“Freedom, at last.”  Bette whispered, her voice hoarse with sleep.

Tina shook her head, smiling at the exaggerations.  They had been here for nearly 3 hours waiting to see a doctor.  Three hours of walking the halls, and waiting for word; of holding Kit’s hand, and then Helena’s.  Three long hours of not knowing, and of Bette going in and out of consciousness.

It was a little known fact but Bette hated hospitals, and doctors; Bette hated being sick.  When she was she would stubbornly deny it and every overture made in the pretence of getting her ‘better’.  It was a minor miracle that Bette agreed so readily to come to the hospital, a simple testament as to how bad she was feeling.

“C’mon, lets get you home you little faker.”  Tina joked, reaching down to help Bette to her feet.  Slowly Tina got her elbow under Bette’s arm, holding onto Bette’s swaying body tightly.  “Are you okay?”

It was never the best question to ask Bette because sometimes she lied, telling the asker what she thought they wanted to hear.  Other times she became annoyed, hating to have people question her physical and/or psychological fitness.  Then there were those times when Bette wouldn’t say a word, and just smile.  Those where the times that Tina loved the most, because it was Bette thanking her for the thought behind the questions, and admitting non-verbally to her that she really wasn’t okay.

Tonight she got the smile, and it made her heart soar as much as it made her chest tight.  Tonight had been a roller coaster, and selfishly she had not been thinking about the death of Jenny, her focus has been on the live and very distraught Bette.

“The doctor said it wasn’t anything to worry about.”  Bette said in response to the frown that lined Tina’s face.  The tired woman worried that Tina was left to pick up all the pieces, their friends, their daughter an herself and that Tina hadn’t really had a chance to take care of herself.

Bette hated that she didn’t have the strength to take the worry off her fiancé’s shoulders.

Tina smiled, tugging Bette’s arm over her shoulder so she could steady the flailing woman as they walked out to the car.  “No, the doctor said it wasn’t life threatening.  He is still concerned Bette and we are going to the GP tomorrow, and the specialist the following week.”