January 2, 1946

Her heart raced. Alice stood before the mirror in her bedroom, staring again at her reflection. Nix was downstairs somewhere, probably making a new pot of coffee. Behind her on the bed, Blanche sat quiet, as beautiful and put together as a movie star.

"Alice, you look fine," Blanche repeated. "Trust me, no matter how beautiful you make yourself look, my father is still going to find fault."

She frowned. Glancing at Blanche in the reflection of the mirror, she nodded. Her green dress sat well against her body, the long sleeves hiding any of the scars still visible from her year at war. That year had come and gone, and now, 1946 meant new beginnings. And one of those new beginnings was finally meeting Stanhope Nixon.

"You do look beautiful," Blanche added. She stood from the bed, smoothing her own black dress with practiced movements. Coming to stand beside Alice, she smiled. "Trust me. Don't think about what my father will say, or what his stupid executives will snicker about. Lew loves you, and I think you're pretty great."

Alice chuckled. "Thanks, Blanche."

"Of course." She smiled again. "Come on. Let's go."

Letting Blanche slip her arm inside her own, Alice was led away from the mirror and out into the hall. Their heels clicked against the floor. Before they started down the stairs, though, Blanche stopped her again.

"Remember, play the game. My brother doesn't understand," she added. "He'll probably mouth off to our father, say something stupid that'll end with you being the one in trouble. That's how this works. So, I'm going to talk to Lewis. You need to talk to him, too."

"Okay."

"Okay."

With her eyes on Blanche's back, she followed her down the stairs. Alice could hear Nix in the kitchen as he gasped and cursed. For a moment, she smiled. He knew how to cook? Alice would've laughed if she hadn't been so stressed.

"Lew, what'd you do this time?" Blanche called. As she moved down the hall, her perfectly styled brown hair bouncing at the shoulders, she chuckled. "I thought I was the bad cook."

"You are! That's why you've got to stick with me," Nix bit back.

Alice moved into the kitchen after her. Nixon was sucking at his finger, a scalding hot pot of coffee nearby. She chuckled. "I don't know, Nix. My money's on your sister for long term success."

"I never should've introduced you two," he muttered. "Come on. Drink your coffee. Nixon, New Jersey awaits the Nixons."

Blanche scoffed, but she grabbed one of the mugs. "Lew, we need to talk."

"What about?"

"About what's going to happen when you show up to Nixon Nitration Works with your unwed partner who happens to have gotten together with you during a war while you were married." Blanche took a sip and then set the mug down. "You know how this looks. You both know how this looks."

"For Christ's sake. I didn't cause the divorce," Nix snapped. "Thank God it happened though."

Alice huffed out a small laugh. She lowered her gaze for a second. But then she just smirked and shook her head as Blanche scoffed.

"Lew, stop and think. This is our father. He doesn't care what actually happened, he cares about the image." She held up her hand when he went to mutter on. "I'm all for the two of you. But you're currently living together, unmarried, after meeting in a war while you were still married. That looks bad to Stanhope Nixon. Especially now that mom's moved on."

Lewis frowned but nodded. "About damn time."

"Yeah." Turning from Nix to Alice, she sighed. "You're going to have to put up with whatever he says, Alice. It might not be nice."

"Trust me," she replied. "I've put up with plenty."

Lewis snickered behind his coffee. With a widening smile, Alice glanced at him. She'd definitely put up with anything that Stanhope Nixon could possibly try to throw her way. Not much got worse than being called a Nazi by the men fighting the Nazis. She could handle an unhappy Mister Nixon.

"So, Lew, no fighting," Blanche continued. "You're smart. Be smart."

"Did you just call me smart," he joked. Turning to Alice, he shook his head. "Did you hear that? Did she just call me smart?"

"You did graduate Yale," Alice pointed out. "I'd hope you did so on more than your name."

Blanche snorted. "Yeah. Well, that's an extra point for Lew cause our father got thrown out."

A few more minutes passed, Blanche trying to get it into Nix's head that no matter what their father tried to throw their way, he couldn't let it provoke him. They had to take it evenly, with intelligence. Nix took great pleasure in reminding his sister that he had been an intelligence officer for a reason.

As she wrapped her coat tight around her body and moved to the door, Alice just laughed. "He means he thinks he's intelligent. We're supposed to laugh, Blanche."

At that, they did laugh. A bit of the stress that built up while they scooted into their car faded at the sound. The snow had melted away, leaving only a very thin layer in parts of the grass where trees or bushes offered shade. That, Alice could handle. She could handle it.

The drive passed mostly in silence. Alice looked out the front window, gazing at the land around them as they moved further into the small area of Nixon, New Jersey. Buildings dotted the side of the street, many of them bearing the Nixon name. She'd been into the two a few times, but primarily when they needed something, they stopped in Princeton. Less prying eyes that way.

With a click of the key being removed from the engine, the car quieted. By contrast, Alice felt like her beating heart was getting louder and louder. She feared they would all hear the pounding. Looking left, she met Nix's gaze. He just smirked. She took a deep breath through her nose as she opened the door. In the cold, she sputtered for a moment.

It took all her willpower to force the growing fear of sickness back down. She couldn't deal with that. One disaster at a time. And at that moment, the disaster was the impending meeting with Stanhope Nixon.

Nix opened the door for them. Somehow the click of Blanche's heels against the floor alongside her own offered a bit of comfort. She knew how hard being a woman in a man's world could be. Blanche knew it too.

The instance she walked in, Alice could feel the gazes of the secretaries glancing her way. Several women, two with dark hair and one blonde, eyed them carefully. Alice almost stopped in her tracks. Was that anger? It hadn't really crossed her mind that the women of the Nixon corporation may resent her.

Blanche stared them down. With her nose slightly upturned, she just took Alice's arm in her own and smiled. The girls at the desks turned away, back to their jobs. So Alice turned her attention to where Nix had moved beyond the front desks. Standing with a clipboard, red hair less styled than Alice would've expected for a secretary, a young woman stood waiting for them.

"Mr. Nixon, you've got a meeting in a half-hour with an aid from the Governor. Your father wants see you before you go in." She turned to Blanche and Alice. "Miss Nixon, Miss Klein, your presence has been requested as well."

Her accent screamed Ireland. It made her pause. But as the woman's brown eyes turned her way, she just smiled. For a moment, it felt like being back in Europe. She'd never been to Ireland, but one of Millie's friends had been from Dublin. They'd met in London. The woman had gone on for an hour, her lyrical accent music to Alice's ears.

Nix snorted. With a shake of his head, he took a coffee that Ruth handed him and turned back to his sister and Alice. "Come on, better not keep him waiting. I'd hate to upset the Master of the Nixon Corporation."

Blanche just rolled her eyes, displeased with Nix's lack of decorum. But to Alice's delight, Ruth poorly attempted to suppress her own grin. She turned to Alice and Blanche. "Would either of ye like a coffee?"

"No, thank you," Alice assured her.

"Right then, come on now."

She moved down the hall, past several doors with frosted glass windows. A few men in suits passed them without sparing Alice a glance, only nodding to Nix as they went. She could feel Blanche tensing beside her the further into the offices they moved. Alice tried not to let herself read too into it.

Ruth stopped before a door at the far end of a hall. She knocked twice and opened it, peeking her head in. "Mr. Nixon, your son's here see you."

"Send him in."

Alice didn't know what she'd been expecting when she followed Nix into the office. But after what could only be seen as a conciliatory smile from Ruth, she braced herself for anything. Blanche took up a spot behind her, taking a deep breath. Alice tried to do the same. She tried not to draw parallels between her brief meeting with the Army Brass in New York before hopping on a train to Toccoa. This wasn't war. This was an office in Nixon, New Jersey.

The name alone made her stress skyrocket. As she stepped out from behind Nix, barely listening to him fall into an easy repartee with the man behind the desk, she tried to stand tall. Stanhope Nixon had brown eyes like his children. That was the only similarity though. Where Lewis Nixon had a smile, he had a scowl. Where Blanche had poise, he sat stiff. His greying hair had gone thin in places, and deep lines cut through his cheeks.

Probably from his drinking. Alice had heard so many stories from Nix. She knew about his legal trouble, how his own father had bailed Stanhope out of jail when he'd nearly killed a man while drunk. Sometimes, while they'd lie in bed trying to forget the war, Nix would admit that he worried about becoming like his father. That, more than anything, was what drove Nix to try his best to curb his drinking. If they ever wanted a family, he had to control it.

"You're Alice?"

She tried to switch off her brain as Stanhope turned her way. Forcing a smile, she nodded. "Yes, sir. It's nice to finally meet you."

"Is that so?" He stood from his chair, moving from behind the desk. The one thing in common he had with his children was stature. "Lewis has told me very little about you."

"We figured we'd save the details for a first meeting," Nix told him. The lie came easily. They'd practiced it frequently. Most people didn't need to know the extent of Alice's association with the war effort, and they'd picked very few people outside of the other immediate family to explain the truth to. Empty platitudes would suffice. "Alice Klein, my father, Mr. Stanhope Nixon. Dad, this is Alice."

"At least if you do end up married, you'll sound less German."

She straightened up. Her throat clenched at the thinly veiled insult.- For a moment, words failed her. He had all but called her a Nazi. If not a Nazi, then she didn't know what other insinuation he could possibly be making.

"Is this a permanent thing, then?" Stanhope turned from Alice to his son. "You're going to try to get Kathy back?"

"No," Nix said, gritting his teeth. "I'm not. Alice is my finance."

The dramatic sigh he replied with said everything without words. But just as Stanhope stepped behind the desk and moved into the chair, Blanche spoke up. "Alice is fluent in three languages. Educated in the University of Paris alongside General de Gaulle's niece-"

"You graduated then?" he asked, cutting off Blanche. "What year?"

Alice sighed. "I didn't graduate, sir. The war ended that for me, when the Nazis took Paris."

"Hm. Well then." Stanhope rolled his eyes. "Lewis, she's not even college-educated."

"She was working on it," Blanche argued. "The war-"

Stanhope rounded on her. He sneered. "Oh for christ's sake spare me the sob story, Blanche. I don't need to hear it right now." He turned from her to Alice, and then to Nix. "We have a meeting with the governor's aid in fifteen minutes. I hope you did something practical over your Christmas break and got ready for this."

"Yes, sir."

After flinching at Stanhope's tone towards his daughter, Alice kept her mouth shut. She didn't smile. And when Nix had flipped on the tone she had heard him use time and again with incompetent, petulant higher-ranking officers, she decided she'd had enough. Based on Blanche's drawn expression beside her, she figured she had as well.

"Ruth!"

At Stanhope's call, the woman popped her head back in. "Yes, sir?"

"Take these two, get them food, or something," he added.

Alice didn't need any other encouragement. As she followed Blanche out the door, she heard Stanhope muttering about needing a drink. The door clicked behind her. Mere seconds later, as Ruth offered them a small smile, she could hear raised voices from the room behind her.

They stood in silence for a moment. Blanche and Alice shared a small glance, and then Alice turned to Ruth. Her smile had faded a bit, the practiced lie slipping. She sighed.

"Well, then. Come on, now. Miss Nixon, how's your lovely mother? She enjoying the other coast? I d'be lying I said I wasn't jealous."

And like that, they left behind the shouting match. They fell into small banter, Blanche obliging Ruth's obvious attempt at smoothing things over. But Alice just stayed quiet. It could've gone worse, she supposed. It seemed that Stanhope cared more that they got married if they were living together than being dead set on forbidding the marriage at all. Better than nothing. Maybe. Following Blanche and Ruth, she sighed. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.