The Ones that Matter. (6b/?) Kate x Betty, Gladys/Betty/Kate friendship,
Fandom: Bomb Girls
Pairing: Betty/Kate
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own Bomb Girls, I don't make money. The creators and everyone involve in the show is brilliant.
A/N okay, I had to break it up into two chapters, sorry, lj said it was too big. So, same as the rest of the author's note in 6A. Our ladies are getting back to the friendship level here...one step at a time...don't worry, they will eventually get beyond that. Kate's just working on the paradigm shift.
Chapter 6B
Kate reached over to squeeze Betty’s hand, then realized it both of them were firmly crushed under her thighs.
“Why are you sitting on your hands?” She asked, with an adorably confused expression on her face. “It doesn’t look very comfortable.”
“Oh, uh,” Betty laughed, both out of nervousness and out of appreciation of the humor in the fact that she’d actually been caught in this ridiculousness, “I, they were cold.”
“All right,” Kate said slowly, given that it was approaching summer, and rather warm in the apartment. “Well, you know what they say-Cold Hands, Warm Heart!”
Betty laughed, “Yup, that’s me! “ This was embarrassing. “So, anyway, you’d never read the Bible until you went home. But then you did?”
“Oh, yes, I did. My mother asked if I had, if I’d read it ‘cover to cover,’ and then said something like, my father’s word wasn’t the Lord’s, and I should see what else there was to see in it. I’d so rarely heard her say something so blatantly…disrespectful toward my father. Implying that he was somehow not being true to God’s Word? It was…unheard of, Betty. Even when she’d helped me get away the first time, she’d never said anything directly against him. I guess this time, she thought she had to, so I would really understand. So I read, and talked to her about it, and I prayed for guidance to make the right decisions.”
“So, what did you find out?”
“Betty, the Bible says men shouldn’t lie with men,” Kate shrugged, “I don’t know how to ignore that. It says it, and-“ before Kate could even continue, Betty, to her utter frustration, had tears rolling down her cheeks, which then made Kate start to cry as well. “Betty, please don’t cry.”
“How can you ask me not to cry, Kate!” Betty was doing her best to get a little more angry, instead of sad, but, it wasn’t working, as she came to the realization that Kate still felt the same, was still saying she was a sinner, still felt she was just wrong, had something wrong within her, straight from God’s mouth. It made her angry that Kate would think such a thing, but that anger was nothing compared to the hurt. And because it was Kate, the fight that Betty usually had inside of her-that had kept her going for so many years when she didn’t fit in, when people judged her, was gone. Kate had gotten past her tough exterior a long time ago, and still had her hand right on Betty’s heart. Which she was currently crushing.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. But, that’s not-it does say that, Betty, but it says a lot of things. The Bible is a really long book, and there are things in it that it says are wrong, that I don’t think are wrong, and that no one ever told me were wrong. And then there are things in it that I do think are wrong, but that the Bible says are okay. Do you know that it says…” Kate didn’t even want to repeat this, “if a man forces himself on a woman, who isn’t married or engaged, he has to marry her?”
“What?” That brought Betty out of feeling sorry for herself for a minute, “See, it’s stuff like that that makes it hard for me to believe in it all.”
“I can understand,” Kate said simply. “And it’s in the Old Testament, so, there are some things there that later, Jesus talked differently about, and we’re supposed to follow his Word, as Christians, but, I still don’t understand how God would ever pass that down in the first place. And if we can ignore parts of the Old Testament, and Jesus talks about love, and not judging others, then does that mean we shouldn’t listen to some of the things the Old Testament says about men who lie with men? I don’t know. And then, even in the New Testament, they talk about slavery, I think-it says servants or maids a lot, but my mother said they meant slaves. And they talk about it like it’s okay. I don’t understand how that can be? How is that loving each other, and treating others as we would want to be treated?”
“Kate,” by this point Betty had reigned in the tears, “I don’t know.” She opened her mouth to continue, but realized she had nothing to say that was really nice about Kate’s religion right now. So she stayed quiet, hoping that she could understand how Kate believed any of this.
“I-Betty, I believe in God, in Jesus, and…I’ve found that the Bible is very hard for me to understand, but what I also found, after reading it, was that the message of Jesus was love. Love one another. There is nothing in there about love being wrong. In fact, my favorite passages talk about how important it is-how it’s the most important thing. And I prayed on that, asking that Jesus help me to understand. I have to accept that what I’ve come to believe is from those prayers, and that He is guiding me.” Kate reached out again for Betty’s hand, and this time, took it.
“Betty, I’m-I shouldn’t have said it like that, about, men lying with men, blurting it out like that---it’s…where I started, in my head, but not where I ended. I’m sorry, if I’ve made a terrible mess of this. I just wanted you to understand me, and how hard I’ve been trying to understand you.”
And, just as always, Betty, had no ability to resist those big, sorry, sincere eyes, “I get it, Kate. It’s…it’s all right. I didn’t mean to get so upset. You just, you don’t know what it’s like to have someone so important to you say they think you are a sinner.”
“Betty!” Kate gave her an incredulous look, and then leaned forward as if they were conspiring, “That is almost all I know.”
“Oh. Right. I…sorry,” Betty mumbled, completely embarrassed she’d said that. Though Kate didn’t seem to be mad at her, what with the wink she just gave her.
“No, I am. Betty, sometimes I think I’m so used to being told that there is something wrong with me, my whole life being told I was a sinner, that…I don’t even know what I’m trying to say. Sometimes I forget the weight of saying those things.” Kate rubbed her forehead, “Well, that’s a sorry excuse if I ever heard one.”
Betty sighed, “It is,” she looked at Kate, smiling, and then it was her turn to wink, “Let’s just…agree that it’s not fun when people think that about you. You’re not the first to say it about me, either. And Kate, I can’t imagine anyone thinking you were headed for hell. You’re the best person I know.”
“Oh Betty,” she said, throwing her arms around her friend, who responded with an awkward pat of her arm, before Kate pulled back, “I can’t be the best person you know. But thank you. And, you, YOU are one of the best people I know. After thinking about everything, and everything my father was saying after I left, about both you and me, I just couldn’t believe him. To think that we were destined for hell, just like…Hitler? No, I can’t accept that.” Kate thought back to the other day, when she’d told Gladys that she didn’t approve of Betty’s interest in women--but at this moment she wasn’t even sure she could still say that. She didn’t exactly know what she thought about everything, but sitting here with Betty right now? It made her more certain that her father was wrong about Betty, and that she had been mistaken to say all those things, to think all of those things, the day she left. And regardless, who was she to judge her? Who was he?
Betty smiled and raised an eyebrow, “Did you just compare us to Hitler? Glad that you decided we’re not on his level, Kate! Geez.” Betty shook her head, crazy broad…that I love, “And wait a sec, what do you mean ‘everything your father was saying’ about you? What could he have said about you?”
“Oh…he just, blamed me for what happened, as much as he blamed you. I tried to explain…but he didn’t want to hear it. He’s just not a nice man, Betty. He may truly believe what he’s doing is right, but, he’s not a nice man. And maybe he’s right, maybe I did lead you on.” She paused, “I’m sorry for anything I did that might have given you the wrong idea, Betty. I…don’t have a lot of experience with friends, or, anything else, so, I don’t know all the rules.” Kate’s eyes filled with tears, and she felt genuinely sorry, even though she hadn’t intentionally done anything to lead to confusion. She didn’t know that some of the ways she’d talked to Betty, or, been affectionate with Betty, might be misinterpreted. She’d just done what felt natural to her.
“Hey, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I can’t believe we are directly talking about this. Can’t we just ignore it, forget it ever happened? I can’t calmly discuss this like I’m at a tea party with Gladys and her mother talking about the weather. “It just…it was me.”
“It wasn’t all your fault…it was a misunderstanding. I don’t want you keep blaming yourself.”
“Fine. As long as you don’t blame yourself. Let’s just forget it. Forget it ever happened.” Please. And stop talking about it.
Kate nodded definitively, though she’d felt a little twinge of…something, knowing that Betty wanted to forget about it all. Again, she didn’t know what exactly that twinge could be. It couldn’t be disappointment, because she was glad to forget about it. It was a relief to forget about it. She looked at Betty, smiling. “All right. And thank you for listening to me. I just wanted to explain…everything, and make sure you knew it was going to be different this time. You’re important to me. I know people make judgments about you Betty, but I won’t be one of them. You don’t need any of those people. Remember what I told you that time? You don’t need everybody liking you, just the ones that matter? ”
Betty smiled, “I do remember that. That meant a lot. And Kate, I know it’s hard to leave behind some of the things you grew up with. It’s hard for anyone. But I think, if God exists and is paying attention, He probably thinks you’re doing all right. Is that blasphemous? Should I be saying what God is thinking?”
Kate laughed, “Probably not, but I thank you for the sentiment anyway.”
Both women looked at each other, relieved the conversation happened, and relieved it was over.
“You know Betty, you’ve heard a lot of my story now, and sometime, I want to hear yours.”
Betty dipped her head, in that bashful way she had. Who ever wanted to hear her story? Her real story, not that muck in Russell Joseph’s newsreel. Oh Kate, it was going to be hard to stop loving you if you kept being so damned nice.
“All right, sometime. For sure. Not tonight though, all right? I’m pretty much set for serious conversation for the night!” Betty leaned back and lit a cigarette for the first time since Kate had gotten home. “And Gladys is waiting for me over at Tangiers.”
“Oh…okay.” This mention of the club brought up a number of feelings for Kate, though she found the most prominent was disappointment at not being invited to go. This must have played out on her face, for the next thing Betty said was,
“Of course, you’re invited to come, I just didn’t think you’d want to, I thought you’d said…well, anyway, you’re welcome to come. Vera is going to be there too. And Leon. I know he would love to see you. But, whatever you want.”
Kate was pretty sure she’d called it a den of sin, or some such horrible statement, which had been a direct quote from her father when she’d described the bar. But that was then. She could at least go just to see people. She didn’t need to drink, or sing…yet. “I’d love to go. I’ve missed it.”
Betty beamed at this, and leapt up from the couch, gesturing in front of her, “All right, let’s go, ladies first.”
To be continued…
Pairing: Betty/Kate
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own Bomb Girls, I don't make money. The creators and everyone involve in the show is brilliant.
A/N okay, I had to break it up into two chapters, sorry, lj said it was too big. So, same as the rest of the author's note in 6A. Our ladies are getting back to the friendship level here...one step at a time...don't worry, they will eventually get beyond that. Kate's just working on the paradigm shift.
Chapter 6B
Kate reached over to squeeze Betty’s hand, then realized it both of them were firmly crushed under her thighs.
“Why are you sitting on your hands?” She asked, with an adorably confused expression on her face. “It doesn’t look very comfortable.”
“Oh, uh,” Betty laughed, both out of nervousness and out of appreciation of the humor in the fact that she’d actually been caught in this ridiculousness, “I, they were cold.”
“All right,” Kate said slowly, given that it was approaching summer, and rather warm in the apartment. “Well, you know what they say-Cold Hands, Warm Heart!”
Betty laughed, “Yup, that’s me! “ This was embarrassing. “So, anyway, you’d never read the Bible until you went home. But then you did?”
“Oh, yes, I did. My mother asked if I had, if I’d read it ‘cover to cover,’ and then said something like, my father’s word wasn’t the Lord’s, and I should see what else there was to see in it. I’d so rarely heard her say something so blatantly…disrespectful toward my father. Implying that he was somehow not being true to God’s Word? It was…unheard of, Betty. Even when she’d helped me get away the first time, she’d never said anything directly against him. I guess this time, she thought she had to, so I would really understand. So I read, and talked to her about it, and I prayed for guidance to make the right decisions.”
“So, what did you find out?”
“Betty, the Bible says men shouldn’t lie with men,” Kate shrugged, “I don’t know how to ignore that. It says it, and-“ before Kate could even continue, Betty, to her utter frustration, had tears rolling down her cheeks, which then made Kate start to cry as well. “Betty, please don’t cry.”
“How can you ask me not to cry, Kate!” Betty was doing her best to get a little more angry, instead of sad, but, it wasn’t working, as she came to the realization that Kate still felt the same, was still saying she was a sinner, still felt she was just wrong, had something wrong within her, straight from God’s mouth. It made her angry that Kate would think such a thing, but that anger was nothing compared to the hurt. And because it was Kate, the fight that Betty usually had inside of her-that had kept her going for so many years when she didn’t fit in, when people judged her, was gone. Kate had gotten past her tough exterior a long time ago, and still had her hand right on Betty’s heart. Which she was currently crushing.
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. But, that’s not-it does say that, Betty, but it says a lot of things. The Bible is a really long book, and there are things in it that it says are wrong, that I don’t think are wrong, and that no one ever told me were wrong. And then there are things in it that I do think are wrong, but that the Bible says are okay. Do you know that it says…” Kate didn’t even want to repeat this, “if a man forces himself on a woman, who isn’t married or engaged, he has to marry her?”
“What?” That brought Betty out of feeling sorry for herself for a minute, “See, it’s stuff like that that makes it hard for me to believe in it all.”
“I can understand,” Kate said simply. “And it’s in the Old Testament, so, there are some things there that later, Jesus talked differently about, and we’re supposed to follow his Word, as Christians, but, I still don’t understand how God would ever pass that down in the first place. And if we can ignore parts of the Old Testament, and Jesus talks about love, and not judging others, then does that mean we shouldn’t listen to some of the things the Old Testament says about men who lie with men? I don’t know. And then, even in the New Testament, they talk about slavery, I think-it says servants or maids a lot, but my mother said they meant slaves. And they talk about it like it’s okay. I don’t understand how that can be? How is that loving each other, and treating others as we would want to be treated?”
“Kate,” by this point Betty had reigned in the tears, “I don’t know.” She opened her mouth to continue, but realized she had nothing to say that was really nice about Kate’s religion right now. So she stayed quiet, hoping that she could understand how Kate believed any of this.
“I-Betty, I believe in God, in Jesus, and…I’ve found that the Bible is very hard for me to understand, but what I also found, after reading it, was that the message of Jesus was love. Love one another. There is nothing in there about love being wrong. In fact, my favorite passages talk about how important it is-how it’s the most important thing. And I prayed on that, asking that Jesus help me to understand. I have to accept that what I’ve come to believe is from those prayers, and that He is guiding me.” Kate reached out again for Betty’s hand, and this time, took it.
“Betty, I’m-I shouldn’t have said it like that, about, men lying with men, blurting it out like that---it’s…where I started, in my head, but not where I ended. I’m sorry, if I’ve made a terrible mess of this. I just wanted you to understand me, and how hard I’ve been trying to understand you.”
And, just as always, Betty, had no ability to resist those big, sorry, sincere eyes, “I get it, Kate. It’s…it’s all right. I didn’t mean to get so upset. You just, you don’t know what it’s like to have someone so important to you say they think you are a sinner.”
“Betty!” Kate gave her an incredulous look, and then leaned forward as if they were conspiring, “That is almost all I know.”
“Oh. Right. I…sorry,” Betty mumbled, completely embarrassed she’d said that. Though Kate didn’t seem to be mad at her, what with the wink she just gave her.
“No, I am. Betty, sometimes I think I’m so used to being told that there is something wrong with me, my whole life being told I was a sinner, that…I don’t even know what I’m trying to say. Sometimes I forget the weight of saying those things.” Kate rubbed her forehead, “Well, that’s a sorry excuse if I ever heard one.”
Betty sighed, “It is,” she looked at Kate, smiling, and then it was her turn to wink, “Let’s just…agree that it’s not fun when people think that about you. You’re not the first to say it about me, either. And Kate, I can’t imagine anyone thinking you were headed for hell. You’re the best person I know.”
“Oh Betty,” she said, throwing her arms around her friend, who responded with an awkward pat of her arm, before Kate pulled back, “I can’t be the best person you know. But thank you. And, you, YOU are one of the best people I know. After thinking about everything, and everything my father was saying after I left, about both you and me, I just couldn’t believe him. To think that we were destined for hell, just like…Hitler? No, I can’t accept that.” Kate thought back to the other day, when she’d told Gladys that she didn’t approve of Betty’s interest in women--but at this moment she wasn’t even sure she could still say that. She didn’t exactly know what she thought about everything, but sitting here with Betty right now? It made her more certain that her father was wrong about Betty, and that she had been mistaken to say all those things, to think all of those things, the day she left. And regardless, who was she to judge her? Who was he?
Betty smiled and raised an eyebrow, “Did you just compare us to Hitler? Glad that you decided we’re not on his level, Kate! Geez.” Betty shook her head, crazy broad…that I love, “And wait a sec, what do you mean ‘everything your father was saying’ about you? What could he have said about you?”
“Oh…he just, blamed me for what happened, as much as he blamed you. I tried to explain…but he didn’t want to hear it. He’s just not a nice man, Betty. He may truly believe what he’s doing is right, but, he’s not a nice man. And maybe he’s right, maybe I did lead you on.” She paused, “I’m sorry for anything I did that might have given you the wrong idea, Betty. I…don’t have a lot of experience with friends, or, anything else, so, I don’t know all the rules.” Kate’s eyes filled with tears, and she felt genuinely sorry, even though she hadn’t intentionally done anything to lead to confusion. She didn’t know that some of the ways she’d talked to Betty, or, been affectionate with Betty, might be misinterpreted. She’d just done what felt natural to her.
“Hey, you didn’t do anything wrong,” I can’t believe we are directly talking about this. Can’t we just ignore it, forget it ever happened? I can’t calmly discuss this like I’m at a tea party with Gladys and her mother talking about the weather. “It just…it was me.”
“It wasn’t all your fault…it was a misunderstanding. I don’t want you keep blaming yourself.”
“Fine. As long as you don’t blame yourself. Let’s just forget it. Forget it ever happened.” Please. And stop talking about it.
Kate nodded definitively, though she’d felt a little twinge of…something, knowing that Betty wanted to forget about it all. Again, she didn’t know what exactly that twinge could be. It couldn’t be disappointment, because she was glad to forget about it. It was a relief to forget about it. She looked at Betty, smiling. “All right. And thank you for listening to me. I just wanted to explain…everything, and make sure you knew it was going to be different this time. You’re important to me. I know people make judgments about you Betty, but I won’t be one of them. You don’t need any of those people. Remember what I told you that time? You don’t need everybody liking you, just the ones that matter? ”
Betty smiled, “I do remember that. That meant a lot. And Kate, I know it’s hard to leave behind some of the things you grew up with. It’s hard for anyone. But I think, if God exists and is paying attention, He probably thinks you’re doing all right. Is that blasphemous? Should I be saying what God is thinking?”
Kate laughed, “Probably not, but I thank you for the sentiment anyway.”
Both women looked at each other, relieved the conversation happened, and relieved it was over.
“You know Betty, you’ve heard a lot of my story now, and sometime, I want to hear yours.”
Betty dipped her head, in that bashful way she had. Who ever wanted to hear her story? Her real story, not that muck in Russell Joseph’s newsreel. Oh Kate, it was going to be hard to stop loving you if you kept being so damned nice.
“All right, sometime. For sure. Not tonight though, all right? I’m pretty much set for serious conversation for the night!” Betty leaned back and lit a cigarette for the first time since Kate had gotten home. “And Gladys is waiting for me over at Tangiers.”
“Oh…okay.” This mention of the club brought up a number of feelings for Kate, though she found the most prominent was disappointment at not being invited to go. This must have played out on her face, for the next thing Betty said was,
“Of course, you’re invited to come, I just didn’t think you’d want to, I thought you’d said…well, anyway, you’re welcome to come. Vera is going to be there too. And Leon. I know he would love to see you. But, whatever you want.”
Kate was pretty sure she’d called it a den of sin, or some such horrible statement, which had been a direct quote from her father when she’d described the bar. But that was then. She could at least go just to see people. She didn’t need to drink, or sing…yet. “I’d love to go. I’ve missed it.”
Betty beamed at this, and leapt up from the couch, gesturing in front of her, “All right, let’s go, ladies first.”
To be continued…