p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie ran up the stairs, opening the corridor door and ran hurriedly down the corridor and banged on the door. ''Serena! Serena! Open up!'' She shouted distressed and scared. ''Serena! Please! Darling, open up!''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Fletch watched on as he backed into the wall with Jasmine stood next to him. ''Go get security Jas'' He said as he turned to Jasmine./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"4 weeks earlier./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie awoke to find Serena wasn't beside her. It had been 4 weeks since the death of Serena's daughter Elinor, and Serena was finding it hard to cope with. She had returned to work the week before, and had arrived home late almost every night. Bernie had her suspicions as to where Serena had been, but couldn't bring herself to pull Serena up about it, instead she just tried to be there for her, as her partner, a confidant and a friend. Bernie's heart was breaking watching Serena go through all this./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She looked at the clock on her bedside table, it said ''03:37''. Sitting up she heard sobs coming from the en-suite. She stood from the bed and walked over to the bathroom door, trying to open it. ''Serena? Darling. Can you open the door?'' She asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena jumped at Bernie's voice and covered her face with her hands as she sat over the toilet. ''Go away!'' she shouted between sobs. ''I can't Serena, and I'm not going too. Now please open the door'' Bernie replied./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''I..'' Serena uttered. ''Please darling, just open the door!'' Bernie pleaded as she tried to open the door once more. Serena admitted defeat and leaned up to the door handle to unlock the door before slumping back down to the floor. Bernie heard the door unlock and walked inside the bathroom. ''Oh Serena.. Darling'' She soothed as she sat down next to Serena and pulled her into her arms. ''Why didn't you wake me?''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena cried into Bernie's embrace. ''I.. I need to get up. Get ready, I need to go home''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''No.'' Bernie shook her head. ''You don't. You don't need to leave Serena. You can stay here, you know that. You can always stay here. I'm here, I'll always be here darling. We'll get through this, I promise. I know Elinor's not here anymore, but that doesn't mean her memory isn't or her spirit''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena pulled away from Bernie and scowled at her before getting up from the floor. ''How dare you?! How dare you say that? What right do you have Bernie? You didn't know her! She was my daughter, not yours!'' She shouted before running from the bathroom and grabbed her things from the bedroom./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''Serena! Serena, wait!'' Bernie shouted after her but Serena had gone. She walked into the bedroom and grabbed her phone and called Serena's number. ''Come on Serena. Come on. Answer''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena was walking down the street and heard her phone ring in her pocket, she stopped and checked her phone seeing it was Bernie, she declined the call and turned off her phone and continued to walk the 10 minute journey to her house. She arrived home and unlocked the door and walked inside. She dropped her things in the hall next to the door and made her way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine, she didn't bother to reach for a glass, she didn't care, not anymore. She opened the wine and began to drink from the bottle./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie pulled up outside Serena's and got out of the car. She walked up the door and tried the handle finding it unlocked and walked inside. ''Serena?'' She questioned as she wandered around the downstairs of the house, consequently finding her in the kitchen. ''Serena. Please, put the bottle down. This has gone on long enough''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena huffed and scowled at Bernie. ''Just go Bernie, get out! How dare you just walk in here Bernie! Just get out'' She shouted before barging passed Bernie, only for Bernie to gently grab Serena to prevent her from leaving. ''Serena. No! I'm not letting you do this, you're not gonna push me away anyway'' Bernie said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena tried to pull away. ''Get off me Bernie! Let me go!'' She scowled again. Bernie shook her head. ''No Serena, I won't let go. I won't sit by and watch you do this. Not anymore. I won't let you push me away'' Something then snapped in Serena and she struck Bernie. ''I said let go off me!'' She shouted as she hit Bernie again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie was taken aback and grasped her face where Serena had struck her. ''I-I..''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Fletch watched on as he backed into the wall with Jasmine stood next to him. ''Go get security Jas'' He said as he turned to Jasmine./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"span style="text-decoration: underline;"4 weeks earlier./span/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie awoke to find Serena wasn't beside her. It had been 4 weeks since the death of Serena's daughter Elinor, and Serena was finding it hard to cope with. She had returned to work the week before, and had arrived home late almost every night. Bernie had her suspicions as to where Serena had been, but couldn't bring herself to pull Serena up about it, instead she just tried to be there for her, as her partner, a confidant and a friend. Bernie's heart was breaking watching Serena go through all this./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"She looked at the clock on her bedside table, it said ''03:37''. Sitting up she heard sobs coming from the en-suite. She stood from the bed and walked over to the bathroom door, trying to open it. ''Serena? Darling. Can you open the door?'' She asked./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena jumped at Bernie's voice and covered her face with her hands as she sat over the toilet. ''Go away!'' she shouted between sobs. ''I can't Serena, and I'm not going too. Now please open the door'' Bernie replied./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''I..'' Serena uttered. ''Please darling, just open the door!'' Bernie pleaded as she tried to open the door once more. Serena admitted defeat and leaned up to the door handle to unlock the door before slumping back down to the floor. Bernie heard the door unlock and walked inside the bathroom. ''Oh Serena.. Darling'' She soothed as she sat down next to Serena and pulled her into her arms. ''Why didn't you wake me?''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena cried into Bernie's embrace. ''I.. I need to get up. Get ready, I need to go home''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''No.'' Bernie shook her head. ''You don't. You don't need to leave Serena. You can stay here, you know that. You can always stay here. I'm here, I'll always be here darling. We'll get through this, I promise. I know Elinor's not here anymore, but that doesn't mean her memory isn't or her spirit''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena pulled away from Bernie and scowled at her before getting up from the floor. ''How dare you?! How dare you say that? What right do you have Bernie? You didn't know her! She was my daughter, not yours!'' She shouted before running from the bathroom and grabbed her things from the bedroom./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"''Serena! Serena, wait!'' Bernie shouted after her but Serena had gone. She walked into the bedroom and grabbed her phone and called Serena's number. ''Come on Serena. Come on. Answer''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena was walking down the street and heard her phone ring in her pocket, she stopped and checked her phone seeing it was Bernie, she declined the call and turned off her phone and continued to walk the 10 minute journey to her house. She arrived home and unlocked the door and walked inside. She dropped her things in the hall next to the door and made her way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine, she didn't bother to reach for a glass, she didn't care, not anymore. She opened the wine and began to drink from the bottle./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie pulled up outside Serena's and got out of the car. She walked up the door and tried the handle finding it unlocked and walked inside. ''Serena?'' She questioned as she wandered around the downstairs of the house, consequently finding her in the kitchen. ''Serena. Please, put the bottle down. This has gone on long enough''/p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena huffed and scowled at Bernie. ''Just go Bernie, get out! How dare you just walk in here Bernie! Just get out'' She shouted before barging passed Bernie, only for Bernie to gently grab Serena to prevent her from leaving. ''Serena. No! I'm not letting you do this, you're not gonna push me away anyway'' Bernie said./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Serena tried to pull away. ''Get off me Bernie! Let me go!'' She scowled again. Bernie shook her head. ''No Serena, I won't let go. I won't sit by and watch you do this. Not anymore. I won't let you push me away'' Something then snapped in Serena and she struck Bernie. ''I said let go off me!'' She shouted as she hit Bernie again./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Bernie was taken aback and grasped her face where Serena had struck her. ''I-I..''/p