Part 4: Serena

The next day, Thursday, Amy awoke early and spent a good deal of the morning on the phone with the airport trying to secure a reservation on a flight north. As it turned out, a lot of people were headed in that direction, and the next available flight did not leave until tomorrow morning. Despite her frustration, Amy was forced to accept it; she had little other alternative. She soon realized that the reservation had been the easy part. With a deep, steadying breath, she dialed the hospital.

"St. Katharine's hospital, this is Helen speaking."

"Helen, it's Dr. Anderson."

"Amy?! Jesus, where have you been? Do you have any idea what's been going on!?" said an angry, yet slightly relieved voice on the other end.

"Yeah, I heard about the quake."

"Just now!? Amy, we've been trying to get in touch with you for three days!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. I forgot my charger and my phone died. I had to borrow one from a friend." Amy tired using the bullshit story she had concocted the previous day.

"It took you three days to ask for a charger?" They weren't buying it.

"Look, I'm booked on a flight back tomorrow morning, Ok? I'll be there tomorrow."

"You better be. Dr. Morrel needs all hands on deck, and believe me, your absence hasn't gone unnoticed."

"Hey, I told him I was going on vacation this week, and the hospital approved the vacation time."

"This is a crisis, honey. He's not gonna give two shits about your 'vacation time.' You better get back here as fast as you can."

"I will, I will…I'll talk to you later, Helen."

"Alright, bye."

Amy hung up, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes as she struggled to compose herself.

Great, now I may just lose my job too. Damn it! This whole week is turning into utter shit!

Not only that, but she still had to tell the others that she was going to have to cut vacation short.

Lita…how will she take it? What if she gets even more angry than she already is?

Anxiety filled Amy's heart as she sat down at the table for breakfast. Lita had made pancakes. Mina, Raye, and Serena chatted happily and dug in while Lita and Amy, seated across from one another, picked at their food, as usual, and didn't say much. Neither would make eye contact with the other. The others seemed to have given up on repairing the divide between the two and let them be. As the silence wore on, however, Amy struggled to break the news to them.

C'mon, it doesn't do any good to just sit on it. They'll have to be told sooner or later. Now is as good a time as any. Goddammit, this isn't working. You're a surgeon, you hold life and death in your hands almost every day, how can you not do this one simple thing?!

She looked up and was greeted by a pair of green eyes staring right at her. "How is your food?"

Amy was dumbfounded. Did Lita just speak to her? The rest of the girls had gone quiet as well, apparently equally as surprised. The bluenette's mouth opened, but no words came out. Her mind had temporarily frozen.

Well? Say something! The voice screamed at her.

After several agonizing seconds that felt like hours, Amy managed to push the breath through her vocal cords and make words. "I…I have to leave tomorrow."

No, not that!

"What?!" all four women gasped with one collective breath.

Lita stared at her in utter disbelief. Well, it was too late to go back now.

"I…uhhh…I have to leave. I've already booked a seat on a flight home tomorrow. An emergency has come up and they need me back at the hospital."

"But you only just got here!" Serena cried indignantly.

"Actually, I've been here for four days."

"But you said you'd stay the whole week, though." Said Mina, equally incredulous.

"I know, I'm sorry, but I have to go. The chief surgeon wants everyone on call to deal with the earthquake victims."

"Dammit Amy, this is the first time we've gotten to see you in years!" Raye added her own bucket full to the growing pool of resentment.

"I know, I know…I am sorry, but it's my job."

She looked back over at Lita. Those green eyes were now murky, and she could see tears forming on the edges. Amy reached to touch the brunette's hand.

"Lita, I…" she never got to finish. Lita stood up abruptly and marched off out of the kitchen toward her room. A few seconds later, Amy heard the door slam.

Rather than adding to her guilt, however, Lita's reaction ignited a burning spark of resentment within her. She stood up and glowered at her friends.

"Damn it! Is no one here willing to take this maturely?! I have to go! It's my job, my duty! Some of us still have responsibilities. You're all acting like pouty teenagers!" and with that, the doctor stopped off to her own room.

It wasn't their fault, Amy. That accursed voice chastised her as she flopped down on her with a groan of frustration. What will you do, when you've run out of others to blame?

Lita remained in her room for most of the day. Raye and Mina headed out to do some shopping together, although Amy had a feeling they did it more to escape the intense, palpable tension that drifted through the air like an early morning mist. A few hours after the tense breakfast, Amy headed out back. She was wearing a pair of shorts, and decided to sit down on the edge of the pool and dip her legs in the cool, refreshing water. As she did so, her eyes fixed on the place where she and Raye had had sex only two days ago.

Why did I do it? Because I was feeling lonely? Horny? Why did I have sex with Lita? This whole trip has been nothing but complicated since I did.

Why indeed? The answer to the Raye question was fairly simple: Raye had been horny and Amy had needs, pure and simple. In the case of Lita, however, the answer was far more complicated. A quick comparison between her encounter with Lita, and the one with Raye quickly proved that the former was not driven by lust, like the latter. The idea of sleeping with Lita had struck Amy as the most natural thing in the world. Lita had not had to put any real effort into seducing her, she had melted right into her loving embrace. There was no way out of the fact that she had enjoyed their early morning 'breakfast.' In fact, that moment had probably been the happiest, and most intimate, of any thus far this summer. It reminded her of her encounter with Mina in the shower, the loving touches, the passionate kisses shared, and the whispered words of love and endearment. Mina was right, passion was free flowing, and the passion and friendship that Amy felt for Lita had long ago transformed into something more. The funny thing was, she couldn't pin down just when it had happened. Was it when they had first slept together, or was it over the course of those many sessions of intimacy that she had grown to love the brunette? Perhaps it wasn't even because of the sex. Maybe she had always loved her, and it had taken that physical experience to realize it. Every relationship she had had since: the boy she had left Lita for, the two in college, that intern…they had all ended the same way. She seemed incapable of holding onto a partner, and she had always blamed her job for that. Yet, even after not seeing each other for over fifteen years, She and Lita had made love to one another in that kitchen as if their intimate connection had never been severed. There was only one logical conclusion:

I love Lita. Amy realized, a feeling of relief washing over her as if she some great event that she had been expecting for a while had finally come to pass. The issue that now confronted her was how to repair the rift that had grown between them.

She's already angry about you not loving her.

But I do love her.

A fact that you have only just now come to terms with. Do you think, especially after this morning, that she will be as forgiving as you have been to yourself for your ignorance?

Lita was not her only concern. She would have to apologize to her other friends for taking out her anger and frustration on them as well. It was going to be a long day. Suddenly, Amy felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Serena staring down at her with sympathetic eyes.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked.

Amy shook her head, and the latter plopped down beside her, slipping her own slender legs into the bright blue water. "So the girls and I figured that, since this is your last night with us, we'd hit the town and check out one of the local nightclubs. I hear this town has a great party scene."

"I don't know…" Amy muttered. Her enthusiasm for any such debauchery was decidedly curbed.

Serena gave her a concerned look and reached over to gently lay a hand on her shoulder. "What's the matter Amy?"

It was a question that the doctor had been expecting, but not this soon. Still, she recognized that here was an opportunity to make one apology.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone off on all of you like that. It wasn't your fault." The bluenette said humbly.

Serena reached over and gave her an awkward half hug. "It's alright, Ams, we know you didn't mean it. You've got a lot on your plate, but something's been bothering you ever since you got here. I can see it in your face every time I look at you. Maybe if you talk about it, you'll feel better."

Amy's first thought was to confess her feelings for Lita, but somehow she felt that that wasn't what Serena was after. It was something deeper. The blonde had always had a knack for finding the deepest inner turmoil of her friends and bringing them to light. She was healer, like Amy, but of a different kind; a spiritual healer. So what was truly bothering her?

"I…I remember the first time I ever had someone die on the operating table." Amy began slowly.

"That's what been bothering you?"

"No, no, I just…I remember how helpless I felt. There he was dying and there was nothing I could do about it, you know. Ever since that day…I realized how precious it is to have someone's life in my hands, dependent on my ability to keep them from slipping away, and…all I could think was that if I had just put in that extra bit of effort he might have lived."

"It wasn't your fault."

"That's what they told me, and I know that, but still…it doesn't keep you from wondering. Ever since then I told myself that I would always put my patients first…before anyone else, even myself."

"We all understand why you need to leave, Amy. No one is blaming you or judging you."

"Except Lita…"

Serena sighed. "Lita is a special case. She really likes you, in fact she loves you. The issue is that she feels that you will always choose something else over her, and she's not entirely wrong is she?"

"How do you know that?"

"Because you just said that you put your job before anything else."

"No, I mean, how do you know that she feels like I always choose something else over her?"

"She told me, yesterday when we were driving back from the beach together. She went on a long rant about it that lasted the entire car ride home. It was feeling pretty exhausted near the end, let me tell you."

Amy was silent for a minute as she stared at her distorted feet in the water. "I want a relationship…" she said at last, "…I want someone to hold at night. The loneliness, it…it can be unbearable sometimes."

"I think you should tell that to Lita."

"But it's not that simple, my job is still a factor here. Mina said that passion is free flowing, and I know she's right, I can love Lita with as much passion as I care for my patients with, but it still doesn't change the fact that I am having to choose between Lita and my duty as a doctor. I feel like wanting a relationship for myself is just pure selfishness."

"It sounds to me like you're putting too heavy of an expectation on yourself. You're only human, Amy, you need to remember that. You can't save everyone, and what real good does it do if you sacrifice yourself in the process?"

"Maybe I don't matter that much."

"You know that's not true, you mean a lot to many people, and I'm certainly one of them. If you want to find someone to love, you need to start loving yourself again." As she spoke, Serena stood, shaking her wet feet a little. "Talk to Lita, Ams. You have to talk to her. If nothing else, don't leave with this wound between you. It will only fester with time."

With that, Serena headed back in doors. She paused just as she opened them, however, and turned back to shout: "You're coming with us tonight, even if Raye and I have to drag you to that car and lock you in the trunk."

Amy laughed, what was probably her first laugh of the day, and it was well past lunch. Then she went back to pondering over what Serena had told her.

You've spent the past fifteen years of your life serving people. The voice reassured her. Perhaps you've finally earned a bit of selfishness. That was it then. She would talk to Lita before she left.

No matter what.

Mina and Raye did not return from their shopping trip till close to dinner time. Lita emerged from her room, eyes puffy and red as if she had been crying, to make them all a meal. Amy sat next to Serena. They had spent most of the day together, and Serena seemed intent on cheering up her friend any way she could. They had watched one of those cheesy medical dramas on TV (while Amy had a fun time comparing real hospital life with Hollywood's version), and later had spent some time just sitting around swapping funny stories. As a result, Amy felt comparatively happy upon sitting down at the table that evening. After dinner, the five retreated to their respective rooms (except for Mina and Raye, who used the bathroom) to change into their outfits for the evening. Amy had only brought one really "night out" dress. It was a turquoise color, and the hem stopped just above her knee. The back collar did not dip very low, but the front showed off a bit more cleavage than the normally bashful doctor would have preferred.

Fuck it, it's your last night on vacation. Go out and live a little. She decided.

After spritzing up her hair a little, and adding some make-up, Amy headed out the door with the others. Lita declared her intention to ride with Mina and Raye, which left Amy riding with Serena. The pair hopped into Serena's car and followed Mina's out into the sea of lights that was the city.

"This is so exciting!" Exclaimed Serena, "I haven't been out to a club in years."

"I'll bet we'll be the oldest ones there." Amy laughed.

"Age isn't just about the physical aspect." Said the blonde dismissively, "You can be fifty years old physically, but twenty in spirit."

"You think any of the young college students will hit on us?" the bluenette asked with a giggle.

"They might hit on you. You look beautiful in that dress."

"Thank you, you too."

Amy gazed over Serena. She looked like a goddess fallen from fable Olympus. She wore a bright white dress that only went about halfway down her thighs and revealed a generous, but not obscene, amount of cleavage. The spaghetti straps also gave anyone who might be interested a good showing of her shoulders and neck. Her hair was wrapped in two tight buns on either side of her head with a stream of hair cascading down from each bun.

She almost does look like a bunny. Amy thought with amusement.

After driving around for a bit, they finally parked at a club called "Neo-Gem." Mina led the way to the door and, as soon as the bouncer recognized her, they were all let in free of charge. The place was certainly busy for a Thursday night. Plenty of people, most of them, as Amy predicted, young men and women in their twenties, were dancing on the floor or chatting and laughing around the bar or scattered tables.

"Wait here." Mina ordered before heading off into the crowd. A few minutes later, she returned with a large, heavy set fellow. "He's going to show us to the VIP section." The pop star explained as the man led them through the crowd.

Amy couldn't believe it. The perks of being best friends with a famous pop star I guess.

They were taken to a side section that had been roped off from the rest. It had several large, very comfortable couches, and a long table. After setting her stuff down on the table, Mina led Raye off toward the dance floor.

"Alright! Let's hit the bar." Said Serena enthusiastically before heading off as well.

That left Amy with Lita. The sat on opposite ends of the couch, a bubble of awkward silence surrounded by a din of lights, loud music, and partying. Neither said anything at first, each seemingly preferring to wait for the other to break the ice. At last, Amy decided that one of them had to make a move.

"We, uhhh, we need to talk."

"Yeah, we do."

"Lita, I…."

Lita seemed intent to speak first, however. "You never called, you know, you never visited, you never even emailed. It was like you just completely forgot about me."

"No, I didn't, things got complicated. I had responsibilities…"

"Bullshit…"

"What do you mean 'bullshit?!'" Amy demanded, her temper flaring.

"Don't talk to me about responsibilities, Amy, I have my cooking show and three different contracts with three other shows. You're not the only one who has a job to think about, and despite all of it, I still found time to think about you. I remembered your birthday, even, which is more than you can say." Lita looked at her, her eyes narrowed accusingly. "So don't use your career as an excuse for not wanting me."

"Lita, I understand you're upset, I really do. I've been stupid, and I've ignored what's between us for years."

"Ignored?! Amy, you've been utterly oblivious. You left me the first time to go chasing after some jocular asshole, and then you spent the rest of those years chasing your medical degree. Do you have any idea how much it hurt me when you let Mina move in with you? I'd been asking you if you wanted to share a place since we started college!"

"That was different, she just needed a place to stay for a bit!"

"Didn't stop you from fucking her, did it?"

"It was one time! It didn't mean anything!"

Lita stood up and turned away with a grunt of frustration. Amy remained seated, but stared at the back of the closest friend she'd ever had; the woman who, as she was coming to realize with each passing minute, she was deeply in love with.

"Lita…I'm sorry, ok. I'm sorry it took me this long to realize that…that I love you. I was just so caught up in my career and so…so swept up in the current of life that I never stopped to really understand what it was I wanted. I never wanted out friendship to end, and I guess I was afraid that if we tried to be more than friends than things would fall apart."

The brunette shook her head. "We were more than friends for months in high school, Amy, and we did just fine. That's just another bullshit excuse."

"What do you want me to say, Lita?"

There was pause. "I want you to say that you'll stay." The chef replied at last.

"What?"

"Don't leave tomorrow, stay the rest of the weekend like you said you would."

Now it was Amy's turn to sigh in frustration. "I can't do that. It would cost me my job, and there are people who are depending on me."

Lita laughed, though it was completely devoid of any mirth, almost bitter. "Then you're still choosing your career over me, just like you've always done."

"Why do I have to choose, Lita?! I'm not asking you to give up cooking for me!" Amy demanded angrily.

"You wouldn't have to. I would do it in a second." Lita turned to face her, and Amy was surprised to see tears in her eyes. "So fine, go be Dr. Dorian and save the world. I won't hold you back anymore."

"Lita…LITA…!" Amy called after her as the brunette strode out of the VIP section.

Damn it! Why!? Why does it have to be like this! Tears began flowing down Amy's cheeks as well. She was unable to sit still another minute, and so she jumped up off the couch and made a beeline for the bar, her tears reflecting the haze of lights that flashed every color imaginable. Serena was already there and had two empty glasses on the counter in front of her.

"Hey, Amy, there you are! C'mon, I'll buy you your first drink." She offered with a smile that quickly faded upon seeing the distress on her friends face and the trails of tears that glistened in the strobing light. "You look like you could definitely use one."

"Yeah…"

"Do you wanna talk about it?"

"No."

The blonde nodded understandingly and ordered some strange sounding drink (My-something). After some quick sleight of hand work, that Amy might have found impressive had she been in better circumstances, the bartender slid her a tall glass of orange colored liquid. For a while Amy sipped at the beverage, the alcohol tasting as bitter on her tongue as Lita's words of disappointment and rejection. Serena, on the other hand, knocked back another glass of whatever she was drinking.

"God, I cannot even remember the first time we drank together." She mused, her voice a little slurred.

She's always been a bit of a lightweight.

"I think it was that graduation party we went to in high school."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that."

"Me too."

It had actually been Raye who had talked them into going. "C'mon, we're gonna be in college soon. Better get used to the taste of alcohol." Lita and Mina had both declined, the former because she had work in the morning, and the latter because she was going out to dinner with her family to celebrate her graduation. Still, Amy and Serena agreed (actually, it was more like Raye drafted the both of them) to go.

So they went to massive house of some rich, popular girl who Raye knew. The place was already packed full of seniors who were either drunk or working on it by the time the girls got there. Amy had felt nervous. She was a rare breed: a high school student who had gone the whole four years without touching a drop of alcohol. It was only after Serena revealed that she too had never drank before that the medical student felt a little better. At first Amy tired the beer, but found the taste so repulsive, that she switched to some fruit flavored wine coolers.

"Bitch drinks." Raye had teased while knocking back shots of Bacardi Rum.

By her third drink, Amy was starting to get a fuzzy feeling in her head, almost like someone was tickling her brain stem. Despite this, however, people kept handing her drinks and it felt impolite to not drink them. By about her sixth drink Amy was having trouble walking straight, or even staying on her feet. Serena was in a similar shape, both laughing at the other's stumbling.

"You're drunk."

"No, you're drunk."

"You're both drunk." Raye had observed with amusement.

At some point, Amy wasn't sure when, the time seemed to blur together into one long, seamless haze of drinking, dancing, and laughing, Raye pulled the three of them into a large circle in the living room where their peers were having a rousing, drunken game of "Truth or Dare?" Amy had a fun time listening to drunk teens spilling their darkest secrets ("Have you ever used a blow up doll before?" "Yep.") or performing crazy stunts ("I dare you to balance that glass on your head for ten second." "Easy." CRASH! "Guys, those are my mom's good drinking glasses!") up until the moment that the eyes fell upon her as the ominous question was asked: "Truth or Dare?"

"Dare!" the bluenette announced, feeling bold (maybe it was the alcohol).

"Ok…" said the girl in charge thoughtfully. Then, she grinned mischievously. "…I dare you to play "Seven Minutes in Heaven" with whoever this bottle lands on." She took an empty beer bottle from the table nearby and placed it on the floor in the center of the circle before giving it a spin.

Amy felt sick to her stomach. The thought of having to make out with some stranger in a dark closet did not appeal to her, even while intoxicated. She watched anxiously as the bottle slowed and finally came to a halt, it's lipped tip pointed at none-other-than a very startled Serena. Several of the men cheered and whistled. Cries of "do it right now!" rang out. Raye, however, grabbed the two girls and led them to the pantry in the kitchen.

"I…I don't really wanna." Amy muttered, trying to fight past the liquor induced haze around her brain to formulate an argument.

"It's a dare, you have to. Don't worry, I'll make sure you two aren't disturbed." Raye assured her and, true to her word, stood guard outside the door, threatening to "knock the lights out" of anyone trying to take a peek.

At first Amy stared at Serena rather uncomfortably beneath the single bulb in the ceiling providing light to the cramped space.

"So…uhhh…what should we…" Amy began, but was cut off by Serena's lips crashing into hers.

At first it was a little awkward, and messy, but eventually Amy found herself enjoying her friend's soft lips (they still had a hint of alcoholic taste on them) as they made out. Whether it was the alcohol, or just Serena (she looked beautiful) Amy did not know, but she suddenly found herself feeling incredibly horny. The pair separated after a minute or so, and she looked into Serena's eyes where, surprisingly, she saw the same lust reflected in the blonde's blue eyes. They kissed again, but this time much more intimately, and Amy began kissing a line down her friend's neck, causing her to sigh with pleasure. Before long, she had Serena stripped naked from the waist down, and "Seven Minutes in Heaven" became seven minutes of sucking on Serena's clit. The pair was locked in a heated kiss with Amy's pants around her knees and Serena's hand down the bluenette's panties when there was a loud knock on the door.

"Ok, you two, it's been more than seven minutes, other people want to use the pantry." Raye's voice brought them crashing out of their alcohol, lust driven lovemaking.

"Shit!" Amy swore as she pulled her pants back up while Serena struggled to get her own clothes back on. Once they were decent, Amy opened the door and the pair left the pantry as coolly as possible. That didn't stop the whistles and cheers of the onlookers, however. Once they were out, Amy decided that she had had enough and called Lita to ask if she could give her a ride home. As she waiting outside for her friend to arrive, Raye approached.

"Sounds like you and Serena had a fun time in the pantry." She said with a teasing smile. She most likely knew what had happened. Serena had not exactly been quiet while Amy ate her out. The medical student blushed (although it was hard to tell through the heat of the alcohol).

"Don't worry." Raye assured her. "What happens at the graduation party, stays at the graduation party.

That seemed to be the case. Serena did not talk about that night, or at least not what they had done in the pantry together, for a while. In fact, it wasn't until their junior year of college that the blonde admitted to Amy that it had been her first lesbian encounter, and that she had had several more over the course of her college career, all of which occurred while she was drunk.

"You know, for the most part I like penis, but if you get enough booze in me, I guess I can do women." Serena had said with a laugh.

Amy certainly knew that.

Amy continued to mope at the bar for the rest of the night, nursing her one drink which, by the time an hour had gone by, she had drunk very little of. By now Serena was definitely feeling the effects of her own collection of glasses that had formed around her, and she stumbled off onto the floor to 'dance,' although the only move she seemed able to perform at the moment was the wobble. That left Amy alone at the bar.

You need to straighten things out with Lita before you go. You can't leave it like this. It can't end like this.

How? She won't talk to me. I don't know what to do.

"Would you give up on a patient?"

"Never."

"Then never give up on her."

"Good evening." The voice shook Amy from her thoughts, and she looked beside her to see a young man, probably in his mid-to-late twenties with wavy brown hair and wearing a blue polo t-shirt, smiling at her.

"Hi." She replied flatly.

"Do you come here to mope often?"

"Excuse me?"

"You looked rather sad just now, and I thought to myself, 'a lady who looks that beautiful shouldn't be drinking alone, especially if she's despondent.'"

"And you decided you'd come and keep me company?"

The man smiled. "A gentleman would."

Amy smiled as well, more sardonically, but the man seemed to take it as encouragement and sat down in a chair next to her. He must have splashed on a gallon of cheap cologne before coming to the club because the smell, a harsh, chemical lavender, invaded every inch of her nostrils.

He smells like a man out to score. She thought.

"So, what's your name?" The man asked the inevitable question shortly after taking a seat.

"Amy."

"That's a pretty name?"

"Why?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What's so pretty about it?"

The man fell silent for a minute, then finally shrugged. "Nothing, to be honest. I was just trying to cheer you up."

"Well you're doing a poor job at it."

"Don't you at least want to know my name."

"Not particularly."

"My name's Michael."

"Uh huh."

"I'm a programming specialist, actually, I work for this big company that specializes in software products for the hearing impaired."

"I'm a doctor, I cut people open and root around in their insides."

"Oh…really? Well, I was never one for blood."

"Oh you see gallons of the stuff in my job. Sometimes, during surgery, you nick an artery by accident, and a stream of blood just starts gushing out." By now Michael was beginning to look quite ill. "I remember, this one time, a lady came in with a head wound that ran from one end of her forehead to the other. There was blood just absolutely pouring from it, and there may have even been some brain matter."

Michael stood up abruptly and covered his mouth. "I think I'm gonna be sick." He muttered, before running off toward the bathroom. Amy laughed as she watched him go.

Ok, now he's cheering me up.

Raye suddenly emerged from the crowd and sat down next to her, a smile on her own lips.

"Some young stud looking to get in your pants?" she inquired.

"Yup." The doctor confirmed with a nod. Raye laughed.

"Nice job handling it. I would have just told him to fuck off."

"I doubt it would have worked on him, he seemed pretty persistent."

"Well, that's men for you."

They both laughed then, but were interrupted by an extremely loud shout. It was Serena. She was spinning around in circles on the dance floor, hooting and hollering, and just generally causing a scene. Both Raye and Amy cringed.

"Listen, you still look sober." Said Raye. "Why don't you give Serena a ride home so she can sleep it off before she gets hurt or further makes a fool of herself."

Amy glanced at the drunken blonde and then back at the raven head, who gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "I imagine you don't have much reason to want to stay here."

She was right. So Amy gathered up the drunken Serena, with Raye and Mina's help, and half-dragged, half-carried her out to the car. She bid her other two friends goodnight before heading off back toward the house. Serena sang a terribly off-key rendition of "Chandelier" the whole way. As they pulled into the driveway, Serena reached over and tried to give Amy a hug, though she was hampered considerably by her own condition and the seatbelt.

"Poor saaaad Amy." She muttered. "I sorry things didn't work with Lita."

Amy turned off the car and leaned back in her chair. "Yeah, me too."

"Do you wanme to kiss and make it better?" Serena asked, this time leaning even closer towards her friend, her lips brushing the bluenette's.

Amy pulled back, more out of surprise than anything. "Serena, you're drunk."

"So?"

"So, let's get you inside so you can sleep it off."

Serena pouted while Amy helped her out of the vehicle, inside the house, and into the bedroom where she was staying. This was first time Amy had ever been in the bedroom (which was Mina's when company wasn't staying in it), and was very impressed by the tasteful satin curtain over the windows and large bed framed by solid carved Acacia wood.

She sure lives well, you have to give her that.

"I have to get changed." Said Serena as she unbuttoned her dress.

Amy turned around to face the far wall to give the blonde some privacy. She heard a heavy thud as her friend hit the bed. "Are you dressed?" She turned back around, and her mouth dropped. Serena had removed all of her clothes, and was now lying buck naked on the bed, her legs spread open to give the doctor a perfect view of what was between them. Serena grinned.

"Ammmmy, I'm really horny." She said, her voice still a little slurred.

"That's because you're drunk. Just, go to sleep and you'll feel better in the…" Amy began, but trailed off when Serena slid a hand between those thighs and began to rub herself slowly.

"C'mon Ams, don't you wanna make me feel better? I wanna make you feel better." She half whispered, half moaned as her finger went to work.

Amy felt heat rising in her face, and looked away from the scene. As much as she hated to admit it, the sight of Serena touching herself had sent a message straight to her nether region, and she could feel the moisture building down there. The rational part of her brain told her that Serena was drunk, and that sleeping with her would only be taking advantage of that, but there was another part, the lonely part, the despondent part that told her she shouldn't spend tonight alone.

C'mon, you haven't even managed to patch things up with Lita, and you're actually considering having sex with Serena now? The voice, she was convinced that it was her conscience now, chastised her.

But remember what Mina said? Passion isn't solid, it's free flowing. I love Serena as a friend and, maybe just for tonight, I can make her my lover. It will be good practice.

"Oh Ammmmmmmmy." The blue hair's name dripped from Serena's lips in a long moan as she continued to pleasure herself.

That did it. Amy turned back to watch as Serena masturbated and then, slowly but surely, made her way toward the bed. Serena grinned. Amy leaned down and kissed those pink, lipstick glossed lips. They kissed passionately, with Amy doing her best to dredge up all of those feelings she had felt for Amy that first morning when they had had sex in the kitchen and pour them into that kiss. After a minute or so, they separated, both panting heavily.

"No fair, your way too overdressed." Serena noted with another pout.

Amy laughed. She always knows how to make me laugh.

She stepped back a little and proceeded to strip. First her dress, then her bra, sliding the straps down her slender shoulders but holding the cups over her breasts until the last minute when she let them fall, revealing her voluptuous mounds to the world (which, for now, consisted of only Serena), and, finally, her underwear, which she slid slowly, tantalizingly, down her thin but shapely legs. Serena continued to touch herself while watching the whole show, occasionally putting out little moans of encouragement. Now, in nothing but her birthday suit, Amy slid into the bed next to her lover and they continued to kiss once more, while running their hands all over each other. This continued on for several hot, intense minutes until Serena suddenly pulled back.

"Amy, I have a question." She announced.

"What is it?"

"Have you ever scissored before?"

Amy blushed a little. "Once or twice." She admitted. Lita and her had done it a couple of times.

"I saw it in a porno once, and I've always wanted to try it." This time it was Serena's turn to confess.

"You watch lesbian porn?"

"No, but Darien does. One day I found a video on his laptop and…I dunno…I guess I got curious."

"Do you wanna…try it?"

"Yeah."

"Ok." Amy shifted so that she was seated right across from Serena. "Give me your leg." She took the blonde's left leg and lifted it over her own before placing her right leg over Serena's.

"Now bring your hips up with mine, and try to keep them even. Slide yourself forward a little. There you go, like a pair of scissors right? Now, just move forward until we…uhhh…." Amy's instructions were cut off by a gasp of pleasure as her and Serena's centers kissed. Amy grinded her hips against Serena's, each push and motion sending waves of blissful euphoria over her. It had been some time since she had scissored. Serena did her best to match the pace, but was far less experienced than Amy, and could not always control the bucking of her hips. Her lover did her best to compensate for the blonde's inexperience. Before long, they had found a pace that they both liked and ground their mounds together, moaning one another's name and occasionally reaching over to stroke and knead the other's breasts.

"Oh Amy, it feels so good! I love it!" Serena moaned.

"I know, me too." Amy replied, reaching over and pulling her friend and, just for tonight, lover into another kiss. "And I love you."

She wasn't lying, she did love Serena. Not in the same way as Lita, of course, but she had found that passion within her that she felt for the blonde beauty. She was loyal, and sweet, and kind, and Amy loved every bit of that about her. Serena's cries became louder, and she began to rub herself against Amy much more quickly.

"Serena, are you gonna…?"

"Yes…yes…"

"Wait…wait…I'm almost there…wait…"

Somehow, Serena managed to maintain some self-control and held off her orgasm until Amy's was ready. They came together, each holding the other's arm to keep them from falling over in pure ecstasy. After they had ridden their high to completion, Serena collapsed back onto the bed. Amy giggled and lay down next to her. Whether it was the alcohol, or the sex, she did not know, but before long Serena was fast asleep. As the doctor lay next to her, she closed her eyes and tried to process the emptions that were charging through her. She was still feeling the afterglow of having had sex, but there was more deep beneath that, a sense of guilt that was welling its way up. As she glanced over at Serena's serene sleeping face, the guilt intensified.

It's not right.

It wasn't. Those eyes were blue instead of green, that hair was blonde instead of brown, and that face was not the one that Amy longed to see just now.

It should have been Lita. It should have been her who you came home and had sex with.

Tears began forming in Amy's eyes. What had she done? She wasn't like Mina; she couldn't expand her passion to those who she did not feel passionate about. Sure, she cared a great deal for Serena, but she did not lover her romantically, and she could not fool herself into thinking she did. Silently, she got up from the bed and went to take a shower, but try as she might, she could not wash the guilt and shame from her body. The dams in her eyes finally burst, and the tears flowed down her cheeks while sobs periodically escaped from her lips. Teardrops fell from her face and mixed with the shower water….

…where they flowed, like her life, straight down the drain.