Authors Note: Thank you to those of you who reviewed. You're the reason this chapter is up so quickly. Sorry it's a bit boring, but I think the ending makes up for that.

Annie opened her eyes with some difficulty what seemed like moments from when she closed them. She coughed as she tried to turn over but her arm landed on something rather hard and she heard something fall over and land on the floor. She jerked upwards with surprise and saw she had laid her arm on a silver tray that had been placed next to her on the bed. On the tray was a sandwich on a plate and next to the plate was a book.

She sat up further and noticed that there was a blanket lying on top of her. She pushed it away from herself as she pressed her hand against her forehead hard to try and block out the headache that threatened to blind her. It took a few seconds to shake off, but it subsided and she opened her eyes again to look at her surroundings.

It was now dark outside her window and she distinctively remembered it was morning when she fell asleep. She looked again to the tray and this time picked up the book that lay there. The Devil Wears Prada. Quite a girly book, but it would do, she supposed. She quickly flipped threw the books pages and a bookmark fell out and onto her lap.

She couldn't help but think how thoughtful Jackson was being. For a psycho, he was a bit of alright. She smiled to herself as she turned the book over and started reading the back as she picked up the sandwich and took a bite. It was plain peanut butter. Her favorite.

She could nearly feel her heart bleeding as she tried not to choke as she swallowed the bite. Why was he doing this to her? Was he trying to kill her? Why wouldn't he just let the past go? He had made it perfectly clear he would do anything to get the information out of her, so why was he treating her this way?

She shook off her stirred up emotions and got out of bed to find what had fallen on the floor. It was a water bottle. She sat back in bed and pulled the covers over herself sitting back to enjoy her small meal and her book.

By the time she was done eating and tired of reading it was nearing 9:30. She was just beginning on chapter two, and she was still hungry.

She didn't know weather or not, but she still had to check, if you know what I mean? She got up and tried her bedroom door. It was locked, of course. What was she expecting? For Jackson to give her some slack on that rope he had tied around her neck. She knocked on the door softly and waited. She was about to knock again when she heard someone fumbling with the doorknob.

She heard the key slide in and the lock snap. She stepped back from the door as it opened. Jackson stood there in the shadow of the door and it took her a few seconds to see him properly because the room beyond was also dark except for an orange glow that came from the TV. He was dressed for bed, which only consisted of a pair of flannel pants.

It was a long time before either of them spoke, but she couldn't stand the silence, so she spoke first. "Can I come out?" God, she sounded like a little kid who was being punished. She hated this. He held all the cards and she had to obey. She hated being told what to do. She always had.

Jackson didn't say anything but swung the door open wider before going back into the main room and sitting back down on the bed. He leaned back against the headboard as he crossed his feet and pretended to be engrossed in what he had been watching. But she saw his eyes follow her as she entered the room and walked towards the kitchen.

She kept finding herself looking towards him as she went threw the cabinets and then the fridge. He too was looking at her most of the time. Why was he so gorgeous? How was this fair? He had an entire arsenal against her without wielding a single weapon. Unless you counted his body as a weapon. Which she did.

She picked strawberries as a late night snack, although it wasn't really so late. She knew better than to, but she sat down on the bed next to Jackson. He looked over at her like she was crazy, and she probably was.

She tried hard not to look at him as she gnawed on a strawberry. It took her at least 10 minutes to have enough concentration to figure out he was watching the weather channel. For those who don't know what the weather channel is, it's a weather map that runs 24/7 showing the movement of storms across the US. A robotic girls voice tells you about the storms and if your lucky you get a real person pointing out the areas you really need to look out for.

"Why are we watching this?" She asked after another five minutes of trying to figure out the answer herself.

"Were not doing anything. I'm watching the weather. At least I was." Jackson replied stressing the words that he knew would hurt the most.

"Why do you have to be so mean?"

Jackson didn't reply but after a few seconds he sat up a bit and got something off the night stand and handed it to her. She took the remote with surprise but gladly changed the channel.

The first channel she flipped to was a local news station, and just guess what the current topic was… weather. Cooking shrimp, fixing cars, and a WW2 documentary were her next choices and none of them appeased her. She settled on some drama type movie. Jackson only sat there for a few more minutes before he got up and went to sit at the counter with his lap top.

This made her a bit upset but she tried her best to forget him by concentrating on the movie. She finished her food quickly and realized she was still quite tired. She settled down further into the bed and tried her best to follow the film although her thoughts were almost anywhere but. It took her a while to realize her eyes had been shut for the past 10 minutes at least. When she forced them open she realized she now no longer knew what the premise of the movie was even about.

She tried her best to refocus, but her eyes either kept being drawn to Jackson, who was reading something on his lap top, or they kept slipping shut.

She was suddenly standing on a beach. The grainy sand slid between her toes and she felt the salty sea air on her face. But she didn't stand still long enough to enjoy the ambiance. Someone was after her and she had to run. She took off down the beach as fast as she could. She saw someone ahead of her. Even though she couldn't see their face she just knew it was Jackson.

"Jackson!" She yelled loudly. Her voice broke with fear. As she grew nearer to him he turned her way. His face was expressionless and as she called out for him again and this time he turned and walked away from her disappearing into the think fog that began to envelope the beach.

She had an eerie feeling that her pursuer was gaining on her and she quickly turned her head to see. She was now in a maze. The hedges on either side of her seemed like they went up forever. It was dark and quite and she felt so alone. Suddenly she heard her name being called out and it echoed over her and all around. She heard it again, and this time she knew it was Jackson that had said her name.

Then everything grew dark and faded away.

-----

Jackson was typing away on a message to his boss trying to explain why he hadn't gotten anywhere on this case yet. Explaining away this little speed bump was harder than one might think. Even though they had given him a 10 day leeway, he knew they expected him to get what they needed ahead of schedule. It was usually no problem, but this time it was. A big problem. A beautiful problem that wore strawberry flavored lip balm and always sucked on his bottom lip when they kissed.

God Damn It! Why did he keep doing this to himself? He couldn't have her anymore. She didn't want him anymore, and she probably wouldn't ever again. It was all over and he had to live with that. A good concept, but it would probably kill him in reality.

"Jackson…" Jackson raised his eyebrow as he heard his name. He was not one to have full blown hallucinations, but sleep deprivation was getting the better of him lately. He looked over at Annie whom he knew to be asleep because he kept hearing her mumbling mindlessly in her sleep. She did that from time to time. She was so captivating that he could watch her sleep for hours.

Her shook these unfavored thoughts from his brain again and turned back to his work. "Jack-sonnn…" He heard again. This time he knew she said it because it was followed by a string of low groans and whimpers.

He got up and walked over to her, kneeling beside the bed to look his love in the face. "Annie." He whispered to her, gently stroking her hair. She groaned again in her sleep, but he knew she was too far gone to wake up. "Oh, Annie, what am I going to do?"

He stared at her for a long while before he decided it was time to get her back in her room. He hadn't slept in roughly 43 hours and he knew he couldn't withstand it much longer. As much as he would like to think he could, he knew he couldn't trust her while he slept. She would most likely wake up and then he could only predict what she would do.

He picked her up and carried her into her bedroom where he laid her down on the bed and then covered her up. "Sleep well, my love." He said as quietly as he could before he leaned down and kissed her gently on her forehead.

-----

Annie awoke the next morning to find herself in her bed. Jackson Jackson Jackson. What was she going to do. She couldn't keep putting feelings towards him. She needed to sever any and every feeling she had for him and replace every good memory she had of him with a bad one. The one that usually did the trick was the whole, 'my sisters life is at steak here.'

As she dug around in her suite case for new clothes she began to think over every horror movie she had ever seen. How did the one person that always lives escape? The trouble was whenever she could remember any offhand character, she always remembered minutes later that what they had done had gotten them killed. Either that or they had some outside person who knew what was going on, come in at the last minute and save the day. Or at least until part two came out in theaters. The whole, just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies, type of thing.

A good hour later and she was still at square one. She was tired of sitting in her room so she pounded on the door loudly. She apparently woke up on the wrong side of the bed because she was now filled with animosity.

It took longer than the previous night, but Jackson came to the door none the less. He too looked like now was not the time to mess with him, but they would just have to see how the day went.

Jackson looked a bit different today. Today he wasn't wearing a suite, but a pair of dark jeans and a deep maroon colored shirt. Like the night before he completely ignored her and walked into the kitchen.

"What's for breakfast?" Annie asked sitting down on one of the high bar stools and resting her chin in her hands so she was looking up a Jackson with her big doe eyes.

"How about a little honesty?" Jackson asked resting his hands on the table in front of her and looking deeply into her eyes.

"That sounds nice. Lets start with, when were you planning on telling me the truth." She was biting off more than she could chew but she thought she could handle it. After all today was a new day.

Jackson didn't respond. He was rather good at doing that. He tapped his finger on the counter at a rather rapid pace. "Well, do I get breakfast or not."

"Why don't you tell me what you know? Then you can eat."

"Are you really going to starve me until I tell you what I know? That's a bit cruel don't you think?" Jackson just stared at her. "Well, I guess I'll be in my room, wasting away."

Just as she turned to leave Jackson reached out and grabbed one of her hands. "What do you want?" He breathed out in a rasp.

"How about eggs and a muffin." Annie said happily now that she got her way.

"Eggs I've got. Muffins, I don't." Jackson said going to the fridge.

"But I really want a muffin." Annie said pouting.

"Too bad." Jackson said opening the fridge.

"Can't we go out to eat? I'm sure the hotels restaurant has muffins."

"No." Jackson said plainly. Annie knew it wouldn't do anything but she banged her knee hard into the counter so tears started welling in her eyes. She let out a soft sob so that Jackson would look at her.

"Jesus Christ." Jackson said opening the fridge again and putting the eggs back. He slammed the door shut and said, "lets go."

Annie followed him joyously out of the hotel room and the long elevator ride down to the lobby. Her plan had succeeded. She was out of the hotel room, but now she had to find a way to get away from Jackson or get a message to someone, anyone.

"I need to stop at reception," Jackson was saying.

"For what?" She asked.

"We need to decline maid service. We need our privacy, no interruptions."

The elevator doors opened to reveal the large lobby. Jackson took up her hand and led her to the large reception desk. Just her luck, the same two girls were working the desk.

"How may we help you this morning?" One of the girls asked, and the other girl came to stand right next to her to ogle Jackson better. Even Annie was embarrassed for them.

Jackson began explaining what he wanted and Annie looked at her fingernails with boredom. Then the unthinkable happened. Jackson let go of her hand to motion with his hands to better emphasize some point that Annie wasn't listening to.

Annie took a step back away from him, and he didn't seem to notice. She took a few more steps back and looked all three of them over very carefully. Jackson was too busy playing up his role and the two girls couldn't care less about what she was doing.

Now was the perfect time. She turned and walked briskly towards the exit. Once outside she began running as fast as she could down the crowded Los Angles streets. People looked at her with anger and yelled insults after her as she flew past. But she didn't care. She had done it. She was free!