They had an hour of not knowing what to do with themselves. Should they walk up to the manor? But it would take them three hours on foot. Doe couldn't stand it, she had to be there with Francis and she begged her stunned grieving mother to let her go. Just as she was about to step out of the house in frustration Adam the chauffeur knocked on the door.
"Hey, Doe," he smiled, "I've come to take you and your mum."
Doe flung her arms around him in relief and embarrassed he patted her head. Harri, who was still shaking, and his mother excused themselves, though Harri looked desperately at Doe. His eyes lingering on hers for far too long and she was forced to look away. It was a tense journey with Adam trying to make cheerful small talk, which was met with strained silence. Though, he seemed to accept being ignored. Doe was so impatient to be with Francis that she sat on the edge of her seat, digging her fingernails into the sticky seam of the leather and swaying with the movement of the car.
When they reached the manor, they were told to go to the nursery. Doe burst into what was Draco's room. A doctor was standing just inside talking to Lord Lurie; Draco was holding Darlin's hand as they looked down on Francis. She was wired to a drip but looked a little more peaceful. Doe fell into a chair beside her bed and clutched hold of her sister's clammy hand.
"You'll be alright now," she whispered to Francis.
"Oh the poor thing." Darlin sighed.
"Come now, Darlin. You've been a great help today but I really must get you back to your father," Draco told Darlin softly and steered her away from Doe.
Doe turned to scowl at him but was met with such a look that she faltered. He was afraid.
Lord Lurie thanked the doctor who left shortly after Darlin. He then gently guided Lucia into a second chair opposite Doe.
"The doctor has given her some antibiotics, and she is receiving fluid to rehydrate her. He tells me the next twenty-four hours is crucial to her survival. Of course he will be taking up residence here, so he is at your service." Lord Lurie explained slowly and calmly in his soothing golden voice.
"Thank you, so much, my Lord. You are most kind," Lucia told him in a hollow voice, eyes only for her daughter.
"With your permission. May I inform her father?" Lord Lurie asked again just as softly.
"Oh, er...I suppose so," Lucia looked at him startled, "Why yes, you may."
Lord Lurie quickly left the room. Kitty entered quickly after and embraced Doe tightly and then took the seat next to her to hold her other hand.
"You must have something to eat and drink," Kitty said after a while off glancing at Francis. She rang a bell and gave orders that lunch should be brought to them.
The door opened once more and silently Draco approached them. Doe greeted him with a smile but was shocked when he put his hand on her shoulder. He took it off instantly but before he completely withdrew it Doe caught it and placed back on her shoulder, feeling guilty. He tightened his fingers fleetingly.
That afternoon they had a long wait. Kitty kept jumping up to fetch them comforts, evidently watching over the sick was not her forte. Draco quietly replaced her, taking up Doe's hand in his smooth cool ones. She could feel his pulse throbbing against her palm and knew he would rather be holding Francis. He was not to have his way this time, Doe thought, Francis was a daughter and a sister first.
His presence was strange. He was unusually agitated, his composure struggling to maintain itself. He would get up and pace the room, his frustration evident in his gait, sometimes stopping at the door but then always returning to Francis' bedside. Whenever she stirred or cried out in her sleep, he would sit perfectly still in an intense silence of concentration. Watching Lucia and Doe comfort her.
She seemed to know that they were there and looked as if she was struggling to reach them. Doe clung to her hand and whenever her sister called for her, she responded with whispers of comfort and praise.
When night fell, Lord Lurie returned to tell Lucia she could have the old nanny's room next door. Doe refused to leave her sister's side.
"Mother, you must go and rest. You hardly slept last night." Doe told her patiently but firmly, "I will call you should anything change."
Lucia hugged her and drifted out, dead on her feet, with one lingering look at Francis' face. When everyone had left for bed, Francis began to moan a little.
"Don't be afraid, Francis. You're not alone." Doe told her, "I'm still here."
Francis calmed under the touch of her cooling palm over her brow.
"I'm not going anywhere. You just concentrate on getting better, okay?"
Occasionally the doctor would come in to check on her but there was no sign of change, this Doe had to see as a positive rather than a concern. Sometime after midnight she began to feel heavy and she was struggling to fight sleep. She walked leisurely around the room and looked at all the things that Draco had left behind. Toys that they had once played with slouched on bookshelves holding adventures that they had shared. A little box of costumes in the corner that Francis had loved. Dressing them all up and making herself a heroic warrior princess or a beautiful bandit, a suitable partner for whoever Draco was to play. Doe was just flicking through an old sketchbook of his, watching her sister and his skill go through the various stages of growth when he came into the room himself. She dropped the pages instantly and turned around accusingly.
"I thought you might have been asleep." He told softly.
Doe shook her head. She had never seen him look so dishevelled; he was in his nightclothes and his pale hair was stood on end in all directions.
"I couldn't sleep." He said.
"She seems better," Doe told him, "Just sleeping now."
Draco nodded and sat on the edge of the bed and pressed Francis' fingers to his lips. Doe blushed and turned back to the sketchbook.
"I don't know what I would do," he murmured.
Doe looked back at him unsure if he were talking to her, she was relieved to see him holding Francis' hand gently in his.
"She'll be okay."
He bowed his head and sighed. Doe moved to the chair her mother had been sat in, to be opposite him. She looked down at Francis' face and was glad to hear her breathing normally seemingly in a deep sleep. She looked up at Draco and waited.
"I'm a better person when she's around. Though I see she hates me sometimes."
Doe shook her head, "She could never hate you."
"Yes she could. That's why we're friends; there are some things she would never forgive me for. She's really too young to have to deal with it all."
"You're really young too. Even if you try to act differently."
"I've been dealing with it my whole life but perhaps you are right."
"You're only seventeen, Draco." Doe smiled. "And your father is awful but you're nothing like him."
"You don't know." Draco looked at her fiercely, with only the moonlight his eyes were dark and fathomless but she could sense his fire burning in them.
"I know of him and I know of you. Kitty and Francis give very different descriptions of the both of you."
He gave her a short smile, his teeth flashing in for an instant, " You act older. You always have. What are you? Ten?"
"Twelve."
"Not much older than I was when you first came here."
"We were very different then."
"I liked you though. Everyone else was boring. They still are."
"Even Darlin?" Doe murmured.
"Especially her."
"Is it true you want to marry her?"
"Not yet. Though all the money is being pumped into the health sect."
"To try and improve it for the rest of us?"
"It's up to you to become doctors and get better, remember?" Draco shrugged.
"It's ridiculous."
"But look where you are." He laughed softly.
"That's because of Francis, not me."
They fell into a thoughtful silence.
Draco finally broke it, "For all we know you could be a queen."
"Don't be silly. I'm just some Lab rat that probably should have been drowned."
"Drowned?"
"Lots of girls drown their babies."
"How sad." Though Draco didn't sound very sad at all. Doe wondered at his capacity for empathy.
"Why isn't Francis a good match?" Doe asked him ruefully.
"She is." Draco answered sounding bitter, "But I'll be damned if I do as my father wants. It may all come to nothing regardless."
"Lord Lurie wants you to marry her?" Doe gasped excitedly.
"Of course."
"And you hate him so much, you'd stop Francis and you from being happy?"
"From being controlled." Draco snapped.
"But-"
"Our best chance is Cecil rejecting her and then she is nothing to Father. Cecil is a failed project and I just hope he sees that."
Doe was silent and thoughtful; she hated to see her sister like that. Especially when Francis had been very happy in The Lab without a father or any knowledge of how she could be used by the elite. However, she was only sixteen, Doe thought, the other Lab rats at sixteen were in and out of love all the time. If Draco kept distancing himself then soon she would surely have to give up. It was Draco who was the problem. Doe reflected, watching the boy run his thumb over the white knuckles of Francis' hand. He wouldn't leave her alone even though he rejected her.
"Then you should find her someone else to crush on." Doe told him.
He looked up and scowled.
"Perhaps Master Casa, she talks about him a lot." Doe continued, throwing caution to the wind. She suddenly felt angry towards him. At them all.
"Everyone does. It's not real." He dismissed her.
"Then someone else. If she fails then she can stay home and marry Harri."
"He's the reason she's in this mess," he retorted, "He's incapable."
"He's loved her ever since she was little. He truly loves her. Even now she's met you. They dance and sing together in the pub and everyone loves them. She loves singing but she never sings here because it's too fancy and the words are lies. Just like the meetings. It's all empty."
"Even if she fails. She won't be a Lab rat."
"How do you know what she'll choose? You think that just because you torment her, she loves you? Harri may not be as cunning as you, but he's kind and makes her laugh."
"Very touching. But that's your fate not hers."
Doe gasped, "I have never met a more selfish boy! She'll never leave her family. I think you should go."
He stared at her.
"Leave. You're not wanted here. She's my sister!"
He got up from the bed and left without a word, his anger emitting from him like heat. When the door was closed, Doe leant on the bed, hands in her hair as she began to weep.
She awoke to the doctor checking over Francis.
He smiled at her, "Her temperature's fallen."
Doe smiled back at him, and roused herself. It was a Sunday and when she looked at the clock she knew the house would be at the Meeting. She checked into her mother's room but she was gone too. Doe tidied the room around Francis for something to do. She couldn't help feel annoyed with herself for making Draco angry. She had to sit down and seriously consider if she even liked him anymore. He had always seemed so romantic before but of course that was because she only knew him through Francis and Kitty who both hero-worshipped him.