It was three days before Provocations opening and Bette was so tightly wound, the slightest mistake would set her off. James had been doing a great job keeping her from getting upset. Candace had been awkward around her for a few days after the almost kiss; Bette acted as if nothing had happened.

“Bette,” James whispered, coming into her office.

“Hold on,” Bette said into her phone and acknowledged James.

“I think you should come down and see what’s going on out here.”

“I’ll call you back,” she says and hangs her phone up and stands, “what?”

“We have protestors setting up outside,” James says as they walk down the hall.

“You’ve got to be fucking shitting me.”

“No, they arrived shortly after lunch,” he said as they stared through the front window, “they have almost a hundred people out there. They’re threatening to not let the artwork in the front doors.”

“Jesus! What are we supposed to do,” Bette exclaims just as Leo walks up.

“I may be able to help,” Leo said, waving his phone in the air.

“What the hell is he talking about,” Bette asked as Leo walked away, dialing on his phone, James just shrugged and they went back to Bette’s office. They were discussing how they would get the artwork in. They only had a couple days for the artists to get their work in and arrange it. Leo walks into the office, Franklin behind him, with a satisfying look on his face.

“Well Bette, Leo solved our issue.”

“Excuse me,” she said, annoyed.

“Leo has managed to get a private security group out here to help with the crowd at the loading docks. So all is well, the artwork can be brought in without harm. Great job Leo.”

“Thanks Franklin,” he says and smiles at Bette and walks out.

“Fuckin’ hate that guy.”

“Yeah, something about him isn’t right, it’s like he’s up to something.”

“He better not fuck with my show.”

For the next two days Bette and James had basically worked for forty-eight hours straight. They had hustled the artwork in and basically fought the protesters tooth and nail to get the trucks in the back alley. There were no signs of Fae Buckley those three days and Bette was happy about that. She had basically knocked her off her high horse, but her minions pressed on without her. Alexander had finally made his way back to Los Angeles and spent the majority of his time with Bette and James at the CAC. Bette and Tina had visited Dr. Wilson and true to the positive test, Tina was pregnant, but it was still too early to know if Tina could carry the baby to full term. They hoped that their positive thinking would help the baby thrive. Bette wasn’t the only one with a busy month, Tina was kicking ass at the studio, she scored Shaolin’s first movie, Desperate Actions an Independent film about woman who loses her job and resorts to selling drugs to support her children. Even though it was low budget, she managed to get a few A-List actors on board. She was proud of her work and even though Helena had wanted a big budget movie, she was happy with the work they were doing. Getting out there was the first step, and then the big movies would follow.