CHAPTER SEVEN: Michelle

Jack Bauer.

The name rang through my head as I hung up the phone and called out to the tall, graying man a little ways away. "Mr. Mason?"

Mason turned, his expression fighting boredom. "What?"

I walked up to him; obviously, he wasn't very interested in what I had to say. "I just got off the phone with someone from Eric Rayburn's office at NSA."

"Yeah?" Mason said impatiently.

"They have a request, sir, and they want it taken care of right away," I said, handing him a piece of paper.

Mason frowned, his eyes scanning it quickly. "This can't be right." And then, folding the paper, "Eileen, get me Rayburn. I think he's up in Oregon with the president. Put it in my office."

"What was that all about?" Tony turned to me as Mason left.

I took a deep breath. "NSA wants us to bring in Jack Bauer."

"What?" Shock and confusion were evident in Tony's exclamation. "What for?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. That's all he said. Isn't Bauer inactive?"

"Yeah..." Tony looked away, deep in thought.

I hesitated before asking. "Did you know him well?"

Tony gave me a short nod. "We worked together for a few years."

"You were there the day Nina Myers killed his wife, weren't you?" I knew the answer, but I suspected that this new development was bringing back old, bad memories.

"Yeah."

"Is it true Nina and Jack were having an affair?"

"He and Teri were separated at the time. Look, Michelle - why don't you check the traffic on our regional router?" There was no missing the irritation and defensiveness in his voice.

"Sure."

I cast a glance back at him as I walked away.

His dark eyes met mine, just for a moment.


"Have you looked at your system in the last five minutes?" I asked Tony, crossing over to where he was standing.

He glanced up at me. "No. What's up?"

"Langley issued an Information Flow Advisory. Something's going on... and whatever it is is going to be inter-agency."

Tony exhaled, leaning back in his seat. "Alright... Call Lindauer and Grothy, and tell them they don't have the day off after all. And start filtering everything that comes in."

I nodded, but Tony accidentally blocked me. For a moment, I hovered there, but then I gave a small smile and moved around him to my workspace.

My heart was doing a weird little dance. Really? Acting like a middle schooler here, I scolded myself internally. It's not like you've never liked someone before...

Liked someone.

Oh, God, help me get over this. And fast, I prayed silently.

Just then, Paula shuffled up, distracting me from my mental freak-out. I was just in the middle of arguing with her when Mason thundered down the stairs.

"Department heads. Over here. Right now," he barked. "Everyone else, back up what you're doing and start new situation profiles. We have an active priority."

Surprised, I glanced over at Tony. He looked at me, looking just as bemused. I followed him and the other heads to where Mason was standing.

"I just got off a conference call with NSA and Division. There's a nuclear bomb under terrorist control right here in Los Angeles and it's set to go off sometime today," continued Mason, looking grim. "So from this point on we don't speak to anyone outside our secure envelope. We don't talk to friends. Our job is to find this device and stop it. We don't want to create panic."

All I could think of was, Oh. My. God.


It was only a few minutes after Jack Bauer had arrived that he tried to leave again.

Tony stopped him. "Jack, wait up."

"I don't have time for this!" growled Jack.

"Jack, listen, the reason you were called in is because it's a background match. You're the only one who can run this," Tony tried.

"I don't care!" said Jack. "Look, I trusted everyone at CTU to protect my wife and now I lost her."

"I know, Jack. I was there."

The look on Tony's face made my heart ache. It wasn't his fault! I wanted to scream at Jack. It wasn't his fault!

Jack was't swayed. "I can't lose my daughter too, Tony. I'm sorry."

Tony made no move to stop him as he left.

"Tony," I called quietly.

He walked over to me. "What is it Michelle?" he asked tiredly.

"He's not going to help us?" I nodded towards the entrance where Jack Bauer had just left from.

"Give it a few minutes," said Tony, beginning to walk away. "He could never walk away knowing that all those people would get killed; he'll be back."

Sure enough, I was distracted from my conference with Mason and Tony a couple minutes later as Jack Bauer walked through the doors again.


Author's Note

I'm so sorry it's taken so long to update. School and sports have kept me busy. But how did you like this one? Obviously, this is the first episode of season two. It's not exact, and I've added/removed bits and pieces, but I hope it works for you!

Note: I do not own most of the content above - it goes to the creators of the 24: Season Two: Episode One.