Chapter 1 – Happy Family
It had been a while since things had been this perfect. The oddly homely smell of Felix's musty loft somehow gave Sarah a sense of safety. She wasn't concerned about her sisters' well-being anymore because a cure was in hand, and after all these years, she finally knew that the constant fear that her immunity to the disease would render her alone and frightened, was a fear that would no longer haunt her every thought.
In the background, she could hear Alison and Felix bickering about whether it was safe or not to use his old barbeque inside or not. Alison argued he would end up burning the building to the ground, while Felix continued to persist that they'd open the windows and it'd be fine. Art had just arrived with Helena who were both clearly arguing on the car journey here, probably about whether it was ok or not to throw gum out the window at strangers who didn't take to her liking. Cosima and Sarah got up to greet the pair, as Alison and Felix were far too taken by their argument to be disturbed by anybody.
Sarah wrapped Helena into an enormous bear hug, which took her twin by surprise seeing as Sarah was always too stubborn to let anyone break her hard rock shell exterior. Despite Helena still taken by the disbelief of her sister's sudden open warmth towards her, and even Sarah, shocked at her own actions, both the sisters, were feeling a vast mutual sense of relief. Regardless of the fact that they'd never spoken about this specific topic out loud, they knew that the same curse of watching their sisters being picked off one by one by this supposedly incurable malady, plagued them both; hence the unexpected wave of affection coming from Sarah. After letting go of her sister, Helena went on to greet everyone else, of course after showering her little angel with kisses, cuddles and tickles. Art stepped into the kitchen area to get a drink, little did he know what he was really stepping into. Alison saw this as an opportunity to gain an ally to use against Felix and his unreasonable explanation for risking a house fire. Sarah and Cosima laughed to each other as they saw the situation quickly escalating into Art desperately looking for an escape.
Turning away from the inevitable imprisonment of Art in the kitchen area, Sarah and Cosima went on to walk towards Helena, Siobhan and Kira, who were presently attempting to play a game that Helena tried to teach Sarah once and failed with a terribly unsuccessful result of Sarah running away and Helena chasing her around the house for a good half an hour. Helena was clearly winning through the other two's confusion of what the objective of the game was.
A knock came at the door, which Helena seemed to find a tremendously rude interruption of her concentration on her winning streak. She knew who it was and due to both her love and overprotectiveness of Sarah she jumped up and sprinted towards the door, shortly followed by a scrambling Sarah struggling to keep up with her sister's pace. As Helena reached for the door, Sarah yanked her back by the shirt and pointed an accusatory finger at her and said, "Be nice meathead". Helena sheepishly grinned and replied with a clearly feigned surprise about how there was no question about it and answered with a suspiciously questionable, "Of course!" Helena excitedly dragged the door back to reveal the tall bearded lumberjack who she was very soon planning to interrogate. She put out a formal hand and said, "I am Helena, Sarah's twin sestra." He slightly stumbled, ironically expecting a different face to open the door, but quickly regained his posture and shook her hand and responded with a friendly smile, "Cal Morrison, Kira's dad". Helena took a moment to evaluate her sister's taste in men, followed by a very concentrated glare, which said despite the height difference, she would take him down in an instance if he ever hurt her sestra. Sarah intervened before the silence and staring on Helena's part could get too intense and pushed her to the side, relieving Cal of the slightly terrifying encounter he'd just experienced with her twin and letting him inside the loft.
At the sight of her father, Kira's eyes lit up as she yelled, "DAADDYYY!" She charged towards her dad and jumped into his arms, as he lifted her up and responded with the warmest of embraces.
It was finally dinner time and following Felix and Alison's mutual yet reluctant agreement resulting in just ordering takeaway, the group sat around the coffee table, with Art, Siobhan, Felix and Cosima all squashed against each other on the sofa, while Alison and Helena comfortably sat in the big plush armchair Felix had recently purchased, after physically fighting their way through everyone. That left Sarah and Cal on the carpet, and Kira wedged in between her mum's legs, with the back of her head laying contentedly on her stomach, slowly drifting off into a very deep sleep. They were all talking quietly, when S and Art decided to leave together, discussing the shortest route to each house. When that problem was resolved, they left hugging everyone goodbye and bidding the night farewell.
Cosima and Felix stretched themselves out in a comfortable position, sleepily sorting out sleeping arrangements for the night, while Alison made the odd suggestion, the majority of which included popping down to the furniture store and buying a mattress, not wanting to wake up with a crooked back the next morning, all of which were ignored, and a too tired Alison didn't have the strength to argue her point this time around. Helena glanced over to Sarah to make eye contact and nodded a go-ahead of approval of Cal. Sarah laughed at her sister's gesticulation and looked back at Cal, who gestured his head towards their sleeping daughter, then towards Fe's bed, as a motion to tuck Kira in. Cal picked Kira up and carried her to the bed where the couple fluffed the pillows and tucked their daughter in. Sarah kissed her forehead, smiled and headed back to everyone with Cal, who she hadn't previously noticed had taken her hand in his own. She revelled in the comfort and security she felt when she was around him and cuddled into his side as they walked back, soon noticing that everyone was already asleep. She laughed and murmured to Cal, "Do you think they'll mind if we give the sleeping arrangements the elbow and just take the bed?" Cal snickered and replied with, "I think we'll be fine". As quietly as she could, Sarah whispered, "Oi, Fe, do you mind if we take the bed and you stay here?" The silent response was, in Sarah and Cal's eyes a "Go ahead! Of course you can take the bed while we toss and turn on the couch!" So Cal signalled with his eyes towards their sleeping daughter, and whispered, "I'm taking that as a yes."
He walked off to the bed and started getting ready to sleep, while Sarah went off to get some water for herself. Shortly after, the lights were off, and the big dysfunctional yet happy family was gleefully sleeping, sweet and sound, at least Sarah, Kira and Cal were.
A slight 'THLUNK' noise in the corridor outside woke Sarah. Unfortunately, the series of events that were her life, had led her to become a very light sleeper, jolting out of bed at the slightest hints of danger potentially threatening her family. She sloppily snatched her phone off of the bedside table, but its sudden brightness blinded her for a few seconds, so after a bit of waiting for her vision to return, she saw it was 4:32AM. She rested her head back on the pillow so that she was watching the ceiling and sighed softly, for the reason that, she knew she'd never get back to sleep now. She lifted Kira's arm off of her stomach and untangled herself from the web she'd been caught in that were her daughter's legs. She gently tucked a stray strand of hair behind Kira's ear and lightly stroked her little hand. Feeling a colossal sudden wave of love for her, as much as she wanted to pick her up and swing her around and just hug her forever, she refused to wake her little monkey up from her blissful sleep. She began to walk towards the kitchen to get herself a drink of water, trying very hard not to trip over anything, in the knowledge that her brother's apartment was like a goldmine of obstacles and dangerous sharp objects. As her eyes slowly began to adjust, she could see two silhouettes slumped over each other, with limbs intertwined in different inhumane directions, all of which were not clear who they belonged to. She could only assume from the armchair, that it was Helena and Alison, who was probably dreaming about the mattress she could've been sleeping on if only anyone listened to her the night before. Sarah inaudibly snorted to herself as she felt guilt wash over her whilst looking back at the rather large bed she was sharing with only two other people, one of whom was a tiny 10-year-old girl. Surprisingly, she made it across the loft to the kitchen area, without falling over anything and downed a glass of water in almost less than a second, after overheating following Kira's grasp on her all night. 'THLUNK'. There it was again, the same noise that woke her up. Sarah didn't think much of it before, but Fe's building is almost always deserted. Who could be out there at this time of day, if not a threat? Sarah ran her hand through her hair, an anxiety coping technique she's always used despite its ineffectiveness. Her eyes now wide open, watching the door, alert of every noise in the darkness. Suddenly she shook her head, snapping herself out of this delusion, this paranoia. She put her face in her hand, running it up and down her neck, breaking her concentration, knowing now that they're safe, and they're together and they're healthy, which is all that matters. She began her careful journey back to bed in spite of knowing it'd be useless to even try to get back to sleep, when she heard the same noise again, considerably louder this time. She stopped in her tracks, then turned around and against all her better judgement, she began her path towards Felix's sliding door. She muttered to herself, "Probably nothing" as if to convince herself more so than she was stating it as a fact. She thought to herself, "We're safe now, probably just some lost drunk guy". She reached for the handle and faster than she could think, she swung the door to the side, making an awfully loud racket. She turned to see if she woke anyone, but it seemed to be that she was the only one with the 'light sleeper' gene. She poked her head out of the loft, leaning outwards and looked down the dimly lit corridor. Just as she told herself… Nothing. She let out a breath of relief she didn't even realise she was holding. She shuffled drowsily back into Felix's place, the lack of rest suddenly hitting her. She turned around, looking for the door handle behind her to close it, just as she felt something cold and sharp jamming its way into her neck.
Confused and dazed, Sarah tried to turn around, but everything was turning blurred, her vision spotty. Her balance was quickly letting her down as she tumbled to the floor on her side, staying conscious with great difficulty. Her eyes were struggling to look up for whose black boots were approaching her. She felt another wave of whatever was in her neck, attacking her body as she realised that she couldn't fight it any longer. She struggled, trying to grab onto a rope of some kind to drag herself back to consciousness, but the syringe in her jugular was in every fight it fought, the indefinite winner.