Disclaimer: I do not own Red Eye or Batman Begins as much as I want to. :(
"Bella... Wake up, sweetie..." Jackson whispered to Bella who was still in his arms.
They were walking through the hallways of headquarters. It was a top secret building in the middle of nowhere, where no one would find it. It was a pretty dark place, but everyone was like family here. Everyone had to trust each other in order to get a job successfully done.
Bella stirred, her eyes opening slowly. She yawned quietly. "Where are we?"
"We're at headquarters." Jackson whispered.
"Oh." She said simply and snuggled against him.
Jackson's boss watched the exchange between the two with interest. He was walking behind them, a few others were in front. It was almost like a pack.
The two seemed exactly like siblings. It was natural, the way they talked to one another. Like they had known each other their entire lives. It was unusual. There was something in that bond. Something he couldn't place.
He knew Jackson felt it, too. He knew that Jackson was trying to figure it out. It was eating Jackson, haunting him.
After a few minutes of walking towards the conference room, they finally made it to their destination. The building was a vast place, so it took time to get from Point A to Point B a lot of the time.
The group walked into the conference, where a number of people were already there, waiting. One man, came up to Jackson and Bella. This man just so happened to be... Jackson's best friend. Yes, Jackson Rippner had a best friend.
"Hey, Carson." Jackson smirked.
"Sup, Jack." Carson smirked back. Then he bent down to Bella's level. "And who's this little cutie?" he asked.
Bella hid her face in Jackson's chest. Jackson chuckled, Carson looked taken aback and looked at Jackson questioningly. What did he do?
"She's overwhelmed by... everything, I guess." Jackson explained. Then he kissed the top of Bella's head and whispered in her ear. "Bella it's okay. Can you say hi to Carson?"
She looked up slowly and looked at Carson. Carson smiled warmly at her. She smiled feebly back.
"H-hi. My n-name is Isab-bella." she stuttered.
"Hey, Isabella. My name's Carson. I think you're gonna like it here." Carson said.
Bella decided she liked this guy.
Someone from across the room called Carson over to them. He looked back and motioned to them to wait a minute and then turned back to Jackson and Bella.
"I'll talk to you guys later, okay?" he smiled again and left.
Jackson stood there, deep in thought. He wondered why she didn't introduce herself as just Bella. It was always Isabella. Never Bella. Except to him.
"Hey, Bella?" he asked.
"Yeah?"
"Does anyone call you Bella?"
"Not really. Just you."
"Why?"
"Because you're the only one that's allowed to."
"Not even Carson?" Jackson asked after a short silence.
"Not even Carson." Bella answered solemnly.
Jackson thought about that. He really did. He was the only one allowed to give her a nickname. He wondered why that was but decided not to press her with questions. Bella was overwhelmed enough.
But then his boss started toward them and interrupted his thoughts.
"Jackson, Bella's going to be staying in the East Wing for the rest of her stay here."
"What?" Jackson asked. "But I stay in the North Wing."
"You won't be keeping an eye on her. You're responsibility was to get her here. And here she is. Good job, Rippner."
"So someone else will be taking care of her?"
"You're gonna leave me?" Bella turned to Jackson.
"I'm not leaving you, sweetie. I just can't take care of you anymore." Jackson tried to explain.
Bella's eyes welled up with tears, and her lip started to tremble. Her blue eyes became glassy and she started to sniffle. Even his boss began to cringe at the sight. It broke everyone's heart.
Oh no, not again, Jackson thought.
Carson came back over to talk to Jackson again. As soon as he came over, he took one look at Bella and his face just crumbled. He turned away.
"Uh, I will be back... ummm... later..." his voice cracked, which might make Jackson laugh, if it weren't for the situation.
"Don't leave me, Jackson...'' Bella cried to him.
His boss took Bella out of his arms and handed her to a woman on his right. Jackson recognized her as Ruby. He trusted her with the job, though he would rather be the one doing this.
Ruby had to drag Bella away. Bella clawed at her hand and screamed and cried. Carson ran over. Ruby handed Bella to her. Bella calmed down a little bit, but not much. She wasn't clawing anymore. Ruby went to go fix her bleeding hands. Bella got her pretty good.
Bella looked back at Jackson the whole time while being dragged away. "Jackson! Don't make me leave! I want to stay with Jackson!"
Jackson watched her. His eyes were blank. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. Once she was gone, his boss turned to him.
"You're strong, Jackson." he said softly. "I know that was painful."
"I have a proposition for you." Jackson said.
"What is it?"
"What if I take care of her until I am sent to do another job. I'll stay at the facility here with her. And then when I have a job, Carson can take care of her. Please.'' Jackson reasoned.
His boss looked at him incredulously. He thought about it. Time ticked by. It was one minute, then two. Jackson didn't know how much more he could take.
"Fine. Tell the others."
"Thank you." he said before walking to tell whoever was in charge of Bella at the moment.
In the East Wing, he found Ruby, who had her hands bandaged.
"You know, you're friend is a pretty good fighter."
Jackson rubbed the back of his neck." Yeah, sorry about that."
Ruby laughed. "Don't be. It's a good thing."
"I'm going to be taking care of her."
"How long did boss give you?"
"Until I have another job."
Ruby sighed. "You know he's going to give you the next job available just to separate you two."
"Yeah, I know. But it's a little more time. I'm more prepared than I was like 20 minutes ago."
"That;s true, I guess. We just have to tell Carson and Allred."
"Fair enough."
They walked towards the last room on the left and walked in. Bella was still crying. Carson and Allred looked like they were going to die.
"I'll be taking care of her until I have another job so she'll be out of your hair for a little while." Jackson said.
"Boss says he wants you two." Ruby added.
Carson and Allred nodded and walked out of the room.
"I''ll leave you two to talk things over. See you later." Ruby said as she left, too.
"Hey, Bella."
Bella didn't say anything. She just ran over to Jackson and hugged him to her, as if he would slip out of her reach like sand.
"It's okay. I'm here." he said as he hugged her back. " But it's time for bed, okay?"
After Bella was all ready for bed, Jackson tucked her into bed. He turned off the light and was about to close the door behind him when he heard Bella calling for him.
"Jackson?"
"Yes?"
"Don't leave me."
Jackson sighed. He walked over to her bed and hugged her tight. "I'm not going anywhere..."
And for the the rest of the night, Bella slept soundly in Jackson's arms as Jackson snored loudly, holding her tight.
A/N: So yeah... Ta da!
I have no idea what to say here. But I do know that Jonathan will be making an appearance very soon :)
Hope you liked it! If you thought it was worthy, please review
-Harley
Shout Outs:
IShouldBeInAStraightJacket
trudes193
Thanks for reviewing! :)
