It was around 4 in the morning and barely a soul was awake… The Kennard-Porter residence was the embodiment of tranquility. The house was so quiet, so full of warmth, familiarity and solace, probably because it was now complete. The sun wasn’t even up yet when a drowsy Bette Porter stirred into consciousness. Instinctively she reached for her partner, her other half, like she had so many times before… trying to feel the warmth emanating from her lover’s body on the other side of the mattress, hoping to find herself in wife’s comforting arms, knowing that once she did… drifting back to sleep would no longer be a problem. To Bette, Tina was like a her security blanket, not in the standard “I love you because I need you.” way… No not at all… Rather like a child, Bette was completely lost without her. She understood that Tina was instrumental to her in every single facet imaginable, and she was glad that after all they had been through… she knew that now more than ever. But as soon as the thought popped into her head, Bette was surprised to find that the beautiful blonde she had been yearning for all this time wasn’t even there for her to hold… all she got instead was a fist’s worth of the bed’s silky smooth sheets.

“Tina…” Bette called out, as she slowly dragged herself out of bedroom. Gradually she felt the soothing effects of the floor against the soles of bare feet. Wandering around every room of the house she contemplated as to where Tina could be. “Tina!” she called out once more, but she was soon silenced by the feeble groaning sounds, which emanated from the bathroom.

“T? Are you in there?” Bette asked, her hair slightly messy and her eyes still feeling a little heavy from waking up before the sun had the chance to come up.

“Yeah babe I’m fi”” Tina involuntarily cut herself off.

“Tina what’s going on? Are you okay?” Bette’s concerned voice seeped through the bathroom’s entrance and making it’s way into Tina’s range of hearing. At the wake of this, the dark haired beauty pressed her ear against the door, trying to decode the muffled noises that were coming all the way from the other side, desperately attempting to make it into something that would actually pass for intelligible. Minutes passed and Bette was growing more and more impatient. “T, you don’t sound so good.” she worriedly stated:

“Maybe I should get in there and help you…”

Just as Bette was reaching for the ***** the door swung open. “Good morning baby. What are you doing up so early?”

“Well I couldn’t sleep and- Wait, shouldn’t I be asking you the same question?”

Tina closed the door behind her and kissed Bette on the cheek. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

“Then explain to me what the ***** were you doing in the bathroom?”

“I was just…um, gargling…” Tina said, hoping to shrug away the conversation as she walked past Bette.

“Gargling? You gotta be kidding me!” Bette said exasperatedly, throwing up her hands as she tentatively followed Tina back into the bedroom.
_____________________________________

Miles away from West Hollywood someone else was trying to get to the bottom of something:

Alice sat in bed trying to be perfectly still, careful not to wake the person lying next to her. She fidgeted with her ring for a while before looking out the window, trying to decide whether she really wanted answers or not. She was lost in thought

“What are you thinking?” said a sleepy voice.

Alice whipped her head in the direction of the sound just in time to see Dana looking up at her.

“Dana you’re awake…” she gulped.

Dana smiled at her and stretched her body a little. She was still in last night’s clothes except somehow she managed to shed her jacket and kick off her shoes before going off to bed. The well-pressed fabric of her stripped blue shirt was now rumpled and the curls in her hair were in disarray, but Alice didn’t mind, to her Dana was still a magnificent sight to behold.

“What time is it?” Dana shyly asked.

Alice looked at the digital clock by the bedstand,”A quarter to five.”

“Oh god I have to get ready!”

“For what?”

“I have to go to that conference thingy… remember?”

Dana got herself out of bed but felt herself fall right back, her expression twisting from a determined look to a pained one. She put a hand over her head and with a short grunt she explained:

“Hang over…”

A small chuckle escaped Alice’s lips, “That was some night we had…”

“Yeah it was…”

“Uhm Dane?”

“Hmm…?”

“What exactly did we do last night?”

Now it was Dana’s turn to laugh. She looked at Alice for a while, and when she realized the spunky blonde wasn’t kidding she started to ramble:

“Well uhh… we had drinks… we walked… and I think we kissed a couple of times… although I don’t think it happened in that order…”

“So that’s all that happened?” Alice urged.

“Yes… What else do you think happened?”

“I don’t know but something did! I mean how else would you explain this?”

Alice held her hand up, so that Dana could see the fancy ring she was wearing.

“See? You have one too.” Alice pointed out, as she gently pulled Dana’s wrist to expose an identical piece of platinum jewelry.

Dana’s eyes grew wide. “Holy””

But before Dana could curse a loud knocking came booming through the door.

“Dana honey, open up!”

Both women exchanged knowing glances, “*****! That’s Tonya.” Dana muttered, “What are we going to do?”

“Dane relax…” Alice told her, “Give me that.” she continued, pointing to Dana’s ring. Dana complied and handed it over to Alice.

“I guess we’ll just have to save this discussion for later.”

“Can I at least kiss the bride?” Dana requested. Alice smiled and moved in to kiss her, taking a stray strand of Dana’s hair away from her face. Their lips were mere inches apart from each other when:

“Come on sweetie answer the door.” Tonya’s overly sweet voice persisted.

“Coming.” Dana yelled a little frustrated.
______________________________________

Meanwhile back at Bette and Tina’s:

“Tina cough it up. I know you’re not telling me something…”

“Bette I told you already, it’s nothing.” Tina sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed.

Bette looked at her incredulously before she began pacing around the room.

“God T, you’re scaring me… it’s not like you to keep things from me.”

Tina’s eyes closely followed Bette’s body as she moved around the room. The truth was she too was scared. The whole secretive state she decided to put herself into was tearing her up inside. If Bette only knew that at this point Tina was frightened enough for both of them, knowing that if she told her wife what she was asking for right now, it would cause her to break apart. ‘No I can’t do that to her… not now… What if I fail? I know she couldn’t handle it if I failed…’