Previously:

Bette stood up and walked to the other side of the bed, “I should get Katie into her room.” she said scooping Katie’s sleepy body up and making sure not to wake her completely.

“Okay baby I’ll just get dinner ready.”

“Yeah this is great! I can’t believe that tonight we finally get to spend some quality time together.” and with that Bette disappeared out of the room with a very sleepy Katie in her arms.
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Hollow and empty: That was what Bette Porter found herself feeling at that very moment…Lying there on the floor with no real recollection of how she got there in the first place, she slowly opened her eyes only to see nothing but a vast, poorly lit space. She immediately tried to rise but as soon as she did, a sharp throbbing pain overwhelmed her in the head, and upon viewing nothing else but stark darkness for the past three minutes, Bette suddenly felt her insides turn… Where was she?” And most importantly where was everybody else?

Awkwardly she stood up and blindly crept around the floor, wincing from the pain she was experiencing in her head, Bette tried as best she could to feel her way across the room… She wanted to get some answers, and while she struggled to get up, she realized that she had managed to break something in the process” what it was though; she’d have to find out later. Pawing her hands against the wall, she tried to steady herself long enough… until finally she felt something… In one brisk stroke Bette managed to flip a light switch on, and upon doing so she was greeted by an empty house… It was her house as a matter of fact, and looking around it was becoming quite obvious to her that no one” not even a soul was there…

“Tina?” She called out, but there was no response… just an echo of her own voice reverberating throughout the walls….

Nothing but eerie silence followed… There wasn’t even the slightest indication that anyone was present… not even a hint. At first Bette brushed the notion off, opting instead to keep calm and collected. ‘This is no time to panic!’ she thought while attempting to rationalize everything by silently repeating the same words over and over again, and by doing so she managed to convince herself that there was no problem at all… She was so sure in fact that if she gave it time, the situation would explain itself eventually.

Letting her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness of the room, she wandered around the house, trying her very best to find some answers to the predicament she was in. In the stillness of her surroundings Bette wondered what she could have possibly been doing unconscious on the ground, or why for the life of her was Tina not there to help. She placed a hand on each of her temples; her head was still aching; yet she had no idea why. Cautiously the disoriented beauty retraced her steps, taking the path which led her right back to where she had come from just a few minutes ago While doing so, she finally saw what she had broken:

Shattered on the floor lay the broken remains of a half drunken bottle of wine… with shards of its jagged glass glistening in the light, the mess brought along with it a rich pool of plum colored liquid which quickly seeped its way into the carpet. Bette knelt down beside it as if to make sure her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her again. Did this mean she had been drinking? And if so, that certainly explains the splitting headache she was experiencing at the moment… But no” she never drank, or at least not anymore…

In a last attempt to get to the bottom of things the bewildered brunette looked around… Maybe Tina forgot to tell her something, or perhaps the dutiful blonde left a note somewhere that would somehow manage to explain everything… but unfortunately for Bette this was not the case… Pacing around and frustrated the bemused Miss Porter let out a weak chuckle. She was doubtful that a little piece of paper could offer her any kind of clarity in terms of how and why she woke up one evening lying flat on the floor, or as a matter of fact give light to anything even remotely close to what was happening around her at the very moment… Scanning the room she noted that nothing was out of the ordinary… The furniture was in tact, arranged in exactly the same way she had left it right before she went off to work. Everything from the chairs right down to the small pile of books she kept neatly stacked by the coffee table were left untouched… and just when she was about ready to breathe, she noticed that something was definitely missing…

“Katie?” Bette said in a tone barely audible even for her own hearing. She ran her hands against a smooth patch on the wall, where a beautiful glass frame once stood… Where was Katie’s picture? ….The same picture she was accustomed to seeing everyday for the past two years. Her mind was racing, she couldn’t understand the things that were happening around her and it was at that point that Bette Porter knew she had to sort matters out for herself… Quickly she made her way into Katie’s room, striding with such speed that it seemed as if there was no tomorrow. On the break of her arrival she heard herself gasp… Gone were the adorable stuffed animals that abounded each and every corner, as well as the classic iron cast bed that Bette was so used to tucking her daughter into every single night… All of it had vanished as if everything evaporated into thin air… Taking its place instead were numerous forms of files and folders which were scattered haplessly across the floor… In the far left corner a few stacks of unchecked parcels were arranged, and in the middle of the room stood a very old cherry wood desk which sat in place of Katie’s beautiful bed… oddly enough though it was the same antique table that Bette used before she converted her home-office into a child’s bedroom, come to think of it if she didn’t know any better she could’ve sworn that the room was left exactly the same way it was three years ago…

More confused than ever, Bette walked over to the adjoining quarters, which also happened to be the master bedroom. Yet again she went inside only to find that everything was in order, the sheets were nicely tucked into the bed, the pillows were fluffed, the blinds were drawn… but as Bette approached the closet she noticed that all of Tina’s clothes were gone… in fact nothing that belonged to her was there, only hangers that displayed Bette’s well-pressed suits and blouses hung in the small recess of the room.

‘What the ***** is going on here?’ Bette wondered, as she pressed her back against the bedroom wall and slowly slid towards the floor crying. Everything seemed so surreal… so overwhelming…. so unbelievable taking into consideration of course that as far as she was concerned the last thing she could remember doing was tucking her three year old daughter into bed, and practically tasting the warm food her wife was preparing in the kitchen; the savory aroma of dinner still freshly imprinted into her mind… Now all of a sudden there she was falling apart and alone, with no immediate sign of the people who cared for her anywhere… Bette found herself living as if the years hadn’t passed… and suddenly she was faced with the same life she had been leading back in 2005…

With her eyes still brimming with tears she reverted her thoughts back to the shattered bottle of wine she had seen a while ago. It was at this point when Bette started piecing everything together… She was pretty sure that she was responsible for consuming half of its contents… her hang over was a testament to that… And her perfect life: The life she so desperately wanted to lead, was all a beautiful lie… a made up dream that she had the pleasure of experiencing through sleep. But now it was all over and she had to face the reality that there was no Tina… no picture perfect family, and as much as she hated to admit it: there was certainly no Katie… She now knew that they were nothing more than figments of her mind… Probably caused by all the alcohol that she thoughtlessly guzzled down earlier in the day, in a last attempt to escape the harsh reality she was living in, and also partly because she wanted to numb the pain she was feeling deep down inside… But amidst all this, she was glad that somehow she managed to convince herself that she wasn’t doomed to live her life alone… at least even for just a few hours in her sleep…

She had to get Tina back… she had to…
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It was at that moment when Tina woke up, “Bette…” she said in a faint whisper, still not quite sure what was going on. In the early hours of morning she looked beside her only to see Bette thrashing quite uncontrollably in bed.

“Baby wake up!” she said nudging Bette a little more forcibly by the shoulders, her voice conveying nothing but concern and worry…

Bette stirred from her intense slumber, blinking her eyes repeatedly as if to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

“Tina” She said a little out of breath as she immediately sat up from the bed, rubbing her eyes. She felt Tina’s hand touch across her shoulder, reassuring her that everything would be all right, but Bette couldn’t help but be flustered.

“Oh God it happened again!” Bette exclaimed, burying her face in her hands and trying as best she could to control the sudden urge to sob uncontrollably.

“What happened?” Tina inquired, waiting patiently for her wife to calm down and catch her breath…

“The dream I… I had it again”

Tina nodded, she was all too familiar about the dream, in fact Bette had been having the same vision for months… the empty house, the missing picture… the broken glass…she had heard it all before… but something in Bette’s voice told her that this was a different situation.

Bette swallowed hard and soon a glum expression spread itself across her face. “This time it felt so real… I was all alone in the house and for a moment I really lost you…and Katie…” she heard her voice break, and suddenly the tears came.

Tina was at a loss for words, she had never seen Bette so shaken up. The fear in her eyes was so evident… so clear… that it drove Tina to instinctively pull Bette closer into her arms… This time she noticed there was no hesitation coming from her wife, Bette didn’t even try to put on a brave front… instead she just fell into Tina’s arms and wept. Tina gently ran her hands through Bette’s beautiful locks, whispering words of comfort into her ear in the process. They stayed this way for a while until Tina saw that Bette’s tears had finally subsided… slowly she loosed her grip on her wife’s slim frame.

“Bette I’m not going anywhere…”

The striking brunette stared back at her with a look that conveyed just how vulnerable she truly was. Without a second thought Tina leaned forward and kissed Bette’s luscious lips, taking with her every single trouble that clouded Bette’s mind. Soon after this it didn’t take long before the lovely Miss Porter’s mood noticeably lightened… Taking Tina by the waist she returned the kiss with more force and passion. In the heat of the moment the desire around them was becoming palpable and with this in mind both women slowly maneuvered themselves into a more comfortable position, with Tina on top and gradually undressing in front of Bette.

“Let me help.” Bette offered, slipping a hand inside Tina’s loose cotton shirt and pulling it over her head. The olive toned beauty was amazed by how beautiful her wife was even in the relative darkness of the room. Out of appreciation Bette tenderly traced a finger across the length of Tina’s body, starting from her delicate structure of her neck line all the way down to the firm muscles of her abdomen. Watching Tina then and there, one would be surprised to learn that she actually had a three year old child. Physically her body was well toned, her skin was still perfectly supple, and she even carried the exact same amount of energy that had five years go… the only difference was that somehow Tina managed to keep the same radiance and glow that she had on when Katie was still safe inside her womb. Bette smiled as Tina reached to undo the buttons of her pajama top, closing her eyes she sighed as Tina leaned in closer and began planting small kisses along the surface of her neck. Masterfully the sweet looking blonde moved further down taking in every inch of Bette’s bare flesh, exciting her with each touch, and fulfilling her with every single move that followed.

“I need you…” Bette whispered pulling Tina up for a kiss, with this Tina obliged and moved closer towards her, happily giving in to Bette’s request… This was what Bette wanted… no pasts, no worries and definitely no words could express how glad she was that this was her reality…