They pile into the cars, Cal, Sarah and Kira leading them in their truck as Cosima and Delphine follow behind. It's a quiet ride, they've already switched off driving, letting Cosima rest as she trails the brown truck down the dirt roads toward town.
"Are you feeling okay? Do you want your oxygen?" Delphine asks for the umpteenth time that morning, glancing over at a pale Cosima closing her eyes and leaning back on the seat.
"Stop asking me. Stop mothering me." Cosima brushes her off.
Delphine bites her lip, glancing over at Cosima, "You know this is important. Your health is important."
"I'm sorry... just please don't." Cosima crosses her arms and leans away from her. She'd been like that since this morning, did this have to do with her family? Or only her health?
"Will we get a lab space soon?"
"I think we can manage something. I'll need to find Scott, maybe while you're at the clinic?" Cosima tries to keep conversation light, but it's not working.
"Right. Well, we have the embryo, but I want it working on becoming your lungs and for that we need-"
"Lab space. Scott might have something, he might be useful to us."
"How?"
"He knows how to alter genomes, sequence them... all that shit. Genetics PhD student."
Delphine nods, whoever this Scott is they'll need his help, "Alright."
"I love you." Cosima mumbles again, turning to face her.
"I know," Delphine sighs, reaching one hand to briefly squeeze Cosima's.
There's not much, the same small city they've left, it's barely industrialized. A few large buildings, some apartments, to Delphine it seems to be a trading centre for the north continent... or at least this area of it.
"Okay, so Cal is going to take Cosima to the hospital to get scanned...hopefully."
"Oh not hopefully. I'm bribing them." Cal admits readily.
"I'll go with you." Delphine volunteers instantly.
"Better not, maternity clinic for you. Come on." Sarah gestures to her, "Kira, go with your dad and Auntie Cosima."
Kira nods, and moves to hold Cosima's hand, "I'll stay with you."
"I know you will." Cosima ruffles Kira's curly hair fondly.
"I want to stay with Cosima." Delphine states again firmly, "I am a doctor..."
"Yeah I know what you are. Cal?" Sarah looks for support from him.
Cal shrugs, "Next time, but when you do - you're Cosima's doctor. Being anything else to her won't help either of you around here."
"I'm her partner." Delphine asserts more firmly.
"Not here you're not. Not if Cos is telling the truth about needing surgery. Let's go." Sarah leads on and with an encouraging nod from Cosima she follows Sarah down several streets.
"Are these prefabricated colony buildings?" Delphine looks around, they look familiar to her.
"Yeah." Sarah doesn't talk much, and leads her into a large building. It doesn't seem right, Delphine notices. No signage, nothing speaking of a maternity clinic or doctors or midwives. She follows up the stairs until she comes to a door and Sarah gestures for her to enter it.
She's led into a dark room and feels multiples sets of hands pushing her down on a chair. She screams, unable to help herself, a hand clamps down on her mouth. Delphine quickly becomes aware that she is being tied.
"No screaming." A low raspy voice tells her softly, "And I'll let you talk."
Delphine nods her head.
"What is going on?" She asks, frightened as she feels the ropes being tightened around her hands, her mouth finally free.
"Do we have to?" A man's voice whines, "I didn't sign up for this. I said you could bring her here, yeah and now I'm done."
"Fee, of course we have to." Sarah's voice would be distinctive anywhere, the weird mish-mosh of her accent.
"Cosima's gonna be pissed." The man reminds her.
"Shh. It's just an interrogation." Another voice, a woman's.
"What are you doing?" Delphine asks before a lamp is finally turned on illuminating her captors. A middle-aged woman with red hair, a lean man and Sarah herself are looking back at her. The older woman stands the closest, fingers wrapped around a large kitchen knife held far too close to Delphine. She briefly thinks of screaming for Cosima again - how far could she be? They are in some sort of studio, she's surrounded by nothing but paintings highly charged with phallic imagery.
Delphine blinks looking around, her captors seem calm around her - like this is nothing new to them. Where is she? Why had she allowed herself to be separated from Cosima? Stupid, she scolds herself.
"You wanna start Siobhan?" Sarah leers at Delphine, before addressing the older woman beside her.
"There's a missing persons report on you," Siobhan informs her, "Not much else. Easy to dig up crap on Leekie - his enjoyment of sex workers makes it easy to track him." She taps the stack of folders on the counter, "Though, less often in the last five years. He brings you to some of those conferences now. You didn't own any property for your first few years at DYAD - despite the financial ability to do so."
"What are those?"
"Files." Siobhan taps them as she responds, "Leekie. Leekie's wife. Leekie's son... and then there's you."
"So?" This is nothing entirely surprising, Delphine looks back at them, aiming for her face to be impassive. None of this is news to her.
The middle-aged woman speaks first, "Were you or were you not Aldous Leekie's lover?"
"We're starting with that?" The man is beyond annoyed now, he sighs and stomps a foot.
"Quiet Felix." The women chorus together, before looking somewhat embarrassed.
Delphine hesitates, lover wouldn't be the word she would choose, "I was his mistress."
"I'm not here to argue semantics with you; answer 'yes' or 'no'." The woman barks back impatiently.
"Yes."
"See Fee?" Sarah points at her, "Can't trust her. I gave S her name as soon as she arrived with Cos."
"Yeah. Whatever. Why am I here? Why do we have to do this here?" Felix leans back against the wall, his posture cat-like and his eyes bored.
"For how long?" Sarah shoots at her, "Sorry Siobhan... you do the questions."
"Almost 5 years." Delphine says, why are they asking her this? Why do they care... unless...
"So we're going to ransom her and the sprog? Brilliant!" Felix speaks again, voice loaded with sarcasm, "I'll just go break the news to Cosima then."
"Take it easy Felix." Siobhan retorts, "What do you know of DYADs current projects? How many clones are they holding? What do you know about Sarah and Cosima's batch?"
"I don't know. The trip here was long." She knows of course - they're making telepaths. But Delphine says nothing She's unsure if it's wise to tell then, she feels protective of the telepaths, they're not even born yet...
"What is DYAD working on?"
Delphine remains quiet, keeping her face impassive. None of the telepaths is anything more than a fetus at the moment. Soon they'll be babies, a few weeks ahead of her own in age. What would this resistance do? Kill them? Kill their parents? No, she won't let that happen.
"Okay let's try something simpler - where is Dr. Leekie?" Siobhan tries an easier question.
"In cryo. For another couple months, I think. Leda 4."
Siobhan regards her carefully "Good. How far along are you? Your pregnancy?"
"17 weeks." Delphine answers without hesitation - telling them that is easy.
"Least she knows her dates." Siobhan responds sarcastically, "And this is Leekie's child?"
Delphine smiles, that she's certain of, "No."
"No?" Sarah rolls her eyes, "Come on... give us something useful."
"Are you sure?" Siobhan repeats.
"Yes." Delphine answers in one syllable, she won't be telling them the true paternity of her child - the dead donor who was biologically the father of Cosima and Sarah's batch, it's too... strange. But she has no intention of allowing them to think that Leekie fathered this child either.
"You think she's telling the truth?" Felix glances at Mrs. S.
Siobhan nods, "I think so."
"Would Leekie pay to have you back?" Sarah shoots her question at her.
"No. He will probably have me killed." Delphine speaks honestly now, how can these people possibly believe that selling her back to DYAD is an option? And more importantly, what are they trying to trade her for?
"Well that's disappointing. I was just getting into the drama." Felix has thrown up his hands now, "So no ransoming... now what?"
"I wanna know," Sarah steps towards her, glancing down at her belly, "You have to choose between Cosima and your baby, yeah? Who do you choose?"
"Cosima." Delphine answers without hesitation. It's all wrong. She doesn't want to choose - she shouldn't have to choose. Is Sarah threatening injury? Termination? Or just playing with her mind?
"Holy shit! What are you doing?" The door swings open revealing a breathless Cosima with Kira in tow. Siobhan jumps up to hide her knife, but they are unable to hide Delphine tied to the chair between them. Cosima is gasping for breath, but she moves towards them regardless.
"It's fine Cos, leave us." Sarah tries to retain control of the situation.
Kira seems unfazed, perhaps because Felix has leapt over his sofa rushing to cover her eyes with his hands and lead her back out of the studio.
Whatever harshness was in Cosima earlier this morning is gone, concern colours her features, "Sarah. Siobhan. Seriously. She's pregnant." Cosima stops to take several slow breaths, bracing her body against the couch. Oxygen. She's not getting enough oxygen, Delphine worries straining towards Cosima looking panicked.
"Just go Cos, we'll give her back when we're done. Probably." Sarah shrug, "We need to know what she knows."
"You can't like torture her for information. Let her go." Cosima has rushed to her side, dropping to her knees, fingers going to untie the ropes.
"We weren't actually going to cut her." Siobhan supplies, "Just frighten her a bit."
"Yeah. right." Cosima rolls her eyes, reaching for a knife to cut through the ropes a bit faster. Delphine says nothing for the moment, how will this play out?
Sarah bursts out, "She's DYAD Cosima. She was Aldous Leekie's lover for five years - you can't expect us to trust her. You can't trust her. You don't know her. I don't think she even knows whose baby she's carrying."
"Yeah, I know. Let her go Sarah." Cosima responds quietly, forcing Sarah to lower her voice to hear her.
Delphine lets out a breathe she's been holding, "I'm alright."
"You know?! You knew this and you brought her here? Are you fucking insane Cos?" Sarah begins yelling again.
"No. I'm not. Delphine helped me escape. I love her." Cosima shakes her head, standing up to go head to head with her sister, it's odd seeing them fight, almost surreal. The same face, nearly, yelling back. The difference, biologically, is that Sarah, is healthy. It's easy to tell face to face like this.
"Uh spy? That one ever occur to you, genius? Are you so fucking desperate that you'd take Aldous Leekie's sloppy seconds?"
"Sarah. Ease off." Siobhan interrupts, "Cosima take Delphine out of here. We'll have her back in for questioning later."
"Cos be reasonable. Smarten up." Sarah shouts, "Read her file. S has one."
"Fine. Questioning only. Next time, I stay with her, the whole time." Cosima finishes untying her, and helps her up - they move to the door and down the stairs as quietly as they can before reaching the street. One of the busier streets in town - still nothing compared to any planet in the core.
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Cosima lowers her voice, mouth close to her ear.
"They might have bruised me a little getting me in there, nothing too bad." She responds just as quietly, "I can't stay here. It's not going to work." Her voice breaks and she watches Cosima's face, aware her lover is trying not to break with her.
"Hey, it's alright. We'll go back to the farm tonight and just, we'll give her lots of space, okay?" Cosima tries to reassure her, "I don't care what Sarah says Delphine. I know you love me." She squeezes her hand, and it almost breaks her heart.
"What about your scan?"
"Oh, Cal's still bribing the doctor, they're going to do it this afternoon. As long as I'm back within an hour it won't be a problem."
"And lab space?"
"We'll work something out," Cosima cups her face in her hands, stroking at her hair.
"Can you breathe?"
"Enough." Cosima nods, "We need to get back for the scan though... then I'll take you to the clinic... I'm not going to leave you alone with Sarah again. I'm sorry... I didn't know until Kira said something -"
"Kira?" Delphine is stunned.
"She overhears a lot..." Cosima explains, "And she likes me."
"What now?"
"You pose as my physician, we get the scan... we get Cal to swing us some lab space and resources, S has resources too, but they might take a while."
"We don't have a while." Delphine reminds her, "I have some equipment, but... not enough."
"I know... but we have to." Cosima nods grimly.
