Running. Her ledger flying and scuttling haphazardly on the pavement as she jumped for her car. Heavy body. On. Her. Preventing movement, trapping her, stopping her breath. Sweat. Dripping on her.

"Let me go. Please, don't hurt me."

"Calm, sweet, be calm. I won't if I just get what I came for."

Pressure. Knife. At her throat. The sun darting off her windshield and glaring into her eyes. Zippers. Too many zippers, the metal cutting into her skin as he marked her. Marked her in more ways than one. Then it came, the fatal slash and the look up into her attacker's face-

"Leese," rasping. Rasping, "Leese."

No. Not you.

Pulling out of her, away from her. "I'll be waiting at the airport, Leese. Waiting for that Seabreeze."

No. Jackson.

"It's fine, Leese. He's fine."

No, he's not.

"Get over it."

Get over what?

"Wake up."

Xx

"Wake up," Jackson yelled through the door. "Are you decent? You better be, because I'm coming inside in five seconds. Five, four…"

Lisa pulled the blanket to her already covered chest. "I'm decent!"

Jackson entered as Lisa was still recovering from her dream. Her pulse rate was just starting to go down as he raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, what's the story, morning glory?"

She cut her eyes at him. "Nothing. Just had a bad dream."

He placed an awestruck hand to his chest, feigning a fluttering heart. "Was I in it? Oh, tell me I was in it, Leese!"

"Shut up. No, you were not," she lied. "What do you want?"

"To request your presence at breakfast," he nodded to her before bowing out of the room. Lisa rolled her eyes and stomped out to the kitchen in the long-sleeved pajamas she'd changed into last night.

After the ordeal at dinner, she'd gone straight to her room and glowered at the window for two hours before Jackson came in and pointed her to the closet, where there was an abundance of clothing for her to wear. She reluctantly changed, but only under the lingering threat of Jackson that if 'she couldn't change herself, he'd do it for her'. It didn't take her long to whip into some flannel pajamas after that.

The kitchen smelled like French toast this morning. And chocolate.

"Still insist on treating me like a child, Jackson?"

"No. But we're having guests and one of them is a child."

"Who?"

"That girl I was telling you about."

Lisa snorted. "How is she a child? She's sixteen. She can drive."

"Whatever. It'll be about fifteen minutes, so go wait in the living room while it cooks. There are magazines and the remote is on the end table."

Lisa nodded and trudged out to the living room. It was decent. The couch was a leathered black and spotless. She sighed and grabbed Time from the coffee table, idly flipping through it.

How I wish that I could feel as good as you.

Xx

Rachel frowned. "I don't want new clothes."

"Too bad. You're going to be with me at least a week, so pick something out. Either way, you're not wearing that for the next week. If you don't want to pick out clothes, that's fine, you'll just have to go nak-"

Rachel grabbed a sweater off the rack and shoved it into Alec's outstretched arms. "Happy?"

"A week."

Rachel sighed crankily and picked out enough clothes for a few weeks, until Alec said she could stop, and added them to the pile in the shopping cart. He's like freaking Super Shopper Sam. So far, along with the clothing, he'd picked out shampoo and other personal hygiene products, makeup and combs, and- the most disconcerting to Rachel-personal entertainment items such as books, magazines, and notebooks. She found that odd.

"I've never heard of a kidnapper wanting to make his hostage comfortable before," she snapped.

"Well, to say the least, you annoy me, and I don't feel like hearing you whine that you're bored. So feel blessed."

"That I'm annoying?"

"Whatever you want."

They rolled to checkout and the bill was hefty but Alec paid it nonchalantly. Rachel stared at him.

"What?"

"You must get paid a lot for killin-" he cut her off with a deadly stare and discreet nod to the cashier.

When they got the rental car loaded, Alec turned to Rachel inside. "Here's the deal. We're going to my apartment. When we get there, you're going to freshen up and change. After that, we're going to go across the way to have breakfast with Mr. Rippner. Got it?"

"Do you always call him Mr. Rippner or just when you feel like being an ass-kisser?"

Alec laughed sarcastically. "You're hilarious." He pulled out of the shopping center and drove for about six miles back in a woody area. Then he turned an extreme right on-and Rachel was paying attention, just in case-Bohemian Boulevard. After about two more miles, he took a sharp left on an unmarked road. He took this road for quite some time-ten, fifteen minutes, Rachel thought-before they pulled into a gravel driveway that had a path leading to a tall, wide gray building. Rachel marveled and Alec laughed at her surprise.

"We're home, Rachel."

Not home. Prison. Oh, dear God, please, Mom and Dad, find me. I can't do this.

Find me and follow me through corridors…

Xx

Jackson checked his watch for the thirtieth time in the past ten minutes. "Where the fuck are they?"

Lisa rolled her eyes and propped her feet up on the coffee table. Jackson kicked them off. "Probably doing something more important. Don't worry about it."

A knock on the door disrupted Jackson's pacing and he stormed to answer it. "Rocher, where the hell were you?"

"I had things to do, Jackson, calm down." A tall blonde man entered the room, a short girl with dark brown hair followed after. Lisa looked at her. Rachel?

"So, this is Ms Rachel Redford," Jackson looked Rachel up and down and the girl shrank back with a look of obvious disgust.

"This is she," Rocher hugged Rachel closer. She angrily pushed at his chest.

When she got away, she yelled at him, "Don't touch me!"

I like this girl already. I can tell. She reminds me of…myself.

Rachel pressed her back against the wall and glanced at Lisa, her expression softening a bit. Lisa motioned her closer and Rachel obliged.

Jackson noticed and cleared his throat. "Lisa, this is Rachel. Rachel, Lisa."

"I get the picture," Rachel snapped. Jackson raised an eyebrow at her and then nodded at Rocher.

"You keeping tabs on this one?"

"That I am," Rocher nodded with a sly wink. Lisa rolled her eyes.

"Lisa," Jackson ordered. "Take Rachel to your room so Alec and I can talk."

"What about breakfast?" Lisa whined.

He glared at her. "Later. Go."

Lisa grinned sarcastically at Rachel. "Come on. Let's let the menfolk circle the fire, beat their chests, the usual."

Rachel smiled comfortably at her and followed into Lisa's bedroom. Lisa shut the door and sat down on her bed. Rachel wandered to the window and tapped it.

"Don't bother," Lisa sighed. "It's shatterproof."