When Jemaine had presented Madeline with her keys, telling her that he needed her to take on the responsibility of her own headquarters, she had been pleasantly surprised. Since arriving in New York City all that time ago, she had worked as hard as she could for Jemaine and the others. There had been bumps in the road, but that was life – you had to take the good times and the bad.

The war had left chaos across the country, and those cities not destroyed still had much of their own rebuilding to do. Kamille, Roper and Space-pole’s headquarters were bursting at the seams, and so she had little time to wait – she had to open her doors just as quickly as possible to ensure that everyone could find a home. The building was a bit rough around the edges, and it would take work to fix it up, but Madeline knew they would have time for that; she just had to take things one day at a time.

The most essential thing Madeline had to figure out before she could open the doors to her new crew was what she was going to call it. Of course, she immediately thought of Southern Charm. After all, she’d launched her business, and it had been a relative success. They had docks all over New York City now, and the tours ran year-round; she was even working on a special Holiday edition and hoped to get Christmas decorations out on the docks after Thanksgiving.

So Southern Charm it was, at least until she remembered something else. When they had first moved into Jemaine’s Headquarters, Madeline had undertaken the task of cleaning out the former Godfather’s papers. It was in doing that that she had discovered Don Ricci and all his operations, brought to her attention first by the now deceased Don Lyon. But she had found something else too. It had caught her eye because it was bound like a manuscript, different from the handwritten notes and accounts that filled the drawers and boxes. Across the front in neat, swirly handwriting was the name “The Book of Esther.”

When she’d pulled it out, she’d discovered that underneath it was the second one, not as thick. This one was labeled The Book of Esther: Detroit and Beyond. Over the next few weeks, Madeline had spent time reading through the books. The second one wasn’t finished, nor was it nearly as polished as the first. Together the two books told the story of a young woman named Esther, who had fled to Las Vegas from Persia after losing her parents as a child and being raised by an Uncle who tried to marry her off to the highest bidder.

The story had intrigued Madeline, and while she knew the author was long dead, she found comfort in knowing that her work lived on. It was in that second manuscript, the unfinished one, that Madeline had read something that truly stuck with her and she was reminded of it when she was packing her office in Jemaine’s Headquarters, and she found the manuscripts once more.

After the death of her crew leader, a man named LarryLongNeck, the family had scattered. Soon afterward a war had broken out much like the one that just happened, leveling over half the country. Esther had found refuge with Larry’s right hand, a man she called Romance. Madeline thought it was a funny name, but the man meant a lot to Esther.

Esther had written a story about the first night, a group of them huddled up in Romance’s headquarters. The building she’d described was much like the one Madeline was moving into – damaged by war and thrown up to house people left homeless by death and destruction. But the group gathered in that room, passing around bottles of liquor, they were close. Esther described them as a ragtag group of rejects, people who had been hunted or rejected repeatedly in their lives. Many of them were from Larry’s crew, himself a man who had picked up those sorts of people.

The author had laid out such a scene of camaraderie and acceptance that Madeline was almost envious. Imagine that, envious of a bunch of dead people. The group was trying to help Romance come up with a crew name, and a variety of names were thrown out, each sillier than the next. Finally, there was one they all seemed to agree on:

Rejected Misfits.

The group each seemed to have a reason they felt the name was fitting. They urged their boss to choose it, but he disappointed them all by going with something a bit more fitting – Crimes of Passion. The crew, according to Esther, had decided to use Rejected Misfits anyway, a sort of unofficial crew tag. Reading the tale of that night had brought a smile to Madeline’s face. 

To Madeline, it seemed that the Rejected Misfits had been a unifying phrase for the group. Each of the members had a reason to feel alone, to feel unwanted. They were never part of the popular group, not truly. Esther herself had bounced from home to home after the death of Larry, struggling to find where she would fit in.  But at that moment, with Romance, sitting in a crummy room with little around them but death, they had united. They were no longer misfits - they were a family. Just seeing the manuscripts again after all that time had made the smile easily return.

To some extent, Madeline understood the feeling. She had grown up alone, a poor child living outside of town, often dirty from sleeping out in the fields with Sadie. When she’d grown and married Vernon, she had put on a fake face to the world – she molded herself to what she was expected to be, never what she truly was.

When she had come to New York, all of that had changed. Jemaine had given her an opportunity to be who she wanted to be, to discover herself. Not as Jenny, but as Madeline. Sure, she had messed up along the way. She’d made some bad decisions, had an outburst or two that could have been handled better. But through it all he’d fought for her, believed in her. And now she had the opportunity to do that for others.

As she pulled up in front of her new headquarters, a genuine smile graced Madeline’s face. Yes, Madeline knew just what she wanted to name her crew. Not just to honor Esther and all those in her story, but to honor the idea itself – that everyone would be welcome here, even the misfits.

“So Boss, what’s it gonna be? You settle on that name?”

Stephen’s voice brought her back to the present. He had stepped up into her head bodyguard position after the death of Nikolas, but it would certainly take some getting used to. HandsomeRob was there too, the man having proven to be a dependable and competent help to her during this war. Jadus would be joining them soon, and she was sure that others would be dropping in once word spread that she was setting up.

“I sure did. We will be known as the Rejected Misfits.”

And with that, Madeline entered her new headquarters, ready to take on the unique challenges of leadership.

HandsomeRob was standing idly by in his black tux. His hair was done, parted to his right like most men. But unlike most men, his hair was full and dark. His hair was something he was always proud of. As HandsomeRob heard his new boss announce their outfit's name, he couldn't be anymore happier. Seeing a wonderful lady get the opportunity to lead an outfit and to be apart of it was really something to admire.

"Don Madeline, I couldn't be more happier with this moment."

HandsomeRob caught the eye of a pretty lady who was checking him out and started to walk her way...

"Hey there pretty lady you like chicken fingers?"