Interview With the Mockingjay

by Kiwiwriter47

Here's a slightly different take on the events after "Mockingjay." A journalist from the Capitol's newspaper goes to District 12 to find out the real story - and come to terms with his own role in the Second Rebellion and his own lost love. Author's note: This story has become increasingly about the folks who fought the revolution and are building the post-war world.

10. Chapter 10

INTERVIEW WITH THE MOCKINGJAY – Chapter 10

For the longest time, Meredith and I embrace, our lips locked, tears flowing. She plops her head on my left shoulder and breathes, "I missed you so much"

"I never stopped looking for you," I said. "I thought you were dead, but I kept looking."

"I'm still here," Meredith says, "And I still love you."

I hear a clicking noise, and we both look up to see Archer snapping photographs of us. I'm stunned.

"Hey, 20 years from now, you're going to thank me for this," he says, looking at a picture on his camera. He nods critically. "You two look good together," he adds.

Meredith bursts into laughter. "A lot of people have said that to us," she finally says.

She uncurls from me and pulls me toward her desk and its piles of paper. "Look at this," she says, pointing to a framed photograph on it. It's a shot Kae Lyn took of Meredith and me together, at the graduation ceremony back in District 7. We have our arms around each other and are smiling for the camera. "I keep it right here. Do you still have yours?"
"It's at my bedside," I say, clutching her fingers to mine. "I'll wait for you," I sing.

"If I should fall behind, wait for me," Meredith answers, and we lock lips again. Finally, we pull apart, still holding hands.

"I don't know where to begin," I say. "What happened? Why are you here? Where have you been?"

Meredith places her index finger on my lips. "I have the same questions of you," she says. "But you have come to visit me, so you're going to have to talk first."

I sit down in the sofa opposite Meredith's desk and she sits next to me, still clutching my hand tightly. Neither of us want to let go. The small office is lined with bookshelves on one wall, a marker board on the opposite wall. Archer picks up a stack of paper reports from a chair and slouches down in that.

"You're obviously not here strictly to see me," Meredith says, smiling mischievously.

"Well, I am, but not originally," I answer. I stroke her hair. "You haven't changed," I say.

She pulls up her left pants leg. "Not completely," she says. There is a slight scar on her leg. "Second-degree burn when my Buffalo brewed-up," she says. "It doesn't hurt any more. I can still run."

I stroke the wound tenderly. "I'm sorry," I say. I came out of the war physically unscathed. Her leg still looks as sensual as ever, despite the scar.

Meredith tugs down the pants, and suddenly her manner changes to the more clipped style she had in our classes and on the battlefield. "So why are you here?"

I sigh. Back to work. "I'm here on business," I say. "I'm working for the Panem Times…are you familiar with that?"

"We don't get newspapers much out here," Meredith says. "We get our news off of TV."

"That explains why I haven't had a call from you at the paper," I say.

Meredith's lips purse. "I didn't know where to find you…or if I should." Her eyes are damp again.

"I said I would wait for you," I say. She squeezes my hand in reply, and nods.

"Guys, this is all wonderful," Archer blares from his chair, "And I really want to hear this story, but I am fucking tired, need a shower, we have to get in touch with the paper, we have a major, major, story to do, there are terrorists on the loose, and the Commissioner of this District wants to kick our asses out of here. Can we take care of a little business?"

I sigh. Meredith looks puzzled. "Who's your pal?"

"My photographer. Ace Archer," I say. "Ace, I guess you've figured out that this is Meredith Jackson by now."

"I kind of guessed," Archer says. "Great to finally meet you."

Meredith rises to shake Ace's hand, and asks, "What happened to Kae Lyn…was she…was she killed?"

"No, she's on another assignment," I say. "Chasing after the terrorists. They gave me Mr. Archer. He's from District 1. He needs some fine-tuning."

"I see," Meredith says, shaking his hand. "And you know about me and Charlie…how?"

"This morning, while we were on the train, Charlie told me how you guys first met."

"We were sharing a compartment in the train from the Capitol. I had a nightmare, and woke him up by shouting your name," I say, "So I had to tell him a little bit about us. I just told him how we met."

"I see," Meredith says. "And you told him…"

"It was all good," Archer says, hurriedly. "He pretty much said he fell in love with you the minute he met you."

Meredith smiles sweetly back at me. "All right," she says. "Well, at least he was accurate." She swirls back to behind her desk, trying to assume a business-like attitude. My lips are dry and my heart is pounding. What I really want to do is toss Archer out of the room and resume kissing Meredith, but I have to focus. I think back to the war, and see Tracker Jackers buzzing towards my position. I reach for the insecticide dispenser, and…

…I'm back in the moment.

"Are you okay?" Meredith asks.

I put up my right hand. "Archer and I have been assigned to get an interview with Katniss Everdeen. It's a major, major, story for us. We're to stay here as long as it takes to get it. We're also supposed to file stories about what's going on in District 12," I say.

"The cops didn't put you back on the train when you got here?" Meredith asks.

"We have a little support for our project," I say. I whip out the letter from President Paylor and pass it to Meredith.

She reads it and lets out a whistle. "No wonder the cops didn't throw you back on the train. Well, you shouldn't have any problems with this."

"Tell her the fun part, boss," Archer says.

"When we got off the train, the cops weren't there. So we went for a walk into the town."

Meredith shakes her head and hands back the letter. "First mistake. You should have waited for the police to arrive. Any journalists come here, they have to register with us."

"It gets worse," Archer says.

"Ace, I'm the writer, can I tell this story?" I interject.

Meredith grins. "You two are certainly a well-oiled team," she says. "How did it get worse?"

"We met up with Katniss Everdeen in town."

Meredith throws back her chair and laughs. "Have you pulled the arrow out of your back yet?"

I blush a little. "Actually, she had me carry her deer. I hauled it to her house."

"All right," Meredith says. "Very good. She's been known to attack unwanted visitors."

"And she agreed that I'm going to cook dinner for her tomorrow night."

"I'm even more impressed," Meredith says. "You won her over."

"Then the Chief of Police picked us up at her house and brought us down here," I continue.

"Of course she did. You broke another ordinance when you started talking to Katniss," Meredith says. "So can I assume that they hauled you down here and Commissioner Davis threatened you?"

"You sound like you know all this stuff already," I say.

"You're not the first reporters that came down here and tried to interview Katniss," Meredith says. The first team to come here was from the Capitol TV network, and they chased Katniss to her house and tried to break into it. So they passed an ordinance at a Town Meeting to protect her."

"What happened to the reporters," Archer asks.

"They were lucky to get back on the train with all their appendages intact," Meredith says. "They nearly got castrated."

Yeah, we are damn lucky, I think.

"Oh yeah, we're fucking lucky," Archer says. "Tell her how the day gets worse."

"When the cops brought us here, Commissioner Davis chewed our asses out," I say. "I told him we were invited to dinner, and he called her. She confirmed the dinner. Then he told us that because of we broke the ordinances, our case has to go to the Town Meeting tonight. And we're not allowed to attend, let alone speak."

Meredith glares. Not at me. "That idiot. He knows he can't bar you from a Town Meeting. The Open Public Meetings Act applies to all Districts." She drums her fingers on her desk.

I turn to Archer. "I told you he couldn't bar us."

Meredith whips the phone off her desk and punches in three numbers. "Commissioner? Yes, it's me. Hey, I'm talking with those two reporters…" She is cut off by an angry barrage of noise from the phone. Meredith cups her hand over the mouthpiece, and says, "He's upset."

"I've already had the live performance," I say.

She takes her hand off the mouthpiece and speaks. "Okay. He just told me you barred him from the Town Meeting, and…No, sir. You can't do that. No, sir. It doesn't matter how you feel about that. This is an Open Public Meetings Act issue. They cannot be barred, especially as they are accredited members of the press. Yes, President Paylor sent that down. You saw it. Three months ago. I see, sir. I'll be here." She hangs up.

"The Commissioner is coming down," Meredith says. "He's upset."

Archer shoves his hands into his eyes. "I can't wait to see how the day gets worse."

"So you're set for dinner with Katniss?" Meredith asks. "I wonder if I can crash that…"

The door crashes open, and Davis, his face slightly clearer of coal dust, bursts in. "What do you mean, I can't bar these assholes from the Town Meeting? Am I the fucking District Commissioner or aren't I?"

I rise to my feet, anticipating another battle.

Meredith rises from her seat to face her boss. "Sir, as I said, it's a Federal law. The Open Public Meetings Act applies to all legislative bodies throughout Panem. That includes District 12 Town Meetings. If we bar the reporters from the Town Meeting, we both could wind up in jail."

Davis squints down at us. "Fuck it," he says. "They can come. They'll get tossed out by majority vote, anyway. That I know is legal."

"Yes, sir, that is perfectly legal," Meredith nods her head. "The Panem courts have still not ruled on that ordinance." She shoots me a look that says that ordinance is likely to be overturned later. But that won't help me now.

"All right," Davis sighs.

Meredith walks over to me, and almost automatically, she puts her right hand in my left hand. "Sir, I am also required to report to you under the ethics laws that I have a relationship with Mr. Allbright."

Davis is baffled. He looks stunned. "He just walked into this office, and you have a relationship? What the hell is with you?" He barks at Meredith.

"He's my boyfriend," Meredith says firmly.

Davis laughs. "You just met the guy! What about all your other guys?"

"He's been my boyfriend for more than a year," Meredith says, squeezing my hand. "I told you many times I had a boyfriend."

"Who you haven't seen in a year," Davis says. "This guy is him? The guy you talked about? I thought that was bullshit!"

"She's right, sir. I'm him," I say, looking at him, then back at Meredith. "We met in Army training a year ago."

"Did you know he was coming?" Davis barks at Meredith.

Meredith shakes her head. "Not a clue. And I'll swear to that. But Charlie is my boyfriend, and if you want to recuse me from the Town Meeting on those grounds, I'll step aside."

"I thought you were…" He waves his hand dismissingly. "Ahh, fuckit, I don't care if you're doing another guy. All right, he can come to the meeting. So can you, I don't care how many guys you're sleeping with, as long as you run the meeting properly." Davis stomps out of the room, and turns to as he closes the door. He points at Meredith and me. "You know, you two look good together," he says.

Then he leaves and slams the door.

A furious Meredith disengages my hand, charges up to the door, and pounds on it, yelling, "You bastard! You miserable, fucking, bastard!" She bursts back into tears. Tears of anger and humiliation, not joy.

"Somebody please tell me what's going on here," Archer says.

I reach for Meredith and wrap her in my arms. She cries into my shoulder. "That man hates me. He's hated me since I got here. He thinks I'm sleeping with all the construction workers, and tells everyone that to discredit me. He's called me a whore. An efficient one."

I disentangle myself from Meredith, rush over to the door, and fling it open, seeing a ball of red fire. Nobody, no matter how big, is going to call my woman a whore.

As I fling open the door, Archer tackles me at the legs and knocks me down. "Let me go, Goddammit!" I yell.

He and Meredith drag me back into her office and she slams the door. Archer pins me down on the floor and rolls me over onto my back. "Jesus Christ! What are you thinking?"

"Did you hear what that son of a bitch said?" I shout. "He's calling my girlfriend a whore! I'm going to stomp the shit out of him!"

"No, you're not!" Meredith yells. "You do that, and you won't be on that train tomorrow, you and your photographer will both be in jail. And I'll be fired!"

"Listen to her, boss!" Archer shouts. "She's right. You'll feel great for 30 seconds, and then the cops will kick the shit out of you and cut off your balls! Do you want that?"

I look into Archer's face, and Meredith's. His face is hot. Hers is frightened. Sadly, they're right. "Okay," I say. "Now get off of me."

Archer rolls off and I climb back up onto the sofa. Meredith sits next to me and clutches my arm. "You were really going to go in there and beat him up," she says, admiringly.

"Yeah, I would have." She grabs two tissues from a box, gives one to me, and blows her nose. "You're still my hero."

I hold her tightly. "I won't let that bastard hurt you," I say, clutching her cheek against mine. "And I know you aren't sleeping around. I know that…I know you didn't."

"I'm going to ask again…what the hell is going on here," Archer pleads.

"I need to know myself," I say.

Meredith blows her nose again. "We need to talk, Charlie. You and me. A lot has happened."

"Tell me about it," I say.

"We have to take care of business first," she says, rising and returning to her desk. "Remember, they taught us that in training. Take care of your men and your mission first."

"I remember," I say.

Meredith collapses into her chair, and exhales. "Okay. We got you into the Town Meeting. That's at 7 p.m. tonight, in the big triple module building. We use that for Town Meetings and events. Now, assuming that we can convince the District 12 citizens to let you stay here, you are supposed to have dinner…"

"Cook dinner," I correct Meredith.

She smiles sweetly. "Cook dinner…for Katniss Everdeen tomorrow night. Well, as I said, you don't mind if I crash that party?"

"Excuse me," I gasp.

She dials four numbers on her phone. "Katniss? Hi, it's Meredith. Listen, I just met your two new friends. Yes, they're quite a pair. Well, do you remember me telling you about my boyfriend from the Army? Yes, only a hundred times. That's right, he's the reporter. Yes, I'm surprised, too. No, I didn't know he was coming." She spins the chair away from us, so that we can't hear the next piece of the conversation. After some chatter, she spins back. "So that's okay with you? Great. I'll tell him to make more food. No, I've never heard of venison fajitas, either. Yes, I'm sure they're good. Yes, he can cook a little. No, actually, they didn't arrest him. Right, that's going to the Town Meeting tonight. Of course I'll be there. You have a message for him? I'll pass it on."

Meredith cups the phone and says to me, "Katniss says she hopes that the odds be ever in your favor."

I wince at the cliché. Archer laughs hard.

Meredith back into the phone: "Well, he didn't like it, but his photographer did. Yes, I'll be there. See you soon." She hangs up.

"Well, I'm coming to the dinner," Meredith says. "First time you'll have ever cooked for me."

"You know I can do it," I say.

"Yes, you told me how you did it for your father…how is he, by the way?"

"He's okay…which reminds me, that's another thing we have to talk about."

"Can we hold off on that, too," Archer says. His patience is clearly gone.

"Ace is right," I say. "Look, we need a room for the night, get our stuff parked there, we need some chow, we need to contact our paper and tell them all the crazy shit that has happened today."

"No problem," Meredith says. She punches three numbers into her phone again. "Thom? It's Meredith. I need you to open up a two-bed room in the visitor's quarters. At least for one night. And arrange for transport for luggage." She cups the phone again. "Where's your stuff…on the Police Station floor?"

I nod. Meredith back into the phone: "On the Police Station floor. Their names are Charlie Allbright and Ace Archer. They're media. They need a phone with an outside line. And they need to be fed. Yes, get them mess numbers."

Meredith hangs up. "Thom is the in charge of the District's billeting facility, when he's not doing his shift in the mines," she says. "He's one of the survivors of the bombing of the District when the war started. He's a good guy. We have a little barracks for official visitors and a mess hall for police and officials. You don't mind dining with the cops, after they brought you down here?"

I shrug my shoulders. So much has gone on today, I need to refuel and regroup. I'm running short on energy. "If I don't get some chow soon, I'll have a splitting headache," I say, rubbing my forehead. "Ace, why don't you go out and get our bags loaded on whatever truck they're sending us?"

"Why me?" Archer asks.

"Ace, how about you go out and load our gear while Meredith and I have a private conversation," I say.

"Now I get it," he says, rising. "But you have to tell me the rest of this. This assignment has gone crazy." He walks to the door, then turns around. "You know, this is actually a hell of a lot more interesting than shooting a bunch of tourists at a Hunger Games arena."

"That's what you get when you hang out with the Black Devils," I say.

"I wasn't a Black Devil," Meredith says. "I was just in the armored infantry."

Archer points at us. "You know, you two getting back together…I guess the odds were in your favor, but you didn't know it." He goes.

Meredith comes out from behind her desk, shuts the door, sits down on the sofa, flings her arms around me, and kisses me passionately. Then we draw apart and stare into each other's faces, holding hands, in utter silence, for what seems the longest time. Outside I hear men singing.

"What's that?" I ask.

"Miners or construction workers changing shifts," Meredith says. "They sometimes sing when they come off shift. Most of them are veterans, too."

I recognize the song…it's an ancient song about missing the girl back home, and going back to her "when this cruel war is over."

"What happened," I finally ask Meredith. "The last time I saw you, you were driving off to resume the advance. They told me a day later your unit had been ambushed and nearly wiped out."

"My vehicle was hit, and that's how I got the scar. I was the only one who escaped. I got out just before it was burned out. After I got out, I passed out from the pain."

I smile slightly. "Please don't tell me you lost your memory or something melodramatic like that."

"No, nothing that heroic. I was awakened a while later, by an infantry unit, which was advancing, and they'd taken a lot of casualties, so the CO asked me to lead a platoon I stayed with them to the end of the war."

"Did you make it into the Capitol?" I ask.

"Not to the Presidential Palace, but into the City. After the surrender, I went back to District 11." She looks down at our entwined hands. "You know why I had to leave the District in the first place."

"Yes, I remember," I say. "But you never told me the whole story. Can you tell me now?"

"Not right now," Meredith says, her voice halting. "I wish we could have dinner together this evening and talk about it, but I have to prepare for the Town Meeting."

"After the meeting," I say.

"You might be on a train back to the Capitol," she says, her voice now cracking. She looks away from me. "I don't know what we're going to do now."

"We found each other again…I'm never going to lose you again. The war is over. Whatever is going on now, we can fix it…why are you here in District 12? Why does Davis hate you? Why is he calling you a whore? What's going on?"

"The Commissioner didn't want me appointed as Business Administrator," Meredith says. "Unfortunately for him, nobody else wanted the job, and none of the original surviving District 12 residents are capable of doing it…the few trained residents who administered this district were killed in the bombing. So they pretty much had to hire me."

"So Davis undermines you at every turn," I say. "He obviously can't attack you based on your abilities, so he attacks your character."

"He's made it clear he wants me gone," Meredith says. "He's just xenophobic. A lot of the people here distrust outsiders and the government. They don't like the construction workers, because when they require so much supplies, and when they're not working, they get drunk and blow off steam by misbehaving. They want their homes and shops finished, and they want to get out of the mines. Rebuilding District 12 is a real struggle."

"I can't believe he's accusing you of sleeping around," I repeat. "You haven't even slept with me…" my voice trails off.

Meredith smiles. "I know what you want to say. 'Yet.' I made a promise to you, I know."

"I promised you at the same time," I say. "I said I would rock your world."

"So what do you want to do, fair man," Meredith says, looking back at me, her eyes shining.

I stroke her hair. "I want to have you back in my life, I want to take you back to the Capitol, I want to introduce you to my friends and family…and I want to finally make love to you."

She strokes my hands. "I want the same things, too," she says. "But I don't know if I can go back with you to the Capitol."

"Well, I don't mean right now," I say. "I know you have a job here."

"No, it's not about the job here…that's going to end in five months, when they have the election. After Davis is elected Mayor, he's going to replace me with a District 12 resident. He's made that clear."

"Well, that's great…then there's nothing to stop you from coming to the Capitol."

Meredith strokes my hands. "Charlie, we have to talk. Somehow or other, you have to stay here, so we can talk about our…situation."

"I don't understand…what's going on?"

She kisses me tenderly. "You coming back here may be the best or the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life. And I don't know how it's going to turn out."

I hold Meredith tightly in my arms. "I spent the past seven months, wondering where you were. Asking about you. Hoping you were still alive. I can't live without you."

"I've got the same problem," Meredith says. "And that's what makes it so awful."

She stands up, still holding my hands in hers. "You came here to do a job," she says. "If you don't stay here, you can't do your job, and we can't solve this problem. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure you and your photographer can stay here to do your story."

"That's good," I say. "Because I don't want to lose you again. And I'm not going to let anyone separate us again."

"All right," Meredith says, smiling.

NOTE TO READERS:

Here's Chapter 10, a little late.

Adding chapters will continue, but will get harder…we are having major disasters at work, and the shop I joined in 1998 with nine people is down to three, and we have lost two Communications Directors in six weeks, one involuntarily, one voluntarily.

I want to thank every single one of my readers for their support of this project. I am truly astonished at the readership levels. I hope they're enjoying this journey.

I know I am.