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cetaitlaverite · 2 months ago

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happy VE day!!! 🥳

Why All This Music?

Masters of the Air - Rosie Rosenthal x OC

masterlist is linked here <3

40. A Life to Start

“Yesterday morning at 2:41am, at General Eisenhower’s headquarters, General Jodl, the representative of the German High Command, and of Grand Admiral Dönitz, the designated head of the German State, signed the act of unconditional surrender of all German land, sea, and air forces in Europe to the Allied Expeditionary Force and simultaneously to the Soviet High Command.”

Freddie held her breath. Her arms, already wrapped so tight as to be uncomfortable around Croz beside her, tightened their grip.

“Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, Tuesday the 8th of May.”

Neither she nor Croz turned to look at each other. Their gazes were fixed on the radio in front of them and the calm voice of Prime Minister Winston Churchill emerging from it.

“But in the interest of saving lives,” Churchill continued, “the cease-fire began yesterday, to be sounded all along the front and our dear Channel Islands.”

Croz turned and wrapped Freddie up in a hug, so tight she could barely breathe. They were laughing, deliriously and breathlessly, loudly into each other's ears - so loudly they barely caught the rest of the speech.

“Finally almost the whole world was combined against the evil-doers, who are now prostrate before us. Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this Island and throughout the British Empire.”

“It’s over,” Freddie whispered. She realised, distantly, that she was shaking in Croz’s arms. “It’s over,” she said louder.

“It’s over,” Croz confirmed.

“We’ve lost so much,” Freddie said. Her eyes suddenly, inexplicably, filled with tears.

She felt Croz nod into her shoulder. He didn’t speak just now.

This war, Freddie thought, which was over now with little more than an official piece of paper signed by official people in an official room, had taken so many lives. She had always thought it would end after merely a couple of years and she and Daniel would get married, but it had been four years since he’d gone down, six years since he’d left Oxford to become a pilot. It had always felt to her, somehow, that once the war was over the dead would come back. But they weren’t coming back. So many good men, all lost to a war which was finished.

“Come on,” Croz decided, sitting back and giving Freddie’s arms a squeeze. “Let’s go find your husband.”

Rosie was being lifted over the heads of many of the men on base when Freddie and Croz found him. Freddie stood back and laughed, pressing a hand to her lips as she watched because she knew how he hated to be the centre of attention like this. But he withstood it like a champ, and the instant his feet were back on the ground he was pushing his way through the crowd towards Freddie and clutching her against his chest.

“Can’t believe it’s over,” Freddie spoke into his jacket, holding on tight to him.

“Been a long time coming, huh?” Rosie answered her, pressing a firm kiss into the top of her head.

“Yeah,” Freddie agreed quietly. She tilted her head back so Rosie would kiss her and smiled when he did. “Home time soon,” she said.

Rosie’s eyes lit up. His smile was wide. “Home time soon,” he echoed back to her. “Still coming to New York?”

Freddie laughed. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”

The party in the officers’ club that night was monumental. It far exceeded all other parties they’d had in there throughout Freddie’s time at Thorpe Abbotts. People were dancing on tables, alcohol was being poured over heads, jackets were thrown off and ties loosened and couples locked in passionate embraces wherever you turned - even couples who had not been couples before tonight.

For old times’ sake, Freddie, Millie, and Jem all drank whiskey out of a bottle Jem stole from behind the bar, giggling and bickering and joking as they always had at their sleepovers. Freddie was sitting in Rosie’s lap, Millie in Brady’s, and Jem was holding onto Paddy’s hand while the other girl stood behind her chair, her back turned while she spoke to Amy.

“Jem, will you come to New York?” Freddie spoke abruptly after a particularly long draw of whiskey.

“What business do I have in New York?” Jem asked with a laugh.

Freddie raised her eyebrows, as though the answer should have been obvious. “Mils and I will both be there, so I think it’s only right that you come.”

“You and Mils will be able to move because you’ll have married Americans,” Jem argued.

Millie let out a loud, high-pitched giggle and buried her face in Brady’s neck. The two of them weren’t married yet but they’d been talking about it non-stop since Brady had gotten back from Germany; he’d taken Freddie with him to pick out a ring, bought it, and had been planning to propose today before it had become VE Day. He didn’t want their proposal celebrations to be overshadowed, so he was postponing it a day, but by tomorrow night Millie and Brady would be engaged and Freddie wouldn’t be surprised if they raced down the aisle similar to how she and Rosie had.

“There are other ways to get American citizenship,” Freddie replied to Jem. “I’m sure of it. Aren’t there, Rosie?”

“Sure,” Rosie agreed.

Freddie opened her mouth to say something else but Jem cut across her. “I’ll think about it,” she said, and left it at that.

Freddie frowned but didn’t argue, just took another swig of whiskey and handed the bottle off to Millie before turning to Rosie. “Oh darling husband mine, will you dance with me?”

Rosie grinned, as he always did when she was dramatic with her terms of endearment - and, incidentally, when she referred to him as her husband - before setting down his beer and offering her his hand to help her stand. Soon after, they were curled tightly together on the dance floor, beaming up at each other with stars in their eyes as they danced to the love song on the gramophone.

The night quickly disappeared into the chaos of drinking. No one could really keep track of how much they had, they just knew it was a lot. And, at the end of the night, Freddie dragged Rosie by the hand to the plane he’d been flying his mercy missions in so they could make love in the back for old times’ sake, giggling on the way there and sighing as they lay together afterwards.

“You know, there are many things I won’t miss about the war but I think I will miss this,” Freddie spoke wistfully. She had her ear pressed to Rosie’s chest so she could listen to his heartbeat. The summer night air was gentle and cool on her sweaty skin. “Spending all night in the officers’ club with our friends and then sneaking out here to mess around in your plane. For so long we wished for a bed but there’s been something so magical about using this as our own private bedroom, don’t you think?”

“There’s been something magical about every minute we’ve ever spent together,” Rosie replied easily. His smile was audible in his voice. “Can’t wait to take you home and start making millions more memories with you.”

Freddie smiled and pecked a kiss to his chest. “I’m excited. A big king size bed all to ourselves in a house all to ourselves. I can see it so clearly.”

“Me too,” Rosie said, kissing the top of her head.

Freddie smiled softly until the smile turned rueful. “I still need to ask my parents about coming.”

Rosie paused. His hands, once running up and down her back, stalled momentarily. ��Will you still come if they say no?”

Freddie sat up so she could look down at him and tangled her fingers in his messy curls. She smiled fondly, adoringly down at him. “Of course. I’m spending the rest of my life with you and I can’t best do that from the wrong side of the ocean.” Rosie laughed. Freddie grinned but her smile faded soon enough. “But I’ll find it so hard to leave them. I really hope they say yes.”

“Me too, honey,” Rosie replied. “Me too.”

The following day, the first official day of peacetime in Europe, was filled with many, many headaches and upset stomachs and dark bags under eyes. It was also filled with some intense conversations. Couples had to decide whether they’d be staying together or parting ways now that they wouldn’t be living in each other’s pockets on base, and if they chose to stick it out they had to decide where they’d be going. Others had to try to reconcile with themselves how they were going to live without friends who had become something closer than family.

Freddie and Benny had a decision to make.

Meatball was lying in the grass on the airfield between them, oblivious to the conversation about to commence, simply revelling in the warm summer sunshine. Freddie could feel the sting of tears in her eyes already because she knew she’d have to let him go.

“Fred…” Benny started and trailed off. His eyes were sad, regretful.

Freddie shook her head. “No, Benny, it’s okay,” she hurried to reassure him. “It’s - no, it’s okay. He’s your dog and I’ve only been looking after him and if I got too attached that’s my fault.” She had to stop talking because a sob had worked its way into her voice and turned it into a high-pitched wine. She had to press a hand against her lips to get her bottom lip to stop wobbling, had to fight hard to swallow the lump in her throat and push back her tears. “I promise it’s okay.”

Her eyes fell to Meatball, lying peacefully in the grass, and another sob wrenched itself out of her throat. Burying her free hand in his fur, Freddie let out a shaky breath and forced herself to pull herself together. “He’s your dog,” she reasserted firmly, regaining her composure.

Benny sighed and shook his head sadly, then reached forward to rest his hand on top of hers in Meatball’s coat. “He’s your dog,” he corrected her softly. “He’s yours.”

As though a door had been suddenly thrust open in Freddie’s head, tears came spilling down her cheeks. “Really?” she squeaked, letting out small sobs and shaking her head at her own lack of self-control.

“Really,” Benny confirmed with a quiet laugh. “He’s - look, he’s been with you longer than he was with me and he loves you. I can tell. He hasn’t enjoyed sleeping in the bunk with me and the guys and he keeps waking me up at 0700 so I’ll take him outside the way you do. He’s been sleeping on your blanket and running to you whenever he sees you in the distance. It’s -” Benny sighed, ran a hand down his face, and then let out a final, reluctant laugh. “It sucks, and I won’t tell you it doesn’t, but I levelled with myself back in the stalag that he would be yours by the time I got back. So I want you to take him. Ain’t no one else in the whole world I’d trust with him but you.”

“Oh, Benny,” Freddie cried, pressing both hands to her face and clearing it of tears before reaching across Meatball to hug him. “Are you sure?”

Benny laughed. “I’m sure.”

“I’ll take the best care of him,” Freddie vowed into his shoulder. “I’ll treat him like a real human son, I promise.”

Benny laughed once more. Freddie caught the tail end of his playful eye roll as she sat back from their hug. “Fred, you already do.”

Reluctantly, Freddie giggled, a watery, weak sound. “Yeah,” she admitted, sighing, still laughing softly, “I do.”

“‘Sides,” Benny added, “I’ll only be a couple hours away in Philly. I’ll just come visit whenever I’m missing him too much.”

Freddie sat up straighter and beamed. “We both would absolutely love that,” she declared.

Benny smiled, warm and bright, right back at her. “Then it’s a deal.”

With that settled, Freddie decided she wanted to get her final duck in its row before she set about conquering the huge, towering pile of paperwork she had to fill out to mark the end of Operation Corona. There was a whole queue of people waiting to use the air exec office telephone when she made her way over to it, everyone excited to share the end of the war with families back home, so that Freddie ended up waiting in line for over an hour before she was finally being put through to her parents’ landline.

When her mother came on the phone, Freddie couldn’t stop grinning.

“It’s over!” Freddie cheered down the line.

“It’s over!” Alma echoed. “Have you all been celebrating?”

“So much!” Freddie assured her. “We partied all last night. Today has been a lot of official paperwork and working out where things are going, though. And Benny said Meatball can come with me!”

“He did?” Alma asked. She let out a small gasp. “Oh, Wils, I’m so pleased. That makes me so happy.”

“Me too.” Freddie’s cheeks were hurting from grinning. “I’ve been dreading having to let him go. I started crying when Benny and I started speaking about it because I was so sure he was going to tell me he was taking Meatball with him. But Meatball will be coming with Rosie and I to New York, and how exciting is that?!”

“So exciting,” Alma agreed with a laugh. “When do you leave?”

“We haven’t decided yet.” Freddie’s smile turned sheepish. “We haven’t talked too much about the technicalities just yet. Nothing has truly started unwinding over here yet so we’re not sure how long we’ll have to stay. Rosie will likely be flying one of the planes home but I’m not sure when I should come and collect my things.” She shook her head, clearing those details away. “Anyway, this leads me onto my next line of thought. I wanted to run something by you.”

Alma hummed on the other end of the phone, letting Freddie know she was listening and encouraging her to go on.

But when the moment came, it was difficult for Freddie to get the words out. It was such a big ask, she knew, and her parents never liked to say no to her. They had always given her as much as they could, gone to the ends of the earth to keep her happy. But this? This was the biggest thing she’d asked of them by far.

Twirling the telephone wire around her finger, Freddie rested her head against the wall and shut her eyes, trying to tune out the many voices around her chattering excitedly about post-war plans. She summoned the image of her own post-war life to the front of her mind - she and Rosie in their house in Brooklyn, with Meatball and a baby, eventually, and her parents coming over with Bruno and Earnie every Sunday for a roast dinner to hold onto their British culture.

It was so close she could taste it.

“Will you come to New York with me?”

The words emerged in a hurry, all on one exhale of anxious breath, and hung heavy on the air between them like a stone dropped harshly into a lake when someone had tried to skip it.

Alma didn’t say anything.

“Will you?” Freddie prompted after a moment. “And dad and the dogs?”

On the other end of the line, Freddie could hear her mother’s sigh.

Her heart dropped into her shoes.

“There’s a wonderful music school there called Juilliard which I’m going to audition for, and maybe dad can teach there,” Freddie rushed to add, trying to flesh out the picture for her mother, trying to make her as excited about it as she was. “They’d certainly take him with all his experience and his talent. And there are so many parks - Rosie says Central Park is huge and that the dogs would love it.” She drew in a deep breath and let it go shakily, her shoulders relaxing now that she’d gotten it all out. Finally, in a small voice, she added, “And then we can all see each other all the time.”

Silence fell for one beat, two. Freddie might have thought the line had gone dead had she not been able to hear her mother’s breathing. And then: “Wils…”

Freddie shook her head, squeezing her eyes shut. “What’s wrong?”

“Wils, darling, that’s - that’s a really big request.”

“I know,” Freddie whispered. Her entire face fell.

“That’s a huge upheaval.”

“I know,” Freddie said again.

“Your father and I…” Alma sighed. “We love Oxford. We loved Vienna, of course, but we love Oxford. It’s our home. We’re happy here. And we are both so, so immensely pleased and proud that you’ve found love again, and we’ve always known that you would follow Rosie to America. But -” Again, she sighed, and it sounded as though she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. “Wils, darling, you have a life to start. You were still a teenager when the war broke out but now you’re a woman. You’re married and you have a life to live, and your father and I can’t live it for you.”

“I’m not asking you to live it for me,” Freddie objected softly. “I’m just asking you to stay in it. I’m not ready just yet but eventually Rosie and I will have children and I can’t -” Those damned tears were back in her eyes. Even the thought of it devastated her. “I can’t not have you and daddy around to help me.”

“Rosie will be there to help you.”

“Don’t you want to meet your grandchildren?”

“Oh, Wils.” Alma’s voice was so kind, so maternal, but so very far away. “We’ll come and visit, just as you’ll come and visit us back home. But everything that happened with Daniel - I think it’s made you too reliant on us, Wils, darling. And I don’t want that for you. I want you to explore the world and live your life. I left behind my parents to follow your father to Vienna and I don’t regret it for a second. Those were some of the happiest years of my life.”

“I don’t want to miss you,” Freddie choked out, swiping a thumb hastily under her eyes to catch her tears. “I miss you so much when I’m here, even, and I’m only two hours away! I don’t want to have to miss you and have you be so far.”

Alma swallowed hard. If Freddie didn’t know better she would have thought she was choking back tears of her own. But then she drew in a strong, steady breath and spoke softly into the phone. “My darling girl, we’ll talk about this another time. Right now is the first full day of peacetime and you should be celebrating it, not letting me hold you up on the phone.” Freddie could hear the teasing smile in her voice so clearly she could see it on her mother’s kind face in her mind’s eye. “Go and find Rosie and give him a big kiss and get excited about all the many happy years you have ahead of you in peace. That’s what the two of you have always deserved. Then call me back in a few days when you’re ready, and we’ll talk about it again.”

a/n:

big news! i'm both overjoyed and incredibly sad to announce that this story ends tomorrow! we have one more chapter and an epilogue ahead of us and i'll be posting them both at the same time, as i always have with my other fics.

not to worry, though! i have a tradition of publishing three bonus chapters afterwards, and i'd love to know your thoughts on what they should be! scenes from rosie's perspective? scenes which didn't make the cut? snapshots of freddie's life after the events of the fic? let me know!

i've also been writing another mota fic which i'll be delighted to start sharing soon. it follows an air transport auxiliary pilot named stella finley and how she absolutely will not under any circumstances risk losing her hard-earned reputation by getting involved with a man... until she meets bucky egan. it'll be up soon!

thank you all so, so much for your support on this one!! i have been so pleased to share it with you and hear your thoughts. one day left - it seems so bizarre!! but i really can't thank you enough for your love <3<3<3

#watm

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