Monica Shelly (Cataclysmic Gerosha)

Monica Shelly is a character in the the comic remake of Blood Over Water. She is a friend and ally to Aaron Stefflin, a romantic interest for Sleet Mountain employee Vance Lingolin and Big Rapids townie Hank Froli, a younger sister to Betsy Shelly, and an aunt to a young Annabelle Shelly.

Blood Over Water
Monica is a nurse's assistant at the local hospital, and is also studying forensic biology at the local university. She meets Aaron in a class, and the two become acquainted with one another that way. Her remarkable prowess leads to her being granted significant amounts of after-hours lab access. When the story begins, she and Vance Lingolin have been enjoying a friends-with-benefits relationship for quite some time. They consider becoming a serious couple, given that they are beginning to genuinely fall in love with each other. However, Monica is scared to do so since her mother and older sister both have set a bad example with their commitment issues. She decides to buck the family trend and get involved seriously with Vance anyway. When Vance goes missing, she misses her chance to inform him of her decision to date him officially. She decides to atone by investigating what she is convinced is a murder - even though nobody believes her at first. Monica, in addition to being Aaron's ally and Vance's lover, also has a sister named Betsy. She babysits Betsy's daughter Annabelle every now and then.

When police are initially reluctant to help Aaron out with his investigation into Mark's disappearance, Monica shows some concern. She agrees to use a new ink type separation technique to reveal redacted text on the Sleet Mountain "confidential" files, in the hopes of helping Aaron reveal what is underneath. She is also shown exercising caution on her way home one evening, concerned that Aaron may be right about killers being on the loose. After she is captured and nearly killed, she agrees to testify what she knows. However, she warns Aaron that he'll be on his own from that point onward in delivering the evidence they gathered to the FBI. She decides that as long as nobody else at Gleeful-N'-Young or Sleet Mountain besides Chris Kennal, George Lawence, and Kyle Tugrass knows about her family; she is not going to risk endangering her family any further.

After she was knocked out, Chris moved her to a location in the woods separate from where Aaron was left. This was intentional: he didn't want Aaron to know exactly what happened after he was knocked out. The fear that Monica is filled with upon finding herself in a strange location also keeps her from wanting to help Aaron out further. Otherwise, the novel follows the miniseries very closely in regards to how Monica turns out.

Death
See also: Sodality (series)

During the events in Sodality, the new Ameristani regime under Halal Affadidah has Monica as one of many who are at-random rounded up and sent to death camps. She was executed by beheading on the tenth anniversary of when Chris spared her life.

Trivia

 * Most changes to Monica in this version revolve around giving her more to do, more overall plot relevance, and expanding on her Classic counterpart's line about "having a family" - by making sure that family is named, and also relevant to the plot.


 * Her relationship with Vance was created in this version to provide additional character motivation, to explain why she'd want to take the risks involved in helping Aaron - a plothole in the original miniseries, as her motivation there was never addressed.


 * Monica's rental home in this version is 430 Spring St. in Big Rapids. She originally wasn't specified with having a home at any location.  In the original miniseries, her counterpart's home is never assigned.  The actress, Cassie Tyler, was staying in the Puterbaugh / Henderson Hall complex back then.