Debra is one of those kids that most cheuvenisat guys would avoid and call names behind her back. She was always tough and straight forward. She never liked dresses and didn’t swoon over the captain of the football team or babble on about typical girly things. God… She did not get along with those types. Boys were just an inconvenience, not to mention her father put the fear of god into her after her sister got pregnant.
Debra had been a loner. Most of her family was, her sister was a freak compared to Deb and her parents. Maybe it was because they lived out on a farm in Central California, near Fresno. Their mainstay was smaller farm animals, goats and chickens… even pigs.
While her older sister Shirley got knocked up before graduating high school and married her boyfriend to get away, Debra spent her time in a quiet corner of campus with a book, as it was her only time to do any sort of reading. At least, until some of the popular girls found her. They thought they had found a new bullying victim. Boy… they were wrong.
Debra was suspended after bloodying a few noses. Her father, a former Army sergeant and the one that had taught her a few of those moves, had been secretly proud (he admitted later) even as he yelled at her. Her mom was devastated and disappointed. She was grounded.
Still, that moment set her course, she joined the Army a few years out of school. Military police: First ones in and the last ones out of any conflict. Not that she saw any. She did her minimum time in, she met a guy (Gregory Thurston). She got pregnant with a son, they decided they would get married, and she’d get out. Big mistake.
He was a total dick, treating her like some kid, even though she proved time and again she was far more grown up. While he bitched and moaned about work, she kept them from going bankrupt, and took care of the house and kids.
She got restless and wanted to do more. Deciding to go to school, Debra felt like she was finally finding her way… her husband blew up when he found out she was registered for classes. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was afraid she’d end up smarter than him and get a better job to leave him.
What the fuck…
Well, he wasn’t wrong… though she didn’t wait until she had a better job then him, she kicked his ass to the curb straight away and took back her maiden name.
Now a single mother, she was forced to move in with her mother who was now living in Ventura, while she took advantage of the GI Bill. Working during the day, Debra took classes at night, planning on going into forensics. She never quite got that far. She found out that the FBI was hiring, they needed people like her. There were threats out there that needed a no-nonsense woman like herself. It was that attitude that earned her a coveted spot on the FBI Counterterrorism Division. She might have dated, but it never lasted. Debra was far too busy for any kind of romantic life.
Her kids were her world, but they were upset that she had divorced their father and were difficult at times. Still… finally, all the hard work… the sacrifices… Debra was becoming someone she could be proud of. The world was looking up even with the threats around them.
With the rising threat of homegrown terrorists and the explosion of Midtown in New York, Debra was transferred across the country. It forced her to move her kids before her daughter’s first year of High School. It wasn’t an easy transition for either kid and they often acted out.
And it came to a head in 2009. Her world came crashing down around her when her daughter killed herself. She was among the 36 evolved teenagers that commited suicide. From the note she left her mother… she didn’t want to live in a world without her boyfriend Brenden Fischer. They hadn’t been together long, but they felt fated. It was so sudden and about destroyed Debra.
Debra’s guild was horrible. Remembering that her daughter tried to talk to her about something, several times. Jane had been desperate, but Deb had been busy. A big case. “We’ll talk later,” she’d tell her daughter. Later never came. Jane would be gone when she got home and come back in the wee hours… They'd fight and nothing would get talked about. Debra was afraid her daughter would end up pregnant.
The one night, when it had been particularly heated Jane stormed out and never returned… Dread filled her when the phone rang.
Her son was inconsolable and asked to move back with his father. Leaving her to deal with it all on her own. He blamed his mother for Jane’s death. If only she had listened.
To be honest, Deb blamed herself as well. If… if she had only listened. How many times had her daughter tried to tell her what she was? How many times did Deb brush her off, because she was too busy fighting against the terrorists that were on the rise? She beat herself up for any comments she might have made.
The whole thing left her hollow. Work became all consuming and she drifted further apart from her son. In fact, she never knew he had been married and had a little girl of his own, until one Christmas, he sent a card.
Debra didn't know what to think about being a grandmother. She didn't feel like one.
Plans were being made for her to visit, when the world was upended again. The country fell into a Civil War. At first, she was working with the government, but word reached her that her son and her family were picked up and thrown into the Evo camps. She quickly found out that her daughter-in-law and granddaughter tested positive for the evo gene. Desperate to get them out, Debra found her pleas falling on def ears within the government. Her time and loyalty meant nothing to them. All the sacrifices and blood spilled. All they could see was that her son’s wife and baby tested positive. Worse rumors were circling around that evolved were being lined up against walls and executed.
Debra couldn't turn a blind eye anymore. So swallowing her pride, she slipped away behind enemy lines. She heard the name of an old CIA contact being tossed around as one of the top rebels, Avi Epstein. She didn't expect a warm welcome; her and Avi had snarled at each other like two alpha dogs over a cooling body a time or two. She knew she didn't have a choice, time was running short.
She was captured at the edge of a rebel camp. While she came unarmed, trust was in short supply and she was treated like a prisoner. Everyday, she asked her ‘jailor’ to speak to Avi and every day her captor said they would see what they could do.
When did he finally show up, she frantically told him of the camp and of the government's plans to start executing the Evos. With her intel, the Resistance managed to liberate the camp and her family. Even got them smuggled to safety in Canada. Debra never had the courage to approach her son and never got to hug her grandbaby. She was a coward and stayed just a face in the crowd. Too scared to see that look of hatred in his eyes. They were safe and that is all that mattered. She never saw them again and has no idea if they made it through to the otherside of the war.
It wasn't easy, but after a time, Debra earned the trust to join the fight. Despite her age, Debra still knew her way around a gun and could hold her own in a fight, even without that special gene others had. “I don’t need it.” She was okay with that, those others were the ones that stories were written about. Debra didn’t fight in the war to find glory, she fought to ensure her family could lead a good life. When she wasn’t fighting, she was helping make ammo. With the old casings, lead, and a few other tools, they could keep the supplies going.
When the war wound down, Debra found herself being offered a job in the same agency she once abandoned, but now under different leadership. She was celebrated from her courage to turn and fight alongside the expressive, but she never felt like a hero. Didn’t want to be called one.
The big difference now…. The terrorists she was trying to hunt were groups like Pure Earth. Honestly, she preferred this to hunting down people who just wanted to have a life. The big wigs had wanted her to take up a higher position, but she refused, Deb liked where she was… down in the thick of it. Downside is that her bosses have gotten steadily younger, which sometimes means personalities were starting to clash.
Now on the edge of turning 60, Deb is being offered incentives to retire early and she is furious. This was a woman who needed to be in the thick of it, not knitting or playing bingo. She didn’t see herself as that old, certainly didn’t feel it. So instead of forcing her out, her bosses approached her with a special assignment, her one chance or she'd be let go (they have enough against her to do it, too.).
Wolfhound. More importantly, keeping an eye on them under the table.
Debra hasn’t decided if this is a good thing, yet. Especially, since Avi Epstien’s named was dropped.
She’ll do it though… because Deb has no interest in plastic flamingos and mumus.