A/N: And we're back! Just letting everyone know, I mentioned at the end of the previous story (Humanity of the Broken) about the Soviet Sniper fic collaboration we were drafting? Several people wanted to know when I uploaded it. It is live now, updating every Saturday! Rated M, though, so to see it, make sure you adjust your search filters. And now, more Alice.
Chapter Seventeen
February 23, 1946
Nixon, New Jersey
The honeymoon passed in a whirlwind. They spent some time with Millie and her sisters, taking a few days in Aldbourne just relaxing. Going back to reality had taken significant effort. But they'd boarded the plane all the same. They'd said farewell to England and waltzed back into the lives of the East Coast socialites.
Only now, as Alice messed with her hair for a fourth time in front of the mirror, Alice would have to navigate the working class. She was no stranger to work. In Paris, they'd been well off but not wealthy, and she couldn't remember too much of being among the elite in Germany. Then she'd fought a war for four years.
"Stop messing with it!"
She glanced towards the open door of their bedroom. Lewis stood with a tiny smirk on his face, hair well groomed and eyes shining with mirth. Arietta tried to nudge past him. Alice sighed. But she put the brush back on the vanity and stepped back.
"You're worrying for nothing," Lewis added. "Come on."
Alice glanced up at him. She'd sunk to her knees and started petting Aria between the ears. But at his light teasing, she narrowed her eyes. "You can't understand."
"What?" He took a small drink from his flask. He continued on with his joke. "Alice, your my wife. They legally can't hate you."
She just scoffed, trying and failing to suppress a grin at his naivety. "It's because I'm your wife that they might. They look at me and they're going to see the foreign girl who got a job by being the wife of the Nixon heir." Standing up, she shook her head. "Come on. Let's go. We're going to be late."
"Woah, hold on." Lewis grabbed her arm as she marched passed, smile faltering. When she turned his way, he just shook his head. "I thought you wanted the secretary job?"
"I do, I do." She sighed. "Never mind. Come on."
He didn't seem satisfied. But she left no room for argument, hurrying out the door and down towards the stairs. When her heels clicked against the bottom step, Alice just grabbed her coat and took a deep breath. Day one of working at the Nixon Nitration Works. She hoped it went well.
When they pulled up to the headquarters, Alice had to calm her nerves. She had to stop her leg from shaking. She had to make her breathing slow. On her left, Lewis just looked a bit annoyed about having to go to work. But before either of them opened the doors, he turned to her.
"You've got Ruth to show you around," he said. "She knows I'll pay her extra if she keeps you happy."
Alice couldn't help the smile that cracked through her nervousness. Of course he'd said that. "Bribery, Lewis Nixon?"
"Of course," he told her. As they both opened the doors and straightened themselves, he just joked, "That's how the Nixons got rich."
With a light laugh, Alice closed her door. "That wouldn't surprise me at all."
The chilly walk to the front of the office buildings didn't take very long at all. Lewis opened the door for her, and she stepped inside. A couple of women sat at desks at the front, their eyes immediately turning upwards at the opening of the door. One blonde, one brunette, both couldn't have been too much older than Alice.
"Good morning, Mr. Nixon, Mrs. Nixon!"
They turned left and found Ruth hurrying towards them, coffee cup in her hand. Under her arm was her clipboard and she had a pencil behind her ear. Alice smiled and said good morning.
"Thanks Ruth." Lewis took the coffee. "What's the word around the office?"
"The usual, sir," was all she said. But her tiny smirk said otherwise, and as Nixon gestured for her to walk so they could join. As they moved down the hallway, her grin widened. "Lewis, your father went absolutely bonkers after that letter you left."
Lewis started laugh between sips of his coffee. "How'd Dick handle it?"
"You are quite mean, you know that," Ruth told him. Turning to Alice, she shook her head. "I don't know how you handle him, love."
"Neither do I."
They continued past offices with frosted windows. At the one with big, black letters spelling "STANHOPE NIXON" they all grimaced. But they kept moving.
"Mr. Winters got here about twenty minutes ago," Ruth told him. "So you can ask him yourself."
She led them up a flight of stairs. At the top and two offices down, she came to a stop. A small piece of paper had been taped on the door that read "RICHARD WINTERS". With a smirk at them, Ruth gave it two knocks and then opened it up.
"Guess who's back?" Ruth sing-songed. "The man who left you for the wolves."
Alice couldn't help but grin at the sight of Dick sitting behind his desk. He had a window, and a small plant in the corner of his paper-riddled desk. But the man just glared, mouth in a thin line as he sat back and molded himself to the chair. Dick tossed his pencil back onto his desk.
"Miss me, Dick?" Lewis asked. But he couldn't suppress his laughter. He stopped trying. Instead, he turned back to Ruth, and grinned. "For Christ's sake, has he been this mad the whole goddamn time?"
"Off and on," she told him. With a last smile at them, she turned to Alice. "I'll come get you in a few minutes, Alice. We've got work t' do."
"Thanks, Ruth."
As the door closed, Dick still hadn't said anything. He just looked at Lewis with abject disappointment. It didn't do anything to curb his amusement, though. So Alice stepped in.
"Was it that bad, Dick?" Alice asked, grimacing.
At her question, he sighed. "Stanhope wasn't happy."
"Of course he wasn't," Lewis said. He took one of the two chairs in front of Dick's desk and sat down. Then he took a drink of his flask. "That's why I left him a letter."
Alice sighed. "I'm sorry, Dick. It shouldn't have fallen back on you." She took the other chair, straightening her dress as she did so.
"It's not your fault, Alice," he insisted. Dick pointed at Lewis. "It's his."
"Hey!"
"But how was England?" Dick turned from Lewis. He offered Alice a smile. "Is Millie doing well?"
"Oh she's great," Alice told him. "A gem, as always. Percy's so big now. And we got to see Madeleine and Maggie as well."
"That's good."
Lewis just rolled his eyes and smirked. They spent a few minutes catching Dick up on what they'd done while in England. Dick then told them all about the Monday morning where Stanhope had gone on a rampage through the complex, going on and on about his failure of a son and the whore he'd hooked up with. They all grimaced at the slur towards Alice, but she'd expected as much. He explained that Ruth had done an admirable job containing the rumors, though.
A double knock on the door was followed by Ruth's reappearance. She smiled at them. "Alice, I need show you around the place."
She smiled, nerves creeping in. She'd not really walked around the complex of administrative buildings that Nixon Nitration Works had along the Raritan River. But as Ruth offered her another bright smile, she nodded.
"Hey, Ruth, remember, I'll pay you extra," Lewis told her.
But Alice just rolled her eyes as she gathered herself with Ruth by the door. "I'm sure Ruth doesn't need to be bribed, Lewis."
"No, but I'll always take the extra money," Ruth added. They both laughed as they shut the door on the men. "Come, then. Not too much to see. We were able to get you a job as Mr. Winters' secretary."
Alice beamed. "Really?" They had talked about trying to set that up, but apparently Stanhope had tried to stop it. How they'd managed to get the position filled, she had no clue. "That's fantastic."
"Are you a better typist than he is?" Ruth asked. "Cause that man takes far too long on his typewriter so."
With a laugh, Alice nodded. "Don't worry, Ruth. I'm definitely better than him."
They moved through the office, taking the stairs down to the first floor. Ruth pointed out the offices of various important people as they went, describing the men to her in colorful terms as long as everyone was out of earshot. Once they'd finished the first building, Ruth pushed open a door to the outside.
"This way's got the supplies you may need. It's also where we do most our work when not making sure the men are put together," Ruth said. She led Alice across an outdoor space, filled with grass and a few trees between the buildings. They took one of the concrete walkways. "Remember, your number one job is make sure Mr. Winters is where he needs t' be, when he needs t' be, with what he needs, now."
"Right."
Alice remembered the way Dick's orderlies had scurried around. They'd fetched coffee, food, reports, everything. While Dick had insisted on doing most of the reports himself, she guessed back here in civilian life, she'd be in charge making sure a good deal of it got done. She'd take dictations at the least, she was sure.
A twinge of irritation at starting at the bottom crept back in. She had been a soldier, an officer in the war. But she stuffed it down. At least she had a job. She'd heard about the women in America losing many of their positions to their husbands and sons returning from the war. She had a job. That was all that mattered.
"Right this way, now, Alice."
She followed Ruth into the building. It was much smaller, with only a single woman at a front desk. She had a polite, though fake, smile on her face as Ruth and Alice walked by. They took the right hand hallway around until they stood before a door into a large kitchenette and cafeteria space.
"This is where you'll take your meals," Ruth told her. They moved inside, and she pointed out the long tables. "We've got shared office space above, like the low men on the totem pole in the other building."
As they stood in the empty area, Alice just trying to retain all the information Ruth threw her way, they heard the clicking of heels in the hallway. Both looked up as someone walked in and paused. She was Black, with dark hair perfectly styled up against her head and simple makeup. Ruth grinned.
"Marjie! There you are." She beckoned over. "Alice Nixon, meet Marjorie Williams. Grade-A typist and the best person in this whole fecking place."
"Good morning Mrs. Nixon," Marjorie said, smiling sweetly. She nodded to her. "An honor to meet you, ma'am."
Alice smiled. "You too. Ruth told me about you at the dinner we attended. And please, don't call me ma'am. Even the people at my job with the army were asked not to," she added. Thoughts of Shifty popped into her mind, and her smile fell a bit. But she pushed it away.
"That's mighty nice of you," Marjorie said. She nodded. "Were you showing her the place, Ruth?"
"That I was. Anyone upstairs we should know about?" Ruth asked.
Marjorie huffed, rolling her eyes a bit. But she glanced sidelong at Alice. Ruth caught on, and beat her to the punch.
"Marjorie, this girl may be hated even more than you are, here," Ruth told her. "Trust me. She's a good egg."
"Irene's throwing a bit of a fit over something," Marjorie finally told them. "I came on down here to get away from her."
Ruth snorted. "Good choice." She turned to Alice. "Irene Cox. She's loved by more than half Stanhope's staff. And Stanhope himself, if you get what I mean. You wouldn't be able to miss her. Tall, blonde, has a perky little nose that could fit in a goddamn bottle cap. Sharp as a tack, and will stab you in the back like one too." Ruth huffed. "The woman ain't satisfied with being a secretary. I don't blame her. But she thinks sleeping her way through the building will advance her career."
"It might Ruth," Marjorie muttered. "She's got a way with the men."
"And the women," Ruth added, looking at Alice. "If she likes you, you're set. If she don't, she'll make your life fecking hell."
Alice frowned. Sounded a bit like the politics of lycée. High school, if she remembered the American term correctly. "And she'd doesn't like you two, I'm guessing?"
"Oh no," Ruth assured her. "Not even a bit. She tried to get my position. Even got 'ol Stanhope to try and push it through. Lewis refused. Said he couldn't work with her. She hates me for that, and because I'm a poor little Irish girl. And Marjorie's a Negro, so that's enough for Irene sure."
"Disgusting," Alice muttered.
Marjorie nodded, glaring a bit at the floor. She stood a few inches taller than Alice. Turning to her, Marjorie just shrugged. "You've already got a target on your back, Alice. If you want to be in her good graces, you better make a choice."
"What choice?" Alice scoffed. "I'm a German and French Jew, ladies. I'm used to being hated." She shook her head, pointing back towards the door. "I helped fight a war to end this sort of thing. So this time, I'll choose to be an outcast. Gladly."
Ruth grinned and shook her head, patting Marjorie on the arm. "Told you. She's a good one. Lewis chose well, Marjie."
"Mr. Nixon certainly did," Marjorie agreed.
"In that case, we better show you where we women are. You know, where the actual work gets done around Nixon Nitration Works," Ruth added.
Alice smiled at her. She felt more at peace than she had in a long time, perhaps since returning to the States. She'd finally made a choice. She had a direction. She would have friends. Good friends, not friends who she could use to climb the social ladder. But she had Nixon for that, if she wanted it. So as they left Marjorie to sit in the break room, Alice followed Ruth towards the stairs. She could do this. She had to.