Tina didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to react.  How could she, when she still didn’t understand what Bette made ‘go’.  Nothing beyond the fact it was something that was for their son.  The boy that they’d named George, after Bette’s beloved Grandaddy, but were to afraid to tell anyone in case it jinxed them.

Turns out they didn’t need to wait for the jinx.

Scooting down so Tina could spoon Bette from behind, he shushed her grieving wife with soft exhalations of love while gently running her finger through her hair.  “It’s going to be all right baby.”

“But I…”  Bette hiccuped.

“It’s okay love.”  Tina interrupted, not needing to hear Bette’s apology again.

“I couldn’t stop.”  Bette tried to explain again, to justify actions that didn’t need to be justified.  Tina knew that Bette didn’t mean anything by, whatever it was that she did.

Leaning over the reclining woman, Tina placed a tender kiss on her cheek.  “It’s okay.  Sleep now.”  She whispered, her voice intentionally pitched low.  Humming softly to ‘Riders on the Storm’, Tina held Bette until she was sure sleep had taken her.

Ten minutes later, she carefully extradited herself from Bette.  Standing, she arched her back, stretching it.  Taking a deep breath she determinedly marched to the guest room.  Their babies room.  The door was closed, as it had been every day and night since she’d – they’d lost him.

She was terrified, she hadn’t been in the room for weeks and she didn’t want to go in there now.  Resting her hand on the door she tried not to imagine her son sleeping in there, the teddy that Bette had bought wrapped tightly in his little arms as he snored.

Sighing, she opened the door.  “Bette,” she gasped looking around the room.  It was as if a tornado had landed.  “You broke it baby…”  Tina murmured, “you broke it good.”

“I can’t believe she is still asleep.”  Kit commented.

Tina nodded, her arms wrapped around one of the teddy’s they recovered from the room.  “She’s exhausted.”  She agreed.  It wasn’t a surprise given the state of disarray in the room.  The cot had been broken, smashed apart really and almost everything had be thrown about.

Kit leaned back on the armchair sipping her coffee.  “I’m glad you called me over.”

Tina nodded again.  It was hard to talk, hard to know what to say.  Bette had really broken it, she broke the room with a fury that Tina scarcely knew she could contain.  She’d always known that her fiery partner was passionate, she just never expected this.

“It’s going to be okay,”  leaning forward Kit deposited her coffee cup and the table.

Choking back tears, Tina shook her head furiously.  “No, it’s not Kit.”  Tucking the teddy under her chin she breathed it in, “I thought we were going to be okay, that we were getting better.”  Presenting the teddy as if evidence against the accused.  “We’re not Kit.”  Hot tears tracked her face unimpeded.  “She’s so angry, so broken Kit.”

“I know baby girl.”  Kit agreed, moving to sit on the lounge next to Tina.  “I know.”

Throwing the bear down Tina jumps to her feet.  “I didn’t know.”  She hissed, deliberately keeping her voice low as to not wake her slumbering partner.  “I didn’t notice that she was falling apart.”

Wrapping her fingers firmly around Tina’s arm, Kit almost pulls the woman back on the lounge.  “None of us did.”  Kit informed, trying to assuage her agitated sister-in-law.

Sinking into the lounge, Tina turned to Kit and whispered, “how could we miss it?”  Shaking her head in disbelief she repeats.  “How did we miss it?  I love her Kit, and I missed this…”  Breathing through her mouth, she tries to stem the tears.  “what else have I missed?”

With no answer to give, Kit enveloped her Tina in her arms and let her cry.