Disclaimer: I own nothing. The only thing that belongs to me is the plot. And suing would be pointless 'cause I'm a poor college student so all you'd get out of the deal would be really crappy used textbooks.

Now that that's out of the way, I give you ...story.


Chapter Eleven

The next morning dawned bright and clear, she could distinctly hear birds chirping in the distance, enjoying the day. Lisa lay in bed, basking in the early morning peace...Then she remembered where she was. Groaning, she rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. As she lay there, under the covers, she reflected on what happened the night before. Jackson had seemed almost nice (save his last parting shot); and nice certainly wasn't a word she would have associated with Jackson Rippner, but no other adjective seemed to fit.

A soft knock sounded, interrupting her thoughts. Knocking? He had never knocked before. What was he playing at? Shaking her head, she muttered a soft, "Come in."

Jackson came in, back first, pushing the door open with his butt. Nice view, the thought flitted across her mind before she could stop it. Once he was fully in the room, he turned around and she saw that he was carrying a wooden tray. A wooden tray with a nice selection of breakfast food on it. Her eyebrows rose in surprise, "You brought me breakfast in bed?"

He almost looked unsure of himself for a second before he responded with a shrug, "Thought you might be hungry. I can put it away if you..."

"No," she cut it, "it's fine. I guess I am a little hungry. I, uh, didn't exactly eat a lot yesterday." She looked down and made a face at the blanket. Why on earth had she accepted that from him? She was going crazy. That was the only explaination she could give herself. Looking up, she saw that he had made his way over to her. Holding the tray out in front of him, he made a move to put it on the bed. Before he could complete the act, she sad up, leaning against the headboard and let him place the tray over his lap.

"This looks...good," she told him, then muttered, "surprisingly."

If he heard that last bit, he gave no indication. He watched as she tentativley picked up the fork and poised it over the french toast. He watched as she looked back up at him, almost as if she was waiting for something. Jackson ignored the voice in the back of his head that told him to mess with her, that it wouldn't suit his purposes. Reminding himself that he needed to be gentlemanly, and curb his other, less than appealing, qualities. Nodding towards the tray he said, "Go on. It's perfectly fine." Cringing inwardly, he waited for a retort, something involving the use of poison he was sure, but he was genuinely surprised when all she did was take a bit of the, pre-cut (he may have been trying to be nice, but he wasn't stupid, he may have given the girl a fork, but he certainly wasn't going to give her a knife), bread.

He sat on the edge of the bed, as far as he could get from her without remaining standing. Jackson wanted to make sure that she still had her space, but that she wouldn't forget he was there. It wouldn't do to rush into these things, he knew that he had to work carefully, for this would be a fragile thing indeed, and he knew that any progress he gained with her could be blown away at the drop of a hat. Turning to face her fully, he watched as she finished the french toast and moved on the to the small plate of eggs.

Before he could stop himself he said, "I realize it's not three in the morning, but they're eggs nonetheless."

Lisa froze, mouth open, eggs halfway there. She shuddered at his reminder of the...observing he had done for weeks on end before that dreaded flight to Miami. She gingerly put the fork back on the plate and pushed the tray away from her. Lisa turned her head to speak to him, but resolutely kept her eyes down. "I'm not really very hungry anymore."

Inwardly kicking himself for his stupidity, Jackson stood up and retrieved the tray, standing in front of the bed now he spoke to her. "You can get dressed if you want. There are clothes in the dresser," he indicated the bureau in the corner, "they should fit, but let me know if they don't." And with that he left the room. You really should learn to keep your mouth shut, Rippner, he scolded himself, as he weighed the benefits of kicking his own ass.

Back in the room, Lisa got up from the bed and went over to the dresser. His earlier comments had made her uneasy, or at least added to the immense pile of unease that she was already feeling. Did he have to remind her about all the intimate details that he knew of her life. Not that having scrambled eggs at three in the morning was anywhere near intimate, but it was the fact of the matter really. It was extremely unsettling to know that she had been watched for a such a long amount of time and had absolutely no idea of it. Creepy was one word for it, but it did nothing to cover the scope of the matter. Opening the top drawer revealed a wide variety of panties and bras. Damn near slamming the drawer shut, she couldn't help but blush. She moved down a row to find pants. Taking a peak at the tag at the waist, she blushed even more to realize that they were exactly the right size. She really shouldn't have been surprised. Honestly, Lisa would been more shocked if he had been wrong. That man knew everything about her. Well, almost everything. He hadn't known about the scar and its origin until he had seen in on her in the airplane bathroom and figured it out.

Lisa steered her thoughts away from that particular encounter, and ripped open the remaining drawers until she found a suitable shirt. Looking around the room, she realized there was no bathroom attached and she hesitated before she started changing. She took no risks and changed as quickly as she could, setting a world record in the process she was sure. Now comfortably attired in a pair of jeans and an overly large t-shirt (probably meant for her to sleep in), Lisa opted to keep on her own bra and panties, not wanting to go through the selection that Jackson no doubted picked out himself. She looked around the room, looking for something to occupy her time, but upon finding nothing substantially in its time wasting abilities, she decided on making the bed instead. Ignoring the treacherous path her thoughts had taken.

As she fluffed the pillows she had come to the conclusion that she didn't know which of Jackson's personalities scared her more. The one determined to kill her, or the one who had suddenly sprouted an ounce of civility. With the first, she had at least known what he wanted, but with the latter, it was much less cut and dry. It unnerved her because she didn't know what was coming next.

Absently, she wondered if Jackson had multiple personalities.


I realize that it took a wee bit longer for me to update that I had originally planned, but I like to think that I still did a reasonable job. I got a little sidetracked before I left for school. Real life interfered and I ended working a lot more that I thought I was going to. Then it figured that when I got back to school my laptop decided to commit mutiny and die on me, therefore making me reboot the whole damn thing (as in lost-EVERYTHING-and-had-to-start-from-stratch). It's always my favorite time of year when it decids to do that. --sense the sarcasm-- But aaaanyway. I'm shooting for the middle to end of next week for the next one 'cause I have a rough draft for a paper due monday. But you never know, I could surprise everyone, even myself, and have it done sooner.

Now you all know what to do. REVIEW. Cause you're all awesome and love me. Oh, and before I forget, I want to thank EVERYONE who has EVER reviewed, because you guys are amazing, 207 reviews, that's just...wow. No words can describe how much that means to me. Keep 'em coming. And as usual I don't care what you write in them, it can be anything you want. And if anyone wants to IM me, feel free. My screenname is BlackCandleLight. Just make sure to tell me that you saw it on here or something, otherwise I'll be wicked (can we tell I'm from the Boston area?) confused.

Have a good rest of the week!

-Maeggy-