#briony babbles

[lavenderstobins]

hear me out: ronance atonement au. obvious spoilers for atonement ahead. also, fair warning, not a happy au. 

robin as robbie, nancy as cecilia, mike as briony. 

instead of the book/film events, robin is accused of robbery. mike caught nancy and robin in the library but nancy went after him to make him swear not to tell what he saw them doing or they’d both be sent away, since they’re both women. when valuables go missing, mike says that he saw robin in the library before they went missing, and that she was left alone for an unknown length of time because nancy was with him. nancy protests, but robin has no alibi, so she’s sent away and told she’s lucky she isn’t jailed. nancy and robin stay in contact via letters; nancy is devastated. 

years later, robin enlists as a combat nurse when steve enlists in the war. nancy serves as a nurse locally. mike, growing older, has little contact with nancy, who cut contact with most of the wheelers beside holly. mike, too late, finds out that it wasn’t robin who robbed them after all; it turns out it was none other than mike’s friend’s stepbrother, who nobody had accused as he was rich and therefore had no reason to steal. 

mike reaches out to nancy to apologise and reconnect, but she refuses to see him.

huge spoilers for atonement under the cut:

cw: major character death

it’s learnt that robin died of an illness while serving. steve returns from the field to find that she passed away while he was gone. one of her letters to nancy is half-finished. 

he sends a letter to nancy informing her of robin’s demise, but selfishly (and he knows it’s selfish) keeps the half-written letter with him. it’s all he has left of her; he can’t bring himself to let go of it just yet. 

steve is injured in the field shortly afterwards, having gotten more careless after losing robin, and ends up at the hospital mike works at. mike, who trained to become a nurse, too. in his state of delirium, steve mistakes mike for nancy, and babbles to him that he’s sorry for keeping the letter, that he couldn’t let go of robin at the time, but she (nancy) needs to read it, she needs her letter. he pulls robin’s letter out of his pocket, pushing it into mike’s hands, and dies shortly later. 

mike reads the letter. he knows it’s not his to read, but he does. he reads robin’s words promising to come home to nancy and live a life free of shame.

he reaches out to nancy, tentatively, and tells her he has a last letter from robin. he tells her that steve died in the hospital after giving it to him. she agrees, reluctantly, to meet with him the following week, to hear him out and to receive robin’s letter. 

they never get the chance. just a few night later, nancy is killed in a bombing, just like cecilia was. she never gets robin’s last letter. mike never sees her again. 

mike writes a book, decades later, in which he gives them their happy ending, knowing it’s not enough but wanting to give them something he stole from them in reality.

#stranger things #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #ronance #atonement #atonement au #atonement spoilers #my aus #my wips #robin buckley x nancy wheeler #ronance atonement au