Duplicity (Closed for Missmaddy)

[Ravenloft]

The recession had been rough on the Smiths, Dean went from the factory to trucking and back again while his wife studied for years to get a masters degree in genetics. Going so far as to set up her own lab in the basement. He always joked that she was going to become some sort of mad scientist down there. Little did he know how close to the truth he was with his jokes.

He came home after a rough 12 hours of trying to keep machines that should otherwise be in a WWII scrap yard running with nothing more than force of will and bubble gum. "Honey, you here?" He asked, peaking from room to room, shedding his work cloths as he went.

Finally he came to the basement door, it was shut and locked.

"What are you doing down there? Curing cancer?"

He coughed jokingly.

"You might want to hurry, I don't know how many years I've got left in me..."

He added with a grin, putting his ear to the door.

Of course he couldn't hear anything.

 

[missmaddy]

Laura

Laura couldn’t take it anymore. Dean was holding two jobs. He was barely home long enough to eat and sleep. Whenever he wanted to get romantic she was expected to perform on demand. She did love him but was often exhausted and not in the mood. Her job with a start-up biotech company was demanding. She was usually able to work from home in her lab which helped, but she was also expected to take care of their two kids, clean the house, pay the bills and make sure everything functioned like clockwork. What Laura needed was another Laura.

The solution had been right in front of her eyes. The biotech company she worked for had developed a secret breakthrough in cloning – one that theoretically could make an exact duplicate of humans without any side effects. While the company was planning to use it initially to make artificial hearts, livers, kidneys and other organs, Laura had all the equipment in her basement to make an actual human clone. She knew there were laws against it but who would know.

Her data told her that the risks were low so Laura had initiated the sequenced DNA routine several days earlier. The clone was nearly complete. The last phase was to impart all of her own knowledge and memories so it could, in fact, interact with others as her duplicate. In theory the clone would look to her maker for guidance giving Laura control over what it did. Her only concern would be keeping it a secret from others. The two of them could never be seen together.

Laura hooked up the brain scan and flipped the switch. The memory transfer was nearly complete when she heard Dean pounding on the door. She couldn’t just ignore him but she couldn’t interrupt the memory transfer either.

I’ll be out in a bit honey,” she yelled. “I have something I need to finish for a deadline. I’ll meet you upstairs.”

Her concentration had been broken. The machine clicked off 30 seconds before the routine was finished. Laura didn’t think that would matter. Perhaps a small memory would be missing, but nothing that should stop the clone from performing her duties as Laura’s double. She shut down the brain scan and opened the lid on the casket-like container that contained the clone. Looking at her naked duplicate made Laura gasp. Everything was identical from the long brown hair to the mole near the nipple of her left breast. Suddenly the deep brown eyes popped open and looked directly at her.

“Hello Laura,” it said. “How can I be of service?”

 

[Ravenloft]

"Okay, well... I can start dinner for you if you like. How about swiss steak and baked potatoes?" He asked. He didn't get an answer, so he shrugged and started working on it.

He took one of her cake pans and plopped a family pack of thin cut steaks in a single layer than slathered several cans of cream of celery soup over top, covered it with foil and popped it in the oven along with five foil wrapped potatoes and set the whole thing for an hour and a half at... Four hundred, he guestemated.

Grabbing a beer, he went and sat in front of the tv, scratching his stomach and sighing.

 

[missmaddy]

Laura

Laura took off the clothes she was wearing and told the clone to dress in them and then to go upstairs and fix dinner Dean and the kids. Then she put on the lab coat over her now naked body and continued to finish up work in the lab.

Upstairs Laura's clone went upstairs to the kitchen. She walked over to Dean and kissed him tenderly on the cheek.

"Hi honey. It's so good to see you. How has your day been? Is there anything special I can make you for dinner?"

She stood there with a big smile on her face awaiting instructions.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Hey, uhh..." Dean was at a loss for words, Laura was acting strange, first she kissed him tenderly on the cheek then she started talking like a house wife out of a fifties sitcom and finally she completely missed that he'd already thrown dinner in the oven.

"Jeez Hon, did you just go all stepford on me?" He asked with an uncertain grin.

"I put Swiss steak and potatoes in the oven to bake just a few minutes ago. I've got us covered, I think, unless you want a vegi to go along with it."

 

[missmaddy]

Laura (Clone)

Something wasn't right. Hadn't her maker told her to come upstairs and fix dinner? A danger warning flashed through her brain. Her orderly world was unraveling. She did her best to not show the concern she was feeling and looked up at him with a plastic smile.

"Honey, you know that it is my job to fix dinner.”

She took the steak and potatoes from the oven and proceeded to dump them in the trash. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out several of his favorite food items. She turned to Dean with the smile still painted on her face.

“Why don’t you go into the living room and relax, sweetie. Dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes.”

 

[Ravenloft]

"Yes dear, If you weren't here to make it, I would incapable of doing it and simply starve to dea... Hey! What in the hell are you doing!!" He started to joke as she calmly removed his dinner from the oven and dumped it in the trash.

He stood up, knocking over his beer as he reached out, too late to stop her, spilling the beer all over the kitchen counter. "Ah, Damn it!" He groused as he shook some of the beer off his hands, trying to right the bottle.

He closed his eyes, clenched his jaw and counted to ten in his mind as Laura suggested he go relax in a cheery tone. "Somethings not right here, it's like I just slipped into the twilight zone, or something." He replied, turning to face her.

"I mean, you agree, don't you? What kind of person just throws away a perfectly good meal for no better reason than that they weren't the ones who put it together? That's kind of crazy, don't you think?"

 

[missmaddy]

Laura heard the commotion upstairs and decided to check it out. She crept up the stairs and carefully peeked into the kitchen. Things were not going the way she had expected. What had she created? She watched her double mop up the beer without replying and then furiously go to work chopping an onion. She had to do something soon to get things back under control. She took out her mobile and dialed the home phone. Her double, who was standing nearby, quickly answered.

"This is Laura. I need you to come downstairs for a few minutes."

She hangs up and comes down to the lab. Laura closes and locks the door.

"Lie down. I'm going to give you something to make you sleep."

She needs to make some adjustments in the clone but that will have to wait. Laura takes the clothes from the clone, dresses, and returns to the kitchen.

"Hi honey. I don't know what got into me. I have a lot of pressure from work. How can I make it up to you?"