When Sarah and Cal returned to the camper, Kira had already curled up and gone to sleep. Sarah pulled a blanket over her sleeping body and tucked in the edges around her feet. "Sweet dreams," she whispered, placing a light kiss on her daughter's forehead. During the day Kira put on a brave face and Sarah did her best to keep the bad stuff away from her little girl. At night though, Sarah was helpless and she knew from the whimpers and restless turns that the monsters she kept away during the day were haunting Kira's dreams.
Up front the ignition stirred as Cal turned the key to start the camper. Sarah walked up front and slid into the passenger seat with a sigh. They drove in silence for awhile, but Sarah could feel Cal occasionally look over at her. She did her best to keep a neutral face, but inside she was rolling with emotions.
Although she had been dealing with DYAD and the orphan thing for some time now, she had never been quite as scared as she had been in that building. It felt like everything had been taken from her. Kira. And her body. Sarah had faced psychotic businessmen and crazy murderers… yet this time just felt different. More real somehow.
The sound of a cell phone ringing pulled her from her thoughts. Sarah looked over to see Cal switch hands on the steering wheel and reach over to the dashboard. He grabbed the phone and handed it to Sarah. "Here, it's for you."
Sarah hesitated before taking it.
"It's Cosima," Cal explained. She gave me a phone to contact her after we got you and Kira out.
After hearing that, Sarah hurriedly pressed "Accept" and held the phone to her ear. She didn't even get to say hello before the voice on the other end bombarded her.
"Sarah? Is that you? Are you okay?" It indeed was Cosima. Sarah could tell from the lack of accent as well as the slight hoarseness of the speaker's voice.
"I'm fine. Kira's fine."
She heard some more speaking in the background. "They're both okay!" Cosima told them, mouth away from the phone. Then louder she asked, "Tell me everything. What did they want with you?"
Sarah paused, thinking about how to best broach the subject while Cal was in the car. He had been so calm about the whole thing up to that point, she didn't want him to say anything to freak him out. "Uh, some basic diagnostic testing."
Cosima stayed silent on the other end, apparently expecting to hear more. When Sarah didn't share any further details she pressed on, "Diagnostic testing. Right, and that's it? You expect me to believe they wanted you just to check your iron levels and blood pressure?" Cosima's voice was rising a bit and Sarah could hear someone telling her to sit down. She could picture her pacing, breathing hard, coughing up blood and damaging her already fragile health.
"Alright, alright," Sarah said quietly. She closed her eyes and counted to three. "They wanted to do some other procedures, too. They didn't do any of them before I got out though."
"What procedures, Sarah?" Cosima asked, obviously trying to keep calm.
Sarah chewed on her fingernail. "Er… I don't remember what they called it. Something –ectomy. Nothing serious." A lie. Sarah remembered every single thing that happened in there, right down to the procedure's name.
"Just freaking tell her!" another voice shouted. Felix. He knew her better than to think that she would have missed the name. "You can't hold back information anymore!"
"Oophorectomy," Sarah mumbled. "They called it an oophorectomy."
There was a small gasp on the other end. "Oh, Sarah," Cosima sighed.
"Oophorectomy? What in bloody hell is that?" Felix asked.
"Right," Sarah replied shortly, not wanting to get into the details of the surgery she had been mere seconds away from enduring. "I'll tell you more when I see you, kay?" And then she hung up.
In comparison to the buzzing background noises and voices form the phone call, the sudden silence was disorienting. Watching the cars rush by out of the city, Sarah had the urge leap from the camper and join them. To chase them past all of the buildings until the city lights had faded behind them. Until everything had faded behind them.
Sarah simply wanted to be free from what had now become her life. Not necessarily all of the people in it, just everything else.
A light tap on her shoulder disrupted her daydream and although she knew it wasn't real, she couldn't help but feel a sort of sadness by it. "Yea?" she asked, turning to Cal, eyebrows raised.
"Surgery?" was all he said, still looking straight ahead at the road.
Sarah sucked in a breath. She had hoped, although knowing it was pointless, that he had not been paying attention to her brief conversation with Cosima.
"Look, I'm fine. Kira's fine. Let's just focus on that, yea?" she pleaded with him.
Cal shook his head. "Later," he promised. "We'll talk about this later."
"Really Cal, we don't need to do..." Sarah started to argue. It wasn't Cal's fault though, so she shouldn't be getting angry with him. She softened her tone before repeating, "I'm fine."
"A mother who's fine doesn't tell someone to take their daughter away from her," Cal barked in a half whisper, half shout, glancing towards the back of the camper where their daughter slept.
For once, Sarah didn't know what to say back.
So I know I said it was going to be a one-shot... That obviously didn't happen. I just don't know how far to continue this, or if I should even continue at all.