TITLE: Not An Important Failure
AUTHOR: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick
E-MAIL: baltimorelt@yahoo.com
RATING: PG for language
CATEGORY: Drama, Vignette
SUMMARY: Liz is pulled to District, forced to collaborate with Mason, Ryan Sealey and Chappelle. What does it say about her?
ORIGINAL CHARACTER BIO: Liz Rycoff is CTU's Chief of Technology. She is close friends with Jack and with George Mason, and has a political alliance with Mason, who wants her to go to work for him at District, but Liz's loyalty to Jack holds her back.
He looked at her across the top of his coffee mug. Teri stood off to the side, waiting to weigh in on the whole affair. Even Kim had taken notice. But Jack looked at her for a moment impassively.
"It can't be that bad."
"There's Mason, Sealey, Chappelle…" she counted them off on her fingers, leaning against the kitchen counter and hoping she hadn't been a horrible houseguest and ruined the evening.
"You like Mason," Jack reasoned and stayed emotionless about that.
"And I have nothing against Sealey, not yet," she emphasized the yet, "but I want to see Chappelle crucified, Jack, you know that. And it's not my place. Those people, what some of them have become…"
"It's just a day. It's not like they're going to corrupt you because you've used their keyboard."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She exhaled. "I've made a big deal out of nothing, haven't I?"
Teri shook her head. "It's all right, Liz. You're just looking out for yourself. I mean, you don't want to be blinded by something you could have seen."
Liz nodded, looking at the kitchen tile for a moment. Then she looked at Jack. "If that's what they want. If it's okay with you, of course. Then I'll go."
"It's fine. You'll be fine."
But she didn't feel fine. Liz felt decidedly out of it as she walked in the front doors of District. She had been there many times before, working with Mason, running information to him, coming when she was asked. But she always was a CTU agent first, wearing that identity like a badge. Today she felt alien, for today she would be one of the people she passed in the halls and wondered if they were who they said they were. And it made her feel like she had left herself behind just by standing there.
"You're early," Mason said as he met her in the lobby. What he didn't know was that she ordinarily came in around this time at CTU. It was only considered early by District standards. He began to walk her toward the main floor. "We're trying to get the new system up and running. Someone can brief you on that. Then we want to run some sims and make sure it works."
Liz nodded carefully. "I can do that," she said, not mentioning that at CTU they didn't have to double-check to make sure if something worked. They were more trusting than that.
But Mason didn't notice her ulterior thoughts. Instead, he scanned the main District working floor until he spotted the two men he was looking for. He waved them over.
One was, of course, his boss, the man he despised but pretended to respect, the insidious Ryan Chappelle. Chappelle knew Liz, and the two shook hands cordially. She was a statistic, a body, to him and he was a disgrace to her, but for now they lied to themselves.
The other man was CTU's liaison, dark-haired and Mason's height, a man in his early thirties. Ryan Sealey. Jack knew him, and she knew of him, but she'd never met him. He had a firm handshake.
"What's the liaison doing on this?" she asked him.
"The systems check? I'm not here for that."
"What are you here for?"
"Rumor has it there's going to be something going down in Coronado today."
Liz looked to Mason. "You didn't tell me that," she said.
"Well, that would be because someone didn't tell me." He obviously meant Chappelle, who had long since walked off.
She separated herself from Sealey and Mason and started into the wide, bustling space that was District's main floor. A Coronado alert, a new system run. She knew that was less than half of the truth, and wondered what role she had to play. Mason had not brought her here just to debug his systems, had not personally pulled her off active CTU assignment for the day to do what any Electronic Crimes Bureau staffer could do. No, he wanted her for a specific purpose, and this time even he wasn't telling her what she deserved to know.
She had once wondered if she had crossed the line between agent and bureaucrat. She was walking on that line, she knew. And this day might very well involuntarily push her directly over. But Liz Rycoff did her job. No matter what that was.
No matter what secrets might be hiding in its manifesto…
-To Be Continued-
AUTHOR: Brittany "Thespis" Frederick
E-MAIL: baltimorelt@yahoo.com
RATING: PG for language
CATEGORY: Drama, Vignette
SUMMARY: Liz is pulled to District, forced to collaborate with Mason, Ryan Sealey and Chappelle. What does it say about her?
ORIGINAL CHARACTER BIO: Liz Rycoff is CTU's Chief of Technology. She is close friends with Jack and with George Mason, and has a political alliance with Mason, who wants her to go to work for him at District, but Liz's loyalty to Jack holds her back.
He looked at her across the top of his coffee mug. Teri stood off to the side, waiting to weigh in on the whole affair. Even Kim had taken notice. But Jack looked at her for a moment impassively.
"It can't be that bad."
"There's Mason, Sealey, Chappelle…" she counted them off on her fingers, leaning against the kitchen counter and hoping she hadn't been a horrible houseguest and ruined the evening.
"You like Mason," Jack reasoned and stayed emotionless about that.
"And I have nothing against Sealey, not yet," she emphasized the yet, "but I want to see Chappelle crucified, Jack, you know that. And it's not my place. Those people, what some of them have become…"
"It's just a day. It's not like they're going to corrupt you because you've used their keyboard."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right." She exhaled. "I've made a big deal out of nothing, haven't I?"
Teri shook her head. "It's all right, Liz. You're just looking out for yourself. I mean, you don't want to be blinded by something you could have seen."
Liz nodded, looking at the kitchen tile for a moment. Then she looked at Jack. "If that's what they want. If it's okay with you, of course. Then I'll go."
"It's fine. You'll be fine."
But she didn't feel fine. Liz felt decidedly out of it as she walked in the front doors of District. She had been there many times before, working with Mason, running information to him, coming when she was asked. But she always was a CTU agent first, wearing that identity like a badge. Today she felt alien, for today she would be one of the people she passed in the halls and wondered if they were who they said they were. And it made her feel like she had left herself behind just by standing there.
"You're early," Mason said as he met her in the lobby. What he didn't know was that she ordinarily came in around this time at CTU. It was only considered early by District standards. He began to walk her toward the main floor. "We're trying to get the new system up and running. Someone can brief you on that. Then we want to run some sims and make sure it works."
Liz nodded carefully. "I can do that," she said, not mentioning that at CTU they didn't have to double-check to make sure if something worked. They were more trusting than that.
But Mason didn't notice her ulterior thoughts. Instead, he scanned the main District working floor until he spotted the two men he was looking for. He waved them over.
One was, of course, his boss, the man he despised but pretended to respect, the insidious Ryan Chappelle. Chappelle knew Liz, and the two shook hands cordially. She was a statistic, a body, to him and he was a disgrace to her, but for now they lied to themselves.
The other man was CTU's liaison, dark-haired and Mason's height, a man in his early thirties. Ryan Sealey. Jack knew him, and she knew of him, but she'd never met him. He had a firm handshake.
"What's the liaison doing on this?" she asked him.
"The systems check? I'm not here for that."
"What are you here for?"
"Rumor has it there's going to be something going down in Coronado today."
Liz looked to Mason. "You didn't tell me that," she said.
"Well, that would be because someone didn't tell me." He obviously meant Chappelle, who had long since walked off.
She separated herself from Sealey and Mason and started into the wide, bustling space that was District's main floor. A Coronado alert, a new system run. She knew that was less than half of the truth, and wondered what role she had to play. Mason had not brought her here just to debug his systems, had not personally pulled her off active CTU assignment for the day to do what any Electronic Crimes Bureau staffer could do. No, he wanted her for a specific purpose, and this time even he wasn't telling her what she deserved to know.
She had once wondered if she had crossed the line between agent and bureaucrat. She was walking on that line, she knew. And this day might very well involuntarily push her directly over. But Liz Rycoff did her job. No matter what that was.
No matter what secrets might be hiding in its manifesto…
-To Be Continued-