“I’m sorry I have to go…thanks for listening. I’m sorry…sorry about everything…I…we can…can we? I don’t know…”

“It’s fine…we can continue this later. I’ll make time…”

“It’s ok, I’ll get back to you…” (She’s anxious to leave…) “Bye…I gotta go…”

(Madeleine doesn’t push it…) “Ok. Take it easy…”

“Yeah. Bye.” (Bette leaves and Madeleine feels uneasy. She walks to her phone and dials.) “Bassey? Yeah, it’s me. Where is Bette scheduled to be right now? Well, head her off at the pass. I don’t know, just run into her and give her something else to do, something harmless. I can’t explain right now and in a sense I can’t tell you. Yes, sort of like a session. Just do it please…ok…we have to talk…I think you need to give her a few days off. Yes ok, bye.” (Madeleine is standing next to her desk. She talks to herself…) “Can’t breathe? Oh Bette…what am I going to do with you? You and Tina both.”

In Chapter 12, Bassey reams out Bette for showing up late to rounds and does it in front of Madeleine.  Eventually Bette explains to Madeleine why she was late for rounds.  She had gone to sit with Marti.  She explains why she ran out of Madeleine’s office in Chapter 11…it was something Marti said to her a long time ago when Bette and Tina were breaking up and Marti could tell things were bad.  Bette explains to Madeleine about Marti:

“I thought she was a naïve young woman at the time, a bit of a flake, a romantic, she was just a child really, but I never realized how poignant her words would become…for me…I never realized how much meaning those words would have for me, until I realized recently that I had forgotten her, not recognized her, though back then she made me promise to never forget her and promise to never give up in bringing those hearts together…I smiled politely when she told me those words, thinking she was overly positive, maybe a bit deluded…though I wished desperately it was that simple, because I knew I still could feel so much love deep down and I knew that despite appearances that ‘other heart’ felt it too. And then when I spoke those words to you in your office earlier I remembered those particular words Marti said to me that night …about true love that prevails…two hearts that will one way or another, ‘come hec or high water’ she said…they’ll find their way back to one another, because she said ‘you need that person,’ and I remembered the words that followed…” (Bette pauses to try and control her emotions as Madeleine places her hand on Bette’s softly and Bette continues…) “she said that ‘need’…that pure love is the power that is undaunted and the two hearts can’t cope other than as one… ‘as oxygen is to the lungs’…and I remember she then tapped on her oxygen line and looked at me and said ‘if we lose that air supply, it’s like we can’t breathe…and if we give up, if we don’t fight for it, if we don’t remain true to it, we eventually die.” (Bette’s voice ended in a whisper as her tears seemed to have no end in sight.)