Chapter Five

Chicago, IL

Scully waited for Mulder in the lobby at the Chicago airport the following afternoon. He was calling a cab to pick them up at the airport and take them to Deerfield, where Kayla supposedly lived. Scully still wasn't sure about everything that was happening. It all seemed so surreal, so sudden, so suspiscious, but the proof was right in that file. Why would anybody fake something like this? Still, her skepticism was high. To think she had a neice living in another state for sixteen years was uncanny, to say the least, and she still couldn't wrap her mind around the fact that her sister had never confided this to her.

Scully had always considered she and Melissa to be close. Scully thought they had shared everything, especially concerning Scully's cancer scares. Why would Melissa be so obliged to keep something of this proportion a secret?

But again, Melissa was a humble person, who did things without bragging. Still, it was strange.

Scully breathed out. Soon enough, they would learn the truth, whether the whole thing was some strange setup, or if it was truth. She wasn't sure which she preferred.

She was grateful that Mulder had offered to come along. "Just for the hell of it. What can I say? You got me curious." He had said. Leave it to Mulder. Anything mysterious or lacking answers called out to Mulder, and he always answered. The two of them could easily take time off from the FBI, especially after their false leads with the last case. There wasn't a pressing need for the two agents at the moment.

Mulder approached her from behind, and dropped his carry-on.

"Car's on its way. The receptionist told me it's a little over half an hour's drive from here." Mulder paused. "Is this all you brought?" He motioned to the one suitcase that was sitting next to Scully. Scully looked at him in surprise.

"Yes." She said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm surprised, women, you know they usually-" He stopped when Scully shot him a glare.

"Anyway, the cab should be here soon." He said, grabbing his own suitcase and heading for the front door. Scully shook her head and followed after him. Despite Mulder's insults and his strange theories, she was glad he had come. Whatever she was going to find out on this trip, she was grateful she had Mulder's support by her side.


The scenery was limited on the drive out to Deerfield, and the cab driver shared all his stories about growing up near Deerfield. Mulder pretended to be interested, which was fine with Scully. She didn't have the energy or motivation to humor a cabbie. She had other things to think about.

She perused the file once more on the drive up. No matter how skeptical she was about this teenage girl, she couldn't dispute the uncanny resemblance of the girl to Melissa's old high school pictures. That was the one selling point for Scully right now. She looked at the picture and breathed out. Who are you? Why are you in danger? She thought to herself.

"Where'd you folks say you were going again?" The cabbie spoke up suddenly. Scully lifted her head.

"The State Group Home, please?" She requested. Mulder turned and stared at her, as the cabbie signalled to turn.

"What, you don't want to get a hotel first? Drop off our stuff?" He asked. Scully stared at him incredously.

"Mulder, we don't know what we're going to find here. There's a good chance this trip was a complete waste of time. We might not find anything here. Why get a hotel when we might be flying out in a couple of hours?" She asked. Mulder rolled his eyes.

"Well, aren't you the optimist?" He asked.

She glared at him.

"You gotta have some hope, Scully." Mulder said.

"Hope? For what, Mulder, hope that this kid is actually Melissa's? Then what? Whoever left that message said the girl was in danger. Whether she's Melissa's or not, it's our duty to make sure she's safe." Scully replied.

"But don't you want to know who she is?" Mulder asked. Scully wasn't sure. What would she do if this girl really was Melissa's daughter? Were there any legal obligations tying her to this girl if they were biologically related? Scully didn't know enough about family law to understand how it all worked. She sighed, pushing that aside.

"I want answers, Mulder." She said simply, closing the file and sticking it in her bag.

Soon, the cab pulled into the parking lot of a large building. Scully quickly paid the cabbie and got out of the car. She looked up at the building, and felt her heart hammering against her chest. The FBI had taught her to keep her emotions in check when dealing with situations like this, but none of that had prepared her for dealing with something so close to home. She sighed.

"Ready?" Mulder asked, as the cab drove away. Scully nodded objectively, as she led the way to enter the building.

It was already later in the afternoon, so the place was bustling with girls anywhere from the age of 11 and older. Instinctively, Scully searched the faces for the girl who looked nearly identical to Melissa, but no such luck. That didn't mean she wasn't here, she told herself. Scully cleared her throat, and approached a younger girl.

"Excuse me, do you have a head office here?" She asked with a small smile. The girl nodded, and pointed out directions down a hallway. Scully thanked her and led the way down the long hallway to the end, where the girl had pointed out a large office with a sign that read, "Reception."

The woman sitting at the desk was on the phone when Scully and Mulder entered the room. The two FBI agents waited impatiently as the woman eyed them suspiciously while trying to finish up her conversation. She couldn't seem to tear her eyes away.

Finally, the secretary hung up the phone and turned to the two agents.

"May I help you?" She asked. Scully nodded.

"Yes, I need to know who we can speak to about Kayla Reynolds." She replied casually, but straight to the point. The secretary raised an eyebrow, and her suspicions seemed to rise.

"And who might you be?" She asked rudely. Scully stared at her, trying to figure out how she was supposed to explain this, how she was even supposed to-

"She's her aunt." Mulder said, motioning to Scully with a bit of a smile.


That was how Mulder and Scully ended up in Terri Donalson's office, a social worker who was apparently in charge of a large chunk of the girls at the State Home, including Kayla. The receptionist brought them into her office, and told them to wait, Terri was just finishing up some business, and would be right down. Mulder and Scully sat in front of a large desk, waiting. Scully took a glance around and saw pictures up on the walls of people she assumed were Terri's family. Mulder shook his head.

"What's wrong?" Scully asked. Mulder shrugged.

"Nothing, just what kind of social worker would put up pictures of her family? I mean, all these kids don't have families, do they? Isn't that a little harsh?" He asked. Scully hadn't even thought about that. She didn't have a chance to respond, because the door whipped open, and a woman entered the room, looking at them as though she forgot who they were.

"Oh, right." She said suddenly, and circled around to the other side of the desk, plopping herself down in her seat.

"Sorry about the wait. Bit of a 'crisis' going on upstairs. You know how girls can be. They get upset over the stupidest things. This one was upset because the boy down the street is going out with someone else, and she liked him. Drama, that's all I get here, is drama." Terri said, taking a long sip out of her coffee cup. She cleared her throat.

"Anyway, now that that's out of the way, I hear you're here to talk about Kayla." She added. Scully nodded. Terri eyed her for a moment before she continued.

"I hate to sound forward, but why? Who are you, exactly?" She asked. Again, Scully felt uncomfortable with this question, and Mulder jumped forward once again.

"She's Kayla's aunt." He offered. Scully stole a glance at Terri, who stared at the woman as though she were a raving lunatic. Scully immediately grew defensive.

"Look, I know how this sounds, okay? I get it. I understand a bit about how this system works. You're questioning why I have this sudden interest in Kayla, after all these years. It's not like that. My sister donated her eggs to some laboratory 16 years ago, and Kayla was the result of that. I never knew anything about her until someone dropped off this file," Scully reached into her bag and pulled out the file, pushing it across the desk for Terri to peruse, "This file shows DNA evidence that Kayla Reynolds is Melissa Scully's daughter. Melissa is...was my sister."

Terri looked through the file, not understanding all the printouts about genetic proof, but she looked up and gave a slight nod.

"Well, there aren't many people who know about Kayla's birth. Yeah, she was the result of that scientific crap. Some mother got some eggs donated and that was how Kayla was born. Social services never knew anything about the biological mother, well, the donor, I guess you'd call her. They dealt directly with the surrogate mother, or whatever you call it. The one who actually gave birth. Don't ask me, these things confuse the hell out of me." Terri shook her head. Mulder leaned forward.

"Terri, do you know of any reason why somebody might suspect Kayla is in danger?" He asked in his typical FBI interrogation voice. Terri puckered her brow.

"What?" She asked. Mulder reached for the folder and pointed out the post-it note. "They know, and they want her! Protect her, please," it read. Terri raised an eyebrow.

"Who send you this?" She wanted to know.

"We don't know, but whoever it is suspects Kayla is in some kind of danger, so would you have any idea as to why that might be?" Mulder asked again, closing the folder. Terri shook her head nervously.

"No, I have no idea," She paused, seemingly thinking about something, "I mean, we've received a few anonymous phone calls over the last few weeks, threats about Kayla."

"On her life?" Scully asked, surprised. How could this woman act so calm about this? Terri shook her head with a bit of a chuckle.

"No, nothing like that. You FBI agents are paranoid. It's been threats to take her." She explained.

"Why haven't the police been contacted?" Mulder asked, spreading his hands out innocently. Terri nodded.

"They have been. It's procedure, we contact them for situations like this all the time, but we get phone calls like this all the time, parents threatening to take their children back. We have procedures for things like that, they happen every day. The police don't really make it a priority. 95% of the threats are never followed through, so the cops are pretty laidback about it all." Terri paused. "I gotta tell you, though, it seems a little strange with Kayla. She's been a ward of the state since she was an infant, and nobody has ever heard anything concerning her. Nobody's ever called, nobody's ever wanted to take her back. So I gotta ask myself, why now? If it is her mother, why now?" Scully shared a glance with Mulder. Both knew what the other was thinking. There was a good chance it wasn't the mother. If it were, why would whoever sent Scully this package claim Kayla's life was in danger?

"Do you have any idea who would have sent me this?" She asked, holding up the file. Terri rolled her eyes.

"I'm as lost as you are. It's a mystery, isn't it? Must've been strange for you, minding your own business, and next thing you know, you're an aunt." She said, reaching for a cigarette. Scully nodded.

"Could you tell us a little bit about Kayla?" She asked, with a casual shrug. "There wasn't much in the file about her specifically." Terri shrugged.

"Not much to say. The kid mostly keeps to herself. She's a bit of an outcast around here. She doesn't have any friends, you know? Other kids make fun of her a lot." She explained.

"Why?" Mulder asked.

"She's, well, she's different, you know? I can't explain it, I don't understand medical mumbo jumbo, but at least she's being medicated for it." Terri replied. Scully puckered her brow, as she leaned forward.

"Medicated? Why? What's wrong with her?" She asked.

"Like I said, I don't understand it. The doctors say it's a form of epilepsy or something." Terri replied, finishing her cigarette.

Scully and Mulder shared another glance, and Mulder gave a nod. Strangely, Scully knew what he was thinking. She blamed years of being partners on being able to understand his thought processes without him ever having to say a word. Scully sighed, were they crawling out on a limb here? Was Kayla really in danger, or were these mysterious phone calls nothing to worry about? Still, her FBI instincts, or whatever they were, told her not to let this go. Maybe it wasn't the fact that she was an FBI agent. Maybe it was because this girl was Melissa's daughter, biologically at least. Maybe she wanted answers. She wasn't sure, but she went with it.

"Terri, I want to investigate this further. I know the police here don't seem concerned with the phone calls, but that on top of the messages I've been receiving, I don't want to take any chances. I'm not sure where this is headed, but now, I don't believe Kayla is safe here. This is no offense to you or the Home, but there are a lot of girls here who you need to divide your attention amongst. If the threats against Kayla are a real cause for concern, she needs to be removed so she can remain safe, as well as the rest of the girls here." Scully explained. Terri looked at her squarely and raised an eyebrow.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" She asked.

"I want to take her out of this State Home, take her with us, so I can have round-the-clock police protection and supervision around her until we can figure out who is behind all of this." Scully replied, gaining a supportive nod from her partner.

Terri didn't look convinced at first, but she finally shrugged her shoulders and gave a nod.

"Alright, if you really think she's in danger, then I guess that's the best thing for her. You're obviously FBI, so you know what you're doing, not to mention you're related to her." Terri saw the nervous look in Scully's eyes. "Don't worry, I don't plan on telling Kayla anything. I'll let you do it in your own time. Hey Britt!" Scully followed Terri's gaze, and realized she had yelled to a teenage girl who was passing by Terri's office. Britt walked in, and eyed the two FBI agents suspisciously."What?" She asked Terri. Scully definitely noticed the attitude laced in the girl's voice. She wondered if they would have any trouble with Kayla.

"Check the attitude!" Terri growled. "Is Kayla in her room?" Britt shrugged with a roll of her eyes.

"Probably, isn't that where she always is?" She asked.

"Go get her for me." Terri replied. Britt took a breath in.

"Terri! Do I have to? I'm on my way to meet Tay and Carrie! Freida told us we could walk over to the mall!" She whined. Terri shot her one look, and Britt turned in a great huff, and stomped down the hallway, cursing under her breath. Scully took a look at Terri, who seemed oblivious to what had just happened. Terri looked up with a snort.

"Please, I'm immune to this teenage attitude thing. I get it about ninety times a day." She paused. "Not with Kayla, though. She's a weird one. She's so quiet, I swear it's like she doesn't even exist half the time."

Mulder and Scully waited patiently, as Terri busied herself with some form of paperwork. Scully couldn't believe her heart was pounding. Why was she so nervous? What was she afraid of? Was she afraid this kid wouldn't like her? It's not your responsibility to have her like you, it's your job to keep her safe, nothing else. Scully sighed, what would Melissa do in this situation? She wondered if Melissa ever knew Kayla was placed under the care of social services her whole life. Would things have changed if Melissa knew the truth? Would Scully have been an aunt all this time?

Scully tried to concentrate on forgetting her emotions. This was an FBI case until she could figure out more details.

"Kayla, there you are." Terri said suddenly.

Scully turned around and took in the girl standing in the doorframe.

She couldn't have been more than 5'2", long, matty brown hair with bangs that fell over her face, hiding her eyes. She was a small girl, thin and bony, but that wasn't what caught Scully's attention.

Scully tried to catch her breath, because looking at this girl was like looking at a younger version of her own sister. Kayla looked a lot like Melissa in the photograph she had, but this was different. Scully had half expected there to be less resemblance in real life, but it was the exact opposite.

If Scully didn't know any better, she would think she were looking at Melissa's ghost,

only younger.