“Baby, I’m going to be fine. I won’t let anything happen. Shane said she’ll keep an eye on you, and Bette and Tina spoke to Lori about that too. It’ll be ok. We can’t let this stop us. She wins then.”

“Yeah, I know. But I can’t help this feeling. I don’t like it Al. It scares me. I want you near me.”

“Honey, I’d love to stay near you forever. But it isn’t possible.” Alice said rising from the bed, ” You’re training for your match, so you need to be here. I have to go to DC. I know that when I first accepted it, it was because I wanted time away from you, but if I’m really honest, Julia believes in me. She really thinks I can do something worthwhile with my writing. I like that. It feels good. I want to try this. Can you understand that?”

“Of course I do, Al. I have always known what you were capable of, but you needed to. I just can’t help this sinking feeling.”

“Baby, we can’t give in to that. Come on and help me pack. That will get us back to bed that much faster. Ok?”

“How can I argue that logic?” Dana answered, trying to ignore that feeling in her gut that this trip wasn’t going to be a good one. Forcing a smile onto her face, she got up from bed to help Alice pack.

—

Bette pulled up in front of Jodi’s house in record time, she however didn’t approach the door with such ferocity. Instead she sat in the car and contemplated the right way to approach this. She needed to find a way to make Robyn understand what had happened with Tina. She needed Robyn to accept the reason for their decision. More than anything, she needed Robyn to go along with that decision.

Bette finally had herself resigned to the fact that she could do this. She could vocalize the feelings that she wasn’t sure she had fully processed. She got out from the car and walked up the front door and rang the bell. After a few minutes, she saw a light come on in the house and the front door open.

“Bette, what are you doing here? Robyn is asleep.” Jody asked. Jody had been Robyn’s best friend since college.

“I know her well enough to know that there is no way she could fall asleep when she’s this upset. Please Jody, I need to talk to her.”

“Well if you know her so well Bette, you should realize that when she said she needed the night, she meant it. Just give her till morning.”

“Jody, please, just tell her I’m here.”

“Don’t worry about it Jody. I’ll talk to her.” Robyn said from behind Jody. Her friend backed out of the way to let Bette into the house. Robyn however, blocked Bette from getting more than a few steps in.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“Can we go sit down and talk?”

“No. Bette I asked you to give me some time. I haven’t asked you for a lot. Was a few hours really that hard?”

“Yes, Robyn. A few hours were that hard. Especially when I knew you would be driving yourself crazy trying to figure out what happened. I didn’t want you to spend the night going crazy with possibilities.”

“OK, so take me out of my misery. You and Tina still love each other, right?”

“Yes….”