By Stacy Eaves
Disclaimer: The Remember WENN characters belong to Rupert Holmes.
Rated: G
Betty looked back and forth between the two men, wondering why now? How was she ever going to say what needed to be said without hurting one of them? Expectantly, they stood there waiting for her decision. Taking a big gulp, she again looked at each man until her eyes finally came to rest on Victor. "Scott, will you wait for me in the Writer’s Room? I need to talk to Victor." She turned and gave Scott a look that pleaded with him to go.
Scott blinked and relaxed his jaw. "Sure, Betty, if that’s what you want." With a heavy heart, he turned and quietly opened the door. Turning around for one last look at the two of them standing there, the thought passed through Scott’s mind that it was finally over. It was obvious that Betty made her choice.
He closed the door and slowly walked down the hallway to the Writer’s Room. Opening the door, he startled Eugenia and Mr. Foley, who had been locked in an embrace. Quickly jumping apart, faces blushing, they started to apologize.
"No need to apologize to me," Scott said. "I’m glad to see that someone’s in love. If you’ll just excuse me, I only came in to get a piece of paper." With three quick steps, he crossed over to the desk and retrieved a piece of paper and a pencil from the top of the desk. With a wink at Mr. Foley, he turned and left the room, much to the relief of Eugenia. "Do you suppose he knew we were kissing?" she asked Mr. Foley. With a shrug, Mr. Foley again embraced Eugenia.
Meanwhile, out in the hallway, Scott leaned up against the wall and started writing.
**********
As the door slowly closed behind Scott, Betty turned back to Victor.
"What did you want to talk to me about, Betty?" Victor asked quietly.
Betty clasped her hands behind her back and walked toward the corner of the room, stalling for time. How in the world am I ever going to get this out, she thought to herself? Taking a deep, steadying breath, she turned around and said, "Victor, when I first came to the station, I thought I was on top of the world. I just won a writing contest, and here I was with my first real writing job. I quickly found out just how much I had to learn."
"You were the one who was there to teach me. I was so eager to learn. You visited so many exciting places, and you felt such passion about radio. It was easy for me to start imagining that I was falling in love with you." Hearing this, Victor smiled. "When you left for London, my heart was broken, but I resolved that I would keep my chin up and try to keep things afloat here until you returned."
"When we heard that you were killed in the bombing, my heart broke." Betty’s voice choked, and Victor was quickly at her side, his arms wrapping around her in comfort. "That was the hardest time of my life. I didn’t know how I was going to make it through each day."
"I’m sorry, Betty. If I only could have gotten a message to you, I would have," Victor said regretfully, releasing Betty from his embrace. "You know the story now. There was no way that I could send any kind of message."
Nodding her head in acknowledgement, Betty smiled and said "The happiest day of my life was when I found out that you were still alive, and when you could finally come back and join us again, I was thrilled!” Turning again and walking back toward the corner of the room, she paused. "I was hoping that we could pick up where we had left off. It seemed like every time we started to get close, you'd get called back to Washington." The last few words came out with a sigh of frustration.
"I kept telling myself, that it was all right, that I could be happy waiting here for you to return. After all, you were doing your job for our country and it was selfish of me to complain." Turning, she again looked at Victor, but now the smile was gone from her face. "Victor, I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore. I need someone who’s going to be there for me. Someone who’ll be there to listen to me when I have something to say. Someone who will be there to offer me advice when I ask, and who will be there to give me a hug when I’ve had a long day."
"I suppose you mean someone like Scott," Victor forced out, an angry expression on his usually composed face. "Betty, I can’t change. My country and the station will always come before my personal life. That’s just the way I am."
"I know, Victor. Your dedication is one of the things that I admire the most about you," Betty stated. "As for Scott, well..."
Victor interrupted her. "Betty, right now I don’t want to hear about Scott. Are you sure there isn’t any thing I can say or do that will make you change your mind?" He crossed over to her and placed his hands on her arms, a questioning look in his eyes as he looked into her face.
Slowly closing her eyes and then opening them while shaking her head no, Betty started to pull away. "I’m sorry Victor, but I’m in love with Scott Sherwood," she said quietly and firmly, finally realizing how good it felt to admit it.
"Well," Victor heaved a sigh as he replied in disappointment, "I suppose there’s nothing else to say. That’s all I needed to know. I’m sorry that things turned out this way, Betty." Turning, he picked up his briefcase, coat and hat from where he had laid them on the couch and walked to the door. As he opened the door, he looked over his shoulder at the woman he thought he fell in love with and said, "Goodbye, Betty," quietly as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Taking a ragged breath, Betty quickly walked to the couch and sat down, her face in her hands. It was finally over and the worry of how she was going to break the news to him that had weighed on her shoulders for the last couple of weeks was gone. She could now openly admit to herself her true feelings. She was in love with Scott Sherwood.
******* Leaning back with a smile on her face, Betty thought of some of the crazy stunts that Scott had pulled in the past. True, there was a time that she had very nearly hated him for the lies he had told, but eventually she had come to see that he was changing. Beneath all the bluster, there really was a heart of gold and someone who cared very deeply for the people he worked with. Getting up from the couch with the words "Betty, Betty, Betty" ringing in her ears, she carefully finger combed her hair into place, lightly pinched her cheeks, and pursed her lips together. With a happy heart, she opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, in search of Scott.
*******
Opening the door of the Writer’s Room, Betty walked in, only to find Mr. Foley and Eugenia locked in an embrace. "Mr. Foley, Eugenia!" she exclaimed. Red-faced, they jumped apart, just as they had not quite fifteen minutes before. With a smile, Betty said, "I was just looking for Scott. Have you seen him?"
Mr. Foley opened his mouth to answer, but Eugenia interrupted him. "He was here a little while ago to get some paper from the desk. I’m not sure where he is right now.”
"Oh, that’s o.k. I’ll go find him. He has to be around here somewhere." With a knowing smile to Eugenia, she left the room and headed down the hallway.
*******
"Hi, you guys, have you seen Scott?" Betty asked Mackie and Gertie as she walked up to the receptionist’s desk. She had checked all of the rooms as she had come down the hallway, but there was no sign of him anywhere.
Gertie, with a solemn look on her face replied "He left, Betty, about ten minutes ago. He asked me to give you this." With that, she handed Betty an envelope with her name hurriedly written on the outside. With a sense of foreboding, Betty turned around and slid her finger underneath the sealed flap to open the letter. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the folded piece of paper out and opened it. Her eyes quickly scanned the words...
Dear Betty, I
hoped that this was a letter that I would never have to write. Just now, seeing the look on your face when you looked at Victor, it suddenly dawned on me that it’s all over. Victor is your choice, and I know now that no matter what I do, there will never be a chance that you will love me in the same way. I’m not a quitter, but this is one time that I can’t win. Victor is a good man who loves you and will be able to give you anything you desire.
I want to thank you for the second chance here at the station. I know that your influence made me a changed man. I was tired of the life I lead up until I came to the station, and even though I only intended to stay a while, it started to feel right, and then I didn’t want to leave. Thank you for that. I will never forget it.
I hope you will keep a prayer in your heart for me. I will always love you, Betty.
Scott
"No!" The anguished cry came from Betty as she clutched the letter to her heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Quickly rushing to her side, both Mackie and Gertie gently took her by the arms and turned her around. "What did he say, Betty?" Mackie asked worriedly.
"He’s gone," she managed to get out. "Oh, I m-made such a m-mess of things! He and Victor were having an a-argument in the Green R-room about who I should choose. I asked S-scott to w-wait for me in the Writer’s Room while I told Victor th-that I didn’t love him and that I l-loved Scott. Only Scott didn’t know that." The tears continued to flow. "How...how am I ever going to find him to tell him that I l-love him?" she stammered.
Gertie had a helpless look on her face. "You might be able to catch up with him at the railroad station. He hasn’t been gone that long. He took a cab, but maybe we can get you one, too," she offered hopefully.
Seizing upon her only chance at hand, Betty nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her eyes and face.
Gertie turned to Mackie. "Can you call a taxi while I help Betty get her things?" she asked. Nodding yes, Mackie was already headed out the front door.
Rushing into the Women’s Lounge with Gertie not many steps behind her, Betty pulled her coat from its hanger and quickly put it on. She grabbed her hat from the shelf, and hurriedly shoved it onto her head.
"Here, don’t forget your gloves," said Gertie as she bent over and picked them up from the floor where they fell in Betty’s haste to get her coat on. Betty pulled them on as she hurried out the door of the Women’s Lounge and opened the outside door into the brisk air of a December morning.
Mackie stood beside the open door of the cab that pulled up to the curb. With a quick hug and smile, he said "Good luck, Betty. You two were meant to be together. I hope you find him."
"Thanks, both of you," Betty replied over her shoulder as she practically jumped into the back seat. "I’m not sure when I’ll be back. I’m sorry to leave you so suddenly like this. Please make my apologies to everybody, but if I don’t do this, I will always regret that I didn’t go after him." She pulled the door closed and the taxi pulled away from the curb.
"Where to, Miss?" the driver asked.
"The train station, and can you please go as quickly as possible?" Betty asked with such urgency that the driver never even gave it a second thought as he pressed down on the gas pedal.
*******
Pulling up in front of the train station, Betty quickly handed the fare to the driver and stepped out of the taxi. With a firm slam of the door, she turned and raced up the stairs. Opening the big double doors into the station, she was suddenly taken aback at the enormity of her task. Spreading out in front of her, in all directions, was the biggest crowd of people she ever saw. Everywhere she looked there were people saying their goodbyes.
With a sinking heart, Betty started pushing through the crowd, her neck craning in search of that familiar figure who was now at the forefront of her being. She thought to herself, it would be so easy to get lost in this crowd! How in the world am I ever going to find him! She didn’t even know where he was going, she realized with a sinking feeling. "Oh, why didn’t I think to ask him that?" she berated herself. Pushing her way through the crowd, all the while getting pushed in return, Betty finally located a porter. "Can you tell me which tracks most of the military men are departing from?" she asked hopefully, thinking it a long shot at best.
"That’s easy, ma’am," he replied with a chuckle. "Take your pick. They’re probably leaving from most of them!" With a chuckle, he wandered off into the crowd.
Suddenly, Betty had an idea. Moving as fast as she could to the nearest ticket window, she crowded to the front of the line.
"Hey there, wait your turn!" the man at the front of the line yelled. "Yeah!" called some of the others near the front of the line.
Turning to them, Betty flashed them her sweetest smile and said, "Please, I just need to talk to the clerk for a minute. I need to have someone paged." Leveling her gaze at the clerk, she pleaded "Please, can you have someone paged? It’s an emergency!" She felt only the slightest hint of remorse at the little white lie she had just told. She consoled herself with the thought that it really was an emergency...to her!
The clerk, seeing the anxious expression on her face, looked around to his assistant who was sorting papers behind him and said "Hey Joe, can you help the lady here?" Turning back to Betty, he asked her to move down to the end of the counter. A
s she moved to her appointed spot, Betty asked the assistant if he could page Lieutenant Scott Sherwood. "I’m not sure where he’s headed to, but he’s probably only been here for about 20 minutes. Have any trains left in that time?" she asked in a rush. If she was lucky, he might still be in the station!
"Naw, the next one doesn’t leave here for 35 minutes," he replied in a tired voice as he pulled out his stopwatch and checked the time. Turning to the microphone on the counter, he spoke, "Paging Lieutenant Scott Sherwood! Paging Lieutenant Scott Sherwood! Please come to window 15 in the ticket area." Giving Betty a smile and a pat on the hand, he wished her good luck.
*******
Hearing his name over the loudspeaker, Scott carefully folded the newspaper he had been reading and tucked it into his duffel bag. I wonder what this is all about, he asked himself? The thought passed through his mind that maybe his orders were being changed. Pushing up from the chair he had been sitting in, he slowly started making his way through the crowd.
As he neared the window, he blinked his eyes in surprise. "No, it can’t be!" he said in surprise. There, not 30 feet away and with a small crowd of people in between them, stood Betty, her back to him as she strained to see over the crowd in the opposite direction.
He quickly pushed his way through the crowd between them until he wasn’t more than 5 feet away from her. "Betty?" he asked incredulously, "what are you doing here? I thought you were with Victor!"
Turning quickly, she rushed to Scott and threw her arms around him. "Oh, I’m so glad I found you!" she exclaimed excitedly, and then realizing what she was doing, she pulled her arms away from him and stepped back with a blush, her hands coming up to cover the telltale sign on her face.
Recovering her composure, she gazed into Scott’s warm brown eyes and told him, "It took me a while, but I finally made my decision. I’ve been trying to deny it for a long time, but I finally realized when you both gave me an ultimatum that it was time to admit it to myself. I will always have respect and admiration for Victor, but you’re the one I’ve fallen in love with."
As the last words came out, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and prayed that it wasn’t too late. Anxiously, she looked up into the gaze that had never wavered from her face, his expression so serious. Oh please, let him love me back, she thought to herself.
And then, the seriousness of the moment was gone and with a big smile, Scott closed the distance between them and took her into his arms. "Oh Betty, you don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to hear those words! You know I love you," he exclaimed before he bent to give her the kiss he had wanted to give her for so long.
Reluctantly pulling away, he groaned. "Our timing is terrible. My train leaves in a few minutes and I have to be on it. I’m supposed to be at Fort Bragg tomorrow afternoon." Bending over he tore a corner off of his newspaper and pulled a pencil out of his bag. Quickly, he wrote an address on it before handing it to Betty.
"This is Aunt Agatha’s address. In case anything happens, she will be able to get in touch with me...or with you," he said as he gave her a pointed look.
She knew what he meant by that look, but shaking it off, Betty took the paper and carefully folded it up and put it into her purse. "Take care, Scott," she whispered softly and smiling bravely, she reached up and gave him a goodbye kiss. "Please come home safely to me!"
Putting his arms around her, Scott pulled her back as she started to step away. "I love you, Betty Roberts! I’ll be back as quickly as I can!" With that, he gave her another long kiss and then reluctantly released her. Stepping back, he carefully readjusted his hat, his eyes never leaving hers. "I’ll write you from the train," he promised as he burned the memory of these past few minutes into his mind.
Picking up his duffel bag, he turned and disappeared into the crowd.
"Goodbye Scott," Betty managed to whisper, her arm raised in a goodbye wave that Scott didn’t see. A single tear rolled down her cheek...
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