Sarah jolted out of a heavy sleep, shading her eyes in an onslaught of light.
"Mom?"
She squinted, slowly recognising Kira's outline silhouetted in her bedroom doorway, the stuffed turtle Felix had won for her at the fair clenched tightly to her stomach.
"Come 'er baby" Sarah croaked, rolling onto her back and holding the covers open for Kira to crawl under. Kira hopped up on the mattress and snuggled in, settling facing her mom.
Sarah reached out and stroked her daughter's head, tucking stray hairs behind her tiny ears, "Another nightmare, Monkey?" She whispered, searching Kira's face for the telltale signs of unease, but even before her daughter shook her head in a silent 'no', Sarah knew it was something else bothering her.
Sarah shifted her weight onto her arm, rising slightly from the mattress and drawing Kira's eye, "What is it, Kira?"
Kira picked absently at a stray thread on the sheets, uncertain. "I'm not sure, I was dreaming...I heard arguing-" She trailed off, chewing on her lip.
"It's okay baby, go on" Sarah encouraged.
Kira's brow furrowed heavily, "Auntie Cosima is...hurting."
Sarah paused, her breathing staying steady only for the multitudes of practice the last years had afforded her. With her heart clawing up her throat, Sarah pulled Kira close, rubbing her back in as soothing a pattern as she could manage while her neurons fired.
'Cosima…'
"Hey, baby, just stay here for a minute, okay? I'm going to go and call Auntie Cos" Kira nodded her head, curling fully around her stuffed turtle as Sarah scooted out of bed and grabbed her phone, pulling her hair over her shoulder as she padded out into the hallway and into the living room. Her fingers shook as she pressed the speed-dial, but with a couple inches of January snow glistening on the street outside, she told herself it was just the chill.
The phone rang...and rang...and rang; "Hello! This is Cosima, leave a message-"
Sarah hung up; she rose and paced the wooden floor, touched the far wall, leaned against it, exhaled heavily; she tapped her phone against the wall, chewing hard on her lip. With a growl, she clicked the speed dial again.
"Hello! This is Cosima-"
Sarah growled, dropped her phone on the coffee table, threaded her hands into her sleep-mussed hair. She couldn't panic, there weren't any threats anymore, they were safe, Cosima was safe wherever her and Delphine were this week; they were scheduled to visit again, in fact, next month.
Nonetheless, her heart pounded. She glanced at the mantel, where her and Fe had mounted Sioban's shotgun. Her fingers twitched. She couldn't panic.
"Mom? She's coming home"
Sarah jumped, Kira's stockinged feet muffling her approach.
"What baby?" Sarah gasped, holding out her shaking arms to draw her daughter into her lap.
"Auntie Cosima, she's coming home, I can feel her."
Before Sarah could straighten out Kira's meaning, her phone buzzed loudly on the coffee table, nearly vibrating off the edge before Sarah managed to grab it, shifting Kira in her lap to bring it to her ear.
"Cos?!" Her voice was high, strained. Kira turned into her, nuzzling into her neck for warmth.
"Hey Sarah, uh, I'm sorry if I woke you but-" Cosima's voice broke, barely, but Sarah heard it, and her chest ached, "-I just got off a plane. I'm hoping to grab a taxi to your house? I mean, I can go to Fe's…"
"No, no Cos. Of course you can come here. I'll, I'll put the kettle on, okay?" Sarah rocked her daughter lightly, her eyes fluttering closed with the softening of her pulse; Cosima's voice sounded as shaky as her own hands were, the edges rough with something raw and ripped open, but it was her voice.
On the other end of the line, Cosima choked out a wet laugh that even Kira would have detected the relief in. "Okay, Sarah, I'll-I'll be there soon."
And just like that, she hung up. Sarah exhaled loudly through pursed lips and dropped the phone back onto the coffee table. Kira was heavy in her arms, fast asleep as only a child can be, and Sarah gently grabbed the knitted blanket Sioban always kept draped over the couch's back and covered them both, settling further into the cushions and resting her head against the rest. Her eyes flickered again to the shotgun over the mantel, glorious and solid in the weak morning light, before drifting closed. Just for a minute.
'She was coming home' Sarah smiled.
An hour and a half later Cosima found the two of them there, fast asleep. Grinning through red-rimmed eyes, she dropped her bags in the hall and tiptoed into the kitchen to put on the kettle.