Test Match
Author: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick
E-Mail: AgentThespis@msn.com
Rating: PG-13 for language, violence
Category: Drama, Vignette
Spoilers: 7-8 PM (whenever Mason was reamed by Chappelle); 11 PM-12 AM; a handful for my stories, but not that important. You might be better off if you read "Not An Important Failure" first, but that's not necessary.
Summary: Three weeks after Season 1, CTU is in a shakeup, Chappelle is murdered, Mason is accused of the crime, Liz finds herself in a compromised position, and Jack may be the unwilling savior of them all.
Original Character Bio: (for the Fanfiction.net newbies to this series) Liz Rycoff is CTU's Chief of Technology, a close friend to both Jack and Mason. Mason wants her to go work for him at District, but her loyalty to Jack and CTU holds her back.
Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at a 24 novella … we'll see how it goes. Some of it might be a little unlikely, but bear with me.
Chapter One: Abort, Retry, Fail, Terminate
Wasted time, wasted life, wasted change, wasted slavery
- Kill Transmission, "Dying Wish"
"… can we make a positive identification?"
"What about the tapes? There have to be tapes."
"… the forensics unit is on its way…"
There had to be a couple dozen people there. They were all speaking of the same things with the same cold adjectives. Their voiced concerns were all that could be heard. Silence had filled the void. With all the fatalistic noise at his back, Tony Almeida picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number.
Kim Bauer glanced at the phone in her kitchen. She didn't like to answer it anymore, not since everything that had happened to her. They'd gotten caller ID but it didn't work this time. She shrugged. It was 2:34 on a Saturday and she wanted to try and be a little more optimistic. She snatched the phone after the second ring and recognized Tony's voice instantly. "Kim?" he asked. Now she was nervous, twirling the cord around her finger. Why would he be calling? "Yeah, what can I help you with?" she said carefully. "Actually, I need to get a hold of your father or Liz," he said. She nodded, told him to hold on, and took the cordless through the kitchen and down the hall. Her mind was racing already and she took several deep breaths hoping that it was just some little thing and not something else that would haunt her for a long time.
She knocked once on the door of the office and pushed open the door. Liz was sitting at the desk filling out forms. She did that a lot, Kim noticed, since her promotion had come down the line. With Nina's arrest, as the third highest ranking officer at CTU, Liz had been cornered into becoming interim Chief of Staff. It was a job, post-Hotel Los Angeles, that she didn't want. Except Tony had been right when he said Jack needed someone he could absolutely trust and that she was that person. Now it was all paperwork for her. She glanced up and smiled. "Hey, Kim," she said, putting down the pen. "What's up?"
Kim held the phone out to her like it was a pair of scissors she didn't want pointed in the wrong direction. "Tony's on the phone for you." Liz quirked an eyebrow as if she could read Kim's mind and took the cordless. Kim stood there watching her as she took the call, partly so she could take the phone back and partly to ease her nervousness. This had once been her mom's office, but Liz had – again, against her protests – taken it up to use while she was around. Ever since the funeral she had been around a lot to help with everything, and Kim liked her and appreciated her being there. She always liked Liz and it was fine that she was there every couple of days, but still it seemed wrong that it was Liz and not Kim's actual mother that was now the female influence in the family. Kim rubbed the bridge of her nose at the well-discussed concern. Liz was still talking.
"I don't understand," she was saying. "Why… No, I know where he is, I'm just saying that … Tony, you do understand what … with his *family* and … fine, yes, I'll be there. Why didn't he just call me? Fine. I'm not going to complain. I don't … No, he's not. I'm not going to … He can shove it. Fine." She hung up and stared at the phone. Tentatively, Kim spoke. "What's going on?" she asked quietly. Liz was always honest with her about work, even when her father might want to avoid telling her some of the details. Liz paused, then looked at her. "There's an emergency briefing at CTU," she said. Kim sucked in a breath but the veteran agent was quick to placate her. "I'm going to take care of it," she continued. "This will not be another one of *those* situations. You cool?"
Kim nodded, still working on her optimism. Liz climbed out of the chair and left the room with Kim still looking at the silent cordless phone, face down on the desk.
Little did she know that the same what if she was thinking about was the one that was in Liz's heart as she climbed the stairs looking for Jack to tell him she was leaving. She would tell him where but not why. As far as she was concerned it was for his own good. This was what she had tried to express to Tony on the phone. It had only been three weeks since Teri's death. She didn't want Jack caught up in something else. Things at CTU were in "safe mode" already, carefully being reconstructed, the program stunted since the Palmer-Drazen affair. No one was used to anything. Jack had Kim to look after and she also didn't think he needed another headache like what he had gone through. She found him in the master bedroom trying to take a nap, trying being the operative word.
He opened one eye and looked at her, studying the look on her face. "What?" he prompted. She bit her lip. "I'm going back to the office," she said. Now he opened both eyes and sat up, looking right at her, into her. "Why?" he said. "I don't know," she said truthfully. "Tony called and Mason has called an all-hands meeting." Jack let out a breath and started to stand, but the firmness in her voice stopped him. "I'll take care of it," she continued, then softened her tone. "Take it easy. I'm sure it's not … I'm sure I can handle it." He blinked. "You don't have to handle me, you know." She smiled thinly. "I know. Maybe I want to, for a little while. I'll be back. Don't wait for me." And she walked out before he could say anything to the contrary.
For the last three weeks Liz had been part of the Bauer family, staying around every couple of days, being there without intruding too much on Jack and Kim's lives, without trying to make herself the replacement for Teri. She went through each day of those three weeks with a pain in her heart. She still saw Teri, still thought about her, and though she thought Teri would want her to be around, she still felt like she was imposing. Teri had been a great friend of hers, and now the spirit of her fallen friend always seemed to be at her elbow. She took a deep breath, said a little prayer, and headed for the door. Kim was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm going to handle this," Liz explained, "Don't wait on me, though. And try not to let your father give you guys food poisoning while I'm gone." The two of them shared a smile and an embrace, and Liz regretfully pulled away. She needed to go, she knew, and she walked out. Kim waited, listening for the sound of the Pontiac engine as it peeled away before she turned and headed for her bedroom. Maybe she could be cautiously optimistic after all.
The cell phone in Liz's Sunfire stayed in its holder, though by all rights she should have called Tony and asked to be quickly informed before she got to CTU. She had lied, playing stupid briefly. She knew why Mason hadn't called her. He didn't like calling her when he knew she would be at Jack's house. In his mind which had only fractured since everything had come down, it only put her more on Jack's side and just a little more against him. She didn't want that to be his thought but it was. And she didn't want to choose, but one of these days … She sighed. She didn't want all the pain to be felt by all the great people she knew. They didn't fucking deserve it.
She pulled in and ran to the door, ran through it, and for a moment it was all surreal as she kept searching for Nina, Jamey … but they were gone, replaced by medics and forensics unit agents and chaos. Snapping out of her trance she saw Mason on the periphery, raised a hand to let him know she had arrived, and snagged Tony still at his desk. She was out of breath when she asked him what happened.
"It's Chappelle," was all he could say, the pair of words falling out of his mouth with similar surrealism.
Liz's head snapped around so quickly that it hurt. She'd heard those two words before, spoken with anger, spoken with pain, spoken with hatred, but never said with the disbelief that Tony had said them. Even as she turned she felt her heart shatter all over again. And through the crowd of people she could suddenly see the truth. She could see it plainly, and the weak stomach she had always had was double-proof now, sending her backward, and Tony had to catch her. He held her by the arms, encouraging her to breathe. She forced breaths out through burning lungs even as she looked into Ryan Chappelle's eyes.
Always defiant, even in death.
She thought she was going to be sick. And it really had less to do with the fact that she was unable to handle the sight of death since the Hotel Los Angeles attack, maybe even before that, then she thought it did. Jesus, something more? Couldn't there be any day where something didn't happen? Were these the actions of a just God, a wise God? Thoughts like these and a thousand more spun in her mind as she froze up again, cold inside. Tony still supported her, feeling the emotion rolling off of her as she dropped her head into her hands. He could hear only two words from her: "Not again."
When she lifted her head Mason was there, knowing her all too well, strategically blocking her view of the body. They looked at each other not knowing what to say. They both knew they were not Chappelle's biggest fans. They both knew there would be questions. They both knew that this was the beginning of a whole new ongoing struggle for CTU at a time when CTU didn't need it. George just looked at her with an infinite sympathy and she looked back with an infinite pain. It was all completely insane. "Come on," he urged her. "Tony, you okay here?" "Yeah," Tony said, nodding as he gently helped Liz from his grasp to Mason's. His eyes were still locked on the affair. Mason and Liz disappeared into the break room.
"How long?" were the first words out of her mouth. He didn't trust her to stand, kept his hands firmly on her shoulders. "We're not sure," he told her. "We found him here just about twenty minutes ago." He allowed for some silence, then launched into the inevitable. "Liz, you need to know that with our firmly anti-Chappelle standpoint there are going to be questions … maybe even accusations." She nodded. "They all know it's never come to anything. Jack, Tony, Milo, everyone here can vouch for us, George. That's not what I'm worried about. We can't take this," and her voice broke on the last two words.
She reached for her cell phone. She had to make the call.
Kim had followed Liz's orders and was consuming the second half of a microwave pizza on the couch watching Liz's copy of "Con Air" when the phone rang. Jack was able to get it himself this time. The second he heard the way she sounded, he grabbed it and walked out of the room and down the hall instinctively as airplanes crashed behind him. "Talk to me," he said quickly, voice edged with worry and a little bit of edginess at being coddled. She quickly explained it in four words: "Jack, Ryan Chappelle's dead." Jack had to keep his voice down as he blurted out his disbelief. His stomach lurched. He knew all about the implications …
"I'm coming down there."
"Jack, no." Her voice was a defiant plea. "Don't do this."
"I'm still Agent In Charge of CTU, it's my job, Liz. Kim will be fine." Already he was hunting for his car keys. "Who's in charge down there?"
"George has got it," Liz said, looking at Mason as she spoke. "I think we're having a meeting at some point."
"I'll be there in a few minutes." And this time it was Jack who terminated the conversation before any protest could be lodged. Before Kim knew it he had kissed her goodbye and left in a rush, and then she was alone with U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin knowing that everyone around her was in a panic not three weeks after the first one had ended. Deep within her, fear took hold. It was a fear that ran through her, through her father, through her father's best friend and into her father's best friend's ally as they were all connected through time, connected through opportunity, and connected through unbelievable agony.
Liz closed the phone, knowing defeat. "God damn it," she said.
"You can't protect him forever," Mason intoned the same five words, this time with an entirely different meaning. It wasn't about his politics versus hers, his District versus her unit. This time they were all together in this. They were all going to be sighted, going to be interrogated, going to be reamed by some higher-up investigator. It didn't matter about all the other coverups now. They were all level here. Chappelle, in dying, had equalized the stakes he'd been trying to unbalance, ironically. But she looked at him with pained eyes. "I wish I could," she said quietly. "I'd give everything if I could."
Mason had to look away and push them both past the emotional angst that would only make it worse. "We need to get everyone together," he said. "Conference room, five minutes." She nodded and brushed past him; only in touching her did he realize she was just barely shaking.
Liz stepped back out into the bullpen, still feeling bizarre, one-part aftershock and one-part shellshock from once again assuming a job that had been Nina's after her and now Nina's before her. She had been Chief of Staff before Nina, for the Hotel Los Angeles. Now she was again, and it still didn't feel right as she directed Tony to round everyone up. Tony, too, was taking on a greater importance, and he understood her and obeyed. She knew his broken heart had been replaced by the apathy of knowing the real truth about Nina Myers. And she knew, he, too, was now acting out of obligation than any great motivation.
The medical officers had begun to remove the body.
Across the room Liz could see Milo, who had swiftly been bumped from temp to acting Chief of Technology, much to his surprise, and waved him over as well. He was only supposed to stay on as a new staffer, that had been the plan. Then Jamey had died – he became replacement Assistant Chief. Then Nina had been taken down, Liz unexpectedly promoted – he became acting Chief. Thankfully for her, he was learning well and, avoiding the scene in the center of the room, came running over.
"They've got you checking the tapes and the wire and stuff, right?" she said to him. Milo nodded, "Yeah, first thing, Mason's orders." Liz smiled, just barely. "Good. Keep at it. What I want you to do is pull them off the wire from District as well. You may need Mason's passcode, if you do, I've got it. I mean, obviously…" "It didn't just start here," Milo finished, following her thoughts. He studied her. "Are you going to be okay?" She shook her head. "Not in the slightest. I'll see you inside."
Warily, he left her standing there, and she forced everything but the job out of her head. This was the last defeat that they could take. She remembered what Mason had said once: 'CTU is collapsing, and you're at ground zero.' She had been offended, had fought the statement, telling him he was wrong. Was he really? Was he now? Ryan Sealey would be down any minute to begin snapping shut the jaws of bureaucracy, Jack was endangering everything he had left just to do his job, someone was dead … how far was that from collapse?
Not far enough.
She dialed Jack's home number again, though she knew he was gone. She knew he probably hadn't said a word to Kim. If she were Kim she'd be scared out of her mind. She didn't know what she would say but she had to say something. Kim answered in half a ring. Liz tried to speak patiently as Kim explained, "Dad didn't tell me anything," in a nervous breath. "I know," she said, "That's why I called. Somebody died. Somebody was killed. We just have to deal with it." Kim was surprised. "Who was it?" she said worriedly. "It was your dad's boss's boss," she explained, "we don't know if it was murder or … or…" "Suicide," Kim picked up hesitantly. "But it isn't going to be… right?" she said. Liz nodded. "I don't think so," she said. "Listen, is there anything…" But Kim cut her off. "I'm okay," she insisted. And Liz hung up with the assurance that Kim would call knowing Kim would not, trying to soldier through it. Just like the rest of them.
She headed into the conference room where everyone else was waiting and took her old seat. She never sat in Nina's chair.
Tony spoke first. "What do we do?" It was a simple question. Difficult answer.
"We won't know anything conclusive until the autopsy," Milo pointed out and Mason nodded. "Yeah, that's true," he said, "but we should look at what might be happening to us until then. We can't not do anything."
Sealey looked at him like he'd better know what he was talking about. Ever since he'd been slammed by Liz – Mason's subordinate's subordinate – over a mission in Coronado he kept blaming Mason for not keeping his employees on a very tight rein.
They all looked at each other. "I've got Milo checking tape," Liz explained needlessly. Other than that, there was silence in the room, as if even though their greatest enemy had been removed, they suddenly found themselves unable to function. As if that was just what he wanted.
-To Be Continued-
Author: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick
E-Mail: AgentThespis@msn.com
Rating: PG-13 for language, violence
Category: Drama, Vignette
Spoilers: 7-8 PM (whenever Mason was reamed by Chappelle); 11 PM-12 AM; a handful for my stories, but not that important. You might be better off if you read "Not An Important Failure" first, but that's not necessary.
Summary: Three weeks after Season 1, CTU is in a shakeup, Chappelle is murdered, Mason is accused of the crime, Liz finds herself in a compromised position, and Jack may be the unwilling savior of them all.
Original Character Bio: (for the Fanfiction.net newbies to this series) Liz Rycoff is CTU's Chief of Technology, a close friend to both Jack and Mason. Mason wants her to go work for him at District, but her loyalty to Jack and CTU holds her back.
Author's Notes: This is my first attempt at a 24 novella … we'll see how it goes. Some of it might be a little unlikely, but bear with me.
Chapter One: Abort, Retry, Fail, Terminate
Wasted time, wasted life, wasted change, wasted slavery
- Kill Transmission, "Dying Wish"
"… can we make a positive identification?"
"What about the tapes? There have to be tapes."
"… the forensics unit is on its way…"
There had to be a couple dozen people there. They were all speaking of the same things with the same cold adjectives. Their voiced concerns were all that could be heard. Silence had filled the void. With all the fatalistic noise at his back, Tony Almeida picked up the phone on his desk and dialed a number.
Kim Bauer glanced at the phone in her kitchen. She didn't like to answer it anymore, not since everything that had happened to her. They'd gotten caller ID but it didn't work this time. She shrugged. It was 2:34 on a Saturday and she wanted to try and be a little more optimistic. She snatched the phone after the second ring and recognized Tony's voice instantly. "Kim?" he asked. Now she was nervous, twirling the cord around her finger. Why would he be calling? "Yeah, what can I help you with?" she said carefully. "Actually, I need to get a hold of your father or Liz," he said. She nodded, told him to hold on, and took the cordless through the kitchen and down the hall. Her mind was racing already and she took several deep breaths hoping that it was just some little thing and not something else that would haunt her for a long time.
She knocked once on the door of the office and pushed open the door. Liz was sitting at the desk filling out forms. She did that a lot, Kim noticed, since her promotion had come down the line. With Nina's arrest, as the third highest ranking officer at CTU, Liz had been cornered into becoming interim Chief of Staff. It was a job, post-Hotel Los Angeles, that she didn't want. Except Tony had been right when he said Jack needed someone he could absolutely trust and that she was that person. Now it was all paperwork for her. She glanced up and smiled. "Hey, Kim," she said, putting down the pen. "What's up?"
Kim held the phone out to her like it was a pair of scissors she didn't want pointed in the wrong direction. "Tony's on the phone for you." Liz quirked an eyebrow as if she could read Kim's mind and took the cordless. Kim stood there watching her as she took the call, partly so she could take the phone back and partly to ease her nervousness. This had once been her mom's office, but Liz had – again, against her protests – taken it up to use while she was around. Ever since the funeral she had been around a lot to help with everything, and Kim liked her and appreciated her being there. She always liked Liz and it was fine that she was there every couple of days, but still it seemed wrong that it was Liz and not Kim's actual mother that was now the female influence in the family. Kim rubbed the bridge of her nose at the well-discussed concern. Liz was still talking.
"I don't understand," she was saying. "Why… No, I know where he is, I'm just saying that … Tony, you do understand what … with his *family* and … fine, yes, I'll be there. Why didn't he just call me? Fine. I'm not going to complain. I don't … No, he's not. I'm not going to … He can shove it. Fine." She hung up and stared at the phone. Tentatively, Kim spoke. "What's going on?" she asked quietly. Liz was always honest with her about work, even when her father might want to avoid telling her some of the details. Liz paused, then looked at her. "There's an emergency briefing at CTU," she said. Kim sucked in a breath but the veteran agent was quick to placate her. "I'm going to take care of it," she continued. "This will not be another one of *those* situations. You cool?"
Kim nodded, still working on her optimism. Liz climbed out of the chair and left the room with Kim still looking at the silent cordless phone, face down on the desk.
Little did she know that the same what if she was thinking about was the one that was in Liz's heart as she climbed the stairs looking for Jack to tell him she was leaving. She would tell him where but not why. As far as she was concerned it was for his own good. This was what she had tried to express to Tony on the phone. It had only been three weeks since Teri's death. She didn't want Jack caught up in something else. Things at CTU were in "safe mode" already, carefully being reconstructed, the program stunted since the Palmer-Drazen affair. No one was used to anything. Jack had Kim to look after and she also didn't think he needed another headache like what he had gone through. She found him in the master bedroom trying to take a nap, trying being the operative word.
He opened one eye and looked at her, studying the look on her face. "What?" he prompted. She bit her lip. "I'm going back to the office," she said. Now he opened both eyes and sat up, looking right at her, into her. "Why?" he said. "I don't know," she said truthfully. "Tony called and Mason has called an all-hands meeting." Jack let out a breath and started to stand, but the firmness in her voice stopped him. "I'll take care of it," she continued, then softened her tone. "Take it easy. I'm sure it's not … I'm sure I can handle it." He blinked. "You don't have to handle me, you know." She smiled thinly. "I know. Maybe I want to, for a little while. I'll be back. Don't wait for me." And she walked out before he could say anything to the contrary.
For the last three weeks Liz had been part of the Bauer family, staying around every couple of days, being there without intruding too much on Jack and Kim's lives, without trying to make herself the replacement for Teri. She went through each day of those three weeks with a pain in her heart. She still saw Teri, still thought about her, and though she thought Teri would want her to be around, she still felt like she was imposing. Teri had been a great friend of hers, and now the spirit of her fallen friend always seemed to be at her elbow. She took a deep breath, said a little prayer, and headed for the door. Kim was waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
"I'm going to handle this," Liz explained, "Don't wait on me, though. And try not to let your father give you guys food poisoning while I'm gone." The two of them shared a smile and an embrace, and Liz regretfully pulled away. She needed to go, she knew, and she walked out. Kim waited, listening for the sound of the Pontiac engine as it peeled away before she turned and headed for her bedroom. Maybe she could be cautiously optimistic after all.
The cell phone in Liz's Sunfire stayed in its holder, though by all rights she should have called Tony and asked to be quickly informed before she got to CTU. She had lied, playing stupid briefly. She knew why Mason hadn't called her. He didn't like calling her when he knew she would be at Jack's house. In his mind which had only fractured since everything had come down, it only put her more on Jack's side and just a little more against him. She didn't want that to be his thought but it was. And she didn't want to choose, but one of these days … She sighed. She didn't want all the pain to be felt by all the great people she knew. They didn't fucking deserve it.
She pulled in and ran to the door, ran through it, and for a moment it was all surreal as she kept searching for Nina, Jamey … but they were gone, replaced by medics and forensics unit agents and chaos. Snapping out of her trance she saw Mason on the periphery, raised a hand to let him know she had arrived, and snagged Tony still at his desk. She was out of breath when she asked him what happened.
"It's Chappelle," was all he could say, the pair of words falling out of his mouth with similar surrealism.
Liz's head snapped around so quickly that it hurt. She'd heard those two words before, spoken with anger, spoken with pain, spoken with hatred, but never said with the disbelief that Tony had said them. Even as she turned she felt her heart shatter all over again. And through the crowd of people she could suddenly see the truth. She could see it plainly, and the weak stomach she had always had was double-proof now, sending her backward, and Tony had to catch her. He held her by the arms, encouraging her to breathe. She forced breaths out through burning lungs even as she looked into Ryan Chappelle's eyes.
Always defiant, even in death.
She thought she was going to be sick. And it really had less to do with the fact that she was unable to handle the sight of death since the Hotel Los Angeles attack, maybe even before that, then she thought it did. Jesus, something more? Couldn't there be any day where something didn't happen? Were these the actions of a just God, a wise God? Thoughts like these and a thousand more spun in her mind as she froze up again, cold inside. Tony still supported her, feeling the emotion rolling off of her as she dropped her head into her hands. He could hear only two words from her: "Not again."
When she lifted her head Mason was there, knowing her all too well, strategically blocking her view of the body. They looked at each other not knowing what to say. They both knew they were not Chappelle's biggest fans. They both knew there would be questions. They both knew that this was the beginning of a whole new ongoing struggle for CTU at a time when CTU didn't need it. George just looked at her with an infinite sympathy and she looked back with an infinite pain. It was all completely insane. "Come on," he urged her. "Tony, you okay here?" "Yeah," Tony said, nodding as he gently helped Liz from his grasp to Mason's. His eyes were still locked on the affair. Mason and Liz disappeared into the break room.
"How long?" were the first words out of her mouth. He didn't trust her to stand, kept his hands firmly on her shoulders. "We're not sure," he told her. "We found him here just about twenty minutes ago." He allowed for some silence, then launched into the inevitable. "Liz, you need to know that with our firmly anti-Chappelle standpoint there are going to be questions … maybe even accusations." She nodded. "They all know it's never come to anything. Jack, Tony, Milo, everyone here can vouch for us, George. That's not what I'm worried about. We can't take this," and her voice broke on the last two words.
She reached for her cell phone. She had to make the call.
Kim had followed Liz's orders and was consuming the second half of a microwave pizza on the couch watching Liz's copy of "Con Air" when the phone rang. Jack was able to get it himself this time. The second he heard the way she sounded, he grabbed it and walked out of the room and down the hall instinctively as airplanes crashed behind him. "Talk to me," he said quickly, voice edged with worry and a little bit of edginess at being coddled. She quickly explained it in four words: "Jack, Ryan Chappelle's dead." Jack had to keep his voice down as he blurted out his disbelief. His stomach lurched. He knew all about the implications …
"I'm coming down there."
"Jack, no." Her voice was a defiant plea. "Don't do this."
"I'm still Agent In Charge of CTU, it's my job, Liz. Kim will be fine." Already he was hunting for his car keys. "Who's in charge down there?"
"George has got it," Liz said, looking at Mason as she spoke. "I think we're having a meeting at some point."
"I'll be there in a few minutes." And this time it was Jack who terminated the conversation before any protest could be lodged. Before Kim knew it he had kissed her goodbye and left in a rush, and then she was alone with U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin knowing that everyone around her was in a panic not three weeks after the first one had ended. Deep within her, fear took hold. It was a fear that ran through her, through her father, through her father's best friend and into her father's best friend's ally as they were all connected through time, connected through opportunity, and connected through unbelievable agony.
Liz closed the phone, knowing defeat. "God damn it," she said.
"You can't protect him forever," Mason intoned the same five words, this time with an entirely different meaning. It wasn't about his politics versus hers, his District versus her unit. This time they were all together in this. They were all going to be sighted, going to be interrogated, going to be reamed by some higher-up investigator. It didn't matter about all the other coverups now. They were all level here. Chappelle, in dying, had equalized the stakes he'd been trying to unbalance, ironically. But she looked at him with pained eyes. "I wish I could," she said quietly. "I'd give everything if I could."
Mason had to look away and push them both past the emotional angst that would only make it worse. "We need to get everyone together," he said. "Conference room, five minutes." She nodded and brushed past him; only in touching her did he realize she was just barely shaking.
Liz stepped back out into the bullpen, still feeling bizarre, one-part aftershock and one-part shellshock from once again assuming a job that had been Nina's after her and now Nina's before her. She had been Chief of Staff before Nina, for the Hotel Los Angeles. Now she was again, and it still didn't feel right as she directed Tony to round everyone up. Tony, too, was taking on a greater importance, and he understood her and obeyed. She knew his broken heart had been replaced by the apathy of knowing the real truth about Nina Myers. And she knew, he, too, was now acting out of obligation than any great motivation.
The medical officers had begun to remove the body.
Across the room Liz could see Milo, who had swiftly been bumped from temp to acting Chief of Technology, much to his surprise, and waved him over as well. He was only supposed to stay on as a new staffer, that had been the plan. Then Jamey had died – he became replacement Assistant Chief. Then Nina had been taken down, Liz unexpectedly promoted – he became acting Chief. Thankfully for her, he was learning well and, avoiding the scene in the center of the room, came running over.
"They've got you checking the tapes and the wire and stuff, right?" she said to him. Milo nodded, "Yeah, first thing, Mason's orders." Liz smiled, just barely. "Good. Keep at it. What I want you to do is pull them off the wire from District as well. You may need Mason's passcode, if you do, I've got it. I mean, obviously…" "It didn't just start here," Milo finished, following her thoughts. He studied her. "Are you going to be okay?" She shook her head. "Not in the slightest. I'll see you inside."
Warily, he left her standing there, and she forced everything but the job out of her head. This was the last defeat that they could take. She remembered what Mason had said once: 'CTU is collapsing, and you're at ground zero.' She had been offended, had fought the statement, telling him he was wrong. Was he really? Was he now? Ryan Sealey would be down any minute to begin snapping shut the jaws of bureaucracy, Jack was endangering everything he had left just to do his job, someone was dead … how far was that from collapse?
Not far enough.
She dialed Jack's home number again, though she knew he was gone. She knew he probably hadn't said a word to Kim. If she were Kim she'd be scared out of her mind. She didn't know what she would say but she had to say something. Kim answered in half a ring. Liz tried to speak patiently as Kim explained, "Dad didn't tell me anything," in a nervous breath. "I know," she said, "That's why I called. Somebody died. Somebody was killed. We just have to deal with it." Kim was surprised. "Who was it?" she said worriedly. "It was your dad's boss's boss," she explained, "we don't know if it was murder or … or…" "Suicide," Kim picked up hesitantly. "But it isn't going to be… right?" she said. Liz nodded. "I don't think so," she said. "Listen, is there anything…" But Kim cut her off. "I'm okay," she insisted. And Liz hung up with the assurance that Kim would call knowing Kim would not, trying to soldier through it. Just like the rest of them.
She headed into the conference room where everyone else was waiting and took her old seat. She never sat in Nina's chair.
Tony spoke first. "What do we do?" It was a simple question. Difficult answer.
"We won't know anything conclusive until the autopsy," Milo pointed out and Mason nodded. "Yeah, that's true," he said, "but we should look at what might be happening to us until then. We can't not do anything."
Sealey looked at him like he'd better know what he was talking about. Ever since he'd been slammed by Liz – Mason's subordinate's subordinate – over a mission in Coronado he kept blaming Mason for not keeping his employees on a very tight rein.
They all looked at each other. "I've got Milo checking tape," Liz explained needlessly. Other than that, there was silence in the room, as if even though their greatest enemy had been removed, they suddenly found themselves unable to function. As if that was just what he wanted.
-To Be Continued-