Day-to-Day
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Red Eye!
Epilogue
Lisa woke with a start, gasping. Her right hand reached towards her stomach, half-expecting for it to come away dripping with her own sticky blood. Yet it did not. All she felt was her flattening stomach.
No, no…it had to have been a dream. A terrible nightmare. She would never have been an assassin.
Soft snoring filled her eyes. Lying beside her, sleeping peacefully, was Jackson Rippner. His dark brown hair was tousled and his icy eyes closed. He was almost a child when he slept; his painful past forgotten as well as his job. He could not hurt anyone at this moment.
A cry sounded from another room. Lisa slipped out of the bed and pulled a robe on over her naked body. She wandered towards the sound, which had floated to her ears from a pink crib. A dark-haired, bright blue-eyed baby looked up at her. The baby smiled at her and the cries ceased.
Footsteps came from behind her and warm arms encircled her waist. She was pulled back against a bare chest and felt a head lean beside her. The embrace was comforting considering the trauma she had just experienced.
"Leese, go back to sleep. I'll take care of Jack," Jackson's smooth voice whispered in her ear.
Lisa did not know what to say. Jackson gave her a quick kiss and released her. She stood numbly beside him as he reached into the crib. He picked up Jack and the baby smiled broadly at her father. Jackson was smiling back; a rare occurrence. It was strange to see the gentle side of him. Even around her, Jackson had still bee violent.
"Jackson, please don't leave me," she pleaded in a whisper.
"I won't. I'm going out later tomorrow to get some stuff for Jack, but not until late," he reassured her.
"No…not tomorrow. Please, don't leave me."
She was not going to let her life turn out like her nightmare. She was not going to be tortured in front of her infant daughter, be presumed dead, and become an assassin. That future would not exist.
"We'll talk in the morning. Now sleep," he insisted. His melodic voice eased her worried mind.
Lisa begrudgingly trudged back to her bedroom and crawled back into the warm bed. She would make him stay. Tonight was the first time in nearly a year that Jackson had been back. He had just met his five month old daughter for the first time. She knew that Jack helped make him stay.
She would just have to wait until daylight came to convince Jackson to stay for good and protect them both.
Later…
Lisa had managed to keep Jackson at her apartment. Just as in her nightmare, the men in black had entered that evening. Jackson had kept them at bay while she held Jack close. He had viciously defended them and later disposed of the bodies. He kept a close eye on them after that and packed them all up less than a week later.
They moved to Europe, where their time was split between England and Ireland. They had both lost their American accents and Kyra had grown up with both her parents. About a year later, Myra had come into their lives. Myra and Kyra grew very close and were almost like twins, despite the differences in looks and personalities.
Jackson was fiercely protective of his family and taught them all certain tactics incase of an emergency. Lisa was not exactly thrilled with training the girls, but she understood the importance. She too would do whatever it took to keep them safe.
When Kyra was fifteen and Myra fourteen, Jackson and Lisa sat down and told them all about their past. They were told about Jackson's job, how Lisa and Jackson met, the red-eye flight from hell, and running from his former employers. Jackson even told them about Max Ryder, his greatest enemy.
Max had turned rouge a few years after both Jackson and he started jobs as managers. He blamed Jackson for a job failure and nearly cost him his life. Jackson shrugged it off and continued working, while Max had plotted revenge. Then the red-eye happened and word got out about Jackson's failure and the spunky woman who had brought him down.
Max had started following Lisa shortly after she was pregnant with Kyra. When Kyra was born, his suspicions about her involvement with Jackson were confirmed. He waited for Jackson to return and when he did, he gathered a group to attack his one-time partner and friend.
Max had died that day, but there were still many enemies that Jackson had yet to kill. He still worked as a manager and made decent money under an alias. There were plenty of people out there searching for Jackson Rippner.
Luckily, no one found them until shortly after Kyra and Myra learned the truth. Two men had tried to abduct them from school, but the older Rippner girl carried a knife and freed them both. From there, they had escaped home, with Kyra dialing Jackson on her cell as they ran. Jackson and Lisa were both waiting for them when they arrived.
Together, the small family banded together and killed everyone who approached their house that spring day with the intent of killing them. Jackson and Kyra had disposed of the bodies, with him ticking off the names of the dead. Once finished, he told them that they were free. Anyone with a large grudge against him was dead.
The Rippners were safe. Lisa's premonition or nightmare from fifteen years prior had kept them from reaching a terrible end. They no longer lived on a daily basis; fearing for their lives.
The ordeal begun many years earlier when Jackson began his job—which had intensified when Lisa entered his life—was finally over.
Author's Notes:
That's the end. How's that for a twist? Major thanks to everyone who reviewed and read this story! Now, I'm off to take my AP European History exam: )