A/N: Every once in a while I find a new OTP and roll out of my fandom cave to write something. I was trying to write Betty POV fic for 2x12 and accidentally wrote this instead.
Betty McRae is 10 years old and she thinks girls are stupid. Boys are pretty dumb too, but at least they're fun and sometimes Betty wishes she was one. Boys didn't have to wear Sunday dresses and nobody yelled at them for wrestling in the dirt. After the split lip she gave Tommy Peters, Betty's mother decided she needed to start learning to be "at least something that resembles a lady instead of a heathen." Dad said to let her be, but mom won out in the end and now Betty has to spend her afternoons learning to cook and sew instead of climbing trees and chasing her brothers. Eventually some of the cooking sticks -and somewhere down the line Betty's actually grateful for it- but she never does learn how to sew worth a damn. Tommy's sister Martha teaches her to dance on an old fridge door, and Betty decides that maybe some girls are alright.
Betty McRae is 17 and she doesn't want to be a boy anymore. But she doesn't think she wants to be a girl either, because then she has to be a wife and if there's one thing Betty doesn't want it's that. She's been out with boys a few times -even kissed a couple- but she doesn't see what all the fuss is about. It's always just wet and awkward and a little uncomfortable. Martha says she just hasn't been kissed properly yet, but Betty's not so sure. She spends the last of her pay on cigarettes and they sneak into a movie and Martha swoons over Gary Cooper. Betty just stares at Marlene Dietrich and wonders for the first time if something might be wrong with her. Two nights later she wakes up from a dream flush and uncomfortable and she knows something is.
Betty McRae is 21 and she knows who she is. Problem is now everyone else does too and Martha won't even look at her anymore. They throw a lot of words at her -some she's heard before, some she hasn't- and she can't always tell if it's judgement or pity. She's not sure which is worse. Her parents have some money saved and they offer to send her to a doctor in the city and Betty pretends to want it because she can't stand to sit around being looked at funny by the whole damn town anymore. She gets off in Toronto but she never makes it to the doctor. The city is big and loud and a perfect place to start over. She makes new friends and gets a new job, she keeps her secrets better, and every month she writes her family a letter full of lies.
Betty McRae is 28 and she's in deep, deep trouble. She'd thought the war was a godsend in some ways -giving her a job and a chance to not stand out for once- but the second Kate Andrews smiles at her Betty knows this war is going to kill her one way or another. If not with TNT and amatol, then with feather light touches and embraces that last just a second longer than they should. She tries not to hope -god does she try- but she's drowning in an ocean of red hair and green eyes. Kate stares straight at her when she sings -I wished on the moon for you- and Betty hears the blood rushing in her ears and knows that she's done for.
Betty McRae is still 28 and this can't be real. She should be in prison at best -hanged at worst- but instead she's standing in the common room of the boarding house with Kate wrapped around her like a vice and stupid smug Gladys raising an eyebrow at her. She scowls back because Gladys just always has to stick her nose in and throw her money around fixing other people's problems. Betty hates owing people anything and she probably owes Gladys Witham her whole life twice over at this point. Then Kate sobs into her shoulder and says words that make her heart stop and Betty thinks that just maybe this is worth it.
Betty McRae is 32 and she has her own life. It's not perfect but it's hers and it's all she thinks she'll ever want. Her house is small and old and has a yard about the size of a postage stamp, but she doesn't need much space and she's never been one for gardening anyhow (Kate tries though, and Betty loves that pathetic tomato plant more than she'll ever say). The war has to end soon, Betty knows, and she honestly doesn't have a clue what she'll do when they don't need bombs anymore. Sometimes she wakes up in the morning afraid that today is the day the world comes back to its senses and takes away everything she's worked for. But Kate rolls over in bed and the sun lights her up like an angel and Betty knows that she'll fight to the death before she lets anyone take this away from her.
Betty McRae is 40 and she lets Kate pick the movie. She's not usually one for musicals, but Kate croons in her ear -so I told a friendly star, as dreamers often do- and Betty is glad she gave in this time. They twirl around the sitting room and Betty feels years younger, like they're back in the boarding house dancing to Moira's stolen record player. But it's not like that at all because this time when she leans in for a kiss, Kate only smiles like the sun and pulls her closer. When they lie in bed spent and tangled up in each other, Betty doesn't think she'll ever need anything more than this. She falls asleep to Kate humming in her ear, and even though life is still hard and the world is still cold Betty McRae is perfectly happy. Now my heart's an open door, and my secret love's no secret anymore.
.
Kate Andrews is 86 and she's watched the world changing. Sometimes she wishes it had changed sooner, that they'd had more time, but she has no regrets. She smiles, and when she closes her eyes she is surrounded by the sound of Billie Holiday and the smell of cordite and a flash of blonde hair.
A/N 2.0: the two movies referenced are Morocco (1930) and Calamity Jane (1953). Kate being 86 would coincide with Halpern vs. Canada which legalized gay marriage in the province of Ontario. Toronto especially has a really interesting and extensive gay history and you should totally look it up if you get a chance.