Mulder walked into the bedroom and looked at Scully as she sat on the edge of what was now their bed. It still felt weird for him calling this place his home, but home it was, and for now he had to try his best to make this the safest home he could for his family. It had been two days since they fought, again, and she had been ignoring him. He'd let her. He didn't want things to get worse.

Skinner had told them that Gibson set off the bomb at the hospital. He had called the FBI and confessed to the whole thing. He knows he has more power over them than they could ever hope for to try and stop him. Unless of course they played their best card. William.

Mulder hated the idea of using his son as a pawn in a game just as much as Scully did, he knew she didn't think that but it was true. Something he wished more than anything was that he and Scully had been honest with each other about how they felt for one another long before they actually did. Maybe then they'd find being honest with each other now so much easier.

"Scully..."

"Don't Mulder. I can't."

"I know. I'm not here to ask you to do anything."

"Ask me? You always lay this one me, the family decisions are always mine. Why?"

"I don't know. Because you're good at it?"

"Well I'm tired of it. I had to make all the decisions when you were gone and I gave William away. I don't want anything like that on my hands again. Not ever."

"You won't. Despite what you may think my goal in life is not to make your life a complete misery. To torture you with these ridiculous battles and fights we just can't win."

"What are you saying? Because we've been here before too. You telling me that it's over, that we won't fight anymore. That we'll just get on with our lives, be a family. Let's be honest Mulder, we're not going to leave DC, you won't leave the x-files or the FBI, this is our life. We chose it, we made it this way, we can't run from it."

"That doesn't mean we should just run straight into a trap either."

"Trap? Jesus Mulder, we've been in a trap for eleven years. You're dreaming if you think that by eliminating Gibson our lives will suddenly be perfect. It won't be. There'll always be something or someone else. We'll never be happy."

"Really? See that's funny, because I always thought my life was perfect, and you and William make me happier than I ever thought I would get to feel in my life. But yeah, I can see how that wouldn't seem like the American dream."

"Do we have a dream Mulder? Because when I close my eyes at night all I have are nightmares."

"What are you saying? That this is not what you want anymore?"

"When did I ever want this?"

"I love you Scully."

"I know. And I love you. But I don't think that's enough for us anymore. This is too hard."

"Life is."

"Don't throw clichés at me Mulder. I'm trying to make this easier."

"No. You're trying to say you're leaving me."

Scully was still sitting; Mulder was still standing in the doorway. They couldn't look at one another, they couldn't move. And as they let the silence eat them up there was a knock on the door that they both knew had the social worker behind it. The person who was going to decide whether they could be a family or not when they weren't even sure if they could do it themselves.

Mulder stepped off the plane and the heat consumed him. He had wanted fresh air and a change of scenery to clear his head. Maybe this hadn't been the right call to make. But he had spoken to Doggett on the telephone and he had seemed eager for some company in Mexico, and Mulder was sure that if he saw Monica and how much she needed him to keep fighting he would be able to do so.

The meeting with the social worker had not gone well. As parents they had excelled they had spent weeks planning for it. But as a couple they stank. And there was nothing they could do about it. If they lost William now it really would be because of them and their behaviour towards one another. There would be no one else to blame.

When the social worker had left Scully had refused to continue the conversation they had been having before his arrival. Mulder took this to mean she had said all she had to say and she wasn't prepared to tell him he was wrong about her wanting to leave him. It would kill him. She knew it, but he knew she had to do what she felt was right for her. He was going to let the decision be hers. It was the least he could do. So Mexico was their 'trial' separation. This was bad.

At the airport Mulder collected his luggage, which only consisted of one bag, and he spotted Doggett leaning against a rental in the car park.

"Agent Doggett."

"Mulder, how was your flight?"

"It was fine."

"I gotta say I was a little surprised to get your call about coming down here."

"Not as surprised as I was to have you say you'd appreciate my company."

"Well any company is better than Monica's mom looking at me as if I'm the devil."

"She blames you for this?"

"She blames me for a lot of things. Come on, I made your reservation at a motel near the hospital, I assume you wanna see Monica?"

"Yeah. I do."

Doggett drove Mulder to the motel he had made a reservation for him at. He hadn't told Reyes' parents that he was coming, he was too nervous. So he was going for the 'it was a spur of the moment thing' approach. Monica's mother couldn't dislike him anymore than she already did so he wasn't too concerned right now. He just felt obliged to help Mulder out and do him this favour. He had sounded so desperate on the phone.

When Mulder had dumped his bag he and Doggett went straight to the hospital and luckily Monica's parents weren't there. Mulder didn't know it but Doggett had planned it so that her parents wouldn't be there asking too many awkward questions.

"Has there been any change in her condition at all?"

"None. But they say that's a good sign, you know, that she's not getting any worse."

"Yeah. That's great."

"How's Dana?" Mulder winced at hearing the name of his only love being spoken so intimately. It was foolish, but hearing someone call her Dana made him worry about her, it made her seem so fragile and vulnerable. Besides, he didn't really want to tell Doggett everything that he'd missed in DC over the past few days.

"She's fine."

"She didn't mind you coming down here? I mean, it's not great timing with Gibson and everything."

"I know. She umm, she understands that I... that we needed time apart."

"What do you mean?" Ok, so maybe he was going to have to give more of an explanation than that.

"Let's just say things got worse, God only knows how, and this is what she's calling a 'trial separation'."

"You're kidding?"

"I wish I was. I think I may have really pissed on it all for good."

"But you two have, well you're both, you love each other."

"Apparently that's not enough."

"Well then make it be enough." Mulder looked at Doggett and was taken a back by his exclamation of disappointment in Mulder just sitting back and letting this happen.

"You two have been through the ringer more times than you both probably wanna know, but you came out on the other side every time. How is that not enough? You're living proof that all a relationship needs is love because you sure as hell haven't had any other kind of security to hold onto with each other over the last eleven years, all you knew was how you felt. You've come this far; I can't see how suddenly love isn't enough. Of all the fights you could possibly face or have faced already, the fight for your family, for the woman you love and your children, should be the most important fight of your life, it sounds to me like Dana doesn't think it is anymore. You gotta make her see that it is."

Doggett sat down beside Monica's bed and held her hand in his own. Mulder watched him and ached for Scully. Relationship counselling from John Doggett? It didn't matter. He was right. He had to show Scully she was his world.