Disclaimer: I don't own Jak.

Vacation or War- Return
Chapter Eleven- Savior

She had tried to kill herself. She had made a plan to go out and rid the world of her presence, and like all of her best laid designs it was ruined by an outside force beyond her control. Perhaps she should have felt her usual rage, but that was difficult when her mind was so addled by confusion. How had he gotten here? He said Onin had sent him to save her, but that made even less sense. Onin wouldn't be concerned with such a romantic and petty plight, and Pecker would have laughed him right out of the tent.

No, something greater had to be going on here... but the moment she tried to puzzle out what the rage she should have been feeling broke through, preventing any sort of consideration aside from where to punch the man she was practically wrapped around, hacking the muck out of her lungs from her failed attempted.

Her foiled attempt. He'd saved her. She should have been kissing his feet, not plotting a cheep shot to the balls. Her body shook for many reasons, weakness and oxygen deprivation certainly on the list, but her emotional confusion was there as well. For every sweet breath of air she was able to take she was blessing his arrival, cursing it with every painful jolt of her lungs. She didn't want to suffer. She wanted to die.

She was going to die. He'd just stalled her.

She pulled free of his hold, though doing so deprived her of support. She was dizzy, almost sick after trying to breathe part of the peat bog. She served him an intense glare, all of her emotional confusion turning to frustration as she once again saw his face. "Why?" She demanded, tears still balanced at the edges of her eyes. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Saving you." He pointed out, still holding her shoulders even though she'd pulled out of the hug. "I told you I wouldn't leave you alone, didn't I?"

"And I told you not to follow me!" She snapped, beating a hand against the water. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've gotten back, Jak? Did you... did you think you could just appear and sweep me off my feet?"

"I was planning on trying, though it didn't sound quite that stupid in my head."

She shook her head, pushing away his hands and bending her head to the water to clean her face. She was covered in mud, and she was rather sick of the stuff. She'd be tasting it for weeks to say the least. Thankfully the muck settled quickly, leaving fairly clean water for her to wash her face off in. As she did so, giving herself a moment or two of silence, she realized something.

She was still alive. Coming above the water, she was still breathing.

She stared at him. That was his doing. She'd lived to see him again.

"How long has it been...?" He asked as she let her gaze linger.

"Weeks." She answered. A short and almost surprised response. It was finally getting through to her mind. He was here. He was in her time. He had come for her.

He had come to stop her. Save her from herself. There was no vision of prince charming, simply a necessity as she threatened herself more effectively than Kor or Errol ever had. Neither of them had gotten so close to killing her as she had herself.

"Why...?" She asked again, her rage burning out. Her voice took a softer tone as she reached for his hands, letting him hold her again. "I... Jak... it all went wrong... everything went wrong... It's been weeks... and I was wrong. I was so wrong." She shook her head again, biting her lip while looking at him. Her mind wanted to explode as she processed him from face to eyes, hair to body, noting some minor changes. Actually, just one. "What... your ears...?"

"Forget it." He said quickly. "What happened?"

Her gaze hardened. "I failed. There's no way for me to create eco in this time without... sending myself forward again. I... I was already dying. I didn't want to suffer... so..."

She looked down into the dark water. Shame showed on her face, not for the attempt on her life, but for the fact that she failed in her own personal mission.

"I'm still dying." She noted. "It was supposed to end tonight. It was all going to... but... you had to..." Once again she shook her head from side to side, as if desperate to clear it. "You. I just don't believe it... I just can't..." She looked up, lips slightly open as if more words were to come, but she hadn't the ability to think of them. "You... I need you hide you. You can't be here..."

"Don't think about that yet." He insisted, smiling again now that her anger had left her. "You don't have to think about it yet."

"What else is there to think about...?" She felt like fainting, feeling the need to study him. It was like she couldn't convince herself that her eyes were telling the truth. "I must be dreaming... or maybe I did die, and the angle that's going to take me away just turned into the person I wanted to see..." She bent her head a little. "You can't be here..." She repeated.

"Surprise." He managed a small chuckle, pushing her chin back up. "Lauren..."

"You're going to ask me to go back... right? But I don't wanna argue right now... I... good God look at this mess I've made... I have to clean it all up..."

"Stop thinking."

"I have to think. I need to. There's so much to be done, and I don't have any time. You need to go back, but-"

Her words stopped as her mouth was covered, finding herself wrapped up by him again. Any question of whether or not he was actually there vanished between their lips, and other thoughts lost as he pulled her close and pushed her wet hair back and away from her face. A second was allowed for them to break and reconsider, but care for facts and questions and whos and wheres and whys had evaporated. Her hands took a path up into his hair, yanking him back for more.

She'd been a joyless creature since she'd left his side. No positive feeling had really stuck since her arrival back home, and she'd never imagined it could be associated with his absence. All was blamed on her own personal failures, ruined plans and likewise.

But now she had him, once again embraced and feeling like she was going to explode if she didn't get just one more taste of his lips. There was no word for this feeling, but it ultimately freed her from all that had been dragging her down.

Or perhaps there was a word, but it just felt too small and inadequate to explain it all.

She placed her head on his shoulder, still nuzzling and brushing her lips across his skin as he kept her close, neither of them pulling to leave the water or considering what needed to be done in the next few hours. None of that mattered; in that moment they were just two people who had gone through hell to see each other one more time.

She let a small laugh out, a short jolt of her shoulders and a snort of breath. "Just in time, hero..."

"Is that a thank you?"

"I thought that was what the kiss was for..."

"But I started it."

"Details..." She muttered, too exhausted to bicker with him.

Removing themselves from the mud and returning the house was a short and embarrassing venture. First off was that though Jak may have arrived looking just like himself minus the ears, he'd arrived without any proper coverings. Loor had forced him to stay in the water while she returned to the house to hose off her muddy feet and go inside to find a towel as a temporary covering. Once inside she sent him to the lower level, quickly checking the clock finding she still had two hours before her sister was due home.

Plenty of time to hide him. Her mind was finally working properly again, priorities getting in order and ideas bouncing once more of how to fix her current situation. She'd need a day or two to figure out just what was the best avenue of doing that, and for that day or two he certainly wasn't going to rent a hotel.

First things first, she raided her elder brother's room for some clothes that were likely to fit both him and her; she'd grown out of most of her wardrobe and her night pants were effectively ruined. She didn't even bother pushing them to laundry, she just tossed them into the large garbage bin in front of the house.

Returning downstairs, she hadn't donned the new set of pants just yet. She was in desperate need of a shower before she could even consider putting on fresh clothes.

She found him where she'd left him, standing in the hallway to her room, looking around with mild curiosity and just about to try the knob to her room.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked.

He rounded, giving a slight smile. "Exploring."

"That's my room." She said, offering him one of the two pairs of pants she had retrieved, along with a clean set of boxer shorts. "I really need a bath, and then I'll set you up in there... no one can know you're here. It... it's not allowed."

"I guessed as much. Where is everyone?"

"Ann's at work. Mom and Dad are gone for the weekend. Paul's away at boot camp. The plan had been to... take care of myself so the body would be impossible to find by the time someone came home and started looking. I wanted them to think I'd run away." She shook her head, sadness taking for a moment. "It won't be long, you know. A few more days, maybe, and I'll be bedridden. I didn't wanna have to go that way..."

"What exactly happened with the idea of you creating eco for yourself?" He asked, yet to retreat into her room as he was told.

It wasn't like she was dashing into the bathroom herself, a door just to her right. No, she just stood there, frowning slightly. "I underestimated how far underground it would be; the device that prevents me from making eco, that is. I'm just a kid on this side of history, without tools or manpower... it would take months to get at it, and it's under a major building. I don't have access... I pretty much accepted I was going to die two weeks ago."

He took this quietly, nodding a little. "That's a little odd."

"What? Why?" She perked up a little. New information from the other side gave her hope that she might be able to survive just yet.

"Onin and Samos sent me back to stop you from messing with that precursor device... said you could fuck up the future bad if you screwed with it. But you couldn't get to it..."

"Looks like you just took a trip through time for nothing, huh?" She finally moved to enter the bathroom, opening the door and flicking the light on. She moved quickly to get a shower going, checking the cabinet to make sure she still had a dry towel left over. She then turned to put her dry pants on the counter, only to be intercepted.

He'd followed her into the bathroom, catching her as she turned. "I came back for you." He said bluntly, the hand that had been holding the tuck on his towel the whole time clasping her arm. "I didn't care why else Onin told me, I cared that I was coming to get you."

"Just because you showed up here doesn't mean I can go back." She snarled, her back nearly to the wall as he got in her face. "I need to figure out how to send you back quickly... I'm a dead girl walking."

There was tense moment, but Jak eventually unhanded her. "We'll talk after you're clean." Was all he said, turning to leave the bathroom and enter her room.

Lauren watched him go, waiting for him to shut the door and then collapsing back on the wall. It had been everything she had just to stay standing for as long as she had; her knees had turned to jelly when she'd first seen his face again, and as her dream theory became less and less likely she was willing to believe that she'd actually come after her.

And she'd actually been able to hold him again. Physical craving burned in the pit of her stomach, twisting up her guts and making her want to storm her room, even in her dirty condition. The worst had been those last few seconds; a daydream wondered what it would have been like if he'd powered her into the wall and kissed her once more.

Well... what a lovely turn of events...

Oh, look who decided to join the party. Loor groaned softly while putting her hands to her head. She imagined Lyra was none too happy with her, what with the near drowning and all. Can you wait to rape my brain until after my shower?

You're still alive, dearest. I think I can leave the mental maiming till another time; my attention is in other places.

Lyra's attention was shown as Loor couldn't shake her little daydream, the towel falling off of his body. She felt her face turning slightly red, but also the knot in her stomach growing hot.

Glad you're so easily distracted... You realize I have to get rid of him though.

That or you could go with him. Do you really think he'll leave without you?

I think he don't got a choice in the matter. And I don't either.

Oh really? Onin sent him back to prevent you from screwing with something you found you couldn't screw with. Sound a tad fishy to you?

Loor hadn't been thinking that way. She'd been so focused on the old argument that the new conditions never crossed her mind. Lyra was right, as strange as that was. Onin had sent her home at her direct request, but if there had been an actual problem the woman could have refused. And now Jak had been sent after her for a problem that didn't actually exist.

Something else is going on here. Loor agreed. Onin had to have been playing at something... and Jak's holding back on telling me why she actually sent him after me. He might just be waiting for me to cool down a little before he drops the next bombshell on my head. Wouldn't be the first time he's considered my mental condition before speaking.

Well then hurry up and take your stupid shower. Lyra seemed to be whining a little. She was still entertaining the daydream that Loor had started but she kept elaborating on outside of the girl's conscious mind. She didn't need it at the forefront to know that Lyra was enjoying it very much; she could feel the animal's lust.

She did her best not to let it get to her. Business came first.

But she found no guilt in indulging in a few more sinful kisses once they had things properly figured out.

The Author's Corner

Oh-ho-ho... Loor's starting to turn into a naughty girl. XDD Glad we're finally through all the sad shit, because the mood was killing me.

I HAZ CHOCOLATE!

-Loor