Almost three years to the day after they both left LA, Alice happens to look up while sitting at the same old table in The Planet. She rubs at her eyes and then elbows Shane in the side, gesturing wildly to the counter where Bette’s ordering coffee as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Coffee in hand, the tall brunette turns and notices them, giving a small wave as she walks toward the table with a warm grin.

“Hey, guys.”

“How the hell have you been, Porter?” Alice beams widely, standing up and enveloping the other woman into a huge hug. Shane, ever the less demonstrative one, just grins up at the tall brunette from her chair.

“Hey, Bette.”

Bette can’t even get a word in edgewise before Alice continues, “This is insane, you’ll never guess who else just walked in here a half hour ago. I mean, it’s been three fucking years and all of a sudden…”

Bette sets her coffee cup on the table and walks away while Alice is still speaking, her eyes trained on the flash of blonde hair she caught out of the corner of her eye.

A few moments later Tina appears in front of her, hazel eyes contrite.

“Sorry…bathroom.”

But Bette just smiles.

“You came,” she says simply, a hint of disbelief in her voice.

Tina leans in for a kiss.

“So did you.”

Three.

Tina feels like the world’s biggest asshole.

She and Bette are trying this time, they really are. They go to counseling and they have incredibly mind-blowing sex, and they co-parent Angelica exceptionally well.

This time around though, Bette’s a little softer around the edges and Tina’s a little more hardened and sometimes they still have a bit of a problem understanding each other’s point of view. More frustratingly, they still argue about the same old things.

At times, it’s too hard and it requires too much effort and Tina longs for something easy.

So when she’s in Seattle for the night after a long day of discussing scripts and budgets, she ends up at the first lesbian club she could find. The woman next to her at the bar flirts and she flirts back, and before long she agrees to dance, Bette’s face flashing guiltily through her mind.