Authors note # 1: This is my Jared death fic. I ran a vote and you, the readers have declared that you want Jared to die by means of falling out of a plane and being chopped up by the engine! So you get your wish! Read on!

Authors note #2: This is a sort of AU fic and certain things have been changed. Natalie is NOT pining away for Uncle Jared, John is NOT involved with Cole or any of his garbage. The Michael/Marcie/Tommy thing is over and really not an issue here. Ok any other changes are part of the storyline and well... mine to disclose when I choose. LOL Happy reading!

Karma
By Melissa Fitch

"I really appreciate you coming over here like this John," Natalie told him.

"No problem. What are friends for?" He asked with a grin before getting serious. "With all that your family has been through I can certainly understand why Renee doesn't feel up to doing this."

Natalie grimaced at that. Renee had been devastated when Asa had died and going through his personal papers was too much for her so Natalie had told her she would take care of it…before she had actually seen how much stuff there had been to sort through. When she had seen the stacks and stacks of boxes she had been shocked. Apparently Asa didn't like to throw anything away...

"I know this isn't what you expected when I asked you for a little favor..." she trailed off when she saw him look up and flash her a grin.

"That's true, when you called I really didn't expect to be sorting out legal papers but it sure beats sitting on my couch waiting for time to pass." It was true whether she knew it or not. After all that had happened with Marty and then with Mike and Marcie and being suspended from the force he literally had nothing to do but wait for his suspension to be up.

"I'm glad you're here, John." Natalie said suddenly, seriously, "I don't think I could have done this with out you... Any of this."

He knew what she meant, it was the same for him. After Marty had died, something that would forever haunt him, not because of any intense feelings for her on his part but what she represented. Another person who had counted on him that he couldn't save. But after that he and Natalie had become close again. When Marty had gone over that cliff something in him had snapped and he'd suddenly realized that he missed Natalie. It sounded trite and stupid but having Marty die like that had affected him more than almost dying himself. It had hit him that in a blink of an eye Natalie could not just be taken away from him but taken from life.

He had known that before when she was in that pit, and again when the tornado had struck Llanview, but until that moment he had believed deep down that he would always save her. Seeing Marty die like that had showed him that no matter how fast and strong, not matter how bravely he might try to save her, he might not be able to.

After that he had gone to Natalie and told her of his epiphany, she had been understandably skeptical but after he had started talking everything he had felt had poured out and they had agreed to try again with their relationship. So far it was going very well and anytime spent with her was good in his opinion. So here he was sorting papers...

John reached over to took her hand in his, giving it a squeeze. "I know, it's the same for me. After Marty, if it hadn't been for you I think I would have gone crazy."

Natalie grinned at him, at them, at the saps that they were turning into. She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss on the mouth and then said in a mock serious tone, "Back to work! No more slacking off!"

John laughed and after giving her hand a final squeeze he went back to sorting papers. God it was dull, who knew the old guy was such a packrat. He had everything all mixed up, his personal stuff and papers from BE. Natalie had to get it all sorted out before the next board meeting.

"That's odd..." Natalie muttered a half an hour later.

"What?" John questioned looking up from his 5th box of musty papers. He saw Natalie staring at a folder in confusion.

"It's a file on David Vickers." Natalie told him as she looked through the sheets of paper inside the folder.

"So?" John didn't think it was all that unusual considering how Spencer had claimed that his mother had had a Buchanan baby. Asa had probably wanted to rule out the possibility all together.

"There's a DNA test in here but..." Natalie trailed off yet again.

"What about it? He probably just wanted to be sure about both Spencer AND his brother" John still didn't know what the big deal was.

"I've seen this before and..." Realization started to dawn on her.

"And?"

SON OF A BITCH!!!!!!" Natalie jumped up and started packing angrily, muttering, "That bastard! The fucking dirtbag! That stupid fucking son of a bitch!" She looked at a shocked and confused John, " I knew I should never have trusted him."

"What the hell?" John wanted to know.

"I HAVE seen this report before, John. Only it had Jared's name on it when I saw it and not David's!" She spat the words out, pissed as hell. "He played me, he played my whole family! The fucking bastard!"

Your saying Jared switched his DNA report with Vickers'? How would he even know about it?"

"I have no idea John but after my forensic training I DO know how to read a DNA report and it is exactly the same as the one Jared gave Uncle Bo and my dad." She waved the report around in her hands and said, "Hey" when John took it from her to look at.

"Are you sure?" He asked, pissed at Jared himself at the deception, not just for that but what it had done to Natalie. Thinking Jared was her uncle had really messed Natalie up and to think that Jared had done that on purpose, for the sake of money, really pissed him off.

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"What do you want to do about it?" John asked. He knew what he wanted to do about it, beat the living hell out of Jared and then turn him over to the police, but he was almost certain that Natalie would want to inform the rest of the Buchanan's and let them decide as a family what should be done.

Natalie snarled and then said, "Shoot him in the ass and rip his balls off!"

John winced at the venom in her voice and used some papers to cover himself. He coughed and said, "Uh..."

Natalie barely spared him a glance before launching into another tirade about what she would like to do to Jared.

"Natalie," John interrupted.

"What?" Coming out of her rant.

"I think we should be absolutely sure about this before you castrate him." He was playing devils advocate but he believed it was just as she said. The scum had lied and faked the DNA tests to get Asa's money.

"Fine," she sighed. "How do we do that," she paused for a second then let loose an evil grin, " I know... you could break his face and I could take a blood sample."

John let out a laugh. He loved when she was bloodthirsty, " I was actually thinking we should see Bo and get the DNA results from him and see if they match..."

"Oh... Ok..." She pouted at him, really wanting to hurt Jared.

She got up and got her coat. "I want to get this done now. Every minute he pretends to be Grandpa's son is one too many."

John agreed and put his jacket on.

Together they went to Bo's and found him not home. Lindsey Rappaport was there and let them in once they explained why they were there. It took a minute to find the report Jared had given Bo but once Natalie found it and compared it to the one Asa had had in his papers she said, "I knew it." The two were the same.

The betrayal of this hit Natalie and she was overcome with hurt at what Jared had done to her. He had played with her feelings and then lied to her over and over again. "How could he do that to me," she said her voice trembling slightly. "He made me think I had kissed my UNCLE! I felt so dirty and it was all a lie!"

Natalie looked at John and said, "I need to confront him, I need to know why he did this to me."

John understood her need to face Jared and have it out with him about his actions. He would have wanted to do the same thing in her place. Coming up behind her he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close to him, "You're not going alone, I'm going with you."

Natalie was grateful for his support as she leaned into him. "Thanks John." She stayed that way for a moment then said, "I want to do this now. Then we can tell Bo and the others. I just want to have my say first."

"Ok," he took her hand comfortingly as they thanked Lindsey for letting them in then they left to confront Jared.

Jared was happy as he straightened up his desk. His life would be perfect if Charlie would just go away and leave him to his life... like he had done his whole life till now. He had money, power, and if he had his way he would have Natalie too. He wasn't sure how it would all work out but he would get Natalie back. John McBain didn't deserve her.

There had to be some way to get her to be with him. Maybe he could make her believe that she wasn't a Buchanan... Then they could be together...

The door to his office opened and he smiled when Natalie walked in, "I was just thinking about you Sparky..." He trailed off when John McBain stepped in behind her and shut the door firmly. At the grim looks on their faces he felt his gut clench with fear, they couldn't have figured out his scam... He had been too careful, too vigilant in his planning...

Natalie marched in with determination and slapped the 2 sets of DNA results on his desk violently, "Explain this you sleaze!"

Jared was shocked at the anger, no... rage, in her voice, in her actions even as his worst fears became reality. The papers she had put on his desk were DNA reports. Some how she had found out about Vickers. He didn't know what to do and he sat frozen for a moment. Finally his brain kicked in and he said angrily, "What the hell is this?"

John came away from the door where he had been standing and said, "You tell us... Banks," he emphasized the name Banks.

Jared mentally cursed when he heard that. Obviously they had figured it out. "I don't know what you're talking about. Please enlighten me!"

"We know what you did, Uncle Jared!" She sneered the 'uncle Jared' part. "We know that David Vickers is really Asa's son not you! We know that somehow you found out about him and used his DNA instead of your own."

"You're crazy," he attempted to lie, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Natalie slapped her hand on the DNA result paper she got from Asa's papers, "This you bastard, Asa had it done on David Vickers before anyone had even heard of you! He knew about David being his son. That's who he meant in that letter. He was talking about David, not you!"

"That's ridiculous!" Jared sputtered.

"No its not," John chimed in, "look at the date on the test. It's dated before you even showed up in Llanview."

Jared looked more closely at the paper and it was indeed dated before he arrived at Llanview. 'Damn it' he thought to him self. 'Why had the old coot saved that if he hadn't wanted anyone to know that Vickers was a Buchanan?' "Fine you caught me," in a sudden movement he reached out grabbed the DNA test, whipped out a lighter and set it on fire before either Natalie or John could stop him. He dropped the paper in the metal trashcan. He grinned almost evilly as he said, "Fine, you caught me. Now prove it..."

Natalie was shocked at how much his admission hurt her, "How could you do that to me? How could you pretend we were related and make me believe I almost slept with my own uncle?"

Jared really did regret hurting Natalie, but he wanted Asa's money a lot more. His resolve to not give up his new life strengthened as he realized that he had lost Natalie for good. Seeing no need to be pleasant now he said, "I can think of millions of reasons..." he shrugged as he said it.

"You're not even gonna deny it?" Natalie was shocked that he was giving up the game so easily.

John started to get worried then, his gut telling him that Banks had something up his sleeve. He was proved right a moment later when Jared pulled out a gun and aimed it at Natalie.

"I'm not going to let you two ruin all my hard work. I'm sorry Natalie, I really am, but you won't take my life away from me."

Natalie was shocked that he had pulled a gun on her but she was also mad as hell, "Its not your life. You stole it."

Jared just shrugged and said, "Whatever. Its mine now and you aren't gonna take it from me." Seeing John slowly moving he cocked the gun and said, "One more step and I shoot her."

John stopped where he was and said, "You won't get away with this. We'll tell everyone about you..."

Jared narrowed his eyes and said, " Then I guess I'll just have to make sure you don't tell anyone..."

Natalie clung to John's hand as they sat together in the Buchanan family jet. After Jared had forced them out of BE at gunpoint had made John drive them to the airport. Still keeping a gun on Natalie he had forced them into their seats and cuffed them both there using John's handcuffs. Then he had taken the key from John and gone to the cockpit and taken off.

They had been in the air for more than a half an hour when Jared came out of the cockpit. He was still smiling evilly as he went over to where the parachutes were kept and put one on. That's when they realized what Jared was gonna do.

Struggling with the handcuff Natalie began to panic. "Don't do this Jared. Please. We won't say anything."

John was strangely calm, seemingly unaffected by the idea that Jared was going to jump out of the plane and leave them to die cuffed to the seat of the plane.

Jared just shrugged and said, " I really regret that I have to do this but I won't give up my new life." He walked over to the door and prepared to open it.

John's ethics couldn't let him do it with out at least trying to warn him. "Don't Jared, it's not safe!"

Jared, thinking John was just trying to save his and Natalie's lives didn't listen he opened the door and prepared to jump.

John frantically dug into his pocket for his spared handcuff key. He got it out and uncuffed himself and Natalie just as Jared dove out the door.

They both ran for the door just in time to see Jared being sucked into the engine. The engine exploded into a ball of flame as Jared's body came out the other side, or what was left of Jared's body.

John grabbed the door and slammed it shut so the flames wouldn't come into the jet. He grabbed Natalie's hand, who was in shock, and dragged her to the cockpit. He used the radio to call for help as he pushed Natalie into the co-pilot seat.

Natalie was trying to cope with what had just happened with Jared as John landed the jet.

When they were safely on the ground all Natalie could think was that though Jared had tried to kill them, in the end he had killed himself. The irony was almost too much.

The End