Title: Departure
Characters: Jake, Hawkins, Heather

Summary: "You know I would give anything for us…for everyone to go back to being who we all used to be the night you and I first met." Jake says goodbye to Heather before heading for Cheyenne. Set between "Sedition" and the final-final episode "Patriots and Tyrants". Slightly AU-ish.

Origins: Fic I posted on jerichofanfiction on 3/25/2008...around the time Jericho's cancellation-for-good was announced! (thus the title :P) A closure-fic for Jake/Heather shippers such as yours truly.

Disclaimer: I don't own Jericho. I'm still sad that it's gone! :(

"People can't go back to who they used to be," said Hawkins. "No one ever changes back. You only hope that they can…change into someone better."

Jake hated how true those words were. He thought about Stanley, and how that happy hopeful goofball Stanley Richmond was never going to come back. It worried him that Mimi's efforts to reach out to Stanley were not creating much improvement. Everyone that Jake knew were no longer the people he recognized. All of his friends, the Rangers, his brother, his mother, and Emily, were forced to become different beings from all the events that occurred, and Jake could blame himself for all of it.

He wonders if he should have let Stanley turn himself in. Jake never meant for the Rangers, the ones who stood by him to protect their town, to become criminals on his account. Eric could no longer lead the town that has trusted the Green family for many generations. Jimmy didn't even know if he would ever see his wife and kids again. Even without Ravenwood gone, the town was still doomed without their great leaders to protect them.

All Jake could do was think about how he caused so much pain for this town. How he led the loss of many lives by picking fights, New Bern, Ravenwood, and Jonah. He wasn't protecting the town at all. He was only causing the death of innocent lives all around.

Which was why this mission to Cheyenne made him very nervous. He should have never questioned Hawkins that day in his basement. Now Hawkins insisted that he help him stop the bomb. Didn't he realize by now that Jake Green was a cursed man? One who not only killed people physically, but also killed the people they used to be?

Jake just that he was going to screw this up like he has been doing since the bombs went off. He also knew that stopping that bomb was the last effort he had left to redeem himself…even if he could never show his face in Jericho again. It would be a greater redemption if he could somehow find Gray and get him safely back to Jericho. Granted, Gray got the label as the town prick, but he was the last leader the town had left…possibly one who can put up a better plea with Beck on behalf of the Rangers.

Something was bound to go wrong though. He told the Rangers that the chances of either him or Hawkins getting back were rare. Cheyenne seemed destined as a "final destination".

Jake quickly turned away from the sight of Jericho far in the distance as Hawkins came to take over guard duty at the entrance of the abandoned airfield. There wasn't much time now.

He was hesitant to check up on Heather and her progress but as he took a quick glance at her working on the plane's engine, Jake had one sparkling moment where he thought he could see the old Heather Lisinski again.

But that faded pretty fast the moment she looked up at him. It was like looking into the mirror of the mess he made out of the people he cared about.

"Try it now," she said, snapping Jake back to reality.

Jake went to plane and turned on its engines. A loud whirl declared success. Hawkins ran towards the plane as he heard it running. But Jake jumped out. He signaled Hawkins to give him five minutes.

Heather was backing away to prepare for the plane taking off. She wasn't expecting Jake to come back to her. She figured that he needed to jump in and fly off if those men wanted to get to Cheyenne, badly as they needed to.

"Hey," said Jake. "Thank you so much for doing this. I didn't think that you still had any trust in me."

"I've had my issues with trusting people lately," Heather said looking down at the ground thinking about Major Beck and her New Bern friends, all whom have seem to be turning a blind eye against her.

Jake hated this new Heather, the one he created. In what seemed like failed hope and desperation, he took his hands and lifted her face up to him. Pure eye contact was something they haven't given each other in a long time.

"Heather…" he said looking into her eyes, trying to find any familiar traces. "I still remember the night we first met…"

She was surprised that he would say that. Heather's memory of that day was clearly fading. Oh sure, those first few weeks after the bombs, the first meeting between the two of them never left her thoughts. But times were different now.

"…and I remember," said Jake. "That you didn't look or acted like this."

Heather knew she wasn't going to be able to hide all the changes that overtook her from her New Bern experience. She hoped that people weren't going to notice but she was skinnier, paler, more closed off from everyone. She might as well have been dead.

She looked at Jake and saw the lack of life in his self as well. There was a faint glimmer of toughness and resourcefulness, but Heather couldn't help but stare at the bruises and the swelling on his face that Beck caused.

"Jake," said Heather. She put her hand to his cheek, smoothing her thumb over the swelling of his tarnished face and said "you didn't look like this either".

"Yeah…I know. You know I would give anything for us…for everyone, to go back to being who we all used to be the night you and I first met."

That was the night Jake saw the confident and compassionate Heather consoling and caring for her students in the middle of a massive crisis. That was the night when Heather saw the heroic, quick to calm and quick-to-lead Jake that never existed prior.

And those skills only reinforced each other in the days after. There was hope for the town as long as people remained the good people they saw in each other.

Jake was a unique case. After he drove that school bus back into Jericho, the town's former negative thoughts of him seemed to fade away. Soon enough, Jake was finding himself becoming the person that Heather was naïve enough to see in him.

Back to the present…now here they were…two souls that have completely fallen apart and deteriorated. Neither of them were even half the beings they once were, that they desired to be again.

"People can't change back, Jake." Heather too? She was trying to make a point, though. The post-apocalypse does not allow for good things gone bad in this world to reverse themselves.

Jake took a deep sigh and said "well the only thing in this world that has gone back to normal…is that I'm still the same old screw-up."

Jake took a step back and turned away from Heather and for a moment, it seemed that this was how this was going to end. He was off to make things worse for everyone. He then felt a hand on his shoulder forcing him to turn back in her direction.

"A screw-up wouldn't be risking his life to save an entire country right now," said Heather. She was surprised as she didn't believe that she could think of any good words of comfort.

"Just think of this as an even bigger school bus full of kids who are counting on you." Again...words that were just spewing out of her mouth without thought.

Much to her shock, a smile began to form on Jake's face. She was shocked at first…only to find herself smiling back.

They both took a moment to softly laugh…not because Heather's comment was funny in a way…the real motivation for the two of them to laugh was that it had been far too long since the last time they smiled at each other like this. Neither of them could admit it. They were both crying inside. They both smiled feeling for a moment as if an old friend had reemerged from the dead.

At this point, Jake knew that the five minutes he had promised Hawkins were long gone and the roars of the engine came back into his consciousness. He didn't care though. For this moment he and Heather were the people they once were. If it were up to Jake, he would stay here and savor this moment with Heather.

Realization dawned on him then that the two of them had something greater in common than they ever thought possible. He and Heather, both have ventured out into the depths of hell on their own separate paths and both of them were trying to retrace their steps to the lives they lost in the past months.

Oddly enough the paths would once in a while cross each other. And Jake realized then that these were the times he found it easier to find his way back.

Acting quickly, Jake grabbed a scrap of paper from his pocket and a writing utensil from the tools lying nearby.

"You have a Sprint number don't you?" Jake quickly asked her.

Heather became very confused. There were many ways to say goodbye but she was not expecting this. "Jake, this seems like a very unusual time to be asking me for that! I mean Cheyenne is about to blow up and your asking me for my number?"

"Please. Just give it to me," Jake said shoving the paper and pen in Heather's hand.

"Alright, alright," she said. Not wanting to keep the plane running without flight any longer, Heather quickly scribbled the number and gave it back to Jake.

"Good," said Jake. "Now keep that number no matter what. Whatever happens to me in Cheyenne, good or bad, you'll be the first person I call."

"You really should get going," said Heather worried that the old plane engine wouldn't hold out too long.

"Just do me one last favor," he said. "Please help the Rangers...like you helped me and Hawkins. They really need people they can trust and they will need you to be their eyes and ears of the town."

"You know I will…only until YOU come back."

Jake embraced Heather. It really did feel like old times. He prayed at that moment that Cheyenne wasn't going to be where all of this would end.

Heather had assured him that Jericho needed a Jake Green in order to survive. She tried to follow in his footsteps in the smallest ways, but the town still needed his wonderful leading efforts.

Jake finally made a dash to the plane. Heather stood in silence and watched as the plane took off into the air. She never believed that Jake was a skilled pilot until he began to make incredible turns and dives before he vanished into the sky.

She was determined to look on the bright side of all of this. No matter how long it would be before Jake returned, she hoped that when he does, it would be as if they were meeting each other for the first time all over again. Smiles and all.