The discharge of the C-4 that Jackson had planted haphazardly at the side of the house went off just as he had planned. The resulting impact to the house did not. The explosion had taken out several of the men who stood guard in the now burning structure. But five still remained according to his radar scan of heat signatures within each of the partially decimated rooms.

Removing his knife from his belt, he quietly made his way forwards into the kitchen catching the first man by surprise as he instantly shoved the barrel of his weapon into his back and firing the shot quickly. One down and four to go. He thought as he made his way upstairs overhearing the remnants of a conversation.

"Rippner is not in sight. Should I kill her now?"

Damn it. He raced upstairs almost running head long into another associate who was watching the hallway from his position only few feet away from the room where Jackson surmised that Lisa was being kept.

"Right. We'll deal with her family after."

The man started to open his mouth to alert the guard down the hall and Jackson acted quickly. His arms wrapped around the intruder's throat as he viciously yanked his head to the side, satisfied to hear the sound of a crack as the man's neck broke and instantly, he dragged the man out of sight down the stairs. Quickly he abandoned the body to rush back up in the attempt to intercept the gunman outside of Lisa's room.

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Lisa had closed her eyes in preparation for her death. Fleeting thoughts drifted through her mind. Would she actually hear the gun shot that would ultimately be her demise or would she be dead long before the sound could reach her ears? Distant memories of times spent with her family seemed to come to her with startling clarity.

Among the most surprising of her recollections was the brief remembrance of Jackson holding her protectively on the cheap hotel mattress the previous evening when a nightmare had propelled her from the bed as she desperately tried to free herself of the imagined danger that lurked in the room.

I didn't remember it before. She thought sadly. I do now but it's too late to tell him. To tell him…

A gun shot sounded and Lisa was shocked to realize that she wasn't dead from what she thought would be an otherwise fatal bullet wound. Opening her eyes, she looked upwards to see Jackson pushing his knife into the throat of her intended murderer cutting off his scream of agony as he collapsed to the ground, his eyes staring at hers sightlessly.

She shivered upon seeing the corpse but felt a measure of intense gratitude well up inside of her as Jackson quickly knelt beside her, using his knife to sever the tape free.

Shock had of course gripped her as her as her tongue remained frozen inside her mouth as she stared into the eyes of her savior. He had just severed through the last of the tape and grasped her arms.

"Lisa?" He asked her urgently. Unable to break free of the paralysis, her mind relived the moments before her rescue. Am I really alive or am I dead? Is this a dream? He was about to kill me and…

Suddenly she felt a hand strike her directly across her face and she gasped in pain as her palm flew up to her cheek which stung from the resulting blow.

"What the hell did you do that for?" She demanded.

He observed her carefully and gripped her arm, pulling her to her feet. "Much better." He replied more to himself then to her. "Can you walk, Leese? Because I'm going to have a hell of time carrying you."

She nodded as he put a supporting arm around her, leading her out to the hallway and down the stairs towards the back door. "Wait!" She cried out. "My parents! They're here! They must be somewhere! We have to…"

He clamped a hand over her mouth stifling her protest as he pushed her outside. "We don't have time to look for them, Lisa. We need to get out of here."

She shook her head in despair and his eyes softened. "They're not here, Leese." He murmured as he removed the hand from her mouth. "I promise you they are not in the house."

Lisa nodded finally allowing him to turn her away from the remains of what had been a source of comfort and a second home to her. If they had killed her the last surviving link to her previous existence, Jackson was all she had left. He was her only connection that would fill a now hollow void in her life and her means of survival.

A voice echoed from behind them. "Leaving so soon, Rippner?"

They turned around to see Mark emerging carefully from the devastation in his wake, his weapon carefully trained on the two of them. Jackson made a move to step forward and Mark shook his head aiming the weapon at Lisa. "Don't fuck with me, Rippner or I'll put a bullet directly into her stomach first. You can watch her die in insufferable pain as she slowly bleeds to death internally. One of the most horrible ways to die I hear and I promise you I won't miss. I was always a better shot then you were."

"Maybe that's true, Mark but at the same time you were always the bigger screw up. How many times did I have to cover your ass because you botched a job?" Jackson asked snidely.

"Just like you failed so miserably on the last one?"

"Oh, I didn't fail. I chose not to go through with it, Mark. It was a shitty plan at best but the client somehow got into his head that was the best way of conducting the operation. I wonder where he got that idea from?" Jackson's purposeful insinuation was clear and Mark smiled menacingly in response.

"I couldn't pass up the opportunity now could I? With your track record there was no way of bringing you down with the exception of one disastrous failure with one of our more esteemed clients. It was all to easy and I knew you couldn't resist an unpredictable target like her." Mark shook his head. "It was a calculated risk on my part considering if the plan had fallen apart any other way, it would have been my head instead of yours. But now I succeeded and with that came a promotion to your former position."

Shrugging, Mark released the safety on the gun. "You know, on second thought having you watch her die would be extremely entertaining."

Jackson clutched the k-bar tightly as he moved closer to Lisa, grasping her arm protectively. "Mark, your full of shit. You always have been. Even if you manage to fire off a bullet, you'll be in hell long before you'll see her die."

"Well, we'll see about that won't we, Rippner." Mark replied as he leveled the gun at her and instantly fired.

Chaos ensued as Lisa felt herself being tossed roughly to the ground as an agonizing scream rented the air cut short by the sound discordant breathing between choking gasps of air.

Lisa felt around the area of her stomach, astounded not to feel a trace of bullet wound on her abdomen. What happened? He was aiming the gun at Jackson and I...

"Oh, God." She said out loud as realization hit her. "Jackson!" She pushed herself to her feet turning to see two inert forms lying on the grass just in front of her. Stumbling she made her way towards them only to see Jackson collapsed face down beside Mark's now lifeless corpse.

Frantically, she turned Jackson carefully so he was on his back and couldn't help but emit a sob when she saw the bullet wound in his chest that was previously meant for her.

He opened his eyes, blinking lethargically as she put her fingers to his neck to feel his pulse. "I never lie." He whispered, his eyes flicking towards Mark's body. Lisa glanced to see a knife protruding from Mark's throat. Indeed, Mark had been dead before he even hit the ground. Jackson had made good on his promise.

She gazed down at Jackson as his eyes started to become distant. "No!" She grabbed his face in both of her hands. "Jackson, look at me! Stay with me. Don't you dare leave me. Not now. Not after..."

His eyes fluttered and he smiled. "Leese..." He murmured. "You were right."

"About what?" A forlorn tear trickled down her cheek as she looked into his clear, beautiful eyes. At one time, they seemed cold and malevolent to her but now, they had a radiance she never witnessed before.

"I had no life and then there was you. I always knew I would have to steal you."

"Jackson, please! I need you." Her tears came unbidden down her face.

"No." He whispered. "You never did. I was the one who needed you for something you couldn't give."

His breaths came quicker as Lisa clutched his hand in hers. "Why Jackson? Why give up everything, do all this for me?"

Struggling to speak as his eyes began to dim, she leaned forward and felt his lips brush her ear. "Because somethings are simply beyond my control." He replied faintly before he closed his eyes for the last time.

Lisa put her hand to her mouth and shook her head in denial upon seeing his lifeless form beneath her. Sobbing openly, she leaned forwards and gently pressed her lips to his forehead still feeling the subtle warmth of his body. Quietly, she murmured, "I love you." The bond they had shared had created a love that she couldn't define but it was there and now all that was left in its place was emptiness.

Her tears started to slow as she pulled back to look at his now peaceful expression. "I wish it didn't have to be this way." She said softly. So shivered as she kept her rigid stance beside his body that lay prone on the grass and a singular despair churned in her heart as she thought past the last two days that had seemed like a monument in her life all destroyed in one fractured moment.

Suddenly, his eyes flew open and he spoke clearly to her. "Then, what's the delay?" He asked. She let out a gasp of disbelief, reeling backwards in shock and closed her eyes trying to convince herself that she was hallucinating.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Lisa reopened her eyes to find herself back on the Fresh Air flight staring once more into Jackson's very alive but menacing expression as he attempted to corner her where she sat. "Then, what's the delay?" He asked in that once familiar, patronizing tone.

I'm back where I started. She thought in amazement as she felt the still fresh tears on her cheeks. It might have been a dream. She contemplated as she looked into his pale, blue eyes intently focused on hers demanding an answer. Or a vision of what was to come. Either way, I can't let that happen. We both deserve a chance to live.

Remembering Mark's words to them, "It was a calculated risk on my part considering if the plan had fallen apart any other way, it would have been my head instead of yours."

Taking a deep breath, her body trembling from what she had just endured, she met his gaze stoically. The part of him that I saw and that I connected with was real. Maybe I can still find it. "So, by changing Keefe's room, does that make it easier...?

Well, I hope I caught a few of you off guard and yes my dream ended with Jackson's death but I had a variation on it where I went back moments before and wondered to myself if I could work that into my story scenario. Anyway, the epilogue should be out soon. Thank you to Royalty09 and to all the reviewers. I must say, I was pretty overwhelmed by your response to this and I appreciate your encouragement and praise.