Tina was watching Bette’s face as the words sank in. Bette’s reaction
was instant and the sheer agony in her features was enough to take
Tina’s breath away.

Candace hadn’t even walked five feet before Bette was flying through the air, her fist making contact with a sickening crunch.

“Jesus Christ.” Shane muttered as she ran across the Planet once again. “What the ***** is in the water today?”

A few seconds later she was pulling Bette off of Candace. Bette’s hands
were gripping Candace’s hair tightly and she didn’t seem to be letting
go anytime soon. Candace was howling in pain as Bette was carried away
with two handfuls of dark hair.

“Don’t ever touch my ***** family again. If I ever see you within 100
yards of my wife or my child I will hunt you down and make you regret
it.” Bette seethed at Candace. “Don’t call me, don’t try to see me. I
don’t love you. I could never love you. You are the biggest mistake of
my life.”  With that Candace turned around and walked out of the
Planet never to be heard from again.

Bette slowly turned around to find Tina’s calm eyes once again. Bette
gasped. Tina was standing inches away from Bette with tears in her eyes.

“Family, huh?” Tina half smiled at Bette.

“You’re my family T. Always have been, always will be.” Bette whispered.

 ”You hurt me Bette. You really ***** hurt me.” Tina cried.

“I’m so sorry T. I wish I could take it back. I would heaven and earth
just to see you smile again. I know I hurt you. I know you can’t trust
me nowbut I’m going to prove to you that you can. I’ll spend the rest
of my life making you happy if you let me.” Bette said and she reached
up and caressed Tina’s cheek. “I love you baby. I have always loved
you.”

“I love you too.” Tina said. “This isn’t over. We have a lot of work to
do. It’s going to be hard and it’s going to hurt. Can you do that? For
us? I’m not kidding Bette. If you can’t do it tell me now. I can’t lose
you twice.”

“You never lost me.” Bette smiled. “We can do this. I can do anything
as long as you stand beside me and promise to never leave.”

“Deal,” Tina whispered as she pulled her wife into a hug. They both
stood there crying in the middle of the Planet content to be at home in
each other’s arms again.
Alice, Dana and Shane looked at their friends with tears streaming down
their faces. They quickly wiped them away and sat back down at their
usual table where their morning banter returned.

“***** drama. It’s really exhausting. I need another shot.”

“I’ll go. Dane you want?”

“Nah, I’m okay. So, Alice any hair in weird places you’d like to tell us about this morning?”

“No Fairbanks but this morning I noticed that it sort of looked like you had hair on”

“ALICE! Shut up!”

“What? I’m just saying they have wax for that. Jesus.”

As Shane walked away from her crazy friends, she passed Bette and Tina,
still locked firmly in an embrace. The tears were still flowing and
they were now whispering declarations of love. “So *****’ cute.” Shane
laughed as she turned back to look at her friends. For the first time
in months Shane felt that things were finally looking up.