Chapter Two
Caroline was the first to speak. Neither woman had moved nor made a sound for at least five minutes. "So what the hell do we do now?"
And for the first time she could remember, Adelle didn't have a good answer. "I don't know."
"Well are you going to lay there with your ass on display all night?"
"You've already seen it, haven't you?" Adelle snapped back. "I don't particularly feel the need to torment myself with clothing."
"It's not that you don't have a nice ass, but I'm really fucking irritated right now and looking at it makes me want to smack it some more."
"Don't you dare," Adelle said, scrambling quickly off the bed and pulling her pants back up as carefully as she could in her haste. "No one has ever raised a hand to me before. It's taking a bit of getting used to."
"You're british!" Caroline said, making a face. "You weren't caned growing up?"
"Lord no," Adelle shook her head. "My parents would have killed my nanny if she ever tried it."
"And in school?"
"I was a perfect angel."
Caroline snorted, not believing that for a second, but she realized it really didn't matter. "Really though, what the hell do we do now?"
"I really have no idea," Adelle said, obviously displeased that she didn't have an answer. "What do you want? Do you want to stay here? I would've thought no, until you asked me that question. Now I'm wondering if you might be grateful for the services we provide."
"Confused and broken does not mean grateful," Caroline said sharply. "Don't you ever suggest that I might be grateful."
"Or what?" Adelle replied with a saucy smirk. "You'll throw me over the bed and spank me?"
"You don't think I'd kill you?" Caroline snapped, standing and spinning to face Ms. DeWitt, the queen-sized bed separating them now.
"What would it matter?" Adelle scoffed, tired of being threatened. "Alpha killed a dozen of us and we're still going strong. You take me out and the next in line steps up to assume my position, and things continue as they were. My life means nothing to this organization, Caroline."
"Then why are you here? Why do you support people that don't give a shit if you live or die? What's your fucking purpose in life, besides deceiving innocent people and making money for some bastards that'd hide your body and replace you in a heartbeat?"
"Nothing," Adelle said flatly, her eyes following Caroline as the girl began to pace back and forth. "Does that make you happy?"
"Maybe it does!" Caroline yelled, though they both knew it didn't. Happiness was not an option for either of them, not today.
"Then that's fantastic, isn't it?" Adelle yelled back. "We're perfect for each other! I have no purpose and you don't know what purpose you want! I don't have a choice now and you have all the power. Is that what you want to hear? Is that what Caroline's always wanted?"
"I don't want power, I want justice," Caroline said, her voice losing its angry edge.
"And you think smacking me around is a good way to get that," Adelle said, her voice dropping levels as well.
"I think it's a good start," Caroline replied with a shrug.
"Really. What have you accomplished by treating me like a school pupil?"
"I've learned you're not as heartless as you pretend to be. I've learned you feel bad for what you do. You could help me take down the organization if I decide I w--"
"Absolutely not. Suicide."
"You don't strike me as the chickenshit type."
"And you have no idea how deep the roots of this organization go. Get the idea out of your head, immediately."
"They're probably listening, aren't they?"
"Most likely, yes."
"Then they're going to wipe your memory. Or kill you."
"Most likely, yes," Adelle repeated.
Caroline walked around the bed and leaned in close, whispering in case the room was bugged. Which apparently it was, or at least it 'most likely' was. "Get us both out of here, then."
Adelle whispered back tersely, "I don't think you realize how difficult that would be."
"And I think you do realize that we're both fucked if we stay here."
"Why do you care what happens to me?"
"I don't know. Just get us the fuck out of here, Ms. DeWitt."
--
Topher was freaking out. He was the only one eavesdropping on the conversation, and honestly he cared too much about Ms. DeWitt and Echo to go to security. He hurried out of his office and down to the room they were locked in, and knocked on the door. "It's Topher, just let me in!"
"Why would we want to do that?"
That was Ms. DeWitt's voice. "Because I'm the only one that heard your conversation, and I need to tell you something!" Topher hissed.
Another few seconds and the lock clicked, then the door swung inward. He shuffled inside and closed it behind him, frowning at both women. "Are you crazy? Taking down the organization?"
"Thank you Topher, we decided against that option," Ms. DeWitt said smoothly.
"Then what are you going to do? Echo's right, they will wipe your memory, or kill you, or send you to the attic."
"We're going to... leave," Adelle said, not liking the taste of the words on her tongue.
"Leave. Leave? You're just gonna walk out the door, huh?"
"What do you suggest, gopher boy?" Caroline piped up, irritated at the interruption.
"Well I was going t-- gopher boy? Really? Is that necessary?"
"Not the time, Topher," Adelle said calmly. "You're not turning us in, I take it?"
"No! I'm a good guy!" Topher insisted. His face fell then, and he looked back and forth between the women. "I'm gonna miss you both around here... are you sure you have to leave? No one will know about this except the three of us."
"Unless Mr. Dominic views the security tapes," Adelle said, shaking her head.
Caroline spoke up angrily. "You don't even know me," she shot at Topher. "You'll miss my empty shell of a body, right?"
Adelle turned on Caroline, now. "Not the time," she reminded her. "If we are indeed leaving, we need to leave."
"We'll pretend you're handling Echo for an engagement," Topher suddenly suggested.
Adelle raised an eyebrow in obvious skepticism. "I highly doubt that is believable."
"If they see you taking her out, you'll need a cover," Topher said, shrugging in that 'you know I'm right' way of his. "We, we'll go to the chair, pretend to give her an imprint, and--"
"You cannot pretend to give her an imprint," Ms. DeWitt said sharply. "You cannot make that look believable."
"Believable, schmievable," Topher waved her off. "Fine. I'll talk you through the fake engagement on our way to the door. And Echo, you have to pretend to be who I'm about to describe to you."
Caroline bristled. "Stop calling me that. My name is Caroline," she snapped.
"For the next ten minutes your name is... Maggie Sachs. And you're a..." he looked at her clothes before deciding, "Yoga instructor." Then he looked back at Ms. DeWitt. "And you're handling her because the class is all female, and we need someone on the inside."
"Danger in a Yoga class?" Adelle asked, feeling a headache coming on.
"Yes!" Topher said, getting a brainwave. "The previous instructor is being threatened via notes around the studio, so we're sending in Maggie, a Yoga instructor-slash-undercover cop to draw the focus onto her!"
"This is ridiculous, Topher," Adelle said as politely as she could manage. How had she gotten herself into this horrifying situation? Her entire life about to be thrown away to go on the run from people with eyes and ears everywhere.
"You know what? I'm trying to help. If you ladies want to just take your chances, fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."
Caroline spoke up again, nodding her head, first hesitantly and then more confidently as she thought about it. "It makes sense." She turned to Ms. DeWitt. "Let's go with it. I'm Maggie Sachs, and you're 'handling' me, whatever that means."
Adelle sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and then finally shrugging in agreement. "Fine."
--
They were almost to the elevators when Mr. Dominic rounded the corner, and almost collided head-on with Caroline.
She quickly adopted her role as Maggie Sachs and admonished him. "Please excuse us, we're going to be late for class, and we've got a lot riding on this assignment. The Captain doesn't like it when we're late."
"Captain? What Captain?" Mr. Dominic asked, doing a double take between Echo and Ms. DeWitt.
Adelle stepped in, giving Mr. Dominic a 'look'. "Detective Sachs here is going undercover for a client of ours, Mr. Dominic," she explained. She knew that he would understand not to question the assignment further and risk ruining the imprint.
"I am not aware of this assignment," Mr. Dominic pressed more vaguely.
"You wouldn't be," Adelle said, shaking her head. "It came in as a rush order, very last minute, and you were out in the field, obviously," she added, as he had just gotten back from overseeing an engagement himself. That was actually quite convenient.
"Where's Langton? Why you?"
"Mr. Dominic, I shall remind you that I need not explain myself to you. Kindly step out of the way so that we can avoid displeasing a very wealthy client." Her heart was racing, but she kept her outer cool. If she was anything but confident, it would alert Mr. Dominic to a problem.
He finally just nodded and stepped out of the way, clearly not happy about being uninformed, but not suspecting anything unsavory in the works.
As they moved past Mr. Dominic, Adelle began talking to Caroline as if they were discussing the engagement. "Now Detective, your Captain tells me you've been after this perpetrator for quite some time. Could you enlighten me on the specifics of the previous cases?"
"Of course, Ms. DeWitt. The first was..." Caroline trailed off as they entered the elevator, but Adelle encouraged her to keep going. There were cameras everywhere.
"The first was what?" she said pointedly, and Caroline did get the point.
Obviously they weren't in the clear yet. She continued to make up details about previous cases, even as they both entered the black van waiting for them when they exited the elevator, into what appeared to be a tunnel.
Adelle took a headset from the driver, fixing it on properly and testing it worked, before giving the address of a local Yoga studio Topher had found online.
--
The driver parked in an alley about half a block down from the studio, and Adelle chatted briefly with him while Caroline started toward the building. "You'll be here, if we need backup, correct?"
"Yes Ma'am."
"Wonderful." She checked again that the headset was working, and shut the door of the van, turning to follow Caroline.
Once they were inside the studio, Adelle took off the headset and placed it carefully into a trash can, making sure it didn't sound like it had been dropped. Now free of Dollhouse surveillance, she turned to Caroline and took a deep breath. "Now, we run."
TBC