Tina nodded, pursing her lips. Bette had told her about the random flashbacks that hit her from time to time, and how they could twin with residual feelings from the trauma she’d experienced for several weeks after surviving the incident with the semi.

But Bette had set all of her anxieties aside, and was determined to finish her tasks concerning the gold cache. She’d rededicated herself to finally unraveling everything about the gold cache, now that she’d been able to gather information during their hazardous trip to Virginia.

She’d also told Tina and Jackson that she was planning to attend to Peter’s affairs as soon as she could sort out the whole situation with the gold cache, and she was determined to keep secure all of the information pertinent to everything she was doing. 

“Baby, Dan warned you…” Tina responded slowly.

“I know. I know, T,” Bette said with a sigh. “That I might think I’m over it: the shock, the trauma. But I really am not, and that I’m only suppressing it.”

“Please just keep in mind what he said about how to deal with the repercussions of everything that’s happened to you … ever since that accident, and now the sniper attack,” Tina said quietly. They exchanged a long look.

Finally, Tina opened her arms, and Bette moved over to sit next to her, falling into Tina’s embrace.   She whispered into the blonde’s ear, “I promise I won’t end up in a bad place, emotionally. I know that with your help, I’ll get over things in time.  Right now, I just have to pull myself together well enough so that I can continue with all of this unfinished business, T.”

“I know, baby,” Tina answered soothingly, stroking Bette’s back. “You’re doing what you can, despite everything that’s happened.”

“Thanks for understanding, T,” Bette said in heartfelt tone.

“Well, when you’re married to the real Wonder Woman, you’ve got to be, I guess,” Tina answered with a light laugh.

Bette reluctantly ended their embrace. She stood carefully, making sure she didn’t jostle Tina. And then walked to the bathroom.

Bette had combined everything in Spencer’s files and the information and files the brunette had been able to collect and pull together herself into a highly secure cloud. Jancis had told her that she and the other custodian had monetized a few of the gold bars to give start-up resources to the person they’d selected to surface the gold. They’d anticipated costs involved in surfacing the gold, and Jancis had explained that Bette was free to decide how she wanted to go about her new tasks, now that she’d been selected to surface the gold.