Disclaimer: I own nothing, blah blah blah, fucking blah.

Chapter 3

Two weeks later.

As the day faded into night, Lisa pulled slowly into her driveway, savoring the peaceful silence in her car. She sighed. The sightings had gotten worse. Now, every time she saw a man with black hair and blue eyes, she had little mini heart-attacks, dropping whatever she had been holding. She hadn't seen him in a year, but she still couldn't stop thinking about him, obsessing over every word he'd said to her about coming back.

"When we get out of this, I may have to steal you."

"We'll talk again."

She shouldn't want to ever see him again. He was, basically, a big fat bummer. But she wanted to talk again. She wanted him to steal her.

She stepped out of the car, pulling the groceries out of the back seat, and fumbled in her purse for her keys. As soon as the key slid into the lock, an explosion of barking would've knocked her backwards, except she was used to it by now.

"Hi Baby, Mommy's home."

He gamboled around her, his entire bulk quivering like a seal.

"ok, ok." She lowered her face to be kissed, and put the groceries away, musing. She hadn't figured on how nice it would be to have someone this happy to see her at the end of every day. And it had been a hard one.

She went about her nightly routine of securing a weapon in each room, changing into her pjs, getting out her outfit for the next day.

She went into the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth, and she noticed that all of her shampoos had been knocked over.

"Baby, no coming into Mommy's bathroom!" she yelled, resolving to keep the door closed in the future.

Shaking her head, she splashed water on her face and began brushing her teeth, examining her nails as she did so. God, but she would love a manicure. One of those spa treatments, where they give you massages and wax exfoliants during. That sounded lovely.

As she spit out the water and rinsed her mouth, she glanced into the mirror, and froze.

"Remember me, Lisa?"

It was him.

Oh god, he's finally come to me, what in hell do I do?

Deciding to play it cool, she folded her arms across her chest and stared at him questioningly.

Jackson's POV

After all this time, she was still as beautiful as he remembered, standing there in her cute little pajamas, trying to look so tough.

What a brave little toaster she is, he thought to himself.

He stepped closer, looking down at her trembling form.

Why is she shaking? Is she that scared of me?

He felt very strongly the fact that he was near her again. He felt it in his blood, and it felt powerful and electric, almost like he was on fire.

"How did you get in without me hearing?" she questioned.

He grinned, spreading his hands wide.

"I'm very mysterious, Leese."

"No, I mean-" she was cut off by Jackson letting out a wild spew of elegant curses.

"Fuck bugger shit-on-toast bastard bitch mother-fucking duck-a-duck!"

He looked down and a what appeared to be either a large dog or a small horse was clamped on to his leg. He caught a glance of Lisa's smug smile and commenced a battle royale with the …dog.

After a lengthy, strenuous tussle, it ended up that the dog was on top of Jackson with its teeth bared in his face, and he was holding its huge head in a deathgrip.

"Enough!" Lisa yelled, and whistled. The dog, amazingly, jumped off Jackson without hesitation and trotted joyfully over to Lisa. Jackson sat up slowly, rubbing himself down.

"You can control that monster?" he asked.

"This monster is my Baby." She fairly glowed with pride.

"Baby, huh." Every inch of Jackson hurt at this point, and he stood up slowly. Baby growled warningly, but Lisa dug her fingers into his fur and hummed deep in her throat.

Then she turned those blazing eyes on him.

"So what do you want?"

"I came back to tell you something," Jackson said to her. But his heart was doing weird flip-flops. It was strange, all he wanted to do was to tell her how much he'd been thinking about her, but for some reason, now confronted with her, he was overcome with rage. She had nearly killed him, and nearly lost him his job, dammit! This girl was trouble, there was no doubt about that. He looked down at her again, and she stared calmly back with those beautifully mild green eyes. He couldn't do it. It was too soon. Somehow, he found himself sneering in her general direction.

"So what's with the dog? Did you think he would protect you from me?" he laughed derisively. Inside he was kicking himself. Why was he acting this way? But he couldn't seem to stop it.

Now her eyes looked hurt. Then, her chin jutted out toughly, and he cursed. Now whatever chance he'd had on winning her over was dead. He was such a fool.

Lisa's POV

Jackson was being a jerk. Why? He'd looked like a decent human being earlier, but now he was acting just as he had towards the end of the red eye. She stood to her full height, glared daggers at him, and without a word, left the room, brushing him with her shoulder as she did. Baby followed her.

Jackson stared at the door, listening as she went down the stairs. Was she going to call the police now? He sincerely hoped not. He followed her, at a distance.

No. she was sitting at her kitchen table, moodily eating a large chocolate bar. He sat down across from her.

"Listen-" he began, but was cut off by a radio in his coat pocket. He flipped it out.

"Cassidy to sundance, are you there? I repeat, Cassidy to Sundance, are you there?"

Jackson brought a finger to his lips, and pointed at the radio. This was his boss contacting one of Jackson's inferiors, one of his dogs, as he called them.

"Sundance here, Cassidy. We are positioned outside the house. There doesn't seem to be any action going on here, but we can verify that they both went in at different times of the day."

"Roger that. Do you have a lock on him yet?"

"Negative, all the shutters are pulled."

"Be ready to enter the house on my command. Capture, but do not kill for any reason. I repeat, do not kill for any reason."

Lisa looked at Jackson questioningly, wondering what this was all about. Baby put his paws up on the table and sniffed the radio mistrustingly.

Lisa pushed him away.

"It's time. Move in with all speed!"

Jackson stood up quickly.

"We need to go," he said. Lisa looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"Move! Now! Where is your back door?"

She pointed to the back of the kitchen.

"Where does it lead?" his heart pounded with every moment.

"To the backyard. Jackson, what on earth is going on?"

He grabbed her hands and pulled her to her feet.

"I don't know yet, but I'll tell you when I do." And he started dragging her to the back door.

"Wait, what the hell? I'm not going anywhere with you," she cried out. Baby started barking furiously at the back door, and in the next second it was kicked open, showing a dark figure in the doorway.

Lisa was too shocked to even scream.
"Come on," said Jackson. He pulled her hand out into the front hall, where the front door was being similarly broken into.

"Shit," he growled. They ran up the stairs, Baby jumping at their heels.

"here."

It was a second story window. Lisa stared at him.

"You got a better idea?" she shook her head. He forced it open, and they were about to jump, when Lisa exclaimed,"wait!" and ran back down the stairs.

Jackson cursed. There was no way she could- then there she was, shoving something into her pocket and taking his hand again.

This kind of touch, a willing one, almost brought his heart to his throat, but he tore his eyes away from her and they jumped together into her lilac bushes.

Jackson was immediately back on his feet, pulling lisa to hers and taking off down the driveway.

"Wait," lisa said. "Jackson, here." She drew her car keys out of her pocket and tossed them to him. By the time the men in her house knew that their marks had escaped, they were already halfway down the street.

Lisa felt a jolt. They'd forgotten Baby.

She looked at him, and he looked at her.

"Now what?" she asked him.