fic: Change and Growth
He isn’t Jake.
When they first meet, it runs through her head that he has nice eyes, and good presence. He fills the room and she wants to like him right away. She wants to question him, and challenge him, and yes, follow him. She wants him to be the real deal.
It also runs through her head that he isn’t Jake. But then again, Jake isn’t Jake anymore. He’s not the man she met on a school bus, and he’s not the man she kissed on the street. The battle with New Bern has changed him, losing his father has changed him, and Emily has changed him.
She thinks they look good together, and she wouldn’t be much of a best friend if she wasn’t happy that they found each other again while she was away. She’s sad, but she’s moving on. The world has changed too much for her not to learn how to adapt as well.
The world, her world, has become a shadow of what it once was. Even with the power back on here in town, the world out there is still a kicked dog, lying in the corner and licking its wounds, snapping at anyone who tries to get to close.
Beck could lose a hand. Hell, she tries to take off a couple fingers herself, and she knows Jake is looking at his jugular like fresh meat. This world they live in now, it is angry and defensive, it is hunkered down and bleeding out. It’s suspicious, and scared, and everything she always tried to guard her students against. Now, when she sees them, if she sees them, they’ve got their hands gripped tightly by their parents’ hands, they’ve got a darkness in their eyes that they don’t even really understand. She knows what it looks like because she doesn’t go a day without seeing it in the eyes of everyone on the street, in the eyes of her friends, and in her own eyes in the mirror.
And yes, Beck’s got it too. He’s got it, and he’s got something else. It takes her a while to figure it out, because even though the lights came back on it’s still been awhile since she’s noticed it. He’s got idealism, and tenaciousness, and duty to more than a man in front of seal, whichever seal that might be, and hope. He’s got hope.
So when they first meet, she thinks of all those things, but mostly, she starts to think about change and growth. This could be good for Jericho, she thinks. This could be good for New Bern, good for Kansas. He could be good for them, and maybe he could be good for her, too.
When they first meet, it runs through her head that he has nice eyes, and good presence. He fills the room and she wants to like him right away. She wants to question him, and challenge him, and yes, follow him. She wants him to be the real deal.
It also runs through her head that he isn’t Jake. But then again, Jake isn’t Jake anymore. He’s not the man she met on a school bus, and he’s not the man she kissed on the street. The battle with New Bern has changed him, losing his father has changed him, and Emily has changed him.
She thinks they look good together, and she wouldn’t be much of a best friend if she wasn’t happy that they found each other again while she was away. She’s sad, but she’s moving on. The world has changed too much for her not to learn how to adapt as well.
The world, her world, has become a shadow of what it once was. Even with the power back on here in town, the world out there is still a kicked dog, lying in the corner and licking its wounds, snapping at anyone who tries to get to close.
Beck could lose a hand. Hell, she tries to take off a couple fingers herself, and she knows Jake is looking at his jugular like fresh meat. This world they live in now, it is angry and defensive, it is hunkered down and bleeding out. It’s suspicious, and scared, and everything she always tried to guard her students against. Now, when she sees them, if she sees them, they’ve got their hands gripped tightly by their parents’ hands, they’ve got a darkness in their eyes that they don’t even really understand. She knows what it looks like because she doesn’t go a day without seeing it in the eyes of everyone on the street, in the eyes of her friends, and in her own eyes in the mirror.
And yes, Beck’s got it too. He’s got it, and he’s got something else. It takes her a while to figure it out, because even though the lights came back on it’s still been awhile since she’s noticed it. He’s got idealism, and tenaciousness, and duty to more than a man in front of seal, whichever seal that might be, and hope. He’s got hope.
So when they first meet, she thinks of all those things, but mostly, she starts to think about change and growth. This could be good for Jericho, she thinks. This could be good for New Bern, good for Kansas. He could be good for them, and maybe he could be good for her, too.