Disclaimer: I own nothing except my fanatical love for Red Eye, Lisa & Jackson, and of course Cillian Murphy.

Jackson

I ought to win a goddamn Oscar for that performance, thought Jackson Rippner to himself as he settled into his seat with an air of boredom. His rendezvous with Lisa had been nothing less than entertaining. He had been itching to see her up close and personal for the past eight weeks and he wasn't disappointed. Not that he hadn't seen her up close before but somehow this time was different. She had actually been aware of his presence. To his surprise he was attune to more than awareness, she actually wanted to be in his company. Not that it was difficult to charm her.

After all, I probably know her better than she knows herself, he thought smugly.

Fumbling with his seatbelt he recalled how easy she had been to manipulate. Like putty in his hands. If he wasn't such a professional he would have liked to rub more than her usual drink in her face. It was laughable how she had purposefully ordered the baybreeze.

Oh Lisa, you're so predictable.

It had started in line in the airport when he helped Lisa stand up for that airline worker. A few witty remarks here a few flirtatious comments there was all that it took. And then he couldn't help but jerk her chains a little. He saw the struggle within herself at his forwardness when he suggested saving her a seat at the bar across from their gate. He knew she would refuse, as was her style when tete a tete with an opportunity at being social. She was very much a loner.

But then again so was he.

He wondered just what it was that made her keep to herself so much. Had she been jilted by an ex-lover? Or was there some kind of skeleton lurking in the closet? He presumed the latter as he noticed the air of cautiousness that seemed to encircle her at all times. In parking lots especially he noticed how her dark eyes darted back and forth, sweeping the area meticulously. How she always had her hand in her pocket clutching what, pepper spray perhaps? And how her features relaxed considerably once she was nestled in the safety of her car, after she locked the doors of course.

Drumming his fingers on the armrest, Jackson's crystalline eyes scoured the passengers trickling onto the plane. Any moment now Lisa would be coming down the aisle and he could envision her reaction when she realized he was her seatmate. With the exception of why she was the way she was, he was confident he knew everything about her. And not in the mundane likes and dislikes kind of way.

Lisa had been his pet project for two months solid and he ate, slept, and breathed her. At first she appeared to be uncomplicated. To put it simply he chalked her up as another boring, homebody workaholic. But very quickly he realized there was much more to her than that. There were layers and layers of complexity and he had only scratched the surface. For reasons unbeknownst to him he wanted, no, needed to know what made her tick. Perhaps he would figure it out on the way to Miami since he had nothing else to do.

Originally, this flight was meant for him to coerce her into changing Keefe's hotel room, but he got a call from his client letting him know that there was a change of plans and the hit would no longer take place at the Lux Atlantic.

He thought it a shame that the Keefe job had been postponed. It would have been one of his easier jobs. Jackson had been on tenterhooks all night waiting for that phone call.

And it couldn't have come at a better time, he reflected with a start.

Despite his unruffled exterior something about his encounter with Lisa left him strangely unnerved. He actually found himself tongue-tied when it had been time to part. Luckily his cell phone had gone off, sparing him of whatever asinine comment he undoubtedly was going to make.

Jackson's brow furrowed at the unsettling thought and wondered what it was that got him so flustered. Before he could come to any kind of conclusion his eyes caught a glimpse of a familiar face surrounded by a halo of dark curls. Lisa.

Pushing all disturbing thoughts aside he relaxed his jaw and rearranged his features into a look of complete innocence….or at least something resembling it.