Her Portrait Is Black and White

Paint, rest, sell

Tina sat with her feet in the pool her mind was racing, she's woken up in the middle of night having bad dreams which happened sometimes and now she was just sitting calming herself. She was nursing a cup of herbal tea. Watching the moon reflect in water as she moved her feet. She loved it. She slowly got up and went into the studio, not caring it was three in the morning. She turned the light on studio become light. She picked out a new canvas. Taking out her water colours. She started the paint what she had seen in the water. Painting the canvas, a dark blue and then scrapping away the paint to reflect the moonlight. She got lost in what she was doing, thinking about her art for the first time in days and not the hell she had recently been through.

****

"Busy?" Bette asked as she walked into the studio, carrying a fresh cup of tea for her wife.

Tina looked up and smiled at her wife, who looked relaxed dressed in jeans, a tank top with her hair up and out of her face.

"I had an idea after a bad dream," Tina said slowly,

Bette put the mug down and walked around the table to see what her wife was working on. The piece was stunning, the canvas actually looked like the water in the pool and had the moonlight reflected it in perfectly. Bette gasped at it.

"wow,"

"I'm taking it that's good,"

"Ti, it's stunning."

"Thank you," Tina smiled and yawned as she put her paint brush down.

"How much sleep have you had babe?" Bette asked softly, reaching out and gently pushing a strand of hair out of her wife's face.

"Not much, I woke four or five times before I had the nightmare,"

"Right you're going back to bed, let that dry."

"Okay," She didn't protest. She knew she needed some sleep.

Bette took her wife's hand and led her out of the studio, closing the doors. Tina head upstairs and kicked of her shoes getting into bed, she curled up and closed her eyes. She slowly drifted off to sleep listening to Bette talking to one of Xavier's nurses

****

Bette moved around kitchen preparing an afternoon meal Xavier was happily playing in his highchair and watching his mother as she walked around the kitchen. Her phone rang and Bette answered it putting it onto loudspeaker

"Bette Porter," Bette said,

"Hello Ms Porter," Bette rolled her eyes as Jodi's voice came down the line.

"Jodi what do you want?"

"You...to give me a show,"

"You think sending a carpenter to kiss me is going to get you what you want?"

"Worked for Tina Kennard,"

Bette laughed softly

"You do know that Tina Kennard is my wife, right. As in I married her. I love her,"

"Yet you kissed the carpenter,"

"You can't use that against me,"

"I can and I will,"

"Tina knows, so you can't use that against me," Bette said slowly "You're not going to do this too me,"

"I want you to give me the show that my talent deserves." Jodi's voice was bitter. Bette picked the phone up and put it to her ear switching off loudspeaker as she didn't want Xavier to hear it, she kissed him and went back to trying to pick up his blocks to make a tower.

"Your talent deserves, if you were as talented as you believe galleries would be queuing out of the door to work with you. Your attitude towards gallerists has made people not want to work with you and your latest actions have made it worse. You will never get a show at any of my galleries and if you EVER come between me and my family again, I will ensure you never get in anywhere."

"You wouldn't?" Jodi suddenly sounded a little scared. She had thought her plan would work. She hadn't expected it to backfire the way it had. Bette had changed since she had been with her and wasn't the womaniser she was.

"I would, you've tired to come between me and my family. Between me and my wife and you did it because you're crazy, now stay away from me, Tina, our friends and our businesses. I promise you, do pull anything else or come near us I will make sure you never get shown again,"  Bette voice was serious and Jodi knew that she was not joking.

Jodi put the phone down and Bette took a deep breath, hoping that was enough. She couldn't take the pain of losing her family. She needed this to stop.

*****

Tina sat her Mac with Xavier on her knee, she kissed the top of his head as he banged on the desk

"Noisy much little man," Tina smiled

He just looked up at her and grinned. Tina couldn't help but laugh. She kissed him again and he smiled before going back to copying his mom's one-handed typing.

"What are you two up too?" Bette asked, coming into the Studio,

"We are putting moonlight up for sale on the website, the original and prints,"

"The painting you did last night instead of sleeping?"

"Yes, they will go on sale at 9am tomorrow, I've sent a news later out. Xavier is being mommy's best helper," Tina smiled.

Bette looked at her wife and son. Saw the bond that had rebuilt between them since Tina had come home from the hospital. It felt like a lifetime ago that this all started. She was glad that on the whole Tina was stable.

"What do you want for dinner?" Bette asked, leaning against the door,

Tina turned and smiled

"Pizza, we can make homemade pizza,"

"We can do that?"

"Yeah, I bought these boxes off the internet they are in the fridge"

"I saw them and was wondering what they were."

"You make pizza, we can put little guy to bed and have some us time?"

"Making Pizza?"

"Yes baby," Tina smiled.

Xavier started to wiggle, and Tina put him onto the floor, and he crawled to Bette who picked him up at once.

"You know I'm not the best cook," Bette said

"It's just a bit of fun B," Tina said as she finished off what she was doing on her Mac now she had two hands.

"Fun, okay. I'll go and bath and read to little man you finish up what you're doing."

"I'll be about half an hour."

Bette smiled and left the studio talking away to Xavier who was making a grap for her hair.

Tina smiled soft before finishing setting up the two different items for sale on her website. She wanted to get her work back out there. She wanted to stop hiding behind her illness. She put a disclaimer onto the painting, it read 'half the profits from this piece will be donated to the Johnathan Frances Hall Metal Health Hospital in LA, I had a four month stay here and want to give something back to them as they have given me my life back'.