October 1997

"Nanna? Nanna, over here!"

The excited voice reached Rey over the din of passengers and the train leaving the station, and she finally picked her granddaughter out of the crowd on the platform, coming towards her at fast clip.

The girl had Ben's long legs, Rey thought, as she leaned over her grandmother and crushed her in a hug.

"Ooof," Rey huffed, clapping her on the back. "Gentle now, you don't want to break me!"

"Sorry," she muttered against Rey's shoulder before straightening back to her full height. Her green eyes glittered behind her round, wire-framed glasses, and she brushed one stubborn lock of dark, wavy hair behind her ear. "I'm just so glad to see you!"

"And you as well," Rey smiled up at her. "You look good! How are you liking Berkeley?"

"Oh," Katherine made a waffling gesture with her hand. "It's different, but… I'm settling in, I guess. It's really different here from Chicago. The people, the climate- everything. But I'll find my way."

"And are your classes going well?" Rey asked as they ambled towards the stairs up to the street.

"I love it," Katherine gushed. "It's a great program for environmental science."

Rey couldn't help but smile at her granddaughter's enthusiasm. It was nice to share her annual pilgrimage to the area with someone, especially since Ben was getting too old to accompany her such a great distance. Indeed, she felt her own age as they clambered up the steps of the station to the street level.

"How's Grandpa doing?" Katherine looked very serious for a moment as she pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Oh," Rey waved her hand dismissively. "He says hello, but he's tired a lot these days. You know."

"Well, yeah," Katherine chuckled. "He's what, 82 now?"

"Almost," Rey confirmed.

"Did you write your letter for the project I told you about?" Katherine asked.

Rey hesitated. "I did." She had struggled through several drafts at the hotel the previous night, trying to decide what to include.

"Well…." Katherine paused, no doubt seeing the look on her face. "Did you want to do that first, or…?"

"Let's do that last," Rey tipped her chin up and hitched her purse higher on her shoulder. "End on a good note." She forced herself to smile around the lump that was forming in her throat.

"Alright," Katherine smiled back, but Rey could detect a note of sadness behind her hazel eyes. "Let's go."

They stood quietly in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, staring solemnly at the stone. Rey could repeat it by heart, she'd visited it so many times.

"I wish I had known him," Katherine remarked. "He was younger than I am, now."

Rey bowed her head and closed her eyes as her chin touched her sternum. "You would've loved him."

Katherine took a half-step forwards and placed the bouquet they'd bought at the florist atop the stone, tracing the engraving on it lightly with her fingers as she straightened back up.

William Hansel Solo

Beloved son & brother

1950-1969

Of their three children, her middle boy had been the most like her: quiet, but determined, a natural with mechanics from the time he'd laid on the rug in her office and built towers with blocks as she drafted schematics. More fluid with numbers than words, he had talked late, so much so that they had feared he was handicapped, until he surprised them by speaking in nearly full sentences.

Katherine's mother, their eldest, had doted on him as though he were her own child, lessening Rey's vague guilt at continuing to pursue her own work as they grew up. She had never done anything but work, couldn't imagine staying home with them as many of their friends' mothers had done.

She could still see them all seated around the dining table the evening he'd told them he'd enlisted, choosing to delay his studies in favor of the war. William had crossed his arms and listened, his head cocked to one side as Ben had raged at him about the immorality of the conflict, about throwing his future away, about being a tool of the industrial-military complex. Anna and Owen had looked back and forth between them anxiously, as if watching a tennis match.

When Ben paused to draw a breath, he had simply said, "I bet that's not what you told Grandma when you enlisted."

"Nanna, are you alright?" Katherine drew her close with an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh," Rey sniffed, "I'm fine. Just remembering."

Katherine was quiet for a moment, rubbing her hand up and down Rey's upper arm.

"Let's go see your art project," Rey suggested, looking up at her granddaughter.

The fencing along the small park near the harbor in Richmond was littered with ribbons and envelopes. They strolled along it, pausing to look at the photographs some women had left in Ziplocs to protect them from the elements. A bulletin board with the plans for the monument to honor the riveters was displayed under a pavilion, but even it showed signs of being out in the salt air for too long. A metal box with a slot cut into the top sat nearby, ready to collect the memories from women who had worked there.

Rey wondered briefly how many of them were even still alive.

"You all look so young," Katherine marveled, tracing the face of one woman through the plastic. "How old were you again?"

Rey paused, thinking of the summary she had composed. Her letter was written on hotel stationary in an envelope, hidden in her purse.

I was 17 in 1942, and heard they needed workers in San Francisco.

"I was a kid," she replied plainly. "I had the courage of ignorance on my side."

"And you had never been here, right?" Katherine prompted her, obviously wanting her to tell the story one more time.

My family came to California from Oklahoma during the Depression, and I left them behind in Bakersfield to start over on my own.

"No, I had never been anywhere," Rey admitted. "We were dirt poor, and people didn't travel so much in those days."

They strolled a little further before Katherine remarked, "You worked here even while Grandpa was in the Pacific?"

From 1942-45, I worked in Kaiser Shipyard No. 2.

"Yes, that's right," Rey said. "They paid well, and there weren't enough men left to do the work. And…." she trailed off. "I wasn't sure Grandpa would make it back. I had to take care of myself."

Katherine smiled knowingly. "But you hoped he did, obviously. I've seen your old pictures- he was a handsome young devil."

Rey laughed. "He still is," she replied. "I thought men weren't your type."

"They're not," Katherine confirmed with a wry grin, "But I can still appreciate."

They settled onto a park bench, facing towards the water. Rey squinted into the sunshine reflecting off the water, gazing out at a far point beyond the swooping outline of the Golden Gate bridge.

"Do you regret leaving here?" Katherine asked softly. "It seems so different from where you ended up."

"No," Rey said without hesitation. "We did what we had to- it was the right thing to be near your great-grandparents and Great Uncle Luke as they got on in years."

Her granddaughter nodded silently, her fingers folded over her crossed knee.

Rey reached into her bag and withdrew the envelope, extending it towards Katherine.

"Would you put it in the box for me, sweetheart?" Rey asked. "My legs are feeling tired."

Katherine grasped it gently and stood, her shadow shielding Rey from the late afternoon sun for a moment. "Of course, Nanna. I'll be right back."

"I'll be here," Rey replied, closing her eyes and tilting back her head to catch the warmth.

The song says "I left my heart in San Francisco", but I found mine here; I met my best friends, became a wife, a mother and an engineer here, and I will carry those memories with me no matter where I go.

-Right When I Arrive-

A/N:

First, there aren't enough words to say how pleased and humbled I've been to have all you lovely readers following RWIA for the past ~6+ months. To think, this started out as a short, sweet reunion-smut fic! It was supposed to end after about 4 chapters!

But, I've had such fun escaping to this world, and I have been truly blessed to have all your kudos, comments, rants, gifs, questions and more through what has been a very trying time in life, and for the world. RIP, Carrie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds.

The Rosie the Riveter monument wasn't erected in Richmond, CA, until the very late 1990's. You can't see it well in these pictures, but the sidewalk and the monument is engraved with quotes from various women who worked at the shipyards building battleships for the Pacific front.

Finally, a huge thanks is due to my cousin S., without whose sage input this fic might have been very different at key points, and who encouraged me to continue it past my initial concept to a full historical smut. :)