Too Late, a jericho fanfic

Title: Too Late

Author: Marianne H. Stillie

Categories: Angst, Episode Tag for One If By Land

Rating: K+

Pairing: Jake & Heather

Season: Season 1

Summary: Jake's plan to finally pursue a relationship with Heather comes too late.

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and places for Jericho are the property of Junction Entertainment, Fixed Mark Productions, CBS Paramount Television. This piece of fan fiction was created for entertainment, not monetary purposes and no infringement on copyrights or trademarks are intended. Previously unrecognized characters, places and this story are copyrighted to the author. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

Archive: Please do not archive anywhere without the author's permission.

Author's Note: After spending the last four years writing Stargate fan fiction, SG-1 and Atlantis, a new muse has suddenly appeared named Jericho. I'm very much enjoying the producer/writers' tactic of having three women characters circling around the Jake Green character in the show and I'm really looking forward to what they're going to do with each of the women as they wander through Jake's life in Season 2. With this, my first Jericho fan fiction story, I'm officially declaring the 'ship' pairing I prefer. Hope you like it.

Too Late

Jake hadn't known where to go with his rage. Or how to let it out without shooting something, or someone. When Eric had answered his question about where Heather was, he hadn't expected the words his brother had uttered, coldly and with total finality.

Free of the New Bern jail and back in Jericho, he'd settled for a quiet spot behind his family's home. The spring afternoon sun was leisurely making its way across the cloud-splotched Kansas sky. Settling himself on the damp ground, he opened the first Mason jar from Bailey's. The clear, sharp liquid went down easily and quickly.

He hadn't wanted her to go to New Bern after the fiasco at Black Jack Fairground but he couldn't stop her. Truthfully, he could have, if he hadn't been afraid to show what he really felt for the small dark-haired woman who had been seeping her way into his heart since that first horrible day and their ordeal on the school bus. As he'd lain in the ambulance that night, bleeding, in pain and totally exhausted, his sensory-overloaded mind kept slipping back to her face.

Despite the Armageddon atmosphere all around him as the days passed, he'd held onto her voice saying his name and it helped. The unexpected kiss just before he'd left for Rogue River came as a complete surprise. That hadn't kept him from enjoying how good it felt and responding as openly as he could considering they were in the middle of town in broad daylight.

His promise to come back had been meant to go deeper than the obvious when he'd said it. Despite the danger and uncertainties they were living with, he recognized his feelings for her as an unexpected chance to start fresh. There was no going back to Emily. It would have been a poor attempt at changing the past when what he really wanted and needed was a renewed future. Yet, as each day went by without seeing her, he'd found himself putting up barriers as his unresolved demons came back to haunt him one after another. The excuses to avoid her had piled higher as he relived all his bad choices and past mistakes.

The alcohol was working so well, he no longer felt the rough tree bark through the back of his shirt. He did feel the air turning cool as the sun began to disappear into the west. A few gulps from the second Mason jar and the warmth came back.

His swirling, confused mind jumped back to the Black Jack events. The very lame words he'd said in response to her claim that she wasn't hazardous enough for the way he ticked leaped out at him, hurting as badly as her promise to be away for only a few days. He hadn't wanted to let her out of his arms, physically or emotionally that night, yet all he could say was a trite request to come back in one piece.

Since she'd gone to New Bern he'd been taking stock, hoping and planning to make up for what he'd let slip by before. He'd wasted so many hours and days since their kiss, time they could have spent talking and really getting to know each other. His dreams while he recovered from almost freezing to death on that road had been filled with her open loving smile, and her sweet laughing voice saying words he hadn't heard in so long. He took risks so easily in other things. He had to take this one most of all. That she saw him with different eyes than other women had would be his final saving grace in the insane life they had been trapped in since the bombs.

It was the third jar of hooch that forced him to admit it was his silence and cowardice that were the true reasons she had left. She needed to prove herself worthy of him. The real truth was that they had already become equals, bringing out the best in each other. Now it was his fault she was dead, like the others. Her trust in him had killed her just as surely as if he'd pulled the trigger himself.

Those short weeks ago he'd warned Russell what he'd do if anything happened to her. Now they were in a war for survival against their neighbors. The time to take his revenge would come, very soon. The possibility that he might die this time was very high. With her gone, he sensed his luck was finally running out. If he'd learned nothing else since that day he'd innocently come home, it was that doing the right thing was sometimes as painful as screwing up.

With a surprisingly steady hand he drained the last swallows of moonshine from the last Mason jar. His baseball-trained arm flung it at the thick tree trunk several feet away. With a satisfied scowl of deep hatred, he heard it smash then watched the shards fall to the ground on top of the other three shattered, empty jars.

Jake's tear-filled eyes stared into the dying rays of sun sinking into the horizon and he cried out, "Heather!"