Chapter Three

Washington, DC

Scully breathed out slowly once she got in her car at FBI Headquarters. She rubbed her temples in hopes of massaging the headache right out of her. She and Mulder had just gotten out of a rough meeting with their superior, Skinner, who bereted them for a good couple of hours about the last case they had been pursuing. Skinner was not impressed with Mulder's apparent wild goose chase in the kidnapping/murder case they had just closed. Scully sighed. Skinner had never been a fan of Fox Mulder, and his belief in extra-terrestrial activity in the world at large. Scully was just as skeptical, but Skinner was in charge, and he felt Mulder's theories and hypotheses only placed the FBI in compromising situations that undermined their reputation.

Scully started the car, relieved the meeting was over. As she pulled out of her parking space, she couldn't help but wonder how Mulder could shrug what Skinner said off so easily. "We could have found the guy a lot sooner had you not pursued dead ends about alien abduction. We could have caught him before he killed more girls!" Skinner had said. Scully couldn't understand how Mulder didn't take any of that to heart. He was stone cold, sometimes. It seemed the only thing he ever cared about was proving his theories, finding his sister. Determination was his drive. Scully could never understand it.

She pulled into her apartment parking lot and grabbed her briefcase. Glad to be home for the rest of the day, she took the elevator up to her floor and unlocked her door, allowing herself into her cozy apartment.

Scully tossed her briefcase on the couch, and pressed "play" on her answering machine. As she listened to her messages, she checked her mail at the same time. Bill, bill, bill. Scully sighed, and threw the mail back on the counter, listening half-heartedly to the messages on her machine. There was one from her mother, "just checking in." Scully ignored it, as she put on the kettle to make herself some tea. The next message was a random click. Somebody must have hung up. Scully removed her jacket as she waited for the next message.

"Dana Scully!" Scully immediately took notice, for the voice on the machine was not only one she didn't recognize, but the woman sounded panicked.

Scully dropped her coat and walked briskly to the machine, where the message continued.

"You have to protect her. They know, and they want her. You're the only one who can protect her now." The voice was breathing heavily now. "This line might be tapped. I have to hang up now. I left you a package in your post office box. Everything you need to know is in there. Protect her, Dana. You're all she has!" The line went dead.

Scully stared at the machine dumbfounded. Who the hell was that? Who was she talking about? You have to protect her. Protect who? Scully rewound the tape and listend to the message again, hoping for more clues, but nothing helped. The woman was a stranger, Scully didn't recognize the voice, and who was she talking about? I left you a package in your post office box. Everything you need to know is in there. Who was she supposed to protect?

Not knowing what else to do, or who else to call, she picked up her phone and dialed Mulder's number. He answered after a few rings. She cut to the chase, and told him all about the mystery message. Mulder breathed out.

"Sounds like a mystery, Scully. You sure you have no idea who would have left you a message like that?" He asked.

"Mulder, trust me, it's a complete stranger. She sounded panicked, like it was urgent I had to protect her." Scully replied.

"Protect who?" Mulder asked.

"Mulder, be realistic. If I knew, would I be calling you?"

"Maybe you should go check out what's in your mailbox. She said all the information you needed was there. Maybe once you see what she left for you, all this will make sense."

"I want to know how the hell she got my mailbox number."

"Maybe she didn't. Maybe this is some practical joke, but you should check it out before you assume anything. You know what they say about people who assume." Mulder laughed a little. Scully breathed out. Did he think he was funny?

"You're right, I'll check my mailbox." She said simply.

"And Scully?" Mulder asked, before Scully hung up the phone. Scully waited.

"Bring you gun...just in case."


Scully would have brought her gun anyway. She was, after all, a trained FBI agent. She didn't leave the apartment without her gun safely in tow. There was too much that could happen. And if someone was leaving packages in her mailbox, somebody knew who she was. Scully wouldn't take chances.

She headed to the post office down the street where her post office box was. She kept an eye out for any suspiscious behaviour, but she wasn't exactly expecting anything dangerous. She had been out of the apartment all day. For all she knew, whoever left the package could have done so hours ago; they'd be long gone by now. Scully sighed. If there's a package at all.

Box 5693. Scully pulled out her key and unlocked her box. Sure enough, there was a large manilla envelope stuffed into the small mailbox. Scully had a hard time pulling it out without ripping it at the edges. What was going on?

Scully quickly yanked the envelope out of the box, slammed her box shut, and very nearly ran back to her apartment. Her curiosity was sparked. Who was she supposed to protect? Who knew what? Nothing was making any sense. Hopefully this envelope has some answers in it.

She found a comfortable spot on her sofa and ripped open the envelope. She couldn't help but notice her heart was beating. Whoever had contacted her sounded upset, worried, panicked even. And for some reason, that woman believed Scully was the only person to help protect her. Protect who?

Scully pulled out a file folder from the envelope, a file folder with a name scrawled across the tab in red ink. "Kayla Reynolds." Scully immediately puckered her brow. The name didn't ring a bell. In fact, she was absolutely positive she had never heard the name.

She opened the file without a second thought. She wanted to get to the bottom of this, whatever was going on.

On top of a pile of paper was a photograph, paperclipped to to the rest of the papers. It was a picture of a teenage girl, her dark hair pulled back by a headband, and a sad look to her. The photo was obviously a school picture, but the girl was not smiling. That wasn't what struck Scully, though. That wasn't what made her heart start racing.

The girl, Kayla Reynolds, looked nearly identical to what Melissa had looked like when she was in high school. This girl, whoever she was, was the spitting image of Scully's older sister, when she was alive.

Scully felt herself growing emotional, and quickly pushed the thought aside. It's just a coincidence. She thought to herself, as she began flipping through the files.

Her heart stopped.

It was no coincidence.

There was the hospital printout. Right there. The DNA evidence to prove the relationship between Kayla Reynolds and Melissa Scully. Scully knew what the numbers meant. What the graphs meant. What the statistics meant. DNA results like that could only mean one thing. Melissa Scully was the biological parent of this teenage girl, Kayla.

Scully couldn't breath as she read the reports included in the file from a place called Marzulli Labs, detailing the process by which Melissa Scully donated her eggs to this laboratory, which were then implanted in a woman named Janette Reynolds, who was eager to have children. Melissa had signed off, agreeing that she would have no rights to the child once it was born, and she would never know anything about the child. Janette Reynolds would be the legal mother. According to this file, the child was handed over into the care of the state right after the girl was born, and was now residing in a State Group Home in Deerfield, Illinois.

Scully swallowed hard, trying to make sense of all this new information. The file was filled to the brim containing information about this teenage girl, date of birth, medical records, everything, but what caught Scully's attention was a yellow post-it note stuck to the front of the DNA printouts. In messy blue ink, the note read, "They know, and they want her! Protect her, please!"

Scully leaned back and stared at the photograph, stared at the DNA results, started at the printout from Marzulli's Labs, all proving that Melissa had donated her eggs to a woman who couldn't get pregnant. Somewhere out there was a teenage girl who was Melissa's biological daughter. Scully shook her head, pressing her hand gently to her forehead. So many questions were whirling through her head. Why in the world hadn't Melissa ever confided to Scully that she had donated her eggs over 16 years ago? Why hadn't Melissa been contacted when the child was handed over to the State. Wouldn't she have had legal rights, being the girl's mother? Melissa never would have wished her to become a ward of the state, even if she hadn't had any real plans to be a mother. She wouldn't have wished that on any child.

Scully breathed out, reading over all of the information again and again, trying to make it real in her mind, trying to make it make sense. All this time, 16 years, Melissa had a daughter that nobody ever talked about, that nobody ever knew about. Scully stared at those DNA results until the sun went down.

Finally, she picked up the phone and called Mulder. She told him everything.

"I'll be right over." He said.

Scully flipped through the rest of the pages, reading all the demographic information about Kayla that she could get. There were photographs of the girl as a child, and once again, Scully was painfully reminded of Melissa. As skeptical as Scully was trained to be in situations like these, it was difficult to discount the evidence, and the resemblance was uncanny.

Mulder knocked on her door half an hour later or so, and Scully let him in, handing him the file right away.

He sat next to Scully and looked through it as carefully as she had, while she looked over his shoulder at the information again. She shook her head. Everything felt so surreal.

Silence followed for a long time, until Mulder sighed, closed the file and looked at Scully.

"What do you think?" He asked. Scully stared at him, bewildered.

"Mulder, I don't know what to think."

"Do you think it's true?"

"Do I think that my sister donated her eggs and has a teenage daughter out there somewhere that nobody ever knew about? I don't know, Mulder, I mean the information in this file seems to point in that direction, but I can't understand why Mel would keep a secret like that from us." Scully replied.

"Maybe she just thought she was doing a good deed, you know. It's not something you go around bragging about."

"That's not the point, I'm her sister. Now, I get this file about this girl, and I don't know what to think."

"What do you think this is all about?" Mulder pointed to the post-it note. "Who do you think they are? Do you think this girl is in any kind of real danger?" Mulder asked. Scully spread her arms out wide.

"Mulder, I don't even know who this girl is, nor do I have any idea who's sending me this information. She said on the answering machine I'm the only one who can protect her now. I have no idea what to protect her from. I don't even know who she is!" She said, frustrated beyond belief. It had been such a long day already with the meeting with Skinner, and now this. Scully felt she needed a drink.

Mulder leaned back, and closed the file once again, and stared at Scully.

"I think we need to investigate this a little further." He said. Scully turned and looked at him.

"Sorry?" She asked.

"I think we need to dig a little deeper into this. It's obvious this has something to do with you. You're Melissa's sister, after all. Somebody obviously knew that, and somehow, they think you're the one who can protect her."

"Mulder, I'm not sure..."

"Why not, you want answers, don't you?" Mulder paused. "If the girl in the picture is who this file says she is, then I hate to be blunt, but that means you have a niece out there somewhere, a niece who could be in danger. And according to whoever this source is, you're the only one who can protect her."

Scully leaned back, weighing Mulder's words. She still wasn't sure if this was all a hoax, or if it was true. Melissa always liked to help people, Scully knew that for sure. She didn't know if Melissa donated those eggs or not, but it would be like her. 16 years...

Scully looked at the photograph, those dark brown eyes, those high cheekbones, that stubby little nose - Kayla looked just like Melissa did when she was 16. Scully sighed. You're the only one who can protect her now. What if this girl was in danger? Even if she wasn't related to her, wasn't it her job to protect the people?

Scully finally relented and agreed with Mulder. They were going to Deerfield, Illinois.