Chapter Text
A cold winter wind was blowing through cracks in the old windows of Royston Vaseys concerningly well attended job center where Pauline Campbell-Jones was leading one of her restart courses to an increasingly weary and disinterested audience of Vaseys unemployed. Pauline was always fully conscious of the fact that nobody wanted to be there, listen to her or even get a job, alas, she didn't care. This job fed into her #1 passion in life, being a callous, malicious leader for Vaseys dole scum. This was a power Pauline always possessed, being able to take down anyone who came in her way or threatened her status, Campbell-Jones was known for her hard exterior and unflappable demeanor, that was until a knock at the door came that Tuesday morning.
It was a girl who looked quite a bit younger than Pauline, with thick wavy brunette hair cut just above her shoulders, pulled back with two tortoise shell hair pins. Her presence immediately took over Paulines, the room full of inattentive, spiritless men all of a sudden raised their heads from their desks to set eyes on the younger girl, about 25 years old, she appeared slightly timid at first and introduced herself to the restart leader.
She had her eyes pinned to a bit of paper she was holding onto, with the address and name she needed to find “Um, hello, I’m Bernice… I’m looking for a Mrs Campbell-Jones?” . Paulines ears pricked up, “That's Miss Campbell-Jones to you young lady” she exclaimed in her usual defensive and brash tone “are you here for the restart course? Because I already told em we can't have any more I can't deal with this lot as it is”. Bernice interrupted her “No, Miss, I’m Bernice Woodall - the church sent me, i’m training to become a vicar” , Pauline screwed up her face, scrunching her garish glossed pink lips and began to chuckle “sorry love but I think this lot are beyond saving, on your way now were in the middle of something”.
The men still hadn't taken their eyes off Bernice’s fresh face, she was unusually pretty for a Vasey girl where the women were usually more bloke - like than the men. Pauline continued her humour towards Bernice however any hold she had over the attention of the group was gone a while ago, they waited for the younger ones response, all hoping she wouldn't go, she was certainly nicer to look at than the older woman with her huge hair and glasses framing her sour face.
Bernice worked up the courage to defend herself against Pauline “You should’ve gotten a fax last week from the Vicar, he sent me here to do a talk for the men on the restart, we hope that the church and forming relationships with God should see them through this difficult time in their lives” , Bernice wasn’t completely convinced by the whole God stuff, she had signed up to this on a bit of a whim and secretly really just enjoyed the idea of telling people they were going to hell, she would never let this slip to the group though. Pauline was alarmed at Bernice’s response, she’d unplugged the fax machine months ago in an attempt to stop any communication from her bosses who were telling her to modernise and threatening her imagined power.
Thankful for any opportunity to do less work, Pauline gestured for Bernice to come closer, looking right into her deep brown eyes, Bernice looked slightly like a frightened puppy, she was young and had only been training for a week or so, her cheeks were still flushed a reddish pink from the cold outside. Pauline felt a sympathy and a connection she had never found herself feeling before and ushered the girl to the center of the room “Go on then love, we haven't got all day”
Bernice stood at the front of the room, with Paulines pad and posters behind her. She was dressed casually in an attempt to connect with the public, wearing a navy blue checkered shirt, with the top buttons open just enough to see a gold cross necklace poking through with jeans and a beat up pair of converse. She opened up a tatty notebook filled with pencil scribbles, Pauline gave her a slightly disapproving look for this.
Visibly uncomfortable, Bernice began to speak “Hello Gentlemen, I’m Bernice Woodall and in about a year or so I should hopefully be your new Vicar” she was interrupted by one of the men heckling her, with a deep breath she continued “ I’m here to talk to you about how your relationship with God can help steer you on your journey during this turbulent time in your lives” another comment was made, something about wanting a relationship with her, not God. She had never wanted a relationship, not with a man and certainly not with this calibre of men.
Noticeably disturbed by these comments, Bernice turned to Pauline. Pauline would usually join in with these jeers and even though she was secretly enjoying the fact that someone else was at the receiving end of the group's stabs she felt sorry for Bernice, she was about 10 years her senior and remembered a time when she was also timid, an unbelievable notion to anyone in Royston Vasey.
“Alright alright gents, leave the poor lass alone, occupy yourselves for 10 minutes” she exclaimed and grabbed Bernice's trembling hand, leading her into the corridor. If she thought she looked like a scared puppy before she certainly did now, her pretty brown eyes were glistening with the first signs of tears.
Pauline had never in her life felt such an odd feeling towards someone, she felt all of a sudden unsettled and sick (this turned out to be empathy, something she remarkably hadn't felt towards someone in her 35 years of life so far).
Once in the corridor, Bernice stood, head low, nervously playing with her necklace and jumped when she felt two strong arms clasp around her smaller frame. She had heard all sorts of stories about the vicious nature of the local restart officer, this soft embrace was unexpected, but nice. She relented, settled into Paulines arms, nestling her head into the crook of the older woman's neck with an immense sense of comfort, almost like it belonged there.
Pauline had embraced her before she even began to think about it, she felt a natural connection with Bernice, she didn't have to pretend to like her or feel the need to defend herself using cutting remarks. Neither of them knew when it was appropriate to pull away, given the fact they only met 10 minutes ago.
Pauline let go first, taking a step back and picking up Bernices now still hands in hers “It’s alright love, don’t let them get to you, at the end of the day they're just bloody useless dole scum who spend all day on their arses in front of the telly, at least we’re actually capable of doing stuff eh?”
Bernice chuckled at Paulines harsh remarks, maybe this was the way to get through it. “How do you do it Pauline?” she queried “being so… open?” She carried on rambling about her own inner thoughts and feelings, about how she doesn't really believe in the whole Godbothering stuff or at least not in that way, something she would never usually do but Paulines presence seemed oddly safe, she felt herself relax around her.
With Bernice’s mouth moving like a machine gun Pauline interrupted, stopping the trainee rev from spilling any more of her secrets “Just tell it like it is, you’re the one in charge, make it bloody known, now please tell me you’ll go back in there and give them your Jesus lecture or summat? I really can’t be fucked to deal with them myself” They both chuckled and Pauline playfully pushed the soft cotton on Bernices back forward into the room.
Bernice did in fact tell them all where to stick it, the men sat in silence and utter disbelief that this innocent looking, youthful and pretty woman could come out with such obscenities. They certainly left knowing they were all going to go to hell if they didn't clean their act up. The men filed out at the end of the day Bernice sighed and rubbed her soft hands together, looking to Pauline for some approval from her mentor.
Their eyes met and they both smiled “well done you! knew you had an evil little cow in you behind that pretty little face!!” Pauline laughed, “takes one to know one pet, you’re devil incarnate”. Pauline playfully grabbed Bernice into a headlock “Am I now? Am I? Am I” , tightening with each remark this went on for a bit longer than it should’ve, given both the women had such stubborn demeanors it took a good while for Pauline to let go of her grip.
The younger woman stood up, panting in an attempt to get her breath back, locking eyes with Pauline. They were both the type of women to talk constantly, silence in a conversation was never an option for them, until this moment, when their eyes locked in a way that transcended words, the pair of them intertwined in understanding. After what felt like an eternity of staring, Bernice looked down to the older womans bright pink lacquered lips, leant in and placed her soft and supple lips onto hers in a quick kiss that felt like an eternity in heaven (maybe Bernice did believe in it after all). She had never done anything like this before and wasn't sure where this sudden bodaciousness came from but she enjoyed the feeling, a closeness both of them had spent their lives trying to reject from others but with the other, in that moment, on that cold December day, it just felt right to do.
Pauline may have taught Bernice how to be openly cruel that day but they ended up teaching each other how to open up, to be soft, if only with each other.
Their moment was swiftly interrupted by the slamming of the door, it was a new starter for Paulines course. Startled, they both jumped back yet neither of them said anything. Pauline remained silent and pretended to rummage round some papers, handing one to Bernice. She quickly grabbed it, turned her head down, not knowing what just happened and paced out the building with great speed. It was a mix of pleasure and shame filling Bernice's mind as she walked through the snow back to the vestry. Her heart and mind raced with questions, Why hadn't Pauline said anything? Did she even want to? Does she want to see me again?
She returned to the vestry and got the small slip of paper from Pauline out of her back pocket, it was one of her makeshift business cards, handwritten in gel pen with a large picture of her on it, completely vain but the garish nature certainly conveyed her personality. Thinking it was just a random scrap handed to her to aid their charade of normalcy back in the restart room she crumpled it back into her pocket and went to greet the vicar in a feeble attempt to distract herself with the rest of the day's chores. Alas, nothing in that church could take her mind off what she had just done, although it was the perfect place to pray for forgiveness.