“I’m sorry, I know. That was stupid; my fault.” She shook her head and smiled at me.

I called Helena’s phone a few minutes later, and the three of them came down to see her. They looked happy and so did she, although she did look a little tired. When the doctor came in, Helena, Shane and Jenny politely left the room, but I stayed. He said that since moving to the room had been a lot, he’d just have the physical therapist come to the room to do some very simple exercises with her for today. Tomorrow they’d try to get her in a wheelchair and up to the physical therapy area, but for today the doctor wanted to take it easy.

We left not long after that. I told everyone that I was fine staying the night by myself, but that I’d probably go back to the hospital to check on Alice before that. Shane and Jenny glanced at each other a little worriedly, but I waved them away and told them to go home and that I’d be just fine. I hugged them and Helena, and they all seemed to accept that I wanted to be alone for awhile. Shane said she’d call when she was ready to go to the airport, and we could go check on Al on the way over there since the hospital was in that direction. I nodded, and watched them through the picture window as they left.

I was fully prepared to get a glass of wine, turn on the TV and just sit on the couch watching talk shows the rest of the afternoon, and was in the process of doing so when the landline rang. It was Tina, calling to check on me and to make sure it was all right if she went to visit Alice later. I sighed and told her that of course it was fine, but that she really didn’t need to feel obligated to do so. She just said she wanted to and that it was in no way an obligation. She asked if I needed anything or wanted her to come over, but I said that I was fine and that I’d see her later on if she was still at the hospital when Shane and I got there. She told me she’d be happy to come by whenever I wanted, and asked me to call her if I needed anything at all. I thanked her and meant it. I knew how hard this whole thing was for her. Bette had only been gone for a year now and it had been a long fight.