5 weeks later

“Daddy shouting and screaming is not going to make me change my mind…I am not coming back….my home is here now with Tina”  Bette removed the phone from her ear and waited until her fathers rants had subsided.

Taking on a more serious tone Bette continued “Daddy….please do not make me choose….because there will only ever be one winner”

Again she removed the phone from her ear and waited.

“Threatening to come over here and drag me back kicking and screaming isn’t going to work….I love you but I have made my decision and that’s final….I have to go….bye”  Bette put down the phone and muttered to herself “That went well” as she made her way back to join Tina in the bedroom they had shared for the last 4 weeks.

“How did it go”  Tina couldn’t hide the anxiety she was feeling, despite Bette’s  promise she was still terrified that at the last minute Bette would change her mind and return to England to finish her degree.  

“Don’t look so worried T…I’m not going anywhere”  

Bette noticed the colour returning to Tina’s cheeks and covered the hint of smile on Tina’s lips with a soft kiss.

“One down one to go…..I am more nervous facing Peggy than I was making that phone call”  

Bette wasn’t the only one that was more nervous about her pending lunch date with the formidable Peggy Peabody.  Tina had never met Helena’s mother but she knew how highly Bette regarded her, she had voiced on several occasions that Peggy treated Bette like she was one of her own and according to Helena better than her own.

This lunch was the last minute that Tina had been dreading, if anyone could talk Bette into leaving her it would be Peggy.  Bette was the only thing that was keeping her  head above water and she had been clinging on because she was sure her life did depend on it.  In an attempt to re-iterate this fact she pulled Bette towards her and held her as tight as humanly possible.

Despite losing the ability to breath in Tina’s constricting embrace, Bette waited until she felt Tina’s grip loosen before pulling back slightly, not for the first time she wondered if the cloudiness in the tear filled eyes currently looking back at her would  one day disperse.  If time and love was all it would take for that cheeky glint to once again grace those sad filled hazel eyes then that one day would come as Bette knew she had both the required ingredients in abundance.