Author's Note: Hi, all! I seriously meant to update this story last night (I hope acciodanrad9 can forgive me!) but it was getting longer than expected and I was feeling sleep deprived. So, anyway here is the next chapter where Natalie is able to listen to her dad's radio for Keith. Hope you enjoy and please review!

Chapter 10

Partners in Crime

Natalie's head was spinning with all that Keith had told her as she made her way back through the woods. She couldn't believe that innocent people like him were being caged and starved for no good reason and to hear that her own father was in charge of such a place made her feel sick inside.

As she walked, she wondered if Keith had met her dad. Had her dad beaten him or had directly ordered someone else to which had resulted in his bruised cheek? Her stomach squirmed at the thought and she remembered the hurt and anger in his eyes as he told the truth about the Plague and how her entire life had been a lie.

Remembering this look in his eye made her even more determined to help him and others like him. Starting with doing what Keith had asked her to do: she would listen to the radio.

She had intended to go search for a radio the moment she got home, but her plans vanished when she stepped inside to find, of all people, Zach waiting for her.

"Where the hell have you been?!" he demanded, the moment she appeared. "You've been gone for hours! It's a good thing Mom and Raff aren't here otherwise they'd be so pissed at you."

"And you aren't enough?" Natalie asked as she moved calmly passed him to throw away the remains of her (and Keith's) lunch. "C'mon, Zach, I left a note saying I was going exploring."

"For five hours?!"

"Believe it or not, Zach, it's a really big woods that we're surrounded by so yeah, it's takes awhile to hike through."

"But what if you'd gotten lost and we didn't know where you were?!"

"Well, obviously since I'm here now, I didn't get lost, I'm fine," she replied in the same calm voice as before. She drank gratefully from the water bottle that she had just gotten out of the fridge and then asked him. "Why are you so upset? I'm the older one; I should be worried about you!"

"I…I've just never seen you do something so…adventurous," he admitted.

"Well, Zach, to be honest, I was going a bit stir crazy staying in and around the house all the time," Natalie told him, "and I wanted to see if I could find out more about those people we saw."

His eyes widened with interest then, his anger at her sliding away. "Really? Did you find anything?"

Natalie hesitated. It was tempting to tell Zach everything that Keith had told her, but she didn't know how he would take it and she wanted to keep Keith and the compound a secret for the time being so she told him. "No, I didn't find anything, I think I must've been going in the wrong direction or something."

To her relief, Zach said, "Okay, well, let me know if you find anything."

"I will," Natalie said but to herself she added, eventually.

That evening at dinner, she asked her dad, rather bluntly. "Dad, do you have a radio?"

Pete raised his eyebrows in surprise and confusion. "Why do you want to know that?" he inquired in genuine curiosity and not in suspicion as Natalie feared.

"Well, since you obviously haven't done anything about getting me a phone and I can't talk to Brooke, I'd like to hear what's going on in the world and I figured a radio is the next best thing."

To her relief, her dad smiled. "I understand your feeling of being cut off from the world, Natalie and I apologize but it's not like I could choose where my new job was going to be. And yes, I do have a radio. It's in my office and you can listen to it after dinner if you want."

"That'd be great, Dad! Thanks!" she answered happily.

And that was exactly what she did.

Unfortunately, this did not happen as quickly as she would've liked since Raff arrived as they were finishing dinner and didn't leave until it was nearly midnight. First he had 'something to discuss' with Natalie's father and then he wanted to talk to her. Natalie couldn't concentrate on their conversation as she could before since she knew that Raff worked for her dad and so aided in the mistreatment of the people who lived in the quarantine compound. So, she wasn't able to listen to the radio until Raff left which turned out to be much beneficial than she thought.

Her dad's radio was the standard black box kind that also functioned as a clock. Armed with a notebook and pen, Natalie spent several minutes trying to find a news station, but the only stations she could find were all music, sports or commercials. When she was close to giving up after not finding anything worth telling Keith about, she managed to hear through the static of one station the word 'diseases'.

Heart quickening instantly, she slowly turned the knob so that the static petered out and she could more clearly hear the speaker on the other end.

"I can only stress again that this story is always developing so information may become very contradictory or even be completely false as our reporters have been able to gather very information this new situation," the newscaster said. "But, we have in the studio with us, someone who may be able to shed some light on the story that was reported on by BBW.39 several weeks ago. Please welcome to the studio, Tobias Scholl."

"Toby, please," a second voice replied. "Tobias makes me sound old."

"And how old is that?" asked the newscaster.

"I'm twenty-five."

The newscaster laughed. "That's hardly considered old, Toby."

"I know but I sure feel old, Chris, after everything that's been going on and everything that I've been doing to correct it."

"Can you tell us about that?"

"Well, for starters, the story that BBW.39 reported on is true. There have been documents found that contain treatments for diseases that we haven't seen in a long time but what that station failed to report was that a select few of us already knew about those treatments and were trying to recreate them to help those in need."

"But you wouldn't have wanted that station to report that since then they would've known about your secret group, right?" asked Chris the newscaster.

"Exactly," said Toby, "but the fact that they got hold of the news about the documents makes us a little worried so we've been taking extra precaution."

"A wise decision," commented Chris, "and does your group have a name at all?"

"No, we considered calling ourselves The Doctors but figured that was way too obvious as to what we were doing but I think the whole point of having a nameless secret group helps to keep all the more secret."

"And what prompted you to join this group, Toby?"

"Um, well, my dad was a doctor and I've always wanted to be a doctor even since I was little," Toby began. "Since most doctors had gone into hiding after being persecuted for failing to cure the Plague, I obviously couldn't go to medical school but my dad wanted me to learn as much as I could so we starting looking for sick people who had gone into hiding like us and treating them. It was after a lot of them were being found and sent to the compounds that I knew I had to something to help them beyond just treating their diseases, especially since I considered some of them friends and wanted to help them in that respect."

Natalie's pen hovered over the page as she listened intently. This Toby Scholl had known sick people before they had been taken to the compounds, could he have possibly known Keith? Treated him even? Listening to the young man talk about the compounds and what he was doing to help, made her feel not so alone in her knowledge of them.

She continued to scribble everything that she could about the conversation as Chris and Toby continued to discuss the documents and the compounds and what was being done about revealing the truth.

Towards the end of the conversation, Toby admitted, "What I and the other members of my group would really like is someone who lives in a compound who could somehow give us a firsthand report of what is going on there, since none of us really know. Telling people about the compounds, I think would really open their eyes to everything that's going on."

"It seems like you guys have enough on your plate as it is," Chris joked, "but I can definitely see the benefits of such a person." He paused and then said, "Toby, this has been a very informative and enlightening conversation and I wish it could go on longer but unfortunately we're running out of time. So, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us."

"No problem, I'm glad to get the news in any way that I can," said Toby. "Thanks for having me."

"If you're not too busy trying to correct the world, will you come back and see us?"

"That'd be great! I can try and get my dad to come too."

"Awesome, although you've been helpful yourself."

"I try to be, anyway," Toby said and the smile was evident in his voice.

"All right, folks, that's all the time we have. Once again, many thanks to our guest, Toby Scholl for giving us such an extensive interview. We'll be back next week at midnight. This is Chris Graf for WR.182, signing off."

Natalie continued to stare at the radio even as the station dissolved into static. She couldn't believe everything that she had heard and could imagine Keith's face when she told him everything. She recopied some of her notes to make them more legible and then headed up to bed for what she knew was going to be a sleepless night.

A day later, Natalie was packing her backpack with as much food as she could carry without trying to make it look too suspicious. She had just zipped it shut when her mom entered the kitchen and asked, "Going for a hike again, Nat?"

"Yeah, there was this really cool spot I found that I want to try and find again," she said as she slung her backpack onto her shoulder.

"Well, take this in case you got hot and want to put your hair up," said Caroline and she handed her a yellow ribbon. Natalie glanced at before saying. "Mom, those things are so…childish."

"It's all we have, Nat." Ribbons were the only thing that women had to put their hair up, regardless of age. Natalie had heard that there used to be smaller elastic bands that didn't stick out as much as ribbons, but they weren't made anymore and ribbons were the only item for keeping long hair back now and Natalie absolutely hated them.

"I know, I know," Natalie grumbled as she grabbed the ribbon and stuffed into her pocket before she made her way out the back door.

Much to Natalie's displeasure, she ended up using the ribbon as the hike back to the fence was more tiring than the last time, mainly because of her stuffed backpack. Yet her anger and crabbiness disappeared when she saw Keith sitting behind the fence, waiting for her.

"I listened to a radio!" she cried the moment she reached the fence and nearly collapsed in front of him. "Oh my god, Keith, I wish you were there!"

"So tell me what it said!" he cried happily, a smile tugging at his lips.

"How about some lunch first," said Natalie as she opened her backpack.

"Oh, yeah, let's do that first," agreed Keith. "Food is always a good thing."

She handed him an apple and some cold chicken through the gap and then sat back and waited as he wolfed it all down, much faster than she thought possible.

"Keith, slow down, you'll make yourself sick!" she warned as he chomped into the apple.

"I'm starving, Natalie. I don't give a damn if I get sick from eating too fast, at least then I won't be hungry," he managed to say between bites.

But he must have cared because he ate the rest of the apple and Granola bar that she handed him much more slowly after that. When they had both finished eating, Keith asked, "So, tell me the news that you heard on the radio."

Using her notes as a reference, Natalie told him everything that she could about the interview with Toby Scholl. She watched to see if Keith recognized the name at all but his brow remained furrowed in concentration the entire time. When she was finished, however, his face relaxed into a small smile and he said sincerely, "Natalie…this is great. This is…the best news that anyone could've given me."

"No, the best news would be that you were going to be set free from the compound," said Natalie.

"Yeah, but this is the next best thing," said Keith, " 'cause there are other people out there who are aware of my situation and are trying to help…like you."

Natalie lowered her head, humbled by his kind words. "I'm glad you think so highly of me since I feel like I haven't really done much to help."

"Oh, yes, you have. Just coming here and talking to me helps," Keith told her. "It's like we're partners now, partners committing a crime by talking to each other in order to end a crime."

At that, Natalie couldn't help but smile. "I guess we are in a way." There was a brief silence between them before Keith said, rather shyly. "I, um, I like your ribbon. Yellow's my favorite color."

"It is?" Natalie asked, touching it as she spoke. "My favorite color is blue and I hate wearing this stupid thing even though there's no one around to see me wearing it, besides you of course."

"It looks…nice," said Keith, his face reddening in embarrassment.

Natalie smiled. "Thank you." She tugged the ribbon out of her hair, letting her long locks stream down her shoulders and it held out to him. "Here, you can have it. I really don't like it and since it's your favorite color, maybe it can brighten up your situation a bit."

Keith hesitated. "Are you sure…?"

"Positive, I'll just tell my mom that I lost it on my hike, really it's no big deal."

With his face a mixture of gratitude and uncertainty at her simple gift, Keith slid his hand through the gap and Natalie handed him the ribbon. He stared at for several long seconds, holding it just by the edges. Then he looked up at her again and said, "I'd better be getting back. I can't seem to thank you enough for the food, the news and now this ribbon so I'll say it again, thank you, Natalie."

"There's no need to thank me, Keith, the fact that you told me about your life and are brave enough to come and talk to me is enough," she replied. They stood up at the same time and Natalie stepped closer to him so that the only thing separating them was the thin fence. She resisted the urge to slide her fingers through the chain link to touch his hand since she didn't know how he would react. Instead, she simply stared into his calm green eyes.

"Well, until next time, partner," said Keith with wry grin.

"Yeah," said Natalie, blinking furiously to break the spell of his memorizing gaze, "see you next time, Keith."

Author's Note: Well, there you go! It didn't end with a cliffy but I definitely gave you some things to think about! Again, sorry for not updating sooner but this story has seriously gone in so many directions! I'll have an idea of what I want to write in one chapter and then I'll start writing and it'll completely change. Anyway, sorry for that tangent there, hope you liked it and please review!