I Can't Sleep

There was nothing out of the ordinary that night but for some reason Lisa Reisert could not sleep. She tossed and she turned, rolled over onto her stomach and lay on her back, nothing worked. Finally in aggravation she tossed the covers aside and sat up, causing the body beside her to groan in protest. She smiled as she turned to face him, resisting the urge to brush aside a loose stray of hair.

She liked to watch him when she thought he wasn't paying attention. She liked imagining running her fingers through his tousled dark hair, or to admire his chiseled features. She loved to feel those clear water blue eyes stare at her, into her soul. She loved the rush he gave her when they kissed, or when he looked upon the scar on her chest with concern and care. All these things she loved and there were plenty more where they came from.

"Leese," He said cracking an eye open. "You're staring again."

She giggled before kissing him on the forehead. "Sorry, Jack." She said teasingly. He reached for her hand and when he had hold of it tugged her toward him.

"Go back to sleep," He whispered into her ear when he had her close enough. She gripped his hand and made him let go.

"I can't sleep," She told him with the same teasing tone. He smirked, oh how she loved that smirk of his, and began to push himself off the bed. "What are you doing?" She asked at his sudden movement. He looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"You know I can't sleep without you," He said winking at her. She hit him playfully on the arm; they both knew that he could sleep just as well, with or without her. Lisa watched as Jackson made his way to their shared closet and pulled on the robe he kept there. She frowned as the terrycloth covered his usually bare chest at this time of night but didn't make any comment. Moving from the closet, Jackson closed in on her, offering her his hand which she took readily. If anything he was a gentleman, even when he wasn't supposed to be acting like one.

Together the pair walked into the kitchen of their apartment and he let go of her hand to open the fridge. Ruffling through its contents he must've found what he had been looking for, for he gave a quick 'ah ha!' and soon she saw his head appear from behind the door.

"Would you like some wine, Leese?" He asked holding the bottle up for her to see. She nodded and then moved from the kitchen into the living room and onto the couch. Drawing her legs beneath her as she waited for him Lisa took a moment to study their small yet comfortable apartment. They were currently in the main room, which consisted of the living/family room, kitchen, and the small dining area to the side. From there a small hallway led to the master bedroom, the guestroom, and shared bathroom. The décor of the apartment had been chosen between them and luckily they had had similar tastes when it came to interior decorating. All the rooms were painted in some way a neutral color, all except for the bedroom which had a single accent wall painted in a bold red.

She personally didn't mind the lack of colors in the home; after all she had never really noticed it before, but once she had convinced Jackson to move in with her she had decided it needed some color, to make it feel more like theirs instead of hers. On the walls of the rooms were a variety of art pieces and pictures of friends and family. She often liked to look at the photos of Jackson and her with her family. Her dad had at first had not liked Jackson, but that was understandable, and she knew he wouldn't have liked any man to take away his baby from him anyways so it wasn't just her Jackson that he didn't like. But of course just like he had charmed her, Jackson had eventually won over her father too, and everyone else in her family for that matter.

Footsteps from the kitchen drew her away from her thoughts as she watched Jackson carry the two wine glasses to where she sat in one hand, the bottle in the other. Placing the green bottle down first on the coffee table, he handed her the glass of red wine before sitting down himself beside her.

"To nights when Lisa can't sleep," He toasted, raising his glass in the air. Laughing Lisa repeated the action and they clinked the glasses together. Taking small sips Lisa watched him from over the rim of her glass, smiling the whole time. Jackson caught her smile and raised a brow at her before leaning in.

"What are thinking about?" He asked with a playful grin. Lisa, placing her glass on the table beside the bottle, raised her finger to her lips in mock concentration. She did this for a moment trying to tease him once more.

"Well," He began. "Don't keep me waiting Leese, it's not very nice." His eyes bore into hers and he placed his glass beside hers and she felt a light-headed feeling take over her, he always did this to her.

"Well," She imitated. "I was thinking about how this couch must feel,"

"Really and how does this couch feel?" He asked closing the distance between them.

"Jealous, I'd say, jealous of the bed." Jackson gave her that smirk once again and tried to further close the distance but Lisa turned her head at just the right moment causing him to kiss her cheek.

"Tease," He murmured, biting the soft skin of her earlobe, taking the advantage she had unknowingly given him. She grinned and closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation to its full extent. Slowly he moved away from her earlobe and made a trail of kisses down the side of her throat, his one hand moving to cradle her head, the other taking a gentle yet firm hold on her chin. Turning her head so that it faced him he brought his head down as if to finally capture her lips with his own. "But you know you can't run from me for long, my brave vixen."

His warm breath mingled with her own and she knew her eyes were betraying her and, of course, Jackson willingly complied with what they asked. The kiss was slow at first, both just enjoying the taste of the other but it soon deepened. Lisa soon found her hands tangled in his hair and felt his hands wandering over the thin material of her chemise within seconds. She let her mouth wander away from his, repaying what he had done to her moments ago, only she wandered away from his neck and toward his chest, her hands had released his hair and now tugged at the sash of his robe. The robe tossed aside Lisa looked up at him and she felt proud when she saw the hunger in his eyes before continuing the kisses, while he allowed his hands to hitch the chemise up around her waist and running his hands around her thighs. At this action Lisa stopped what she was doing and wrapped her legs around his waist. Arching against him, Jackson continued to run his hands over her body, eventually tugging at the panties she wore. Knowing what was soon to come; Lisa couldn't help but whisper his name aloud.

"Jackson."

Nothing happened. She opened her eyes and found his looking at her, a mix of suspicion and hurt there. The suspicion she was used to but not the hurt. Jackson was so good at hiding his emotions that it even frightened her at times. "What's wrong?" She asked her voice full of concern. He didn't look at her, wouldn't. She reached out but he drew back. What was wrong with him?

She watched as he stood from the couch and headed back to their room. "Jackson?" She called out making him stop where he was. Taking this moment to straighten out her clothes, she rushed to his side and attached herself to his arm.

"Leese," He began but then paused.

"Jackson tell me what is wrong? I thought we were having fun." He said her name again.

"Jackson…" "My name isn't Jackson, Lisa!" He said softly almost as if he were losing a battle she didn't know had begun. She reached her hand to his face and quietly caressed it.

"Of course it is. You have the same hair, eyes, even the same facial structure. You're nickname is Jack though you hate it," He pulled away from her. Lisa brought her hands to her chest. He felt different somehow.

"That's my name, Lisa," He whispered. She smiled, of course he had been joking with her.

"Now you remember." He shook his head.

"No, my name is Jack." She laughed, though it was an empty laugh. Why did he like to torment her like this?

"Will you stop it?" She yelled her voice seemed to bounce off the walls. "This joke is getting old, Jackson. Jack is your nickname and you hate it because the other kids would call you 'Jack the—"

"Lisa my name is Jack, and I can prove it to you." She crossed her arms over her chest; she was getting sick of this mind game he was playing on her. She watched as he moved over to his coat near the front door. Digging his wallet out of his pocket, he took one of the many cards out and walked back to her, handing it to her as soon as she could.

She met his eyes once before looking down at the card; it was his driver's license. She automatically noticed that something wasn't right; it wasn't Jackson's name on the card.

"Jack Richards"

It read, then it clicked in her mind and she started to laugh. She gave him back the card still unable to control her laughter.

"It's a fake card" she finally explained. "You probably have plenty of them, in your line of work. Besides you still have the initials J.R, that's a dead giveaway, Jack" She was still giggling when he came back from putting away the card, but this time he didn't stop for her.

"Where are you going?" She asked, while trying to catch her breath.

"Bed," He said and once more stopped. "I think you should join me, Lisa." She walked up to him and dropped her arms around his neck. Smiling coyly she whispered.

"But I can't sleep," He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll go with you though if you admit that your name is Jackson." Looking at her he knew there was no point but to play along.

"You caught me, Leese," He began taking hold of her one hand and guiding her back to the bedroom. "I've been joking with you the whole time, it was a fake card." She smiled triumphantly.

"I knew it." She whispered burying her head into his shoulder.

Jack Richards silently led his girlfriend of two years to their master bedroom. This had happened before during their relationship, twice. The first time he had barely given it a second thought. The second time he was concerned, and now the third time he was concerned and curious. Who was this Jackson character with the same initials as him and what had he done to have such a profound effect on Lisa? He knew one thing, if he ever met the guy it wouldn't be the friendliest of experiences. Despite her imperfections and the odd episodes where she fantasized about this guy, Jack had strong feelings for Lisa, and he didn't plan on letting anything happen to their relationship.

When they were finally in the room, Lisa was practically asleep against his arm. He helped her into the bed and then crawled in beside her. She instantly curled herself beside every curve of his body and wrapped his hand over her stomach.

"Goodnight, Jackson." She whispered.

"Night, Leese." He responded.

--

The next morning Lisa Reisert woke up with the worst headache ever. Tossing the cover aside she threw her legs over the side of the bed and stretched out her arms.

"Morning, Jack." She said to the man beside her. Letting her head roll from side to side she stared at the wall before her thinking about the night before.

"I had the weirdest dream last night… I think you were in it," She turned to him when she got no reaction. Throwing the blankets off his body she was surprised to find no one there. He must have already gone to work, she figured. She looked over to the alarm clock on his bedside table.

"Dammit!" she swore. She had in slept in and was late for work. Jumping out of bed, she grabbed some clothes and rushed to the bathroom. While running the warm water for her shower, she couldn't help but think the day was only going to get worse from there.

--

Author Notes:

Some confusion has left me to edit this with an author's note ) What was going through my mind was that after the 'experience' it left Lisa with a bit of a obsession even if she didn't realize it (forming in the way of dating similar looking man to Jackson). She said she had a weird dream because to her it probably was just that, a very disturbing yet enjoyable dream, though really she probably blacked out and that was all she remembered. I imagine Jack wasn't there when she woke up because a) He has to get to work really early and b) He probably might've not wanted to face her, which I know contradicts his want to stay close to her but… he did, lets leave it at that. This might make the story less 'mysterious' but I wanted to clear a few things up.

That all said I hope you enjoy the story, and don't forget to review!