Jack Bauer needs me.
The stupid bastard doesn't realize it, but he does. He needs me. He needs me for my skills, for my loyalty; he needs me because I'll do all kinds of illegal, treasonous things for him without asking for so much as an explanation. He tells himself that's why he needs me, but he's wrong.
He needs me to protect him. Not just by guiding him when he's in the field, not just by getting myself arrested so he can escape, not just by risking my whole life because he asked. No, he needs me to protect him from the world.
The world has been cruel to him. It took everything. It took his wife, his daughter, the president that meant everything to him, his two closest friends. It took his happiness, it took his trust, it took his freedom, and it extinguished the light inside him. It took everything he ever cared about. Except for me.
Jack Bauer can count on nothing in this world. Nothing except for me.
The stupid bastard doesn't realize it, but it's true. He has a girlfriend, Audrey, whom he thinks he loves. He can't even count on Audrey enough to trust that she's not a traitor. But when he thought she was, and everything turned upside down, there was still one constant. Me.
I was the one he came to. I was the one who investigated for him. I was all he had; I was all he had in the whole world. I was the one who saw him raw and hurt, because I am his protector. I was all that stood between him and nothingness. And I protected him from it, just by existing.
It's my loyalty that protects his life, but my existence is what protects his soul. I'm always there, always ready to help, and I always care. But above all, I am, and that's what matters. Without me, there is no constant. Without me, there is no reason to believe anything is real. But I am, and that alone is enough for Jack Bauer to live.
He trusts me. I'm the only person in whom he places pure, unadulterated trust. He's supposed to trust Audrey; they're in a "committed relationship." He believed that she was a traitor. That's not trust.
But he trusts me. He trusts me with his life. He trusts me with his most dangerous secrets, secrets he can't entrust to anyone else he cares about. And he trusts me to protect him. He trusts me to be, so that there is something between him and nothing. Without me, he is lost.
He needs me.