Maria put down her guitar and opened the door. She didn't recognise the professionally dressed man standing there.
"Maria DeLuca?" he inquired.
"Umm, yes? Can I help you?"
"Actually I was hoping to help you. Is Michael Guerin here too?"
"He's just come back from work. What's this about?"
"My name is Tomas Whetheril, I'm from YIRAAS, if I could speak to you both? I can come back later if now isn't a good time."
Maria was about to reply when Michael entered the room.
"What's going on?" he asked.
The introduction was repeated, and the couple agreed to let him in. The three made themselves comfortable.
"Now," said Tomas. "I understand that three years ago you two had a baby girl."
Maria stiffened, looking very much like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yes," Michael replied shortly. "She died. What's this about?"
"Actually, she didn't," Tomas told them seriously. "We'll need DNA samples to confirm, but we believe there was a switch at the hospital."
"What?" Maria asked with a stunned expression on her face.
"The girl in question," Tomas went on, "has recently manifested a destructive power. As far as her parents know, she's a mutant, however the DNA test what was done to 'confirm' her mutantcy actually revealed that she's half Sem. As her parents are both human, either the mother had an affair with another Sem - which we doubt at this point, or the baby is yours. You were both at the hospital at the same time and had daughters on the same day. What's more..."
"Yes?" Michael asked tersely.
"There's a woman who... pretends to be a nurse," Tomas said slowly. "She gets herself jobs in hospitals and in the like, and amongst other things has been know to switch babies around."
"Let me guess, she was working there at the time."
"She was on duty in the maternity ward the same day."
Maria buried her face in her hands.
"Okay, so now what?"
"As I said, we'll need DNA samples to confirm that you're definitely the parents, but we have no reason to expect anything other than a positive result," Tomas replied. "With that done, the next thing to do will be to return custody of her to you. We're going to have to go through the human system to get this done, so it's not going to be easy. To make matters worse, the... adoptive parents are wealthy -"
"So they can afford good lawyers," Michael sighed. "Are you sure about this? I'm not sure we can handle loosing our daughter a second time."
"I wouldn't be here plotting with you if I had any doubts," Tomas replied. "Risa's - your daughter's - power is destruction by the way."
Michael raised his eyebrows.
"Destruction's a common power..."
"A fact which works in our favour. Sem and Dath powers have a certain degree of inheritance, but not on the same scale as human mutantcy. You and Risa having the same power will only aid in convincing the judge that not only are you both mutants, but father and daughter. What's more, we're planning to use that as one of our main arguments, that no one will know better than you how to use and tame this destructive power."
"We?" Michael queried.
"After Risa managed to destory her own bedroom in front of her nanny, her parents decided to find out if the nanny's claim that she was a mutant was correct," Tomas smiled slightly. "Fortunately, we have someone in the DNA lab that got the sample. As I said, the parents were told Risa is a mutant, they've also been informed - if they did't know already - that first generation mutants do not get their powers until puberty. We're hoping that will help to soften them blow when confronted with her real parents."
"Or we find out the Mrs has had an affair after all," Michael pointed out.
"That possibility has not been ruled out. Which is why we need to do the DNA test. This test, however, is just to confirm the matter before we go ahead with returning Risa to your custody," Tomas informed them. "During the course of proceedings we may have to conduct an offical test for the judges' benefit."
"Okay. How do we do this then?"
Tomas pulled a couple of containers out of his bag and handed one to each.
"Just swab the inside of your cheek," he instructed.
Michael did his, and Maria unburied her tear-streaked face long enough to swab her own cheek. Tomas put the containers back into his bag. Not long thereafter, Tomas promised to call as soon as he got the results and departed.
"If... if that test comes back negative, I will kill him," Maria sniffed. "Hell Michael, I - we mourned her. Mourned. You and I, we nearly broke up over it and now... now completely out of the blue..."
She wiped her eyes and Michael kissed her forehead.
"He does present a convincing case," Michael said.
"You believe him?"
"I don't know what to believe. Like you said, we mourned her, and all of a sudden she's come back into our lives."
Maria sniffed.
"Risa's a pretty name, don't you think?"
"Yeah, sure."