“When were you planning to tell Bette?”

“Right about now. If everything looked like it was going to go well and nothing was gonna go wrong like last time… I didn’t think Bette could handle another miscarriage.”

“No?”

Tina opens the curtain and faces Dr. Wilson.

“Oh my. Well look at you”

Tina smiles and rubs her belly. “Yeah, it just sort of, uh.. just popped.”

The doctor looks at Tina’s belly protruding under the gown and estimates that she’s almost three months along. Dr. Wilson was tempted to give Tina her speech about prenatal care but knew it would fall on deaf ears at this point. At least the expectant mother was here now.

“I’m not ready to tell anybody. I wanna keep it to myself for a while.”

“Well, that’s not gonna be easy my dear.”

Tina hops up on the exam table and lies back while Dr. Wilson puts on sterile gloves and prepares her tools for the examination. She continues to confide in her doctor.

“Looks like I’m having this baby on my own.”

“Now that’s a shame, Tina.”

“Don’t say that. People do it all the time.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

Tina’s mind drifts back to an argument she and Bette had had months ago when they were trying to get pregnant the first time.

“What’s going on?” Bette’s sudden appearance in the back room at the Planet startled Tina.

“What are you doing here?”

“I got this… vague but urgent message from Alice.”

Tina should have known that Alice would interfere. “Oh great” she says with a guffaw. Bette just stares at her still not knowing what the hell was going on. After a beat Tina tells her what is on her mind.

“You put me in a fucking awkward position. How could you not tell me that Marcus Allenwood is black?”

“God, I — I… I don’t know, I guess I — I should’ve. I… I just didn’t think it would be a problem for you to use a black donor.”

“But… I didn’t say I didn’t want a black donor. I just think we should’ve discussed it.”

“We absolutely discussed it Tina. Right in the very beginning we said that if you were going to be the birth mother that we should consider finding an African-American donor; that way the child would be more like our child.”

“But I wasn’t prepared.”

Now it’s Bette’s turn to be upset as she realizes the gravity of the situation. Her voice falters as she tries to make sense of what she’s hearing. “I don’t understand. Other than… being committed… to spending the rest of your life with me… what more do you need to do to prepare?”

“Look at me Bette. I don’t feel qualified to be the mother of a child who’s half African-American. I don’t know what it means to be black.”

Bette is now crying. “I think I can make a contribution in that department.”

“And don’t you think on top of everything else, to also have two moms … that is a lot of otherness to put on one child.”

Dr. Wilson touches Tina’s knee lightly to bring her out of her musing.

“I want this baby more than ever.” Tina declares with conviction.