Orphans Beloved: "Beth Rhymes With Death…"
Summary: Like my Immortal Beloved and Sheldon Swifties bits in my Buffyverse and Sheldonverse, these are fragments and short bits, some longer…Just to fiddle with ideas, possibly forming longer tales later.
Disclaimer: No copy write infringement intended…
Part XIV…
Fung's…
Grim unblinking stare…Sigh…
The sounds about them in the restaurant magnified by the cool silence…
"Art…" Blood draining from her face as she looked for anything hopeful in his expression.
"I can't buy this, Ms. Duncan." He noted quietly.
"After all you've seen and heard…" she tried.
"You've been dead…According to you. How would you know what I've seen and heard?"
"I have access to Rachel Duncan's files, I checked." Wan attempt at sheepish smile.
Fading as Art eyed her.
"And all you remember…?" Art sighed. Regarding the woebegone face before him…I kept the Rachel look, I'm not trying to slide anything past, Art, she'd noted…
"Is waking up in the ER, being patched up by Dyad's people…"
"After my last memory of strollin' into a train headfirst, and seein' my sister, Sarah, just as I did." Wan smile. "So she really has a daughter?"
"Lets stick to the basics…." He eyed her. "I've never believed in ESP or telepathy or out of body crap. Assuming…And I don't…You're not lying…That would mean someone did something to you. If it was an experiment, no one you've met at Dyad knows about it or they're keep it very mum."
"I don't think most of the ones I've met could…Exceptin' that Marion and maybe that Dr. Nealon…And the last one, Ferdinand. I think he could cover it and get rid of anyone. Art?" she looked up at him, hopeful. "Does this mean…?"
"No. But I'm always willing to entertain a wild theory for a bit. Sometimes they are the right answer. But you must admit it's not too looking too good for this one."
Tell me he keeps having to bite back the "Beth"…She thought.
"I don't know how or why, Art. I only know it is me." Sadly. "I've missed you, so…"
"Suddenly we were in a romantic relationship?" he eyed her.
"No…But I know now I wish to God we had been…" sigh. "I love you, Arthur. Whether you believe me or believe I'm Beth…I love you and of all the things that have happened, it's hurting you and using you the way I did and worst of all, knowing I'd lost you, that hurt the most."
"Beth never had me." Cold reply. "Miss Duncan, I don't know what sort of game this is…To use me or get me sympathizing with you…Playing on my feelings…"
"I wish to God I'd died that day, I mean, permanently, sometimes…And then I keep thinking…Where there's this dipshit of a life, there's some miserable dipshit of hope. Hope I'd see you again. That and the hope of hanging those Dyad bastards out to dry is what kept me from jumpin' out that Dyad hospital window." She eyed him.
"And the bullet- and shatter-proof glass of course." She grinned at him. He eyeing her.
"Oh, for God's sake Art…Tell me at least you wish it were true. Give your non-Jewish Princess partner something to live for."
"I wish it were. I did love Beth dearly, as my friend and partner."
"Well, that was lovely…" Beth, dryly. "But I know…We don't bring that shit in here." Calm stare…
And I know…It wasn't my friend and partner who threw everything he believed in and his career out the window to put that cell phone in Margaret Chen's hand.
"I've been told you were quite the professional in your way, Ms. Duncan." He noted.
"Thanks…" grim stare. "That's no admission…Damn you, you're trying to psych me out…Just like day one." she frowned. Finally grinning at him… "Dipshit."
He suddenly chuckled…Shaking his head. Then trembling, collapsed in his seat, falling on his side.
"Art?!" she gasped. "Art!" scream…She slid over…
"No…NO!...Art!" she grabbed him, as he groaned. "Help!" she screamed.
"Who's that?" a bored blonde waitress hissed to an assistant manager as the maitre'd frantically dialed 911… "Aren't they the two cops who always used come for lunch?"
"Looks like 'em. Guess they finally broke up and the guy couldn't take it." The other shrugged.
…
"It's Art…" Fee noted to the others, pulling his buzzing phone. "I guess we're ready for Operation Retrieve Sestra… Hello, Arthur." He addressed the phone. "What?! Who is this? Who?!"
Sarah, Cosima, Alison exchanging worrying looks…
"Cosima…" he looked to Cosima, dumbfounded, she staring at him… "Beth Childs wants to talk to you."
….
Dyad Institute…
"Yes…" Ferdinand addressed his phone, nodding with bright smile to the clone secretary bringing in his coffee. "Thanks, Martha…I know, late in the day for it but I'm addicted." Grin. "I know it's only two but you may as well head out once you've got everything secured, I'll go in a bit myself. Just not that much piled yet." Wave… "See you tomorrow!' He turned back to phone. "So Rachel left for a luncheon appointment at a downtown restaurant…Fung's?"
Fung's? He stared. What the hell's…
"And…? She met with…?" he blinked, listening. "Really, Detective Arthur Bell, our late subject Elisabeth Childs' partner? Interesting. I don't suppose…? He what? Just like that, after talking to her?"
Hmmn…Maybe Rachel has decided to get a little back from Sarah, picking off friends?…He pondered.
"She did, to the hospital? That was nice of her…" he noted, calmly.
And unprecedented…
"You did follow? Good, so…? Still in the ER for testing…? What about any visitors, our subjects, perhaps?" he shifted in his chair, clicking on laptop. "Ok, so far, no one…" he clicked on a file with Art's photo.
"Was there anything else?" he sat up. "Really? She wept? Rachel Duncan? And she demanded immediate care and insisted on entering the CICU as a 'family member'? No, that is not the Rachel we know…Very curious." He clicked through his laptop file of Dyad's report on Arthur Bell.
Hmmn…Ex-Marine, divorced, excellent record as a peace officer…Leekie argued to leave him as Beth's partner despite Topside's suggestion a monitor be put in….Run in with that psychotic Rosen leading to his temporary suspension and now he seems quite the Sir Galahad, protecting the fair damsels who so resemble his lost partner. But not a thing to suggest any connection to Rachel…Unless…
Interesting…
Unless Rachel's seen to it that any connections were purged or she never let them be recorded. He tapped his mouse to his chin.
"Oh, sorry…I was getting wrapped up in something. Thanks for the info, I don't think there's any point in you staying at the hospital and risking attention. Have a good evening." He ended the call.
"Rachel, Rachel, Rachel…" he eyed an inset hospital image of Rachel/Beth with eye bandage on screen. "Just what have you been up to with our late lamented subject's police partner, eh?" he dialed a number on the phone.
"Hello, Ferdinand here. I need any and all data on Arthur Bell, the Toronto police detective who was our late subject Beth Child's partner? I need to know specifically if he's met with Rachel Duncan under any circumstances in the past year? And I'll need anything you have on Rachel's contact outside Dyad in the same time frame? Thanks. Asap, yes." He ended call.
Very curious…Rachel weeping for a police officer she'd ordered suspended and suggested termination on as part of the Helsinki protocol should it be implemented here. Very curious.
I think I need to pay a call again on Ms. Duncan, see how she's been getting on.
And if she really is Rachel Duncan… Though there is one easy and relatively painless way to confirm that…He opened phone.
"Hello, this is Ferdinand. I'd like to request a special surveillance and diagnostic on subject A12321, Rachel Duncan. Yes, tonight if possible. Yes, she's still at her current address, far as I am aware. But let me confirm that she's there before you go in, ok. Keep the team small, all we need is a fresh swab sample for DNA verification. Good." He clicked off and redialed.
"Dr. Cormier? Yes, Ferdinand, here. We need to meet immediately, in my office. Yes, quite important."
…
Toronto General Hospital…CICU Waiting area…
"Cosima…" Beth rose…Sheepish look to Cosima's grim stare…
"Ms. Duncan…."
"You must be…" Beth offered Fee a smile.
"We met when you injected me full of a Dyad special…" Felix grimly. "You know the hospital never did manage to fully id what it was, though Delphine was able to confirm it wasn't fatal. Sarah sends her best and hopes the eye's excruciatingly painful."
"What are you doing here, Rachel? What did you do to Officer Bell?" Cosima, coldly.
"Nothing…Cosima…"
"I don't want to hear it. No." Cosima put up a hand. "You should go. You're not welcome here."
"I didn't do anything to Art, Cosima." Beth pleaded. "I called you. I got him here."
"Put him here, from the look of it." Fee glared.
"Rachel, I don't care if this is a scheme or if you really are crazy…" Cosima began.
"You're out at Dyad's the word." Fee cut in, impatiently. "Meaning you have no 'muscle' to throw at us. No Daniel, no Paul."
"Paul?" Beth stared. "He works for Rachel…Right? I saw his file, she was upset about his leaving or something…"
Cosima eyed Felix who shrugged…
Maybe she is crazy.
"I think you should go home, Rachel. Call your doctor, maybe." Cosima insisted.
"I'm Beth, Cosima…I'm the Beth who brought us together."
"You are either deranged or viciously sick." Cosima, coldly. "If you stay, I will call Sarah, tell her that you're here and somehow involved in whatever's happened to Officer Bell, and we will finish what we started at Dyad. Now, I've asked politely. Get out."
Beth eyed them both.
"Tell Art…"
"Nothing. We're telling him nothing…" Cosima, grimly.
"You need to go, sister." Fee, calmly.
"We had dinner at Fung's when you first came here to hear me out about us, what Katja told me about the other clones and all. You had spinach fettucine and red wine and told me even told it sounded crazy you couldn't help hoping it was true, cause God, it would be so cool." Beth, hastily to Cosima. "Even if Rachel had had us monitored that night she couldn't have known all that."
"It doesn't prove a thing." Cosima, firmly. "And I imagine Dyad's surveillance is excellent."
"And yet they never prevented us from meeting and planning? They didn't stop me from contacting all of you?"
"Enough." Cosima put up a hand. "We have to go see Art."
"I knew he'd help you…He loves me." Beth nodded. "He's been helping you since Sarah tried to pass as me and he caught on, hasn't he?"
"Lady, you need professional help whether you're truly convinced of all this or…" Fee paused. "Wait…Since you're so eager to prove you're not Rachel Duncan…Cosima? Isn't there a way we can prove it?"
"I'm not gonna waste my time…" Cosima frowned.
"What way?" Beth eyed her. "The thing is, I'm in Rachel's body…If it's a test that can distinguish us…"
"Convenient." Fee nodded. "Well, good luck, 'Detective Childs'…Maybe the Toronto PD will believe your tale and give you a job…"
"Alison…" Beth tried, desperately. "Alison knew me better than any of you…She'd know it was me."
"I'm not exposing Alison to…" Cosima began.
"To what?..." Alison, Donnie behind her, hurrying to them. "Judas Priest!" she eyed Rachel in her slightly unusual choice of suit, eye bandage and patch in place.