Early the next morning, Dana answered the phone to find that Kit had convinced Bette to come back home. She was due to arrive that afternoon, and she and Tina were meeting with Joyce Wischnia to try and figure something out. Thankful that at least some progress had been made, she thanked Kit and went back to bed, blearily telling Alice what had happened. Alice just nodded, and Dana figured she’d have to tell her again when she really woke up.

The blaring ring of the phone in the living room was what initially brought Dana back to consciousness, although Alice’s elbow connecting with the side of her face as she tried to cover her ears to block the sound certainly woke her up a lot quicker.

"Shit, I’m sorry!" Alice exclaimed as Dana’s yelp of pain managed to wake her up. She touched the area gently, wincing at the already purpling bruise. "Dammit, your doctors are gonna think you’re being abused. They’ll call the police and you’ll have to give a statement."

"If that happens, I’ll have them come and arrest you. I could have assault charges brought up like that, being a former famous tennis player and all." Alice didn’t smile. "Honey, it’s fine. It’s not like you did it on purpose. But just for future reference, if I’m asleep beside you, there’s no way it can be me on the phone trying to wake you up."

"Thanks, I’d never have known," Alice muttered. "I’m sorry I hurt you."

"You didn’t. Well, not badly. I’m sure I’ll survive it," Dana replied as the cell phone on the nightstand joined in on the noise level. Alice just heaved an exasperated sigh and picked it up as she made her way to the kitchen to get some ice for Dana’s face.

Five minutes later, with the swelling having gone down a little, both of them listened as Helena briefed them about the incident with Carla and Shay over the speakerphone.

"Wait, so she just left him there?" Dana asked incredulously. She couldn’t quite believe that Shane’s stepmom had just dropped her kid off with Shane, despite only knowing her for a couple of weeks. "Doesn’t she have any family of her own?"

"I have no idea," Helena replied, her voice sounding like it was coming from inside a tin can due to the crappy quality of Alice’s phone. "All I know is that as soon as we got there, she said something about Shane’s father running off with a woman. She says she’s too distraught to care for Shay right now…and then she just left. I really can’t even fathom that, but we all watched her walk away. I have no idea what Shane’s going to do, but they were all fairly exhausted from the bus ride to begin with, so I assume most of the day will be spent recuperating. Shane asked me to take you to your appointment if it’s all right, Dana. She says she’ll call you both later, but as of last night she could barely keep her eyes open."