”Tee?” Bette murmured into her lover’s ear.

”Yeah?” Tina opened her hazy eyes, making contact with Bette’s similar ones.

The brunette stared at her thoughtfully for a few moments. She then sighed and lowered her gaze. ”I’m sorry,” she uttered out of the blue.

”For what?” Tina questioned softly, caressing Bette’s cheek with the back of her hand.

Bette shrugged. ”For everything. For lying to you about who I am and what I do. I’ve never really apologized to you for this.”

”Baby, I’ve forgiven you long ago… I know you don’t do this kind of job just because you want to. You were a prey to circumstances.”

”No, I wasn’t,” Bette denied. She turned her head and stared at the ceiling. ”I could have said no when I was offered this…job.”

”But you life could have been in danger…”

”Yeah… As it is now.”

The blonde rubbed her eyes wearily.

”Sometimes I wish cops would take me in and put me behind bars already.”

”But why not just hand yourself over to them?”

”Because, Tina. I work for a very dangerous person, who knows and is capable of everything. If he finds out I’ve turned myself in, he would never let me be, to say the least.”

”And–and what if you’re taken into custody? Would I be forced to testify against you?”

”Most likely.”

”What do they think I’d tell them?!” Tina asked, disturbed by the idea. ”I won’t tell them anything even if they would put me to torture!”

”In this case I want you to tell them whatever they want.”

”No way! By no means I’m gonna talk shit about you! I would rather die than–”

”You stop right there!” Bette raised her voice, turning her stern gaze to Tina. She half-rose and supported herself on her elbow, glaring down at the indignant blonde. ”The only request I have for you is that you think about your own wellness, no matter what. Do that for me, will you? Because this is the only thing I want – for you to be okay.”

Tina covered her face, puffed her cheeks and let out a good amount of air.

”Promise me that,” Bette demanded. When Tina made no attempt to uncover her face, the brunette coerced her to do so. ”I said promise me that, Tina,” she repeated forcefully, boring a hole in the hazel eyes with her glower.

Tina huffed for a few seconds before speaking through the gritted teeth, ”Fine. I promise.”

Bette eased her grip on Tina’s forearms and sat up on the sofa, taking her favourite pensive pose with elbows on her knees. The blonde rose up too and embraced her lover, resting her forehead on her back.

”Please, Bette, let’s drop this subject and enjoy our time together. These conversations make me shake all over…”

Bette rested her head in her hands. ”I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Tee… I’m just–I’m so scared, for you, for us. I’m so sorry to have put you in such position…”

”Hey, look at me,” Tina pulled Bette in to herself, forcing her to raise her head. When having Bette’s full attention, Tina spoke, ”You have nothing to be sorry for, understand? I’ve made a decision to stay with you and I have no doubts, no second thoughts about that. So you need to stop beating yourself up. Blaming yourself constantly and being scared will only get you so far. My mother always told me that positive thinking attracts positive outcomes and I truly believe this is the case. Let’s focus on taking it one step at a time, alright? I promise you, baby, we’ll get through this, eventually everything is going to be fine.”

The brunette had been listening to Tina’s moving speech with stagnated tears in her eyes, wondering how in the world had she deserved this devotion.

”I love you,” she said, nestling up to the blonde.

”I love you too.”

”I want to show you…”

”Show me what, baby?”

”How much I love you…”

In what was right after Bette carried Tina to the bed and once there made romantic self-forgetful love to her, having thrown all the troubles away for several hours, completely melting in the woman who was rescuing her soul from falling, saving her from her own dark self.

Everything was going to be fine, Tina had said. Then that was all that mattered, Bette decided.