Prologue
There are souls that are bound from their creation. They are forged with the same stardust, illuminated with the same light, and they travel the universe in a quantum entanglement that holds them in an eternal bond. However, this bond is not impervious. Inevitably, these bonded souls manifest in human forms. They may be separated by language, or distance, or age, but one will undoubtedly find the other.
This is a story of one of those pairs, of their obstacles, of their fight to find each other, and of their love.
Chapter 1: The Dreadlocks Effect
Cosima.
"I just don't believe in soul mates." Cosima sat patiently as her hairdresser dragged a brush through her dark locks.
"Not even a little? Well, aren't you the romantic." Julie, Cosima's longtime hairdresser, replied, slightly disappointed.
"What can I say? You know me, show don't tell. It's just scientifically preposterous." Cosima said apologetically.
"Yeah, well, love is scientifically preposterous." Cosima opened her mouth to reply, but Julie was right. Scientists understand love about as much as they do black holes-they're aware of its existence, but its inner workings remain an alluring mystery. Cosima nodded, now deep in thought.
"You're gonna look great in dreads, I can't wait to see the end result."
"Me neither, it was time for a change, you know what they say about those who don't adapt." Julie laughed, "I don't think hairstyle was what they had in mind when they talked about 'adapt or die'."
"Maybe not, but I'm a strong believer in the butterfly effect. Who knows, these dreads could change everything."
"Then I better not mess them up," Julie smiled at Cosima in the mirror, "Glasses off." Cosima removed her glasses and relaxed into the chair. Soul mates, she thought, preposterous.
***A couple weeks later***
Cosima paused at the tea section of aisle 6 in the local supermarket. She was in the mood for something with a kick in it. Her eyes settled on a box of green tea, which happened to be on the second shelf from the top.
"Damn," Cosima said to no one in particular, "why do they have to make these shelves so high." Cosima approached the wall of tea and reached up on her tiptoes, but as she touched the little green box she was after, she only managed to push it further back from the ledge. Cosima let out a frustrated sigh, admittedly a bit louder than she intended.
"Need some help?" Cosima turned to see a noticeably tall redhead gesturing to the higher shelves.
"Oh, yeah, yes, please." Cosima smiled awkwardly, silently cursing her inadequate height. She received the green prize from the woman with a thank you.
"No problem," she smiled, "And nice dreads by the way."
"Oh thanks!" Cosima subconsciously reached up to run her hand over her relatively new do. She saw Redhead's eyes flick to her wrist with a look of curiosity, but before Cosima could check her arm for any irregularities, Redhead said, "Is that a nautilus tattoo?"
"Huh, oh yeah. Biology's kinda my passion so..."
"Really? Are you studying it in college?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm evo-devo. I'm working on my doctorate right now."
"That's awesome," Redhead extended her hand, "I'm Lynne Shielman, I've done a lot of my research in evolutionary development. Right now I'm working on the influence of gene expression on the beaks of-"
"The beaks of Darwin's finches, yeah! I've read your papers. Wow, what an honor. I'm Cosima by the way, Cosima Niehaus." She said taking Shielman's hand while her other hand flew around like she was conducting an orchestra.
"Nice to meet you Cosima. So, you've read my work?"
"Oh yeah, who hasn't? I mean as far as biologists go. Your breakthroughs in molecular regulation were absolutely inspired. In fact, it's one of the reasons I went into evolutionary development."
"Thank you, wow, that's great to hear. It's nice to see someone with so much enthusiasm and passion for their field," Shielman paused in thought, "You know, I'm on a team of coordinators for a convention this summer, the annual Biological Innovations of this-"
"The 'B.I.O. this year' convention, yeah! Yeah I've heard of it." Cosima couldn't help herself from finishing Shielman's sentence.
"Right! Well, if you think you can make it to Canada this summer, and if you're interested, I could reserve you a spot on the registry."
"Interested? Of course! That would be, that would be great."
"Right, well, here's my card," Shielman pulled out a small business card from her purse and handed it to Cosima, "just give me a call and remind me to reserve the spot. I'll give you all the dates and locations then."
"Great! Thank you." Cosima shook her hand once more before they parted. In the mood to celebrate, she picked up some wine and Eskimo pies before checking out. Scott was going to be so jealous. Cosima smiled, she was going to the B.I.O this year convention, holy watershed.
***That summer***
Cosima meandered around the carousel at baggage claim looking for her red suitcase. She could barely believe she was in Toronto. She had saved up enough for the trip in just a few months (she didn't want to eat ramen noodles for at least eight years now), and now she was finally here. She couldn't help the grin that spread over her face, she must have looked pretty odd to her fellow travelers.
Cosima opened the door to her suite in the fancy schmancy hotel the convention had all but filled with reservations. Cosima was just thankful there was a discounted price, this place smelled overpriced, and she wasn't looking to go bankrupt for a fancy hotel room.
Cosima barely had a chance to put her bags down before her room's phone rang.
"Hello?" Cosima bounced on her queen sized bed while she listened for a response.
"Hello, Cosima Niehaus?"
"This is she."
"Hi, I saw you just checked into one of our convention rooms. I've been asked to inform all attendees that there has been a slight alteration to the schedule. The presentation 'experimental cloning with human cells' has been moved to this afternoon at two o'clock in the grand ballroom."
"Oh, thanks! I was looking forward to that one."
"You're very welcome , enjoy your convention."
"I will, thanks." Cosima hung up and glanced at the provided alarm clock, 1:00.
"Crap!" Cosima jumped up and began stripping to jump in the shower. She was going to be late.
Pinning up her dreads in a neat bun, Cosima all but ran out of her room to get to the presentation. She jumped on to a half-full elevator and went to push the button to go to the ground floor, but it was already lit.
Cosima was staying on the twelfth floor, and of course two-thirds of floors one through eleven also wanted to go down, so Cosima waited impatiently as the elevator stopped again and again. The stairs would have been quicker at this rate, Cosima thought.
Cosima sighed with relief when they finally made it to her stop. She shuffled out behind half the elevator's occupants before splitting off to follow the signs to the ballroom. When she finally found it, she quietly opened the door and tiptoed behind the back row of chairs.
She looked up at the presenters, who were currently displaying a PowerPoint denoting the topic of the presentation. She noticed the current speaker, a tall man whose hair had obviously seen better days, and whose face had a constant conspiratorial expression. Behind him, Cosima noticed a blonde, okay she noticed her legs, well, at first anyway. She was wearing a black pencil skirt and a pastel yellow blouse, complete with a black blazer. And then, Cosima saw her face-
"Shit" Cosima threw her hands out in front of her to brace her fall, she had tripped over someone's bag on her way to an open seat. The sneaky looking speaker paused and eyed the clumsy scientist. Cosima jumped up and straightened her dress trying to ignore the burning in her cheeks. She smiled to show she was all right.
"Er, are you okay miss?" The man on stage put her on the spot as she clambered to the seat she had originally been aiming for.
"Uh, yeah, you're presentation just literally knocked me off my feet." Cosima shot back. The crowd let out a collective chuckle and Cosima couldn't help noticing the pretty blonde smiling right at her. Somehow her cheeks got even hotter.
Delphine, that was her name. Dr. Delphine Cormier. Her part of the presentation outlined the possible problems with large scale cloning, including cell deterioration and tissue degeneration, and she was french. God, she was french. Cosima's brain went back and forth from listening intently to the brilliant research they had conducted, and observing Delphine, her hair, her neck, the way she bit her lip habitually...
The presentation concluded and the audience applauded enthusiastically. After a few minutes everyone was up and chatting about what they had just heard, or their own research, or catching up with old friends. Cosima stood awkwardly, not knowing where to go or who to talk to. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted blonde curls lingering at the refreshments table at the back. Cosima paused for a second to come up with an excuse to go bother the doctor, before making her way to the table.
"Hi, Dr. Cormier?" Cosima made out like she wasn't sure that was her name, trying to hide the fact that she'd spent the better part of the last hour pronouncing it to herself in her head.
"Yes, but please, call me Delphine." Delphine smiled, holding out her hand, and Cosima took it, accidentally holding her breath as she focused all her attention on what Delphine was saying and not the warmth of the soft hand in her own.
"Okay Delphine, I'm Cosima." She smiled.
"Enchantée Cosima."
"Enchantée."
Author's Note: Firstly, I am not a biologist so I apologize for any mistakes on the science parts. I got all my info on it from a PBS article interviewing Cliff Tabin. Secondly, I know the intro was a bit cheesy, but quantum entanglement semi-inspired this story so I had to include it. Please please please let me know what you think. I'm planning on making this a long fic and I'd love some feedback to know if I'm aiming in the right direction. Let me know if I should continue it. Thanks for reading!