"What did you do?" Cosima props herself up, blinking to get a better look at Delphine. She's just close enough to be seen without glasses. She's slept several hours, oxygen easing her breathing more than she wants to admit.
Delphine is still at the edge of her bed... and Cosima is suddenly certain that she is crying.
"It's Kira." Delphine manages between sobs, her shoulders shaking. Even concerned, Cosima cannot bring herself to be angry at Delphine - if she looks that upset it can't be something Delphine wanted. Please, please let her just be the bearer of bad news, Cosima pleads silently with the universe. Or let Kira have had an allergic reaction to a pain killer or the food colouring in the hospital jello and just need epinephrin, some anti-histamines and an extra day or two in the hospital. Or wherever they're doing the bone marrow draw. She doesn't know, only Delphine knows. It was supposed to be safe that way.
"No." Cosima cannot stop the words from slipping from her mouth, she sits up abruptly, ignoring her exhaustion, "What happened to Kira?
"I... Rachel took her." Delphine sobs, "And it's my fault."
"Fuck... Delphine." Cosima's palm goes instantly to her face, "How? You told me it would be safe, that Kira was safe, that you were the only contact."
Delphine sobs again, head titling forward and curls hiding her face, "I found an open email in Aldous' office" Delphine pauses to sob again before correcting herself, "Rachel's office, on Siobhan's... friend Benjamin. I thought DYAD had got to him, I had to warn Sarah. I thought..." She breaks off again.
Cosima blinks her eyes, in confusion slightly, "Okay, Delphine please just like get to the part about Kira. It's kind of late for me right now."
"Rachel took her." Delphine chokes back tears, "C'est ma faute."
"Why? Did you help her?" Cosima manages in disbelief, she cannot picture Delphine purposely putting Kira at risk. "You were supposed to be the only one who knew where Kira was, to get the bone marrow. It's done - it's being processed."
"No, I went to warn Sarah, and Rachel followed me. She took Kira while Sarah was with me."
"Fuck... just fuck..." Cosima reaches for her glasses, not because she needs them to see Delphine, but out of habit. To try to wake herself up more fully, as she pulls herself up into a sitting position.
"I'm sorry." Delphine sobs again, "I thought..."
"You thought that Rachel was above deception? Above using you as a pawn?"
Delphine nods, then shakes her head, "I didn't think..."
"Yeah. Obvs." Cosima says harshly, but reaches out a shaky hand to clasp Delphine's own, "So what do we do now?" The only thing they can do, try to move forward, try to fix this - if they can.
"I don't know. Rachel has Kira. Sarah will probably kill me, if Rachel doesn't..."
"Okay. Woah. Holy shit, let's slow down with the killing you assumption, alright? What do we know?"
"Rachel has Kira. She's brought her to DYAD - I don't know where."
"Okay." Cosima keeps her fingers entwined with Delphine's own. "Can you find out where Kira is? Can you get her out?"
"I don't know."
"Okay... where's Sarah in all this?"
Delphine shrugs, "I don't know."
"Okay. We'll have to figure this out." Cosima's mind spins, weighing out scenarios.
"I don't think she's going to let us do the transplant. I don't... I don't know what she'll do next."
"Okay."
"I'm sorry. Je m'excuse." Delphine lays a gentle kiss to her cheek, "Aldous - Dr. Leekie - I could predict somewhat but Rachel..."
"Yeah. You don't know her nearly as well. I get it." Cosima nods not wanting to engage on the subject of their dead boss, "I don't think we can assume anything."
"Cosima, your body is failing. Your lungs are permanently damaged. Your kidneys are going - you're probably going to need dialysis soon." Delphine's still crying, unable to hide the tears on her face or the hitch of her shoulders.
Cosima clears her throat, "Let's focus on Kira. And Sarah... what can we do? What else do we know?" Something they might be able to achieve, something that would help her sisters - especially if soon she won't...
"Cosima." Delphine shakes her head, "I may be able to do something, but I tried to defy Rachel. I do not know what she will do to me. Or to you." Delphine realizes already, Cosima realizes, that Rachel will probably punish both of them.
"To us, you mean, all of us." Cosima sighs, sitting up and drawing Delphine into her arms as best as she can. She doesn't want to shake, but she cannot stop her hands from trembling slightly. "I love you, you know... I didn't just say it because I was high."
Delphine firmly cups her cheek in her hand, holding her eyes, "Je t'aime, Cosima."
"I'm not going to ruin you, Delphine, you tried to help. Even if it was, you know, badly." Cosima runs a shaky hand down the curve of Delphine's back. "I don't really have the time to ruin your career." She smirks slightly, trying to make a joke of it.
"I'm going to get your transplant booked as soon as I can," Delphine promises.
"Yeah I know, don't worry about it. We need to do something. We need a plan." Cosima states decisively, "First priority is doing something about Kira. We can probably wrangle Scott into helping us too."
Delphine's phone dings, indicating a text message or an email has been received. When Delphine looks at it she looks more upset if anything.
"What this time?"
"Mass email from Rachel; Sarah has...turned herself in." Delphine voice betrays shock.
Cosima's mind whirls uncontrollably for a few moments, "Kinda makes sense. They took Kira... she's probably... mass email?" Their collective predisposition to impulsivity strikes again, she notes wryly.
"To the DYAD doctors, nurses, techs. Anyone who might work with Sarah. And me... probably so I'll pass along the message."
"Shit... shit... shit." Cosima allows her forehead to drop to Delphine's shoulder, "What are they going to do to her?"
Delphine hesitates, as if she knows she'll be incriminating herself by speaking, "Dr. Nealon is in charge of Sarah. They'll probably test her, take a medical history and try to figure out when she'll ovulate. And why she's not infertile."
"So... they're going to try to breed her?" Cosima cuts right to the chase, no sense hovering around the point.
"They might," Delphine admits readily, "She is the only fertile clone. They may want-"
She interrupts impatiently, "Another Kira? Or take an ova to make an embryo - have a surrogate carry it. Retain control of the child for study." Cosima allows the scientist in herself to take over, to state it simply, the probably experiment.
Delphine is silent, "Probably." She nods finally making a judgment call on whomever is involved.
"Yeah. I know." Cosima sighs, "And now DYAD has access to her ovaries... And Kira."
"No... we'll do something. Figure out something." Delphine promises.
"Yeah, should be easy, free Kira and Sarah and keep Sarah's people from murdering you." Cosima falls into sarcasm easily, as some weird line of defense.
"Cosima." Delphine chides her.
She stops, suddenly serious, "Do you think they'll blame you or Rachel?"
"Both probably." Delphine sighs, "I need sleep. And so do you Cosima."
"A few hours and then back to plotting? I'll talk to Felix, do what I can, okay?"
"Yes. Rest now. You need your rest. " Delphine nods, making her way to the couch, Cosima doubts either of them will get much sleep after this.
She drifts in and out on consciousness, looking over at their couch to see if Delphine is still there. Cosima is calmed somewhat by seeing her lover moving restlessly on the couch. The sun is barely up when a security guard enters their lab, sparing only a momentary glance at Cosima on the gurney.
Delphine squeezes Cosima's hand briefly before stepping away, "Yes? What do you want?
"Dr. Cormier? Come with me." The guard is curt, seemingly bored or annoyed by his task.
"Of course." Delphine nods, playing the role of employee and striding out after the guard.
"I'll see you later Delphine." Cosima calls after her as Delphine exits the lab. There's a sense of dread at their separation - though she won't be alone for long - Scott and Ethan Duncan will be in before long.
There's an excitement Cosima cannot deny at the prospect, learning more about about her synthetic sequences, the cloning project. Her answers - the only answers she may ever get about her body, her biology, her sisters... are finally in reach. Hopefully Delphine will be back by then too.
She lets exhaustion claim her, sleeping for another few hours until Scott wakes her.
"You up for some work?" Scott asks gently, looking at her as if trying to assess her fragility.
Scott pauses, "There's a guard outside the lab. Just so you know."
"Have you seen Delphine?"
"No." Scott answers uncomfortably, "I haven't seen her."
"Shit. I was..." Cosima trails off, moving to sit up on the gurney, "Hoping she'd be back by now. Rachel called for her an hour ago."
"Rachel, that's the pro-clone right?"
"Yeah. The scary emotionless one that is basically running DYAD right now."
"Awesome... I mean really not good." Scott awkwardly bumbles over his words, "Clones awesome. You're awesome. Scary clone who might have us killed not awesome."
"Yeah. That's it Scotty." Cosima pats his shoulder, "You get that thing together I'm going to try to clean up a bit."
"Are you worried about Delphine? I mean don't they need her? She's the expert on your illness."
"Yeah. We need her." Cosima brushes him off, "Let's just get to work, okay?"
She denies it as long as she can, until the guard tells her Dr. Nealon is now in charge of her. Until she receives a cryptic email from Delphine, disguised as Eskimo Pie, with Rachel's schedule. Delphine gone. She refuses to accept it.
There's too much to do now, they have to do something to Sarah before Nealon removes her ovary, try to comfort Kira - an eight year old who should never have been dragged into this. It's not until later she has to face it, Delphine is gone.
FIN
