Thoughts of escape slipped quietly and quickly through her mind and then left for good, the minute Helena stepped foot in her house.

“Bette?” Helena walked slowly toward the hunched figure in her kitchen. She didn’t recall leaving the door unlocked…

“I used Tina’s key and she told me the code for your security system.” Bette’s voice choked. “She doesn’t want to get back together. Not yet, anyway.”

Helena moved carefully closer. She fought the urge to blurt out things about broken records and Bette and Tina’s constant back and forth. It had been weeks and weeks of this nonsense.

Bette nodded, tearful. “She wants to share custody, of course, but it means a lot of travel. I have to go…”

“Sure, yeah.” Helena leaned down, patted Bette’s shoulder. “So, ummm…”

“We’re not broken up, not completely anyway. Tina says she has to take some time, to think things over.” Bette took two calming breaths and her voice steadied.

Helena felt a stab of frustration. “And is that good enough for you?” Her question came out in a harsher tone than she had intended. Tina had changed, in many ways, but Helena was not entirely certain that the Tina who had once found herself throwing Bette under the bus in favor of Henry, was ever going to completely go away. That Tina could be as knee jerk as anybody Helena had ever known. As certain of her own happiness in external influences as every mere moral.

Bette stared incredulously, “Well, I mean…”

“Never mind. Just, take your time.” Helena stopped her and got to her feet again. “I’ll make dinner.” Her legs ached as she made her way around the kitchen. She rushed to find something quickly, before Bette continued drinking and crying and generally shaking what was left of Helena’s resolve to be the strong one in their disintegrating group. She searched as well for her cell phone that had been left off all day. Sixteen texts met her when she found the damned thing.

“Your sister wants to check in. Speaker phone?” Helena handed Bette the phone. She really just wanted Bette off of this same old loop. The loop that Tina put her on, where Bette constantly schemed and worried about creating the kind of life she wanted rather than living the life she actually had.