AN: Due to the interest, there will be more on Elissa in coming chapters :)


Delphine held her breath, just waiting to be found. But wait, were the footsteps… getting softer? They were! Then the door clicked shut and the feet moved onto the next room. Delphine breathed a huge sigh of relief and almost laughed for not having been caught, but then winced in pain as she moved. The tall blonde-haired woman leaned on the table heavily and pulled herself off the floor, keeping her other hand pressed against the wound in her side. Delphine walked around to the door, listening to the sound of boots on linoleum and doors clicking open and shut. She checked her watch and her anxiety doubled. I'm out of time…

For a moment, the immunologist fought with herself about where she should go; but she wasn't going to change her plans until she knew for sure that Sarah had driven off like she'd told her to.

The sounds in the corridor got quieter and quieter until she couldn't hear anything except her own breathing and worried thoughts.

Was it safe? Were they waiting for her to come out? Or were they really gone?

Delphine peered out the window but even though she couldn't see anything she decided to wait five minutes just to be sure they weren't waiting her out.

Delphine carefully lowered the handle and opened it an inch, lining her eye up with the gap and peering down the empty corridor. She kept her keen eyes searching each inch of the hallway as it was revealed to her. When the door was half-open she poked her head out, looking all the way to the end but only saw the white wall at the end. Carefully looking to the right she found the same.

Delphine stepped out of the office and felt very exposed being in the open. She walked almost sideways down the corridor as she checked behind her and in front of her constantly. Delphine walked slowly so as not to make noise, her arm hovering over her waist, caught between cradling her wounds and trying to pretend like they weren't there, to hide her weaknesses if she was to be found.

Delphine made it to the end of corridor and still couldn't hear any sign of any one else around. She leant against the wall to peer around the corner, slowly moving forwards until she could see the also empty corridor. Perhaps it was safe?

With a frown Delphine stepped out and began in the direction of the elevator, stopping at the next intersection of pathways and checking around the corner before passing, Delphine saw a flash of uniform and pulled her head back quickly, back tracking and turning around to head back the way she'd come, slipping back into an empty corridor.

Any feelings of safety were gone and replaced with more anxiety; there wasn't anywhere she could go.

What about the maintenance elevator?

Delphine headed back towards that, checking over her should every few seconds, giving up the pretence that she wasn't injured and pressed her hand to her side, trying to stop the bleeding. The immunologist could feel the pulses of blood against her hand, caused by her beating heart and she could feel her warm blood soaking through her shirt and seeping through her fingers, coating her hand in miniature red rivers.

Delphine stopped at the end of the hallway and peered down it like she had at every other and checked if it was clear but it wasn't. Two guards stood by the service elevator and blocked her mode of escape.

Delphine pulled back with a quiet sigh and leaned her shoulder against the wall, trying to ignore the crippling, throbbing burn in her back and sides.

The sudden scraping noise gave her a fright and she jumped when the wall at the end of the corridor moved and a man stepped out. Fear pulsed through Delphine but the man, dressed in dirty knee length shorts and a grey shirt, just smiled and gave her a slight wave, whistling to himself as he went on his way down the corridor.

Delphine was stunned for a moment before it clicked in her mind.

Maintenance! They have their own tunnels and hallways to get around without getting in our way- that's how I can get out!

Delphine rushed to the wall, just catching the edge of the door with her fingernails, and letting go of her side Delphine pulled the door open and slipped inside. She found the handle on the other side and pulled it shut quickly behind her, breathing a sigh of relief. She had never been in here before but she assumed that the tunnels must follow a similar structure to the hallways and floors of the Centre. So, clutching her injured side she walked left down the dim passage, looking at the strange signs above her head that were supposed to mark doors and give directions but they might as well have been in another language because they made no sense to her.

Before long Delphine came to a 'T' intersection and she had to make her first decision, left or right?

In a maze if you follow the left wall you'll escape, it's the unspoken rule to mazes so that staff can get in and out if they need without getting lost. Therefore, following this theory, Delphine turned left and then left again at the next intersection and ran into a dead end but this presented two options: go through the door that was there or keep following the wall and going left.

Delphine opened the door and found a ladder.

Weird.

Leaning out she could see that the ladder went both up and down and looked as if it went on for miles!

This must be how the maintenance men get between floors without being seen, like the crew of a ship!

Delphine took a breath and reached out for the ladder that was at least two feet away from the edge of the floor. She was grateful for the height she had, that meant she could reach the ladder-but it did not get rid of her fear of heights. And she'd already looked down once to see where the ladder went. The fear of falling crept up in her mind as Delphine held the ladder with one hand and the doorframe with the other, too scared to continue.

But I have to, it's my only way out….

The thought was not helping.

For Cosima, you can't save Cosima if you're stuck down here…

Even that was not enough for her to overlook her fears because honestly, falling was a terrifying thought. One slip and she could fall down several or more floors to her death, and not being able to see the bottom was certainly not helping, in fact, it was so dimly lit that she could barely see where the next floor above and below her were let alone see where the bottom was.

Shit. I can't do it I can't-

Delphine reached out with her other hand and caught the ladder in a sudden moment of bravery that surprised her.

I can do-

Then she looked down again.

Non! Merde!

But reaching so far was stretching her side- and the wound that resided there. Delphine had to make a choice; she had either to go forward, or back.

I'm this far I might as well just-

Delphine placed one foot on the ladder and then quickly her other as well. She released her breath slowly and looked up at where she had to go, reaching one hand up and gripping the cold metal rung for dear life, strings of French curses and phrases running through her pretty head.

For Cosima, for Cosima, Cosima, for Cosima…. Cosima.

Watching each rung carefully Delphine climbed up the ladder, watching her hands and feet like a hawk watching prey to make sure that she didn't miss a rung and slip. After a while she got into a paranoid rhythm and almost forgot where she was going because she was lost so deep in thoughts about what she was doing. But when Delphine looked up, she couldn't see how far she had left to go to get to the top. It was a little demoralising. Her arms were starting to get tired, and lactic acid was starting to build up. Holding tightly with her left hand, Delphine let go with her right and dropped it down to her side with a sigh, giving it a shake and hoping to dispel the burn that was building. Scientifically speaking Delphine knew that it would take at least ten minutes for the lactic acid to disperse properly, but that was ten minutes that Delphine did not have the luxury of spending hanging around.

But it did help a little bit so she repeated the process with her right arm and then continued on her way up the endless ladder.

It reminded her of a book she had read as a child called the Faraway Tree, in one of the volumes one of the children of the story climbed up a ladder that had no end and Delphine now felt like that child, climbing up and up and up but never reaching the top. With the pain in her arms building along with the pain in her side and back, time dragged on to make each second feel like minutes and minutes to feel like hours. It was painful and long, but at least each door that she passed meant that she was one floor closer to escape and she didn't need the unreadable signs on the door to tell her that.