Five Years Gone

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously.

Chapter Fourteen

Lisa felt the shot rather than actually hearing it. It took a moment to seep into her consciousness as she touched the hole in her side. Blood leaked from it.

"I've got you, I've got you," a voice muttered, arms wrapped around her. "Hang in there, Leese…"

More gunshots echoed, but Lisa was beyond caring as she slipped into the welcoming darkness.

Getting out of the dinner with Lisa bleeding in his arms wasn't easy. Normally, he would dump the hostage and get the hell out of there, but he couldn't leave her alone. Not now. Not when she was hurt and weak.

So he did the next best thing. He returned fire as he backed out, clutching the nearly unconscious woman in his arms.

Jackson disappeared around the corner, tucked the gun in his waistband, and picked up Lisa in his arms bridal-style. She was limp and boneless. He could feel her blood—hot and sticky—on his skin. "C'mon, Leese… don't die on me yet…"

But he could feel her slipping away from him. And he wasn't ready to give her up.

"Agent Greene? There's been a sighting," called an eager young intern.

Greene looked up from the photographs he'd been studying. "Where?"

"About an hour away. Someone recognized her from the news, warned others, and tried to apprehend the man with her."

"Did they catch him?" Greene asked, feeling hopeful that he could have Lisa in his arms in an hour. He slipped his gun into his shoulder holster.

"No, he got away. And there were exchanges of gunfire. There's a chance she was shot."

Jackson undid the sloppy pressure bandage once he returned to their home base a few blocks from the diner. He'd pulled the first aid kit out and was cleaning the edges of the wound in order to get a better look at her. The blood steadily pumped out, but not at the same rate it would if an artery had been nicked.

He grabbed her shirt and torn the thin fabric in half, slipping it off her body. He bent over her, ready to fish a bullet out of her. Then he'd stop the bleeding and close up the gaping hole.

Without the benefit of gloves, he poured antiseptic into the wound and dug in with a pair of tweezers for the tiny bit of lead that'd pierced her skin. He found it.

"Hang in there, Leese, I'm almost done."

He cleaned the wound again, used cotton wadding to soak up the blood, and threaded a needle. He wasn't very good with needles and thread, but he needed to close the wound. Even if it was only temporary and rather messy.

Midway through the stitching process, he heard her stir.

"Stay still. I'm almost done…"

Her fingernails dug into his arm. "Owwww…. Ahhhhhh!"

"Relax. Breathe. Just a few more…"

She let out a loud scream, which he silenced with his left hand. "Leese, I need you to hold it in. Please… I know it hurts…"

Her eyes darted around, almost fearful.

"Lisa…"

He finished another stitch. She mumbled and screamed into his hand.

"Cover your mouth, okay? I'll do a better job with both my hands…"

He felt her nod.

He focused back on the stitches, leaving Lisa to cover her mouth and scream into it instead of the motel room. They would leave as soon as he cleaned up their tracks and stabilized her.

"Okay… all done," Jackson said, affixing a bandage.

She took a deep breath. "What… what happened?"

"You were shot. They were aiming for me. They hit you instead."

Lisa nodded, slowly sitting up with one hand on the bandage. "Why didn't you leave me? Or shoot me in the head?"

"I can't ditch you or kill you, remember? I still need you."

"You already sent Greene the note."

There was a heavy silence. "Fuck…" Jackson muttered. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"What?"

"The meet… we missed the meet…"

"By how much?"

He glanced at his watch. "About an hour. It took a few minutes for me to get you here, get prepped, and fish out a bullet…"

"Oh God… what are we going to do now?" she asked.

"I don't know."

Crouched down beside the broken glass, Greene stared at the spot his fiancée had been standing in before being shot. The footage of the shooting had already been collected by a forensic team. He could see the drying blood left by Lisa.

Given the amount of blood and the gunman's warnings, he had a feeling that she was already dead. Which meant his job now was to catch the killer.

In order to do that, he'd have to work the crime scene and skip the proposed meeting. There wasn't any time to get downtown and get set up. He only had forty minutes. Plus, his best leads would come from the actual scene.

"I'll find him, Lisa. I'll find him and I'll kill him…"

The blood-stained sheets and clothes burned while they left the motel room behind. Lisa was dressed in fresh clothes, as was Jackson, and he'd half-carried her to their newest car. He hot-wired another car from the lot, just in case one of the bystanders at the diner managed to get a good look at his current car.

They took one bag of clothing and hit the road.

Jackson didn't know that Greene was less than two miles away and closing in fast.

"Stop it right there…"

Greene looked up from his notes to see the grainy video footage from the diner. "Wait… back it up a bit."

The tape re-wound slowly, bringing into focus the face of Lisa's abductor.

"Print that," he insisted, his eyes riveted on the screen. "We need to get that cleaned up and get copies to all the media outlets.

"Why? What's wrong?" asked an analyst.

"That man right there? That's Jackson Rippner. He's a known terrorist and he has a score to settle with Lisa Reisert. He's going to kill her."

Author's Notes:

Uh oh, Greene's getting closer! But he still hasn't connected the pictures yet… that's coming.

Thanks for sticking with the story so far! Hopefully it'll start wrapping up soon…probably around 20 or 25 chapters total. :)

Lexicon – Here ya go! New chappie!