Disclaimer I do not own anything related to the X Files. All original characters are mine.

Back to the Start.

Monica Reyes felt slightly sick as she stared at the basement they had run from so long ago. Half of her wanted to get back into the work but half of her wanted to grab John's hand and run as far away as fast as she could. She had no idea how Dana must be feeling.

"Hi." John kissed her cheek as he stepped past her into the office. "You ok Mon?"

"Yeah." She looked at the dust covered desks and filing cabinet. The office which had once been so high tech was now just basic considering the advances in technology since they had left.

"It's wierd but I thought Dana and Mulder would be here before us." John coughed slightly as he brushed the dust off one of the files that had been abandoned on the desk so long ago. He read the handwritten label and smiled. "Flukeman" was legendary.

"I called her last night. She had to drop Lucy at nursery and William at school."

"Oh yeah." John nodded. Alot had changed since they had last been in the basement.

"Mulder is meeting with Skinner now. I think it has more to do with him coming back rather than the reopening of the X Files." Monica closed her eyes. She was beginning to wonder why she had agreed to come back.

"Ah." John nodded. They all knew that for a long time Mulder had been considered a genuine threat. Once Kersh had been arrested and imprisoned on several anti terrorism charges and Mulder and Scully had helped in the case of a serial killer the profile of the X Files and those that had run them had begun to be restored.

"Yes." Monica nodded, her dark hair bobbed around her head as John crossed the room to her. "But what I can't understand is why? Why reopen the X Files? And why have us run them?"

"Because we are the only ones who know what is really out there." Mulder announced as he appeared in the doorway alongside Scully and Skinner. "Isn't that right, Big Man?"

"Partly." Skinner looked at him over the top of his glasses.

"And partly because no one else would touch them." Scully sighed as she looked at the basement where it all began. For a moment she wondered if she would have gone down that path as a keen, young FBI agent had she known what she was letting herself into.

"Agent Scully." Skinner began.

"Doctor." Scully corrected him. "It's Dr Scully. It always was, really." She closed her eyes as images of her children swam before them.

"The DG asked personally for you all. None of you had to come back."

"Didn't we? With 2012 a few months away?" She rounded on her former boss. "Sir, I suggest you tell us what the Hell we are all doing here?"

"Scully." Mulder tried to placate his wife as she glared at their boss.

"No, Mulder. She's right." Skinner braced himself. He knew the team needed an explanation of what was happening.

"So?"

"You may want to sit down."

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A/N Please review.