Jack had been rescued from the Chinese within 12 hours of being taken. He was exhausted, battered and bruised. They hadn't had a chance to torture him as such; they had just beaten him repeatedly, anticipating they would have plenty of time to torture him when they had moved into international waters.
There was one thing they hadn't anticipated though; they hadn't anticipated how much some people wanted him back. As soon as Audrey had contacted Bill to let him know Jack was missing, Bill had assembled the team at CTU and given them one mission – to find Jack Bauer and get him back!
Audrey had been grateful to all of them, she'd fallen to pieces when she realised the Chinese must have had him. She knew it would be bad; after all when Jack first realised they were after him he'd faked his own death and had been out of her life for 18 months. But, he was home now and they would be together, she was determined that nothing would keep them apart.
They were on their way to CTU now. She wasn't really happy about it but he'd insisted. She wanted to leave LA, get back to D.C; to the life they had before he'd walked into CTU for that DOD meeting just over 18 months before. She knew that Jack was reluctant to return to D.C but she thought she'd be able to persuade him. For now she would be happy just to return with him to the apartment she'd rented in L.A. But he'd just been released from hospital and wanted to go to CTU to see the people who'd been responsible for his rescue.
She mentally corrected herself – person, not people; the person who had pretty much single handedly found him was going to be there. The person who Jack seemed to trust above all others including herself; that was why Audrey didn't really want to go to CTU. Oh, she didn't really dislike Chloe, but she didn't have much time for her either. She'd used her when she needed to; had enlisted Chloe's help to support Jack when he was trying to get the recording. Not that Chloe saw it as helping Audrey; she saw it as helping Jack and only Jack. She was so obviously in love with Jack that it was embarrassing. Audrey had taken advantage of that so she could get Chloe on side. What better way to get the man you love to trust you than by working with the one person he did trust?
It had worked for a while; she'd thought Jack was finally telling her everything. That was until she'd found out he'd gone after Logan and the only other person that knew about it was Chloe. Audrey was fed up with being cut out of the loop and the only way she thought she could make sure she was the only person he needed was to get him away from Chloe. And how was she going to start that? By letting him go to CTU to see her? Audrey sighed to herself in near despair.
It wasn't even as though Jack not telling her about Logan was the worst part. The worst part was that he had spent 18 months letting her think he was dead when all along SHE knew he was alive; was the only person who'd seen him. Second to that, he'd found out that Audrey had slept with Walt – based on information he'd got from non other than Chloe. What was so special about her anyway? She wasn't even pretty, had appalling style and even more appalling manners.
They walked into CTU and Jack had been greeted warmly by his colleagues. He'd thanked them all for their help and hard work in rescuing him. Audrey hadn't been surprised when he turned to Bill and asked him where Chloe was. Bill pointed out that she was in the conference room, engrossed in whatever she was doing on her laptop so she hadn't even noticed that Jack had come in.
Jack turned and started walking towards the conference room and Audrey followed. He stopped suddenly, put his hand on her arm and smilingly said "excuse me" then walked alone towards the analyst. Excuse me? He was dismissing her? The woman he loved? He didn't even want her there when he was talking to Chloe?
Audrey stood there, dumbstruck and inwardly seething. She watched as he walked into the room; saw her look up as he entered. Suddenly she was out of her chair and practically throwing herself at him. Audrey wanted to run in there and tell her to get her hands off him – but she didn't want to cause a scene. Instead she continued to watch.
She saw him envelop the woman in a hug, saw him hold her closer to him than anyone should hold a colleague (or even a 'friend' for that matter). She saw him brush the tears from her face, saw the tears in his own eyes (tears that he hadn't even let her – his girlfriend – see).
Then, to add insult to injury he actually kissed her, albeit briefly. It wasn't the same as the way he kissed Audrey; it wasn't the type of kiss that ended in sex, it was worse than that. It was a gentle, trusting kiss that spoke volumes – the type of kiss that indicated a depth of feeling that many people would never understand.
But Audrey understood all too well. She understood she had to find a way to hold onto her man; had to find a way to keep the two of them apart. On that note, and with a plan formulating in her mind she stepped into the conference room.