Authors Notes: So I've just finished watching the first episode of season two and I'm becoming more and more enamoured with Rachel 'slam' Duncan. I know I really shouldn't but she's such a massive dork I can't really help myself. I mean how can you not love a character that can go from I AM THE ICE QUEEN to oH NO I EFFED UP I EFFED UP in like 0.2 seconds? It's a talent that's timeless.
Anyway here's chapter two - enjoy!
Road to a Happy Clone Club: Under Construction
In which the clones begin to notice Rachel's compulsive desire to stare out of floor-to-ceiling windows and decide to intervene, only for things to go entirely tits up.
Two.
Intervention
At first nobody had even noticed it. It wasn't a major issue, in the grand scheme of things, and all attention was usually focused on Helena, who was a reliable and worrying source of both murderous intent and childlike curiosity.
In fact, not much attention was paid to Rachel Duncan at all. She was reserved, seemingly emotionless and expressionless, and did not appear to harbour any feelings of affection towards her fellow clones. She wasn't one for small talk and when she did occasionally open her mouth to speak it was generally to impart a snarky comment, a veiled threat or comment about some pearl of scientific knowledge that only Cosima or Delphine had a hope in hell of being genuinely interested in. She also boasted the unsettling quality of staring at the other women as if she were making mental lab notes to record on her laptop later. This made her clone counterparts less inclined to spend any time with her at all, aside from the rare highly awkward greeting in the morning or the even less frequent request for her to pass the jam or marmalade at breakfast.
Rachel Duncan was an oddity, it was agreed between Sarah, Alison and Cosima, which was saying something considering they all shared a house with Helena. Yet, interestingly enough, it was Helena who first noticed Rachel's peculiar habit.
"She is strange," Helena had observed, sitting uncomfortably close to Sarah on a sofa one afternoon, "always on the phone. Always looking out a window. Blah blah I am proclone blah blah experiment this, experiment that, blah blah," She'd blown a raspberry before continuing, much to Sarah's distaste as most of Helena's spit ended up on her face, "boring little sheep doing boring little window things. Seestra and I are much better. We have connection."
Despite the unwelcome face stroking which Helena had then embarked upon - whispering "We are family and I love you, seestra" repeatedly and with growing intensity - Sarah had to admit the blonde had a point. Rachel really did spend an awful amount of time staring out of windows, looking authoritative and vaguely dramatic. If she happened to be on the phone at the time it seemed to make the staring-out-a-window experience all the more satisfying for her.
Sarah had brought up the topic to Alison and Cosima after dinner that night, in a hushed tone as Rachel was stood in front of a window to the side of them, gazing sombrely into the distance. Alison had agreed that now she came to think of it, if there was a window in a room it was a guaranteed fact that Rachel, upon entering, would gravitate towards it immediately. Cosima swore she'd once seen Rachel staring intently at one of the windows despite its blinds being pulled down. This was the exact moment in which the trio realised Rachel had a genuine problem, aside from her obsessive need for control at all times and her occasional flights in complete ruthlessness, and that they were going to have to stage an intervention.
"She can't keep staring out of windows her whole life," Sarah had said conclusively, "she's strange enough as it is and Helena's a total clusterfuck. I'll be damned if I'm 'gonna let another one of us go completely batshit."
It was at breakfast of the next day when Rachel got out of her seat and began to drift towards a window again. Helena was thankfully still in bed and Delphine was doing a quick run to the nearest shop to buy some croissants, which she had gained a sudden craving for after talking enthusiastically about the wonderful patisserie's back in France.
Sarah and Alison exchanged glances across the table. Cosima unhelpfully had her head buried in some sciencey book about neurology so Sarah gave her a generous kick under the table, causing the dreadlocked clone to let out a small yelp and glare at her. Sarah motioned her head in the direction of Rachel, who was almost entirely pressed up against the window. Cosima gave a small "Ooooh," and slowly closed her book. The three clones nodded at one another and all rose to their feet at the same time. They cautiously closed in on their prey.
"Rachel, are you feeling quite well?" Alison began, in the motherly way that only she could manage. The trio came to a halt between the sofas in the living area, a few feet away from Rachel's back.
"Of course I am. Why the sudden interest?" Came the reply. Unsurprisingly to everyone involved, Rachel's tone was devoid of any feeling whatsoever. It was because of this that her voice managed to instil a horribly unsettling feeling in anybody who heard it.
"No, no, it's nothing," Alison said hurriedly, "we were just wondering... it... well..."
"We've noticed your enthusiasm for windows," Cosima finished, thinking it best to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible.
"My enthusiasm for what?"
"Windows,"
"Also phone conversations while looking out windows," Sarah added helpfully.
Rachel let out a long, weary sigh and stayed silent for a moment. It was terribly exasperating being the proclone of such a bunch of imbeciles. Her stare out of the window became more melancholic, as if she were reminiscing over a time when she could gaze out of a floor-to-ceiling window in a well-lit, minimally furnished room all day long without being questioned.
"It is for important reasons," Rachel eventually replied, "none of you would understand. You are not proclone's like me."
"Pro-crazy more like," Sarah commented, having never really been one for manners.
"I think what Sarah means to say," Cosima said, ever the keeper of the peace, "is that your behaviour is becoming detrimental to your everyday life."
Alison nodded, one hand on a hip and the other toying with the collar of her shirt. "You and I went to the shop the other day and just as we started to walk back you got a call. You couldn't answer it until you'd hurried back in the shop just so you could stare out the window again."
"We're concerned for your welfare." Cosima emphasized.
One of Rachel's brows twitched a little, which was the closest to rolling her eyes she'd ever ventured. She still hadn't turned to face the others so her very brief display of an emotion called annoyance went unnoticed. Instead, she made it evident with her next words, "Gracious, who knew playing happy families would become so tiresome so quickly-"
"Look here, shit stick," Sarah interrupted, in the patient and kind manner that defined her, "the more time you spend standing near windows the more tempting it gets to push you right through. It's weird having you stood in front of windows all day and it's even creepier at night."
"Don't you ache being stood so rigidly in the same spot for so long?" Cosima piped up, always more interested in the physiology of matters. Her question went unanswered, however, as it was more or less drowned out by Sarah's continued rant.
"What if people in the apartment opposite think you're watching them - like a stalker or something? We're a bunch of clones living under one roof, the last thing we want is the police knocking on our door. If you wanna' spend your time doing this brooding crap then at least limit it a bit and do it in your own room, alright?"
"I can't," Rachel lamented, and for the first time in her life sounded as if a bit of genuine sadness was creeping into her voice, "the windows in there are not floor-to-ceiling."
There was a very long pause at this, in which Sarah let out a noise of frustration and collapsed into the sofa behind her. Alison had an expression of clear disdain on her face, shook her head in disbelief, and then moved into the kitchen area to get herself a calming glass of wine. Cosima, in contrast, was looking exceptionally intrigued by Rachel's bizarre behaviour.
"Why do they have to be floor-to-ceiling windows?"
"That is a ridiculous question and I shall not dignify it with an answer."
"It seems to be quite specific and compulsive behaviour," Cosima continued, her hands making elaborate gestures as she began pacing back and forth, "you're also very particular about how things are laid out in the house...It's interesting...the rest of us all share a bit of an impulsive trait and yet you're very methodical and contained-"
"That is because I am the proclone and I have curbed any unruly behaviour our genetics have caused us to be naturally inclined to," Rachel cut in, back to her slow, monotone voice, "I have instead focused on our more useful traits."
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Like staring out windows, yeah?"
"Like our intelligence, our affinity for problem solving, our determination," Rachel slowly turned to face the other clones, face expressionless and hair as sharp and unnecessarily aggressive looking as usual, "our ability to be utterly ruthless when the situation arises."
Rachel was staring at Sarah, in particular, and Sarah was glowering back at her. Cosima stood awkwardly to the side, glancing from one identical face to the other. Things always got a bit intense and sexually inappropriate between Rachel and Sarah. Alison, who had wafted back into the living area, took one look at the staring contest happening between the two, gave a tutting noise of disapproval that implied this was a disgracefully common occurrence, downed her glass of wine and moved away to fill it up again.
"I think," Cosima began slowly, seeing that there were no signs of either Rachel or Sarah breaking away from their heated gazes at one another, "maybe Sarah was right. That you should limit it a bit, you know?"
"I shall do no such thing," Rachel replied, still staring directly into Sarah's eyes.
"It's not very healthy behaviour-" Cosima attempted.
"Well your coughing is not very healthy behaviour but I do not see that becoming a topic for discussion," Rachel interrupted with absolutely no remorse whatsoever and a hint of a triumphant smirk on her lips.
Alison let out a horrified gasp from beside one of the kitchen counters, to the background sound of her glass being dropped and smashed into a million pieces against the tiled floor. She was already half way back to the living area by the time Sarah had leapt to her feet and begun squaring off with the clone in front of her.
"Rachel, you bitch-"
"FIRST OF ALL, HOW DARE YOU," Alison's voice roared over the top, bringing a stark reminder to everyone in the room that she could be just as murderous as Helena when she wanted to be, "SECOND OF ALL, WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT-"
"Alison, Sarah, it's alright, really-" Cosima started, trying her best to hold onto one of Alison's arms and rein her in as she attempted to get close enough to Rachel to punch her in the face.
"NO IT'S NOT ALRIGHT," Alison declared furiously, struggling in Cosima's grip, "I'VE DEALT WITH LESS OFFENSIVE REMARKS FROM THE PARENTS AT THE KIDS SOCCER MATCHES!"
"If you ever say anything about Cosima's coughing again I'll beat the shit out of you," Sarah said darkly, getting so close to Rachel that their noses were practically touching, "You might act like you're some kinda jacked up ice queen but I know you're a jumpy piece of shit deep down."
Images of Sarah shooting the window behind her at the DYAD institute flashed through Rachel's mind. A flicker of humiliation and a slight eye twitch. Bollocks. "Perhaps we should all agree to keep out of each other's business, then? Window staring included."
Alison, having sufficiently relented in her attempts to knock Rachel out, gave her a warning glare and took Cosima's hand in her own. She squeezed it reassuringly. "Sarah, let's go and visit Felix."
"What about Delphine?" Cosima asked worriedly, never liking to be parted from her petite chiot for long.
"We'll call her. I think we could all benefit from a change of scenery for today."
"Yeah, you two go. I'm busy," Sarah said, still staring intensely into Rachel's eyes.
Alison and Cosima frowned at one another. "Busy doing what?" Alison asked.
There was no reply. The two clones continued to glare at one another, inches apart. Alison gave a huff. They could be like that for hours sometimes. It was entirely unproductive and inconsiderate. Maybe there should be an intervention for them, addressing their compulsive and weirdly sexual staring. She ushered Cosima towards the front door. "Well we'll see you later then."
"Try not to shove her out the window, Sarah!" Cosima added with a grin, promptly being pushed out the door, which Alison slammed irritably behind them.
It was half an hour later, with neither Sarah or Rachel having moved an inch, when Helena stumbled into the room in a dirty looking vest, jeans and her beloved green parka. Sleepwear was a foreign idea to Helena, who enjoyed wearing the same clothes on a permanent basis until Sarah forced her to have a bath and put on something more agreeable. The green parka was always part of the outfit, though, and was practically an extension of Helena herself.
She came to a halt and gazed wide-eyed at the two for a moment before padding over to the fridge and finding herself some leftover ham to munch on. She continued to watch the other clones as she silently ate and, once done, she moved over to them and situated herself closely next to Sarah. A bit too closely perhaps, but then she was very fond of her 'seestra'.
Helena looked at Sarah. Sarah was still staring at Rachel. Helena trusted Sarah. Sarah was her family. Sarah must be doing something important.
Helena slowly turned her head and fixed Rachel with a similar stare.
Whatever Sarah did, no matter how little she understood it, Helena would join in.
Sometimes it would be in a hostile, murderous manner and she might end up injuring or killing a few people.
But other times, like today, it would be in an entirely trusting and passive way that involved a lot of unexplained eye contact with Rachel Duncan.
Authors Notes: RACHEL YOU WINDOW STARING NERD YOU'RE TEARING THIS FAMILY APART.
Also reviews are always as welcome as a glass of wine is for Alison.
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