– Chapter Twenty-Six –
Rachel wasn't having fun back in London.
She hadn't been in the mood for DYAD and the people associated with it since she returned from Switzerland. The failed attempt to bring Leigh home safely was bringing her down more than she cared to admit. She told herself it was because she faced consequences for letting Leigh and her new friends go; for aiding them in their escape.
Leekie had insisted on placing a new monitor near Rachel almost twenty-four hours a day to make sure she stayed true to her word and carried out the tasks she was supposed to from now on. Under any other circumstances, Rachel would have argued and worn Leekie down until she got her way like she usually did, but this was different.
This time she had gone too far, and she knew it. Her excuse for helping Leigh because 'she felt an emotional connection to her' had worked. Leekie fell for it, and he seemed to understand why Rachel was torn on the whole thing...
But his understanding had come with a great warning. Rachel must learn to control her weakness for Leigh. She must start viewing her as a subject and not her friend, because Leigh had done a terrible thing, and she had to be stopped.
Rachel was content to accept this. Daniel, her new monitor, was another issue. Rachel detested his constant presence. At least before Leigh created this enormous mess, their monitoring had been limited...now Daniel was there always, whether Rachel liked or not.
Well, she didn't like it. She didn't like it one bit.
At the very least, Daniel was quiet and barely disturbed her from her work. He also did whatever Rachel asked of him without argument, and Rachel was starting to wonder if she could make this new arrangement work for herself after all. Her 'charm' already seemed to be working on him. He had agreed to leave her be for one evening, giving his word to keep it a secret from Leekie.
Rachel's house was cold when she arrived home that evening, but she was relieved to be there alone.
Unfortunately, when Rachel was alone, Leigh crossed her mind. And with thoughts of Leigh came the regret and annoyance at giving into her and letting her go.
Rachel would distract herself by continuing her work at home, despite finishing at DYAD for the day. Then again, booting up her laptop and signing into Skype only brought her the temptation to make contact with Janet and Spencer again. Rachel resented her own urge to do such things. She should have more self-control. She had told Leigh not to make contact again, and so far the hairdresser had managed it. If Leigh could stick to what they agreed, Rachel certainly could.
So Rachel sat at her kitchen table with a strong cup of coffee for the remainder of the evening to work. After an hour or so of typing and sending out important emails, and after making one or two phone calls regarding Neolution, Rachel sat back to take a small break.
She eyed her email inbox. It had been full of new emails for a good few days, but she always took her time to read them. In all honesty, they bored Rachel terribly, and it was habit to put off reading and responding to them for as long as possible. There was never anything of great importance that sparked her interest.
Tonight would be different.
It didn't take long at all to notice an email from an unknown address as she scrolled down deciding which to read first. Intrigued, Rachel clicked to open it, seeing attachments for various documents...sense told Rachel not to open them. She knew she shouldn't open anything sent in such an anonymous yet conspicuous email, but she couldn't help it.
Rachel didn't understand what she was looking at to start with. She had seen these files before. Many, many times before. She'd looked at them so many times she was sick of seeing them...she must know them inside out, word for word by now...
But something caught Rachel's eye. A lot of the text towards the bottom of the first file was highlighted. In bold. In a larger font.
This information had never been there before.
It was as though Rachel's mind stopped functioning for a few moments, causing her to sit stiller than she ever had before. What was she even reading? That didn't make sense. That couldn't make sense. That wasn't real; how could it be?
It must be someone's attempt at a pathetic, sick, twisted joke.
Rachel gracefully rose from the table and walked around the kitchen to find herself a large glass of wine. When she sat back down before the laptop, she stared at the screen for almost an hour while she drank.
Would Leigh herself play such a tasteless, awful prank? No, Rachel thought, pouring herself another glass of wine. No, Leigh had her moments, but even after everything, she wasn't going to do something so cruel.
"Leekie's been keeping things from you; from both of us."
Those were the words Leigh had spoken the last time Rachel was with her. Rachel had never seen her looking so lost and sounding so desperate. She insisted Rachel wouldn't believe whatever 'it' was...
Was this it?
A heavy, sick feeling overcame Rachel out of nowhere. Of course...that little computer friend of Leigh's...it was entirely plausible she'd gain access to something like this...but was it real? It could still be a lie...but why?
Whatever the reason, Leigh obviously wanted Rachel to know enough to send this information to her. Rachel took out her mobile phone and dialled Leekie's number.
"Aldous, I request your presence at my house immediately," she spoke when the doctor answered the call. "It is urgent. Do not disappoint me."
Rachel ended the call before Leekie could even say anything. The time spent waiting for him to arrive became a blur of confused silence and more drinking; Rachel's heart hammering harder as wild thoughts consumed her.
Leekie was there before Rachel knew it. She barely listened to his demands for an explanation, instead leading him over to the laptop and allowing him to see what was on the screen. His expression turned stony and panicked at the same time, and Rachel shook with fury.
"Is it true?" she hissed dangerously.
Leekie glowered at the kitchen table, thinking desperately about how to respond. Slowly, he stood up straight and rounded on Rachel, keeping calm and composed.
"Rachel, what you have to understand-"
"Is it TRUE?"
"Yes," Leekie admitted, voice barely even a whisper. Rachel's eyes grew wide. Leekie thought she looked momentarily psychotic, and it disturbed him greatly. "It was not personal, Rachel. We had no choice because of unforeseen circumstances-"
"And that makes it acceptable to take a newborn from her family?" Rachel seethed.
"You weren't 'taken from your family'; you still got to know them your entire life!" Leekie snapped defensively. "Rachel, if you'll take just a moment to reflect on your upbringing, you'll remember I always encouraged you to interact with Ashleigh and her parents, and more often than not, you point blank refused-"
"That's not the point, Aldous."
"We had no choice," Leekie explained again. He sighed wearily, pressing his palms to his face in an attempt to keep calm. "Originally another surrogate was to have a child for the Duncans, but she went missing. She sabotaged the experiment; not us. You KNOW how important all of this is to our research! The results of yours and Ashleigh's upbringing so far have been extremely beneficial-"
"Oh yes, marvellous considering she's decided she wants nothing to do with DYAD anymore," Rachel interrupted. Her entire body was trembling now, and her hands were balled up into fists. "Excellent that we've managed to turn her against us completely."
"No, Rachel, that was you," Leekie reminded her bitterly. "You made her aware of things she had no place knowing. You HAVE to let this go and focus on bringing her home now, because you're already responsible for everything else that has gone wrong. Let's get Ashleigh back here where she belongs. Only then can we move forward and focus on correcting the mistakes the two of you have made."
Rachel was lost for words. Leekie left quickly, deciding it didn't matter much if Rachel had been made aware of this. There was nothing she could do about it anyway, and Rachel knew it.
She hated being unable to do anything. She hated it even more that Leigh had known about this and refused to tell her. And Janet and Spencer...how could they look at Rachel, talk to her, ask for her assistance KNOWING what they had done? What they had put her through?
No, no, no, Rachel couldn't think straight; it made no sense; it wasn't real; it wasn't fair-
Rachel's laptop was on the floor in an instant after an outburst of rage caused her to rush forward and flip over the kitchen table with a terrible scream. The bottle of wine and her glass shattered on the floor, and Rachel kicked the chairs over as well.
Breathing heavily, Rachel fell to her knees. She kept her face in her hands as the realisation of what she had done really hit her for the first time.
Letting Leigh go was the worst mistake she had made yet. DYAD had recently been made aware of the death of Janika Zingler. Leigh was obviously failing to do what she'd set out to do, and Rachel had to fight back another outraged cry to realise this. How could she have thought for one minute Leigh would survive out there? How many more would meet their demise before the killer went after Leigh?
No...Rachel had practically sentenced Leigh to death by allowing her to escape.
Leekie was right about one thing, however much Rachel hated him right now. Leigh needed to come home. She needed to come home, and when she did, Rachel would never let her go again.
Two long and painful weeks passed since Rat agreed to teach Danielle basic English. The skater would show up every day with a fraction of the information the clones asked her to bring them, obviously trying to draw it out as long as possible.
The other clones tried to stay out of the way as much as possible while the French clone was there, often having to pacify Rat afterwards, who wanted nothing more than to duct tape Danielle's mouth shut.
"Just three more bits and then we can go," Rat told them with a tired sigh one evening, already not looking forward to the skater appearing again the next morning. "Jesus bloody Christ, and here I thought Leigh was the only clone who could piss me off on a regular basis..."
"Charmed," Leigh said dryly.
"At least it's almost over with," Aila said calmly as she sipped at her coffee. "Then we can go straight to Canada."
Katja nodded. "It vill be nice to meet Beth in person, and to finally find out who her scientist friend ez."
"Yeah, hopefully she knows what she's doing," Rat muttered as she glanced at Katja, unable to hide the concern in her voice. Katja said nothing but shifted over to sit beside Rat, lightly putting an arm around her shoulders.
Suddenly, all four clones jumped as a knock sounded at the door. They froze in fear, looking between each other. Rat stood quickly and retrieved her revolver as both dogs ran over to the door, barking loudly. Rat cautiously looked through the peephole, and blinked in surprise as an irritated groan slipped past her lips.
"It's Danielle. Why the bloody hell is she here now?" she muttered, reluctantly opening the door. "Qu'est-ce que vous voulez?" ("What the hell do you want?")
The skater was dressed up in a sparkly blue outfit. It almost looked like a dress, but it was far shorter than a dress would be. Danielle grinned brightly and bounced up and down a bit, which made Rat nervously wonder what the normally moody skater was up to.
Danielle slurred something in incoherent French, and not even Rat could understand her for a while. She watched, annoyed, as the skater invited herself into the house with a very girly giggle and stumbled into the living room.
"'Ello!" she said to the other clones, holding a hand up to wave at them. Leigh, Katja and Aila froze as they stared at her. Rat rushed into the room after Danielle, her mouth clamped firmly shut in agitation.
"Vat are you vearing?" Katja questioned as she eyed Danielle with a frown.
"And why are you so happy?" Leigh shot as though being happy was a crime. The hairdresser was reading a newspaper out of sheer boredom, and she raised it up to her face so she wouldn't have to look at Danielle. Something about the French clone irked her greatly.
"It's an ice skater costume," Aila said in response to Katja's question.
"Why – are – you – here?" Rat spoke loudly and clearly as she nudged Danielle's arm to get her attention. Danielle clumsily turned to face her, eyebrows raised in confusion. "Come on, idiot, you know this, I taught you the other day-"
Danielle began chatting away quickly and animatedly, though it came out as gibberish mostly. Leigh threw her newspaper down in a huff and sat up straight. "Why demand to learn English if you're not even gonna use it?" she snapped moodily.
"I can use it," Danielle snapped back, proving she understood the gist of Leigh's statement.
"Really, vhy are you dressed like zat?" Katja asked, apparently awestruck and distracted by Danielle's costume. Danielle appeared not to have heard her, for she was now humming to herself and inviting herself to sit on one of the chairs. Katja looked to her sister hopelessly. "Rat?"
Rat held back a sigh. "Pourquoi etes-vous habille comme ca?" she repeated Katja's question so Danielle could understand.
Danielle's eyes lit up, and she stood up straight, wobbled a bit, and smoothed down the material fondly. "Boyfriend," she said simply.
Everyone stared at her. Then they stared at each other.
"Boyfriend?" Leigh repeated, exasperated.
"Boyfriend - Kyle – present," Danielle attempted to explain.
"The outfit was a present from her boyfriend, Kyle," Aila spoke up, earning an unimpressed stare from Rat.
"Really? Never would have guessed," she said dryly. Aila rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Danielle, did you actually want something?" Leigh asked the skater bluntly. Danielle just gaped at her, and Leigh swore under her breath and glanced at Rat.
Rat was getting fed up of playing translator, but she repeated the question anyway, she too wanting to know why Danielle was here.
"If she has no papervork for us, I say kick her out," Katja grumbled.
"You don't all have to be so mean," Aila murmured.
"She's a pain in the arse, Aila," Rat said through gritted teeth. "Oh - the hell are you doing now?"
Danielle lunged forward to grab Aila, who was closest, by the arms to spin her around in an awkward dance move, giggling madly. The others watched, gobsmacked as Aila was helplessly dragged around the room.
"You all must smile more," Danielle managed when she stopped her laughter.
Aila looked around desperately at the other clones, her eyes wide. "Guys, I think she's high," she said bluntly.
"Oh for fuck's sake," Leigh hissed. She rubbed her forehead roughly and tried to will away her sheer annoyance.
"Of course she ez," Katja moaned in disapproval. It shouldn't surprise them, really.
Rat could only groan in frustration. "Let's just kick her out. We don't need another incident like what happened with Leigh..."
"That wasn't my fault," Leigh grumbled, though thinking about it only made her more annoyed at Danielle in that moment.
The skater continued dancing around, very nearly kicking the dogs when they wandered over to see what was going on. Rat grit her teeth hard. "Charles, Bianca, venir," she ordered them, quickly leading them out of the room to keep them safe.
Danielle giggled. "Aaaaw, why doggies go away?" she asked, somehow still managing to speak broken English even in her state.
"Because you're a pain in the friggin' ass," Rat muttered as she glared at the skater over her shoulder.
"Am not," Danielle pouted, before suddenly grinning and spinning around. "'Ee, look- new move - contest to...morrow?" she said, trying to concentrate on her English even as she spun around, making Aila dive out of the way before she got kicked.
"Oi! Watch it, you flamin' idiot!" Leigh snapped as Danielle kicked a lamp over.
"OK, you go bye-bye now," Katja muttered as she grabbed the skater's shoulders, effectively stopping her spinning as she tried to direct her towards the door. Danielle seemed to have other plans though and easily broke away from the German's grasp. She continued to dance around and show off.
"Someone just shoot me now," Aila muttered as she face-palmed. Were they really going to have to put up with this until Danielle sobered up?
"Kick her out and call her flamin' boyfriend to come pick her up," Leigh muttered, though her eyes widened in horror as the skater tried to jump over a chair. Time seemed to slow down, and just as Rat walked back into the room, Danielle looked over at her instead of focusing on her landing.
A sickening crack echoed throughout the room, and the clones could only stare in shock as Danielle fell to the floor, holding her ankle as she screeched in pain.
This was going to be a long night.
"I'm pretty sure it's not broken," Aila sighed as she walked back into the living room. Her head hurt from listening to Danielle's crying. "But it's sprained pretty badly. She needs to get home."
"Fuck's sake..." Leigh grumbled, rubbing her eyes.
"What now? We can't friggin' wait around for this to heal before she coughs up the rest of her info," Rat muttered crossly.
Katja murmured something under her breath in German, looking annoyed as well. "Vee can steal papervork?"
"We can't," Rat snapped. "We wouldn't be able to break into her house with her security."
"Vee pretend to be her and break in?" Katja offered.
Rat peeked over at the sound of Danielle suddenly calling her name. "Oh for Christ's sake, what does she want?" she groaned, reluctantly standing up. The hacker walked into the spare bedroom where they'd put Danielle, making sure to give the skater her most unimpressed look. "Qu'est-ce que vous voulez?" ("What do you want?")
Danielle frowned, looking much more sober and serious now she'd calmed down a bit from the initial shock of the injury. "Demain je allais aller à une compétition de patinage, mais je ne serai pas en mesure de maintenant. Il est important que je parais bien, alors... en échange pour vous donner tout le reste de ma paperasse, je veux de vous pour aller à la place."("Tomorrow I was going to go to a skating competition, but I won't be able to now. It's important that I appear though, so...in exchange for giving you all the rest of my paperwork, I want one of you to go instead.")
Rat stared at her, taken aback by the request, though she couldn't deny she wanted the rest of the paperwork sooner rather than later. "LEIGH!" she called as loudly as she could, even as her voice failed her a bit. "KATJA! AILA! Get yourselves in here!"
Danielle leered at Rat, quite sure the hacker was shouting on purpose to make her growing headache more uncomfortable. Rat fixed the skater with a deadly stare while waiting for the others to appear.
"What?" Leigh snapped as she pushed herself through the door. "What's she done now?"
Rat explained what Danielle was asking of them, causing Aila and Leigh to shake their heads in protest.
"Are you for real?" Aila asked.
"No friggin' way," Leigh growled, clenching her fists. "Can't we just have ONE day where things DON'T go wrong and we DON'T get distracted by some BULLSHIT drama-"
"It's her own fault if she's drugged up to the eyeballs and done herself an injury!" Aila added, temporarily letting her frustration at the entire situation get the better of her. "Maybe she doesn't deserve to be in the tournament."
"Aila!" Leigh said, surprise in her voice now rather than anger.
Aila glanced at her. "What?!"
"Nothing," Leigh said quickly, shrugging. "Just...didn't think you'd agree with me over this."
"Well I'm pissed off!" Aila told her.
"Yeah, so am I, thanks for reminding me – anyway, Rat, we're not gonna do it! Why should we?"
"Rat, if vee do zis, vee fuck things up for her," Katja stated, glaring darkly at Danielle. Everyone fell silent, stunned at Katja's sudden decision to swear. "Does she not care zat vee vould make her look bad? Vhy can't she just be honest and tell zese skater people she ez injured?"
Rat sighed wearily. She had to admit Katja had a point. The hacker turned back to Danielle, who was watching the group intensely. She was very annoyed that she failed to understand most of what they were saying, and she waited impatiently for an explanation. Rat looked at Danielle and repeated what Katja said.
Danielle stared down at her hands for a moment before sighing. "A vrai dire, non. Je ne me inquiète pas. En fait, je ne reviendrai pas l'esprit que du tout. Je ne veux pas le faire plus, mais ce ne est pas aussi simple que de cesser de fumer. Il y aura des gens importants regarder demain, et se ils pensent que je ne suis pas la peine qu'ils ne voudront pas signer des contrats avec moi. Je serai en mesure de quitter l'entreprise plus facile, et vous obtiendrez les documents que vous souhaitez. Tout le monde gagne, oui?" ("Truthfully, no. I don't care. In fact I wouldn't mind that at all. I don't want to do this anymore, but it's not as simple as quitting. There will be important people watching tomorrow, and if they think that I'm not worth it they won't want to sign contracts with me. I'll be able to leave the business easier, and you'll get the papers you want. Everybody wins, yes?")
Rat repeated Daniell's words in English. Aila looked severely unimpressed. "So she really does want us to fuck it up for her. I'm almost wondering if she did this whole thing on purpose," she muttered darkly.
"Deal?" Danielle demanded.
"Shut up," Leigh snapped at her. "We'll tell you when we've figured it out." The hairdresser rubbed her head and turned to the others. "Do we really have time to piss about at some stupid contest?"
"It'd take even longer to fulfill our current agreement in her state," Rat reminded her, somehow managing to be the only calm one of the group at that moment.
Aila rubbed her eyes, still looking more than annoyed. "Do we even have time to dress up like her? When exactly is this contest thing?"
"Ten...morning," Danielle supplied, guessing at what Aila was asking from the words she understood.
"Perfect," Leigh grumbled. She paced back and forth as she thought about what they'd need to do. "We'll need a wig at least, since we have her costume here..." She turned instinctively to face Rat.
Rat stared back at her determinedly. "I'm not doing it, so don't even look at me like that," she stated dryly.
"Why not if we've just gotta fuck it up anyways?" Aila argued. "You're the only one who can speak French, remember?"
Katja wandered over to Danielle and forced her to sit up, moving her hair to the side. She ignored the skater yelling at her in angry French as she did. The others watched curiously. "Ratty cannot be zee von to be doing it," Katja agreed as she let Danielle go.
"Why not?" Leigh demanded.
Katja shrugged. "Zee costume has nothing covering zee shoulder area. Ratty has a large tattoo just zere. It vould show, and zey vould know she vas not Danielle."
Rat nodded and gestured to the clock on the wall. "Exactly. Besides, we don't have time to go wig shopping anyway. It's already turned nine."
Aila groaned in exasperation when everyone turned their attention to her; their eyes lingering on her long, dark hair. A faint, but keen smile twitched on Leigh's lips for a moment, but she controlled the urge to grin fully, hoping Aila wouldn't notice...but the doctor could already see where this was going, and she didn't like it one bit.
"Hold still."
"But-"
"Shut up – Katja, pass me the hairspray-"
"OW!"
"Well stop moving then!"
"Do you have to be so rough?"
A fairly distraught Aila sat rigidly on a dining room chair while Leigh scurried around to style her hair and make-up. She'd put so many products in the doctor's hair that she lost count, and Aila was growing impatient. She couldn't stop squirming out of nerves, and Leigh had ended up pulling her hair hard by accident.
"Aila, quit complaining," Rat shot from across the room, though she sounded desperate rather than demanding. "If anyone can do this, you certainly can."
"Why are you so confident about that?" Aila wailed helplessly. She gripped her hands together at Leigh combing a few knots through the ends of her hair, only to run it through curling tongues to recreate Danielle's hairstyle.
"Vee have faith in you, doctor," Katja assured her. "Leigh, vere do you vant zis spray?"
"Here," Leigh muttered, holding her hand out for it, but Katja barely paid attention and instead sprayed a large amount near Aila's face where she thought Leigh had been gesturing to.
Aila coughed madly. "KATJA!"
"Fuck's sake," Leigh grumbled, snatching the can from the German. "Go and get the costume."
"Sorry," Katja muttered apologetically. She dashed from the room, holding back a cough of her own.
Rat tugged the ends of her own hair as she watched Leigh work. "Just remember the basic phrases I taught you and you'll be fine," she said in her gentlest and most reassuring voice. "And the names Danielle mentioned..."
"You are all going to owe me big time for this," Aila grumbled. "I...I don't think I've ever gone ice skating in my life!"
"It's just like rollerblading, but icier," Leigh said coolly. Rat groaned, unimpressed.
"I don't think I've ever done rollerblading either!" Aila complained.
Leigh held back a sigh. Truthfully, she felt terrible for putting Aila in this situation, and she would have been happy to do it herself if they'd had time to get a wig...it was clearly making Aila more nervous than she originally let on. It was only when Aila hinted at trying to cover Rat's tattoo in make-up and convincing everyone Danielle had cut and straightened her hair to Rat's style that Leigh realised Aila really wasn't up for this.
But it was too late to change the plan now. They would have to leave soon for 'Danielle' to make her appearance.
Katja shuffled back in, holding the costume out at arm's length. "Vhy vould anyone vear such a hideous zing?" she commented.
Leigh bit down hard, snatched the outfit from her, and rolled her eyes. "Why would anyone wear a bright yellow duck onesie?"
"Zat's different, and awesome," Katja said coolly. "Zis zough...bleh."
Leigh rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to Aila, handing her the outfit. The doctor did her best to hide her sigh as she took it and walked into her bedroom to change. As she passed by her mirror, she couldn't deny that Leigh had done an excellent job of making her look just like Danielle. She hardly recognised herself with her mass of curly hair and make-up-covered face.
Changing quickly, she immediately felt self-conscious and uncomfortable wearing the extremely short skirt. She felt less and less eager to leave the room, but she knew there was no choice. They'd have to leave very soon.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Aila caught sight of a rough and scarred patch of skin on her left arm. "Oh, fuck...I forgot about that," she muttered. "Shit...wonder if Leigh can cover it."
Reluctantly, the doctor made her way back out to the others and walked over to Leigh. "Hey...got any concealer or anything?" she asked, reluctantly showing the hairdresser the scarred skin.
Leigh blinked as she looked at the mark. "Yeah, somewhere around here," she muttered, going through her bag again quickly. Aila sat back down in the chair where she'd been before she changed out of her hoody, already missing its warmth. She didn't want to imagine how cold she'd be out on the ice.
"Ah, got it," Leigh said, pulling out a jar of cream-coloured make-up. The hairdresser carefully applied the make-up, frowning subtly. "Feel free not to say, but can I ask what this is from?" she asked.
Aila hesitated and then frowned. "Eh...it happened when I was eighteen. Kind of a bad memory," she said, and Leigh could tell by her face it wasn't a topic that was readily discussed.
"Alright, no worries," she said quickly, smiling reassuringly as she finished applying the make-up. "There, that should do it. It'll be dark anyway, so hopefully no one will notice," she said, seeing the concealer didn't perfectly match up to Aila's skin tone.
"Alright, let's get this over with," Aila murmured, standing again as she tried in vain to make the short skirt cover more of her skin. The plan was for her and Leigh to go to the skating contest while Rat and Katja took Danielle back to her house to retrieve the documents.
Leigh frowned, feeling even worse about putting Aila through this as she saw just how uncomfortable the Scottish clone really was. She said nothing though, and wished Rat and Katja luck with getting Danielle home before she and Aila made their way out to the road to flag down a taxi. The taxi driver seemed very surprised to see their faces, but thankfully he didn't throw up any kind of fuss as they told him where to go. Aila stared out the window in silence as they drove, her body tense.
Leigh looked over at her and frowned again. "Aila?" she asked in an almost childlike voice, much the same way she'd addressed the Scottish woman in the airport all those months ago.
"Hmm?" Aila asked, glancing at Leigh with a forced smile.
"Are you gonna be OK? We can still call it off. The bitch wouldn't know any better until later, and we seriously don't owe her anything," Leigh offered carefully.
Aila stared at her, her smile slowly relaxing and becoming more genuine. "I'll be fine...thanks though." She took Leigh's hand in her own. "I just...eh...I'm not looking forward to having to skate with Danielle's boyfriend..." she murmured.
"Why?" Leigh asked, curious.
Aila frowned. "I'll tell you afterwards. I kinda don't wanna talk about it beforehand when I need to focus on this."
Leigh nodded, respecting the other woman's privacy as she shuffled over to her to hug her. "Well whatever it is, try not to worry about it, right? I'll be there in the crowds, and as soon as its over, we'll take off and never set foot in this country again, yeah?"
"Yeah," Aila agreed with a soft smile, returning the hug. She allowed the contact to relax her and help her focus on getting through what she was about to face. "Thanks."
The stadium around the ice rink filled up fast. Leigh succeeded in keeping her cool, however anxious she felt beneath her determination and blank expression. She managed to blend into the crowd as she stood perfectly still, her face mostly covered by a large, dark scarf, and the hood of her jacket. Her heart skipped a beat every few minutes as she waited.
If she was nervous, she dreaded to think how Aila was feeling.
The Scottish clone sat very tensely in the dressing room. Other contestants rushed about, chatting quickly in French, and Aila strained her ears in case Danielle's name was mentioned. She felt sick at the idea of anyone addressing her. It had been difficult enough arriving and communicating with whoever necessary to prepare for this moment.
She was not up to this. This was insanity.
Aila glanced down at the pair of skates resting at the foot of her chair. She wanted to put off putting them on for as long as possible...it made the situation seem less real somehow...
"Get a grip," she whispered to herself, before realising someone was approaching her. It was a tall, muscley dark-haired man with a too-perfect face and a too-perfect smile. His teeth were gleaming white. Aila didn't like the falseness that radiated from him. She'd only seen the skater's file a couple of times, but Aila still recognised the man as Danielle's monitor and boyfriend, Kyle.
He pointed quickly to the skates as he fixed Aila with a stare, muttering something in French. Aila barely understood him...but instinct told her to put them on and get ready to go out onto the rink. The Scottish clone sighed and took her time putting the skates on, inwardly hoping she could walk in them without breaking her own ankles.
Kyle said something to her loudly as soon as the skates were on. Aila stared blankly at him, not having a clue what he said. The tall man repeated himself, though Aila still didn't identify any of his words.
"O-oui?" she said dumbly, hoping it answered whatever he was saying.
Kyle stared at her with a raised eyebrow, but shook his head and motioned for her to follow. Walking in ice skates, Aila discovered, was an art unto itself. Several times she nearly fell, and it took all her concentration to make it to the other side of the dressing room.
She felt Kyle's eyes on her the whole time, but she did her best to ignore him and focus on staying upright. The cold air of the rink hit her full force, making her whole body erupt into shivers. The skimpy outfit did nothing to stop the freezing air from making her feel naked. She didn't understand how anyone could make a living doing this.
Suddenly the doctor felt a hand on her lower back, and she flinched, looking up at Kyle just as the tall man bent down to press his lips against hers. Aila shot backwards and nearly fell over as she looked at him with wide eyes, now shaking for an entirely different reason.
The doctor took several breaths to attempt to calm her heart. A sense of fear suddenly threatened to consume her. Kyle looked at her in surprise and attempted to come closer, but the doctor held up a shaky hand. "N-non!" she managed.
Danielle's name erupted over the loudspeakers. Aila bolted out onto the ice as fast as she could in response. Her speed glided her along the smooth surface without struggle, which was impressive in her own mind due to the fact she was still trembling with anxiety.
The doctor tried to push her thoughts aside to focus on moving, although she had no idea how to stop or turn. She was more concerned about staying a good distance away from Kyle for the moment. The flashing camera lights from the crowd blinded her several times. She felt exposed and confused as tried to figure out what to do next. The chill radiating from the ice made her skin numb.
Danielle's name was announced again to the crowd, followed by Kyle's. Aila tried to block out the cheers from the stands as she threw her arms out in front of herself in case she lost her balance and fell face first onto the ice. Her wobble did not go unnoticed by the crowd. A murmur of laughter could be heard. Aila felt her face flush red at the awkwardness of it, but she managed to regain control and stand up straight when she stopped gliding.
Kyle skated over to her, looking extremely perplexed. He stared at Aila as he took her around the waist to get into their start position, and while Aila felt uncomfortable at his touch, she was suddenly aware of the cameras on her.
A wave of sickness hit her.
If this was being filmed, thousands of people would be watching.
DYAD could be watching.
"Oh shit," she whispered as this horrific realisation hit her.
There was no going back now though. Loud music suddenly blared out from the speakers as the lights dimmed and the crowd fell silent. Aila froze in panic. She waited for Kyle to take the lead, and let out a short sigh of relief when he skated back to begin the routine.
But now what was Aila supposed to do? Why on earth hadn't she thought to ask Danielle roughly how the routine went? She had absolutely nothing to go on now, apart from the man before her, who looked increasingly annoyed at Aila's behaviour.
Aila managed to skate back, deciding to improvise and mirror Kyle's moves for a while. It only earned more laughter and confused muttering from everyone, but Aila tried to keep in mind that this was what Danielle wanted...she just had to make sure she didn't give away her real identity...
From up in the stands, Leigh stood with her hands pressed against her face. She'd bitten into her own thumb, feeling so tense she hadn't realised she'd done it. Her heart ached to see Aila down there, looking so lost and visibly scared.
"Oh fuck Aila; I'm so sorry," Leigh whispered frantically to herself while everyone around her either cheered or laughed. The hairdresser watched helplessly as Kyle took Aila by both hands and swung her around, expecting her to skate off and perform her own moves, but Aila lost her balance, tripped, and crashed into the wall of the rink after skidding across the ice. The entire stadium gasped, including Leigh, who covered her eyes with her hands. She heard the commentators bellow something over the microphone, though she failed to understand.
Aila shakily stood up. She held onto the side of the rink to help herself balance. Her right arm and leg burned from the friction of the ice.
Kyle skated over to her. He was not happy. "Quel est le problème avec vous?" he shot at her.
Aila could only stare at him as he again reached for her. The doctor could only allow him to lead her, skating alongside him for several minutes.
Then, Kyle picked her up. He held Aila above him with one hand. Aila couldn't help herself and screamed, the sound eliciting more confused murmurs and giggles from the crowd, as well as some angry shouting.
And then Aila was falling. She instinctively twisted herself to land upright, but failed, and crashed on her left side. Her elbow took the entirety of the impact with a sickening crunch. Aila skidded across the ice, and what started out as laughter from the crowd transformed into gasps of horror.
The doctor left a trail of red liquid as she skidded, her left arm now bent at an unnatural angle as blood oozed out of it at an alarming rate. A splintered bone could be seen sticking up through the skin. Aila curled in on herself and sobbed loudly from the excruciating pain, completely forgetting about the crowds of people. She was only able to register pain and cold in that moment as her body lay motionless on the ice.
"NO!" Leigh gasped as she watched in terror. She suddenly felt sick, hot tears welling behind her eyes. She never should have made Aila do this. Not only had she been completely publicly humiliated, she'd injured herself badly as well.
Before Leigh knew what she was doing, she'd made it halfway down the stands and was running towards the rink full tilt, her only thoughts being getting to the doctor's side to help her. Just before she reached the ice, however, she stopped.
As badly as every fibre of her being screamed at her to go out there, Leigh knew she had to hold back. She couldn't risk exposing them now. The hairdresser could only watch in helpless anguish as medics rushed onto the ice towards the scene. Leigh bowed her head and sobbed to herself.
"Aila, I'm SO sorry..."