Disclaimer: Don't own it!
Spoilers: Up to and including Season 8.
***
Her chest felt constricted, she couldn't breathe. Her heart was playing out a beat that was far from healthy or normal and yet, she couldn't relax enough to allow it to return to normal. And she couldn't close her mouth, couldn't hide her shock. She was terrified.
The words he had said to her were now playing in an endless cycle of repetition in her head and she could still feel the slightly calloused touch of his fingers graze her cheek. It was like they were attempting to burn themselves into her memory, trying to remember everything so that if it was the last thing that Jack said or did she would have a ready-formed memory sitting, waiting to be unfolded. And that was unacceptable.
She was not ready to let her last shred of hope of returning to a vague semblance of sanity to be taken away from her. She would not allow it. He had saved her too many times for her to let him go; she needed him to save her again.
The cascade of emotions that were flowing through her reminded her of what it used to feel like to feel. It had been a long time since she had experienced emotion at such a high level...long time since she had allowed herself to feel.
She slowed herself to be propelled forward. This was it. This was her chance to grasp onto some kind of life, some kind of future. An hour ago she wouldn't have thought that it mattered. Now that she had been abruptly separated from the one man that provided any desire in her to get better, her future was all that she could think about.
And a future without Jack Bauer was inconceivable.
***