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prficathonsTitle: Comes to Those Who Wait
For:angel_negra
Author:thesecondbatgirl
Summary: Charlie likes to think that things will be better someday.
Rating: G
Pairing: Charlie/A-Squad Pink
Notes: Thanks to Lielabell and Queenriley for the beta, and to Pockythoughts for the handholding. I got the rest of the names for A-Squad off the PR wiki.
There was a trial, of course. The judgment scanner might be enough to confine someone temporarily in a containment card (and since it never made mistakes, was usually enough to render a guilty verdict) but there were still trials.
The members of A-Squad had waited for judgment to be passed on them. They had made their choice to fight for Grumm because they’d wanted to survive. Maybe they could have been stronger. Maybe they could have done things differently. Maybe they could have resisted.
Sometimes Charlie wondered why they hadn’t gotten a harsher punishment. Maybe it was because of all the good they had done as A-Squad before everything had changed. Maybe it was because some people were still convinced that they’d been brainwashed by Grumm. Maybe it was that the worst thing they’d done had been fighting B-Squad (and destroying a section of the city). But somehow, they had gotten off with probation and a very dishonorable discharge from S.P.D..
Maybe a lot of things could have happened. They could What-If themselves to death if they needed to, but that couldn’t change the facts. They had sided with Grumm. They had fought (and lost to) B-Squad. In only a short period of time, they had gone from the greatest heroes that the Earth had ever seen, to the most despised traitors.
Charlie suspected that B-Squad might have had something to do with it, but if that was the truth, then she really didn’t want to know. It was bad enough knowing that she’s lost to the second-stringers who she’d believed weren’t even worthy of shining her boots, but for them to then go ahead and show her mercy? That wasn’t how things were supposed to work. They were supposed to want to destroy her for what she’d done. Not try and rehabilitate her.
Life was different after the trial, and not in the way Charlie had thought it would be. She and Rachel were sharing a very tiny apartment. She’d heard that Beevor had left Earth entirely to go back to his home planet where he was being watched by his people. She’d have no contact from Cliff and Ivan at all. Charlie couldn’t really blame them - it had been her brilliant plan. Her failed plan. She had taken responsibility for it, and the actions of her team, because she had been the leader, and that was still her job.
But she couldn’t blame them for no longer wanting anything to do with her, not after she had failed in such a large and public way.
Sometimes, she was amazed that Rachel had stayed. Sometimes Charlie wondered if she would have done the same if the situations had been reversed. She liked to think that she would have. She liked to think a lot of things.
Charlie likes to think that things will be better someday. She’ll be put back in a position of responsibility, be able to regain some of her previous position in the city. For now, the only work that she had been able to get was helping to clean up the city from the destruction that she had helped to cause. A fitting punishment, probably. She was able to ignore the comments from the other workers, letting the insults just roll off of her. She had to face this, had to take her punishment for her lapse in judgment.
After all, she’d wanted to be on the winning side. She’d wanted a safe and secure future for herself and her team. She wanted to be able to have a good life with Rachel. Her initial plan to achieve those goals hadn’t worked, but Charlie hadn’t gotten to be the Red Ranger without learning how to adjust.
She would work to clean up the city. She would help out where she would need to. She would take the insults without taking revenge, as much as she wanted to. She was not going to end up on the wrong side of S.P.D. again. Charlie rarely made the same mistakes twice.
Besides, no matter how hard her day was, no matter how tired she was of it all, Charlie was able to go home and see Rachel. Rachel would tell her about her day - she’d been hired by B-Squad’s former Red after Rachel had been unable to get any other work. They tried not to talk about him much - instead, they talked about the attempts to improve New Tech City, and what projects Rachel was working on. Rachel wasn’t subjected to nearly as much scorn as Charlie was, probably because of who she was working for. (If the positions had been reversed, Charlie wasn’t sure she’d have been as kind.)
But none of it mattered, the things that they had to go through. Because when it came down to it, Charlie was still with the woman she loved, and was working towards restoring her place in society.
Maybe her life wasn’t so bad after all.
For:
angel_negraAuthor:
thesecondbatgirlSummary: Charlie likes to think that things will be better someday.
Rating: G
Pairing: Charlie/A-Squad Pink
Notes: Thanks to Lielabell and Queenriley for the beta, and to Pockythoughts for the handholding. I got the rest of the names for A-Squad off the PR wiki.
There was a trial, of course. The judgment scanner might be enough to confine someone temporarily in a containment card (and since it never made mistakes, was usually enough to render a guilty verdict) but there were still trials.
The members of A-Squad had waited for judgment to be passed on them. They had made their choice to fight for Grumm because they’d wanted to survive. Maybe they could have been stronger. Maybe they could have done things differently. Maybe they could have resisted.
Sometimes Charlie wondered why they hadn’t gotten a harsher punishment. Maybe it was because of all the good they had done as A-Squad before everything had changed. Maybe it was because some people were still convinced that they’d been brainwashed by Grumm. Maybe it was that the worst thing they’d done had been fighting B-Squad (and destroying a section of the city). But somehow, they had gotten off with probation and a very dishonorable discharge from S.P.D..
Maybe a lot of things could have happened. They could What-If themselves to death if they needed to, but that couldn’t change the facts. They had sided with Grumm. They had fought (and lost to) B-Squad. In only a short period of time, they had gone from the greatest heroes that the Earth had ever seen, to the most despised traitors.
Charlie suspected that B-Squad might have had something to do with it, but if that was the truth, then she really didn’t want to know. It was bad enough knowing that she’s lost to the second-stringers who she’d believed weren’t even worthy of shining her boots, but for them to then go ahead and show her mercy? That wasn’t how things were supposed to work. They were supposed to want to destroy her for what she’d done. Not try and rehabilitate her.
Life was different after the trial, and not in the way Charlie had thought it would be. She and Rachel were sharing a very tiny apartment. She’d heard that Beevor had left Earth entirely to go back to his home planet where he was being watched by his people. She’d have no contact from Cliff and Ivan at all. Charlie couldn’t really blame them - it had been her brilliant plan. Her failed plan. She had taken responsibility for it, and the actions of her team, because she had been the leader, and that was still her job.
But she couldn’t blame them for no longer wanting anything to do with her, not after she had failed in such a large and public way.
Sometimes, she was amazed that Rachel had stayed. Sometimes Charlie wondered if she would have done the same if the situations had been reversed. She liked to think that she would have. She liked to think a lot of things.
Charlie likes to think that things will be better someday. She’ll be put back in a position of responsibility, be able to regain some of her previous position in the city. For now, the only work that she had been able to get was helping to clean up the city from the destruction that she had helped to cause. A fitting punishment, probably. She was able to ignore the comments from the other workers, letting the insults just roll off of her. She had to face this, had to take her punishment for her lapse in judgment.
After all, she’d wanted to be on the winning side. She’d wanted a safe and secure future for herself and her team. She wanted to be able to have a good life with Rachel. Her initial plan to achieve those goals hadn’t worked, but Charlie hadn’t gotten to be the Red Ranger without learning how to adjust.
She would work to clean up the city. She would help out where she would need to. She would take the insults without taking revenge, as much as she wanted to. She was not going to end up on the wrong side of S.P.D. again. Charlie rarely made the same mistakes twice.
Besides, no matter how hard her day was, no matter how tired she was of it all, Charlie was able to go home and see Rachel. Rachel would tell her about her day - she’d been hired by B-Squad’s former Red after Rachel had been unable to get any other work. They tried not to talk about him much - instead, they talked about the attempts to improve New Tech City, and what projects Rachel was working on. Rachel wasn’t subjected to nearly as much scorn as Charlie was, probably because of who she was working for. (If the positions had been reversed, Charlie wasn’t sure she’d have been as kind.)
But none of it mattered, the things that they had to go through. Because when it came down to it, Charlie was still with the woman she loved, and was working towards restoring her place in society.
Maybe her life wasn’t so bad after all.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 03:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-10-24 01:17 pm (UTC)