if you wanna stay

[coppelganger]

WHO: Sarah, Sarissa, Clara
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: Nebulous points between the 18th and the 26th
WHAT: Just some freakouts
WARNINGS: Will add as necessary



for sarissa: [ After their short text conversation, Sarah goes outside to wait for Sarissa, pacing up and down the street. She doesn't smoke cigarettes, but situations like this make her understand how easy it would be to start. She needs something to do with her hands, besides wring them together, which is what she's doing right now.

Jesus. Can't they ever catch a break? It's one thing after another, and it never seems to stop. ]

for clara: [ Since Cosima and Alison have gone missing, Sarah has taken to spending time at the places they can usually be found. She'll spend a couple hours skulking around near Alison's house, then a few hours at Cosima's, then make a trip to Cosima's lab. Just in case. She knows it's getting ridiculous, but it's a way to pass the day.

On this particular evening, she's wrapped herself up in one of Cosima's old blankets and fallen asleep on the couch in the lab's Chill Zone. She doesn't even wake up when the door to the lab opens and someone appears in the doorway. Whoops. ]

Comments

[coppelganger]

Oh. Right.

[ Cosima's charming time-traveler is, um, tinier than she expected.

Sarah sits up on the couch and rubs at her face, trying to force herself awake. ]

Cosima's not... [ She doesn't want to say it out loud. Typing it was hard enough. ] Alison, too.

[oddbod]

... She's gone.

[Clara's face is perfectly still as she lowers to her knees, coming to rest level with Sarah. She feels strange, detached. Cosima's left, just like that, just between heartbeats, and Clara distantly registers that she wants to tear something apart. She wants to see someone answer for leaving her alone like this, again. But all of that is filtered through a haze, tipped on its side by the discomfort and distraction of her purpose in coming here.

She touches her arm gingerly, through black leather. It's far too hot for the jacket, but nothing else could hide the bulk of the bandage.]

I'm sorry, Sarah.

[coppelganger]

She's not—don't say it like that. She'll be back. They both will.

[ Because things were bad enough for her while Cosima and Alison were both present. What's she going to do if they're gone? She needs someone who can test Sarissa's blood, be the go-between when it comes to her fights with Felix, be her friend. Christ only knows what's going on at home, and she can't have Cosima and Alison just... be back in that world permanently with no preparation. They need this extra time. ]

She's not gone.

[oddbod]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way.

[It's a white lie. In her gut, Clara's already working through how to grieve this. She can't survive another Danny, not so soon, when she's still getting used to the stillness in her veins. Cosima has been someone real and warm and loving to hold onto, for all of these months.

Clara Oswald doesn't need anyone, but she needs her.]

Listen, Sarah- [She winces out of habit, feeling for the wound through her sleeve.] I came here because I needed her help, but... I might need yours.

[coppelganger]

[ That gets Sarah to sit up straighter, confused and a little suspicious. Clara needs help. She came to Cosima's lab to get that help. If she thinks Sarah's a fraction of the scientist Cosima is, she's in for a bad surprise. ]

I can't do anything related to this shit. [ She gestures at the lab around them. ] Not my thing, sorry. I'm the fuckup of the family, didn't she tell you?

[oddbod]

[Clara gives her a brief, stern look, as if to say, Shut your mouth, you tit. Under different circumstances she might argue the point, but Sarah doesn't seem the type to accept a motivating speech, and quite frankly? Clara isn't in the mood to give one.]

I don't think Cosima would agree. But don't worry, it's nothing major.

[She slides off her jacket, and the bandaged arm comes into view. There's still a bit of blood, from what gravity could pull out of the affected veins, but it's minimal.]

There's a bullet in my arm, and I can't get it out.

[coppelganger]

Oh.

[ Sadly, Sarah's first reaction is to feel relieved. She's pulled a bullet out of somebody's leg before. At least she knows how to handle this. If Clara'd asked her for help with some kind of experiment or with the lab equipment, that would be another story.

She doesn't ask how Clara got shot, or who shot her, because that's not important right now. She just gets off the couch and goes looking for what she'll need. ]

Okay. This is gonna hurt like a bitch, but it'll get infected otherwise.

[oddbod]

It's alright, I can't quite... feel pain.

[She tries to say it lightly, but there's still a bit of detached panic in the back of her voice as she unwinds the bandage.]

[coppelganger]

Uh. That makes this easier, then, I guess.

[ It takes a couple minutes, but she manages to find what she needs: a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, a set of long tweezers, and some fresh bandages. ]

Last time I had to do this, all I had was a bottle of whiskey and my fingers. Lucky you, eh?

[oddbod]

Yeah, I'm getting the royal treatment.

[She smiles, a bit too bright and forced for the circumstances, as she unwinds the rest of the bandage.

The wound looks just as it did twelve hours ago - small, round, and incorrect. There's no angry tissue inflammation, no pooled blood. Just a dark hole, leading down to a single bullet embedded in bone.]

[coppelganger]

[ That's. Okay. That's not what she was expecting to see, and she's not sure how to react. Not feeling pain she'd written off as one of Clara's superpowers. Handy. But the way her wound looks is... wrong. Sarah can't see a way to ask about it without being rude, but since she's about to go digging the bullet out... ]

What's the matter with it? [ Tactful, as always. ]

[oddbod]

[Clara thinks for just a moment, her eyes fixed firmly on the wound, before she calmly reaches for Sarah's hand. She moves the fingers down her arm - cold, still skin - and places them right where her pulse should be. Right where her pulse isn't.]

I'm a bit less normal than you probably hoped.

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah's first thought, above all else, is: God dammit, Cosima, why can't you ever date anyone normal? Her second thought is that she's glad that George, despite technically being dead, isn't dead like this, with the cold skin and the pulselessness and... then her third thought is that, oh, she's touching a dead person and the dead person is sitting there talking to her like everything's fine, and she jerks her hand away, startled. ]]

Jesus Christ, oh bloody hell—

[ Then, taking a deep breath, she recovers somewhat. ]

Sorry. Sorry, just wasn't expecting.

[oddbod]

It's okay. You're allowed.

[She sits patiently, chewing on her bottom lip, as she waits for Sarah to recover from the confession.]

[coppelganger]

Hey, normal's overrated anyway, yeah?

[ It's a lame attempt at making up for being an asshole, but it's all she's got. She unscrews the bottle of peroxide and holds it up, considering. ]

I guess you don't need this.

[oddbod]

[She wrinkles her nose a little, uncertain.]

Might want to stay on the safe side. I still need your sister to help me figure some things out.

[coppelganger]

Okay. Uh, maybe it'd be better if you didn't watch, yeah?

[ Since Clara seems new to being a corpse, and if she's anything like Sarah, watching this might make her sick. ]

[oddbod]

Alright.

[She tilts her head away, steeling her jaw, and squeezes her eyes closed.]

Okay, go for it.

[coppelganger]

[ Sarah pours some of the peroxide over the wound. The fact that it fizzes, despite Clara's condition, is a strange relief for her. She pokes at the wound with the tweezers, hesitantly at first, then more confidently. It helps that Clara isn't flinching or trying to pull away. Once she locates the bullet, it's not hard to get the tweezers on it and with a tiny bit of wiggling, she pulls it out and sets it on the lab table next to them. All that and no dry heaving into Clara's lap! Victory. ]

There it is.

[oddbod]

[Clara's shoulders fall in relief, and she lets out an unneeded breath.]

Oh, thank god. [A single, nervous laugh.] And thank you. I'm guessing you've done this before?

[coppelganger]

Yeah. Once.

[ Sarah starts winding the clean bandage around Clara's arm, more out of a desire to not have to look at the wound anymore than to prevent infection. Still, her touch is surprisingly gentle. ]

[oddbod]

[Clara doesn't blame her a bit - it took her hours to muster up the courage to examine it herself.]

I don't have much experience with bullets. Only gun I've ever held was more of the "ray" type.

[coppelganger]

So what the hell happened, then?

[ She's not judging, but she's confused. And honestly, she's having a hard time picturing Clara with a gun. ]

[oddbod]

I've been doing some investigative work. [She doesn't know Sarah well enough to entrust her with the details, even if she is Cosima's family.] Didn't make it out the door fast enough last night.

[coppelganger]

Does—did Cos know you're doing this shit?

[ Not that it's any of her business, but she'd at least like to know that her sister wasn't encouraging this dumbassery. ]