Answer from cs61c-ck (Allen Lee 16583554) for Question 1
Without a wire connecting the D and the Q, there is no external delay between the first output and the second input.  The circuits behavior, however, would probably depend on the clock period because we still have internal delays within the D flip-flops.  I guess whether or not the second flip-flop gets the output of the first flip-flop depends if the clock signal gets deasserted at the right time.