Langley stared at the computer in front of him with nothing but pure love and adoration. It'd been so long since The Lone Gunmen had had any kind of technology amongst them worth being proud of but now they could enjoy the wonders of hi-tech computers, wireless internet, and of course the ingenious wonder of the webcam. Frohicke came into the room with two plates of pancakes and syrup and placed them down beside the computer.

"Hey! Watch where you put that crap!"

"That crap is the breakfast you asked for you weasel."

"Yeah, well I didn't ask for a side of an iMac G5 M9250LLA Desktop, with 1.8GHz PowerPC G5, 256MB, 160GB, DVD-R/CD-RW, OS X Panther, and 20" LCD."

"Then how about next time you want breakfast you kiss my ass?"

"We worked hard for this system little man, I'm not letting your ready made straight from the box pancakes and cheap syrup ruin it."

"Why you little punk ass, I don't have to take this from you, let me see that thing,"

Frohicke pushed Langley aside and sat down at the computer where he pushed a few buttons and the screen froze. He couldn't get it to do anything, it just stopped working. Langley pushed him to the ground and sat back in his seat.

"What did you do?"

Frohicke picked himself up off the floor and brushed his pants down, before he got a chance to say anything Byers walked in and ignored them both as he admired the newest edition of 'The Lone Gunmen'.

"You crashed it."

"I did not."

"Well then why won't it do anything? I'm gonna kick your ass Frohicke!"

Frohicke edged slowly away and then ran to hide behind Byers as Langley lunged for him. Byers, still reading his paper just ignored them until he was ready to intervene. And when he did so he simply stepped back allowing them to crash into each other and fall to a heap on the ground. Then he walked over to the computer typed something in and the homepage refreshed itself ready to work again.

Frohicke and Langley looked at each other and then helped one another stand up. They walked back to the computer and both picked up a plate of pancakes to start in on, Byers showed them both the newspaper and smiled.

"We're back."

After breakfast The Lone Gunmen sat down at their new computer and each participated in the staring with love and adoration. After everything fell through for them it was amazing that they had just printed a new issue of their paper, that they had just bought the best in technology to work from, a whole new host of equipment they could use to spread the truth and yet all they could think about was Mulder.

If it weren't for him they'd never have gotten this far, they'd never have uncovered the things that they had or seen the things that they'd seen, and now, now everything was going well for them again and he wasn't anywhere to be seen.

They'd been happy to play a role in Scully's life for as long as she needed them, but after giving up William they each found it hard to be supportive towards her when she seemed so cold and unwelcoming. Frohicke had hacked into her phone line for a couple of weeks and listened to the messages to her mother and the ones that she got back from Bill. She was more lonely than ever but all any of them could do was watch from the side lines. She wouldn't cal on them without reason; she didn't think of them as friends as they did her, it was strictly a professional arrangement. But it didn't stop Frohicke worrying.

"You think we should call her?"

"No."

"You don't think we should call her?"

"No."

"You think we should show her the new edition of The Lone Gunmen?"

"No," Frohicke sighed and Byers looked at him sympathetically.

"Her apartment is on our mailing list, she'll have received a copy this morning and if she has any comments she has our number," none of them were trying to seem uncaring but it was difficult now for them to understand their relationship with Scully.

As Langley sat playing an online game of Dungeons and Dragons with someone in France, Frohicke polished up some of his hacking skills and Byers caught up on some reading. They were all surprised to receive a phone call from John Doggett asking them if they could help him out with something. John Doggett asked no one for help, and when he did it wasn't from them. Things had a tendency to go wrong and people sometimes let feelings get in the way of professionalism and this never led to anything positive.

However they agreed that John could come by later that day to talk to them about what he needed them to do for him. Frohicke mumbled something that sounded like 'jerk' under his breath and tried to think of ways he could avoid the meeting. The anticipation was almost too much. Almost.