Well for those of you who liked that ending, sorry, I was always intent of doing more, I just wanted to make it more dramatic, still don't get your hopes up, there are no guarantees of life. Sorry if you think it was mean of me, I just wanted to see if I should or should not stop there, if your decision had been to stop there I would have written the end and just not published it but the majority of you want more so here it is.

Chapter Fourteen

She jumped, I don't believe this, she actually did it. In my mind and heart I'd always thought, for some stupid reason, that it wasn't going to happen, that I was going to wake up and all of this was going to be wrong. But I don't, I watch as she jumps, Cuvee's screams of anger wringing out below as he realizes the trap. In the background I can hear Sydney crying but I ignore it, trying to gather my thoughts.

How far down is it? Maybe thirty or forty meters. I can't tell where or how she entered the water, but as I rush to edge I can see no broken body on the grass or rocks. I know why she did it. It was the perfect plan, Cuvee has two men down there and he has to leave soon if he wants to get his next Rambaldi device. He won't come up here to kill us, despite the fact that he wants to, because he will use the few men he has to search for her in the inane hope that she's a live. She isn't, that would be fair and the world is unfair.

We have to run; if we run he will forget us. I want to turn and run, but I can't I know that, my feet are plastered to the ground, I can't move, Sydney's still crying and I glimpse Vaughn with his arms around her, her head buried in his chest and my respect grows for the young man.

I look down, the pool of water below is deep, I can't see the bottom and Cuvee's men look unhappy with the idea of swimming down there. Cuvee looks up and I take a step back. She won't die in vain. We have to run, just to get out of his sight, if he sees us when his chopper takes off, he might have enough hatred to come after us. I force my body to turn away, the pain shocking as all my muscles strain against the movement along with my heart, the common sense part of my brain the only thing egging me on, to save our daughter.

"Let's go," my voice is still level, a rasp, but still void of emotion. Sydney stares at me, her gaze at first a glare until she sees the tears and she understands. Sark's sitting, face shocked, on the bank, but he stands up as I walk out of the water. Irina trained him well; he's pushing it all to the back of his mind and turning to run into the cover of the trees. I can't though, for the first time in forever my training fails me and all I can do is walk, stumbling over roots and my mind blank as Sark leads us down the steep slope, the four of us that should be a five, dragging our feet, Sydney still crying though her tears are silent as she grasps at Vaughn's side.

We walk ten minutes before I can hear the helicopter. It's loud and misplaced in the jungle. It swoops above us but I know it can't see us. I listen, stopping in my trek as it moves off, it's unwanted, almost criminal volume, dimming until I can't hear it. I swallow and sit down. I don't know why, I just do, I'm exhausted and I can't really see any use in continuing so why not just sit down.

Sark turns, his face is whiter than usual, this is hitting him hard too, "Jack, we can't wait." I shake my head, I'm being childish.

Sydney turns, still plastered to Vaughn who is tenderly caressing her hair, a sad, shocked look on his face, "Dad we have got to go." Her voice only make s it worse. I can't believe that it should be so wrong. I'm one of the good guys, and yet I can never be happy. It's stupid, a stupidly wrong system, I lose, every time. Even now, the only way Irina could ever make me see, force me to acknowledge that I still love her, that she might not be here with an ulterior motive of evil, the only way I could see it was for her to jump. It's stupid and it's unfair.

"No," my voice is still a rasp, she looks about to object, through her tears, "No."

"Please, dad, we have to go." Her voice is so like her mother's, so pure and perfect even now in the throws of loss and deprivation. "Dad, we can't stay here."

I shake my head, burying my head is my hands; I have no idea what I want. Vaughn speaks up, first thing he's said, "Jack, we really can't just stay here."

I'm shocked to find his voice is slightly strained as well, "You three go ahead. Return to LA. Sark do what you please."

Sydney cuts across me, harsh and pulling away from Vaughn, "I am not just going to leave you here."

I look at her, she even has her mother's anger, I grin slightly, causing her to look confused, "I want to go back." I tell her, so simply put it shocks me.

"Why?" she asks.

"I don't know," the answer is too honest for me, "I just do." Sydney watches me for a while, just staring the tears welling up and her chest heaving as she fights the sobs off.

"Then I'm coming with you," she tells me and turns in the direction in which the pool lays. "And don't try to stop me," she walks, Vaughn moving like her shadow, ever present and Sark trailing her, his head down as he shakes it and mumbles to himself. I cringe, I have almost taken a liking to him, something Irina no doubt saw coming. I swallow and heave myself up, my entire body twice as heavy as I remember it ever being.

We walk in silence, my entire being reeking with regret, knowing in sureness that I never would have given in to a kiss else wise, but whishing there was a way. I can see the pool through the trees and the niggling little thought that she might be alive, the thought that will kill me as in my mind I know she couldn't be surfaces. Rearing it's ugly head at me and telling me there is hope when there is nothing.

The pool brings back memories of Irina and not just far off images of our marriage, of Laura, but of her, the real her what I've come to know of her since she turned herself into the CIA.I remember the pain she caused me and I'm actually wishing I could have it again, just for a split second, I remember all our meetings, both face's masked with indifference or amusement when underneath we both knew what the other was thinking. She'd the only woman that can...could read me like that.

My first and last physical fight with her only hours before, her getting the better of me and somehow capturing my hatred which was essentially love and using it against me, I smile as I keep walking. She was at least my equal, I hadn't expected her to be, but she was almost more. Her lisp, I will never forget them but then I'll never be able to quite remember every detail because that would be fair and I'd don't get anything fair, all I get is unfair.

We're nearing the water now, the surface is calm and pure, reflecting the sky and the overhanging willows in perfection, teasing me with its peacefulness when it's just finished swallowing up my wife. I don't know why but the tranquility brings back my thoughts as I realized Sark was there and that she had betrayed me. I could have sworn it was hate, I would have told anyone else that I hated her, but then, now I am not so naïve, I know it was simply passion that switched back and forth between the two extremes of hate and love of its own accord.

The smug grin that both Sark and Irina had been wearing, the shock that must have crossed my face only spurring her on. And then I trusted her again as it turned out she had not betrayed, she was risking her right hand man to help. It looked like she had betrayed me again with Cuvee, I had been stupid to not realize that now that it was the third time she was apparently betraying me there was a good chance she was not, but I hadn't.

Three strikes and I'm out.

Perhaps fate had given me time to work it out, to say to myself that there was a possibility, but I hadn't and now it was too late. I have few memories of her, it's stupid really, I spent forever thinking about her but all my memories are either old or of hatred. There are few of times when I have been able to admire her openly, to like her, to see her properly without being scared of being seen myself.

That morning, this morning, though it feels like an eternity ago, when she had been swimming in the pool. That had been one of those times. Her body was so perfect, so lithe in the water, she swam like a professional, diving in and out of the water, weaving and plunging with ease. I swallow, water almost killed Sydney's love and now it has taken mine. That thought comes back to me, the glimmer that she made it, diving perfectly and just going in and out of the water.

But I know that couldn't be the case. For two reasons, the fall is too far, the pool probably too shallow and small and because that would be fair, to reward years of work and pain with one simple wish would be fair and the universe isn't fair.

It ell myself that every time I wake up and every time I go to bed, every time Sydney is late and there's the possibility that she is dead, every time something goes wrong or I feel like giving up. I remind myself that it's always going to be unfair and to give up would be to give in and that would be fair to them, fate, the universe, destiny, God, whatever. I will not return the favor. I glance over at Sydney she has her head down and is still walking alongside Vaughn, her feet look as heavy as mine and it's obvious she doesn't want to come with me to the pool. Sark is ahead a little, his head high if only to provide a façade that most could see through.

I crack my jaw and keep walking wondering, we emerge from the trees and I can see up to where I was standing less than an hour before, no one is left around, Cuvee has fled, without Irina, I can tell as there are bullet ricochets on the rock face where he has taken his anger out. It's now that I notice the rock curves in and I wonder how lucky we were not to have the entire top of the waterfall collapse with all of us on it. The water falls freely almost, the rock grabbing at it with gravity but getting little water. Moss and lichen is everywhere, the willows providing a lovely look to the place; seems unfair, again.

I wander alone to the edge of the water and look up, even from down here the fall is too long, at least forty meters. I grin, when I was younger, married and happier, I used to take my wife and daughter to the carnivals, there was always a man who would jump off a spring board, high in the air and dive into a tank of water. He used to be my favourite but even his height is not as high as that which Irina has jumped from and had she any clue as to a chance of her living, she wouldn't have said goodbye. It is only when faced by certain death that we reveal things, not uncertain death.

The pool is deep but amazingly clear, I can see to what I believe is the white rock bottom. I let my gaze wander slowly from where the trickle of water is falling to join the rest to the edge, my eyes circling in checking every spare centimeter for her body.

I hope you liked it, I'm not sure if it works, but there is more to come, just depends on reviews.