Chapter 7: The Secret's In The Telling

When Dr. Juliet Burke first arrived on the island, Cooper liked her right away. She had a warm sunny smile and long, wavy golden blonde hair. Her eyes were crystal blue like the ocean; and she radiated a friendly glow that seemed to envelope everyone.

Cooper had missed her arrival; she was busy cleaning up things at The Staff, Ben said that was where they two were to do most of their work. She was in the operating theatre, organizing the freezer, when Juliet found her. "Cooper Mackenzie?"

With a jolt, Cooper turned. "Oh!" She dropped a handful of empty Petri dishes at her feet.

"Sorry," She said apologetically, immediately kneeling down to help her pick up the mess. "I'm Juliet; Ben said I could find you in here."

"Oh, yes, Juliet, of course," Cooper smiled and shook her hand, which she held as they both rose to their feet.. "How was your trip?"

"You mean being drugged and shipped across the ocean in a submarine?"

Cooper chuckled, showing Juliet where to set the dishes. "Yes, that's how I was brought here, too. Well," She gestured to the room around her. "Let's take a tour, shall we?"

For the better part of an hour, Cooper shepherded Juliet around The Staff, showing her where they'd be doing their work, explaining how she handled things, showing her the files on all the patients she'd lost. Juliet was very sympathetic, and just as confident as Cooper had been when she'd arrived, confident that they would find a cure.

On the walk back to The Barracks, Cooper and Juliet were still talking. "I only know what Ben has told me about your research," Cooper babbled. "He says you're exactly the person to help me."

Juliet flushed. "I don't know about that; but I've been researching infertility for years; and when my sister contracted cancer and the chemo made her sterile," She shrugged. "It just seemed like the next logical move; to try and help her."

"And you did." Cooper said. "Ben told me she conceived?"

Juliet beamed. "Yes, almost three months. I read some of your research before Ben took me to The Staff; it's very illuminating. I think we'll work well together."

xxx

When Juliet had completed setting up her part of the lab in The Staff, she had almost everything from her old lab back home. Everything movable, that is, which included a freezer of frozen sperm; the same one where she'd chosen the sample to impregnate Rachel. Whilst Cooper was helping her unpack at her home (right next door), she had found a photo of the sisters, smiling. From the washed out white colour of Rachel's skin, Cooper could easily tell she had been undergoing cancer treatment when the picture had been taken.

"That was her birthday," Juliet said as she heaved another box up onto the bookshelf behind Cooper. "She was sick so I just gave her a spa day in bed," She smiled; faint sadness in her eyes as they gazed at the picture.

"But, she's better now?" Cooper asked, trying to sound positive.

"In remission, yes." Juliet nodded. "Hopefully the pregnancy will keep her going. Until I get back, that is."

A pang of guilt slid across Cooper's stomach. She thinks she's leaving...Ben surely wouldn't have given her to Cooper for just a few months... this infertility problem could take years to solve. But, she kept her mouth shut. The prospect of returning home to her family would be a good motivational tool for Juliet in her work. And right now that was what Cooper needed.

Juliet's first patient was Eva. She was also the first woman Cooper aided to conceive through invetro-fertilization. Up until then; women had just fallen pregnant of their own accord, but the rising death rate was enough to cause many of them to avoid pregnancy at all costs.

Eva was one of those women who appeared already to be a mother, warm, maternal, loving; she just didn't have a baby. She came to Juliet and Cooper one afternoon, saying she was more than willing to try and conceive, knowing the risks of the island and the women who had died before her. She put her life into Juliet and Cooper's hands, and she paid the price.

Cooper tried to stay as confident as Juliet appeared to be. Who was she to be a downer? Juliet was using the same method that helped her sterile sister conceive, for all Cooper knew it might work. That's the mentality she took into Eva's pregnancy, and she kept it up as much as she could, even when Eva's shortness of breath kicked in quite severely during her twentieth week.

She was gone four days later.

But Juliet didn't react the way Cooper expected. Instead of wallowing in pity, she used her emotions to charge into her research; scribbling out crude timelines down to the hour of Eva's deterioration; hoping to pinpoint the exact stage where things went wrong. Cooper didn't want to tell her that Eva had died almost exactly the same way as Jane; but she did tell her, if only to aid in her research. Cooper showed her the charts and tables she herself had written up for each of her patients; noting when the symptoms began and how severe they were in each patient.

Juliet barely looked at Cooper as took the folders being given to her. "You knew she was going to die, didn't you?" she said almost as Cooper as out the door.

"Honestly, no..." Cooper said, turning back and leaning against the door-frame. "But every time I get a new patient I think they'll be fine. That this time, I'll get it right." She sighed. "But... it never happens."

Juliet caught her eyes. "Hasn't happened, yet."

xxx

Juliet's confidence was admirable, it bordered on envious from Cooper's perspective. They lost two more patients, including Ethan's wife, Grace, within the next four months. Henrietta had been the other patient, unlike Grace; she had been impregnated like Eva. The speed at which both Grace and Henrietta had died was shocking even to Cooper; and it seemed to be the final straw for Juliet; whom Cooper found sobbing in a corner of her lab the afternoon of Henrietta's morning wedding.

"Juliet," Cooper said softly as she slid down beside her. "I'm sorry..."

"Why?" Juliet was hugging her knees, and rested the side of her face on them so she could see Cooper. "It's not your fault. I was brought here to save these women."

"So was I." Cooper reminded her. "You lose a patient, so do I." She bit her lip as tears welled in her eyes; she hated seeing Juliet so upset. "We're in this together..."

Juliet sighed and closed her exhausted eyes. "I know," She whispered, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her white coat.

"Maybe you could talk with Harper?"

Juliet chuckled lightly. "Harper hates me."

Cooper smirked. "She hates everyone; but she's good at her job."

Juliet frowned and shook her head. "I'll be alright, Cooper," She reached out and squeezed her hand. "Thank you."

"I'll go back to The Staff," Cooper offered, glad for the distraction. "Bring our research back here; it'll be nice to get out of that room for awhile." Juliet didn't protest, so Cooper took that as a 'yes' before leaving her friend alone with her sorrow; knowing that was what she wanted.

The lab here at The Barracks was much smaller and less equipped than the Staff; but Juliet appreciated the sunlight and peaceful surroundings, so she chose it to do most of her paperwork there. On Cooper's way out, she bumped into a familiar face. "Goodwin!" She greeted Harper's husband with a smile.

"Hi, Cooper, is the doctor in?" He nodded to Juliet's lab.

"Yes, but..." Her eyes fell on his wrist, which he was attempting to cover with a dirty rag. "What on earth happened to you?" She said, grabbing for his hand to inspect the wound, but he pulled away.

"It's nothing," He tried to look nonchalant. "Burn, got too close to the transformer."

Cooper smiled, and let him go without a question, even though he was a terrible liar. Juliet would see through him as well; so resolving she would get the full story later, Cooper headed for the Staff to gather up her paperwork.

xxx

Months later, what had begun as a weekly ritual quickly became the way Juliet and Cooper spent most of their nights together. They alternated cooking dinner in each of their homes, and then they spent the night going over the patient files and research notes, organizing and reorganizing everything, trying to find a new pattern. This evening found them at Juliet's apartment, both stretched out along one of her two sofas reading through graphs and blood test results.

"I'm sleeping with Goodwin." Juliet said as she turned a page, as if she was commenting on the weather.

Cooper was engrossed in the last results of Henrietta's autopsy, she thought she'd concocted the statement in her head, but when she glanced over and saw Juliet's ocean blue eyes boring into hers expectantly; she realized what she'd heard. "What?" She snapped upright on the couch. "Goodwin?"

Juliet was trying to keep her elation in check – he was a married man – but she was excited. "Don't tell anyone." She said through a tight lipped smile.

"Who would I tell?" Cooper smirked. "Who'd have thought the Good Doctor Burke was a closet adulterer?"

Juliet responded by throwing a pen at her. "It's not like that. He's... wonderful."

"Well, from the vibes I get from Harper, that marriage has been dead a long time." Cooper wasn't justifying her friend's actions; but she was just that; her friend. She wasn't going to scold her; she was old enough to make her own decisions. And that fact was; Cooper hadn't seen Juliet excited about something since she'd arrived on the island. "How long has this been going on?"

"A couple of months."

Cooper widened her eyes. "And I only find out about this now?"

Juliet giggled, she sounded like a teenager. "Well, now that you know... what do you think?"

"Well..." Cooper leant back in her chair and held her finger to her chin for effect. "He's handsome... rugged... masculine..." She nodded in approval. "Just be careful."

Juliet cast her a look that told her she was being silly. "Get back to work." She said, getting to her feet to clear up the plates that had once held Juliet's homemade pizza. "Want a drink?"

"Yes, please." Cooper said, rubbing the back of her neck at forming stress knot. She tossed the autopsy results back on Henrietta's file of lab tests and vaccine trials. Each patient had their own stack, and then copies of the results were sorted into time frames of when the symptoms started, when they ended, and then by severity.

"What are you thinking?" Juliet asked, handing her a tall, thin glass half-full of red wine.

Cooper sighed and took the glass. "Y'know there was something my old biology professor used to say over and over." She said. "If you put a frog in a pot of hot water, it'll just jump right out... but if you put it in cold water, and turn the heat up bit by bit... it'll just sit there, slowly boiling to death."

"Cooper; what the hell are you talking about?"

"We're the frog. Juliet, if we had arrived here today we would know something was wrong with this place. Fifteen deaths between us in five years?" She shook her head. "We've been here too long, we're boiling."

"So... what do you propose we do?"

"We know more now than we did three years ago." Cooper said, a light bulb of an idea blazing in her head. "We know where the problem starts. Conception. So; what if we control that, too?"

"We've impregnated women before," Juliet said dejectedly, sipping her wine. "It didn't change anything."

"But we didn't administer your vaccine from the start." Cooper said; getting more and more excited about her plan. "I mean, with the impregnation."

Juliet shook her head, and set her wine glass on tiny square inch free on the coffee table. "No; the dose of drugs would destroy the embryo before we'd even began-"

"So, adjust the dose, start out small, increase as we go along." Cooper's eyes were wide. "If we can monitor the whole pregnancy, from start to finish, test every day if we have to. Get your vaccine working right from the get go..." She saw both excitement and hesitation flicker across Juliet's features. "At least it's a new tactic."

Juliet, pausing for a moment considering that this might be a plausible action, frowned. "No; this will result in miscarriages until I get the right dose, I can't ask a woman to go through all of that..." She trailed off when she noticed Cooper's eyes; she knew her well enough to know what she was thinking right now. "No, Cooper, no! I am not going to inseminate you."

"Why not?" Cooper shuffled forwards eagerly. "I know all the risks. Hell, I've documented the risks. I know what to expect. I can do this." She grinned. "We can do this. I know we can."

Juliet was still clearly apprehensive. "It might not work... you could die-"

"Juliet I've been on this island longer than you have; and I can tell you with all honesty," She smiled. "That there is no one that I trust here more than you."

With her eyes sparkling like the tide at sunrise, Juliet found herself grinning. To keep the experiment between two people, it would shorten the number of variables, she could be completely candid with Cooper about what was happening to her body... in some ways, it would be easier than how they had been conducting the vaccine trials so far. "Okay." Juliet said after a moment. "Ok... we'll do this. Our way." She reached across the table for Cooper's hand.

Smiling in success, Cooper snatched for Juliet's fingers and squeezed. "Our way."

xxx