Author's Note-I'm trying to post the rest tonight, while listening to my new Franz Ferdinand cd. Mwahaha...they "inspire" me.....so here yas go.
Goodbye, My LoverJackson.
“Oh my god,” Lisa screamed, beginning to shut the door. Jackson caught it with his foot and pushed his way in, locking the door behind them.
He went for Sarah first. She screamed once before he slammed his head against hers, successfully knocking her out. Lisa yelled again and reached for the lamp to hit him with. He grabbed her wrist and with his other hand delivered a heavy blow to her face. She fell to the floor and he grabbed her, pinning her against the wall.
“I have to admit, you had me fooled,” he growled. “But honestly, Lisa, did you seriously think I wouldn’t find you? You’re way too predictable.”
Lisa tried screaming again but Jackson slammed her head against the wall and pushed his hand over her mouth.
“You did a nice job, I have to hand it to you. Pretending to be drunk, tricking me into believing you were docile,” he snarled. “But guess what?”
He brought his hand to collide with her face. She gasped and tumbled to the floor, her eyes stinging with tears. He pulled her back up by her hair and she emitted a scream. Jackson held her against him and forced her to look into his eyes. His hand still clutched her hair.
“You want me to call? Do you want me to make the damn call?” he snarled.
“No, no, no...” Lisa whimpered, tears streaming from her eyes.
“Too bad,” he snapped, dialing a number. Lisa writhed and screamed, trying to grab the phone but it was in vain.
“Yeah. Go ahead,” Jackson spat into the phone and then paused. “What the f*ck do you mean, she’s not there?”
Lisa couldn’t help but feel triumphant. She’d called Tanya on the plane, to warn her to sneak out the back. Lisa had figured it would be futile to contact the police.
"Find her!” Jackson yelled. “What the hell do you think I’m paying you for?”
He hung up and pocketed the phone. He grabbed Lisa by the throat.
“Where the is she?” he demanded as Lisa began to sputter. “f*cking tell me!”
“I don’t know, Jack,” Lisa choked out. “Isn’t it your job to keep tabs on people?”
She had no time to say anything else before his head collided with hers.
Lisa awoke a while later. She was in a bed. Her head was pounding and her entire body ached. She groaned and sat up, blinking.
She had no idea where she was. It looked to be an ordinary bedroom, not one of a hotel.
Lisa had no time to think further as Jackson entered with a glass of water. He raised an eyebrow.
“Its about time you woke up,” he said coolly. “You were out for two days. Here. Drink.”
He handed her the water and some aspirin. Lisa begrudgingly swallowed both.
“I was worried you were suffering some sort of brain damage,” he said lightly. Lisa glared at him.
“Keep knocking me out and your wish just might come true.”
Jackson smiled at her and Lisa realized something. She jumped up from the bed as another spasm of pain went shooting from her head.
“Where’s Sarah?” she demanded.
“Relax, Leese,” Jackson sighed. “She’s in the other room. She was out for much less time than you were. We had a nice chat, actually. She’s much more...obedient...now.” Lisa stared at him, horrified.
“You arsehole, I swear to God if you touched her-” Lisa threatened. Jackson took her arm.
“Calm down, Jesus,” He sighed. “We talked. I’ve told you before that sort of thing is below me.” Lisa just glared at him.
“They found Tanya,” he informed her. “But she’s not dead. I figured the injury was enough punishment.”
“Damn straight,” Lisa spat. Jackson rolled his eyes and left the room.
“Come on,” he told her. “Time to eat.”
Lisa rolled her eyes and followed. They were in a spacious apartment with no windows. She glanced around and then looked at Jackson.
“Where are we?” she questioned.
He paused, setting three plates out on the table. “Headquarters.”
“For your goddamn company?” Lisa insinuated.
Jackson nodded and sat down. He slid a plate of macaroni and cheese over to Lisa’s side of the table. She unwillingly sat down, still looking around at the apartment. It was clean, but fairly undecorated. It was modernized, though, all of the kitchen items being a shiny stainless steel.
“What about Sarah?” Lisa asked him as Jackson began eating.
“She ate already, about an hour ago.”
Lisa didn’t eat yet. She had questions, still.
“Would it kill you to give me a little more information about what’s going on?” she pressed. Jackson sighed and laid down his fork.
“We’re at headquarters. This is my apartment. Tonight Keefe’s going to be taken out. If you behave, tomorrow you can go home,” he explained, although Lisa noticed a slight cringe in his voice as he said the last part.
“What?” she asked excitedly. “Tomorrow?” She leaped up and despite her current hostilities towards him gave him a huge hug. Then she looked embarrassed and shrank back into her chair.
“Where exactly is headquarters?” she continued shyly.
“I don’t know why you’d care, but Miami,” he informed her. “We drove down from Washington, DC.”
Just then Sarah entered, and, seeing Lisa awake, came over.
“Lisa, can I talk to you?” she asked in a choked voice. She looked close to tears. Lisa shot a confused glance at Jackson, who shrugged. Lisa nodded and followed Sarah into her bedroom.
“What’s up?” Lisa took Sarah’s arm and searched her face. “Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”
For the first time since this mess had begun, Lisa realized just how young Sarah was. She began to cry and collapsed into Lisa’s arms.
“My dad’s going to die...and its my fault...I can’t stop it...” she was sobbing. Lisa began to cry with her.
“It’s not your fault, Sarah,” Lisa whispered. “It’s their fault.”
Lisa silently closed the bedroom door behind her half an hour later. She knew that with her reddened eyes and swollen cheeks she looked like sh*t, but she didn’t care.
There wasn’t anything Lisa could say to her. Nothing at all could be said to console the teenaged girl. And there was nothing Lisa could do to stop the murder.
Jackson turned from where he’d been washing dishes and looked at her. Lisa didn’t look up. He strode over and looked into her eyes.
“It’s not fair,” she whispered childishly. He then did something Lisa didn’t anticipate. He wrapped her up in his arms in a warm embrace and said simply,
“I know, Leese. I know.”
The car eased its way up in front of Lisa’s apartment late in the afternoon the next day. Sarah sat in the back, seemingly numb. Lisa opened her door and hugged her tightly.
“Take care, okay?” Sarah just nodded. Lisa shut the door and Lisa followed her up to her front door.
“So...I guess this is goodbye,” he said quietly.
“Guess so,” Lisa answered quietly. Jackson stepped forward as if to kiss her but Lisa backed away.
“Jackson...no. I can’t take it right now,” she told him, tears forming. She opened her door and turned back to him.
“Goodbye, Jack.”
Lost GoodbyesLisa entered her apartment. Two weeks. Two weeks she’d been gone yet it felt like a lifetime.
She numbly clicked on the television. The news was blaring.
“Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Charles Keefe was shot and killed by an unknown...” she clicked it back off.
The sun shone outside and Lisa knew she should cal her father or the police but she didn’t. Instead what she did was walked to her room, drew back the comforter of her bed, and crawled in. And then, curling into a ball, began to cry.
Gradually, things began to return to normal. Well, as normal as they could get, anyway. Two weeks later her life had returned to how it was before at work and home. She spouted off lies about her kidnapping. She’d gone willingly. After all only her father knew the truth and she begrudgingly lied as she asked him to. He questioned why she didn’t want Jack Rippner thrown in jail. She didn’t answer, simply because she didn’t know the answer herself.
His face still flashed before her mind when she allowed it the luxury to drift. So she forced herself to work more and think less. It hurt too much to think of him.
She wondered for a little bit about what they’d had. She didn’t know what to call it. Her heart said love but her mind said lust. It was hard to choose which one was right.
Around six o’clock one night Lisa was cooking some pasta with the tv on to keep her company. She’d found it easier to avoid thoughts of Jackson if it was blaring. It was the news, which had thankfully cooled down from reporting on the Keefe murder to play news of new scandals. Lisa had taken to watching old Full House reruns while that had been playing.
Lisa carried the noodles back to the sink to drain as she listened to the reports. “Do you really think I give a sh*t about Britney Spears’ liposuction?” she sighed to herself as the phone rang.
Lisa let it ring through as she dried her hands. She figured it was her father, since he called at least twice daily now. He would leave a message anyway.
At first all she heard was silence and she moved to delete it.
“Goddamn telemarketers,” she muttered as her finger touched the delete button. Then a voice began to speak.
“Leese,” the too-familiar voice said. Lisa’s chest seized up and every fiber of her being told her to delete it but she was frozen. “It’s-well, I think you know who it is,” his voice was pained. “I haven’t slept for days now. I’m a mess and I hate to admit it but I miss you. I know you won’t listen but...” he took a deep breath. “In short, I’m a huge ass and I miss you. Please, Leese...” his voice cracked, something that shocked her. “I need you. You’re all I have left that’s not sh*t and I love you, so, so much.” Then there was a pause. “But...you’re obviously not there or you’re sitting there laughing at this message so...I’m going to go now. G’bye, Lisa.” Click.
Lisa’s chest still felt frozen. And then, as if he were in the room with her, she spoke. “Anything but, Jack. Anything but.”
