Title: Jane
Author: shippyphile
Category:  Doggett/Reyes Romance

Summary: An AU season 8 where Monica has a daughter named Jane.

Monica arrived to a warm welcome in Washington D.C.; even though it
was hardly a crowd, numbering at one, she could tell he was glad to
see her. As she pulled up outside FBI Headquarters she felt that
familiar rush of anticipation fill her heart at the sight of seeing
John. It had been many long years, and many things had changed,
making her even more anxious. She walked briskly toward John, and
flashed a confident smile pared with a large wave, which was returned
by a similar wave.

John was wearing his least favorite combination, a stiff white shirt
tucked conservatively under a jacket and tie. His muscular physique
still looked flawless, but he has been through a lot in his 30
something years, and it showed. As Monica neared him she noticed he
still had that perfect smile that lit up his face, still had the
slightly longer version of a buzz cut crowning his head, and still
had those amazing blue eyes that sparkled with deep intensity. But
his face sagged, and it looked weary.

Monica was still the same in many ways too. Her hair, the color of
burnt toast, looked like it hadn’t moved, still spilling down her
face and framing it attractively. She wore jeans and a black
sleeveless shirt. She also looked worn out too, like she needed a
rest desperately, and her face showed the wear as she tried to smile.
Her smile was still an immense one, but it looked forced. As she
approached John noticed her eyes still had that deep mystery about
them, they were dark pits waiting to be stumbled upon. He also
noticed the biggest change in her life; 16 month old Jane walking
slowly next to her and holding her hand.

“Hi John!” She called in a cheerful manner. It gave the impression
that nothing had changed at all.

“Monica!” John returned.

She stepped closer to him and raised her arms like she was going to
give him a tremendous hug, but ended up switching to a handshake at
the last moment. Well, that was awkward, she thought.

But it didn’t matter, because both of their smiles didn’t seem to
notice.

“John, this is Jane,” Monica motioned as a way to break the
embarrassing silence.

“She’s very beautiful, just like her mother,” John replied. His
cheeks acquired a slight red glow a few seconds later.

“Thanks,” answered Monica, not really knowing what to think of his
comment. “So, it’s been 6 years,” Monica mused, steering John away
from the subject. “It seems like time just flew by.”

“Yeah,” replied John, even though the years had crawled by, and they
both knew it. “So,” John began, “when I looked you up and saw you
were in New Orleans it surprised me. Why’d you leave New York?”

Monica’s blood froze, even though she kept on walking as briskly as
she could while still holding Jane’s hand. “Umm, long story,” she
tried to explain.

“Well, I’ll have time for it later.”

Monica doubted that severely, but kept that to herself.

“Anyway,” John continued, “you were doing satanic rituals and stuff,
right?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “but I was having as much luck convincing people
about them as you are with the X-Files. But, I’m glad to offer my
help. I just don’t know how much help that’ll be.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be very helpful.”

Monica let a little scoff escape from her mouth at that, but no one
could hear it on the bustling street.

And with that, the two strolled away from Monica’s packed car and
towards the next chapter in her life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 2

As they entered the FBI headquarters, Monica recognized the building
from her years at Quantico. They seemed so far away now. Inside, it
really was a vast place. The tile floors were spotless, the walls
bare. The halls seemed to ring with the click of high heels. But
today Monica was wearing her old sneakers. She felt so out of place,
but didn’t see anyone who looked like they cared. For all most of
them knew, she could be a terrified witness taking in the enormous
hall with wide eyes, and she wanted to keep it that way.

She did see a few people she knew from earlier years, and tried to
flash smiles at them as they whizzed by. Some of them smiled back and
others didn’t, but it was clear they all remembered her. She was hard
to forget.

John pressed the B button as they stepped into the crowded elevator
while Monica lifted Jane into her arms to conserve space. As the
elevator slowly worked its way down, she thought she heard a slight
groan coming from behind her; just one sign of something she really
already knew: the X-Files were widely despised as well as the people
who worked on it. And now she was becoming one of the basement
“freaks.” But it’s not like she wasn’t used to it. Working for a year
on the Satanic Ritual section of the Terrorism Task Force wasn’t
exactly the most popular job either.

The doors opened to reveal a small, organized hallway filled with
boxes of files, stacks of photos, and other papers. An open door
appeared shortly on her left and she stepped inside after John.

The office was just how she had pictured it. The fluorescent bulbs
showed three desks against opposite walls, one with stacks of orderly
papers that was framed by a cold metal file cabinet on each side,
while the other seemed to shrink before a looming poster behind it
that read, ‘I WANT TO BELIEVE,’ and was accompanied by a blurry photo
of what could be taken as a UFO. The ceiling was covered in pencils
that looked as if they were about to fall out, but still remained
stuck in the soft foam boards. The nameplate sitting on that desk
showed that the smiling redhead sitting behind it was indeed the
infamous Dana Scully.

“You must be Monica,” she grinned. “I’m Dana Scully.”

As she got up Monica noticed her once petite frame was now bloated by
the affects of her pregnancy. Her shoulder-length ginger hair
glistened as she shook Monica’s hand. Her face was still
cheerful-looking, despite how worn it really was. Her light blue eyes
twinkled with excitement, but deep down Monica could see that even
though she was authentically happy to see her, Dana was also deep in
sorrow.

“Hi Dana,” Monica said enthusiastically as she shook her hand.

The women stood there sort of evaluating each other until Dana broke
the silence.

“Oh your little girl is just so cute,” Dana gushed.

“Thanks,” Monica replied. “Her name is Jane.” She paused for a
second, trying to avoid making the conversation awkward. “I see
you’re expecting too.”

“Yep I’m in my 6th month.”

“Congratulations. Boy or girl?”

“A little boy. I’m naming him William.”

“Oh that’s a great name!”

“Thanks.”

As they both chatted away John smiled. He knew they would hit it off
immediately. The truth was; both women were just really excited
having another woman to talk to.

“Well,” John broke in with a glance at his watch, glad for a way to
change the subject, “Follmer should be here any second, he said he
wanted to talk to all of us, especially the new member,” he added
with a smile at Monica.

“Follmer?” Monica did a double take. “Brad Follmer?”

“Yeah, he’s the AD who oversees us,” replied Dana, her eyes betraying
her wonder at Monica’s reaction.

“Brad Follmer, an Assistant Director? Brad Follmer? Tall, blond… that
Brad Follmer?”

“The one and only,” came a smirk from the doorway.

Brad Follmer stepped in, his eyes instantly taking control of the
room with a sweeping glare. Monica’s eyes scanned him. Nothing had
changed. His blond hair was still cut a bit long for FBI standards,
his hazel eyes still glittered, and he still wore expensive suits
that never seemed rumpled.

Monica instinctively moved Jane from where she had been exploring on
the floor to her hip as her eyes met Brad’s.

“Monica.”

Only a second of silence followed before her lips emitted, “Brad.”

“Well, things certainly have changed, but in another way, they
haven’t at all,” he continued.

Silence filled the modest office until Dana issued a well-timed
cough.

“Anyway agents, Brad continued, seemingly forgetting the strange
words of seconds before, “I want to talk to you about your work. Now
that you have a new member,” he paused and inspected Monica as if she
were a cockroach as a slight sneer overcame his normally serious
façade, “I expect even more from you down here. You really don’t hold
up to standards, which is a complete mystery to me because I don’t
see how hard it is to come up with some ridiculously non-plausible
theory to a previously solved case and type it out. Since you have no
purpose that I can see, at least be productive at doing the
nothingness you do.”

With that, he shot another long scowl at Monica and strolled out.

Monica closed her eyes momentarily and let out a sigh. Silence
wrapped its claws around the room.

“So,” John said as he tempted to interject into the quiet. “We better
get to work so we can keep him happy.”

“Yeah, we should,” Monica was the first to agree.

Dana knew she wasn’t the only person present who wondered what the
strange words between Brad and Monica had meant, but she chimed in,
“Definitely,” anyway.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 3

“So, what’s the case?” Monica questioned, glad to be rid of the
awkward moment.

“Oh, just your garden-variety alien abduction,” John replied smugly.

“Well, it appears to be more complex than that, if you look at the
files,” corrected Scully. “A teenage girl somehow disappears on her
way home from school…”

“See, that’s what I don’t get – it could be a host of other things
besides abduction,” John interjected.

“But police have been frustrated with it for months and they’ve had
no leads, so that’s where we step in to explore other options,”
Scully answered.

“Sounds interesting,” Monica mused, leafing through the file. “But
challenging… there really don’t seem to be any hints.”

“I have a feeling when we talk to the family we’ll be able to dig
some up,” John suggested.

“So where are we headed?”

“Nowhere, the case is right here in DC.”

“That’s good, I didn’t want to leave right away before I really had a
chance to settle in,” Monica added.

With that, Monica scooped Jane up from the carpet. Soon, she was in
daycare and the three were off to find a lead in the case.

They soon found themselves seated in the messy living room of Don and
Julia Hawthorne, the parents of the victim, and Emily, her younger
sister.

“I know you have already talked to the police, but we are here to
investigate an entirely different aspect of the case, so I hope you
don’t mind if we talk to you again,” Scully explained.

“Sure,” Don replied.

“What happened the day your daughter disappeared?”

“Well, Alison is usually here when we get home from work,” Julia
began. “After awhile, I started to get worried because it was already
7 and she’s never home after 5 without telling us first. I tried her
cell phones it wasn’t turned on, and around 8 I was so nervous that I
called the police. They told me to come down and file a report, I
think you have it with you,”

Dana nodded. “Then what happened?”

“The police said they would file a missing persons report and they
said they would start looking for her that night,” Julia continued.
“But they never found her. I went back every day but they never had
any news. Finally they decided they wanted to get the FBI involved. I
just hope you guys can help. She was accepted for your summer
internship, you know?”

“Really?” Monica seemed interested.

“Yeah she went to meet with a director and everything; it was a big
deal for her.”

“Do you remember his name?” Now Monica knew she was onto something.

“No, I really don’t. She only mentioned him once or twice, but boy
was she into the FBI, let me tell you, she went over there many times
before she disappeared. For the longest time she’s wanted to be an
FBI agent, wanted to help people, you know.”

“Do you mind if I look in her room?” Monica needed evidence to back
up her worst suspicions.

“Go ahead, but the police have already taken a lot of her stuff,
including her computer,” Julia said.

Monica heard the slow murmur of John’s voice as she stepped into
Alison’s room. At first glance it looked pretty normal, but Monica
had a feeling there was some great evidence hiding somewhere. She
started by looking under her bed, but only found a few socks and a
math book. Then she turned to the closet, and started digging around
in a massive pile of flip flops that had settled slightly to reveal a
plain brown cardboard shoebox. Instinctively Monica knew to open it.
On the very top were several “Happy 18th Birthday” cards from
Alison’s friends and family, but under that layer Monica found a very
telling letter. Monica’s stomach tensed up as the glanced it, and she
felt her legs give in, forcing her to sit back on the carpet.

Baby,

I love you so much and want you so much right now, so I arranged
another meeting between us for Friday. I said it was with Kersh this
time so people don’t get suspicious, but he’s out of town the entire
week, so it’ll be just you and I. I can hardly wait until your summer
internship here so we can solve cases and help people, and of course
so I don’t have to keep sneaking you over here every time I want to
see you… and do a bit more than that. I can hardly wait until Friday
to see you.

Love,

Brad

Monica placed a shaky hand to her throbbing head. She couldn’t
believe this was happening again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 4

Monica was furious. Furious was actually too nice of a word. In fact,
John and Dana were both stunned and concerned by her behavior.

She rushed from the bedroom after securing the letter carefully in an
evidence bag and looking for any more evidence. There was none. John
and Dana were still talking to the family. Monica couldn’t believe
they had so much to say. This wasn’t an alien abduction of any kind,
and she had the evidence to prove it.

She tapped John on the shoulder. “We should get going,” she said,
trying to sound calm. It didn’t work – John could see the fire in her
eyes.

“Ok…” he agreed with a quizzical look on his face. Dana raised an
eyebrow. “Well, we have to get going, but we’ll be in contact with
you soon,” she said as she slid on her coat.

Monica couldn’t get out onto the street fast enough. As soon as they
were out of the house, everyone started talking at once.

“Mon, what’s going on? Are you ok?” John asked worriedly.

“We can’t talk about it here, but I just solved the case with this,”
Monica blurted out while handing John the letter. He and Dana read it
as she drove back to Headquarters hurriedly.

“But Monica, what does this mean? How do you know it’s AD Follmer?”
Dana questioned, practically running to keep up with Monica’s
long-legged strides to the X-Files office. Once inside, she made a
photocopy of the evidence and hid the original copy for safety.

“Let’s just say I know from personal experience,” Monica sighed. She
continued when she saw the surprised looks Dana and John wore without
attempting to cover them up. “I never really wanted to tell you guys
this but I guess you need it to believe me,” she sighed before slowly
beginning again. “When I first started working for the Bureau in New
York, Brad was my boss. After a while, he asked me out to dinner. I
knew it was against office policy, but he seemed so nice, not to
mention cute. I enjoyed myself a lot on our first date – he was sweet
and romantic, everything a girl could want, so naturally I kept
seeing him.”

Monica continued, “After about a year together, I discovered I was
pregnant. I didn’t really know how to feel – I loved Brad and it
seemed like he loved me. When I told him he seemed so happy, and he
asked me to marry him, saying we could hide it from the Bureau. I was
really happy, but I started to have my doubts. Brad was often out of
town and I didn’t see a lot of him, and then there were those rumors
I heard around the office. One night, when I was about four months
along, I came home from a business trip early and walked in on him
having sex with one of my co-workers. Of course then he tried to
patch things up,but he didn’t apologize nearly enough to get me to
change my mind ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~* I could never trust him again. I accepted the
position in New Orleans just to get away from the mess. It was too
late for an abortion, and I'm not sure I would have wanted one
anyway. It was painful, but five months later I had Jane. Every time
I look at her I know I made the right decision.”

“Monica, I just didn’t know, all you’ve gone through, it must be so
horrible,” Dana whispered while enveloping her into a friendly hug.
Dana was clearly shocked. Monica just felt ashamed, ashamed for
letting this happen to her, ashamed for being so naïve, ashamed for
needing to tell someone.

John just stood there looking at his shoes, his blood boiling. He
shoved his fists into his pockets to keep himself from rushing
upstairs and giving Brad two black eyes before he even knew what hit
him. For someone to do that to Monica… they would never live it down
as long as he was around.

“Jane is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, even though she
reminds me of such a painful relationship, she’s the best part of my
life, my hope for a new chapter, starting over,” Monica sighed. “It
just kills me that Brad is doing this again and getting away with it.
This girl may be younger than I was, but who knows how low Brad is
willing to sink. The only common factor is how naïve I was – and she
must still be. I just can’t believe the bastard is getting away with
this again! And this time it’s much worse – she’s such a young girl
and I bet he’s had her captive for weeks. Probably under his suave
spell the entire time. We have to confront him.”

“Mon, you’re going to have to hold me back from killing ‘em right
there,” John declared. “Son-of-a”

“John!” Dana interrupted. “We’re not going to get anything
accomplished unless we find out where Alison’s being kept. Right now
if you do anything rash you’ll blow our cover.”

“You’re right,” John sulked. “Are we gonna follow ‘em?”

Monica and Dana nodded as the three prepared for a long, tense night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 5

Stakeouts are possibly one of the most boring parts of my job, Monica
thought, although it was more in reassurance than truth. Really, this
particular stakeout scared Monica to the core. This situation was
different because she knew the man they were dealing with and knew
that he was smarter and craftier than the average criminal.

“Why are we here again?” she wondered aloud. “It seems to me that
Alison wanted to end things with him and he freaked, so he kidnapped
her. But obviously he wouldn’t be hiding her in his apartment,
right?”

“But if he comes out, we can follow him and hope he’s going to
wherever he is keeping her,” Scully reasoned.

“The only thing that worries me about that is that he knows every FBI
trick in the book and may catch us trying to catch him, if you know
what I mean,” Monica sighed. This case had brought up difficult
feelings and she felt exhausted under their weight. John slipped his
arm around her shoulder and she smiled warmly at him.

“Look Mon, however we do it, we gotta get the bastard,” he said
quietly.

“You just don’t know him like I do,” Monica muttered.

Five hours and three cups of coffee later, they spotted Brad emerging
from his building as the sun started to rise. They began to slowly
follow him as he whipped around corners, John becoming increasingly
frustrated.

“I think he knows it’s us,” he complained. “I told ya these disguises
weren’t good enough, now he’s trying to lose us and the sun’s coming
up and blowing our cover.”

“Just hang back a bit, but don’t lose him,” Dana added, realizing the
difficulty of executing her command. By the time she finished
speaking, she realized it was too late. Brad had driven them to a
dead end and whipped back around past them at a frightfully fast
pace. If he hadn’t realized who they were before, he probably knew
now.

“Dammit!” John yelled once Brad was no longer visible in his rearview
mirror. “You don’t think he knows it’s us does he?

“Maybe he just thinks it’s some DC cops trying to get him,” Monica
replied, trying to be optimistic. “But he knows we’re involved in the
case of Alison’s disappearance, right?”

They all knew the answer and didn’t even want to think about what was
going to happen to them at work that day. Would they be fired? Split
up and the X-Files closed down? One thing was for sure, Brad would
make sure the case stayed clear of him, which angered Monica the
most.

“I just can’t believe he’s going to get away with this,” Monica was
on the verge of tears. “In fact, he’ll probably be rewarded as the
one who finally got rid of the X-Files.”

John wrapped her in his comforting embrace. “Come on Mon, it’ll be
okay, you have to keep believing it’ll be okay. You still have that
letter don’t you? That’s irrefutable proof.”

“We’ve had that before and look how much good it’s done Mulder and
me,” Dana sighed as John shot her a look of helplessness.

“Mon, I can tell you’re just really overwhelmed with this case and
you’ve been up all night – you just need some rest and then you’ll be
okay,” John tried to comfort her. “Why don’t I drop you off at home
and you can catch up on your sleep today?”

“But, what about you guys facing Brad?” Monica asked. But the offer
was too good to refuse. She could barely keep her eyes open as it
was.

“How about I’ll call you after work, tell you what happened, and we
can figure out what to do from there?” John offered.

Monica accepted as John pulled up to her building. “Thanks you guys,
and good luck,” she said while getting out of the car. John watched
her go inside and then pulled away. He was restless – this was one of
the few times he had been truly worried about Monica. Usually she was
such a strong woman, but this was just conquering her heart and soul,
making her powerless. He wanted to tell her he’d be there for her,
but he just didn’t know how.

Monica got upstairs and collapsed on her bed without even stopping to
take off her jacket. Jane was at a friend’s house for the entire day,
so she could really catch up on her sleep. Despite her racing mind,
she was exhausted, and the second she sunk her head down in the
pillows, she was plunged into a deep sleep.

When she woke up 10 hours later she was tied to her bed, her mouth
was covered with duct tape and she had a gun shoved in her face.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*
Chapter 6

Monica had no idea how long she’d been asleep. All she knew is that
she had felt some kind of sharp pain in her head, like a needle
stabbing into her forehead, and then everything was black. It was the
deepest she’d ever slept, very peacefully too. Oddly enough, it was
when she woke up that her nightmare began.

Her first instinct was to scream, but the cries of her distress were
muffled by the thick piece of tape stuck firmly over her mouth.

“I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” Brad said smugly. “Didn’t
you think I would have thought of that? But oh, that’s right, you
didn’t even bother to realize that I knew you were working on
Alison’s case and would never let you catch me. Outstanding job.”

Monica’s mind was racing. She needed to know what time it was. She
was supposed to pick up Jane after work. What would her friend think?
Where was her sweet daughter? John would be calling her around five,
and if she didn’t answer, what would he think? What if it was past
five and he had already called? What if Brad had disconnected her
phone? What if John thought she had gone out? What was going to
happen to her? She needed to know, she was starting to sweat with
anxiety and felt like crying, but knew that wouldn’t make Brad feel
any more sympathetic towards her. She just prayed that somehow she’d
end up safe and she’d be able to get Brad locked up with that letter.
But somehow she just didn’t think life was that fair.

“Oh, and that letter, don’t worry about it, I already found it,” he
said, as if reading her mind. “It wasn’t very smart of you to leave
the evidence bag in your briefcase. It’s rather obvious.”

She remained silent, refusing to take any more of his abuse – as if
she could really help it.

“And something else, what’s with your attitude?” He continued. “I
really don’t know what you wanted from me – we’d been having this
thing for a year and suddenly you wanted to get serious? You got
pregnant, what was I supposed to do? I wasn’t ready to settle down;
I’m still not ready to settle down. So you expected me to just go
through with it anyway? What could I say? I didn’t want you to keep
it – I thought I made that clear. You made me feel trapped, so I had
to do it. There’s probably a lot you don’t know about me, but what
was I supposed to do? Don’t go around acting all victimized – you
were in fairy tale world and needed to wake up to reality.”

He paced around the room, waving his gun frantically as he ranted.
Monica couldn’t believe him. The bastard! Of all the times he’d tried
to rationalize it, this was the worst. Years had gone by and he still
hadn’t learned his lesson, still didn’t feel one bit of remorse,
still thought he was completely in the right. If she had been able to
speak, she would have chewed him out until she had lost her voice.
She could have killed him right then and there. She tried to calm
herself down – she knew she’d need her strength at some point and
couldn’t afford to waste it fuming at Brad. It annoyed her that he
knew how to manipulate her so much. He loved tormenting her and
getting mad would only fuel his actions. Defeated, she remained
motionless.

“Well ‘Mon,’ as I believe I used to call you, and a nickname your
dimwitted partner has kindly taken over for me, I think we’re going
to be here for awhile, so you might as well get comfortable. See, I
never came in to work today, so your fellow freaks are probably
thinking they got off the hook. Unfortunately, they can’t call you to
celebrate. Maybe they’ll come over? I hope they do. You see, sooner
or later they’ll figure out the situation, and they’ll understand
that I’ll kill you if you don’t agree to destroy all the evidence and
drop the case. Of course I’ll have to supervise this too. Just face
it, I win.”

Monica felt like kicking his snide face across the room, but remained
helpless. A knock at the door seconds later made her heart feel as if
it was undergoing the same treatment.

“Mon?” Came John’s anxious voice from the other side of the door.
“Are you there? I’ve been worried, and there’s something I need to
tell you…”

“Oooh good,” Brad laughed, getting up from his seat on the bed and
taking his gun with him. “It looks like we’ve got company.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 7...

Monica screamed as loud as she could, which wasn’t very loud, thanks
to the tape fixed over her mouth, in an attempt to give John some
idea of what he was about to walk into. He didn’t hear her. In fact,
if Brad hadn’t shoved a gun to his temple and clapped a sweaty yet
firm hand over his mouth, John would have yelled for his life.

Sadly, John was soon in the same predicament as Monica. His eyes
widened in shock and were soon dripping with pain as he first laid
eyes on Monica, tied up and looking so utterly defeated. His guilt
instantly kicked in: What was I thinking leaving her alone like this?
This is all my fault… I told her I was going to protect her and look
what happened? John could tell from Monica’s glance that she didn’t
want him to feel guilty, but he couldn’t help it. He had come there
that night with far different intentions, only to have them smashed
in a fight for his and his partner’s (and best friend’s) lives.

They shot nervous glances at each other that both said “What are we
supposed to do now?” Then they both looked away, ashamed that neither
had a good solution. Moments later they would look back again in a
show of support. Brad watched them, clearly amused.

“Well, sorry to break up your little silent party here, but as I’ve
already told Monica, here’s the situation: I’m going to kill Monica
right here and right now if you don’t agree to drop the case and
destroy all the evidence against me. And if I ever see any sign of
you breaking the agreement, which, face it, I will, considering my
authority over you, I will track both of you down and kill you.
Understand?”

John and Monica both nodded.

“Good then. Tomorrow morning I will have a copy of a report on your
desk coming to your conclusions in the case – conclusions that stay
away from me. I will instruct Agent Scully to hand this report in to
AD Skinner and I will hold you here until she completes the task to
ensure she does as I say. Then I will leave and you will never
breathe another word of this case to anyone, anywhere. Until then,
it’s going to be a long night, so I suggest you get some sleep,” he
said while approaching them with two needles.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

When John and Monica awoke the next day, they were surprised to find
they were alone and untied. Both of them awoke extremely groggy,
although the sun was already high in the sky, meaning they had slept
for well over 12 hours.

“Oh God Mon,” John said as she hugged him tightly. “I was so worried
about you…”

“John,” Monica managed to get out through her tears. “I was so scared
John, I thought he was going to kill me.”

“It’s okay; it’s going to be okay,” John tried to comfort her.

“But John it’s not okay!” Monica was sobbing. “He won; he got away
with this again! Someone is still out there suffering and we can’t do
anything!”

“Come on Mon, I know you aren’t going to give up that easily. We can
still find her.”

“How John? He’ll kill us. I know he means what he says too – that
wasn’t just an empty threat. His reputation is too important for him
to not get whatever he wants with none of the consequences.”

“We’ll just have to be more careful this time,” John said. “Let’s
pretend things are back on track – take another case, get our lives
back to normal, but we can secretly get him. I know we can.”

John’s confidence inspired Monica. “Why the hell not,” she concluded.
“But first things first, I need to know that Jane is safe. I was
supposed to pick her up yesterday.”

John watched as Monica got up to reconnect the phone and call her
friend. He was amazed at her strength. It was one of the many things
he admired about her, and now it was back to stay.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Brad whipped his head around quickly to make sure no one was
following him. He had gotten in the habit of doing that a lot lately,
especially when he was walking towards his second apartment. As
usual, the coast was clear. There was only a chubby blonde in
sweatpants plodding along slowly behind him, listening to her CD
player. She looked rather familiar, perhaps one of the residents of
the building he had seen before. He quickly ducked inside the
building and started climbing the stairs two at a time. He stopped in
front of apartment number 309 and searched his pockets for his key.
Then he opened the door and had vanished inside before he thought
anyone had seen him.

But the blonde had seen him. Monica Reyes adjusted her fatsuit and
wig.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Chapter 8

The chubby blonde bustled down the street as fast as she could
without losing half of her body. She was so excited but tried not to
get her hopes up yet – she was one step closer to catching Brad, but
it hadn’t been accomplished yet. Still, when she plunked herself down
with great effort in a booth in the quiet restaurant John had
designated ahead of time, she could hardly restrain herself from
shouting with joy. She settled on allowing a large smile to break
across her face.

“It’s good to see you smiling again,” John commented. “So I take it
that means you have good news?”

“Apartment 309 in this little building a few blocks away,” she softly
announced. “So tomorrow, you’ll make sure to occupy him at work for
awhile while I go out and get Alison. It shouldn’t take more than an
hour to get both of us safely to the police, and hopefully, Brad
arrested.”

“Mon, we’re really going to do it,” John said, even allowing a smile
to overtake his usually serious face.

“I just want to be able to stop worrying about you, me and Alison.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll all be fine.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

This time a woman with dark sunglasses and a large puff of curly red
hair stuffed under an ugly floral hat walked toward the building.

She tried to remain calm as she walked up the stairs and approached
number 309, but her heart was beating so forcefully she feared her
chest may burst open. A few moments later, it was the door to
apartment 309 that burst open, after her attempts at picking the lock
failed. Although she was expecting what she saw, it still shocked her
to the core.

Sitting in the corner, tied to a chair which was in turn secured to
the wall, was a long dark mass of sleek hair draped over a sullen
face that instantly snapped to attention with the considerable noise
generated by Monica’s forced entrance. The rest of the apartment was
understandably barren and decrepit.

“Alison?” Monica questioned softly. She didn’t really have a doubt –
the girl matched the picture, but she just didn’t know what else to
say.

The girl remained silent.

“I’m Agent Monica Reyes with the FBI.”

At once a look of panic crossed the girl’s face and she futilely
tried to move away from Monica.

“Look,” Monica began, keeping her distance. “I know you don’t trust
the FBI, and you have good reason not too, after what Brad did to
you. But I’m here to help you, I’m here to take you back home and put
Brad in jail. If you can possibly find it in your heart to trust
anyone ever again, please believe me, because I know what you’re
going through. Brad took advantage of me and treated me like dirt
too. And with your help, we’ll give him what’s coming to him.”

Alison raised her head slightly.

“Now, can I come and untie you so I can get you out of here?”

She slowly nodded.

Monica cut and untied the ropes and tape quickly, all the while
trying to reassure Alison that it was going to be okay. However, she
was worried about the girl. While it was a blessing that she was
found alive, Monica had no idea the level of mental trauma she had
suffered. Alison tried to stand but started to crumple until she was
caught by Monica’s arms – she had been sitting in that chair for
weeks. So Monica carried her swiftly down to her car and laid her
down in the backseat, just in case.

They were quickly on their way to the police station, and once they
arrived, Alison started sharing her story.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

“At first I thought it was a really great thing, me and him, you
know?”

Monica nodded.

“I met him during this internship I was doing at the FBI. He was so
nice and so much more mature than all the boys my age. Brad could
take me out to expensive restaurants and he drove a nice car, and we
had fun together. Plus, ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to
work at the FBI, and Brad told me that he would get me a really nice
job.”

“Then what happened?”

“Well, he was kind of getting weird, in like a possessive sort of way
I guess. And my parents were getting suspicious, so I thought I would
just explain to him that I wanted to be friends. You should have seen
him. He went into this rage, shouting and hitting me. I guess he was
freaking out because he didn’t want anyone to find out about us and
thought I would tell. I kept saying that I wouldn’t tell anyone. But
he just wouldn’t believe me; he thought I would crack under my
parents’ pressure and would spill everything and ruin his career. It
hurt me that he only cared about his career, not me. I started crying
and I guess I thought that made him feel bad, so he said, ‘why not
stay here tonight?’ I thought he was changing his mind and being nice
again, so I agreed. When I woke up the next morning I was all tied
up. I never went home after that.”

Alison’s abrupt stop brought Monica crashing back to reality. She
didn’t realize there were tears in her eyes. Monica couldn’t think of
anything to say to this poor girl, so it was a good thing that John
and Dana arrived shortly after with good news.

“We got ‘em!” John shouted happily. “You should’ve seen ‘em with
handcuffs getting shoved in the back of a cop car outside of
Headquarters. He was swearing up a storm too. All the while saying he
was innocent! He really isn’t as smart as people think.”

Everyone in the room was smiling, including Alison, for the first
time in weeks. Her parents shared in the emotion as she finally came
home after weeks of sleepless nights spent worrying. John was right;
everything was going to be fine.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*

Monica finally free – as if somehow by saving Alison her own
wrongdoings had been avenged. She was happy again and didn’t feel
constantly defeated. She pondered this great new feeling in her life
one night as she put Jane to sleep. Right after she had turned off
the light, she heard John’s voice calling to her from the hallway of
her building.

“Mon, it’s me,” he said softly as she opened the door. He was wearing
jeans and she was in pajama pants and a tank. Monica appreciated that
she could feel so relaxed and informal around John. Something just
felt right. She offered him a beer and they sat down on the couch.

“It’s good things are back to normal,” John began as he gingerly slid
his arm around Monica’s shoulder. “During that whole time, I realized
something, something I had already kinda known, but not wanted to
admit to myself. And I was gonna tell you that night when I came
over, cept things turned out a bit differently…”

Monica smiled. She wondered what John was going to say and hoped it
was similar to what she had been trying to say for years.

“Well, what I wanted to tell you was that, when you were going
through those tough times, I wanted to tell you that I’d always be
there for you – and I’m still here for you now that things are
better, and I’ll always be there for you Mon, because I care about
you so much. It killed me to see you hurt like that because, well,
because I –”

Monica, seeing the difficulty John was having getting his words out,
cut him off by planting a hesitant kiss on his lips.

“Love you,” he finished before returning the kiss, this time with
more passion and force.

Yes, everything was truly going to be fine.

The End