“Well you brought that to a close pretty quickly Bassey.”

(Bassey smirks at Madeleine)  “You see…I diffused an emotional situation with as much skill as any head shrink…”

(Madeleine looks at Bassey like she’s full of it…)  “You ordered your resident to leave…”

“Same difference…”  (Madeleine shakes her head.)  “What!  Would you rather she stand there and boohoo for the rest of the day?  What happens when the patient wakes?”

“Good point I suppose.”

“Very good point really.  She’s gotta snap out of it …can’t have her stuck there in some sad state.”

“Mhmmm.  Very pragmatic of you.” 

“It’s efficient and very effective.”  (Madeleine just shakes her head…)  “Oh come on…”

(They walk out.  Tina took Bette to the senior resident’s small lounge room and sat her down on a bed after locking the door.  She gently rubs Bette’s back as Bette sits a bit slouched over and wipes her tears.)

“Old Doc Porter…you’re getting sentimental in your old age.”  (Bette smiles a little.)  “You’ve seemed kinda stressed lately…running around trying to all things to Bassey and your patients.  Sometimes you can get caught up in the frey but something happens that for a brief moment calls you to attention and holds up a mirror…something says ‘wait…you’re losing touch with things, with who you really are, who you were meant to be…’  It happens.  Sometimes you’ve gotta find the eye of the storm…and just sit there for a bit…take it all in.”  (She then turns to Bette…)  “Or…you’re just having a particularly bad episode of pms…”  (Tina nods…and Bette turns to look at her as they both chuckle.)  “And I’m sorry about confronting you in front of the residents about the drug dosage, but you know how much I hate it when the other teams take psyche for granted but I didn’t want to create a situation or gets us both in trouble with Bassey.”

“It’s ok, it was a reasonable concern you had.  I guess you’re kinda stressed too lately.”

“Yes, maybe I am.”  (They look at each other and Tina looks away and then looks back at Bette again smiling…)  “One day when we tell Angelica our stories of life and work she won’t believe what we’ve been through.”  (Bette suddenly looks more intensely at Tina…like she’s noticed something after these brief words…)  “What?  What did I say?”  (Bette grasps Tina’s hand and holds it at she looks intently at Tina.)  “Bette?”

“You and I…you…you’ll always mean so much…you know that right?”  (Tina simply smiles and nods.)  “We really have been through a lot together…a life together…a little girl…I can’t imagine, even now, the rest of my life without you somehow in it…”

“Bette…I…well, the feeling is mutual…I think we’ve always both known that.”  (She searches Bette’s eyes briefly and feels uncomfortable.  She changes the subject.)  “So, I think you should talk to Dr. Schmidt privately.  You need to talk these things out.  It really helps, you know?”  (Bette nods.)  “It’s easy to lose perspective sometimes.  Marti…well…it’ll be ok.  It’ll be hard, but there’s always hope.  I’ve got an uphill battle there.  She obviously triggered something within you, but she’s not the issue.  Tell me, if you want…is there something you’re dealing with you want to talk to me about?”

(Bette shrugs…)  “I dunno.  I mean things are going on, I seem to be stressed with work, Bassey, whatever, but it’s not really that much different than any other time.    I started seeing…”  (she stops dead in her tracks.  Tina looks at her.  Bette looks at Tina and seems stressed…)

“What…what’s wrong?  You started seeing what?”  (Bette’s shaking her head and then stands as Tina follows Bette’s movements with her eyes.)  “Bette???  Sweetie what’s up?”  (A pager goes off…Tina looks down and starts to get up…)  “Damn…it’s me.  It’s ER…gotta go.  We’ll talk later ok?”  (Bette nods.  Tina hurries out.)