DISCLAIMER: All the characters and locations belong to Showtime and Ilene Chaiken. I am merely taking them out for a quick polish.
SERIES/SEQUEL: This is the fourth part of the WeHo Days series.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
WeHo Days
A Day at the Beach
By halfofone
The drive from Tina's house to the beach was peaceable if not quiet. Angelica was fastened in the child seat between Helena's children and Helena had impressed on both of the older kids that they had to take care of her. Each child interpreted their mother's injunction differently. Jun Ying was earnestly trying to teach Angelica to count her toes while Wilson took on the role of jester, making dramatic faces at the baby and shrieking peekaboo every minute or so. He also provided Bette with a running commentary on Angelica's every move. Through all of this attention and noise the baby remained completely happy, chattering in her own language, giggling at Wilson and pulling Jun Ying's hair.
Bette had twisted in her seat to supervise. Her face betrayed her feelings as she watched their interactions with a combination of awe and joy and perhaps a little fear.
Helena did not speak except very brief answers to the kids' questions which were mainly along the lines of 'were we ever this gross/cute/dumb?' She drove steadily, one hand on the wheel, her other arm resting on the door. Her silence finally became obvious even to Bette who dragged her attention away from her daughter for a minute.
"Is anything wrong?"
"No."
"You've hardly spoken a word."
"Not really necessary with Wilson in the car."
"Mum! I heard that."
Helena smiled briefly before becoming impassive again. She glanced up at the rear-view mirror and an expression of dissatisfaction settled. Bette twisted around to look out over the rear of the car. Behind the Merc was the dark car which she now knew contained the children's bodyguards. Behind that was Tina's SUV. Bette glanced down at Angelica who was waving a bright plastic bucket she had determinedly wrested from Jun Ying. She grinned at her daughter and gently reached back to steady the wildly waving toy before it could be launched from the vehicle.
"Are you annoyed because I asked Tina to come with us?" she guessed.
"Not at all," Helena answered tersely. "It's none of my business."
"I asked her because I felt sorry for her. Your goons frightened the life out of her. Do they always intervene quite so forcefully?"
"The company have worked security for the Peabody foundation and family for several years. They have always made it quite clear to us that it is their responsibility to assess threats and manage them. We are kept out of things where at all possible. I forget they are even there."
"And Henry?"
"I expect they'll haul him off to a cop shop, threaten him with charges and have our lawyers draw up restraining orders."
"I know I should be concerned at such a raw display of the power of obscene amounts of money but somehow I can't seem to care," announced Bette thoughtfully. Helena smirked and Bette followed up her quip by asking, in a very casual voice, "so why are you concerned about Tina being with us today?"
"Because..." Helena screwed up her face in annoyance at being so easily caught out. "...nothing. I don't care Bette. You can ask whomever you choose. I was just surprised..." Her face closed again, removing all emotion.
"You shouldn't waste your time on me Helena," Bette said gently. "I'm not a good bet for anyone. I'm not really a whole person anymore."
Helena reacted bitchily "Of course you're not. You've lost your Tina appendage."
"Did it hurt?" asked Jun Ying who was hanging on to back of her mother's seat, listening seriously.
"What!" exclaimed Bette nervously. She wasn't up for explaining her break-up to a nine year old. However that was not what Jun Ying had in mind as she launched into a breathless story.
"Well when my friend Shandy, that's not her real name, her real name is Charlotte but everyone calls her Shandy, I don't really know why, I think it's some kind of fizzy drink so maybe it's because she's really fizzy, but when she had her appendage out, she said it hurt awful bad and she had a big scar on her tummy and her Daddy had got her appendage in a jar. It was really small and red and horrid and smelly. Do you have a scar? Can I see it?"
"Yeah!" yelled Wilson. "Let's see. I wanna see it too."
Helena was laughing, she glanced sideways to see Bette's mildly appalled expression. "Nothing to see children," she said firmly to discourage her offspring from harassing Bette. "There are no visible scars on Bette. And would you both please sit down and put your belts back on."
"Sorry to disappoint you," Bette said to the children whose expressions clearly showed what they thought of an operation that didn't leave a scar.
"Have you kept your appendage?" asked Jun Ying hopefully.
"Not in a jar," said Helena in a stage aside.
Bette made a face at Helena before turning back to Jun Ying. "Sorry again. However maybe one day I could take you to a museum where you can see some dead sheep and cows in very large glass cases."
"Eww," exclaimed Jun Ying. "That is gross."
"Poor animals," said Wilson sadly. "Why did they die?"
Bette opened and then shut her mouth as she realised that a seven year old boy was unlikely to understand that the animals died for art.
"I guess they were sick and died and the artist found them like that and tried to make something meaningful of their deaths."
"I feel an analogy coming on," Helena whispered loudly again.
"Helena," Bette warned.
The Briton grinned broadly and mimed zipping her lips. Bette suppressed an answering grin and shook her head disapprovingly before returning to answer Wilson's next question.
Minutes later the Merc slowed and turned into a parking lot and the children immediately forgot about dead sheep and bottled appendages. They cheered wildly and started trying to unfasten their seat belts despite their mother's instructions to the contrary. When the car stopped close to the edge of the beach, Wilson and Jun Ying were out and stripping down to their swimsuits. Helena was also quickly out of the car, trying to keep hats on and smother the children in sun cream before they were off and running across the hot sand towards the ocean. It amused Bette to see the security team still dressed in suits trying to follow them inconspicuously. She emerged a little more sedately than the Peabodys and began extracting Angelica from the baby seat, the little girl holding up her arms to be lifted out by her Mom. Bette stood by the car, smiling and talking nonsense to the baby, bouncing her gently on her hip. Helena felt her heart tighten. She knew she had never seen anything more beautiful: no work of art, no mountain view nor coastal panorama.
The sound of an engine switching off reminded Helena that they were not alone. Tina had parked her SUV a few yards away and was watching them. Actually she was watching Helena watching Bette, the Briton realised as she met Tina's curious gaze. Helena suddenly felt guilty as though she had been caught doing something wrong. She could imagine the wheels turning in Tina's mind. The blonde got out of her car and approached them. Helena smiled at her with what she hoped was an innocent manner.
"Hey Tina. I guess we'd better go find Alice and Shane. They said they would be here early. Something about someone they had to see."
"Yes. We're meeting at the tower," Bette said absently, her whole attention still on Angelica.
"The tower?" Helena looked confused.
"The tower of love," Tina laughed. "It's not far. I'll lead the way," she said. Helena couldn't be sure but there seemed to be just a touch of satisfaction in Tina's voice.
"I hope this is an appropriate place for children..."
"As long as Alice and Shane behave which they will," Bette asserted.
Helena's wrinkled brow indicated that she was mystified so Tina explained "It's the lifeguard lookout. Alice, Shane and Dana loved to watch the beach patrols, so much that they came to know which shifts their favourites worked. Dana really liked a girl who worked in the mornings."
Bette took up the story while Helena unloaded the bags from the trunk of the Merc.
"It became a tradition that we would arrive in time for the shift change so that Dana could say hello and maybe ask her out. Of course she never did get beyond hello. Alice and Shane were a different matter."
Bette and Tina shared a smile at the memory. Tina picked up the bag of Angelica's things and she and Bette set off next to each other, still reminiscing, Bette carrying Angelica effortlessly. Helena had to suppress a curse when she found herself laden with the kids bags, the beach gear and a picnic hamper, struggling to keep up with the ex-lovers. They walked along the shore for about a hundred yards which seemed like a couple of miles to the over-laden Helena.
Alice saw them coming first and sat up, waving wildly as though she thought they might pass her by while Shane lazily propped herself up on her elbows. They had both been sunbathing.
"Hey you're late...and...Tina! Wow! This is unexpected."
She looked at a slightly red-faced Helena who was dumping her burdens on the sand and then Bette for an explanation. Seeing Tina's hurt expression, Bette took up the challenge.
"Sorry we're late. Helena's security team had a run-in with Henry outside Tina's apartment. It was fairly unpleasant...we didn't think Tina should stay on her own. Although I didn't realise that they would be relocating Henry to a new identity in Peru."
"Bette!"
Bette grinned at Helena who rolled her eyes while Tina looked worried and Alice threw up her hands in a 'yeah I know what you mean' gesture.
"So you've met the hoochy-koochy twins too," she exclaimed loudly. "Scary shit, though I kinda like the look."
Helena laughed. "Alice you were waving a knife around Wilson's head. You were lucky they didn't shoot you."
"That's very comforting Helena. I was only teaching him how to scalp the British invaders. Someone has to counter all that Brit crap you fill his head with. He needs to learn how to be an American kid. When I was his age I could shoot the eye out of a groundhog at a hundred paces."
"Alice, the nearest you've ever come to a gun is a hairdryer and you wouldn't recognise a groundhog if it came with a label."
"Not so. I was in a Western once...with Burt Reynolds." Alice scowled at the raised eyebrows and amused smirks circulating. "Okay my mother was playing the town whore with a heart of gold and an illegitimate baby. They needed a baby."
"It's alright Alice," said Shane supportively. "None of us will ever question your knowledge of American traditions again."
"Hey Shane, Alice. It's great to see you guys," Tina offered hesitantly.
"Hi Tina. It's great you could come," Shane got up off the sand and hugged her old friend. Tina clung to her.
Alice shrugged and also got to her feet to join in the hug.
"How's the babe-watch, snagged any Pamela Andersons yet?" teased Tina, her voice breaking slightly at the familiarity of it all.
"Firstly Tina, eww! I see your time with men has coarsened you."
Tina gave Alice the finger and Alice grinned.
"Secondly we have observed the true spirit of the event and have greeted each female member of the beach patrol with silence and shuffling feet. I think Dana would have been proud."
Shane nodded soberly "though I don't remember Dana sticking her business card in anyone's swimsuit Al."
"Dane never had a business card," Alice answered as though that settled the point. "How's my Angie-boo?" she asked as Bette settled on a towel beside her with Angelica in her lap. The baby looked a little uncertain as Alice peered closely at her grinning madly.
Shane smiled like the fallen angel that she was.
"She's getting more beautiful Bette. Like her mommies."
"Yes she's beautiful but that sun-bonnet is a fashion disaster." Alice sat back and shook her head. "I shall have to take Angie shopping. That, Angie-boo, looks like something your Aunt Dana would have bought."
"Alice!" Shane remonstrated.
"What? I'm not having my earth-daughter wearing Granny Clampit's cast-offs."
Tina glanced knowingly at Bette and they both started to laugh, acknowledging some unspoken remembered anecdote. Bette frowned at her old friend.
"Alice, you are not dressing Angelica. She is not ready for you."
Alice made a face as her smiling friends settled on the clean sand around her and began to remove their clothing and shoes.
Helena watched the interchange, again painfully aware of how well Bette and Tina knew each other and indeed how well the whole group functioned together. She felt out of place, like an intruder.
"I have to go and check on the children." She fished the tube of high factor sunscreen out of her bag and stood up. She was surprised when Tina offered to go with her.
"I'd like to discuss a couple of things very briefly," she explained.
Helena nodded her head and hid her apprehension. There were at least two subjects that she did not want to explain to the smart blonde who was now walking barefoot beside her, kicking at the loose sand.
"Why did Peggy suddenly decide to close the studio down? I thought she was going to give you the chance to make it work as a real film studio."
Subject number one. Helena said nothing for a second. They walked on.
"You've seen the figures Tina. You know how hard it was going to be to get through the next three months. I didn't think we could do it and this way there's still enough money to pay off the staff."
"You asked Peggy to close it down," Tina stated quietly.
"Yes."
"And that decision had nothing to do with Bette."
Subject number two. Helena schooled her face into blank astonishment.
"What are you talking about?"
"Helena there are not many people in this world that I claim to understand but you I think I do understand. You can never hide what you're feeling Helena. And you are feeling Bette. It's written all over your face when you look at her."
Okay so blank astonishment was fooling no-one. She tried outright denial.
"There is nothing going on between me and Bette."
"I didn't say there was but you'd like there to be. And when Helena Peabody wants someone she makes their dreams come true. Did Bette ask you to put pressure on me?" Tina stopped and grabbed Helena's arm forcing her to stop also.
"She had nothing to do with closing the studio."
Helena could see the disbelief and anger in Tina's eyes. She was going to have to be totally honest and take the full heat of Tina's fury - anything less and she risked the whole argument blowing up in Bette's face.
"I swear that Bette knew nothing about Shaolin's closure. I had offered to help her with the custody case and she very reluctantly accepted an appointment with a Peabody lawyer. Bette doesn't have much time for me Tina - you know that."
"Yes but maybe you're hoping that you can win her over."
"Do you really believe that Bette would fall for that?"
Tina held her gaze before replying. "I think Bette would do anything for Angelica."
"As would you."
Tina nodded slowly, accepting the point. Helena decided that it was now or never for the whole truth.
"But I am going to be honest with you. Your keeping Angelica from Bette was a factor for me. I like you Tina and I have enjoyed your friendship; I know that you've decided you are straight and that's okay but if that decision means that you are going to throw the same kind of crap at us as the rest of the straight world then I cannot have any relationship with you Tina, even as a colleague?"
Tina looked shocked. Her hand dropped from Helena's arm. The Briton was on a roll now.
"And you're still treating Bette like shit with all these conditions: she can't be alone with Angelica, she can't be her other Mom, she just some kind of aunt or family friend. How exactly will that work Tina, when in her heart and mind Angelica is her child?"
Tina sighed and passed her hand through her hair. "It won't work. I know that."
"So...you're just punishing her?" Helena uttered disbelievingly.
"Yes."
"What!"
"That's the story of us: Bette misbehaves, I punish her. I misbehave, I punish her." Tina smiled sadly. "Who says therapy's a waste of money." She became serious again. "I am not going to keep Angelica from Bette, or make her take some lesser part in her life. Bette just made me really angry. Angrier than I have ever been in my life. And she was so single-minded that I guess I really went overboard to make her listen to me, to make her understand that she cannot steamroller me like that anymore. Not where Angie's concerned."
"So you steamrollered her."
"Like you said, I would do anything for Angelica."
"Are you going to hang the ultimate threat over Bette's head every time you disagree?"
Tina shook her head emphatically.
"No. That wouldn't be fair to Angie. I have already talked to my lawyer about reviving the adoption proceedings. He didn't think it was a good idea so I guess I need a new lawyer and maybe a good family therapist for the rough times ahead."
Tina looked enquiringly at Helena who broke out in a broad smile.
"You don't need to ask Tina."
Tina returned the smile and took Helena's hand.
"So you see, you needn't have interfered Helena. I understand why you did though..."
"...it's what I do."
"Yeah I know."
They resumed their walk towards the distant figures of the two children playing in the surf.
"You still love Bette."
Tina shook her head but she answered affirmatively.
"Of course. Always. But we don't work together as a couple. We bring out the worst in each other and I don't see that changing if we lived together and I don't think Bette wants that either now. So what are you going to do now the studio has closed." Tina changed the subject.
"Bette thinks..."
"So you have talked to her about it," Tina queried suspiciously.
"She found out from someone, probably Alice, and challenged me about it in the car on the way to get Angie. She said you would blame her."
Tina sighed. "She knows me so well..."
It was Helena's turn to interrupt.
"...as I was saying, Bette thinks I should talk to my mother, get her to re-consider the closure."
"Do you think she would?"
"Would you be interested in staying if she did?"
"Not to sound too mercenary...would I keep the apartment?" Tina waggled her eyebrows and Helena thumped her on the arm.
"I guess there is no harm in asking the old she-devil. It will just confirm Mother's belief that I don't know my own mind and give her something to look forward to when I fail."
Tina thumped her in return. "Don't be such an old-world pessimist Helena. You're in the good old US of A now. Anything is possible."
Twenty minutes later they had returned the way they came with two reluctant children in tow. Max and Jenny had arrived and Max had busied himself building a fire for the cook-out. Jenny was busy burying herself in the sand. By tacit agreement no-one interfered.
Helena was still arguing with her protesting offspring. "You can go back in the sea when we've eaten. And we'll all have a swim, even little Angie."
Lunch was happy, if fraught with incident (the children ingested as much sand as sandwiches before they set off back to the ocean ignoring their mother's demands that they let the food sink before getting back in the water and Max burnt the burgers and Jenny's notebook though he denied that he had deliberately used it as kindling.) It was a reluctant Tina who stood up to announce she had to leave. She gestured at Bette that she wanted a private word. Bette's relaxed pose disappeared and tension entered her face. She gave Angie to Shane and stood up without a word following Tina to a safe distance.
Shane and Alice watched anxiously as Bette followed Tina and they started to talk. Tina seemed to be holding Bette's hands.
"What is that about?"
"Don't worry," said Helena. "I think Tina has some good news for Bette."
Suddenly Bette yelled and picked Tina up and swung her round in an impressive display of strength that made even Max sit up and take notice.
"What the fuck?" howled Alice. Helena grinned and shook her head, refusing to say anything despite the glare of death she was getting from Alice. Bette and Tina started back to the group still holding hands. Bette picked up Angie from Shane's lap and hugged her, tears streaming down her face.
"I guess I have a little 'splainin' to do," said Tina.
"Ya think!" cried Alice in mock outrage.
"I have a few things I should say to all of you. Firstly Bette - I want everyone to hear this. I'm sorry for hurting you so badly over the last few weeks. I have been a monster I guess...I know as well as you that you are Angelica's Mom and somehow we will push an adoption through even if it takes the entire Peabody Foundation legal team doing nothing else for the next few years."
Helena smiled and nodded agreement. Bette just couldn't stop hugging Angelica.
"I also have to say sorry to the rest of you guys. I apologise to you, my gay family, for abusing straight privilege and behaving like a total shit."
There was complete silence. Tina laughed nervously.
"Is Bette the only one to get forgiven when she's a horse's ass?"
Alice smirked. "Hey we're all used to Porter being a horse's ass. I guess no one expected it from you."
"Hey!" protested Bette. Alice ignored her.
"Well Miss Straight-girl, I may let you live it down. In a few years. Maybe." Alice leaned over and hugged Tina. Shane smiled enigmatically.
"I guess we should all forgive each other."
"Oh for fuck's sake," complained Alice. "Hey grasshopper! Do you charge for those pearls by the word?"
"I think you mean 'Hey Sensei!'" corrected Max.
Alice scowled at him. "Whatever."
The End