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Baby-sitters Club | Count Me In: Promises in the Dark
Title: Promises in the Dark
Genre: Romance
Rating: T
Word Count: 5,155
Summary: He had become absolute putty in her hands: wherever she led, he was more than willing to follow.
Links: DW | AO3
Well, this one certainly didn't go the way I expected (or even outlined!)
First of all, I didn't anticipate that I'd be able to finish this during my vacation, so I'm pleased that I did. I edited the draft 3 times after writing it, which is unusual for me - I don't usually write until I have a decent idea of what I want to happen. Well, this time I wrote notes, then sat down to start it, and 5000 words later, what I had was not what I set out to write. Hell, I even changed the title of this piece three times, which is very unusual for me, as my titles are nearly always the last thing I come up with!
As I mentioned in the notes for the previous installment, I knew I wanted to write this from Charlie's POV. Don't ask me why, as it would've been much easier to write a Janine-centric piece from Janine's POV, but that's what my muse demanded, so here we are. I tried to write it so that the reader was discovering Janine's history at the same time Charlie was, so any gut-punches would feel real.
What's left in the installment is maybe 1/3 of what I originally wrote. I originally wrote out this long section of dialogue that was a frank conversation about both of their sexual pasts and laying the groundwork for explicit consent. I really hate this. I mean, yes, consent is important, but I don't feel like a reader needs to be hit over the head with it in excruciating terms. I want my characters to be in a place where consent can be implied and/or is granted via action instead of words. Maybe that makes me old school, IDK, but I cut out a lot of the conversation here, and let actions take over at the end.
My original intention was to write a more sexually explicit scene, but I could never quite get there, not with this conversation taking place. I felt I left them in a good place, and already have a seed of an idea for at least the beginning of the next installment, so we'll see what happens with that.
I am enjoying writing two different Janines in my two different post-canon universes: one where she is more stereotypically meek and mild, and one where she is very strong and confident in her sexuality. They both have their upsides, if not exactly the same fan appeal.
Let's see...since we're talking about Janine's past here, I did mention the awful Jerry Michaels, including the awful subplot of BSC SS #15 Baby-sitters European Vacation where he bullies Janine during the summer camp, which she in turn takes out on Claudia. It is canon that she dumps Jerry both times, too, though a reason is never really given. I took her pronouncement from #123 Claudia's Big Party about Jerry taking up more room in her life and put the inevitable hormonal teenage boy twist on it here. I find it plausible that sexual incompatibility could break up even a teenage couple.
I also think its plausible that Janine's sexual awakening could scare her. A lot of what I excised from the story was language about her being scared or fearful or anxious, because while I think its a factor in a fear-of-the-unknown sort of way, I don't think its as bad as the story was making it out to be. She's not afraid of Charlie or of what they're doing together; she's afraid of the vulnerability of it, especially having had one bad relationship before. She likes to control her world, and this is something you can't control.
I also strive to balance Charlie's reactions to Janine's reactions. When he realizes that maybe he's come on too strong, he backs off and gives her space, and his next approach is much softer. He also doesn't want to let this confusion steep and fester too long between them, even if having this conversation at this moment is awkward. He's the one who feels like he's losing time, and hopefully that came through in the narrative as his motivation for not letting this particular elephant in the room go unnoticed.
Finally, the title is borrowed from the Pat Benetar classic:
Having not written anything for the grand majority of this year, my work is still pretty rust-laden, and its likely that I will eventually re-edit these entries in this series again at some point. But, this series is far from over ~ I might not have much time to write anymore, but I am not yet ready to call it a day on this particular OTP ♥