Chapter 1: blasphemous
Chapter Text
“Do try not to look so scandalized, Hinson; I was raised Catholic.”
It’s the most information Ellie’s ever volunteered about her childhood, and Dottie knows that if she handles this wrong, it’ll be the last, that Ellie will retreat like a wounded animal, pretending and lying through her teeth about never having revealed anything.
Attempting to buy herself time to respond, Dottie does a quick headcount of the team.
Nine, ten, eleven…
Oh, no.
“Where’s Mae?” She whispers aloud, turning back around.
Ellie meets her eyes and smirks sideways, still facing the pulpit (apparently, not acknowledging her statement at all is a correct enough response). “Off doing something sacreligious, no doubt.”
Dottie rests her forehead on her clasped hands, whether in prayer or exasperation, she doesn’t know.
Chapter Text
Dottie about jumps out of her skin when she hears the pounding on her door. She turns away from the mirror to see that it’s rattling on its hinges, and through the banging, the rattling, and the wood of the door itself, Dottie can hear muffled shouting. That sounds like–
“Dottie, you beautiful bitch, you did it,” Ellie hollers, throwing the door open and slamming it shut behind her, looking down at the paper in her hands,
“Sights alive, Ellie, I’m barely half-dressed, you can’t just barge in like that!”
Ellie calms, but does not look the slightest bit apologetic. “This,” she says, shaking the paper, “is more important than my manners at present.”
Ellie takes a few steps closer, and Dottie purposely does not fix her robe from where it’s fallen off her shoulders.
As she takes the paper from Ellie’s hands, Dottie hears her murmur, “And besides, ‘s nothing I haven’t seen before.”
Dottie steals a glance upward, though, and a rosy blush betrays Ellie’s casual tone.
The headline of the paper reads: “Belle of the Ball Field,” and there’s a shot of Dottie in full gear doing the splits, just as she’d hoped would happen.
“Have you read it yet?”
“No. I just saw the cover and hightailed it up here.”
Dottie moves over so Ellie can sit next to her on the vanity bench. It really wasn’t built for two, so they’re pressed tightly together from ankle to shoulder.
They read together in silence, and at the end, Ellie says, “This is everything we wanted.”
“And more,” Dottie adds quietly, thinking about what exactly this means for them.
Ellie gives voice to her thoughts, as usual.
“We can keep playing,” she whispers, and buries her head in Dottie’s shoulder. Dottie can feel Ellie’s smile on her bare skin. Then she feels a tear roll down her back and her own eyes well up in response.
If they hadn’t been so close, Dottie would’ve entirely missed Ellie’s muffled, teary, “This could be forever, Dots.”
Dottie lays her head on Ellie’s and murmurs, “Yeah, it really could be, huh?”
Dottie sees herself smile in the mirror as she contemplates spending forever like this.
Notes:
i always wanted to see how dottie might have reacted to a cover like that, knowing that she pretty much single-handedly kept her dream and her teammates' dreams alive.
Chapter 3: dream
Chapter Text
Dottie feels a sharp tug on her skirt, and she stumbles a little when she turns around to face Ellie, who hasn’t taken off her uniform yet either. Neither of them are quite ready, it seems.
“Does it still feel like a dream to you, too?”
She says it like she already knows, like she’s just checking to make sure she’s not the only one who’s still under the impression that this is too good to be true.
Ellie asks like she knows, and she does. (She always does.) And Dottie tells her so.
“Yes,” she says, sitting on the bench beside Ellie. They face their lockers, which are always right next to each other, and as Dottie starts to unlace her spikes, Ellie moves to follow. “Every morning I wake up and I think I’m back on the farm, and there’s a million chores to do before I can even think about touching a ball.”
“And then,” Ellie says, and really, they understand each other so well that the conversation could end right there. Dottie knows Ellie expects it to, because she starts when Dottie continues:
“And then, I look over and see you, and everything hits me like a ton of bricks.”
Chapter 4: origins (sort of)
Notes:
does this directly parallel my own experience? again, who's to say.
this is ellie and doris telling ellie's story to the team at large, btw.
Chapter Text
“Well, initially I was trying out as a catcher. But then this fella comes over to where I’m working, and he asks me why I’m picking all the low ones ‘stead of blockin’ em like I’m supposed to. So I told him, ‘Sir, I can’t block for love or money, so I’ve learned to pick well enough to make up for it.”
“So he marches her up to the infield–”
“Says ‘try this’–”
“And left her at first base the whole damn day!”
“He told me at the end of that day, and I keep sayin’ he because I can’t for the life of me recall his name, he says ‘Listen hon, I’m gonna tell it to you straight. You’re a passable catcher, maybe even a good one. But you’re a stellar first baseman. And it just so happens I need one of those for my team.’
“So that’s how I became a first baseman and a Peach at the same time, entirely by accident.”
Chapter 5: goddess
Summary:
this one is unashamedly taken from a real conversation i've had. you know who you are. (no she doesn't and I plan to keep it that way)
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“Realistically you know I’m not gonna catch even one inning, right?”
“What, you think I’ll never get hurt?”
“No, I just think you’d never admit it if you did. You’re not some invulnerable goddess, no matter how much you look the part. But you are an obstinate workaholic ass who’d sooner drop dead than admit you need to sit an inning.”
Dottie wasn’t sure whether to blush or scowl at that, so she walked away.
“Keep practicing,” she called over her shoulder at a stone-faced Ellie. “If I get knocked unconscious, I won’t be able to protest getting pulled.”
Chapter 6: the inherent intimacy of walking down a street arm-in-arm
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
They link arms a lot.
Dottie likes it because she likes the way Ellie pouts when she realizes she has to crane her neck to look up at Dottie from that close. Ellie likes it because she likes the warmth of Dottie’s bare skin against hers, like a reminder that she’s there. Dottie knows this because once, when the team went sightseeing in between games of a series in Boston, she wore a long-sleeved dress and Ellie looked so crestfallen for a half-second that Dottie considered taking a cab back to the hotel and changing.
Notes:
this one's not based on personal experience, but god do i wish it was
Chapter Text
Dottie’s right foot hasn’t even touched the locker room floor before she has an armful of Ellie, who lets out a bark of laughter and shouts, “I fucking knew you couldn’t stay away.”
Then, while the team cheers and echoes her sentiment, she looses a shaky sigh into Dottie’s collarbone and whispers, “I missed you.”
On the road back to Rockford, Dottie had doubts that she was making the right decision.
She doesn’t anymore.
Notes:
every time i encounter someone who has even seen this movie i have a bad habit of jumping down their throats about how dottie's ending was supremely unsatisfying so i may flesh this out a little later on with a dive into dottie's decision making process
Chapter Text
Dottie starts thinking about how waking up next to Ellie is different than waking up next to Bob.
With Bob, even though there had only been two weeks between their wedding and his deployment, it felt normal, ordinary, even, waking up to his face first thing. By the second morning, Dottie had gotten used to it. To him.
She doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to Ellie.
Notes:
i'll add more to this eventually i promise (my fingers are crossed jsyk)
Chapter 9: this shit
Summary:
the first time doris sees dottie and ellie standing next to each other and feels vertically disadvantaged
Chapter Text
“What the hell is this shit?” Doris shouts, looking as indignant as Dottie’s ever seen her.
“What shit?” Ellie hollers back without missing a beat.
“This shit!” Doris says, gesticulating wildly between Ellie and Dottie, and then back down to herself. “What do they put in the water on those fuckin’ farms of yours?”
“Lead, mostly.” Dottie states with a straight face.
“Really?” Ellie perks up as she says it. “For us, it’s usually pesticide. Yeah, couldn’t drink anything you didn’t boil growing up, else you’d–”
“–stunt your growth,” They smile as they speak in perfect unison.
“Unbelievable. Unacceptable.”
“I can see why you might think that, but really it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Yeah, gettin’ limbs this long before learnin’ how to use ‘em got me a lot of injuries as a kid.”
“You’re tellin’ me! Eventually, my folks got fed up with the hospital bills and stopped takin’ me. My left wrist never did heal right.” Ellie looks down mournfully at aforementioned wrist.
“Not to mention how men always look at you like you’re a freak, if they look at you at all.”
“Oh, but the way some of the dames look at you, makes it all worthwhile.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know.”
“Really? ‘Cause your best tomato impression says otherwise.” Doris, ever observant, damn her.
Ellie slings an arm about Dottie’s shoulders and leans into her body. “Aw, it’s alright, we won’t tell, promise. You’re among friends.”
“Yeah, and fellow queers to boot. Half the team are friends of Dorothy, so to speak.”
“You’re not kidding. The first time I met May, she looked at me like she wanted to eat me.”
“She probably did!”
“Actually, Eleanor, I did not want to eat you,” May says as she descends the stairs. “I wanted to climb you like a tree!”