Chapter 3 – Catch Up

The TARDIS medical bay had acquired another occupant and her presence was making the occupants of the time ship very uneasy. Clara leaned against a cool metal wall, biting nervously on her fingernails watching the Doctor sullenly scan Catherine Oswald with his sonic screwdriver. Despite her knowledge of the Leda clones, one of which was still unconscious in another bed, seeing her face on someone else was extremely unsettling. She felt an urge to approach the stranger, yearning for physical contact. This urge wasn't born out of desire though, more like two magnets attempting to join together.

There was so much she didn't understand about her echoes, even the Doctor struggled to comprehend their existence. There were so many questions she wanted to ask Catherine Oswald but she was too afraid to ask. Would the Australian native understand the situation? Would she be furious with Clara for technically creating her existence in the first place? Sometimes she wished that her biggest problem was finding time to complete the marking for her English classes.

Clara was so deep in thought that she barely noticed Cosima approaching, "You look lost", he clone noted, "been there before".

The English teacher let out a loud sigh, "How did you handle it?" she asked, "finding out you were a clone I mean".

Cosima hesitated for a moment, a small smile appearing in the corner of her mouth. She reached into her back pocket and Clara instantly recognised a crudely rolled cigarette in her hand, "Went straight into the bathroom and smoked one of these", she wiggled the joint between her fingers. "It was Beth who contacted me, totally not the best idea to be high in the presence of a detective", the scientist added.

Clara chuckled at that thought, she never got the chance to meet Beth Childs since the Canadian detective had committed suicide before she arrived on the scene. She heard plenty of good things from Cosima though but the impression she got was that Beth was a stickler for the rules, "Never been something I've done personally", Clara pointed at the joint, "too much of a good girl for that".

"Yeah right", Cosima snorted, nudging the teacher, "I totally have to get you baked one day". Clara smiled but she wasn't going to place that at the top of her to do list, "Just remember when she wakes up stay calm", Cosima continued, "it's going to be scarier for her than it is for you".

"Good advice", Clara hadn't thought about it like that before, she was aware of the echoes but Catherine certainly wasn't. In addition she could imagine the Doctor trying to explain this to a terrified woman, he would say the wrong thing within the first five seconds.

Feeling a little better Clara shifted her focus towards MK. The Finnish national hadn't woken up since collapsing in the console room a couple of hours ago, "How is she?" Clara nodded towards the fallen clone.

"Still fighting", Cosima sighed, "they built us tough, bit like the original actually".

The teacher nodded mubly before realising what Cosima said, "You found the original clone?" she asked. Cosima nodded slowly but Clara could feel something wasn't right, her girlfriend's shoulders slumped and she could see her chin wobbling slightly, "Cos what is it?" she said softly. The clone didn't answer though, she spun around so quickly that her dreads struck her face and she sprinted from the room.

For a moment Clara was stunned, she suspected that something bad happened during the last eight months but it was clearly worst that she realised. She glanced over at the Doctor who merely raised one of his heavy eyebrows, "Don't ask me", he said gruffly before returning to his patient.

Clara jogged out the medical bay in pursuit of Cosima. The corridors of the TARDIS were vast and she had no idea where the clone had gone. The TARDIS though kept giving her helpful nudges at every intersection until she arrived at a familiar looking door. Clara smiled and turned the brass handle to let herself in. Inside was a cosy bedroom with red painted walls and a double bed in the middle. The walls were lined with bookcases filled with Clara's favourite novels, including an autographed copy of Pride and Prejudice signed personally by Jane Austen herself.

Sitting on the middle of the bed was Cosima, clutching a stuffed grey hippo between her hands. Despite the situation Clara had to smile, "That was my favourite toy growing up", she said, sitting down next to Cosima, "well not that actual toy, this room is a perfect duplicate of my bedroom back in London".

Cosima barely acknowledged Clara until he slowly raised the toy, "What's his name?" she asked with a quiet voice.

Stroking the head of the animal Clara answered, "Her name is Amelia, I named after the explorer Amelia Eardhart. I had it in my head that I was going to travel the world just like her", she smiled to herself, "guess I was right in a way". Cosima was still largely unresponsive, choosing to stare at the hippo instead, "You don't have to suffer alone", Clara rubbed the back of the clone's neck, "you can tell me anything you know".

The American appeared to be responding to the gentle contact and after a few minutes began to open up, "Kendall Malone, she's the original source of our DNA", she began, "Siobhan's mother would you believe".

"Siobhan as in Mrs S?" Clara asked in surprise, "small world". The faraway and teary look in Cosima's eyes told her that something bad happened to Kendall, she didn't need to be a mind reader to know that, "It's alright Cos, you're safe here", she whispered.

"They killed her", Cosima blurted out, "right in front of me, one of Neolution crooked cops put a bullet in her head right then torched her body". A small tear fell from Cosima's eye, "We will never be safe from them, those are the kind of people we're up against".

For a moment Clara didn't know how to respond, sure she had seen death and destruction plenty of times during her travels but those were normally perpetrated by other species. Human cruelty to each other still made her feel a little queasy. The only thing she could think to do was lean in closer to Cosima, resting her head against the clone's shoulder and wrapping her left arm across her body. She could feel Cosima shudder occasionally as she cried silently, the raw emotion of the situation bringing a few tears to Clara's eyes.

Time passed very slowly for the two women but Clara was willing to spend as long as necessary with Cosima. She knew there was nothing she could do quickly to ease her girlfriend's pain but this was the first step on that path. Eventually Cosima shifted, positioning her face near to Clara's. The teacher could see the pain in the American's blotchy and red eyes but they slowly closed as the dreadlocked clone moved in for a kiss. The contact was gentle and a little wet but Clara didn't mind, this was what Cosima needed right now, "Thank you", she murmured

"That what I'm here for", Clara placed a gentle peck on Cosima's lips, "I think you should tell me everything I've missed in the last few months".

Clara spent the next few minutes listening intensely as her girlfriend recalled all of her adventures since the last time the English teacher visited Toronto. She was shocked to hear about Project Castor, a male line of clones comparable to Cosima and her sisters. Then there was the business with the mouth bots and the Brightborn company which sounded truly horrifying. Clara felt that Cosima wasn't telling her everything about those few weeks but for once, she was happy to only get part of the story.

The most shocking revelation though was the survival of Rachel Duncan although at great physical cost to the Brit. Clara subconsciously gripped Cosima hand at the memory of her capture and imprisonment at DYAD. It had been a terrifying experience but at the same time, it was the first time the couple had properly met.

That eventually led onto the work Cosima had been doing to create a long term cure for the clone disease that nearly killed her. The temporary solution the Eleventh Doctor administered worked wonders but it wasn't designed to last forever. Fortunately enough of the genetic sequence survived from that encounter for Cosima and Scott to begin working on something permanent. Despite the obstacles Neolution threw in their direction, including wiping all their research from their hard drives, the biologists had been successful. In theory at least.

The problem with their research was that it was just a theory. Their makeshift lab underneath a comic book store had limited technology, to prove their hypothesis they would need access to a proper lab. In order to do that they needed to make a deal with the devil in the form of Susan Duncan, Rachel's adopted mother and one of the chief scientists of Project Leda.

Listening in awe to Cosima's tale of visiting the mysterious island somewhere in the frozen northern reaches of Canada, Clara's stomach began to tighten. Based on Cosima's sudden arrival on her doorstep, something told her that this plan of Cosima's didn't end well. Unfortunately she was proven correct as the clone continued her story. Rachel made a grab for power, nearly killing her mother in the process. Cosima was fortunate to escape with Charlotte, a younger version of the Leda clones but left all her research behind. Cosima and Charlotte ran across the frozen island until they stumbled across a boat house. The American's childhood sailing experience came in handy as she was able to navigate away from the island and back to civilisation, "It's fortunate my disease has been stable", Cosima added, "any kind of relapse in those temperatures and would've been done for".

"Wow", Clara whistled, "that's some story but how did you end up in London?"

"When I finally got back to Toronto, Neolution were on the hunt for us", the American began, "I delivered Charlotte to Art, grabbed whatever I could and ran". She paused to gather her thoughts for a couple of moments, "Siobhan has some contacts in the military so I smuggled myself aboard a transport plane and flew across the pond".

Clara frowned, "You should've called me", she scolded, "I could've found a way to get you and the others out the country if that's what you wanted".

"I didn't want to drag you into this", Cosima snapped, "I'm eager to keep the time travelling alien away from the unhinged mad scientists, God knows what they would do with that information".

The English teacher wanted to argue back but Cosima was right, if Neolution got hold of the TARDIS they could wreak havoc across all of time and space. That still didn't stop Clara from being a little annoyed, "In case you forgot I am already involved in this", she glared directly into Cosima's eyes, "from now on we do everything together".

A few seconds passed before Cosima answered, "Got it boss", he smirked, "there is one part of the story I left out", Clara had that sinking feeling in her stomach once again, "Sarah's still on the island, she came to rescue me but never came back".

Clara chewed nervously on her lip, something told her that Sarah wasn't dead. If Rachel captured her, she would likely keep her fellow British clone prisoner just to gloat about her victory. It was likely she was still on the island which meant they had only one destination in mind, "Come on", the teacher stood up and extended her hand, "we need to tell the Doctor all of this".

"What are we going to do?" Cosima asked nervously, taking Clara's hand, "we can't just storm the island looking for Sarah".

"We can", Clara said firmly, "but we need a little bit of leverage first and that's exactly what we're going to get". She led Cosima out of her bedroom and down the corridors of the TARDIS, "The library should have some information about Neolution, maybe there's something in there we can use". Clara picked up the pace, there was still the issue of Catherine Oswald to address but she could only handle one problem at a time. Getting Sarah back along with Cosima's research was the most pressing issue right now.

A/N – Apologies for the delay updating this story, I got engrossed in Orphan Black season 5 and decided to wait to see how it ended before update. This chapter is largely an information dump to catch the audience up, next time the TARDIS goes to the island and Clara bumps into Cosima's ex...