The penultimate chapter. I hope you enjoy. :)

"So, where do you want me to start?" Delphine asked, while driving us back to Woodstock.

"God, I dunno…" I thought for a moment. It was hard to pull it all together in my mind. I was so tired. "Just… everything that happened when you talked with Sarah. And what did MK find out? And… what the hell happened with your retreat? Was something going on with what happened with Charlotte? Do you think she was following you? Jesus, where did Charlotte come out of in all of this mess?" I rubbed my hands over my face and under my glasses, blotting out my vision and hoping to stave off a freak out and a headache, combined. "What about what the agents asked or told you? I don't know… just, tell me things." I could see her glancing at me from the corner of her eye and licking her lips when I replaced my glasses. Shit, maybe I was getting too bitchy. Okay. I put my hand on her thigh.

"Just… fill me in on what you can," I urged her, less stridently. She nodded, the passing streetlights catching the tired hollows under her eyes.

"Well, we can't be sure if Charlotte found you by following me or some other way. She would have to have been keeping tabs on me for a long time. Agent Meacham says they are still interviewing her and her… henchmen." I think we both almost wanted to smile at that comic-book-world word, but didn't have the energy. She lowered one hand from the steering wheel and stroked the one I had planted on her leg, before returning it to the wheel again. Such a responsible driver.

"It seems that Rachel kept her fairly ignorant. Maybe she thought Susan would be able to cure them… at any rate, she obviously didn't trust you and Sarah and her other sisters. Who can tell how much of it was reason or… spite?" She glanced at me, and I nodded. Maybe Rachel had been trying to cling to what control she thought she had. Fucked up as she was, I couldn't imagine her really trusting anybody. "Maybe she intended Charlotte to be a bargaining chip. Anyway, Charlotte thinks you denied them the cure purposely. It's sad, really."

"Jesus," I breathed. "So she was desperate. But how did she find out about Sevvy?" She chewed her lip some more.

"As I said, we can't be sure. But the agency seems to think… that she traced you. Cosima, you were using your real name here and there. And you should have been perfectly safe to do so. I mean… the government may have wanted to speak with you… but who could know Charlotte would be searching for you?" Delphine sighed, taking a turn onto the next route. "Honestly, it could be my fault, too. You and I were both so happy… we weren't careful. I thought the danger was over…"

"Yeah, well, I was waltzing around registering him in school," I pointed out. "That couldn't have been how she found him, obvs, because they showed up then. But I could have done something… and you're right," I acknowledged, "I wasn't careful. Being with you, I let my guard down, but I had been letting it slip for years. I think I was more tired of hiding than I even knew."

She took my hand again and squeezed it.

"I'm not harshing on myself… much," I reassured her. "It felt right, at the time. And if my life wasn't so fucked up with all this clones stuff still... " I trailed off, clenching my teeth and shaking my head. But there was no point in getting so negative. Everyone's okay, I told myself. Don't start letting the past capture you again.

"Hey," she said, then "hey," again, gently cupping my chin with her fingers to raise it. "Sarah and Helena and MK will have more to tell you when you get home. But the good news is we were all able to coordinate, and no one got hurt."

"Except Charlotte," I pointed out, and her fingers on my chin started to drop, so a reached up and held them there. "Hey, I'm willing to sacrifice a few karma points to say she deserved it."

A tentative smile touched her lips as she glanced at me, then back at the road. I let her hand go so she could return it to the steering wheel.

"You did nothing wrong, Cosima," she said softly, and then I saw her gather herself and raise her own chin a tiny bit. "And neither did I. I had to shoot her to keep her from hurting anyone else."

I watched her for a moment, the glow from the streetlights undulating across her masterpiece of a face as they passed by, catching a faint glint of tears welling in her eyes, but not spilling. She made the turn off onto the exit and I couldn't stop watching her that last bit of the the drive. I knew she was holding herself together to get us home and her strength and resolve was heartachingly beautiful to me right then. When she finally pulled into the driveway, she shifted the gear into park, but didn't turn off the engine. When she turned to look at me it was almost as if in slow motion, unsure, a question heavy behind her eyes. I reached up and stroked her cheek.

"Stay with me, tonight. Stay with us," I said, looking into her shadowed gaze. Her breath caught just the tiniest bit, and she turned off the ignition. She still looked hesitant, though, but while I needed to know more, I knew enough to do this.

"You have to," I told her. "You're my hero, you know."

"Cosima," she breathed, and her struggle of a smile tugged at my heartstrings the way it always did, but I knew they could snap back into tune. She leaned down and pressed her forehead to mine, and it was enough.

Exiting the car I noticed a black sedan parked just on the other side of the deck: our government escort. Delphine touched my hand, probably trying to soothe me in case I was pissed, but I was really just tired, and we had been warned. I could barely make out the pale blobs of two human heads through the dark windshield, and I made a show of giving them an exaggerated wave as I closed the car door. At least they weren't hiding. I decided I could let myself ignore them until morning.

Michael's face peered out the window to confirm it was us, and we made our way inside. Helena was curled on the loveseat, pink-rimmed eyes peeking out from under wild wobbles of hair. Sarah sat on the couch with Michael settling back in by her, each of them nursing a beer. I could hear the murmur of Teo singing a lullaby down the hall, no doubt to soothe both Sevvy and himself.

We were all tired, explanatory sentences coming out in short bursts. Sarah, MK and Helena had hatched a plan to protect us themselves, but it was Delphine who convinced them they had to involve the authorities. This wasn't the old days, when we were on our own. Deals had been made and new lives built, and we all had homes and families to lose. Not that my sisters weren't still badass, in their ways, but why not stack the deck and reduce the clean up? After all, what would we have done if someone got killed? If even we captured Charlotte ourselves?

Things were different now. We were grown up. We had allies, even if that meant we had to compromise.

And most of all, we could all trust each other.

There would be more meetings with authorities, more to parse about what we'd learned about Charlotte, and MK was going to look even further into that. But now we needed rest.

So I took Delphine's hand and pulled her gently toward my room. I noticed Sarah follow our motion with her eyes and when her glance caught mine just for a moment, I swear I saw the faint tug of a tired but benevolent smile at the corner of her mouth. Behind us, Michael was setting up the couches for my sisters, but I let my mind drop all attention on that to tow my love through the door. Shutting it behind us without even turning on the light, I turned around and pulled her to me, her arms slipping around me, too. We held each other for a long moment, just breathing, my face pressed into the side of her neck and her nose in my dreads. She made a small sound in her throat, something like a swallowed whimper, and I looked up at her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

She looked down for a moment, letting out a small scoff and then sniffling in what were obviously threatening tears.

"You're asking me if I'm okay?" she countered, and I ducked my head a bit so I could catch her eyes, faint but luminous in the slight glow of moonlight that made it through the window.

"Yeah," I whispered, "Delphine?"

"Cosima," she sighed, and brought her hand to my face in that way she did; the one that always made me feel like I was so precious to her. "I… I was so worried…" She faltered.

"We all were," I acknowledged, and I let a tremble ripple through me just for a moment, then let my muscles loosen, my weight sinking lower toward my center of gravity. "And we're all exhausted. But I want you to understand something." I caught the wrist of her hand near my jaw and squeezed it, and she gave me her full, serious attention.

"I believe you, Delphine," I told her. "I trust you." And I meant it. I would say it a thousand times, again, if she needed me to, to make up for all the times before.

I felt it in my bones.

She let out a soft gasp, and a few tears spilled over her lashes to track down her cheeks, but she pulled my face to hers and kissed me so fully, achingly, sweetly that my mind gave up on words and all there was was to kiss her, slowly and full of truth, intent and promise, in return.

We barely had the energy to remove our clothes, staying as close together as possible as we sunk into the bed, tangled together, and down into the release of necessary sleep.