Chapter 28

Jackson lay on his side, propped up by one elbow as he studied the woman next to him. The tempo of her breathing was just starting to rise and her eyes had finally calmed from their rapid movement beneath her lids. She'd be waking soon. The windows had long ago brightened and he didn't doubt that the time was nearing seven. He never stayed in bed this long but he wanted to be here when she finally woke. Last night, sleep had come easily to her but had still mostly eluded him. He absently rubbed at his eyes and he heard Lisa groan as she turned from her back to her side, now facing him.

"Good morning Leese." She squinted one eye open, saw him looking at her and then squeezed it back shut. She looked annoyed but didn't try to immediately leave the bed. "Did you have pleasant dreams?" Her reactions to him lately had been confusing to say the least and this morning wasn't an exception.

"Hmm. Yes actually. You weren't in them." If she'd peeked and looked at him, she would have been rewarded with the rare sight of a perturbed Jackson.

"Really? And just what was it about?" He failed to keep his voice controlled and emotionless.

"A tall blond… on a boat, looked like a Greek god." Jackson's hand fisted into the bed sheets in front of him as Lisa rolled onto her back and smiled. "Best sex I've ever had, if dreams count." Something snapped in his mind. This was not what he'd expected. He hadn't known what to expect when she woke up but her saying something like this wouldn't even have made it onto his list of guesses. He reached over, grabbed her waist and slid her effortlessly against him. He crushed his lips down onto her utterly surprised ones. He enjoyed her surprised yelp and even found odd comfort in the hands that tried to push him away. It only lasted for a moment however.

She stopped trying to push him away and started to laugh against his mouth. He pulled away marginally to see her looking right up at him. Her normal fear, hate, indifference were nowhere to be found anywhere in her expression. Instead, a malicious kind of mirth danced through her eyes.

"What's so funny?" He tried to sound dangerous. He obviously failed or she failed to notice. Worse, he feared, she didn't care.

"Jealous of a dream? Pathetic." And she laughed again. Under different circumstances, if he'd seen the look on his face and if he was a different person, he would have laughed as well. He snapped his mouth closed. He resisted the urge to smack her and instead got out of the bed. Even as irritated as he was now, he would not hit her. The inclination to do so shocked him nearly as much as the way she was acting. He gathered up the same clothes he'd worn the day before, dressed and left her still in bed. He didn't see her watch him leave or when she lazily curled herself back into the covers.

xXx

"What the fuck did you tell her?" He interrupted their conversation the moment he walked into the kitchen. Angie and Derek looked up from their mostly eaten eggs and fruit to the agitated newcomer. Derek just shot the woman a glance before standing and gathering their dishes.

"Good morning to you too Jackson." She greeted casually as if he hadn't so rudely interrupted their peaceful breakfast.

"What have you done?" He ignored her as well.

Angie took hold of Derek's wrist as he scooped up her dishes and reached up for a quick kiss. "Thanks honey."

This time Jackson was silent until after the man deposited the dishes in the sink and left the room.

"Answer me." He commanded in a tone that would get results when used with most people. Angie just rolled her eyes.

"What happened Jackson?" She didn't bother to hide the little crocked smile. "Did Lisa attack you?"

"No."

"Did she try to escape?"

"No." The irritation in his voice was quickly being replace by something else he wasn't used to feeling, confusion and...

"Then what possibly did she do to get you more riled up than I've seen you in years." He didn't answer. Angie raised an eyebrow, the smile still in place. "Is it so terrible a thing that you can't even say the words?" His eyes narrowed but a light pink flush had invaded to pale flesh of his cheeks. Angie was nearly bursting inside.

"She…" If Jackson played poker, his tell would be showing right now, alerting the other players he was uncomfortable; he ran his hand through his hair and broke off eye contact with her. "She laughed at me." He finally spat out.

"How horrible for you." She was trying not to laugh herself. "So you are upset not because she exhibited any dangerous behaviors but because she… laughed at you?" She asked, mock concern purposely invading her voice.

"What's your plan here? What are you doing exactly?" He ignored her but had resumed eye contact. He saw Angie's face loose its amusement, replaced by deadly seriousness.

"To keep your bird alive."

"Bullshit. You're just fucking with me." Angie rolled her eyes again but shrugged.

"A little. Though far less than you fucked with me once before, as I recall. But the difference Jack, I'm not doing it maliciously. I'm actually just doing my job, the fact that it's making you act like an idiot, well that's just icing." Her voice had gradually turned to ice. "So until she gets aggressive, tries to kill you or herself or tries to make a run for it, you keep your questions to yourself. Do you want me to just kill her now and save you any future embarrassment?"

His stare was a cold as her tone. "No."

"Good." Instantly, a smile was back on Angie's lips and she sounded almost jovial. "Then I'd like you to give Derek a hand with the transponder relay this morning. It's been acting up and I don't want the higher ups to think something is going wrong here and I don't think you do either."

Jackson just nodded and left the kitchen without another word.

xXx

Lisa sighed. She hadn't felt this good in a long time. She couldn't believe how good she felt. It seemed almost ridiculous. All she'd done was stare at him. She smiled again. She hadn't even minded the sex. She hadn't enjoyed it but she hadn't minded it either. It just felt like she'd done a chore that had to be done.

"Good morning." The door to her room opened and Angie stepped through with a tray of fresh food. As soon as the smell hit her, her mouth watered. She pulled herself up into a sitting position, holding the sheet to her chest. She'd never bothered to put any clothes back on last night.

"Morning" She supplied. She wasn't sure if she should be annoyed at the intrusion or excited. She had to give Angie credit for what had happened last night. Never, in a million years, would she have done that without prompting. She'd had no idea the effect it would have on both her and Jackson.

"I got a little visit from Jackson this morning. He wasn't very happy with me." Lisa didn't say anything. She was still confused about how to act around this woman. Nearly everything she said and did had a factor of contradiction. She doesn't like Jackson but thinks of herself as the worse person between the two of them. She seemed to be trying to help her against Jackson but at the same time, she had a bird herself. Her advice had worked but why?

Angie set the food down on the desk and walked to the closet, retrieving a bed tray. She didn't seem to mind Lisa's lack of response as she set up the breakfast and placed Lisa's food in front of her.

"I don't get to entertain very often and I've always adored the idea of breakfast in bed." She sat down in the overstuffed chair in the corner of the room. When Lisa made no attempt to even taste the food, Angie gave her a go ahead motion with her hand. "So, I take it that you were able to do more than just try." She didn't press Lisa for a response, just continued talking as though she'd received one. "He said you laughed at him. Oh Lisa, you have no idea how much I would have loved to see that."

Suddenly Lisa needed to know something. She couldn't sit here and listen to this woman without an answer. "Why do you hate Jackson?" It was simple and straightforward. Angie made an odd face with lips pursed and drawn to one side. Then she laughed and smiled.

"Is it that obvious?" Lisa didn't say anything. "It's a long story."

"Try the short version then." Lisa couldn't believe she just said that. For a moment, she expected Angie to get angry with her but instead, her smile just seemed to widen.

"Alright then, I think I can manage that." She looked up and off to the right as though trying to remember something before she got started. "I told you already that Jackson and I used to be together." Lisa nodded. "I told you that it ended because he wasn't capable of loving me." Lisa nodded again, this time with a chunk of guava in her mouth. "What I didn't tell you was how I came to that conclusion. In the end, it was fairly simple. I wanted to see if I could make him love me. I already knew what Jackson was like but for some reason, I thought I could change him. I was young and stupid and delusional. Then one day, while doing the preliminaries for a job we were both assigned to, Jackson told me that he loved me."

Lisa had been listening quietly, slowly eating her food. "That's why you hate him?"

"Oh God no. I haven't gotten there yet." She sat forward in the chair, resting her elbows against her thighs. "You see, I've always been very good at reading people. So I'd known for a long time that he… liked me. We were sexually compatible and worked very well together on jobs. I think he liked that aspect of our relationship; it was very convenient for him. But when he said he loved me, I knew he was lying. I don't like being lied to and it was at that moment that I knew he simply wasn't capable of it." She sat back and entwined her fingers on top of her head. "So I ended it and he didn't take it very well. You might have noticed that he's a bit of a control freak." Lisa had finished her fruit and had moved on to her omelet.

"Now, here's why I hate him. That job we were working on together, it involved the undersecretary of defense. We had several options available to us to get the job done cleanly and easily. His death needed to look like natural causes, someone just wanted him out of the way because he was blocking certain, very lucrative defense contracts. We'd just finished preparing our recommendations for our superiors when Jackson dropped the "L" bomb. Well, after I ended things, he went back, re-prepared our recommendations without my knowledge and sent them in. They were accepted."

Lisa sat there transfixed. What had Jackson done to make her hate him? She didn't move a muscle in the off chance that it might cause this woman to stop her story before its conclusion.

"It wasn't until we were on the plane to DC that I found out what he'd done. In order to gain necessary intel on our target, we originally chose the undersecretary's mistress as our mark. She was a worthless piece of drugged out shit who would be easy to coerce and I didn't mind the idea of the world being without her once we finished. But when I was checking over the dossier, it wasn't her pictures and information in the file. It was Alex. It was Jackson's 'fuck you'. He knew that I never would have used him as a mark. If I can, I leave the Boy Scout types alone. Alex was the kind of guy that everyone liked because he was a genuinely good guy. Can't quite say I've ever got over that one." Angie stood and collected Lisa's breakfast materials.

"You get yourself ready and make sure to wear some good shoes, we're going hiking again." With that, Angie left Lisa alone.

XxX

AN: Thank you to all my lovely reviewers, you guys are fantastic for motivation! These dialogue heavy ones are tougher to write and I felt like I had a cheering section the whole time. For those of you waiting for a "Saviour's Burden" update, you can expect one tomorrow. Happy reading!