It only occurred to Felix how really fucking weird it was that he had four clones staying in his apartment when they were suddenly all there together crowded into the same room, arguing, drinking up his vodka stocks and just generally making a mess.
When he finally coaxed Sarah into heading home again, reluctant to leave her search of the streets, it was to find Cosima and Delphine fast asleep on the couch, Alison aggressively attacking the coffee table with a feather duster and Helena curled up around a pillow in Felix's bed, muttering in her sleep. It wasn't long of course before Sarah and Alison were seeking out the drink and the others were stirring awake at the noise. After that it was all alcohol and swearing as Sarah and Delphine met one another for the first time, Sarah half-heartedly threatening Delphine "If you ever hurt her again I swear I won't be held responsible for my actions" with Cosima trying in earnest to keep Sarah at arm's length from Delphine. Helena meanwhile, denied any form of alcohol by Felix, took to badgering Alison about the glass of wine in her hand. Although Helena would've had a better chance getting a drink out of Sarah from the way Alison was scowling.
It was amidst all of this that Felix stopped and simply stared at the lot of them. Four Sarahs and a traitorous French scientist were bickering in his living room, Kira was still missing, they'd taken in a strangely childlike Ukrainian serial killer, the neolutionists were still out there plotting and oh Christ there was not nearly enough vodka in all of Canada for this. The place quietened down eventually, Alison declined the invitation to stay, much to Felix's relief, Helena passed out on a beanbag after inhaling an entire bottle of some ancient whiskey she'd uncovered from the kitchen cabinets and Cosima and Delphine turned back to their research. It was then that Felix saw the opportunity to pull Sarah to one side for a word before she ended up too shitfaced to string two words together.
"Oi Sarah, can we just stop and think for a moment here eh?" said Felix in a really rather unnecessary whisper, Cosima and Delphine were entirely wrapped up in each other, paying no attention to anyone, or anything but each other and their laptops.
"About what Fee? I don't really feel like thinking about anything" Sarah whined, taking another long swig from the half empty bottle of who-the-fuck-knows-what in her hand.
"Er about the serial killer in my flat perhaps? Or how about Delphine the annoyingly earnest puppy you almost punched earlier, or maybe even your missing daughter Sarah!" he snapped, the serial killer he could cope with, and Delphine too, but Kira missing? Why were they just sat around drinking and arguing when they should be doing something at least to get Kira back, wherever she may be. The first thing Felix did upon finding Sarah at Mrs S' ransacked house was to try and call the woman but to no avail, no one had heard from her in hours. If Kira was with Mrs S, no one knew if she was keeping her safe, or handing her over to the neolutionists.
"And what the fuck am I meant to do Fee? I was actually looking for my daughter, and you dragged me home!" Sarah snapped back, her voice growing steadily louder with each word. Felix looked sufficiently cowed at her tone and took a step back, he didn't much feel like having his apartment face Sarah's wrath again, it only barely survived last time she got pissed about something.
"I don't know Sarah, but drinking certainly isn't the answer" he snapped back making a grab for the bottle in her hand.
Felix fully expected Sarah to flip her shit then and take the beer back before venting her anger at every inanimate object in sight. Instead she took a long shuddering breath and slumped down into a chair at the counter with her head cradled in her hands. Moving into the seat beside her Felix slid one arm around her shoulders and let her fall into him with her head on his shoulder, tactfully not mentioning the tears soaking into his shirt.
By the time everyone in the apartment had finally deemed it time to get some sleep it was well into the dead of night and it became clear just how exhausted everyone was. Helena remained curled up in a nest of blankets on a beanbag in the corner, Cosima and Delphine a few feet away wrapped up together on the sofa. Sarah had eventually calmed down enough to allow Felix to guide her to bed and throw a blanket over her before falling down beside her and into the most welcoming sleep he'd seen in weeks.
xxxx
A soft snuffling sound was what disturbed Sarah from a thankfully dreamless sleep and alerted her to the fact that not everyone had been so lucky and Helena was whimpering softly, shifting restlessly in her nest of blankets. For a moment Sarah was hit by so many memories of being woken in the middle of the night by Kira making similar noises after bad dreams about the monster under the bed. Helena's monsters were likely somewhat scarier for the fact that he was in fact a very real monster and not, like she used to tell Kira, harmless. Sarah abandoned all thoughts of Kira for the moment and dragged herself from bed instead and shuffled as quietly as she could towards the outline of blankets and pillows in the corner.
Carefully Sarah picked her way across the still rather messy (much to Alison's displeasure) apartment trying not to disturb Cosima and Delphine on the couch where they had so thoroughly tangled themselves up in each other that they no longer even resembled two people. Keeping her distance (Helena still being a bit of a serial killer) Sarah lightly shook the girl's shoulder and murmured quietly to wake her, the same soothing nonsense she would say to Kira to pull her from her nightmares.
It was in moments like these where it became plainly, and painfully obvious just how childlike and vulnerable Helena was. She awoke suddenly, eyes wide and shining with the presumably terrifying remnants of her dreams and her hands shooting up to grip at Sarah, one at her wrist where she held Helena and one at her shoulder, holding her away. They remained paralyzed for a moment before Sarah's familiar face registered and Helena's hands fell away and she collapsed bodily against Sarah. She clutched at Sarah like a lifeline, her hands balling the back of her shirt into her fists as deep, rasping sobs wracked her body. Sarah hugged her back as tightly as she dared, her hands stroking through her sister's hair and rubbing her back. Oh but how many times in her life must Helena have awoken like this, frightened and shaking from the same dreams but alone with no one to comfort her.
Eventually Helena fell silent but for the occasional sniffle and loosened her grip slightly, enough to let Sarah manoeuvre Helena back under her blankets and carefully lie down beside her. Helena was already slipping back to sleep again as she burrowed closer into Sarah's side and curled an arm around her waist. Looking at her sister half asleep and completely content, she looked nothing like the danger that she had become used to thinking of her as. The urge to keep her at arm's length like a threat had disappeared.
xxxx
In the chilly morning light it became even clearer to Felix gazing around his flat simply how bizarre his life had really become these past months. Sarah was still fast asleep and snoring with her crazy murdering sister snuggled up to her side and her clone was likewise asleep on the couch and wrapped up in Delphine. Rather than bother trying to make sense of anything anymore Felix dragged himself from bed and made for the kitchen and the promise of coffee, throwing a pillow in Sarah's general direction on the way. As expected she did nothing more than grunt sleepily and roll over.
"Sarah!" her shouted across the room, this time having the desired effect of waking her up properly.
"Fee!" she grunted back before sitting up and half-heartedly launching the pillow back at him and missing spectacularly, instead hitting Delphine square in the face and waking the woman with a squeal.
"Sorry" Sarah mumbled wryly, gently disentangling herself from Helena before plodding over to Felix and gratefully accepting the proffered mug.
Slowly but steadily everyone awoke and stumbled their way to a cup of coffee (or tea for Helena, no one was feeling particularly up for crazy at eight am) and the overwhelming gravity of the situation dawned on everyone. Kira missing, Mrs S missing, Delphine likely on the run from Dyad, Rachel on their tails and Alison bound to their enemies by contract. They needed a plan, and a fucking brilliant one at that.
For a long time no one moved and barely spoke, only the occasional reprimand from Sarah to Helena and the almost silent whisperings passing between Cosima and Delphine. The quiet was soon broken with a somewhat cheerier looking Alison at the door, complete with an arsenal of cleaning supplies and orders for the lot of them to stop moping around, get dressed and either help tidy up or help construct a plan. Unsurprisingly Felix didn't take well to his flat being assaulted by Alison in full cleaning mode for the second time and everyone else slunk away to leave them to it.
xxxx
An hour later and Felix had long since relented and both he and Sarah were sat together with Cosima and Delphine hastily pulling a plan together and considering what few leads they had. Only Helena had taken up Alison's suggestion of help with the cleaning and was happily trailing after Alison with a duster in one hand and a slab of chocolate in the other.
It was a strange picture to look at indeed. But even with the sugar-addicted serial killer and the two hopelessly in love science geeks and every other variety of crazy currently harboured in his flat, Felix couldn't help but feel that despite it all, they were still his family.