"You're sure you're up to this?" Freen asked as she tightened the cinch on the saddle belonging to the horse Rebecca would be riding on the trail that day.
Hers was already saddled, but she'd be handling Rebecca's tack for her. It was her responsibility to keep her safe, after all, and it wouldn't do to have the President breaking anything on a rather easy trail.
"I'm completely fine. Your sister said as much before we departed, yes?" Rebecca countered as she observed Freen over the saddle she was currently settling in place.
"Mm."
The corner of Freen's lips quirked slightly in amusement at the sudden, easy logic that Rebecca had laid down. Then again, she should have been used to that by now.
They'd been at Camp David for three days, now, and things were going as good as could have been expected. This ride was a good escape for Rebecca, who hadn't slept much. Who had been through quite a few frustrations regarding things that were far above Freen's pay-grade.
Yet, they were still things Freen was still happy to have Rebecca lean on her for.
Freen had even stayed up with Rebecca a night or two as she reviewed who she'd be entertaining the following day.
Yet, even with all this time they were spending together, there was never truly any time. Not until now. Now, it would just be the two of them enjoying an hour-long trail ride on a brisk morning.
Rebecca was almost nervous. It had been so long since she'd actually spent time one-on-one with anyone at all, much less Freen, who she'd started viewing as a friend.
"All set." Freen finally announced, offering Rebecca an inviting smile as she moved towards the stirrup Rebecca was approaching, standing still for her easily as her shoulder was used as a bit of a hand-rail for a moment.
Rebecca was still getting herself situated when Freen moved to her own horse and swung herself up into the saddle with an irritating amount of ease.
"Is there anything you don't excel at?" Rebecca asked slyly as she nudged her horse to catch up with Freen's.
"Well...you haven't asked me to fence with you, yet," Freen responded with a little chuckle that was so much warmer than the chill of the air outside the stables that were now behind them.
"Well, we'll have to set a date when we get back to Bangkok."
"Oh?" Freen asked, sounding like she was both hopeful and accepting of her fate all at once. "Do you miss it?"
"The Government House?" Rebecca scoffed with a look of disbelief thrown in Freen's direction. "I don't tend to miss places."
"What about people?" Freen countered. "Or are you immune to that, too?"
"I don't have many people to miss," Rebecca said, sounding oddly at peace with this reality.
Freen was quiet for a while before she started up again.
"You know...I know you were uncomfortable when Mind brought up your parents while I was in the room. I didn't know how to tell you this, or even if it would help but I'm adopted, too."
Rebecca was caught off-guard for a moment, and all she could do was fiddle with the reins she was holding in her hands until she finally managed to look at Freen, who had inched her horse just a touch closer to Rebecca's.
"Thank you for sharing that with me. Since you're feeling so open today, are you in the mood to tell me about that scar, yet?"
"Oh, this one?" Freen asked as her rather serious expression shifted when she pointed at her own face and smiled in a way that was almost silly.
"Second floor of a burning building caved in on me while I was saving a newborn lamb."
"Oh, no! What was the lamb doing in the burning building?" Rebecca's eyes were wide, and her expression was both feigned and mischievous.
"Oh, I don't recall, now. It's been so long, you know?"
Rebecca laughed. A long, wheezing, much-needed laugh that had Freen smiling from ear-to-ear.
Rebecca was so serious so often. And stressed even more frequently than that. No one knew that better than Freen. That was one of the reasons she'd reminded Rebecca about this trail and the tradition behind riding it. Well, one of them.
The other nagging thoughts that Freen kept just below the surface of her consciousness would have to wait.
"It feels a little strange to be doing this when there are so many other things that need my attention," Rebecca admitted once they turned down the first leg of the trail and were blanketed by the privacy of forest.
"It's not really leisure time." Freen countered easily. "Just another thing that's expected of you, so view it as another thing you have to get out of the way instead of something to feel guilty for."
"It doesn't feel like something to get out of the way." Rebecca glanced in Freen's direction as she admitted this, perhaps to both of them. "It's nice to be out here with you with no stacks of papers in the way."
"Try to let yourself enjoy it then, at least," Freen said - though her voice was strangely quiet.
When Rebecca turned to look at her, she saw the agent's attention was focused not on her, but the forest around them.
Rebecca hadn't even noticed the sound of branches cracking that Freen had heard, but she thought it best to stay quiet while Freen listened until she seemed satisfied that it wasn't anything that needed further investigation.
"Sorry," Freen continued with an apologetic smile. "I still have a job to do."
"Don't apologize. Rabbits are fearsome creatures, I hear." Rebecca jabbed playfully, and Freen chuckled under her breath.
For a while, they rode together in comfortable silence. Rebecca quite enjoyed the quiet. She also enjoyed the warmth and safety of having Freen at her side.
She was one of her only constants now, after all. One of the few things she could count on - day in, and day out.
That's why she had absolutely no chance of reacting in time when one of those 'fearsome' rabbits sped across the trail almost directly beneath her horse's hooves.
The horse was rearing within seconds, balking at Rebecca's tenuous hold on its reins.
Just as Rebecca was preparing herself for what was likely to be a rather uncomfortable fall, like a flash in front of her eyes, Freen had one hand wrapped around the alarmed horse's reins and the other on the front of her coat.
She'd never even left her own saddle.
Rebecca was shocked for a moment as the horse whinnied a few times after his hooves were firmly back on the ground, and Freen was still holding him strongly against her own horse's shoulder.
She was so focused on calming the animal down, she didn't even realize how tightly she was holding onto Rebecca's coat until every finally relaxed and Rebecca placed a hand over her own.
Only then did Freen let go, and rather quickly, as she looked Rebecca over with wide eyes for any possible sign of injury.
"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" Freen finally asked as Rebecca shook her head.
"No. No, not at all. Is your shoulder still intact?"
Freen let out a nervous laugh, half relief, half dismissal. "Of course, it is. I've handled worse things than scared horses."
"Like burning buildings with lambs in them," Rebecca suggested, finally fixing her coat where Freen had unintentionally bunched it up.
"Something like that." Freen reached out and gave Rebecca's horse a reassuring pat on his neck and got them walking again soon thereafter. "You're absolutely hilarious, by the way."
"That's a lot coming from someone who I didn't know could laugh until fairly recently." Rebecca quipped, finally managing to get the faint tremor out of her voice. But everything was fine, now.
Between the steady, low sound of hooves on the padding of pine needles and all the pleasant scents mingling together, she was starting to relax. "I didn't mean for that to be an insult if it came across as one. I know you can rarely afford to let your guard down."
"It didn't," Freen reassured her. "Not at all. I know how I can be. I also appreciate being a little more...myself with you."
"So do I," Rebecca admitted, glancing down at the water bottle Freen was offering her. "Thank you. Um...and thank you for earlier, too. I don't know how I'd live down being the first President in history to get taken out by a rabbit."
"Oh, don't worry." Freen took the bottle back from Rebecca once she'd taken a few sips and hooked it back where it had been. "I wouldn't let you go out like that."
"How would you let me go out, then?" Rebecca asked, clearly amused.
"I wouldn't let you go out, period." Freen sounded almost insulted, and Rebecca looked over quickly to make sure that she didn't look as wounded as she sounded.
Rebecca snorted quietly when she realized Freen was smirking and returning her look from the corner of her eye.
'Cute' came to mind. She didn't give voice to the observation, of course...but she couldn't do much about her thoughts. They were just thoughts, after all.
Freen was dealing with a few of her own. She wasn't new to protecting people. She wasn't new to dangerous situations. Not by a long shot.
What she was extremely new to, was just how hard her heart was still hammering just from the prospect of Rebecca being in real danger. Real, present danger, as benign as it had been, in the end.
Not that that was a bad thing. It was never a bad thing to have a genuine desire to do a job well. It was just...this felt like some sort of weird mixture of a job and something else.
Something that was easy enough to look past once they got back to the compound and back into the swing of things. When Freen was once again a silent presence, and not someone who very much wanted to keep making Rebecca laugh because Rebecca needed to laugh, sometimes.
Rebecca deserved to laugh sometimes.
Well, if you asked Freen, she'd say 'all' the time. But that just wasn't a reality. For the last few days of this trip, Rebecca was buried in formalities and things that just weren't Freen's area of expertise.
It wasn't until they were finally on a plane and heading home late one night that they were alone together, again. And Rebecca was trying everything in her power not to pass out.
"You should rest." Freen urged quietly for what had to be the dozenth time as Rebecca's eyelids drooped while she scrolled over a few emails she hadn't gotten around to reading, yet.
The lights in the plane were dimmed. There hadn't been any turbulence. It was the perfect storm. Yet, Rebecca shot Freen an almost pleading look.
"I'm so behind."
"No, you aren't. You're doing just fine. But if you don't rest, you're just going to get sick again. And then, you're going to work right through being sick, and I'm probably going to wind up dying of a heart attack or something, eventually."
Rebecca glanced in Freen's direction to find her already pulling a pillow and blanket out of the overhead storage that lined the ceiling above where she'd been lounging.
"I take it I don't have a choice?" Rebecca asked as Freen approached her. Despite her attempt at arguing, she lifted her head so Freen could place the pillow beneath it.
"You're the President. Of course, you have a choice." Freen responded easily as she took her time placing the blanket over Rebecca, then reached over her head to turn off the reading lamp she had on.
"This doesn't feel like a choice if I'm being entirely honest." Rebecca countered with a slight frown.
Freen sighed quietly and reached for Rebecca's tablet, removing it from her hands in a surprisingly gentle manner as she knelt down beside the sofa-like seat Rebecca was stretched out over.
"Alright. Let's try this, then." Freen dimmed the screen of the tablet and placed it aside as Rebecca finally settled her full attention on her. "Will you please rest until we get there? I would consider it a personal favor."
Rebecca was more than a little caught off-guard by this soft, unfamiliar side of Freen. She found herself very much wanting to ease her concerns.
"That's not very fair, actually," Rebecca complained quietly as Freen smiled, just a soft curl of the corners of her lips, then wrapped the blanket around her even more, managing to trap her arm beneath it, this time.
"I know. Are you going to fire me?" Freen asked with a quiet laugh.
"No. No, I don't think so." Rebecca had even pretending to consider it for a moment before answering. That had only served to broaden Freen's smile into something that even Rebecca's tired eyes had a hard time looking away from.
Because she knew it was real, mostly. She knew that these moments were real. "Alright. Alright, I'll sleep. Are you happy?"
"I'll be happy when you start snoring," Freen said when she finally stood and moved to her own side of the plane to watch over her.
"I don't snore," Rebecca responded, looking utterly taken-aback.
Freen lifted one of her brows and snorted quietly. "I have some bad news for you, Madam President."
"Don't tell me, then," Rebecca said as she turned on her side under her blanket to get more comfortable. "Leave me with at least some dignity."
"Alright." Freen conceded, propping her head in her hand and breathing a small sigh of relief when Rebecca's eyes finally shut. "You are nothing but graceful. Even in your sleep. I'm sure you've never snored in your life."
"That's better." Rebecca murmured. "Shh..."
"You can't shush me."
"Shh-shh-shh..." Freen insisted, somehow managing not to laugh through it. Rebecca might have had a comeback ready, were she not finally drifting off.
Freen realized after a while that she'd been watching Rebecca sleep for far too long, and instead reached for a book she'd set aside for herself. Reading was always a good distraction from her thoughts.
Well, usually.
But she couldn't help glancing up now and then to make sure Rebecca hadn't stirred. To make sure she didn't need anything.
And maybe just to look at her.
Even if she wouldn't admit that to herself.
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Disclaimer: Story is not mine, I only adapted it to FreenBecky Fanfic because I love this piece and I love FB. I want to see them portray the characters in this story.