Work Text:
The first time Linda gets the urge to kiss Becky in public, she’s immediately taken aback.
After weeks of dating and months of pining, she’s no stranger to being so overcome with affection for Becky—she’s just not used to it happening outside the safety of her home, especially not during such an everyday moment.
It’s two pm and cold and rainy in Hatchetfield, Linda really shouldn’t have worn her new Louboutins today, that certain scent of fall is in the air for Becky to revel in when she steps outside the hospital for her break, with Linda on her arm.
A little ritual, tradition, that began long before they confessed their feelings to each other and has continued until now. Becky, in a far-too-light jacket Linda’s shocked she’s not freezing in, walks as her and Linda’s fingers intertwine without either of them thinking about it.
Linda pushes against the dark green door and steps inside. She’s relieved to find no line at the counter. Really, she’d follow Becky to hell and back, but why Beanie’s is her place of choice to spend her work break, Linda will never understand.
Linda, like every time, insists on paying. The woman at the counter barely gives them a second glance, until Linda takes their tray to bring it to a table and Becky tips her with a smile. Linda’s still working on her attitude towards customer service workers, but with Becky's help, she's...slowly making progress.
Becky sits across from her, unwavering smile as bright as ever when she begins to unwrap her chocolate muffin, rambling on about a girl in the pediatric wing who’d made a miraculously fast recovery recently.
Linda nods as she listens, with complaining about the frankly disgusting taste of the coffee she’s currently sipping on the furthest thing from her mind, when the realization of just how bad she wants to kiss her girlfriend hits her like a truck.
Girlfriend.
Linda blinks a few more times than would be considered natural. So many things happening at once. She tears her eyes away from Becky and looks around to appear casual and aloof—that’s what people do who are casual and aloof.
If Becky thinks her behavior is anything but, she makes an effort to not acknowledge it and just keeps talking, for which Linda is infinitely grateful.
"Bridgette is doing so well, it's...a miracle. You know, the doctor said something, it was so—"
Linda has a girlfriend. She watches Becky talk and repeats it a couple times in her head. That's her girlfriend. They're girlfriends. Linda has a girlfriend.
Like...she knew that. Obviously. She's lived through the entire thing; the whole journey, her less-than-adequate upbringing, compulsory heterosexuality (as her therapist had called it before Linda called her crazy), falling for Becky, starting to date her—of course, she's been aware of the fact that Becky's her girlfriend. But she's never really put it together! Becky is her girlfriend!
And if she wants to kiss her in public, she can do that!
...If Becky wants that, too, of course. Whatever. Logistics. Linda doesn't care about them right now, not when she's leaning back in her seat, getting to listen to her girlfriend talk about her day and having a cup of the worst coffee of her life—it's like something inside her is fixed. It's gentle and scary and completely new for Linda...but then Becky starts smiling again, and Linda thinks that with this woman by her side, she'll manage.