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Four Days Later…
The sensation was surreal. Lisa sat as comfortably as she was able in the large jet, careful not to tweak her bandage. Thankfully it was healing well enough.
The plane was at full occupancy, each passenger and crewman verified at the gates for a clean bill of health (her wound required an additional waiting-period-before-flight and inspection to ensure it was not a risk), luggage turned inside and out for anything deemed suspicious and they were much less pc about the steps taken than before the virus. Air travel had been stripped of its luxury for the throws of necessity.
The cross-Atlantic flights were few and far between, but the given tickets had provided top service. First class, free drinks of any variety. Lisa had respectfully declined, instead opting for an Ibuprofen and water from the attendant to calm her nerves. It had seen that she fell into the comfort of sleep within the first handful of hours.
It was a needed sleep and when she awoke Hannah was fully occupied with a book, headphones at full blare. She seemed to notice Lisa's stir and looked up with a smile before taking the plugs from her ears.
"About time, sleepyhead," Hannah remarked cheerfully, turning down a corner of her current page before closing the soft-cover.
Lisa let out a quiet groan as her mind came back to herself, followed with an underlining headache, "Was I out that long?"
"Left me bored as can be," the girl established. "Jackson was no help either. It's nearly morning."
"Yes, because heaven forbid I actually try to sleep during a night flight."
"You're losing seven hours," Hannah protested.
"Point still standing," Lisa finished with a smirk.
She looked around at the rest of scattered sleepers: men in suits, women wisely in slacks, a pair of young boys immersed in their game systems. All looking blissfully unaware that fellow passengers had been fighting for their lives hardly a few days before. And really, how difficult would it be for something to get off the island and to the other shores?
Her stomach turned.
Hannah put her headphones down, unbuckling her safety belt, "I have to run to the loo."
Lisa nodded, straightening in her own seat; a window seat of all things. Another reason she had been quick to take something to calm her nerves. It was still too dark to see much.
It had been a strange several days leading up to the trip back. Jackson had been absent, much more than she expected. He didn't visit the hospital again, not until it was time for her release. Hannah would arrive with some assigned apology while he spent the day 'out on business.' The very idea of what that entailed was a subject she avoided.
What had she expected? Now that adrenaline had toned down and sense had kicked back in…that they would kiss, make up?
'Sorry about attacking you and your dad,' she imagined him saying in the conversation.
'Sorry about not co-operating with your plans to kill innocent children,' she would have replied.
He had done it because he didn't have a choice, Lisa reminded herself. It was the company. The Organization, Jackson had called it. It was the only clue into what they were and what they wanted, which lacked substance of any kind and put her right back at square one. If she was certain of anything however, they were far from finished with the manager. So where did that leave her?
Jackson hadn't kissed her again, not since that night. Not that she expected anything at the hospital. He was trying to make her feel better, and it had worked. There were no promises and she wouldn't ask for them. That night, in the mansion, it had been the heat of the moment. That's all it was.
Lisa closed the window shade.
"Is this seat taken?"
She looked up at the smoothness of his voice and felt her body tense. He seemed to notice.
"If you'd rather I can go back to mine," he indicated to the seat behind. Lisa noticed that Keplan was absent also, bathroom no doubt. Or paying some attention to the staff?
"No," she replied. It took a minute to remember to smile, "I mean…it's okay…if you sit here." It was a comfortable feeling as he sat close. It always had been.
Jackson tested the music still streaming in the abandoned headphones and quickly decided against it, putting them away.
"Nothing good?"
"Teen pop," he confirmed with displeasure.
Lisa offered a shrug of optimism, "Well, as long as she doesn't force us all to suffer through it."
He didn't respond the way she expected. "I know this isn't easy," Jackson started in a sobering tone. "Flying back, and with me of all people."
Her eyes moved up from the dark stripes of his collar, "We've been though a lot since then."
I trust you now, she wanted to say, but the words couldn't come out. I…
"We have," he repeated, looking away. Smiling, "Haven't we?"
There was something Lisa couldn't place, and it frightened her. She reached out for his hand.
"Jackson, are you alright?"
He pulled his hand away from hers, holding them on his lap as he paused. "It seemed almost simpler back there, didn't it? People you learn are enemies…monsters you learn are a threat to the people you love…you can just let the primal out and get rid of the danger."
It was his apathy that worried her. Jackson wouldn't meet her eye, instead looking up the isle. He hadn't spoken to her all day, barely offered a smile, and now…
She wanted to feel his hand. She wanted to see the person who held her as the blood stained their skin. Jackson, look at me?
Hannah still hadn't returned.
"Where's Hannah?" Lisa questioned, hoping to get on a more neutral topic. "She's been gone a while."
It had been too long, there weren't enough people gone for there to be a line.
"Oh, probably in the cockpit," he answered with a casual smile, finally looking back at her. "Managed an arrangement with the pilot earlier."
"That was very generous," Lisa responded politely, noting the choice of words so to tread carefully. "I'm sure she'll love it."
"Well, it will certainly be an experience, at the very least."
"We've had enough of those to last a lifetime." There was no humor in her voice.
"Experiences push people, Leese," he began to lecture with that air of superiority that she hated. She had almost forgotten it. "Out of their little shells. The value of a résumé is determined by the extent of experiences. You meet someone new and what do they want to know…"
"What type of drink's they order?" she dared to interrupt.
He leaned in until she could feel his breath against her cheek. He was smiling, just at the edge of his lips, she was sure, "That would assume they've had experience with drinking."
Was it all a game to him? Back in that other time, in hell, he had been so… A look in his eyes almost as if he…
She had seen him. Back at the ruins. The man in the mansion who had fought for her honor. That had been Jackson. Not this act he was putting forward. So what game was he playing this time?
"It's strange," Lisa reminded. "Almost being back to where we started."
She felt him flinch and was glad for it. The truth of it was they were far from the people on that Red Eye flight so long ago. Weren't they?
The words that followed took the woman by surprise, "To do that, we'd have to travel back a lot further than that, Leese."
"What do you mean?"
"Sometimes, Leese," he whispered into her hair. "Sometimes, bad things happen to good people."
Lisa's expression was one of surprise. She tried to turn enough to look at him but he moved quickly. Too quickly for her to release the scream before he had pressed the cloth to her face. A hand cradled the back of her head and she pushed back, trying to shove him away, trying to fight back. Jackson only pressed himself closer. She couldn't breath, struggling against the suffocating pressure.
Her eyes were wild, darting around the cabin. No one paid any mind. The boys had headphones firmly in place. People slept, or focused attention elsewhere. She kicked the seats in front, but they were empty. No one looked her way even once even as she tried to scream for help.
"Eh, eh," he reprimanded softly. "I learned my lesson last time. You, on the other hand, should have been paying more attention."
They were intensely blue, and the way Jackson's eyes held her gaze as he watched her fade. The narrowed, cold sensation could have made her shiver if she had the ability. But the struggle didn't last long as her limbs began to calm, her chest burning as she still tried to breathe through the fabric.
"That's it, Lisa," Jackson said calmly. His voice became fuzzy until she couldn't see the blues anymore. "Just relax."
Lisa finally stopped resisting, eyes closed, slumping against Jackson and he risking removing the cloth to check her breath. Still there. He sighed with relief and took the filled needle from his inner jacket pocket. He had done this many times before, removing the cover, eliminating the air. The tip slid into her skin so smoothly, the pale incision creating a flush ring that he knew would fade soon enough.
It was easy to fall back into old habits. This time she would stay asleep.
The curtain shuffled in front and Keplan looked out, eyes falling to the unconscious woman. When they shifted to Jackson the blond nodded with confirmation.
There was an announcement over the speakers, pleasant in tone, "… landing in thirty minutes…"
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Author's Note:
I want to thank everyone for the lovely reviews! This story has undergone revisions and restructuring, and all that sort of goodness, and after this last round of editing I decided to finish up at this point of the story. I've been working on more, but after trying to work it all in I decided there was too much plot and all that goodness to continue it under the same storyline. The blending of the two just wasn't doing it for me and was putting me in a major slump about how to go from 'here' to 'there'.
So…I decided to end it.
And work on a sequel. So, I hope that works for everyone and we'll see how it turns out.
I hope everyone has enjoyed it as much as I loved writing it!
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