Scully hung up the phone with a small frown. Unbeknownst to Reyes, who was taking a shower, Doggett had just called Scully to tell her about Reyes' mood, and ask for advice. Mulder looked up from making pancakes and gave her a concerned look.
" What's wrong besides the fact that we have to get the kids up in fifteen minutes?" Mornings went with a varying degree of smoothness and it wasn't a good week so far.
" That was Doggett. He said that Reyes was crying last night, upset that she doesn't have any clue about her family history."
" So? We can help her track down her mother, if that's all that's wrong." He declared as he flipped a pancake too hard and nearly lost it.
She sighed. There was something she'd meant to ask Mulder a hundred times, but she never found a way to frame the question... " Mulder..." She began hesitantly. " Have you ever wondered..."
" Wondered what, G-woman? I wonder a lot of things." He teased.
" Have you ever wondered if Reyes is your sister?"
A pancake flopped onto the floor. " You're not serious."
Scully felt her cheeks burn, but she ignored it. " Actually, I am serious."
" First of all, she's at least two years too young. Second, Samantha was kidnapped at eight years old, and Reyes was adopted as a baby. Do I need to continue?" Mulder asked.
" You of all people should believe in false memories." Scully said, thinking of the time he called her to rescue him when he woke up covered in blood in a strange motel. " And people lie about kids' ages all the time. Well, not all the time, but it happens."
Mulder tried not to look amused. " But even if both those things were true, what would make you think that she's Samantha? Besides I saw Samantha, remember? The starlight? Ring any bells?"
" You could have been hallucinating, it wouldn't have been the first time." Scully shrugged. " Reyes...She's like you."
" She's like me? What's that supposed to mean?"
" You're both bright-" Mulder snorted, but she couldn't tell which one of them he disagreed was, and was sure she didn't want to know so she ignored him. " You both are way too open-minded for your own good, you're both true believers in the paranormal...and you have similar coloring." She finished her list lamely. " When you were gone, she felt a little like being around you, if you want the truth."
" You're right," He replied sarcastically. " When you put it that way, I don't know why I didn't realize she's my long lost sister sooner. Don't go giving her this crazy idea too, all that will do is hurt her when it turns out not to be true."
" I wasn't planning to. I mean, I wasn't going to say anything unless it's true."
" What are you planning to do, sneak up on her and draw a blood sample without her noticing?"
" I was thinking of pilfering from her hair brush." Scully admitted.
" Whatever. But don't tell her." Mulder warned.
"I'm not an idiot." She snapped at him. His look suggested he doubted the validity of the statement.
Scully arrived at Reyes and Doggett's house that afternoon, bearing a gift. One with approximately 3,000 calories." Scully, you shouldn't have." Reyes protested, but her mouth watered from the smell leaking from the pair of white boxes Scully handed her.
"Yes I should have. Your doctor said you need to gain weight, right? I can't think of a nicer way to do it than by stuffing yourself with chocolate chunk brownies drizzled with white chocolate." Scully explained. "There should be enough to allow Doggett and Gibson a taste too, if you're feeling generous."
"But you're a doctor. Shouldn't you be advocating extra helpings of things like peanut butter and liver?"
"I'm a doctor, but I'm not your doctor." Scully pointed out gleefully. " If you like the brownies, I'll give Doggett directions to the bakery where I got them. People say homemade is the better gift, but then, they've never been subjected to my cooking."
"Your cooking can't be that bad." Reyes kindly objected.
"Yes it can. Why do you think I was so fond of the pizza guy before William was born? Emily prefers Mulder's cooking...my cooking is that bad!" Scully exclaimed.
She and Reyes joked for a few more minutes before she asked Reyes to excuse her while she used the bathroom. Scully did not, however, need to use the facilities. There were two bathrooms upstairs, and the one she picked was Reyes and Doggett's. In addition to being cleaner than Gibson's, it also only had the couple's things in it.
Fortunately, Reyes' brush was right on the vanity. Scully pulled out a small ziplock bag, plucked a couple of hairs from the brush, and thrust the bag back into her pocket. Then, to make things sound good, she flushed the toilet and washed her hands before rejoining Reyes, who was eager to sample the brownies.
Scully got the results for the DNA test back the next day. She'd put a rush on it, implying that the hair belonged to a possible suspect. She nearly felt guilty when the courier wished her luck as he handed her the envelope. It had all gone very smoothly, she reflected as she laid the image of Mulder's DNA on her desk and opened the envelope containing Reyes.
No fuss, no muss, and... certainly no match, she noted sadly as she compared the two images. Not a single point on them matched. They contained less similarities than the two fabled snowflakes. There was no chance whatsoever that Reyes was Mulder's missing sister.
Unless! She thought suddenly, Doggett had borrowed the hairbrush, and she'd accidentally had one of his hairs typed... she indulged herself in that fantasy for almost fifteen seconds before admitting that there could be no mistaking a strand from Reyes' long dark locks for one of Doggett's much shorter and lighter ones.
Still, she felt reluctant to let the idea go. It had been such a good one, and it would have tied up two painful uncertainties in one happy little bow. Unfortunately she knew all too well that the neatest and best outcomes are also the rarest; this hand just hadn't drawn one.