KIT- (On her cell phone, standing near the foyer at the main entrance of the hospital.) “Baby sis? Babysis?” (Her voice cracks, her tears fill her eyes …) “You scared me half to death! I thought I had lost you…I’m going to beat you to a pulp, you had me so worried! Oh Bette, I’m so happy to hear your voice. I love you. I love you so much. You are everything I have in this world…do you hear me? I know, I know Bette…honey it’s going to be ok. They’re doing everything they can. Yes. She’s…she’s disconnected…she’s closed down. You know it’s weird…at first she kept asking where you were. Bette? Bette? Are you ok? Don’t cry Bette…it’s ok…it’s going to be ok. Everything is going to work out. Just get yourself safely over here first. And that Peggy Peabody, that old lady, I think I’m going to attack her with a huge hug if I see her. Helena contacted her as soon as everything started happening. She got the best doctors on it too. I know…it’s ok. I’ll tell her. They miss you…they all miss you and I…well…you just get your ass back here. Ok. Yes. I love you. Bye.”

(Bette shuts off her cell phone and stares at it, her eyes slowly drying and her wet cheeks feeling the moisture disappear. Peggy revisits her.)

PEGGY- “Did you talk to Kit?”

BETTE- “Yes, just now.”

PEGGY- “How is she holding up?”

BETTE- “Who?”

PEGGY- “Kit.”

BETTE- “Fine, fine I guess.”

PEGGY- “I’m sure she’ll be relieved when she has her arms around you.”

BETTE- “Kit?”

PEGGY- “Kit…and all of them really…each of them. They thought you had perished. Imagine yourself in their shoes.”

BETTE- “I know.”

PEGGY- “Well I can’t imagine what they must be feeling. Especially Tina.”

BETTE- “Tina?”

PEGGY- “Yes.”

BETTE- “I’m sure she’s worried sick about Angelica.”

PEGGY- (She turns to look at her and smirks.) “Yes, so it must be doubly difficult and traumatic for her.”

BETTE- “With all that she’s been going through with Angelica I doubt she has anything left over for anyone or anything else…as it should be.”

PEGGY- “Do you really think she would have felt nothing at having heard that you were on a plane that crashed in the arctic? Do you really think it didn’t affect her? Do you seriously believe that Bette?”

BETTE- “Well, I suppose she must feel something, but I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about or think twice about. It’s understandable. I’m sure she felt some concern, but as any friend might of someone who wasn’t really a part of their life anymore. We broke up, we basically fell apart, long before I left for New York.”

PEGGY- “Really? Well that’s an interesting viewpoint. I don’t know whether you’re being purposefully obtuse or if you need some time to recover from your harrowing ordeal and can’t really process much of anything right now. Bette, my dear, Helena told me that upon overhearing about your predicament Tina fainted to the floor of the hospital. Her friends…your friends…broke her fall as she came to a rest on the floor outside Angelica’s room.” (Bette gets a lump in her throat and looks down.) “And now, well she hovers over her child and reacts to no one, to nothing…says little if anything. All she does is touch her child, caress her, and no one seems able to do anything for her. Does that make sense to you Bette as describing a casual friend who feels nothing for you apart from what an acquaintance might feel?”

BETTE- “Peggy, nothing makes sense anymore.” (Her eyes are reacquainted with renewed tears.)

PEGGY- “I always make sense.” (She smirks…) “It’s uncanny really, my clearheaded logic and reason. A ‘frigid bitch,’ one gentleman friend once called me, but he really couldn’t debate me to save his life. Few people can. So, given that I make so much sense I want you to listen to me, and listen carefully. There’s a child in a hospital bed right now and her mother, one of her two mothers, is there with her. You have a choice. You can walk in there and make an appearance, and purport to be there for this child in her time of need, only to walk back out again because…oh I don’t know, because you think it’s in her best interest to stay out of her life…her ‘new’ life. Or you can go to your child now, be there for her, and be there for her always. You can go to your child and make the decision to stay there or return to New York and blame that decision on no one but yourself. You can stay in that child’s life because it’s what you want, not because of your former lover, not because of what I’m saying, not because of anything other than what’s inside you for this child. But make a truthful choice, not a reactionary decision and a pithy life that follows it.

And you need to make a choice where this famous or infamous Tina of ours is concerned. And again, not for anyone or anything else other that what’s in that complicated heart of yours. Choose, not because of even your child…choose on the basis of truth, not duty, not fear, not the past, not anything…just that. (She reaches out on taps on Bette’s upper chest.) She can’t be a lover to you anymore? Fine. Let her move on. And you move on. But that child still has every right to expect you to be a mother to her. All this nonsense. I’ve tired of it…Helena has changed so much these past months. I’ve found that she’s abandoned much for what’s in her own heart…problem is that she seems to be headed in the opposite extreme…losing some brain cells in the process…but that’s a different story. I like her this way better in any event, but I’m having difficulty connecting the dots with the little plot developments among you all, which now includes her.”

BETTE- “Peggy, I don’t think you understand my decisions until now. I think I did as well as could be expected, though my child…well…I don’t know. Tina made a choice long before this happened. She left me and gave up on our family.”

PEGGY- “That no more explains your actions than it does anyone else’s.”

BETTE- “Of course it does.”

PEGGY- “Really Bette? I didn’t see anyone forcing you to move to New York, certainly Angelica had nothing to do with that…she didn’t tell you to leave. Or has she started talking already and Helena forgot to tell me what a prodigy she is?”

BETTE- “You’re reminding me of some people I met in New York.”

PEGGY- “You remind me of me.”

BETTE- (She does a double take and gazes at Peggy perplexed…) “What?”

PEGGY- “Helena never asked me to leave her or stay out of her life. But I had lots of interesting reasons I could cite for leaving her or not really being there for her. And look at the poor child now. Look at her Bette. Hmm. Poor thing…imagine, she ended up with your Tina at one point and now look at her. You’re an odd little bunch of lesbians I must say. Makes me glad I’m just a…what did you call it…a hasbian.” (Bette smirks.)

BETTE- “Angelica…I miss her so much.”

PEGGY- “Apparently, the feeling is mutual.”

BETTE- “I’m sure she’ll barely remember me…if she wakes…” (She starts to cry…) “Peggy, I don’t understand…why can’t they…”

PEGGY- (She places her hand on Bette’s arm…) “Hey, we don’t know the details, but I do know they’re putting her through the best diagnostic tests available. Her condition remains unchanged, but she hasn’t gotten worse. They’re bound to solve this medical conundrum and when they do, they’ll be her best chance of fixing it. They know what they’re doing, despite the fact they don’t seem to have much of a clue what exactly is ailing her. They have to figure it out, otherwise they’ll have me to face.” (Bette breaks a bit of smile at that comment and Peggy rubs her arm.)

(In Angelica’s room, Tina is holding Angelica’s hand and her head is resting on Angelica’s bed, next to the intertwined hands. Tina isn’t asleep. She is in thought, a most pensive and contemplative thought process that is flooding her mind with images. She remembers the ride in the ambulance to the hospital that night that Angelica was born. She remembers telling Bette in the operating room that she felt she had failed them both. And then she thought of the irony…She remembers the night of Provocations…her gaze finally coming upon Bette holding that woman’s hand…in that way. She remembers confronting Bette in their bedroom that night and the hurt that ensued. She remembers the day of the sonogram months later, before Melvin got sick. She remembers thinking how if she could just isolate the feelings she shared with her in those moments…the closeness, the togetherness, the oneness, the physical and spiritual union they shared…each of themselves falling into one anther, body and mind…the interconnectedness…the love? And then she remembers holding Angelica at the hospital, Bette in turn holding her. She remembers the voicemail that Bette left months later… ‘I want, I want, I want…’ Bette repeated on the voicemail. She remembers Bette saying she wanted her life back…she wanted to kiss her Angelica goodnight. She remembers lashing out at Bette, extending indifference to her and pushing her away these past months and then…both of them hurting each other via the one most important element in both their lives…Angelica. And here lay the girl… ‘What do I do now?’ Tina asked herself.

My child…our child lies here maybe dying…She left me…she left me first with her mind and body and then I made her leave my home…our home. It doesn’t make sense anymore, this solitude, this distance from her…this spatial and emotional canyon dividing us like never before. And this child, who began as my gift to her, to us…a gift she all but threw in my face had she known I was pregnant those weeks during Provocations. I can’t take this gift away from her…it’s not a ‘gift’ now…she’s a life all her own. Nor can I change the fact that she was of our love…this child, this angel, this Angelica…born of me, and brought into being because of us both…her and I, our union…broken and battered, weakened and shaken…our love. Ours. If she dies, I will die though still exist in form. What will I do? Where is her ‘other mother’? Where is the woman without whom I would not have known this child? What if she had died? What would I have done then? She left me once, and I left her…we abandoned each other and our better selves and we did it even though this child was born of us both.

She thinks her thoughts to herself… ‘What now?’ I’m walking the path I must but walking it alone. I’m tired, depleted, and unfeeling. There are too many feelings without sense, rhyme or reason, which essentially cancels out the feelings themselves…I can’t process them, I can’t understand them, I don’t know what to do with them, so they just don’t seem to register…my heart, annoyed by now, just doesn’t want to hear it anymore. It’s a long way to peace and sanity from these shores. The latter, well technically I still possess it, but my heart feels and fails to feel to the extent I am emotionally flat-lining or exploding…the figurative shrapnel is indefinable though reeking havoc on my insides to the point of equally undetermined despair.

What is this emptiness that fills me? What is this void that weighs me down despite its incoherent and scarcely definable occupation of my soul?)

DR. NORMAN- (Speaking gently so as not to scare Tina, as he comes to the other side of the bed.) “Ms. Kennard? Excuse me, Ms. Kennard?”

TINA- (She lifts her head…) “Yes?”

DR. NORMAN- “Hi there. I’m Dr. Norman. I’ve come to look after Angelica.”

TINA- “Doctor what’s wrong with her? No one has been able to help her. Please…”

DR. NORMAN- “Ms. Kennard, it’s ok…you’re right to be worried and frustrated. However, we are slowly narrowing our field of investigation. I can tell you that the MRI did not reveal anything life threatening. The initial blood work came back negative for various possible ailments of serious concern, save for what I’ll mention in a moment. I have ordered a round of more specific hematological tests, and heart enzyme tests. Her vitals are stable, but she is still very sick. Her white cells have increased steadily. This may point to a blood infection, though her fever appears to fluctuate, which is odd. We should be able to find out what’s going on in the next day or so. I’m sorry I can’t give you something more definite, and she’s still in a serious state, but at least we have excluded some very serious childhood maladies.”

TINA- “This is no unreal. How can she be so sick and the cause be so unclear?”

DR. NORMAN- “It’s actually not rare to be in this situation, particularly with young children. I’ve seen other cases that have initially been quite mysterious but resolved themselves one way or another.”

TINA- “What do you mean ‘one way or another’?”

DR. NORMAN- “Well, just that eventually…Ms. Kennard, we are doing everything we can and I am confident that we will figure this out and be able to help Angelica. You must be exhausted. Please forgive me for seeming intrusive, but I think it may be best if you go home for the evening, get a good night’s sleep, a change of clothes and be back in the morning. I really don’t think anything is going to change by then, and I would prefer to have you be in a better state…I don’t want you getting sick as well. The nurses have informed me that you haven’t left her bedside in two days at least. I would do the same if I were in your position, but I think now might be a good time for you to get some rest. We’ll call you if anything happens, though I doubt anything will develop.”

TINA- “I can’t leave her alone.”

DR. NORMAN- “She won’t be alone. And certainly, if you wish, select one of your family or friends to spend the night with her in your absence. I will authorize it.”

TINA- “I don’t know doctor…I…I just can’t go.”

ALICE- (She tries to assist…) “Excuse me, I’m sorry to interrupt. Tina…I know it’s hard, but we need you to stay healthy and strong for her. You’re in bad shape. It’s just a few hours, so you can get some sleep and be back here for her.”

DR. NORMAN- “I’ll leave you two to discuss it. Ms. Kennard, if you need anything just have the nurse contact me. I’ll be by for rounds in the morning. Goodnight.”

ALICE- “Tina, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bud in, but he’s making sense. We’re worried about you too. I’m happy to stay overnight to watch her.”

TINA- (Stroking Angelica’s head and not break eye contact with her daughter…) “Do you think Kit would stay too?”

ALICE- “I’ll ask her, but I’m sure she would.”

TINA- “Would you get her for me please?” (Alice goes to retrieve Kit.)

KIT- (Approaching Tina…) “Tina, Alice said you needed me.”

TINA- “Can you spend the night with her? In about half an hour, I’m going to go home, bathe, get some sleep, change of clothes.”

KIT- “Of course. Both Alice and I will stay.

TINA- (Looking at Angelica…) “I’m going to stay for a bit and leave in about a half hour. I just want to make sure she’s ok and say goodnight.”

KIT- “Ok. I’m going to take Alice and go downstairs to get some things. We’ll be back up before you’re ready to go.” (Tina, looking still at Angelica, nods and Kit exits to talk to the girls. Helena and Shane leave and then Kit and Alice head downstairs to the little shop in the hospital lower level.)


(At NYU Medical Center, Lily is sitting next to Miranda’s bed, while Julie sits next to her.)

JULIE- “I’m glad that she went to LA. I wish I could see her, but I’m glad she went.”

LILY- “It’s terrible that her daughter is ill. What a fateful turn of events.”

JULIE- “I wonder, I really wonder what will happen now.”

LILY- (Looks at Julie, then at Miranda…) “What do you think?”

MIRANDA- “I miss her already. We went through the Polar Express disaster together…it’s like we were meant to travel that portal hand in hand, somehow pulling one another through, somehow making sure we each survived and moved on in the directions our respective destinies would have us go.”

(Julie and Lily look at each other.)

MIRANDA- “What?”

JULIE- “Nothing honey.”

MIRANDA- “I’m not losing it you know.”

LILY- (A little overdramatic…) “Losing it? You? Naaaaahhhh….”

MIRANDA- “Ha ha ha Maestro.”

JULIE- (To Lily, trying to lighten the mood…) “Are you insulting my better half?”

MIRANDA- “Hear THAT Lily…I’M the better half.”

LILY- “She’s just being nice because you’re lying there…”

JULIE- “Now now ladies…”

LILY- “Oh alright Queens, I’ll let it go for now.”

MIRANDA- (She blinks her eyes like she’s trying to clear them…) “Julie…”

JULIE- (She grabs hold of her hand…) “What’s wrong my love?”

MIRANDA- “I don’t feel well.” (Lily walks around to the other side of the bed and grabs hold of Miranda’s other hand.) “It hurts.”

LILY- (Putting her other hand on Miranda’s head..) “Where?”

MIRANDA- “My shoulders…my chest…it had subsided before but it’s starting up again. I think that last dose is wearing off.”

JULIE- “Lily, would you get the nurse please?”

LILY- “I’ll be right back.” (Lily leaves and Julie strokes Miranda’s head.)

JULIE- “It’s ok. They’ll come in and have a look and maybe give you some more pain medication. It’s ok.” (Miranda looks at Julie and her eyes reveal the lump in her throat…) “Hey…it’s ok…you’re going to be ok…”

MIRANDA- “I love you.”

JULIE- “I know…I know…I adore you…” (She leans in and kisses Miranda briefly and sweetly on the lips. She wipes the tears from her cheeks.) “You’re going to get better in no time and then we can get you home. Just think…weeks of me pampering you!” (Miranda smiles.)


(In the hospital lobby, Bette’s chest tightens. Her eyes dart all around, despite the intensity building up behind them. Her skin is tingly…the aftershock of goose bumps that overcame her as she walked in through the main doors. She entered the elevator and waited for the long ascent. Peggy gave her all the details. The doors opened and she walked out. She saw the nurse’s desk up ahead, all the way at the end of the hallway.

She was close and yet felt like she was so far away…heading to a target destination and yet she was nowhere…she felt like she was compelled towards a cliff…her walking became laborious, her heart became heavy all at once with love, with pain, and tremendous fear. She approached slowly, but every fiber of her being wanted to run…run to her…run to her girl. As Bette approached, the door was ajar. She opened it slowly and came upon a scene she had anticipated hours before…Tina was hovering over Angelica, leaning down over her and talking to her.)

TINA- “Sweetie, aunties Kit and Alice are going to stay with you…ok? Mommy is just going to be gone for a bit to change her clothes and be back before you know it. I love you. Kit and Alice will come and then I’ll go but just for a bit sweetie. I’ll be back soon. Very soon. Angelica…your momma B is going to be here you know…she’s doing everything she can to be here…just for you. She…she loves you more than anything in this world…” (Bette’s tears runneth over…) “She’s coming to be with you…she’ll be here soon…she loves you…”

(Bette is about ready to collapse from her emotions and their physical repercussions. Suddenly, Tina stops. She freezes. Her body is reacting and her mind hasn’t caught up yet. A split second later, her mind makes up for lost ground. She looks upward and raises her head. She looks at the wall behind Angelica’s headboard. She senses it’s not Kit or Alice standing behind her…her heart knows this. Tina’s eyebrows come together as she tries to breath deeply. Her throat senses the rising tide and her eyes close momentarily only to reopen in a moistened state. Bette takes a step closer as her own eyes are now pained and shedding tears liberally…their sight is falling upon the little girl in the bed…and standing next to her is a woman who is now frail yet still an awesome and devastating figure occupying Bette’s vision. Tina, still facing the wall, tries to speak but her voice merely registers a whimper and sigh as her tears usher in a tension that grips her throat. She turns and faces the past eight years of her life…and strains herself to speak but can only utter emotions…words are failing her as she raises her hands…almost as though she trying to force herself through this most painful crucible to breath and release the mayhem inside her. She sees Bette’s injured head, her injured arm…Tina looks at Bette’s face and cries silently. Bette, crying, takes a step forward and walks up to Tina as she raises her hands…tentative in their anticipation of Tina coming forward. Tina moves forward, into Bette, and cries so intensely that she cannot cry out…her voice can’t break free of the painful surge of emotion flowing from her eyes and gripping her throat. As Bette raises her hands towards Tina’s upper arms, Tina starts to hit Bette with both her hands…almost hitting her mildly, almost hitting her helplessly…and almost barely touching her, Bette tries to move in closer. Tina’s hands, now administering a final weakened blow, rest on Bette’s upper body, just below her shoulders. Tina shakes her head and breathes deeply before lowering her upper body slightly and then emitting a cry from the depths of her soul so intense and so painful that Bette felt her heart wound at the sound…and then Bette caught her…caught her as the cries multiplied and as she fell into the embrace that had been abandoned those many months ago…she fell hard into that bosom, and though Bette could not entirely withstand the force of this emotional surrender, she slowed both women’s descent to the floor.

Kit and Alice, approaching the room from the far away elevators, hear Tina’s screams.)

KIT- “Oh my God…”

ALICE- “Oh no…” (They start running towards the room with a nurse following. They enter the room expecting to find a terrifying scene but end up beholding something entirely different. After a momentary shock, they looked at Angelica, whose condition seemed unchanged as the nurse checked her, and then they both rushed up to the women and kneeled to hold them, surround them, comfort them, and re-experience the sister and friend that God’s grace had returned to them from death’s door.)

(After several moments of this group reunion, the nurse gets a couple of chairs. Alice and Kit try to get Tina up to sit on a chair, but she is largely immovable. Bette raises Tina and briefly touches her face as Kit approaches and Tina starts to move toward Angelica again. Kit and Bette embraced and Alice then had her bear hug with Bette, which brought a smile of comfort to Bette. Then, disengaging from the hug, Alice takes Bette’s hand and walks her slowly over to Angelica’s bed, on the other side of the bed, opposite Tina. As Bette gets closer and stands over her daughter, Alice feels her own hand becoming a steadying force…and then Bette starts slowly letting go of the firm hold she had intensified on Alice’s hand as she lowers her upper body closer to Angelica. She slides in her right hand up Angelica’s right side and cups the top of Angelica’s head with her left hand. She looks at her, studies her face, and strokes her head. Slowly, she lowers her lips and kisses Angelica’s forehead, then gently she puts her own forehead on Angelica’s, rubbing it side to side, and then kisses her on her left cheek and moves upward a little to gaze at her eyes. Bette’s entire body is beholden to this little being…every inch of her feels the powerful little presence lying on the bed…her heart is feeling prominent and though sinking it is lifted merely by the sight and closeness of her love. Bette hovers and then slowly lowers her face, sliding it onto the entire left side of Angelica’s face as she continues to hold the top of her head, her eyes closed, the tears having escaped and now moistening Angelica’s face. Bette remains there…she cannot move, she doesn’t want to…she can think or feel nothing else…she is in her place…she is where she was supposed to be.)