They Say What They Say

Title: Her bit, or the pieces she makes of it.
Fandom: Sports Night AU
Pairing: None - Natalie Gen
Summary: She wants to do her bit, whatever that bit may be.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Note: This is what happens when one watches Swing Shift while pondering their picfor1000 fic. Many of the events and situations in this story were gleaned from A Mouthful of Rivets: Women at Work in World War II by Nancy Baker Wise and Christy Wise. Many thanks to phoebesmum for the beta.







Natalie's mom puts her on the train to California. She's brave and stoic as Natalie buys her ticket and they mill about on the platform with the other passengers. But when the conductor finally calls "All aboaaaaard!" that's when the tears start and the stoicism slips away.

Hugging her close, Helen Hurley admonishes her daughter to be careful and to not let any men get too fresh with her. Natalie assures her mother that she'll be okay, and that she'll write as soon as she is settled.

"I shouldn't be sending my daughter off to war," Helen says, tears shining in her eyes. But December 7, 1941, tipped their world upside down and Natalie knows that even girls from small towns in Ohio can make a difference if they give it their best try.

Natalie squeezes her mother tight and then gets on the train.

~*~*~

Natalie makes it as far as Richmond, where she gets a job as a welder in the Kaiser Shipyards. She had no idea about welding before she filled out her application form, but three weeks later the words horizontal, vertical and overhead hold whole new meanings for her.

The work is hard and dirty, and she spends her first few weeks learning the job as well as fending off men who look at her like she's fresh meat. Each night she goes back to her room at the boarding house and flops into bed, exhausted and covered in tiny welts from being burnt by flying sparks.

About a month after she starts at the factory, a pretty blond woman called Dana who Natalie had seen about approaches her and tells her that, whenever a guy gets too fresh, the trick is to strike an arc in their direction because the sparks will burn the heck out of them and they'll leave her alone. At first skeptical, Natalie gives it a go. After a while the guys mostly stop hitting on her and, much to her surprise, one or two of them actually start taking her seriously.

~*~*~

Not wanting to use up her shoe stamps on work boots, Natalie wears majorette boots under her leathers because she doesn't need stamps to buy them. When she applied for her job at the shipyard she wore the red hat and carried the matching bag she bought just before she left Ohio. It was the last time she wore anything so feminine to work.

When she first arrives in California, Natalie wears her hair down around her shoulders like Dorothy Lamour. For the first couple of months she keeps it tied back in a bandanna while she works, but after a while she has it cut into a neat little pageboy bob like June Allyson's because it's easier to manage.

A week later, one of the girls who refuses to cut her hair and constantly flouts the rules about keeping it tied back at work gets herself caught in a piece of the machinery. Natalie will never forget how the girls' scalp tore like a piece of silk before they manage to shut the machine down.

~*~*~

She quickly makes friends among the other women who work in the yard. There's Dana, of course, and Kim and Allison, one loud, the other quiet, and both good fun to have around. There's Rebecca, who is kind of aloof but very nice once you get to know her, and Sally, who flirts with anything male.

Dana has a tiny apartment in one of the wartime housing projects and after a while she asks Natalie if she would like to move into her spare room. Natalie immediately says yes because her landlady at the boarding house is a terrible cook and complains long and loud if Natalie fills the tub with more than four inches of water.

Her room at Dana's is hardly bigger than a broom closet, but at least she can fill the tub as full as she wants to, and both she and Dana are reasonably good cooks. On Sundays, when they both have the day off, they wash their hair and sit on the front porch to let it dry in the sun. They paint their nails and talk about clothes and Cary Grant and their families back home.

Dana has six brothers, all of whom, except the youngest who is only sixteen, have joined up. Dana's mom had wanted her to stay in Cedar Rapids, but, like Natalie, she couldn't stand the thought of being cooped up in her parents' house and doing nothing while the rest of the world was at war.

~*~*~

One day Natalie comes home from work to find Dana entertaining two soldiers in the living room. Their names are Dan and Casey, Casey being an old friend of Dana's from college. Dan is Casey's best friend in the army and they're both on a forty-eight hour pass before shipping out. They can't tell the girls where they are going, only that they want to do something fun on their last night in the States.

Dana and Natalie do their hair, pull their best dresses out of the closet and put on their dancing shoes. They take the boys out to this club where they've been a few times and where the music is good and the drinks aren't too watered down.

Natalie spends a lot of her time talking to Dan, who is witty and charming and who has a great smile. Casey is a little more reserved, and at first Natalie thinks he is kind of stand-offish, but once he relaxes he's just as charming and fun to be with as Danny. They dance a lot and drink a little too much, but it is good to be able to forget about things like ships and arc welders and rivet guns for a while.

They stay out until dawn, when Dan and Casey have to head back to their base. Natalie kisses Dan goodbye because she wants him to have something good to take with him into battle. Dana does the same for Casey, and then they watch as Casey slings an arm around Danny's shoulders as they walk toward the bus station.

FIN