(Kit and Alice walked with Bette up to Angelica’s floor, but decided to let her go into the room by herself. Bette slowly opened the door and entered. She felt a panic strike her. Her eyes jetted all over the room. No one was there. Bette walked quickly back to Kit and Alice.)

BETTE- “She’s not there…”

KIT- “Is Tina there?”

BETTE- “No. Where’s….” (Bette goes to the nurse’s station and addresses a nurse…) “Nurse, my daughter, Angelica…where is she?”

NURSE- “Just a moment please.” (The nurse is writing something onto a form.)

BETTE- “Is she ok? Do you know?”

NURSE- “Just a moment, I’ll be right with you.”

BETTE- “I just want to know what’s going on.”

(Kit and Alice are standing, but just then they realize they best not move or speak….just watch…)

NURSE- “I understand. Please give me a moment. There isn’t another nurse here right now and I have to do this for an urgent matter. Please…I’ll be right with you.”

BETTE- “How difficult could it be to just tell me where she is…” (The nurse looks up and next to Bette. She looks back at Bette…)

NURSE- “Look, I’m sorry, I just came on shift…”

BETTE- “I understand but I just went into my daughter’s room and…” (Bette stops. She senses something, but she’s not sure if she heard a faint voice or felt a touch…she turns.)

TINA- “It’s ok, she’s gone for tests.”

BETTE- “Oh.” (She looks at the nurse and then turns and looks at Kit and Alice. Tina looks tired but calm. She follows Bette’s gaze to Kit and Alice. Kit makes eye contact with Bette and Alice looks from Bette to Tina.)

KIT- “It’s ok. We’ll just wait for her.”

ALICE- “Yeah. Can we get you guys anything from downstairs?” (Bette shakes her head. Tina does the same and says “Thanks Al.”) “Come on Kit. We’ll be right back.” (Kit taps Bette on the arm and walks off with Alice. They enter the elevator and the doors are closing…)

KIT- “Alice, do you understand what’s going on?”

ALICE- “No Kit, not a bit.”

KIT- “Why are we going downstairs?”

ALICE- “No clue…seemed like a good idea at the time.”

KIT- (She smiles and nods…) “Well, it’s not like I’ve got any better ideas. I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

ALICE- “I just hope they find each other soon…I don’t care on what level, but just figure it out.”

(Bette is watching them and then turns to Tina.)

TINA- “I’m sure it won’t take more than an hour or so. They just took her.”

BETTE- “Is she ok?”

TINA- “Yeah, I think so. I mean she doesn’t seem as bad as a couple of days ago and Dr. Sushee seems to think we’ve reached…well, this morning he called it a ‘plateau’.” (Bette nods. She looks off into the distance. Tina gazes at her for a moment, pats her on the arm and slowly turns away and walks to Angelica’s room. Just as Tina is approaching the door, Bette turns to look at Tina go through the door. Then she stands there staring at the door from several feet away. Tina walks into the room and exhales a bit. She walks over to the window and resumes her view of the outside world, but without really looking at anything. Bette was looking at nothing but the door. She felt compelled to move and tried to put her body in motion…just then a sensation comes over her upper back…)

PEGGY- “Bette dear? Are you all right?”

BETTE- “Mmm? Yeah…I…Peggy?”

PEGGY- “Bette, I’m so sorry about everything. This is just awful. Such a young woman…”

BETTE- “Thank you…”

PEGGY- “For what?”

BETTE- “For everything. Julie told me what you did.”

PEGGY- “Justin is a good fellow, and it’s the least I could do. I’ve had occasion to work on projects with the Whitney before and it’s always been a pleasure dealing with them. Good thing I keep in touch with the Canadians too. Anyway…you must know by now that Julie and…what’s that conductor’s name?”

BETTE- “Lily…”

PEGGY- “Right…they left for New York this morning.” (Bette nods.) “Bette, I know it’s difficult for you. But there’s nothing you could have done. At least you were there at the hospital with her and said goodbye. And as I understand it, Julie is comforted much from having seen you before going back to New York. What is meant to be will come to pass. It’s going to be all right. I’m just talking…it’s all just words. I know all the platitudes in the world are nothing to you right now. But like I said on the plane, if there’s anything you need, please let me know, in fact, let Helena know too…she’s been doing what she can for Tina and Angelica too. She may have been a dastardly pain in the ass before, but you people have turned her around. Anyway, you need to take it easy. Your daughter needs you. You need, despite all the hurt, to focus. That little girl will save you from yourself. You’re where you belong.” (Peggy looks from Bette to the door of Angelica’s room and then back at Bette. She had been watching Bette in the moments before coming up to her.) “Well, it’s time I went to visit the board members and the doctors. And it’s time you walked through that door dear.”

BETTE- “She’s not in there. They took her for tests.”

PEGGY- (She looks at Bette, smiles, and says slowly…) “I know.” (Bette looks at Peggy and the latter smiles and nods. She pats Bette on the arm and walks off.

Bette feels her recent life flash before her eyes but she thinks of words said to her by new friends and near strangers…

That first day in New York…

TAXI DRIVER- “Okay madam. You have been to New York before?”

BETTE- “Yes, I have.”

TAXI DRIVER- “It’s ok madam, everything going to be okay.”

BETTE- (She looks at him in the mirror…) “And why wouldn’t it be?”

TAXI DRIVER- (Having seen the puffy orbs of this ravishing lady, he doesn’t want to push his clairvoyant luck…) “No reason…but just to remind you of how wonderful everything going to be…you know…just to say all is ok and I hope always everything go ok for you. And you be happy. Is so important. Life, she’s short.”

BETTE- (She smirks…) “Yes, she is. Thank you.” ….

With Lily…

LILY- “No, actually I think you know, I think you can figure it out, and I think it’s about time you reminded yourself of what it was within you that you gave, that you extended, that you shared…what was it of yourself that sent her falling, and falling hard I imagine…and what was it that kept you together for over eight years? What is it in you that makes you weep at the thought of the child you left behind Bette? What is it that, as you say, haunts you? What will haunt her…if not now, then one day?”

With Julie …

JULIE- “Bette, you already know the answer to that. She’ll never totally disappear from your heart, your mind, your soul. You can’t erase someone like that. You can’t just pretend they didn’t exist. As much pain as you experience in losing the love you shared, something of that greatness stays with you and it will stay with her I’m sure. …

The foundation I suppose. The love that’s at the heart of it all. But really, I guess no one knows the secret, and I don’t think we’re really ever meant to know. Mind you, if there’s an answer, there isn’t a ‘secret formula’. It’s different for every couple I think. There’s no one right way. So whether it’s the love, destiny or a collection of things, I guess it all depends. If there was one special element, if I knew what it was I’d covet it, protect it, and lock it away, so that I’d know that I’d never lose Miranda. Somehow though, right now, I know that I never will. She seems to feel the same way. I feel very fortunate.

With Miranda…

MIRANDA- “… Julie was probably writhing in pain…thinking she was losing me. For all we know she might still lose me with all these machines I’m hooked up to…anyway…I don’t know what hurts more…my battered body or the thought of her sitting there waiting to hear…and now waiting to touch me as I sit here spending every single moment focusing on the image of her in my mind… …

Give me a goodbye kiss…on the cheek Porter…” (Bette chuckles and sort of starts to get emotional.) “Nooooo….no crying. Not necessary. You and I survived the Polar Express jalopy catastrophe together…we’re both going to be in each other’s lives for the rest of our lives, one way or another. I say we have a lot to be happy about. I get to see Julie again and you get to see that family of yours. And soon, you’ll be back with us in New York celebrating with us, with Lily and Justin and Julie and I. So no tears….

Stop. Enough. I’ll miss you too but, like I said, we’ll be seeing each other in no time. Now give me my kiss and get going.” (Bette nods and bends down to kiss Miranda…except she kisses her on her forehead, drawing some tears from both women.) “I love you too.” (Bette strokes her face as she steps back and leaves.)

And after leaving Miranda’s room in the hospital in Montreal…

DR. MYRDDIN- “Hey…listen…you just survived a plane crash in the Canadian arctic. It’s a miracle you and your colleague are alive. I don’t know what you mean by saying that you abandoned her, but right now you are going to do everything in your power. You are going to go to her now and be a mother to her. That’s all that matters now. Bette…think primary…think primal…think powerful…And when you talk to her, when you reach out…when you communicate…don’t talk to this” (she gestures to her head) “talk directly to this…” (she gestures to her heart.) “Give her all of yourself now and don’t look back.” (She smiles…) …

(Bette hears the voices and sees the images multiply, blur and then disappear as her vision regains its focus on the door. She starts walking and, as she opens the door, the weight of it feels oddly impressive…Bette is far more exhausted than she realized. She walks into the room and as the door closes Tina realizes she is not alone but sees no reason to alter her gaze out the window. She’s calm…almost stoic. Bette walks over slowly and stops a couple of feet away from Tina. A few moments pass.)

TINA- “I’m very sorry about Miranda.” (She turns to look at Bette.) “It’s going to be ok Bette. You’re going to make it through all this.” (Bette looks devastated and her eyes are watering. Tina notices but looks away and out the window. She speaks slowly and very calmly, deceptively so…almost like she’s telling a story.) “Julie and Lily were here earlier. They seem really nice. Julie seems very strong. I think she’s going to be ok. I can’t imagine her pain, though I knew it for a moment. I don’t think my world has ever fallen so quickly and so hard. With Angelica, things were like in slow motion. But then, here at the hospital, I was totally fixated on her and wondered only one other thing…where the hell is Bette?” (She turns to look at Bette…) “You know? Where the fuck is Bette?” (Bette stares…Tina turns to look back out the window.) “It was an odd question to be asking…so odd…I mean Bette was gone…she was in a new life in New York. And all these people were here and offering their time and company and support…but there I was, kind of oblivious to it all…think and feeling ‘Where’s Bette?’

Oddly enough I think Angelica was asking the same question. She was so agitated in the days before the accident. I didn’t know what to do. I went to Kit. She seemed to be the only one to calm her down. Alice was beside herself with ‘mother earth’ grief…she was worried about her and she seemed to understand Angelica…what was bothering her, though I wasn’t going to hear any of it. Then she got very sick.” (Tina looks around out the window for a moment. Bette’s tears had fulfilled their journey down her face but a new lump grows to fill her throat.)

“And then, on that day at the hospital, I walked up to our friends in the waiting area. They didn’t see me at first. I heard them speaking but suddenly it was as though I could hear nothing, I could feel nothing once I heard some words…I don’t even remember what they were…but the plane had gone down…the plane had crashed…off the radar…Bette’s plane. Odd, I can’t remember the words, just my little world falling apart…but even that was barely something I could experience because in a split second I came undone…literally fell to the floor. I thought my world was a mess when Angelica got sick…I was lost to the world. But then…Bette’s plane went down…and not a thought, not a word formed in my mind except ‘no, no…’, it couldn’t be Bette on that plane. I felt this force in my chest, like my heart was seized…and then I lost consciousness…fainted. Can you believe that? I fainted. Eight years together…have you ever seen me faint? But there I was, on the floor, in the hands of my family and friends. There I was, on the floor…my daughter in peril and my…well, her other mother gone…just like that.”

(Bette remembers Peggy telling her on the flight to LA that Tina had fainted….)

BETTE- “I know…”

TINA- “You know? Know what?” (She continues to look out the window.)

BETTE- (She moves closer. Tina’s left hand is down her side, as her right hand touches the window pane. Bette wants to take her hand, but she can’t move. She was going to explain that Peggy told her what happened, but now different words came out her mouth.) “I…with Miranda…on the plane. My life didn’t flash before me…Angelica did…” (Tina turns to look at Bette and suddenly notices how close she is and how emotional. Bette’s eyes look away from Tina’s and out the window.) “And …your face…” (She couldn’t continue. Tina takes Bette’s hand firmly in hers, but doesn’t otherwise move.) “I…I was so scared but so angry…lost you and her…and there I was, losing everything, forever…” (A moment passes as Tina looks at Bette, and as Bette stands there possessed by her emotions.) “Tina, I’m scared…I don’t know what to say or do…Miranda’s dead and I’m here but I don’t know where that is, just that there’s nowhere else I could be…it’s like she knew what was going to happen…she loved Julie so much and she looked at me and knew what was inside me…she made me promise to come home…I…I don’t know…all I have is…in my heart…I just don’t know…it hurts so much…there’s so much…” (Tina’s eyes revert to the window as tears escape the hazel vessels and start streaming down her face.) “I can’t…I just can’t do this anymore…not without Angelica, not without you…that’s all I know…I want her in my life…I need you in my life, even without you in the same home or in…in my bed…please at least be in my life…I don’t care about your new life…if you’ve moved on …I just…I just need you and her in my life…however you want it…just please, be in my life…”

TINA- (She continues to stare out the window…) “You know I won’t take her out of your life. I never wanted that. Even after all that happened that day in Whistler, and the way things were before. Ultimately, taking her away from you was not an option…whether I was conscious of it or not. She loves you. But you left her. I couldn’t believe it. You left. What was unbelievable to me was that you left HER. I can see you leaving me…but not her. Though, somewhere deep down I couldn’t fathom that you’d leave me, even though you had done that before…betrayed me.” (She shakes her head a bit…) “I don’t know that I care anymore. I just don’t.”

BETTE- “You don’t care?”

TINA- “No, no I don’t. It doesn’t matter any more.”

BETTE- “Tina, please…please look at me…”

TINA- “Bette…”

BETTE- “Please…”

TINA- “I don’t care. Crazy isn’t it?” (Bette looks at her confused, her tear-drowned eyes starting to see clearer though not understanding.)

BETTE- (She tugs on the hand she’s been holding…) “Tina please don’t…please…”

TINA- “You don’t understand…”

BETTE- “How can I understand? You’re saying…”

TINA- “Bette, stop.”

BETTE- “No, I want you to tell me…”

TINA- “Bette, please…just stop talking…you don’t understand…”

BETTE- “What?” (She’s upset and getting intense…) “What?! What don’t I understand Tina? What? After almost dying and our daughter struggling with life, you’re telling me I can be in her life, but you’re saying you don’t care anymore and that I left and that…”

TINA- (She looks at Bette as though with a vengeance…) “BETTE…I don’t care about anything…” (Bette stops in her tracks and stares at Tina, who is now not so calm.) “I DON’T CARE about ANYTHING. I don’t feel anything, I don’t think anything…aren’t you listening to me? My daughter fell ill and all I could think of, apart from her, was ‘where’s Bette?’ That plane went down and my world fell apart…because you were on it…I don’t care that you took her from me that night, I don’t care that you betrayed me once, I don’t care…I DON’T CARE…I can’t live without you in my life anymore, one way or another. This is the earth fucking shattering revelation that been eating me up inside all this time. God damn it, do you have to be so dense? Geezus.” (She pulls her hand away finally, wipes her tears and looks out the window again.) “And please don’t ask me what this ‘means’ now. I don’t have a clue.”

(As Bette stands there staring at Tina, Shane and Helena were standing at the doorway, unbeknownst to Bette and Tina, and had caught the latter part of the exchange. Just as quietly and undetected as they peaked in and witnessed the event, they quietly disappeared from the room and back into the hallway. Helena looks at Shane…)

HELENA- “All righty then…”

SHANE- “Yeah, right…righty then. Okay. So…maybe we should just wait here.”

HELENA- “Ok, just have a seat maybe.”

SHANE- “Sure. We’ll just wait here.”

HELENA- “Right.”

SHANE- “Right then.”

HELENA- “Sure, uhuh…it’s…yeah…”

SHANE- “It’s fine. We’ll wait.”

HELENA- “Right here.”

SHANE- “Yep.”

HELENA- “Mums the word Shane, right?”

SHANE- “You bet.”

(Bette and Tina haven’t moved. Bette feels her heart break all over again…but it’s not for lack or loss of love, rather, for its overwhelming attack on her being. She wants to fall into Tina, but the invisible obstacle is insurmountable for now. Tina’s life preserver, the window, is all that seems to be holding her up and away from falling into Bette. She feels like she’s holding on for dear life. Her own fears of what she feels, of what she means, of the possibilities, of what has happened, what is happening, and what will come, inform her physical reaction…the window will have to do, because she’s somewhere between hitting the floor and Bette…her ‘return address’…the beginning of what was the rest of her life that night they met and that night they loved one another for the first time…and its end…it’s perpetual destination.

The door opens rather suddenly.)

DR. SUSHEE- “We have to talk. It’s eosinophilic granuloma.” (Bette and Tina turn to look at him.)

BETTE- “What?”

DR. SUSHEE- (He walks up to them.) “We performed a specialized CT scan and MRI. It was the fever and white cell count that threw us previously. It’s an eosinophilic granuloma. We have to remove it. I want to do the surgery as soon as possible.” (He looks at them, and realized he didn’t explain…) “I’m sorry…”

TINA- “Oh my God…” (Bette takes her arm with her own and they stand next to one another.)

DR. SUSHEE- “No, no Ms. Kennard…please, let me explain…it’s a spinal tumor. It’s small, and very rare, but children and adolescents do develop them. I noticed when I was doing the physical examination and the neurological tests that she was reacting oddly. The tests confirmed it. I know it sounds bad, but please…it is benign. However, the surgery is a bit complicated. Any surgery has risks. But we must remove it. If the surgery goes well, she will make a full recovery. It’s in an accessible location. In fact, it’s interesting…she could have aged a bit more before it growing further and developing symptoms. For some reason it was triggered now. But this is good. Perhaps later it would be more complicated.”

BETTE- “Tina…”

TINA- “Do it.” (Bette nods.)

DR. SUSHEE- “I will set things up. We can talk in a bit about the details. But we have to move now. She developed more intense symptoms during the tests. I don’t want to risk further damage.” (Shane and Helena walk in with Kit and Alice. They enter slowly. Dr. Sushee turns to look at them and then looks back at Tina and Bette.) “Ok, I go now.” (He nods and leaves.)

BETTE- (She’s matter of fact…) “She has a tumor in her spine. It’s benign, but it has to be removed. It’s risky, but if she makes it through ok, she’ll be fine.”

(The group looks at Bette and Tina, at each other briefly. The members of this little group walk towards the nucleus of their friendships, and for some of them, their family.)