"All right," the team leader says. "The rest of you, stand up. Slowly, with your hands where I can see them."
One by one you all stand up; you have to show Lily to keep her hands visible, but the agent is pretty understanding about it. "All right," he says to Jeanette, "if we're working under the assumption that you're Agent Sanders, what would she want me to know before we search the place?"
Jeanette briefly explains the story of the last three weeks as he's pieced it together from your separate accounts, then explains about everybody's identity and the persistent gender-swapping; you cover Lily's ears when he explains how she used to be Dr. Andersen. Jeanette goes on to explain about your attempts to change back, and how the electromagnet experiment wiped all recent files and records from the lab computer, and the predicament you're currently in. The agent shakes his head in amazement. "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," he says. "But hey, I'm standing here talking to a dinosaur, so it might as well be true. Okay, like I said, I'm going to have to take you all into custody until we get this sorted out. If you'll just pile into the prisoner van outside, I'll trust you to behave without any restraints."
You all comply. You're a little worried about being locked up in your current state; tales of supposed secret alien autopsies fill your head, and it only gets worse when you think of Lily, who's sitting on your lap, snuggled against your chest. But the agent you dealt with seems trustworthy, and you know you can trust Jeanette to help you if things go wrong. He knows his way around this stuff, and you feel confident in his ability to protect you and Lily...okay, that was a weird thought. Lily's enthusiasm for him must be rubbing off on you.
Before you can dwell too much on it, the van arrives at the regional headquarters. It's a surprisingly short drive from where you were. Under careful guard, you're led inside and placed in cells; fortunately, they allow you and Lily to share a cell, as well as giving the Kentons a shared cell. Jeanette is led off to have his identity confirmed and be debriefed.
You settle in on the bed, with Lily snuggled up next to you. It's not exactly a motel room, but your cell is definitely much nicer than the typical "jail cell" stereotype.
"Mommy?" Lily asks. "Why did they take Daddy away? Are they bad people? Will he be okay?"
You sigh. "Remember what I told you, Lily?" you reply. "Mr. Sanders isn't your daddy. He's just a friend of ours. And no, they're not bad people. Their job is to catch bad people and punish them, and they just need to make sure Mr. Sanders isn't a bad person, because the place where they found us is where a very bad man lived."
She shudders and snuggles closer to you. "It's good that we didn't find him, huh, mommy? Will they catch him?"
You shake your head. "They don't have to," you say, in as soothing a voice as you can manage. "He got killed by his own machines when they stopped working right." Not exactly true, but it comes close enough to the truth without touching on the subject of Lily's former identity.
"Oh," she says. "I...I guess that's good, right?"
You shrug. "Well, sweetie, it's always sad when someone dies, but at least he won't be able to hurt anymore people."
Lily nods and holds on to you tightly. Neither of you say anything for a long time. Finally, a couple hours later, Jeanette appears at the door of your cell. "Well," he says, "I've got some good news and some bad news."
"Bad news first," you say.
"Okay," he replies. "The bad news is that the doctor's research is being confiscated until the higher-ups decide what to do with it, and we've got to take Lily in for a psych eval."
"And the good news?" you ask, closing your arms around Lily a little tighter.
"The good news," he says, "is that they confirmed my identity to their satisfaction and, assuming the results from the eval match up with our claims, they like my plan for getting Lily a new identity. Also, they'll be ready to verify the rest of your identities after Lily's evaluation."
You sigh. You're still worried, but knowing you have a friend in the organization helps you trust the government enough to let Lily go for her test. "Remember, sweetie," you say, "just answer all their questions as honestly as you can, and everything will be fine."
Lily nods, gives you a hug, and follows the guard, who seems simultaneously charmed and scared to be tailed by an adorable little dinosaur-girl. You lie back on the bed, unable to do much besides worry.