Yay, my second fiction for Karen/Bill. I must warn you, I'm not yet writing AU fics for them – just a series of the missing scenes/situations… This one takes place between Day 5 and Day 6, and it's gonna have at least 5 chapters. My first fic was 'Make Me Scream' (really hope you liked it), and althou this one ain't a sequel or anything, all my BK fictions will eventually show you the whole picture (that, if I have enough time, patience and inspiration to write down all of my ideas).

Please-please-please, reviews are highly needed!!!

I don't own 24, nor do I own the characters!

Spoilers for season 5. ONLY.

***

As the lights in the room went on, and the darkness was no longer the only object to be seen, Karen found herself surrounded by the armed men. There had to be seven of them, she knew, now watching everyone, moving her eyes from one to another. Three men held their guns aiming at Bill who was kneeled on the floor with his hands tied behind his back.

The three more, Karen saw now, were ready to shoot her, standing far enough from each other, not giving her a smallest chance of shooting them before they'd kill her. She squeezed the gun in her arms, and slowly moved it to one of the Bill's potential killers.

What Karen didn't see right now, was the seventh man. She knew he had to be there, and has already searched almost the whole room by now, but there was still no sign of his presence.

"Do you really think it's going to help you?" Karen heard a male voice coming from behind her back. It was one of the men aiming their guns at her, speaking. She knew, he was right. She hadn't had a gun in her arms for the last decade, in fact before today she didn't think she ever would. Her hands were shaky, just a little, but it could be fatal for someone with a gun.

"What do you want?" Karen asked, her voice cold and distant, her heart nearly jumping out of her chest. They can kill her now, any moment. And what is even worse, they can kill Bill. She knew that watching her die would mean the end for him, as well as watching him die would break her heart. Still, she didn't lower her gun, not an inch. If these bastards were going to kill them, she wanted to take them with her.

"As a matter of fact," the voice spoke again. "I have already gained what I want. But you know, after what you've done to me today…"

Karen shivered as the memories hit her mind. She knew exactly what this man was up to. Just several hours ago, Karen shot to death a woman who appeared to be this man's wife. It was a self defense, she reminded herself, but none of this mattered.

"So now you're going to kill my husband and make me watch it," Karen finally said. It wasn't a question, she knew it was the truth. "You're going to kill my husband" she repeated herself as if not yet believing this was happening for real.

"Not exactly," the man responded. "Because you are going to kill him."

His last statement nearly made Karen jump. The man however continued:

"You've probably met Andrew," he pointed his head at the balcony about 10 feel above the floor. There, behind what Karen believed to be the bullet proof glass, the 7th man stood. He was holding a laptop, and nodded as soon as everyone in the room turned to face him. "Andrew here is what you call a genius. He managed to hack into the Pentagon system, and now is targeting one of their nuclear bombs…"

"No, you can't," Karen spoke in disbelief. She could feel the sweat on her face; she could sense the blood running down from her bullet wound in the stomach. The light-blue blouse she was wearing now turned to be half red, and Karen knew there was a lot of her blood on the floor – it wouldn't be too long before she collapsed of the blood loss. "This is your country," she whispered. "Your home. I regret I had to shoot Caroline, but…"

"This is no longer my country. They took everything from me, my daughter, my job, my wife… I served them for 20 years, and they simply left my daughter for the maniac to toy her…" he cut her off. "But it's still yours. And unless you want one of the biggest cities of US go up in smoke, you will shoot Bill Buchanan. Now. And the surveillance cameras will exactly record you committing a murder of a high ranking officer."

Then it hit her: that's why all the men were standing so far from both Bill and her – they were making sure the cameras wouldn't have them on the tape.

"Now, move your gun to the right. If your aiming is accurate, you'll be able to save your husband a lot of pain by killing him with the first shot."

Karen didn't move. It was Bill there, looking at her, blood dried on his face. He was silent. She remembered their first breakfast, Bill boyishly smiling and making sure she'd laugh all the time. She remembered their first night together – they had a dinner at his place, and when she went to her car to go home, the car wouldn't move. It was something wrong with the engine, she was told later on, but then, as the rain showered her from head to toe, and she returned to his house, all shaking and freezing, he'd take off her wet pullover and warm her with his body. Then, after she'd stop shaking, they'd move to his bedroom: no words were said, as none were needed. They'd make love, and it would be the first time Karen relaxed for the past months. She remembered their wedding, Bill's happy face and her own nervousness… she couldn't believe she was that happy…

"You know that he won't make it out alive, don't you? Either you kill him and save your damn country, or I'll kill him and then blow up the city with a nuclear bomb."

"You don't want him dead," Karen said, her voice still cold, her vision thou getting blurry.

"No," the man agreed. "But I want you to pay for my wife's murder. You'll spend the rest of your life in the federal prison, that if you don't get the injection for killing the CIA agent on duty. And you will always know it was Caroline you really killed. Now, shoot!" he shouted.

Karen closed her eyes as the tears made them hurt. The next thing she heard was a gunshot. When she opened her eyes, she saw Bill falling down to the ground…

TO BE CONTINUED…