Chapter1: Bad Timing
11:56pm, Jack glances at his watch. Taking his briefcase, Jack gets out of his SUV, walks towards the door, and rings the bell. In the past six months he has been used to being here occasionally, with an excuse, without a call, quite late. And he believes that this is the reason his temper is still amazingly not too unbearable to Teri.
Something is different today. The door doesn't open until Jack begins to seriously think about bump in. He's pretty sure she's athome. There must be something wrong. Finally it opens, and Jack finds thedifference immediately.
A man with only a towel round his waist appears in front of Jack's sight. Reluctant expression shows on his face for only a split second, but it is already more than enough to tell that Jack has interrupted something.
"Hi, uh…, is Nina at home?" Embarrassing? Gloating? Disappointing? Or even angry? Jack isn't sure what his feeling is most like.
"Oh yeah, she is." The guy answers. Well, with blond hair, blue eyes, six feet height, beautiful muscles, and even being able to keep great grace in such a situation, he's not too bad. Jack thinks.
Wrapped with only a Turkish towel, Nina comes out. "Oh, hi Jack." She greets him, walking towards the door. Why the hell are you here now? She curses inwardly.
"Hi Nina, I'm really sorry for coming here so late. I should've called you first." Jack swallows stealthily. He has to admit to himself that the picture of half-naked Nina is damn alluring.
"It's okay, Jack." Damn you Jack, why didn't you call me first?
"Let me introduce you Sam, my… friend. And Sam, this is my boss Jack."
"Nice to meet you." The two guys shake hands with each other, in quite a gentlemanly way, yetNina still can't help but think it's kind of a picture of cockfighting.
"So what's going on?" You'd better give me a good explanation. Nina shouts sliently. Considering the situation, she's not willing to invite Jack in at all. Actually she prefers to kick him out immediately.
In the mean time her phone rings. "I'll get it." Sam offers, kissing her hair gently, he leaves the two alone.
"Well, I realize that you'll go to the division directly tomorrow morning." Jack mumbles, being aware of the fact that he comes here at a definitely bad timing and Nina has no reason to be happy with that.
"Yes, thanks to your great consideration that the meeting will begin at as early as 7am." Nina sneers.
"I'm sorry Nina. But I forgot to pass you this necessary file for your presentation." Jack opens his case and gives her a document; despite both of them know the excuse is terrible. How could Nina be possible to forget anything important at work? She didn't mind his bad excuse before because it didn't matter. But today is different.
Thank God Sam comes back. He gives Nina the phone: "Sweetheart, it's a man named Mr. Walsh. Sounds urgent."
Both Jack and Nina's faces change the second they hear the name Walsh.
"Hang on." Nina speaks to Jack briefly, and then takes the phone, "Mr. Walsh. This is Myers."
"……"
"Yes sir. I understand, I'll inform him." Nina gives Jack a glance.
"……"
"What?" Although her face is still even, her tone is suggesting she's obviously shocked. Looking at Sam, Nina asks: "How could that happen?"
"……"
"Yes sir. I'm on it." Nina hangs up. She takes a deep breath, turns to Sam: "Honey, would you go back into the bedroom?"
Sam smiles: "Love to."
"Get dressed by the way." Nina complements, and then turns to Jack: "We need to talk."
"It's midnight, Nina." Sam is puzzled, "What's going on?"
"I'll explain to you later. Now I need five minutes." Nina pushes him towards the bedroom.
Looking at Jack, Sam surely wouldn't like to leave his girl alone with another man, especially when she wears only a towel.
"Sam, it's my work." Nina pleads. Finally he leaves.
"So what did Walsh say?" When Sam disappears inside the bedroom, Jack asks. To be honest he needs something to distract him from her body.
"He called me because he couldn't get you."
"Yes, my cell phone's battery died. What problem do we have?"
"The Secretary of the State was kidnapped 10 minutes ago."
Jack is stunned. Then he asks the question Nina asked several minutes ago: "How could that happen?"
"We don't know yet." Her voice is so low that Jack has to get closer, which makes his breath a little faster. "Secretary Stone and his motorcade were ambuscaded; two people are missing when our people get there: the Secretary and his son."
"And we believe that they're kidnapped?"
"The terrorists left a video tape on purpose, from which we can find the Secretary himself is the only hostage."
"So the son is missing?"
Nina hesitates for a while, finally she says: "According to Walsh, yes he is."
"Okay. I'm heading back to CTU now." Jack gives the bedroom a glimpse, and then complements, "You have another twenty minutes to handle that. Say sorry for me to Sam. I have to take you away from him." Jack mumbles, feeling a little guilty for his malicious happiness.
"No, we have to take him to CTU."
"Why?"
"Look, Jack, here's the thing I need to talk with you." Nina holds his arm. She rarely shows her weakness so frankly, "Remember I used to mention my ex-fiancé?"
"Yes." Jack picks up that conversation immediately, "You broke up with him, left the D.C. to LA, and joined us in CTU…"
"He's here." Nina interrupts him.
Jack couldn't help but swallows: "So you two get back together. Congratulations. But is that the reason you need to take him to CTU?"
"No, the reason is his last name is Stone."
Jack is stunned, after a while he says: "So he's Sam Stone…the chief of staff of the Secretary?"
"Andthe son of the Secretary." Nina complements.
"…So he's not missing." Finally Jack finds some words to say, "That's good. And yes you're right. We need to take him to CTU." He takes out his cell phone, "I'm calling a tactical team here for his guard on the way to CTU. And I'm afraid you have to be the one who informs him the bad news and debriefs him for any possibly useful information."
"You said your battery died?"
"Oh…yeah, I forgot to switch it on after I changed the battery." Jack mumbles, "I need to go now. Stay here and wait for the team." He leaves as quickly as he could.
Walking back to his SUV, the same pretty alley and the same bad feeling he's an idiot reminds Jack his first time leaving here six months ago, the day after he came back from Kosovo.
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Followed by
Chapter 2: I used to be there