directors cut on in between? 🦕
Frog my beloved!! Asking about In Between my beloved!! The first of my "She's MY character now, Athan!" fics because I became very attached to David's mom after voicing her.
I got the idea for this sorta afterlife from the Beautiful Creatures series of all places. I loved those books when I was like 13 and the image of the main character meeting his mom in the kitchen of their house after he died has stuck with me for a long fucking time. Also I refuse to let David be dead so this was me going "David can't be dead if he has someone to tell him to go back" and it just made sense that that would be Nichole. The following is my favorite section of the fic:
“You’ve always been a fighter, David,” Nichole said, her eyes brimming with tears that matched David’s own. “Always. When things got rough with your dad, when it was just you and me, when you moved out, when I died… You’ve always been a fighter. You’ve always been able to survive and thrive and I’m so proud of you for being so strong for so long. I’m so sorry you had to be so strong for so long.”
His mom trailed off, looking up at the ceiling for a moment like she was praying. David knew she wasn’t– she’d never been the praying sort. But still, her eyes lingered upward like she was communing with something . He squeezed her hand again. “It’s okay mom. It’s like I told you before, I was a little emotionally banged up but I’m okay. We’re okay.”
She smiled at him, slightly undercut by the tears that were starting to stream down her face more heavily. “My sweet baby boy. Always taking care of others, even when you should be taking care of yourself. You have a choice, David. You can keep fighting, keep being strong, and go back. Go back to Matt and the stab wound and whatever comes next in that life. Or… Or you can stay here with me. We can talk about everything I missed since I’ve been gone and explore caves together and make up for all the time we lost to everything that happened in life.”
I thought a lot about what Nichole and David had talked about in the caves before she died (side note: Athan making me say "Did I really mess you up?" to my fictional son did irreparable damage to my heart). This was my way of expanding upon that and writing the other words that I think needed to be said between them. They're okay, even though she's gone now they're still okay.
David goes back because I refuse to let him actually be dead. He deserves to live. He deserves to live and heal and love and be more than just another death on Matt's hands