AN: The song for this chapter is Crossover by Magnetic Man.


The morning split open with a banging and Cosima instantly regretted the amount of THC she'd inhaled the night prior. Cannabinoids dried out her mouth such that tongue stuck to hard palette like a stalagmite. Or stalactite, technically?

"Cosima!" The banging continued. "Shut. Off. Your. Fucking. Alarm!" Lauren made her request in time to the phone's beeping. Cosima groped for her bedside table before remembering she'd sold the table and had left the cell on her desk. The door bust open and her housemate strode towards the sound's source.

"I'm up! I got it, I got it." She beat Lauren to the phone, belatedly looking down to check that she was decent. Apparently, she had passed out in yesterday's clothes.

"Jesus, Cosima. Do you have any idea how long that'd been going?"

"Uh..." Shit. It was 7:47 already. And she had approximately 20 unread texts from Maria.

Lauren crossed her arms. "Aren't you proctoring today?"

"Shit!"

"You look like shit. You slept in that?"

"Lauren." Cosima did not have time for this. "Get out." The other woman raised her hands and retreated from the room.

Boxes and suitcases were everywhere. Her glasses, however, were not in sight. Cosima tore apart her room while triaging her morning: the exam started at 9:30; Maria expected her at the copying room at 8; she'd need 11 minutes to bike there; only Lauren would know if she wore the same clothes... no, gross; showering was out of the question but she could change if she skipped breakfast. Her mouth tasted like a Petri dish. Why had she gotten so fucking high? Oh right, I'm a clone. What an auspicious beginning.

Her glasses clattered to the floor when she shook the top sheet for the second time. She grabbed them and ran to the bathroom where corrected vision revealed her face was in shambles; wingtip eyeliner looked awesome until it didn't. She gave herself three minutes for damage control and made up for it by simultaneously brushing her teeth and peeing. At 7:56 she squirmed into flats, crammed computer into messenger bag, and ran towards the door.

"Hey, Cosima." Lauren nursed an OJ and a hangover in the kitchen.

"What?" She hesitated, a hand on the doorknob.

"Godspeed, girl."

Cosima flipped off her soon-to-be former housemate whose giggles followed her as she flew down the stairs.

By the time she rolled up to the biology department at 8:09, Maria was already rolling out a cart piled with freshly printed finals.

"Oh good! Your timing is spectacular, as always." Maria grinned. Cosima struggled with her bike lock. "Em, I am so sorry. You would not beli-"

"Don't worry about it! Hey, guard the exams." She disappeared into the building. What if I told Maria that I have genetic identicals? And I met one last night? Cosima fretted with her hair. She'd probably call me Dolly and laugh it off like the joke it should be. A moment later, Maria returned with two coffees and a bag of muffins.

"Oh my god. You're the best!"

"I know. But this means you've got the cart."

"Totes. Just don't eat my muffin."

Cosima grabbed the cart and they started off towards the lecture hall. The Floridian humidity had already mounted a serious attack and the imbibed coffee flanked her from inside; their combined heat seemed to compress all the water out of her in beads. On a day like today, she would've ordered an iced mocha frappachino. Maria, however, was the sort of coffee drinker who abhorred anything adulterating her morning solution of stimulant.

"So." Maria leaned over and sniffed at Cosima's sleeve. "You waking n' baking, now?"

"Shit! Does it...? Do I...?"

Maria spoke in stage whisper, "Smell like pot?" She raised an eyebrow then shook her head. "Naw, but Davy told me you were texting him 10 Guy style, like, all yesterday."

"What? I sent him one questionable text. One!"

"And you missed drinks at 101 Cantina."

"Oh god, I totally did."

"I must've sent you abajillion texts."

"I'm sorry Maria, last night was just..." Her voice cracked and Maria stopped walking. "Woah, are you ok?"

"I-, I-" She stared at her friend. The truth was too ridiculous, especially in the presence of 120 Genetics and Development exams. "I, um, had to call my parents last night." It wasn't an outright lie.

"Ay, amiga. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really." The words sounded brittle.

"You sure?"

She shrugged.

"Did they go off on why gays shouldn't exist because of biology again? 'Cuz if so..." Maria smacked her coffee cup, which caused the muffin bag to wiggle and a small amount of scalding liquid to escape. "Ow!"

Cosima had to laugh. "No, no. Nothing like that. Just... um, it was awkward. And I sorta imploded after."

"That really sucks. God! I hate it when people wrap their shitty ideologies in science. As if it makes them legit. Y'know, that is actually my number one pet peeve."

"Yeah. Ditto."

For the first time ever, talking about her parent's rejection felt like safe territory. The experience was weird. Weird and isolating as fuck.

"Here." Maria handed her the muffins and started off with the cart of exams. "Eat. I'll even handle all the announcements, you just pass these bad boys out. Sound good?"

"Yeah. Thanks, Em."

"You got it." Maria nudged Cosima's arm. "All I ask is, you better be ready for tonight. We're sending you off in style!"

"Have I ever told you that you're, like, the actual best?"

"Hmm, maybe once or twice."

They listened to the cart rumble behind them for a moment. Then Maria launched into a familiar tirade about her ancient DNA project and how it would ruin her summer with fruitless PCRs. Cosima sipped her drink and imagined caffeine molecules booting out the last cannabinoids from her neurons. Unfortunately, her brain was also waking up to a reality in which only strangers could understand her life right now. Strangers with only DNA in common - albeit the entire friggin' genome.

When they reached the lecture hall, Cosima switched on the lights and sighed; it was going to be a long day. Proctoring exams goes about like this:

1) The really nervous students start showing an hour early; the suggested TA response is an affirming smile which is usually ignored in favor of flashcards.

2) The majority of students arrive 10 minutes before, about 60% of them actively cram while the other 40% chill with headphones or aggressively laid back postures.

3) The perpetually late come right on time, which means once the tests are distributed and announcements made, the pencils begin about 5 minutes after the exam should have started.

4) The TAs spend 3 hours watching the tops of people's heads bob to a soundtrack of furious scribbling. In other words, boredom punctuated by occasional questions and the one or two students who catastrophically overslept.

Like all previous, Cosima and Maria settled into this exam by sitting on opposite sides of the demonstration table and opening their laptops. Cosima reflexively clicked on her mail application and Beth's email popped up. She realized that, given yesterday's interactions, the cop probably thought she was an arrogant skeptic. She drafted a quick reply:

Beth, I believe you. What are the next steps?

Cosima

She reread the message and changed 'the' to 'our' before hitting send. Of course, the laptop emitted a whoosh which caused Maria to smirk and students in the first four rows to look up indignantly. Cosima gestured her apologies and hit the mute button just in time. A few seconds later she had a new email.

Cosima,

Glad to have you on board. It's a lot to take in. How much expertise do you have in this area?

-B

Beth's question confused her for a moment before recognizing that The Cop thought of her as The Scientist.

Hi Beth,

I'm only a first year PhD student and my field, broadly, is evolution. I also have several years of industry experience in genetics/biotech so while I know the fundamentals of reproductive cloning, I wouldn't call myself an expert. That said, I could get up to speed on it pretty quickly.

Cosima

Three inbox-refresh cycles later:

That's good. What equipment do you have access to? Can you process hair and blood samples, for example?

-B

She needs an off-the-books forensics team. Beth wanted to understand their origins as much as Cosima did and her position as a biologist granted a unique ability to provide answers. This feeling of mattering so significantly to someone dulled, slightly, the ache of isolation.

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is our lab specializes in comparative evolutionary development biology, meaning I work with non-human specimens and mostly analyze images of embryos. But I can access equipment for procedures like PCR and gel electrophoresis. You should be aware, however, I'm about to move to an entirely different university - University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. I don't know exactly what my set-up will be like there but I'm sure I can make it work for whatever you need.

It's also good news that I'll be closer to you and Alison.

-C

Emails continued to fly:

Excellent. Thanks, Cosima. Plan on a Skype check-in with the three of us next week. When are you available? -B

I'm actually moving this weekend but starting tuesday I'm just unpacking. So anytime except Thurs from 3 to 4pm. -C

I'll be in touch. -B

Only 15 minutes had passed but they had done wonders for Cosima's cortisol levels. The detective's messages had lifted somewhat the specter of faceless scientists. Beth seemed to have a plan and she was obviously better suited to find who was responsible for this experiment. Cosima could focus on the how and the why. She leaned back in her chair and looked out at the matrix of students sitting at least one seat apart; they reminded her of a DNA microarray. This got her thinking about the various uses of microarrays: single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection, gene expression profiling, chromatin immunoprecipitation... the latter two would be super useful to study the epigenetic differences between her and her identicals. And what better way to subvert the experiment than to become an investigator herself! Too bad her dissertation on mammalian body plan evolution wasn't really related. Unless...

Maria caught her attention and gestured towards her keyboard. Cosima waved back and logged onto gchat.

Maria: bets on who'll ask the most questions?

Maria: i call kim rathborn

Cosima: A choice is so safe it's almost cheating.

Cosima: but I say Jason Goodwin.

Maria: youre on!

Cosima: what are the stakes?

Maria: buy me a beer tonight

Maria: a *craft* beer

Cosima: Kk. put me down for a glass of not franzia red

Maria: done!

Cosima: and if we tie?

Cosima: or there's a dark horse?

Maria: both our drinks are free :P

Cosima: lol

Maria: you didn't literally lol.

Cosima: haha. you dork

Maria: wut ur da 1 usin txtspk bad

Cosima: OMG this convo is over.

Maria: n00b

Cosima: but actually, I should work on stuff

Maria: stuff?

Cosima: um

Cosima: I'm meeting with Kate next thurs...

Cosima: and kinda want to change my dissertation topic a bit.

Maria: really

Cosima: and by a bit I mean a lot.

Maria: why?

Cosima: long story

Maria: but yours was so solid ?

Cosima hesitated over the keys. Her friend's consternated look almost made her literally lol.

Cosima: Honestly?

Maria: duh

Cosima: I've developed a sudden and all-consuming interest in epigenetics and reproductive cloning technology.

Maria's eyebrows furrowed and she seemed to read the line twice before looking up and mouthing, "What?"

Maria: are you kidding me

Cosima: I wish

Maria: how is that evo devo?

Cosima: It's not really.

Maria: like maybe tangentially but...

Cosima: I know

Maria: wait

Maria: WAIT

Maria: why are you even going to minnesota?

Cosima: that's why I need to prepare for Kate.

Maria: i am so torn right now

Maria: are you saying youre staying?

Cosima: too late for that :(

Maria: girrrrl what is your life D:

Cosima: an experiment on compounding complexity.

Maria: wow

Maria: deep :P

Cosima: actually tho

Cosima: I should work.

Maria: ok but we will discuss this further

Cosima: Kk

She closed gchat and logged on UF's portal to her favorite scientific journal database, BIOSIS Web of Knowledge. The large search field looked particularly inviting this morning. Key terms turned into article titles which became abstracts which turned into full text PDFs - and before the reverberating shuffle of pencil on paper became a crush of former students filing out towards summer - Cosima amassed a bibliography. The contents were unfocused; the links among them amorphous. But, just like synaptic pruning in a developing brain, coherence would come after thoughtful review, a winnowing to only the most promising connections.


Maria: we need to intervention cosima!

David: what? why?

Maria: she's changing her dissertation

David: ok...

Maria: to cloning and epigenetics

Maria: !

David: ?

Maria: exactly

Maria: meet us at 1 in the microbio lounge

Maria: bring food

David: yes sir


AN: Fun fact! When I started writing this chapter, the scientific database Cosima uses called itself, "ISI Web of Knowledge." By the time I published this, however, they'd changed it to "BIOSIS Web of Knowledge" - probably to avoid confusion with ISIS, the militant group causing a ruckus in Syria right now... Anyway, I recognize that it would still be called ISI WoK in 2012 when OB is set, but if y'all got interested in this database I wanted you to be able to find it :)

Chapter 2 Sources

Note: this site seems to delete anything that looks like a link so you can see all the SciTB sources complete with hyperlinks on the scienceintheblack tumblr.

## Evolutionary Development

Understanding Evolution Team. "Evo-devo." Understanding Evolution. University of California Museum of Paleontology, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
An introduction to evo devo by none other than Cosima's alma mater!

## Epigenetics

"Epigenetics." Learn Genetics. University of Utah Health Sciences, n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2014.
An awesome and very polished introduction to epigenetics. If you watch nothing else, check out their short video, Insights from Identical Twins.

Schumacher A, Kapranov P, Kaminsky Z, Flanagan J, Assadzadeh A, et al. (2006) Microarray-based DNA methylation profiling: technology and applications. Nucleic Acids Research 34: 528-542.
Methods paper on using DNA microarrays to study epigenetics

## As always, I want to acknowledge that I'm writing in the universe of Orphan Black, a copyrighted creative work by Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, produced by BBC America.