Something a little calmer.

Alex opened her eyes and looked around. They were in that little cottage now, the one that Diane's aunt owned. She was wearing pajamas and sitting on a couch. Diane came around the side of the couch from the kitchen with two steaming mugs of hot cocoa. Alex broke into a huge grin when she saw her.

"Diane! You're back!" she cried. Diane set the mugs on the coffee table and Alex leapt up to embrace her. "How long has it been?"

"Too long," Diane said. "I missed you, Alex." Her eyes were streaked with tears and Alex wiped them away.

"So what did you do this time? Did you have crazy sex with young me? Or argue with yourself?" Alex asked, her eyes shining with curiosity. Diane laughed.

"A little of both. I really gave it to myself this time. I made you into me and I went off, told her what an awful bitch she was. Then I turned you into young you and gave you a mind-blowing orgasm."

"Sounds nice," Alex said. She rubbed Diane's back soothingly as they sat on the couch together. "But it sounds like you've got a lot of guilt on your shoulders today. What's wrong, babe?"

Diane sighed and shifted, laying with her head in Alex's lap. She closed her eyes, basking in the physical and emotional warmth. "I don't know, I guess I just had to work some stuff out. It felt good, though."

Alex was stroking her hair slowly. "As good as this?"

"Nothing feels as good as this," Diane said. Alex bent over to kiss her. It was the comfortable, loving kiss that can only come with decades of domestic bliss. Diane received it with the desperation of a drowning woman.

"God, I can't believe I gave this up..." she muttered. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. Alex brushed a stray hair out of her face and put a hand on her cheek.

"You didn't give this up. You have me, right now. I know I'm not the real Alex and that when you leave this room I'll turn into some other person, but right now I'm her. I look like her, I feel like her, and I love you."

Diane's tears were flowing freely now. "I sold it all. I became really bad person-"

Alex put a finger over her lips. "You have to be that person every day. You have to look in the mirror and grapple with the harm you've done. But when you're here you can be someone else. Your history is what you want it to be. You got that poly sci degree and we became community organizers together. We marched and sang and fought and fucked and lived our lives in the service of others, and now we're just a couple of old married lesbians enjoying a break."

"My aunt sold this place years ago and we haven't spoken in decades."

"Look around you," Alex said lovingly. "If that's true, how are you here with me now? You carry so much around with you - guilt, shame, self-loathing, bitterness. Please, just put it down for a little bit. It'll be there after this is over. For now, just leave it all behind and live with me here. I love you, Diane."

"I love you," Diane said, and closed her eyes.