Fic Warning: Coarse language, eventual adult content, canon up to Turbulence, spoilers for Doomsday and areas of season 9.
Sera's Scribbles: I've had this sitting on my computer for almost a month. I thought about holding off for awhile, but I figured if I get the ball rolling then I'll be able to write this one again. I know it's short, but I have a lot in store for this fic.
Prologue
Renewal.
It can mean to give somebody or something new energy, strength, or enthusiasm
It can mean to begin something or doing something again, or be begun again.
It can mean to make something effective for a longer period.
No matter how you define the word, renewal usually implies that something has been used up, or is close to giving out. It's easy to renew a lease, a library book, but how do you renew a person? How do you tell someone to believe in people again? How do you tell her that it's good to see the good in everyone after what happened? How do you tell her that she has to accept the fact that she has ended someone's life and move on?
You don't. You do what you think you should, but you also know how strong she is, so you allow her to recover at her own pace.
She eventually agrees to come back to work, with new software and in a new building, and you make sure to check on her. But as she continues to play her business face, you begin to forget is the emptiness she feels inside, the loneliness she knows. Even though you've done your best, that doesn't change the fact that her cousin disappeared without a trace, nor does it change the fact her best friend decided to give up on his human side, leaving her without saying goodbye at a time when she needed him the most.
That leaves you and your band of misfit vigilantes, or heroes, depending on your preference. Regardless of the definition, you're still the people who know her the least, because despite the professional understanding you share, the personal connection isn't good enough to fix her.
Fix her. It makes her sound like an object, but the truth is within the few months she's been on the team full-time, she's probably the most invaluable member. But she doesn't believe that, she doesn't believe anything except that she pissed away her marriage, and in a way, everything, for a serial killer whose life was ended by her hand.
So how do you save someone who doesn't want to be saved?
