The sheets smelt so vile that Sarah tried not to inhale when she stripped the bed. She didn't hesitate before tugging away the mattress protector as well. There were still stains on the mattress below - blood, and less determinate stains - but it was a huge improvement. Cosima might actually agree to get back into this bed once Felix finished bathing her. There was no way of knowing that it had been new barely a fortnight before, bought when it became obvious that Cosima wouldn't be going back to the DYAD and Sarah wouldn't be going home.

Cos had been the one who paid for it - "PhD money might as well do me some good," she'd shrugged - and she'd asked for it to be set it by the window. Sarah had helped her drag Felix's art slowly aside until they could nestle the bed into a corner where Cosima would be able to see out. It'd been a pain in the ass to maneuver to, but standing with an armful of bloody sheets, Sarah understood why she had wanted it. Bad enough if she was dying, but at least here she had a chance of looking out at life. That was Cosima all over.

From the bathroom came a thud, a yelp, and a splash. A very girly yelp, at that - she'd have to rib Felix later. She heard the sound of a mumbled laugh, and would have smiled if she hadn't winced, waiting for the cough.

The cracking sound made her shoulders tense, her back straightening involuntarily, and she turned away, brusquely gathering her armful of bedding to dump into Felix's pathetic washing machine. Three rotations on a soak cycle might begin to shift the grime, but for now, she'd need to find another set of sheets. And probably some more of the blankets she'd swiped by the shelfload from Mrs S' place.

—-

It's Alison who finally finds Cosima's glasses. They haven't seen her in over a week - Gemma has the flu, and Alison's rightfully anxious at the risk of exposing Cosima to anything else. Immunosuppressed, says the Delphine in Sarah's head, and Sarah may not like her much but it's pretty clear that keeping Cosima and her sisters alive has become her top priority. Alison was right to keep away.

It did mean that she and Fi had been on their own, though – Mrs S and Helena had both disappeared in the night, a cryptic text from S the only notable distinction. Marion Bowles had apparently pulled some kind of strings long enough to let Scott develop his stem cell therapy for Cosima, using the embryos Helena had left behind her (and what the hell were they doing in her possession? Jesus), but once he'd handed over a container and a syringe to Cosima, he too had high tailed it. Sarah had some doubts about his ability to stay under DYAD's radar, but that was a problem she had to trust he could solve.

Alison, though… Once she heard Cosima was awake, there was no keeping her away. She'd appeared like a tiny god of domesticity, armed with everything from extra blankets to bleach to vegetables, and immediately started scolding Felix, who had clearly not cleaned his apartment since the one time Alison had done it for him. Sarah tried not to laugh - the sharp end of Alison's temper was not a good place to be - but Alison's sounds of disgust at the state of his bathroom would put a crack in any straight face.

Even Cosima twitched bleerily awake at the sound of her haranguing, a testament to Alison's volume or perhaps her pitch. Cos blinked slowly, her mouth open, and Sarah turned to pitch a balled up cloth at the bathroom door. It missed, but it hit with the wall with a satisfying thwop. "Alison can you bloody keep it down? You might scare Felix into cleaning but you're waking up the invalid, too."

That made Alison reappear in the doorway, gloves firmly in place and sponge in hand, smiling tightly. She hasn't seen Cosima awake yet, and Sarah found herself glad they hadn't found Cos's glasses if it meant she couldn't see the uneasy look Alison was giving her.

But at least you couldn't hear it in her voice. "I'm glad to see you awake. How are you feeling?"

Cosima's non-IV laden hand twitched, likely attempting one of her broad gestures. "Been better," she breathed after a long second. Her hand stilled. "You?"

"Oh I'm - I'm fine," Alison touched her hair, her chin, before remembering her gloves. She disappeared back into the bathroom for a moment before returning unencumbered, coming closer to the bed. "The kids have both been sick, and Donnie had taken a lot of time off work while I was, uh, away, so I've been on flu duty. It seemed safer to stay away."

Cosima nodded a little. "Good idea," she said softly, her eyelids drooping til Sarah couldn't see her pupils. Alison sensed it; she came closer, her eyes running over the ruins of Cosima's hair before she dropped to crouch by the bed. "Is there anything you want me to do while I'm here? Soup? A bath?" she paused, "Do you want me to read to you?"

Cosima smiled a little at that, but her eyes were already closed. Sarah thought she'd probably fallen asleep halfway through the sentence. She looked at Alison, their eyes on a level with the way she sat on the bed. "Soup might be an idea. Fi and I are lousy cooks."

"Mmmm," Alison glanced away and then at Cosima again, "She could definitely use the calories." She turned to Sarah then, "Have you really lost her glasses? I hoped Felix was kidding."

Sarah winced, there was really no defending that. "They're around… somewhere. We took them off her when she was sleeping and then… god, I don't know, we didn't have much reason to look out for them, you know?" she paused guiltily, "Cos says she has another pair in her stuff somewhere."

Alison rolled her eyes, "I swear to – you two are absurd. And she's nearly as bad. Did you at least look down the side of the bed?"

"I - what?"

Alison didn't even respond to that, just looked heavenward again before she dropped to her knees, looking under the bed before reaching and twisting beneath where Cosima was sleeping. In seconds, a pair of dust encrusted dark glasses was in her hand.

"There," she said, breathing only a little hard, "What did I tell you?"