Author's Note - This story is a prequel to another of my stories, Alex:Redefined. The events take place between Nina's return to CTU on Day Three and the events of Alex:Redefined. As far as this story goes, Day Three occurs (but isn't mentioned apart from the start), but Days Four and Five do not. Alex Myers is my OC.

2.00am, CTU Los Angeles - Day Three

Alex hung up the phone and walked up to Tony, to inform him that Jack and Nina had landed at Point Mugu. He looked over to Kim and saw that she was distracted, and Alex had a good idea why. It had been a strange night, what with the reappearance of Nina, the uncovering of the sting operation and the baby. Angela was a cute little kid, and everyone had been shocked to hear that she was Chase's child. Chloe had tried to keep Angela hidden, but that went out of the window after the baby started crying loudly, attracting the attention of Ryan Chappelle.

Chappelle was talking to a small group of agents about Amador and Alvers."Here's the situation; we believe Michael Amador is in possession of the Cordilla virus. We believe he is either headed to Los Angeles or he's here already. We estimate he has enough of the pathogen to take out a major metropolitan area. Our only lead is Nina Myers, who's being brought back to CTU right now. She thinks Amador is meeting with a man here in Los Angeles by the name of Marcus Alvers. Adam's done a workup on him". As he finished, Adam Kauffman began to speak.

"We have some background, but there's nothing that places him definitively in Los Angeles today". Chappelle looked annoyed.

"That's it? What about Interpol? What do they have on Alvers?"

"Our data tracking's a little behind, so we weren't able to access that report".

"Why are we behind?", an annoyed Chappelle questioned.

"We didn't update the European contact logs while I was down", Tony Almeida explained. Tony was the Special Agent in Charge at CTULA, but had been injured earlier in the day and had to relinquish control to Michelle Dessler, his Chief of Staff and wife. Everyone turned to Michelle for an explanation.

"I didn't think Europe was a priority", Michelle stated defensively, and Tony made one of his trademark faces at her.

"Obviously it was"

"There was a lot going on at the time". Michelle and Tony were great together in many different ways, but they often had their disagreements. Even so, their relationship was strong. Chappelle decided to bring things to a close.

"All right. Let's get back to work. And let's try to ease up on the mistakes for the rest of the night as there are millions of lives depending on us". As the agents filed out of the room, Tony wanted to speak to Michelle, but she was angry and ignored him.

"Michelle…".

"Kim, your father and Chase should be here soon", Alex informed her. She was sat at her computer hard at work. Looking up at him, she gave him a nod. He knew that she was nervous about Nina, and was about to walk back to his desk when he heard people arriving at CTU. Turning around, he locked eyes with his sister, and as Nina was taken past him and Kim, she glared at them, and Alex had to restrain himself from hitting her or talking to her. As far as he was concerned, his sister had died along with Teri and the Nina that existed was not the one he had grown up with. When Nina finally disappeared from view, Alex looked once more at Kim. She looked both relieved and anxious, before she spotted her father. Embracing Jack, she felt a million emotions run through her. Alex decided to give them a few minutes alone, and returned to his station.

Adam had watched Alex and Kim as Nina had been brought into CTU, and was beginning to understand why Alex was so protective of Kim. They had almost come to blows earlier that night, after Adam had criticised Kim unfairly. He had been informed by Chloe that Alex was Nina's brother, much to his shock, and this had made it all too clear to him why Alex acted almost as a big brother to Kim.

Alex watched as Adam worked on Kim's computer in order to let her see a live feed of Nina's interrogation. He wondered what Tony and Nina were saying and as he did, he looked at Nina, and wondered what she had done since the day of the nuke, since he had visited her in Tunisia, since she had slipped out of North Africa and returned to her old life of terrorism. CTU had no idea how or when she had escaped, but the last time that they knew she was in Africa had been almost a year ago. After a few minutes, Kim decided to close the live feed and both she and Alex returned to work.

A short while had passed, and Alex saw Tony walk by, covered in blood. Shocked, he walked up to where Tony was, and was told, along with Jack and Chappelle, that Nina had attempted suicide, much to Alex's disbelief. Jack grew angry as Tony told him that Nina was secure, obviously not believing him. He was proven right when the alarm sounded.

Alex saw Jack, Tony and Chappelle running towards Medical, and decided to follow them. As they entered the room where Nina was being treated, they were shocked at the sight of dead bodies. All of the medical staff, bar one shocked nurse, had been murdered, and she pointed them in Nina's direction. As Alex ran down the corridor, gun in hand, he thought of Jack, and realised that the vengeance that Jack had craved since Teri's murder was probably going to happen that night. Not sure of whether he wanted Jack to kill Nina or not, he noticed Nina, who was holding a gun, and talking to someone. As he snuck behind Nina, he was shocked to see Kim, who was pointing a gun at Nina. Kim noticed him and silently pleaded to Alex with her eyes. Alex stepped out of the shadow and trained his gun on Nina.

"Nina, put the gun down! Put it down NOW!", he commanded her. It obviously worked as Nina slowly lowered her gun and sank to her knees in surrender. As she did so, Alex looked at Kim, who was looking around nervously.

"Kim, go back into CTU and tell them where Nina is". Kim hesitated at first, before running off down the same corridor she had come into the room by. Alex walked closer to Nina, before pulling her up by her arm, whilst contemplating his next action. What he did next would change his life forever.

"Nina, you have to trust me", he whispered into her ear. A look of shock and confusion grew on Nina's face as Alex ushered her down a corridor. Explaining that there was a new fire escape nearby, Alex walked up to it and shot off the chain that kept the door locked. Opening the door, they walked into the underground garage, where Nina had been caught by Jack on the day she was originally arrested. Alex ran towards his car and told Nina to get in. As they sped off, Alex noticed that Nina's look of confusion had been replaced by one of suspicion, and he wondered if she thought it was a trap.

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