I made you wait forever and I am so effing sorry, friends. I'm the worst.

"Cosima." They'd been awake for a few hours now, breakfast was already scarfed down and she'd paced the length of the cell what felt like a million times without her cellmate breathing a syllable to her. Cosima hadn't so much as looked at her since their argument the night before, she was pretty sure. All she'd done so far is pick up a piece of metal to scratch against the cement wall, starting a new set of tallies next to the two completed ones already marked into it. That had been a while ago, however. "Cosima." She tried again, but still got no response from her. Not even a glance. No acknowledgment at all. She let out a sigh. "You can't ignore me forever."

Cosima snorted, but didn't say anything. She was stretched out on the floor, one hand padding the floor beneath her head, the other thrown across her stomach. She'd been staring at the ceiling for at least an hour.

Delphine ran a hand through her hair. "Cosima, I need your help with something." Still nothing. "Unless you'd like to remain in this room until they get tired of playing with us."

Cosima's eyes clamped shut, and the hollows of her cheeks sunk in. After a few beats, she asked "what do you want?"

"Can you think of any reason a Muslim sect would use a flying fish as a symbol?"

Cosima rolled her head to the side, squinting at Delphine. "Fish are a Christian symbol." Her tone was poisonous, pompous.

"I know." Delphine responded. She had to suppress the strong urge to roll her eyes. Cosima seemed to bring out an unignorable tendency toward insolence in her. "But the guard had a knife with a fish carved into the handle. And there was an American guard, as well."

Cosima furrowed her brow. "An American? Maybe he's just a political radical that wanted to join the action?"

"I thought so, too, but then I saw the knife..." Delphine let herself trail off, happy for the help and the momentary truce. She'd been going over the facts on her own, and they simply weren't meshing. The version of the truth she had didn't match the mounting information in front of her.

Cosima hummed in thought for a second. "Did you say flying fish?" She asked, a slight wariness to her tone.

"Yes. Does that mean something to you?"

She propped herself up on her elbows. "Katja wrote an article recently about a religious sect in Ukraine that was gaining attention for its radical politics. With all the unrest, they were trying to wrest control. I don't remember what they called themselves, but they essentially opposed everything modern." She cocked her head to the side. "Their symbol was the flying fish. But what would they be doing here in Afghanistan?"

Delphine bit her lip. "Ukraine?"

"Mmm-hmm."

She brought her hands to her hips. "I suppose... The guards, their accents are..." She sighed, unsure of how to describe the subtlety of language to someone who only spoke one. "Heavy? And their grammar is poor."

Cosima cocked an eyebrow at her. "You think they might be Ukranian?"

She shrugged. "Perhaps."

"But that doesn't prove anything. Maybe radicals from Ukraine came to help radicals here."

"That's possible, yes. Though it's not as though Muslims and Christians have gotten along, historically speaking." Delphine added. "What else do you know about this Ukranian sect?"

Cosima sighed. "Not much, really. Just what Katja wrote. There's an offshoot in Canada that embraces science. Putin pretty much crushed the Ukranian sect when they tried to gain control of the government in the chaos of the occupation."

"Perhaps they came here to recuperate?" Delphine asked.

"Could be."

"Bravo." A twang came from the doorway, which was open and occupied by a man in a wide-brim hat, plaid shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots; a large silver steer perched atop his buckle. Two guards flanked him on either side. "I'm impressed by you ladies." One of the guards dropped a chair in the center which he settled in, crossing an ankle over his knee. The two guards remained standing on either side, guns aimed at Cosima and Delphine.

"Who are you?" Cosima snapped, set on edge. She felt electric fear from her teeth to her toes.

"Oh, how rude of me." His mouth cracked open in a wide smile. "Name's Henrik. And you must be Cosima Niehaus."

She nodded and flickered her gaze over to Delphine, who was watching the scene with her jaw set tight.

He nodded his chin toward Delphine. "And Delphine, of course. How could I forget our crown jewel?"

"What?" Delphine's jaw barely opened to utter the words.

"It's a long, boring story, honestly. But I heard you two were making headway in figuring the whole thing out." He leaned back, throwing an arm over the back of the chair, "and I came running to see for myself."

"You've been listening in on us?" Cosima asked.

"No, not me." He motioned to the guards on either side. "I asked my brothers and sisters to keep an eye on you." The smile began to fade from his face and he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "I heard about your... indiscretion the other night, and I wanted to let you know we can help, if you're ready to repent."

Cosima scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Fuck off."

He chuckled. "I heard you were feisty." He said, pointing at her. Then, turning to the male guard, added "watch out for that one, Mark."

The guard just nodded then returned his gaze to Delphine over the top of his rifle.

"I'm not a cat." She growled back.

"No, you most certainly are not. You're a human being, designed for dominion over the Earth and all its creatures." He shot her a playful wink. "Including the feline ones."

"What do you want from us?" Delphine asked, already weary of Henrik's games and Cosima's willingness to blindly play into them. "Why are you here?"

He leaned back in the chair again, regarding Delphine silently for a few seconds. "I wanted to ease your minds a bit. We're not monsters, here." He spread his hands out, palms up, placating. "We're children of God."

"You beat the shit out of Delphine." Cosima was glaring now, not even bothering to hide her disdain. "God tell you to do that?"

He sighed through his nose. "No, of course not. It was a necessary means to get what we wanted. We made sure to keep her drugged through the worst of the pain."

"And Katja?" Cosima shot back. "Was she a necessary casualty of your holy war, too?"

"No." His gray eyes met her brown ones and held them. "What happened to your friend was an unfortunate accident. We never intended for any harm to come to her."

"What exactly is it you want?" Delphine was getting irritated. Cosima kept derailing the conversation, sending it off on emotional tangents that did little to reveal the situation, and only seemed to serve to ease her guilt and rage.

He cocked his head off to the side, a knowing smile toying at his lips. "The attention of a Ms Marian Bowles."

Delphine was pretty sure her heart simply stopped beating, then. In fact, she was sure most of the autonomic functions of her body stopped because she felt cold and unbearably out of breath, like she was drowning in the ocean. "What? Why?" Even her own words sounded as though she were submerged underwater.

"Excellent question. One that I'm afraid I can't answer right this second. Although," he nodded his chin at Cosima, "your friend here may be able to help you figure that one out. Then again, she doesn't exactly have all the facts. Does she, Ms Cormier? Or, should I say, Ms Beraud?"

Delphine felt herself flinch toward him, but held herself back when she remembered the gun aimed squarely between her eyes. She hated everything about this Henrik, she decided. She especially hated, though, the way he said her name (except it was not her name, not anymore). Bay-road, he'd said. It sounded clunky and disgusting in his mouth.

He laughed again, this time focusing on Cosima. "Does that name mean anything to you, Ms Niehaus?"

She frowned, brows furrowing. "I—It sounds familiar, but..." She trailed off and traced the contours of Delphine's face with her gaze, finding nothing new or unusual about her. Who was Delphine Beraud? How had she lied to the military? Did she change her name or take on an entirely different identity? And why the hell were both Beraud and Bowles such familiar names?

"Think Daniel." Henrik said. Then, he stood. "Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you two, but I've got to get home to the family to help prepare for the sabbath." He looked between them. "Again, I just want to reiterate: we're not interested in hurting you if we don't need to. In fact, I've decided to introduce myself to you two because you're knowledgeable, and that's valuable to us." The kindly, paternal smile returned to his face. "And please do let me know if you change your mind about repenting. It's never too late. The Lord loves all His children, even when they act out to hurt Him."

"Wait." Cosima called as he began to turn to walk out. "What about the others? Sarah and Beth?"

"Perfectly safe." He assured her. "But it's best if they not know about this, so we're gonna have to keep you all separate for now." He tipped his hat. "I'll be in touch shortly." He and the guards disappeared, taking the chair with them and leaving nothing but silence.

Cosima was staring at the ground, arms crossed over her chest, her brow furrowed in a deep concentration. Delphine was watching the slow passage of clouds in the sky outside the window. For a long time, they were silent again. Just as they'd begun to chip away at it, too.

Finally, Cosima managed to speak. "Who's Daniel Beraud?"

Every muscle in Delphine's body visibly tightened, turning her into one large contraction, hard like stone. "Nobody."

Cosima shook her head. "No, we're not playing this game right now, Delphine. Tell me who he is. Tell me who you are."

Delphine didn't respond. Cosima strode forward and grasped her by the arm, forcibly turning her. Delphine shoved her off so she stumbled back a few steps.

"Who is he, Delphine?" Cosima shouted at her, face turning a deep red in her anger.

She let out an angry huff of a sigh and turned her head away. But still, she muttered "my father."

"And what does he have to do with this?"

Delphine shook her head, glancing up at the ceiling. "I don't know. Honestly, Cosima, I don't."

"Marian Bowles."

Delphine sucked her lips into her mouth and shook her head. "My godmother. A good friend of my Father's."

"Why would they want her attention?" Cosima took a hesitant step forward, trying to gauge Delphine's reaction through her facial expressions, but found her as stoic as ever.

"I don't know. She's a scientist." She finally turned to look at Cosima, mouth floundering open and shut. "I don't know." Tears were building in her eyes, and Cosima could feel it softening her anger around the edges. It laid siege on the walls she'd built so hastily around her heart just the night before. How could they be crumbling already?

"Okay." She reached out to touch Delphine softly on the arm and, when she didn't pull away or fight her, she pulled her tight to her. "I believe you."

Delphine buried her face into Cosima's hair, the only evidence of her crying the sniffling breaths and wetness soaking into Cosima's dreads. Cosima ran a hand in circles over Delphine's back, though she felt frustratingly conflicted in the moment. Part of her wanted to shove Delphine away, tell her she could go fuck herself. That part wanted to shout now you want to touch me? The other was happy to be holding her, to be able to return an ounce of the comfort Delphine had given her when they first awoke to this hell. That part wanted to kiss her, to tell her everything was going to be okay.

Needless to say, Cosima was hating her propensity for buckling to the will of beautiful, intelligent women right now.

"My father," Delphine sighed and pulled away. She wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "He was the French ambassador to the United States. He—" Her voice trembled, so she took a deep breath and tried again. "He went to jail for selling military secrets to the American government. Marian Bowles is a scientist with the Dyad Group." She shook her head. "That's all I know, Cosima. Honestly. That's everything." She reached out and grasped Cosima's hands in her own, staring at them hanging between their bodies and biting down hard on her bottom lip.

Cosima studied her face again, finding less stoicism but the jumble of emotion was no clearer, no less confusing. "The Dyad group." She repeated, turning the thought over in her head. It was so unlikely, it seemed impossible. And yet... "I was writing an article on them a few years back. They had some super hush-hush contracts with the Pentagon." Delphine glanced up to catch Cosima's eyes with furrowed brows. "Do you think there's any way..." She trailed off, not wanting to push Delphine away again. As much as she didn't like it, she needed the other woman to help her figure everything out.

Delphine dropped her hand and went to go sit up against the wall. "You think my Father was selling military secrets to Marian Bowles." She said.

"It's not outside the realm of possibility, is it?" Cosima asked.

She ran a hand through her hair, leaving it atop her head, hair still clumpedbetween her fingers. She shook her head. "No, it's not. But this sect, then, where do they fit in?"

Cosima shrugged, and moved to settle next to Delphine. "No idea." Delphine laid her head on Cosima's shoulder, and Cosima threaded their fingers together. "I'm surprised you didn't take him up on his offer to repent and be absolved of our sins of the flesh." Cosima's voice wavered slightly as she spoke, which sent a pang of regret through Delphine's chest.

"I'm not sorry I did it." She responded quietly. "You're one of the best kissers I've ever met."

"Thanks, I guess." Cosima laughed. A shroud of gloom overtook her then, and she frowned. "Do you think they meant it? That we're valuable?"

"I don't know."

"What happens when we're not valuable anymore? Will we know too much to be allowed to live?"

Delphine raised her head to look at her. "Cosima." Her gaze flickered from one eye to the other. "Live in the moment. We may not get many more."

The words knocked the breath from her lungs, and she looked down to the dirty floor. If she died soon, what did she want to be doing? What did she want right this second? She rarely ever asked herself that specific question. She looked back up to see Delphine still watching her, and the answer was clear.

She surged forward and caught Delphine's lips in a searing kiss. She forced her roughly to the floor, hovering over her and turning her attention to the long, tanned neck below her. "What are you doing?" Delphine gasped, hands tightening around Cosima's shoulders.

"Living in the moment." Cosima mumbled clumsily around nips to Delphine's neck. "Pissing off Christian extremist assholes."

Delphine let out a little moan as Cosima ground herself down into her. "Do you think goading our captors is wise?"

"Don't care." Cosima was running her tongue along the dip and stretch of her collarbone, now.

She grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her away, waiting until she glanced up into her eyes to speak. "I'm still not interested in making any sort of emotional commitment to you."

"Just sex." Cosima agreed.

Delphine's brow furrowed and her lips drew into a tight line, but she nodded anyway and released her grip on Cosima's shirt.

Just sex, Cosima told herself as her tongue and lips left moist trails down Delphine's stomach toward her hips. She paused to trace the jut of her hipbones with the tip of her tongue, then bite down roughly on one of them. Delphine groaned and forced more of her skin into Cosima's mouth. Just incredible sex, she reminded herself as she shut her eyes to focus on the feeling of Delphine's cunt squeezing around her tongue and then, a few minutes later, her fingers. She tasted amazing, just like Cosima somehow instinctively knew she would, and she realized that yes, actually if a guard walked in and shot her right now, there was nothing she'd rather be doing. Just really incredible sex. Delphine let out a long whimper as she came, forcing her thighs to stay apart so she didn't smother Cosima. Her hips and legs jerk stiffly with the effort of it, and Cosima couldn't help but run her hands along taut, trembling thighs.

Cosima kissed her way slowly back up Delphine's body, smiling into her skin at the occasional spasming aftershock. She reached her face and Delphine tugged her in for a kiss, not even the slightest bit concerned about how her own wetness coated Cosima's face, or how she would be getting it all over her own with no shower in sight. Just really incredible sex with the most gorgeous woman ever.

NBD.