7

Author's Note: Thanks so much to everyone for all the reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter, as well. I don't really have anything else to say at the moment other than…hope you like it. Oh! And…Imshi…Wow! My eyes! With a spork!Maybe a little harsh:)

Chapter Nine: Aftermath

Lisa sat there for about two minutes, though it felt like so much longer, just cradling Jackson's head in her arms. She could feel his pulse getting slower, but she didn't know what to do. She couldn't call 911, they would send police and they would ask way too many questions, and she would go to jail and Jackson would either die or go to jail, and her babies, her precious babies, would be taken away from her. Then, it hit her…like a lightening bolt from out of nowhere. She reached down and fumbled through Jackson's pants pocket until she pulled out his cell phone. She silently thanked God that he never forgot to grab his cell phone; never went anywhere without it…even though she always complained about it at restaurants. She scanned through his contacts until the very end. She almost glanced right over the listing, but something about it caught her eye. Wung Chui's. Jackson hated Chinese food. Without hesitating, she hit send. The phone rang twice before a deep voice responded on the other end.

"Code in." it said.

"I don't know the code." Lisa sobbed.

"Have a nice day."

"No, wait! Please…"

"How did you get this number?"

"I'm Jackson Rippner's wife. I don't know his code. Please, he's been shot and I don't know what to do. I can't…I can't call…I don't know what to do. Please, help me."

"Calm down, ma'am." The man on the other end said, "I need you to verify that you are in fact Mr. Rippner's wife."

"How can I do that?"

"Mr. Rippner has a safety question for such an occurrence. What did you drink with him in the airport bar?"

Lisa almost smiled at the memory, but the tears streaming from her eyes choked her and her voice cracked, "A baybreeze."

"Location?"

"We're at our house. Uh, 903…"

"We know the address, Mrs. Rippner. A clean up crew will be there shortly."

"Thank you, so much." Lisa said, but the line had already gone dead. She dropped the cell phone and snuggled a little closer to Jackson. Jackson had a safety question just in case something like this should ever happen. She should have known. That was just the way he was; always cover things from all angles; never be without a plan. That was her Jackson. She thought about all this as she sat there stroking his hair. Jackson had always had faith that if anything should ever happen to him, that Lisa would be able to take care of herself. "Please be okay, baby. I need you."

Then, she looked over and saw Maggie's body…and her face. Had she really done that? She couldn't remember anything. She never would have thought herself capable of something so…so…horrifying. Then she looked back at Jackson…her Jackson…her husband and the father of her children and the bleeding hole in the middle of his chest and a consuming rage burned violently in the pit of her stomach. He was her life, her breath, her world…when it came to him and her kids…she was capable of anything. Tonight, she had found that out. When Maggie had shot him, it must have sent her over the edge. It had definitely sent her to a place that she had never been to before. So much for stress management.

A few moments later, there were several men in dark black suits pouring into her room. Terrified, Lisa scrambled away from Jackson in search of something to defend herself with.

"Mrs. Rippner?" one of the men asked.

Lisa couldn't speak but managed to muster a nod.

"Don't worry, ma'am," he said, "We'll take care of everything."

Suddenly, two of the men had put Jackson up on a stretcher and were wheeling him out of the room. Lisa felt her heart trying to beat its way out of her chest to go with him. She hopped to her feet and tried to run after them, but the man who had spoken to her caught her by the arms.

"I'm sorry, ma'am." He said.

"Why can't I go with him?" she asked.

The man just looked at her for a second before going to help two other men to bag up Clyde's body. It was shocking to her how much they all looked alike…like they were all clones of the same man almost. All tall and broad with light brownish hair cropped close to their heads. Two more were bagging up Maggie's body and two other's were pouring bleach onto her beautiful carpet and another was scrubbing at the walls. Lisa didn't know how she was supposed to react to all of this. She hugged her arms around herself and leaned back against the wall. Flashes of what she had done to Maggie kept flooding through her mind and she wanted to throw up. She had a feeling that those images would haunt her for the rest of her life. Fresh tears sprang up in her eyes and she wiped them away with the tips of her fingers. That was when she noticed the blood splattered across her. Some of it was Jackson's, but most of it was Maggie's. She started furiously wiping at her arms trying to get it off of her, but her hands were completely covered and all she succeeded in doing was smearing more blood across her forearms. Shaking, she wiped her palms over the material of the very expensive black dress that Cynthia had brought back to her from New York and looked around her. She didn't understand how these men did what they did. They were going about cleaning everything up as though she didn't exist…as though what they were seeing was completely normal. When she looked around, it felt like she was trapped in some nightmare that she couldn't escape. Even with what she had gotten used to seeing being married to Jackson, this was extreme. She desperately wanted to be able to blink and make it all go back to the way that it yesterday.

Then, the reality set in. Jackson might die. Jackson might already be dead. Her knees buckled and she had to use the wall for support just to remain on her feet. Jackson couldn't die. He was…well…he was Jackson. He was untouchable. She could feel her stomach beginning to wretch. She needed to get into the bathroom, but there were three guys in it hosing it down. She was going to vomit, it was going to happen, she just didn't know where. In desperation, she grabbed the small trash can they kept by the nightstand and sank to her knees on the ground, spewing what little there was in her stomach to release. None of the men cleaning her house even looked up to see what was going on, not one of them. Lisa finished emptying the little bit of amino acids remaining in her stomach, then sat back on her heels and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She just wanted this night to end. She wanted these men out of her house, she wanted Jackson to come walking through the door with that cocky little smirk on his face, and her children to…oh, God…the kids!

No sooner had the thought run through her head than she heard a loud high pitched squeal coming from beneath her. She made a break for the door. One of the 'clean up crew' moved to step in her way, but she knocked him to the side and was out the door and down the stairs in the blink of an eye. She charged through the downstairs hallway into her kids' room. There were three more men in there. All the same nondescript build as the men upstairs in her own bedroom. Luhki was squealing and batting one of the men's hands away as he tried to reach for her and her younger siblings. Lisa flew across the room and shouldered the man backwards.

"Stay away from my kids!" she demanded, taking position in front of Luhki, Mariah, and Jack Jr. to shield them from the suited men. She needed to be strong right now…for them. "They are not a part of this."

The only man who had spoken to her appeared in the doorway, apparently slightly out of breath from tearing through the house after her. "Mrs. Rippner?"

Lisa looked at him, but pivoted her stance so that she could keep her eyes trained on the other men in the room, as well. Another little tidbit Jackson had ingrained in her. She didn't have anything to use as a weapon, but she wasn't going to let these men traumatize her children any further. "No!" Lisa said, the last of her strength melting away as she was reduced to yet more tears. So much for being strong for her kids' sake. "No, no. I don't care what you have to say. We have been through enough!"

"Mommy! Mommy, what's wrong?" Luhki sobbed quietly behind her. The little girl didn't know what was going on, but she knew that something was bothering her mommy.

The man looked over and Luhki's tearstained face. Lisa could have sworn she saw something along the same lines as compassion flash across his eyes as he looked into the faces of her children. He looked back to Lisa, physically straightened and ran a hand down his tie, flattening it to his chest. "Mrs. Rippner, please collect your children and come with me."

Lisa leaned down and lifted Jack Jr. onto her hip and with one free hand, herded Mariah and Luhki in front of her so that she could keep her eyes on them as they were led down the hall to the dining room.

"Mrs. Rippner, you and your family should wait in here until we're done sweeping the house." The man said gently, his eyes looking over the faces of her children.

Lisa didn't think she had it in her to speak anymore, so she just nodded her head and sat down at the dining room table, with Jack Jr. in her lap. Luhki and Mariah immediately attached themselves to her legs. They didn't no what was happening in their home, but they were smart enough to know that there were a whole lot of strangers there and they needed to be close to their mother. Just as the man turned to go, Lisa found her voice. "Wait!" She called.

The man paused and turned back toward her.

"Is my husband going to be okay?" she asked.

The man looked from Lisa's face to Luhki's, then Mariah's, then back to Lisa's. Then, he turned and walked away without saying anything. Lisa felt as though her heart had dropped into her stomach as she watched him disappear back down the hall. She unconsciously hugged her son tighter against her.

Luhki looked up at her with big round green eyes, "Mommy, where's daddy?"

"Oh, baby," Lisa said, searching for the right words, "daddy got a booboo and had to go see the doctor."

"Is he okay?" Mariah chirped, her own eyes welling up with tears.

"I'm sure he will be, sweetheart."

But her children had inherited their intuition from their parents and they could tell that things weren't quite right. Even Jack Jr. had started bawling, repeating the word "Dah-dee!" over and over.

Lisa stroked the little boy's head as he clung to her neck as though his life depended on it. She shushed him quietly, rocking him back and forth as Mariah sat down in the floor and wrapped her tiny little arms around Lisa's ankles and Luhki lay her head in her mother's lap. Eventually, Jack Jr. gave in to sleep, as did Mariah, but Luhki continued to sit there with her mother, both of them lost in their own minds.

Lisa looked down at her eldest child and couldn't help but think how mature she seemed all of the sudden. Luhki was only five, but somehow at that moment she struck Lisa as being so much older. She had been through so much and apparently not just today, but that whole thing with Rick. Bastard. Lisa didn't know if she would ever be able to give Luhki back her childhood. Her throat tightened and she wanted to cry again, but she was so tired and there were no more tears left in her. She was physically incapable of crying anymore. Somehow, in one night, her life had gone from the twisted fairytale happy ending that it had been to a nightmarish hell with no escape in sight. She reached down with one hand and stroked Luhki's soft brown hair, wondering to herself where the rewind button was.

Somewhere around an hour later, the suited clone men came streaming down the stairs and through the hall to the front door. They made such a racket as they were leaving, they woke Mariah who sat up and wearily rubbed at her eyes with her fists. The only one who had ever spoken to her broke off from the rest and came into the dining room. "Mrs. Rippner," he said, "Everything has been taken care of…including one SUV and one Lexus found abandoned on the side of the road. And," he glanced at his watch, "as we speak we have men with one Mr. Davey Crook."

"Please, don't kill him." Lisa said, even as thought occurred to her that if she had just let Jackson go off and kill Davey that he wouldn't have been shot by Maggie. He would still be by her side at this very moment.

The man looked up at her, but didn't respond to her request. He went to turn around and Lisa spoke again.

"How will I know if Jackson's okay?" she asked.

"Oh, yes." He said, turning to toward her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small blue cell phone. Lisa recognized it immediately as Jackson's. "You left this upstairs. Keep it with you at all times. That's how we'll contact you."

He handed her the phone and without another word, left the house. Once they were gone, Lisa noticed just how quiet the house really was. She stood up, motioning for Mariah and Luhki to follow her. They walked through the halls of suddenly enormous house, slowly climbing the stairs to the master bedroom. Lisa was more than a little stunned at what she found in her bedroom. It was as if nothing had ever happened. The carpet was bright white, the bed was neatly made, the window had been replaced, her vomit had even been cleaned out of the trashcan. The overwhelming smell of bleach permeated the air; it was so thick that it made Lisa dizzy. She couldn't spend another minute in this house. She ushered her children down the stairs and piled them into Jackson's Jaguar. Within the hour, she was pulling into her father's driveway.

When Joe Reisert opened his door at 4:30 in the morning, he was not expecting to see his daughter standing there with red swollen eyes cradling his three exhausted looking grandchildren, but what he noticed immediately after that was that his son-in-law was absent from the image. Oh no. He pulled them all inside, put the kids to bed and then joined Lisa in the kitchen where she sat at the breakfast counter with her head in her hands. He made her a cup of coffee and sat down across from her. He didn't ask her what had happened. He didn't ask her if she was okay. If she was sure. And when she flew into his arms and started crying, he simply stroked her hair and held her. He let her lean on him. Let her completely break down on him. Up until then, she had been struggling to control herself in front of her children. Granted, she had done a pretty bad job of not letting them know how upset she was, but she had held in a ton all things considered. But now, in the arms of her own 'daddy', she was reduced to a little girl; curled up in his arms, cling to his shirt, and sobbing quietly into his shoulder.

The next morning, Lisa woke up in her old bedroom after she had collapsed into a restless coma-like sleep. For a moment she had forgotten how she had gotten there. She clutched Jackson's cellular phone to her chest as though it was her one and only lifeline. But it had yet to ring. She still wore the same little black dress that she had been wearing last night. It seemed unreal that that hellacious night was really over. Her throat was sore and her head hurt from crying so much; her muscles ached from physical exertion. She crawled out of bed and staggered into the bathroom, stripping off the little black dress as she went. She turned on the water and, as it was warming up, she looked over herself in the mirror. She ran her hands over her freshly bruised body as flashes from the night before came flooding through her mind.

She stepped into the shower, letting the hot water massage her muscles, wincing as it caused her numerous cuts to start stinging. She sank to the bottom of the tub and watched the water swirling around the drain turn red as the blood that was caked on her washed away. She sat there, rocking back and forth for a few minutes, before finally forcing herself to stand up and switch into normal mode. She washed her hair, then lathered her body in soothing circular motions with a loofa sponge. When she got out of the shower, she brushed her teeth and slipped into an old pair of sweats and a tee shirt before tucking Jackson's phone into her pocket and wandering down the stairs to the kitchen.

She found her kids in the kitchen along with her father. Jack Jr. was giggling in his high chair, while Mariah and Luhki both stood on chairs at the counter, covered in flour, as they attempted to help their grandfather make pancakes.

"Mommy, papaw's silly!" Mariah laughed and Lisa was relieved to see them smiling.

But when Luhki looked at her, her face transformed from lighthearted giggles to worry and concern and Lisa had that feeling again; that feeling that told her that Luhki would never again be a child. Lisa fought off the urge to cry again and plastered a bright smile on her face and, hugging her arms tightly across her chest, padded barefoot across the tiled kitchen floor to join her family. "Yes, he is bunny. He is very silly." She said.

Luhki's brow furrowed at her, like she didn't believe the smile, but she soon relaxed and joined back in with her little sister as Lisa went over to join Jack Jr. at the table. Joe turned on the radio that was mounted to the underside of the upper cabinets and the two little girls immediately began squealing and dancing around with the music. Lisa even laughed a little bit at their enthusiasm.

The rest of the day was spent with Lisa watching as her father came up with limitless distractions for her children. Everything from Candyland and Shoots and Ladders to impromptu Hide and Go Seek; not to mention the endless flow of Disney movies they watched. Evening came. The sun was just beginning to sink below the horizon, painting the sky with an amazing array of pink, purple, orange, and gold; they had just pushed Disney's Tarzan into the DVD player when the cell phone in Lisa's pocket began to ring.

Author's Note: Please, please, please, let me know what you think!