Suddenly, Tina’s office door flew open and Helena barged in as if she owned the place. In an earlier conversation, Tina with Helena Tina had admitted that she and Bette were separated and that Bette didn’t know about the baby. Seizing the opportunity Helena quickly assessed the situation and made her play taking hold of Tina’s elbow possessively.

Seeing the woman that Bette blamed for threatening her livelihood with her hands-on Tina in such an intimate way was more than she could tolerate. “What are you doing?” Bette asked.

Helena answered that she was there to publicize the grant. “That’s not what I mean … what are you doing with my wife?” Bette asked with her eyes fixed on Helena’s hands touching Tina.

“Well it’s none of my business but Tina doesn’t seem to think of you as her wife anymore.” Helena answered cockily moving closer and placing her arm around Tina’s back.

“That would be correct, it’s none of your business” Bette’s anger flared.

Finally, Tina had had her fill of the sparring between the two alpha females. “Enough” she yelled at both of them. That’s when Helena went in for the kill. Looking Bette in the eye but addressing Tina, she said “I’m sorry. You really shouldn’t be dealing with this kind of nonsense – especially not in your condition.”

Switching her burning gaze from Helena to Tina Bette asked “What condition is that?”

Tina’s reflexive move to touch her stomach revealed it without words. The shock of Tina being pregnant with a baby that was conceived while they were still together as a couple, and the fact that her wife had kept it a secret for over three months had been heartbreaking for Bette. To make matters worse Tina felt a modicum of pleasure from the attention she was getting from Helena and the obvious affect it was having on Bette. Bette’s cheating had hurt Tina more deeply than anything she had ever experienced in her entire life. She took advantage of Helena’s affection to inflict some pain of her own by siding with Helena against Bette.

Bette Porter was reduced to feeling like a cosmic joke when she learned that all her friends and most of the lesbian community knew about Tina’s pregnancy before she did. Later that evening Tina arrived at the bridal shower they were both attending escorted by Helena and wearing a maternity dress no longer feeling the need to hide her pregnancy. Whether it was out of anger or perhaps a touch of vengefulness Tina’s actions was a slap in Bette’s face and the opening Helena Peabody needed to worm her way into Tina’s pants.