Summary: Deslea's rec: "Monica Reyes has her first encounter with a fellow smoker. Well-characterised with great tension and mood."

Title: The Introduction
Author: MaidenJedi
Rating: PG-13
Archiving: Anywhere, so long as my name stays on it.
Category/Keywords: Reyes
Summary: Monica Reyes' first day as an agent in the
X-Files.
Spoilers: Essence/Existence, TIHN, various small
spoilers for Classic XF, and some for LGM All About
Yves.
Disclaimer: The X-Files are not mine, Monica Reyes is
not mine. I'm just borrowing them!
Notes: Thanks to J. for the super-quick beta. You're
the greatest!

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


Monica Reyes leaned back in the chair she occupied,
sighing heavily as she stretched her atrophying arms
and legs. John had insisted she spend her first
official day in the X-files division learning what
they were all about. He'd done it, he said, and it
would help her out a great deal.

After stacks of eerie tales featuring comic-book
characters, Monica was ready for a break.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to refocus
her eyes. There was no natural light in this forsaken

hole, save for a small trickle above the bookshelves.

The fluorescent lighting burned after a day spent with

her nose buried. Her watch told her she here long
after most normal agents had gone home, and her body
told her she was past due for a cigarette. But she
wasn't anxious to leave, and after all she'd read she
wasn't sure she really wanted a cigarette.

Aliens.

Conspiracy.

Sword-swallowing circus performers with extra
appendages.

Haunted houses.

Monica had always considered herself open-minded.
In school, when presented with the idea that Lee
Harvey Oswald had killed John F. Kennedy, she had been
ready to accept that might not be the whole truth.
She guessed that maybe something had happened at
Roswell in 1947, and she wasn't entirely against the
idea of ghosts. She believed whole-heartedly in
extrasensory perception, had since she was thirteen
and first glimpsed her own gift. But some of the
things Agent Mulder had proposed as case-closing facts
were just absurd!

Or were they? Monica stood up and popped her back,
then bent over to touch her toes. She thought back to
the night that Agent Scully had given birth. Aliens
existed. She was sure of it now. The "bounty
hunter", as Mulder and Scully had called him, had
thrown Monica a good ten feet. The most fit man in
her academy class had been unable to pin her in a
wrestling match. And what about the green acidic
blood, and the shape-shifting? Monica would never had
believed it had she not seen it for herself. She had
begun to question so much of what she held to be true.
And yet, so much of what she read made perfect sense.
It was the idea of government conspiracies that she
had trouble grasping.

For instance, the entire idea of this man referred to
in places as CGB Spender. Monica was tied on how she
felt about him. She could believe easily in cultish
activities that conspired to cover-up the paranormal.
Alex Krycek had tried to kill Scully's unborn child,
and Monica could believe that he worked for someone.
But she had trouble with the idea of a governmental,
world-wide conspiracy to cover-up collaboration with
an alien government. It was absurd! And the way
Mulder referred to this Spender in places as
"cancerman" or "cigarette-smoking man"....she thought
it was too much like a kooky conspiracy theory out of
a movie. He had survived a shooting, among other
things, it seemed, and he hadn't reappeared at all
since Mulder's abduction. It was all too elliptical.

Monica yawned as she put away files and cleaned up her

empty coffee cups. John had said he'd be out most of
the day, wanting to get some of the legwork done on an
investigation that didn't require both of them working
on it. It seemed some close friends of Mulder's had
mysteriously disappeared, and there was little to go
on; they'd been computer hackers / conspiracy
journalists, and they'd been hot on the trail of a big
break when suddenly they'd gone missing. John hadn't
been overly enthusiastic, but had agreed to the
investigation for Mulder's sake. Monica wasn't
expecting him to come back to the office for anything,
and given that it was so late she'd probably just....

Someone was in the office. Maybe it was John after
all, coming back to write up his findings.

"John?" Monica called out. She walked back to the
desk, her back to the door. "I didn't think you'd be
back today. Did you find out anything interesting?"

The smell of cigarette smoke filled Monica's nose.

John Doggett wasn't a cigarette smoker.

Monica turned around, a small stack of files in her
left hand, her right hand on her back where she could
get to her gun. There was no smoking allowed inside
the Hoover building, and no one she answered to smoked
anyway. At least, not that brand. She was the only
one, and she smoked lights.

Morleys.

Standing in the doorway was a man, wearing a suit and
tie and holding a cigarette in one hand, his other
hand in his pocket. His stance was casual, almost
friendly, but Monica's sixth sense stood the hair on
her arms on end. Her heart pounded furiously, and she
felt her hands begin to sweat.

"Can I help you?" Her voice came out clear and
steady, surprising her a little.

The man took a slow puff of his cigarette, letting out
the smoke mostly between his lips. "I'm hoping we can
help each other, Agent Reyes." He shifted his weight
and took another pull of his Morley. "I've come to
congratulate you on your appointment to
this...division."

The use of her name jarred Monica. "How..."

He tapped the door, where the words "Special Agent
John Doggett" and "Special Agent Monica Reyes" stood
out. The plates were not even a week old. Monica let
out a short breath.

"I was just on my way out. Perhaps you could drop by
some other time. Or call me, that would be a better
idea. My partner...."

"Your partner is why I'm here, Agent Reyes."

She walked forward, hand firm on her weapon. "If
you're implying...."

"On the contrary, Agent Reyes, I mean no harm. I
merely wish to inform you that Agent Doggett is
treading into some very dangerous waters. If he were
to step in certain places, he could get himself
killed. He could get *you* killed."

Monica narrowed her eyes. "Sir, I'm on my way out for
the evening. Please leave before I have to call and
have you escorted out of the building."

"There is no need for that, Agent. I only came to
warn you and your partner: don't get mixed up in Agent
Mulder's quest for the truth. You'll regret it."

"Who the hell are you?" Now her voice was shaking, as
it hit her that she already knew the answer to that
question. He smiled at her, and walked past her to
the desk. He stubbed out his cigarette in one of the
styrofoam cups that sat there still. She stared at
him, trying to figure out how she could stop him, keep
him in here so she could call John, call Scully, warn
somebody.

He turned back to her, holding up a pack of Morley
Lights that had been sitting on the desk.

"You know, Agent Reyes, if you're going to stick your
foot in, why not go all the way?" He smiled and
walked past her. "After all, you only live once." He
tossed her one of his own cigarettes, and left the
room.

Monica stood stock still, her eyes watering and her
throat constricting. He was the man Mulder mentioned
in the files, he was CGB Spender. After all this
time, back to cause trouble. She had to warn Mulder,
had to call Scully and get William out of D.C. She
had to call John!

In the end, she did nothing. She put the files back
on the desk, grabbed her purse and her jacket and
locked up the office. She felt dirty, like she had
looked into evil and it had touched her.

She would tell John. She would warn him.

In the meantime, she needed a cigarette.

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