It's Not Over: Chapter 8: REVISED
Rating: PG-13 (Adult Language and Situations).
Disclaimer: The name "Jericho" and all character names and trademarks associated with the television program are the intellectual property of Junction Entertainment, Fixed Mark Productions, CBS Paramount Television and/or CBS Studios, Inc. The following story is intended solely as an intellectual exercise without profit motive. No infringement of copyright is intended or should be implied.
Notes: After doing some soul searching and communicating with a few people, I have reworked Chapters 7 through 12. Some changes are minor and others are significant. Overall, the plot is the same, just certain characters and their actions have been changed/corrected. Thanks to JT, mainemom22, and jordanmr. As always, feedback is appreciated. Let me know if you like/hate like what I've done. The only way writers get better is to know where their weaknesses and strengths lie.
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When Natalie had asked to speak to Heather alone for a moment, Heather was sure that she'd wanted to confront her about Bill. She assumed that Major Beck, who seemed to have taken a much more eager interest in her private life lately, had informed her that the two of them were seeing each other. She could only imagine what Natalie might be feeling; coming home and finding out that the man you planned on spending the rest of your life with had moved on with someone else.
"Are you okay?" Natalie asked worry evident in her voice as she noticed Heather looking like she was about to lose it. She sat down next Heather leaning forward in the chair and started messing with the laces on her boots trying to adjust them.
"I'm so sorry," Heather said as she bent over trying to push back the panic attack that was about to overtake her.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Natalie asked again not sure what was causing Heather's distress. She looked over at Heather who was leaning over as well. "If you're not feeling well, I can talk to you some other time."
"No. It's okay," Heather said sitting up trying to overcome the emotions that were threatening to defeat her. "I'd just like to get this over with."
"Thanks. I'll try and make this quick," Natalie replied taking a deep breath and sitting back up in the chair. She looked down at her watch to see that the time was 5:35 in the evening. Natalie wanted to get going, but like Heather she just wanted to get this conversation over with.
"Is this about Bill and me?" Heather quickly asked making use of the Natalie's pause.
"Uh, what? You and Bill?" Natalie said in confusion as she had no clue what Heather was talking about.
"You didn't know? I mean I thought Major Beck had given you an update on everyone. I figured he would've told you," Heather explained.
"What are you talking about?" Natalie asked still confused.
"Oh, I should just shut up," Heather remarked finally realizing that the other woman had no clue what she was talking about. Heather felt like such a fool assuming that Natalie knew about her short, chaste relationship with Bill.
"You can't do that to me," Natalie said with a nervous laugh. "What about you and Bill?"
"Bill and I sort of dated for a few months," Heather said sheepishly. "I thought Beck told you and that was what you wanted to confront me about."
Natalie shook her head, "No. Major Beck didn't mention a word about it. When he found out I was from Jericho, he gave me an update on what had been happening and let me know about my brother. I didn't ask many questions." One thing she learned from the past year was don't ask too many questions. Those questions often give away too much information which can mean the difference between survival and death.
"I feel so bad. I really think he thought you weren't coming back," Heather tried to explain.
"Heather, there's nothing to feel bad about. It would be naïve of me to think that he would just keep his life on hold for over a year on the almost non-existent chance that I'd show up again," Natalie explained sadness tinting her voice.
"Well, if it makes you feel any better, we weren't that serious and we're over."
Natalie smiled and shook her head, "There you go again. Don't worry about it; I wasn't here. As far as everyone was concerned, they probably figured I was dead," Natalie stated.
"How can you be so understanding" Heather commented as she looked at the calm woman before her. If she was upset at all about any of it, she didn't show it in her voice or her demeanor.
"Heather, I've been gone for a year, a very long year. I've seen things I never thought I'd see and had to do things that I would rather not think about. Right now, being home is enough for me" Natalie tried to explain.
"So, if you didn't want to discuss Bill, then what did you want to discuss?"
"Mike Anderson asked me to talk to you on his behalf," Natalie blurted out. She had planned this eloquent introduction to the topic, but Heather's "confession" had pretty much ruined it.
"Mike Anderson? You spoke to him. He's alive?" Heather asked.
"He's alive and well. In fact, you'll get to see for yourself next week. He's coming with some additional personnel," Natalie said as she reached into one of the pockets in her pants and pulled out a letter. "He also gave this to me to give to you."
Heather gave her look of disbelief as she took the letter from Natalie's hand. She hadn't spoken with Mike or heard from him since the day he left six months before the bombs. Mike coming back was probably one of the last things she'd ever imagined would happen. Heather stared at the letter that was in her hands tracing her name where Mike had neatly written it.
"I don't know what he said in the letter, but I do know that he regretted the way he left things with you and with his father. He wanted me to give it to you before he arrived. He didn't want to hurt you again."
"How did you and Mike end up meeting?" Heather asked curious about how two people from Jericho would end up finding each other in Texas.
"Oh, that's another story for another day," Natalie replied with a sigh.
"Why didn't he come with you today?" Heather asked. "Is he okay?"
"He's doing fine and working in Dodge City right now setting up an outpost. I think he volunteered to stay there for a few more days, hoping that if you were warned ahead of time, maybe his reception wouldn't be as cold."
"What does he want? Why is he bothering to come back?" Heather asked more to herself than to Natalie.
"As far as I know, Mike's not expecting anything," Natalie defended her friend. "I know Mike left things a mess with you and his father, but he's really trying to make a fresh start."
"Thank you for letting me know," Heather replied with her mind reeling from the news. She didn't really believe that Mike could change, but she knew it wasn't something that she could confront Natalie about.
Natalie stood up and was ready to leave when she suddenly thought of something else, "One more thing. Major Beck said you were good with machines. Would you be willing to help me see if we can get some meteorological equipment working again?" Natalie asked. "I salvaged it from an Air Force base outside of Oklahoma City."
"Of course," Heather said in relief. "If you still want to even deal with me."
"How many times do I have to say it? Let the whole thing go," Natalie tried to reassure her as she stood up to leave. "I better get going."
The two women left the room. Heather actually had calmed down quite a bit which even surprised Heather. With the news that Mike was coming back in town, her life was going to be an even bigger mess. Somehow, Natalie had managed to make Heather feel better. Major Beck had been correct when she had described Natalie as a "sweet woman." If it had been Emily, she would've gone into hysterics and made Heather feel even worse. Heather still hadn't spoken to Emily since she'd confronted Jake. She wasn't sure what to say and was pretty sure she wouldn't get nearly as a nice a reception as she'd gotten from Natalie, but Emily had a lot more reasons to be angry with Heather.
Just as they entered the hallway, Natalie's cell phone chirped and she looked down to see who was calling. "I've got to take this. I'll be down in a minute," Natalie said as she went back into the meeting room that they'd just left.
Heather debated whether to wait where she was or go down stairs and confront Jake about what he'd pulled during the meeting with Major Beck. After waiting a good minute, Heather decided that she'd confront Jake and headed down the stairs alone. Heather found Jake working the radio.
Jake looked up from his place, "What's been keeping you two?"
"Just talked for a minute."
"Where's Natalie?" Jake asked looking past Heather.
"I'm here," Natalie called out overhearing Jake's question as she entered the sheriff's station.
"Where's Jimmy?" Heather asked realizing that she wasn't going to get to confront Jake, not that she would have with one of the deputies sitting in the office.
"He's over at the high school. Bill grabbed the wrong keys," Jake answered in disgust. "Man can't do something as simple as get keys."
"Is that where the rest of them headed too?" Natalie asked ignoring Jake's irritation.
"Yeah," Jake answered.
"Then I better head over in that direction," Natalie explained. "Heather, it was nice talking to you."
"Hey, I'll walk you over," Heather replied wanting to see the reunion between Natalie and Jimmy. It would be nice to see something happy for once. It seemed most of her life was filled with doom and gloom. Heather took the letter she was still holding and put into the drawer of her desk.
"I'll go, too," Jake chimed in. "It's going to be dark soon and you shouldn't be walking alone in the evening."
"But we're not alone," Heather pointed out. This whole over protectiveness thing was going to have to end soon. It was getting irritating having him walk her everywhere. Since Jake had found out about the baby and the price placed on her head by Constantino, he'd insisted she never go anywhere alone.
"I meant without a male escort," Jake responded.
"You know, I could go by myself," Natalie offered hoping that would end the dispute.
"I need to go in that direction anyway," Jake replied.
Natalie looked like she was going to say something else, but didn't.
So, the three of them walked to the High school with Natalie a few steps ahead. Natalie allowed herself to get distracted by Jake and Heather's conversation.
"I can't believe you did that back there!" Heather exclaimed in a hushed tone to Jake.
"What did I do?" Jake asked innocently.
"Make me tell Major Beck that I'm pregnant," Heather replied
"I didn't. I just told him to not let you do any heavy lifting," Jake replied innocently. "I'm sorry if I offended you."
"You know, I am an adult capable of taking care of myself."
"I know. I just worry that you are doing too much," Jake explained.
"This is why I didn't want to tell anyone. I knew once people knew I was pregnant everybody would start treating me differently. A week ago, I was a strong leader, someone they looked to for answers. Now, everyone treats me like I'm some piece of china or something."
"Why don't we talk about this later? I am sure that Natalie doesn't want to hear us discuss this."
"Don't mind me," Natalie threw back at the pair hoping they'd continue. She was really hoping that someone would mention who the father of this baby was, but she wasn't going to push it. She was concerned that Heather hadn't told her the whole truth about her relationship with Bill. She quickly decided that she had better not get involved and didn't interject herself into their conversation.
With that, neither Jake nor Heather were interested in continuing it either and remained quiet. Natalie tried to think of something to say, but was coming up blank. Every subject she could come up with seemed to touch a matter she'd rather not discuss. So she trudged ahead to the school in hopes of seeing her brother. She looked to the western sky and stopped which made Heather and Jake stop as well.
Heather looked at her curiously, "What is it?"
"A storm is coming," Natalie declared with a smile as she looked at the dark clouds to the west. The horizon was colored with red, purple, yellows as the sun began to set.
"Yeah, you're right. Maybe the heat wave is breaking?" Jake suggested.
Before Natalie could answer, four men quickly approached them from behind grabbing the three of them from the street and dragging them to a nearby alley. They placed their hands over the trio's mouths which didn't allow any of them to speak or yell and before Jake could grab his gun. "Which one's her?" one of the men with a scraggily beard asked holding Heather.
"I dunno, I've never seen her. They just described her as brunette with blue eyes. That fits both these chicks."
"We'll take 'em both," one of the other men replied holding Natalie. "We'll figure it out later."
"What do we do with him?" the very large man holding Jake asked. With that Jake started to struggle to get himself from the grasp of the man, but he was about twice Jake's size making it nearly impossible for Jake to escape. The man quickly took Jake's gun from its holster. Jake looked over at Natalie and Heather who were both still struggling. He weighed the odds and knew that he wouldn't be able to fight four men by himself. He could probably escape if he tried, but he knew he wouldn't be able to get Natalie or Heather free and he couldn't leave the two women alone with these men. Jake chided himself for having his guard down and finally gave up deciding that he needed to save his strength.
"Take him," the man holding Natalie replied. "That's Jake Green. We'll get a bonus."
With that, Jake, Heather, and Natalie were at the mercy of the four men. Heather couldn't believe she'd allowed herself to be taken like this. She'd always been so careful, keeping an eye out, but she'd been distracted by Jake who was not doing much to help get them out of this situation. As Heather squirmed, she took a quick glance over at Natalie who looked panicked as tears came down her face. The men put gags over their mouths and tied their hands behind their backs.
"All clear," a man who was not holding anyone loudly whispered from the entrance to the alleyway. They rushed the trio out on to the empty street and across the way into the safety of a field nearby.
"Don't try anything," the man warned into Heather's ear as they made a mad rush for the wooded area off in the distance behind the buildings of Main Street.
The men dragged the trio further into the woods walking for what Heather figured must have been a mile or two. In that time, the sun had begun to set and the woods were getting dark. Finally, when Heather thought she wouldn't be able to walk any more they stopped at a clearing near a large oak tree. "What time is it?" one of the men asked.
"Ride won't be here for another thirty minutes. We'll sit here and wait and then walk out to the meeting point. No one will find us in here," the man who seemed to be charge explained. The men had set them Heather, Jake, and Natalie against a tree and had one man with a gun trained on them.
Natalie looked up at the man who had just spoken trying to point to her name tag to show that she wasn't who they were looking for. He removed her gag. "Look, at my name tag. I don't think I'm who you are looking for," Natalie begged.
The man looked at the name tag and read her name. "What does that matter? It's probably just a trick," the man replied not wanting to believe he'd been stupid enough not to have looked at the name tag sooner.
"See who I work for? Do you really want to kidnap a Texas State official?" Natalie tried to reason with him. She knew it was a long shot that he'd just let her go, but it had worked on distracting the man enough for her to get them to remove the gag off and for her to reach the knife in her back pocket. She figured out pretty quickly that these guys were about as dumb as a pile of rocks when they hadn't frisked either of the women. Heather wasn't wearing anything that she could've concealed anything, but Natalie was wearing pants with lots of pockets.
Natalie had already made the decision that no matter what she wasn't going any farther with these men. She had already figured out that Jake and Heather weren't going to get her out of this situation and that she was going to have to save herself. She hadn't gotten all the way back to Jericho to be killed before she even got to see her family.
The man didn't seem open to reason and shook his head in disgust. "Who the hell cares about Texas? Anyway, I don't think you're in any position to be askin' any questions, bitch," the man snarled at her.
Natalie said nothing in response. Heather could feel Natalie trying to work on the tie that was holding her hands behind her. She must have used that attempt at conversation to get to something to help her get loose. Heather worried that Natalie might bring something horrible down upon the three of them trying to get herself free. Heather took a glance over a Jake who was sitting still. She thought about getting up and running for it, but she knew she wouldn't get far with her hands tied behind her back. Heather didn't see anyway out of this situation. She hoped Jake would come up with something. All of the sudden, Heather felt the ties on her wrists be cut and knew that Natalie had done it.
When the man holding the gun on them turned away, Natalie whispered into Heather's ear, "Next time that guy turns the other way; we run for it."
Heather, who was still gagged, nodded in agreement.
Natalie was at weird angle and couldn't reach Jake's wrists without possibly cutting him and knew she was going to have to give him the knife so he could get himself free. When the man turned again for a brief moment, Natalie whispered to Jake as she handed him the knife, "As soon as we get an opportunity, Heather and I are going to run for it. You're welcome to join us." She wasn't sure what Jake would do, but at this point she didn't care.
"What are you whispering about back there? Don't get any ideas," the man holding the gun on them warned. It wasn't too much time before the man was distracted again. The three other men were talking back and forth about what their reward would be for getting the traitor, Heather Lisinski and what the bonus would be for bringing in Jake Green. The man in charge of watching the three captives became diverted by the talk and turned his back on them for a few moments. It was just enough time for Heather and Natalie to make their move and start running, but Jake didn't join them. Heather could hear the clap of thunder as rain started to fall. The last that Heather saw of Jake was of him taking cover in the behind some brush near the clearing.
Heather knew they were being followed and could hear the man's footsteps as he ran to find them. Heather couldn't believe that Jake hadn't taken the chance to escape. It would be like him to play hero. Within a few minutes, the man had stopped. Jake had probably done something stupid to distract him so the two women could get away. Natalie stopped and leaned against a tree trying to catch her breath. She started feeling through her pockets looking for something.
"Success!" Natalie declared in a heavy whisper as she pulled out her cell phone. Before Heather could ask her how Natalie had a phone on her, she was on it. Heather could only hear Natalie's side of the conversation. "Major."
"Yeah, we're out here in the woods."
"Well, I thought what the heck, I'd go for a stroll," Natalie sarcastically replied to something the Major had said.
"Some guys grabbed us."
"No, I don't know who they are. I think they were primarily after Heather."
"Heather and I are okay for now."
"Jake. Well, Jake's just trying to play Rambo or something," Natalie said rolling her eyes at Heather.
"We are approximately two miles south-south east of main street."
"Please send someone ASAP. It sounded like these guys have friends coming real soon," Natalie urged into the phone and she clicked it closed. Natalie turned to Heather, "Major Beck is sending some guys to us right now. Hopefully they get here before Jake gets himself killed."
"You had a phone this whole time?" Heather asked incredulously.
"Well, I didn't really have a chance to use it until now did I?" Natalie pointed out putting the phone back in her pocket.
"So, should we go save Jake?" Heather asked.
"You can if you want, but I'm staying right here," Natalie replied rubbing her wrists. She had caught herself with the knife and had nicked her wrist.
"You're going to let him die?" Heather asked incredulously.
"Heather, I'm not going after those guys," Natalie replied shaking her head.
"Sounds like something Bill would say," Heather replied in disgust. "I'm going." Heather took a deep breath and headed back to the clearing where they had left the men.
Natalie rolled her eyes quietly swore at herself and followed Heather back to where they had come from. As she caught up with Heather, she stage whispered, "I'll take that as a compliment. A healthy desire for self-preservation is always a good thing."
Heather didn't say anything in response instead focusing on Jake who was crouching over the man who had been in charge of watching them. Heather inspected the man's body and saw that his throat was slit. Natalie, huddled down next to Jake, seemed not phased by the whole situation, but Heather even after all she seen and done was still shocked. She looked down at the ground to see the man who had been chasing them with his throat slit bleeding out. Heather swallowed back bile as nausea came over her. Before Heather could ponder anything, the other men had noticed that they were missing.
"Where in the hell are they?" a man could be heard asking.
"Weaver?! Weaver?! Damn it! Where are you?" another man called out.
Natalie started fumbling with the dead man grabbing his gun and ammo. She looked to Jake who at this point looked a bit shocked at what he had just done.
Sure, he'd killed a man before, but never like this. It was amazing that even after everything he'd gone through that killing someone still got to him.
It took Heather to get him to come back to reality. "Snap out of it," Heather urged Jake noticing his trance like state. "Either you go after them or I'm going after them, but we can't just sit here. Thanks to you, we can't just run for it and the Calvary doesn't seem to be showing up."
Natalie was watching for the men as Heather and Jake discussed their next move and looked back, "You know it might be better to just stay here."
Heather and Jake gave each other a looks trying to decide who was right. Finally, Jake shook his head and wiped the rain from wet face. "I'll go," Jake replied as he handed Natalie a bloody knife and took the gun and ammo she was holding.
"Is he trying to get himself killed?" Natalie incredulously asked Heather.
Heather didn't say anything in return as she looked where Jake had gone. She would have rather gone with Jake, but with only one gun, she wouldn't be much help. Now she was forced to wait for Jake to come back hopefully in one piece.
Natalie wiped the blood that coated it the dead man's pants and waited behind the bush as Jake went after the other men. The rain had started to fall even harder and Heather could feel the wind pick up. She started to shiver as her clothes became drenched and the air began to cool. Before Heather could even think about how cold she was, she heard the sound of gunfire ring out into the ever darkening forest. Heather worried that Jake had taken on too much in taking the three other men on by himself. Jake should have come back and gotten them. At least with all of them fighting, they might have had a chance. Heather started weighing their options as the minutes ticked by and Jake hadn't come back. There was no sign of the men that Natalie had called for. Just as Heather was going to suggest they go after Jake, he returned limping, drenched to the bone, but very much alive.
"What happened?" Heather asked.
"They're dead," Jake replied his face hidden by the darkness. He collapsed onto a nearby log.
Natalie turned to Jake, "We need to take all the valuables from the bodies, find their IDs, and get out of this forest before their friends decide to show up."
"Why?" Heather asked not understanding what the purpose would be.
"So, I can give them to my brother to investigate who did this," Natalie explained handing Heather a flashlight that one of the men had. "Hold this so I can see what they've got on them."
Natalie searched the first body of the man whose throat Jake had slit and took a wallet and a wedding ring like she done this before. She looked inside the wallet, "It looks like the guy came from New Bern." She slid the wedding ring into the wallet and put into one of the many pockets of her pants. Nice thing about military issued pants was that there was plenty of room in the pockets.
Walking further into the clearing in the woods, Heather and Natalie came upon another body, and even in the dark recognized it as another one of the men who had taken them, the leader. He was a large man who had easily over-powered Jake. Heather couldn't believe that Jake had been able to take the man down so easily. Unlike the first body she'd found, he had been shot in the chest. She felt for a pulse, but found none.
"Heather, the guy's dead," Natalie complained as she quickly reached into the man's pockets looking for a wallet. Natalie removed the man's watch and a gold chain he'd been wearing around his neck and put it in a pocket of her pants. Natalie grabbed the man's gun and handed it to Heather. "Here, take this. You might need it later."
Heather looked and within twenty feet, she found the other two men, both dead with gun shot wounds one to the back of the head the other one in the back. It was obvious to Heather that the men had been running from the scene, but she shook off the thoughts of what Jake had done. Instead of considering it more, Heather, covered in mud from kneeling down and drenched to the bone, held the flashlight so that Natalie could retrieve what she could from the bodies.
"We need to get out of these woods," Natalie declared as she rested on a fallen log next Jake.
"Yeah, my leg's killing me, we're covered in mud, drenched to the bone, and the temperature is falling," Jake replied.
"Yeah, I agree," Heather answered leaning against a nearby tree. "What happened to your leg?"
"One of the guys got me right before they went down. Luckily the bullet just grazed my calf," Jake replied taking a flashlight and getting a good look at. "I'm going to need stitches."
"Where's that backup you called?" Heather asked Natalie.
"I have no clue," Natalie said not quite sure what had happened to the men that Major Beck had promised to send. She found her phone again and tried to dial, but wasn't getting any signal.
"What back up?" Jake asked.
"I called Major Beck about twenty minutes ago to see about getting us some help."
"You had a phone?" Jake asked.
"Isn't that what I just said?" Natalie replied in annoyance.
"Are you okay to walk?" Heather asked Jake ignoring the banter back and forth between Natalie and Jake.
"Yeah," Jake replied as he got up and started walking back through the woods and to town. Heather and Natalie wordlessly followed.
It was Heather who finally broke the silence as she looked over at Natalie who was walking with obvious determination as she trudged through the mud back to civilization. "Natalie thanks for getting us loose back there," Heather declared.
"No problem," Natalie quietly replied.
"How did you do it?" Heather asked curious how the woman who had looked so panicked earlier managed to get herself together enough to get the three of them free.
"I don't know. All I knew was that I wanted to get home and that I wasn't going to let those guys take me anywhere else."
"Have you been in a situation like this before?" Jake asked wondering how she knew to distract the men in order to get to her knife and cut their ties.
"Not exactly like this, but it's not like I've been living under a rock or something. Texas didn't just pop up after the bombs this great and wonderful government that had control of its borders. For the first five months, south Texas, especially around the Mexican border, was pretty much the Wild West. A part of it still is. As a woman without any family or anyone to protect me, I had to learn to be a quick thinker and be smart about taking care of myself. Though, I screwed up by letting them take me out to these woods in the first place. Jimmy is going to be so pissed at me."
"Why?" Heather asked not sure how Jimmy could put any blame on Natalie.
"He spent hours going over that self-defense stuff with me. I used to live in DC and he was worried that someone would take me off the street so every time I'd come home he'd march me through the rules. Rule number one is to not let them take you to a secondary location."
"Jimmy sounds like a good brother," Heather replied.
"He is."
"So, how'd you make it?" Jake asked trying to see if he could garner more information out of Natalie.
"Got lucky, I guess," Natalie replied not wanting to go into the details of the past year with them. She knew that eventually all would come out, but she figured her family deserved to find out first.
Jake and Heather both had many questions for Natalie, but both knew that now was not the time to getting answers. No one said anything further as they finally walked from the woods and to the headlights of awaiting trucks.
