Cosima sat, laptop open, staring out the window. She should be working on the cure for the clones' disease. Even without Rachel agreeing to decode the cipher, the Castor brain had given them good information. They were probably working with a prion disease. However, not only was it presenting symptoms much different from other prion-based conditions, but prion diseases generally had no known cure. She had already been unable to concentrate on her work since that day, that talk in the hallway with Delphine, but now, with her symptoms coming and going again and again and her distrust of the labs at DYAD, she was wondering if she'd be spinning her wheels even if she could focus, until somebody convinced Rachel to...

There was a loud series of knocks on the door. Cosima started, and her elbow bumped her tea mug, sending it to shatter on the floor. There went her plan of pretending the apartment was empty. A familiar voice, the very one she was afraid she'd hear, especially with Shay not there, came through the door.

"Cos-i-ma," came Delphine's voice, muffled but still clearly concerned. "What was that? Are you alright?"

"Shit," Cosima mumbled to herself. She hesitated long enough that there was another pounding on the door.

"Cosima! Can you hear me? Are you injured? Merde..."

"Uh," the flustered clone finally managed, "I'm fine. Go away, Delphine!" Delphine's voice, slightly quieter but still sounding agitated, came again after a pause.

"You know I'm not going to do that. Let me in, it's important."

Cosima dropped her head in her hands. That mellifluous tone, turned even more beguiling by that damn French accent, still made her heart seize and her body vibrate. That goddamn Delphine, exerting a pull on her she still couldn't control. It made her angry.

"No fucking way," she shouted back, sliding carefully off the stool to avoid stepping on broken pottery in her bare feet. She swore she was going to find a broom and dustpan and clean it up once she... stopped being frozen in place, fingers gripping white-knuckled on the edge of the table.

"Cosima," the voice came again, softly now. She found herself whirling and marching toward the door, clutching her sweater around her. Just to tell her where she can stick it, she told herself.

She yanked the door partway open, wedging herself into the gap to block her ex-lover from entering.

"Listen," she began in an angry tone, trying not to be affected by the way the taller woman, once again towering over her in yet another crisply tailored black suit, was scanning her frantically with wide eyes to make sure she wasn't ill or hurt, "you can't just keep—"

But she was cut short by the yank of strong hands on her sweater, and the press of an insistent, hungry mouth against hers.

Cosima felt herself being shuffled backwards, her lips instinctively falling open at the push of the French woman's tongue. Delphine backed her right through the doorway and several paces into the room until Cosima stumbled, the back of her legs knocking into the couch. She came a little to her senses, back to her defensive ire at that moment, and managed to straighten up, pulling her head away and pushing against Delphine's chest.

"Stop it," she sputtered, as the blonde kept her in a tight embrace, her large, multi-hued eyes half-lidded and full of desire. "Delphine—"

"Do you really want me to," Delphine asked, her voice low, almost a whisper. "Because you don't seem to want to talk with me, but I know, despite your recent behaviour, that you still want to be with me." One of her hands slipped down to Cosima's ass and pulled their hips and groins together. "I can feel it," she husked, and Cosima trembled, certain that they could both indeed feel the moist heat emanating from between their legs, rising between them.

Cosima's gaze flitted to Delphine's eyes, pinking cheeks, panting mouth. She found herself licking her own lips as she stared at the blonde's, her body leaning her incrementally, inexorably closer. No, she couldn't give in! How dare Delphine... oh, God, Delphine...

"We can't," Cosima whispered, with the little resistance she had left, and swallowed.

"I think you know we can, and we will," Delphine told her, and suddenly their mouths were against each other's, moving, feeling, tasting, tongues sliding against each other, teeth pushing against, bruising lips, nipping. A low moan shuddered out of Cosima and her fingers dug into Delphine's back and shoulders, puckering the fine material of her jacket, and then the jacket was off, Delphine shedding it a a fluid motion so quick Cosima couldn't register how it happened. She found her sweater being stripped from her, a hot mouth trailing fire down her neck, and her legs spread by the hips of the taller woman as she pushed their pubic bones against each one another's.

"Ahh, oh, oh God, Delphine," Cosima moaned and babbled. "What... what are you doing to me... Jesus," she yelped, as long fingers slid up under her shirt, squeezing her breast.

"I'm making love to you," Delphine growled, "you stubborn, petulant, amazing brat of a woman." Her fingers closed, pinching Cosima's nipple, while she ran her tongue across the brunette's clavicle. Cosima's hips bucked roughly against her once and present lover. Still, she pulled her head back.

"Wait, wait... we can't, not here," Cosima managed, her eyes rolling to take in the room around them, its contents and the apartment, all of which belonged to Shay, who she had been seeing...

Delphine raised her head, and their eyes met, the French woman's gaze melting Cosima with its fierce, sultry insistence.

"Really," she said, and it wasn't really a question, "but we are." The taller woman slipped her hands down to Cosima's thighs, lifting her bodily, until the clone groaned and wrapped her legs around her. Before Cosima knew it, they were moving, Delphine carrying her surely and with speed down the hallway, and then leaning over, pressing her down, her teeth biting through the fabric of Cosima's shirt, closing on her nipple.

"UhAHHH..." The noise that came out of the small scientist's mouth was guttural, uncontrollable, and an unquestionable cry of exquisite surrender. There was no stopping either of them as Delphine laid her out on the bed — Shay's bed — and stripped her bare. Cosima's fingers fumbled with the buttons on Delphine's pressed, pristine, white shirt, only getting it partially open before she slipped her hand into one bra cup, moaning as she felt the turgid, erect flesh of the nipple against her palm. And then Delphine was inside her, two fingers sliding with ease into her drenched sex, a thumb moving in insistent, rhythmic circles around her clit.

Cosima was openly yelling her desire now, base, animal noises mixing with yeses and ohs and pleas. Delphine had been unfailingly romantic as a lover before, gentle even when she used what techniques she had quickly learned to pleasure the first woman she'd been with, but this was something else. There was more than just demanding, bottled up desire bursting free, here. There was insistence, there was confidence, skill and knowledge. Delphine's hands played Cosima's body like a fine instrument well-practiced, her mouth dancing, nipping, laving and sucking in all the right places. Cosima thought she might come right away, messily, overstimulated, but just then Delphine stopped, her fingers just barely pulsing against the swollen flesh of Cosima's inner sex. Cosima's eyes snapped to her lover's gaze and locked.

"Whuh...what," she managed.

"Tell me," Delphine commanded, her voice almost raw, but still low and sweet. "Tell me what you want."

"Oh... don't, don't stop, baby," Cosima whimpered, squirming and pressing herself against Delphine's hand. "Please, please, baby, keep fucking me."

Delphine's lips briefly seemed to curl in the shadow of a smile, but it just for an instant, and her gaze remained forceful, probing, until Cosima felt she could feel it penetrating her soul.

"What else," Delphine asked her, and at the confused look she got, pressed her fingers deeper, knuckles pushing with bruising force against her lover's cunt.

"AH," Cosima screamed, eyes squeezing shut and inner walls shuddering, clenching once. "I... I love you. I love you and I've missed you, so much..."

This time Delphine's mouth definitely twisted into a satisfied smile, then pressed against hers, Cosima's lips and tongue grasping, rising to meet her, to pull her in, and then sounding a frustrated groan from her throat as the Frenchwoman pulled back once more.

"Yes, I love you," Delphine breathed, her stare full of need and yearning, searching, reproach and command. "But what else? Tell me," she pressed.

"I, I love you so much Delphine... I was so hurt, but I was stupid... I, goddamn it, I'm yours, Delphine, yours only. I've never felt this way with anyone else... Jesus, Delphine..."

"Tell me," Delphine said once more, in that velvet accent, and her fingers curled inside her lover. "Tell me you'll stop fighting me, you'll work with me, trust that I love you. Tell me you want to live."

"Yesss," Cosima breathed. "Yes, I want to live, and I want to be with you."

"Good. My good girl," Delphine told her between kisses, her fingers moving again in a perfect pulsation. "Mon amour..." she said, and Cosima was shaking, clutching, coming in great, wracking spurts all over the bed, lights flashing behind her eyelids and back arching into the air, heart pumping, pounding, beating so fast, the waves of emotion and physical pleasure washing over her, drowning her in need and fulfillment and love. She kept coming, coming again, almost intolerably hard as Delphine shocked her by slipping the tip of one finger on her other hand just past the rim of Cosima's clenching asshole.

It seemed to last forever. Until she came to.

Delphine was holding her, stroking her sides with long caresses, kissing her temples and forehead and lips, bringing her back to herself. She found the strength to return her lover's kiss with her own, revelling in the soft heat of their mouths and hearts connecting.

Then Delphine eased herself upward, planting a couple more small kisses, before rising up straight, running her hand down Cosima's stomach as she did.

"That was wonderful, but I'm afraid I have to go," she said, and Cosima's eyebrows knit in lack of comprehension.

"You... you have to leave," she managed to ask, voice rising in disbelief as she fully realized her position, where she was, what had just happened.

"Yes, and I apologize. But in order to take care of all of you, especially you, ma colombe, there are times I cannot rest."

"Oh," Cosima said dumbly, hands clutching the comforter. "Wait, what? What could you possibly—"

The tall blonde finished re-buttoning her shirt and pulled her cuffs straight. As she leaned down to quiet the naked woman before her with a kiss, she scooped up her jacket.

"What would you suggest, that I stay here until Shay gets home?"

"Oh," Cosima blinked. "Oh, shit."

"Mmm," Delphine hummed, buttoning up her jacket.

"Delphine," Cosima said after a moment, her voice tremulous, "I'm sorry."

"Good," the French woman gave her a small smile and stepped into the bathroom, turning on the water to wash her hands. Cosima's mind turned over and over clunkily, trying to process the overload of sensations she had just experienced, the fact that it had happened in Shay's bed, where Shay was supposed to be any time now, and the difference in Delphine. It wasn't just her hair, anymore, or her steely resolve to do what was necessary at Top Side in order to protect the clones. It was a newfound confidence, and it was also…

"Hey," she said, as her long, cool lover walked back in. "What's been going on with you? You're different."

"Am I," Delphine asked, smoothing her hair with her fingers. "How so?"

"You just… you… I mean, you've had to change to run things, I guess, but… you've never pushed me quite like that. You've never been that aggressive…"

"Mmhm, and did you like it?" Delphine stepped to the bedroom doorway and leaned against the frame, a small upwards curl to her lips.

"Um, yeah, obvs," Cosima said, and then figured out what it was that she was processing, what she wanted to ask. "But, uh, it's not just that. It's like… Delphine, being with you has always been good, even at the beginning, but you… it's like you're suddenly experienced. I mean, you… damn. We've never had sex like that."

Delphine cocked her head slightly and narrowed her eyes.

"Cosima, you know I always search for knowledge, and you know I will do whatever it takes to make sure you are taken care of. Did you think you were the only one who could be bedding someone else while we were apart?"

The smaller woman's face paled, and she sat up, eyes wide, arms pulling the comforter around her to cover herself.

"W-what," she stammered.

"While you were… consoling yourself with Shay," Delphine told her, a small shift of her mouth at the shorter blonde's name betraying some emotion, possibly sadness, possibly contempt, "I've consoled myself, and also reinforced my connections at Top Side."

Cosima's mouth hung open, she couldn't say a word, but Delphine caught the question in her eyes.

"Let's just say Marion Bowles and I have made a mutually beneficial arrangement. You know, she's a very experienced woman."

Gobsmacked was too mild a word to describe how Cosima felt as the woman who'd just rocked her to her foundation coolly raised one eyebrow.

"I do love you, you know," Delphine said, "and I expect to see you at work tomorrow."

With that, the tall woman in the only slightly rumpled suit walked out of the room and the apartment, the thud of the door closing on the click of her high heels finally snapping Cosima out of her amazement enough to say "shit."

"Shit," the small scientist said to herself, again, looking down at the mess they'd made of the bed. "I'm a fucking goner."

She was still staring, dumbstruck, when the keys rattled in the lock of the apartment, announcing Shay's arrival.