The DNA test took less than thirty seconds, it didn't feel right that something so quick and easy to do would be so important. The nurse who had done a quick check of Danny before he was questioned escorted him back out into the main part of the police station where he was told to wait for his mother.

"The results will be in first thing tomorrow morning" She told him with a smile, then left him on his own.

Danny wondered where Katie had gone, his phone was dead so he couldn't contact her, but assumed she had been taken to a hotel. He sighed and looked out the window, watching people and cars go by. He didn't know where the Bings had gone, or when he'd see them next. His mum was now in the picture which made the situation infinitely more complicated. Danny leant his head against the window and watched an old man load his shopping into a car across the road. Like every person he had seen today he wondered if he had known them before he was taken. It felt like the more he started to learn about his past the more lost he felt.

He didn't know what would happen to his mum, would she be arrested her part in all this? Or what would happen to him. Would he be forced to stay here? As much as he wanted to get to know the Bings he didn't want to live here. He didn't know anyone, yet if what Ross said was true the whole country knew who he was. He felt like a total outsider.

But he couldn't just leave. The Bings may be strangers to him, but they are his family, and have been looking for him for years. He wouldn't leave them.

His mother strode into the room before his thoughts could give him a headache. Her expression was unreadable, Danny couldn't decide if that was good or not. MJ followed behind at a more leisurely pace. Stopping to say something to another police officer standing by the front desk.

"We're gonna escort you guys back to the hotel" She told them, motioning to the front doors. "The DNA results will be in first thing tomorrow morning, we'll see where we go from there"

Danny nodded and followed the adults outside where a police officer was standing next to an unmarked Ford Focus. He shared a nod with MJ and opened the back door for Danny and his mother to get in. MJ got in the front and they set off.

"Where's Katie?" Danny asked

"At the hotel with a colleague."

That was the only conversation throughout the whole journey, the rest passed in frosty silence.

When they arrived they were brought up to adjoining rooms without having to check in, then left on their own.

The room was drab, the walls were covered in a faded, off white wallpaper and there was a small desk in the corner. Someone must have been to the hotel they were staying in in the city, because at the door stood both their suitcases.

With a huff Danny grabbed his suitcase and without a word to his mother he went into his own room, shutting the door behind him with much more force than necessary. He missed the look of defeat on his mother's face.

He dumped his suitcase at the foot of his bed and dug around for his phone charger. Then plugged his phone in and waited impatiently for the screen to light up a minute he had connected to the hotel wifi and notifications started popping up one after the other. He ignored most of them and scanned through them looking for anything from Katie.

Nothing.

He frowned, but decided not to worry about it and sent her a quick text.

Where are you?

He got no reply, so sent another message.

I'm in room 207

Still no reply. He signed and looked over the other notifications. Most were from his friends back home, but one last notification popped up.

14 missed calls from Mum

Waves of guilt washed over him and he looked at the door that joined his room to his mother's. He was still angry at her, because of her he'd been taken away from his family and sold like an animal. He believed her when she said she didn't know that he'd been kidnapped, but she still agreed to pay for him. To buy him. But remembering just how haggard she had looked when she'd seen him earlier made his stomach squirm.

The whole thing made his stomach squirm.

His mum came in about half an hour later and took him down to the hotel restaurant. Most of the meal was spent in silence. Danny picked at his food, trying to ignore the loud conversations of the groups around him. Too many thoughts were crowding in on him - all the stuff about his mum being desperate for a child, where his father was and what would happen if he found out that Danny had found the Bings, and, of course, what it would mean if he really was Matthew Bing.

He'd only ever thought about it as a kind of fantasy before. It had been an alternative life that he could change in his mind to suit his mood. Now that he had met the Bings he was painfully aware that there was a real family behind his fantasy. It was a family reality he wasn't quite sure he could face yet.

Once the bill was paid they made their way upstairs in the same uncomfortable silence that had hung over dinner. With a dismissive 'night' Danny went into his room, changed and crawled into bed.

He was exhausted, but couldn't sleep. As the night wore on his thoughts became darker, more insistent. They were bombarding him. When he forced one away another would push itself into him mind. He found himself imagining how his mum had tried to kill herself, each situation getting worse than the last. Then it was his dad, where was he? If he really had played a part in his kidnapping would he seek Danny out if he found out Danny had met the Bings?

He turned over and plumped his pillow, where was Katie? Why wasn't she replying to his messages? He wanted to talk all of this through with her, she was the only one he knew would really understand.

He eventually fell into a restless sleep, then woke up just as the warm morning light started to creep in through the small gaps in the curtains. He couldn't have got more than five hours sleep, yet he felt wide awake.

Thoughts about what being the Bing's son meant crowded his mind. They would want to see him again, which was fine - he was curious about them too. But he knew that wouldn't be easy. What if they wanted to call him Matthew? What if they expected him to call them mum and dad?

A gentle rap on the door brought him out of his musings. He stood up, staring at the door with a furrowed brow. Another knock, slightly louder this time. He definitely didn't imagine this one.

He padded across the plush hotel carpet the door and listened.

"Dan" said a quiet voice "Open up".

Katie.

He pulled open the door. Katie was already dressed in jeans and a deep red jumper that made her eyes stand out.

"They won't let me see you" She looked furtively up and down the corridor, as if an FBI agent was going to jump out at any moment. Danny pulled her inside the room and shut the door. "I had to give the receptionist some long sob story before she gave me your room number."
"I send you it" Danny replied, holding up his phone. "Why didn't you just check there."

"My charger wasn't in my suitcase" She shrugged. "And then my mum called so I wasted any battery I did have listening to her and dad yelling at me over the phone." She rolled her eyes. "They've booked me a plane ticket home for 6 today, I think one of the police officers is taking me to the airport." She took her phone out of her jean pocket and plugged it into the charger on Danny's wall. "Oh, and I've been grounded until the end of the summer."

Danny smiled apologetically "Sorry Kate, I shouldn't have got you involved in this whole…mess"

"Not you fault" She waved a dismissive hand "Besides, this has been way more fun than sitting at home all half term."

Danny smiled slightly, and opened his mouth to say something when voices echoed in the distance. Then footsteps, louder and louder, stampeding towards them. There was an impatient rapping at the door. Danny shared a confused look with Katie as he walked across the room to open the door.

MJ was standing there with uniformed officers behind her. "In the room please" Her voice was strained, urgent. He looked around at the other officers behind her and gulped when he noticed they were carrying guns. He'd never seen a real one up close before. He could see another group of officers banging on his mum's door too.

"What is it?" He asked.

MJ ignored him and looked at Katie. "Alright you, back to your room"

Katie stood her ground "What's happening?"

"Move" One of the larger officers barked at her. She gave him a withering look and stood next to Danny.

"I'm staying here with Dan."

"Fine just get in" MJ said, cutting off the other officer's argument. Danny couldn't help but grin slightly. Only Katie could challenge an armed officer triple her size and get her own way.

MJ pushed them further into the room and shut the door behind her. She held up a piece of paper. "You're DNA results" she said. Danny knew before she told him.

"According to the test there is a greater than 99.99% chance you are the biological offspring of Monica and Chandler Bing. In other words, no doubt at all."

After all this time and effort to find out where he came from Danny thought he would feel excited, or afraid, or at least relieved.

Instead he felt nothing.

Another uniformed officer came into the room and nodded at MJ. "Target secure" he said.

"What target?" Danny asked

MJ signed and motioned for him to sit on the edge of the bed. "I know this is going to be hard for you Daniel but now that we know you're Matthew Daniel Bing it means we now know you were abducted from outside your home in September 2012 and at some point smuggled into the UK, where you were adopted in December of that year. What we don't know is how many people were involved in that abduction and the coverup and fraud that followed. It is possible your adoptive mother knew what was going on."

Danny's mouth went dry. "No…No, she didn't know"

"We can't be sure of that, so we are taking in your mother for more questioning and until the investigation is over you won't be allowed any contact with her."

Danny felt like he'd been punched in the gut.

"What? But she didn't know.. you can't just-"

"I'm sorry Daniel, but we need to see adoption papers, bank account details, that sort of thing."

Danny felt his stomach drop. Bank data? If they didn't already know about the money his mother had illegally paid then they would pretty soon, and that would make his mum look guilty as hell.

"How long is it going to take?" He asked, hating how vulnerable he sounded.

MJ squatted down in front of him in a way that was meant to be comforting, but came across patronising.

"I can't say for sure, there's a lot of mystery surrounding this. We need to find who falsified all your birth certificates and any other records to do with your early years… It'll probably take a while."

Danny gulped. "Am I going home with Katie?"

MJ shook her head. "Katie is going back to England, but your situation is more complicated."

Danny looked up at her expectantly, he had a horrible gut feeling he knew what she was going to say.

"There's gonna be an ex-parte proceeding in the next twenty-four hours, that will decide your custody on a temporary basis. Then after a month another hearing will take place to decide where you'll live permanently."

Danny took a deep breath. "So I… I might not be able to go home?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that" MJ told him. "We know you are the Bing's son but we have to legally prove your adoption the UK to be invalid, which is what the hearing in a month's time is for. In the meantime the normal procedure for a child who's parentage is in dispute would be to put them in foster care."

"Foster care?" He breathed "I don't want to live with strangers."

"I understand that, but you're not letting me finish. This isn't a normal case. The Bings know about the test result so they are most likely going to get a judge to approve a 'best interest placement'."

"What…what does that mean?" Danny's head was spinning.

"The Bings are going to get themselves approved as temporary foster parents, given the circumstances it won't take long. You're probably going to stay there until the court hearing in a month, then your permeant custody will be decided."
Danny stared at her blankly.

"Think of it this way Daniel, after eleven years you're finally going home."

The Bings did exactly what MJ had predicted and before Danny had even sat down for lunch it was decided he would be staying there until the hearing in mid July. After MJ told him she gave him a sandwich and sent him upstairs to pack. He would be leaving by 3 o'clock that afternoon.

His feelings were all muddled. Of course he wanted to spend time with the Bings, but he didn't want to live with them. He didn't know them. The thought of living with people who were basically strangers terrified him.

He missed him mum.

He found that almost strange. His mum was not the warmest of people. They were often at odds and when she left him on his own at home to go on business trips or meetings he never missed her like this. But just the thought of her sitting in a police cell made his stomach lurch. He miserably opened the door to his room and started to pack. It didn't take long, he'd only been here a night, so he started to unpack everything and pack it all again just for something to do.

Katie joined him a while later, she sat on the bed and watched him fold then refold his clothes. She was being practical about the whole thing, trying to calm him down.

"They can't hold her without any evidence" She had said "It's not like she's a terrorist or anything, and once you've explained to the Bings you don't want to stay with them, they won't force you. They can't"

Danny wasn't so sure. He thought about the money his mum had paid, and Bings' reaction when they saw him yesterday. His heart sank, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't going to ruin the last few hours they had together, especially when he didn't know how long it would be before they saw each other again.

MJ knocked on the door at quarter to three.

"You've got two minutes guys, then we've got to go" She stepped outside and closed the door.

Katie threw herself at him, hugging him fiercely.

"I'll miss you Dan" She mumbled into his chest, then pulled back and met his eyes. "You'll be fine, just be yourself. They'll love you."

Danny nodded, and took a deep shaky breath. "Thanks Katie."

She smiled and hugged him again. "You better text me everyday, and I'll keep you updated on everything that happens back home, even the boring stuff. A month will be over before you know it."

MJ knocked on the door again. "Come on guys, time to go. Katie one of my colleagues - Madison Parker - she's gonna take you to the airport and make sure you're all packed and have all your stuff with you ok? You should go meet her now, she'll be down by the hotel restaurant."

Katie nodded and gave Danny one last hug, then left.

"You ready?" MJ asked as she picked up his case. Danny nodded and stumbled blindly behind her into the hotel lift, then out into the lobby.

As MJ organised the cars out front Danny checked his phone, hoping for something from his mother. He wasn't expecting anything, but couldn't help his stomach from sinking when there was nothing.

MJ led him out to a car. She slammed the doors shut behind him and made her way round the the drivers seat.

"You ready?" She asked, putting the key in the ignition.

Danny nodded.

"Yep" He breathed, resting his head against the window.

Inside he wasn't so sure.