Chapter Text
It started with an off hand question one random Tuesday evening. Betsy was well aware of the lesbian u-haul stereotype so when Carla’s offer to Lisa of a place to stay for a few nights turned into a permanent move, she obviously took her opportunity to make a few jokes, but she wasn’t surprised. She wasn’t upset either really. It was nice to come home and the end of the day and feel like she was home. This hadn’t stopped Lisa’s constant worrying and tendency to overcompensate but with a sickness bug sweeping the station, she was in no position to decline Costello’s request for her to cover a night shift, something she hadn’t done since moving in as if Betsy and Carla would end up fighting to the death if they were left unsupervised.
With a rushed 5th and final,
“I’m sorry are you sure you’ll be okay”
from Lisa, Betsy all but manhandled her out of the door with an eye roll. She turned to Carla who was still sitting at the table, laptop open but ignored. “Honestly that woman needs to loosen up a bit and she has the nerve to call me dramatic!”, Carla just looked up and smirked at the blonde, unable to argue with her and choosing not to point out that they were both as dramatic as each other sometimes. Closing her laptop, Carla stood and moved into the kitchen. She flicked the kettle on, grabbed a cup and held another up, “Brew?”.
Betsy nodded and moved over to the counter opposite the older woman. “So, any wild plans tonight or are you sticking around with your lovely boss?”.
“Nah I thought I’d delight you with my presence if that’s okay? You know, keep you young and all that.” Carla chose to just raise an eyebrow at the last part,
“Of course, anything you fancy doing? Maybe a movie night? You pick one then I’ll pick one?”
Betsy nodded and took the steaming cup being held out to her. A brief silence settled over the two and Betsy glanced around the room. Her eye caught on one of the many photos dotted around and she didn’t recognise the faces.
“Who’s that?”, she nodded toward the frame closest to them and Carla turned to look, confusion appearing on her face as she saw the photo then a grin forming as she realised.
“That’s Ryan, he had a pretty intense phase of dyeing his hair black and swishing his fringe around like he was some sort of teen heartthrob”.
Realisation hit Betsy as she looked closer and then she couldn’t contain her laugh as she realised that the boy in the photo was in fact a younger Ryan, black hair and piercings, trying hard not to smile.
“I can’t believe it! Gym rat Ryan had an emo phase? That’s absolute gold and I will be taking a picture of that for next time he questions an outfit of mine. I’m guessing that’s his mum next to him?”
Carla sipped her tea and nodded, “Yep that’s Michelle, my best friend, known her since I was a kid”. The smile that formed on Carla’s face at that was bittersweet and Betsy debated asking further but wasn’t sure if she would be pushing too far. “She lives in Ireland now so it’s a bit trickier to keep in touch but we try.” She paused and looked at Betsy, “I think you’d like her, she’s hilarious but she’s always fought my corner when I needed her to, which has been a lot mind you, over the years. I really miss her lately”. Another pause.
“Anyway missus, I won’t bore you with my reminiscing, let’s get comfy and pick some movies, your choice first I’ll grab some blankets.” Carla turned and moved into her bedroom, walking a little bit too quick to be casual and Betsy heard the sigh she let out as she started to rummage for blankets.
Ten minutes later after a quick change into pyjamas for both of them and a raid of the snack cupboard, Carla and Betsy sat on the sofa, Notting Hill ready to play on the TV.
“Have a think about what you want for tea Bets and we’ll order in between movies”. Betsy smiled, nodded and pressed play, more than ready to see Hugh Grant fumbling his way through the next hour and a bit. As the credits started to roll, Betsy stretched and looked at the older woman,
“I’m thinking maybe Italian? I mean, if that’s okay with you? If not we can get something else? What do you think? I mean what would you like?”
For the duration of the movie Betsy had found herself distracted. Her mind kept wandering to Carla’s reaction to their conversation about Michelle and she had realised that she didn’t know much about her past. She didn’t even know what Carla’s favourite foods were besides the sushi she regularly had for lunch. But Betsy didn’t know what home cooked meal cheered Carla up, or what family recipes were her favourite. Trying to pick a takeaway had turned into a mental debate and ended up with her picking what felt like the safest option and then back-pedalling in the least subtle way possible.
Carla furrowed her brow at the teenager,
“Are you okay? It’s just a takeaway Bets we can get whatever you like.”
“Yeah yeah I’m fine I just- what do you like? I mean what would you like?”. Taking in the slightly flustered blonde Carla was confused. Betsy had never been shy, she usually just said what she wanted, demanded really, and that was that.
“Okay what’s going on? You’re a worse liar than your Mam”.
Betsy took a breath and decided to just be honest knowing that she and Carla had a shared appreciation for directness,
” Sorry I just- well I realised I don’t actually know much about you. You know like, before I met you? And I don’t know what your favourite things are and I guess it just made me feel, I dunno, a bit bad.”
Carla could honestly have shed a little tear at that. Betsy looked young and nervous, completely different to her usual self and Carla realised that she was right in a way. She was learning things about Lisa and vice versa but she realised that Betsy was a bit out of the loop with the little things.
“Well, I think that’s easy fixed, I like Italian but proper Italian not that kebab shop pizza your mam loves. Something with an actual herb on for starters.”
Seeing Betsy smirk Carla knew she’d chosen correctly in not making a big thing of it and stood to grab a menu, handing it to the girl.
“Right, let’s get an order called in and we can maybe just have a bit of a chat if you like while we wait for it to arrive? You can ask questions or I can tell you a bit of my past, what is it you and Ryan say? I can teach you my lore?”
Betsy laughed “I can’t believe you actually used that word right- but yeah that would be nice”
“Oi, I’m very youthful I’ll have you know. And I spend all day listening to you lot at the factory I’m bound to hear something other than Sally banging on about her hottub once in a while”.
Ten minutes later Carla hung up her phone and put it face down on the kitchen counter.
“Sorted, it’s a busy night for them apparently so it’ll be about 45 minutes”. She clambered back onto the sofa where Betsy was waiting.
“So, is there anything in particular you wanted to know? Nothing’s off limits kid.”
Betsy looked down at the sleeves of her hoodie, picking at a loose thread and trying to decide what to ask. Should she keep it pretty surface level or could she go for something more personal?
“Hey,”
Carla reached out and took the hand that was rapidly ruining the cuff of Betsy’s favourite hoodie,
“I mean it, if I’m going to be in yours and your mams life for as long as I’d like to be then you’re going to need to get to know me properly. If you want I can just give you a few bullet points to get us started and you can tell me the same?”
Relief seemed to wash over Betsy’s expression and Carla decided to start with something simple,
“My favourite meal is salmon en croute, especially when Roy makes it. He’s really mastered the pastry after making it for me so much”, she smiled fondly.
“Tiramisu is a solid dessert but I’m partial to a good sticky toffee pudding as well, always with a bit of custard. Proper custard though none of that packet business they used to give you with school dinners. Not that I ever turned my nose up at it at the time though- couldn’t really afford to”.
She squeezed Betsy’s hand,
“Your turn.”
The blonde blinked and looked at Carla, ready to ask a question,
“What’s your favourite meal Bets?”
“Oh erm,” Betsy took a second to think, trying to rack her brain before realising,
“Definitely lasagne, mum makes a really good one if she has the time, proper slow cooked and everything. She doesn’t usually have the time to do it so when she does make it it’s a proper treat”, she paused to think again,
”And you can’t beat a good brownie. Me and Becky used to try and bake but we were pretty useless. One time mum ate basically half an eggshell before she had to admit they were bad, she tried though, didn’t want to upset us, and then she spent an hour and a half teaching me properly and those ones were 10 out of 10 good”.
Carla smiled as she watched Betsy talk and realised that she had just as much to learn about Betsy.
“What were you going to ask before Bets?”
“Oh no it’s nothing I-“
Carla squeezed her hand again and raised one eyebrow.
“I was just wondering what you meant when you said about the custard, about not being able to afford it I mean?”
“Well I’ve not always been Queen of Underworld have I? We were in a pretty bad way growing up, I remember when I was little there was never anything in our cupboards so me and Rob always had to be…creative. Sometimes we’d have that horrible powdered mash and Rob always hated it so once, I found a bit of food colouring in the back of the cupboard and thought what little boy doesn’t want bright green potato? Well, Rob as it turns out, so I ended up with bright green hands and a bowl of radioactive looking mash while he had the normal bit. Couldn’t get that colour off me hands for a week straight!”
Carla smiled sadly at the memory. It felt so distant from where she was now and she knew that those memories would feel a lot darker without Rob, even with the way everything turned out later on.
“Anyway, school dinners were usually our best bet at a half decent hot meal so even that lumpy custard seemed like a little bit of luxury at the time.”
“I had no idea I…” Betsy trailed off, looking back down at her sleeves then at the hand still clasped in Carla’s.
“Then we met Michelle and her family and they were so generous, they didn’t have loads but they did what they could for us, loaf of bread here, pint of milk there. In a lot of ways they kept us going but mostly just knowing we had someone in our corner, that’s what really made the difference. Mam didn’t really notice us, didn’t seem to realise that I was raising Rob not her, she just lived her life and we lived ours.”
“Anyway, enough of that” Carla gently took her hand back and slapped both of her knees,
” We best be getting the plates ready the food should be here any minute.”
Standing, she turned and busied herself in the kitchen. She hadn’t really intended to say all of that it had just sort of tumbled out surprisingly easily and she was sure Betsy hadn’t meant that kind of chat.
Sensing a change in mood Betsy realised Carla was feeling a bit more exposed than intended. She always had this persona of ‘the boss’. So put together and controlled and Betsy had had no idea how hard she must have worked to get to where she was. Not quite sure what to say, she followed the older woman to the kitchen and took the plates being offered to her. She placed them on the table and hugged Carla, feeling the surprised jolt and then the settling of her bones and she hugged back.
“Thanks for telling me that, I feel like I’ve always just taken for granted what I had and assumed you’d had the same. It just makes the whole ‘boss lady’ thing even more impressive”.
They both laughed slightly and Carla squeezed a tiny bit harder before letting go, just as the buzzer went.
“Thank god I’m starving”.