For ECM: I Am Yours (Till They Come)
Feb. 21st, 2011 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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thirdmondayTitle: I Am Yours (Till They Come)
Recipient: ECM
Fandoms: Real News
Rating: R
Warnings: Dystopia, angst, implications of character death
Characters/Pairings: Keith & Rachel
Prompt: Rachel & Keith or Rachel/Keith, "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"
Disclaimer: All copyrighted materials referred to in this work are the property of their respective owners. References to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author:lilalanor
Author's note: Set in a version ofbessemerprocess’s 28th Amendment Verse. Written for ECR with best wishes. Title from Devil’s Spoke by Laura Marling.
They end up together. Of course, it would end in this place, this room that was a Federal Court once, one that Rachel might have known in a reporting beat that now seems so long ago.
Lady Justice is in the basement, covered by a damn dust sheet. The ten commandants are right there, in glaring white marble and gold letters. She'd gotten a bruise for "well, I see render unto Caesar really worked out well for you," though looking back, it does seem like it might have been more of a Keith thing to say. The big lug of a grumpy badger had insisted on staying with her out of some misguided sense of....she has no idea.
But Rachel can't shake that image of Lady Justice in the basement covered by a damn dust sheet. It would be cliché, except it just looks so odd right there, next to the snack machine and the janitor's closet. (But hey, there are still snack machines.) They give her popcorn with her meals and she wonders why it's that, out of everything that brings tears.
She didn't cry when they read the death sentence out. She'd saved Keith from life in Terre Haute; that's all that ever mattered. Well, that, and knowing that somewhere, there's a family alive and together in Edmonton. If there's one thing she and Keith agree on right now (and actually, there's a short list related to this decision that they both made), it's that they are glad Dave and his family made it out.
They are both glad they are here, together. She's not sure she could return to the world again, after all of this. Better to be a beloved memory, a marble memorial, than a cold reality later, of a 'hero' who has been a terrorist. She killed with her bare hands, and some of those were not wearing a uniform.
They both called each other war criminals. Or they would have, when they were still journalists with TV shows and experts at their fingertips. Rachel figures maybe she should be scared that she regrets nothing; she isn't. They put Lady Justice in the basement next to a snack machine. The Constitution has been set on fire.
Keith quoted George Washington at his sentencing and Rachel mostly wanted to punch him the face for being entirely Keith-like. Then she just wanted to cry, the way she did in the old days when her hair was short and she wore suits or jeans and sneakers and climbed all over Keith, teasing him. These days, they won't let her near scissors to cut her hair.
They let her see Keith, though. There's no one else left to see them, and there's no point in caring anymore about what they might plan (after Anderson, there's a reason executions are broadcast on a delayed telecast), so they let them sit together in the yard, perhaps hoping for repentance. It's not Terre Haute, at least, this prison that had been a law court.
And so they sit together in this waiting room, holding hands for luck.
Recipient: ECM
Fandoms: Real News
Rating: R
Warnings: Dystopia, angst, implications of character death
Characters/Pairings: Keith & Rachel
Prompt: Rachel & Keith or Rachel/Keith, "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"
Disclaimer: All copyrighted materials referred to in this work are the property of their respective owners. References to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Author:
lilalanorAuthor's note: Set in a version of
bessemerprocess’s 28th Amendment Verse. Written for ECR with best wishes. Title from Devil’s Spoke by Laura Marling.They end up together. Of course, it would end in this place, this room that was a Federal Court once, one that Rachel might have known in a reporting beat that now seems so long ago.
Lady Justice is in the basement, covered by a damn dust sheet. The ten commandants are right there, in glaring white marble and gold letters. She'd gotten a bruise for "well, I see render unto Caesar really worked out well for you," though looking back, it does seem like it might have been more of a Keith thing to say. The big lug of a grumpy badger had insisted on staying with her out of some misguided sense of....she has no idea.
But Rachel can't shake that image of Lady Justice in the basement covered by a damn dust sheet. It would be cliché, except it just looks so odd right there, next to the snack machine and the janitor's closet. (But hey, there are still snack machines.) They give her popcorn with her meals and she wonders why it's that, out of everything that brings tears.
She didn't cry when they read the death sentence out. She'd saved Keith from life in Terre Haute; that's all that ever mattered. Well, that, and knowing that somewhere, there's a family alive and together in Edmonton. If there's one thing she and Keith agree on right now (and actually, there's a short list related to this decision that they both made), it's that they are glad Dave and his family made it out.
They are both glad they are here, together. She's not sure she could return to the world again, after all of this. Better to be a beloved memory, a marble memorial, than a cold reality later, of a 'hero' who has been a terrorist. She killed with her bare hands, and some of those were not wearing a uniform.
They both called each other war criminals. Or they would have, when they were still journalists with TV shows and experts at their fingertips. Rachel figures maybe she should be scared that she regrets nothing; she isn't. They put Lady Justice in the basement next to a snack machine. The Constitution has been set on fire.
Keith quoted George Washington at his sentencing and Rachel mostly wanted to punch him the face for being entirely Keith-like. Then she just wanted to cry, the way she did in the old days when her hair was short and she wore suits or jeans and sneakers and climbed all over Keith, teasing him. These days, they won't let her near scissors to cut her hair.
They let her see Keith, though. There's no one else left to see them, and there's no point in caring anymore about what they might plan (after Anderson, there's a reason executions are broadcast on a delayed telecast), so they let them sit together in the yard, perhaps hoping for repentance. It's not Terre Haute, at least, this prison that had been a law court.
And so they sit together in this waiting room, holding hands for luck.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-22 08:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 07:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-22 02:26 pm (UTC)it's that they are glad Dave and his family made it out.
*meeeeeep*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 08:00 am (UTC)*It's 'what if the kidverse in the 28th had a happier ending story'.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 01:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 07:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 01:25 am (UTC)*wibbles hard*
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 07:59 am (UTC)It's...I am so so very glad that this did not happen.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-24 07:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 07:58 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-28 10:50 pm (UTC)This doesn't break my heart so much as rip it out of my chest and step on it. The whole story, really, but those two sentences, and the focus on the snack machines... Ow. This is wonderful and hurty. <3
(no subject)
Date: 2011-03-02 07:59 am (UTC)