Disclaimer: ah, it is so boring to have to rub this into my face at each chapter!

Author's note: Yep, that's me, I'm the author!

Emptyvoices: thanks for your encouragement and your interesting points on psychopaths (which we are unsure of whether Jackson is or not)

BregoBeauty: Your first review on this story made me happy and so proud. Yes, everyone, shoo, go read it! s

Danielle Anderson: Yes, this is taking a slightly alternative route within the frames of the movie. I hope you are enjoying this still.

SmarterThanYou: Thanks for calling it realistic. I'm doing my very best at that. I want it – need it – to be plausible. Could this happen? Could their initial reaction to each other make them overcome the fear, the fighting and the anger?

Star: OK, thanks, I think I keep a pretty good update rate… s

Feedback: guess what? I'm like the rest of you – I always appreciate comments on whether you like it – or not.

On to the chapter.

Revised 11-06-20 //Nic.

Chapter 6 Did Someone Break Your Heart?

"Excuse me." The blonde woman from before, the one who'd looked like she could've eaten Jackson, was suddenly face to face with him. "I'm sorry." She turned to Lisa, apologizing for the interruption. Oh, don't be, feel free to keep him! "Can you help me again? Last time, I promise."

Borderline hysterical, Lisa wanted to giggle at the look on Jackson's face, and had to bite her lip to prevent any unwanted facial expression to slip. He sat with the phone raised, and stared dumbfounded at the woman. Managing to fire off both a murderous glare and a charming smile to keep up the charade of being a normal passenger, he bit his teeth together.

"Sure."

Jackson rose and grabbed Lisa's bag from the floor, stuffing it in the compartment above, and away from her hands. He gave her a warning glance that told her he'd kill her slowly and painfully if she tried anything.

"Don't get cute," he snarled before he left.

Lisa felt a rush of both fear and excitement. Somehow his threats fed her strength. She didn't know how or why, but they did.

With hasty, irritated movements, Jackson pulled down the woman's luggage and turned to return to his seat. Lisa watched with fascination how he was interrupted by some more services she needed. Meanwhile the elderly woman, the one with a passion for Dr Phil, unexpectedly came up to Lisa and leaned over her.

"Hello again," she smiled. "You know, I didn't think that this book would be so much work." She kept on babbling about Dr Phil and the book. Lisa barely listened, glancing at Jackson who was occupied but still managed to send her warning looks occasionally. Her heart pounded and her mouth went dry – this was her chance.

"You know what? Don't worry about the surveys. I'll just highlight my favorite parts for you." Lisa grabbed the book and the woman's pencil.

I'm held hostage. Tell pilot. Need help!

Lisa's heart almost stopped at the look Jackson gave her on his way back, and suddenly everyone seemed to be there. The stewardesses came with their trays, Jackson stood face to face with the old woman, looming like a tall, threatening shadow, and everybody needed to get out of everybody's way.

"I'll come back for that later," the woman said.

"No, no, no, no. Here you go." Lisa smiled and quickly handed her the book, placing the pencil where she'd written the message, praying to God that she'd find it.

Jackson and the elderly woman exchanged some polite words and she was off. Lisa glanced after the lady, a ray of hope shining in her eyes; things were going to be OK. The woman would find that message, tell the pilot and they would do something to Jackson, take him out somehow, and she and her father would be free.

Looking back at Jackson, she noticed that he still had a smile on his lips. He sat completely still for a moment, staring emptily in front of him. She watched his profile, remembering the moment she'd first seen him in the line, and was once more struck by how beautiful he was. She felt almost sad for the loss.

What if things would have been different?

Jackson fumed with anger. Pretty little Lisa Reisert thought she was being smart. She actually thought she'd get away with that.

Don't underestimate me!

"I didn't want this to get complicated, Lisa." He needed to take some action; he'd have to get that book. "I have to assume she's gonna read that."

"Read what?" Lisa had the nerve to play dumb.

Slamming his forehead into hers, he sent her into unconsciousness.Lisa momentarily went limp in his arms as he caught her. Sorry, Leese... His feelings of rage unexpectedly mixed with something else, something just as primal, as he felt her body go soft against his.

Why don't you just do what I tell you? It'd make this whole situation so much easier for both of us.

He leaned her head carefully against a pillow and took a moment to pull some strands of hair away from her face. He wanted it to look like she was sleeping peacefully, but at the same time a part of him reveled in the softness of her cheek against his palm.

In other circumstances…

A trickle of wetness snapped him out of his thoughts. Touching his forehead, he realized he was bleeding. Quickly wiping it away, he was almost caught by the Caring Fucking Flight attendant who came by to ask him how Lisa was doing.

"Oh, much better, thank you." He beamed at her and imagined simply slashing her throat for being in his face.

"Good." She left.

Bitch.

Lisa awoke with a horrible headache. Everything was shaking around her and she was bumping around in her seat. The first thing she thought was that she hadn't been buckled up before – and now she was.

Jackson!

"'I want you to get excited about your life. But you gotta get real. I'm challenging you –'" Jackson's mocking voice was reciting some paragraphs from Dr Phil's book. His voice kept on assaulting her ear, gnawing its way into her mind and her very soul.

Oh my God! He has the book! How long was I out? What did he do to the old lady?

"'- starting now, to stop dealing in opinions and assumptions and start dealing in facts.'"

He droned on. With a frightening feeling of having done something really stupid, Lisa glanced over her shoulder at the lady she'd given the book. She sat with her head lolled back and her mouth gaping open.

He killed her! She's dead! I killed her…

Her heart pounded hard in her throat at the thought that she had sent the nice old woman to her death. Moaning as Jackson's monotonous voice continued in her ear, she glanced back again, the plane rocked and suddenly the woman jolted awake. Lisa exhaled loudly with relief and sank back onto her seat. Jackson looked at her with a vicious grin on his lips. Bastard! The smug look in his eyes told her that he'd known what she had thought, and that he'd enjoyed her fear.

I'm NOT gonna give him the satisfaction. There HAS to be a way!

"'Fact: thinking when you should be acting will only make your head hurt.' I'm not making this up, Leese; it's right here. Fact: you've been out for half an hour, and Keefe's room still hasn't been changed."

Jackson glanced at his watch and then back at her.

He has a timeframe. He needs to succeed... and if not... If I...

"So, I got you some aspirin." He shook a plastic glass with pills in it. "I need you coherent, Leese."

Lisa moaned and snatched the pills from him, swallowing them with some water. Her head felt like it was about to explode and she desperately needed to think straight. Jackson pulled the phone out of its holder and leaned close to her. "Now, let's do this."

Don't make me do this. Lisa looked at him with pleading eyes. "If I do it, Jackson, if I make that call… do you promise you'll tell whoever's outside my dad's house to go away?"

Jackson's steel gaze mildened into a brief and unexpected flash of sympathy. "You call, I call, dad wakes up, puts on coffee, never suspects a thing, you go back to work, life goes on." He smiled at her and slid her credit card through the phone once more. "I'm now calling your hotel."

Lisa moaned and knew he had her.

"I don't have to tell you to sound convincing," he added sharply.

She nodded. "You've said enough."

"Good!" The ice was back in his eyes.

Cynthia, the night manager at the hotel, answered and sounded concerned when she heard the state of Lisa's voice. Lisa wasn't able to find a steady voice and didn't even bother to pretend. Instead, she blamed her trembling tone on the turbulence and her well-known fear of flying. All the time she could feel Jackson's eyes on her.

"Listen, I need a favor..."

All of a sudden the line went dead. It took Lisa two or three seconds to understand the chance she suddenly had.

He won't know!

With a pounding heart, she explained to the dead phone how it was going to change Keefe's room, while feeling quite proud of herself for her quick reaction.

She jerked when the phone was brutally pulled away from her and Jackson said in a singsong voice, "Cynthiaaaa."

He turned the phone over, the display said 'Temporary service disruption.' His lips curled into an expression of anger and then he almost laughed. "Hah, pretty clear thinking, given the circumstances. Lemme guess: some stress management courses? They're really paying off," he spat. Jackson gripped her chin, turning her face to his, his blue eyes flashing dangerously. "We get outta this; I may have to steal you!"

Lisa shrank away from him. What's this? What did he mean by that?

He let her head go with a yank and hailed a stewardess who walked by. "Excuse me, miss? The phones are not working?"

She sounded strained as she answered, "They sometimes cut out during a storm. They'll probably come back once we find some clear air."

"Great, thank you." Jackson bent forward, for the first time showing something other than superiority. He hid his face in his palms and sighed deeply.

"What?" Lisa sneered. "You don't have a back-up plan?"

He didn't answer.

"Why are you doing this HERE?" It sounded all so stupid. What a lousy plan! Even she could've come up with something better, and she wasn't even in his business.

He looked up at her, nailing her with the intensity in his pale blue eyes. "Blame your grandmother," he snarled. "She keeled over, you hopped on the next flight out, Keefe changed his plans, and here we are!"

"So… what happens if they don't start working?" Dread was slowly filling her heart as she looked at him; his nostrils flared with constrained rage and his hands tightened until his knuckles whitened.

If Lisa thought she had been afraid before during this flight, it had been but a shadow of what she felt as he closed in on her this time, speaking almost softly in her ear, suddenly back to being cool and controlled again.

"You bury your dad in a closed casket."

Lisa felt her stomach sink and quickly looked away, clenching her jaws to fight the urge to let out the cry that wanted to escape.

Lisa and Jackson didn't say another word for several minutes after that. They both occasionally glared at the dead phone, praying it would get back on-line again. Lisa tried to sit as far away from him as possible, staring emptily in front of her.

She hated him.

She hated what he had done to her, and that he was nothing but a simple murderer. What she hated the most was that she'd been falling for him back at the airport – a lifetime ago.

You can be something else than this. She wasn't quite able to erase the memory of his gentle smile, and his shy and happy eyes... Please, don't do this… don't be this…monster, be who you were.

With a pounding heart, she finally turned to him. "I know him," she said softly, hoping she could find a way to reach him, to reach that other man she'd seen.

Jackson twitched slightly as she suddenly spoke. "Know who?"

"Keefe. He's a really decent man."

Jackson seemed indifferent. "Well, sometimes bad things happen to good people." He leaned closer to her, intimidating her with his presence, making her dizzy as his scent enveloped her. "Like you," he added softly.

Lisa frowned and looked away, trying to get her breathing back to normal. Jackson leaned even closer which severely aggravated her already quick and shallow breathing. Back off! Back off! Please, back off!

"You know, I've known you for a while now, Lisa. Before tonight I mean. And as far as I can tell, your life revolves around your job, the occasional cocktail at the corner café, the classic late night movies… Oh, and scrambled eggs at three a.m."

Lisa's heart pounded hard in her chest. He'd been following her.

For how long?

She wanted to throw up, involuntarily recollecting scenes from her life from the last few weeks. Had he been there? Watching? Summing up her life on a piece of paper? The bile rose in her throat at the thought. Where were you? When did you see me?

Jackson went on, relentlessly. "What turned you into such a loner? Was it your parents' divorce?"

Lisa cringed; he was getting too close. Way too close. Images from an event two years ago flashed before her mind and the scar on her chest itched and called for her attention. Her head was spinning.

Jackson leaned in even more. "Wait, did someone break your heart?"

Oh, no.

Lisa's heart crumpled in pain at those words and she leaned forward, trying to protect her inner wounds from his words and the memories they awoke. The damage inflicted upon her soul that day had never quite healed; she had just put the lid on, eventually, when the pain had gotten too severe to bear.

No one had come close since.

She had protected herself carefully – until this very evening. 'Blame your grandmother…' The memory of her lively grandmother and her thoughts on life had made Lisa act recklessly back at the airport and now she faced the repercussions.

He was despicable and she hated everything about him.

She did.