At arms length
Author : Tirduj
Rating : must be R or maybe NC-17 for a part.
Disclaimer : not mine, blablabla…
Note : there must be a lot lot lot of mistakes, the title did mean
something when I started the fic but I forgot the idea so now it
means nothing...or whatever you want!


Joyce was sitting on the porch of her house. She was looking at the
empty street in front of her, sadly. Joyce, this 12-years-old girl
was always sad, she had lost her parents not a long time ago and
lived with her older sister and brother who tried their best to offer
her a "normal" life. She loved them more than everything, they did so
much for her. Losing her parents was not the first ordeal she had to
go through, a long time ago, when she was 7, she lost her best
friend. He had been kidnapped and found dead three days later. Luke
was her best friend and even more, like all children do, they had
planned to remain together forever, eat ice-cream, have a lot of pets
and a lot of things like that. Luke used to want to be just like his
father and Joyce like her mother, she still did and so did Luke.

Because she still saw Luke. She saw him living, playing, growing. She
first had thought she imagined that because of the pain she had, she
had seen a therapist who told her this kind of things often
happenned. But then the "visions" became weirder, more realistic,
Luke was growing, it was like seeing a parallel universe where Luke
Doggett was still alive. She became to find out what she saw when
Luke started to see her too, thing that he was not able to do before.
Before that moment, she was just seeing him, but then they talked and
Joyce learnt that *she* had just have an accident and she was dead in
Luke's "reality", she told him he was dead too in her reality. They
didn't try to explain much that, they were happy to have each other
again and both lived like that, hiding their secret. Only the two of
them were able to watch in the other "reality". When people heard
Joyce talking to Luke they just thought that it was a way for her to
support the pain and they let her. Thus everybody was happy .

This day, Joyce was not really looking at the empty street, she was
watching two men talking at the front door of the house which face
her, Luke's house. Luke was sitting beside her, they both watched
John Doggett talking to Brad Follmer who wanted obviously to enter
the house. Joyce turned to Luke.

"Who is it?"

"I think that's Monica's ex boyfriend, I'm not sure."

"How could he come here like that? Where's Monica?"

"Not at home, she must come back soon though, I hope he'll be gone
when she shows up."

"Yeah, I don't like that rat-boy."

Both chuckled. Luke stood up.

"got a test tomorrow, see ya later?" he said, imitating his father's
accent.

"Yeah!" she replied, laughing while he kissed her on the cheek,
proud of his imitation.

Luke left the porch, he crossed the road without looking and didn't
see the car coming…

Fortunately Joyce saw it and yelled to his friend and to the driver who
turned violently to avoid the boy. Doing this he didn't avoid Follmer
who was leaving too. The driver didn't stop and drove away, Luke was
safe but the AD was lying face down on the road. Joyce and Luke both
ran to him, John had run to try to see the license plate but he was
already too far. He looked at his son in confusion.

"Luke, where's Follmer?"

"Here Daddy!?"

"Yeah , the guy I was talking to."

The two kids looked at each other, then at the crowd which have
gathered around Follmer dead body, all of them were people from
Joyce's "reality".

~*~*~*~

It was Saturday evening and Monica and John were sitting on the couch
in John's living room. "I'm not sure John…."

"Monica, you'll see, it's great!"

"Great? 'Terminator II', great?"

"Yeah! You'll love it, there are weird things, you must see it. "

Monica stared at him in disbelief. John grinned and pressed
the 'play' button. They watched the movie, sometimes John glanced at
his partner thinking how beautiful and sexy and… He tried to focus on
the movie but Schwarzeneger was not as… 'STOP!' he yelled silently.

Monica chose this moment to turn to him and to ask :
"Don't you think the T-1000 look like you?"

"I'm not in liquid metal." He said with a deadpan face.

"Seriously, the same ears, the same eyes, the..."

"Are you kidding? his ears are gigantic!"

"That's what I'm saying," she teased.

John was going to answer when the phone rang.

"Doggett…. Sir…What!?... she's here…no I'll tell her… thank you Sir,
we're coming, at least I."

John looked now worried and it scared Monica.

"John, what's wrong?"

"Monica" he said sitting next to her and looking at her straight in
the eyes. "It was Skinner…AD Follmer have been found…dead…Monica I'm
sorry, I know that..."

Monica had gasped at the word 'dead' but she cut John in the middle
of his sentence.

"How, where, who…What the..." She burst into tears and John hold her
silently.


Two hours later, the two agents were sitting in Skinner's office.

Monica's eyes were still red but she had insisted to come. Skinner
had explained them that Follmer had been found near New-York, he
obviously had been hurt by a car. The problem was that he had been
seen 15 minutes before in the FBI building, that's why this case was
an X-phile. Skinner also told Monica she could refuse to work on that
case but she wanted to find out how her ex-boyfriend could have been
in DC and 15 minutes later lying dead in a street near New-York.
Finally he handed the file to the agents and let them go.

In the plane, Doggett started to read the file while Reyes was trying
to sleep. When John read the address where Follmer had been found and
the name of the only witness, he couldn't help but let escape a 'Oh
my God!' Reyes woke up.

"What?"

"Monica, that address!" He showed her the file.

"Oh my God, John, that's was yours in New York!"

"Yes, and the name of the witness?"

"Joyce Hartwell… she was..."
"Luke's best friend, yeah…. Monica, this little girl had lost her
parents when I was amnesiac in Mexico, she lost her best friend at
the age of 7, and now…" John's eyes were filled with tears.
"John, it's OK, I understand, as bad as I want to find out what
happened, I won't do anything that could hurt her."
"Thanks, I just don't want she thinks that bad things happened
because of her. Her sister and brother told me she did after their
parents deaths."
They both remained silent for a while, then Reyes asked looking
straight ahead :
"John are you OK?"
"Yeah what about y..."
"Will you be OK, then?"
" I… I don't know." He admited.


Once in New-York they directly went to their motel rooms. Monica was
lying on the bed, she couldn't stop crying. Doggett heard her through
the wall, he wanted to go and take her in his arms but he was afraid
that she wanted to be alone. Finally he knocked at her door. She
opened the door and let him entered.
"Wanna talk?"
She nodded and they sat on her bed. She talked to him about Brad,
about why she had loved him, what a jerk he had been, why she felt
pain now that he was gone. He listened to her attentively, almost
lovingly, just holding her hand. She cried a lot, when she stopped it
was late and she was exhausted.
"Thank you John, for listenning."
"It's nothing, Mon. Remember, you did the same for me. Try to
sleep, 'night"
" 'night."
He headed to the door while she slipped herself between the sheets.
He had hardly reached the door when Monica burst once again in tears.
He ran back to the bed, climbed on it and hold his partner once
again. Between two sobs she managed to talk.
"I'm sorry"
"Shh, Monica it's ok, I'll stay with you until you fall asleep, ok?"
"Yes, please."
Progressively she relaxed in John's arms who had fallen asleep long
before she did. She had watched him while he was quietly sleeping,
his arms embracing her. She also had whispered in his ear : 'What
would I do without you.'


John woke up. Monica was still in his arms and she had nuzzled her
face in his neck. He kissed her hair, savouring the sweet scent of
her. He felt her moving slightly and heard her sigh. He carressed her
back as she shifted against him. She looked up to him still sleepy
and he did what his mind was telling him to do : he kissed her. It
was a soft kiss first but then they deepened it. Monica's hands began
to stroke John's back just like his hands did to hers. John rolled on
top of her, still kissing and Monica started removing John's T-shirt
and pants and boxers, all at the same time. They stopped kissing to
remove their clothes and once both naked, John explored his partner
body from the ear lobs to the feet, licking, sucking, bitting.
Finally Monica took his head to bring his mouth back to hers. He
slipped his hand down to feel if she was ready. She lifted her head
to capture his mouth while her hands captured his stiff member. He
broke the kiss to look in Monica's eyes while he entered her slowly.
He saw in her eyes the same emotions that could be seen in his :
love, pleasure and need. They moved in rythme, back and forth, up and
down. Monica's hands explored John's amazing body. She tried to
catch every square inch of his body to remember it as John kissed her
neck and her cleavage, descending slowly to her breast. Sky in John's
eyes at on go was not pure anymore(**), at the same time Monica cried
his name in pleasure. John collapsed breathless on Monica's body.
They stayed like this for a while, then Monica bit John's shoulder as
he kissed her neck.
"I love you."
They had said it at the same time and that made them laugh. John
rolled back beside his partner and brand new lover. She laid (?) her
head on his shoulder and they didn't move until he was time to go.


Doggett pulled the rental car in the street where he had lived some
years ago. But this time he parked on the other side of the street.
Walking to the Hartwell's front door, he glanced at his former house,
it looked like nothing had changed there. Reyes let Doggett knocked
at the door, after all he knew them, he and Barbara were still
friends with the Hartwell. A young woman, in her early 20s opened the
door.

"Mr Doggett!" she said, smiling.

"Hi, Lea, How are you doing?"

"Well, thanks," she answered mechanically "Please enter."

"Here's my partner Monica Reyes. You may remember her, she was the
task force leader when Luke disappeared." He said as she led them to
the living room. It amazed Monica how he had easily mentionned Luke
without a wink.

"Yeah, I remember. Nice to see you. Joyce will be back soon, she's
bringing flowers to our parents with Teo…our brother." She said that
last part for Monica who smiled and nodded.

"How are you three dealing with all that, I mean your parents?" John
asked.

"Sometimes it's still difficult but Joyce's better, she eventually
take that quite well…maybe too much for a 12-years-old girl. Did
Barbara tell that she didn't cry at the funeral? She never cried in
fact… For that man, Follmer, actually it's strange, it's like
she...but you'd better talk to her."

"Ok."

By the time they had sat and Lea had brought them drinks, they
chatted waiting. Reyes notticed that Lea was always talking fast and
often changed the subject to avoid the pain it brought.

Few minutes later, the door slammed open and Joyce and Teo entered
the house. Joyce stopped in her tracks when she saw Doggett, tears
began to fill her eyes. Seeing the man's face hurt her more than
anything. She often saw the 'other Mr Doggett' who was such like him
except for the sadness. She walked to him, they were now both crying
and they hugged to comfort each other. Doggett was happy to see his
son's best friend, she had been like his daughter for so long.

"I'm so sorry you miss him, Mr Doggett. I wish you can see him, I
wish so much."

They drew apart and Teo was at least able to say hello to Doggett and
Reyes.


Doggett and Reyes questionned Joyce for a while, she was she unique
witness and they really needed to know what had happened. Joyce
didn't know what to say, she knew that the FBI would come and she had
talked with Luke on what to say. But she hadn't expected that the
agents were John Doggett and Monica Reyes! She told them that she
had just heard a noise, seen the car driving away and the man lying
face down on the street.

"Then, I ran to him, to check if he was ok, but he was…"

"Joyce, were you alone in the street?"

"Yeah, people only came after the accident."

"And you havn't seen the man until it?"

"No, I was…daydreaming, you know."

"Ok, Joyce, we had just a few more questions, Monica will ask them to
you while I'll talk to the twins."

John left the room and went down the stairs to the living room where
Teo was studying and Lea fidgeting her pencil.

"Hey you guys, first time I see the twins quiet."

They both smiled and Teo answered :
"We growed up, Mr Doggett."

"Yeah, that's why I'd prefer you call me 'John'. Thus I won't think
I'm that old."

"But you a…" Lea stopped her brother in time.

"Teo, he does have a gun!"

The three of them laughed. Doggett's face grow serious to ask:
"It seemed to me that Joyce's hiding something to us, did she tell
you something?"

"No, nothing, but what's wrong?"

"I don't know, a feeling that she doesn't say everything, that's why
I let her with Mo...Agent Reyes, sometimes female witness talk more to
female agent."

"Do you want us to ask her, in a conversation or something?"

"No, no it's ok. Where were you when it happened?"

"Working. We work in a restaurant every Saturday."

"To pay your studies? You know if you need money or anything, I'm
here!"

"Thanks… *John*, it's ok, we just keep money for Joyce."

"You're very good sister and brother, you know that?"

Teo replied immediatly. "Oh yeah!!!!!!!"

Monica entered the living room with Joyce.

Before they left, The twins had given them the names of the
neighbours, so they would be able to question them too. Follmer's
funerals were on Tuesday and they hoped they would have something to
bring to Skinner then.

They questionned the neighbours in the afternoon. It appeared that
nobody had ever seen the AD before and that they just had heard Joyce
shouting something like "luck"or "lock", they disagreed on the word.
Skinner called them to know where they were going with the case and
told them he had gone through all Follmer's file but didn't find out
why he was there. It's was now dinner time and John brought Monica to
a restaurant he knew.

"Wow, John, french restaurant? Thank you." Monica said, smiling. He
smiled back.

"The FBI pay the bill. And it's the best around, but if you prefer a
fast-food?" She played along.

"This one good enough." She became serious. "Did you come here with
Barbara?"

"No, never, I don't know why though, guess that… actually I don't
know."

"Sorry John I shouln't have..."

He took her hand. "It's ok…by the way, wanna some 'escargots'?"

"They got that!?"

"No, just kidding, you know even only a few french people like that
sort of things."

"Are you a french specialist?" He grinned.

"Oui madame."

"It's 'mademoiselle' John, and your 'oui, madame' doesn't impress me
much."

"You don't say!"

They went on chatting while eating, then the conversation came on the
case.

"I think Joyce is the key, she's hiding something."

"I know, that's why I left you two alone this morning, I thought she
may have told you something, appearantly, she didn't."

"No, but talking with her was strange, it was like she knaw me but I
didn't questionned her while...another agent did."

"How's that, she knew you?"

"Well, she talked to me as a friend."

"What do you think about what she yelled before the accident, why
didn't she tell us she had shouted to warn whether Follmer or the
driver?"

"Maybe she wasn't aware that she yelled, sometimes with the rush.
What I would like to know is what she had yelled."

"Me too, we'll go ask her tomorrow after school. We also have to go
to the police station."

They finished dinner and went back to their motel.

At the motel, they both were unsure of what to do. They sure wished
they could read in each other mind. Doggett wanted to sleep with
her, at least to be in the same room would be enough but he didn't
want to impose upon her, he knew that she was trying to deal with
Brad Follmer's death.

They had been involved, she even had been in love with him, and if he
had been a jerk lately, she couldn't forgot what they had shared for
a while: a bed of course but not only, meals, laughters, the
washbassin, in two words intimacy and love. She knew that John knew
that too and she was grateful he didn't say anything about his
feeling towards Brad. It was surely hard for her to know Brad was
dead. But was were one thing she wanted: him. So badly that if it was
wrong she didn't want to be right.

By the time, they were in front of John's room door, Monica's was a
little further. She stopped, then made a step but he took her hand to
stop her. They looked in each other's eyes.

"Please, but if you don't want I would understand" he said. She
smiled at his kindness.

"There's nothing I want more."

They entered the room, kissing.

The two agents arrived at the police station at 9:00 AM, everybody
there seemed to be pretty busy. Doggett was looking for somebody he
knew, but most of the men and women were too young for him to have
known them. At last he saw one of his friend.

"Jake!"

"John! buddy, It's nice to see you again, so bad it is in those
circumstances tough. I'm sorry for your boss."

"Yeah, here is Agent Reyes, my partner, you may recognize her…"

"Agent Monica Reyes, of course, the task force leader. I never forget
good, kind and efficient FBI agents." They smiled at each other while
they shaked hands.

"Jake, we would like to know who is the officer in charge here, the
guys who got the call and what you had found. You know we need to
find out what happened."

"I know, Detective Howard is in charge, young but smart, a very good
cop. He was reluctant about the FBI but I talked to him, it's ok now,
the guys who got the call are..." Jake talked as he led them to
Howard's office.

Reyes and Doggett stayed all the morning at the police station,
talking to every person who had a link with their case. It appeared
that everybody thought it was only an accident, they were all
compassionate with them but they couldn't do anything. They all
admited that how the AD could had been in such different places in so
short time was a mystery they weren't able to resolve.

At noon, Skinner called the agents, he had news. He had asked Scully
to do the autopsy and it had revealed that there was a problem.
Follmer had got a fracture three years ago, and he apparently didn't
have the after-effects anymore. Scully and Skinner would arrived in
the afternoon with all the results and conclusions.

After lunch, they went to the airport to pick up Skinner and Scully.
They talked about the case in Reyes' room and decided that Reyes and
Doggett would question Joyce once again to find out what was wrong
with her deposition; Skinner and Scully would question Follmer's
contacts in New-York. Reyes give them several names, friends mostly.
While Skinner and Scully left immediatly to Manhattan where lived
most of Brad's friends, Reyes and Doggett had to wait until the end
of the afternoon to be able to talk to Joyce.

"So what do we do?" John asked.

"I don't know but as Skinner and Scully are now here, I guess that
tonight we won't be able to…do what we did the previous nights."

"That's for sure" he said "I got the hint." And he leaned forward to
kiss her, his hands on her waist. She wrapped her arms around his
neck and kissed him back. Removing their clothes, they went to the
bed and fell on it. John crawled to the night stand.

"Where did I put those condoms?" He found one and crawled back to
Monica.

Reyes was driving, she parked the car in front of the house.
"It's still early in the afternoon, they must be at school."

"Yes, maybe, but we'd better check, one never knows."

They walked to the front door and rang the bell. They heard noise and
a young handsome man appeared at the door.

"Hello…you must be the FBI agents" He looked at them up and
down "yeah, must be you." Monica spoke.

"Yes, we are, what about you?"

"Sorry, I'm Sam, Lea's boyfriend. You may want to enter?" He said
letting them in. The three of them sat on the couch.

"Where is everybody?" John asked

"Lea will come back soon, she went to the store. Teo as some class
late in the evening and Joyce will be back from school soon too.
Wanna drink something?"

"Yes please." The two agents said.

When Sam came back with the drinks Doggett asked :
"Sam, how well do you know Joyce?"

"I have known her since I date Lea: four months and 19 days
exactly!" Doggett and Reyes smiled at him.

"Do you know what happened?"

"Yeah, Lea and Teo told me, that's a pity, was he your friend?"

"Our boss." Reyes answered "According to the neighbours Joyce
screamed something just before the accident, 'luck' or 'lock', do you
have any idea about what it could be?"

"That must be 'Luke', her best friend, he died some years ago but she
still talk to him, I often heard her before." Doggett motionned
Monica to let Sam go on. Sam apparently wasn't aware who John and
Monica were and it was fine with Doggett.

"She talk to him?"

"Yes, as if he was there, living in the house across the street, she
even imagine what his life would have been."

"How's that?" Reyes was interrested, with Scully's discovery and now
that, she got an idea.

"Well, his parent's got divorced, his father had a new girlfriend, a
little brother, he help her for her tests, he got the flu, things
like that. First I didn't believe what the twins were saying then I
heard it by myself. Apparently the therapist said it was nothing. I
hope he's right."

"Hi" exclamed a female voice "Sam, would you help me?"

He stood up , took the bags, and carried them to the kitchen while
Lea greeted the two agents.

"Do you have news?"

"Not really, we came back to talk to Joyce."

"I saw her in the park."

"Ok, then we'll go there, thank you."

"Yeah, ok, you're always welcome here, both of you."

They said goodbye and Reyes hurried Doggett outside.

On their way to the park, Reyes explained John her theory .
"What if Joyce was able to communicate with another reality, just
like Luckesh did. In that reality, Luke isn't dead and they can
communicate. She tried to warn Luke about the car she told us about
and which killed Brad, the other Brad and somehow he came in our
reality. That would explain everything."

"Yeah it would if only I can believe it, but Monica I never heard
about this Luckesh except what you told me. And admit it was
difficult to believe!"

Joyce was sitting with Luke in the grass. Luke had asked her to tell
him everything about 'the others Dad and Monica'. She had done it,
describing how sad they were, mostly 'Mr Doggett'.

"So it was really Monica's ex boyfriend… It's sad, I wish I could see
them, talk to them and tell them how happy we are."

"I wish that too, you know, maybe if we both pray for it very hard…"
Luke laughed.

"You're such a believer!"

"You're not?"

"I guess I'm like Saint-Thomas."

"But you're talking with me right know…"

Luke took her in his arms and lifted her up.

Doggett and Reyes arrived at the same moment and saw the little girl
floating in the air then fell on the grass. Then they saw her slapped
in the air saying : "you, b*st*rd!"

The agents looked at each other, John was quite disturbed now.

"Joyce" called Monica. The girl turned around and froze. Monica went
on.

"Luke's here?" Joyce nodded as Luke spoke :

"Monica, do you see me….hear me…feel me?" But she didn't, he sighed
and walked to Doggett.

"Joyce was right, you look like Dad, but your sad."

"Mr Doggett, he is right in front of you." John held out his hand
and Luke took it. And the miracle happened, they felt it.

"Luke!"

"I'm here…Dad."

Tears fell on John's cheeks and then the four of them were crying.

It was Tuesday morning, Reyes and Doggett had just given their report
to Kersh, they had tried to explain as much as they could, but it
hadn't have been an easy report. They were now at Follmer's funeral.
It seemed that Brad had been popular because there was a lot of
people.

At the end, Monica and John walked back to the car, holding hands.
Monica couldn't stop crying because whatever he had done to her, Brad
was her friend. John remained silent, he knew Monica just needed his
presence and it would do anything to her.

They drove back to Monica's appartment and stayed there in each other
arms.

FIN

** it's an adapted translation from a song, in french it's great
it's : " Quand le ciel dans tes yeux d'un seul coup n'est plus pur."