Previously –

Alice slowly turned towards Shane, with tear filled red puffy eyes and slowly and simply said, “Yoda, she didn’t leave me.”  Then Alice squeezed Dana’s hand, carefully laid her head on Dana’s chest above her heart, whispered “I love you” and listened to Dana’s heart slowly beat beneath her.   

Chapter 3 – 

It had been two days since Dana’s brush with death and Alice still sat at her bedside holding Dana’s hand and letting her know she was there.  Alice looked over at the bag of clothes that sat on a chair in the corner of Dana’s room and considered taking a quick shower.  Scanning the room seeing the countless cards, get well gifts, and food, Alice knew she was going to owe her friends for the rest of her life, Shane especially.

Shane hated hospitals and tried to spend as little time as possible in them.  When Dana was in the hospital after her surgery, Shane would pace constantly and go outside to smoke a lot.  Alice knew it bothered Shane to see people hurting or ill and not be able to do anything to help them, especially when it was someone close to her.  But the past two days had been different.  Shane spent all of her free time with Dana and Alice in Dana’s room.  Sometimes they would discuss the latest gossip and reminisce about the crazy things the three of them had done in the past.  Other times they would just sit in comfortable silence. 

Though Alice was grateful for Shane’s company, she could not help feeling guilty knowing Shane was also there because she was worried about Alice.  During one of Shane’s smoke breaks the day before Carmen had told Alice that Shane was worried about her.  Shane watched Alice self destruct when Dana broke her heart 7 months before.  While holding Alice during Dana’s brush with death Shane realized that if Dana died, Alice would slowly die with her.

Alice decided against the shower and closed her eyes, hoping to take a much needed nap.

_____

Bette just returned to LA from her retreat and was finally able to check her voicemail.  The smile on her face grew when the first voice she heard was Tina’s, but the smile quickly faded as she listened to the message about Dana.  Bette didn’t even bother to listen to the rest of her messages, she just put her bags in the car and headed for the hospital.