"Hey would you pass me the vile of blood from patient numbers 4 and 6?" Cosima asked. If she was lucky, the mutation found on the white blood cells from these patients might lead them to a diagnosis.
"Of course Cosima. Do you see something?" Delphine asked quizzically. Right now, any form of progress is imperative for her sanity. "Yeah," Cosima put the view of microscope on the desktop computer screen, "see, if you look at the white blood cells, they seem to be misshaped a tad. Not enough to be like sickle cell anemia, plus sickle cell is for red blood cells, so if this mutation affects the functions of the WBC's, the body could literally be attacking itself. Not in a lupus sort of degenerative way, but the WBC's target could be modified to not attack intruders, and instead attack the own body. I don't know how this could happen, but it would coincide with the hemorrhaging and lack of vomiting." Cosima knows she will need more than a few malformed white blood cells to prove this, but every diagnosis has to start somewhere.
"Cosima this is great! You've made more progress in this day than I thought we'd made in a week!" She was so ecstatic that Delphine went in blanketed the over woman in a big hug. "Merci Cosima, now I won't go crazy in the lab all day." She said into the dreads of Cosima's head. "Hey don't thank me, thank the mutated white blood cells." This woman is so modest, she can't even take thanks for her own work. She is a true scientist, Delphine thought. "How about we stop for today and pick back up tomorrow? It is 5pm, so I bet if we leave now, we could stop at a restaurant and celebrate with dinner." Delphine was delighted with the shift in her day. Even studying mutated white blood cells is fun with Cosima here.
"Yeah that sounds great!" Cosima grabbed the slide with the blood from the microscope slate, and went to put it in the hazardous waste disposal.
"Shit!" was all that Delphine heard, and when she looked over she saw blood. Not too much, but enough that Cosima needed her hand disinfected. "Cosima was happened?!" Delphine frantically ran to her, ready to help in a way she could. "Oh it's nothing," Cosima started to say but got cut off by Delphine. "No it is not okay! You were handling hazardous blood and cut yourself on it. We need to flush this wound immediately." She couldn't take the risk of Cosima's blood mixing with that of the patient. "Really, I'm fine. Just a little scrape, see?" She help out her hand to Delphine. But then more blood came out of the scrape. "Non Cosima. Let me fix this." Delphine grabbed her hand, and led them to the wash station. She turned on the warm water and put Cosima's hand under it. "Stay," was all Delphine said before leaving to go grab a first aid kit.
She came back with the white box with a red cross on the top. Thank God for universal pictures, Cosima thought, but then she remembered that Delphine spoke Russian. Another thing that makes the exotic woman so, well, exotic. Delphine took Cosima's hand, and set it on her lap. The spot of contact automatically tingling, but not due to the cut. "Cosima you can't be this clumsy," Delphine spoke, breaking the silence, "if this blood is infected you could become ill as well. You can't take any chances."
"Delphine don't worry. Look at me," Cosima pointed to her toothy grin, "I'm fine. I may be a klutz, but I'm a lucky one! And to think, I've never even broken a bone. I only got pneumonia once, which is really good given that I am me." Delphine laughed. Even in a moment like this, there is still time for snarky-ness and laughs. She looked up at Cosima, face fully visible by the absence of her blond curls, and said, in that attractive French voice, "pauvre petit chiot," and gave Cosima a smirk. "You're the puppy!" Cosima retaliated. Great one. Good going. Years of French and that's all you have to say back. "You're like a little cocker spaniel, with the droopy ears and curly coat." Delphine was almost finished with applying the bandage when she broke out into laughter. "See? I'm joking, I'm laughing, I'm fine, just a cut-" but Cosima stopped mid-sentence and stared off. "Cosima? Cosima are you alright?" Delphine was shaking her shoulder. "Hah! Gotcha." Cosima looked down at Delphine with a huge smile. "It's nice to know that you care though."
Delphine couldn't react. She started to think the worst of the situation, like that Cosima was having a seizure, or her brain function was stopping, never did she think it would just be a joke. "Don't you EVER do that again. EVER." She looked at Cosima with a worried expression all over her face, and her hands never leaving Cosima's shoulders. "I'm sorry. I thought it would be funny…I didn't know you would take it so seriously." Cosima replied. Well shit. Now I've upset her. I just thought it would be like a fun prank people do back in high school. But really, if she did that to me, I would be just as worried. Ugh.
"Really, I'm sorry," Cosima put her hands over her heart, "I swear I won't do anything like that again." Delphine smiled at that, "Good," was all she replied. "Cool, so, now that we've established that I'm fine, let's go get some food!" Cosima got up and grabbed Delphine's hand to pull her along. But suddenly Delphine felt the grip go limp, and Cosima slowed to a walk, and then stopped. "Cosima? If this is another trick I will kill you myself." Delphine said. Then, Cosima slowly turned around to face the other woman. "Delphine? I don't really feel wel-" but Cosima fell to the floor before she could finish her sentence.