athena + bobby + bathena plots they could do instead that i would like more:
- athena and hen talk about aging and their physically demanding jobs, but so do athena and bobby. bonus points if athena starts to think about transitioning away from field work, and bobby doesn't. bonus bonus points if athena accuses him of still having a death wish.
- dude what the fuck where is harry
- recast michael and finally do the michael/david wedding, and have athena realize both harry and may are closer to michael than they are to her, and feel weird about that
- fine, whatever, don't recast michael! but if you're not going to recast him, kill him! give me harry and may breakdowns, give me athena LOSING it, athena weeping at his funeral and bobby trying to comfort her but being triggered bc of memories of attending his first wife's funeral! use this as a way to bring david back and have lots of drama around keeping david in the kids' lives/as a part of the extended family!
- do SOMETHING with michael and david, that's all i'm asking for
- bobby gets excited about another cold case that athena indulgently helps him pursue (bobby and athena figure out D B Cooper's true identity)
- bobby and athena go to minnesota for an important anniversary. athena meets bobby's estranged brother for the first time.
- bobby's estranged brother shows up in LA and he and bobby talk for the first time in ten years.
- bobby brings home a hypoallergenic dog and athena claims to hate it and is opposed to it except then the dog keeps falling asleep in her lap and she's like ugh fine I GUESS
- because of shenanigans, athena ends up stuck in an emergency with an unexpected member of the team. maybe eddie. they talk about being estranged from their kids, even though athena's like "I don't know if i'd use the word estranged, but....yeah, we don't have the relationships I hoped we would." maybe they also talk about having killed people.
- because of shenanigans, we get a situation where bobby and an unexpected member of the cast are stuck in an emergency. maybe oh you know what, actually, it would be awesome if it were tommy. because tommy could be like hey you're really different than you were 20 years ago, and bobby could be like so are you, and the fact that they aren't found family to each other could make that really resonate. they could talk about mutual regrets and building more positive cultures and you could address tommy's shitty past through the prism of bobby's much darker past, and it's about buck but it's also not about buck even a little bit.
- athena DOES mentor new rookies, but she thinks the next one shouldn't wear a uniform either, and then she thinks the same about the one after that. may comes back to drink a legal glass of wine with her mom and say 'hey, i have been trying to tell you this for years, but you haven't been listening to me. are you ready to listen to me now?' lol jk they'd never do that. or, you know, maybe they would, but what athena would do is say 'thank you for sharing that with me. now it's time for me to share something with you,' and it would be that she's not quitting the force but she IS going to start a new departmental DEI initiative or some bullshit. maybe this one can stay in fanfic, actually.
- bobby and karen do citizen's arrests together. god they'd have so much fun.
- you get the vision?
