“I know, I know. It’s ok.” Bette whispered to her.

Shane came to the door way after putting Justine in a cab and giving the driver the money to take her home. She saw that they were alright and that she was no longer needed, she quietly closed the door and backed away from the house to go home. Bette walked Tina to the bedroom and sat her down. She got onto her knees and took off her shoes carefully placing them together and under the bed, she pulled Tina up and she took off her shirt and pants and folded them placing them in the chair across the room. As she was about to get the pajamas out she heard Tina say, “No, please just… come hold me right now, please.”

Bette closed the bag and sat down next to Tina on the bed, she took her hand and saw where her eyes were still red from the battle she was fighting with her emotions. She caressed her warm cheek and placed a soft kiss on her as she laid her down and pulled the covers over both of them, never breaking the hold she had on her body.

Bette woke up around 4 o’clock fully clothed and felt that Tina was no longer in bed. She sat up and heard the shriek of the water being turned off in the shower. Tina walked in still trying to get the towel wrapped around her, Bette sat at the foot of the bed silently. Tina saw Bette sitting up and wanted to voice what sat so heavily between them but she didn‘t know how to start the sentence and opted for silence instead. She hesitantly went to her bag searching for some clothes to put on. She started getting dressed still with a thick silence hovering in the room. She sat down on the side of the bed brushing her hair trying to avoid Bette’s eyes filled with concern and questions. She was done brushing her hair and didn’t know what else she could do with her hands, she kept fidgeting and didn’t know where to place them, finally she gave up and placed them under her thighs with her chin tucked into her chest. Bette felt Tina had stopped moving and looked back at her, she saw how defeated her body looked and didn’t know how to fix that. She pulled herself back until she reached the headboard and swung her leg over Tina’s head. She gently pulled her back and felt Tina give into her and scoot back into her body. She laid there with her head pressed to Bette’s soft flesh pacing her thoughts to Bette’s soft and steady heart beat.

“I never wanted to hurt her.”

“I know baby. It’s not you’re fault, Justine is a major force when she’s drunk.”

“How did you know she was drunk?”

“Because…” she sighed heavily, “I know Justine, better than I care to admit at times.” she said feeling Tina take her hand and let their fingers touch and move with each other. “I know that you’re not a mean person so she had to provoke you.”

“Yea she did.” Tina said still a little unconvinced, “I just don’t know if it warranted that level of restraint. I mean, I could’ve taken her down without fracturing her wrist.”

“You broke her wrist?”

“No, I said fracture. Meaning not completely broken.”

At this Bette smiled, because although she could never advocate Tina doing someone real bodily harm to anyone, she knew Tina was justified in her actions. “Baby you know as well as I do that sometimes it takes a drastic kick in the ass to make Justine do right. You did nothing wrong, you have to believe that.”

“After all we’ve been through look at what we‘ve become. I never wanted it to come to this. I know I shouldn’t feel this way but I can’t help it…”

“Baby you should never feel like you have to justify your feelings to me or anyone else. What your going through is for you to sort out, and I can only tell you that I’ll never judge you for what your feeling right now.”

“I knew… deep down I always knew we were going to break up. I never felt like it was going to last forever. But I never… never thought we’d be here, I can’t believe we’re to the point where we can’t be civil to one another. Honestly I thought Justine would’ve moved out by now and respected the fact that, that’s my house. But here she was tonight trying to persuade me to come back so she could stay in the house. Un-fucking-believable.” she said still playing with Bette’s fingers and keeping her eyes drawn on them.

TBC………………………………………………