Chapter 13

Beth glanced at her phone in irritation. She was successfully talking Alison down, with Cosima's help over video chat and the piercing ringing was interrupting the flow they had going. She quickly hit the ignore button for the second time and brought her focus back to the suburban mom. Whatever Felix wanted would have to wait.

Cosima cleared her throat when the device promptly began blaring again after only a moment of silence. "Do you wanna get that, Beth?"

Beth sighed lowly and nodded "Yeah, give me a minute." She accepted the call and brought the phone to her ear in irritation. "What is it, Felix?"

"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?" her brother's voice sounded loudly down the line, a hint of cracking in it.

"I'm in Scarborough, why?" she retorted, annoyed by his typical dramatics.

"You need to come now," he lowered his voice, allowing Beth to hear the full cracking of tears in it.

The detective froze in her spot at the sound and scrunched her face anxiously. "What's going on?"

She could feel both Cosima and Alison's gazes locked onto her curiously. The shift in her demeanour since the phone conversation started was enough to tip them off that something wasn't right. She tried her best to ignore the audience and focused on her foster brother. He had let his tears come full force now and she could hear the mixture of his sobs and pants to regain his breath.

"Felix," she said sternly, hoping her voice and calmness would somehow transfer to him long enough to tell her what was happening. When he still didn't indicate any hope of regaining his voice she shut her eyes for a brief moment to quell the rising panic in her. "Put Sarah on, Fee."

"I can't," he choked out.

"Why not? You obviously aren't in any shape to be explaining what the hell's going on," she bit out, feeling herself become more nervous by the second.

"Because she's in the bloody ambulance!" he practically screamed back at her and once again let his sobbing take over.

"She's what?" Beth gritted out in eerie calmness, standing up from the couch and beginning to pace in front of Alison. "Is she hurt?"

Felix was whimpering down the line and Beth furrowed her brow as she took in the background noise. "Felix where the hell are you?"

"I'm on my bike, on the way to the hospital."

"Fuck okay," she closed her eyes, bringing her hand to her forehead in hopes of keeping herself grounded until she got all the information. "How bad is it, Fee?"

"It's really bad, Beth," he blew out seemingly having grasped at least an ounce of control back as he pedalled as fast as he could.

"That doesn't help me!" Beth exclaimed and cringed at the sound of the panic creeping into her voice. "Is she at least bloody alive? Christ Felix, you can't just call me like this and then not tell me anything! What the hell happened, where is Siobhan, how bad is really bad?" she spluttered out.

"It's not Sarah, Beth!" Felix immediately blurted out and Beth froze once again, this time in confusion.

"Then what the hell-"

"It's Kira." he revealed and she heard him hopping off his bike quickly after.

Beth remained silent in her spot for what seemed like minutes. She felt a lump forming in her throat that was restricting her ability to breathe. The relief she felt at knowing Sarah wasn't hurt was overwhelmingly overpowered by the crippling devastation over the replacement knowledge that her precious niece was hurt – badly.

"Helena showed up at S' and took Kira," Felix began to explain calmly as he walked through the hospital parking lot. He had managed to calm himself down knowing that Beth was going to need him to be the collected one for a moment during this. "Sarah ran after them and when Kira was crossing the street to get back to her, she was hit by car."

"Oh God," Beth choked out and ran a nervous hand through her hair. "She's alive though, right? I mean, she has to be. She can't just-"

"I don't know," Felix admitted just as brokenly. "Siobhan just called me and told me what happened as quickly as possible and demanded we both get our asses to the hospital."

"Okay," Beth nodded to herself, trying desperately to regain her composure. "Yeah. I'm coming. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Good. We need you."

"What hospital?" Beth asked. She didn't have time to acknowledge his sentiment right now. If she did, she might collapse all together and that was the last thing her family needed.

"St. Mike's."

"I'm coming," she breathed it out like a prayer and closed her eyes for a moment, taking the time to ask whatever God there was to protect her innocent niece from all their chaos. "And Felix?"

"Yeah?"

"She's gonna be okay. She's gotta be."

"Yeah," he agreed thickly. "I dunno what we'll do if she's not."

Beth nodded in agreement despite knowing he couldn't see her. "I'll see you soon," she said finally and hung up her phone.

Beth wasted no time in throwing her jacket on roughly as soon as the call ended. Her frantic motions were so foreign in her skin that she nearly lost her balance at the actions. She was only half aware of the questions and concern coming from Alison and Cosima at this point. She could only offer them vague, mumbled responses as she searched for her keys in her bag.

Cosima asked if everything was alright, Alison offered to drive her wherever she needed to go. She couldn't be bothered to acknowledge them anymore. She found her keys and threw out a curt goodbye, too focused on getting to her family for anything more.

Everything was a blur. Her vision and memory both hazy with no sense of either getting any clearer anytime soon. She didn't know how long she had been sitting in the uncomfortable hospital chair but she had long since lost feeling in most of her body. Felix was next to her, trying to offer comfort. Siobhan was on the other side, offering her mere motherly presence in hopes of helping. None of it helped though. Her baby was hurt and so was Sarah.

The hazy sound of Felix's voice in her ear was only serving to irritate her. The reassurances that Kira would be okay didn't help at all. She didn't need the false promises when he hadn't even bloody been there to see what happened. She tensed further than she already was and turned her gaze to him.

To his credit, at her movement Felix immediately ceased speaking and looked at his foster sister with wide, sad eyes. "Can I borrow your phone?"

Once again, he began trying to sooth her with a soft tone and rubbing comforting circles into her back. "Beth will be here soon, Sweetie. I already talked to her."

"Can I just have it, Felix?" she repeated in exhaustion and her foster brother handed the device over without any more resistance.

She could feel both Felix and Siobhan's gazes as she stood up and walked to the corner of the waiting room. She made sure to keep her back to them as she dialed the number, somehow able to remember it without much difficulty.

Waiting with baited breath as the call tried to connect, she leaned her weight against the wall next to her. At this point, she was way too drained to even attempt keeping herself upright. The phone continued to ring in her ear and she became more anxious by the second at the noise. She was put out of her misery moments later when she heard a familiar click.

Hey, you've reached Cal. I'm not here right now but leave a message and I'll try to get back to you.

Sarah closed her eyes painfully and ran a hand over her face. Maybe this was the world's way of telling her making such a call was a horrible idea. "Shit," she muttered to herself and quickly hung up.

She walked back to her awaiting family and gruffly tossed the phone back to Felix without a word. She was about to drop back into her seat when she heard her name being called out loudly, in Beth's unmistakable frantic voice.

Her sister came into view moments later, barreling into the waiting room and bringing Sarah into her as close as she possibly could. As the comfort from her twin invaded her, Sarah felt herself beginning to lose her handle and let the tears slide down her cheeks. All thoughts of how badly her daughter was injured were whipping through her mind. She couldn't block them out no matter how hard she tried and she finally felt safe enough to let the overwhelming emotions out again. She hadn't cried since shortly after Kira was whisked away by the nurses and doctors.

"She's gonna be okay," Beth muttered into her sister's hair soothingly.

Sarah shook her head helplessly into the other woman and choked out a breath. "I can't – I don't."

Beth pulled away slightly and gave her sister a stern look. "Hey. Think positive, alright? I'm telling you she's gonna be okay. That's it."

Sarah nodded and immediately tensed at the sound of someone clearing their throat several feet away. She shrugged away from Beth's grasp and faced the doctor she could only assume had been working on her daughter. She warily stepped toward the man, her brother and sister faithfully at her side with Siobhan only a step behind. He offered her a firm handshake and formally introduced himself, not that she was really paying attention to either gesture at that point though.

Your daughter is going to make a full recovery.

She wasn't sure she had ever heard something so incredible come out of someone's mouth. He went on to explain the extent of Kira's injuries, throwing in the word miracle several times. Sarah only managed to catch bits and pieces of the speech. She was too focused on the opening statement and the feeling of complete and utter relief that had taken over her. She could feel her siblings holding onto her tightly, offering their comfort and stability.

The doctor walked away and she knew she was crying once again. This time out of happiness and relief though. Felix brought her into his chest and she let herself openly sob as she looked through the glass doors, finally seeing her daughter again. She had never been one to believe in miracles – her life had been far too fucked up for it to ever fit. After tonight though, she might just have to start. She watched her daughter get run over and now she was being told that Kira would be completely fine aside from some bruises. If that wasn't a goddamn miracle then what was?

Before she had even fully recovered from the shock of the news, a nurse was approaching them and telling her she could go in a see Kira if she'd like. She nearly laughed in the older woman's face at the statement, as if she'd pass on being closer to Kira? Felix was insisting on going in with her, trying to bargain with the nurse to break the rules for them.

Beth nudged Sarah's side slightly and pulled her a step away from their brother's dramatics. Sarah looked at her curiously, waiting to hear what Beth was obviously wanting to say.

Before she spoke, Beth pulled Sarah into another tight hug and smiled into her shoulder. "Told ya she'd be okay, huh?"

Sarah nodded in agreement and allowed a smile to break onto her features as they pulled away. "I'm gonna stay here with Kira tonight. And when they release her I'll probably crash at Mrs S' for a few days."

"Yeah," Beth responded in agreement. "Of course you are, dipshit. I just wanted to tell you how glad I am that everything's okay. I wish I could stay with you guys but I've got something that needs to be handled."

Sarah gave her sister a curious look, trying to gauge what could possibly be more important to Beth than her current family situation. She was never the one to bail on any of them in a moment of need.

"Hey, don't look at me like that," she objected and shrugged to answer her sister's silent question. "I just gotta deal with this now, Sar. Besides, Kira's gonna be fine now so you don't really need me here anyway."

Her twin furrowed her brow at the statement and shook her head in disagreement. "That's not true, Beth. I always need you around."

"I know that. You and Fee would be lost without me," she threw a lazy arm around Sarah's shoulders and led her back to the awaiting nurse. Felix was standing assuredly right beside the woman and they knew he had won the argument. "Call me tomorrow, alright?"

Sarah agreed and tossed out a quick goodbye as she began following the nurse away to the room Kira had been set up in. Felix did the same, throwing in a bewildered look to his sister at the prospect of her leaving so quickly but didn't question it. Beth hugged her foster mother tightly, choosing to ignore the questioning from the woman over her departure and hurried out of the hospital as quickly as she had arrived.

Knowing that her niece would make a full recovery had instantly set her mind to the next task at hand. There was a Ukrainian bitch with her face running around the city that needed to be dealt with yesterday. Putting Kira in the hospital was the final straw for Beth. The way she saw it, the only way to deal with Helena now was to make sure she'd be out of the picture for good.