Scully looked at them all and sighed, she knew that she'd have to hear what John had to say, and he knew he'd got her attention. She nodded her head a little and he stepped forward, distancing himself from the people that he'd come with, Monica noticed it and felt resentful but brushed it off as she listened to him.
"I got a message from Mulder tellin' me to contact these guys so it's safe for him to talk to me online, tonight I'm gonna wait for him to contact me again, and I thought you should know in case you wanted to be there," Scully looked at each of their faces, almost as if she was trying to break one of them into fits of giggles, to say this was a joke, but they all looked so serious, and she didn't know if she wanted to push for the reasons why.
"How do you know it's really him? I mean, we've been here before – some random person contacting you saying they know things about Mulder, about us, how do you know?" John looked at the Lone Gunmen and Byers nodded his head and stood forward to speak.
"He called himself M F Luder. I know it was an alias Mulder used, and I know you're thinking a million people must know that by now, but after everything Agent Doggett has told us, I think you should see what happens with this," Scully looked at Byers and then at each of the other Lone Gunmen.
"Is this what you all think?" Langley nodded his head.
"I think now that William is gone you need to think about what else this could mean, I see no reason why Mulder or anyone else would contact the FBI unless it was something you needed to know about," when Langley stopped talking Frohicke sniggered and everyone looked at him.
"Frohicke? You have thoughts on this?" he looked at Scully and nodded.
"Yeah I do, I think it's BS, I think if Mulder had something important to say to any of us it wouldn't be through this jackass and Mulder wouldn't have been stupid enough to just patch right into the FBI server,"
"You said there was no record of his messages to me?" John questioned.
"There isn't," Langley replied with confusion, "which is the main reason I think this needs looking into," Scully turned away for a second and gather her thoughts but it was no use, there were too many thoughts to sort through. She took a deep breath and looked at them all again.
"I can't do this, I've lost more than I will ever recover from because of the FBI, I'm through, and Mulder would know that. I'm sorry, but you're on your own," she sat at her desk and everyone but John turned to leave.
"He doesn't know you gave up William," they all looked at him surprised at what he'd said and waited for Scully's response. "If it's about William, he'll think you can protect him still, what if you need to get to him?"
"I can't get to him. He's gone, and I think it's none of your damn business what happens in my personal life, I don't need you trying to emotionally blackmail me Agent Doggett, now please leave, all of you," after a second they all turned away and left the room. Scully was shaking and didn't know if it was from anger or fear. Either way she had to forget all about this, it was the only way. She composed herself and looked up, she was startled to see Monica still standing in the room.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
"I thought you'd all left."
"No. I just, I wanted to say that, for what it's worth, I think this is bogus too."
"Why?"
"Because I don't think Mulder would do something as risky as this, after the precautions you've both taken to keep him hidden and safe."
"He's not safe Agent Reyes, none of us are. And Doggett's theory? You have an opinion on that?"
"I think he's digging for something that isn't there, and it was wrong of him to say to you what he did," Scully nodded her head appreciatively and took another deep breath, for some reason hearing Monica dismiss this whole thing made it easier for her to do so.
"I take it things aren't going too well with you and Agent Doggett?" Monica sighed and sat down.
"There is no 'me and Agent Doggett'. I just, I don't get it, after he scattered Luke's ashes we went back to my place and we spent one amazing night together and then in the morning he was gone, and we've never spoken about it, then I got sick and that pretty much brings us to the crappy present."
"Well, I wish I knew what to say, but I'm not exactly an expert," Monica laughed a little.
"Of course you are, you and Mulder were in love for years and managed to work together."
"Yeah, but by the time we admitted how we felt, he was taken from me," Monica could sense she'd touched a nerve and stood to leave.
"Well, I should let you get on, I am sorry we came and disturbed you Dana," she walked to the door and waited patiently while a group of cadets walked in before she could leave.
"Monica," she turned back to Scully.
"Thank you," Monica smiled and left the room, closing the door firmly behind her.