Title: “Getting Back On Track”

Author: Little Albatross (admin@littlealbatross.com)

Distribution: Don't Not Believe, and XFMU.
Anyone else, please ask.

Rating: PG

Spoilers: Release (referenced)

Category: AU, humor, Doggett/Reyes, DSR, 
Mulder/Scully, Follmer/Reyes, post-“The Truth”

Summary: After the events of “The Truth”, John 
Doggett found it fit to marry Monica Reyes because it 
was the “nice guy” thing to do. Now, the tension is 
building and things aren’t going as they had planned. 

Disclaimer: I do not own John Doggett, Monica Reyes, 
Dana Scully, Fox Mulder, Luke Doggett, or Brad 
Follmer. They belong to Chris Carter, Ten-Thirteen 
Productions and 20th Century FOX Broadcasting.
Date: March 29, 2004, May 20, 2004

Author’s Note: This story sparked when I read a 
recent post-“The Truth” fan fic challenge. It doesn’t 
fit all aspects of the challenge, therefor it’s only 
“sparked” by it. I hope you enjoy it. Feedback is 
always welcome.

----- 

“Honey, I’m home.” John Doggett says as he enters the 
house. He sets his brief case down and takes off his 
jacket, tossing it on a coat hanger near the door.

Monica Reyes comes out of the kitchen to greet her 
husband with a kiss.

“Did you have a good day?” Monica asks.

“Yes, as a matter of fact I did.” John says with an 
overly happy smile.

“What did you do?” Monica asks.

John sits down on the couch and turns on the 
television.

“Oh, you know. Just some paperwork with Agent 
Scully.” John answers with a grin. “Did you make 
dinner?”

“I thought I’d go buy some polish sausage.” Monica 
says with a sly smile.

John’s eyes light up with excitement. She’s never 
bought him polish sausage from M Street. 

“You mean to tell me you went all the way down to M 
Street to buy me the best polish sausage in the 
city?” Doggett says with a huge grin as he makes his 
way to the kitchen.

“No.” Monica says with a smile as she hands him a 
plate with two polish sausages on it. “I bought them 
at the store and made them myself. Just for you.” 

Monica smiles a devious smile at him. John hesitantly 
takes the plate.

“You can’t eat polish sausage with plates.” John 
says, in disbelief that she would hand him a plate.

“You will today because I cleaned the carpet while 
you were at work.” Monica orders him as she heads 
into the kitchen to get a diet coke from the 
refrigerator.

John enters the kitchen and sits down at the table 
and reluctantly eats his polish sausage with a plate. 
He winces in pain and disgust as he eats this low 
quality crap that isn’t from M Street.

“Moni, is there anything else to eat?” John asks, 
hoping beyond all hopes that there is something to 
take this horrible after taste away.

“No.” Monica says with a smile as she sits down 
across from him and eats a healthy salad. 

“I hate to be mean, Mon, but this polish sausage 
pales to M street.” John says in all honesty.

Monica looks at him with hurt in her eyes.

“But I made it just for you.” Monica says.

“I know…” John says. “But… it… sucks.”

“You mean to tell me… You’d rather eat meat from a 
street vendor?” Monica asks in disbelief.

“Well…” John says. “Yeah.”

“Even if it fell to the ground, into dog shit?” 
Monica asks.

“Yeah.” John says, putting the polish sausage down on 
the ground. “Nothing can beat M Street.”

“I spent all day making this for you, and the only 
thing you can say is that food from the street is 
better?” Monica is mad.

“Uh-huh.”

John gets up from the table with his plate and throws 
the food into the garbage can.

Monica glares at him.

“So, you had a good day at work?” Monica asks 
deviously.

“Yeah. It was wonderful.” John smiles at her.

“Remember when Luke disappeared?” Monica asks with a 
devious softness in her voice.

John snaps a look at her.

“Remember how sad you were? How sad you were when you 
failed poor, innocent Luke?” Monica asks with 
‘sincerity’. 

“Why bring this up? Why this again?” John asks with 
irritation. “Every time I have a good day, why bring 
this up? Do you get some sick pleasure out of making 
my life hell?”

“No.” Monica says. “I just want to help you move on 
in your life.” 

“If my life is standing still, it’s because I’ve got 
you cooking horrible polish sausage and bringing up 
the past. We agreed never to talk about the past. Yet 
every time I have a good day, you bring me back down 
with this.” John glares at her. “Well, two can play 
at this game.”

Monica glares at him.

“You failed Luke. You failed Barbara, and you failed 
me. If you hadn’t been screwing around with your at-
the-time boyfriend, Mr. Follmer, you could’ve found 
my little boy.” John snaps back at her.

“If you would’ve kept a better eye on him, he 
wouldn’t have gone missing.” Monica comes back.

“Yeah, well…” John thinks. “If you would’ve reported 
that you saw Mr. Follmer taking bribe money from the 
mob, none of this would’ve happened.” 

“That happened after the fact, John!” Monica yells.

“Still, you didn’t report him.” John says.

“I had my reasons.” Monica says.

“And what reasons were those?” John asks. “You need 
to use him to get higher up in the Bureau?”

Monica glares.

“Yeah.” Monica says sarcastically. “That’s why I got 
a transfer out of New York and went to New Orleans. 
Some promotion that was.”

They glare at each other.

“I’m leavin’!” John shouts as he heads to the door 
and grabs his coat.

“Good!” Monica yells back as the door slams.

++++++

“I don’t know what to do with her, Dana.” John says 
with complete hopelessness in his voice as he sits on 
Dana Scully’s couch.

“If you’re so unhappy, why don’t you just divorce 
her?” Dana asks.

“I can’t have a second divorce in my life.” John says 
at a loss.

“Can I ask you something?” Dana asks.

John looks at her to go on.

“If you never loved her, why did you marry her?” Dana 
asks.

John lets out a sigh.

“I felt bad for her.” John says. “I mean, she just 
lost the one man she loved because she found out he 
was involved with the mob. And that the man he was 
taking money from had killed my son.”

“That’s no reason to go off and marry her, John.” 
Dana says, stating the obvious.

“I know.” John says. “I don’t think. I always try to 
do the ‘nice guy’ things.”

Dana smiles at him.

“That’s because you are a nice guy.” She says as she 
leans over and kisses him.

“Why do you think she always brings up Luke’s 
disappearance?” John asks.

“I don’t know.”

“She always brings him up when I’ve had a really good 
day.” John says. 

“Maybe she doesn’t like to see you happy because 
she’s not happy.” Dana suggests.

“Maybe.” John says, not knowing for sure. “But what 
can I do?”

“Follow your heart John.” Dana says. “If you know 
things are better off if you two split, then split. 
If you think things will be better if you work things 
out, then work things out.”

“I don’t want to work things out with her. She’s 
impossible.” John states.

“Ok, then what are you going to do?”

“I guess I’ll have to get a divorce.” John says, not 
happy to have a second divorce in his life. “I don’t 
want to be like Ross Gellar from that one TV show.”

“You mean ‘Friends’?” Dana asks.

“Yeah.” 

“You won’t, John.” Dana smiles at him. “You’ll always 
have me.”

John looks over and smiles at her.

“I love you, Dana.” John says as he leans over and 
kisses her on the cheek.

“I know.” Dana says with a smile.

“I better go home and tell Monica that I want a 
divorce.” John says, getting off the couch and 
heading to the door. “I’ll see you later.”

He winks at her as he leaves the apartment. Scully 
let’s out a happy sigh.

“Mulder?” Scully says as she walks into the kitchen.

Mulder looks up from a pot of boiling water and gives 
her a nice smile. Scully smiles back, always loving 
when he wears her “Something Smells Goo-ood” cooking 
apron. 

“Yes Scully?” Mulder replies back.

“I think we should get a divorce because I’m in love 
with John Doggett and he loves me.” Scully doesn’t 
waste any time beating her thoughts around the bush.

Mulder turns to her. He looks distraught. He’s on the 
verge of crying.

“But…” Mulder manages to squeak out.

“I know, Mulder.” Scully says, coming closer to him 
and putting her arm around his shoulder. “It’s hard 
to face the facts when it comes to something like 
this. But, I… I just can’t go on like this any more.”

Mulder listens as his eyes fill up with tears.

“My heart just isn’t where it should be for this to 
work. You want to seek the truth, and I want a 
family. We’re too different and…”

“That’s wonderful!” Mulder happily yelps out.

Scully pulls away from him. His sudden happy outburst 
has thrown her off.

“What?” She asks confused.

“I said, that’s wonderful!” Mulder grins. “I’ve been 
thinking the same thing because I found out that 
Diana Fowley isn’t dead and I found her!”

“What?!” Scully repeats herself.

“That’s right!” Mulder says. “She’s not dead and… 
and… I uh… She and I, we’ve… been having a love 
affair. I didn’t know how to tell you because I 
thought you actually loved me.”

Scully stars at him blankly.

“Now that I know you and John are in love, this is 
wonderful!” Mulder says. “But wait… isn’t he married 
to Monica?”

“Yeah… he’s going to get a divorce too.” Scully says.

“Fantastic! Maybe we could all take a trip down to 
the courthouse together!” Mulder smiles and turns 
back to his boiling water.

Scully can’t help but smile. This was easier than she 
thought.

+++++

“Monica?” Doggett comes through the door, wasting no 
time to find her.

Monica comes to the door.

“What is it?” She asks.

“We need to talk.” John says, taking her by the arm 
and leading her into the living room.

“Is everything all right?” Monica asks.

John leads her to the couch and sits her down. He 
sits down on the chair opposite of the couch.

“I think we should get a divorce.” John says.

“What? Why?” 

“Mon’, we’re not working. We’ll never work. I think 
we should stop this stupid charade. I don’t want to 
pretend any more.” John says. “I mean come on, you 
know I’m still in love with Dana and that we’ve been 
having an affair.”

“What?!” Monica says, her eyes widen. “You’ve been 
having an affair?!”

“Now, don’t get angry, Mon’. You knew…” John looks 
into her shocked eyes, his sureness leaving him. 
“Didn’t you?”

“No!” Monica says.

“Oh…” John says. “Well, I still love her and she 
loves me. I don’t want to waste any more of my life 
pretending to be something I’m not. I’m following my 
heart.”

Monica sits in silence on the couch. John waits for a 
response.

“I can’t believe this.” Monica finally says. “If you 
never loved me and always loved her, then why? Why 
marry me? Why do this to me?”

She looks at John for an answer.

“I don’t know…” John hesitantly says. “I guess I felt 
sorry for you.”

“You felt sorry for me?!” Monica says, appauled by 
his reasons. “Meaning you never loved me, right?”

“Well, I love you, but not as a husband should love 
his wife. I love you as a friend.” John answers.

“That still doesn’t explain why you proposed to me. 
Why you married me.” Monica shakes her head, not 
understanding John’s logic in all of this.

“Well, after you found out that Brad took bribes, and 
then he disappeared because of the Witness Protection 
Program… I don’t know… you were so hurt by that. I 
felt sorry for you and wanted to do the ‘nice guy’ 
thing and treat you right.”

“By lying to me?” Monica asks.

John looks down to the floor.

“You don’t want to work this out, do you?” Monica 
asks.

“I’m sorry.” He says, looking up into her eyes. “I 
love Dana. You’ve always told me to follow my heart, 
my instincts, my feelings… that’s what I’m doing.”

“Why didn’t you do this in the first place?” Monica 
asks. “Why go and have an affair and lie to me. That 
ruins trust, John.”

“I’m sorry.” John says. “I do dumb things sometimes.”

There is a knock on the door.

“Are we expecting someone?” John asks Monica.

John gets up and answers the door. To his surprise, 
Brad Follmer stands on his doorstep. John is put into 
shock. This is the last person he thought he’d ever 
seen on his doorstep.

“Hi.” Brad says. “Is Monica here?”

Monica comes to the door. John looks at her 
suspiciously. 

“Hi Brad.” Monica says with a big smile.

“Are you ready to go?” Brad asks.

“Hold on a second.” John says. “Monica, I need to 
speak with you in the other room.”

John glares at her.

“Just a minute, Brad.” Monica says, following John 
into the living room.

“I can’t believe you!” John yells at her.

“John, before you go jumping to conclusions-“ Monica 
tries to tell him.

“-Cheating on me with Brad Follmer?!” John yells.

“I’m not cheating on you John.” Monica explains. “I 
get together with him once in a while.”

“I thought he was in the Witness Protection Program.” 
John says.

“Yeah, but he came back. He came back because he 
loves me.” Monica says. “And John, I love him too, 
but we’re not having an affair. I told him that you 
and I are married and he respects that.”

“Oh.” John says.

“This is why I wish you would’ve come to me sooner 
about all of this so I could move forward in my life 
too.” Monica says.

“I’m sorry.” John says.

“I know. You’ve said that a lot today.” Monica says, 
smiling at him. “So when do we want to get this taken 
care of?”

“I don’t know… tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow’s fine for me.” Monica says. “I’ll be going 
now.”

“Where’re you goin’?” John asks.

“Brad and I are going to see a movie.” Monica says. 
“I’ll see you later tonight.”

Monica grabs her coat and heads to the door. Brad 
puts his arm around Monica’s shoulder as she shuts 
the door.

“Have fun.” John says as the door shuts.

John stands in the foyer, watching Monica get into 
Brad’s car. A smile forms on his face, knowing that 
after tomorrow she will be just fine. He makes his 
way into his living rooms and sits on his couch. 

Looks like life is getting back on the right track.

THE END

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