A/N: Okay, here's the final chapter of this story! I'm issuing another challenge on this one, to any writers interested in partaking! The challenge is simply to write another story within this whole series that we've got going here, concerning any events mentioned or implied in the stories, or any events post-"My Happy Ending" that you believe could occur. Please message either myself, NicolinaN, or Bunnies-Made-Me-Do-It if you'd like to accept the challenge and need clarification on continuity or backstory, etc. (Like how I totally volunteered you two, Bunnies and Nic? I'm amazing, I know.) The stories in the series thus far, are as follows:

My Happy Ending by Kaikamahine Mai Hawai'i
A Beginning In a Way by NicolinaN
Middle of Nowhere by Bunnies-Made-Me-Do-It
Giving You Your 'Never Again' by Kaikamahine Mai Hawai'i

There are also rumors of a few others accepting challenges by Nic and Bunnies, but I'm in the dark as to what they're writing, for the most part. Please see them for any details they may have. (That would be the second volunteering of you two, by the way. I'm on a roll.) I'm also considering writing a third, and maybe a fourth story for this series, and will lay the smackdown on anyone who thinks they're going to take the events I have in mind ... in the nicest way, of course. ;) If you decide to accept the challenge, and the events you want to write for are taken, I will let you know.

Post-Shower Blues

Jackson laid on his back in the sleeping bag, staring at the roof of the abandoned barn. Do you ever feel as if your life is incomplete? Lisa's words still tumbled through his head, gnawing at him. Hell, he hadn't thought about what he wanted out of life in a long time. There simply wasn't a point. He had a job to do, and he had to think about what he needed to accomplish to successfully complete it. Everything was black and white, get paid or don't get paid. Live to see tomorrow or end up dead for fucking up.

He cast a quick glance over at his sleeping companion, watching her scratch lightly at her neck before settling down again. He had made sure to move his sleeping bag a bit further away from her than he normally would've liked. That morning, he had woken up to a pleasant surprise ... Lisa had thrown her leg over his hip in her sleep, and pulled their bodies together. It had taken all of his effort to control himself, and in the end, he managed to sneak out of the bed with an erection that was solved by quick, cold shower, and Lisa had been none the wiser. However, that being said, he didn't want to chance it a second time. It wouldn't be easy to explain to Lisa why he was hard for her, when he had a knife to her throat the night before.

He looked over at her again, thinking of the feeling of her leg wrapped arou- Stop! Stop it, Jack, you're trying not to think of things like that, things that'll end in the same physical reaction you had to her this morning! He sighed, turning his head back to face up at the roof again. He could see pinpricks of starlight coming through, and was glad that the storms from earlier hadn't extended all the way down to Arizona. Otherwise, they'd be more than a little wet right now. Like how Lisa's shirt was when we had to run out to the car after checking out, because it was fuckin' pouring out ... God, that shirt clung to-

Jackson angrily kicked himself out of his sleeping bag, stood, and went to the door of the barn. He wasn't going to get any sleep if he kept thinking about Lisa.

What did he want from life, anyway? Hell, he already had a house. A few of them. That's all you really needed, right? Someplace to live? Everything else would just fall into place, right?

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Jackson turned, seeing Lisa leaning on her elbows in her sleeping bag. In the dark, her eyes glittered eerily.

"I didn't mean to wake you up, I-" He saw her unzip her own sleeping bag and begin walking over to him. "I just, I couldn't sleep."

Lisa padded softly across the wooden floor, stopping next to him as she gazed at the scenery. "Let me guess ... you were thinking?" Jackson nodded. "About what? If you don't mind me asking, that is." She looked at him questioningly, and he shrugged.

"Just ... about what you asked me earlier ... if I 'ever feel as if my life is incomplete'." He watched an owl glide soundlessly through the air, landing on a scraggly bush, something small and dead in its beak. "I realized that I've never thought about what I wanted to do with my life. Everything's always been about my job, and what I need to do to survive and move on to the next assignment. Past a housing situation, I'm not sure what to expect from life."

"What do you mean?" Lisa moved into a sitting position on the floor, and Jackson copied her.

"Well ... I've got a few places to live, but once that's out of the way, then what? What do I do after that?"

Lisa smiled at him in a teasing manner. "Are you asking me for advice?" Jackson laughed as he realized how absurd he must sound.

"It was rhetorical, but ... since you're the Dr. Philophile, any pointers you might have would fall upon open ears." Lisa rolled her eyes.

"Um, okay, uh ... a job? What are you going to do for money? Where will you work? What are you good at?" Jackson gave her a pointed glare.

"I think we're both aware of what I'm 'good at', Leese. Arranging people's deaths." She smiled at him.

"There you go, then! A funeral home worker!" He laughed outright at that. "Seriously though, what do you think you'd want to do?" Jackson shrugged. He definitely knew what he didn't want to do, anymore.

"Whatever it is, I want it to be legit. Fuck, I want to be able to go to H&R Block to do my taxes without raising suspicion about my employment. But other than a job, what else?" Lisa looked surprised, as if she wasn't seriously expecting him to be trying to plan his life out.

"Oh! Um ... I guess, the next step would be, uh ..." she was blushing slightly, he could tell.

"Say it, Leese, whatever it is. I'm grasping at straws here." She looked bashful.

"Well, you'd probably want to, I dunno ... see about getting into the dating scene, thinking about settling down- I mean! You know, unless ... unless you want to be a bachelor, or whatever, I mean ... you know, whatever you want to do." Jackson smiled as he saw how uncomfortable she was discussing this particular subject with him.

"Really, huh? Me? Settling down? Lisa, I'm thirty, isn't that just a bit past prime nowadays? How'm I supposed to find 'Miss Right'?"

"I thought thirty was the new twenty? And besides, I'm twenty-nine. You make it sound like we're old." She gestured out to the darkened landscape. "There's plenty of things out there for us to do! Get a house, a car, find good careers, start a family-"

"You want a family of your own, Lisa?" Jackson suddenly interrupted. Lisa's mouth hung open, obviously caught off-guard by his question. "I mean, you've got your dad, and mom's in Texas, but ... you know, a husband and kids and the white picket fence deal?" Her mouth closed and she gave another bashful smile.

"Well, not exactly like that, but ... yeah, maybe. Doesn't have to be right away, or anything."

"You're going to be a bit old to be poppin' out kids in about five years, don't you think?" She flushed, and gave him an indignant glare.

"What's with you making it sound like I'm shuffling off the mortal coil? I'm not old, and I won't be 'popping out kids', for your information! The way you say it makes me sound like a baby machine!" Jackson shrugged.

"Well, do you want to 'have children', then? Have your own little Lisas and Mister Rights running around? The pitter-patter of little feet, and whatnot?" She glared at him.

"What about you, huh? What are you going to do? Find some Southern Belle and sweep her off her feet, and fall in love and get married?" Jackson's face turned dark.

"Right, Leese. Like there's a woman out there that's going to be able to stand the thought of what I've done in my life."

"Well, I'm still tagging along, aren't I?" They both paused and looked at each other as they realized what she had just said.

"What? Are you saying you're my soulmate or something, Lisa?" Her face turned sour and she stood.

"That's not what I'm saying, and you know it!" she hissed. "I'm going back to sleep."

-
-

Of Fireworks and Life Lists

"Whatcha writin'?" Jackson slammed the notebook closed the instant he heard her. She was getting better at sneaking up on him, he'd give her that. He'd definitely need to be more careful about keeping his list away from her. He'd die of embarrassment if she ever read it.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Go back to your knitting, or whatever it is you're doing." Lisa narrowed her eyes at him and glanced at the notebook.

"It's crochet, thank you very much. And if whatever you're writing's nothing I need to worry about, why'd you slam that thing shut so fucking fast?" She had acquired his taste for profanity since they began traveling together, and he wasn't quite sure what to think of it.

"Because, again, it's nothing you need to concern yourself about," he retorted. "Get back to your crochet." He waited until she retreated back to her own side of the picnic blanket, dragging her yarn along with her. "Where'd you learn to do that, that, whatever-it-is, anyway? I thought only old ladies did that?" She threw her stress-relief ball at him, hitting him in the throat.

"I learned it from my grandma, and quit! Fuckin'! Calling! Me! Old!" She emphasized each word with a harsh slap against his sneakers, pounding her fist against his toes at 'old'. He yelped and pulled his leg back, nearly knocking his bottle of Sprite over.

"God, you're getting violent!"

"Learned it from you!" she replied. Her gaze softened and she gestured to the hook and yarn in her hands. "Thanks for this, by the way. You know, for letting me go get some of the stuff my grandma left for me." He nodded, nearly imperceptibly. Henrietta's belongings that she had willed to her granddaughter were going to be auctioned off due to Lisa's 'disappearance', so Jackson had driven them back down to Texas, broken into Lisa's grandmother's house, and let her collect the things she had been willed. The old lady had left her a nice collection of items, including a watch, a few pieces of antique jewelry, her engagement ring, and other odds and ends. There had even been the stash of yarn and crochet hooks stored neatly in the rec room in a cedar-lined trunk.

"Hey, it was your stuff, and they wanted to get rid of it. Figured I'd let you get it before someone else does." He opened his notebook again, making sure Lisa wasn't looking at his papers, and began writing again.

"You know, my grandma taught me to crochet and knit and even to embroider, God ... twenty years ago? And I still remember how to do this stuff. Don't know if I'll ever use it, but at least it's something of my grandmother that I can keep, you know?" She turned back to the pattern she was working on as Jackson flicked an ant off of his shorts.

They were sitting in a park somewhere outside of Raleigh, North Carolina. The impromptu picnic had been Lisa's idea, and it gave them both time to stretch their legs and do something other than sit in a car or motel room. For Lisa, it meant taking more pictures and working on the crochet pattern she had started three days ago. For Jackson, it was time to make his list of things he wanted out of life. Ever since the kiss he'd shared with Lisa at the little inn in Mississippi, he found that her name had appeared more than once on his list.

"Oh! Jackson! I almost forgot! There's going to be a fireworks show tonight at Falls Lake State Park! Can we go and see it?" Lisa asked excitedly. Jackson sighed and slipped his sunglasses back on.

"I'll think about it." He looked down at the list, seeing that he had less than ten things written down. Maybe he didn't really want all that much from life? But, the things that he did want scared him. It scared him to admit that he wanted them. He glanced back over at Lisa, who was gathering her things.

Hell, she might be game for a few of them, or at least might be willing to help on numbers seven and eight. He closed the notebook and grabbed the blanket they had been sitting on while Lisa picked up the remnants of their lunch. "I believe we have a fireworks show to attend?" he hinted.

Lisa smiled brightly at him. "I so love you for that!" she whispered excitedly, clutching his arm. Jackson watched as she let go of him and nearly ran to the car. Life was definitely not making things difficult for him at the moment.