Work Text:
Debbie stood in the airport, staring at the blank space that was occupied just moments before. Her heart blazed in her chest, her brain ran a mile a minute.
She should have told Ruth sooner. She should have told her later. She shouldn’t have shut down Ruth’s acting dreams. She should have confronted her months earlier, she should have validated Ruth’s directing back when they shot that silly title sequence. She should have waited to share the news. She should have finished her second sentence. She should have said something, anything other than fucking “Merry Christmas.”
And she stood there. And she tried to finish that sentence, that “so I just wanted to tell you that. And that-”
Fuck.
And suddenly it was as if she had opened Pandora’s box right in the middle of the airport terminal, but Pandora’s box had been way too small and suddenly the emotions were spilling out because who fucking thought that these Greek-level feelings would fit in such a tiny fucking box.
As soon as Ruth had turned around, as soon as she had boarded that plane, Debbie had realized.
Since she flew for the first time as Liberty Belle, she had been chasing that feeling. That superhero version of herself, where she could feel as strong in her own life as she did in the ring. Maybe all of them were chasing it. But Debbie had been so sure that this would be it. This, this Eden, would get her there.
Yet, when she had unwrapped her arms from Ruth’s frame, when Ruth had taken her last look back, Debbie’s adrenaline had started to fizzle. Maybe it had been naïve to think it in the first place. That even though being a mom, being a producer, those didn’t do it— that being the president of a TV company would. That with just one more step up the ladder, she would finally reach the same heights she did with her sparkly eyelids and ridiculous southern accent.
But as the energy sapped from her body and people walked in front of her, into the line of sight she directed, laser-focused, where Ruth once stood, she realized:
The most magnificent thing she had done with her life was loving Ruth.
And Ruth was on a plane back to Nebraska.
And Debbie was left with a TV company on her hands, a feeble replacement for the one feeling she got close to touching.
Magnificent.