Burned Commentary: The Prequel Stories

Hello Readers,

So 1 year ago I began the process of crafting a Burn Notice style story featuring the cast of Fuller House and characters I created.  

Spring Break

Originally Spring Break, the first story in the series was to be its own story.  Burned and Suprise Return was in the planning stages and while I was writing Spring Break I realized I could use Spring Break as a springboard (sorry, couldn't help myself) to start the story.  Now with that in mind, I didn't plan to use any of my original characters again but as you all know, they feature quite prominently in the overall scheme of things.

Surprise Returns

The second and originally last prequel that I wrote before Burned.  Time has moved forward 12 years and obviously, Jackson has not been seen by this family this entire time.  Jackson and Rocki broke up 4 years after the events of Spring Break.  This was done as the CIA tends to want people (starting off) with as few personal attachments as possible.  Using the information we got in the episode College Tours that Jackson is quite gifted with computers and would be pursuing this as his post-high school venture, it was easy to imagine that a government agency would want to recruit him for their organization.  Thus, Rocki needed to be out of the picture.  While Rocki was targeted by the Director it should be remembered that in this tale, she wasn't in the marrying frame of mind so that was easier to make happen  The story started out with it being unclear (sort of) who the motorcycle rider was in the first version of the story.  

The remastered story adds Jackson's theft of his bosses files, how he manages to keep them a secret until his meeting with Senator Matthews,  and attempted recovery by agents of the Director.  I did this to show off more of Jackson's skills. The motorcycle chase happens pretty close to how it originally did but I obviously no longer hide the fact that it is Jackson as the reader can now follow the events chronologically.

Other than cleaning up some mistakes everything else played out as I originally wrote it.  This story obviously set up what was to come but was designed to tease the readers to continue on.

Chance Reunions

So I had 12 years between Spring Break and Surprise Return to play with and the idea for this story came about as I was almost done writing Burned.  I had long since written the reunion between Jackson and Chloe and even had them engaged.  I decided to write a bit more about that time period in their lives despite the fact I had not yet dragged Chloe back into Jackson's life.  This was also the introduction of Jackson's teammates during his CIA days.  People that would show up again in the sequel.  I always have fun casting the characters I would add to the series and this was no different.

I told the tale of how Jackson found his house, and then rushed to the pair getting engaged followed by their breakup 3 years later.  Now, as I have never been in the CIA I don't know the accuracy of the polygraph test or how often it may (or may not) be issued but as it has been used in fiction several times I borrowed it and used it as the reason for their breakup.  It is important to note that Jackson is more than willing to tell Chloe, but it has to be after they are married so he can pass the test when administered.

The only thing that was added in the remastered chapter was more of the courtship after Jackson first comes back into Chloe's life.  I felt that it was important.

Phoenix Son

The only Jackson-less chapter in the entire story.  It had to be for continuity's sake but still, very fun to write.  This chapter was based on a few throwaway lines from Chapter 2.  The main burned story was long since written but I was in my grove and conjured up this story in no time at all.  Looking back it is one of the few that other than some mistakes I didn't have to add anything to it during my Remastered phase.

Tomorrow: Burned