“Mama T” Angelica called from the back of the car. 

“Oh honey you’ll see her this evening when she picks you up from Angus” Bette replied.

“Where’s Mama T?” came the questioning voice the confusion evident.  Bette let out a long sigh.  Her daughter was at an age where she was both too young to understand the complications of custody arrangements but too old not to notice that she didn’t get to see both her mothers whenever she wanted to.  She glanced at the clock on her dashboard, tilted her rear-view mirror to get a good view of her daughter and flicked her indicator making the snap decision to swing by The Planet.  It had been a while since she had joined the gang for breakfast on a weekday morning. 

After Tina had broken up with Henry and confided in Bette how much she had missed hanging out with the gang and how she was missing being around women, Bette had encouraged her to return to her old routine of coming to The Planet on her way to work.  Almost simultaneously however Bette had found herself dropping it out of her morning routine.  There was no conscious decision at any particular moment not to go, it was just that no matter how hard she tried she could never get past the feeling of awkwardness that persisted when she found herself in a room with Tina and Jodi.  So when Jodi was in town they just had breakfast at home together or sometimes went to the cafe on campus when they got to work.  Bette had enough sense to realise that it would look suspicious if she joined the others at The Planet the weeks that Jodi was out of town and so she had simply said that she started in the university earlier than she had at the C.A.C and it made it difficult to get there in time for breakfast.

Now though, it occurred to her that despite both of their endeavours to prioritise her above everything else, by staying away Bette had been depriving Angie of a few minutes every day where she could be with both her Moms – something both she and Tina agreed that irrespective of whatever else happened they should make time for.  Despite everything that had gone on previously Bette knew that both she and Tina respected each other totally as the other parent of their daughter.  Getting there hadn’t been as straight-forward a journey as they had both assumed when they first decided to have a family, but they had finally arrived at that destination.  It was one of the few things that Bette could be certain about in her relationship with Tina these days.  They were co-parents and they both recognised that each had a contribution to make to their daughters upbringing that was invaluable and irreplaceable.