"…Your illustrations…"


Jesse looked around at the dark world that greeted her as she stepped out of the car. She could tell that it was about four in the morning, but she wasn't about to ask how long they had been driving. Looking at the house in front of her she guessed that it was something like an apartment for people who worked for him.

Coming around the car Michael grabbed her roughly by the elbow, "Don't-"

"Get cute?" she finished for him, "That is what you were going to say isn't it? Goodness my dad really didn't miss a beat, did he?"

Michael glared at her as he dragged her by the elbow to the large white house. Letting out a deep sigh she jerked her elbow from his grasp, "I can walk ya know." With a grunt he turned and continued to the house, "Ignorant girl."

"Why thank you," she said upon hearing the small grumble.


" Jackson! She's you daughter!" Lisa shouted as Jackson paced the hospital floor. A tear rolled down Lisa's cheek and Jackson stopped dead in his tracks.

"And you're my wife, Leese," he said bending down next to the bed.

"So you let your daughter die," she said as silent tears flowed down her cheek. "I'd rather you would've killed me in my father's house."

"They won't kill her; they can't." he stated simply, but he couldn't tell if he was trying to convince Lisa or himself.

"You don't know anything, Jackson. These people are just like you; when I met you it took everything in me to love you. If these man is really what you say he is, then the first time she does something to tick him off, she'll wish she were dead." Lisa stated firmly looking into Jackson's eyes; she found no pity, no remorse for what he had done. Letting out a deep, heavy, sigh Jackson placed his head in his hands.

He loved Lisa so much. She had been the first person in the world to touch his emotions and bring them to the surface; he discovered that he liked to feel. That was something he had missed while she was in a coma, why couldn't she just see that what he was doing was for the greater good? He knew Jessica, she didn't. He knew that with Lisa's fighting spirit combined with his strength and cocky attitude she could do anything. He knew that Jessica would find a way out of Michael's grasp; she would be home with them in no time. Did Lisa really have her eyes shut so tight that she couldn't see that she wasn't giving their daughter enough credit?

"You haven't seen her," Jackson began quietly; "You haven't watched her through these past years. She's a fighter, Leese," he looked up into Lisa's eyes and watched as the tears began to dry up.

"She's going to get out of this one, she has to."


Jessica sat on the couch in the middle of the main room while she waited for Michael to come back and tell her what to do. Leaning back in the chair she looked over at the clock on the wall to find that it was almost noon. She could feel her eyelids grow heavy from the lack of sleep. All she wanted to do was curl up and sleep, but seeing as she was in the same house as two of the men she hated most in the whole world, she knew she couldn't do that. Breathing deeply she stood from the couch and walked over to the kitchen hoping that she could find something to drink.

"What are you doing?" spinning around she found Bradley standing not even two feet from her. His stance told her that she should be prepared for him to strike out at any moment.

"I thought you were supposed to stay in the other room during Michael's meeting," he said closing the space between them. Without warning he reached out and slammed her into the nearest wall then using his body he pinned her.

"What are you doing?" she nearly shouted before he smothered her mouth with his hand.

"You are so beautiful," he said seconds before removing his hand and replacing it with his lips. Twisting her head she tried to get away from his persistent kiss.

"What is going on?" releasing her suddenly, he let her slide to the ground before they both turned to find Michael glaring fiercely at both of them.

"N-nothing," Bradley stammered as he stepped away from her trying to dodge his glare. Suddenly, Michael lashed out, grabbing him by the neck and slamming into the wall as he had done Jesse.

"Let's get one thing straight," he shouted in his face. "Jessica belongs to me! And as long as she is here, you do not touch her. Got that?" finally he released his throat and kicked him to the ground.

"I think you should consider anger management courses, I could recommend a good doctor if you'd like." She quipped; Michael shot her a glare before he straightened his jacket and grabbed her arm, dragging her out of the room.

"I think that you need to learn to keep your big mouth shut, Ripner," he snarled. "It's lucky for you that I'm so patient, other wise I might do something that you'll regret," with a shove; he shoved her over the back of the couch.

Panic began rising in her chest as she desperately tried to get herself into a sitting position, "Calm down, Ripner." He said, gently pushing her hair out of her face.

"What do you want, Michael?" she sighed. "Why am I here? What, what could posses you to decide that I had to be here?"

"Some things can only be explained with time, Jesse."

F/B

"Dad? Where are we?" Jessica asked turning in her seat to get a better view of her father. The moment she did, she wished that didn't.

"I'm going to go into that house in front of us, and if anyone, besides me, comes out lock the doors," he said giving her the trade mark Ripner smirk.

She shuddered as she watched him close his door and walk off into the house that sat in front of their car.

It had almost been three hours before Jackson came running back to the car. His face was flushed and he seemed to have blood on his hands. He didn't say anything though as jumped in the car and drove off.

Jessica was twelve years old when this happened, and this was the last night that she spent with her father in four years.

F/B

"Why?" Jesse spoke after the long moment of silence that had fallen between the two as they entered a glare fest. He blinked, confused.

"Why, what?"

"Don't give me that," she said, "Why did my Dad leave?"

"What makes you think that I know?" he shook his head slightly.

"Because, the last place he went to before he left was your house, I know because this is that same house." She said simply, looking him in eyes. He stood there for a few more moments, seemingly pondering this.

"David and Jake were twins, they weren't exactly what you would call the perfect business men," he said looking down his nose at her. "They decided that they would get a kick out of playing with good ol' Ripner's temper. Make a few jokes about his lovely daughter, went over the top."

Jessica's breath caught in her throat as the realization dawned on her; he had killed them for joking around about her.

"They didn't stand a chance against a knife wielding Jackson Ripner, that's what he was famous for, ya know? His aim wasn't worth anything, but boy! You give him a knife and it was ten times better then any gun you could ever give him." Pausing for a second, he scratched his chin, "Now what I'm wondering, is if he passed this talent onto his lovely daughter?"

The only response she gave him was the Ripner trade mark smirk.


Jessica.

Last night when I found out that my Dad had sold me for the cure to the toxin, I thought that my world was over. I mean, what kind of a father would sell his own daughter? But now I guess it's not such a big deal, this is the life that he wants for me, then this is the life that I'm gonna have. It's not my fault that he didn't care enough to find some other way to find the cure, hick me and my uncle could have found the cure! I doubt he even cares though, if he did he would have come busting through those doors, knife in hand, ready to kill. He did it when I was twelve, why couldn't he do it now? I mean he killed two guys because they were joking around about me, and now some guy thinks he owns me and he's just fine with that? Am I the only one who sees something wrong here?

Lisa.

He sold our daughter? I didn't even know that you could do that! What kind of a sick twisted man would even begin to make an offer like that? And of course I got stuck with the one man who would agree to it. Jackson has got to have something up his sleeve for this one, because otherwise, I think I might kill him. Did he even think for a moment what kinds of things they could be doing to her? Or was that something that he could worry about after he received his award? Sometimes I just don't understand why I love him, it's like I just want to strangle him with his own…tie. And other times I just want to sit and talk to him like he was the only man in the world. It can get confusing, or was confusing before I went into a coma. I'm going to have to get used to that, to me it feels like just yesterday I was pregnant and preparing to give birth to my children. I wish that I could go back to that day, but, I can't. I'll just have to make due in the present.


At first what Rodney feared was if Jesse's Dad were to have opened the door when he knocked, but he soon got over that. And then he found something new to be afraid of, what if Jessica wasn't happy to see him? That one made him stop dead in his tracks and he began to rethink his approach.

'She wouldn't be mad,' he thought as he stood on her front porch trying to decide if he should knock or just walk away. 'I felt it when she kissed me last night; she needs me as much as I need her,' finally making his decision, he knocked on the door.

"Can I help you?" an elderly man asked as he opened the door only enough to see his face.

"Yes, I'm Rodney; I was looking for Jessica is she around by any chance?"

"Haven't seen her since I got home last night, why are you looking for her?" his eyes were narrow slits as he now was suspicious.

"I'm a friend, I was hoping that I could just talk to her, it's about her Uncle," before he could finish the opened the door wide enough to grab the boy and pull him into the house.

"What do you know about her Uncle?" he asked in a low rasp.

"I know that he's leading her into a trap," he said looking at the man as if he was talking to a mental patient. "My father's CIA, I have access to things like this, I know that he works for a man named Michael, he's a terrorist, and if Jesse listens to this guy she's going to be lead straight into a trap." He said slowly.

"I know her uncle, he wouldn't harm a hair on her head," Joe responded defensively.

"How do you know? Jesse didn't even know that she had an uncle until yesterday." Rodney began to pace the floor as he spoke.

"I've known since my daughter married Jackson, though," Joe began, "When her father went away me and Jason became close friends. Yes, he used to work for Michael, but now he doesn't, he's retired."

"The job he had is not normally something that you would just retire from, Mr. Reisert."

"Jason made a deal, he pulled off a job and they left him at peace."

"How do you know that he wasn't lying to you?" Rodney asked throwing his hands in the air.

"Because I hired him, to protect Jessica."


"So, Jackie boy can't shoot, but his lovely daughter was made for this kind of work, eh?" Michael said from behind her; they were in an underground shooting range.

Jessica had told her Uncle that she was a lousy shot, that wasn't entirely true. Before she had met Brent she had been a lousy shot, but he decided that he say 'potential' in her and gave her a few lessons. It hadn't taken long for her to become a grade A marksman.

"My Dad couldn't hit water if he fell out of a boat," she said taking aim once more. Michael opened his mouth to comment, but was interrupted by her shooting of a round of bullets into the dummy that stood about a mile away behind the platform she was shooting from.

"Why do you always aim for the throat?" he asked rubbing his neck as if he had been punched there.

"It's not an instantaneous death, you could still recover, and it gives you the advantage with the chase."

"Advantage?" he repeated quirking an eyebrow.

"When you have been wounded right here," she said placing her hand near the bottom of his throat. "It messes with your breathing, if you were to try and hide, I could hear you."

"You seem to have thought this through," he said taking the gun from her hand and putting in his jacket pocket for safe keeping.

Jessica waited for him to turn around before she put on of the empty bullet shells in the pocket of her jeans.


Jason sank into his sofa, letting out a loud sigh and checking his watch. To say that he was surprised to have Lisa come out a coma, would be an understatement. He had gone to the hospital in hopes that Jessica would be able to help him, but ended up finding a rather healthy, very much awake, Lisa Ripner.

He had gone and contacted Jesse knowing that Jackson would more then pissed. But he knew that if he had contacted Jackson himself he would have been in even greater trouble. Jackson would have killed him on the spot! That wasn't something he needed just moments before he would have suggested a way to get the cure for his wife.

Glancing at his cell phone that rested on the arm rest, he realized that he had a message from… Jackson?


"Lisa. You really should be giving me more credit," Jackson murmured, "You don't know if I have something up my sleeve." He said gently brushing a few stray strands of brown hair out of her face.

" Jackson, do you even know where this guy is? Or where he took her?" she asked, her voice laced with concern. " Jackson, please tell me you won't run in there, knife in hand, and not have something remotely resembling a plan."

"Lisa, you know me better then that, don't you?" Jackson said with a smirk.

" Jackson, don't do anything stupid," Lisa said, then thinking over what she said she quickly added. "Try not to do anything stupid."

"Don't worry about it, Leese," he said turning towards the door. "I'm going to get Jessica back even if it kills me to do so."


Jason wrapped his jacket around so tight that he could feel his hands begin to numb; he was trying desperately not to let his fear show. He knew that no one would blame him if they found out that he was afraid, or more of, what he was afraid of. Any one would be afraid too, if they had had Jackson ask them to a meeting, alone in the middle of the night in a dark alley.

Glancing around, he felt as if he some one was watching him. Unconsciously, he reached for the knife that he had stashed in his jacket pocket before he left. Before he could grip the handle to it, a hand came around his throat and his was pushed against the wall.

"You tricked my daughter," Jason barely had time to realize that it was Jackson who had him pinned to the wall before the attacker landed a punch to his nose.

"I thought I told you to stay away from my family, Jason." He hissed, his anger was coming off of his body in waves.

" Jackson, I was trying to help," Jason said calmly.

" I. Told. You. To stay. Away. From my. Family."

F/B

Jason was pacing the floor when Jackson came bursting through the door, holding a small brown bag in his hands.

"What are you doing, Jackson?" Jason asked as Jackson threw the bag at his brother. Opening the bag he found a large silver knife sitting inside.

"I thought you said that you wouldn't be able to get it, Jackie," he smirked.

"Don't call me that," Jackson hissed shoving his hands into his pockets. "The guy didn't even ask for ID; now you've got to keep up your end of the deal, bro."

"Huh? Oh yea, the teacher will never know about your little accident last year."

"Jason, I've got to ask you, what do you do with all these weapons?" Jackson asked sitting down at the small desk within the room that they shared.

"Questions will get you no where, Jackson."

F/B

"Jackson, I know what this is about," he said, "When I went to see your daughter, I knew already that you would be upset. That's why I had to go behind your back."

"You. Will. Stay. Away. From. My daughter."


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