Author's Notes: Thank you Zack and Silver for the wonderful reviews! You both inspire me to keep going on this story and I appreciate you both. The story is following Reunion with some differences, the biggest differences are the actions of the VCTF and Jack doesn't go to the location he did in the show, it was too convenient and Jack seemed to clever to be brought down by a newbie profiler, hence some changes. Reviews are appreciated very much and truly do inspire me to update faster.
Part 37
Age: 34 Years 7 Months
Jack carried Samantha outside and went behind the bushes where his SUV was hidden. Carefully he placed her inside and prepared and injection for her to keep her unconscious for a little longer. As Jack injected her, Samantha roused confused.
"Daddy no!" Samantha screamed and clawed Jack's neck blindly.
The injection took effect a moment later and Jack withdrew a handkerchief for the blood. Leaving blood evidence in his vehicle wasn't in the cards, but Jack would figure something out, for now he had to take care of Malone. Taking a bag from his vehicle Jack walked over to Bailey. From his bag he withdrew a funnel with a long plastic tube and threaded it carefully down Malone's throat. Then Jack took a bottle of Bailey's favorite brand of scotch and poured most of the bottle down the funnel.
Taking the bottle, Jack carefully wrapped Bailey's hand around the bottle once and then removed his hand and repeated the action to get his fingerprints on it. Then Jack placed Malone into the driver's seat of his SUV and shut the door. Jack moved away and got a remote control out of his bag. Earlier he'd placed an electronic device in the steering column and now he manipulated the control. About a mile from the cabin, Jack crashed the SUV into a tree. Walking to the vehicle, he checked on Malone, he would be in trouble and have a hangover, but be just fine. Deftly, Jack removed the override device from the steering column and went back to Samantha.
Taking Samantha to a hearse he'd concealed a few miles away, Jack placed her in a coffin in the back. Driving the coffin to the airport, he had the casket loaded onto a plane he'd chartered. After the Keller incident, Jack had decided to take flying lessons and had gotten his pilot's license more than a year before. Flying the plane to Atlanta, Jack took the coffin to the boarding school he'd once attended and since purchased. Pulling Samantha from the coffin, he placed her into another vehicle he had waiting and drove to a commercial airport. On the way he called the fish and games warden about Bailey's accident.
Jack knew that Malone would eventually decide Samantha was kidnapped and probably call in the little red-haired up and comer from Quantico. But she was young and would likely lead them to the school in Atlanta when she figured out the meaning of the bag of nickels he's left in his SUV and the meaning of the Smetana tape in the tape deck. Even Samantha would have floundered at the number of red herrings Jack had planted he realized with a smile.
At the airport, Jack placed Samantha in a wheelchair and had false ID's and documentation for Samantha, ironically created by the man who made the ID's they used to secure a marriage license. Carefully, he pulled her hair up into a red haired wig to disguise her slightly. At the airport, Jack was greeted by airport security whom he contacted about his poor ailing wife. After checking the documentation to assure that everything was in order, they personally escorted Jack and Samantha to the private plane that was waiting to take them to Cincinnati.
"I hope your wife gets better, she's a very pretty lady. How long have you been with her?" a guard asked.
"We met when we were twelve," Jack answered truthfully.
When Jack left, the guards found the wealthy man with the sick wife had arranged to have a caterer deliver a large assortment of sandwiches, cookies and a thank you note to the break room for them. Days later when Samantha would be reported by Bailey, as they searched, the guards at the airport would never suspect Jack. After all, a man would never arrange a thank you gift while kidnapping a woman. This plane was flown by a pilot on the Newquay payroll and Jack was able to place Samantha into a waiting limousine on the tarmac and have the chauffeur drive them to the warehouse near the orphanage where he'd built the stage for their play that was about to unfold.
As Samantha slept, Jack watched her reverently. Although he had enjoyed his time being near her as Ed Boast, it was a relief to be revealing himself to her at last. Ah my sweet Samantha, Jack sighed. Soon you will awaken my love and then we will resume our game. Before long I shall hold you in my arms and hear you call me by my name once again. This time what God hath joined, no man shall put asunder.
In Atlanta, Bailey was in the hospital with a mild concussion raving to Grace, George, and John.
"I tell you I wasn't drinking!" Bailey insisted. When the trio responded with doubtful looks, "Yes I drink on occasion, but not today. I don't care how it looks and even if I had that doesn't explain why Sam is missing from the cabin."
Grace looked doubtful, "Bailey, we want to believe you and I'll admit Sam's absence is strange, but-"
"I have to find her!" he insisted and struggled to sit up.
"Bailey," John said softly. "I'll pull some strings and get people on this. There was an abandoned vehicle found about 15 miles away, I have forensics going over it and I'll ask Quantico to send us a profiler. But you can't be in on this one I'm afraid."
"Why the hell not?" Malone demanded irritably.
"When you were brought in you had a blood alcohol three times over the legal limit," Grace explained.
"We'll do everything we can, but when you get out, you'll have to go to court and there's going to be a review at the VCTF," Grant told him reluctantly.
Bailey stared in disbelief, his head was pounding as he laid back in bed.
From a television monitor, Jack watched as Samantha roused in the carefully constructed apartment set he'd placed her in. On the bed, Samantha stirred and she stood up looking around in confusion. Walking to a door she opened it, it was a closet filled with nothing but white negligees. Turning away from the closet she walked to a window of thick glass block and tried to look through the glass. Sounds of a bustling city came from outside. Suddenly she remembered about Ed or rather Jack.
Behind her Jack walked in carrying a breakfast tray. Smiling he inquired politely, "Sleep well?"
Mechanically, Samantha told him, "I want my daughter to know that I'm safe."
"Ah a mother's love," Jack mocked gently. "I used to wonder if things might have been different if-"
Jack trailed off, it was too soon to say things would have been different if they had had children Soon he would reveal himself but not yet.
His voice laced with bitter irony, Jack added, "Not much I guess."
Samantha watched him, her emotions a flurry. Why had she brought up Chloe? Because you don't want people to realize you were kidnapped. If you're rescued Jack could be hurt and as long as you officially don't want to be here. Stop it Sam, this is wrong. You can't want to stay, this is Jack. Not your Jack, Jack-Of-All-Trades!
"Don't you want to know where we are?" Jack asked. When she didn't respond, Jack prompted, "Sure you do. Guess!"
Shrugging Samantha answered, "I don't know, across the street from the VCTF?"
"That would be poetic," Jack laughed slightly as he moved to the sofa and sat down.
"Well, you always did fancy yourself a poet," Samantha responded unthinkingly. Her tone was too friendly she berated herself as found herself watching him transfixed. Petulantly, she added, "I would have thought you would have picked a place more isolated."
With the bitter voice of a man who had seen too much, Jack quipped, "Isolation comes in many forms." Jack picked up his silver cigarette case and lighter as he told her, "The sound of crickets makes me nervous."
Jack added with a disgusted shudder, "And that cabin."
Trying to find her comfortable professional groove and pull away from Jack, she inquired, "Bailey?"
"Bailey," Jack considered aloud and lit a cigarette. As he took a drag, he told her, "You should be flattered the last word he said on the earth was Sam."
When her face was inscrutable, Jack worried she was upset so he told her, "But is was handled quite humanely, which was better than he deserved."
Samantha struggled to hide her amusement as Jack continued with a slightly outraged tone as he held his cigarette aristocratically., "When I was Sheriff Boast, he treated me like a rube."
When Samantha still didn't respond, Jack laughed dismissively, "Milk's been spilled let's not mope about it."
Jack stood up and walked to Samantha, her breath caught as he drew close. Even now she wanted him and felt torn. His cologne was a mixture of sandalwood and roses that mingled with the scent of cigarettes which clung to him. The scent was everything she associated with Jack and very seductive. For a moment she thought he was going to kiss her.
Desperate to hold onto her pretense of being good Sam, she squeaked, "And Donald Lucas?"
Sensing her inner battle, Jack turned away and took a puff of his cigarette, "Oh over the top at times, but it was a role to die for." Exhaling, he snuffed out his cigarette in the ashtray and moved back towards her. Sibilantly he purred, "Only the future matters, what you and I share."
Then Jack moved away abruptly and headed to the door of the apartment Samantha didn't yet realize wasn't real.
Not wanting him to go and curious, Samantha demanded, "What is it that you want from me?"
Pausing Jack turned his head around to look at her and answered, his voice ripe with seductive promise, "An open mind."
Then he opened the door and locked her in, his words echoing in her mind...
