“But the police-”

“Oh, screw the police! What have they done to help us?”

Bette quickly stood at her wife’s side and ran her hands gently down Tina’s arms. “Hunny … I love you so much, and I’ll do whatever you think is best … but let’s think about this, okay? If we just disappear … don’t you think people will worry?”

Tina tried to hold it in, but all she could do was cry. She felt like no one had been worrying at all. She felt trapped and afraid, and even when she had tried to face the stalker; it hadn’t gone as she’d hoped. It was all too strange and peculiar to put her at ease. Still, Tina knew her wife was right, and after her cleansing cry on Bette’s shoulder, she lifted her head with an expression of defeat. “Okay,” she drawled with frustration, “Okay … fine. But can’t we stay anywhere else? … I don’t feel safe here.”

“Hey, why don’t we stay at Pat’s place, hmm? I bet she’d take us in for a night.”

“No … no, I couldn’t do that to someone,” Tina groaned, pulling at her own hair to show her frustration subconsciously. “Pat already put herself in that position …” She felt completely trapped in their situation – worried and skeptical the chaos would ever end. “Bette – I don’t know what to do. Am I losing my mind?”

Dutifully, Bette calmed Tina on their couch after she changed the alarm code, and called Annette back at the threat management unit. Bette requested for someone to stay at their place overnight for security’s sake, and while Annette knew that many of her officers would have leapt up with excitement at that opportunity, Annette had to turn down the worrisome couple.

“We don’t do that, I’m sorry,” she answered matter-of-factly, offering instead to have them come down and sleep at the police station. It wasn’t much, but it was all she could offer, but Tina insisted she wouldn’t feel safe there, either. Anyone could enter, and she didn’t trust random officers much to protect them after all they had been through.

At long last, they found sleep at another one of Bette’s friend’s houses – Alice. The woman certainly talked up a storm, but they felt nice and relaxed in the company of another couple: Alice and her girlfriend Dana. The two ladies were so silly in fact that Bette and Tina just nearly forgot about their predicament. For one night, they tried to push that all aside, and they enjoyed one another’s company, sitting on the couch to watch a movie together. It was a romantic comedy, where Bette rolled her eyes at all the predictable moments, and where Tina cried at the crescendo climax of the film. Bette and Tina insisted on taking the couches – simply pushed together – and they ate junk food and talked until they fell asleep on each other.