“I thought someone has to go through it in order for the portal to seal itself,” Shane said casually.

“Correct,” Alice nodded. “When the time comes, we discuss my Plan C.”

“Which is?”

“What to do to seal the time portal without going through it,” Alice replied, like it was the most obvious thing. Shane just nodded, knowing that it was pointless to push for anything when Alice was in her control freak ‘I-know-the-best’ mode.

Satisfied, Alice turned a page in her notebook and continued, “While I’m gone, everyone behave normal, like there’s nothing out of ordinary happening and Bette just got back from visiting her family in Geneva. Go back to work, act your usual self and try to avoid Helena and Candace as much as you can,” she looked pointedly at Tina and Bette.

They both look at each other and replied simultaneously, “Yes, boss.”

“I’m serious, you guys. Those two bitches are evil and we all need to be very careful around them. I can see a disaster that might happen if we don’t watch ourselves,” Alice said sternly.

Bette nodded, “Sorry, Alice, we know. I think Tina should be okay because Helena might actually leave her alone for a while because I’m back, but I might run into Candace a lot, she’s still working at the CAC on the exhibits.” She squeezed Tina’s hand and smiled at her, “I will try to avoid her like a plague.”

“You’d better,” Tina said teasingly. “If she puts any of her body parts around you, even if it’s an innocent hand touch, I will break that body part and beat her to death with it.”

Dana spurted her coffee and Bette laughed. “I love you,” she whispered to Tina and kissed her cheek.

Tina reveled in Bette’s gentle caress and then nodded at Alice, “Please continue, Al.”

“That’s it, that’s all I have,” Alice closed her notebook.

“So let me get it straight,” Bette said. “Plan A is for you to go incognito to Kroll’s lab and for us to act normal?”

“Yep,” Alice nodded. “Plan B will come to play after I find out what is Kroll up to and Plan C is for when everything else fails.”

“Ok,” Shane nodded like it made a perfect sense. “So when are you leaving for Portland?”