In the morning Delphine wakes up early, the alarm clock rings a few times before she stretches her hand for the phone and shuts it down. It takes a moment before her mind catches up with what's going on with her life and when it does, she groans and pulls the blankets over her head, wanting to steal a few more minutes from the morning. But it's no use, her mind is already alerted, gears turning full speed, making a list of everything she must do in only a day.
As she moves around the house, Delphine is careful not to wake up the petite woman sleeping on the couch. Cosima has shut the blinds on the living room the night before, but the door leading to the kitchen was left open and the space is not fully dark, allowing Delphine to move about without bumping into anything. When the blonde leaves the bathroom, still drying her hair with a towel, while another is wrapped around her body, she's startled by Cosima's eyes on her, head peering over the back of the couch.
"You're leaving?" She asks in a voice still hoarse from sleep.
"I need to go to work," Delphine answers, restarting to move, recovered from the initial shock. "But I'll try to get out early, probably will be back at lunch," she muses aloud. "We have a long trip ahead of ourselves."
Cosima seems to relax after hearing this, resting her back against the pillow but with her eyes she continues to follow the doctor's every move. "How long will it take?"
"At least 3 hours each way," Delphine goes to the bedroom and leaves a sliver of the door open so the clone can hear her. "Plus the time we'll spend there." She dresses as she speaks, her mind working around another solution. "Perhaps is better if we take the train."
"And it will be faster?" Cosima asks from the other room.
"Much," Delphine says, reaching for her phone. "We can catch the TGV that leaves early in the afternoon, it will take less than half the time."
"Or you can call in sick and we leave right now."
Still buttoning her blouse, Delphine returns to the living room. "No," she quickly replies. "I don't want to bring more attention to myself than necessary."
"Right, right..." Cosima nods. "Good thinking."
The Frenchwoman looks at her with a raised brow. The clone appears to be a little less hostile this morning, it seems the night on the couch did her good. Perhaps Delphine should've been firmer from the start; she has given Cosima and the rest of the clones too much power. Maybe she should've kept them in a shorter leash when it came to deal with her directly.
"I also want to get there early, before most of the institute's staff arrives," Delphine goes on to explain, slipping on her heels. "See if I can get close to the area where I believe the cure is being stored without raise big, red flags."
"Won't they see you on the cameras?" Cosima asks frowning and choking down a yan. "What time is it anyway?"
"Six thirty," Delphine answers without pause. "And I'll try to avoid the cameras," she pulls the blazer over her shoulders. "Call it a test drive. If I can do this and no one brings it up, then I know it can be done."
"I really don't think that's a good idea," Cosima says low.
Finally Delphine stops and looks at the clone, finding big, brown eyes pinned on her. "Better be caught now, that I'm not doing anything wrong, than later."
Cosima's concerned expression follows her to the door. "I'd prefer if you didn't get caught, if that's okay with you."
The blonde gives a small smile and nods. "Get some more sleep," she opens the door. "I'll be back for lunch."
Her old place is much further from the Institute than she's used to and in an area of the city that's not so well served by public transportation, which means that, in order to avoid the long commute, Delphine has to take the car. But that's the only thing that changes in her routine. After parking in the DYAD's lot, she goes to the same bakery she does every day and orders the same thing: black coffee and a plain croissant to go. She waves the security guard and scans her key card to register her entry, knowing that the early hour won't cause too much fuss, since she comes early every time the workload starts to stack up on her desk. The only change is that, instead of staying at her desk after she logs on to her account and opens the first email waiting for her, she leaves.
With the lab coat on, she walks the silent, empty hallways of her wing. Most offices have the door wide open, lights off, confirming that she's the first to arrive. As casually as she can, Delphine takes notice of the cameras in this part of the building, not surprised to see that, aside from the two that guard each entrance to the corridor, there aren't any. The most sensitive information is in the labs and this area only houses offices.
The story changes when she reaches the labs. Not only is the hall well covered with security cameras, but there's a biometric lock on each of the labs and a camera directly aimed at the door. Unfortunately Delphine's clearance only gets her so far and the section which holds anything related to the clones' project is out of reach. The area itself is separated by a thick, white and very well locked door, only a small window allows her to peer into the place, not that it'll tell her anything new. Delphine knows the area, she has worked there for over two years when working on the cure and knows that it's composed by two small labs that side the big, main one where the cure is kept frozen in a refrigerated backroom. The only problems is that she wasn't looking for cameras and other security measures when she worked there. However, like the other labs, she knows that only a index print with the right security clearance will give her access and, since the outside of the labs is relatively small, cameras easily cover the entire space.
Leekie might be a tad insane, but his advice about ski masks isn't completely misplaced. There's no way she can get in there undetected. The Russian's gadget may have a way around the biometric locks, but the cameras will always get her.
All this Delphine notices as she slowly walks to one of the labs she does has access to. Not wanting to linger, she scans her finger and pushes the door open. Once inside, the doctor takes the opportunity to check on some of the works she has under her responsibility. Thirty minutes later she's leaving. In the halls she crosses scientists who are arriving for the morning and calmly greets them.
Delphine doesn't leave her office the rest of the morning, wondering when will someone come in or summon her presence to question her about the early tour. No one ever does though and she works without much interruptions, save for the occasional, harmless phone call from one of her staffers asking for her opinion about the development of a project.
"Claude, would you come in here, please," she calls her assistant over the phone when the lunch hour is upon her. A faint knock on the door followed by the young man makes her raise her eyes from the lab report she's going over. "How's my schedule looking for the afternoon?" She asks.
"Aside from a conference call with Berlin at four, it's completely clear," he answers without needing to check her agenda, because Claude is the kind of assistant who makes it his mission to know everything there is to know about the person he's working for, without meddling into her personal affairs.
"Can that be rescheduled?"
He smiles. "I'm sure that's possible," Claude says and prepares to leave, easily reading into her meaning, but stops short of the door. "Dr. Cormier…" he hesitates for a moment before continuing. "Maybe you should take a few days off. I can make adjustments to your schedule… hmm… give you a week or so. You haven't had three days in a row for months."
Delphine leans back, the leather of her chair creaks while she sighs and rakes her fingers through her curls. "Do I look that bad?" She asks with a weak smile.
He chuckles and shakes his head. "You just look tired."
"Maybe a couple of days," she says. "I'll think about it."
He gives her a knowing look, his boss has no intention to follow through. It's not that Delphine's not dreaming about vacation, she knows she desperately needs it too. Unfortunately, it will be a terrible idea to disappear if her mission is successful and if it's not, she'll see herself having plenty of free time since she'll be out of a job - if not with her ass in jail.
There's a pleasant smell coming from inside her apartment when Delphine reaches the front door and once she opens it she hears music coming from the kitchen, low base fills the house. The blonde smiles to herself, placing the purse on the couch, where the bedsheets Cosima used at night are neatly folded on a corner and strips her coat, draping it on the headrest before moving to the kitchen.
Cosima's swaying her hips at the rhythm of the beat blaring from the speaker of the phone placed on the small kitchen table, with her back to the door, distracted by whatever she's doing on the counter, the clone had failed to notice Delphine's arrival. The doctor stands by the door for a couple of minutes, silently observing the other woman, the same smile on her lips, before she announces her presence.
"What are you doing?" She asks in a soft voice, so not to startle the dancing woman.
Still, Cosima turns around gasping, a hand placed over her heart as if to slow it down. "Lunch," she answers when she recovers. "I figure it would be nice… you cooked dinner last night, I fix lunch today," she explains, turning back around while she continues to talk. "You see… it's a little thing called reciprocation."
Delphine approaches her from behind and sneaks a peek over her shoulder. "Do you need help?" She asks, watching the clone put two of the stakes she's brought yesterday on the hot pan, where they sizzle softly, in a pot mashed potatoes emanate a strong scent of nutmeg.
"Nah, it's okay. I've got this under control," Cosima moves her face to the side and smiles. "Mostly," she adds with a wink.
The blonde chuckles and moves back to give her some room. "Alright," she nods and walks to the door. "I'm going to clean up. If you need anything just call."
After leaving the bathroom Delphine searches for the phone in her bag, hearing Cosima's curse loudly as she dropped something metallic on the floor, judging by the noise. She twists her lips, but doesn't dare to enter the kitchen, thinking it's probably better not to know exactly what happened. A neurotic feeling pinches the back of her head just thinking about someone going through her stuff. At least she's trying, she reasons. Yep, the night on the couch did its job.
"Allô?"
Claire picks up the phone and Delphine refocuses her attention on what she's doing, abstracting herself from Cosima's presence. "Claire, hi," she answers softly, relieved to hear the voice of her girlfriend without any trace of the hurt from their last conversation.
"Is everything okay?" She sounds slightly concerned. "Why are you calling so early?"
The doctor forces her brain to walk the hallways of misdirection she's not used to cross when talking with her partner. "I'll be working late today," she says, hating the lie. "I don't know what time I'll get out and was afraid to catch you sleeping."
"You work too much, Delphine," she says and it only makes Delphine feel worse. "One day they're going to usurp your soul."
She snorts, but it's a humourless thing. "I talked with Claude about taking some days off when things slow down. We can go somewhere." Even before she's finished she can feel the bitter taste of deception in her mouth.
"Things will never slow down," Claire replies in a low tone, and the doctor feels cornered because her girlfriend tends to be right about these things. "Anyway," the other woman says after a silence that stretches for too long. "I believe it when we're both lying on a sunny beach, improving our tans."
This time the laughter is a little more honest. "Sipping cold margaritas," Delphine jokes and enjoys the laugh on the other end. "I got to go," she says after a long breath.
"I know," Claire's voice returns to the somber intonation. "Call me tomorrow?"
"Of course," Delphine nods even if her girlfriend can't see it.
It takes a brief moment before they hang up, neither of them very good at maneuvering themselves between feelings they don't know how to express, nor ever needed to until now. When, with a sigh, Delphine turns around she sees Cosima standing by the kitchen door, her eyes on the doctor with a curious expression that she doesn't know what it means.
"Was that Claire?" Cosima asks casually, her arms crossed over her chest. Delphine, however, is not in the right frame of mind to grant her an answer. "It was her, wasn't it? She doesn't know I'm here and you don't like that you have to hide it from her," the brunette says with a disarming certainty.
"I thought you didn't speak French," the blonde comments under her breath, putting her phone back on the bag.
"I don't," Cosima shakes her head and uncrosses her arms, setting them free to fly around but with short movements. "But I could tell by the tone of your voice." When Delphine raises a brow in her direction, the clones' expression softens. "That and the fact that you never mentioned my name," she adds a little lighter.
"Very perceptive of you," the Frenchwoman mumbles, passing by the smaller woman on her way to the kitchen. "Is the food ready?" She asks, immediately removing her eyes from the mess on the counter.
"As ready as it'll ever be," Cosima answers, following her close behind.
They eat mostly in silence and Delphine's surprised to discover that, despite the chaotic state she has left the cooking area, Cosima knows her way around the kitchen. She even insists on cleaning up after they're finished.
By two-thirty they're ready to leave.