Any emotions that Bette had felt attempt to surface since Al’s phone call barring a few private minutes had been swept aside with a determination she wasn’t aware she even possessed.  Tina had always been the strong one, Tina had always been the one to pick her up when their separation became too much for her, Tina had always been her rock.  Now due to a cruel twist of fate their respective roles would be, had to be reversed. After a brief but much needed break down in the confines of the jet’s restroom, Bette swallowed her own grief, her own pain and swore to herself, to Tina, to whoever was privy to ones inner most prayers that she would pull Tina up from the   
depths of despair she would be in when…not if….Bette couldn’t even bring herself to think of any other alternative to the when…the when Tina came out of her coma.

Now looking through the glass pane to Tina’s private room that new found  determination was showing the first signs of weakness, so much so that she was glad that Al and Helena where standing either side and caught her before she fell to the floor in an emotional heap.

Taking a few minutes to regain her composure, Squaring her shoulders and filling her lungs to capacity Bette opened the door and entered Tina’s room and that is where she stayed for the next 2 days,  she only left Tina’s side when bodily functions deemed it absolutely necessary despite Doctors assurances the previously unthinkable…if…was slowly creeping into Bette’s thoughts.

The first of Tina’s senses to awaken was her sense of smell, the scent only adding to her fuzzy and confused mind, her last memory was travelling with her parents and brother back home where she was spending the first week of her summer vacation, then onward to Bette and the cooler shores of home.  

With each passing second the smell was becoming stronger and more recognizable.

Bette

As that thought registered she felt the weight currently laying across her abdomen, a soft hand holding hers. Still confused as to her location she opened her eyes and was surprised at the amount of effort it had taken to perform that simple task, blinking sporadically she waited until the blurriness cleared, ignoring her surroundings for now Tina focused on the familiarity of Bette’s dark curly locks and basked in the comfort and calmness the sight invoked, and an immensely contented sigh flowed freely from her lips.