Dearly Departed

[game_byrd]

Title: Dearly Departed
Rating: PG
Warnings: Maternal grief
Word Count: 450
Summary: Tammy Wilcox, mother of Jackie, continues to mourn her daughter.
Notes: Written for heroes_contest drabble challenge #35, “Spirit”. Beta by dancingdragon3. There's a sequel to this story called " New Target".

Comments

[means2bhuman]

Oh, wow. This is good in a true and horrible way.

Love the backstory, Queen of Backstory, about Tammy and her life. That motherly hope for her child is perfect, hoping that Jackie would find some peace or stability, maybe God. Then the bitterness and anger over Jackie's choices - typical and understandable - then the sadness that Jackie doesn't have a future anymore yet still being angry.

I love the touches about the cereal and working late. The realism there just makes her suffering worse in so many ways.

Okay, I don't like Claire even on a good day...I really flipping hate her now. OMG. What a selfish little...URGH! Claire can overcome heights and getting hit (possibly, wanting to be) by a train yet she can't stand up to a guy in a trench coat and hat (Sylar)? She's not THAT afraid, even when she's...what, 14? I doubt her brain even registers fear the same way due to her ability. Thank you for bringing up that plot hole, honestly. That's an excellent point to make and I don't like that I ever overlooked Jackie's death or wrote it off in any way.

Claire won't even talk about it? I have a few choice words...

I LOVE the moment of Tammy getting to hear that her daughter did a good deed and died for someone else. It's not much, but it's so much something for a mother or someone grieving a loved one. That made it for me.

Yeah, then the inevitable Claire fuck-up. Answers are some of the least things I would want if I were Tammy.

Fantastic fic!

[game_byrd]

In defense of Claire, she was pretty young (I prefer to think 16 ... I think Jackie is in the same year as Claire and has/drives a car, same for that football jock/rapist, Brody). And even though she'd suicided several times to test her ability, I would think it would be different to do it on your own, willingly, where you felt in control of circumstances, than to face violence from a scary, super-powered killer. Also, Claire *did* go to Jackie's defense. Sylar threw Claire off to the side like a rag doll.

But ... none of that would matter to Tammy, because Claire almost certainly told her nothing in canon (as she told her nearly nothing in my story). At that point, Claire was letting herself be intimidated by her father into secrecy-for-all. Much of the blame can be laid on Noah as well.

Thank you for the kind comments! I love fleshing out backstory on characters and I had a bit of fun doing something so different.