Fragile Truth and Tragic Freedom 5/?
Title: Fragile Truth and Tragic Freedom 5/?
Series: TDS, TCR, Countdown w/ KO.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, or any known political figures who appear in this story.
Summary: Keith-centric AU- Ages and backgrounds have been totally messed with. With the rise of a dictatorship regime in America, comes the rise of rebels. This is the story of the rebel group in New York City, fighting to bring the truth to the people and return their freedom.
Author's Note: Please comment. Feedback is good.
One
Two
Three
Four
Chapter 5
Over a breakfast of pancakes, Rachel asked, “So, what’s going to happen to me now?”
“I’m going to take you up to our contacts in Canada tonight,” Jon answered after swallowing a piece of pancake.
“From Canada, you can get a plane to anywhere in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Start a new life, away from here,” Stephen added.
Rachel bit her lip in thought. “Do you have to? I mean, I… I don’t think I can just leave all this behind.”
Keith and Stephen shared a meaningful glance across the table. Jon asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let me ask you three a question. Why do you stay? Why don’t you leave, go to Canada, go wherever you want?”
“Because… we know all this is wrong, and we want to do something about it,”
Jon answered.
“That’s how I feel. Like I said last night, it’s a matter of when, not if, for me.” Rachel took a deep breath. “I want to join you guys.”
“Well, this certainly different,” Stephen commented.
“No one we’ve helped has ever thought about becoming part of our team,”
said Jon.
“What do you say?”
Jon and Stephen glanced at each other before looking at the quiet man
taking a sip of orange juice. “Keith?” they prompted.
Keith didn’t want to be the one to make this decision. He had conflicting
interests. He wanted Rachel to be safe from the Regime, and making her go to
Canada would accomplish that. But, he wanted to get to know Rachel. He wanted to know why she felt so familiar, why holding her last night felt so right.
Keith slowly exhaled and put down his glass of orange juice. He thought his words through carefully. His voice was unusually quiet. “I think that if a person wants to do something about the Regime, they will find a way to do it. What few of us there are cannot afford to be scattered.”
Keith turned to the young woman sitting next to him. “Rachel, I’m not going to tell you how dangerous what we do is. Our escape yesterday demonstrated some of that.” He had to stop himself from grabbing her hand. “If you’re certain about this, I have no objections.”
“You really mean it?”
“Yes, Rachel, I mean it. Welcome to the team,” Keith stated. He didn’t
expect Rachel to suddenly pull him into a hug.
“I guess I’ll send a message to Cooper, Sam, and Jason,” said Jon.
*************
Adjusting to the new addition to the team wasn’t hard at all. Rachel got the unused bedroom. Their next supply package from Cooper contained a box with clothes and a cell phone for Rachel.
It wasn’t just the physical aspect that was easy to get used to. Rachel felt like one of them, without even trying. She liked to laugh, was intelligent, great to talk to about anything with, and had a sense of adventure.
After two weeks with Rachel, Keith, Jon, and Stephen couldn’t imagine life without her.
But, after two weeks with Rachel, Keith knew there was something else about her that seemed to draw him to her. And that was what he was trying to figure out during this morning’s dawn meditation. There was only one person from his past who had the slightest chance of being Rachel, and that was the little girl he had cried with when they were taken away from their parents twenty years ago.
But, the odds of that had to be astronomical. The thing was, now that he thought about it, he’d had another encounter with that little girl, two years before. Keith’s mind hardly wandered down memory lane that far, but he focused on the event and brought it to light.
Eight-year-old Keith Olbermann was sitting on the porch swing, working on his math homework. It was Friday, after school, and his mother wouldn’t be home for another half hour.
Keith tapped his pencil against his lips as he thought through a problem. He was so focused that he didn’t notice the little girl climbing up the porch steps.
Keith was surprised when the girl walked into his leg. He set his folder and worksheets down in his lap and asked the girl, “Where’d you come from?” He glanced around the street for her parents.
The girl, who looked to be a year-and-a-half-old and had short brown hair and brown eyes, looked up at him and cocked her head, as though studying him.
“Okay…” Keith breathed. He didn’t see anyone on the street old enough to be the girl’s parents. “Where are your mom and dad?”
The girl shrugged her shoulders in answer.
“You don’t know where they are?”
The girl nodded. “…lost…”
“You’re lost,” Keith sighed. “What’s your name?”
“Ray-chul Mad-dy.”
Keith smiled. “Nice to meet you, Rachel. I’m Keith Olbermann.”
Rachel said, “Keef Oby-man.”
Keith smile widened at the attempt on his name and moved his backpack over to make space. “Do you want to sit with me?”
Rachel’s head bobbed. “Sit with Keef.”
Keith helped her up onto the porch swing. Before he could stop her, Rachel
fished out a book from Keith backpack. It happened to be a book about the history of the New York Yankees baseball team.
“Keef read story,” Rachel said, getting into Keith’s lap and nearly knocking him in the head with the book.
Keith opened the book and told her, “It’s going to be a story about baseball.”
“What’s ‘bay-ball?”
“It’s a game where you hit a ball with a stick,” was Keith’s simple
explanation.
Rachel laid her head on Keith’s chest and repeated, “Keef read story.”
“Alright then,” Keith cleared his throat before he stated fake-
reading. “There was a famous baseball player named Alex Rodriguez. All his friends and adoring fans called him ‘A-Rod.’ You see, A-Rod has a special ability…”
When Keith felt Rachel fall asleep a few minutes later, her head under his chin and one arm curled around his side, he started reading the book silently to himself.
Keith didn’t know how much time had passed until he heard someone call out, “Rachel? Rachel, where are you?”
Keith looked around and saw a teenage boy jogging up the street. “Hey,” Keith called to the sixteen-year-old. “Is this who you’re looking for?”
The teenager ran over and up the porch stairs. “Yep,” he said of the sleeping girl in Keith’s lap. “I’m Jake, Rachel’s brother,” he introduced.
“I’m Keith.”
“Thanks, man. I fell asleep and she somehow managed to open the front door
and do a bit of exploring. My parents would’ve killed me if I had lost her,” Jake said as he gently shook Rachel awake.
Rachel yawned, and opened her eyes. Upon seeing her brother, she shrieked and buried her face in Keith’s shirt. “Keef hide me.”
Keith could feel her laughing and couldn’t help but join in. “Hide you from
what?”
“Monster Jake.”
“Oh, really? I’m the monster? Would a monster do this?” Jake picked up his sister and peppered her face with kisses.
“Jake,” Rachel giggled and planted a kiss on her brother’s nose.
Jake asked Keith, “What did you say your name was?”
“Keith Olbermann.”
Jake checked his watch. “When will your parents be home?”
“My mom should be back in a few minutes.”
“Do you mind if we stay until then?”
“Not at all.”
Jake sat on the porch swing. Rachel climbed down off his lap and down the porch stairs. “Stay in the yard,” warned Jake.
Rachel blew a raspberry in reply before running around the tree in the yard. After a few times of going around, she stopped and asked “Keef play?”
“Sure,” Keith answered. He kneeled down in front of the girl. “What do you want to play?”
In answer, Rachel climbed onto Keith’s back. “Yah, horsie.” Keith dropped to all fours and pretended to be a horse, complete with sound effects.
Rachel dug her heels in a little too deep into a sensitive spot on Keith’s side. Keith collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter. Rachel got off his back and gave him a puzzled look.
As soon as Keith sat up, Rachel reached up and grabbed his glasses. She figured out how to put them on. Blinking heavily, she observed, “Keef look funny.”
“Why do I look funny?”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “Two Keefs.”
Keith took his glasses from the little girl and put them back on. “How about now?”
“One Keef.” Rachel poked him in the side. It had the same effect as before. “Keef tickly!” she realized.
Keith’s protests quickly turned to howls of laughter as Rachel kept poking him in that sensitive spot. He soon ended up flat on his back, with Rachel sitting on his waist and not letting up the attack.
Keith’s laughs mingled with Rachel’s squeals of delight. There was the noise of a car parking in the driveway and a car door closing. Keith couldn’t greet his mother though all the laughing he was doing.
“Keith? What’s going on?” his mother asked.
Jake answered with, “Mrs Olbermann? I’m Jake Maddow.”
Keith tuned out the resulting conversation as Rachel yawned and laid down
on top of him. Keith wrapped his arms around and turned onto his side, effectively cuddling with Rachel in the grass.
“Uh oh, looks like someone’s getting sleepy,” Jake stated after a couple minutes. “Mrs Olbermann, it was nice meeting you.”
Keith stood and helped lift Rachel into Jake’s arms. The teenager said, “It’s time for your nap, little sis.”
“No nap. Not sleepy,” Rachel objected, rubbing her eyes.
“Yes, you are. Thanks again, Keith,” Jake said as he started to walk away.
“You’re welcome.”
“Bye-bye, Keef,” Rachel called over Jake’s shoulder.
“Bye, Rachel.”
Keith took off his glasses and ran a hand over his face. “No way… she lived down the street?” He was left speechless for a few minutes. He filtered through any other memories between their first meeting and the night the Regime began. Coming up with no other encounters with Rachel Maddow, he ran back to the house.
Series: TDS, TCR, Countdown w/ KO.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Language, Violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, or any known political figures who appear in this story.
Summary: Keith-centric AU- Ages and backgrounds have been totally messed with. With the rise of a dictatorship regime in America, comes the rise of rebels. This is the story of the rebel group in New York City, fighting to bring the truth to the people and return their freedom.
Author's Note: Please comment. Feedback is good.
One
Two
Three
Four
Chapter 5
Over a breakfast of pancakes, Rachel asked, “So, what’s going to happen to me now?”
“I’m going to take you up to our contacts in Canada tonight,” Jon answered after swallowing a piece of pancake.
“From Canada, you can get a plane to anywhere in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Start a new life, away from here,” Stephen added.
Rachel bit her lip in thought. “Do you have to? I mean, I… I don’t think I can just leave all this behind.”
Keith and Stephen shared a meaningful glance across the table. Jon asked, “What do you mean?”
“Let me ask you three a question. Why do you stay? Why don’t you leave, go to Canada, go wherever you want?”
“Because… we know all this is wrong, and we want to do something about it,”
Jon answered.
“That’s how I feel. Like I said last night, it’s a matter of when, not if, for me.” Rachel took a deep breath. “I want to join you guys.”
“Well, this certainly different,” Stephen commented.
“No one we’ve helped has ever thought about becoming part of our team,”
said Jon.
“What do you say?”
Jon and Stephen glanced at each other before looking at the quiet man
taking a sip of orange juice. “Keith?” they prompted.
Keith didn’t want to be the one to make this decision. He had conflicting
interests. He wanted Rachel to be safe from the Regime, and making her go to
Canada would accomplish that. But, he wanted to get to know Rachel. He wanted to know why she felt so familiar, why holding her last night felt so right.
Keith slowly exhaled and put down his glass of orange juice. He thought his words through carefully. His voice was unusually quiet. “I think that if a person wants to do something about the Regime, they will find a way to do it. What few of us there are cannot afford to be scattered.”
Keith turned to the young woman sitting next to him. “Rachel, I’m not going to tell you how dangerous what we do is. Our escape yesterday demonstrated some of that.” He had to stop himself from grabbing her hand. “If you’re certain about this, I have no objections.”
“You really mean it?”
“Yes, Rachel, I mean it. Welcome to the team,” Keith stated. He didn’t
expect Rachel to suddenly pull him into a hug.
“I guess I’ll send a message to Cooper, Sam, and Jason,” said Jon.
*************
Adjusting to the new addition to the team wasn’t hard at all. Rachel got the unused bedroom. Their next supply package from Cooper contained a box with clothes and a cell phone for Rachel.
It wasn’t just the physical aspect that was easy to get used to. Rachel felt like one of them, without even trying. She liked to laugh, was intelligent, great to talk to about anything with, and had a sense of adventure.
After two weeks with Rachel, Keith, Jon, and Stephen couldn’t imagine life without her.
But, after two weeks with Rachel, Keith knew there was something else about her that seemed to draw him to her. And that was what he was trying to figure out during this morning’s dawn meditation. There was only one person from his past who had the slightest chance of being Rachel, and that was the little girl he had cried with when they were taken away from their parents twenty years ago.
But, the odds of that had to be astronomical. The thing was, now that he thought about it, he’d had another encounter with that little girl, two years before. Keith’s mind hardly wandered down memory lane that far, but he focused on the event and brought it to light.
Eight-year-old Keith Olbermann was sitting on the porch swing, working on his math homework. It was Friday, after school, and his mother wouldn’t be home for another half hour.
Keith tapped his pencil against his lips as he thought through a problem. He was so focused that he didn’t notice the little girl climbing up the porch steps.
Keith was surprised when the girl walked into his leg. He set his folder and worksheets down in his lap and asked the girl, “Where’d you come from?” He glanced around the street for her parents.
The girl, who looked to be a year-and-a-half-old and had short brown hair and brown eyes, looked up at him and cocked her head, as though studying him.
“Okay…” Keith breathed. He didn’t see anyone on the street old enough to be the girl’s parents. “Where are your mom and dad?”
The girl shrugged her shoulders in answer.
“You don’t know where they are?”
The girl nodded. “…lost…”
“You’re lost,” Keith sighed. “What’s your name?”
“Ray-chul Mad-dy.”
Keith smiled. “Nice to meet you, Rachel. I’m Keith Olbermann.”
Rachel said, “Keef Oby-man.”
Keith smile widened at the attempt on his name and moved his backpack over to make space. “Do you want to sit with me?”
Rachel’s head bobbed. “Sit with Keef.”
Keith helped her up onto the porch swing. Before he could stop her, Rachel
fished out a book from Keith backpack. It happened to be a book about the history of the New York Yankees baseball team.
“Keef read story,” Rachel said, getting into Keith’s lap and nearly knocking him in the head with the book.
Keith opened the book and told her, “It’s going to be a story about baseball.”
“What’s ‘bay-ball?”
“It’s a game where you hit a ball with a stick,” was Keith’s simple
explanation.
Rachel laid her head on Keith’s chest and repeated, “Keef read story.”
“Alright then,” Keith cleared his throat before he stated fake-
reading. “There was a famous baseball player named Alex Rodriguez. All his friends and adoring fans called him ‘A-Rod.’ You see, A-Rod has a special ability…”
When Keith felt Rachel fall asleep a few minutes later, her head under his chin and one arm curled around his side, he started reading the book silently to himself.
Keith didn’t know how much time had passed until he heard someone call out, “Rachel? Rachel, where are you?”
Keith looked around and saw a teenage boy jogging up the street. “Hey,” Keith called to the sixteen-year-old. “Is this who you’re looking for?”
The teenager ran over and up the porch stairs. “Yep,” he said of the sleeping girl in Keith’s lap. “I’m Jake, Rachel’s brother,” he introduced.
“I’m Keith.”
“Thanks, man. I fell asleep and she somehow managed to open the front door
and do a bit of exploring. My parents would’ve killed me if I had lost her,” Jake said as he gently shook Rachel awake.
Rachel yawned, and opened her eyes. Upon seeing her brother, she shrieked and buried her face in Keith’s shirt. “Keef hide me.”
Keith could feel her laughing and couldn’t help but join in. “Hide you from
what?”
“Monster Jake.”
“Oh, really? I’m the monster? Would a monster do this?” Jake picked up his sister and peppered her face with kisses.
“Jake,” Rachel giggled and planted a kiss on her brother’s nose.
Jake asked Keith, “What did you say your name was?”
“Keith Olbermann.”
Jake checked his watch. “When will your parents be home?”
“My mom should be back in a few minutes.”
“Do you mind if we stay until then?”
“Not at all.”
Jake sat on the porch swing. Rachel climbed down off his lap and down the porch stairs. “Stay in the yard,” warned Jake.
Rachel blew a raspberry in reply before running around the tree in the yard. After a few times of going around, she stopped and asked “Keef play?”
“Sure,” Keith answered. He kneeled down in front of the girl. “What do you want to play?”
In answer, Rachel climbed onto Keith’s back. “Yah, horsie.” Keith dropped to all fours and pretended to be a horse, complete with sound effects.
Rachel dug her heels in a little too deep into a sensitive spot on Keith’s side. Keith collapsed to the ground in a fit of laughter. Rachel got off his back and gave him a puzzled look.
As soon as Keith sat up, Rachel reached up and grabbed his glasses. She figured out how to put them on. Blinking heavily, she observed, “Keef look funny.”
“Why do I look funny?”
Rachel’s eyes widened. “Two Keefs.”
Keith took his glasses from the little girl and put them back on. “How about now?”
“One Keef.” Rachel poked him in the side. It had the same effect as before. “Keef tickly!” she realized.
Keith’s protests quickly turned to howls of laughter as Rachel kept poking him in that sensitive spot. He soon ended up flat on his back, with Rachel sitting on his waist and not letting up the attack.
Keith’s laughs mingled with Rachel’s squeals of delight. There was the noise of a car parking in the driveway and a car door closing. Keith couldn’t greet his mother though all the laughing he was doing.
“Keith? What’s going on?” his mother asked.
Jake answered with, “Mrs Olbermann? I’m Jake Maddow.”
Keith tuned out the resulting conversation as Rachel yawned and laid down
on top of him. Keith wrapped his arms around and turned onto his side, effectively cuddling with Rachel in the grass.
“Uh oh, looks like someone’s getting sleepy,” Jake stated after a couple minutes. “Mrs Olbermann, it was nice meeting you.”
Keith stood and helped lift Rachel into Jake’s arms. The teenager said, “It’s time for your nap, little sis.”
“No nap. Not sleepy,” Rachel objected, rubbing her eyes.
“Yes, you are. Thanks again, Keith,” Jake said as he started to walk away.
“You’re welcome.”
“Bye-bye, Keef,” Rachel called over Jake’s shoulder.
“Bye, Rachel.”
Keith took off his glasses and ran a hand over his face. “No way… she lived down the street?” He was left speechless for a few minutes. He filtered through any other memories between their first meeting and the night the Regime began. Coming up with no other encounters with Rachel Maddow, he ran back to the house.