Chapter 5: Fighting and Families

A few days later…

Cosima had been away from the hospital less than 2 hours before returning after Delphine once again pushed her out the door so that she could change and bathe. Cosima arrived in the carpark of the hospital to find Shay getting out the car behind Cosima, like she had follow Cosima. Cosima approached the woman with caution, not sure how she would respond with the amount of times she had been sent away from trying to get into Delphine's room. Shay had never returned the message that Cosima had left last week or the ones following, repeating the same message to the hard to reach woman. Cosima had stopped leaving messages after the fifth phone call that had gone unanswered once again. Shay clearly had finally something to say to the scientist. Shay had her sunglasses on and her hat covering her hair, Cosima knew that Shay had seen her. The woman's stance stiffened and straightened infinitesimally that if someone else other than Cosima had been watching her, they would not have noticed a change. Cosima adjusted her stance as well to prepare herself for the confrontation that was looming on the horizon. Cosima stopped when she was within a few feet of the shorter woman. Shay reached out to grasp the brunette's hand but Cosima shook her off before she could find a firm hold.

"What are you doing here? Why haven't you returned any of my phone calls? I left you multiple messages." Cosima said coldly with no small talk.

"I came to see you because you wanted to talk and I thought if you were breaking up with me, you should do it to my face and not over the phone like a coward. As I got to your place, you drove away so I followed you but when we pulled I was concerned" Shay returned with equal chill.

"I am here for Delphine."

"Delphine is in the hospital?" Shay had the nerve to pretended that she did know.

"Delphine is in the hospital, someone shot her." Cosima stated knowing that Shay had tried to go to into Delphine's room before. "What about those times when you came to Delphine's room at this hospital? Explain that." Cosima said while she crossed her arms across her chest, standing firm. Shay looked confused like she didn't think that Cosima would know about her trips to see Delphine or to the hospital.

"I don't know what you are on about, I am only here to see you. Someone told me you were here so I asked at the nurses station if you were in one of the rooms so I could see you but someone at the door stopped me from coming. I tried a few more times so I could see you but the person at the door would never let me in." Shay reached out to Cosima, trying to convey the importance of what she was trying to say to the brunette but she was having none of it.

"Shay, this is over, whatever this is or you think that this is. I can't be with you when I love someone else." Cosima said and moved away from the woman in a show that she was adamant about what she was saying. "This ends here and I'm sorry that I lead you on, that maybe this could be something more than what it was but no-more."

Shay looked perplexed and tried to get close to Cosima but Cosima pulled away, starting towards the hospital. The conversation continued with Shay trying all sorts of different tactics to keep Cosima from returning to Delphine, the short blonde exclaiming her own love to the brunette. The conversation ended with Shay crying over Cosima leaving and Cosima apologising about everything. Cosima walked away with a lighter feeling and a spring in her step as she approached the room that held the woman she longed to see if even it had only been a few hours.

Delphine was sitting up in bed, talking with the doctor that had been assigned to her for the duration of her stay and would follow her recovery. Delphine glanced at the door as it opened, she beamed when she saw who it was.

"Sorry, always late." Cosima said as she smiled. The short woman crossed the distance quickly coming to a stop, grasping her love's hand and looking at the doctor expectantly.

"Mon amour, you are always late and always sorry." Delphine said as she smiled at woman who grinned back and she squeezed the hand holding hers. "You will never guess what the doctor is here to do." Delphine challenged and Cosima responded the way Delphine hoped.

"Hmm, he is here to tell you that you won the lottery and the hospital now belongs to you."

"Not quite ma chérie. You get to take me home today as soon as the nurses check everything." Delphine couldn't control her joy and Cosima soon followed. Cosima thanked the doctor and went to kiss Delphine passionately and a moment into the kiss, she remembered the doctor and broke off the kiss. Cosima and Delphine reluctantly returned their attention to the doctor who was looking at the floor embarrassed.

"I'll just leave your discharge papers here and come back later." The doctor said as he retreated from the room leaving the two woman alone to celebrate.

Delphine was finally out the hospital and asleep in bed with Cosima. The day began early to get all things ready for Delphine to be discharged. The doctors came to check on her and were happy with her recovery and once she had her dressing checked by the nurse she could go. The blonde required another dressing change before she was allowed to go home The long week and a bit in the hospital was strenuous on all of them as Delphine was never comfortable with Art or someone always outside the door, Cosima and everyone else were never comfortable with having Delphine vulnerable to the person who harmed her. The day had been long but finally everything was over with Shay and she could be with Delphine without any more guilt about their relationship. Cosima snuggled close to the sleeping blonde as she fell into a deep slumber, finally after a long day of getting Delphine out of the hospital.

Cosima dreamed of the day that she and Delphine had first made love,

Cosima was lying back against the pillow and leant over to see Delphine crying. Cosima tried to get her attention and ask her what was wrong. Delphine was crying and nothing Cosima could say would make her respond, she tried to grasp her hand but that would not console her. Cosima ran both hands up to the blonde's face, the tears streamed down her cheeks in never-ending rivers. Cosima tried to comfort her but the crying only became louder and started to turn into screeches.

A sudden cry caused Cosima to be jolted awake and find the woman she was snuggled into early sobbing loudly, occasionally it sound similar to Cosima's name. The tears were flowing as they did in Cosima's dream. The french woman was clearly distraught about her dream, immediately Cosima tried to wake the crying woman, trying to say comforting words to her but the sound of her cries were drowning out anything that Cosima tried to say.

Delphine woke alone in the hospital and glanced at the chair that normally would be home to Cosima. "Cosima, where are you?" No reply came. "Cosima?" She was no where to be seen and all the doors to the room were closed. She tried to scream but no sound escaped her mouth. She tried to get out of the bed but her legs won't respond with any movement. She tried to throw herself over the bed with her arms and hit the floor with a loud thud. She tried to stand but couldn't. She began to pull herself towards the door with her arms. Each movement was excruciating, every tiny movement caused pain through her side. Delphine knew if she looked at her side, crimson would be slowly staining her hospital gown. She continued on towards the door, silently screaming for anyone to help her, for Cosima to find her. The longer she continued, the further away the door seemed. She went on trying for what seemed like hours before the door finally got close. Delphine noticed the tears running down her cheeks but paid them no attention, the sobs that shook her chest made no sound. Delphine continued on towards the door. As Delphine reached for the door handle, the door started to slide open. Delphine saw a hand reach around the door to open, but she was not expecting who walked through the door. The gun in the woman's hand was ready to fire and all that could be heard was a cheery "Hello, Delphine" before the gun went off and pain exploded in Delphine's rib cage. The force of the gunshot pushed her to the ground which was slowly getting wet with Delphine's blood. The short woman leaned over Delphine as she was gasping for breath as it was slowly getting harder to continue breathing. The woman whispered "She is mine now" into Delphine's ear and the world was once again black.

Delphine awoke with her arms wrapped around Cosima, squeezing her tight and continuing to try and wake Delphine up whilst saying comforting things. Cosima notices that Delphine is now awake as she is being clutched tighter than before and the sobs turn into gentle whimpers as Delphine becomes more aware of her surroundings. Delphine's whimpers turned into whispers of only one phrase that she began to repeat over again getting progressively louder until Cosima could hear.

"Cosima , s'il vous plaît. Je suis désolé. Ne me fais pas partir, je ne peux pas vivre sans toi. Je t'aime." Cosima finally was able to hear her when her words became more words and less sobs, She could pick out some of what Delphine was in french but not enough to understand. Cosima adjusted herself so that she was wrapped around the blonde still but she could look into her face and hold her. Cosima kissed her so she would stop repeat what she doesn't understand and says to Delphine in a loving voice.

"I love you too, especially when you are speaking french but as we discussed last week, I cannot understand you so please. What is wrong?" Cosima kept her hands on the blonde woman's cheeks so that Delphine was looking into her eyes.

"I can't be without you, I never want to leave you. Please don't make me leave ever." The tears were once again gathering in the french woman's eyes. Delphine tried to free her face so that she could get back to the safety of Cosima's neck and her arms could find the spot around her waist being held tight enough so that she could be anchored to that spot forever. Cosima had other ideas and held her tight, looking straight into her eyes with a passion in her eyes. Delphine looked back with a weakness that Cosima had not seen since that time in her apartment when she found out Delphine's deceit and partnership with Leeke.

"I don't think that I have it in me to ever let you leave, let alone make you leave me. I love you too much and I think that we have spent enough time apart to last us for the rest of our lifetime. Do you understand that you never get to leave me now?" Cosima smiled at Delphine as she nodded at the shorter woman. Cosima finally relinquished the hold she had on Delphine and Delphine moved swiftly to the position she craved to be in. Cosima let them fall back slightly to be resting against the headboard of the bed. They stayed in this position for a while, both returning their breathing patterns back to normal. Cosima was the first to break the comfortable silence.

"Do you want to tell what happened while you were asleep?"

"Non." Delphine replied quietly into Cosima's neck.

"Are you sure? You were pretty rattled by whatever it was you were dreaming of?"

"Ok, I have a dream that I was alone in the hospital and I couldn't move and I couldn't see you so I called for you but you did not come or say anything. I tried to scream but no sound came and I tried to move but I couldn't. I crawled to the door and then….walked in.… and I…. then…." Delphine trailed off as her voice got less and less until it was inaudible. Cosima was confused on the last bit.

"Who walked in?"

"The person who shot me" Delphine said quietly

"YOU KNOW WHO SHOT YOU?" Cosima nearly screeched at Delphine, scaring the blonde into jumping in fright. "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you but you never told me who it was that shot you."

"I know. I didn't want to tell you who it was."

"Well, you kinda have to tell me now. Please." Cosima said almost in an tone that Delphine couldn't ignore. Delphine was quiet for another moment.

"It was Shay, in my dream. She wanted to get rid of me to get closer to you. It was her in the garage that night. I thought that the neolutionists, or who ever was behind this, would send someone else but I guess she was the best to kill me."

"SHAY!" Cosima did scream this time and looked at the woman she loved like she was crazy

"I didn't want to alarm you and I didn't think that she would cause any problems anymore after her job was done." Delphine stated and tried to calm Cosima but it didn't work.

"Really? That is what you are going to say? You really don't get it, do you? I love you and I'm not leaving. You were the one that left me anyway, again and again you leave me and I'm stuck with a hole in my heart that I have to repair by myself."

"You made me leave first so don't say that I leave you when you make me or I have to go. You don't know how much my heart broke every time that I had to leave. I love you so much that I think most days that my heart will burst when I am with you and when I am not with you, mon cœuraches for you. I thought I was never going to be whole again but je vous ai pour l'instantand I can't imagine what would happen if we are apart again, it will break me." Cosima let her have her say before leaning over to grasp her face and softly speak.

"Are you done?" Delphine nodded "I felt the same way and I feel the same way about us so let's say that from now on, we face the world together and never again will we be apart." Delphine nodded continuously along with the American and grabbed whatever she reached first and pulled so that all the space between them disappeared. They lingered in this position long after their hearts and breathing returned to normal when a soft whisper broke the comfortable silence.

"Why don't we make it official? Will you marry me?"

mon amour= my love

ma chérie = my dearie

Cosima , s'il vous plaît . Je suis désolé. Ne me fais pas partir, je ne peux pas vivre sans toi . Je t'aime . = Cosima, please. I'm sorry. Don't make me leave, I can't be without you. I love you.

mon cœur = my heart

Je vous ai pour l'instant = I have you for now