Tibette - My First, My Last, My Everything

Chapter two: The first step in getting better is asking for help

Bette and Tina's house, 11th February 2010

"I just got off the phone with Dan Foxworthy, he says he can give us an emergency slot tomorrow at noon. That's if you want me to come with you. Would you rather go alone?"

Bette opens one eye and watches Tina for a moment, padding around the room in her pyjamas with Angie on her hip.

"No I want you there," Bette murmurs before closing her eye again and pulling the covers up to her chin. "God I feel rough."

"I'm not surprised. Shall we go get Momma B some Advil Angie?" Tina says before heading into the bathroom. "Why don't you give Momma B a big cuddle to make her feel better?" Tina says placing Angie down on the bed as she hands Bette a couple of Advil tablets.

"Mommy are you sick?" Angie says before pouncing on top of Bette. Bette winces before sitting up, crossing her legs and placing Angie in her lap.

"I just had a bad sleep. I'm okay. Did you have a fun time at Aunty Kit's?" Bette asks her as Tina hands over a glass of water and then sits on the bed opposite Bette, mirroring her and crossing her legs.

"It was so fun! Aunty Kit did a puppet show!" Angie shouts enthusiastically.

"Oh wow, we're definitely going to have to get her to re-create that for us sometime," Tina says, chuckling.

After taking the painkillers Bette says, "family snuggle?" Angie's eyes light up immediately as she clambers out of Bette's lap and under the covers.

"Come on Momma Tee, family snuggle!" She says stretching out her hands towards Tina. Tina's heart melts as she joins Bette and Angie under the covers for a snuggle. They lie silently for a while, tangled up together. Angie falls asleep, snoring softly.

With the balcony doors open, the morning sun shining in and the birds singing, Tina wonders how she ever got lucky enough to finally find a loving family. She marvels over the thought of Angie having a stable, healthy home to grow up in - the one thing Tina had always longed for as a child.

Tina finds Bette's hand and holds it tightly. Bette offers a reassuring squeeze and searches Tina's face. "Okay?" She mouths over the top of Angie's head.

"Perfect," Tina mouths back with a smile.

"Well my head is pounding," Bette whispers.

"I think you only really have yourself to blame for that one baby. Maybe we'll just have a quiet day today," Tina suggests.

"No. Let's go to the beach. I'll call Al," Bette says before slowly rolling out of bed, careful not to wake Angie. Tina strokes her hair as Bette digs out her BlackBerry and wanders into the bathroom to phone Alice.

Alice gives an emphatic yes when Bette invites her along to the beach but it seems that Tasha won't be able to join them as she has some sort of police academy training sessions on Fridays that she can't miss. Bette agrees to pick Alice up in an hour outside The Planet.

When they're all covered in suncream and dressed for the beach Tina drives Bette and Angie to the convenience store to pick up some food for a picnic. They then pop into The Planet to grab some smoothies and say hello to Kit before meeting Alice and driving to the beach.

Tina is busy building sand castles with Angie, or rather Tina is busy building sand castles while Angie knocks them over and laughs, so Alice takes the opportunity to ask Bette how she's doing.

"I spoke to Shane this morning, she said you got pretty wasted last night," Alice says. "I've not known you to get wasted since college and now you're doing it a couple times a week all of a sudden."