Bette came home to an empty house, seemingly. The lights were all on, though. There was note for her on the fridge and beside that, there was a note on the counter.

Spent the night at Carmen’s. Enjoy your first night of your much needed break from work.

She smiled and tossed the note in the trash. She was happy her sister fell for someone and had that someone fall back for her. She didn’t know if they would last, but even if they didn’t, she wanted her sister to experience that first true love. She lifted the next note and read it.

Check your room.

She recognized the writing as Helena’s and grinned. She sprinted to her bedroom to find Helena sitting on her bed with suitcases packed and ready to go. Helena smiled at Bette and stood up.

"What’s all this about?" She asked.

"You’ve been so good to me, I just want to do something wonderful for you. I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of setting up a quick vacation for just the two of us."

"Helena, you don’t…" Helena placed her fingertip over Bette’s lips.

"Don’t. No worries. I wanted to do this for you. Please, just let me take care of you for once. You’re always taking care of everyone else, it would be my pleasure to take care of you." She kissed her softly and looked her in the eyes.

The words were there, but it probably wasn’t wise to let them out just yet.

"So, where to?"

"Italy. Venice to be exact. My family has a home there, right on one of the canals and I thought it would be a really nice place for us to spend some time together. Just for the week. We can go visit some galleries or take a flight to Tuscany for a night or…"

"Ride in a gondola!?" Bette squealed. Helena had never seen her so excited, but it made her heart swell five times it’s size.

"Ha ha…yes, whatever you want, my love." She pulled Bette into an embrace, "I just want to treat you like the queen you are, Bette Porter." Helena held her tighter and leaned her face into the head full of curls, taking in the scent of Bette’s shampoo, "Our flight leaves in three hours, love. I’ve taken the liberty of packing all that I think you’ll need."