CHAPTER 8: WHY DOESN"T ANYTHING EVER GO AS PLANNED

Jack awoke the next morning to a knocking on the door. He sat up in the bed tired still, he didn't remember walking to the bed the night before, but than e had quite a few to drink. He slept must have slept the night through after he made it to his bed. He found a shirt and sweatpants to put on, he pulled the shirt over his head as he walked out to open the door.

Lisa stood in the doorway with two Styrofoam cups in a cup carrier and a bag in the other hand. She smiled when she saw Jack look out the window of the door to see who was knocking. It was six in the morning, still earlier, but she wanted to apologize for the night before, and she had to be to work soon. She decided this was the best way to apologize to him.

Jack opened the door scratching the back of his head confused as to why she was at his door with coffee and food this early in the morning.

"Peace offer? I'm sorry about that last night." She said offering up the coffee.

Jack smiled and took the coffee, he didn't want to be rude, "It was nothing. I should apologize to you." Jacks smile had faded as the incident ran through his mind.

"Well I'll forgive you if you forgive me? But truthfully I don't see any fault on your side, and I'm the law and I'm use to assigning fault." She said trying to crack a joke to ease the weirdness between them, she had felt it the night before, but ignored it.

"Deal." Jack said leading her into the kitchen.

"Did I wake you up?" She finally noticed his messed hair, and outfit.

"It's fine I needed to get up anyways I got some work to do today." He said softly.

She was studying the place. It was rundown, but clearly he was fixing it up as she could see the sheets of drywall, and paint on the floor of the room. "I'm sorry about that." She said softly she had just assumed he would be up for no real reason.

"It's fine." Jack said smiling at her, he got lost in her eyes for a moment there was something behind them he hadn't expected to see.

They sat down and ate the bagels she brought over and the coffee. She asked about what he was doing to the house, and a lot of other things, again he felt like he was being crossed examined, he smiled and answered.

Lisa noticed what she had been doing and frowned, "I'm sorry it's a bad habit the cross examination."

"It's ok. I've been crossed examined by worse people." Jack said trying to help her ease her embarrassment some.

"Really by who?" She asked unable to stop herself she wanted to know about the man in front of her.

"People, I can't really get into it." He knew that would only bring on more questions he didn't look her in the eye.

She looked at him and saw the clear uncomfortable body language coming off him, "Ok fair enough." She looked at her watch she was late for work, it would be the first time in her life, she thought, that she had been late for something. "I got to go to work." She smiled getting up.

"Thanks for the breakfast." Jack said smiling getting up to walk her out of the house.

"Thank you for having me." She said smiling at him as he let her out of the house. She didn't turn back, she fought the urge to turn back and look to see what he was doing. She walked to her house and got in her car driving off.

Jack got into a shower as soon as he finished watching her drive off. He was in a good mood that morning, not sure why, but he was happy or close to it. He got dressed in his work clothes and went to work finishing the dry walling he had to do in the living room. He had been uncomfortable about the way his house looked when she came in, he hadn't worried about something like that in a long time. He would have to pull his emotions back, it was nothing more than lust, he tried to convince himself.

He spent the day dry walling the living room, until around two o'clock when he left to go see Colonel Anderson. He was covered in the dry wall dust and other stuff, but he didn't have time to take a shower and he didn't want to be late for the practice. He did change his black shirt that had been covered and put a new one on. He rushed out of the house to his truck.

When he pulled into the parking lot of the school he searched for a parking spot, he was on the east side of the school where the building with the swimming pool was, the two football fields and the race track. He had been amazed at how small the school was compared to the high schools he had gone to growing up. He finally found a parking spot and than walked to the unit that was in the garage of the school. He knocked on the door, he heard the bell ring inside the school telling the students they were free to go about their lives once again. It took a minute before someone came to the door and opened it.

Liz ran to the door and opened it for the Col who was busy talking with a teacher about sharing the foyer so they could practice also. When she saw it was Jack she frowned and let him in. She made it very clear she didn't like him anymore.

Jack almost laughed at the teenagers reaction to him, it was as if she could already see inside him and know he liked her mom or lusted after her mother, on top of the events of the other night. He walked into the unit and Thomas smiled at him from across the room.

Jack waited watching as more students filed into the unit, it was after school but they were all there to practice. He watched as Liz handed out the rifles and explained to them the basic moves they were starting out as a warm up.

Jack watched her stand in front and command them.

"Right shoulder arms" in sink they counted the first time each movement was a number they were together there hands moving at the same time at the same place until the rifle trigger guard rested on their right shoulder, at a 45 degree angle. She gave the order, "Order arms". The rifles with the counting again moved back off the shoulder to the floor. The next time she gave the order the counting was not there, but they were still in sink. Jack watched enjoying the show of hard work, and in it's own way it was beautiful.

Thomas walked up to him putting his hand on Jack's shoulder, "Weird to see them so young doing this isn't it?"

"Just a little sir." Jack answered.

"Ok guys we got the practice area get the flags and lets get moving." Thomas said and the cadets waited for the order to fall out and all of them at the same time took one step back and did an about face and moved off towards whatever object they were going to carry up.

Thomas and Jack lagged behind the group of kids as they walked through the paper covered hallway floors to the big open foyer that was bustling with activity from the soccer team.

"We get half the floor guys." Thomas said grabbing Jack to stop him before they entered through the four doors that led into the foyer. "Here is a picture of Peter and I have a file downstairs with more information I'll get to you as soon as the practice is over."

"Yes sir."

"now just watch them if you see them do something wrong, or you think they could improve speak up." The colonel said in an ordering voice handing Jack a clipboard with paper clipped on it and a pen to write with.

Jack watched them the entire practice finding minor things that he pointed out and he enjoyed most watching Liz show the cadets the different movements of the new routine she had created for their next competition. Jack didn't know Lisa well, but he could see a lot of her in Liz. Finally after he had gotten to the point of knowing all the cadets names and knowing the routine he looked outside to see it was already dark. When he looked at his watch he saw it was well past seven p.m. they had been practicing for over 5 hours and he had not noticed that much time had gone by.

Thomas finally spoke, "Cadets that's a night." He yelled out.

Jack followed them downstairs and waited in the cadet lounge sitting on the uncomfortable blue couch as Thomas went over the different events coming up, and teams for those events.

When Thomas finished he left the room to go check the office before closing up. It was a routine he had to allow the leader of the team time to talk to their team without him around. Liz always took advantage of the time to praise those who did well and ask others to speak with her later.

Thomas came back out of the office as he saw the cadets thin out and walked up to Liz, "Your mother called and she's at a meeting late, is it ok if I have Jack take you home since it's on his way?"

Liz didn't want to ride with the man that had beaten her father, but she didn't want to inconvenience the Colonel either.

"I would do it Liz but I got a dinner engagement with my wife." Thomas said seeing the look on Liz's face.

"yeah it's fine." Liz said she wasn't going to act like a child over this.

"Jack it ok with you?" The Colonel called out.

"Sure it wouldn't be a problem sir." Jack answered.

"Ok let me get the file for you before you leave." The Colonel walked back into the office and brought Jack the file. "if you have any questions I'll be home after eight."

"Yes sir." Jack answered looking uncomfortable talking about it around Liz.

Liz followed Jack outside it was dark out and the street lights only illuminated certain area's. She studied him as he walked wondering who he was to the Colonel and what the file and stuff was about. She wasn't a stupid girl and she knew something was up. "So what is in the file?" She decided to ask the Colonel no longer around.

"just some old stuff." Jack answered not exactly lying.

He walked to the passenger door of the truck and was unlocked it for her so she could get in.

Liz got into the truck and closed the door, she was reaching over to unlock the driver side door when she saw the two men with mask on their face coming around the driver side. She screamed to warn Jack, but when she turned to yell she already saw another man behind him. Liz locked the door automatically and crouched down in the seat rummaging through her bag to find her cell phone.

Jack had not seen or heard them coming, but when he finally did see them it was to late to reach for his own gun he kept well hidden.

"Don't move." A gruff voice ordered him. "Get the girl out of the car." The man with the gruff voice ordered the other two men.

Liz heard the banging on the window and she didn't move from the floor she was scared out of her mind, not sure what to do.

"Kid either get out of the car or I'm going to bust the window in and drag you out." The man screamed.

Jack yelled, "Liz stay in the truck." For his outburst he get the gun smashed against his head sending him back against the truck dazed as he felt blood start to trickle out of the cut caused by the site of the gun.

"Kid get out or I'll put a bullet in him and than you." The man with the gruff voice ordered.

Liz peeked her head up to see that Jack was leaning against the truck already bleeding and the men all had guns out and pointed at either Jack or her. She unlocked the door and climbed out her legs and arms shaking, she tried to control them.

"Good kid." The man outside the passenger door said. "Now turn around and put your hands on the hood of the truck and you won't get hurt.

The man with the gruff voice spoke to Jack, "What's in the file?"

"Nothing important."

"Hand it over." The man ordered waiting for Jack to hand it.

Jack didn't move, he didn't know what was in there, but he was sure the colonel never meant to let it get into the hands of these men, whoever they were.

"Jack we already know what is in there." The man with the gruff voice said, he must have been the leader.

Jack wondered how the hell the man knew his name.

"Are you going to hand it over?"

Liz felt the a man behind her staring at her making her uncomfortable. The man put his hand on her ass and she freaked out turning around and smacking him hard in the face.

The leader moved his gun off Jack making a mistake. Jack took the opportunity and attacked the man quickly. Jack had the gun out of the mans hand easily, he knew they were armatures and this hand nothing to do with his time at CTU.

The other two men saw their leader going down and one of them reacted quickly squeezing the trigger of the gun in his hand.

Jack felt the searing pain in his side as the bullet tore through his flesh. He collapsed on the man he had tackled to the ground. His hand quickly moving to the wound to check it.

Liz screamed and tried to get away from the man who was next to her holding her now.

Jack moved slowly off the man, who was dazed under him. He only had to hold out a little longer he thought to himself, the cops surely would come at the sound of the gunshot. His hand over the wound he moved away ready to fight again, he felt sick to his stomach as he felt the warm blood run through his fingers, the bullet had taken a chunk out of his side, but it wasn't life threatening. Jack was getting ready to attack again when someone called out, "I wouldn't do that."

Jack looked over his shoulder remembering the other two men, one of them had his gun pressed against Liz's head, she was clearly terrified. Jack stopped and looked at the men, out of breath and clearly in pain. He moved away from their friend on the ground and leaned against the front of the truck, his side burning in pain.

The man on the ground got up, he was hurting from the man's quick attack. He walked up to Jack, "If you fight me back I will have them put a bullet in her head, and than in yours. Now give me the folder."

Jack shook his head, he wasn't willing to put Liz's life in danger. He motioned to the folder that lay on the ground.

"Go grab it." The man said stepping back to allow Jack to go get it.

Jack pushed himself off the front of the truck and limped over to the folder trying to block out the horrendous pain he felt with every movement of his body. He saw the man coming and knew he could do nothing to stop the attack that would not come back on Liz. He braced himself as he saw the foot swing towards his body as he was bent down to grab the folder off the ground. The kick connected with his ribs sending him onto the ground grunting in pain. The man came at him again kicking him again and again in the ribs, chest, and back wherever he could land a powerful kick at. Jack took the beating not fighting the man.

"Grab him off the ground." The man ordered after a new round of kicks.

The free man walked over and grabbed Jack who was curled up, he pulled Jack to his feet and pushed him towards the truck. Jack leaned against the truck for support as his battered body was sending waves of pain that made it almost impossible to stay standing.

The man walked up to him, "All you had to do was give me the folder and none of this would have happened." The man sent his fist into where he saw the blood stain forming on the man's dark shirt. Jack crumbled to the ground crying out in pain, his mind desperately fighting to stay conscious. He felt hands on his shoulders again bringing back to his knees.

"Go back to California Jack." The man said, "This is your one free warning next time you won't live." The roundhouse kick caught Jack in the side of the head the force of it sending his head flying into the back of the truck and sending Jack to the ground unconscious.

"Grab the money and lets go." The leader said looking down at the unconscious figure.

"What about the girl?"

The leader walked up to Liz, "I'm going to let you live and not even touch you. You sit in the truck and when we are gone you can call the cops." He wasn't going to kill her she had nothing to tell the cops other than three men attacked Jack.

Liz shook her head, she was to terrified to speak.

"good now get in the truck."

Liz followed the order, she sat in the truck looking out over it, not able to see Jack who was laying right in front of it. She waited five minutes holding back the urge to cry, she was terrified and not sure what to do. When the five minutes passed she collected herself the best she could and got out of the truck. She rushed to the front and checked on Jack. Her JROTC first aid training coming in. She checked for a pulse, when she found one she rushed back to the truck grabbing her cell phone. She called 911 and relayed what had happen in a calm voice to the operator.

Liz was afraid to touch Jack, who had blood coming out of various cuts and his shirt had been tattered. She gently touched him and rolled him over onto his back. She didn't know what else to do, she sat there looking at him, tears in her eyes, but she wouldn't let them come out. The operator kept her on the phone until the ambulance arrived to take Jack away. The police wanted her to go get checked out to make sure she wasn't in shock, so she rode in the ambulance with Jack. She watched the paramedics work on him.

She watched with fascination as they cut Jack's black shirt away from him revealing his battered body already covered in scars. She almost gasped at the amount of scars he had, she had not seen anything like that before.

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Lisa was working late in a meeting with her boss going over the major case they had just received. Her boss had taken interest in the case because it was a high profile case that would make or break his next election campaign.

Mark knocked on the door his face showed there was something clearly wrong. Lisa felt her heart skip a beat as she saw him.

"Lisa there has been an incident at the school. Liz is fine, she's at the hospital but she is perfectly fine, but they need you to go pick her up." Mark had heard about what happened or some of the details, and had decided he should be the one to tell Lisa about it.

"What happened?" Lisa asked her voice showing the clear fear she felt.

"Liz is fine. Why don't you let me drive you down there?" Mark said softly he knew Lisa wasn't in the shape to drive after the shocking news she had just received.

"Mark tell me what happened?"

"Some men attacked Liz and the man who was giving her a ride home, a friend of Colonel Anderson's. She is fine they never touched her she said. Come on, I'll take you to see her now."

"Ok." Lisa got up and grabbed her stuff.

Her boss said, "Don't worry about the case we'll finish it tomorrow."

"Thank you sir."

"Take care of Liz. That's all that matters." He smiled at her he would find out more details himself soon.

Lisa rushed out with Mark who drove quickly to the hospital a few miles away. Lisa rushed through the hospital until she found Liz sitting in a room clearly distraught still.

"Honey are you ok?" Lisa said rushing over to her taking Liz I her arms immediately.

"Yes mom." Liz said finally allowing herself to breakdown and cry in her mothers arms. "They won't tell me if Jack is ok?"

"Jack?" Lisa was caught off guard she hadn't even thought about the man that had been attacked.

"Yeah he was going to give me a ride home, when these three men came out from behind the pool building." She said between sobs.

"Ok honey it's ok now. Mark will you go see about Jack?"

"Sure than I need to get her statement if that's ok?"

"Sure." Lisa said not taking her arms away from her daughter.

Mark walked out to the front desk and asked, "The patient that came in with the girl where is he?"

"He's in a room down the hall." The nurse said pointing towards the last room in the hallway.

"Ok thank you." Marked walk down to the room shocked when he saw the man sitting up in the bed with no shirt on, his side bandaged along with a few bandages on his head.

Jack held his side as he pushed himself to his feet, the pain killers the doctor had given him helping with the pain.

"What are you doing?" Mark asked moving over to Jack.

"Who are you?" Jack's voice cracked his throat was dry.

"Peoria Police." Mark said pulling out his badge.

Jack studied it and shook his head, "How is Elizabeth?"

"She's fine they never touched her."

"Good." Jack moved again he was leaving the hospital, he hated hospitals.

"Where you going?" Mark asked with an amused smile on his face.

"Home."

"I don't know if that's wise." Mark said studying the man, "plus I need to take your statement."

Jack sighed he didn't want to sit around here, he was ready to leave, his head pounded and he felt the world start to spin some he had a concussion from the roundhouse kick to the head. He sat down on the bed in defeat, "What do you want to know?"

"Why don't you tell me what happened?"

Jack went over the details as he remembered them from the time he left the practice to the point he woke up in the hospital.

"Do you know who these men were?"

"No." Jack said, "They all had mask, and never used names. They all had their bodies pretty well covered, they were white."

"how do you know they were white?"

"You can see the skin around the eyes in the sky mask. They all had blue eyes." Jack said remembering them.

"Anything else that might help us find them?"

"Not really."

"What was in the folder?"

"Just some old stuff." Jack said not knowing himself what was in there.

"All they took was the folder and your money?"

"I guess."

Mark knew this wasn't the entire story, but he couldn't push the man much farther because Lisa and Elizabeth were in the doorway now.

Liz walked in she still didn't like Jack, but he had saved her.

Jack suddenly felt self conscious sitting on the bed with no shirt on his scars and wounds out for all to see.

"Thank you for what you did Jack." Lisa said looking at his chest seeing all the scars.

"I'm sorry about that." Jack said softly he didn't expect to be a target he felt horrible for putting Liz in danger, those men wanted nothing to do with her, it was Jack they were after, and they knew to much about him.

Jack moved to stand up again, "Is that all you needed than officer?"

"yeah." Mark said watching Jack move, no pain evident on him anywhere.

"Jack what are you doing?" Lisa asked rushing over her motherly instinct kicking in.

"Leaving." Jack said moving towards the door.

"After you've just been shot, and beaten?"

"I've seen worse before." There was no reason to lie his body proved with the scars that he had seen worse.

Lisa and Liz both followed Jack out of the room nagging at him about leaving as he walked to the front desk.

"Sir you shouldn't be up moving around." The nurse said.

"I want to sign myself out." Jack said holding his side as a wave of pain shot through him.

"Ok sir." She went through the entire ordeal of warning him about signing out against doctors orders, and she knew she wasn't going to convince him to stay.

It took an hour before Jack had signed all the paper work and was able to leave the hospital, by than someone had gotten him a shirt to wear.

"Mark can you give me a ride back to my car?" Lisa asked him as she walked out behind Jack.

"Sure." Mark said smiling at her, he was getting his brownie points in.

"Jack why don't you ride with us and I can give you a ride home and tomorrow Colonel and someone else can bring you your truck?"

Jack didn't want to walk the distance home, and he knew he wouldn't be able to drive as the pain in his side was worsening. "Thank you." He said softly.

Lisa helped Jack into the backseat of Marks car. Liz sat in the back with him and they all drove back to Lisa's office. Jack had started to nod off on the drive back to the office, Liz noticed as she started at him the entire time.

When the car stopped Jack snapped his eyes opened and looked around confused at first, but instantly relaxing after he knew where he was.

Mark opened the door and offered to help Jack, but Jack refused the help getting out holding back a groan. He walked over to Lisa's car and she unlocked it.

The ride back to his house was a silent one. Lisa wasn't sure what to say she was so relieved that Liz wasn't hurt and grateful for what Jack did for her. "Maybe you shouldn't say alone tonight Jack? They know where you live, and you aren't in the shape to really do a lot."

"I'm fine." Jack said softly he didn't want to be rude, but he wanted to be alone.

"I have a spare bedroom with a very comfortable bed." Lisa tried.

"Thank you, but no thanks. I'm fine." Jack said not looking her in the eyes, he felt horrible for putting Liz in danger, he should have known better.

Lisa pulled into his drive way and rushed out of the car to help him, he had already gotten out and was walking towards the front door reaching in his pocket flinching obviously in pain as his had hit the gun shot wound. He pulled his keys out and unlocked the door, "Thank you for the ride." He said at the door.

"Jack thank you for what you did." Lisa said watching him wondering what was going on in his head, there was clear pain in his eyes, yet his body said nothing of it.

Jack shook his head and walked inside closing the door, the sound of the lock clicking told Lisa to leave now.

Jack walked back to the bedroom exhausted he lay on the bed pulling the shirt off cautiously as to not hurt himself any further. He fell asleep within minutes of laying on the bed.

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