..Refuse Thy Name (A Paily/PLL Fanfic)

Chapter 1

A backyard. A familiar, yet very blurry backyard - almost like its being viewed through water. With the greenest grass and a tall brick wall. Two small children, both pale and brunette, both very thin, tugging at a bright blue soft toy. Both laughing, but extremely determined to win, to rip the teddy from the others' hands. As the dark clouds above them break, heavy raindrops soaking the two young girls, they begin laughing even harder, looking up then flinching as the water hits their faces.

Spencer Hastings wakes up suddenly, her dream fading quickly from her mind. She goes about her day and it doesn't cross her mind once.
___________________________

"I'm sorry dad. I really am," Paige pleaded. She was in her fathers car, they were on their way home after a swim meet.

"Sorry doesn't cut it, Paige."
Nick McCullers was furious. When he found out he had a business meeting scheduled at the time time as her meet, he was annoyed that he had to miss it. He liked to track her progress. When the conference was cancelled, he thought he'd keep the good news to himself, and go to the meet to surprise her. So finding out that she'd lied to him about being made anchor for that meet made him furious. Absolutely furious.

"Look, I just-"

"No," he cut her off. "I don't want to hear it Paige. You lied to me immediately when given the opportunity."

"I know how mad you get when I'm not the anchor. I- You said that-"

"SHUT IT!" he yelled, causing Paige to shrink into her chair slightly. He sighed. "We will talk at home."

Paige didn't say a word, and they drove home in an uncomfortable silence. She hated when he yelled. Whenever she made him mad enough to yell like that, it meant punishment. Usually a typical grounding, but once, it had been a slap. Hard across her face, leaving a bruise expertly covered by makeup. He apologised, and told her it was because he cared, and that he wouldn't do it again. But she always feared he might, maybe even going further. It was a thought that haunted her constantly. It didn't take much to make him mad.
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"Are you sure? Was anyone else timing?!" Paige hounded her coach, only to be shut down with an eye-roll and a devastating fact - she finished 1.04 seconds after the teams fastest swimmer.
"Hey," her friend Samara squeezed her shoulder. "It's okay. You'll get there, just relax." Paige smiled. Samara had been her best friend for almost a year. She understood that she was under pressure, while others rolled their eyes at her. Paige appreciated her for that. She put her arm around Samara's shoulder as they walked to her car, and her smile grew.
--
"Derek, get that hat off," the teacher ordered as Paige's forensics class piled off the bus. "One wrong move and you're out," she said to the class. "You have no idea how difficult it was to get this trip organised."

"God, this is gonna be cool," Samara said as they approached the building where the FBI did a lot of their work.
After almost an hour being shown different rooms, they came to a smaller one with a technician tweaking at a complicated looking computer machine with something that looked like a fax beside it.

"Now, you guys are lucky to be seeing this. You've seen how the fingerprinting process works, but this takes it to a new level," an officer said, explaining the advanced technology.
"This here easily takes fingerprints in a split second," he put his hand onto it, it lit up even brighter, and it beeped one long tone. "It's also removable. Wirelessly connected. Anyway, here's what it can do," he said, touching a screen faced away from us. He turned it, and it had a picture of his face, with some writing. It was small so Paige stepped closer to read - his full name, birthday, gender and his current country of residence. "As you can see at the bottom, it has tabs with a lot more information, but I'm not exactly willing to show you my social security number," he said with a small laugh. The technician beside him chortled alone, as he turned the screen back.

"Now I'll show you what happens when it scans prints that aren't in the system. That's good to go right?" The technician nodded. "So uh, you-" he points at Paige. "You're closest. Would you like to give it a go? You're under 18 right? You're prints won't be in the system. Unless you've got a history with crime?" He said in a joking matter, with a chuckle.

"No, uh, yeah sure," she said, approaching the tray. She lifted her arm unsurely, and he placed her hand onto it. It lit up, and...
"beep beep - beep beep - beep beep". He walked around to the screen faced away from us once again, as the machine continued to beep rhythmically. A look of shock and confusion crossed his face, which he erased immediately, as the technician hurried toward the screen.

An assortment of accusing "oooh"s came from the group.
"What'd you do Paige, steal steroids to lower your time or something?" One of the guys from the male swim team mocked. Samara elbowed him hard on the ribs.

"No no folks, there's nothing to worry about. Just a malfunction with the new system," said the officer, then he looked at Paige. "Don't worry, nothing's wrong. What's your name, miss?"

"Um," she said nervously. "Paige McCullers" she took a deep breath.

"Relax, it's just the machine," he said looking to the class. "Thanks, Paige."

She rejoined the group as the technician muttered something to the teacher.

"Alright, it's time for lunch guys, let's head outside," the teacher said.

As they went to lunch, an officer came with them, which was weird. During lunch, he had an intense but quiet conversation with the teacher, and then followed them for the rest of the day, making Paige feel on edge. When we got back to school at the end of the day, Paige's teacher approached her.

"Paige, sweetie," she said kindly. "Look, um, you can't go home right away today", she said. Paige tilted her head at her.

"Uh I'm not, I have swim practise, I'm going to be late if I don't head off now," she told her, confused.

"No," she said. "You can't go to swim practise, you have to come with me."

"Why?" Paige asked her.

"I- I don't really, I don't exactly know, but I can't let you go. There's an officer in the parking lot waiting for us. You're not in trouble, but this is important," she said seriously, grabbing Paige's bag and gesturing her to follow.

As they approached an officer - a different one from the trip - and his car, Paige stopped. "Have I been accused of something? Am I in trouble?"

"No. You aren't in trouble, I promise you. But I need you to come with me, please," he said, his voice deep and kind. Paige was confused and scared, and just wanted to go to swim practise. My dad would kill me if he thought I was skipping practise, she thought.

"I have to go to practise, then I need to go home. I'm grounded," she said. "If I'm not in trouble, why do I need to come with you?"

"All will be explained at the station, but please, I need you to come with me." he repeated. She was getting frustrated, thinking, why wont they tell me anything?

"Unless I've committed a crime, I don't actually have to go with you," she said, a little nervous at her defiance of a police officer - not even sure if she was correct. "I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me what's going on!"

He hesitated. "It's- it's about your family," he said.

"What about my family?" She pressed on. "Look, unless you tell me right now exactly what I'm being taken to the police station for, I'm going to practise!" She said, hands shaking. What did they want with her, with her family?

He took a deep breath, hesitated, then spoke again.
"Alright, listen. This is difficult to explain, but I need you to believe me, and come with me, okay?" He paused. "Your family- we believe they aren't your real family." he paused again. She raised her eyebrows for him to continue. "We have reason to believe you were abducted when you were a child."

She stared at him in disbelief.
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A/N: Hey! So this chapter was just to establish the plot, and Paige's relationship with her father and others. The next one will include more characters, and definitely be more interesting, I can promise you that! I hope you enjoyed this, please do read the next chapter! I'd also really appreciate a vote or comment, if you did enjoy it. I want to know if people are reading this!
Kisses
- A ;)