Backstory! I do love backstory. This one is a one shot request from the magnificent Lykos.A, some more 40 Weeks scenes filling in a couple of blanks from the start of Bonnie and Marcy's relationship.

Content Warning: intellectual rivalry, differing opinions on alternative medicine, historical character death, feels.

The first time a suited junior doctor asked Marceline what her specialization was she automatically replied late romantic era waltzes but really most kinds of European orchestral arrangements so long as the string section had a fairly prominent role. The doctor had nodded blankly and shot a glance to Bonnie; the redhead's face wore an expression that told Marcy she'd said the wrong thing.

"Um, I mean, I'm not a doctor. I'm just here with my partner." she mumbled apologetically, indicating Bonnie.

"Oh. Well, um, enjoy the party." he replied in confusion. Next second he moved away into the crowd and left Marcy flushing and staring at her shoes.

"Is that gonna keep happening? Cause I'm not really used to feeling like the stupidest person in the room and I'm not sure I like it." Marcy murmured quietly.

"It's just that most doctors date other doctors. We can be pretty insular like that. And, um, a lot of them have less than sympathetic attitudes to people who aren't doctors. Like, they think you're kinda beneath us I guess." Bonnie replied gently. She ran a comforting hand up Marcy's arm and the dark haired girl almost felt better but then her girlfriend was distracted by someone she knew and they got dragged into yet another doctor conversation where Marcy just stood quietly shuffling her feet and looking awkward. This time when they asked what her specialisation was she just murmured that she hadn't graduated yet; technically not a lie but not strictly true because they must assume she was a student doctor.

There was a buffet table very much like the one at the graduation party where she'd met Bonnie and Marcy suffered a stab of weird longing for the days when she'd just hung out with Jake and been comfortably, thoughtlessly superior to everyone around her. He'd have cheerfully been stuffing his face by now, belching and bellowing and chugging the free drinks like he was on a mission to destroy his liver. And really she'd gotten far too used to being the super smart one in the group, hadn't she? Jake and Finn had only gotten into their expensive private school because their Mum had taught there; Marcy had passed all kinds of scholarship exams. Not that she'd really needed to, Daddy would have paid for her full tuition if she'd failed but he'd just wanted her to know she was definitely smart enough to be there. Confidence in her own intelligence wasn't something Marceline had ever lacked. And then Bonnie had exploded into her life like some kind of gorgeous lesbian Einstein. As much as Marcy felt like her heart might rupture when the redhead smiled at her on some level they were intellectual rivals and Marceline was losing. She wasn't used to losing any kind of competition either.

"Hi, it's Marceline, right?"

A polite voice had her hurriedly throwing back the glass of champagne she'd been nursing and turning to find herself addressed by a short, round woman with hair a few shades redder than Bonnie's cut into an unfortunately short bob. She looked rather like a raspberry, Marcy thought.

"Yeah, hi. Have we met?" she inquired politely. The chunky woman shook her head.

"No, I'm Angela Berryman. I'm one of the oncology juniors, I work with Bonnie. She said she was bringing her new girlfriend along tonight and that you looked like a tall, dark underwear model. Wasn't too hard to pick you out the crowd." she replied with a salacious wink. Marcy wasn't sure how comfortable she felt with that description even though she was certain her girlfriend had meant it to be flattering rather than objectifying. "So how's the classical music PhD coming along?"

Marcy stared, surprised. Bonnie had told one of her colleagues about Marcy's PhD? And in a way that didn't imply that she was only a musician because she'd been too dumb for medicine?

"Its, um, it's going fine. My thesis is about the socio-political background informing the development of late-romantic era waltzes, especially the Strausses and their contemporaries. I'm also composing and conducting a short contemporary waltz that's supposed to be informed by the socio-political factors influencing modern music. I dunno, it's just a waltz. I had to write a long defence of it and how it's an allegory for the turmoil in the Middle East." Marcy replied with a self-conscious shrug.

"Woah. A waltz that's based on political turmoil. I wouldn't know how to begin even writing a waltz that's based on a waltz." Angela replied with a laugh. Marceline grabbed another couple of glasses of champagne and settled into a long discussion on the finer points of classical composition.

...

This time the night didn't end with Marcy being loaded into an ambulance. In a way it was almost worse.

"Where were you tonight? You never came back from the bar." Bonnie frowned as their taxi pulled in next to Marcy's apartment building.

"Got talking to Angela Berryman, she was asking about my PhD. She was about the only person there who didn't want to brag about their specialization. I like her, she's not conceited like most doctor types." Marcy replied a little tipsily. The scowl on her girlfriend's face should have been a warning but she was too busy unlocking the door and stumbling inside to notice the look the redhead was giving her.

"Are you calling me conceited?" Bonnie asked, temper flaring.

"No. Just, I'd like to talk about something other than how terribly clever you are when we're out with your doctor friends. Jesus, the way some of them talk it's like they know everything. Where's the humility? I thought doctors would be the first to accept there's stuff about medicine that modern science just can't explain."

"Go on then. Tell me all about the things that five years in medical school haven't taught me but you inexplicably know about because you read a webpage about it one time." Bonnie growled. She was still learning to control her somewhat fiery temper and she'd suspected Marceline had some unscientific beliefs when she'd started talking about the benefits of juice detox a few days earlier, like she didn't know that the whole concept of a detox had been debunked at least a thousand times. Years later Bonnie would look back on that night and cringe over how terribly obnoxious and arrogant she'd been but at the time Marcy's attitude was grating on her and she was already beginning to feel stressed out from the demanding pace of moving from student doctor status to junior doctor.

"First off, you treat me like I'm stupid! I'm gonna be every bit as much as doctor as you, just not in medicine! I'd like to see you get a PhD in music!" Marcy replied hotly. "And you're completely closed minded to anything that doesn't fit your narrow definition of medicine-"

"Oh like magic stones?"

"Don't fucking interrupt me! Yes, like healing stones! Our whole bodies are different patterns of energy and disease is when the energies get disrupted! Gemstones radiate pure patterns and can resonate with the disruption to rebalance the- stop laughing!" Marcy finished at a yell.

"Do you even hear yourself? Radiating energy patterns? What kind of energy? How can it be measured? Does it obey Newtonian physics or Special Relativity? At best the only benefit from fraudulent pseudoscience bullshit like that is to induce a mild placebo effect!" Bonnie yelled back, exasperated.

"So thousands of years of people believing in it and finding it helpful doesn't count as evidence?"

"No! It doesn't! People used to believe the earth was flat and that the sun was pushed around by a giant sky beetle! Just because uneducated people don't know any better-"

"Oh so now I'm uneducated? My education cost more than your parents' entire house!" Marcy shot back angrily.

"And yet you still believe in magic rocks!"

"AT LEAST I DON'T HAVE MY HEAD SO FAR UP MY OWN ARSE THAT NOBODY ELSE IS ALLOWED TO BELIEVE IN ANYTHING UNLESS I SAY THEY CAN!" Marcy roared furiously. No, she wasn't going to talk about her mother and the beliefs she'd been raised with or why an attack on alternative medicine felt highly personal to her. And she wasn't going to cry, dammit she hated crying-

Too late, her anger had forced a tear out of the corner of her eye and she whirled furiously away from the redhead and stomped off to her bedroom, not even caring that they'd probably woken Jake with all the yelling. Sure enough the heavily built guy was peering blearily around his own bedroom door and frowning at her as she stalked up the corridor towards him.

"Marcy, what-"

She slammed the door shut before he could finish, sliding back down against it to stop anyone following before giving in to the angry tears and letting them spill down her cheeks. It was the alcohol's fault, she thought sulkily. And Bonnie's fault. But not hers, definitely not. Probably the redhead had left when she'd stormed off. Probably she wouldn't see her again.

"Well done, genius. Watch them all run away when they find out what a weirdo you are. Bonnie's right, you're too stupid to be with her anyway." Marcy whispered to herself in the darkness.

...

Jake wasn't impressed with having his sleep disrupted by yelling women and he was even less so when he slumped through to the lounge on his way to get a midnight snack from the kitchen to find his roommate's new girlfriend crying quietly on their sofa.

"Bonnie? Whu's happening?" he rasped, throat dry from sleep and eyes still blurry.

"Oh. Hullo, Jake." she replied lowly around her snuffles. "We woke you. Sorry. Had a fight."

"Yeah, I heard. What'd you say to make Marcy so steamed?" he asked with a grunt as he lowered himself down onto the sofa next to her.

"I uh, I told her healing crystals were bullshit and she started screaming at me. Guess she's kinda sensitive about it." the redhead sighed. Jake reached out and wiped a tear off her cheek, Bonnie smiled up at him a little damply. She'd always liked Marcy's roommate, she hoped maybe she could stay friends with him once they'd had the break up conversation she was sure was on its way.

"Didn't she tell you about her mother?" Jake frowned. Bonnie nodded.

"She got cancer and died when Marcy was a kid and her Dad had a breakdown and she went into foster care for a while. Or was there something more?"

"It's not really my place to tell you too much. But Marcy's Mum believed in all that healing crystal crap and she stopped taking her medication in the end, she thought it was just making her sicker." Jake replied softly. He was speaking as quietly as possible, straining his ears for the noise of a door opened along the hall in case Marcy thought they were talking about her behind her back. They sort of were, he figured. But only for her own good, so he could help her make up with the new girlfriend who was clearly made for her.

"So her mother died because of healing crystals and Marcy still thinks they're real?" Bonnie asked with a disbelieving frown. "But that makes no sense! Wouldn't it make her understand that they're bullshit?"

"She was just a kid. Think about when you were seven, didn't you believe your mother was basically God and everything she told you was set in stone?" Jake asked carefully. Bonnie nodded slowly after a thoughtful second.

"She would try to justify it to herself. Try to make it the fault of the medicine and not the crystals because they're something the whole foundation of her world is built on. Accepting the crystals don't work means accepting her mother was wrong about things. Oh Jake, I really fucked up. No wonder she's so defensive about them. It's like I was attacking the memories of her Mum." Bonnie whispered, horrified.

"Marcy's wonderful, don't ever think otherwise. She's the second smartest person I know, not that I'd ever let her know that you just edge her out on that. She's tough and stoic and a total badass. And then you get to know her better and it's all just an act. She's actually really fragile deep down. And that's why I gotta make you go apologise to her; she's my best friend and I kinda have to break your legs if you hurt her. I don't wanna be the kinda guy who hits women." Jake added as Bonnie leaned in to hug him before getting up. She paused in the doorway of the lounge and looked back at him.

"I'd knock your teeth out if you tried it, Jake. But I appreciate the gesture." the redhead told him with a weak smile before he heard her walk down the hall and knock on his roommate's door, say something too quiet for him to properly make out that he nevertheless hoped was an apology.

"Totally mental, like they were designed for each other." Jake muttered to himself with a shake of his head. Then he got up and continued to the kitchen where he found solace in the form of five or six peanut butter and honey sandwiches. By the time he went back to his own bed the hall was empty and low voices were floating through Marcy's closed bedroom door. Good, he wasn't gonna get his teeth knocked out soon, then.

...

"I'm sorry." Bonnie said for the hundredth time. Marcy just shifted a little in her arms and pulled the redhead closer, burying her face in the other girl's shoulder.

"S'ok. Just, yeah. I'm kinda sensitive about my beliefs. I know you don't believe in them but surely you can just respect that I do?" she finally asked. Bonnie nodded hard.

"Of course. I'm so sorry, love." she said again. Marcy pulled back a little and looked her in the eye with a frown.

"What did you say?" she asked a little breathlessly.

"Uh, that I'm sorry." Bonnie replied in confusion. "And I am, I-"

"You called me 'love'." Marcy said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"So, um, so... do you call everyone 'love' or just me?"

"It's a term of endearment." Bonnie shrugged. She wasn't completely sure what the big deal was but then she'd had a few glasses of champagne herself so she wasn't quite as sharp as usual.

"So what does that mean? That I'm, like, dear to you?" Marcy asked a little awkwardly. Bonnie sat up a bit to look her in the eyes, finally putting together what the dark haired girl was clumsily hinting at.

"It means that I love you." Bonnie said simply. Her expression was calm but she was nervous and full of turmoil beneath the surface, they'd not quite admitted that level of feeling yet. They'd been dating for about a month and a half, it was still early days. Marcy might not feel the same. But that was what, like, two years in lesbian dating time? Sure, she was probably rushing into it. But given that her girlfriend's face was slowly spilling into a warm smile and the taller girl was leaning into thoroughly kiss her Bonnie was pretty confident her feelings were returned.

"I love you too, you big dork. I was crazy in love with you by the end of our first date." Marcy mumbled against her lips when they finally broke apart from kissing. "I told Finn and everything, he said I was just being an idiot. Shows what he knows."

"I love you." Bonnie repeated, relieved. Now that she'd finally said it she wasn't sure she'd be able to stop. "I love your smile and your hair and your music and the beliefs you have and, just everything. Ok? Love you."

"You're such a cutie. I love that you're all badass and tough on the outside and, well, still badass and tough on the inside too but with squishy feelings? Whatever. You're my squishy badass." Marcy replied with a giggle. "So. Uh, we're in love? Like, with each other. That's awesome."

"I also love how awkward you are." Bonnie told her with a smile as they snuggled down into Marcy's bed again. "Are you tired?"

"Not really. You wanna stay up a while?"

That night they stayed up and talked. They talked about everything, about Marcy's terror of the dark the first night she was with Simon and Betty, about Bonnie's loneliness at always having to leave her childhood friends behind when her father was reassigned to a different military base, about whether bubble waffles tasted different to regular waffles and if ice hockey or rugby was the more violent sport. By the time the glow on the ceiling above the window indicated that the sun was beginning to rise Marcy was yawning into her hand and Bonnie's replies were becoming less and less coherent. She let her eyes close for just a second but they didn't quite open again and after a moment her breathing deepened and evened out.

"And I was thinking we could maybe take a holiday someplace or something if you wanted? Like, a weekend away. I know you're super busy with work right now but if you let me know when you're free I can maybe book us a night in a cottage or something, maybe go along the coast or even get a boat for the night. What do you think? Bonnie? Hey, Bon? Bonnibel. Wake up."

"Huh, what? I was awake."

"You were snoring."

"I heard every word you said."

"Really? Cool, that's settled then. Glad you agree. I'll start looking at boats." Marceline replied with an innocent smile.

Bonnie nodded tiredly, smiling back with her eyes half shut again already. If she'd been more awake she might have asked what she'd just agreed to, but she just slid her arm further across her girlfriend's stomach and she was asleep again before Marceline had even switched the lamp off. Marcy just snuggled down next to her, inhaling the soft scent of her girlfriend's hair and feeling the warmth of another body curled trustingly against her own.

"I love you." she murmured, just because she could. Just because it was a wonderful feeling to say it out load.