Art was running out of things to feed Helena. She'd downed every last pickle from a jar in the back of the fridge he didn't remember buying. Sarah owed him a few months of groceries when this was all over. It seemed like a useless tactic. She wouldn't answer any of his questions about the ranch; what were they really doing there, and most importantly, how did she escape again? He'd interrogated plenty of murderers before. None of them had Helena's resolve. She stared at his fish tank, transfixed by the creature following her finger. "I like your pet. What is his name?"
"Fish." He wasn't the sentimental type. Not to mention, the tank's previous tenant only lasted a month. "Helena, I really need you to tell me what happened at that ranch."
"I don't know." A needle. Restraints. Cold hands. Fuzzy mind. Babies stolen. She shut out the rest. She couldn't give it a voice again. "Take me to Sarah, please."
"Helena…" He promised he wouldn't spill the beans on Sarah, lord knows what kind of warpath Helena would unleash. They did something awful to her, her avoidance confirmed it. Anything could set her off. He was reaching the bottom of his stall tactics barrel. Felix's knock on the door couldn't have been better timed. "The hell took you so long?" Art let him in.
"Everyone's back safe, thanks for asking." Felix swanned his way through the kitchen.
"Good." Art backed off a little, grabbing his coat.
"Finished eatin' the pantry?" Felix tossed Helena a hand towel. "Come on, Sarah's waiting."
That got Helena's attention real quick. "Where are we going?"
"Home, with your other sisters, Alison and Cosima." The names she was once primed to kill. It was a lifetime ago. Did they know she was changed? What if they hated her for the things Tomas made her do? She had to put her faith in her twin sestra. She wouldn't let anything bad happen.
"Right, let's go then." Felix wasn't entirely sure how she'd be received by her sisters, but she was safer with them than anywhere else. If she really did burn down the ranch, someone had to be chasing after her.
"If you ever want to stop running. If you want the truth. If you want to know what this is really all about, then you meet me tomorrow." Marion folded her arms, staring down Sarah from across the room. She deserved to know the full story, she just hoped she trusted her enough to take the first step. "Cal can arrange it. He's downstairs, waiting to take you home to your sisters."
"Miss Manning, right this way." A sleek suited security guard instantly appeared to escort the pair downstairs. A clean break. It felt too easy. Cal was there waiting, in a bloody limo, no less.
"It's alright now, monkey." Sarah was trying to come down from the insane adrenaline rush she was still feeling. Kira's bone marrow was gone. Rachel was on the floor bleeding somewhere. Dead? Maybe, but after what'd happened with Helena, she wasn't going to assume anything. Kira was going home safe in her arms. In this sliver of a moment, nothing else mattered. "They're not gonna hurt you any more, I promise."
"Is Auntie Cosima gonna be okay?" She didn't get the bone marrow. She couldn't explain how she knew, she just did. Everyone kept saying how important it was to make her feel better.
Sarah was always up front with Kira. She couldn't start lying now, no matter how much the truth hurt. "I don't know." She squatted down to Kira's level. "But we're gonna do everything we can to help." She wished she had a better answer. "And, if anyone can find an answer, it's Auntie Cosima."
"She's really smart." Kira smiled, thinking back to their science lesson. She didn't understand exactly how all the science came together, but she knew it got them out.
"Just like you." Sarah touched her forehead to Kira's as Cal approached the pair.
"Hope you don't mind riding in style." He was nearly knocked over by Kira's hug.
"Got a kitchen in there, too?" Sarah greeted him with a kiss, before looking back to Kira. "Why don't you go inside and see how big it is, yeah?" The grownups needed to talk for a minute.
"And then we can see my Aunties?" She missed them dearly, and she knew it would be good for her mom to see them again. They were family, whose love and trust they so badly needed to feel after their stint at DYAD.
"In a heartbeat." Cal promised, sending her off to explore the lavish limo. Once she was in, Sarah pulled him in for another kiss. Deeper, this time, rich with passion. To feel real human warmth, his rugged, yet gentle, touch after being treated like a caged specimen was like coming up for air.
"I don't know what you did, but I can't thank you enough." She didn't know how he'd react when he found her in his cabin those many weeks ago. She never meant for him to get wrapped up in this mess, but she was so glad he did. Her allies in this war had come in the strangest forms.
"You can thank Kira, she sent the S-O-S." He brushed a stray curl behind her ear, getting lost in her eyes for a moment. Something was gone. He didn't have the stomach to wonder what happened to her under DYAD's roof, but a part of her died in there. They couldn't hurt her anymore. Marion promised.
"Brilliant, that one." Kira was special, make no mistake. All the more important to get her far away from that Godforsaken place.
"I'm afraid I don't know too much, but I do know this Marion is the real deal." He rested his hands on her shoulders. "Above Rachel, above DYAD, everything. You really need to meet with her." He had a feeling Sarah and her sisters were just the tip of the rabbit hole.
"Don't think I really have a choice." Knowledge was power in their war, and Marion seemed to have all of it. With Ethan dead, and Cosima in grave condition, they desperately needed to know what she knew.
Cosima's chest heaved with each labored breath. Rest didn't come easy for her. She was too tired to move, yes, but her mind was racing at full speed. How was she supposed to explain that she had no answers, no plan for the next step? She was the science, and she let her sisters down. Alison stayed poised at attention, giving soothing backrubs, and clean tissues when the coughs got bloody. It was the hellish nightmare version of the bronchitis her kids got last winter. Her email inbox dinged to life with a new message. She sprang to attention, hoping for a morsel of news.
No, it wasn't Delphine, but rather, Scott. She shrugged her glasses on, squinting at the subject line.
"What is it?" Alison was surprised by how fast she'd moved.
Still here. OK. Marion Bowles says hey.
"Still good people left at DYAD." Scott was safe. She made a mental note to quit it with the virgin jokes. Marion was the real deal after all. Their new friend was perched in a very high place.
"Can we really believe that?" Alison resumed her slow, nervous pace, looking for a crooked canvas to straighten. She had a hard time putting her faith in anyone still tied to a place that caused so much grief for all of them.
"Something's going down over there. I think we have to give it a shot." She stuffed a cough in her shoulder as a knock came from the door.
Alison swiftly grabbed her gun before pulling the screwdriver out of its makeshift door latch position. She slid it in the nearby shelf as soon as she saw Sarah standing before her. "Oh, thank goodness." She pulled Sarah into a surprisingly tight hug.
"S'good to see you too, Alison." Sarah let a small smile escape. Funny to think this was the same woman who pointed a gun at her face.
Kira snuck around the pair to spy Cosima on the couch, covering up the pile of blood-soiled tissues. She didn't need to see how bad it really was.
"Hey, little scientist." Cosima grinned, welcoming Kira into a hug after she climbed on the couch beside her. That warm little bundle of awesome made her feel like she'd gotten her second wind. She'd need it to explain what she knew to her sisters.
"I think Mommy liked my picture."
"I think so too." Cosima whispered, leaning in. Scott was sketchy on the details with Rachel, but it sounded like she'd gotten the beating she'd long deserved. Even the Berkeley pacifist had her limits. She willed herself to her feet, seeing Sarah across the apartment. So, so, so much they each wanted to say.
"Kira, let's get you settled in, hm?" Alison caught the moment hanging between them.
Sarah waited until Kira was out of earshot. "Cos, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Rachel…she threw a bloody tantrum, and the marrow, it's all gone." She held her hands to her head for a second and Cosima came closer.
"Hey, you're okay." Cosima gently hugged Sarah, echoing the sentiment she'd shared when Cosima showed up with her tail between her legs over Delphine's betrayal.
Sarah shook her head. She didn't want to drop this next bomb. "Duncan's dead, what in the hell are we supposed to do?"