I really wanted to write a Nadia x Doyle fic after the season finale. Nadia isn't going to let something as fickle as his eyes get between them (we hope)! But Rememberance Lane put up an AWESOME fic called "Hands"...
I don't think I can top that... but for the sake of the unresolved 24 ending... here we go.
Disclaimer: If I owned Jack he would have punked more people this season...
"I just haven't had a chance to think through anything…"
Well… I'm thinking about it now. She thought bitterly, catching her red puffy eyes in the mirror and running a slender hand over her face as she splashed it was water from her bathroom sink.
The last 11 hours she had spent tossing and turning. 11 hours until it was sunlight again and she still hadn't gotten any further with recovering from the last day.
She kept seeing flashes, would remember quick conversations, and kept feeling the sickness in her stomach that hadn't left since she saw a bullet put in her co-worker that made no secret about his feelings for her.
She looked at her gaunt features staring back at her. At least she looked as bad as she felt. And then a voice told her she could be thankful she could be looking at herself in the mirror at all, and she felt even sicker.
She trudged back to her bed, sheets rumpled. Although usually things would be impeccably neat and characterless, as though any additional clutter would make her feel less professional.
Thinking about it was doing any good. She couldn't be expected to get through the day on her own. But who could she talk to? She imagined calling her mother, who mightn't understand about going back to work after a possible racial slandering. Chloe, who was there for the entire thing, but that she wasn't that close to anyway and had enough on her mind after learning she was expecting. Or Morris? Who now was trying desperately not to step on his pregnant ex-wife's toes. It was only down to Bill and Doyle. Bill wasn't there when Milo was shot, but could certainty empathize with her decision… or lack thereof. But she'd feel embarrassed confiding in him, after all that responsibility he'd put in her hands and the outcome of the day.
She picked up her cell, beside her bed and pressed a single button. It had been easier just adding him to speed-dial after their frequent communication when comm. went down.
As it rang she could imagine him feebly reaching for it, grasping around in an effort to readjust himself to this new world he was living in. Another tear slid down her wet cheeks.
"Doyle."
"Hey." She sounded stoic.
"Nadia." He said. Even though he was blinded it sounded as though he felt better knowing he had command over some of the other senses. "Are you ok?"
His first instinct was that she was calling him because something else went wrong. Surely that was the extent of their conversations over the past day though, so why change it now?
"I don't know." She replied. With anyone else she would have said she was fine, but not with him. He saw through all that 'polite for the sake of polite' crap. Especially after the day they had just been through. "You?"
She thought it was a stupid question as soon as she asked it.
"I'm never going against Jack's better judgment again" He groaned, trying not to sound dramatic.
She ventured a small smile, something she was gradually learning to do again. "We lost Jack, Mike."
Now he was genuinely surprised. "You what?"
"Buchanan let him go." She corrected herself.
"But you got the boy right?"
"He's back with his mother."
Doyle gave a half-contented sigh. "So, you're still at CTU?"
"No." She paused. "I'm at home."
"Oh." He said, finally realizing this wasn't a call out of obligation and started to change his tone. "You get any sleep?"
"No." she replied honestly, her voice a bit hoarse. "What about you?"
"A little. Here and there. It's easier to sleep with bandages over your eyes."
She smiled again, "Maybe I should try that."
"I wouldn't recommend it."
There was silence for the first time in the conversation. She wanted to tell him everything – Chloe, Bill,
Milo, his brother… but she didn't know if this call was just one big mistake.
Best start with the last thing on her list. "I met
Milo's brother."
"I… I didn't know he had a brother." Doyle said a slight hint of shame in his voice.
"Neither did I." She bit her lip, equally as ashamed about it as he was.
"I'm sorry."
"Yeah." She wiped away a few more tears before continuing… she told him everything she could think of about the day. Including how he gave her self-confidence by telling her she was doing a good job – and she wouldn't have lasted the rest of the day without it and how she felt responsible for him, because she could have listened to Bill and Jack and she didn't.
"You did your job." Was all he could reply, but he couldn't help thinking that they both should have listened to Jack and Bill as he lay there in a hospital bed getting his eyes treated.
Feeling better already she hung up the phone, thinking it strange to confide in someone she'd known only a day, when she knew Milo a lot longer and didn't even know he had a brother.
This time Nadia Yassir wrapped herself around her pillow and fell asleep, the day was a bit more in perspective for her and she wasn't the only one living with it, it's just that she was better off than some of her co-workers.
She was by far not over it, but at least she could sleep and even though she never told him, she was thankful for his brave disposition throughout the entire phone-call. It was her lifeline to make it to the next day.
I might be tempted to write more... but reviews will always fuel that temptation.
I have a finale vid up on youtube (username: Easyboy201)
