Chapter 10

Lisa wakes up to the sounds of birds chirping and takes a deep breath of fresh air, making her smile a little. However, as she fully awakens she realizes that she has no reason to be smiling at all. Her shoulders ache, her legs are still, her mouth dry, and her ribs are throbbing in pain. Taking in her situation, she lets out a long and deep sigh and tries to come to terms with her situation.

Taking in her surroundings of the tent she realizes that Jackson is not with her. She gets a spark of hope, but then brings her self to terms with the reality of her situation. "I trust you had a comfortable sleep." Jackson interrupts her thoughts.

Lisa turns her head in the direction of his voice. While his voice was strong and confident as per usual, his appearance says otherwise. This is not the Jackson Rippner she had come to know. His hair is all over the place, his face looks tired and weak, and his clothes are disheveled and covered in dirt and blood, my blood.

That reminds her of why her left leg is in so much more pain than the right. After looking at Jackson she can only assume how bad of shape she must be in. Jackson moves further into the tent and kneels down close to her face. "I hope that today we can have a better day than yesterday, don't you?" Jackson says in a calm but intimidating manner.

Realizing that Lisa doesn't have the strength in her to fight, at least not today, she simply nods her head yes. "Good." Jackson replies simply. To her surprise he reaches around her head to untie her gag with administering one of his repetitive threats. Once the gag is removed Lisa moves her mouth around in hopes to relieve some of the pain.

This is when Jackson takes in Lisa's disheveled appearance. This is not his Lisa. His Lisa doesn't have cracked lips and a stained face, or torn clothes. Not to mention the amount of blood that is on her coat and pant leg. She's in no way fit to fight with him, and silently he prays that she will no try to, not today anyway.

"Here drink some water." Lisa tilts her head so that Jackson can pour some into her parched mouth and over her dried lips. The coolness if refreshing and much appreciated. "Thank you." Lisa states once she has had her fill.

"Look, I'm going to be very honest with you right now and I hope that you will return the favor. I am exhausted, hungry, and so sick of having to fight you, and quite honestly I don't have the strength to carry it on right now. And if my predictions are right, you're in the same boat as me. Correct me if I'm wrong." Jackson pauses, and after no response continues, "So I have a deal for you. I will untie you, meaning no rope, no more gag, and no more handcuffs so that you can be more comfortable for the remainder of our journey." Lisa's eye light up at the thought of being free. " However, I need to be able to trust you for this to work. You need to swear to me that you will not run away or harm me in any way until we reach my cabin. Do we have a deal?"

Lisa was shocked, how could he be acting so civilized about all of this? But then she began to think. What could be so bad about a cease-fire? This could actually turn out to be in her favor, having her freedom and know that there would be no fighting between the two of them could give her the opportunity to gain back her strength and maybe even make Jackson let his guard down around her.

"How much longer will it take us to get to your cabin?" Lisa inquired. "Why, afraid you can't be civil around me?" Jackson replied smugly. "Actually, no. I'm just wondering when we'll get somewhere safe." She said honestly. Not missing a beat, Jackson smirked and said, "Did you just call my cabin a safe place?"

Had she done just that? I mean compared to the environment she was in now, Jackson's cabin had to at least be more comfortable right? What the hell?

"Yes, Jackson considering my current situation I can only hope that I would be better taken care of in you cabin." Lisa said smartly. "So does that mean that we have a deal?" Jackson stared at her with those icy eyes. "Well I don't know you never answered my question . . ." " Tonight. Assuming there won't be anymore delays." Jackson interrupted. "So do we have a deal?" He asked for the last time. After only a moment Lisa responded with a simple "Yes." "Peachy." Jackson replied.

"Great now that we settled that, would you mind untying me?" Lisa asked squirming in her bonds a little. Jackson proceeded to take his sweet time untying her bonds and then took even longer to find the key to her handcuffs. Once she was free of all her bonds she slowly moved her limbs around and attempted to relieve all the stiffness.

Jackson had her back to her and was packing away all the materials into the backpack when Lisa released a blood-curdling scream. He whipped his head around so fast out of fury and confusion. He half expected her to be ready to pounce on him. To his surprise he saw the complete opposite.

There was Lisa lying on her side almost in a fetal position screaming like bloody murder. He was so confused as to what led to this outburst, and rushed over to her side. "Lisa! Lisa! Look at me! What's wrong?!" Jackson screamed at her trying to be heard over her screams of agony.

He tried to shake her to break her out of this state and after a couple of minutes she began to respond to him. "My leg!" She got out between her screams. Jackson looked down at her left leg and saw that is was bleeding once again.

He figured that having her leg in one position so long last night must've slowed circulation and therefore subdued the pain. Now that she was trying to get feeling back in it, the blood was circulating much faster caused it to throb in pain again.

"Lisa, it's okay, you're going to be okay. Just relax and take deep breaths. I know it hurts, but just . . . just look at me and breathe with me okay?" Lisa began his process of trying to bring Lisa out of her pain.

Lisa slowly lifted her head and locked her eyes with his. She became completely absorbed in his eyes and then hearing a muted noise looked to his lips. He could see he was talking to her. Trying to tell her something but she just couldn't hear it above all the pain.

Slowly the world around her started to come back to her and Jackson's words began to make sense. He could tell that she was trying to listen to him. The funny this was that throughout this whole process she had placed a hand on his chest and was breathing with him, without even realizing it.

Jackson was taking deep calming breaths and that is exactly was Lisa was doing, of course there was still a sob or shriek here and there, but she would be alright. His plan was working and she would be okay.

After about half an hour of this process, Lisa was finally in a relaxed stated, she was in a cradle position leaning into Jackson, still had her hand on his chest as Jackson rubbed her back. Jackson nearly laughed at the scene. A day ago this never would have been foreseeable in the near or distant future. But yet here they are. "Thank you." A light and hoarse voice broke him from is revere.

"How do you feel now?" He looked at her solemnly, taking in just how weak she was from the episode and the loss of blood. "Better" She replied weakly. "Good. I'm happy to hear that." Jackson replied calmly.

Lisa finally took in their position and felt oddly confortable with it, but at the same time wanted and needed some space and fresh air. "I think I'd like to get up now." She replied looking to his face again, half expecting him to make a snide remark. But all she got in reply was "Are you sure?"

Jackson wished he could have asked that in a better way. He was certain that asking that would bring on another wave of tears, but to his surprise she only reacted with a quiet "Yes."

Jackson carefully stood up and slowly helped Lisa to join him. Lisa practically felt like a toddler trying to walk, Jackson was holding Lisa's forearms and walking backwards observing her very carefully and making sure that she wasn't in too much pain or going to fall.

After taking the couple of steps it took to exit the tent Jackson seemed to relax a little and let up on his grip a little.

Lisa, though she winced at the pain, was able to bear through it and after a couple more steps the pain began to subdue dramatically. "It's okay Jackson, I can handle it." Lisa looked up at him for the first time since standing and saw concern written all over her face. After a moments pause Jackson relinquished his hold on her and gave her some space with a simple, "okay."

Lisa walked around the perimeter of the tent a couple times to make sure she was stable on her own. Jackson remained at the front of the tent, but watched her with a worried eye. Once he felt comfortable that she was okay, he ducked into the tent and pulled out his backpack.

As Lisa continued to meander around, Jackson took down the tent and packed it tightly into the backpack. He turned around to see Lisa walking much better than before. "Ready to go?" He startled her a little but then nonchalantly made her way over to him. "Ready as I'll ever be." She responded with much more spirit in her voice than before.

Jackson still weary about he condition interjected, "If you need a break at anytime speak up. Alright?" "I'll be fine." Lisa jabbed back. "I don't want to deal with that again." Jackson snapped back.

And there is was, his attitude came back without any warning, thought Lisa. The fact is that Jackson wasn't trying to have an attitude at all. He was being honest and he honestly did not want to deal with that again. Seeing her in that much pain hurt him. Of course he would never let on to that, at least not yet anyway.

With that thought in mine he began leading the way up the hill towards his cabin, only a few more hours he told himself, then everything go back to how it was before.