Lisa was about to tell Lorelai about Rory when Sookie interrupted.
"Sorry," she said. "But don't you want to talk to Max?" Lisa jumped eagerly at the opportunity and Sookie, chortling, dialed Luke.
Lisa grabbed the phone. "Max!"
"Oh, sweetheart, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. I love you so much, Max, and I'm so sorry for..." she paused. "I can't wait to see you."
"Me neither, baby. I'd love to get back there now, but we need to find Rory." There was a brief hesitation, as if he'd realized something. "Do you have any idea where they might be?"
Lisa wracked her brain. "When I got away, we were..." she screwed up her face in concentration. "Damn. I think...some town near Princeton, I think. Little dump of a place."
Max mulled this over thoughtfully. "Okay. At least now we have a directional idea. Thanks, hon."
"You're welcome. Good luck. Please, be safe. Don't hurt Jackson." Shit. That came out wrong.
"What did you just say?" Max asked softly. Lorelai and Sookie cringed simultaneously.
"I-nothing, just forget it."
Max's voice rose slightly. "No, I'm not going to forget it, Lisa. You said to not hurt Jackson."
Lisa swallowed and looked desperately to Lorelai and Sookie, who refused to look at her.
"Why not, Lisa? Why don't you want me to hurt that bastard?"
"Because, I...I don't want you to get hurt," Lisa replied feebly.
"How the hell could he hurt me? He's already done enough. To you. To us. And now...now you're telling me to leave the son of a bitch alone."
She'd never heard him this upset. "He's smart, Max. Smarter than you think."
There was a pause. "Thanks, Lisa. I needed that."
"Max, I'm sorry, okay? But just listen to me. You aren't realizing how hard it was for me to get away! He's pure evil, Max."
"Then why can't I hurt him?"
She took a deep breath. They were walking in circles here. "Please don't do this."
"I have to go, Lisa. I'll see you in a few days."
"Max, please, I-" Click.
Lisa began to cry again, but not as hard as before. "This is fucking great."
"Well, Leese," Lorelai snapped. "You brought it on yourself this time."
Lisa's head whipped up. "Excuse me?"
"Telling Max not to hurt the man who kidnapped you and, excuse me for being so brash, but the man that you slept with was possibly the dumbest thing you could ever say. Of course he wants to hurt Rippner! By saying that, you only sounded concerned for the bastard."
Lisa was mad now. "I didn't mean it that way," she snarled. "I meant it to-"
"It doesn't matter what you meant to say, Leese. What matters is how your fiancee took it."
"Lore, come on," Sookie gently patted her friend's arm. Lisa took a small comfort in that, but one look at Sookie's face told her that the pregnant woman wasn't pro-Lisa, either.
There was a long, labored silence while Lisa looked at her feet. She felt ashamed, for the first time. Why was she so stupid? Now, nobody liked her. She felt guilty for the trouble she'd caused the small Connecticut town, and just wanted to curl up in a ball. The only person who wasn't mad at her right now was Rory. Scratch that, Rory was probably mad at her for running off on her. Even Jackson would be pissed that she'd gotten away.
"I'm sorry," she whispered. "I...I don't know what to say..."
Lorelai coughed. "I am, too. I shouldn't get mad at you, you've obviously just been through so much..."
"No," Lisa sighed. "Don't make excuses for me. I'm a horrible bitch."
Sookie smiled. "Leese, you're not. You know we love you. Everyone in this town has loved you ever since you moved here. So don't for one minute think that we're not on your side. We're just concerned for Rory."
"Speaking of which," Lorelai spoke up suddenly. "What was it that you wanted to tell us about before we called Max?"
Lisa swallowed hard the lump in her throat. She wasn't entirely sure what to say. She knew that she needed to tell them about Rory, but was unsure how to breech the situation. "I..."
"Yeah?"
"I forgot," she finally blurted out. "I forgot what it was. I think I need to sleep a bit." Sookie nodded, looking concerned and Lisa felt dirty. Lorelai had the right to know about what Jess had done to Rory, but maybe...maybe Rory needed to tell her mother herself.
Sookie painfully stood up, hand on her bulging stomach, and grabbed her black purse. Lorelai hugged Lisa once more before she Lisa began walking with Sookie to her house.
The sun was sinking overhead as their feet made gentle 'plink'ing sounds on the pavement. Lisa looked around at the gently humming Christmas lights, amused at how Stars Hollow decorated even for non-holidays. She also loved how the town was always buzzing. She attracted stares as she walked past random idlers and knew why. They'd no doubt heard that she had been kidnapped and were eager to know how she was saved but were unwilling to approach her themselves. She smiled and rubbed her stomach.
Sookie glanced at her and grinned warmly. "When are you due? Lorelai mentioned something, but I was still curious."
"December," Lisa melted with anticipation. "Around Christmas, I think."
"Got any names picked out?"
"Actually, no," Lisa replied thoughtfully. "I should start thinking, though, I suppose, hm? Do you have any ideas for, em...?"
"Well, not me, but Jacks-Jack does," Sookie answered, politefully cutting herself off as Lisa cringed. "Of course, he has like six picked out. Would you believe he wants two more kids after this?"
"Wow!" Lisa exclaimed. "What about you? What do you want?"
"Definitely not four in four," Sookie sighed.
"What's four in four?"
"Four kids...in four years."
"Oh," Lisa laughed.
"Yeah. I think Jack should walk one week as a pregnant woman, and then see if he still wants that many kids. I'm perfectly fine with just two. Which is why he's getting castrated around the time the baby is born."
Lisa reared her head back. "What? Is he aware of that?"
"Nope," Sookie chuckled. "I decided for him. He'll live with it. His anger would be worse if I told him before hand, and plus: he'll be all glowing with the birth of our baby and so the snip-snip will only slightly hinder his love and devotion to the woman who just carried his child."
Lisa smiled. "He's a great guy. You're lucky to have found him."
"Well, you're not all black thunderclouds there yourself, Mrs. Medena," Sookie giggled. "Max is a good guy. You're lucky to have found him."
Lisa shrugged as they approached Sookie's quaint house. "I guess. But I think lately I've ruined my chances of ever having a perfect romance with him."
"No relationship is ever perfect, Leese. Perfect is reserved for the Viagra commercials and for people who have lots of money to afford perfect. "
Lisa laughed as Sookie unlocked the door and tossed her purse on the couch. Lisa looked around, marveling at the feng shui and paintings dotting the room. "You're house is great."
"It's a mess."
"No, it's lived in...warm," Lisa complimented, shuddering suddenly. "After living in a...a decent house...all week, I'd know."
"What do you mean?"
Lisa, feeling faint all of a sudden, collapsed on an armchair. "The cabin that Jackson held me and Rory at...it was beautiful. I'll admit it. But it was cold. You know how you can walk into a really disgusting house but then you see the family photos and the messy fingerpainted picture on the refrigerator door, and you get that feeling of bliss? Like, 'I want my life to be like this.' Very warm, very familial...that's perfect, I think."
"And my house is?" Sookie replied quietly.
"Yeah. Your house, its...perfect," Lisa bit her lip and looked at her friend. "I don't think Jackson will ever have that sort of perfection. He's not fit to love."
Sookie nodded and there was a long silence. "Well, how about that bath?" she finally offered.
Lisa stood eagerly. "Please. Then I'm thinking a nice, long, nap."
Sookie led her down a narrow hallway to a wide, airy bathroom. Lisa looked around as she drew the bath and Sookie gave her some lavender-scented bubble bath to put in.
"For stress," she explained. "Best thing in the world. And hot chocolate." Thoughtfully, she darted out the door and returned in a moment with a steaming mug for Lisa. Lisa felt wordlessly thankful and expressed her gratefulness to Sookie with a huge hug. Then Sookie left her, explaining that she'd be reading out in the living room.
Lisa sank into the large bathtub and sighed contentedly, looking up at the skylight above her. She inhaled deeply the scent of the flowers and closed her eyes, letting the warm water wash over her tense muscles.
She knew she hadn't seen the last of Jackson, or at least her friends hadn't. If she had her way, she'd get her final few words with him, in court, probably. That bastard would not get away this time, she'd make sure of it. He'd get life or execution, one of the two. And even if she had to secure it herself, she'd make damn sure that security was intensely high around him.
For some reason unknown to her, Lisa didn't want to kill Jackson. She felt, oddly enough, slightly bonded to him. Could it possibly be the result of their one-night stand? She moaned as her brain began buzzing again.
She must have drifted off, because when she came to, the water was icy. She shivered and crawled out, wrapping a thick purple terry towel around her.
Lisa pulled on the warm cotton pajamas that Sookie had so sweetly lent her and brushed her hair out. She let it fall loosely around her shoulders, the dampness forming a sort of halo of comfort around her scalp. Then, she opened the door and stepped into the hallway, her bare feet making no noise on the carpeted floor.
"Sookie?" she yawned, then remembered her cup of cocoa in the bathroom and ran back for it. It was still sitting on the rim of the tub and, unlike the bath water, it was still warm.
"Sookie?" she called out again. No answer. Lisa grinned. These pregnant women, they were all alike, dozing off uncontrollably.
"Looking for someone, Leese?"