XVI.

Delphine dropped down, the pistol sliding from her blood slicked hands.

"Delphine," Cosima said hoarsely. "You…"

"Shh…" Breathing was becoming more and more difficult. "We have to move. There are more coming."

"Miss me, ladies? C'mon, let's get you up." Tony grunted as he pulled Delphine up, Cosima pushing her onto her feet. "Gotta move, bitches."

A thunderous bang sounded behind them, and from the satisfied smirk on Tony's face, that was exactly what he had wanted.

"Please don't tell me that was the flash grenade I lent you."

"Don't ask questions you don't want to know the answers to," Tony said, perhaps a little too cheerfully. He frowned when the load between them got heavier. "Yo, carry your side."

"I am carrying my side!" Cosima glanced over as Delphine's head rested on her shoulder. "Shit."

"Oh shit."

"Delphine. Delphine? Wake up. Please?"

"C'mon blondie, wake up for Cos."

XVII.

"Holy shite, Cos."

Sarah pushed her hair back from her face as she stared out the hatch of the plane and watched the three figures stumble their way toward the plane. She rushed down the ramp.

"I got this," Cosima said, stumbling along under Delphine's arm, waving Sarah off.

"No, you don't," Sarah said, gently pushing Cosima aside. "Go, I need you to get the plane going. Engines are warmed up already, but there's no way I'm getting it off the ground."

Cosima looked over her shoulder at the figures that were following. Closing in on them, even. The unmistakable crack of a high-calibre sniper rifle rung in the air and the figures hung back.

"What the hell…?"

"Helena," was all Sarah could manage as she pulled Delphine's prone body up the ramp after Cosima.

Ping!

Another sniper was firing back.

"Go!"

They scrambled up the ramp, careful to stay out of Helena's sight line. Cosima scrambled into the cockpit, her body a bundle of shaking nerves while Felix descended on Delphine's body that Tony and Sarah laid down in the aisle.

"Oh, god!"

"Apply pressure to it!" Cosima yelled back at them, her voice cracking as she rushed through the flight checklist. Screw the checklist. She pushed the engines and pulled back on the throttle, sending them hurtling down the runway.

Sarah watched as the runway shortened, military trucks beginning to spill out on all sides, her knuckles white as she gripped the back of Cosima's chair, leaving Felix, Tony, and Helena to attend to Delphine.

"C'mon, Cos."

XVIII.

"Did you apply pressure to it?"

"Yes, bloody Christ, we've applied pressure," Felix snapped. "Triage is not my specialty!"

"Is it just a through-and-through? Can you tell?"

"For fuck's sake, Cosima, stop with the backseat driving."

"But she is in front seat," Helena said as she sutured the wound shut with her whiskey covered hands, the sniper rifle resting on the ground beside her.

"Well, one thing I know for sure is that Rachel's not going to like how we've redecorated," Tony muttered as he eyed the growing bloodstain on the carpet.

They were still ascending to cruising altitude when Cosima barrelled past Sarah and dropped to Delphine's side. "You can't leave me again," she whispered. She rummaged through the first aid kit and found an IV line with tear-blurred eyes.

"Damnit," she whispered, as she tried to find a vein in her arm. Three times she pricked her skin. Felix and Tony exchanged glances. Cosima hated needles.

Sarah peered back see what she was doing. "Whoa, Cos! Cosima! What're you doing?"

"I'm O-negative, and she needs blood, like, yesterday."

"Shite," Sarah muttered, pulling away from the cockpit now that the plane had levelled out. She rolled up her sleeve, her eyes steeled.

"We're all O-negative."

XIX.

"Guys, we have a problem."

"Bloody hell, as if this isn't a problem?" Felix muttered, gesturing to Delphine lying on the floor. Sarah slept on the chair beside her, an IV line hooked up from her arm. He climbed up to the cockpit. "What is it, then?"

Cosima pointed at the fuel gauge which was emptying at an alarming rate. "We're losing fuel faster than we should be."

"What, like there's a hole in the tank or something?"

"Yeah, I mean, I've been flying as low as we can without increasing our fuel consumption and make it easier but… air pressure or not, we're not going to make it back to Toronto."

"How much farther can we get?"

Cosima glanced at the map that was spread out on the seat beside her. "Well, definitely not over the Atlantic. London is probably the nearest. Paris."

"Jesus bloody Christ."

"Cosima…"

It was faint, but Cosima could recognise that voice anywhere, gunshot-induced deafness notwithstanding. Wordlessly, she pushed past Felix and dropped down beside Delphine, grabbing her hand, holding it.

"Hey," she whispered, a smile creeping into her voice as she pressed to back of Delphine's hand to her lips. "Welcome back."

XX.

"It's Cosima. She's… not doing well. It's getting worse. The coughing. She had a seizure last night." Sarah sounded tired, as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Delphine was fairly certain that sleeping was few and far between with caring for Cosima's increasingly frail disposition.

"Merde. I've got a cure."

"I'll give S a call."

Delphine hesitated, her lips pressing together. "Don't."

"What?"

"You can't trust her. She's not who you think she is, Sarah."

"Yeah, I've heard that before." Sarah sighed on the other end of the line. "So who is she?"

Delphine held her breath. "I can't tell you, I'm sorry."

"Damnit, Delphine! If I can't trust Mrs. S, then who can I trust?"

"Don't trust anyone, Sarah."

Sarah laughed bitterly through the receiver. "And you? Can I trust you?"

Delphine paused. "You can trust me to ensure Cosima's safety."

"Right," Sarah said, her voice stiff. She sighed, relenting. "So how are we going to get the cure to her? She needs it. Fast."

Delphine glanced over her shoulder surreptitiously as she stepped into the Rhine-Main S-Bahn train. "Call Mrs. S as you usually would. I'll take care of the rest."

"What should I tell Cosima, then?"

Delphine shut her eyes, her hand wrapping tightly around the USB drive in her hand. She bit her lip, knowing she was going to regret this - tomorrow, the day after, and forever. "Tell her whatever you hear from Mrs. S."

She could hear the reluctance in Sarah's silence. "This bloody better work. Because Cosima…"

"She's running out of time. I know."