A/N – Set sometime after Day Two
"In other news today, a terrorist attack in Baghdad has killed nineteen people and injured fifty, in what is believed to be a sectarian attack on a mostly Shia area of the city".
What was the point? They could never stop the flow of terrorism, and Jack knew that better than anyone. The news was a depressing reality check for him and every other CTU agent, and it had only gotten worse as the years went on. His world was one that few on the outside would ever experience or even really notice, and it was a dark, unforgiving world that had no room for anything other than violence, death and misery in every way that a terrorist could inflict it.
"The latest death toll in the bomb attack that caused chaos in Moscow yesterday has been revised to two hundred, after twelve more injured victims died overnight".
Jack had never been one to keep count of how many people he had lost to the terrorists. If anything, he kept count of how many people he had saved from terrorists, and he was grateful that the number he saved was still far greater than the number he had lost, a fact that comforted him.
"And authorities in India are warning that a terrorist attack on a major Indian city could take place any day, although they assured the Indian people that they were doing all they could to prevent any such attacks".
Jack could only chuckle cynically at that statement – "prevent". He knew all too well that even if you could prevent terrorists from carrying out their deadly crimes, one or two would always eventually slip through, and then people like him had to deal with the aftermath. He didn't blame the media for being so angry and asking why the attack couldn't be prevented – that was to be expected, seeing as few journalists even knew what the names of half the counter-terrorist agencies in the country were.
"Tomorrow night, we'll be talking to Professor Henry Walker, an expert on the Middle East, to discuss the high levels of terrorism sweeping Iraq".
Turning off the television, Jack looked at the blank screen, the only image was his reflection, and in it he saw a lonely, miserable man who had lost everything. Even though his relationship with Kim was much better nowadays, there was still wounds that hurt. He missed Teri, he hated Nina, he worried about the next threat to Kim or himself, and being the Head of Field Operations at CTU was not exactly the most relaxing job in the world. Sometimes, he just felt like walking away from everything, but he couldn't, and a small part of him wouldn't. He couldn't abandon his family or his country, no matter what. Pulling himself up from the sofa, he looked wearily at a picture of Teri that hung on a nearby wall. Teri would never want him to give up, he knew that.