#susan rodriguez defense squad

[badassbutterfly1987]

So if I've got the general timeline right:

Susan conceives Maggie during the one night stand in Death Masks

she presumably gives birth 9 months later

so Maggie is born around the time of Blood Rites when Harry finds out he has a vampire half-brother

i don't really have a point just something i noticed

a year later is Dead Beat, with all the zombies right?

then after that is Proven Guilty, which is all the drama with Molly and the Wardens, I also remember fear phages?

This might be a controversial take but I think Susan was right to place Maggie with the Mendoza family. Harry was living pretty much the same way as when he and Susan were together: investigating dangerous cases, generally having low income, and getting captured about once a book. Susan had found her calling with the Fellowship fighting the Red Court while also fighting against the RC infection. Neither would provide a safe, stable home for a young child with the way they were living.

I guess Susan could have given Maggie to the Carpenters but here's some reasons she may not have wanted to drop her daughter off: they lived in a different country (probably not good to travel with a newborn, plus would be harder to visit her daughter later), they are acquaintances at best (Susan met them twice? would you trust an acquaintance to raise your child just cus they're Nice Christian Folk?), they also fight monsters (Michael goes out on missions pretty frequently while Charity is mostly a stay at home mom), and they already have a gaggle of young children (Susan could easily think they'd hesitate to take in a random person's child).

Should Susan have told Harry about Maggie? Yes, that is absolutely something that should have come up earlier. But I can absolutely understand if she panicked after finding out she was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend's child. That is not something you should reveal over phone call or postcard; just like a break up, you should do that in person. But maybe Susan didn't want to travel when pregnant or carrying a newborn for safety reasons. So she delays it, wanting to wait until Maggie is a little older or next time she's passing by Chicago; in the meantime she sets her up with the Mendozas, close friends who offer a stable human family.

Also, I don't know if they ever talked about having kids but considering Harry found it hard to even say he loved her, I wouldn't be surprised if it never came up. In which case, Susan couldn't be sure how he would react. Maybe he'd want them to get back together, or at least in the same building to raise Maggie. Maybe they'd argue about where Maggie should be raised and which parent has to change their lifestyle. Maybe there'd be a nasty fight and Harry would want to be the sole parent. Maybe he would reject them completely.

So Susan doesn't tell him, but the longer she waits, the harder it gets. And Maggie gets to grow up safe and happy and healthy with a loving human family. Susan still gets to visit her and it's fine until Martin betrays them.

TLDR: Susan isn't an awful person for what she did, she's just a very human one, none of the available options were obviously correct, and it doesn't sit well with me that some readers praise the complexity of characters like Lara and Marcone but act like Susan is unforgivable.

[badassbutterfly1987]

I’m too busy this week but I am definitely writing a defense of Susan at some point.