"Reunion"
by Andra Marie Mueller
Part NineSee part one for summary, author's notes & disclaimer
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In the waiting area adjacent to the conference room, Reyes and Jessica watched as Kersch materialized from the room and strode by them without saying a word.
“That can’t be good,” Jessica remarked.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Reyes said. “Kersch has never been a fan of the X files, but his bark is usually worse than his bite. “
“So how long have you been on the X files?” Jessica asked. “Were you a member of the division during the investigation into Luke’s kidnapping?”
“No. I transferred from New Orleans last year when John brought me in on the search for Mulder, and I decided to stay on once he had been found.”
“I never got the chance to thank you for helping John find Luke. I know how much your assistance meant to him.”
“I only wish we could have found him before…”
Her voice trailed off, and the lieutenant gave her a small smile. “Before Harvey killed him,” the other woman finished, and settled into a chair to get off her injured knee. “So do I.”
Uncomfortable at having touched upon a painful subject, Reyes quickly switched topics. “I understand from John that the two of you are getting remarried,” she said. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“I have to admit, however, that I was a bit surprised at the suddenness of it,” Reyes continued casually. “The two of you have been apart for close to five years and yet you reconciled in barely two weeks.”
Here it comes, Jessica thought idly, and shot her a sideways glance. “You don’t approve?”
“It’s not my place to approve or disapprove,” Reyes evaded.
“But you obviously have an opinion about it,” Jessica pressed.
Reyes met her gaze. “I just don’t want to see John get hurt again,” she replied. “He’s had enough pain in his life.”
“Most of which has been shared with me,” Jessica responded. “You’re making assumptions based on what little pieces of our history you’ve been privy to and the fact that we’ve apparently gone 180 degrees in our relationship in just fourteen days. In your position, I’d probably be skeptical, too. But you’re conveniently overlooking the fact that our two weeks has been preceded by almost thirty years.”
“Have you stopped to consider that those thirty years are the reason he thinks he’s still in love with you?”
“Have you stopped to consider that those thirty years are the reason he never fell out of love with me in the first place?”
Reyes’ expression made it clear that she had not.
“I understand why you care about John the way you do,” Jessica allowed. “He’s an easy man to love. But the things that draw you to him are impersonal. There is so much you don’t know about him.”
“I know the important things,” Reyes countered. “I know about his integrity, his loyalty and his honesty.”
“Do you know his middle name?” Jessica asked.
“Excuse me?”
“You said you know the important things. What’s his middle name?”
“It’s Jay.”
The lieutenant permitted herself a small smile. “Most people think so, because his middle initial is ‘J’ and because he isn’t fond of his middle name, he lets them assume that the ‘J’ is his name and not the letter. But his middle name is Jeremiah, after his father. All of the Doggett men are named for the books of the Bible and given their father’s first name as their middle name.”
“So that’s why your son was Luke John Doggett,” Reyes deduced. “I never made the connection.”
“Do you know why John joined the Marines, or became a cop?” Jessica queried. “Do you know his favorite color or flavor of ice cream?”
“No, but I suppose you’re going to tell me,” came the irritated reply.
“He joined the Marines because his father told him that every man must serve God or his country in order to call himself a man; he became a cop because he wanted his sister’s children and ours to be able to walk down the streets without fear. He can kill a man with his bare hands, but those same hands cradled our only son with a reverence that brought tears to my eyes as he placed him on my stomach the day he was born. He hates snow, but drove two miles in a blizzard to get the ingredients to make his pregnant wife a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He barely tolerates dogs that weigh less than his shoes, yet after my second miscarriage he gave me a puppy that would eventually grow up and outweigh me, simply because he knew it would ease my pain. His favorite color is blue; his favorite drink is black coffee; and his favorite ice cream is Rocky Road. And underneath his tough as nails exterior lays the softest heart I have ever been privileged to know.”
Finishing her impromptu speech, the lieutenant fell silent, awaiting Reyes’ response.
“You’re made your point,” the dark haired woman conceded. “But you can’t expect me to have learned almost thirty years worth of knowledge in just under two.”
“Not any more than you can expect John to forget it and fall in love with you,” Jessica returned. “John has had three years to move on, Monica, whether that meant with you or someone else. He made the choice to remain alone, just as he made the choice to accept my request to reconcile. I’m not trying to put you down or build myself up; I’m simply stating the facts. And the fact is that by some miracle of God he still loves me. I don’t intend to squander that away a second time.”
Reyes paused. “I hope you don’t,” she said tightly, “because if you do you’ll answer to me.”
Their conversation was aborted by the arrival of Mulder, Scully and Doggett, and Reyes greeted her partners with a forced smile. “So did Kersch chew all of you up and spit you out again?” she asked lightly.
“More or less,” Scully allowed.
“How are you doin’?” Doggett asked of Jessica.
“Better, now that everything is out in the open. I just wish there was a way to dig up Spender and get some final answers from him.”
“He’ll turn up eventually,” Mulder assured her. “Like I said earlier, he won’t miss the chance to gloat.”
“Well, I’ve still got some paperwork to catch up on that was left over from before my vacation,” Reyes said. “I’ll see you all later.”
Excusing herself, Reyes beat a hasty retreat, feeling her partners’ curious gazes on her back as she left. Once she was gone, Doggett glanced at his former and future wife. “You two looked like you were havin’ quite the conversation when we came out,” he remarked. “What were you discussin’?”
“Ice cream,” Jessica said simply, and rose to her feet.
“Ice cream?” Doggett echoed skeptically.
“That’s what I said.”
“Actually ice cream sounds pretty good about now,” Mulder replied. “And I happen to know that the diner around the corner serves the best hot fudge sundaes in D.C.”
“A nice bowl of plain old fashioned chocolate chip will suit me just fine,” Jessica responded.
“Chocolate chip works for me,” Scully agreed.
“Now, Ladies, anybody who knows ice cream knows that the only real flavor is Rocky Road,” Doggett countered.
“Rocky Road?” Mulder echoed.
“He likes the mini marshmallows,” Jessica clarified.
“That was more information than he needed, sweetheart,” Doggett protested.
“Are you blushing, Agent Doggett?” Mulder asked innocently.
“Shut up, Mulder.”
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Shortly thereafter, the quartet was sequestered at a corner table in the diner finishing the last remnants of their ice cream. The sight of four well-dressed adults eating sundaes in the middle of the day had earned them a few curious stares, but they were oblivious to them as they enjoyed a rare opportunity to simply relax. Their waitress was an elderly woman named Betty, who had spent the first ten minutes after their arrival bragging to the foursome about her grandchildren before coercing them into telling her about themselves. Scully had taken the initiative and made the introductions.
“My name is Dana, this is my partner, Mulder. Across from him is my other partner, John, and next to John is his ex-wife, Jessica.”
“Actually, it’s future wife now,” Jessica revealed. “We’re getting remarried.”
“Good for you, young lady,” Betty declared. “In honor of the occasion, whatever you want is on the house.”
After thanking Betty for the offer, they had placed their order and engaged in casual conversation until their ice cream had arrived. They had eaten in companionable silence, until Jessica had posed a question to the others.
“Aren’t y’all going to get in trouble for spending the afternoon doing nothing?” Jessica asked.
“Kersch is already pissed at us,” Mulder pointed out, “and at the moment there is nothing at the office that requires immediate attention. So after everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks, I think we’ve all earned the chance to indulge in something as mundane as eating ice cream.”
“No argument here,” Scully replied, “although I’ll let you be the one to explain to Will why we had ice cream without him.”
“Let Jessica explain it to him,” Mulder countered. “It was her idea.”
“Oh, that’s right; blame the baby sister,” Jessica responded with light sarcasm.
“What can I say? I’ve got thirty-eight years worth of sibling rivalry to catch up on.”
Scully and Doggett exchanged an amused look at the banter between their respective significant others as Jessica suddenly grew serious.
“How much truth do you think there was in Grant’s story about my DNA having been manipulated before I was born?” she asked quietly.
Mulder hesitated a moment before responding. “Grant would have no reason to make something like that up,” he said, “and it’s certainly something my father and Spender were capable of.”
“But there’s nothing special about me,” Jessica protested.
“I disagree with that,” Doggett interjected.
The lieutenant shot him a faint smile of gratitude before continuing. “I’m a reasonably intelligent person, but certainly not any kind of genius. And as my gunshot wound and injured knee so painfully pointed out, I’m as capable of being injured or killed as the next person.”
“He also mentioned enhanced emotional aptitude and physical appearance,” Scully reminded her. “Given your feelings for John were as strong as they were at only eleven and the fact that you’re an exceptionally beautiful woman, the evidence suggests that at least part of what they did worked.”
“Well it seems to me that they were putting their efforts into the wrong arena,” she responded. “I could have lived with being plain if it would have meant being able to have more children.”
Scully and Mulder exchanged a knowing look as Doggett silently reached over and took her hand in his, then gave it a gentle squeeze.
“You don’t know that what they did to you was in any responsible for you losin’ those babies,” he said softly.
“I also don’t know that it wasn’t.”
“Let it go, Jess. Your mother and Grant and Spender aren’t worth wastin’ anymore of your time.”
She forced a smile. “I know. I’m sorry. It’s just going to take some time for everything to settle in so I can start healing.”
“Speaking of healing,” Mulder began, “since you are obviously recovered from your near death experience, and given that you have insanely agreed to remarry the man beside you, are we going to be hearing wedding bells some time soon?”
“Aside from the fact I want to walk down the aisle and not limp, we haven’t really discussed it,” Jessica admitted, and glanced at John. “I assume we’re in agreement that we want something small and intimate?”
“Oh, yeah,” Doggett responded. “I’m too old to deal with another fiasco like the one that masqueraded as our first weddin.”
“I take it that you had a large guest list?” Scully prompted.
“We made the mistake of allowing my moth…Elizabeth,“ Jessica corrected mid-sentence, unwilling to bestow the maternal title on Elizabeth, “help us plan it. She promptly invited everyone she and Edward knew, everyone John’s parents knew, his entire regiment from the Corps, and the one hundred guests we had originally listed. By the time it was done we had almost four hundred people at our wedding and we barely knew half of them.”
“And seein’ all those people packed into such a small space triggered Jess’ claustrophobia,” Doggett revealed, “so my dad has to rush us through the vows so I could get her outside before she started to hyperventilate.”
“Well I can see how that would be an experience you’d rather not repeat,” Mulder replied drolly.
“Is your father a minister?” Scully asked.
“He was,” Doggett revealed. “He was the Reverend at our local church for close to forty years before he died.”
“So you’re a preacher’s son,” Mulder said. “Wonders never cease.”
“How’s that?”
“You’re one of the most skeptical people I know, Agent Doggett; I wouldn’t think belief in a higher power would be on your agenda.”
“Maybe if you directed a third of the energy to believin’ in God that you do to your conspiracies about little green men, Agent Mulder, you might find it more beneficial to your peace of mind.”
“Okay, this stops right here,” Jessica declared, and the men glanced at her questioningly. “If you insist on giving one another tit for tat like teenagers that’s your business, but this formality of ‘Agent Mulder’ and ‘Agent Doggett’ is suffocating me. You’re colleagues; like it or not you’re family, and admit it or not, you’re friends. From now on, when y’all are off duty you will address one another as John and Fox.”
“Mulder,” he corrected. “Fox is reserved for my sisters.”
“Whatever. And for God’s sake, Fox, this woman is the mother of your child. Would it kill you to call her Dana once in a awhile?”
The others exchanged surprised glances at Jessica’s outburst before Doggett deadpanned, “It must have been something in the chocolate chips.”
Jessica rolled her eyes.
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After feeding Will and putting him down for the night, Mulder and Scully had shared a quiet candlelight dinner before climbing into the bubble bath. As Scully sipped at her glass of Bordeaux, Mulder idly ran his hand up and down her arm as he rested his chin on the top of her head.
“You know, Jessica made a good point this afternoon,” Scully said casually.
“That being?” Mulder prompted.
“You and John always being so formal with one another,” she answered. “Now that he’s about to become your brother-in-law…”
“Don’t remind me,” Mulder interrupted dryly.
Scully ignored him and continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “It might behoove you to be a little nicer to him. And to call him John on occasion.”
“Just because I’m related to the man doesn’t mean I have to like him,” came the muttered protest.
The petite redhead shifted in his embrace to face him. “Would it kill you to admit you already do?”
“That will never happen.”
She smiled. “Never say never,” she cautioned. “I assume, however, that you are willing to admit you like your newly discovered sister?”
“That I can do,” Mulder replied. “Her looks take a little getting used to, and her taste in men is definitely questionable, but yeah, I like her. She’s got spunk.”
One delicate eyebrow arched upward. “Spunk?” Scully echoed, and reached over the edge of the tub to set her glass on the floor. “This from a man who’s IQ hovers near 250.”
“What, you want the wordy version?”
“Anything would be better than ‘spunky’.”
“Fine. I like her because she doesn’t let her looks or where she comes from -namely big money - define her identity. I like her because she has brains to go with her beauty. I like her because she likes kids and animals, and I like her because when push comes to shove, she can probably kick ass with the best of ‘em.”
Mulder finished his ‘wordy version’ and fell silent, awaiting Scully’s response. After a long silence she finally said, “Definitely better than spunky.”
“I’m glad you approve.”
Resuming her position against his chest, Scully allowed herself a moment to indulge in the simple pleasure of being in Mulder’s embrace before speaking again. “At the risk of touching on a sore subject,” she began, “in all of the hullabaloo surrounding the discovery that Jessica is Christina, there is one minor detail you’ve overlooked.”
“Which is?”
“Despite whatever Spender and his minions have tried to make you believe in the past, the DNA test the Gunmen did to prove Jessica is Christina also proved that you’re Bill Mulder’s son,” Scully revealed quietly. “The ratio of the genetic match was too high for her to only be your half-sister.”
Silence. And then, “I know. Before we left the hospital the night Jessica was shot, I asked one of the nurses to take a blood sample from me and run the DNA test again against the blood they got off her clothing. The results were the same.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“Not disappointed. Relieved. Not so much about Bill Mulder being my father, but about Jessica really being Christina.”
“You still had doubts?”
“There was the chance that Spender had somehow known what the Gunmen were up to and managed to alter the medical records to ensure the DNA test was positive. But the second test was indisputable, because no one other than myself and the nurse knew I had done it.”
“So why relief?” Scully pressed.
Mulder sighed. “Because she’d gotten under my skin in a remarkably short time and I wasn’t willing to lose someone else I cared about,” he confessed quietly. “Especially another sister.”
Such a simple confession, with no indication of the weight behind it. In the almost nine years Mulder had been in her life, Scully could count on one hand the number of times he had been completely honest with her about his own emotions, and it made these rare cracks in his armor that much more cherished. Smiling to herself, she once again shifted to face him.
“Have I mentioned lately that I love you?” she asked lightly.
“No, but you can make it up to me by washing my back.”
“Or your front.”
A pause. “That’ll work, too.”
Her laugh was smothered by his kiss.
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FALLS CHURCH
That evening, Jessica and John had returned home and taken a brief walk around the neighborhood to strengthen her knee before the return of the rain had forced them indoors. They had eaten a light supper before changing into sleepwear and were now sequestered in their living room, snuggled under a blanket and propped against the couch as a fire burned brightly in the fireplace.
“You were certainly in a mood this afternoon,” Doggett remarked. “Where did your little speech about me and Mulder bein’ family and friends come from?”
“It’s true, isn’t it?” Jessica countered. “The two of you go at one another like a couple of pre-pubescent kids, but underneath the taunts and the sarcasm I think you genuinely like and respect one another.”
“You said it; I didn’t.”
“Well I like him. A part of me will always miss Scott, especially because he was responsible for bringing you into my life. But I like having a big brother around, and if it can’t be Scot than there’s no one else I’d rather have it be than Fox.”
“Frankly I don’t understand his appeal,” Doggett muttered.
“You mean aside from his intelligence, good looks, quirky sense of humor and well-hidden sense of chivalry?” Jessica prompted innocently.
“Point taken,” Doggett conceded. “So do you want to tell me what you and Monica were really discussin’ this afternoon when we came out of the meeting with Kersch, or are you goin’ to stick to your story about ice cream?”
Jessica smiled against his chest. “Well ice cream did enter into the discussion,” she allowed, and tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “If you must know, however, we were discussing you.”
“A worthy topic,” Doggett responded. “What exactly was it about me that you were discussin’?”
“Monica made a comment to me about how surprised she was that you and I had reconciled so quickly, so I decided to call her on it.”
“I thought you were goin’ to let me talk to her.”
“I was, but the opportunity arose for me to do it, and so I took it.”
“Fair enough. So what did you say?”
“In a nutshell, I told her that the history we have together combined with the fact we never really stopped loving one another enabled us to start over again faster than other people in our position normally might have.”
“What about your conviction that she’s in love with me?”
“She didn’t deny it, and told me that if I hurt you again I’d have her to answer to.”
“So that’s what we interrupted,” Doggett mused. “I’m almost sorry I missed it. It’s been awhile since I’ve had someone fightin’ for my honor.”
The lieutenant smiled at that before growing serious. “To be perfectly honest, though, in retrospect she may have a point.”
Doggett’s surprise was obvious. “That’s certainly the last thing I’d expect to hear from you,” he said.
She sighed. “It’s not an easy thing to admit, but sometimes the truth hurts. And the truth is that I did walk out on our marriage once before when the going got tough.”
“And you think I should be worried that you might do the same thing again.”
“You would have every right to feel that way,” Jessica allowed. “I love you, John; I always have. Unfortunately it took Scott’s death to be the catalyst to finally seek you out and tell you. But I know how much you cared about Scott, and I know how strong your personal code of honor is. If we’re going to make us work a second time, maybe you need a chance to decide if what you’re feeling really is love, or just a reflection of all the emotions losing Scott and the memories of our history have resurrected.”
Doggett was silent for so long that she began to fear that she had inadvertently hit the proverbial nail on the head, but just a she was about to withdraw from his embrace he spoke again.
“I’d be lyin’ if I said that the thought of you leavin’ me again hadn’t crossed my mind,” he said at last. “Yes I miss Scott, and yes I feel obligated to take care of you. But that’s not what this is about. After everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks, I’ve realized how much I was missin’ without you in my life. I love you, Jess, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. And for the record, if you do ever leave me again, I’m goin’ with you.”
She flashed him an adoring smile. “I’ll make a note of it.”
“See that you do,” he responded. “May I kiss you now?”
“Please do.”
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On to Part Ten
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