27/6/07: More editing. Nadia's sisters' names changed to Arabic ones (MadisonAisha, ImogenRana) to make it more realistic.

23/6/07: Some editing done to improve the general reading flow of this chapter.

This is the first in a series of short ficlets I'm planning to do describing different events in Doyle's and Nadia's (extremely complicated) relationship. Every chapter will be based on a few lines from a song by The Fray in their album, 'how to save a life'. I know this isn't as good as some of the other Doyle/Nadia fics out there, but I wanted to make my own contribution. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Do you own 24? No, or the movie wouldn't be on hold. Have you ever owned 24? No, or Tony and Michelle wouldn't have died and Doyle wouldn't have been blinded. Will you own 24 in the near future? Unless you see some dramatic changes in the next season (aka Tony, Michelle, Doyle and a hell of a lot of other character return, alive and uninjured), you can safely assume I have been unsuccessful in blackmailing Fox, the true owners of 24.

I also don't own the quoted lyrics by The Fray.

Falling apart

"Take a breath, just take a seat, you're

falling apart and tearing at the seams" - Heaven Forbid

I could sense her standing there. She'd been standing in the doorway for a little over five minutes when I finally decided to say something.

"You going to stand there all day or come in?"

There was a slight intake of breath at my words – she probably thought I was asleep; it's hard for her to tell with these bandages over my eyes – then movement. Someone approached the hospital bed I was lying on.

"Who is it?" I asked, despite already having an idea.

"It's Nadia. I – I came to see how you were feeling." She finished the last sentence in a rush, obviously nervous.

"Did you get Josh back?"

"Yes, Jack and Bill rescued him. The component was destroyed and we have Cheng in custody."

I smiled slightly. "In that case, I'm feeling a lot better than I did five minutes ago. None of these people –" he waved an arm in the general direction of the door, where he knew hospital staff would be passing "– know anything about a crazy Chinese man who's kidnapped a boy to get a Russian piece of technology. They're all still in shock from the nuclear bomb."

I heard Nadia sigh softly. "I'd almost forgotten, with everything else going on." She sat down at the end of the bed. "After everything we've been through today, it still didn't help all those poor people who are dead or dying because of that. How are we supposed to do our jobs? Defeat one terrorist and three more surface. What's the point?"

I felt sudden concern (which surprised me, considering that earlier that day I'd firmly believed that this woman was working with terrorists) and sat up.

"The point is that we're saving innocent lives! At least, you are. After today, I doubt I'll ever be able to work at CTU again." I didn't want to draw attention to my new disability, but if it helped draw her out of self-pity, then I was willing to.

Unfortunately, it backfired.

"I'm sorry, Mike. I should've listened to you and Jack. Even Bill and Chloe thought what we were doing was wrong."

"You were following orders."

"So were you! My orders! And now look what's happened. I don't know if I can do this anymore. First Curtis, then the bomb, and Milo, now you!"

Instinctively, I pulled her close. She allowed the mask she'd been holding up all day to fall, and sobs started to wrack her petite frame. Suddenly, all that mattered to me was holding her close; stopping her tears; making her feel safe. It reminded me of once, when I was around 15, and my step-brother had been killed in a car-crash. Instead of focussing on my own feelings, which would have been disastrous (even then, anger was the emotion I was best at), I'd concentrated instead on comforting my sister, who was 13 at the time and had adored our brother. Now, despite being married with a wonderful, 3-year-old daughter, I'm still the first person she calls when she's in trouble.

I let my thoughts wander around anything not related to the last 24 hours as I comforted Nadia, much as I had comforted my little sister just over twenty years ago.

Eventually she quietened, sniffling into my now rather damp shirt. I automatically murmured into her ear, trying to calm her down more.

"Sorry," she muttered self-consciously, drawing back.

Regretfully, I released her.

"Feeling better?" If I could still see, I'd have been examining her critically at this point, looking for any sign that she was going to fall apart again. As it was, I had to make do with asking.

"I'm ok," she replied. She snorted humourlessly under her breath. "So much for coming to see how you are."

I felt her weight leave the bed as she stood, presumably to leave.

"Wait!"

She said nothing, but I couldn't sense her moving away.

"Can you… stay… and talk… for a while?…Please?" I asked awkwardly. I wasn't used to all this emotional business, but I'd always been taught to follow my gut instinct. At this point in time, my gut was screaming at me to make her stay. There was a pause.

"Of course." I heard the scrape of a chair across the floor as she pulled it closer to the bed and sat down. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything. Uh… normal things. Family, school. Stuff like that. Have you got any siblings?"

"Yes, actually. Two sisters. Aisha's three years younger; she's on maternity leave at the moment. And Rana's a nurse, she's a year older than Aisha. They used to team up against me when we were little. What about you?"

"Little sister called Katie, two years younger. Used to be a lawyer, but looks after her daughter full time now. I had a step-brother too, called Dave, courtesy of my father's remarriage. Six years older, and annoyed the hell out of me. Katie loved him." I couldn't quite believe I was discussing this with Nadia Yassir, of all people. Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. "He died in a car crash when he was twenty-one."

"Mike, I'm so sorry."

"It was years ago. Can we talk about something else, please? I didn't mean to get onto such a depressing topic."

We must have been talking for nearly an hour, our differences temporarily forgotten, when Nadia started yawning and noticed the time.

"Mike, do you mind if I go now?" she asked during a natural lull in the conversation. "Only, it's 9 am, and I haven't had any sleep in 24 hours."

I could have hit myself for forgetting. At least I'd had a few hours of rest, and about ten minutes of unconsciousness when the pain got to be too much.

"Yes, I'm sorry, you should've said something."

"It's fine." She stood up. "Thank you… for earlier, you know?"

"Thank you for staying to talk," I replied genuinely. "See you again sometime?"

"It might be a while, with all the paperwork that'll need to be done at CTU, But I hope so."

I listened as her footsteps faded, then settled down, content, and tried to get some more sleep myself.

Next time: Doyle pushes Nadia away in her attempts to help him.

No guarantees on when the afore-mentioned next chapter will be up, but I'm on holiday now after my GCSEs (yay!), so it should be fairly soon.

Please review!