Stick 'Em Up

"You know, I'm really glad Joey put the two of us together. I've probably spent the least time with you out of everyone and I've always wanted to get to know you better. I feel like you have the most interesting job of us all."

"You've spent more time with the Vice President of America than me and think her job is less interesting than mine?" Dawn asked Liv with bemusement.

"Sure, Clarissa is at half of the boring events my father drags me along to and she pretty much does the same thing as him, only at a higher level. The way I see it a politicians job is to lie to everyone and yours is to call them out on it, which is way cooler."

"It's a little more nuanced than that" the journalist laughed "But you aren't too far off"

Dawn was surprised at how much she had been enjoying Liv's company so far. She hadn't initially been too enthused by the prospect of spending half a day in the sole company of a woman who appeared to have next to nothing in common with her and whose boyfriend she was having a barely concealed affair with. But Liv seemed sweet, good natured and openly looked up to Dawn in a way it was hard not to feel flattered by. The reporter had resisted her every professional instinct to grill the Senator's daughter about the man who would be President by any means necessary. She couldn't imagine how Liv must be feeling about that at the moment or that her loyalties wouldn't be at least a little divided. So the conversation remained fun and friendly and everything was going swimmingly. Until..

"I feel like we need to stop soon and take a bit of a break."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea, Olivia. There's a strange, perverted but very real kind of bounty on us both. Do you want to be stripped naked by an angry, brainwashed mob?"

"Were gonna have to get out of the car at some point. You might be able to go twelve hours straight without peeing, they probably train you for that, but I certainly can't. We just need to pick somewhere quiet" Liv reasoned "Besides, we have our disguises"

"I don't think that kind of thing can be trained" Dawn laughed a little despite herself as she tried to imagine what Liv thought political journalism involved "I agree we can't get all the way back to DC without stopping but we should do it as few times as possible. It's been less than two hours so far and our disguises are hardly fool proof"

"But I drank a whole bottle of Mountain Dew just before we set off, remember? And I'm starting to feel hungry too."

"Fine" Dawn sighed, imagining this must be what it's like for a parent travelling long distance with their child "We can take a short break soon."

"You're really nice in person" Liv smiled over at the driver "I wasn't sure what to expect. My father has always been terrified of you"

"Yeah, well so he should be" Dawn smirked to herself.

A little while later she pulled her car up to the curb in what seemed like a quaint and quiet street in a small New Hamphire village that boasted both a convenience store and a public toilet, which seemed to be enough to keep Liv content for now. Dawn decided she may as well take the opportunity to use the washroom herself while they were there to avoid another pit stop a couple of hours later.

"Are you coming to the store with me?" Liv asked as they washed their hands together on the way out.

"No, I'm heading straight back to the car. Be careful and don't take too long."

Liv nodded before scurrying away to procure some snacks and drinks for the next leg of the journey. Dawn then began the short walk back to her vehicle until she was stopped by a heavy set bearded man wearing a blue cap and brown hoodie.

"Excuse me, don't I know you?"

"I doubt it, I'm not from here" Dawn answered curtly without breaking her stride.

"No, that's right. You're from Washington aren't you, fake Dawn?" he sneered menacingly "Stop right where you are. I SAID STOP!"

The man was now pointing a gun at Dawn who had no choice but to stand in place just a few tantalising feet from her Chevvy SS and raise her hands like a criminal who had just been caught.

"I knew it was you" the man almost boasted as he walked over to Dawn and looked her up and down "I'd recognise the fake Dawn Fraser anywhere"

"Clearly not, since I'm the genuine article"

"Oh yeah? That's exactly what the fake Dawn would say"

"It's also exactly what the real Dawn would say" she sighed heavily "You've been given misinformation"

"No, I don't think so.." the man fumbled around in his pocket to find a headshot of the reporter before presenting it to her like a hot shot lawyer armed with incontrovertible evidence "There, isn't that your pretty little face? You've just changed your hair to try and disguise yourself."

"If you just let me reach slowly for my phone I can make a call and clear this all up"

Dawn had never wanted to use the brainwashing clip she'd been given on anyone, but with a gun pointed at her she felt it was justified. Especially as she would technically be unbrainwashing the guy.

"No, you can't reach for anything at any speed you fake fuck!" the man seemed to have been inexpicably angered by Dawn's proposal and was now escalating the confrontation "I want your phone, your car keys, anything else you have on your person and all of your clothes, which you shouldn't even be wearing in the first place!"

"Are you fucking serious?!"

"Do I look like I'm joking?" he raised his gun a little.

Dawn looked around to see if there was anyone in sight who might be brave enough to take on a pistol wielding lunatic on her behalf. Apparently not. She therefore tossed over her phone, car keys and purse before grudingly beginning to undress at gunpoint.

"Is this your car?" the man then asked, to which she nodded "Heh, not anymore. Nice tits, by the way."

Dawn could only watch on naked and helpless as the armed stranger bundled all of her belongings into the passneger seat before driving away in her ride. Seconds later an empty handed Liv returned to the scene with a shocked expression on her face.

"Dawn! What happened to your clothes?"

"I told you it wasn't a good idea to stop here. I got recognised by some brainwashed freak with a gun."

"Really? Nobody questioned my disguise at all in the store"

"I'm very happy for you, Olivia" Dawn snarked "Look, I really can't keep standing around in the street like this and that fucker took my car. We'll need to use your credit card to book a hotel room for the night and figure things out from there."

"Oh..." the tone of Olivia's voice coupled with the almost apologetic expression on her face gave Dawn a horrible feeling her predicament was about to get even worse "the reason I didn't get anythng from the shop was that it turns out I left my purse in the car. It was pretty embarrassing actually. I only realised I didn't have it with me when my goods were already on the counter."

"That must have been mortifying for you" Dawn deadpanned before letting out an exasperated "FUCK!"

In her profession she had been trained to remain calm, composed and collected in almost all situations but this was really pushing her to her limits.

"Do you still have your phone?" Liv asked.

"No, I don't have anything at all. Literally. Look!" Dawn gestured down at her naked body.

"Maybe you won't get so much attention because everyone thinks you're supposed to be like this?"

"Yeah, apart from all the people who don't watch Naked Truth or who my disguise works on"

The pair stood looking each other for a few moments, neither of them having a clue how to proceed from here.

"The way I see it you can either try and find somewhere nearby to hide while I go and find somebody to help us, or you can come with me. That would mean heading into the main street where there are quite a few people but it's probably safer?"

Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes. Liv was right to be thinking pragmatically and those probably were the only two options currently available to her. But talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.