The courtroom was stuffy and hot, Lisa noted, sitting at the prosecution's table. There were a lot of people here, and the press was outside, trying to be the first to get information on what was the most high profile criminal case of the century. She was dressed professionally in what she just realized was the blue suit that she had worn to the airport initially, that the woman spilled iced coffee on. Suddenly antsy and uncomfortable, Lisa turned to look at the opposing table that was currently empty.

She hadn't seen him in a long while, since that day in the hospital that she tried to push from her mind every single day since then. Sometimes she was able to do it, but a lot of the time, she couldn't stop thinking about him. Not all thoughts were pleasant, obviously, since he did try to kill her, her father, ruin her career, and murder a politician with her help. Not to mention destroy the hotel she works in and head butt her so hard she was out for half an hour.

Jackson Ripper almost took everything away that was important to her. And she would never forgive him for that. Her nails tapped nervously against the polished wood, wondering if she was going to be able to handle seeing him again. Lisa knew that her emotions could tip one of two ways: she could feel the hatred, the angry, the pain and the horror at what he did, what he could have done, what almost happened to so many people.

Or two, she could feel that shake in her heart, that uncertainty of her emotions when she looked into his eyes, when she remembered how he had been before they had even boarded the plane. He manipulated her from the very start, she saw now. But she also saw a shade of sincerity in the way he spoke to her, about what happened being out of her control. She felt it deep in her soul, in the very core of herself, that he did have a heart somewhere beneath the facade of a murderer and a cold individual. There had to be a human under there somewhere.

Keefe was there too, she noted after a moment of staring around the room, trying to clear her head. She was the star witness of the prosecution, without her, they didn't have a case. Rippner had told her everything, shared every intricate detail of his plot except his employers, but they were hoping that he would accept a plea bargain for that tidbit of information. Lisa swallowed hard, knowing that she couldn't allow herself to be emotionally compromised. This was too important, the outcome to dire for her to mess this up because she didn't know how to feel.

A door opened and a man in the burnt orange prison garb strolled in, looking as though he was the most comfortable person in the world. His hair was pushed back away from his face, his clear blue eyes unafraid and unabashedly looking around the courtroom and, without fail, they found their mark. Lisa nervously met his gaze, and he smiled at her, nodding his head once at her before taking his seat at the table with the defense. As he shifted in his seat, she caught a glimpse of the stark white bandages on his throat, and felt guilty for that. She shook her head, knowing that he deserved it.

The ceremony was a blur to her, speeches and statements and the judge mediating between the prosecution and the defense. She was a smart woman, but this was hard to keep up with when Jackson's eyes were focused on her since the moment he came in, while she was on the stand reenacting the terror that was the flight back home, the chase, the attack, everything that happened to her. It was hard to keep her eyes away from Jackson's as she was cross examined, questioned until her throat was sore and the story ran raw in her mind.

It was almost as terrible as reliving it, but not quite. Her voice grew hoarse as she explained about the man outside of her house, how she thought that he had killed her father, and rammed him with the car. It didn't matter though, implicating herself. She was safe because of her testimony, safe from stealing the car, evading the police, shooting Jackson himself. Her father was safe too, and she was grateful for that.

As she stepped down from the stand, she saw that Jackson's face was, for a moment, betrayed and hurt, hopeless and lost. He was going to lose and he knew it from the very start. Lisa looked away from him before he could catch her staring, wishing more than anything that it didn't have to be this way, that maybe they could have really met at the airport, and he actually liked her and wanted to get to know her. The worst part was she had felt like she had connected with someone for the first time in years, attracted to the handsome face with the sea blue eyes and the dark hair. He had seemed like such a charming, wonderful man at first.

But it just goes to show that you can't trust a book by its cover.

The court took a recess until the next morning after that, and she felt relieved more than anything that she didn't have to deal with being there any longer. She stood up as they pulled Jackson back into the jail, his eyes looking back at her until the door shut behind him. She shook out her hair, and met up with Cynthia, who was looking rather concerned. "Hey Lisa?" she said, his eyes flickering to the door where Jackson had just vanished. "That guy, Rippner, he couldn't keep his eyes off of you."

"He probably wants to kill me for stabbing him in the throat with a pen," she sighed, slightly untruthfully, because she wasn't sure what he wanted from her. "Don't worry about it Cynthia, he can't hurt me." The two got coffee from a cafe across the street, Lisa's mind a million miles away, somehow still back on that airplane, going through scenarios that could have happened that didn't include anyone's death or suffering.

Standing up from the table, she said quickly, "Cynthia, I have to do something, don't, uh, wait for me okay?" Lisa didn't wait for an answer as she rushed back to the courthouse, thinking to herself that she had to have lost her mind by this point.

As she rushed through the building, Lisa stopped by a jarred door, two hushed voices conversing quickly inside. She saw the prosecuting lawyer with Keefe through the gap, and leaned closer, wondering what was going on. "...we'll pull this out near the end," the lawyer said, his hands folded together. "We'll tell Rippner that he will be charged with second degree murder for the death of Ida Moore unless he gives up his employers' information." Her blood grew cold; she knew Jackson would never betray them, he'd rather die because they would kill him anyway. "He'll talk to avoid a life sentence in jail, I know he will.

She burst into the room and the two of them glanced up at her in shock, their voices cut short at the sight of her. She didn't really have a plan, just that female based emotion that Jackson so aptly accused her of. "I'm withdrawing my statement," she said angrily, standing before the prosecutor with her hands clenched. "This isn't a fair trial, it's nothing more than a political gain for you, Keefe. This man is being unfairly tried for a crime he never committed." There was silence as the two men glanced to each other, before the lawyer nodded to him.

Keefe took a step forward and leaned down to her face, his expression more frightening than she had ever seen in her life. "If you withdraw your statement, Lisa, you can get pinned for assault, grand theft auto, three counts of attempted murder. You will be in jail for a very long time." She bit her lip, watching the two pairs of harsh eyes that were fixated on her face. "All we want from him is the name of who he was working for. If he cooperates, he gets a year in prison and then he's free on parole. If he doesn't, well, he gets 25 to life at best."

Lisa gnashed her teeth together, trying to find a way out of this for both of them. It wasn't fair that they were pinning the death of a woman on him. Yes a hunk of debris from the destruction of Keefe's room had fallen on her, but Jackson... it wasn't Jackson's fault. She couldn't stand by this and let an innocent man be charged with second degree murder when he pulled no trigger, he send no bomb into the hotel. "Let me talk to him." Keefe watched her for a moment before shrugging, motioning her to follow him.

She was led to a room with two chairs and a table and a camera in the corner. Lisa's heart was pounding like a jackhammer, knowing that in a few minutes he would walk into that room and everything she was so certain of would be gone from her mind. The door creaked, and she prepared herself, keeping her eyes away from him until the last possible moment. The chair screeched against the linoleum, and Lisa kept her eyes on her hands.

"Hello, Leese." She looked up at him and wasn't surprised to see that he still had that effect on her, sending her heart through loops, making her dizzy, making her remember the taste of his lips on hers.

"Hello, Jack," she replied, keeping her composure the best she could. "We need to talk."

"I imagine that's why you're here," he said with a smile, placing his cuffed hands on the table before him.

For a moment Lisa was taken aback by his candid demeanor, but knew that she had to do this, otherwise she knew that a part of her would be lost before she even had a chance to know truly what it was. "You need to tell them what you know, about who hired you," she said, pleading.

"Or what Lisa? The worst they have me on is attempted murder, and that's a minimal penalty even with your evidence against me." He shrugged the worry away, and she wished she could do the same, her mind heavy with the knowledge that not all was as peachy as he thought it was.

"Second degree murder, Jack," she said, running a hand through her hair. He looked confused, and she held up a hand to make him stay quiet so she could finish. "A woman was crushed by the debris from the hotel and died. They're pinning that on you with no one else to blame for her death. You didn't kill her, but you orchestrated the explosion that did." For a moment he stayed silent, and she could see that he was thinking very hard about his options. As far as she was concerned, there was truly only one to consider.

"I'm touched by your concern, Leese," he said, his voice amused. "But I can handle this myself."

She looked at her hands. "If you don't tell them, I'm going to be withdrawing my statement, Jack. They can get me on a lot of charges, but at least they can't get you on anything." Jackson's expression grew confused, but Lisa said nothing more, her eyes averted away from him.

"Why would you do that for me?"

Startled, she replied, "Not for you! Keefe is using this entire thing to further his career, Jack. To make himself look better. I can't let someone twist justice around like that." She sighed, closing her eyes sadly. "He's not the man I thought he was..."

"Maybe you should have just let him die," he offered and she glared at him. He raised his hands as far as he could in defense, the smile around his lips looking more appealing by the moment. "It was just a suggestion." They sat in silence for a few minutes, and Lisa carefully glanced his way, wondering what he was thinking. She sat up straighter in her chair and touched his hand with hers, and he gripped her fingers. Lisa was surprised she didn't pull away, surprised that she didn't take her hand back. "Leese, don't give up anything for me, I'm not worth it."

She shook her head. "You could have been," she replied sadly, watching the contrast of his skin against hers where their fingers were entwined.

"No use dwelling in the past," he advised and she nodded slowly, pulling her hands away from him, regretfully. She knew that she would never be strong enough to keep herself in check when it came to him. Her emotions were too strong after laying dormant for so much time, and she knew that if push came to shove should could fall in love with Jackson Rippner. "I wished, Lisa, the entire time I was watching you, talking with you, all of it, that I could take you with me. You've got everything I could want, but like I said, the past is the past right?"

"Don't tell me that," she said, her voice nearly a whisper, nearly toppling the chair over as she stood up. "Don't talk to me as if this is something that could ever be salvaged, that anything between us could ever grow. Not that I would want it to, but you seem pretty bent on it, Jack."

"If it came down to it," he said quietly, his eyes boring into hers, making her heart leap into her throat, her stomach erupt into flips that she couldn't control. "If it came down to it Leese, if you could choose me, would you?" She watched him for a moment, unable to speak, and nodded jerkily, hardly able to breathe. "I'm not going to tell them anything. But don't worry, Lisa, I'll come for you." The door opened at that moment, and Keefe walked in with the two guards that jerked Jackson out of his seat and away from her.

Lisa watched him go, wondering if just thinking about saving him was the only thing she could do.

AN: I did as much research as I could regarding this sort of thing, but I'm 99.999 percent sure it's still convoluted garbage, considering the legal aspect. For someone who knows better than I, sorry about that. The second part of this story will be up sometime later. I'm too tired to write the rest of it now, it's almost 2:30 in the morning.