Freedom Train

February 6, 1963

The night they got to Birmingham, Terry and Annabeth fell asleep on a cot that was tucked away in the back of the activist center. It was the best sleep either of them had gotten in the last few days. In the back of their sleeping minds, they heard the door open and close. They heard shoes shuffle toward them and the dangle of keys that accompanied them, but it wasn't until a throat was cleared that Annabeth's eyes shot open.

The faces of Henry, Bradley and a few other unfamiliar people stood staring over them, mixed expressions on their surprised faces. Annabeth had been lying on Terry's chest and he was still asleep. She slowly brought herself up and off him before she nudged him awake with her elbow, her eyes on their onlookers all the while.

Terry blinked his eyes open slowly until he noticed the audience above them. Then, he jumped to a sitting position beside Annabeth.

"Well, good morning, beautiful people," Bradley said, always being the one to break an awkward silence. Bradley smiled widely as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the pair. "What do we have here? And what in God's name happened to your face?"

Terry cleared his throat and looked over at Annabeth briefly.

"This is Annabeth," he said to them all, ignoring the question about his bruises and instead focusing on something beautiful.

Bradley and the others looked surprised to see them there, but Henry looked angry. His expression made Annabeth anxious and she began to twirl her fingers in her lap. Terry noticed and nudged Annabeth's knee with his own, stopping her nervous fidgeting.

"We've met," Henry said. "Except that night she was with Bobby Warren."

"It's a long story," Terry said pointedly to Henry, telling his best friend to drop it with a glare.

Bradley laughed lightly and pointed at Annabeth as if he'd just come to the realization himself.

"That's right! A few days ago Bobbo brought you here."

"And I introduced you two," Henry put in.

"We knew each other before then," Annabeth muttered softly.

Bradley laughed again.

"That's uh, interesting." Bradley smiled.

Annabeth smiled at him lightly, already beginning to like his joyful personality.

"You have no idea," she replied.

*~*~*

"This is some sort of joke, right?" Henry asked after he pulled his best friend away from the group.

"Don't start on me right now," Terry replied.

"How is your Annabeth and Bobby's Annabeth the same person? How does that even happen? It looks like you spent the last three days we ain't seen you getting your ass beat over someone else's girl."

"She's not Bobby's anything," Terry corrected as he poked Henry in the shoulder.

The conversation had just started and already, it was heading in the wrong direction.

"So, this is why I hadn't met her until today? Because you've gone and gotten yourself mixed up with a pearly white cracker?"

"She's as much a 'cracker' as you are a 'nigger.' Remember that."

"Difference is, my relatives didn't own hers, Terrence! It's all fine and dandy for these people to shed off their racism and join the cause but to shack up with one? It's like you're asking to be dead before the ripe old age of 25. I'd find you proof but looking in the mirror should be proof enough."