I am fairly agile
I can bend and not break
Or I can break and take it with a smile
And I am so resilient
I recover quickly
I'll convince you soon that I am fine

Try to understand, there's an old mistake that fools will make
And I'm the king of them, pushing everything that's good away, so
Won't you hold me now (I will not bend, I will not break)
Won't you hold me now (for you I rise, for you I fall)

Just hold me close to you, just hold me close to you
Just hold me close to you, just hold me close to you, to you

Bend and Not Break

x Dashboard Confessional x

Lisa didn't have to wait long for help to arrive and she watched silently while the police helped Jackson to his feet. After Jackson's injury was taken care of by the paramedics, they didn't waste any time taking him into custody.

All Lisa wanted to do now that she was free of Jackson was to return home. She knew that would be impossible though. The police were going to have a lot of questions they would want answered. She was sure they didn't retrieve much information out of her daughter.

In the confusion of everything she had forgotten to ask about Alexis. Frantically, she turned towards the nearest officer.

"My daughter, is she okay?"

"Your daughter's fine. She's waiting with your husband down at the station." The officer reassured.

Lisa breathed a small sigh of relief and turned her attention towards the police car as Jackson was being put into the backseat. He returned her gaze with an icy glare. Lisa immediately looked away.

"Are you …umm…" Lisa clenched her fists in a nervous gesture. "What if he comes after me again?"

"We're going to do everything we can to make sure you and your family remains safe."

"Yeah and what if that's not enough?" Lisa mumbled to herself. She wasn't naïve enough to believe Jackson would just stay in jail.

After the police had finished interviewing witnesses at the hotel, they headed back to the station with Lisa.

When they arrived at the police station, she was excited to see Landon sitting with Alexis in his lap and hoped that the interrogation wouldn't take long.

The officer motioned her to a nearby room and Lisa took a seat across from him.

"Your daughter didn't remember much so anything you could tell us would be helpful. The more we have against Mr. Rippner, the easier it will be for the prosecution to build a case against him to keep him behind bars."

Lisa hesitated, not knowing exactly where to start. Thankfully, the officer initiated the interview process.

"Do you know why he decided to abduct your daughter?" he asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"Because he knew I would do anything to get her back."

"So did this guy know you previously?" The officer asked obviously unaware of Lisa's past with Jackson and the dreaded red eye flight she shared with him.

"Yes, and this wasn't the first time he came after me."

"Would you mind elaborating on that?" The officer waited patiently as Lisa paused trying to summon the courage to relay the trauma of Jackson's assault on her.

"Any information that we can get on this guy would be most helpful." He reminded her.

Lisa didn't particularly care too but she knew if she could get over her embarrassment she could finally put a stop to Jackson's torment of her.

"Jackson is Alexis' biological father."

"So was this a custody issue?"

"No, He doesn't care about her. I told you he just wanted to find to get to me because he has this twisted obsession for me."

"But you obviously loved him at some point to have had a child with him." The officer remained oblivious to the implications behind how her daughter was conceived.

"No, I've never had any romantic feelings towards him. I got pregnant with Alexis after he forced himself on me."

"Miss if that's true, why didn't you ever report it to the police?"

"Because Jackson isn't a person you want to make angry. You wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. He's an expert at disappearing without a trace."

Lisa could tell the officer wasn't sure what to say in response. "Well if that's all I would like to go home with my family now." She stood up from her chair.

"Yes, thank you for your time. You're free to go. We'll be in touch if we need any further information."

Lisa walked out of the room eager to join Landon. Landon got up when he saw Lisa coming back into the hallway. "So are you finished here?" he asked, embracing her.

"Yes, it's finally over. Let's go home." she took his hand.

"I'm so glad your back" Landon glanced over at Lisa while they were walking. "I was so worried about the both of you."

"I'm glad to be back too" Lisa smiled. "I missed you so much the whole time."

When they reached their car and had put Alexis in her car seat, Landon paused outside the vehicle. "I know you're probably anxious to get home but we still need to get Alexis to a doctor to have her arm checked."

"You're right but it shouldn't take too long, I hope." Lisa collapsed into the passenger seat of the car.

"We'll have plenty of time to spend together afterwards. I'm going to do my best to make sure that creep never gets near you again." Landon said reassuringly to her.

"I just hope that Jackson stays in jail where he belongs."

The following week Landon had taken Lisa and Alexis out to dinner.

When they arrived back home Lisa detected movement out of the corner of her eye. Immediately turning, she hesitated seeing a subtle movement in the shadows.

"Leese, you okay?" Landon asked.

She berated herself silently for becoming so easily spooked and faced Landon with a smile. "Yes, of course. I'm fine."

Shaking her head, convincing herself of her own paranoia she headed to the front door with Landon following behind her, carrying Alexis in his arms.

Still, she couldn't shake the feeling of someone watching her every movement when she finally entered the house.

A/N:Thanks to emptyvoices for her help with editing this chapter. Since people seem interested in a sequel and I enjoyed writing this story that should be up as soon as I come up some ideas.