Always Look Forward

Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!

Chapter Eight

"Henrietta! JR!" Lisa cried joyfully, as Johnson let her into the room where he was keeping her children.

"Mommy!" cried the twins, running to her side, and enveloping her in a tight hug.

Lisa held them close, smoothed their dark hair, and whispered in their ears. They were safe. She felt a wave of relief closing in. She had part of her family back and she was close to feeling whole again. But the only missing piece was Jackson.

"Are you okay?" Lisa asked them, concern showing in her voice.

"We're fine, mommy," Henrietta reassured her. "Just scared."

"Where's daddy?" JR questioned, looking straight into Lisa's eyes with his bright blue ones.

"I don't know, baby. I don't know where daddy is."

"Are you going to find him? That's what the bad men said. They said that you were going to find daddy for them," Henrietta spoke to her. The twins were double-teaming her, trying to find out what was going on. They were extremely perceptive children.

"I'm going to find daddy. Not for them, but for us. I'm going to find daddy and we're all going to go home," Lisa promised them.

"Time to go, Mrs. Rippner," Johnson called as he re-entered the room to collect Lisa.

Lisa glanced up from her children and shook her head 'no'. She did not want to leave. She did not want to let her children—her babies—go.

"Time to go!" hissed Johnson, stepping closer to her. "You've seen them. Now, let's go."

Lisa clung tighter to the twins. She knew that she should go, but she did not want to let them go. They were all that she had at the moment. They were her world and she was not about to let them go without a fight. Why couldn't Jackson be there with her and help her to rescue their children?

"Mrs. Rippner, time's a-wasting. Now, let's go," sang Johnson, as he grabbed a handful of her curly hair and yanked, pulling her up from the floor and away from her children.

"Mommy!" cried the twins, reaching towards her. They did not want to see her leave again. Their blue eyes echoed their fright.

"No!" Lisa cried, fighting the tight grip upon her hair. "I don't want to leave them!"

It was useless. Lisa was dragged from the room and tossed to the ground. Johnson's men had held Henrietta and JR back, keeping them from chasing her. She could hear their cries, yet there was nothing she could do for them at that moment.

"Mrs. Rippner, I don't want to hurt you or your beautiful children, but I will unless you start to cooperate with me and soon. Your husband's on the move. Now's the time," Johnson forced her to look at him as he spoke, reminding her of Jackson when they were on the red eye.

"I want my children with me or I don't help you," insisted Lisa. It was a battle of wills, similar to the ones that she had faced with Jackson, and she was not about to back down or to lose.

"I can't do that."

"Then I can't betray Jackson to you," Lisa spoke truthfully. Letting them catch Jackson was betrayal. She was going to betray him to the company—to the very people who were hunting him and wanted to destroy their lives again—to save herself and the twins. Asking her to betray the only person that she truly trusted—before this mess occurred, at least—was hurting her. She did not want to give up Jackson. And she did not want to lose Henrietta and JR.

"I'm sorry then," Johnson said, grabbing her hands together and binding them with a piece of rope. "I wish that you would cooperate."

"I've cooperated enough," spat Lisa stubbornly. She knew that she was not thinking logically and that she was being rash and dumb. But she had to do it. For some reason, she was driven to act this way.

Johnson snorted; an odd behavior for a man who belonged in an old black-and-white movie with his looks. "Time to move on to plan B, then."

"Plan B?" It was Lisa's turn to snort. "How many plans do you have?"

"I'm a manager—it's what we do."

"Well—" Lisa began, cut off by the ringing of his cell phone.

"Johnson. Yeah? Where? I'm on my way," Johnson said into the phone, before he hung up.

Lisa was pulled to her feet and Johnson dragged her along after him. He was almost running and Lisa was stumbling after him in her worn-out heels. She waited for an opportunity to escape, which came when he paused beside a door.

Lisa raised her head and delivered a powerful head-butt. Johnson stumbled and Lisa cracked her bound wrists against his head. Sparks of pain flew into her wrists, but it was worth it. She was turning the tables. Johnson fell onto the floor and Lisa kicked him in the head and knocked him out.

She fell to the ground beside him and searched his pockets for weapons. Sure enough, Johnson carried a gun and a knife. Lisa used the knife to slice her bonds. She considered leaving the knife behind, but she never knew when it would come in handy. So she slipped the knife into the sheath and placed the sheath in her pocket. The gun was in her hand and she was ready to shoot anyone who got in her way.

Lisa ran back the way she had come, heading for her children. She was not about to leave Henrietta and JR behind. She would rescue them and then get the hell out of that house.

"Henrietta! JR!" she cried, once she reached the door to their room. No guards were in sight, yet the door was locked.

"Mommy!" they answered on the other side.

"I'm going to get you out. Don't worry!" she reassured them, trading the gun for the knife. She worked the knife between the doorframe and the door lock, just like Jackson had when he had cornered her in Joe's house after the red eye. She worked the knife quickly and managed to pop the lock with relative ease.

The door opened and Henrietta and JR rushed into her arms again. She hugged them tightly once more, before disentangling herself from their grip to hide the knife in her pocket and remove the gun.

"Stay close to mommy, okay?" she asked them, before standing up. The twins nodded and grabbed each other's hands before Henrietta reached up to grab her left hand. Lisa smiled and led them towards what she hoped was the exit.

As Lisa rounded a corner, she heard footsteps and raspy breathing. She motioned to the twins to hide. They obeyed, scampering away into the shadows.

She tightened her grip upon the gun. Could it be Jackson who was rasping? Or was it some poor fool with asthma? Did she dare hope that it was Jackson?

The shadow of a knife appeared on the floor near her and Lisa's mind flashed back to when she was playing hide-and-seek with a knife-wielding Jackson.

Her heartbeat began to race and she vaguely wondered if this would be the end.

The shadow changed as a man stepped into the room and a pair of crystal blue eyes shone from under a curtain of dark hair. Lisa began to relax and stumbled into his arms.

"Leese," whispered Jackson's calm voice in her ear.

She was safe. She was safe in Jackson's warm embrace.

Author's Notes:

And the plot twists yet again! Enjoy! Next chapter soon!