Tina nodded mutely, but her jaw clenched, and a fluttering went up in Bette's heart. She reached to turn Tina's face towards her own, and looked into shining green eyes, tinged with orange and yellow and red. An emerald sea of anxiety.

"Your mother is dying," Bette said.

Tina nodded. "Yes."

***********************************************************

She barely remembered how they got to the elevator, or how she came to be resting all of her weight on the gorgeous woman behind her, to be glancing down at black curls falling across her shoulder, Bette's breath in her ear, Bette's face nuzzling her neck. She thought she might cry again, as she had all the way from the bar to the hotel, walking woodenly, her face bent inside the collar of her coat, which Bette had turned up around her after sliding it onto Tina's unmoving form. Tina, who could barely cooperate as Bette dressed her in front of everyone. Tina, who remembered turning a glazed expression onto a woman in a gray flannel suit who wore nothing underneath and stared at Tina from a stool at the bar, her legs open just enough. It would have been shocking on another day, without Bette beside her, putting on her own coat, sliding both her purse and Tina's modest bag onto her shoulder, cutting the most fabulously authoritative figure Tina had ever imagined, even in her wildest dreams. Today she could see no one else.

The familiar ding, normally heard at a distance, alerted Tina that the elevator doors were opening in front of her. She stood upright at a slight push from Bette. "This is us," Bette whispered.

"This is us," Tina repeated to herself. Though she felt pained at the separation, she made herself put one foot in front of the other and step forward. A second passed before the separation ended, Bette's hand at her elbow, stopping her, then sliding to clasp Tina's. Tina looked down at their hands, then up into luminous brown eyes.

"You're sweet," Tina said.

"No." Bette raised Tina's hand to her lips, holding it there and pressing softly with her mouth. "I'm selfish."

Tina returned an inquisitive look, curiosity lightening despair. She gripped Bette's hand tightly, her first true gesture toward Bette since the kiss in the bathroom. Bette, who now looked so somber. "How are you selfish?" Tina asked gently.

Bette smiled sadly. "You're in so much painand I can't stop wanting you."

Tina smiled. "Oh Bette" she said, her face relaxing into an adoring expression. "You cannot be this lovely and this beautiful." She loosed her one hand to take Bette's face in both, to press their lips firmly together, to push her tongue again into Bette's mouth, to ache out loud at the feeling of Bette's tongue meeting her own-not insistently, but languidly, letting Tina lead. Tina couldn't let Bette in at that moment for wanting to fill her up, for craving the taste of her and wanting Bette to crave her back, for wanting Bette to have no control, as she didn't.

But Bette seemed always to have more control. She even had the wherewithal to start backing down the hallway with Tina's mouth still attached to her own, pulling Tina along with her as they moved down the corridor towards the room. But Tina's toe caught in the carpet and she tripped slightly, Bette's teeth banging against her lips as her tongue slid out. "Owshit," she cursed.

Bette groaned. "Are you ok?" She peered closer, trying to see if Tina's mouth was cut. They were a few feet from the door now. Tina couldn't be hurt. It was too absurd.

"I'm fine," Tina said, reaching to touch her lip, and wincing as she did. She offered a wry smile and Bette exhaled in relief.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

Bette wasted no time reaching for her hand again, preparing to steer them towards the room, but Tina stopped her. "Bette," she said.

"Yeah?" Bette turned back quickly and Tina smiled at her.

"I might cry."

Bette frowned. "Now?"

"No..." Tina hesitated. "During."

It took Bette a moment to recognize Tina's meaning. "Is that ok?" Tina asked.

Bette forced herself to think about the question, not just to reassure. "Is there something I should do?" she asked, feeling embarrassed at the question, at her need to ask it.

But Tina's eyes were kind, and her fingers in Bette's pocket, fishing for the room key, were suddenly firm. As her hand closed over the cold metal, she leaned in to place a soft kiss on Bette's lips. "You can do whatever you want," she said.  "Just don't stop."