Bette held and rocked Angelica in her arms for about fifteen minutes and then returned her to the nurses. She headed to the cafeteria to get something to answer the growling requests from her stomach.

 ~ ~ ~

Now, as she sat across from Tina and watched her sleeping she once again reflected on all the events that got them to this point.  It had been quite a ride.  This past week and a half alone seemed as if a lifetime of events had been squeezed into it.  Bette knew Tina was right when she said that she would never have been able to pick up the broken pieces of her internal spirit if their relationship had remained the way it was.   When they fell apart and Tina walked away is when she finally held up the mirror to take in the image of who she was.  And what she saw was the image of Bette Porter she allowed the world to see.   She had insulated herself so well from her feelings that she, too, saw and believed exactly what others did:  Bette Porterstrong, invincible, fearless, stoic in the face of sorrow or commitment and love – nothing or no one could bring her down.

And then she met her kryptonite and its name was Tina Kennard.  Her stoicism regarding love and commitment crumbled, but the lock remained strong on the lead-lined  sharing box of her vulnerabilities and fears of inadequacy.  No, not even Tina would be allowed to see that Bette Porter was not perfect.   She had her love and her commitment.   That would have to do.

Funny thing about our fears – we think weve locked them away out of harms way from intruders, even from our own examination, but theyre really very clever.  You release those initial ones of love and commitment and in time theyre sending back messages to the others of the greatness of freedom.  Sure its a little scary at times – thats the price of freedom.  We dont have to release them to the world.  We have to learn that its okay to hand them over at times for safekeeping to the person we trusted with our finest emotion – our love.   With that person we dont need to be perfect, we can be vulnerable; we can say Im afraid.     Even Superman had to reveal himself to the person he loved.