"Pick up, pick up, PICK UP!" Felix screamed at the phone which had gone unanswered five times now. He was pacing back and forth around his loft trying to get a hold of his younger sister but her lack of response only made his worry grow each time the call went unanswered. One sister had gone straight into the line of fire, doing God knows what with a slimy little spy and now Felix was terrified that Paul could have somehow got his hands on Kira and Em.

"For fuck's sake!" He launched his phone across the room and it landed with a thump against the sofa cushions.

. . .

Em spun on her heel as she hit the bottom step of the staircase. She had spent all afternoon researching everything the internet allowed her to learn about the basics of evolutionary development and the theory of Neolution but she really needed to get in touch with Cosima somehow.

The Neolution ideology seemed like more of a craze with every-day alternative types trying to push the 'scientific limits of human evolution' and people wondering around, donning one white eye to signify some kind of human advancement. Who knows how far they would test the theory if it was being promoted by a top biologist in the field. If the University of Minnesota was hosting Dr. Aldous Leekie in conversation about self-directed evolution, surely that was too big a coincidence for the scientist to pass up?

"Hey, Monkey." Em pulled the little girl onto her lap and turned to the TV she was watching.

Kira snuggled in and lowered her voice so Mrs S couldn't hear from the other room. "You never told me Mummy had another sister."

Em froze. Alison had mentioned to Felix and Em that her disguise had failed on the little girl but now Kira knew that this doppelganger existed, of course she'd ask questions. Em just wasn't the one to answer them. "I didn't know." She said truthfully.

"She looks just like Mummy." Kira started to play with Em's hair. "That makes Auntie Alison your sister too."

Em nodded. Kira wasn't wrong. If Sarah was Em's biological sibling, then the clones were just like identical twins, almost. Sarah's new 'sisters' were kind of Em's too. "Yeah. One day she'll explain it all to you, yeah, Monkey?"

Kira stopped playing and sat up. "Is someone trying to hurt us?"

"Why'd you ask that?"

The little girl shrugged. "Alison said Mummy's making sure we're safe."

Em straightened her back and took Kira's hands in hers. "Look. We're safe, Kira. I promise." The teen didn't know thisto be true but she would try her hardest to make sure nothing bad ever happened to her niece.

"Alright, come on, Chicken. Up to bed. Go put your PJ's on and I'll be up in a bit." Mrs S said, walking into the room.

"Okay…" Kira sighed, elongating the vowels.

Siobhan joined Em on the sofa and turned off the TV. "Everything okay, love?" She nodded towards where Kira had just disappeared up the stairs.

"I think so. Sounds like it went well with Sarah, yeah?"

S pursed her lips together as if she was finding something the matter but then nodded slowly. "She stuck to her word. She showed up."

Em rolled her eyes. "Ah, come on, Mum. Give her some slack. She made Kira's day! I really think she's going to do it right this time."

S exhaled through her cheeks and rubbed Em's knee, lovingly. "I hope so, love. But you never know with that one. Always has to be on her terms, even when she has no right asking for them…"

"What do you mean? Did she ask for something?" Em furrowed her brow. Would Sarah tell S anything? Surely, not. We don't know too much and telling S that her eldest foster child was a clone probably wouldn't help Sarah to regain custody.

"She wanted to know about your parents. Before you were brought to me."

"Oh?" Em beckoned S to tell her more. "Do you know about them then?" She had never really thought about her parents too much, having been raised by S since she was a baby but it was always something at the back of her mind. Like something she would get to later, way down the line. But her recent familial discovery had kind of put all that even more on the backburner.

Siobhan shook her head. "No. And I told her the same."

A few moments of silence passed. Em looked down at her hands. "So no case files or..." She pressed on.

"Please, Emma. We've been through this time and time again." She got up and headed towards the kitchen to start putting away the dry plates.

Em followed her. "You never questioned our family history? Never curious about where we came from? I don't get it, S. Not even an address of where they found us?" The teen had been through this argument before, maybe a softer tone of voice was what would drive the information from her foster mum.

"I don't know what to tell you. Those files are back in London."

"How convenient…" Em muttered.

Siobhan started chewing the inside of her mouth. "Em," She sighed, "I don't know what to tell you."

"You can tell me if Sarah and I are biologically related."

Now it was Mrs S' time to look confused. "If you're biologically related…?' She repeated the words, trying to make sense of why this even seemed questionable.

"Yes. All I know is that we were found together. If you have no birth certificates, no records of blood type… what's to say that I'm not biologically related to Felix too?" Em argued.

Siobhan turned her head to side slightly, thinking over Em's point. "I suppose you're not wrong there. But, love, you know that you're Sarah's sister, just look at the pair –"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Em interrupted, putting a hand up to stop S from saying anything further. "We look similar. You know, that's becoming very old."

S tossed the tea towel away from her. "Okay. That's enough. What is going on? Ever since Sarah got back, something has been off with all three of you."

Em feigned innocence. "Nothing. There's nothing going on." She was surprised at how defensive S was getting. Had she let too much on? She needed to be less suspicious. "I just want to know…who they were, where I come from."

S sighed, closed the gap between them and held Em's face in her hands. "Love, if I knew who they were, you would too."

Siobhan held Em's gaze for a little bit too long, as if she was trying to convince herself of this fact. Em was certain S knew more than she was letting on.

"Mrs. S!" Kira shouted from the top of the stairs. "I'm waiting!"

S and Em burst into laughter at the sassy little voice coming out of such a small thing. Siobhan started to climb the stairs and then turned to look over the bannister, "Wait here, love. I might have something that will help you."

Em nodded, surprised that something had finally clicked. She collapsed into the kitchen chair, rubbing her face, and waited for the kettle to boil.

God, she was exhausted and now she was hearing things…a small tapping on the back door. Squinting her eyes, she edged towards the door until a familiar face made itself a little bit clearer through the fogged up glass.

"What are you doing creeping around the door, bloody weirdo?" Em called into the dark.

Felix yanked her arm, pulled her outside and shut the door.

"Where the hell have you been?" He hissed at her, his eyes wide open in a mix of worry and frustration.

"Fe! What are you doing? It's freezing out here!" She hugged her arms and looked longingly towards her jacket, hung up inside.

"Why weren't you picking up your phone?"

Em matched his pissed off tone. "My phone's in my room. I've been downstairs. What's going on?"

Felix swept a loose hair back into its gelled hold. "Paul knows about Kira."

"Shit! How?" Em's teeth began to chatter.

"Well, he must've followed them here. He'd taken photos. Bloody stalker…"

The teen looked around, as if the man was still here, watching them right now. "Shit. Shit! Well, what now? Where's Sarah?"

"Where do you think?" Felix huffed. "She's walked straight into the wolf's den, like an absolute twat!" He shook his head. "Anyway, I was tasked with seeing to it that you hadn't all been kidnapped. And then you didn't bloody pick up your phone like a normal teenager."

Em rolled her eyes at Fe's hyperbole. He always got himself so worked up. "Okay. Well, S is putting Kira to bed now. I'll keep an eye out tonight but we're fine. Nobody's visited."

Fe exhaled. "Right then, my work here is done." He spun around.

Em grabbed his arm, stopping him from heading back down the path. "Wait, wait! We can't just leave her there on her own. We don't know who this guy is. Come on – what can we do?"

Felix shrugged. "Nothing. We can't do anything because as usual, Sarah is taking it all into her own hands." He walked back down to where his bike leant against the fence.

"Well, I can't just sit around here, waiting for the next batch of shit to hit the fan!" Em called after him.

"You could answer your phone once in a while." Fe scoffed. "Oh, actually. That reminds me. Here." He reached into his pocket and fished out a phone wrapped in a pink case.

"What's this for?"

"That, my lovely, is your very own clone phone."

A smile spread across Em's face. "Really?"

"Welcome to Clone Club."

. . .

Sarah place her sidearm on the table in front of Paul, per his request. She slowly took a seat opposite the man as he rested a handgun on his right knee.

"I knew. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew." He stared Sarah down with that stupid, smug smile. "It was that day you were supposed to do the hearing, first time we had sex in months."

Sarah shook her head, hoping she could pull off ignorance, "What? I missed you."

"You were wearing that Clash T-shirt." He giggled to himself, "I was like "What?" … and then, wham, you screw me right on the kitchen counter."

Where was he going with this? Sarah was prepared to do just about anything to stop Paul's suspicion. If she had to reprise the first night they met, she would. "Are you complaining, Paul? What are you saying?"

Paul held all the power in this moment, not only did he have leverage with the photo but the way he held is body; he was eerily relaxed but seemed as if he could pounce at any moment. "You quit the force, after refusing ever even to think it."

"You know what I've been through."

Then Paul changed his position, leant forward and shifted the gun in his hand, "And then the scar on you neck just disappears because of what? Some cream? And now," He reached into his jacket and pulled out a handle of photographs, Kira and Sarah together this afternoon. "This little girl. I was there when Beth found out she couldn't have kids. So who was this girl?"

Sarah paused before answering, waiting to see if Paul would let her speak. He did, "She's my half sister."

"No. I watched you together." That smug grin again, "She's your daughter, isn't she?"

"You're losing it." Sarah decided to gaslight him this time.

"Am I? Tell me, Beth. What was the last race you were in? Better yet, what city was it in?"

Sarah pursed her lips. Shit. There was no way. But before she could even think of a somewhat reasonable excuse, Paul's whole demeanour changed. His face was like stone, there was no trace of arrogance now as he lifted his arm and pointed the gun straight at her face.

"Where is Beth?"

. . .

Em shut the backdoor without taking her eyes off the phone. She navigated to contacts but didn't get a chance to look through them before S walked back into the room with a large photo album in tow. Em quickly stuffed the pink mobile into her back pocket.

"What's this?" Em asked, taking the album from Siobhan's extended clutch.

"Mostly me. But some of you. Come, sit down." S guided Em towards the sofa as she spoke. "England was burning. Maggie Thatcher firing on all barrels, at Ireland, the Falklands. She sacked Social Security, went after the immigrants, the poor, the unions".

Em flicked through the heavy pages, black and white newspaper clippings highlighting Siobhan's formative years as a political activist. A rebel. She stopped on a page with the headline reading, "Riots Set Brixton Ablaze."

S noticed, "What do you remember about Brixton, about my people then?"

"Not much. There were always women around. Kids would come and go, wards of the state."

"They weren't all wards. We were a…a safe house. Some of us worked in Social Services, helping women and kids, refugees, deportees, radicals on the run, that kind of thing."

Em turned another page, "Kind of like what you do now?"

"Sort of." S smiled, a fond memory replaying behind her eyes. She pointed to a photograph from a clipping, "This boy, Carlton."

"Yeah, Carlton." Em repeated his name as if it would help pull the blurry memories of his warm face to the surface. "I think I remember him."

"He was a fine boy. Fine man. Sometimes his pipeline would bring in a child in the black, a child to hide."

The teen looked up from the photo, furrowing her brow in confusion.

Mrs S nodded her head slowly and tried to gage a reading from the girl, "You were one of them. You and Sarah."

After a beat, "Why'd he have to hide us?"

"We didn't ask what we didn't know." S took a sip of her bourbon before continuing, "I had a chance to legitimise these sisters, so I became your legal guardian."

Em was silent as she tried to understand her foster mother. She didn't want to ask too many questions because S was clearly trying her best to provide her with answers but it was clear that the Manning sisters hadn't been a coincidence, and that their being placed with Siobhan Sadler was no mistake. This man had known something about where they came from. If Em could find him, get in contact somehow, she could get a little closer to the truth.

S rested her hand on the girl's arm, a loving gesture to calm her racing mind. "The last time I heard from Carlton he was about to be arrested." She answered before Em could even pose the question.

"You must have been a year of two younger than Kira, and he warned me - he begged me, to move you away, to hide you and your sister deeper. So, I left everyone I knew…and I brought you and the others here." Mrs S turned her head to the side, glancing at a photo frame of their little family. A frozen snapshot of their first Canadian Christmas; buried in layers, her three children piled together as she stood behind the camera and took the shot. Three orphans, four runaways.

Em followed her mother's gaze, and in that moment she understood the gravity of what Mrs S had given up for them. Siobhan was their mother, regardless of their biological origin and Em knew she could be trusted. She had promised Sarah she wouldn't get S involved, and Em and Sarah weren't lying to each other anymore. But she needed more answers and opening up to her foster mum seemed like a start.

Em opened her mouth and the words fell out, "I need to tell you something."

Thanks for the kind messages everyone, it's good to be back.

As always, hope you're safe and well.

tryautumn

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