The gang was in the kitchen when Bette and Tina led in to join them for breakfast. They had that famous 'I fucked all night' look and, obviously, Alice immediately noticed it and couldn't help it, she teased the two women.
"You guys totally can't take your hands from each other, that's disgusting"
"I don't know what you're talking about" Bette pretended to be struck with amazement.
"Oh, tell it to the marines! We heard you"
"Mph!" Bette ignored her and sat at the table, fixing two cups of coffee. She handed one to Tina and gave her a malicious gaze. Their interaction was soon interrupted by their baby's voice.
"Mama, were you angry this morning?" Angie asked Tina.
"No, baby, why?"
"I heard you screaming a bad word"
Tina eyes wide open, Bette almost choked on her coffee.
"Ah, well... ah..." the blonde gave a 'help me' look at her wife.
"Huh, no baby, your mama was hurting because I'm a clumsy and I hit her with my elbow while I was having a bad dream..." she said with nonchalance.
The group burst out in laughter.
"Oh yeah, sure, you surely hit her but I doubt you did it with your elbow" Shane laughed.
"Shut up!" Tina blushed.
Angie, of course, fell for it. "Awww, mama got a boo-boo"
"Yeah, come here and give me a healing-kiss" Angie got closer and kissed Tina on her cheek then she approached Bette.
"A healing-kiss for mama B too, because she was having a bad dream"
"Owww, my sweet little monkey" Bette hugged her.
"Seriously, you guys need to be careful" Kit admonished, she was amused though.
"Jesus..." Bette rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her hand, then she looked at Tina, who gave her a 'what?' look.
The brunette mouthed, 'I told you not to be too loud'.
"So now it's my fault?"
Bette turned her head around and laughed.
They started the day laughing, there was nothing better than that.
After breakfast, they headed to the beach, again. The weather was even better than the day before. The women did their 'sunscreen-routine' and sat down on their beach towel, enjoying the warm sun.
Bette and Tina were sitting side by side. They never left space between them when they were in the same room or spot.
"You two are like you've been glued together" Alice said.
"We have to mend almost five years of breaking up" Bette uttered, leaning an arm around Tina's shoulders. As she did that, the blonde leaned her head into Bette's neck.
"Yuck!" Alice rolled over letting herself lay down on her chest.
"Mommy!" Angie took her mother's hand trying to pull her up.
"What, baby?"
"Come with me, I want to build sandcastles with you, please mommy"
"Sure, sweetie.
Go pick up your bucket, I'll be right there"
The little girl, excited, grabbed the stuff and waited for her mother.
"I'll go with there for a while", Bette smiled and gave a light peck on Tina's temple.
"Have fun, baby."
Tina admired that beautiful sight.
The sight of her wife and her baby, playing together. Nothing could compare that. The way Bette acted when she was with their daughter. She could feel the incredibly connection. Even if Angie wasn't her byological daughter, they were extremely and in any kind of way 'connected'.
She could even see some Bette's manners in Angie.
The way she slept. The way she showed her pout face. The way she always managed to argue her convinctions. Even if she was still a baby, she already had her strict convintions. One of the things she always loved about Bette.
She couldn't help but smile and couldn't stop staring at them.
The blonde didn't even realize she had been stared herself. She turned around and noticed her friends looking at her.
Everyone smiled and chuckled.
"You're goggling, honey" Kit said.
Tina immediately blushed. "Well," she pointed at Bette and Angie "Look at them... that's what I call perfection"
She was teary. Those was happy tears. Her heart filled with proud.
She was so proud to have such beautiful gift in her life.
"Hey, Tee?" Bette vowed. She noticed they were staring at them.
"Wanna go for a swim?"
"Sure, babe!" she gazed at her friends, "Want to join us?".
"Go ahead, we'll follow you" Shane replied.
Bette, Tina and Angie approached the seashore.
The little one started to ran back and forth, everytime the water came closer to her feet. As if that was a kind of catch game.
As soo as the water touched Bette's feet, the woman frozen.
"Jesus!"
"What? Don't tell me you changed your mind" Tina bantered.
"Of course not, that was just a momentary thing"
"Fine, after you then" Tina left out another banter.
"Huh, no... no no, after you... my beautiful wife" she pretended to be a gentlewoman. Actually the water was fucking cold and she hadn't the courage to dive into it.
Before Bette knew, Tina quickly dived into water.
Splashes hitted Bette, who gasped. "Freaking frack!" she avoided to curse, since her daughter was there.
"Come on, honey. The water is awesome."
"Yeah, sure" she rolled her eyes.
"You are the one who asked me to go for a swim, and suddenly you don't want to?"
"The water, is -mouthing- cold!" she finally admitted it.
Tina left out a huge laugh at her wife's statement.
She started to splash her. "Come on, before I'll get you..."
'Admitting it wasn't a good idea', Bette thought. She started to run.
The blonde came out the water and started to chase her.
"Come here, Bette Porter!"
Angie started to giggle and joined her mothers.
The group of women, that were still on their towels, enjoyed the show.
They couldn't stop laughind. Seeing Bette that vurnerable was one of the rarest things ever and that's was hilarious.
They laughed even harder when, finally, Tina managed to get Bette into the water. Or better: pushed.
Bette's head showed out water and gave Tina an evil look.
She stood there, without moving, for a while just to get used to the cold water.
Tina laughter increased as she saw her wife's expression.
"Baby, you —" she couldn't talk, she was laughing hard. "Your face is priceless"
Bette wanted to pretend to be irritated but she just couldn't. Watching her wife laughing was one of the best things ever. So she laughed as well.
Their friends waited a little while before joining the cute family.
All of them spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach and a couple of hours later, they headed to the house for dinner.
The weekend was coming to an end and Bette's concern about the day after was starting to show up. It even got worse when, somehow, they found themselves talking about which of them had any experiences with men.
"I've only been with men in my early years at college" Bette admitted. "Then I started to show some interest in one of my professors: Danica Palmer"
"Same here" Helena added.
The group of girls talked about their experiences and when Tina started to talk about herself, she unconsciously said his name: Eric.
"Fuck" Bette whispered.
"Babe, I'm —" Tina wanted to apology, but Bette cutted her off.
"Don't worry Tee, it's okay." she smiled weakly.
Of course, it was not. And Tina knew it.
The family exchanged goodbyes with their friends and thanked eveyone for the amazing weekend spent together. They got in the car and headed home.
The couple didn't talk much during the ride home.
Tina knew there was something else, about Eric, that was bothering her wife but she just waited to get home to talk.
They got home and as soon as they opened the front door, Bette led into the main bedroom, without any hesitation. No words uttered.
Tina puttered their daughter to bed and headed to the room.
She saw Bette, sitting on her side of the bed. She knew she was struggling inside.
She got closer, placing herself between the brunette's legs.
"Talk to me" she said, cupping her face.
Bette closed her eyes. She sighed.
"Baby, please, don't shut me out. You promised... you promised we were going to tell each other everything, no matter what" she caressed her jawbone. "Bette"
Bette slowly shook her head. "Please, please... I don't want you to go there, tomorrow. Please... I'm begging you... Please, Tee"
Tina understood her wife's concern but she was clearly irritated.
"Bette, I thought we got through this. You seemed to be okay with it... What else happened now?"
"I just... I don't want you to meet him. Please, Tina."
"No, Bette" she started pacing. "You can't ask me this! You can't. What is it? You're afraid of what, Bette? Of me, going back to men, or what? Talk... tell me what there is into your mind that bothers you that much to make you ask me something like that"
"I —" the brunette's breathe started to pant. She wanted to say something but she couldn't. Her breathe became more and more labored.
She was having a panick attack.
"You wha —" Tina was giving Bette her back, she didn't realize what was going on until she turned around. "Baby, what's going on?" she finally knew what was going on with her wife and sat next to her. "Baby you need to calm down okay? You need to calm down... Please, honey do this for me... Take a deep breathe" she cupped Bette's face, her breathe was more constrained. She led her head to her chest. "Listen to my breathe, follow my breathe, okay?
Follow it... try to follow my breathe" tears falling down Tina's cheeks. "Baby, please... I promise I won't get upset, we can talk... you can tell me everything, just breathe"
As she listened the blonde's words, she had been able to take a deep breathe that was capable to restore her natural breathe. She slowly started to feel better.
"Good, baby... you're doing great" she hugged her. "God, you scared the hell out of me. Don't do anything like this ever again" she cried without breaking the hug.
"I- I'm sorry..." Bette managed to say. Her breathe still a little discontinuous.
"You don't need to be sorry" she cupped her face. "Now, do you want to tell me what is it that bothers you this much?"
"Remember when a few days ago I told you about what he said to me that day?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, a few days later he came back..."
"St- stop it, you asshole!"
"What? Where did the almighty Bette Porter go, huh?"
"Stop it!" a younger Bette tried to escape from his grip. "Stop, you're hurting me"
"Oh, that's only the beginning, my dear!"
Eric grabbed her waist with force and pulled her back against the wall.
The woman tried to get rid of him, but he was too strong.
He didn't stop laughing. An evil, scaring laughter.
"Please, you're hurting me, don't do this."
"Shut the fuck up, you dirty dyke!" he started to rub his body against her. "I will show you how is it to be with a real man"
"Sto —" she gasped as he ripped up her skirt. "Stop... God, please!"
The woman couldn't help it but cry out loud.
She was shaking.
His hand roaming around her inner thigh...
"Oh God, please... Stop, honey stop" Tina begged her. She couldn't bear it. She was crying.
Her hands on her mouth. "Did he... did he" she swallowed. "You know..." she wanted to know if he, actually, did rape her. Her heart full of hope. She hoped it didn't happened.
Bette sighed and stared at the ground.
The silence spoke for her.
The blonde led her wife into a hug. Bette could hear her sobbing.
She left some tears leave her eyes.
"Why, why didn't you tell me this the other day?"
"Because I thought it was too much for you... to hear all these things at one time"
"You should've told me back in the day, you should've told me" she started to shake. "This is insane, you... should've reported him. He should be in jail!" her eyes burning in anger. "Fuck" she grabbed her own head with her hands.
"Baby, that's all in the past..."
"The hell it's not! Bette! The memory of what he did to you is still here..."
"Yes, but... this is not about me, right now. I am safe. I'm fine. What concerns me is the fact the you'll have to see him for so many days... I'm scared... You undrestand, now? Can you understand why I'm so fucking scared? I can't live with this fucking fear that he could hurt you..."
"Fuck! What am I supposed to do?"
"Quit your job" Bette pleased, again.
"I can't... Bette, I just can't"
Bette started sobbing.
"Baby, look at me..."
she placed a finger under her chin and turned Bette's face to look at her. "As I said the other day... It will be alright. I will be fine. I can't quit my job. I need this job and you know that... If I could I would find another way to get the funding for the project, but Mark decided, I can't do anything... Bette, please"
The brunette didn't say anything. She just looked into her wife's eyes. She knew she was right. She knew she needed that job. But she also knew that Eric was possibly going to hurt her and she couldn't think about it.
"Please, stay with the crew... stay with Mark, and lock your office door when you're alone, please" she was shacking.
"I will, baby, now lay down"
Both of them left themselves fall into the bed.
Tina cuddled her from behind and caressed her abdomen, trying to calm her down. Tina couldn't stop the increasing rage she was feeling inside, thinking about what that monster did to the love of her life. She wanted to do something, but at that moment, she couldn't do anything.
She just kept holding her.
A little while later, the couple fell into a deep sleep guided by the sound of each other's breathing.