Highway 401, Toronto

5.20pm

"Cosima? Cosima, how far away are you?" There's a strong element of annoyance in Alison's tone that only causes Cosima to feel even guiltier about all this; she knows Alison has been dreading dinner with her mother tonight somewhat, knows that their relationship is frosty, unpredictable, at best. She also knows that Alison is a control freak, will have planned out her schedule for this evening with military precision, all leading up to dinner with her mother.

There's no way there was an extra couple of hours factored into that schedule for dealing with her niece in the emergency room.

"Oh, don't even ask," Cosima winces, bracing herself. "I'm stuck, like, ten kilometres away, the traffic's mental. I think there must have been an accident further down or something, I haven't moved in ages… anyway, so I really don't know when I'll be able to get to you. I'm so sorry, honestly, I…"

Alison sighs. "You know what, Cosima?"

"Uh huh?" she holds her breath.

"Don't worry about it. I'm… not exactly looking forward to dinner with my mother," Alison admits. "Maybe this is a blessing in disguise, I mean, it's given me the perfect excuse to skip and have a quiet evening cleaning the house once you get here, having Helena really is like having a toddler again on the chaos scale. My mother only wants me there to criticise my life choices anyway."

"Oh Alison, come on," Cosima sighs. "You'll totally enjoy it once you're there. And I bet the kids are excited…"

"I could always send them anyway. Look, Cosima, don't stress about it. I don't mind, honestly. I'll stay with Cherry until you can get here, it's not a problem. I'm not exactly going to leave her on her own."

"I know, I just… I feel like I've fucked up everyone's plans," Cosima sighs. Alison might be perfectly happy to use being stuck in the ER with Cherry as an excuse to get out of seeing her mother, but Delphine is another matter. Delphine won't complain; Delphine will cover for her at Cherry's parent-teacher night and insist that she doesn't mind, that it's fine, even though both of them know full well that she's been looking forward to tonight, that really, she does mind.

Cosima refuses to be the reason Delphine has to miss out on her moment of glory. Delphine is right, of course, in that neither of them know for definite that she's won the Biological Sciences award for their department, but Cosima is reasonably certain. She knows the others who have been nominated, has worked with most of them at some point over the last year.

She's perfectly aware that she's more than a little biased, but all the same, Cosima cannot believe her girlfriend hasn't won that award hands down. So much so that she had it all planned out: she was going to get in and out of parent-teacher night as fast as humanly possible, quickly check in at home to be sure Helena hadn't accidently burned the house down or lord only knows what, then dash over to the institute ball and hopefully make it in time for the awards.

God, now she thinks about it, she realises it sounds horribly like one of Alison's meticulously calculated schedules.

"Oh, of course, it's Delphine's thing tonight, isn't it?" Alison remembers. "So she's tied down with Violette?"

"Oh, I wish, it's way more complicated than that. It's Cherry's parent-teacher night tonight, we were going to have Helena babysit while I dealt with all the 'Cherry needs to speak up more in class and lay off the Star Wars because it's coming through in her creative writing' shit; I mean, she's nine, why try and push the kid into the mould the education system demands of her, right? We thought Helena couldn't do too much damage in half an hour with Cherry there to supervise. Not without, we learnt that lesson the hard way. Or the kitchen counter did. But anyway, so now Delphine has Vi and Helena to worry about and at this rate she's going to have to do parent-teacher hell, and I like, totes wouldn't say anything but I don't just want to do that solo because Delphine deserves to accept that award in person, I want to because Delphine's kind of scared of Cherry's teacher and I don't want her caving and agreeing she needs to conform. Individuality and all that, right?"

"Okay, okay, don't panic, alright? Welcome to the nightmare of trying to have a social life around kids. Why don't you just abandon this, then? I'll make sure Cherry's okay, I can be you, if they need parental permission for anything. You could get back and take over from Delphine, she could go to her awards evening and…"

Cosima cuts her off. "Alison, that's, like, really sweet of you to offer and everything, but I couldn't ask you to do that."

"You're not asking, I'm offering."

"Wow, your mom's really that bad?"

"Oh, come on, you've met her. Honestly, if me standing in for you here would help…"

Cosima sighs. "Honest answer? Not really. Sorry. I mean, I can't exactly turn around now, and even if I could it'd make me feel like the world's shittiest mother. How is she?"

"Cherry? Oh, she's been really brave; Gemma would have been screaming the whole time. And she's…" Alison lowers her voice. "She's very interested in medicine."

"Oh god, I know, sorry about that. We've tried to tell her that medicine's got nothing on human biology but she just won't be persuaded, and she has a really nasty habit of getting overexcited in inappropriate situations."

"No, no, don't get me wrong, she certainly seems to have a real passion for it. But we have had a discussion about why it might not be a good idea to ask every doctor who comes into the waiting area if she can watch a surgical procedure."

"Hey, I asked nicely!" Cherry protests in the background- reasonably alert, Cosima is relieved to hear. "And I said any operation, I'm not picky. I'd obviously prefer something really cool like a surgical reconstruction or something but routine stuff is fine too. Can I have the phone?" she asks. "Can I speak to Mommy? Mommy?"

"Uh huh, I'm still here, honey. You okay?"

"I think so." She's trying to be brave; Cosima can tell that much from the slight quiver to her daughter's voice. "It kind of hurts."

"I bet it does," Cosima agrees sympathetically. "You've been really brave though, right? Auntie Alison said you've been brave."

"I'm not sure I should be brave, though," Cherry worries. "All the people who made loads of noise got to see the doctors ages ago. Like when we took you to the ER when you couldn't breathe and Maman said to act like you were dying to get us through faster."

"Yeah, well that was… look, being brave is fine, Cherry. Being brave is good, the doctors will be really impressed with you if you're brave."

"So impressed that they'll let me watch an operation?"

"Umm… maybe," Cosima lies. "Maybe they might think about it, if… if you're really, really good, yeah? When you're like, eighteen," she mutters under her breath.

"What was that last bit?"

"Oh, nothing, Chezzie, it was nothing."

"Yes it was."

"No it wasn't. It was just the sat nav, you must have heard the sat nav. I'm trying to find another way round in case I ever get out of this… listen…" Cosima begins carefully. "Listen, I'm on my way over, but the traffic's really, really bad. I'll get there as soon as I can, okay? I promise. But I might be a while."

"How long's a while?" Cherry asks quietly. That gentle quiver is back in her tone again, and it just about tears Cosima's heart in two.

"I don't know, sweetie, I don't know. Sorry. As soon as I possibly can be there I will, I promise. But listen, Auntie Alison's going to stay with you…"

"C-c-can't…"

"Oh, Chezzie, don't cry, honey, it's OK. Come on, you've been so brave. Can't what?"

"Can't Maman come?"

Cosima sighs. "Well, she'd have to come the same way I am, she'd just get stuck too. She wouldn't get there any sooner than I will. And anyway, she's got to pick up your sister, and then she's going to our work party tonight, remember? We wouldn't want her to miss that."

"No," Cherry agrees quietly.

There's a faint sniff from the other end of the phone.

"I'm going to be there really, really soon, okay?" Cosima promises. She feels as though she's stabbing in the dark somewhat; this is the first time either of her daughters has ended up in the ER and she feels horribly guilty that she isn't there. "And then once the doctors have made you better we can go home."

"Can we make baking soda volcanoes tomorrow?"

She laughs, glancing at the time on the dashboard, sighing when she realises there isn't a hope in hell of her making it to the hospital and back to Cherry's school in time for parent-teacher night. "Whatever you want, honey. We'll do something really, really awesome tomorrow, promise. And I think Maman's told Auntie Helena she doesn't need to worry about you guys tonight, so once we've got you checked out we'll go and get Vi from Uncle Felix's and then if you're feeling okay we can swing past the university on the way home and see Maman get her award. Just for a few minutes, okay?"

"Is Maman going to be famous?"

"What? No, it's not that kind of award, Chez. Not unless you're like, seriously hyped about immunology, anyway. We're totally going to have to find somewhere to put it at home where everyone can admire her brilliance though, right?"

There's a momentary pause. "Bookcase in the lounge?"

"Hey, that's a really great idea, I was thinking that too. Look, I need to phone your Auntie Sarah and ask her a favour, but I'll talk to you again in a bit, okay?"

"Okay."

"Good girl. If you need me again, or Maman, you just tell Auntie Alison and she'll let you use her phone, yeah? I love you."

"I love you too."

She smiles at that. "I love you more."

"No you don't, I love you more."

"Love you to the moon and back, I win. Can I speak to Auntie Alison before you hang up, please?"

"Uh huh. Love you to Venus and back- that's further, right?"

"Oh alright, alright, you win, Queen of Physics. Give the phone back to Auntie Alison, then. Please?"

There's a slight pause before Alison picks up the phone. "Hey again. See, she's alright," she attempts to reassure her. "She'll be fine once she's been seen by someone and she's home, I think she's hungry more than anything."

Cosima just sighs. "I should be there, Alison," she murmurs softly, her voice laced with guilt. "I know you're looking after her, I just…"

"You feel like it should be you," Alison finishes for her. "I know, I understand. But honestly, Cosima, she'll be fine, it's only a dislocated knee."

"If it was only a dislocated knee the paramedics would have just sorted it themselves, though," Cosima worries. It's been playing on her mind the whole way over to the hospital; she's been trying her best to push it out, ignore it. "Why didn't they just sort it in the ambulance if it's only a dislocated knee?"

"Because it's too swollen for them to be sure, they want to do an x-ray first. They'll call her in soon, I'm sure. She'll be fine."

"They better."

"They will, Cosima. They will. Look, if you want to stay on the phone to her, I won't be offended…"

"Nuh uh. I need to call Sarah, I've got a plan."

"Hmm?"

"Well, the problem is that Delphine and I can't be in four places at once between the two of us, right?" Cosima smiles mischievously. "Did I mention that it's also Kira's parent-teacher night tonight? Right across the hallway."

"No, no, no, no, no, Cos, not happening," Sarah Manning insists firmly. "No way. We swore we wouldn't do this again after all the DYAD shit blew over, remember? And Cherry's in Miss Richardson's class, right? That woman is a total bitch, I am not sitting in a fucking room with that fucking control freak listening to her shite attempts to stamp individuality out of nine year olds…"

"Oh my god, thank you. Thank you, finally someone who agrees with me about the whole individuality thing. I mean, does it really matter that Cherry only does the writing exercises at the end of her spelling sheets when she feels like it if most weeks she gets them all right in the actual test anyway? Or uses purple pen in class, like, come on, at least if she forgets to write her name on it's clear which one's hers, right? That's not rebellion, that's individuality and common sense. But look, Sarah, I wouldn't ask if this wasn't like a total emergency."

"Not my problem, Cos, there's nothing you can offer me to get me back in a room with that woman. She threatened to report me to Social Services because I skipped fucking parent-teacher night for Christ's sake…"

"I know, I know, how could I forget the shit storm Mrs S brought down on her? Which is why I really need you to cover for me, yeah? It's okay for you, you and Kira never have to see her again- not as you, anyway. If Violette ends up in Miss Richardson's class next year Delphine and I have got another year of her crap. Please? Come on, it's only across the hallway, you could do it right after Kira's…"

"The answer's still no, Cosima."

"Look, Sarah, I hate to ask, I really do, but it's kind of an emergency. It's not about me, OK, it's about Delphine. She's worked so hard for this award, Sarah, honestly, and I know you've never been her biggest fan, but it just seems so unfair that she should miss out on accepting it because Cherry had a freak accident and I couldn't pick up the pieces in time to cover parent-teacher night." She sighs. "You'd be doing us both a massive, massive favour and we'll totally return it. Please?"

Sarah pauses, and for a horrible moment Cosima is convinced she's going to say no.

"Please tell me Cherry's a mini geek monkey in class," she says at last. "I'm so not signing up for getting into an argument with that arsehole of a teacher over Cherry's schoolwork and her behaviour."