Falice: From A to Z

Closure

Summary: "I didn't mean to upset you," Betty said cautiously, testing the eggshells scattered around her mother's iron walls. "You don't have to say yes, but Mom, at least listen to my pitch."
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Betty tries to get Alice to take part in her video project about her experience with the Sisters.

Rating: PG

Genre: Drama/Angst

Notes: The Sisters of Quiet Mercy freak me right out and I had just watched Philomena when I originally wrote this. 

This fic takes place around 10 years in the future. Betty has a Master's Degree, so she's somewhere in her late 20s.

~~Closure~~

"No. Absolutely not."

"Mom, you didn't even let me finish!"

"Read the room, Betty. This conversation is over."

Alice stood up, picked up her plate that was still half-full, scraped it into the compost and dropped it in the sink. She turned on the scalding hot water and poured detergent, bubbles forming around the dirty dishes. Betty silently watched her mother from the doorway as she furiously scrubbed a small rusty splotch on the handle of a silver spoon.

The stain had probably been there for years. Why did it matter now?

"I didn't mean to upset you," Betty said cautiously, testing the eggshells scattered around her mother's iron walls. "You don't have to say yes, but Mom, at least listen to my pitch."

Alice's hands stopped and she let the spoon drop into the bubbles. Should she have seen this coming? Betty was always an inquisitive kid and they were all doomed when the girl learned the word "why." It escalated when she and Jughead teamed up to become the iconic crime-solving duo, but then she went away to university and her thirst for the truth became insatiable.

"Betty, why now?"

Why not two years ago when she was writing her Master's thesis?

Betty's blue eyes lit up and her back was just a little bit straighter as she went into academic mode. "Well as you know, I wrote my thesis on the abuses of Magdalene Laundries in the latter half of the 20th Century."

"I know. I read it," Alice lied. Betty had emailed it to her when it was completed, but she never even managed to make it through the abstract.

Betty nodded enthusiastically, ponytail bobbing up and down. "Anyway, next year is the ten year anniversary of the closing of the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and as such, there's been a real push to help promote reconciliation and to let survivors speak their truth. I've been given funding to create a short web docuseries chronicling these stories."

Betty twiddled her thumbs, needing to fill the empty silence. "It's not going to be solely about the Laundry. Cheryl already agreed to discuss her experience with conversion therapy, and Kevin has put me in contact-."

"Is Polly doing it?" Alice interrupted, her voice wavering only slightly.

"Yeah," Betty confessed. "I already have the footage."

A tear escaped the corner of Alice's eye. "I don't think I'll be able to do it. I'm not as strong as her."

Betty crossed the room in a heartbeat and wrapped her arms around her mom. "You are so strong, no matter what you decide. I'm not going to force you to relive your trauma."

Alice laughed bitterly. "I haven't even told FP, and he's my husband."

She had spent so much of her life keeping secrets that she didn't know if she knew how to reveal them anymore.

Betty wiped a tear from her mom's cheek. "Just promise me you'll think about it?"

"Fine."

FP opened the front door to find his wife fiddling around with the light switches. He walked up behind her and snaked his arms around her middle. Alice turned her head back and kissed the side of his mouth.

"Finally," she sighed. "I feel like I've been waiting forever for you to get home."

He laughed and left a butterfly kiss on her shoulder. "Somebody's antsy."

She swatted him gently. "You have no idea."

FP turned around and noticed the setup in the living room for the first time. A videocamera balanced on a tripod pointing toward the brightly lit couch.

"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about?" he said with disbelief. "Though I always imagined we'd film it in the bedroom and not the couch, but this works too."

"FP, we are not making a sex tape," she said crossing her arms and crushing his dreams. "It's for a project Betty is working on."

As if on cue, Betty walked in from the kitchen. "Oh good you're here!"

"Betty's going to interview me about my time with the Sisters and I would really really like it if you are here," Alice said all in one breath.

"Of course," FP said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No question."

Betty placed them on the couch, side by side. She fixed his collar and a tuft of hair that wouldn't stay down while Alice smiled at them.

She checked the viewfinder and lighting seem good. Betty put three fingers and started the countdown.

Alice reached for FP's hand and he gave her a squeeze back.

"You've got this, Alice," he whispered.

She met his eyes and smiled. With him by her side, she could do anything.