Bette raised her hand up, to ask for quiet.

“I wasn’t prepared to do this tonight…and was frankly planning something more private for it.  But now, surrounded by our friends, and family,” she paused, turning to the Skinners, “and new family,” she smiled as Luke put his hand on his heart again, “I think I’m now brave enough to do this, in front of those we love, and who love us."

"Something happened to our lives almost four years ago, and though we didn’t meet then, the journey we took, to get to this point, changed us forever.  And we are eternally grateful to each and every one of you for the help and love you kindly extended to us along the way."

She paused, as their friends clapped again. 

"It was a long road that took me, personally, to this very spot…standing next to the most amazing, and beautiful woman in the world.”

She turned to Tina, holding both of Tina’s hands to her lips, kissing the blonde’s fingers.

“Tina, all I have to do is hear your name and every hair on my body just bristles with desire.  You are as elemental to me as the air I breathe.  And when your breath feels close enough to me to stroke my neck, any thought of hardship, despair, or loneliness is shattered in my heart.”

Tina began to shed tears, hazel eyes communicating her own thoughts to Bette, professing the depth of her love silently, just as Bette was declaring hers in front of their friends and family.

Bette continued, “At my loneliest when I was apart from you…even at the moment of hearing of my heart having a hole in it, I realized I still had a thread back to life.”

“Although we were thousands of miles apart, my heart knew, although broken, that two lovers destined to meet are joined by this common thread.”

“Something that links all lovers down through the past, from the time of Zeus and Apollo, and into the future.  The thread that sews the wound of humanity.”

“In many societies, this is expressed in a ring.”

Logan had walked surreptitiously behind Bette earlier, after Shane had quickly handed him something and whispered it was time.  As he stepped behind Bette, he dropped a box onto her hand, that she’d had behind her back.

Bette released Tina’s right hand, but held onto the blonde’s left.  She flipped the lid of the small box Logan had dropped into her hand while she’d had it casually bent behind her back.  With the now-open box, she drew her hand up.   

“Tina, will you be mine forever, eternally?”

The crowd gasped.

Tina answered, tears in her eyes, as she opened her own box with her freed hand.  Kit was standing behind her, crying.

"Only if you’ll be mine, Bette Porter."