For the majority of Keegan’s first twenty some-odd years, she did not like herself. She fought with self-image issues, travelling from friend group to friend group, place to place, just trying to find a version of herself that she genuinely liked. She found that in Barton Hollow. Ten years after her 22nd birthday during the spring of her junior year of college, Keegan is actually living in NYC.
The first year or so before leaving BH, Keegan’s mild crush on Kenneth started to become even more painfully obvious, resulting in her sometimes being at a loss for words around him despite the previous ease she used to feel around him.
She graduated from BHU magna cum laude, an English Literature degree in her hand, and actually went on to apply to law school. She missed the initial deadline, so she had to miss the first semester, but she used it to travel the west coast of the United States. She had always had an inkling she would end up teaching English somewhere abroad and so her decision to apply for law school shocked her. What shocked her even more was she chose NYU Law as her top option. When she got in, she packed up her apartment in BH and left.
She abruptly kissed Kenneth as they were saying their goodbyes, despite knowing he didn’t necessarily feel the same way. He’d been helping her pack up her car and she just... did it and then ran away to her driver seat. He was the last person she said goodbye to. She never was very good with romantic feelings.
She ended up crying on the drive out of town. She had found a home in Barton Hollow, but it was high-time for her to return to her birthplace.
Teary-eyed but resolute, Keegan strolled into her father’s apartment building with her back straight. Alfred was still the doorman. He barely recognized her. She wasn’t exactly the wild-eyed teenager she had been last time he had seen her. Nevertheless, he let her go upstairs.
“Hi, dad.” Keegan said as his eyes widened, with happiness or terror she wasn’t immediately sure. But then his lips quivered and he told the man he was on the phone with that he had to go because his daughter had just come home. And just like that, despite the years of emotional abuse Keegan suffered at his hand,s he forgave him because he was her only family and she needed him.
Keegan didn’t move back in with her father, and instead got an apartment a bit closer to central park. She wanted to have easy access to her favorite place to run.
Keegan graduated from NYU Law after the standard three years, her course of law involving criminal prosecuting. She hadn’t ever thought she would become someone who fought to put criminals behind bars, but she loves her jobs. It’s hard, but she thinks she fair and open to every side of an argument. If someone is genuinely innocent or guilty, Keegan will find out which one. She’d incredibly good at her job.
It’s demanding work and it takes up a lot of her time, but she still makes time for her yellow lab, Bandit, and a good book at every opportunity.
She is still an aficionado of languages, and since her completion of Spanish and Italian, has moved on to learn both Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as a number of phrases in French, German, and Russian.
Bandit is still her longest relationship, but she currently has a boyfriend named Alex. He’s a detective she met while putting one of his arrests behind bars. They’ve been living together for a couple of years now, but she’s in no rush to get married.
She’d like to adopt a child in the next few years and Alex in completely on board with it. Neither of them is quite willing just yet to give up or cut back on their career’s just yet though.
Keegan and her father have lunch together at least once a week; both of them love talking about their work and their budding personal lives. Neither of them was very good at opening themselves up to relationships, but their reunion broadened both of their horizons.
Keegan did in fact end up keeping in contact with a couple of people from Barton Hollow, though she unfortunately lost contact with Victoria a couple of years back. Keegan often wonders how the girl who helped her get over the death of the blonde boy’s life turned out, but keeping in touch got too hard.
Keegan tries to make a trip down to Barton Hollow every couple of years, always loving to go back and walk the streets of her second home.
Just after the turn of her thirty-second birthday, Keegan is excited to be returning to Barton Hollow again. It’s been about three years since she went back, and she’s looking forward to (hopefully) seeing Kenny, Josiah, Drew, and Victoria. It’s been while since she spoke to most of them (she calls Kenny at least once a month, always needed his guidance), but she hopes their lives have all turned out for the better.
