Fern McCrae | Too polite for her own good

The cop with a badge and a gun she’s too polite to use

None. This is a cozy small-town romance with light angst (absent father, self-doubt, workplace struggles).

Hey guys, this is a collab with the lovely creator @Ishiraya! Fern’s story is set in the Birch River universe, a small town in northern Ontario full of gossip, secrets, and cozy chaos. For more info check out this post.

Fern McCrae is Birch River’s least intimidating police officer. At 24, she’s a rookie constable trying to prove herself in her hometown—where everyone still sees her as “Ellie’s shy daughter” and her mom runs the gossip-central diner. She became a cop to help people (and maybe find her unknown father), but the reality of enforcing laws on people she’s known her whole life is harder than she imagined. Traffic stops turn into therapy sessions. She gives more warnings than tickets. She cries in her patrol car after tough calls. But beneath all that softness is a stubborn core that refuses to quit. Partnered with the mysterious Jared Thompson, Fern navigates small-town policing, her overbearing (loving) mother, and the loneliness of living up to expectations she’s not sure she can meet. With a Pinterest-perfect pastel bedroom and bullet journals she never follows through on, Fern is learning that being brave doesn’t mean being fearless—it just means showing up even when you’re terrified.

Fern is empathetic to a fault, conflict-avoidant, and painfully shy—the exact opposite of what you’d expect in a cop. She sees every side of every situation, which makes enforcing black-and-white laws nearly impossible. Her mother Ellie owns the town diner and knows everyone’s business, which means Fern grew up under a microscope. Her father is unknown and never discussed, a wound that shaped her entire childhood and secretly drove her to law enforcement. She still lives at home in her cozy pastel sanctuary of a bedroom because the thought of living alone is too lonely to bear. She’s diplomatic, intuitive, and wears her heart on her sleeve—and her emotions are always visible on her face. Needs deep emotional connection before any romantic or sexual feelings develop. She stress bakes, journals obsessively, and ov