« down to the sead bed »

Title : Down To The Sea Bed
Pairing : Rosalind Lutece/Sofia Lamb
Chapter : 3/?
Rating :  M (for later chapters)
Synopsis : Rosalind Lutece is a renowned physicist who was invited in Rapture by Andrew Ryan, in hope that she would help improve the city’s structure. There she meets Sofia Lamb, a psychiatrist devoted to the cause of the people. 

Eleanor was a little girl who didn’t look much like her mother – while Sofia was as blond as anyone could have been, the little girl bore a bunch of thick, long brown hair she tied in a tail and a pretty blue ribbon to match her dress.
“I teach her everything myself” Sofia told Rosalind, with a spark of pride in her eyes “as my father taught me everything I know. She will become a psychiatrist, too – an altruist, like I am. That’s why I have to preserve her from the other children.”
Rosa frowned – in her mind it wasn’t by keeping someone away that you would be able to teach that same person how to respect others and get along with them, to feel the same things they did. But she didn’t say anything and smiled instead. “Doesn’t she get a bit lonely though ?” she still asked, with a concerned look for the little girl who was playing with her dolls in the corner of the room.
“Unfortunately she does” Sofia sighed and closed her eyes “she keeps asking if she can see the other children to play with them…” She stopped, as if she didn’t dare to go on and tell what the truth really was – Rosa didn’t push her forward. “That’s why I am happy you came” the psychiatrist went on, a smile on her lips again. “I barely receive people in my home. I am not as great a host as Andrew Ryan…” she confessed with a little grin. “Anyways that’s how I live…”
The redhead smiled “I cannot blame you – I am the same. I have always loathed social obligations. I feel like I don’t belong there. I am a scientist, not a party animal. My office and worktable are the places I have the most fun at.” Lamb nodded in agreement, before turning towards her daughter. “Eleanor, this is Madame Lutece. She is a physicist – she is working to keep Rapture as beautiful and safe as possible.”
The eyes of the little girl seemed to sparkle with some kind of excitement. “Do you ?” she asked with a kind of disbelief in her voice. “Eleanor seems very interested in mechanical devices these times…” Sofia explained. She had the same smile on her face, but yet you could feel it was not what she had planned for the little girl. Rosa didn’t take note of it and kneeled to reach Eleanor. “So, what can these pretty hands of yours do ?” she said with a sweet voice that was so unlike hers. She had always had a stern tone – a woman couldn’t afford to appear soft when surrounded by men. Suppressing all kind of gentle feelings (at least in appearance), was the only way to get respected amongst men, it seemed. You had to appear as tough as them in order not to get eaten in the lion’s den that was the scientific world of 1954.
“Well, the other day, I managed to get into a Security Bolt inside the house…” she whispered, giggling, into Rosa’s ear, and the woman smiled.
“What did she say ?” asked Sofia “I hope she hasn’t yet another of those mischievous things only she has the secret of…”
“It is quite nothing” Rosa assured, before winking back at Eleanor, silently vowing to keep her secret as the girl smiled and went back to her dolls.
“She’ll soon be in bed” Lamb said and sighed. “Why don’t we go over to the other living room to have a drink ?”

Rosalind followed as the blond led her towards another room. This one was quieter and tidier, with a very art-décor interior, which the physicist liked very much. She sat down on the leather couch, standing very still has Sofia got a bottle of brandy out of a closet. “Souvenirs from England” she said with a smile, before pouring the amber liquid over ice in two glasses set on the coffee table.
“So – you should tell me more about yourself. We’ve been discussing our respective work a lot at Ryan’s party, yet I feel like I don’t really know you…” Sofia said as she settled down next to Rosalind, handing her a glass.
“There isn’t much to know, actually – my life has not been that eventful…” she replied as she sipped at her drink and it sweetly burned down her throat, tearing a little face from her. “I’m sure there is” insisted Sofia. “First, tell me why you chose physics.”
“Well –“ Rosalind began “it might sound crazy but when I was a girl, I dreamed of a room in which there was a mirror. And in this mirror I saw a girl, who was and was not myself, who was staring at another girl, who was and was not myself. It was a recurrent dream. My mother used to tell me it was a bad nightmare – but I knew this was the beginning of my career.
“Unfortunately it turned out my professors weren’t so enthusiastic about multiple universes as I was, and I had to drop my thesis and researches, and turned towards the fluids mechanic and the oceanic pressure instead. One could say I am here only out of spite…” she sighed and smiled.
“What of your parents ? Did they support you ?”
“My parents died when I was still rather young – my father when I was three. He had always had a bad heart, the poor man, but my mother had never thought he would have a stroke at 42… As for her, she contracted tuberculosis while in India. She had always been versed into humanitarians actions, and in the end it killed her. I was 16, and my aunt raised me. She had been a suffragette back in the days, and she was the one who pushed me forward, who told me always to follow my dreams and do what I wanted, never mind what the others would say. She was a rare woman – strong and independent during a time while it was near impossible to achieve such things for women…” Rosalind sighed, a smile on her face as she sipped at her drink. “She died a few weeks before Ryan’s invitation to Rapture came in. Had she been alive, I would have never left her.”
She turned towards Sofia. “Now it’s your turn !”

The blond smiled. “My father raised me from a very early age, because my mother died of a cancer. She was a researcher in nuclear medicine, and they didn’t really know the effects, back then… Anyways, if there is one thing my father learned, is that whatever you do in life, you must do it for the greater good. He was a physician, and I saw no better ways to help people, so I studied medicine as well, at Oxford, and I chose psychiatry because I wanted to bring light in the life of people who thought there was none left. During my studies I got the opportunity to travel to Japan, and I finally stayed there after I got my doctorate.” Her eyes lowered and she stopped for a bit, looking down at her glass.
“I was living in Hiroshima, back then.” She finally said after the silence, and Rosa didn’t need to ask her more about it – she already knew what it meant. “I welcomed Ryan’s invitation, when Rapture was finally raised from the sea bed. He said he wanted me to appease the populace, and once again I could do what I was good at – helping people.
At first, I was pleased with the city – but soon I discovered the dark sides of Ryan’s politics. The so-called utopia was only a decoy : there were censors, and people left behind because they weren’t rich enough. I suppose you’ve never been to Pauper’s Drop ? Of course not – it isn’t even a proper district on Rapture maps. People are forgotten there, because they are not scientists, physicians or famous singers. They miss the surface, but Ryan won’t allow anyone to leave, or enter – except those who are invited in, like you were.
“This won’t last forever – the people won’t be patient forever. I can feel it.”

While she had been talking, Rosalind had drunk her whole glass and felt the heaviness was getting to her head. “I think – I should see it by myself, to have a real opinion…” she said quietly with a little giggle.
Sofia raised an eyebrow, looking down to her and sighed. “I think you got tipsy, Rosalind. Let’s put you in bed.”