Chapter Text
When she's first met Johnnie Bevan, they were both so different. She had been in a nightclub in Manchester with her best friend, in a skirt that would make her mother gasp, a blouse that almost showed her entire chest, and a cigarette in one hand, gin in the other. He's come in, chugged three pints on a dare, then invited her to dance. She was only seventeen, infatuated with the Lieutenant, who'd not only survived the war, but stayed in the army afterwards. She's been with a couple of military lads, like Tom, her last boyfriend (lord rest his soul), but none were like Johnnie Bevan. He was short and stocky, but could easily lift all five foot eight of her as they danced. She wasn't particularly heavy (the doctors often referred to her as sickly underweight, but that's what having no money did to someone), but it was impressive that the five foot two, twenty three year old could lift her up onto a table like it was nothing.
What was more impressive, was that he stuck around. The pair went on numerous dates and outings, until a few weeks later at her eighteenth birthday and he got down on one knee, lamenting that due to her father having passed before he met her, he had to ask her elder brother. The sentiment was slightly lost when Hester had thrown up into her handbag, the result of being half cut for three days. She did also make Johnnie try again on New Years eve, the two welcoming 1923 with Johnnie dropped to one knee for a second time. This time she managed to keep her dinner down long enough to kiss him.
They were married in spring, two weeks before Hester found out she was pregnant. Their little girl, Evelyn May Bevan was born in November of the same year, welcomed into the world with love, and a move to London that Hester had not been informed of.
London was different from Manchester in ways she didn't think possible, but it was lovely. They had their hardships, like Johnnie being set onto permanent desk duty due to shrapnel in his knees from the war, he sulked for two weeks after that, until he realised it meant he would get even more time at home with his girls.
Their second daughter, Hazel May Bevan was born with Evie was only a year old. Hester vowed that any children henceforth would have a larger gap between them.
Hester did not get her wish. Their third daughter, Christine May Bevan was born when Hazel was ten months old.
That was that.
Hester declared their family complete. Three daughters were enough. She and Johnnie were perfectly happy with their girls. She had no desire to raise six children the way her own parents had, content to follow Johnnie's parents and finish at three. Three suited the Bevan family just fine. The girls were happy girls, easier than Hester's siblings had been, and a dream to take care of. Her and Johnnie were so full of love for their girls.
Hester stayed as a stay at home mother for years. It was easier like that, she had left school at thirteen, Johnnie made good money, rising through the ranks of the army exceptionally quickly, they had an amazing support system in terms of Johnnie's parents and Hester's siblings, and Hester loved being with her girls.
Christine was nine when Hester decided to go on a job hunt, her little girls weren't so little any more, and she needed something to do. She'd been taught short hand by an old neighbour, and was very intelligent, as such, she landed in a Typing Pool in the foreign office in 1934, rose tinted glasses, and her maiden name equipped as to not arouse suspicion. Her adaptability, intellect and judgment lead to her being scooped up by the war office to head a new Typing Pool in 1936, and to act as a personal secretary to her husband. Not that they knew that.
She became known for her tight bun, signature glare under her glasses (no matter how much she insisted she didn't need them, she was ultimately, blind as a bat, had been since she was a girl,) and formidable presence.
That's how she ended up here, stuck in the basement of MI5, enlisted by a madman, a scientist, a young girl around the same age as her eldest daughter, and her husband.
Dinner had been cooked completely through last night, so why was she now on her knees in the ladies, hurling into the toilet.