Nicky is over here; this post is for Renee!

An initial response for her post-book life was posted over here, but it was a little vague. I’ve since made a ruling on a critical detail**, so here it is:

Renee keeps in touch with Jean, and although they do the long-distance courting thing for a while, it doesn’t work out in the long run. It ends with them still friends, though, and Renee is just as important to Jean’s recovery as the Trojans and Jean’s shrink are.

After graduation and after Dan and Matt’s wedding, Renee goes into the Peace Corps. She falls in love with a fellow volunteer named Emilio. They can’t take time off to leave for a wedding, and the area they’re in isn’t friendly for visitors, so Renee is the only one to marry without the Foxes in attendance. ((She has a second ceremony on US soil years later, a renewal of their vows, that everyone attends))

Somehow they manage to raise a couple children around their work. Her career choice means it’s hard for her to keep in touch with the Foxes, but she makes it to Aaron’s wedding at the last possible second and she cashes in everything she has to be there for the birth of Dan’s first child.

((Nicky claims Renee’s arrival is what put Dan in labor–Renee showed up the week Dan was due, and Dan’s water broke two hours after Matt picked Renee up from the airport.))

She writes the Foxes letters with pen and paper, in part because not all the places she goes have good connections, in part because it’s the only way to convey her sincerity with so many miles between them. She tells all of the Foxes different stories so they can share updates with each other on her behalf. It makes her feel closer to them when she feels far away. She loves her work, but she misses her Fox family.

She eventually comes back to the states because her youngest child Patrick needs near-constant medical attention. Her husband stays overseas a few years longer before coming home to her in Georgia. Emilio ends up working for Habitat for Humanity, and Renee gets a position at a local church’s outreach program. They don’t have a lot of money, but they have a lot of love, and they have family dinners every night and church every Sunday.

Allison pays off Patrick’s medical bills without warning and foots the ongoing cost of his treatment. It is the first time Allison sees Renee cry.

**This is the only draft of Foxes where Jean survived; he’s killed himself in every other draft to draw attention to the Ravens’ abuse and to show his support for Kevin. ((In one draft he killed himself while on the phone with Kevin, because he wants Kevin to sit with him while it happened)) Saving his life was a nice bonus of this final version, but I can’t rewrite Renee’s future to account for his unexpected presence.