A/N: Last chapter! I'll start posting Toccata and Fugue within a few days!

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Eleven days later, Jackson sat in a hospital bed at Landstuhl Medical Centre near the Ramstein Air Force Base in the southwest of Germany, brushing the top of the splint over his nose with aggravation as his nose itched. The batteries in the remote had gone dead earlier in the day, so he was stuck watching BBC News which unfortunately repeated the same loop of programmes all day, and as of recently were all about the aftermath of the Syrian crisis. At first, they just had little blurbs, but as the media was able to get into the town where they'd been held, more and more time became devoted to the story. There were pictures of the building where they'd stayed; video of the basement where Anoo, Imad and Fadlallah had been murdered; and eventually, he was terrified to see, pictures of their infant son. Reporters had been begging to be let in to interview Jackson about the entire thing, but because he was on a military base, there were strict rules regarding who could go in and out.

He was about to try to throw something at the television to make it turn off when the door opened and a nurse walked in holding the baby. Hediyeh was walking next to her, looking sullen, but once she ran over to Jackson's bed and was lifted up by him, she relaxed and smiled a little at the television. The nurse came over and laid the baby in the bassinet next to the bed, looking at Jackson as he put an arm around the little girl and stared the television.

'The batteries died?' the nurse asked with a bit of humour in her voice. Jackson responded by handing her the remote, and she left without another word.

'She could have changed the channel,' said Hediyeh dryly, playing with one of Jackson's fingers as she spoke in Arabic. 'This was on this morning.'

'She'll be back soon,' said Jackson with a little laugh—two weeks of knowing him and she was already dripping with righteous sarcasm—watching as the little girl spun around his wedding band. 'How was your check-up?'

'Good,' she murmured, turning to lay her head on his stomach. 'The doctor says I'm very healthy, and so is Jonathan.'

'Well, I guess it won't be any problem then when we go to America, hm?'

Hediyeh shook her head and turned as the door opened again, hoping that the nurse had returned with the fixed remote. Instead, Joe Reisert walked in looking exhausted and made a bee-line for his grandson's bassinet, wasting no time picking him up and going over to Jackson's bed. Before sitting down, he went to Jackson's feet and turned off the television, which made both occupants of the bed sigh gleefully.

'How are you, Jackson?' the older man asked, looking down at his grandson rather than his son-in-law. Basically, it was like looking at the same person because of the stunning blue eyes that each possessed.

'I'm getting better,' he said shortly. 'Adjusting.'

'I think we all are,' said Joe, smiling a bit as Jonathan yawned. 'It's a big change.'

The small girl in bed with Jackson curled closer to him and in response Jackson raised the sheets so that she could snuggle under them with him. Hediyeh edged up until she had her head on his sternum and lied listening to him breathing and his heart beating under the rumbling of his voice as he continued talking to Joe. Although she had no idea what they were talking about, she could tell by Jackson's tone that he was upset about something, but then again, they had all been upset since getting to Landstadt. There was a lot of paperwork: birth and death certificates, adoption papers, passport applications, et cetera. She was convinced that Jackson's hand was going to be stained with ink forever.

'How soon will they have the little girl's passport?' asked Joe, looking down at Hediyeh.

'They can't issue it here, but Keefe's been working with the Consulate General in Frankfurt am Main,' Jackson replied, and Hediyeh smiled a little as his stomach gurgled. 'They'll probably have it in the next couple of days, and then we can start solidifying our travel plans to go back to Miami.'

'Jonathan can fly?'

Jackson nodded. 'The doctors said to just make sure that he drinks from a bottle during take off and landing to equalise the pressure in his ears.'

'Ah,' Joe said simply before turning to look at the person who was walking through the door.

'The nurse said to bring this in to you,' Carol said, holding up the remote and bringing it over to them.

'Hey, Hediyeh, look,' Jackson said as he took the remote. 'Want to find something fun to watch?'

She shook her head slowly against his chest, so he just dropped it to the sheets beside them.

'Is she all right?' asked Carol with concern, reaching out to rub the girl's back.

'She was really close to her mom,' Jackson said in a strained voice as he looked down at her. 'She goes through a lot of emotions every day because she's happy to be going with everyone back to America but at the same time she misses her parents, her home, everything.'

'Poor thing,' murmured Carol, sitting down in the chair next to Joe and taking their grandson from her ex-husband's arms, cuddling him. 'It'll get better, little one. We'll take good care of you. After all, all of the people in this room have lost their moms, and your new daddy even lost his when he was young.'

Jackson shifted oddly in his bed before interpreting for Hediyeh; no one had ever bothered to tell his parents-in-law that he was in fact the person who caused his parents' deaths, and he wasn't about to tell them now. When he finished interpreting, Hediyeh sat up and slipped out of the bed, walking over and reaching to Joe, who picked her up and put her in his lap. They all sat in silence for a little bit, Jackson twisting his wedding band, Carol kissing her infant grandson's forehead, and Joe holding his adopted granddaughter tightly.

'Hediyeh,' said Carol, tripping over the girl's name. She perked up and looked at Carol, who gestured for her to come to her.

Carol handed Jonathan back to Joe as Hediyeh slipped out of his lap and walked to her. The woman spun her finger in a circle to get the girl to turn around before taking a hair-tie out of her own hair and running her fingers through the girl's long waves.

'I bet your Mama used to braid your hair, didn't she?' Carol asked lightly as she started to pull the girl's hair back and Jackson interpreted.

'And her new Mama will too,' said a sleepy voice from the door, and Joe stood.

'Honey,' Joe said with a wide smile as he walked over to Lisa, who was being pushed into the room in a wheelchair by a nurse, her leg stretched out in front of her, immobilised but not in a cast. 'Feel better after a good bath?'

Lisa nodded with a yawn as she watched her husband slip out of the hospital bed and stand next to it. 'Trying to take over my spot?'

'Just feeling a bit lazy,' he replied with a smile as he helped the nurse lift her out of the wheelchair and back into the bed. 'I thought you'd be gone for thirty minutes and it ended up being three hours. I had to watch the same news broadcast twice on BBC News.'

'Would you like some cheese with that whine?' she asked snarkily as she pulled the sheets up and nuzzled into her pillow before reaching out to her father. 'Baby.'

Joe brought over his grandson and placed him in Lisa's outstretched arms. After eleven days, only six of which had been spent in his mother's care after she awoke from a short coma, he was no fool and knew exactly what was up. Before she could even untie her gown, he was trying to suckle at her breast through the blue cotton fabric of her scrubs top, so laughing, Jackson stuck his finger between his wife's breast and his son's mouth until Lisa could expose a nipple for him. He frowned inwardly at the red, aggravated skin on her shoulder where she'd been shot by Reza.

'Jonathan Noah Rippner,' grumbled Lisa as Jackson pulled his finger out of the baby's mouth. He attached himself hungrily to Lisa, a move which made her bite her lip a little and shut an eye, but after a moment, she became more accustomed to it and looked around at the other people in the room. 'Have Hediyeh's papers come yet?'

Shaking his head, Jackson sat beside her on the bed. 'Keefe promises them within the next couple of days, and as soon as we get them, we'll be on the next flight to Miami out of Frankfurt am Main.'

'I'm going back to Dallas morning tomorrow, but I'm sure that you can handle everything here without me,' said Carol as she tied the bottom of Hediyeh's plait. 'Everything seems to be winding down.'

'Are they going to let me travel?' asked Lisa worriedly, looking at her husband.

He rubbed her leg fondly. 'Yes, don't worry; we're not going to leave you behind in Germany. You're never going anywhere without me ever again.'

He gave her a serious look and she started laughing. 'Is that a promise?'

'Hopefully there won't be another reason for him to steal you off into hiding,' said Joe, a bit of worry and question hiding under his voice before he scooped up his granddaughter and held her upside down by her ankles, which made her laugh loudly.

'There shouldn't be,' Jackson said, placing a hand on their son's back as he grinned at Joe and Hediyeh. 'I only screwed up one job; all the rest were just peachy.'

---

'Welcome aboard Fresh Air flight 462 service to Miami. We will be departing at 9:50 and expect a flight time of about nine hours and forty minutes. The current time at our destination is 3:35 AM. Wilkommen bei Fresh Air Fluges 492...'

Aboard the massive Boeing 747, passengers on the main deck were working on storing all of their carry-on luggage in preparation for flight, but on the upper deck, all of the seventeen first-class passengers were already situated, the youngest one happily gurgling on his mother's chest. A flight attendant prowled down the first-class section with a notebook in hand asking every passenger what he wanted to drink. When she got to 81C, however, she paused, looking with slight question at 81A, a stout businessman, before dropping to her knees.

'Well, hello honey. Are you travelling all by yourself?' she asked the girl, who was colouring messily in a Let's Learn English! colouring book.

The girl glanced up at her with slight hesitation before looking past her to the people across the row. 'Jackson-baba?'

The flight attendant heard the person behind her turn around. 'Aish?'

She stood and turned to look at the man who was speaking. He had dark hair that was vaguely lopsided, a shorter area over a mean red scar; his face was relatively scarred also, but what she noticed about him were his stunning blue eyes and the fact that he had a baby bottle stuck into his suit jacket pocket. Beside him, a woman wearing a ring matching his was sitting with her legs propped on the footrest, a tiny infant curled against her chest, oblivious to anything going on beside her. Standing up a little straighter, she looked down at him with pinched lips.

'Hediyeh, aish—oh,' he said, laughing inwardly a bit with surprised eyes as he reached over to brush his hand against Lisa. 'Leese.'

Lisa looked up from the drooling baby, waiting for her husband to continue before he jerked his head to the stern-looking flight attendant. Looking up at the familiar-looking dark-haired woman, Lisa immediately snorted and put her free hand over her mouth.

'So, it seems there's been no death in the family. Does that mean the lavatory is safe?'

Jackson smiled indulgently as Lisa turned her face away to laugh. 'Well, the kids are with us this flight, so there's no time for fun.'

The flight attendant gave an indignant noise. 'Is there anything I can get for you before we take off?'

'We'll have a Moët et Chandon Brut Imperiel split,' he said, then turned to Lisa, who was still shaking with silent laughter as she looked out the window with Jonathan held to her. 'Leese, did you need another pillow or anything?'

She turned back, the humour of the moment still apparent on her face. 'No, I don't need anything.'

'Hediyeh,' Jackson said, looking around the woman's hips before speaking slowly in English. 'Do you want a drink?'

The little girl took a deep breath and then looked in the woman's eyes. 'Apple juice.'

'Apple juice,' Jackson repeated with a smile to the flight attendant, who seemed ruffled by having the familiar couple under her watch once moreÅ\she took the businessman's drink order and then walked back towards the galley with Jackson watching her the whole way.

Takeoff was uneventful, and because Jonathan was sucking at his bottle and Hediyeh had pressure-equalising earplugs in her ears, both children were able to adjust to the new altitude without much issue. Lisa was panicky for the first few minutes, but once she let the nipple of the bottle slip out of Jonathan's mouth, he was able to scream her back into submission. Sipping his champagne as he watched Hediyeh colour a page about the month of June, Jackson considered the date and nearly lost the champagne through his nose.

Lisa gave him an odd look, setting down the empty bottle on the centre console as she held Jonathan up to her shoulder and patted his back. 'What?'

'It's the eighth of June,' he said with a grin, holding the champagne flute up to her.

She raised an eyebrow. 'And...?'

'Right, you wouldn't know,' he said, pressing his lips together to stifle laughter as he handed a champagne flute to her. She supported the baby with one hand and took the liquor with another. 'I started stalking you eleven months ago to the day.'

She just stared at him as he clinked his flute to hers and then emptied the remainder of the glass in one quick swig and stood. As she sipped at hers, she watched him dig through the overhead and pull out a bottle of pills and a pair of Hediyeh's pyjamas.

'I medicate, you change?' he said, shaking the orange bottle at her.

Lisa pursed her lips, set down her glass and gestured to her leg.

'Ah, yes,' he replied before turning to Hediyeh and helping her unbuckle.

They disappeared into the lavatory and almost immediately, the stewardess noticed Jackson's missing head and came down to the aisle, turning quickly to see Lisa looking at the clouds out of the window as she held on to her sleepy baby. 'Mrs Rippner, does your daughter need her bed laid out?'

'My husband can take care of it, I think.'

The stewardess looked to the side as Jackson came out holding a pink-footy-pyjamas-clad Hediyeh's hand, obviously disgruntled by the stylistic choosings of his mother-in-law. Despite what Lisa said, the flight attendant reached over and flattened out Hediyeh's seat, smiling at the girl before pulling down pillows and a blanket from the overhead compartment. Once she finished, Jackson gave her a cold look as he lifted Hediyeh into the seat, having her stay standing as he pulled out one of the pills and snapped it neatly in half.

'Tongue,' he said, and she stuck her tongue out. He placed the tiny white pill on it. 'Swallow.'

She swallowed and then sat down, drinking the rest of her apple juice before laying down on the bed and pulling the blanket up to her chin, watching as Jackson sat down next to Lisa and took Jonathan from her so she could lay her seat down. Her Jackson-baba held the tiny boy with one hand and started flipping through the in-flight magazine with the other, glancing every now and then at Hediyeh as he nuzzled his lips and nose against his son. Lisa-maman hadn't taken the infant back yet before Hediyeh gave into the Ambien and slipped off to sleep.

---

Hediyeh woke up for a vague instant when the stewardess put her seat upright, but she just immediately fell back asleep against the centre console with her mouth hanging open. As Jackson slept against the console in their seating area, Lisa was on baby duty, running her hand through her husband's hair as she fed Jonathan. When the wheels hit the ground in Miami, Jackson sat straight up, completely alert, and by the time they reached the gate and Lisa was collecting the things around their seats, Jackson was rubbing his neck absentmindedly.

'I don't even have a pen,' she muttered dryly as she watched him. He just gave her a dark look before standing and grabbing down their bags.

Thirty minutes later, the Rippner family, having been rushed through customs, finally made it to the claim area. Lisa hobbled on her crutches beside Jackson, who had a diaper bag crossing his chest, a wide-eyed Jonathan in a carrier in one hand, and Hediyeh's hand in the other. The next fifteen minutes were a blur as people who seemed to crawl from the woodwork attacked the party with best wishes, congratulations, gifts, et cetera. After being molested by the nineteenth person he didn't know, Jackson gave Lisa a look that spelled out to her that he blamed her exclusively for the intrusion. During the greetings, Hediyeh spent all of her time planted squarely behind Jackson's legs with her face pressed to his back.

'Okay, everyone,' Joe suddenly said. 'They've been away for three months; they're probably ready to get home.'

With a few hasty good-byes, they followed Joe, who was carrying Hediyeh, out to the curb where a couple of security guards had allowed him to park. Joe got his grandchildren settled in the back of his SUV before both men helped Lisa in and then got in the front seats. Lisa breathed a sigh of relief as they set off from the airport to their condominium.

Joe was mercifully fast at helping them into the condo with their things, and once Hediyeh squealed excitedly at the ocean and started speaking in fast Arabic to Jackson, he agreed to take her out onto the beach once she changed out of her pyjamas. Jackson got a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the little rolling bag she'd brought from Germany, helped her change, and then watched as Joe and Hediyeh disappeared behind the elevator doors. Picking up Jonathan's carrier, he walked into the bedroom where his wife had gone five minutes earlier.

'Ah!' said Lisa happily as she laid atop the feather duvet on their bed, looking out at the ocean with a smile. 'No more desert!'

Jackson laughed lightly as he set the carrier down on the floor and bent down to pick up Jonathan carefully, pulling him to his chest as he walked across the room and laid him down in the crib that he assumed Joe had brought from his house—leave it to Joe to keep an ancient relic of his daughter's. Jonathan seemed cosy enough though, so after watching Hediyeh testing the waters under Joe's watchful eye, Jackson walked away from the window and lay down next to his wife.

'You're different,' Lisa said softly and sweetly as she turned her head to look at his profile.

He was looking at the ceiling and just smiled a bit. 'I'm just less hectic.'

Listening to the surf float on the breeze through an open window next to the bedroom, Jackson relaxed and pressed his forehead against Lisa's. There was a little intake of breath on the part of Jonathan as he stretched a bit in his crib, and if Jackson held his breath, he could hear Hediyeh and Joe as they laughed down on the beach, their new bond surpassing the linguistic differences between the two. After kissing Lisa lightly, he could feel her soft breath against his cheek as she smiled, and time seemed to just pause right in the middle of the day.

The world had become very slow, and Jackson Rippner quite liked it that way.