Title: this part was for her (and this part was for her)
Fandom: Bomb Girls
Rating: PG
Length: 326
Content notes: During and post season 1. No other warnings. For the "Stages" challenge.
Author notes: For majesdane  on the occasion of her birthday
Summary: She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. --Ruth 1:20



*

you touch her hand (your palms are dry) and she feels like powder and silk and flesh and flesh. you touch her hand and she tilts her head towards you, eyes under her lashes bright, skin crinkling at the corners, her mouth lifting. she slides against you, tightening and twisting her fingers in a pattern. "No need to be shy, Betty," she says, and you touch her hand and you hear music.

*

it's almost a month's wages, but you hire a car and go to the shore. a month's wages and a luxury you both know you shouldn't take but do. she turns from you, her face heating up, her body twisting. "That color on you is lovely," she says, reaching out to press her fingertips like a cool breath at the small of your back. you see the scars reaching, angry, up her neck, and you remember: be careful.

*

her hand flutters over the page, her breathing quick and shallow. "Your people shall be my people," she whispers, and you've heard her tone like this before, the reverence in her voice, whispering "Thank you," when she claws out of a dream to find you, again, again, always, at her side. "And your God my God." she looks up, her eyes wet and dripping emerald. "Oh," she says, "Betty," and you know, then, again, always, forever, that she clutches your heart in her shaking hands.

*

it's almost a month's wages, but you borrow Gladys's car and go to the shore. a month's wages and a luxury you both know you shouldn't take but do. she steps from the car and wiggles her feet deep into the sand, reaching back quickly to secure your hand in hers. her face, upturned, towards the sun and you touch her. your thumb against her cheek, fingers at her neck, dipping over the scars. "Race you," she says, suddenly darting free. you follow her into the frozen waves.