Work Text:
Stepping into the hidden section of the transportation machine, Sithe sees a wooden cage on the floor. It is accented by light from the grated trapdoor above. Her hand grips tightly to the screwdriver she holds in one hand, and a small piece of paper in the other. The note she had gotten from the wax figure of The Professor.
As she steps closer, she sees a man’s body inside. It’s a face she knows all too well. Anger wells up in her stomach as she shoves the crumpled note into the pocket of her lab coat. This man lying before her had blackmailed her for ten years, all because she had been ordered to forge The Professor’s autopsy report. Suddenly the man moves. Sithe shuffles back, startled that the fall hadn’t killed him.
He begins to stand up groggily. Before he can take more than a step out of the contraption Sithe closes the remaining distance between them and plunges the screwdriver into his chest. She almost feels as though there is another hand wrapping around her own, forcing her to act.
Of course, Sithe knows just where to aim to kill him quickly. She feels the tool dig into skin and pierce his heart. After all these years of paying this man for his silence she relishes in his death. Asman, not even fully conscious, doesn't scream. His eyes simply roll back in his head as he collapses to the ground.
Sithe moves to drag Asman back into the cage, but before she can his face changes. His face softens as his hair goes white. Her heart races as she now sees the face of her own daughter. Then the whole darkened room is suddenly replaced with her autopsy lab, and Maria is on the table, the screwdriver embedded in her chest. Her daughter's pale eyes look up at her with desperation.
“No… no… no!” Sithe stammers as she places shaking hands on the wound trying to keep the blood from spilling out. Her eyes dart desperately around the room at the different tools and chemicals, trying to think of something that would help. She can’t lose her daughter, she just can’t. Maria was the only good thing she had left. Tears start to streak down her face, all she can see through blurred eyes is never ending red.
Jolting awake, Sithe’s breath is quick and stuttered as sweat drips down her now even paler face. Slowly she looks around trying to remember where she is. The isolation cell in the prison. The candle that had been lit had long since gone out, leaving her in almost complete darkness.
Sithe sits up in the cell’s cot and pushes herself up against the cobble wall. Burying her head in her hands she tries to ground herself to this spot, to pull the nightmare from her head. At this moment she wants nothing more than to see Maria, to know that her daughter is safe. But would Maria ever want to see her again? Was her daughter disgusted at what her mother had been forced to do for ten years?
Her stomach churns to an even more unsettling thought. Without her in the lab Stronghart would have to turn to someone else to hide the skeletons in his closet, and for that he might turn to Maria. She could get roped into exactly what Sithe had been trying to shield her from all these years. Her daughter could end up going down the same dark path.
Sithe wants to scream. She wants Stronghart to be the one on the operating table, her scalpel digging into his neck. Instead, all she can do is look out the bars of her isolation cell, hoping that Maria will never see them from this side.
Eventually even her racing mind isn’t enough to keep her awake and sleep takes her. When she wakes again her neck is sore from falling asleep sitting up. The lamps outside her cell have been turned up, allowing her to see into the hallway. In the cell she doesn’t have much to do other than think. She’s already played out what events led to this moment over and over. So instead, she closes her eyes and starts performing an imagined autopsy in her mind. She’s part way through removing a kidney when a voice gets her attention.
“Mama.”
For a moment she assumes she’s fallen asleep again. But when she opens her eyes, she sees Maria, in her lab coat, standing on the other side of the bars. Her white outfit and pale skin are a stark contrast to the darkness and black bars between them. A constable stands next to her. Sithe’s heart races. Why is Maria here?! She was told she wasn’t allowed visitors, which meant that Maria must be here because she had been arrested.
“I’ll be back later,” says the constable, leaving the two of them alone.
For a moment the two just stare at each other in silence. They both have so much to say that it’s hard to say anything. It’s finally Sithe that breaks the silence.
“Maria, I’m so sorry.”
Though she’s not exactly sure what she’s sorry for. She’s not sorry for killing Asman, he was a criminal. Perhaps she is sorry for not allowing Maria to have a normal life. A life with a complete family, a mother with a normal respectable job. Instead Maria got a mother who was willing to kill to keep her own dirty secrets. One that ignored the warning signs, allowing herself to be manipulated, just so that she could rise to power and prove a woman could do a man’s job.
Then she sees Maria start to cry. Which was out of character for the morbidly monotoned girl. Sithe jolts up from her sitting position on the bed and walks over to the cell door. There’s just enough room for her to slip a hand through and hold Maria’s cheek. Using her thumb she lightly brushes away a tear. Even as she does it she doesn’t know why. Perhaps it’s the motherly instinct she often hears about, though she never thought of herself as having that particular instinct.
Maria seems grateful for the gesture and leans into it, taking her mother’s hand in her own.
“It’s over mama,” she starts with a small smile. “Lord Stronghart has confessed to everything. The Queen has stripped him of his position.”
It takes Sithe a moment to process what Maria has said.
“He’s gone…” she whispers in disbelief, letting her hand fall to her side. “How?”
“The lawyer from the east. He proved everything.”
Sithe feels a mix of emotions, but relief bubbles to the surface. She’s relieved that she no longer has secrets to hide, but is more relieved that Stronghart won’t have a hold on Maria. Her daughter can be free of the chains that had bound Sithe for ten years.
There’s another moment of silence.
“Scotland Yard is letting me work as head coroner,” says Maria proudly, but then her face drops as she remembers that had been her mother’s position.
“I’m so proud of you,” Sithe replies, picking up on Maria’s hesitance. “You’ll do great. And don’t worry, one day I’ll get out of here. With Stronghart’s web of lies undone the court may go easy on me.”
As she spoke she wasn’t sure she believed her own words, she had killed a man and would be punished for it. But she needed to believe it, for Maria’s sake.
“I miss you mama,” Maria says sadly, her eyes dipping down.
“I miss you too dear.”
“I promise to come visit you, and tell you all about the bodies I’ve dissected,” Maria adds, perking up.
Sithe breaths out a quiet laugh. Ever since she could even hold a scalpel Maria had always been fascinated with autopsy work. It had started out as a necessity bringing her to work, because Sithe had no one to babysit. But as Maria grew she started begging to join her mother in the lab. She got a few dirty looks the first couple of times she had allowed Maria to accompany her. But once she had started to show her aptitude for the work no one questioned it.
“I would like that very much,” Sithe replies with a rare smile.
“Maybe one day we can dissect bodies together, like we used to,” says Maria looking up.
“I’m sure we will.”
The two hear someone approaching as the constable returns.
“I’m sorry, time is up. You can come back again tomorrow,” he adds hopefully.
Before Maria can leave, Sithe reaches through the bars and grabs Maria’s hand. She squeezes it tightly, as if it was the last thing keeping her alive.
“I don’t expect you to ever forget what I’ve done, but I hope one day you can forgive me.” She pauses.
The officer pretends to be tending to something to let the two speak.
“I love you so much Maria.” She bleeds her whole heart into those few words.
“I love you too,” replies Maria leaning forward so their foreheads can lightly touch through the bars.
The officer clears his throat and Maria steps back from the cell, her hand slips slowly from her mother’s grasp. Sithe keeps her head pressed against the door, tears beginning to flow as she watches Maria disappear down the hall.