PART I CREATING A COVER
CHAPTER 1
DISCLAIMER: As per usual none of the things dealing with 24 actually belong to me, but you already knew that. I have fox and the lovely creators of 24 for this lovely creation.
Lyrics by Smile Empty Soul of their self titled album
Author Note: I've actually been working on this sense the beginning of season 3, and am trying to plan it out. Hope you like it let me know what you think. Thanks to Gabe again for editing and his character contribution of Kit. That is all his creation. Part I: Cover
I'm just a normal man
I wouldn't hurt nothing at all
But here were are
Our leaders have plan
I'd only kill if it's for them
But this is war
The words flowed through the apartment awakening him from his trance. He was getting ready to get up and knock on Kim's door and ask her to turn it down. He hated the music today, it was nothing like the great things of the past. The words of the song caught his mind and he sat there listening to them.
Now here we are
I drove in a car
Flew in a plane
To come to your house
And kick your door in
Now it's time for this
It's just you and me
I blow your fucking head off
For my country
The words echoed through his head. He got out of his chair and walked towards Kim's room. The song continued on.
My feet hurt from the sand
But still I march on gun in hand
Cuz this is war
This isn't what I planned
I wanted to be so much more
But this is war
Banging on the door waiting for his now grown daughter to open it, he sat patiently awaiting her to hear him banging. She finally turned the music down and opened the door.
"Yeah, dad?" She asked, knowing he was going to ask her to turn the music down.
"Could you turn that down some please? I'm trying to do some work in the study. Don't you have your interview tomorrow at Division with Chappelle?" Jack knew she did, but she figured he would ask. After the events of the past few years Kim went back to school and got her bachelor's in something to do with computers. Jack did not remember exactly what, but he promised her if she did, he would try to get her a job at CTU. Partly, he was happy because he knew she would be semi-safe working for CTU, and he could keep an eye on her easily, especially when another one of those longs days occurred.
"Yeah. I'm surprised it's Chappelle himself." Kim answered.
"I pulled some strings, and since you are my daughter he wants to make sure you are more than qualified, and he is generally wants to keep most of the Bauers out, but I think Tony will be there also so it should work out." Jack stated for no particular reason.
"Thank you dad. And I'm sorry about the music." She said hugging her father.
Hugging her back, Jack thought about the song again. The words ran through his head, eliciting old feelings and memories. He let go of his daughter and walked back to his study. He locked the door behind himself and sat back down in the chair looking at the top left desk drawer.
Jack started to think about how life was before everything went wrong, before he and Teri separated, before Nina, when life was happy and normal. He remembered he explained to Nina once why he busted the three agents who were taking money on the side he said, "I believe that if you look the other way just once, it makes it easier to compromise the next time, and pretty soon you will just start thinking that's the way it's supposed to be. It is a philosophy I live by-never compromise your principles. Not even once." As he thought about how naive he had been than he laughed a chilling laugh to himself. He compromised to try to save Kim and Teri and look where it got him.
He was ready to do it again. He opened his desk drawer and looked at the black pouch. The contents screamed to him. If he wanted to be able to get in with the Salazars, he had to be able to handle the drugs they shipped and used. If he went undercover without being ready if he was forced to try the drug he would not be able to handle it. He had to get use to its effects. When that time came, he was able to handle it and he would be able to keep his cover. All of this justified why he needed to do it, but his mind knew otherwise. He knew the drug would dull his pain, the pain of living life. He was not a weak man, but the death of his wife caused so much pain that he could never escape. He wanted the pain to go away, if just for a moment, so he could feel like he did before all of it.
He took the black pouch out and set in on the desk. He walked over to the door and locked it. He did not want Kim to know, she could not know. No one could know. He did not have a meeting yet with the Salazars, but it was like with any other mission. He had to start establishing his cover now, so that it would be solid when he meant the people he was trying to get in with. He took the needle out of the bag, and the vial full of the drug in its liquid form. He did not even have the ability to call it what it was, heroin. It was the drug, the pain reliever. He drew some of the liquid out of the vial into the needle, put the needle on the desk, and took the tourniquet, tying it around his arm. He waited for the vein to show and grabbed the needle off the desk. Putting the needle in his skin he felt the sting as he pushed the plunger down. Letting the drug into his blood stream. For a minute he thought this was nothing, maybe everyone was just crazy, but then it hit him. Suddenly everything felt beautiful. Nothing could touch him, not even the pain. This feeling lasted for about ten minutes and than his mind drifted every which way it could. ----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ----------------------------
The next morning Jack woke up to his daughter knocking on the study door. He got out of the chair and could not remember why he was in there still until he looked at his arm and saw the mark. He walked over to the door, hiding his arm as he opened it.
Kim smiled at him and said, "Fell asleep working again. It's about time you got up. It's 8:00 and you need to get into a shower. I've got breakfast started. You cannot be late because your taking me in, remember?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, honey. I'll be ready in time." Jack said looking at his daughter. He walked to the bathroom turned the water on and waited for it to warm up. After he got through with his shower, he shaved and got dressed in his typical clothing. He walked out to the kitchen where Kim already had his usual toast and orange juice ready. He looked at the food and was not hungry, but he ate a piece of toast and drank the juice to make Kim happy.
Kim looked on at her father and noticed that he looked as if he had not slept the night before. She smiled at him, his appetite had also depleted, he almost always ate all of the toast. Worrying about him, she asked, "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yeah. I'm just tired and a little stress. The joy's of being a CTU agent. Are you really sure you want to work there?"
"Of course. I get to be closer to you and it is something I always wanted to do. When I was a little girl I loved going into work with you those few times I got to."
Jack smiled at the happy memories that were soon clouded with the sad ones. His face changed to sadness for a moment and than it rebounded just as quick.
Kim noticed the change and decided to change the subject to something different, "Is Kate coming over tonight? She didn't come over last night."
"Yeah, I think so. I'm not sure. She's been busy at work and trying to help her father out with things. I'm not sure because they were supposed to go visit Marie today." Jack knew how Kate withdrew from him when she came back from visiting her sister. Her father blamed CTU for Marie. He knew they had not created her, but he associated them with her and what she had done, therefore he did not like CTU or anyone who worked for them. He was not happy to find out about Jack and Kate's relationship. All of this weighed on Kate after a visit with her sister. "We better get moving. Your interview is in a half hour and it'll take about twenty minutes to get there."
Jack and Kim walked out to the SUV. Jack got in the driver's side and waited for his daughter to put her seat belt on before he backed the car out and drove down the street. Kim usually did not drive with him to work, but her car was in the shop. Jack was happy to drive her and allow her to borrow the car after she got done with her interview. He knew she or Kate would have no problem picking him up that evening.
When they reached CTU, Jack drove past the guard at the gate and parked in his usual spot. Getting out, he saw Kit Lee, an agent that transferred from the Washington D.C. CTU unit the day of "super Tuesday." Jack smiled and greeted him. "Hello Kit. Have you met my daughter Kim?"
"Yes, I have. A pleasure to see you again Kim. You ready for your interview today?"
"Yeah. How are you doing?"
"I'm doing great, if your father would just stop working me to death." Kit said playing around.
Jack had taken Kit under his wing after he got back to CTU. The man was a great agent and Jack knew it. He would eventually be as good, if not better than Jack. Kit worked just as hard as Jack, and that is why Jack respected him so much. Jack trusted Kit with his life, and would do so very soon.
The three entered CTU. Kim had her visitor's badge on. Jack walked her to the conference room where she was to meet with Ryan Chappelle and Tony Almeida. Neither men were in the room at the time. Jack wished her luck and told her to see him in his office afterwards. Jack walked up to his office where Kit was waiting with two cups of coffee. Jack smiled at the thought of already having his coffee ready. It had almost become a routine for them. "Kit, you are spoiling me too much." Jack said as he walked into the office.
"No I just want your office one day, so I'm sucking up." Kit said jokingly.
"You can have it any time you want." Jack added jokingly. "So what new info do we have on the Salazars?"
"They are going to be out for a few months. Not sure why. I might have your connection in. Are you sure you want to go in and not have me or some other agent?"
"Kit, I'm not that damn old yet. I could never to sit behind this desk."
"I'm just saying you have so much to lose and I . ."
Jack cut him off, "You are going to be undercover somewhere else, and Chase is still as green as ever. He's been here for what?" Jack thought, "Three weeks. Nearly not enough time to even think about putting him into the field. Everyone else is busy. And I got the background for this. You have the background for the other one."
"Before Chase got here, he worked with me at D.C. and he was good. He could handle it. I hate to admit it, but he should be your partner." Kit confessed while trying to talk his boss out of going undercover. He knew Jack and he knew he could do it without a problem, but that was the problem. Once he started something, Jack Bauer never quits until he saw it through to the end.
"Don't worry too much, Kit. It will all work out. Chase will be back here working the point on both of our reports. He'll be able to handle that much. Why are you so worried about it?" Jack asked.
"I just hate to see this go bad. The worst-case scenario is any one of us could be a mole at anytime, at any place theoretically."
"It won't go bad." Jack said confident of himself and his abilities.
Michelle knocked once and then entered the office. She smiled at the two men sitting and said, "Good morning guys."
"Chappelle here yet?" Jack asked from behind his desk.
"Yeah. He and Tony are with Kim in the conference room. He looked like he was in a good mood." Michelle answered.
"Let's get to work then. I have a cover to start." Jack said. He asked Michelle to help establish his cover this time because of her previous work from the day he had to go back undercover with Wald within the hour of trying to reestablish his cover. He knew her work and he knew he could trust her, or he thought he could.
"Let me go grab a cup of coffee and a laptop to work on." Michelle said walking out of the office.
She returned a few minutes later with a Dell laptop and her cup of coffee. She noticed that while Jack seemed like he was in a great mood he looked horribly tired. She was not sure why she was taking note of it, but it seemed important for some reason at the time. "Let's get started. We have not gotten much more information on the Salazars yet. As you know, we do not know their current location, but we believe they are to be somewhere in Mexico. Ramon is the head of the organization and his younger brother Hector does what Ramon wants. This is Thomas." Michelle said turning the lab top around so that Jack could see the picture. "He is like the third in command, but not really in command more like Ramon's butler in some ways." Michelle was finding it hard to explain exactly what Thomas was, but everyone knew what she meant.
"That's fine enough. I shouldn't know too much before I go under because it could come back to haunt me."
"Fine. What do you want on your military record?" Michelle asked.
"Uhm. Keep Delta forces, but have a dishonorable discharge."
"For what?" Michelle asked typing in the information needed.
"I'm not sure."
"How about something to do with smuggling?" Kit suggested. "The Salazars are smugglers and they would want someone who has done it before."
"Good idea. For the past few years I've been bouncing from job to job. Never settling down for long, and no real alliances with anyone. Put a few arrest in there and one jail time, for only about a few years. For . . " Jack paused thinking about what for. "Bar fight where I severely assaulted a police officer. Since than I have not been caught on anything, but suspected in a few things. The FBI and other local law enforcements would not care about me anymore, though. I don't want them to think I'm being watched."
"Sounds good so far. Give me a few hours and I'll have the entire file up and you can ok it before I put it out in the system. We'll need a picture of you for the mug shots. Do you have any old ones on file?"
"We should take some from my other undercover ops."
"I almost forgot. Tony told me to warn you that Chappelle wanted to talk to you later about this operation." Michelle said leaving the office.
Chase knocked a few minutes later and waited for Jack to say enter. He was somewhat jealous of Kit because Jack had taken him under his wing. Chase really wanted to be him, that was the entire reason he transferred up from the D.C. bureau. He wanted to work with Jack Bauer. He had heard stories about the man before and looked up to him.
Jack looked at the young agent walk in. He motioned for Chase to sit, Kit got up and said, "Jack I'm going to check on a few things and start working on my cover for the other operation. Think about it some more."
"Sure. Let me know what you get on that. Have Michelle run the stuff for you. I'm going to head out in a few minutes go to see a friend in the Narcotics department and see if he doesn't have some idea on how I can get in."
Kit walked out and closed the door behind him. Jack looked up at Chase and asked, "What can I do for you, Chase?"
"I just wanted to check in and see what was happening. I heard you wanted me to run point on your undercover operations."
"Yeah. You'll be the only one left in this office besides Chloe and she is still learning some of the ropes and busy enough. You'll report to Tony, and maybe Chappelle depending on how much Tony has on his plate. We'll work some sort of a schedule out for reporting in. But I doubt we'll stick to it. You know what it's like undercover. Anything else?"
"No."
"How are you doing?" Jack asked looking up from some paperwork. He knew the young agent wanted to be out there doing something, and Jack did not blame him. Jack just did not trust him yet. The only reason why he trusted Kit was because Kit had saved him a few months ago when a sniper had Jack targeted at a governor's speech. The local police called CTU in because the sniper might have been the woman Mandy who was responsible for the attack on the President a few years earlier. Jack was walking the grounds looking for anything, and the sniper had him pinpointed and ready to shoot, when Kit fired from the opposite rooftop killing the sniper and saving Jack. Ultimately, any reservations Jack had about him faded. Since Nina betrayed CTU, Jack had found it hard to trust anyone he worked with, and he knew just because Kit saved him doesn't mean Kit could not be a mole, but since that day Jack trusted him. He was a very honorable guy, with a similar past as Jack, and the two were also in Kosovo, which made it easy to get into the old war stories all Army guys usually got into when you got a couple stories together.
"I'm doing good. Thanks for asking. Is that your daughter that you came in with today?" Chase asked not knowing much about Jack or his family.
"Yeah. She wants to be here for technical support. Go figure you think she would stay away from this place." Jack said smiling even though he felt sad that his daughter had grown up.
"Why would she stay away? I bet she is like her father."
"I hope she is nothing like me." Jack said suddenly upset, for reasons unknown to him.
Noticing the change in his mood Chase said, "I better go see if Michelle needs some help. If you need a hook-up person to get into the Salazars, I might know someone. An old informant I use to have when I was in S.W.A.T."
"Really. Who?" Jack said suddenly interested.
"A friend and I use to bust this guy every week. He is a runner for one of the local gangs. Jim Goldman. I'm pretty sure he's still around. I can check it out with you if you want at lunch." Chase answered. Ready and willing to gain Jack's trust somehow.
"Yeah. That would work out greatly. Kim could take my car then and get me later on. I know she doesn't want to hang around here all day."
"I can drive you home tonight. We are usually leaving at the same time, and I have no problem helping out." Chase said eager to please.
Jack noticed his eagerness and began to remember himself as a young agent. "If you don't mind. Kim will be happy then. Thanks."
"Sure no problem sir. I'm going to help Michelle if you don't have anything else you want me to do." Chase waited a moment before leaving Jack's office. He felt like jumping up in the air and screaming yes. That was the most that Jack had spoken to him since he started working at CTU.
Jack began to focus on the paperwork he had to finish before lunch. Everything became hard to focus on when he knew he was soon to be undercover. Everything else became mundane task. He would now slowly take his cover. Like an actor, he would assume the role and stay in it even when he was not at work. It was a matter of survival. He had to convince these people he was that Jack and not the CTU Jack.
Hours passed while he sat there staring at the paperwork signing his name in the appropriate places and learning all data that had to be known by him. Around lunch time his door opened and he looked up to see Kim standing in the doorway looking upset. His heart fell to the floor when he saw the look on his daughter's face, "Kim, What's wrong?"
"Chappelle was an asshole. He told me there was no chance in hell he would ever allow another Bauer into CTU. Something about the family being reckless."
"What?" Jack said allowing his anger to slightly show through.
Kim could not help but start to laugh at her father. She hardly ever got to pull one over on him, but when she did she could barely keep from laughing.
"Kim, that was not funny." Jack said laughing.
"Yes, it was. You would have laughed if it had been anyone else, but you who was duped."
"So did you get the job?" Jack asked ignoring his daughters observation.
"They'll call me later this week with an answer, but Tony told me unofficially that I probably have it."
"Great, honey."
"You want to go have lunch to celebrate?" Kim asked smiling; happy that she would finally be working at CTU, and working close to her father. Finally she thought to herself, she would know where he went on those long trips.
"I would love to, but Chase and I have some work to do." Jack said, feeling sorry that he agreed to go with Chase to find the connection into the drug world.
"Chase can come too. If he doesn't mind. I bet he's hungry and I want to see my father, even if he comes with." Kim said.
"If he wants to, we can. We could always do what we have to do after the lunch. It'll have to be kind of a quick one."
"Aren't they always?" Kim said smiling. She had her father in check.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed the number to Michelle's desk where Chase had been helping out.
"Dessler?"
"Hey Michelle it's Jack let me speak with Chase."
"Sure, Jack, hold on." Michelle said giving the phone to Chase.
"Yes, sir."
"Chase how would you feel about going out to lunch with my daughter and I. I know we were supposed to go see your connection, but she wanted to unofficially celebrate."
"Sure. I would love to." Chase said happily. Maybe he would get Jack to trust him after all. He wanted to be in Kit's spot and this might just be the opportunity.
"Ok. We'll be down in a minute." Jack said before he put the phone back in it's spot. He and Kim walked down the steps together and were met by Chase waiting by the door with his coat in hand.
Jack introduced Kim, "Chase this is my daughter Kim. And Kim this is Chase, one of my workers."
"So you're in field-ops Chase?"
"Yeah."
"Cool." Kim said noticing how good looking Chase was. She smiled to herself, maybe this job had more benefits other than knowing where her father was. The walked to Chase's truck which was next to Jack's SUV.
DISCLAIMER: As per usual none of the things dealing with 24 actually belong to me, but you already knew that. I have fox and the lovely creators of 24 for this lovely creation.
Lyrics by Smile Empty Soul of their self titled album
Author Note: I've actually been working on this sense the beginning of season 3, and am trying to plan it out. Hope you like it let me know what you think. Thanks to Gabe again for editing and his character contribution of Kit. That is all his creation. Part I: Cover
I'm just a normal man
I wouldn't hurt nothing at all
But here were are
Our leaders have plan
I'd only kill if it's for them
But this is war
The words flowed through the apartment awakening him from his trance. He was getting ready to get up and knock on Kim's door and ask her to turn it down. He hated the music today, it was nothing like the great things of the past. The words of the song caught his mind and he sat there listening to them.
Now here we are
I drove in a car
Flew in a plane
To come to your house
And kick your door in
Now it's time for this
It's just you and me
I blow your fucking head off
For my country
The words echoed through his head. He got out of his chair and walked towards Kim's room. The song continued on.
My feet hurt from the sand
But still I march on gun in hand
Cuz this is war
This isn't what I planned
I wanted to be so much more
But this is war
Banging on the door waiting for his now grown daughter to open it, he sat patiently awaiting her to hear him banging. She finally turned the music down and opened the door.
"Yeah, dad?" She asked, knowing he was going to ask her to turn the music down.
"Could you turn that down some please? I'm trying to do some work in the study. Don't you have your interview tomorrow at Division with Chappelle?" Jack knew she did, but she figured he would ask. After the events of the past few years Kim went back to school and got her bachelor's in something to do with computers. Jack did not remember exactly what, but he promised her if she did, he would try to get her a job at CTU. Partly, he was happy because he knew she would be semi-safe working for CTU, and he could keep an eye on her easily, especially when another one of those longs days occurred.
"Yeah. I'm surprised it's Chappelle himself." Kim answered.
"I pulled some strings, and since you are my daughter he wants to make sure you are more than qualified, and he is generally wants to keep most of the Bauers out, but I think Tony will be there also so it should work out." Jack stated for no particular reason.
"Thank you dad. And I'm sorry about the music." She said hugging her father.
Hugging her back, Jack thought about the song again. The words ran through his head, eliciting old feelings and memories. He let go of his daughter and walked back to his study. He locked the door behind himself and sat back down in the chair looking at the top left desk drawer.
Jack started to think about how life was before everything went wrong, before he and Teri separated, before Nina, when life was happy and normal. He remembered he explained to Nina once why he busted the three agents who were taking money on the side he said, "I believe that if you look the other way just once, it makes it easier to compromise the next time, and pretty soon you will just start thinking that's the way it's supposed to be. It is a philosophy I live by-never compromise your principles. Not even once." As he thought about how naive he had been than he laughed a chilling laugh to himself. He compromised to try to save Kim and Teri and look where it got him.
He was ready to do it again. He opened his desk drawer and looked at the black pouch. The contents screamed to him. If he wanted to be able to get in with the Salazars, he had to be able to handle the drugs they shipped and used. If he went undercover without being ready if he was forced to try the drug he would not be able to handle it. He had to get use to its effects. When that time came, he was able to handle it and he would be able to keep his cover. All of this justified why he needed to do it, but his mind knew otherwise. He knew the drug would dull his pain, the pain of living life. He was not a weak man, but the death of his wife caused so much pain that he could never escape. He wanted the pain to go away, if just for a moment, so he could feel like he did before all of it.
He took the black pouch out and set in on the desk. He walked over to the door and locked it. He did not want Kim to know, she could not know. No one could know. He did not have a meeting yet with the Salazars, but it was like with any other mission. He had to start establishing his cover now, so that it would be solid when he meant the people he was trying to get in with. He took the needle out of the bag, and the vial full of the drug in its liquid form. He did not even have the ability to call it what it was, heroin. It was the drug, the pain reliever. He drew some of the liquid out of the vial into the needle, put the needle on the desk, and took the tourniquet, tying it around his arm. He waited for the vein to show and grabbed the needle off the desk. Putting the needle in his skin he felt the sting as he pushed the plunger down. Letting the drug into his blood stream. For a minute he thought this was nothing, maybe everyone was just crazy, but then it hit him. Suddenly everything felt beautiful. Nothing could touch him, not even the pain. This feeling lasted for about ten minutes and than his mind drifted every which way it could. ----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- ----------------------------
The next morning Jack woke up to his daughter knocking on the study door. He got out of the chair and could not remember why he was in there still until he looked at his arm and saw the mark. He walked over to the door, hiding his arm as he opened it.
Kim smiled at him and said, "Fell asleep working again. It's about time you got up. It's 8:00 and you need to get into a shower. I've got breakfast started. You cannot be late because your taking me in, remember?"
"Yeah. I'm sorry, honey. I'll be ready in time." Jack said looking at his daughter. He walked to the bathroom turned the water on and waited for it to warm up. After he got through with his shower, he shaved and got dressed in his typical clothing. He walked out to the kitchen where Kim already had his usual toast and orange juice ready. He looked at the food and was not hungry, but he ate a piece of toast and drank the juice to make Kim happy.
Kim looked on at her father and noticed that he looked as if he had not slept the night before. She smiled at him, his appetite had also depleted, he almost always ate all of the toast. Worrying about him, she asked, "Are you feeling ok?"
"Yeah. I'm just tired and a little stress. The joy's of being a CTU agent. Are you really sure you want to work there?"
"Of course. I get to be closer to you and it is something I always wanted to do. When I was a little girl I loved going into work with you those few times I got to."
Jack smiled at the happy memories that were soon clouded with the sad ones. His face changed to sadness for a moment and than it rebounded just as quick.
Kim noticed the change and decided to change the subject to something different, "Is Kate coming over tonight? She didn't come over last night."
"Yeah, I think so. I'm not sure. She's been busy at work and trying to help her father out with things. I'm not sure because they were supposed to go visit Marie today." Jack knew how Kate withdrew from him when she came back from visiting her sister. Her father blamed CTU for Marie. He knew they had not created her, but he associated them with her and what she had done, therefore he did not like CTU or anyone who worked for them. He was not happy to find out about Jack and Kate's relationship. All of this weighed on Kate after a visit with her sister. "We better get moving. Your interview is in a half hour and it'll take about twenty minutes to get there."
Jack and Kim walked out to the SUV. Jack got in the driver's side and waited for his daughter to put her seat belt on before he backed the car out and drove down the street. Kim usually did not drive with him to work, but her car was in the shop. Jack was happy to drive her and allow her to borrow the car after she got done with her interview. He knew she or Kate would have no problem picking him up that evening.
When they reached CTU, Jack drove past the guard at the gate and parked in his usual spot. Getting out, he saw Kit Lee, an agent that transferred from the Washington D.C. CTU unit the day of "super Tuesday." Jack smiled and greeted him. "Hello Kit. Have you met my daughter Kim?"
"Yes, I have. A pleasure to see you again Kim. You ready for your interview today?"
"Yeah. How are you doing?"
"I'm doing great, if your father would just stop working me to death." Kit said playing around.
Jack had taken Kit under his wing after he got back to CTU. The man was a great agent and Jack knew it. He would eventually be as good, if not better than Jack. Kit worked just as hard as Jack, and that is why Jack respected him so much. Jack trusted Kit with his life, and would do so very soon.
The three entered CTU. Kim had her visitor's badge on. Jack walked her to the conference room where she was to meet with Ryan Chappelle and Tony Almeida. Neither men were in the room at the time. Jack wished her luck and told her to see him in his office afterwards. Jack walked up to his office where Kit was waiting with two cups of coffee. Jack smiled at the thought of already having his coffee ready. It had almost become a routine for them. "Kit, you are spoiling me too much." Jack said as he walked into the office.
"No I just want your office one day, so I'm sucking up." Kit said jokingly.
"You can have it any time you want." Jack added jokingly. "So what new info do we have on the Salazars?"
"They are going to be out for a few months. Not sure why. I might have your connection in. Are you sure you want to go in and not have me or some other agent?"
"Kit, I'm not that damn old yet. I could never to sit behind this desk."
"I'm just saying you have so much to lose and I . ."
Jack cut him off, "You are going to be undercover somewhere else, and Chase is still as green as ever. He's been here for what?" Jack thought, "Three weeks. Nearly not enough time to even think about putting him into the field. Everyone else is busy. And I got the background for this. You have the background for the other one."
"Before Chase got here, he worked with me at D.C. and he was good. He could handle it. I hate to admit it, but he should be your partner." Kit confessed while trying to talk his boss out of going undercover. He knew Jack and he knew he could do it without a problem, but that was the problem. Once he started something, Jack Bauer never quits until he saw it through to the end.
"Don't worry too much, Kit. It will all work out. Chase will be back here working the point on both of our reports. He'll be able to handle that much. Why are you so worried about it?" Jack asked.
"I just hate to see this go bad. The worst-case scenario is any one of us could be a mole at anytime, at any place theoretically."
"It won't go bad." Jack said confident of himself and his abilities.
Michelle knocked once and then entered the office. She smiled at the two men sitting and said, "Good morning guys."
"Chappelle here yet?" Jack asked from behind his desk.
"Yeah. He and Tony are with Kim in the conference room. He looked like he was in a good mood." Michelle answered.
"Let's get to work then. I have a cover to start." Jack said. He asked Michelle to help establish his cover this time because of her previous work from the day he had to go back undercover with Wald within the hour of trying to reestablish his cover. He knew her work and he knew he could trust her, or he thought he could.
"Let me go grab a cup of coffee and a laptop to work on." Michelle said walking out of the office.
She returned a few minutes later with a Dell laptop and her cup of coffee. She noticed that while Jack seemed like he was in a great mood he looked horribly tired. She was not sure why she was taking note of it, but it seemed important for some reason at the time. "Let's get started. We have not gotten much more information on the Salazars yet. As you know, we do not know their current location, but we believe they are to be somewhere in Mexico. Ramon is the head of the organization and his younger brother Hector does what Ramon wants. This is Thomas." Michelle said turning the lab top around so that Jack could see the picture. "He is like the third in command, but not really in command more like Ramon's butler in some ways." Michelle was finding it hard to explain exactly what Thomas was, but everyone knew what she meant.
"That's fine enough. I shouldn't know too much before I go under because it could come back to haunt me."
"Fine. What do you want on your military record?" Michelle asked.
"Uhm. Keep Delta forces, but have a dishonorable discharge."
"For what?" Michelle asked typing in the information needed.
"I'm not sure."
"How about something to do with smuggling?" Kit suggested. "The Salazars are smugglers and they would want someone who has done it before."
"Good idea. For the past few years I've been bouncing from job to job. Never settling down for long, and no real alliances with anyone. Put a few arrest in there and one jail time, for only about a few years. For . . " Jack paused thinking about what for. "Bar fight where I severely assaulted a police officer. Since than I have not been caught on anything, but suspected in a few things. The FBI and other local law enforcements would not care about me anymore, though. I don't want them to think I'm being watched."
"Sounds good so far. Give me a few hours and I'll have the entire file up and you can ok it before I put it out in the system. We'll need a picture of you for the mug shots. Do you have any old ones on file?"
"We should take some from my other undercover ops."
"I almost forgot. Tony told me to warn you that Chappelle wanted to talk to you later about this operation." Michelle said leaving the office.
Chase knocked a few minutes later and waited for Jack to say enter. He was somewhat jealous of Kit because Jack had taken him under his wing. Chase really wanted to be him, that was the entire reason he transferred up from the D.C. bureau. He wanted to work with Jack Bauer. He had heard stories about the man before and looked up to him.
Jack looked at the young agent walk in. He motioned for Chase to sit, Kit got up and said, "Jack I'm going to check on a few things and start working on my cover for the other operation. Think about it some more."
"Sure. Let me know what you get on that. Have Michelle run the stuff for you. I'm going to head out in a few minutes go to see a friend in the Narcotics department and see if he doesn't have some idea on how I can get in."
Kit walked out and closed the door behind him. Jack looked up at Chase and asked, "What can I do for you, Chase?"
"I just wanted to check in and see what was happening. I heard you wanted me to run point on your undercover operations."
"Yeah. You'll be the only one left in this office besides Chloe and she is still learning some of the ropes and busy enough. You'll report to Tony, and maybe Chappelle depending on how much Tony has on his plate. We'll work some sort of a schedule out for reporting in. But I doubt we'll stick to it. You know what it's like undercover. Anything else?"
"No."
"How are you doing?" Jack asked looking up from some paperwork. He knew the young agent wanted to be out there doing something, and Jack did not blame him. Jack just did not trust him yet. The only reason why he trusted Kit was because Kit had saved him a few months ago when a sniper had Jack targeted at a governor's speech. The local police called CTU in because the sniper might have been the woman Mandy who was responsible for the attack on the President a few years earlier. Jack was walking the grounds looking for anything, and the sniper had him pinpointed and ready to shoot, when Kit fired from the opposite rooftop killing the sniper and saving Jack. Ultimately, any reservations Jack had about him faded. Since Nina betrayed CTU, Jack had found it hard to trust anyone he worked with, and he knew just because Kit saved him doesn't mean Kit could not be a mole, but since that day Jack trusted him. He was a very honorable guy, with a similar past as Jack, and the two were also in Kosovo, which made it easy to get into the old war stories all Army guys usually got into when you got a couple stories together.
"I'm doing good. Thanks for asking. Is that your daughter that you came in with today?" Chase asked not knowing much about Jack or his family.
"Yeah. She wants to be here for technical support. Go figure you think she would stay away from this place." Jack said smiling even though he felt sad that his daughter had grown up.
"Why would she stay away? I bet she is like her father."
"I hope she is nothing like me." Jack said suddenly upset, for reasons unknown to him.
Noticing the change in his mood Chase said, "I better go see if Michelle needs some help. If you need a hook-up person to get into the Salazars, I might know someone. An old informant I use to have when I was in S.W.A.T."
"Really. Who?" Jack said suddenly interested.
"A friend and I use to bust this guy every week. He is a runner for one of the local gangs. Jim Goldman. I'm pretty sure he's still around. I can check it out with you if you want at lunch." Chase answered. Ready and willing to gain Jack's trust somehow.
"Yeah. That would work out greatly. Kim could take my car then and get me later on. I know she doesn't want to hang around here all day."
"I can drive you home tonight. We are usually leaving at the same time, and I have no problem helping out." Chase said eager to please.
Jack noticed his eagerness and began to remember himself as a young agent. "If you don't mind. Kim will be happy then. Thanks."
"Sure no problem sir. I'm going to help Michelle if you don't have anything else you want me to do." Chase waited a moment before leaving Jack's office. He felt like jumping up in the air and screaming yes. That was the most that Jack had spoken to him since he started working at CTU.
Jack began to focus on the paperwork he had to finish before lunch. Everything became hard to focus on when he knew he was soon to be undercover. Everything else became mundane task. He would now slowly take his cover. Like an actor, he would assume the role and stay in it even when he was not at work. It was a matter of survival. He had to convince these people he was that Jack and not the CTU Jack.
Hours passed while he sat there staring at the paperwork signing his name in the appropriate places and learning all data that had to be known by him. Around lunch time his door opened and he looked up to see Kim standing in the doorway looking upset. His heart fell to the floor when he saw the look on his daughter's face, "Kim, What's wrong?"
"Chappelle was an asshole. He told me there was no chance in hell he would ever allow another Bauer into CTU. Something about the family being reckless."
"What?" Jack said allowing his anger to slightly show through.
Kim could not help but start to laugh at her father. She hardly ever got to pull one over on him, but when she did she could barely keep from laughing.
"Kim, that was not funny." Jack said laughing.
"Yes, it was. You would have laughed if it had been anyone else, but you who was duped."
"So did you get the job?" Jack asked ignoring his daughters observation.
"They'll call me later this week with an answer, but Tony told me unofficially that I probably have it."
"Great, honey."
"You want to go have lunch to celebrate?" Kim asked smiling; happy that she would finally be working at CTU, and working close to her father. Finally she thought to herself, she would know where he went on those long trips.
"I would love to, but Chase and I have some work to do." Jack said, feeling sorry that he agreed to go with Chase to find the connection into the drug world.
"Chase can come too. If he doesn't mind. I bet he's hungry and I want to see my father, even if he comes with." Kim said.
"If he wants to, we can. We could always do what we have to do after the lunch. It'll have to be kind of a quick one."
"Aren't they always?" Kim said smiling. She had her father in check.
Jack picked up the phone and dialed the number to Michelle's desk where Chase had been helping out.
"Dessler?"
"Hey Michelle it's Jack let me speak with Chase."
"Sure, Jack, hold on." Michelle said giving the phone to Chase.
"Yes, sir."
"Chase how would you feel about going out to lunch with my daughter and I. I know we were supposed to go see your connection, but she wanted to unofficially celebrate."
"Sure. I would love to." Chase said happily. Maybe he would get Jack to trust him after all. He wanted to be in Kit's spot and this might just be the opportunity.
"Ok. We'll be down in a minute." Jack said before he put the phone back in it's spot. He and Kim walked down the steps together and were met by Chase waiting by the door with his coat in hand.
Jack introduced Kim, "Chase this is my daughter Kim. And Kim this is Chase, one of my workers."
"So you're in field-ops Chase?"
"Yeah."
"Cool." Kim said noticing how good looking Chase was. She smiled to herself, maybe this job had more benefits other than knowing where her father was. The walked to Chase's truck which was next to Jack's SUV.