We All Go Down

Summary: Everyone's healing after the Red Eye flight, but none more so than the two women Jack left behind; the woman tangled up in his mess and the woman he was trying to protect. They both have the ability to heal each other or will one let the other go down?

Chapter One


That Night….

A creaky window opened downstairs. A rustle in the drawers of the downstairs bathroom then…. Silence. When the lights came on, Jack froze in his place. Bloodied and bruised, Emilie was used to seeing her husband this way, it was a sad truth about their marriage but this time there was a gunshot wound and a hole in his neck. Her eye widened as Jack fixed the scarf back over his throat. He didn't want her to have to see this.

"I'm in trouble." He had to keep his fingers pressed to his voice box just to get a few words out.

She listened to his wheezy breaths for a moment and closed her eyes. "I can see that." She let out an exhausted breath and stepped into the bathroom, almost slipping on a pool of his blood.

He groaned in pain as he gripped onto her, stopping her from crashing onto the cold tile. It was the last thing he needed.

"I have to go… Disappear."

"How long this time, Jack?" Emilie glanced up at him as she inspected the gushing entry point on his shoulder. He always did a piss poor job at medicating himself.

"A while."

"A while." She whispered to herself angrily. "You have two daughters, or did you forget that?"

"Of course not." He glared down at her before softening his gaze. "I'm leaving to keep them safe. To keep you safe." He winced a little as she cleaned his shoulder with rubbing alcohol. "Just until the heat dies."

"You said that this was going to be the last job you'd have to do for them. Indefinitely was your exact word."

He placed his hand on the side of her head and smoothed down her golden hair. She just about looked at him when he muttered, "I fucked up."


Emilie set down the rubbing alcohol and grabbed a roll of bandage. As she let the soft cotton slip through her fingertips she started to think about the two kids that were sleeping soundly upstairs. They needed a father more than she needed her husband; if he thought that he had to go then he should go.

Jack was always right about these things. It's the one thing she hated about him.

"Can't you stay the night and be there for the girls when they wake up? Once they go to school then you can hide?" she wrapped the bandage around him, tightening the gauze as much as she could.

He watched her as she leaned on the counter, noting the sullen look on her face. Jack didn't want to see her like this.

"They can't see me like this. People will be coming to put me down. When they come, do not tell them that I was here. I've got a few people left in Seattle, they'll help me slip under the radar."

"And then what?" she watched him as he put everything back in its place. "We just uproot our kids' lives and throw them into a big city?"

"No. We'll sell this place and move to a small town near your folks." He grabbed a handful of toilet roll and started to clean up the trail of blood he tracked in.


Emilie followed him around the ground floor of their modest home as she clutched onto the neck of her long T-shirt. She thought long and hard about what his leaving meant for their family. Alex and Abbie needed their father alive and well, but they also needed him constantly in their lives. And for her, she needed him at home now more than she ever did. He had been so busy with this one last job that she never had the perfect moment she wanted to tell him that they were going to have another child. She didn't want to keep it from Jack, especially when he would be gone for too long.

"Jack, I'll clean that." She scooped him off the floor and kept her hands on his arm.

"Don't let it dry in. They'll notice."

"Then I'll tell them I spilt some red wine." When he gave her an unimpressed look with his stern eyebrows raised, she crossed her arms and shook her head. "They are the least of my worries right now." She took in a jaggered breath and looked him dead in his blue eyes. "I need to tell you something important."

"Em, is this going to make me reconsider my options?"

"It might."

"Then don't tell me. If I stay, I will get myself killed. Emmy, you and the girls need me alive." He tilted his head and stepped towards her. "Do you still want to tell me?"

She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut when they started to fill up. "No, I can't make you stay… Even if it's what I want."

He pulled her into him, not caring that the pain was occupying his whole body. She rested her head on him as he kissed the top of her head; taking in her scent in for what could possibly be the last time.

"I'll be in contact." He whispered as he pulled away from her.

"With the girls too? What do you want me to tell them?"

He started to back towards the back door and shrugged with his good shoulder. "That I'm going to do everything I can so that we can be together."


Emilie watched him as he stepped out of the back door. She hated watching him leave; she was sick of it. He promised her that he would never have to leave again and now he was in danger. Her perfect world was in jeopardy.

"Jackson," when his icy eyes met hers, it sent a cold shiver down her spine, "I love you, please stay safe."

A slight smirk crossed his lips. "I love you too."

When the door closed, Emilie let out a sigh and switched on the hallway lights, gawking at the mess Jack's injuries left. She got her mop and scrubbed away any evidence of her husband being there; if he was right, then his bosses would turn up on her doorstep, asking questions.

As she took the weight off her feet, she started to go over what she'd have to tell them until her thoughts ran away with her. Her emotions erupted from her eyes. All she could do was weep. She was foolish for thinking that she could have a normal life with Jack, but she loved him dangerously; they took vows that she wasn't willing to break. She got onto her feet and wiped her nose, she had to keep normalcy for her kids and that included having their school lunches packed and clean clothes in the morning.


Red wire to blue with a bit of insulation tape wrapped round to keep the engine running. He picked the shittiest car to steal, but if it kept him out of the firing line and got him to Seattle in one piece, then why complain about it?

As he steered out of the suburban area, he took once last look behind him and shook his head; Miami was a good place for his family. Alex was almost in middle school and Abbie had only started her education. Five years they had been there and now, because of a bitch who felt guilty for a politician, he'd have to pick up his whole life… Again.

Thinking about his mess made his blood boil and without realising, he was hitting ninety on the freeway, his feet pushing the pedal as far into the ground as he could get it. He had to dial it back. No cops. He was a wanted man.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, hurling it through his rolled down window. He couldn't let the bastards track him. He had a couple hundred in his wallet, it would have to do until he made his 48 hour journey north. He could live on garbage and junk food if it meant keeping his three girls safe.


The morning came in quick and it didn't make things any easier when she woke her daughters out of their ignorant bliss. As they got dressed into their freshly washed clothes, Emilie locked herself in the bathroom and soaked her face with cold water. She needed something to keep her awake because she wasn't going to sleep until she heard from Jack.

As she patted her face dry, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror; her eyes were dark and full of worry. She was going to be a dead giveaway to anyone that came to the door. What happened the night before was still written on her face. She snapped out of it when she heard knocking on the bathroom door and as she opened it, she saw Alex staring up at her with a panicked look on her face.

"What's wrong?"

"You're not dressed yet? I thought you were driving us to school?" Alex crossed her arms, tapping her sneakers off the wooden floor as she waited for her mother's explanation.


"I completely forgot," she ran her fingers through her hair, "give me ten minutes to get myself dressed."

"You packed our lunches, right?"

Emilie turned back to the mirror and tried to fix her dishevelled hair. "Of course I did, it's on the counter."

"And dad's still taking us to the aquarium today after school, yeah?"

Emilie looked down at her ten year old daughter and shook her head slowly.

"Work comes first, I forgot that. Dad's always doing this!"

She sighed and placed her hand on her hip, there was nothing worse than seeing her kids disappointed by their father. "I'll take you."

"No, I wanted dad to take us. Abbie and I wanted to spend time with him but I guess that's too much to ask in this family."

Emilie went to open her mouth, but before she could get any words out, Alex had stormed back into her room and slammed the door shut. Seeing her like this made her feel like a bad parent but the kids were too young to understand what was going on. She would never drag them into this. But she always had to be the one that faced the backlash from the girls when Jack goes away. She was the hated parent, the breaker of bad news. Jack never had to see their broken looking faces or hear them cry; he just got the warm welcome home and the hugs. Emilie hoped that telling them about their new addition to the family would bring them a little bit of joy amidst this heartache.