This chapter is quite a bit shorter than all the other chapters but it's only because it was the easiest point to break it off from the next chapter which I pinky promise will be up in the next few days (although I am nightshift tonight). Hope you all enjoy and thanks for keeping up with the story!

'Will you come dancing with me on Friday night?' Delia asked Patsy nervously. She knew it would be a big step for the redhead.

They were curled up in Delia's bed with Patsy's head on her stomach while Delia played with her hair. Patsy was drawing gentle circles on Delia's waist and their legs were intertwined. Patsy felt content.

Everything with Trixie was going great, except the constant questions that Patsy usually found quite embarrassing. So far she was the only flat mate that she had told / accidentally found out. She wasn't sure how Barbara, Cynthia and Winifred would take it and was not quite ready to find out. Although Trixie was the most important one to tell. So it relaxed her slightly that she knew and was perfectly okay with it.

But dancing was another step. That was out in public, not in the safety of either of their flats. Although two girls could go out dancing without it meaning anything, without anyone noticing anything. But it didn't mean nothing to them, it was something. An important step. A step that Patsy wasn't quite sure she was ready for yet.

'Patsy, not everyone will react the same way your father did' Delia whispered, once it was clear that she'd receded into her head again.

'I know that Delia'. Patsy stood abruptly and Delia realised she'd taken the wrong approach. 'I'm trying here. And I want to brave enough but I'm not. And I don't know what to do.'

Delia seemed to realise before Patsy did that she was crying. That it wasn't elegant crying with a few tears shed, it was chest heaving sobbing. Patsy didn't even realise that she was struggling to breath until Delia wrapped her arms tightly around her waist. Nor did she realise that her legs were giving way until Delia gently guided her to the floor.

She felt so pathetic, all this just because Delia asked her to go dancing. Girls go dancing together all the time. She wasn't even sure that Delia meant it as a date, for all she knew it could have been a group event. Well, she knew it was a date. Or else she wouldn't be in this mess on the floor. She truly did want to be brave, but she was so scared.

She still didn't know how to come out to everyone around her. In fact, she'd even googled different ways to do it, without telling Delia of course. To do it as a joke? To start making very obvious sarcastic jokes until people were basically expecting it? Baking a cake seemed to rather quite popular. But she would probably through them in the bin before she could actually hand them out. The brave part of her wanted to jump out of a wardrobe or cupboard and make a 'in the closet' joke, but she knew she would never actually do it. Her absolute favourite was a knock knock joke and somehow it was the one she was swaying towards.

Deep down, she knew it was all to do with her father. No matter what happened she always wanted to tell him things, even though they'd barely spoken in years. She wanted to update him on her life but more than that, she wanted him to ask, to care. She was 26 years old for heaven's sake, surely he wouldn't still see it as a phase she conducted to rebel. To act out because of everything she'd had to go through. She wanted to tell him and have a proper conversation. One that preferably didn't end in tears, raised voices and slamming doors.

'Talk to me sweetheart. You aren't in this alone.' Delia. Delia was the only thing keeping her afloat just now. Without her she'd still be repressing all of this.

'I want to tell my father.' Patsy tried to keep going but her voice was breaking. Delia gave her all the time she needed to calm down again. 'He thought it was rebellious phase I was going through, for the sole purpose to piss him off. I want to tell him it's real, that it's serious. That I'm happy.'

Why couldn't she just talk to Delia in normal situations? She always let things boil over and spill out in a mess. She had to start talking to her and telling her everything. This was the reason that Emily broke up with her all those years ago. Even if it wasn't a 'real' relationship, the reason it all ended was because she ended up in states like this. All because she couldn't talk about her emotions like a normal human being.

'I want to talk to you. I want to tell you everything.'