaps we should go to her apartment first."

"Yeah, seems like the best place to start looking for evidence."

"I meant Dana," Reyes said stepping into the elevator. "Brad said that we might want her on this case," okay so he hadn't said her name specifically but they all knew who he was talking about. "She's still upset about William, we need to ease her into it."

Doggett nodded absently, he knew that it had hit Scully hard. Mulder had disapeared without a trace and she had just given up her son, the child she had waited so long for. He didn't really want to go calling on her but they had no choice, they needed someone who knew what they were doing. They needed someone they could trust. They needed an expert on this. They needed Scully. The elevator stopped, "Okay but I'm driving," Doggett said.

Scully turned over on to her side and pulled the pillow closer to her. She lay on her bed and listened for a few seconds, she sat up when she discovered that she couldn't hear anything. She scolded herself silently and lay back down, it would take time to adjust she had told herself. For the past few months she had to listen out for William crying. She had to remind herself that she no longer had to do that now. Scully turned her head to the right to look at the clock situated on the nightstand, it had just turned 11am. She was about to turn back when something caught her attention, something next to it, William's pacifier.

Scully reached over to retrieve the object off the nightstand and hesitated. She didn't want to cry, however her feelings were overwhelming her. She pulled her hand back and simply stared at the small object. Something so small, something she had taken for granted everytime she had given it her son to satsify him yet now it brought up mixed feelings. She closed her eyes and the feeling passed, no more tears for the timebeing.

The car pulled up outside Scully's apartment, Doggett killed the engine and looked back to Reyes, "Ready?"

"Give me a moment," she said looking through the windscreen up to the apartment block. This wasn't going to be an easy thing to do, to speak to Scully as they would normally. Reyes looked to her partner, "Are you sure we're really gonna be doing the right thing?"

Doggett nodded slowly, he glanced down to Reyes' lap, her hands were shaking. Ever so slightly, but still shaking. He reached out and put his hand over hers to steady it, "She's strong-willed, Monica. All she wants is to get back to work," Doggett looked away for a moment, then looked back to her. "Believe me I know what she's going through," he shook his head. Reyes looked at him somewhat unconvinced. "I know you care for her, Monica. We all do."

"I just don't want to go upsetting her," Reyes answered bravely. "I had a similiar conversation with Skinner last night, he went round her apartment to see if she wanted any company," she avoided his eyes for a moment and looked down to her hands, Doggett's hand on top of hers. Doggett reached over and tilted her chin up, "Hey... it's going to be fine."

Reyes smiled to him, it was only a small smile but a smile at that. Doggett always knew what to say, how to help the situation. She removed one of her hands from underneath his and placed it on top. "Thanks."

Scully remained staring at the ceiling, she couldn't even bare to look to the clock anymore. She sat up and swivelled her body round to get off the bed, she smoothed her hair back down. Now that it had grown longer, she found that it stuck up more easily. She shook her head slightly and stood up, stretching as she did so. Scully glanced back to the pacifier, then determined, she walked over to her dressing table, she sat down and looked in the mirror.

She stared at herself, and she didn't reconise the reflection looking back at her. Three days ago, she was bright eyed, perfectly groomed and perfectly radiant. The picture of happiness and nothing could wipe the permantly embedded grin off her face, but now. She looked closely and shook her head as if in disgust. The person looking back at her looked tired, pale. Her hair was tied back loosely and strands of light auburn hair felt about her face, this person was starting to look older than her years. Scully turned away from the mirror as if ashamed by what she saw in it and her eyes wandered back over to the pacifier occupying the nightstand.

Mustering up all the courage she still had, she stepped cautiously over to the table, until she was only inches away from it. Still her gaze remained on the pacifier, in her mind she was trying to rationalise with herself, how this wouldn't help her through. Yet, Dana needed to do this this. Needed to see something of William's, needed to touch it. To feel the now severed connection with her son. Scully remembered when William was kidnapped not long ago, she had gone through Hell then but this. This was too much to take in, too much to handle and she wasn't sure if she was strong enough.

She bit her lower lip and reached out for the object, slowly as if going too fast would make it disapear and fade from exsistance, she jumped as she heard the soft thud of the door.

She looked down to the pacifier and pulled her hand back. She tooked a strand of hair behind her ear and walked out her bedroom to answer the door, she stood on her tiptoes as she struggled to see who it was, Scully moved back onto the heels of her feet and took a deep breath. Then she opened the door, "John, Monica...come in."

Reyes had a hard time keeping the blank expression on her face. It was all she could do to hide the shock that was registering throughout her body. Scully didn't look too good, her face was ghostly pale and her features were worn. Also, she looked like she hadn't eaten anything for a while. She looked back to Doggett, if he was surprised at the sight of Scully. He weren't showing it. "Thanks," Reyes said as they stepped in.

"How are you, Dana?"

Scully looked up to Doggett and nodded slowly, "Getting there," she said softly, her voice weak. "I'm guessing this isn't a social visit." Doggett nodded slowly and looked to Reyes and nodded, Scully shut the door too quietly and cursed herself again. She turned back round to her collegues, her friends. Reyes handed her a manilla folder, Scully took it in her hands and opened it carefully, quickly she began reading. Her eyes widened slightly at the mention of the mud in the bathtub, this was certainly something that was beginning to sound like an X File. Something Fox Mulder would've taken great joy in investigating. She stopped reading for a moment and looked up to Doggett and Reyes, both were keeping a watchful eye on her.

That was something else she hadn't took into consideration. When she finally got back in contact with Mulder, how would she tell him. How could she tell him what she had to do, her reasons? Would he be angry, disapointed? She closed the file and gave it back to Reyes, "What do you need me to do?"

"We could use some help on this case," Doggett said without hesitation. "We're heading down to the crime scene after we leave here." He glanced to Reyes then back to Scully, "Lisa Halliwell's body is currently at the local morgue awaiting an autopsy and we thought," he paused and watched her, "we thought."

"You need someone who can do it." Scully said it bluntly.

"We need someone we can trust on this matter, Dana." Reyes chimed in, "Someone who will do the job properly. We'll understand if..."

"I'll do it," Scully said calmly. Anything to take her mind off recent events. "When's the best time?"

"Tomorrow," Doggett said. "Gives us time to get evidence and facts together." Scully nodded slowly to them and opened the door. "See you tomorrow then." Doggett smiled to her and walked out the door, Reyes hesitated for a moment and nodded to Doggett, "You go ahead." He did. She paid her attention back to Scully.

"Something wrong, Agent Reyes?"

"We're worried about you, Dana. Me, John, Skinner..." she narrowed her eyes and looked down to the floor, then slowly looked back up to the redhead, "Are you sure you're okay."

Then Scully muttered the immortal words. "I'm fine," she saw the skeptical look she got off Reyes. A look that she hardly ever got off the open-minded woman. "Honestly." It didn't convince Reyes but she turned to leave nonetheless, she turned back to her. "Dana, if you need to talk. You know where I am." Reyes followed it with a smile and left.

Scully shut the door, loudly this time. She turned back to the lounge, it felt so empty to her now as she sat down on the sofa. The phone started ringing, the soft noise echoing throughout. She sat back and looked at it, the answering machine picking it up, "This is Dana Scully, please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible," it was followed by a loud beep.

"Dana, it's your mother." Margaret Scully's voice rang out, "We're a little worried about you here and why haven't you returned your calls..." it drowned out as Scully got back to her feet and headed into the kitchen.