There were, she knew, things to do.

She had to make a phone call to catch up with what was going on at work.

Call up Alice, to inform her she was back in LA.

However.

Tina glanced away from the wireless phone in her hand, and turned to the open doorway of Angelica’s bedroom, where Bette was supposed to be tucking in Angelica to sleep. From her post in the hallway, though, she could hear the warm, dulcet sound of Bette’s voice,  counterpoint by Angelica’s own high-pitched one.

Helena had chosen to drop them off at Tina’s house, pointing out that if their friends saw Bette home, there would surely be a barrage of visitors who may or may not be welcome. She hadn’t even bothered to ask if they were making separate stops for Bette and Tina, because in a rare display of correct intuition, Helena had guessed the two were intent on being together.

So they’d spent time. Together. Playing with Angelica.

Being the family they were supposed to be ever since Angelica was born.

She had no doubt there would be rough roads ahead: after all, there had been a gap, an estrangement between them, there were things about the other that they had to learn, and maybe even re-learn.

Because in the short time since she’d joined Ned out of the house and onto a plane going to North Carolina, Bette had managed to surprise her. And she’d thought she’d come to a point where Bette Porter could no longer surprise her.

Tina looked up, startled, when the door opened wider, and she was greeted by Bette’s amused grin and Angelica’s giggles.

"We thought that was you lurking," Bette quipped, not giving Tina a chance to regain composure and taking her hand and leading her to Angelica’s bed. "Look what I found outside your door, Boo."

"Momma T seeky." Angelica agreed, giggling.

"Sneaky, huh?" Tina bent close to kiss the tip of her daughter’s nose. "Where’d you get that word, Boo? Is your Momma B sneaking in some SAT words already?"

"Yes!" Angelica exclaimed.

Bette and Tina glanced at each other.

"Well, on one hand it could work in our favor in case Alice starts questioning her," Bette pointed out, amused that Angelica could go from hyper-aware child to offhand answering.

Odd, Bette thought, pausing near the doorway to observe Tina and Angelica in Tom Kennard’s hospital room, with most of Tina’s family there. They look like they fit right in, but she knew, deep down, that Tina and even Angelica would argue that point.

She’d left the room to take a phone call on her mobile, and also to make a call to Kit. At the moment, Tina was seated in a chair near the hospital bed, which was occupied by Tina’s father, with Paul and Ned sitting on two chairs closer to the door. On the floor near the bed, Angelica was playing with her cousin, Mary-Anne, with a bunch of stuffed toys.

Seeing the stuffed toys, Bette noticed the large bag near Tina’s feet, and had a sinking feeling Ned, who must have arrived with Angelica, Paul and Mary-Anne while she’d been out of the room, was the one to pin the blame on for its origins.

Seeing Tina with her father and brothers, it seemed obvious that whatever it was that had kept Tina from Carolina, it wasn’t in the room with her.

Paul glanced in the direction of the door, and caught sight of her. "Hey, Bette. Off to whisk my baby sister away?"

"That’s the plan," Bette returned, crossing the threshold as Angelica glanced up.

"Momma B!" Angelica exclaimed, springing to her feet and running to her mother, crashing into her legs. She held up the stuffed toy in her hands. "Puppy!"

Bette glanced over her shoulder at Ned, who shrugged his shoulders. "Thanks, Ned. Thank you very much."

"I figure it’ll take her off your back a few months," he told her.

Bette turned to Tina. "Helena’s downstairs with a cab."

"Okay," Tina nodded, standing up, and handing the large bag to Bette. She smiled wryly at the brunette. "Careful: if you lose that, Angelica might not forgive us."

"Let me guess," Bette answered, as Angelica returned to her seat on the floor. "Toys?"

"Big brother doesn’t have our restraint when it comes to our dearest, darlingest daughter," Tina replied, moving closer to the hospital bed and gave her father a hug.

Bette turned to Paul while Tina talked to her father. "Thank you."

Helena stopped in front of one of the motel’s rooms. She glanced at Tina. "This should make for interesting gossip."

"What, you sleeping in a room assigned to Bette Porter?" Tina inquired, opening the door with the room key they’d been given.

Helena smirked. "The ways I could tease my mother with this."

Tina shook her head. "She does seem to be smitten with Bette, isn’t she?"

"Something you two have in common," Helena said dryly. She regarded her friend. "I take it you didn’t know Bette had gotten her own room?"

"We discussed it, but…" Tina let her voice trail off. She shrugged, dismissing the thread of conversation.

After breakfast, Ned had gone to take a walk around town with Angelica, and Helena wanted to get some sleep while the Peabody jet was prepared for the flight to California. When they’d asked about the rooms around the one Tina occupied, they’d discovered that one room had been availed by one Bette Porter.

Helena leaned against the door frame. "Everything’s fine, then? Between the two of you?"

Tina nodded. "We got some stuff sorted out, between us. And she’s helped me through with stuff with my family."

"You’ve talked."

Tina met her gaze. "From the carpenter down to her choosing to be with me when Jodi gave her an ultimatum, yes."

"And you’re both still talking?" Helena joked.

Tina nodded her acknowledgement of the joke. "We made mistakes. And it’s not easy, but it’s not like we can really judge each other for it."

"Interesting that the conversation had to happen elsewhere, though."

"Trust me, that’s occurred to us," Tina agreed. "I think it’s because we’re away from the scrutiny of our friends."

Helena had to smile. "Away from Alice and Kit, yes?"

"Everyone, actually." Tina admitted. "When it comes to me and Bette everyone seems to have an opinion. Here it’s either they like us together, hate us together, don’t know us at all. There are no qualifiers."

"And you’re stuck with each other here, and unable to run to your friends to complain." Helena pointed out.

Tina glanced at her.

There were arguments, sure, when some stuff they would talk about would in the past had been the cue for one or the other to storm off and retreat, leaving the argument unfinished. But here discussions with Bette kept her mind away from the consuming frenzy of dealing with her family, and Bette was likely to get lost if she tried to get away from Tina.

Bette was aware, vaguely, of a low murmur of voices nearby. She cracked an eye open, and was greeted by a loud squeal of delight.

"Momma B!" Angelica exclaimed, jumping up and down on the bed.

The mother referred to blinked her eyes open, and saw the toddler being dressed to go out by her other mother. "Um."

Tina glanced at her. "Good morning, babe."

Bette only groaned a response.

"It’s early."

"Mmm."

"And Angie’s wide-awake, so I’m gonna take her out for a little while and let you sleep in." Tina told her.

"I can get up."

"Oh?" Tina inquired, as she sat down on the bed. "Because you just slept through your daughter’s rambunctious wake-up call about an hour ago."

Bette gave a sub-gutteral growl.

"Momma B, up!" Angelica commanded.

"No, sweetie, Momma B’s going to go back to sleep," Tina corrected. She laughed at the scowl Angelica gave her, an expression she was familiar with from the mirror.

She knew Bette was tired, having stayed up and playing with Angelica ever since the toddler woke up from her nap at her parents’ home. Bette had received only a brief respite from the toddler when Nick and Nora entertained Angelica after dinner at Paul and Karen’s home, but upon returning to the hotel, Bette had urged Tina to sleep, believing firmly that she could wear the toddler out and have her asleep early.

Tina had woken at two in the morning to find Bette fighting sleep and Angelica as awake as ever. Shortly after they’d prodded Bette to sleep, Angelica had also shown signs of sleepiness, and fell asleep not soon after.

However.

Angelica had woken her with insistent patting on her shoulder, and refused to go back to sleep. Once accomplishing her task of waking one mother up, Angelica had turned to proceed to do the same to Bette. So instead of interrupting Bette’s slumber, Tina thought it would be perfectly fine to get Angelica out of the room, and let Bette sleep in.

Bette regarded the mother and daughter pair, and had to smile. "I’ll call when I want to get out of bed."

"OK." Tina nodded. She turned to Angelica. "Say goodnight to Momma B."

Karen gave Bette and Tina a puzzled smile and an inquiring glance as they crossed the entryway to the Kennard family home with Cathy. Angelica was in Bette’s arms, her head resting on the brunette’s shoulder. "Um…"

Tina shook her head slightly.

"Well. Okay." Karen shrugged, uncertain, glancing in the direction Cathy had taken, checking the answering machine for messages. She smiled brightly at her two blond nieces. "Hi, girls!"

"Hi, Aunt Karen!" Mary-Anne and Eleanor greeted brightly.

"I brought you some cupcakes," Karen told them.

"We had ice cream," Eleanor informed her.

"With Tina!" Mary-Anne added.

Karen shot Tina a mock glare. "Oh, sure, Miss Hot Shot Hollywood Producer, usurping me as the favorite already?"

Tina pat her back. "Good game."

Karen playfully swat her hand away. "I loathe you."

"Ellie, wait." Mary-Anne stopped following her sister into the family room where the TV was, turning back to glance up at where Angelica was. "You wanna watch TV?"

All four adults stopped to watch the interaction.

Angelica yawned, but nodded.

Bette turned to Tina’s niece. "I think Angelica’s too sleepy for TV, sweetie. It’s past her naptime."

"Nuh sheepy," Angelica murmured, but also nestling more comfortably against her mother’s shoulder.

"Maybe later," Tina told her niece, who nodded, running to another room.

Karen turned to Tina, feigning controlled frustration. "OK, let’s just get this out of the way: Angelica? She’s too adorable, Christina."

"Good genes," Tina retorted.

"Right," Karen drawled. "That must be the Porter part."

"You realize that’s impossible biologically, right?" Bette reminded.

Karen laughed. "Sure, but I find it difficult to believe my blond friend here could be responsible for all that cute in such an adorable package."

"Oh, so Nick and Nora take after you, is that it?" Tina asked.

"Did you see how good-looking and smart my children are?" Karen returned, grinning. "Somehow I doubt that’s from Paul, because remember your brother in high school."

"Well, clearly, I got the better model than you did," Bette replied simply. "Is your mother-in-law here?"

"Oh, you mean your mother-in-law?" Karen shot back. "And no, she’s at the hospital, but she told me you can find the box of stuff upstairs in your room."