"I wish I did not have to leave so suddenly, Cosima," Delphine's voice filtered through Cosima's ear as she fought a yawn, having been woken up by the call.

"No, no, it's fine," Cosima assured her quickly, watching as Sarah pulled her face from the end of the bed. Cosima stifled a small smile at the sleepy image Sarah created, red lines from the wrinkled sheets imprinted on one cheek as she blinked a few times, jaw gaping in a yawn of her own. "I mean," Cosima continued, her eyes still tracking Sarah's movements absently. "They would have noticed your absence eventually right?"

"It was no problem," she admitted through a rustle of static, making it hard to distinguish her tone. "I had told them that your condition was worsening and that I needed to monitor you more closely."

Something ugly twisted in Cosima's gut as she remembered the truth of Delphine's job. Monitor first, lover second. Even if the lines between the two often blurred. "Right," she swallowed hard, forcing brightness into her tone instead of bitterness. She left on a positive note, Cosima, she told herself, Try to keep it that way. "Yeah so.. so they don't, like, suspect anything or whatever."

"Nothing," she replied.

"That's good," Cosima hummed absently as Sarah started to stand, gathering her coat in her arm. Cosima felt her heart drop in slight panic. She was leaving?

"...continue research for your cure the moment I land, d'accord?" Delphine was saying earnestly.

"I.. yeah," she clued in, turning her attention back on the conversation momentarily. Lowering her voice in concern, she continued, "Just.. be careful, alright Delphine? Don't put yourself in danger just to cure me, okay?"

"Cosima," she replied seriously, "I will do everything I can for you. You shouldn't worry about me.. focus on getting better, yes?"

"Delphine, this isn't up for debate," Cosima began, frustrated by the French woman's obstinate behaviour, her emotions on edge as she glanced up again to see Sarah heading for the door. "Just... hang on a sec, alright?" she sighed before turning the phone into her shoulder as she called out, "Hey, uh... heading out then, I guess?"

"Yeah," she replied, drawing her jacket closer to herself, barely meeting Cosima's eyes. "Off to see Kira."

"Sure, yeah," she nodded, feeling disappointment cloud slightly in her gut, despite her understanding. She can't hang around here all the time. "Um, see you later then, right?"

"I.. yeah, sure Cos. Tomorrow maybe," Sarah nodded before flashing Cosima a tight, worn out smile and leaving her alone.

"Cosima?" Delphine said, continuing once Cosima confirmed her presence on the line. "I... they are calling passengers to board now."

"Yeah... uh, right," Cosima said heavily, feeling a little disoriented at Sarah's sudden departure. Then, cluing in on the similar heaviness in Delphine's tone, "Delphine.. are you alright? After everything?"

There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments. "I will not lie to you Cosima. I wish you could be on this plane with me so that we could work together again to cure you. But...," she sighed again, "I cannot deny what I've seen between you and Sarah. I just want you to promise me one thing. Please."

"Sure, Delphine," was the quiet reply.

"Let me continue to be a part of your life? However that looks between us. I just don't want to lose you."

"Delphine, I.. of course. Of course you're still going to be a part of my life. No matter what, you'll be a part of it. Of me. After all," Cosima gave a dry laugh, "You kinda are, you know, doing some crazy science shit to try and save my life."

Delphine laughed lightly as well, before becoming somber once more. "I am about to board... I will call as soon as I land?"

"Yeah, fine," she nodded, "Keep me updated and, like, as soon as you know anything, right."

"Of course," the other woman replied, and Cosima could just picture the attentive nod accompanying her words.

"We'll... we'll talk soon, then."

"Take care, Cosima," she answered softly.

Cosima smiled lightly in reply, "You too. Bye." She hung up and set her phone on the nearby table, arching her back in a small stretch before grabbing one of the books that Sarah had brought to her in earlier on during her stay, and began to read in silence.

"Thanks for picking me up Fee," Sarah sighed as she dropped into the passenger seat with a heavy thud.

He just nodded as he pulled out of the parking lot, turning in the direction of Mrs. S's. "So?" he prompted without preamble.

"So?" Sarah grumbled back, unwilling to oblige him in his curiousity.

"Did you and Cosima get along last night?" Felix asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her as they waited at a traffic light.

"God, stop," she groaned, crossing her arms and looking out the window, trying her best to ignore the insinuations she felt rolling off of him in waves.

"That good, was it?"

"For Delphine maybe, I'm sure," she gave, frustration and just the slightest amount of hurt seeping into her words.

Felix was silent then, recognizing from his sister's tone that this wasn't the time to play the judgement card. He waited for more, but when Sarah wasn't forthcoming with further information, he plied for details, "Well, what happened?"

Sarah held out on a reply for as long as possible, setting up barriers and barricades in her mind; anything to get away from the feeling of her stomach dropping out from under her at the memory of Cosima's words. Eventually, with a long sigh, she caved, "She told Delphine that she loved her."

"But you already knew that, didn't you?" he reasoned as he parked in front of their childhood home.

"Course I did," she answered gruffly as she shouldered open the door and stepped out into the cool morning air. "I just thought that she...," she trailed off, shaking her head at her brother's inquisitive look as she turned towards the house.

"Sarah," he said, stopping her on the sidewalk with a hand on her arm. "Did you tell her?"

"There's nothing to-" Sarah started to protest, pulling her arm sharply away from Felix's reach.

"Don't give me that bloody shite Sarah," he warned her, folding his arms as he tapped a finger impatiently.

"Would you just leave it out Fee?" she sighed again, "I heard Cos say it herself last night, so. That's the end of it, yeah?"

"You could at least talk to her!" he called after her back as she turned away from him and headed up the sidewalk once more.

She just waved her hand tiredly as the door opened at her approach, revealing Mrs. S standing there, her arms folded at the sight of Sarah lugging herself tiredly up the stairs. "Look what the cat dragged in," she stated with a quirk of her lips.

"Oi, oi, S," Sarah half-grumbled, brushing past her foster mom with a slight smile of her own. "Where's my monkey?" she called up the steps as Felix came in behind her.

"Mummy!" Kira's voice sounded from the landing above, the joyful cheer accompanied by a rapid tattoo of footsteps down the stairs.

"Hey monkey," Sarah breathed happily as she knelt, feeling at least one weight lift from her chest the moment Kira collided solidly with her frame. "We missed you so much, yeah?"

"I missed you too," she replied, burying her head in Sarah's shoulder, her words muffled slightly by Sarah's tangled hair. "But you stink!"

Sarah laughed as she gave Kira one final squeeze and released her. "It's just the hospital smell, monkey. But you're right. S?" Sarah nodded up the stairs, "I'll be a few, yeah?"

"Go on and get yourself clean. I didn't raise you to be a dirty ruffian, now did I?" Mrs. S waved her off as Felix swooped Kira up, "I'll put the kettle on. I'm sure we have a lot to talk about."

A short while later, Sarah came back down the stairs, towel still draped over her shoulders to catch the drips from the ends of her thick mane of hair. "Cuppa?" Mrs. S asked as Sarah settled into her usual chair across the table, which allowed her to watch Kira and Felix play while still holding the conversation.

"Got anything stronger?"

Mrs. S nudged the tea pot towards Sarah with a stern look, "This is the better bet, wouldn't you agree?"

She shrugged, didn't bother to argue. "What do you want to know?"

"How is Cosima? I've only been getting bits and pieces from you over the past little while. Difficult to line them all up," she started, looking over the rim of her mug at Sarah.

"Well, uh, Felix told you about how she fell yeah?" Sarah explained, feeling her gut clench at the memory of the cracking bones. Shook her head to clear her mind of the sound as Mrs. S nodded. "And Delphine flew down shortly after that.. after I called her and all that-"

"You called her? Sarah, what on earth for?"

Sarah shrugged again, trying to be nonchalant, trying to forget Cosima's words that were uttered to Delphine not a few short hours ago. "Cosima lo... cares about her," she explained blankly, cutting herself off when the word stuck in her throat. Hoping Mrs. S wouldn't notice.

Her expression narrowed shrewdly at Sarah's slip up, squashing that hope immediately. "Is there something going on between you and Cosima?"

"Shite," she growled, smacking the table with a fist, causing the cups to rattle in their saucers. "First Fee, then Delphine.. now you. I'll never catch a bloody break."

"Oh.. well," Mrs. S raised her eyebrows as she pinched her lips together, "That's certainly a.. development, isn't it now?"

"Like bloody hell it is," Sarah gave, but clammed up immediately after, opting for a sip of tea instead of further explanation.

"And how did this come about?"

"I'm starting to think I should've just stayed at the hospital," Sarah grumbled again, directing her gaze over Mrs. S's shoulder to the living room where Felix and Kira were playing. Her daughter caught her eye and giggled as she waved.

"With Cosima, you mean," Mrs. S asked pointedly.

"Honestly," she raked a hand through her hair, blowing out frustrated air through her nostrils, "You're just as bad as he is," she gestured over to Felix as she took another drink.

"Family sticks together like that, I suppose."

"Yeah. I guess they do."

With Delphine still on the plane and Sarah spending time with her daughter, Cosima had nothing else to do. She had already flipped through every channel that the tiny TV across the room had to offer and had fiddled with the controls of her adjustable bed so much that the nurse on duty had them covered up and placed under a child-lock. "What else do you expect me to do?" Cosima had said as the nurse tapped in a code that Cosima couldn't see.

"Resting would be a good start," the nurse answered as she turned away.

"But I feel fine! And I'm bored," Cosima rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest, acting in such a manner that absolutely earned the child-lock device on the controls.

"Rest," was, once again, the firm statement before Cosima was left alone. And still completely bored.

That was a few hours ago. She had tried to pick up her book and read some more since then, but her head had just felt dull and her mind had been too restless to take in the still and silent words on the page. With nothing else to do, she called the nurse in and asked for the bed to be lowered back into a horizontal position and, despite it being still fairly early in the afternoon, allowed her eyes to drift shut.

She had almost fallen asleep when the lights started flickering. She rolled over and pushed her face into the pillow, trying to ignore the way that the intermittent light was stimulating her senses into wakefulness. It wasn't until she shifted again, trying to get comfortable, that she realized that, even through closed eyelids, it was suddenly much darker.

A demonic laugh caused Cosima's eyes to snap open in the gloom, her pupils adjusting to the sudden loss of overhead light. Fuzzy images had just begun to appear in the half-light when a voice sounded at the foot of her bed.

"Hey Cos."

"Jesus Sarah," Cosima let out a shaky laugh upon recognizing Sarah's voice, "You scared me. I thought you went home to be with Kira, you asshole."

"I didn't," Sarah continued softly as she drew closer to Cosima's bedside. "I couldn't leave you alone. Now that Delphine's gone, I mean."

Cosima was silent for a moment as she reached for her glasses and stretched, blinking away the sleep that she hadn't been able to catch in the first place. "I'm glad you came back, Sarah," she murmured gently.

"I'm not," Sarah snapped unexpectedly as she finally stepped close enough for Cosima to make out her frame. "I didn't want to come back, don't you see?"

Cosima squinted, glasses precariously placed on the bridge of her nose. Something wasn't right. "Sarah, what's-"

A demonic cackle bounced around the room once more as Sarah's face finally materialized from the darkness. But there was something underneath her skin, something black, that made Cosima's gut twist in anxiety.

"She left to get away from you," the voice, which was no longer Sarah's comforting accent, pointed out with another menacing laugh. "You realize that she can't stand you? Your genius brain has surely figured that out by now."

Cosima fumbled for a reply, her perception of the situation warped as her mind tried to process that, while the voice clearly wasn't Sarah's, everything else still matched. Those were Sarah's eyes glaring at her, Sarah's mouth sneering. Sarah's hands locked in an iron grip around her shoulders.

"I'm dreaming," Cosima tried strongly, grasping Sarah's, no, not Sarah's, wrists in an attempt to wiggle free. "This isn't real."

Its mouth opened and the putrid smell of her last nightmare poured out, forcing Cosima's weak lungs into spasm as she turned her head and desperately wished to escape. To wake up. "Is that what you think, Cos?" it asked, it's weight pressing her deeper and deeper into the mattress. She was going to fall again. Just like last time. She struggled, twisting left and right, but its grip was cinched around her shoulders like steel and it wasn't letting go.

"I'm sleeping. I just need to wake up," she commanded of herself firmly, but her brain was all jumbled up from the very real input it was getting from her senses.

"Why?" it hissed, "You've had an out-of-body experience before... how do you know this is different, hm?"

"Let... go," she thrashed again, scrabbling with a weakened grip at its arms as its hands crawled up her neck, its weight bearing down entirely now on her throat.

"I could kill you," it singsonged, the stench from its breath washing over her, choking her. "Right here, right now."

"Sarah... Sarah wouldn't," she wheezed, her words thin and airless.

"I'm not Sarah, little girl."

Wake up Cosima. That's all you have to do.

"Sarah's not here to protect you."

But how? How could she wake up? Her brain was already telling her that she was awake.

"She can't protect you from your mind. This is all you, don't you know?"

Her brain might've been saying that... but.. her body...

"You're addicted to pain; that's why you created me. You might think that Sarah's your guardian angel, but where is she now? Not here. Not with you."

Stop trying to breathe.

"Cosima? Cos?!"

"You're going to give up so soon?" it asked her, easing up on her throat slightly. Cosima fought the urge to gasp, to gulp in lungfuls of air. "You're just going to leave Sarah alone like that?"

"Cos, you need to wake up! Cos? Cos, please! I'm right here okay?"

Cosima shook her head, not daring herself to speak. She felt her body fuzzing as her vision blurred and almost felt some minute amount of triumph; or, at least, she would've if her body wasn't throwing itself into a panic override as it tried to function with the last few millilitres of oxygen she had left in her blood.

"Please... come back to me..."

"You can't go back to her. She doesn't want you," it berated her, retracting one of its skeletal hands from her throat, tracing the sharpened bone down her neck, to her chest, where it latched into her flesh and dug into her lungs. "She left because she wanted to get away from you."

"Cosima, you have to wake up. Please.. please, I need you to wake up."

"You're wrong," Cosima finally spoke, as best she could with blood dribbling out past her lips from the exacerbated lung tissue. "Sarah does want me." Then she finally surrendered to the darkness, hoping she was right, and that she'd come out alive on the other side.

"Sarah Manning?"

Her head snapped up, her whole body lurching to stand as she locked eyes with a nurse holding a clipboard. "Yeah?" she asked, stuffing trembling hands into her pockets. To hide her fear.

"Your sister's awake. You can see her now."

"Thanks," Sarah muttered, all but tearing off in the direction of Cosima's room, ripping past the curtain that partitioned off her bed from the rest of the world. "Cos?" she spoke hesitantly, hating the machines and the tubes and the needles that surrounded her.

"Sarah?" Cosima asked wearily, blinking slowly up at Sarah, who stood in the middle of the room, suddenly looking so very unsure of herself.

"Uh.. hey."

"Everything alright?" Cosima cocked her head, gesturing to the chair by her bed.

Sarah scoffed at the question, but didn't move otherwise. "You're asking me that? You're the one who had a seizure."

"Yeah... about that..," she shrugged, like waking up to unfamiliar faces and bright lights and loud voices and no Sarah wasn't a big deal. "Look," she sighed, exasperated, gesturing to the chair again, "Would you just sit down? You're making me nervous."

"I... uh," Sarah hesitated again, her hand tangling itself in her hair, "I can't stay. Just checking in on you, make sure you're good and all that."

"But Sarah-"

"And you are, so I'm gonna go then," she stretched a smile onto her lips, but it just looked painful.

"Sarah!" Cosima tried again, but Sarah had already turned and disappeared from view behind that stupid curtain. "But I'm not fine..."

Two weeks later, Cosima was let out of the hospital with strict orders to get plenty of rest for another week- "At the very least," the nurse warned her as she went about unhooking Cosima from her various machines. "If you're too active, it will slow the healing of your ribcage and increase the risk of a lung infection. Understand?"

"Sure," she nodded absently, already fumbling for her phone as the final tube, the IV in her arm, was pulled free. Increase the risk of a lung infection, Cosima thought with an inward eye roll, Sure. As if I'm not already coughing up blood every five seconds.

"The wrist brace can come off in a few days, as long as you're careful about not stressing the joint," the nurse continued, raising half of Cosima's bed with the press of a button while Cosima

continued to thumb through her contacts, intent on calling Sarah. "So no hand talking," she reprimanded sternly.

Cosima paused just before dialling Sarah at that. "Whatever you say doc," she half-smiled, her tone dripping with condescension as she sought to drive the woman away. "Oh sorry, uh... nurse. Not smart enough to be a doctor, right?"

The woman was obviously insulted, but otherwise didn't take the bait. "You will need to find someone to pick you up from the reception area of the hospital. And you are not to drive for the next little while, either."

Cosima stared at the nurse, LizaConners her name tag read, and suddenly itched to drive her insane. It had been so long since she had been able to exchange snappy retorts with someone. In fact, the last time she had done so was- was before her and Sarah started getting close. Closer. "I could probably get a doctorate with my eyes closed," she griped feebly, her snark falling on unimpressed ears. "And uh.. I.. once dated someone with the title 'doctor' as a part of their name, so-"

"Then you are welcome to call your doctor girlfriend and get her to pick you up from the hospital, good day," Nurse Conners cut across, her tone falling into that dangerous zone of over-politeness that reminded Cosima of Alison when provoked.

"Ex-girlfriend," Cosima muttered after the nurse's disappearing heels, "Bitch," she finished, trying to cover the stab of loss with annoyance. Besides, she didn't exactly lose Delphine, she just didn't have her.. in that way.. anymore. And anyway, she had said goodbye to Delphine. They had parted on good terms.

Pushing thoughts of Delphine to the side, she turned her attention back to her phone, finally calling up Sarah. Her heart raced as it dialled, its beat irregular in the blank spaces between rings. This is why she didn't have Delphine anymore. Because she chose Sarah instead. "Hey," she murmured hesitantly into the phone, remembering all too well how distant Sarah was the last time they had seen each other. Figuring she wouldn't get a reply right away, she continued on, "I guess you're not exactly thrilled to hear from me, like, for some reason, or whatever, but-"

"Yeah hi Cosima," a masculine voice cut her off, Cosima's rambling dying on her lips at the unexpected timbre.

Felix. She pulled the phone away from her ear, checking the caller ID. Sarah. She had dialled her, so why hadn't- "Is something wrong with Sarah?" she asked nervously, her fingers curling on top of her sheets, the cheap material bunching in her fist.

"I'll let her have that conversation with you. I wont play Felix in the middle. Again," he added under his breath, the word clouded by an annoyed sigh. "Always seem to be running around for-"

"Then give her the phone, Felix," she bit out, abruptly halting his muttered words. "I didn't call you, I called Sarah. You didn't need to pick up."

"Apparently I did," he said vaguely, his words accompanied by another long-suffering sigh.

"Just," she growled, exasperated, slashing her braced hand through the air, eliciting an involuntary wince at the motion. Damn nurse. Damn wrist. "Put Sarah on speaker or something, if she's too busy to grab the phone. You've done your part, now I'll be happy to talk to her myself."

"Oh, well, if you're happy to talk to her, then everything's alright then, isn't it?" he replied, his tone sharpening with each word.

"What the hell are you-?" she started, her frustration dying off as reality took its place. The reality of the past two weeks she spent chained to hospital beds and mobile IV stands. Weeks from which Sarah had been suspiciously absent.

"You haven't realized by now that she's not talking to you?" Felix scoffed, his words chiseling the cracks in her heart wider. "And Sarah swore you were some kind of bloody genius."

The notion that she should respond with a smart remark escaped her as some kind of black hole gaped open in the pit of her stomach. And she felt herself falling through darkness again, a sick, demonic laugh ringing faintly in the background static of her shock. "Do.. do you know why?" she asked hesitantly, figuring it was worth a shot.

"Brilliant scientist, I'm so sure," he replied and Cosima heard a muffled laugh in the background and perked up. Sarah. But her laugh sounded off. Harsh. "If she hasn't told you, then I bloody well wont. That's her deal, Cosima."

"And you're not playing Felix in the middle, alright. Fine, I get it," she sighed, deciding that it was just best to let the whole idea drop for the time being. "Look, I just.. I called to tell Sarah that I need to be picked up. From the hospital, I mean."

"You got released?"

She bobbed her head before belatedly realizing that he couldn't see her. "Yeah... uh, yeah, like, ten minutes ago," she muttered distractedly, her mind shuffling through all the possible scenarios that might point her to the reason for Sarah's avoidance.

"So you decided to call Sarah instead of your girlfriend," Felix scoffed derisively.

"Girl-" she started, then cut herself off with a heavy sigh. "Delphine's gone, Felix. Back to DYAD."

"That must've been heartbreaking, I'm sure," he said, his voice flat in the absence of sympathy.

"Just, come pick me up Felix. And tell Sarah that we need to talk," she snapped and hung up on the infuriating man, resisting the urge to drop the phone with more force than necessary onto the bed. But almost acting on the motion ghosted a memory up to her mind; Just stay out of my end and I'll stay out of yours. Bitch. The remembered dialogue from so long ago made Cosima's insides tug in an intense longing to be near the other woman. A longing that was completely baffling and ridiculously insatiable.

Pushing air out of her slowly failing lungs, hoping to dispel the knots in her gut, she finally gathered her things and headed down to the lobby of the hospital to wait for Felix. And only Felix, apparently.

Down in the lobby, she twisted her fingers together, raising a hand on occasion to scratch between the rows of her dreads, before laughing at herself when she realized what she was doing. "There's nothing to be nervous about Cosima," she muttered, dropping her hands to her lap, fingers tracing absently over the worn felt material of her red jacket, the familiar motion helping to calm her down somewhat. "Felix will probably just give you the cold shoulder because of Sarah for some reason, it'll be an awkward ride back to the flat, you'll talk to Sarah, figure out what the hell is wrong with her. No prob." But it didn't feel like no prob.

After several minutes of waiting, Cosima's clone phone rang from within her jacket pocket. She cursed the way her heart leapt, the way her hand jumped to her pocket faster than the first time she ever answered a question as she sat in on an evo-devo class as a high school student. She had learned her lesson after she had acted too fast on her feelings for Delphine and she wasn't planning on repeating that mistake anytime soon. But this was Sarah, she would never-

Actually no, this was Delphine. Cosima palmed her phone, staring at the number that she had recently programmed into it, at the French woman's request. She remembered how Delphine explained that Cosima's regular cell number was stored within the DYAD's file on her, and that it would be best to dismantle her second phone as soon as possible. It didn't matter anyway, she thought as she answered the call and wedged the phone against her shoulder, I only had like, two numbers in there anyways.

"Hi," she said, her brow wrinkling in confusion, "Delphine? Why are you... is, is everything alright?"

"Yes, I... yes," she answered softly, but there was something in her tone that set Cosima on edge.

"Delphine, what-"

"Everything is fine, yes," Delphine cut her off, breathing in a barely collected sigh. Deciding to wait her out, Cosima let the silence grow longer. "How are you ma- Cosima?" she continued, barely catching herself as a small amount of brokenness bled through into Cosima's name.

Cosima swallowed, pushed away the betraying rush of emotions at the almost appearance of the pet name. Good terms, she forcibly reminded herself, We came to an understanding. She knows that I chose Sarah. She let me choose Sarah. "I'm good Delphine. But you-"

Heavy silence filled her ear, and Cosima felt the weight behind each of Delphine's near-silent breaths. Anxiety clogged her throat as the silence drew on, its cold grip squeezing her lungs until air began escaping past parted lips in small wheezes. Then, "Are you truly okay, cherie?"

Cosima smiled softly at the way that Delphine couldn't keep herself from using the name that oft fell from her lips as easily as carbon dioxide, the name that had been a thoughtless habit in their relationship. Once.

Then the unexpectedness of the question registered with her. "I.. yeah, Delphine, I'm fine," she replied, nonplussed. "I'm actually getting out today."

Once more, Delphine was silent. "That is good to hear," she whispered, and Cosima could picture the small nod of her head, the way her curls bounced with the movement. But the mental image also came with the glimmer of tears.

"Delphine," Cosima murmured, and the familiarity of its tenderness was almost too much. "Are you okay? Did you find something?"

"I think I... but, non. It is nothing, do not worry. I must get back to work on your cure," she dismissed and the tears vanished with an airy wave. "I love you, Cosima," she finished, and Cosima's mental image, along with Delphine's voice, disappeared with a tiny beep.

"Chatting up your girlfriend I see," Felix's voice sounded off to her left, causing her to look up from the call ended message that blinked up from her screen.

She shoved her phone back into her pocket and rubbed her forehead in frustration. Time for that awkward ride back to the flat, she thought as she swept up the small duffel bag of clothes that, along with the books, Sarah had brought at the beginning of her stay at the hospital and pushed past Felix without a word.

"Fine," he called after her back and quickly overtook her with his long-legged strides. "Not denying it, I see."

"Nothing I say or don't say is gonna change your mind, obvs," she huffed in frustration as she turned the corner into the underground parking lot at Felix's gesture. "So I'm just choosing not to say anything at all."

The only reply she got was the echoing of his high heel boots on the concrete and the small beep of the key remote as they approached the car. "Come on then," he said at last, pointing impatiently at the trunk, "Throw your bag in. I was in the middle of a very important creative streak, and I'll have you know that it's been ruined now, thanks to you."

Cosima rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Sarah's the one who refused to drive out here, so blame her okay?"

He was silent for so long that Cosima thought he was just deigning to ignore the rest of their conversation because of loyalty to Sarah, or some other shit. She couldn't fault him for that though, given that him and Sarah were practically blood related. And Cosima's relationship with "the enemy" probably wasn't earning her any brownie points with the man either.

He finally spoke up, his tone unfathomable. "You have no idea, do you?"

"Any idea about-" she started, irrational panic bubbling up her throat, feeling those iron fists as they seized her lungs again. Is Sarah dying? Her stomach twisted at the thought, and a combination of acid and copper coating her tongue, making her dizzy. That would explain her absence, maybe she has the disease but didn't want to worry me so she-

"You broke my sister's heart," he said bluntly.

Her first registered emotion was relief. She's not dying, she sighed quietly. Then the real truth of Felix's words hit her. "I... I broke..," she trailed off, stunned and uncomprehending. I mean, she gaped inwardly as Felix tapped at the wheel while waiting for traffic to pass, I knew Sarah was acting strange, not hanging around as much, but... "She.. she told you this?"

"She didn't have to," he shrugged as he turned into the alley, the car rattling over the uneven curb and onto the even harsher, scarred pavement. "She hasn't told me much, really, but I pick up on things."

"Things?" Cosima asked sharply, "What exactly d'you mean by that?"

"I told you before, I know Sarah," he explained simply, "And I know when she's in love. I remember how bloody soft she went over Cal, though she wouldn't admit it. Silly bitch kept insisting he was just a mark," he snorted, driving around to the side of the building and stopping the car.

Her mouth twisted slightly as she fought to keep jealousy towards this Cal from twisting in her gut, telling herself that that must've been exactly how Sarah felt when she- "Oh shit," she hissed under her breath, causing Felix to pause in the act of getting out of the car and look over. "She must've seen Delphine kiss me that night before she flew back to Minneapolis awhile ago."

"After you've been kissing her? Bloody hell," he sighed, stepping out of the car, "No wonder she's been so mopey. Christ."

"I guess that explains her absence these past few weeks," she muttered, dropping her head into her hand and blowing air out in a heavy sigh.

"You best get your fanny up there and talk to her then," Felix said pointedly as he unlocked the gate at the base of the stairs with a slight jingle of his keyring.

"She's up there right now?" Cosima asked wearily, grabbing her bag from the trunk and slamming it shut. "Can't I just like, recuperate, or whatever, first?"

"Trust me, I know my sister. The longer you make her wait, the worse off you'll be."

\

Sarah heard their muffled voices through the door a few seconds before Felix started knocking. "Shite," she muttered to herself as she toyed with the handle of the screwdriver. She had to let them in. Of course she had to. But them meant Cosima, and Cosima currently meant anger and hurt and disappointment... and she wasn't ready for the impending argument just yet.

"Sarah, you can't keep us locked out you, you know," Felix huffed from the outside, "And it's about time the two of you talked!"

"Bloody hell Fee," Sarah grumbled in exasperation, finally yanking the screwdriver free and shoving the door back to reveal Felix and Cosima standing there.

\

"Are you sure this is the best time right now?" Cosima asked as she lugged her bag up the stairs. Up the stairs and closer to Sarah. "Like, I said I need time to recover, you could totally take me back to S's or-"

"Cosima," Felix stopped a few paces away from the entrance to his loft, "You don't need any more time to recover, you've been in the hospital for three bloody weeks!"

"Time to recover from being out of the hospital?" Cosima tried feebly one last time. "Felix, come on, I can't do this!" she grabbed his arm, fully aware of how pathetic she sounded.

"Of course you can," he said seriously, turning and placing his hand over hers as he gazed into her eyes. "Cosima, Sarah misses you. She covers it up by acting all pissed off and wounded, but I haven't been her brother for almost her entire life for nothing. She needs you right now."

"If she apparently needs me so badly, then why-?"

Felix cut her off with an exasperated sigh, "She's gone to great lengths to keep you around, you know. She even sacrificed her daughter for you. She put Kira in danger just so she could get some bone marrow to help cure you."

"She... got some of Kira's bone marrow.. for.. for me? But.. when?" Cosima asked, nonplussed, searching her memories for a recollection that would possibly line up with Felix's words. Came up empty.

"Two weeks ago, when you had your seizure," he explained as he started to nudge Cosima along towards the loft. "Doctor's had said something about a transfusion, and of course Sarah offered up her blood right away. But there was a compatibility issue or something, I'm not a doctor, and that's when Sarah went and asked Kira," he paused and looked back at the woman, his eyes a little distant. "I had never seen her so desperate, Cos," he finished quietly.

"Hey Felix," Sarah spoke before her lips cinched around her next words, "Cosima. You're looking better."

"Hi Sarah," Cosima murmured quietly, glancing at Sarah and seeing something dark in her gaze, but Sarah looked away too quickly for Cosima to determine if she had just been imagining it or not. "Thanks to you and your daughter."

Sarah froze at her words, then shot a glare at Felix, "What did you tell her?"

"What you wont," he directed pointedly, "Christ, you two are the worst. Cosima, just leave your stuff at the end of the bed, and I'll just be-" Felix gestured as he went about changing his scarf and his coat.

"I'm staying with you again?" Cosima asked at the same time Sarah growled, "You're going out?!"

"You were staying at my place before you turned into a bloody ragdoll at the base of my stairs," he shrugged nonchalantly before pointing an annoyed finger at Sarah, "And yes. Colin's got a lovely evening planned for the two of us, which leaves the two of you," he gestured meaningfully, "To have a long, undisturbed conversation." With a final, long glance in the mirror to check his appearance, he swept out of the apartment, slamming the door shut with a decisive bang.

"Felix," Sarah cursed under her breath, stomping back across the flat to lock the door behind him, "Sometimes I want to bloody murder him."

Cosima stood and watched Sarah hover around the threshold, screwdriver in hand as if debating to follow him out. It was with her back turned that Cosima saw the outline of the wings again. But they were darker, and, when Sarah decided to stay and finally turned to face Cosima, her face and eyes and neck appeared more hollow than usual. "Shit, Sarah," Cosima gaped a little as Sarah's wings flickered from black to red to black again as they made eye contact.

"Hi to you to, Cos," Sarah sniped, rolling her eyes and striding past the other woman. With her wings settling into a more solid appearance, Cosima found herself instinctively dodging to the side, even though Sarah herself was nowhere close to Cosima. "Hate me that much, do you?" Sarah curled a lip as she noticed Cosima's reaction, "Good. We're on the same page then."

Weird phenomenons later, Cosima, she told herself, forcing herself to focus on the present situation. The heartbreak. The misunderstanding. Your relationship, whatever it is, with Sarah not falling apart. Steeling herself with a coppery breath in, she started to explain, praying that Sarah would listen. Except she didn't know where to start. "Shit, Sarah," she repeated, falling back to the sight of her wings, which had sharpened in detail to show individual feathers now. "You.. you have.. your-"

Sarah folded her arms and pierced Cosima with a terrifying glare, her wings lighting up with slashes of red. "Are you going to say anything worth my time?" she snarled.

"You... I... shit, I really fucked up, didn't I?" she muttered with a tired sigh, giving up on the weird image Sarah was currently presenting, deciding to sort it out later. If they ever got a later.

Sarah snorted derisively, keeping her arms folded as she leaned against the counter. "Finally figured it out, have you?"

"Don't do this to me right now Sarah," Cosima sighed heavily again, suddenly feeling extremely weighted, like the whole world had just dumped their nightmares onto her shoulders. "I totally get that you're pissed-" she began as she sunk wearily onto the couch, struggling to keep her eyes on Sarah.

"Oh, you get it, do you?" she raged, starting to pace, "Do you get how it felt for me when I saw you lying at the bottom of the stairs, barely breathing?! So you just get how terrified I was while I was in that ambulance with you, and when they wouldn't let me stay with you? And then Delphine came along-"

"Because you called her, Sarah!" Cosima pointed out, feeling her temper rise.

"Yeah, for you, you bloody idiot!" Sarah growled, "But I guess I underestimated how bloody awful it would be to see the two of you together, because it hurt more than I goddamned expected, now didn't it! Especially after- god Cosima! I was so bloody vulnerable with you!"

"Yeah, well, if you were so vulnerable, why did you abandon mein the hospital for two weeks Sarah?" Cosima asked coldly, "That was on you. You could've come at any time-"

"You honestly thought I would? After seeing you kiss Delphine?!" Sarah scoffed, "I knew where your heart was at, Cosima. And it wasn't with me."

Cosima stared at Sarah, head buried in her hands, as Felix's words came back to her. You broke my sister's heart. "Sarah, I..." Cosima began, at a loss, watching Sarah's shoulders slump wearily. Watched her wings twitch and flutter as she pulled in a deep, steadying breath. Cosima stared, trying to take it all in. She's literally an angel, she thought as she tried to memorize the way the wings arched over her shoulders, past her head even, before curving back to brush the floor.

It took a moment to register that Sarah was speaking again, her words a broken whisper, muffled even more so by her hands, her hunched posture, "I told you that you felt like home to me, Cosima. Do you understand what that took for me to say that? Do you really get that?"

Sarah's defeated tone made Cosima's heart fall, and she stood slowly, cautiously. "I'm trying to, Sarah," she said softly, reaching hesitantly forward, "I really am. And maybe I shouldn't've-"

Sarah's walls came back up as fast as they crumbled. "No, you shouldn't have," Sarah bit out, whirling around. Cosima flinched back, more out of fear of being buffeted by her wings than anything else. "But you made me believe that I meant something... more to you. You made me believe you cared. The way that Delphine believes that she has you all to herself now," Sarah spat, the last of her venom and anger pouring into the syllables of Delphine's name before her words lost all fire, fading into near nothingness as she finished, "Because you chose her."

"I didn't though," Cosima interjected quickly, "And if you had just asked me instead of, oh, I dunno, disappearing for two weeks without a word, you would have known that I didn't actually choose her at all!"

"You... you didn't?" Sarah asked quietly, her head still bowed as she glanced up at Cosima from underneath her lashes.

"No," Cosima assured her softly, suddenly feeling heavy all over again and she dropped back onto the couch once more, the physical and emotional stress draining her completely. "No I didn't choose her," she said on a long exhale as she stared up at the ceiling.

"But... you kissed her," Sarah stated again, and it was slightly defiant. And certainly still a little angry. But even though she hadn't moved, her stance was less guarded. Was a little more relaxed.

Cosima breathed a little easier despite the accusation. Something in the air had shifted. "Yes, I did," she nodded, her eyes still tracing patterns in the wooden beams above her, "Because I was saying goodbye."

"Goodbye?" Sarah asked quietly after a long pause. "Is there something-?"

"No, no. No, nothing like that," Cosima headed her off quickly, hearing the anxiety growing rapidly in Sarah's tone. "Sarah... Delphine left me because.. because she knew that I.. well, that I love you."

"You.. you do?"

Cosima had been continuing to studiously study the patterns in the woodwork of Felix's roof, but at Sarah's small, stunned question, she chanced a glance over at her, still standing in the middle of the room.

And it was just her. Just Sarah, standing with a slightly slack-jawed expression on her face, hands stuffed awkwardly into lumps in her pockets. Just Sarah, the toe of one boot tapping the carpet as she struggled to process Cosima's words. No wings, no skeletons, no demon eyes or laughter. Just Sarah, with a slow smile spreading across her face.

"Yeah," Cosima said after a long delay. "Uh.. yeah. Totally. I do."

Sarah laughed lightly, rolling her eyes as she crossed over to the couch, nudging Cosima's legs out of the way. "Such a nerd, Cos," she grinned, pulling Cosima's legs back over her lap so that her knees were crooked over Sarah's thighs.

"Does... that mean you love me too?" Cosima sought slowly for confirmation.

"Course it does," Sarah murmured, bracing herself between Cosima's arm and the couch before leaning over Cosima, leaving their lips inches apart. "Think I always have."

"Look who's being a nerd now," Cosima smirked, stretching her neck up, "Now are you gonna kiss me or what?"

Sarah's smile matched into Cosima's like perfection and she sunk back onto the couch with a contented sigh into Sarah's mouth. Her eyes had just started to flutter closed when, through her lashes, she saw Sarah's wings reappear, glowing more brilliantly than the sun.