It had been two weeks, a mere two weeks that were uncomplicated and not overly long, since the night that Delphine had her confrontation with Cosima in the parking lot of the hospital, and while she was not in so much turmoil, she was still not completely resolved. She had been so impossibly confused for the longest of times, but that exchange between the two of them, it had really caused Delphine to take a second look at the big picture. She was able to better understand everything that had happened, and why. That was something that she could never quite thank the other woman for, because she was sure there was no proper way to string any line of words together to cover it.
Although they had both forced through an emotionally trying time, neither of them had sought out anything more. It seemed to be one moment of weakness, of needing someone to listen on Cosima's part, and if Delphine had not been completely mistaken, it was because she was ashamed of the way she had reacted, though Delphine would never fault her for it. She had spent far too many hours thinking about how hard it had to be for Cosima, to hold something so poisonous inside and lock it away without a second thought. She had to have her motives for not having told anyone else, but Delphine could not conceive a single one. Perhaps that was the greatest way in which they differed.
While her mind often wandered to thoughts of the petite chemistry teacher, Delphine had loosened the grip she had on working herself to the point of forgetting. Instead, she had used her spare time to catch up on a few books, still working to keep her mind occupied and busy. Some were old medical textbooks, some were fiction novels that helped her get lost in an alternate dimension. They were just outlets; she needed a way to remind herself to stop being angry and start grieving, but some days, it just wasn't that simple.
Despite easing up on her work schedule, in a Chicago winter, there were some days and nights when getting out on time was simply out of the question. It was only two days before Christmas and a powerful storm had rolled in on the horizons, blanketing the city in a foot and a half of snow. Accident rates increased by nearly sixty percent and the number of frostbite cases ran surprisingly high. As a result, Delphine had been held over in the ER by just over three hours, making it out of the employee parking lot of the hospital just shy of nine thirty. With the way the roads were slick and treacherously icy, it was smarter to drive slower and take longer getting home. It was a relief that the majority of those who had to be out on the road were wise enough to decrease their speed. Or at least, most of them were.
Home for Delphine was a short shot across I-5 and down a few residential roads. It was simple enough on a normal evening, but in the dark, attempting to navigate through the onslaught of snow, it was next to impossible. She was careful to keep a sufficient amount of distance between herself and the car in front of her, whose tail lights were just barely visible some fifteen yards ahead of her.
After another five or so minutes, she had struggled to sit up in the driver's seat, doing her best to see what she could, which, as it would turn out, was not exactly what she would have liked. Squinting a bit, a true scene of horror unfolded right before her eyes. The car in front of her crawled through the intersection; they had the right-away, whereas the intersecting street was posted with stop signs on either side. It didn't matter, though, because the pickup came careening through the intersection, broadsiding the passenger's side of the car in front of her, flipping it several times. The truck had veered to the side, but was still upright.
In an instant, Delphine went into nurse mode. She pulled off to the side of the road, turning on her hazards and immediately fished out her phone, once she was safely off the main way, punching in 9-1-1. "Hi yes, my name is Delphine Cormier and I'm calling to report a bad accident. Yeah, I-Five at Turner Road. A truck blew through a stop sign, slamming into the car in front of me. The truck is smashed up pretty bad, but the car flipped too many times for me to count. I'm making my way over to see if anyone's inside and if they're okay now." The operator informed her that with how bad the roads were, the quickest ambulance was at least ten to fifteen minutes away. "Understood. I'm a nurse at Evanston General. I'm going to do what I can to recover any passengers in the car and assess the damage." There was a pit in her stomach, twisting her up in knots; this didn't look good. She hung up with a soft thanks as she got down on her knees, the snow instantly soaking through her scrubs. "Is anyone in there?" she called loudly, unable to keep the trembling out of her voice. She cleared her throat, scooting forward toward the passenger's side window, which was closest to the road. "If anyone's in there, call out!" Her words were a little stronger, a little more urgent.
Just as she started to move away to search the area, she heard a cough, immediately followed by a cry. "I... I'm here," a woman inside managed. Instantly, Delphine's eyes widened in shock. After what she had seen, after she replayed it over and over again in her head, she had been almost certain that no one could have survived what she had witnessed. Her stomach had dropped several stories beneath the ground and she was scrambling, trying to figure out what to do, what to say.
"Okay, good, good. I'm a nurse at a nearby hospital. I've already called nine one one and there's an ambulance on the way."
The faceless voice inside was weak, fading by every passing moment, but Delphine had a determination about her. If she had ever believed that everything happened for a reason, it was especially strong in that moment. She had been behind that car because if she hadn't, who knew how long the accident scene could have gone unnoticed. "Am-ambulance? Wh-what happened? Wh-where am I? Where... where are my parents?"
A new tide of panic swelled up in Delphine's chest. "Your parents? Were they with you?" She cleared her voice, sniffling in the cold as the tip of her nose and the apples of her cheeks tinted a dark pink in the biting nip of the wind. "You... you were on I-5 at Turner. Someone hit you." That didn't quite do it justice. It was far worse than that, but Delphine knew that for the poor soul trapped inside, sugar coating things was the best way to go.
Inside the crushed metal, there was a panic growing inside of the chemistry teacher trying to reassemble her thoughts from the last half an hour. The last thing she remembered was dinner with her parents and assuring them that she could safely make it home, that she didn't need to stay. "No... No. I don't think so," she managed back, the tears that were forming in her eyes rolling over her forehead. Someone... Someone had hit her? She was in her car? "I can't m-move. Why... why can't I move?!" she cried out weakly.
"Hey, hey. Listen to me, okay? I cannot see inside, so I do not know how badly you are hurt. Please try to stay still." Delphine felt so hopeful for this woman, but with each minute that dragged on, she was not sure the odds were pressing in her favor.
"I'm scared..." the two lone words were so broken in the silence of the night, just so barely audible over the sound of the snow and the distant wailing of sirens from at least a mile out.
"I know you are," Delphine managed, her own voice sounding a bit choked. It was nothing, though, compared to the strangled sob she let out when she heard a rustling and saw a hand move out onto a part of the roof that was illuminated by a streetlight over head. a few rings were dented on the fingers they adorned, and skin split red over glass shards, but in that moment, she didn't care. She reached out, wrapping her fingers tenderly around the woman's hand, giving it a supportive squeeze. "But that's alright. You're allowed to be scared," she soothed, wrapping her other hand around the woman's fingers in an attempt to keep that part of her warm. "But if you can just hold on for just a little bit longer, help will be here. I'm going to stay right here, okay? I won't leave you, if you stay with me." Her voice had about as much consistency as a skipping stone on water, quaking and wavering over her words. Holding that hand, she wasn't sure what she felt in those moments. She just wanted her to be alright, to be okay and to make it through this. It was vital that if she hadn't been able to save her brother, long before she lost him, that she save this complete stranger. It was a ridiculous complex, but part of Delphine's mental wellbeing was vitally dependent on whether or not she could do her job and make an effort to save someone who needed it.
A mere foot away, consciousness was a fleeting thing for the woman who felt pressure on every inch of her body. Everything was dark, but she was doing her best to simply focus on the voice she could hear from the outside of her car. She could not move her head to see who it was, to get a possible source of comfort from someone who could show her just how bad things were with a simple facial expression. Instead, she gave her all for any form of support, having forced her arm through the small gap of space. Feeling someone else's touch in what could possibly be her last moments was so much more than she knew how to describe. She clutched tightly at the fingers in her grasp, but her hold could only last for so long. What was already dark seemed to grow only darker, causing panic to fill every inch of her being.
"What are you doing, Cos?" She could hear it so clearly, a different voice, slicing right through the void. She tried to form a reply, tried to force the words out of her mouth with as much force as she could, but nothing. "It's not your time yet. Just hold on a few more minutes. I know you can do it."
Despite the fact that it felt so surreal, there was something so loud and so clear about the commands given to her. She finally found the breath she needed to make her reply, still somewhere between states of consciousness and unconsciousness. "B-but Athena... It's s-so... h-hard."
As Delphine strained to listen for a sustained sign of life from the woman inside, she heard something that did what not even the bone chilling temperatures could do, and froze the blood in her veins, seizing her beating heart with one piercing swipe. Instantaneously, the name, the way it was said, the way it was cried, it all caused a realization to slam into Delphine at such an accelerated rate that her head simply could not keep up. "Cosima," she breathed. Tears had started to pour down her cheeks and she gripped harder at the hand in both of her own. "Cosima!" The word was louder, perhaps even frantic. This was no longer about being a nurse, about respecting her call to duty. No, this was someone she absolutely had to save. "Cosima, hey, listen, it's Delphine. I know that you're freezing, and I know that you're tired, but you have to just do this for me, okay? The sirens are getting closer. It is only a couple more minutes now. I'm right here. I'm with you."
"Del-delphine?" Cosima choked out, channeling every last bit of energy she had into giving the other woman's hand another squeeze, telling her she was still there, she was still hanging on. She was terrified, and even then, that was a far cry from an accurate description of just how truly petrified she was. "I d-don't want to die." She hadn't wanted to divulge something so grim, but she had reached a point where she was sure that was what was coming. Despite the fact that Delphine had not outright told her how bad things were, she could tell by the way she spoke, even before they were aware of one another. There was something oddly comforting about having her there, about knowing that if something did happen to her, she didn't have to go out alone.
Hearing Cosima's words broke what was left of Delphine's heart. Did she really think that was what was going to happen? More tears paved down Delphine's cheeks, rolling off to plummet into the snow beneath her. "Hey, no. No. You're not going to die. I promise you." It was an awfully big promise to make, but she had a new level of confidence in her. Cosima was too good of a person to die. It wasn't going to end like that. "Hey! Cosima, listen!" Delphine glanced to her right and squeezed Cosima's hand harder. "I can see them! They're right at the end of the street. Just hold on, okay!? Just a little bit longer."
She could hear Cosima crying as they cut the sirens and pulled in as close as they could get, immediately starting to pile out, a backboard in hand. Not a minute later, a fire engine pulled up behind them, men jumping into the snow, carrying over a large metal contraption that Delphine knew to be a hydraulic rescue tool. It was that bad. "I'm going to get out of the way so the medics and firemen can help you. Just hang in there, oui?" Letting go of Cosima's hand in that moment was the singlemost difficult thing Delphine had done in her life. She got to her feet and was greeted by a paramedic with a thermal blanket while another beelined for the car. "Her name is Cosima. She's a teacher at the high school." She was thankful, as she looked up, that the people who were in the other car were sitting outside of the car on the ground, but her mind was primarily focused on Cosima. Even as the one paramedic walked her over to get her another blanket in an attempt to dry her off, she couldn't keep her eyes off of the twisted teal metal just yards away, just praying to a god she did not believe in that the woman inside would make it out alive.
When Delphine let go of her hand, an empty fear filled every possible inch of Cosima's being, leaving her desperate and hopeless, but not moments, after, there was another voice, this time one that belonged to a man. "Hey," he said softly, trying to keep her calm. "Cosima, is it? My name is Noah and my friends and I are going to try really hard to get you out, but I need you to answer a couple of questions for me, alright?"
"Okay," she croaked in response, trying to keep from trying any more than she already had.
"Cosima, do you know how old you are?"
"Twenty eight."
"And can you tell me your address?" At this, Cosima let out a sob.
"N-no. I'm s-sorry." There was a loud creak in the metal and it sent a ripple of fear through her, one that gave her just enough adrenaline to get out one last question. "Delph-delphine? Wh-where is Delphine?!" Before an answer, meant to soothe, would ever reach her ears, the car shifted again and despite her best efforts, Cosima slipped, falling into an unknown, inescapable darkness.