1. Paradise By The Dashboard Lights
The sound of her heels clicking on the pavement echoed throughout the large parking ramp. Pressing the door lock button, her horn beeped and the lights went off.
Her long blonde hair, immaculately straightened, swished from side to side as she quickened her pace. Clutching her purse closer, she dropped her keys into the bag with slightly trembling hands. Something felt off.
She swore she heard footsteps behind her, but ignored it for the moment. Taking a few more steps towards the white car, she finally stopped. Now she knew someone was behind her, and had a good idea who it was. She was, after all, back on DYAD property. And even though she was the new "Rachel", that didn't make her safe.
Slowly, meticulously, she bent down and placed her purse on the ground. Standing back up, she turned, cautiously, to face her assailant.
With little surprise in her eyes and slightly pursed lips, Delphine asked, "What will happen to her?"
Before uttering the last word, a vicious sound tore through the silent parking garage. In the same moment, Delphine's body was slammed against the white car, smearing bright red blood on the clean vehicle. Clutching her stomach, the sticky red substance ran through her fingers, staining her shirt. She slid to the ground, eyes half-lidded, before blacking out.
Laughter could be heard from outside Bubbles. Cosima and her sisters were having a celebratory supper, with Scott, Donnie, Art, and Ms. S all in attendance. The clones and their guests were all smiles as they knew that Alison had won her election and beat out Marcy Coates.
There was one smile amongst the guests that seem a bit forced, and Sarah noticed right away. Even though Sarah loved all her sisters, she had a particularly strong bond with the brilliant scientist, Cosima. Grabbing her wine glass, she excused herself from Art to go figure out what was wrong with sister. Shuffling along all the chairs, and getting stopped more than once by the other party-goers, she finally made it. Tapping her on the shoulder, her dread locked sister turned to face her.
"Cos", she said in her rough English accent, "what'sa matter with you?" Cosima scrunched her eyebrows together in a look of confusion, but she knew her sister could tell something was up.
With a murmur of apology to Scott, she pushed her chair back and stood, also grabbing her wine glass, before leading Sarah outside Bubbles. It was a brisk night, but still unseasonably warm for Canada. A light jacket is all that seemed necessary.
Cosima stood with her back to her clone, head down. Sarah could tell something was tearing up Cosima and she was bound and determined to find out what. Taking slow tentative steps towards her sister, Cosima suddenly turned, tears streaming down her face.
Without thinking, Sarah threw her arms around her slightly taller sister, holding her tight. Choking out words between sobs, Sarah made out Delphine, and she understood immediately.
Sarah, always trying to make situations humorous, said, "What about that French bitch? Do I need to find her and kick her ass?" Anger making her accent thicker.
Cosima slightly chuckled, loving how protective her sister was of her. Stepping back towards some chairs, she waved her tattooed hand, indicating for Sarah to sit.
"Delphine came to see me, but she like, wouldn't stay long. She said she had other things to do." Cosima started. "She talked about keeping Kira safe, which I mean, duh, and then about keeping Kendall far away. Cryptic shit." Sarah nodded her understanding, taking a sip of her wine.
All those things were important, but she knew that wasn't what was bothering her. Sarah's sister opened and closed her mouth, clearly choosing her next words carefully.
"Delphine then told me, give your sisters all my love. "
Cosima's face dropped at saying that, her eyes starting to glisten. The punk clone didn't really understand the reference, but Cosima could never forget.
There was a promise made in Scott and Cosima's lab, in the area aptly dubbed "The Chill Zone". Between the laughs and kisses, weed clouding their thoughts, Cosima made her lover promise that if she was to love her, she had to love all her sisters.
The promise came easy to Delphine, who truly did love Cosima and her sisters, and the pact sealed with a breathtaking kiss.
Jolting back into the present, the scientist shook her head, dreads whipping her cheeks, as if trying to erase the memory from her brain.
Looking Sarah straight in her eyes, Cosima whispered, "It was so final. Like this was her last supper. I feel like her Judas." The tears started flowing again as Cosima finally blurted out, "I love her, and I can't like, explain it, but we have this sort of cosmic bond. I feel like it transcends time and space. Quantam physics can't explain this shit."
Sarah laughed and said, "Cos, if anyone can figure that shit out, it's you, yeah? Now what's this all leading to, before I die of old age."
Cosima opened her mouth to explain, when suddenly she felt this sharp, horrific pain shoot through her stomach. She felt like she had been shot.
Grabbing her sides, she fell out of her chair, screaming. Falling to her knees, Sarah frantically grabbed her sister, trying to find out what was wrong.
"COS." She screamed, trying to pry her sisters' fingers apart from her stomach. "HELP, SOMEONE BLOODY GET OUT HERE."
Before she knew it, Ms. S ran outside, followed by the rest of the party. "Oh my love, what's the matter, what's happening?" The older Irish lady said calmly, clearly used to people screaming in pain.
"Ms. S I have no bloody idea what is happening. She just started screaming. I think it's her stomach or something, I dunno!"
Alison barked at Donnie to go get the first aid kit, who, looking beyond frazzled, ran off to find.
Sarah, still clutching her sister, watched with frantic eyes as Ms. S ushered everyone back inside. She was quickly back outside and on her knees besides the seemingly injured clone.
Cosima had seemed to calm down a bit, but tears were still streaming down her face, hitting the pavement.
Gently rolling Cosima over, Siohban began her quick, yet precise once over of the girl.
Carefully she peeled off her jacket, which was sweat stained from her body's response to the pain. No bruises on her arms or any obvious injuries. Nothing on her back either.
With a look of confusion, she moved Cosima's hands. Siohban asked Cosima if she could look, and with a curt nod and a grimace of pain, she was allowed to roll up the younger woman's shirt. All that was there was pale white skin, with blue veins showing beneath.
There was no mark. No obvious reason for the extreme pain the girl was experiencing.
Quickly looking into Sarah's pleading eyes, Siohban could offer no explanation. All she could offer Cosima was some of her pain meds she kept in her purse from a prior incident with a particularly nasty male castor clone.
She dropped the pills into Cosima's mouth and held up her head, allowing her a drink of wine to swallow. She didn't have any water nearby, but surely the small amount of wine wouldn't hurt.
Slowly, Sarah and her foster mother helped Cosima to stand, a tricky process as she was still in agony.
They loaded her up into the back of Alison's minivan and left, not without reassuring everyone else that Cosima will be fine, they think.
The emergency hospital isn't a far drive, but it is long enough for Sarah to explain the odd conversation she and her sister had before this all happened.
"She was trying to explain this crazy cosmic connection she has with Delphine. And she seemed really worried about Delphine for some bloody reason."
Ms. S expertly weaved her way through Toronto, listening to Sarah's story. Thinking to herself, if she could believe all this insane clone business, a cosmic connection doesn't seem that farfetched. And if that's the case, perhaps Cosima's body is trying to tell her something.
Sarah noticed her foster mom not paying any attention to her. Snapping, Sarah exclaimed, "Oi, earth to Siohban, what's going on? Penny for your thoughts?" Her eyes pleading with any explanation her "mom" could offer.
Siohban tried to collect her thoughts before simply saying, "I think Delphine is in danger. Cosima could be right about a connection, and if that is the case, we need to find the French woman."
Easier said than done, since neither of them knew where she might possibly be, or even if at this point she is alive. If somehow Cosima was experiencing the pain Delphine was, it seemed likely she could be dead. But since they are headed to the hospital anyway, maybe the fates are on their side.
Pulling up to the last stoplight before the hospital, an ambulance rushes past, sirens blaring. "I feel bad for that chap," Sarah muttered.
Siohban turned left and headed down the street to the emergency entrance. She parked up by the front doors as Sarah ran in to grab a nurse and a wheelchair.
Before she reached the doors, an EMT gestured for her to wait as the paramedics unloaded their patient from the ambulance they had just watched moments prior.
Rocking from foot to foot out of annoyance, Sarah was about to yell that she had an emergency too. The words were stopped dead in her throat as she watched Delphine's body, strapped to a gurney, blood staining her pale skin and white shirt, get rushed inside, paramedics calmly talking and running at the same time, obviously used to this kind of excitement.
"We have a GSW to the abdomen of a young female. She has lost a large amount of blood, clear the trauma room, set up the OR."