Epilogue


Sarah looked around the room, balancing the cardboard box she was holding on her hip. "You two had a good couple of years here, yeah?"

"We all did," Delphine smiled sadly. "But it was always the plan for you to have it."

"Yeah, I know. I just don't like the idea of taking your home."

Delphine smiled, putting her hand reassuringly on Sarah's forearm. "It isn't home anymore." A tear slid down her cheek as she remembered the five amazing years she and Cosima shared while living within these walls. Bringing Cosima back home after her cure started working and spending three months getting her back to optimal health, the wonderful vacation they all took after that and the month after she and Cosima had stayed by themselves after everyone left, Cosima accepting a real position at DYAD and transferring to the University of Toronto to finish her PhD, all the crazy science they made, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, vacations, the wedding of their dreams a year after Cosima was fully healed.

Delphine smiled, remembering the series of wedding photographs that had once hung on the wall in front of her. It had been perfect. At dusk by that frozen pond in the park Delphine had taken Cosima to for their first real date. Though in July it was just water, no ice. They stood in the grass in front of it, in thin, strappy sandals, the whole area lit up with twinkling white lights. Neither of them wore white, exactly. Delphine wore an off-white dress that Alison hand-stitched violet flowers around the bottom of the skirt and on the sleeves, and Cosima wore a violet dress that her sister insisted on stitching off-white flowers around to match. She let her. They both could have been wearing potato sacks for all she cared. Her nieces carefully wove flowers into their hair. Delphine's had been left mostly down, with the sides twisting around and coming together tied with a ribbon. Cosima's hair was finally back in dreads and were in a lovely French braid as they weren't quite long enough yet to pile high up in a ponytail or bun as they once had been, and Delphine had never seen her look more beautiful.

They honeymooned in a variety of places. Took nine weeks and combined their bucket list cities, taking the top two from each of their lists. There had been a series of pictures from that too. A selfie in front of an Egyptian pyramid, them sharing a laugh holding a koala in Australia, on safari in Tanzania, kissing underneath a cherry blossom tree in Japan...so many memories all over these walls. A tear slowly made its way down Delphine's cheek, unchecked.

"I'm sorry you're losing your home Delphine."

Delphine smiled wistfully twirling her rings around on her left ring finger. "Lot of good memories here, but it's not home anymore."

A loud crash outside drew the duo back to the present and they shared a knowing look. "That wife of yours is trouble," Sarah joked.

Delphine shook her head. "You don't have to tell me."

"Delphine!"

Delphine and Sarah were already out the door. "Coming ma chérie." Everything they just spent the past forty-five minutes neatly packing along the sides of the moving truck was now covering the bottom floor of the truck and all over the ground in front of it. "Seriously?"

Cosima peeked her head out from behind a box with a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry. It was her fault."

Delphine carefully stepped into the truck and made her way to her wife, gently placing her hands on either side of her extremely swollen belly. "Ne laisse pas ta Mommy dire que ce genre de choses est de ta faute. Tu ne pourrais jamais rien faire de mal." (Don't let your Mommy say that kind of thing is your fault. You could never do anything wrong.)

"I hope none of that was breakable," Sarah said behind them.

"Non," Delphine chuckled, kissing Cosima's belly and standing up, but keeping a hand where it was as their daughter repeatedly kicked her palm. "I know better than to leave Cosima around anything breakable right now."

"Hey!" Cosima protested. "I'm, like, twenty seven months pregnant. It's not my fault."

"She's stubborn. Just like every woman in this family," Sarah said with a smirk. "She'll come when she's good and ready. Kira was thirteen days late."

"Don't tell me that," Cosima groaned, letting her head fall forward onto Delphine's shoulder. Delphine in turn wrapped her arms around her ever-growing wife. "You still have three weeks until she's ready mon amour."

"I'm ready now." Cosima whined.

"But she," Delphine stated with a kiss. "Is not." The doctor tried to show her wife every day how much she appreciated her doing this for them. This was a dream two years in the making. Cosima had been adamant about not wanting to use her own eggs for their child. As much as doctors, Delphine, Scott, and her own research told Cosima the disease she had wasn't genetic, that it was just "one of those things that happens", she didn't want to risk it. So Delphine agreed to carry. They spent so many hours searching different sperm banks and clinics across the country and the United States looking for the perfect donor, and did they ever find him! He was Cosima in male form; hazel eyes, dark wavy hair, olive-y complexion, Irish, an amazing analytical mind even if his PhD was in applied mathematics rather than anything science related, and a personality that was described as 'flirty' and 'cheeky.'

After a year of trying, including three rounds of IVF, Delphine was pregnant! They told everyone right away. Everything looked great. Delphine was nauseous and there was an ever so slight swell to her lower belly neither woman could keep their hands off of. They heard the baby's heartbeat, saw his little arms and legs, even caught some hiccups wracking the teeny tiny body. A day after eleven weeks into the pregnancy, just a few days before they were supposed to be considered in the safe zone, Delphine woke-up in the middle of the night with excruciating cramps. They rushed to the hospital where they were told there was no heartbeat.

They were understandably devastated. They took a month to grieve for the baby they would never meet, a little boy their in vitro doctor told them. Then Delphine wanted to start trying again, but she couldn't bare the thought of physically feeling what she felt again. She knew realistically that each pregnancy had about a one in four chance of ending in a miscarriage and knew she wouldn't be able to handle that again, emotionally or physically. They still had a couple of Delphine's frozen embryos, so Cosima agreed to carry and the first one stuck. Their little rainbow would soon be making her appearance into her parents eager arms.

"Company!"

Delphine smiled at Alison and released her wife. Cosima sighed. "I don't need a babysitter."

"I know," Delphine soothed. "But you can't do much lifting, so you and Alison are going to go have a spa day." Delphine surprised her wife, pulling out two thick envelopes to their favorite spa. "On me."

"Just because you're the hotshot CEO-"

"Co-hotshot," Delphine corrected with a smirk to which her wife shot her a damn impressive evil eye. Delphine was the director of the DYAD Institute until Cosima finished her PhD, but after that she confessed that being the director didn't make her happy. She wanted to spend more time in the lab and do things that truly mattered. While Cosima was saddened to see the power suits go, together they founded the Cormier Foundation. Made possibly by liquidating one of Cosima's accounts she barely ever touched and generous grants from Carolyn and Thomas. They offered to give their parents actual positions within the foundation, vice presidents of sorts, but they preferred to be so in name only. The foundation was Delphine and Cosima's dream, a great labor of love. Their parents wanted them do this on their own so all their achievements were their and theirs alone. They deserved that. Of course their parents were well known in their respective fields, but that wasn't what caught people's attention. It was Cosima and Delphine themselves. They were a power couple in every sense of the word. A true scientific dream team.

Once Cosima had been cured and was back to her old self, they, along with Scott, published their research into Cormier's Disease, the name of course at Cosima's insistence. Delphine argued against it. There were three of them primarily responsible, along with a great number of other people, but in Delphine's contract she had made it so the responsibility of naming the disease fell to Cosima.

"Cosima-"

"Delphine, seriously, I don't want to hear it. You are the one who put this on my shoulders and this is what I want." Rounding the desk she took her fiancée's hands in hers and softened. "Delphine, without you I never would have survived this. You saved my heart and soul as much as you did my disease-riddled body."

"But Scott-"

"Scott is more of a behind-the-scenes guy. His name will still be attached to the research, the cure. He is totally cool with this."

"You should name it after Siobhan. The cure came from her."

"She doesn't want the credit anymore than Scott does. She gave me her blessing," she dipped her head, catching Delphine's eyes. "Besides, soon we will be married and I'll be a Cormier too."

Delphine smiled at that. The thought of marrying Cosima would always bring on that reaction. They'd talked, at length, about a lot of things during Cosima's recovery. If this disease had never happened, but Delphine and everything else had, Cosima probably wouldn't have taken Delphine's name. She wanted to establish herself in the scientific community as her own person and honor her father and mother. But dying changes everything. She realized she could still do all of that with Delphine's last name and she wanted nothing more than for everyone to see what the blonde meant to her. She wanted everyone to know how Delphine saved her. It was just a small thing she could do to show her appreciation. Besides, she argued that Cosima Cormier had a great ring to it.

Years later that research still had people talking. It was a no-win situation, but they found a way. They focused a lot of the Foundation's funds into stem cell research. Scott came to work for them, naturally, and the dream team was back together again. They were currently focusing on expanding Leekie's research into iPSCs and it was showing to have only been the tip of the iceberg. It opened so many doors to cures for so many things; cancer, infection, they even had a team working on seeing if they could be programmed to destroy fat cells. Of course that was purely cosmetic and not anywhere close to a priority, but it was fascinating and, if it worked, would bring in a nice profit. Not that they were concerned with that, but it would help fund more important projects.

They wanted to do something meaningful. They still continued to work on what Delphine was passionate about, the tough cases. Cases no one else would touch and, as such, involved very sick and desperate patients. With the deck already stacked against them before they even learned of the cases, they couldn't save everyone, but they did everything they could. No expenses were spared, no stone unturned and their subjects truly felt that someone was on their side.

At this point they had over 100 employees and were looking into expanding to a second location. It was the personal and professional lives they had always dreamed of.

"Doesn't mean you have to show off," Cosima joked, taking the enveloped and giving her wife a hug. Well, as much of a hug as she could with her belly in the way.

"No," Delphine agreed with a smile, tightening her arms around the two most important beings in her world. "But it means I can spoil my wife and daughter to be."

Cosima smiled and brought their lips together, softly, sweetly, lovingly, but with an ever present hue of that pull that would always bring them together. "You're too good to us."

Delphine smiled. "Go. You'll be there all day and hopefully when you're done we will be too and tonight we will spend the first night in our new home."


"Did you finish the nursery?" Cosima panted, gritting her teeth as she tried to focus on her breathing.

"No. Nothing is finished, Cosima." Delphine left out the part where she had had specific instructions not to do anything in the nursery until Cosima was there and they could do it together.

"Then she's not coming. Nope. Not today!" Cosima moaned in pain as another contraction hit. "Where is she going to sleep? A baby needs a bed!"

Delphine held Cosima's hand, not making a sound as surely all the bones in her fingers were crushed. "Breathe mon amour, breathe."

Cosima locked eyes with Delphine and slowed her breathing to match the blonde's. When the contraction subsided she relaxed, taking long, slow sips through a straw in the cup of water Delphine held for her. "She is definitely your child." Delphine raised an eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that, when have you known me to be three weeks early for anything?"

"You did want her out," Delphine rationalized. She and Sarah, along with Siobhan, Beth, Helena, Donnie, Felix and Bobby, whom Cosima had become close with once again with her so near, had at least gotten everything out of the old place and into the new house. The boxes were more or less in the rooms they were supposed to be as well. She had been just about to open the box for the crib, just to get it out of the box, not set it up as she had been told not to, when the phone rang and a panicked Alison told her Cosima was in labor.

"She's what?!" Delphine nearly shrieked.

"I changed my mind. It's too early. She's not ready."

"Shhh," Delphine soothed, climbing into the bed beside her wife and taking the scared woman in her arms. "She is ready."

"But the nursery-"

"She will be in our room with us for a few months, at least. She doesn't need a nursery yet." Siobhan took charge after the phone call, handing Delphine the hospital bags and shooing her out the door, so Delphine had her suspicions that when the three of them were discharged from the hospital that everything would be ready. "She will be fine."

Cosima looked up at Delphine with tears in her eyes. "Promise?"

Delphine nodded, placing a soft kiss on Cosima's lips and further soothing her with a hand on her cheek. "I promise. Have I ever let anything bad happen to you?"

"Never," Cosima said resolutely, but a moment later her chin quivered. "I'm scared."

"Me too. But you can do this."

"Not about the birth, although kinda wish they could knock me out and hand her to me when I wake-up like they did in the old days, but…" she sighed, absolute panic showing in her watery eyes. She gripped Delphine's hand tighter, not because of a contraction, but to get herself to stop shaking. "Delphine I don't know the first thing about being a mom. What if I'm, like, really bad? I've never been really maternal. What if I screw her up for life? What if she's just crying and crying and crying and I can't help her?"

Delphine resisted the urge to chuckle or joke about how it was a little late to be worrying about such things now. Sitting down in front of her wife, she took her face in her hands in a way she knew always calmed the brunette. "No one knows how to be a mother until it happens. Cosima, you are her mother and she will love you. The rest we will learn as we go along. There are so many people who already love her and who are more than happy to help us. You have the biggest heart of anyone I know. I cannot see how it would be possible for you to screw her up or be bad at being her mother. We are doing this together. I will always be right by your side."

Cosima nodded, a smile playing on her lips as she fell into Delphine's arms. "As long as you're with me I can do anything."

Delphine smiled through tears. "Then let's have a baby."

Cosima nodded and tried her best to smile as another contraction hit. "Preferably quickly."

It did not go quickly, unfortunately. Twenty-five hours of labor, over an hour of pushing and a buttload-literally, of stitches later she was here. Screaming her little lungs out. All six pounds, two ounces and nineteen inches of her. They were both looking at her tiny face, wrapped in a pale purple blanket Alison made for her. Cosima twirled a curl around her finger. "Most caucasian babies are born with blue eyes, but she will probably have hazel."

Delphine stared down at the tiny hand wrapped around her finger and nodded. "Probably."

"Do you think her hair will change?" Cosima wondered out loud.

"Possibly." Delphine's hair had always been blonde, though it was more golden now, and Cosima's and her sisters' had always been dark, so it was possible her hair would stay this color. Though she also knew a lot of people whose hair was a completely different color from when they were infants.

Cosima sighed back into Delphine's arms and gave her wife's cheek a quick peck. "She's so beautiful."

Even though there was no genetic link between Cosima and the baby, she already looked to be the perfect mix of the two of them. Her hair color was hard to peg down. It looked to be a light, almost honey caramel color, full golden highlights. She had a tiny little congenital nevi on the apple of her left cheek that matched the one Cosima had on her right, and already they could tell she had the shape of Delphine's eyes, eyebrows, her nose and lips. And she was loud, which Delphine was adamant she inherited from Cosima during her time in the womb. Ten little fingers and ten little toes and absolutely perfect, and yes, they'd counted.

Cosima sat there in her wife's arms with their daughter nursing in hers and thought back to the past decade of her life and how everything had changed. This was so not where she thought she would be right now, but she couldn't imagine being anywhere else. She had an amazing family, a wonderful wife she could never come close to thanking for all that she had done, a career she loved where she got to do meaningful things each and everyday and now the perfect little girl.

Delphine was thinking things along the same lines. How boring her life seemed before Cosima. The brunette turned every single thing Delphine thought she knew upside down, but she wouldn't go back and change a thing. Without every painful moment they went through they wouldn't be here in this moment. "Je t'aime."

Cosima smiled and turned so she could properly kiss Delphine. When they pulled away they leaned their foreheads together in a way that meant so much to them. "I love you too."

"Knock knock. Hope we're not interrupting," Beth asked, poking her head in the door. Seeing Cosima was nursing, she asked, "Is it okay to come in?"

The new mothers looked up at the door and smiled, ushering everyone in. The little one must have known her family was coming to see her because as they came into the room she decided she was finished eating. They'd had a baby shower a few weeks ago. Small, beautiful, in Alison's backyard, but even so everyone came carrying gifts. Even Sarah, in her leather jacket and aviator sunglasses came in with a big teddy bear and Kira, Gemma and Oscar had a mess of balloons each. Helena, of course, came bearing cake and Cosima could kiss her right now if she wasn't too exhausted for the effort. Blissfully happy, but exhausted. Scott, bless him, had a little monkey in his hand that looked like it was made out of the periodic table.

"Wow, guys, she is absolutely gorgeous." Alison cooed at the newborn, elbowing Felix beside her to look. He already had, and was looking away to save face and wipe his tears before anyone saw.

"She is very beautiful, sestras," Helena smiled. "I like her hairs." Delphine had been bald as a baby, no more than a few platinum hairs on her head until she was a toddler, but the baby was born with a full head of thick curls.

"What's her name, loves?" Siobhan asked.

Cosima smiled brightly up at Delphine as the blonde stood and leaned down for a kiss. She handed the purple bundle to Delphine. Carefully the new mom walked around to the other side of the bed and put the sleeping baby in the matriarch of their little mis-matched family's arms, her eyes never leaving the little girl's face. "Her name is Charlotte."

Delphine felt a pang deep in her chest as she watched Siobhan with her granddaughter. Charlotte would have two grandmothers, but neither of them would be Delphine's mother. Sadly, she hadn't been able to find it in her heart to accept her daughter. Delphine rarely gave the other woman any thought nowadays. She had the most incredible family she never thought she wanted; never knew she needed. They taught her that genetics had little to do with family. There were no better people on the planet than the ones around them right now. On the other hand, her father would be Charlotte's only grandfather and he was so excited. He'd flown over twice during Cosima's pregnancy and had retired, deciding he was now going to split his time between Toronto and Paris to be a part of his grandchild's life. He had this look of complete and total pride on his face whenever he spoke about the baby or he listened to Delphine talk about her. It was beautiful.

"It's French." Cosima said with a smile. They spent hours and hours pouring over baby books looking for the right name. They wanted something that would be easily pronounced in both English and French. It technically meant free man and Cosima loved it the second she saw it. Siobhan had freed them from their past, Delphine had freed her from her disease, she had freed Delphine from a life of loneliness, and she and Delphine had freed each other of everything that was no longer important. Together, they realized what truly mattered. Moments like this. "I'm gonna call her Charlie."

The baby was passed around cooed over and smelled, "There really is nothing better than the smell of a new baby," Bobby cried, smiling across the room at her wife, Candace. They'd gotten married in a simple, yet beautiful, civil ceremony a year after moving to Toronto. Cosima knew the two both wanted children, but Bobby wanted them now whereas Candace wasn't ready just yet. Bobby was hoping that with a new baby around it might stir something within her wife and at least get them talking about kids or a timeline. Cosima had already volunteered Charlie for her aunties to practice with before she was even born.

Sarah had the baby last and when she started to fuss handed her back to Cosima with a panicked look on her face. Sarah and Delphine had become very close over the years and it was within that bond of closeness that Sarah felt comfortable confessing earlier, when they were at the house before anyone else got there, that she and Cal were expecting monkey number two. It was very early. She hadn't even told Cal yet, and she was petrified. A second baby had never been in her plans, but then again neither had one. Delphine was sure she would be a great mother the second time around. She was a completely different person from who she was when she had Kira.

Cosima held the baby to her chest and immediately calmed her. Unfortunately Cosima's mother wouldn't be able to meet her new grandchild for at least a week or so. She was off, unreachable, on a dig somewhere. "One last adventure before I'm a grandma!"

Cosima took Delphine's hand and met her glassy eyes then looked around the room. All of them were so completely different with different stories to tell. She wanted her daughter to hear them all. Hear all about her aunts and uncles, her grandmothers and grandfather, her cousins, her moms and how all of them got to be who they were. It was important that they told her all about Cosima's illness and how that ultimately brought them together so that she could see how important it was that she never waste a single day because you never know when it's going to be your last. There was a delicate balance the new moms had perfected of living in the moment, of drinking in each and every moment they experienced, and working toward the future, but they'd figured it out.

With a soft kiss over a mass of curls she chuckled. "Boy do we have some stories for you, kid."