Cosima wakes up covered by blankets. She's been pleased with the decision to keep her sleepover area closer to the goats. A few other women share the dwelling. Mostly temporarily between partners. But none share her bed. And that is for the best, Cosima thinks. She is just passing through, and doesn't need to lay down any roots. Or form any transient bonds that might surprise her by getting less transient.

She isn't sure how she lucked out into one of the old repaired buildings. Likely because it was close to the barn and she'd volunteered to care for the goats. A good a job as any, Cosima reasoned.

She wants a few more minutes of sleep, none of the goats have milk yet. So waking up early to milk wasn't a thing, yet. But Minerva was looking rounder by the day. And Cosima thinks she's been bred too early in the season. March would be a better month for goat births, warmer.

She is about to snuggle back down into her blankets when she's awoken by footsteps far too close.

"What?"

"I… this is where single women sleep." Delphine's accented voice makes her open her eyes. She sees Delphine approach with her arms full of blankets, and a bag slung over her back.

"Yes?" Cosima answers sitting up, she's confused. She didn't think Delphine was that close to giving Mickey the boot.

"I'm moving in here. Show me where I can sleep." Delphine looks hesitant. Shifting her weight on her bare feet. Cosima sits up enough to look into the main room. Delphine had left her boots by the door. Noting what the rest of them had done.

"Make your bed on the other side." Cosima points at the other side of the smaller room. It would be the least disruptive. Though she could try to get Delphine to share with Deborah and Cheryl. But thinks better of it.

"OK." Delphine lays down her blankets, and Cosima thinks they'll need another proper mattress, but a few thick woolen blankets will provide some cushioning from the floor. And Delphine has those.

"I should get up." Cosima rises and begins to dress, it's then she catches a whiff of something unpleasant that tells her that Mickey's morning wood was clearly taken care of before Delphine came to this conclusion. She makes a face. But says nothing.

"Welcome to the ladies only cabin." Cosima tries to sound casual. Feeling anything but. Delphine arranges her few belongings and a bag.

"I need a bath." Delphine notes the look on her face and sets off for the small washing area with a towel.

"Use the tub. The gas heater is working pretty well… I think you deserve a good bath." Cosima throws out. "I am going to get to work."

"OK…I'll… make breakfast." Delphine invents. "Are Deborah or Cheryl up?"

"Go check." Cosima shrugs as she tries to dress casually. She faces the wall made of logs rather than look at Delphine while she changes. Delphine for her part, gets to bathing. She's filling the tub with an oddly calm expression on her face.

Cosima returns her attention to the goats, she feeds them in the barn. She switches which does are with Gandalf, hoping that this works. His efforts with the does are brief but she's hoping to be effective.

She doles out hay for everyone, then begins training Minerva and Sappho to come on and off the wooden milking stand in the corner. A farmer had told her she needed one with goats, to hold them steady while she milks. She closes the bar and locks Minerva's head into place. The goat bleats pitifully, and she gives her some grain in the feeding trough while scratching at Minerva's floppy ears.

"Yes. I know. But your babies can't have all the milk… And you'll need to get up here and… I am going to need a bucket." Cosima looks around and gives up. She releases Minerva, who happily returns to her pen. And then grabs Sappho.

"OK. Your turn." Cosima pulls the goat's metal collar and tempts her with food until Sappho is locked in. She offers grain as recompense and looks at the goat's udder. Nothing seems to be happening, but she was told Sappho had bred at the end of October. Maybe there was a lot of time to go. Or maybe she should toss her in with Gandalf to make sure.

She doesn't expect to see Delphine sliding open the barn door, wool gloves on her hands to block off the November chill. Nor did she expect to see Delphine helping her clean out the goat pens. Shoveling soiled straw and excrement out into a wheelbarrow, and carefully wheeling it out.

"I thought you watched kids?"

Delphine shakes her head upon her return. "I switched with Cindy, and Judith agreed you needed help. And will need more once there are goats to milk every day."

"OK." Cosima nods. They work in relative silence for a while. And when things are cleaner, she finds Delphine leaning over a pen petting one of the youngest goats.

"They are cute…" Delphine mutters to herself. "Maybe it is the long ears?"

Cosima laughs a little under her breath. "They are…"

"What… What really brought you here? It's not just…"

"Not just you." Cosima concedes. Though that had been part of it. She doesn't want to deny it entirely. Whatever pull had drawn her to Delphine in the first place is still there. And this scenario of sharing space would leave a lot more room for fantasy.

"What made you leave your job? You seemed… so normal. So functional."

"Fred."

"Fred?"

"He was a junior manager at the bank. He… took an interest in me. I said no. A lot. And one day, he gets my address from payroll and shows up at my place with flowers one weekend morning. Probably wanted to take me for a romantic stroll."

Delphine laughs a little. "I am sorry. Go on."

"I… wasn't alone." Cosima admits softly.

"A lover?"

She shakes her head. That wasn't it. Not for a woman she'd slept with only once to ease her loneliness. "Only for the one night. I met her at a bar… for people like me." Cosima finishes quietly.

"For homosexuals." Delphine reads between the lines more easily now. And Cosima wonders if she makes more sense to her now.

"For lesbians, homosexual women." Cosima tilts her head and continues. "I tried brushing off her presence, but she outed me to Fred in her… extremely politicized dyke-dom. And… I resigned before I was fired."

"I am so sorry." Delphine shakes her head.

"Me too. But it's been an adventure." Cosima's voice brightens noticeably. "I've met tons of interesting people. Played with goats… And by spring I expect I'll be on my way… onto the next thing."

"Whatever that may be." Delphine nods, seemingly understanding.

"Whatever that may be." Cosima agrees.

"I… have thoroughly given up on my plans." Delphine volunteers. "I don't want to be deported. But Michael won't marry me… and he… he won't understand me. And he… won't respect me."

"That may be the bigger problem."

"It probably is. He knows I risk deportation if we do not marry. He is unconcerned." Delphine shakes her head. "He is unconcerned about everything ." She spits out the last words with considerable spite and Cosima decies to not pry.

"And you are."

"I have to be, Cosima. It is my life." Delphine defends herself, but her voice is soft.

"Yeah. You do." Cosima nods. "But what is so bad about going back to France?"

Delphine looks stunned by the question but only for a moment.

"Hey, let's bundle up and walk. I feel like seeing the orchard."

"OK." Delphine agrees, and they bundle up to leave the barn. She pulls on the boiled wool jacket, it's too big. Cosima thinks. But it's warm. She walks quietly beside Delphine for a while, before starting to speak.

"I struggle with the cold the most." Cosima admits. "California is not like this."

"I think a lot of us will…. This is not a commune where one can trip on acid and make love all day in the warm sun." Delphine snorts.

"No. It's not. I don't think I could tolerate that kind." Cosima laughs at the thought. If that were the case, she'd have grabbed Delphine and gotten out of there fast. And she thinks, in that case, Delphine may have let her.

"This is far more practical. And more family oriented than I was expecting. But I think that's Judith."

"Yeah. Patrick goes with what his wife says more often than not…"

"I think…" Delphine begins, crossing her arms to keep warm. "I don't want to fail. I told everyone I was going to go be a doctor in America. Make… my own life. Maybe find more freedom than I had in France. To study and then practice medicine. To… have something all my own."

"And then… no green card?"

"No green card." Delphine echoes. "It wasn't easy. I thought, I thought it would be easy."

"And then it wasn't…."

"And then… I decided I must marry an American." Delphine snorts. "My boyfriend in university. He wanted to marry me… We were together for two years. And when I told him no, I was going to be a doctor. I wasn't going to marry him… he left me."

"Oooh… from thoroughly modern woman to wannabe housewife." Cosima cannot resist teasing, just a little.

"Not a housewife. Just… married. After that… it doesn't matter. Because it buys me time." Delphine shrugs.

"Well… I don't think anyone is hunting you down out here." Cosima waves a hand around. "I don't agree on much with Mickey… Michael." Cosima corrects after catching sight of Delphine's expression. "But if he expressed that particular belief, I don't think he's entirely wrong. We're pretty off grid here. Your name isn't on anything. It could take a long time to find you here."

"He didn't." Delphine says stiffly. "He… didn't want to understand me. I was just… I was just a woman to him. Someone to make love to and keep warm and to fuss over him and help him."

"That's all?"

"I think so." Delphine sighs. "And that is over now. I can't anymore. Not with Michael. Not with anyone here… I don't trust them. Not to understand what I need. Or want it too."

"I think you might be right." Cosima accepts it.

"Well… now what?"

"Well you can help me with my chores? We can help with lunch… and then we'll try to get you a better bed. Something more comfortable."

"OK." Delphine agrees, following her.

"OK."

The first few days pass somewhat quietly. And Cosima tries her best to not pry. Not ask about the events of the morning that led to Delphine sharing her living space. She benefits from it, with Delphine's habits of making them breakfast. Of ensuring that her boots are by the door as are warm clothing before they go to bed.

Mickey gives Delphine space, at least for now. The fight must have been nasty, Cosima thinks. And immediately after sex at that. She has a particular suspicion as to what happened, involving a rather rude awakening but Delphine doesn't volunteer any details.

She sees him a few times, but he's never had much interest in her. Or Deborah, who has begun trying to express her interest to the clueless Mickey. Either that or he was really set on blondes. Cosima didn't think it mattered either way.

"No ring, no sex… Can you believe it?" Mickey scoffs, eating his dinner of stew grumpily. He complains to a few other men. Some of them rib him. A few have already impregnated their partners, Cosima assumes.

"I think that's fair." Cosima states loudly. "Given as it's her body."

"She's a square. Looks like one of us… won't just…let go and let the universe take hold." Mickey grumbles and she notes the other men nodding, but saying nothing. Letting him vent whatever frustrations he had.

Cosima snorts, shaking her head and goes to sit with Delphine. He is an idiot. And she gets more time with Delphine because of it.

"He is complaining." Delphine tells her dryly.

"Let Patrick handle him…" Cosima brushes it off. "Patrick told one of the guys to lay off me in the second week. Told him I should choose freely."

"It makes sense… and if we choose no one."

"We can be the weird spinsters… Well you will… I think they're realizing I am a lesbian." Cosima shrugs. "I don't hide it that well."

"I wouldn't have known."

"How many homosexuals have you known, Delphine?"

"My mother has a friend, a man… she's known from childhood. Just him. Just Bernard. My mother's strange friend."

"Strange?"

"He… has an effeminate manner. I never really… thought much about female homosexuals at all." Delphine admits readily. "It didn't intersect with my life… not until you."

"And now?"

"Well, what of it?" Delphine's brow furrows in the middle. And Cosima admits she is cute. Almost irresistibly cute. And it wasn't simply Delphine's beauty. Maybe it was her mind… or these moments where the draw between them feels strong. And makes her wonder if there's any chance it could flow both ways.

"Well you're living in close quarters with one."

"It's like living with any other woman." Delphine seems unphased. "What? What is the difference?"

"Yes… because it's far more… well… in theory than in practice right now." Cosima laughs. She hasn't had sex since she had with Lisa. And before that… How many months had it been? Did it matter?

"I see." Delphine giggles a little, whether awkwardly or amused remains to be seen. "Do you… enjoy it?"

"Yes…" Cosima smiles widely, but does not elaborate.

Delphine shakes her head. "It… sounds like… an awkward endeavour."

"Only if you don't know what you're doing. Plus… I have a feeling you understand… awkward and uncomfortable endeavours maybe more than I do."

"You didn't… you didn't hear us." Delphine lowers her voice.

"Uhh only once or twice." Cosima admits. "Trust me. I stayed away from there at night. No thanks."

Delphine nods quietly saying nothing.

"It doesn't matter, Delphine. It doesn't change anything." Cosima feels the need to say it. In spite of everything. She still hopes that when they leave they leave her together.

The next day it snows and the snow stays. People are angrier at first, colder and learning to cope with cold weather. But fires are lit, wood stoves are well maintained, there's a bonfire outside every afternoon. Cindy takes it upon herself to ensure everyone stays warm, and quite a few men chop wood. The others take work in the nearest town.

But the evenings pose a problem when everyone returns. Cosima thinks. Particularly with Mickey's lack of acceptance of his loss of Delphine as a lover. She doesn't particularly want Mickey barging into the cabin while she's washing up, or filling the tub.

Delphine sighs whenever she sees him. And that too, is reassuring. At least in one sense.

"Mickey. No. It's not going to work, man. You and Delphine are done." Cosima tells him on the sixth day since Delphine had changed her living quarters.

"None of your business Cosima…" Mickey shakes his head. "Delphine. I was wrong, baby. Please come back. It was just a stupid fight. Our love is strong. We gotta give it another shot."

"And what were you wrong about?" Delphine is quick to counter him herself.

"Marriage is totally fine… But I am not ready to settle down… and I am sorry about the…" Mickey trails off. "Cosima, can you leave?"

"No. I live here."

"Cosima… Space please."

"Fine. I'll go be with the goats." She throws up her hands and heads out to the barn. But when she returns Delphine is making her breakfast and laughing with Cheryl. And Mickey is nowhere to be seen.

"What happened to our uninvited guest?" Cosima asks softly leaning in close.

"He went to work." Delphine gives a little shrug.

"And after that?"

"He won't be back. I told him that we are over. And I may have to tell him again."