Serena winced as Marcus stepped particularly hard on her foot for the third time in that song. The alcohol he had consumed obviously had affected his balance, and she tried not to take it out on him. Instead, she pulled away from him once more and tried to guide him into the proper steps of a waltz. "So, tell me a little more about your ex-husband," Marcus said as the tempo of the music slowed down. Of course, he used the opportunity to pull her close once more, and she frowned, wondering if she should open up to him or not.

Throwing caution to the wind, and knowing that she would most likely never see Marcus again, unless God was truly trying to torment her, she shrugged a little as she smiled vacuously up at him. "He turned out to be the antithesis of everything I wanted in a partner. Oh, sure, he gave me a lovely daughter, who I cherish and adore, but he also made my life a living hell, and almost got me fired. He's a drunk, a boor, and the litmus to which I hold up all my other relationships. If I had been stronger, more certain of myself, less simpering, when I was younger, things might have gone differently, but in the end, I don't think that I would change anything in my journey."

"Why is that?" he asked as he bent in, his lips millimeters from her own.

Serena pulled back a little, feeling decidedly uncomfortable with how in her space he was. Still, she knew that she could handle him, even in her slightly tipsy state, and if things did get out of hand, Ric or Hanssen would be able to back her up. Drawing in a deep breath through her nose, she gave him another placid smile before replying. "Because if I changed anything about my journey, then it might not have led me to my greatest joy."

And as it always happened, a dreamy smile curved her lips even more as she thought about her Bernie. There was something about the woman, no matter how upset Serena was at her leaving, at her not keeping in contact, at being abandoned by her, that made her heart leap with joy. And that joy radiated from her in bright bursts, coloring everything with the warm light of love.

Marcus smiled in response as he reached up and stroked her hair. It was too intimate of a gesture, but she let it slide, since she was still lost in thoughts of Bernie. "So, who is this mystery man that makes you look like a seraph?"

From the way that Marcus had been acting, she knew that she couldn't correct him, tell him that she was in love with a woman, and she thanked her lucky stars that Bernie's nickname was decidedly masculine, and so could pass without question. "Bernie," she whispered, the name rolling off her tongue like a blessing. Marcus stiffened instantly, recoiling from her as if she had said a curse word. "What? Did you have a run in with Bernie Madoff?" she asked with a laugh, trying to play off his sudden, extreme, reaction.

Instead of replying, he gave her a dark glare, and she felt her very soul react to that negativity, though she tried to mask the very sudden desire to bolt from his arms and hide. She had read that book about the gift of fear, and how one should listen to their instincts, but she had never thought that it would be so acutely relevant to her. Her eyes began to roam the dance floor, trying to find how close Ric or Hanssen were to her, or even Margaret, if it came to that. No one was near enough, though she did catch Ric's eye, giving him a desperate, imploring look.

He smiled at her, clearly not reading her expression, and waggled his fingers before Marcus turned them, and she was out of his eyeline. "My ex-wife is named Bernie." Icy cold water seemed to replace her blood in a heartbeat, and she bit her lip as her mind began to try and find a way out of this quagmire she had found herself in. A tiny, infinitesimally, small part of her brain hoped that it was mere coincidence, that there were other women out there named Bernie, that it wasn't really as small a world as her heart imagined.

"Oh? Really?"

"Yes, Berenice Griselda Wolfe. She wouldn't even take my name when we married, said that she needed to keep things neat and orderly, and since she was already known as Ms. Wolfe professionally, that was how things would stay." His fingers dug painfully into her side, and Serena fought to swallow the gasp of pain that threatened to fall from her lips, not wanting it to be mistaken for anything else.

Her search for a way out intensified, and Serena scanned the crowd for a friendly, familiar, face. Margaret was nowhere to be seen, and Ric was dancing with another woman, a wide smile on his lips as he talked animatedly with her. Knowing it was a longshot, she searched for Hanssen, hoping that he could rescue her from Marcus's embrace and not let him know who she was in relation to Bernie.

Finally, she laid eyes on the man, and swallowed the groan when she saw that he was in an intense discussion with someone on his mobile. There was no way she could get his attention now, and so she looked up into Marcus's eyes and tried to put on her most calming smile as she rubbed his arm soothingly. "If I had gotten married after I had become I doctor, I probably would have stayed Serena McKinnie. It's not about taking our partner's name, it's about who we are as professionals."

He shook his head violently, and she grimaced a little as Ric once more came into sight, a little closer to them this time. Throwing all caution to the wind, she met his eye, and mouthed, as clearly as she could, "I need your help."

He seemed to finally get the hint as he danced his partner closer and closer to them. And it might have worked, had Marcus not chosen that moment to dance her deeper into the crowd, losing Ric amongst the crush of people. "And now, Bernie has chosen to screw over everyone back here and go off to Crimea or some such country, leaving me to pick up the pieces of Cameron's heart once more. She's never thought about her children, and now Charlotte wants nothing to do with her, and I have to be both father and mother to them. Personally? I hope that she's scarred for life by whatever she sees whilst in whatever godforsaken hole she landed in."

Serena drew in a shocked breath, her jaw falling open at that statement as she finally realized the depths of Marcus's hatred of Bernie. How the woman she loved had managed to stay with such a horrid worm of a man for so long was beyond her, and she knew in that moment why Bernie had sought out comfort in Alex's arms. She might have done the same, had she been tethered to him. "You can't possibly wish ill upon the mother of your children," she began, using her gentlest tone, trying to get him to see reason.

"I don't know, maybe I do. Or maybe I just need a new perspective." Serena nodded slowly as she tried to formulate a way to save herself from the pickle she had found herself in.