"... Just with girls..."
Jesse sat up in bed rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Once her vision was free of any blurring she looked around her surrounding and found something rather interesting. There was a woman sitting on the end of her bed; with her brown curls and blue eyes she looked very familiar.
"Mom?" the woman's eyes snapped up to meet hers.
"Oh, honey, you're finally awake; you hit rock bottom pretty hard last night," she said with a pleasant smile. Jesse relaxed against the wall behind her bed before coming up with something to say, "What are you doing here? When did you wake up?" she asked looking into her mothers eyes.
"There's someone here to meet you, you're uncle actually," she said not answering the question. Jesse opened her mouth to say something when a man appeared from the shadows of the room.
Giving a quick once-over she realized that it was the man from the park. Now getting a closer look at him she saw that her father and this man really didn't look alike as much as she thought. They had similarities, their blue eyes, their defined cheek bones, but this man was defiantly not her father.
"What do you want? Who are you? Why can't you just leave me alone?" she asked sounding rather bored with this man.
"My name is Jason Ripner, and all I want to do is help," he said before he pulled a small silver container out of his pocket. "This is the cure to the toxin that was given to your mother during the pregnancy; all I want to do is give it to you."
Jesse woke up sweaty and hot the next morning. The dream that she had had disturbed her, but also intrigued her. She knew that it was merely a dream and may mean nothing, but the last she knew there was a doctor working on a cure for the toxin.
Jumping out of bed and running to her closet she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She could see the bruise where her father had hit her last night before she went into total darkness and was probably carried home. She sighed and tried to shrug it off as she opened her closet and grabbed a box that lay on the floor collecting dust.
Sitting on the floor she began to leaf through the box of papers and files until she came to the folder marked, 'TOXIN' she pulled it out and began to read.
MEMO NUMBER: 5665
Ripner, Jason. Moore, Steven.
Steven: Have you done the testing needed on the child?
Jason: Jessica, and, yes. Surprisingly even though her mother was contaminated with the toxin while pregnant the baby wasn't deathly effected as was expected.
Steven: What do you mea deathly? Was she affected in any harmful way?
Jason: (Long Pause) Yes, the child was left mentally ill from the toxin.
Steven: How long do you think it would take to make a cure?
Jason: At this point it could take years. The company was very thorough in the attempt on those twos lives. Once they find out that Lisa was simply put into a coma they'll send someone after her and the child.
Steven: From your tests can you tell me vaguely what the toxin does?
Jason: Yes, it enters the blood stream just like oxygen would when inhaled, but it will basically start to rot inside the body. In less then a month the toxin would hit the heart and cause the muscles to be paralyzed. When they released the toxin in the air they most likely were hoping to kill the little girl before she gave birth, but Lisa is a fighter all around.
Steven: Well I hope you can get a cure out as soon as possible; we've got a woman on a coma and a young girl mentally ill due to this thing.
Jesse sighed and put the file back in the box. She never considered herself to be mentally ill even though all the doctors seemed to think that she was. As she walked out of her room she couldn't help but think of the dream, 'I could track down this guy just to see if he's got it.' She thought hopefully as she descended the stairs; as she reached the bottom she could see Jackson and Grandpa Joe in the kitchen.
Her father had the same sweet-nice-lovable-Jackson smile plastered on his face, but when you saw his bottomless blue eyes you could tell that he wasn't all about smiles anymore.
She nearly laughed as Joe shot Jackson a very confused look when he turned his back, 'He has no idea.'
"Hey Jesse, your dad said you got in nasty fight last night and he ended up having to weasel you out." Joe said upon seeing her at the foot of the stairs, "I'll bet he did." She mumbled shooting her father a cold glare with venomous dark ice blue eyes.
Jesse Ripner had never had to be weaseled out of a fight in her life. She knew exactly how to pick her fights, and if she couldn't take them she wouldn't. It was the same with Bradley; when she was that young she couldn't take him and therefore didn't try. Despite what everyone around her thought she was not always looking for a fight, but a fight was merely always looking for her.
Her father leaned against the counter and gave Jessica a warning look that told her that she shouldn't tell about the real events of the night before. She sighed and sat down at the table trying to avoid her grandfathers questioning glances. Grabbing her laptop from the middle of the table she flipped it open and opened her e-mail.
'Junk-mail, junk-mail, junk-mail, junk... what the heck?' she opened an e-mail with the subject being, 'Living or Dying.'
Dear Miss Ripner,
I heard that your father has decided to show himself once again. When we met in the park I was hoping to talk to your father, but now I am not so sure it would be a good idea. I know that you have researched the antidote that I was working on for your mother; I now came up with the cure. But about a month ago on my way to the hospital I was attacked and the attacker made off with the files. Now I know that you didn't want to be brought into a business that even resembled your fathers, but we need that antidote back.
I will contact you again.
-Jason Ripner.
As much as Jesse hated to admit it she wasn't very surprised at getting the e-mail from him. Though she was surprised with what the e-mail said; closing the laptop she let out a loud sigh and stood from the table once again.
"You okay, Jess? You seem to have fallen into a daze," Joe said trying to get her to make eye contact, something he rarely got with Jesse.
"I'm fine, just tired… and a little sore," she said rubbing her head and shooting Jackson a glare. "I'm gonna go make a call, you eaves drop and I kill you," she said as she bounded back up the stairs grabbing the phone from the table at the foot of the steps.
She punched in a few numbers and pressed talk, "Hello?" came the confused voice from the other end of the phone.
"Hey, Brent listen I need a favor I'm looking for my uncle that contacted me the other day, names Jason Ripner?"
"Let me guess you want me to find where you can contact him so that you don't have to wait for him to contact you?" he seemed to be annoyed with getting a call from Miami's hottest trouble maker. Despite what her father thought it really wasn't all that bad to know all the police men by name and visa versa. It meant that when she needed a favor, even though she had a track record, she could get them to what she wanted.
"Yes, actually, what this guy said just sparked my interest and I think it would be good to at least, maybe, have something on his background. You know just in case."
"In case what? He's hot and you want to prove that he's not really your uncle?" he said teasing her like he often did. Brent was the first police officer that had tried to arrest her when she had started a fight down at the club. Before that they had stayed clear of the dreaded 'Ripner daughter' even though he had arrested her they soon became good friends.
"C'mon you know me better then that by now," she said trying not to laugh. She heard the sound of typing and a small grunt of success from Brent.
"I have the file with me right here, you can pick it up if you like."
"Thanks, I'll try and get down there this afternoon."
FB
Lisa was sitting on the couch drinking a tall glass of milk like she did when she was stressed. She found that it was better then a lot of other habits you could pick up when you were pregnant. Sniffing the air she caught the smell of something foreign that she couldn't place.
She looked over at Jackson who was sleeping in the reclining leather chair in front of the TV. "Jackson do you smell something? It smells like you left something on the oven a little too long." Jackson opened his eyes sleepily and sniffed the air before shooting out of his seat.
He recognized that smell. Something that the company had created hoping to use it against rogue agents, "Lisa, get out of the house now!" he shouted looking over at her. But when he turned around she wasn't sitting on the couch anymore; now she was lying unconscious on the floor.
F/B
The phone rang snapping Jackson out of his daze. He shook his head and settled back into the couch. Jesse had left more then an hour ago and Joe was working in the yard leaving Jackson alone in the house. The phone rang again and he growled picking it up, "What?" he snapped.
"Your daughters even more beautiful then when I first saw her mister Ripner." Jackson went pale at the sound of the voice.
"Michael,"
"So you do remember. In that case I have a proposal for you."
