"Ali? What are you still doing in bed?" Donnie dug for his sweater in the closet. "Hmm?" Alison slowly stirred, resisting the call to return to civilization.
"The kids' soccer game, remember?" Donnie zippered the hoody "Season opener."
"Son of a bee sting!" Alison flailed, her body seeking the fastest exit from the enveloping bed. "We're supposed to bring the orange slices!" She rifled through her drawers to find the appropriate sweatsuit for the day. "Does Gemma have her mouthguard? She likes to pretend to lose it, and Oscar-" She rattled off the tasks at a frantic clip before Donnie interrupted.
"Relax, Ali." He rested his hands on her shoulders. "I took care of it. All we need is you."
"Right." She exhaled, framing her face with her hand, equal parts relieved and impressed by Donnie's effort. Not too long ago, this would've been a crisis that unfolded for her alone.
"Hey…" Donnie knew something had to be bothering her. These days, there were only so many things on her mind. "If you need to be at Felix's place, just tell me."
"Wouldn't be much use there." She shook her head, resuming her pacing around the room as she plucked the rest of her outfit together. "Cosima's getting worse." She smoothed the creases in her sweatpants. "Sarah had to take her back to DYAD."
"But she just got out of there." It didn't make sense to Donnie. Seemed like the opposite of what they wanted to do.
"Well, they're the only ones who know about the disease, so…." They didn't have a choice. "Besides, I've missed too much this week." She straightened out her ponytail. "And, I never miss a game." She put on a smile. Conveniently, it was also an opportunity to escape the clone drama, and pretend she had a normal life again, even if it was only for a couple of hours. "Pitter-patter, Donnie, let's go."
Sarah spent the night with her arms wrapped around Cosima's frail frame trying to silence the shivering shudders. The coughing was worse at night, there was no way for Cosima to swallow the pulmonary outbursts when she was fast asleep in her medicated haze. The new doctor insisted it was the best thing she could do to rest, but all that sedation couldn't calm the way her heart raced after each coughing attack.
Cosima felt the warmth hugging her body, and for a fleeting moment, she thought she was back home in her cozy Minnesota apartment with Delphine by her side. The crackling in her lungs, and the antiseptic smell of the lab snaking past her nasal cannula quickly brought her back to her frightening reality. Her eyelids felt heavier this morning, taking far more effort to flutter open. Her sister, waiting right by her side slowly came into focus. Sarah didn't try to hide the bags under her eyes, or the worry that rested behind them.
"Hey." Cosima croaked, the words feeling like gravel in her throat.
"Hey y'self." Sarah offered her hand for Cosima's lazy palm tracing.
"Did you know you kick in your sleep?" Cosima's hands felt like lead, her fingers weren't up to the task. "I'd make breakfast, but I'm pretty sure the only things left in the fridge are old petri dishes."
"Yeah, think I'll pass on those." Sarah's eyes wandered to the door, where Scott stood, balancing files full of data on one arm while he swiped his passcard with the other. He was fighting a losing battle with the door handle. Sarah hopped out of the bed to assist the eager young scientist.
"Cool if I come in?" He asked, peeking his head inside once she opened the door.
"Join the party." Cosima beckoned through a cough. Each breath was getting harder to catch than the last. "Quit workin' so hard, you're making me look bad."
"I'm afraid I'm to blame." Doctor Franklin followed close behind, looking rather ragged herself. A night of tending to a growing cell line had that effect. "The cells we harvested are showing remarkable growth. At this rate, we may be ready to test by the end of the day."
"Awesome." Cosima wheezed, trying to will herself out of the bed. With the pace Cosima was physically deteriorating, this was welcome news.
"And after that?" Sarah silenced her buzzing phone, trying to keep up with the doctor-speak.
"Best case scenario, we move to transplantation soon after." There were still a thousand steps before they got there, but Dr. Franklin needed her patient to feel a smidgen of hope if she wanted to see the finish line. "Honestly, I've worked with HeLa cells, and I've never seen growth like this." She showed Cosima the promising photos taken from the microscope's camera.
"Geez, doc, way to spoil a girl." Cosima cleared her throat, attempting to stem the inevitable tide as she pored over the findings. "Lemme guess, we cracked the secret clone code too?"
"Not there yet." Scott started thumbing through his copy of the book's notes. "But I think I'm seeing a pattern in this chapter—"
"Shite, bugger off, will you?" Sarah muttered a little too loudly, trying to neutralize her ringing phone. All eyes turned to her after the sudden interruption.
"S. Felix must've told her what happened." Sarah elaborated. She hadn't seen her since she'd made the decision to turn herself in. Siobhan was going to track her down eventually. Still, she hadn't planned on including her on the need to know list. She was keeping something from her, and until she spilled the whole truth, she wasn't worthy of a clone club membership.
"You should go see her." Cosima finally got both feet on the ground. "Let her know you're okay." Parents worried, it was their job. If Cosima told her parents about any of this, they'd be on a plane before she got off the phone with them.
"There's something she's not tellin' us." She flipped her mane out of nervous habit. She'd had enough of the secrets. Project LEDA, the Birdwatchers, Ethan Duncan, Siobhan's reluctance to share these minor details made her dangerous.
"Not gonna find out what it is from all the way over here." Cosima ambled to the lab bench, slowly perching on a stool next to Scott. "And hey, maybe she's, like, wanting to tell you."
"Yeah, sure she's been meaning to tell us about Castor all this time." Sarah rolled her eyes, growing impatient. "She knew, Cos."
"Okay, okay, but she doesn't know we know, right?" Her hands floated forward in thought as fast as her aching body would allow. "We can use this, get something else out of her, ya know?"
"Leverage, right." Sarah sighed. "I don't know, she's gonna have questions, could make things worse if I'm not careful." She was running out of excuses. The truth was, she was reluctant to leave after the last couple of days with Cosima, even if it was for only a few hours.
"Honestly, you're gonna be bored outta your brains once we get into full-on geek monkey mode here." Cosima could smell the bullshit, cannula be damned.
"Gonna run me out of here, then?" Sarah finally cracked a smile, eliciting a mirroring grin from Cosima.
"Pretty much." Cosima rested her elbows on the lab bench, keeping herself upright by the skin of her teeth. "We'll be fine, promise."
"You call me if anything changes, yeah?" Sarah shrugged her jacket over her flannel. "I mean it." She glared at Scott.
"Yeah, yeah of course." He nodded reflexively. He may have towered over her in height, but he knew from her tone she'd take him down in a heartbeat., no questions asked.
"Be careful, will ya?" Cosima implored her. "Just make sure she's not hiding any more surprises up her sleeve."
"Yeah, we'll see." Sarah pulled up her hood before disappearing into the hall.
Cosima erupted into a coughing fit, holding back until Sarah was clear of the hallway. Even after the past few nights, she was still trying to hide how badly the disease was ravaging her body. Sarah had enough on her plate. She didn't need this burden to get in the way of finding the truth from the people that kept using the sisters as pawns.
"Whoa, easy." Scott swooped in to hold her up on the stool while gravity tried to steal her down. The disease was proving its might once more.
"Cosima, you need to be in bed…" Dr. Franklin did her part to assist. She'd read about the disease plenty, doing her research on the others that were sick, but to see it manifested in such an advanced state, on someone who was bull-headed enough to fight was remarkable.
"It's okay, I'm okay." Her breath caught in her chest. The good doctor was right. It was evident with each slow, lumbering step back to her bed in her not-so-chill chill space.
"Your lungs are flooding and filled with polyps. You're not okay." Dr. Franklin spit the harsh reminder. They weren't exactly there to play science class.
"Don't forget the rest of my body." Cosima didn't resist the oxygen mask being secured around her dreads. The cannula wasn't cutting it anymore. It was just another reminder of how precious her time was. She reached for her computer, letting it rest on her lap. She may have conceded this round, but she wasn't done fighting.
"Let us do the heavy lifting, eh?" Dr. Franklin hung a fresh bag of IV drugs on the bedside pole while Cosima dove back into her notes on her laptop, helping in the only way her body would allow.
"Good job, Oscar!" Alison yelled as she bounced down the sideline. The thrill of competition had a way of making her forget all about the events of the last couple of days, if only for a few blissful minutes.
"Ali's bounced back so well." Charity quipped to Meera as they feigned interest in the game in front of them. The off-field suburban drama was too intriguing to pass up. "Makes you wonder if she's back to…" She mimed a pill-popping motion.
"How bout you get us those oranges. Hm?" Alison quipped, cutting off the gossip train.
Art flashed the lights of his unmarked car, parked dutifully beside the DYAD's back entrance. Sarah froze in her tracks before recognizing the vehicle. When she saw he was in there alone, she cautiously approached, her head on a swivel until she opened the passenger side door.
"Bloody hell, did Felix tell everyone?"
"Not by choice." Art admitted, pulling out of the spot. "Hadn't heard from you in awhile, and he was the only one to pick up the phone. Didn't take too long to pull it out of him." Art wasn't going to fail Sarah the way he failed Beth. Harass her brother, be her shadow, whatever it took.
"Alright, then. Let's see what S has on this Castor mess."