AN: I don't own X-Files, I'm just a bored teenage girl fantasizing about fictional people and their relationships!

So I had this headcanon floating around in my mind for a while because Reyes was always smoking in S8 but when S9 started the cigarettes were gone and no explanation given. Doggett and Reyes aren't in a relationship yet but it had potential for them to get together in the near future.

This is a slightly AU short little drabble thingie and hope you enjoy!

Early Season 9 - 2002

"Don't light it."

Monica Reyes peered down at the lighter in her hand and glanced up at her FBI partner, cigarette still hanging out her closed lips. She reached up and plucked it out with her fingers and rolled her eyes at the man. "And what does it matter to you?"

John Doggett had taken his fellow FBI agent out for drinks after work and he had caught her leaning against the wall outside the bar ready to light a cigarette. "Well it's a nasty habit and not a good thing for someone as beautiful as you to be doing to yourself."

It wasn't as though she didn't want to quit, of course she did, but she'd been trying for months and every time something got even remotely stressful she'd sought solace in her pack of Morley's. She'd only started a few years earlier after a particularly stressful case involving her present partner's son and she had found herself at a gas station picking up her first pack. It stunk, left her mouth feeling dry and she knew it wasn't doing wonders for health but the she'd already tried both the gum and the sticky patches and nothing was working.

"John I know you honestly don't give a damn, just let me smoke this, just one."

"No."

"Give it back!"

"No."

"I'm a grown frickin' woman John Doggett!" She was growing increasingly annoyed with each passing moment.

John shook his head and reached out and took the cigarette from her. He dropped it on the ground and crushed it under his shoe. "That's where you got me wrong Mon, of course I give a damn, I actually give plenty and most of them tend to be about you. You see I honestly care about your wellbeing Monica Julietta Reyes and I don't want you constantly letting that poison into your body." He paused, his voice welling slightly with uncalled for emotion. "I don't have a family Monica, my parents died years ago and the only person I have is you. I've already lost my son and I'm not going to sit and watch while I lose my partner to cigarettes."

Reyes felt taken aback. Something about what he had said had touched her heart. Maybe he actually did care about her and it wasn't like she actually had much of a family either. She didn't want to lose him, she cared about him and it made her day each time she saw him at the Bureau in the morning.

"I can't make you quit but I can stop myself from watching you as I can't bear to see you kill yourself."

After a moment Monica opened her handbag and removed the packet from inside. She wasn't embarrassed to admit that he was right because she already knew it. "Take 'em John and toss them out. You mean so much more to me then nicotine wrapped in paper, you're not going to lose me that easily."

He reached out and took the packet from his partner before he tossed them in the rubbish bin beside them on the pavement. He turned to her, "how about we head back inside and get something to drink? It's getting kind of cold out here."

Monica nodded, "that sounds like a great idea."

"Oh and just so you know, I would never kiss a smoker."

It was just a comment but when it was combined with the glint in his eyes she thought that it might just imply something more.

AN: So there you have it, I hope they seem in character enough and all mistakes are my own. Please review and tell me what you though!

Thanks