Chapter 18

Three days that’s exactly how long
it had been since Bette had arrived in LA to sit by Tina’s side. Twenty four
hours ago Angie had showed up at her mother’s bedside in tears. Since then
Kasey, Angie and Maggie had been taking turns about staying in the room with
Tina but Bette had refused to leave her side even long enough to get a cup of coffee
so the other three women had been kind enough to bring her breakfast and
dinner.

Thankfully Bette had, had the
foresight to pack a couple of changes of comfortable clothes in her carry on.
But now she was down to her last clean pair of jeans and T shirt. Soon she was
going to have to leave her ex wife’s bedside to go do some laundry or she would
be wearing hospital scrubs. As her mind drifted from laundry back to the
Hawthorne novel in her hand that she read aloud from nightly to Tina she
noticed movement from the fingers of her right hand.

Moving a bookmarker in place she
closed the book and stood up stepping into her field of vision just as her eyes
fluttered open. As her eyes darted around the room looking for something
familiar Bette saw fear of being disoriented surface in her mind. Picking up
her hand she began rubbing soothing circles on it with her thumb as she spoke
in a soft voice.

“Hey T there you are?”

She paused for just a moment giving
Tina time to connect the face she was seeing with her once familiar voice then
she continued talking.

“T it’s alright your in the
hospital. You’re going to be just fine. “

She rubbed her fingertips across
her brow to smooth out the wrinkled lines of confusion and worry reflected on
Tina’s face. Knowing that this had always comforted her lover in the past when
she had been stressed Bette hoped that it still had the same effect on her now.

“B…Bette where am I? How did I get
here?”

“Tina you were hurt and you are in
Duke Memorial Hospital in LA. You were brought in by ambulance a few days ago.”

Tina tried to blink her eyes and
winced in pain as she tried to swallow and comprehend what Bette was telling
her.

Bette quickly poured her a small
cup of water and held it up close to Tina as she directed the straw between her
lips for a small sip of the clear liquid.