Welcome to the website for the Firefly fan film Redemption!

Born into a privileged family on Ariel. Father is Robert Hawkins, a "Protean Baron" a man who made his fortune on the Rim supplying foodstuffs. Thanks to a number of mergers an acquisitions Robert is now a member of the board of Blue Sun Corporation --- think Ted Turner starting as a Cable TV station manager and ending up on the board of Time Warner. Robert married Abigail Heller, a Coreworld socialite in what is essentially an arranged marriage. The Hellers are an old well-connected Core political family, her brother Benedict, is a member of Parliament.

Due to concerns about security Will was raised at home. His only close childhood friend was Amy Frost a little girl who lived with them. Robert was always busy with work, Abigail was busy with a variety of charities and the children were raised by a collection of servants. Will's paternal grandmother Clementine Hawkins lived in a small apartment in the top of the house and the children spent a lot of time with her. Clementine told them stories of her days in the Rim, tales of high adventure with deep moral underpinnings. She taught them to take nothing for granted, to keep a sense of wonder, to be kind to people and to treat them as you would want to be treated. All in all she raised two interesting children, ones far too curious and independent to fit in well with the world of the Core. She was especially fond of Amy and worried what would happen to the girl when she got older. When she died she left a small inheritance to Amy.

Amy and Will are very close. He calls her Mei-mei (little sister) as a pet name and treats her like a sister. When they were kids Amy liked that it gave her a sense of security and belonging, but she now has other feelings for Will and "mei-mei" only serves as a constant reminder that his feelings about their relationship are not the same as hers. Emotionally part of him is still her big brother and that gets in the way of what are deeper feelings. One day he will rationalize their relationship and want to take it further, the only question is will Amy wait that long?

Will and Amy have a somewhat romantic view of the Rim, the kind of view an Eastern tenderfoot may have had of the West. Clementine was selective on stories, tending to tell the ones where the good people win out or if things are hard that hardness soon passes. In any case it didn't prepare them well enough for Rim living.

Will is of an age where he would certainly have fought in the war. He stepped quickly through the ranks in the Alliance military, reaching the rank of Captain during the war. But two months before the battle of Serenity Valley, and the end of the war, Will was court-martialed and kicked out of the military. His family influence was enough to stop him from being executed but he's been exiled from the Core. If he tries to go back he will be arrested, so he has no real choice but to make the best of Rim life. He remains pro unification but is no longer pro Alliance. He's principled, he won't back down to authority if he believes that authority is wrong and he's headstrong. To a degree, Amy serves the same role to him that Zoe does to Mal, the voice of reason that frequently talks him out of doing something stupid.

The story take place only a few months after the end of the war. Will is still very naive about life on the Rim, and he still lives in a military manner. In addition, tensions between Pro Unification and Pro Independent factions are still high, the kind of situation where having the wrong accent in a bar can get you beaten up.