No Safe Place
Summary: Jack Bauer is facing a terror threat unlike any that he has ever seen. American citizens are left wondering if there is any truly safe place, as they realize that appearances are deceiving and people may not be who they seem. (Minor spoilers for Season 8; occasional brief mentions of Season 8 events.)
Rating: PG-13 for violence and language.
Disclaimer: I own 24! The DVD's are very pretty in their shiny cases…. As much as I would like to, I don't own the actual show or any of its characters. They belong to Jon Cassar and the other geniuses who created them.
..
Chapter 1
Jessica Davis was rudely and abruptly jerked from a sound sleep as a pillow thudded against the side of her head.
Squinting in the glare of the sunlight that poured into her room, she lunged upright and caught her seven-year-old brother's arm as he tried to scramble off the bed. Will blinked and shrugged, the picture of innocence. "Mom sent me in to wake you up. She says you're running way late and need to get up right now."
Jessica groaned. "Okay, I'm awake. Now get out of here." Will darted out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
"I thought you were up already! You're running really late!" their mother greeted her as Jessica entered the kitchen. "Did you sleep okay?"
"Fine, until Will dove onto my bed like a kamikaze pilot and whacked me in the head with a pillow," she said shortly.
Glancing at the clock, she shoved two Pop Tarts in the toaster. "I don't have time for anything else. Caitlin will be here to pick me up in a few minutes. I'll get a muffin or something from the vending machine when we get to school."
Jessica hastily brushed her teeth and secured her honey-colored blond hair in its usual ponytail. She gave up on organizing the textbooks and binders that were scattered across the table, and simply stuffed the pile into her backpack.
A horn honked from the driveway. "That's Caitlin. I'm staying after school today to work on sets for the Drama play, so I'll be home around six." Grabbing the Pop Tarts and backpack, she hurried towards the door.
"Love you," her mother called after her. "Have a good day."
"You too." The front door slammed closed and feet thudded down the steps.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Jack Bauer remembered, once upon a time, looking forward to finishing work and getting home at a decent hour to play with Kim and talk to Teri. Those times were long gone. For too many years, there had been no family to go home to. There had been offices, various apartments, and the too-frequent tent or military barracks in some far-off land. Then there were the days of his DOD assignment in Washington DC with Audrey and the hotel rooms and apartment they had shared. That was gone now, too. He had thrown himself back into the world of long days, late nights, and a glass-walled office cube at CTU.
Now, again, he had people to go home to and a reason to watch the clock. Renee. A sniper's bullet had almost stolen Renee from him, but she had survived and recovered. Kim, Stephen, and Teri. The three of them had managed to arrange their work schedules so that they all had time to spend with the precious little girl. Kim worked as a classroom and playground aide at an elementary school, and Stephen was a doctor in the ER of the nearby hospital.
Kim was cooking dinner tonight—spaghetti, Teri's favorite—and tomorrow the three of them would spend the day playing and laughing together. Stephen had to work, but Jack and Kim had planned to take Teri to the zoo to see the new penguin exhibit and her favorite animals.
The morning had barely begun, and already the day seemed endless. Jack resisted the urge to glance at the clock yet again, and forced himself to focus on the open laptop in front of him. His fingers flew over the keyboard as his eyes darted back and forth between the computer screen and the manila folders that were scattered across the desk in front of him.
This was what CTU did during quiet times, the times when civilians lived in blissful ignorance and happily went about their daily lives without looking over their shoulders in fear. Inevitably, there would be another crisis, but for now there was a tentative calm and piles of routine bureaucratic paperwork.
.