Chapter Text
The next day, Thirteen was moping.
Yaz came into her cave, breakfast ready, only to find Thirteen half out into the aquarium tank, her head across her arms.
“Alright,” Yaz said, setting her bucket down. “What’s wrong?”
Thirteen shrugged. “I have an appointment today,” she said softly. “Don’t like it.”
Yaz nodded, sitting next to Thirteen. “Scared?”
“No,” Thirteen wrinkled her nose. “Just feels weird. All, y’know, overwhelming. My skin gets all numb and I can’t stand it when they touch me. Then they’re poking and prodding and it’s uncomfortable!”
“Ah,” Yaz smiled. “Sit up, let me do your hair. Maybe that’ll calm you down. Go and eat too, you need it.”
Thirteen tugged the bucket to her side, eating slowly as Yaz braided her hair again.
“Thirteen?” Dr. Donahue poked his head into the cave. “Oh, and Yasmin too. Good morning.”
“Morning!” Yaz said cheerfully. “Did ya need something?”
“Actually,” Dr. Donahue smiled. “You can help me. I’m sure she already told you, but Thirteen here has an appointment with our more experienced doctors. Nothing bad, just a routine check, make sure she’s all healthy. I believe you’re due for your six month dental checkup,” he said teasingly.
He and Yaz worked together to get Thirteen into a wheelchair, Yaz pushing her down the halls and into the west wing.
“Alright Thirteen,” Dr. Donahue said, stopping outside a locked door. “This is our stop.”
He opened the door and looked at Yaz. “Why don’t you go sit and relax? I’ll bring her back safe and sound, I promise.”
Yaz nodded, watching as Thirteen’s face steeled. “Okay. See you soon!”
As soon as Dr. Donahue was gone, Yaz headed through the halls, but not in the direction of the east wing. She went down, further in. She passed Saxon, Missy, and the empty aquarium before stopping confidently in front of O. “Good to see you again.”
O looked up, smiling. “Yaz!”
Yaz opened the door to his enclosure, ducking into a corner of the barn. “You got a camera in here?”
“Not in the barn,” O trotted and stood in front of her, effectively blocking her from any peering eyes. “What’s up?”
“I wanna talk,” Yaz said hesitantly. “About Thirteen.”
O’s eyes darkened. “Did she say anything about me?”
“No,” Yaz sat, inviting O to do the same. He did, grabbing a book and opening it, but not looking down. “I just, well, you knew her best.”
“I did,” O said proudly. “But they separated us anyway.”
“Why?”
O’s shoulders shrunk in. “I hurt her. Badly. They were gonna put her in a beautiful lake with me on a farm just next to her. We’d be together forever. But the doctors gave me some experimental drug or something, made me go crazy. I could only think one thing,” he looked up at Yaz with sad eyes. “I wanted her dead, as soon as possible. So I waited,” he dropped his gaze again. “She was asleep, and I took my chance. Broke her neck, but there was still some shred of me left, thank the heavens, and I didn’t kill her. But she had to go, and I was put here, along with all the other failed experiments.”
Yaz took a breath. “That’s,” she shook her head. “But you said it yourself, it wasn’t your fault.”
O shrugged. “Didn’t matter,” he said bitterly.
They sat in silence for a bit before Yaz straightened her spine. “Do you have memories of before? Before all of this?”
“Of course,” O said. “I had a life. So did all of us.”
Yaz nodded. “Tell me.”
O smiled, looking off into the distance and reminiscing. “We lived together, me and her,” he started. “In a tiny ass flat above a river. Our rooms always smelled like water, but the view was amazing. Jo begged for weeks to buy that flat simply for the view. We knew each other for months before that. She wrote most of her papers on the balcony, and god damn was she annoying when she needed practice. She was in the process of getting her medical degree, and she’d use me as her guinea pig whenever she needed one.”
He sighed, fiddling with the edges of his book. “I remember better than most. The day we got asked to help with a local cause, a series of tests that, if successful, would prolong the human life. We accepted, obviously. They said they’d pay us, and we were both broke. But then,” he thumbed at a certain page. “It got fuzzy. Like all my memories are just dreams. And that’s what happened to her, to all of us. We had lives. This company just took them away. I thought giving her hints, like her name, would help. But I was wrong.”
“What was it?” Yaz asked suddenly. “Her name?”
O paused, his thumb tearing the corner of his book page. “Jodie Smith, although her mother was divorced, so she introduced herself with her mum’s maiden name, Whittaker. But legally, she was Smith. She was going to be a doctor. Doctor Smith. Wore that title like a crown, even though she didn’t have it yet.”
Yaz grabbed O’s hands. “This’ll be okay,” she said. “You’ll see her again, and I guarantee it, she will be a doctor. I promise.”
She left once she guaranteed the coast was clear, settling down just outside the door Thirteen had been taken to.
“Yasmin?” Dr. Donahue peered out of the doorway almost an hour later. “Ah, there you are! I hope you weren’t sitting here the entire time.”
“Nope,” Yaz said, standing up. “Did some rounds, got some air, came back and did a bit of reading.” She held up her book as evidence, shutting it and putting it securely in her pocket. “Is Thirteen done?”
“Yep,” Dr. Donahue smiled. “C’mon, poor thing needs a nap.”
Yaz took the wheelchair from Dr. Donahue, raising her eyebrows at the groggy, half conscious Thirteen sitting in it. “Is she okay?”
“Of course,” Dr. Donahue held the door open for her as they headed back towards the east wing. “Mild sedative, should wear off after a bit of sleep. She was difficult during her exam, so we had to, otherwise someone would’ve been hurt.”
Yaz hummed, looking down at Thirteen. “Is she always trouble like that?”
“Mostly,” Dr. Donahue said. “But she’s hypersensitive, so it makes sense.”
They carefully maneuvered Thirteen back into her cave, setting her on her back in her pool. She smiled up at Yaz before drifting off to sleep, her head falling back.
“I’ll stay with her,” Yaz mumbled, sitting on a dry patch of the floor. “Keep her company until she wakes.”
Dr. Donahue left, allowing Yaz to finally do what she had wanted to for hours.
She tugged her phone out of her pocket and did a very fast google search.
‘Jodie Smith.’
There were practically no decent results. The only promising thing was a four year old social media profile.
The photos were grainy and practically ancient, but it was definitely her. Yaz clicked on one, and she almost gasped.
Thirteen was standing amongst friends, happy and smiling. O was there, just to her left, also smiling. She had her arm around him, dragging him down and making him laugh. He was clean shaven, and she was brunette, but it was definitely them.
Yaz scrolled to the caption, nerves welling up inside her.
One last night with the dream team! Whittaker and Dhawan are leaving us tomorrow for some boring experimental study, so we made the most of tonight!
“Oh god,” Yaz stood up. “I have to go.”
She practically stumbled out of there, suddenly sick. She bumped into Bill, who promised to take her shift for her, and urged her to get some bed rest.
“Stay home tomorrow if you have to,” She said, helping Yaz into her car. “Are you sure you can drive? I don’t mind asking Clara to cover me while I take you home.”
Yaz shook her head. “Gotta go home alone,” she slurred, and suddenly, the world was slipping, sliding away like melting paint. Bill was shouting, but the words were incoherent, muted almost. Yaz had just enough in her to murmur her address before she fell into unconsciousness.