Lorelai continued to slip from consciousness as the Jeep raced along the narrow backroads. Max kept worriedly glancing back at her but tried not to, for he got going too roughly and the jolts the potholes caused made Lorelai scream in anguish.

"One of you call Luke," Max ordered. No one moved. "FUCK, CALL LUKE!"

Jack fumbled for his phone and punched in his speed dial. He waited a beat, then was sent to voicemail.

"Luke, pick up your phone. Come on, we've got an emergency. Lorelai's-well, I won't go into details here, but its bad. Meet us at…" he turned to Max. Max thought.

"I don't know," he answered. "We have to find a hospital near here first. We'll call him."

Jack finished his message and pocketed his phone.

"Look for a first aid kit," Joe instructed Cynthia. She nodded, unbuckling and looking to the back.

"I don't see one!"

"Lore, honey," Joe took Lorelai's hand even though he barely knew her. "Sweetie, we need a first aid kit. Where do you keep one in here?"

She just moaned.

"Please, honey, for you. If you want to live we need to know."

"The-the-uhhh….under….under….seat…."

Cynthia stretched and reached under her seat, extracting an ancient first aid kit. She awkwardly unlatched it and found a gauze pad.

Joe pressed it to Lorelai's knee and she screamed in misery. He muttered a few words of comfort and she lay sobbing and groaning.

Max saw a roadsign for a Dover hospital and swerved in the proper direction, nearly sending the unbuckled Joe, Cynthia, and Lorelai hurtling out of their seats. They held on to Lorelai's hallucinating body and kept her from propelling forward.

Within several minutes they had arrived at the Dover General and Max and Jack helped carry Lorelai inside.

As Cynthia helped open the door, Lorelai began gasping for air that was already available to her. Once inside, she muttered, "Tell Rory and Luke that I love them," before shutting her eyes.

X X X X X XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX X X X X X X X X X

Rory felt like she was in prison. Every move she and Lisa made was monitored by either Jess or Jackson. It wasn't like her first capture. This time, Jess was much more prepared, much more birdlike in his reflexes, and much more like Jackson. He could have been his younger brother, in fact.

Lisa wasn't happy either. But at least she hadn't made the fourteen escape efforts in two hours like Rory had. They consisted of three windows attempts, four simple front door endeavors, five 'tackle Jess and run' tries, and two downright pleadings with the men for them to let Lisa and her go. Lisa had joined in on the last two but it was all in vain.

"You made a bargain, Leese," Jackson reminded her coyly. "And Rory, sweetheart, if you don't shut up, we'll find something to your leverage as well."

Later, Lisa confronted Jackson as he was doing the dishes. "Why?" she asked.

"Why…am I using orange scented dish detergent? I don't know. I actually prefer berry."

"No, dumbass, why is Rory here? She's done nothing!"

Jackson turned and sighed. "Because, if you'll recall, I promised her to Jess almost a year ago as a prize for joining the organization. Everyone gets one."

"Yeah? What's yours?"

He grinned and turned back to his chore. "I decided to wait for mine."

"And….?"

"And its you."

Lisa felt sick. She was just some toy, some little reward for Jackson for being a good little boy.

"You people are sick," she said as a sob clotted in her throat and she ran back to her room.

Rory and Lisa shared a room. Currently Rory was sitting on her side of the kingsized bed they shared. Lisa entered and she looked up.

"Hey," Rory said softly, detecting the tears in Lisa's eyes. "Have you found anything out yet, why we're here?"

Lisa didn't speak for a minute, but when she did, her voice was flat. "I knew why I was here before. To save the life of my baby."

"That makes no sense."

"Jackson kidnapped me and had planned to kill me. Or so I thought. He actually intended to keep me all along and I just dug myself a deeper hole of entrapment. I begged him not to kill me so my baby would be safe. He agreed, on the terms that I stay with him forever."

"Oh. Asshole."

"Agreed. But I'm actually here….I'm actually here because….."

"Because why?"

Lisa covered her mouth with her hand until she found strength to speak again. "Because I'm an incentive for him, Rory, a prize that he received in exchange for killing innocent souls for his company."

"So that's why I'm…."

"Yeah."

"We have to get out of here."

Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx Xx

Jackson called Jess in for a powwow once he had finished with the dishes. They sat on the couch and spoke in hushed tones.

"We can't stay here," Jackson decided with a grumble. "Your little antic back at the diner cost us our safe house. I know the cops will be onto us soon."

"Why? Call Medena or whatever the fuck his name is and tell him that if they dare alert the cops, and we still have our guy watching them, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then we'll blow Lisa's, and Rory's heads off."

"I'm not going to do that, Jess, and I'm surprised how easygoing you would be about killing Rory."

"Yeah, well, we wouldn't actually kill them."

Jackson caught Jess's wrist and gave it a sharp twist. "Never lie, Jess. Never. We'll just threaten the guys with something that I will do to Lisa and you Rory if Rory doesn't stop trying to make a break for it."

"I think I catch your drift."

"So we'll call Medena, but the cops were pretty close before. We still need to leave."

"Ok, boss, where?"