Because of the sore lack of Helena fanfics out here, I decided to write my own. This will be a multichapter, probably no more than four chapters. This one is relatively short, more of a prologue, really. It does not even contain Helena yet.

Rated T for now, although the rating may change depending on what I let Helena go through and how I describe it.

This is not right.

Amelia sat on a chair next to a door in a room smelling of antiseptic, waiting for her turn, and she knew something was not right. The sound of beeping machinery resonated through the room, through her heart and her skull and the belly where the child lay sleeping, growing ever louder until the noise replaced her heartbeat and her thoughts, blurring her vision and her mind.

These people are not who they say they are.

The couple – the couple that was not a couple, the couple that was merely pretending to be a couple – was in a room, the door to which Amelia was sitting next to. They spoke, too quiet for Amelia to hear. It did not ease her worries, and she wanted nothing more than to know what they were saying. But she could not discern more than their separate voices, and that they sounded as anxious as they had that morning.

Alex and Charlotte had seemed perfect, and that was why Amelia had agreed to be their surrogate mother. Charlotte was not quite infertile, they'd told her. That meant that her eggs were fine, in and of themselves, but for some complicated reason they had told Amelia (although she never quite understood what it entailed exactly), Charlotte's womb could not support a baby. And so, Alex and Charlotte needed a surrogate mother who was willing to give birth to a baby that had none of her DNA and who she would not raise.

Amelia was a naturally compassionate person so she took pity on the friendly, desperate couple who wanted nothing more than a baby. She knew her child would be well cared for and loved, and that the baby would have all the opportunities it could ever want or need. Also, she needed the generous sum of money Alex and Charlotte had offered.

And so, here she was, awaiting her turn for her first ultrasound. She was fine, now the nausea she had been previously plagued with had passed. She was now thirteen weeks along, and starting to develop just a hint of a baby bump. She loved the life growing inside her, and had to keep reminding her that that life was not hers to love.

Until that morning.

She had overheard Charlotte and Alex talking when she dropped by the couple's home so they could all go to the ultrasound together, to see their collective baby for the first time.

As she stood waiting on the porch, about to ring the doorbell, Amelia heard angry voices, and something (mother's instinct of self-preservation, she would never know) had stilled her hand. And she listened. And she recoiled.

'...this ruse! We need this woman! In six months, the subject will be born. We have to make sure everything goes as smooth as possible, and the surrogate mother has to give us the girl without a fuss.'

The subject? Are they talking about my (their, Amelia, their!) baby? Amelia had no idea what Charlotte and Alex were talking about. She frowned. Something was off here, and she wanted to know what.

'I know, Charlotte. If we mess up this experiment Dyad will have our heads. I'm just tired of this stupid suburban neighbourhood and this stupid fake life and that stupid woman who carries the subject... Do you know how much I miss my lab?'

Since when is Alex a scientist? I thought he was in the stocks industry? Fake life? Experiment?! The thoughts tumbled through and over each other in Amelia's head, fighting for her attention, and she did not know which one she found most alarming. Closing her eyes, she rested her head against the rough wood of Charlotte and Alex's front door, trying to still her mind by listening further.

'Of course. I do too. And I miss my husband as much as you must miss Lisanne...' (Husband?!, Amelia thought. This kept getting weirder and weirder.) '...but just think of the promotion we'll get if we pull this off! Providing the professor with one of the subjects? I mean, just think of the – crap.'

Amelia jerked back. Had they found her out? She was tense, coiled like a spring, ready though she did not know what for. Fight? Flight? Confront the lying bastards who wanted to take her baby? She had no clue, but knew she couldn't let Alex and Charlotte have her child.

'What is it?'

'It's ten. Amelia will be here any minute. We'll talk about this after the scan is done, yeah? We need to focus. She can never know.'

Too late. With a determined face, Amelia rang the doorbell. She would pretend everything was fine, she would talk and laugh with the lying scientist bastards who talked about a child as if it were a lab rat, and after the scan, she would run. Pack her things and go where they could never find her.

But now, with Alex and Charlotte in a different room and every bone in her body pleading with her to run, Amelia knew she could not wait until after the scan. She would give away her fears somehow, and the two scientists would somehow force her to have the baby anyway and, worse, give it to them. She knew how important it was to them, and that they would go to unimaginable lengths to get her child.

Amelia stood up quietly, ignored the nurse's inquiry, and left. She didn't stop by her home. She had her wallet, her driver's license and ID, and that was enough.

She ran away, and she never looked back.

RM*H*RM*H*RM*H*RM*H*RM

I can't be a mother.

Amelia lay on a mattress in a women's shelter, and her babies ('twins,' they had told her, 'you'll have fraternal baby girls, congratulations!' and her first thought had been oh shit) were about to be born. Pain radiated through her every sinew, and she knew she could not raise her girls. They would always be looking over their shoulders, and they would never be safe. She could not subject two children to such a life.

They had to disappear.

They had to be untraceable.

They could never be together.

As the pain subsided slightly and she heard her firstborn's first cries, Amelia made a decision, a choice she had been refusing to face since the moment she ran.

One to the state, and one to the church.

They would be apart, yes, but they would be safe. Her daughters would be free, and that's all that mattered.

Now all Amelia had to do was find a suitable convent, and a good orphanage, where her daughters might be happy.

Now, I have only seen the first season of Orphan Black so far so I'm sorry if there are any inaccuracies. Also, since this is my first venture into the world of Orphan Black, feedback is greatly appreciated.

Next chapter, Helena will make her first appearance!

Reviews are to me what Jello is to Helena!

Love, RM