Hi guys!

Here is the next chapter of this story! I want to thank everyone who has been reading and reviewing this story, your support is very much appreciated! This story has almost 5k views now, so thank you guys!

In response to a review left by a guest about Jack and Lisa's relationship I will explain how I imagine their relationship to be at this stage in the story. While everyone else thinks of Jack and Lisa as boyfriend/girlfriend neither of them have actually come right out and said that they're an item. In response to another guest review about Jack and Lisa, Lisa doesn't stay at Heartland unless absolutely necessary. There is nothing 'else' going on, she only stays there when she has to. I had to look up the definition of a platonic relationship (I never knew what it was till now lol) but that kind of describes their relationship at the moment. They both care and love each other, but neither of them has come out and outright said it to the other. There is nothing physical going on between them (a kiss on the cheek or a hug, but nothing more at this stage) because I wanted to write their first kiss according to the TV series in the forth (?) episode of season two where they go on the cattle drive. That first kiss was the best I've seen in my opinion in the shows I have watched and I wanted to include it in my story. They have been spending time with each other for about a year, on and off since Lisa travelled a lot during that time... I hope that explains it, I tried to explain it the best I could, the way I imagine their relationship and the way I want and are going to write it.

In response to the second part of your review, I guess you'll just have to wait and see what happens. *Laughs because I know what happens* Jack and Lisa's relationship had quite some rocky patches, but in the end it all turned out well. I can't say too much about how Jessie fits in with their lives without giving away any spoilers but I can say that I have given it a hell of a lot of thought how I'm going to carry this out and I think you will all be pleased with the result. You all will just have to have a little patience and wait. I will reveal everything in time as the story progresses.

Anyway, I hope this answered all your questions. I tried my best to explain it and I hope I've covered everything your little inquisitive minds want to know. If I haven't, I guess you'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.

In this chapter, they both kind of acknowledge how they feel about each other (no three letter sentences containing I love you yet though lol) and they talk about how the events affected them... The three of them will have to deal with it in their own ways, mostly I cover how Jessie copes since she's the one most affected by them. I will include little bits of how Jack and Lisa cope, mainly Lisa (because she can kind of relate to Jessie's past better than Jack can in a way. No spoilers here sorry, I'm going to be dragging out that particular storyline for a very long time. Let's just say Lisa has a lot of layers to her character as I've written her in this story) and then Jack. I have spent some time researching PTSD and trauma and how people respond ect so I hope I have written it correctly. That said though, this is fiction, not real life so I write it how I feel it should go. If I'm a little wrong in some areas, please give me this liberty.

Alright, enough said. Enjoy!

Chapter 19

Lisa was staring into the flames of the fire that night, absorbed in her thoughts as Jessie slept peacefully on the stretcher next to her. Thoughts raced in her mind, reliving the events of the day. She had been terrified, so scared when that man had held her at gunpoint. She had been helpless, utterly helpless. There was nothing she could have down. She relieved her life flashing past her eyes as she thought she was going to die. She could only imagine what reaction Jack had to her being held hostage. He hadn't mentioned anything, but she could see he was troubled by the whole thing just as much as she was.

'Lis.' Jack said softly, walking over and sitting down on the couch next to her. Everyone else was in bed, the house quiet and still as the glow from the fire was the only light in the darkness. 'Are you okay?'

'No, I'm not.' She admitted, looking into his eyes. 'I was so frightened Jack when he dragged me off that horse. I was so scared-' Her voice trailed off as she quietly began to sob, her shoulders heaving as she tried to keep it in. 'I-'

'Lis, it's okay.' Jack put his arms around her and held her close to him. 'Your okay. We're both okay. Let it out, let it go.'

'I know, I know.' She rested against him, letting her pent up emotions all out. 'The look in Jessie's eyes when she saw him with me. She was terrified. I was so sure he was going to kill me, then her and you. I saw my life flash past my eyes. All the things I wished I had done, heard everything I wished I had said. It was awful Jack. There was nothing I could do. I couldn't have done anything to stop him if he had pulled the trigger.'

'Hey, hey. Ssssshhhh.' He held her tighter as she looked up at him. 'I was just as terrified as you were Lis. I watched him drag you away and there was nothing I could do. I felt helpless. I couldn't protect you. I couldn't have done anything to save you. Do you know what was going through my mind?' She shook her head as he wiped the tears off her cheeks. 'That I was going to lose a person I care deeply about, and I hadn't told her that.'

'Oh Jack.' Her eyes glistened in the firelight. 'I can't imagine how you felt. It was bad enough me being the one with the gun to my head, but if he had killed me you would have seen it and not been able to do anything at all to stop him. Jack-'

'Sssssh, I've got you.' He assured her, rubbing her back to calm her down. 'We're all alive. We're still here. We're okay. Don't think about what could have happened, it didn't. We're fine.'

'I know Jack, I know.' She brushed her tears off her cheeks and sat back, still resting her head on his shoulder. 'I just needed to let it out. I couldn't in front of Jessie. She doesn't need anymore put on her, she's already dealing with more than enough. She's already blaming herself for putting us in danger. I told her it's not her fault, but she's still blaming herself.'

'What happened today is something that she's going to have to deal with in her own way, just as we are too.' Jack placed his arm around her shoulders. 'I think what happened today will take time for her and us to move forward from, but we can't let the past dictate our fears for the future. Yes, today you could have been killed. Yes, I could have been too, and Jessie as well but we didn't. We move on, we move forward. We don't let it hold us back.'

'I think it goes deeper than just that for Jessie unfortunately.' Lisa glanced over at the girl, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed deeply in her sleep. The girl looked so peaceful with the glow of the fire on her face, her long brown hair caressing her face and shining in the orange light. Even though the girl was sleeping now, she could only guess the nightmares that would come for her, just as they had for her all those years back. 'She watched that man murder her mother, found the man who had been caring for her dead because that man had killed him. Of course she's going to blame herself for that, and for what happened today. She'll have the memories of what happened, and what he told her that no one will ever love her. She's going to struggle with that for the rest of her life.'

Jack looked down at Lisa, and she glanced up at him before putting her head back against his shoulder. 'You've started to care a lot for her, haven't you?'

'More than I should.' She continued watching the girl sleep. Yes, Jack was right. She had started to care about the girl, but she knew she needed to maintain a distance even though it was going to be hard to. She couldn't let herself get too close to her, she wanted to save herself the heartbreak when the girl was placed in a foster home. 'She's got no one Jack, no one at all. Someone needs to watch out for her.'

'You know I will, but once she gets placed into the system, she's out of our hands. There's nothing that we can do about it.' He didn't mention that Clint had already found the girl a placement.

'I know.' Lisa fell silent as she gazed into the fire, her eyes taken off the girl by the flickering flames. 'I wish that she didn't have to go into foster care, if I could take care of her I would but I just can't. What with my busy schedule and traveling, I wouldn't be able to give her the time and care that she really needs.'

'I'm sure that whoever Clint finds to take her will look after her Lisa. He'll find someone that can look after her and give her the help she needs.'

'I hope your right Jack, I really do. It would break her if she was placed into a situation that was worse than the one she's been in. I don't think she would be able to cope. I really don't.'

'Well, for the moment she's safe here. She's not going anywhere until the doc says she's healed up enough so you don't need to worry about all that yet.' He could see that that definitely wasn't going to happen. He knew Lisa, and he knew that she was going to worry about her and what might happen with her. After all, she had almost been killed because of her even though it wasn't Jessie's fault. She was going to have an invested interest in what happened to her because of that connection. 'It's getting late Lis, we both need to get some sleep.'

Lisa nodded, then looked into his eyes. 'Thanks for listening to me Jack, I feel better now. I just needed to talk, get it off my chest.'

'I know.' He gave her a kiss on her head. 'You know you can always talk to me Lisa. I'm always here.'

'Thank you Jack.' She moved away from him so he could get up off the couch. 'See you in the morning.'

'Night.' He briefly touched her hand, then stood up. 'And Lisa,'

'Yes?'

'Try to get some sleep. Please.' He said gently, a hint of concern evident in his voice.' I don't want to see you with bloodshot eyes from staying up all night when I get up in the morning.'

'I'll try.' She smiled at him as he turned and walked out of the room, then looked back into the fire. The flames danced almost hypnotically as she watched them flicker back and forth. There was something about watching a fire, something that calmed her soul and made her feel all warm and snug inside. It gave her the feeling that everything was going to be alright.

After a time, she pulled her eyes away from the fire and grabbed her bedroll and pillow off the floor. Unrolling out, she placed it on the rug in front of the fireplace then crawled under the blankets and laid down. She closed her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come….

Lisa could hear the seconds ticking by, the grandfather clock in the living room ticking the only sound other then the crackling of the fire in the still house. She pulled out of phone from her pocket and turned it on, blinking in the bright light. It was nearly two in the morning, but she hadn't slept a minute the entire night. She just couldn't sleep. When she closed her eyes all she could see was a replay of what had happened that day. She heard Matt's yell, felt the gun muzzle pointed in her temple, saw the fear in Jessie's eyes. It replayed like an endless video record.

Sighing, she turned the phone off again and sat up. She knew she wasn't going to sleep that night. Her mind was just too full of what-if's and what could have happened to allow herself to get any rest. She wanted to get some sleep, but everytime she tried to her mind was wide awake.

Staring back again into the flickering flames of the dying fire, she grabbed a log from the pile and threw it on the coals then sat back and tried to get herself to feel like sleeping. The clock rang twice as it sounded the arrival of the new hour, then the sound of the ticking as it marked the seconds again was the only sound in the room.

She heard the sound of sniffling and looked over at the direction it was coming from. Jessie was awake, wiping what look liked tears away in the dim light. 'Jessie, what's wrong honey? Are you okay?'

Jessie shook her head as she sniffled again. 'Nightmare. I didn't wake you, did I?'

'No, I've been awake for ages.' Lisa could see the girl was upset and troubled, a haunted look in her eye. Motioning with her hand, she invited the girl to come over to her. 'Come here Jessie.'

Jessie carefully slid off the stretcher, then went over beside the woman and sat next to her. Lisa placed her arm around her, and she relaxed as she leant back against her shoulder. 'Thanks Lisa.'

'Its okay honey, sometimes all a girl needs is a hug.' She held her tightly against her. 'Do you want to talk about it?'

The girl shook her head. 'I'd rather forget it.' She yawned sleepily between her tears, starting to break down in her arms. 'I want to sleep, but these dreams won't go away. I'm too scared to sleep.'

'Oh honey, it's alright. It's alright.' She kissed her head gently as the girl sobbed quietly in her embrace. 'It was just a dream. Only a dream. Your safe here. No one's going to hurt you. I'm here. I won't let anything bad happen to you. Just calm down sweetie, your okay. Your okay.'

Slowly, the sound of Jessie's sobbing abated away as she calmed down. She was safe. Nothing was going to happen to her here. She could rest without fear. She just had to trust. Trust that it was going to be all okay. There was no one here who was going to harm her. She could trust them. She had no choice. She had to trust them. She had no one else. Nothing else.

'There, you see.' Lisa gently wiped the tears off the girl's cheeks as Jessie stopped crying. 'There's nothing to be scared of. I'm right here. Nothing is going to happen to you.'

'I know. I know.' Jessie softly replied as she shivered. There was warmth coming from the fire, but the air had a chilly nip to it. Winter was coming, and she was glad that she wasn't in the cave any more. She would have been freezing. 'I better get back into my bed and try to get some sleep.'

'Its okay Jessie, you can stay with me if you think that would help you sleep.' She placed a blanket around the girl, smiling softly at her. 'My mom used to let me sleep in her bed whenever I had nightmares. She said bad dreams were scared of her, and I believed it.'

Jesie chucked a little. 'You had nightmares?'

'I do still sometimes.' It was the truth. She did. 'But do you know what I do so I don't think about it?' The girl shook her head and she continued. 'I think about good things. Like friends and family.'

'And Jack?' Her eyes glinted mischievously in the firelight.

Lisa blushed slightly. It was obvious that she had noticed how close they were to each other. 'Yes, and Jack.'

'I don't have anything good to think about. I don't have any friends or family.'

'You have Warrior, don't you?' She could see under Jessie's hard exterior was just a little girl crying for love and affection. She saw it in her brown eyes as the girl looked up at her. God, she could see in those eyes so much pain, so much hurt but there was a spark of trust that she saw too. It hurt her to think of how traumatised the girl was. She knew Jessie tried to keep up her facade of being strong because it was how she had learnt to cope with her life but all she saw was a girl who just wanted someone to care about her. She had been where Jessie was. She could see herself in the girls eyes, even if what she had gone through hadn't been to the extent that Jessie had been through. She could understand what she was dealing with, there was things she had to deal with on an everyday basis. When something traumatic happened to a person, it stayed with them their whole life. 'Think about what you like to do with him. Is there something in particular you love doing with him?'

'Riding him bareback at a full gallop and jumping.' She smiled as she remembered how surprised Robert had been when she had ridden the stallion bareback before he had even had a saddle on him. 'Robert was teaching me how to break Warrior in, and one day I just hopped on his back. No saddle, no bridle. He looked at me with his big brown eyes, like he had accepted me as his master and we took off across the field. There was nothing that compared to that feeling when he accepted me as his friend and leader. He trusted me, trusted me enough to let me take control. He didn't see me as a threat, he saw me as an equal. A friend.'

'It's a pretty special bond that you two share.'

'It is. Warri would do anything for me. He's an extraordinary horse.' Jessie yawned softly as her eyelids began to get heavy. 'I think I can go to sleep now. I've bored myself to tears talking about him.'

Lisa chuckled as she helped the girl crawl under the blankets and laid down next to her, propping herself up on her elbow. 'Okay honey. You get some rest. Don't worry, I'll stay next to you. You can sleep.'

'Can you put your arm around me?'

She placed her arm under the girls head, Jessie closing her eyes as she rested back against her. 'There you go honey. You're safe. I'm here.' Slowly, she watched as the girl went to sleep, an expression of trust and contentment on her face. The girl deserved some love and attention. She wanted to take care of her, to take the girl into her own home but she knew that she couldn't. She was again reminded that with her schedule there was no way she could spend the amount of time that she needed too with her. Maybe it was better that she went into foster care, but better for whom? She felt herself getting sleepy, and for the first time that night she began to finally doze off, the girl sleeping peacefully next to her….