Dr. Elizabeth Ross

“They might also be taking it for the hot teacher,” Bryce said before she could stop herself and quickly looked down. “I mean- you know, you’re really good at explaining stuff.”

“Oh, come on, Bryce, there are better looking teachers here than me,” Betty laughed awkwardly. “And if I’m so good at explaining things, then they’re not very good at listening.”

“Oh.” Well that was embarrassing. “Better you than me, I guess. But when you’re free do you want to get some coffee?” 

“Coffee would be great, I’m going to be working late on these papers,” Betty laughed. “I really wish more of my students weren’t just taking my classes for graduation requirements. I can tell when they’re trying and when they’re not.”

the three stages of betty ross fangirling [x]

“You don’t have to, you know.” Bryce’s voice was nonchalant but inside she was a little nervous. “You can stick around here. Unless you actually have to be at your station to do your work in which case I understand.”

“Well, that is where my computer is. About five feet away. It’s not like I’m going across campus.” Betty laughed a little again. “Although I do have about a hundred papers to look at.”

Betty had a lovely laugh and Bryce couldn’t help blushing a little again as she glanced back at the screen, though a little skeptically. “That seems a bit of a stretch, I mean we only have the year as a connection between the two things. Do you have any other information to support that theory?”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Betty shrugged. “My dad and his buddies must’ve rubbed off on me a little too much when I was a kid... I’ll go back to my own station.”

“Was it? Huh, I clearly need to brush up on my history. I guess even reading those comic books as a kid is no substitute for a textbook, huh?” It was a lame joke but she tried to pull it off with something like a lopsided grin. “But yeah 1943, after America had joined the war and morale was at a somewhat low point. Reinstein was Bavarian so I imagine it had to have been hard to find work.” Then a thought occurred to her. “What if he did find a job? A classified one? That would explain why we know next to nothing about his work. He’d been researching Vita-Rays, maybe the government thought he was on to something.”

Betty laughed, more at Bryce’s face than at the joke, but it was still really cute. Then she was the one to blush, before refocusing on the work in front of him. “He could have even been part of the process that made Captain America possible,” she proposed. “They would have kept that under lock and key, so that spies couldn’t get any access to the data.”

“I’m not sure. After he moved to America there’s not a lot about his life. Actually, come to think of it I haven’t found anything about his life from him moving to America until his death in 1943 from an unlisted cause.” Bryce blushed and leaned a little as the strands of hair brushed against her face. “It’s fine. You, um, you should grow it out. It’d be a good look for you.”

“You think?” Betty frowned a little. “I think I remember 1943... That’s when Captain America first started making appearances, wasn’t it?” As a military brat, she’d seen a decent enough share of Captain America books and memorabilia over the course of her life.

“Oh, no, that’s not exactly what I’m doing. This is something separate I was working on before you came here. It’s just… the research notes that we were given to work from are quite old and we’ve learned a lot about radiation since the 30s and 40s. I’m trying to figure out why we’re drawing from this guy’s research specifically.” Bryce leaned back to show Betty a page with a short bio on a Dr. Josef Reinstein. “I want to see if I can figure out why your dad thinks this guy is the key to protection from radiation poisoning. For that matter I’m curious as to how the General knows enough to recommend a starting point for us to work off of.”

“I feel like I know that name.” Betty picked up a pencil and used it to twist her hair into a bun as she peered at the screen. “From before this project. Did he ever pop up in one of our classes at Harvard? Maybe a history one?” A few strands slipped free, dangling in front of Bryce’s face. “Oh… sorry.” She pulled them back out of the way. “I need to grow this out a little more, I think.”