What Is It, Baby? (Revised!)

Warnings: Language, Fluffiness.

Information: This is a story based off of the movie "A League of Their Own". O.K, all I own are the original ideas here, and nothing that's in the actual movie. There, I said it, so don't you dare try to milk moola out of me.

(SPOILERS!) A Note From The Author: A Week After seeing "A League of Their Own", I mounted a massive search of this site to find a noteworthy fanfic based off of "A League Of Their Own.". And I was shocked to find that there weren't even any BAD ones out there- there were NO fanfics for "A League Of Their Own"- so not only is mine the first hinting at a Dottie/Jimmy, but this is the first "A League Of Their Own" on this website EVER. EVER. Although I am glad to be the first to pay homage to one of my very favorite movies of all time, I am dismayed at the lack of people out there who haven't thought about doing one like this. So, I did it myself in two says, and here it 'tis.

------Mad Red Queen

Before any of the girls, who had been peacefully riding the bus knew it, the bus came to a loud, screeching halt, sending suitcases flying from the compartments above the seats into the aisles or nearly hitting screaming girls. When the chaos settled down, the girls all saw it at the same time- it was Stillwell, that awful brat that had spent the entire bus ride bothering them, holding his fat paws over the bus driver's face.

Laughing.

The bus driver threw Stillwell's hands off, and dove off of the bus, proclaiming that he quit. Truthfully, everyone except Evelyn couldn't really blame him.

The Charm School teacher/chaperone ran after him, yelling and begging for him to stop. As soon as she was off of the bus, Mae stood up, and, looking Evelyn in the eye with one hand scrambling in a mad search in the compartment above her, she announced that she was sorry, but she was going to kill her kid. No one made any movements to stop her as she brandished a wooden bat and sprinted up the bus, after a now-screaming Stillwell.

Poor Evelyn was so shocked that she could only respond after her son and Mae had scrambled off of the bus, both yelling. She began chasing the two off of the bus, first at Mae then at Stillwell.

The other girls saw the absence of the annoying Charms School teacher as a chance to get off of the bus and light up a cigarette, or just watch Mae running after Evelyn's chocolate-covered pig-son. Most of them wasted no time in digging through their belongings and sharing Virginia Slims, Winston's, and Marlboros with each other.

The only person who was still on the bus was Jimmy Dugan, who was in a drunken sleep near the front of the bus, splayed out on his seat, snoring.

Dottie and Kit were both finishing their Winston's and watching the, admittedly, funny scene between Mae Mordabito, Evelyn, and Stillwell Gardner when a thought occurred to Dottie. She extinguished the cigarette butt she had finished smoking by dropping it and crushing it with her high-heeled right foot. High heels were something that she was just barely getting used to, as was Kit.

"You know…" She said, turning to Kit, then stopping to watch as the Stillwell-Mae-Evelyn train coursed its way around the bus yet again, this time with Evelyn screaming that Stillwell was just a little boy who had meant no harm, to which Mae responded by swinging her bat in a downward arc that was dangerously close to Stillwell's head. Dottie watched this, smiled a bit, and continued. "Someone ought to wake up the Coa… er, the Manager up." Kit looked at her, and took a long drag of her second cigarette since they had come out of the bus.

"Oh, come on- why? If he sees us smoking, we'll get in trouble." She turned to Doris, who had been watching the crazy train rounding the corner with spellbound interest. "Now, am I right?" Kit asked.

Doris looked away from the whirl of people and blinked. "Whuh?" She said. "I'm sorry, I wasn't listenin'." In the background of the scene they were watching, they could all hear a voice that they all recognized as Miss Cuthbert- their Charm School teacher- begging the bus driver to come back. The only word any of them could really distinguish was the word, "please" as she begged for him to come back with her. Kit looked at Doris, a look of dismay clearly written on her face before she turned back to face Dottie. Dottie laughed.

"Calm down, Kit, he's not gonna tell on us." Kit took another drag of her cigarette, and looked away.

"Yeah, you're probably right, you can go do it." She said in a low, close to muttering voice. Dottie looked at her with a look of mostly fake annoyance on her face.

"Why is it always me?" She asked. "I'm sure you're more than capable of waking our oh-so-kind mentor- and loving team member- up." Kit looked back at her finally, the smile Dottie had been trying to coax out of her spread across her face.

"Tough shit, I'm not the one who wants to wake him up." Dottie smiled at her and began to climb the bus's stairs. As she figured, Jimmy Dugan was still laying splayed out as he was before, asleep and snoring.

She walked up to him and got close enough to smell the acrid smell of whiskey when his mouth opened up with each snore. Dottie cringed a bit, then spoke. "Mr. Dugan? Mr. Dugan?" When she didn't get an answer, Dottie decided to try something else. "Jimmy?" Jimmy shifted in his seat, grunting. Oh well, a response is response. "Jimmy, get up."

Jimmy's shut eyes scrunched up, he grunted, and rolled over on his other side so that he was facing the window instead of the aisle.

"Jimmy!" Dottie said, louder this time. Jimmy muttered under his breath, something that sounded like, "Gimmie a break… just 5 more minutes…"

Dottie sighed angrily and reached out to grip Jimmy's shoulders, giving him a healthy shake. "Jimmy, get the hell up already!" She shouted. He reacted a bit more this time, mumbling a in a voice that was just a bit more coherent, and this time Dottie was able to make out him saying; "Just 5 more minutes… I need just 10 more…", and he tried to fling her hands off of his shoulders. Dottie, who had enough of this, gave him another shake, harder this time.

"Jimmy, get-!" She was cut off this time by Jimmy suddenly reaching up to grab her quickly enough to shock her into silence. His eyes were still closed, and he was obviously mostly asleep.

"What is it, baby?" He asked in drowsy voice. Before Dottie could stop him, he brought his face up close to hers, and kissed her. She was so shocked that her mouth fell open as she tried to yell out, but she barely managed a squeak before Jimmy shoved his tongue in her mouth and yanked her against him.

Dottie was unable to take any control of the situation at hand, and she could only half lean against Jimmy as he pressed her against him and kissed her. And, oh lord, but she didn't exactly feel completely disgusted and horrified with what was happening!

In fact, if she hadn't been in shock and horror, she might have really enjoyed it. If it hadn't been Jimmy Dugan, the man who obviously was not her husband- and a total jackass and a lay-about drunk. Then, just as abruptly as he had forced her against him, he let her go to slide back into his seat with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

Dottie tried to scramble backwards- only to hit the back of a seat and yelp. At the sound of her voice, Jimmy's eyes slid open to reveal hazy and unfocused blue eyes that looked up at her with an unidentifiable look in them.

"You are so welcome." He said, his eyes shutting again as he shifted to turn back to the window again. He laid there for about two seconds before his eyes sprang open, and he sat up stock still in his seat, looking up at Dottie with a look of shock on his face.

"Y-Y-You-?!" he said. At the sound of his voice, Dottie felt herself coming out of her stupor. "Did I just…?" His voice was a mix of shock and slight awe, as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. Not that Dottie thought that she could fully believe it, either.

And oh god, oh god, oh god, but her heart couldn't stop pumping in her chest, like the first time she had met her husband, Bob, as a teenager.

Except this time, the tingle had spread to her entire body, making her entire body shake a bit. It's just nerves- how many women expect to have this happen to them when trying to shake a drunk awake? She thought nervously. She didn't really believe it, though, as much as she wanted to. And, as she knew in the back of her mind, some chemistry had just happened- as wrong as it, udoubtedly, was.

Still, the one thing resonating in her mind the most was a sentence that stuck out from the others like a neon sign; What have I just done?

Jimmy, who was now as sober as a judge and as wide-eyed as a kid, looked at Dottie, his face beginning to glow an uncharacteristically bright red blush. On him, it was surprisingly cute.

"Oh... um, y'mind telling me what the hell just happened... erm, what's you're name?"

It was apparently now her turn to begin glowing a red bright. Jimmy was looking at her, a daze still in his eyes and a questioning look in his eyes. Dottie fought her hardest to try to think of what to say- since she felt like hysterically laughing more than anything.

"I- I'm Dottie, and, uh, I was- uh, trying to wake you up, since Mae's trying to murder Stillwell, and the Charm teacher just took off after Lou." Dottie felt a moment of relief when Jimmy stopped staring at her to shake his head and blink compulsively.

"Lou? Who's Lou? And... who's Mae and Stillwell?" He asked blearily.

"Oh- uh, Lou's our bus driver- but I think he just quit." Dottie had to clench her lips together to stop from laughing, as the urge to start cackling like a psychopath was nearly impossible to control. "And Mae- erm, she's one of our centerfields- and Stillwell's Evelyn's son." As soon as she finished, she saw the question already forming in his eyes, so she hurridly explained. "Evelyn's one of the right fielders."

"Oh." He just said. "Oh. Well, do you think Lou's comin' back? And, erm, has Marge-"

"Mae."

"Oh. Mae, right. Has Mae- uh, killed Stillwell?" he began to stand up- and Dottie felt the reassuring feeling that the moment before was finally gone with Jimmy now going back to his usual self.

"I... don't think so, and I'm sure Lou's not coming back- he's out there yelling at Mrs. Cuthbert... and throwing dirt at her." Seeing that he was, yet again, baffled by one of the members of his own team, Dottie added, "The Charm's School lady."

"Oh- y'mean the old bitch?" he asked blearily. She nodded, still trying her hardest not to laugh. Jimmy looked at her one last time before they both turned at the sound of someone entering the bus. It was the Charms school teacher.

"The bus driver shant be returning." She said in that, to Dottie, annoying, trying-to-be-civilized voice that she, farm girl and all, would never understand.

"Well, alright then." Jimmy said, rearranging the cap on his head and walking to the front of the bus, edging the frazzled-looking Charms School teacher into one of the aisle seats to stick his head out of the bus's entrance to address the other Peaches who stood outside of the bus.

"C'mon everybody, get on the bus!" He yelled. The girls, who were now done with smoking- and had probably been done as soon as Mrs. Cuthburt had walked into view- made no arguments as they filed in and took their seats. Dottie made it a point to sit further from the driver's seat than she would have normally done, because Jimmy soon dropped into the seat after announcing that he was the driver.

The last two were Evelyn and Stillwell, who was eating a huge chocolate bar. Evelyn reached down to his chubby shoulder to say, "Now, now, Stilly, just don't eat the wrapper." Stillwell replied by grunting in that piggish way of his and biting into a huge chunk of it.

Everyone filed in, sat down, and Dottie began to feel better about what had just happened. And she was finally more than sure that nobody else, besides her and Jimmy, had realized the earlier scene had taken place between them, or one of the girls would have come up to snigger about it.

Jimmy turned around one time in his seat before driving off to announce, mainly to Evelyn, of course, to keep that kid the hell away from him. He looked at everyone, but his eyes lingered on Dottie, who shivered unconsciously before looking out the window.

Before he turned back, however, his eyes locked on the disheveled Mrs. Cuthbert and he said, "Oh, by the way, I love you in "The Wizard of Oz"."

She looked back at him, confused, then began to dig through her little purse, pulled out a compact mirror, then screamed, too shocked to say or do anything else as she looked at her reflection

He turned back, and began to drive as the usual bus-chatter resumed- as if what had happened earlier had not occurred. After awhile, Dottie was regaining the ability to stop thinking about the accidental kiss and to just stare at the passing scenery, Content that no one, except her and Jimmy, knew. -------

Kit had been sitting next to Mae and Shirley, and she soon found that she could not stop herself from looking up at Dottie, who was quietly staring out her window. Kit stared up at her and could not stop herself from replaying what she had seen earlier in her head.

When she had seen it, she had been sucking down on her Winston, thanking god almighty that she had been able to smoke again, when Marla came up to her- or more appropriately, sidled up to her. "Where's Dottie?" She mumbled.

Kit looked around a bit, still sucking on her cigarette, before she remembered what Dottie said that hse was going to do. "She's on the bus." Marla nodded in that slowly, stoop-shouldered way of hers before she began to walk off. Kit watched her walk a few feet before she shook her head and turned up the bus. Weird, she thought to herself before looking into the closest bus window. It was then that she saw Dottie locking lips with Jimmy- and the cigarette she had been puffing fell out of her red lips to fall on the ground in a sizzle. Doris saw the cigarette fall to the ground, then saw the look of shock on Kit's face when she turned back from the bus.

"Kit? Kit, whassa matter? You look like you just saw a ghost or somethin'." She reached over to grab onto her shoulder.

"Nothing, nothing!" Kit said, maybe a bit louder than she should have. Doris's eyebrows creased together.

"No, you sure look like you just saw something…" Kit's heart sped up as she kept thinking of Jimmy holding Dottie in his lap, kissing her. What would the other girls think of Dottie if they heard about this?

"I-I-I thought I saw something weird running over there!" Kit pointed to the vast expanse of farmland in front of them. Doris fell for the bait, squinting her eyes and using her right hand like a visor to look into the bright area of land where a bunch of horses ran around on. After a short while she began to pull away.

"No, I don't see anything." Then her head twisted around, looking into the bus, causing Kit's heart to pump even faster. After a moment that felt much longer than it should have, Doris looked back at her, shrugging her shoulders. "You spook too easy or somethin'." She said, leaning back against the bus to watch Mae chase Stillwell around a few more times.

Kit turned around- and was relieved, oh so relieved, to see her sister off of Jimmy Dugan, and standing in the aisle next to his seat. To anyone who had not seen them the previous moment, it would look as if they were just talking. Kit breathed a sigh of relief.

But…

But, what just happened? She looked over at Doris and the other girls who were all preoccupied with watching Evelyn trying to tackle a running-at-full-speed Mae Mordabito. Before she could try to make any sense of it to herself, the girls near the other end of the bus began to yell that they could see the shape of the "old bitch" coming up the road. The girls all simultaneously stomped out their cigarettes, waved at clouds of smoke that still hovered around their face as though the smoke was a swarm of mosquitos, and tried to stand in a way that made them all look as sweet as could be. What, me, smoke? Their stances seemed to say. Not that Kit wasn't standing that way, either.

Mrs. Cuthbert stormed onto the bus, looking very much road-worn and covered in dirt. Moments later, Jimmy stuck his head out and ordered everyone onto the bus.

As Kit shook that moment that had occurred moments earlier away, she looked over to Mae and Shirley, who were both reading a notorious-looking paperback to each other called, "An Indecent Proposal." It had been about 10 minutes from when they began driving again with Jimmy as the driver and a mile or so that Kit looked one last time at the back of her sister's head. She wondered if she had really seen what she had thought she saw.

She watched her sister looking absent-mindedly at the scenery that they passed, all the while only thinking to herself, could she have done that? WOULD she have done it?

Kit looked up past Dottie to look at the back of Jimmy's head. Well, at least I know that he would have, she thought bitterly. But Dottie?

Kit looked at her sister again, her lips turning up into a timid sort of smile as she watched her sister stop looking at the scenery to pull a book out from under her seat.

It took a moment- a long, long one- but, Kit sighed and decided that, no, she muct have been seeing things. She was adament that Dottie would never cheat on her husband, and she would just have to believe that her sister was a better woman than that. What she didn't know was that as calm as Jimmy and Dottie were both trying to look, both were trying their hardest to make what they could have out of the confusing thoughts that were never there before, but were suddenly everywhere in their minds. The only signs out of either of them was how hard Jimmy was gripping the steering wheel, trying to calm his throbbing heart, and Dottie's hands, which trembled whenever she reached up to flip a page in the book she was reading- neither of which Kit saw or cared about.---

I would like to thank all of the people who have supported me. From the bottom of my heart- guys, I love all of you! Anyway, enough of the waterworks- be sure to read and review this, and be sure to read a more in-depth "A League Of Their Own" fanfic- "Baby, What If?" Again, I love all of you, you guys are the best!-- Mad Red Queen