Always Look Forward

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

Chapter Eleven

A young man wearing glasses entered Jackson's room a little over an hour later. Jackson did not bother to look at the newcomer. Had he, he would have been surprised.

Dark haired, with bright blue eyes, and wearing a suit—with a tie and a sweater—Doctor Jonathan Crane looked almost like a mirror image of his patient. Yet there was obvious differences. Jackson had longer, tangled hair and looked downcast and upset—stressed if you cared to say it. Dr. Crane wore glasses and appeared to be sharp and an air of confidence floated around him. It was clear that they were not the same person, but the similarities were nonetheless striking.

"Mr. Rippner, my name is Jonathan Crane. I'm here to give you a mental evaluation. Are you listening to me?" Crane spoke, his head cocked in the direction of his possible patient. Provided that the man before him was mental unstable.

"Yeah," snapped Jackson, still not bothering to glance at him. He was lost deep in his own little world.

"Good. Let's begin, shall we?"

Jackson said nothing.

Dr. Crane sat down in the chair that had been vacated by Joe Reisert earlier. He studied the manager before, taking mental note of how broken he seemed. It not seem normal for this man to be so, depressed. He remembered that the file handed to him upon his rushed arrival to the hospital had mentioned that Mr. Rippner had been through some time of emotional and/or mental trauma recently and that he had stabbed his wife with a knife in front of his two children. And that had not been the first time, according to the file. Mr. Rippner had a violent past.

"Can you tell me who I am speaking with?" Dr. Crane questioned, carefully watching his reaction.

"Name's Rippner," rasped the disheveled man in the hospital bed, his right arm immobilized in a sling. "Jackson Rippner."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Hospital. Another damn hospital. I'm so sick of them."

"What caused you to come to the hospital? Do you remember what happened?" Dr. Crane was eager to hear what Jackson had to say concerning the events the police were curious about.

"Of course I remember," snapped Jackson. "How could I forgot? I let him win. I let him hurt Lisa."

"Who? Who did you let win?"

"Jack," he stated simply, turning his dull blue eyes towards Dr. Crane for the first time. "I let Jack win."

Interesting, very interesting. Another personality seemed to be competing with Jackson Rippner. What trauma had brought this on?

"When did you first meet Jack?"

"After I killed them," Jackson was becoming cryptic. He was trying to subtly shut Crane out.

"Killed who? Who did you kill, Jackson?"

"My parents. Roberts made me do it. I killed them without thinking."

Roberts. He would research this person later. He had a feeling that he would be seeing Jackson many more times.

"How did you kill them? Did you enjoy doing it?" Crane asked eagerly.

"I killed them with my own two hands. I knew it was them, yet I did it anyways. Roberts told me to do it and he was the first person who had been kind to me in years. I trusted him. He hurt my Lisa though…" Jackson's mind was wandering, unwilling to stay in one place. He was confused and pained.

"Who's Lisa?"

'Nasty rotten bitch, that one is…' growled Jack, reemerging. Jackson's defenses were done and now was the perfect time to reappear.

"Is this Jack?" Crane asked, noting the change. Jackson seemed to stiffen before his eyes and change.

'Yes—who'd you think it was? Keefe?' Jack joked.

"Tell me about yourself, Jack. What do you like to do?"

'Kill. I like to kill and control. I'm a manager—or at least I was until she got in the way… She ruined everything…'

"She who?" Crane questioned, curiosity driving him. Jack seemed to have a different opinion than Jackson.

'Lisa,' spat Jack, venom and loathing apparent in his voice.

"What did she do to you?"

'I was in supposed to be in control, but that neck-stabbing bitch stopped me. Jackson never fought me until she came around. The stupid fool fell in love with her!' Jack vented some of his anger. 'She ruined everything that I had done!'

"Is that why you stabbed her?" Crane asked, putting the events that he knew about together with the two sides of Mr. Rippner. It seemed more likely that Jack was behind all the questionable events.

'Yeah. I wish I had killed her… and her two brats as well. But no, he had to fight back and save her.'

"Tell me about Jackson," demanded Crane. "Does he agree with you often?"

'Rarely,' scoffed Jack. 'He's too good of a person for his line of work. He'd rather spend time with his precious family than plot a job.'

"What kind of job?" inquired Crane.

'Assassination, government overthrows—that sort of thing.'

"Oh."

This was interesting, very interesting…

"Lisa, honey, are you okay?" Joe's voice filled Lisa's ears as she began to slowly return to the world of the living.

"I think so," groaned Lisa, her vision swimming. "What happened? Where's Jackson? And the twins? Are they okay?"

"Calm down, Leese. The twins are fine. As for Jackson…" Joe sighed, shaking his head. "I don't really give a damn about him at this moment."

"Daddy, it was Jack—I think. Jackson wouldn't have hurt them or me. Something's wrong with him though. He needs help."

"I've already taken care of it," reassured Joe. "Jackson's not allowed near you or the kids until he is found to be okay. He's being mentally examined now."

"He's mentally ill. The company told me so. They wanted me to betray Jackson to them," Lisa recalled, remembering bits and pieces of what happened. She still did not remember the fight with Jackson—the fear and betrayal that he had struck into her—or anything other than being reunited with him. She was assuming that something happened to land her in the hospital.

"If I were you, I would have betrayed him."

"Why would you—" Lisa began, then feeling pain, she stopped and looked down where the pain was radiating. She lifted the hospital gown and noticed the neat stitches covering the wound Jackson had inflicted upon her.

Suddenly, it all was coming back and Lisa was very, very sacred.

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the OOCness. I'm sick and just a little bit of out it. But this chapter was begging to be written. Hope everyone's enjoying our little visit from Dr. Crane. The tension between him and Jackson should prove to be interesting, once Jackson quits moping around.