The news hung in the air, and a flicker of resolve faded in Cosima's eyes as she slowly lowered herself back to the couch with a little help from Sarah. "We're gonna figure something out. We've got the sequences, we just need to crack them." Cosima's hands wandered, smoothing the sleeves of Sarah's scrubs. She looked beat. "Are you okay? I mean, the surgery, did they—" The vague listing on Rachel's schedule left her ideas she was too afraid to voice.
"They wanted to do an oopherectomy, didn't get too far, thanks to you." Sarah shuddered to think what would've happened had they succeeded. Even when Cosima was barely upright, fighting off tremors, she was more focused on Sarah's well-being. It was amazing.
"Geez." Cosima looked away. It was ruthless and fitting for DYAD's tactics. Just another way to gather data to them.
"But Delphine, she can still help, yeah?" Lord knows, she had to be useful for something
"She's in Frankfurt." Cosima shook her head. "Or, on the way to Frankfurt, I guess." Her help was off the table for now. "Rachel's orders."
"Shite, Cos." That was a lot of heartache for one day.
"Yeah." No Duncan, no cipher, no cure. The gravity was not lost on Cosima.
Alison rejoined the pair after Kira went down for a nap. The Clone Club was together again. They looked to each other, equally lost in this mess, hoping one might have the key to securing their future.
Sarah broke the silence. "There's someone I'm meetin' tomorrow. She helped spring me loose, says she knows the truth about us."
"Marion Bowles? Powersuit got me too." Cosima perked up a little.
"Who is she?" Alison was always the last to know these sorts of details.
"A big deal, apparently." Sarah shrugged. "I don't know. Someone in that thick with DYAD has to be hiding something."
"International conspiracy, faked deaths, what else is left?" Cosima was showing glints of her formerly animated self.
"Got a point, I 'spose." Sarah flipped her hair nervously.
"If she really is in charge, she's got a heck of a lot of explaining to do." Alison had never wanted a glass of wine so freakin badly.
"You gonna let me borrow your glue gun, then?" Sarah smirked, clinging to that sense of humor.
It was a fleeting moment of joy for the sisters. Even Alison couldn't help but smile after rolling her eyes.
"Right, Cal's downstairs waitin', he really wants to meet you guys."
"Oh, we're old pals." Cosima raised an eyebrow, resting her chin on her hand.
Alison piled a fresh, neatly folded pile of clothes next to Sarah. "Hop to it then, let's get you out of these scrubs." If she was to meet this Cal fellow, he certainly wouldn't allow him to think she'd let her sister stay dressed like this around company.
A few minutes later, Sarah slid open the giant metal door. Handsome lumberjack of a man, as promised. He tried really hard to mask the surprise of seeing the three of them together, in the flesh.
"You gonna make it, man?" Cosima teased his speechlessness.
"Yeah, yeah." He laughed, finding his words again. "Kira's drawing just doesn't do you ladies justice."
"Right, you've met Cosima, the cheeky one, this is Alison."
"The soccer mom, right?"
"Mhmm." Alison somehow managed to stand even straighter. Felix was right, he was Donnie's polar opposite. "What do you do, Cal?" It was part information gathering, part suburban small talk.
"I was a software engineer, now I'm kinda off the grid."
"Deep undercover, just like that?" Alison brought him a beer he never asked for, somehow managing to play host in someone else's home. She wished she could've vanished off the grid a few times in the last few months.
"You find ways to get by, it's actually kinda nice." He took a sip of the beer. "Get to spend a lot of time outdoors."
"So, um, how did you two meet?" Cosima made sure to get her digs in. The sisters were putting the man through the paces. It was just like any other family.
Sarah and Cal looked to each other. It was a little easier to laugh at it after what they'd been through the last couple of weeks.
"It's a bit complicated…" Her sisters knew she had a troubled past, but she'd never given them the details of her pre-clone club life quite like this.
"She robbed me blind." Cal cut in. It was part of their history. Their strange, wonderful, convoluted history.
"Really? How much?"
"Cosima!"
"What, you're not curious?"
"It was a long time ago." Sarah felt her cheeks flush. "And it was the easiest 10 grand I ever made."
"Holy sh-ugar cubes." Alison's mouth hung agape. She knew she was capable of it, hell, she almost ran off with 75 grand when they met, but managing to score that much off a guy like Cal? She was almost proud.
"Hot damn." Cosima raised an eyebrow. She couldn't say she was too surprised, if she'd learned one thing about Sarah in all this mess, it's that she always found a way to survive.
"Now that you know the basics, can I ask how a soccer mom and a scientist manage to stumble on all this mess?" Cal figured it was his turn to get a few rounds in.
"I can give you the quick and dirty version." Cosima coughed, the ticking clock threaded through her nostrils reminding her of her limits.
"One of us was a cop." Alison took over. "She found us through the DMV files."
Her absence and the past tense description told Cal he should back off a little.
"Kinda hard not to buy into the clone theory after we all got together." Cosima explained. "So I took some samples back to school and been trying to figure us out ever since." The coughs started coming harder. "The uh, sexy nose tubes are thanks to an autoimmune disease we can't figure out." If he wanted in on Clone Club, he might as well know the whole story.
"…And that's what the tooth and the bone marrow were all about." He was finally putting the pieces together.
"The tooth was a band-aid, but the marrow might have helped." Cosima nodded. "Fun, right?" The reality of the situation was anything but.
Alison resumed her nervous pacing, it was just her body's way of coping with everything that'd happened. She'd spent her whole life believing everything would be perfect as long as she followed the rules. Keep a perfect home, and be the perfect wife with the perfect life. Here, she had no answers. There was no plan to study. Her sister was dying, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop it.
"Ya got any more depressin' questions for us?" Sarah hoped to right the sinking mood.
"I gotta hand it to you, you guys are pretty amazing." It took resilience to fight their battle, and he was in awe of how well they'd banded together.
"We find our ways." Alison let a smile escape. It was hard to pass up a compliment when it came from that gorgeous, bearded face.
"Just FYI, if you mess with Sarah, we're gonna have to kick your ass." Cosima smiled. "Sorry man, rules of Clone Club."
"Message received." He laughed, putting his hands up defensively. "Alright, I better get going, gotta take care of a few things before tomorrow."
"Come on, I'll walk ya down." Sarah rolled her eyes
"Well, tonight was certainly informative." He headed for the door.
"Gimme five?" Sarah followed him out, looking to her sisters.
"Later Cal." Cosima waved. He got the seal of approval.
"Take care." He looked her in the eye. He sincerely hoped their efforts would lead her to a better treatment.
"Yeah, nice to meet you."
"He's hot!" Alison mouthed once his back was turned. Cosima added her nod of approval. Sarah couldn't help but smile. This was what growing up with sisters was like. In this turbulent time, it was comforting. These two had her back, no matter what was coming around the corner. She closed the door behind her, leaving the two alone once more.
Cosima melted back to the couch, physically drained by the busy afternoon. Cal's visit almost made her forget about the corner she'd been painted into by DYAD. It was time to get back to her devastating reality. She was living on borrowed time, and the people who could help her were out of reach. She folded her arms, burrowing against the couch in an attempt to feel warm again. Her logic was winning out. The scientist in her knew too much to try to conjure more hope for her sisters to cling on.
The sliding door snapped her out of her slight daze. Felix appeared with…could it be?
"Helena, this is your sister, Cosima."