CHAPTER TEN

Hour Four

7:00-8:00

Jack took Danni back to CTU immediately after she confessed to him that she had a child. Agent Daniels and his team stayed behind at the home to search for any evidence that could lead them to Maliqe. Danni cried silently almost the whole way so Jack didn't disturb her. The odd thing was that if she were any other person, Jack would have moved hell and high water to find out why the hell she claimed to have a son when there was no record of him and why on earth he would be in danger.

When they got to CTU, Jack took Danni to his office. She sat on the couch in the corner of the room with a worried expression on her face. Jack assumed that if her son truly was in danger, that face wasn't about to change. Sitting next to her on the couch, Jack continued the conversation they needed to have.

"Why didn't you tell me you had a son?" Jack asked Danni.

She looked up at him, fresh tears appearing in her eyes. She had very good reasons for keeping Billy a secret; to keep him safe. But if Mark had been telling the truth, and he had no reason to lie, then Billy had been kidnapped by Maliqe and was in more danger than she could imagine. "I didn't tell anyone." Danni admitted to Jack.

"We ran a search on you; there's no record of you having a child." Jack told her.

Danni sighed. "Well, seeing as how we never registered his birth that sounds about right."

"Why not?" Jack asked.

"Because it was the only way, Jack." Danni leant forwards. "I didn't even find out I was pregnant until a month after Mark and I broke up. And by that time I was already working with Micah and Maliqe."

Jack furrowed his eyebrow. "You hid it from them?"

"I had to. I was living in New York at the time. We talked via telephone for almost a year before I even moved back to L.A." Danni continued. "After I had Billy I came back for about a month at a time. He stayed in New York with Mark."

"How much did Mark know about what you were doing?" Jack asked.

"Nothing; he didn't know anything." Danni shook her head. "I never told him what I did. I just said I had to come back to L.A. for work." She paused before continuing. "Then Maliqe called me about three months ago. He told me about the plans for tomorrow and said I had to stay in L.A. until we were done. I told Mark that I was involved in something in Los Angeles that was very dangerous and he needed to take care of Billy." She laughed a little. "I think he thought it was just an elaborate way of blowing him off."

"Now you think Maliqe has your son." Jack surmised.

"I know he has my son." Danni told Jack firmly. "Mark and I may not be close but he loves that boy." Danni felt another wave of emotion come over her so she tried to stifle more tears. "And if they found Mark then they found Billy. That's why Maliqe ran; he knew he had more leverage."

Jack nodded slowly in agreement. "How old is Billy?" Jack asked.

Danni's bottom lip involuntarily trembled. "He's three next month." She said. Tears fell from her eyes. "Jack...I have to get him back."

"I know." Jack told her.

"Jack..." She leant closer to him. "Please help me get him back."

Jack looked into her eyes. They were blurred with tears and as Jack watched; they fell from her eyes. His job had caused Kim to be in danger more times then he could think about. And he'd lost Terri and Audrey because of it. Not to mention Tony, Michelle and David Palmer. Plus he knew of countless people in the CTU office who'd lost important people in their own lives. Billy was the only family Danni had and Jack understood how much she needed to do this. But he also knew that if he didn't help her she'd go alone and most likely be killed along with her son. "Okay." Jack agreed.

Danni almost smiled as a wave of relief swept over her face. But at that moment they were interrupted as Bill Buchannon came into Jack's office.

"Jack." Bill said sternly as he eyed the two of them. "A word?" He exited the doorway and waited in the hall.

Jack left Danni on the couch and went out to meet Bill. "What's going on?" he asked.

"What the hell are you doing, Jack?" Bill asked callously. "I should have Danielle in custody by now. You didn't capture Maliqe and we still have the chip. We should be focusing our attention on finding the bomb."

"Bill, I know this looks bad. But there's more to this than we know." Jack informed him. "Danni has a son. And we believe Maliqe kidnapped him as a way to punish her for going against them."

Bill looked puzzled. "A son?"

Jack nodded. "Bill, he's not even three years old." He continued. "And Maliqe killed his father in that house."

Sighing, Bill glanced around CTU before looking back to Jack. "So what do you want me to do?"

"Danni's going after Maliqe with or without me." Jack told him. "The only way they are going to let her son live is if Danni stays with them."

"You're going to make a trade." Bill realized, nodding along. "Does she know this?" Bill jerked his head back towards Jack's office to Danni who was still sitting sadly on the couch.

"She knows that's the reason they took her son in the first place." Jack told him. "Bill...I can get her to work for us."

"No." Bill said immediately. "There is no way I am going to trust her, Jack, I'm sorry. Do I have to remind you that the reason we found her is because she's working with terrorists."

"We've trusted people like her before, Bill." Jack brought up.

Bill stood his ground. "It's too risky. The President's life is at stake."

"So is Danni's son." Jack reminded him. "If I tell her that working with CTU when she's inside is the only way to save her child; she'll do it."

"Jack, she didn't even tell us she had a son." Bill pointed out. "And for all we know; she's making it up. There's no record of her ever giving birth."

"She didn't register his birth." Jack reiterated what Danni had told him just moments before to Bill, who didn't seem at all perturbed by the information.

"There's no proof of that, Jack." Bill said. "You said you could use her to get to Maliqe. You didn't."

"I got her to Maliqe." Jack defended himself. "I couldn't have anticipated what happened in that house."

"Danielle knew the man who died in that house, Mark from her past. If she'd been honest with you; you would've known to be on alert." Bill said knowingly. "As much as you want to trust her, Jack, I don't. You had your chance and you blew it. Now I need you to head the team to find the bomb."

Refusing to give up, Jack proceeded. "Danni can help us find the bomb." Jack had every confidence that his plan would work; but getting people to go along with his plans seemed to be a constant issue.

"For the last time, Jack, no. Forget Danielle; take her to a holding cell downstairs and she can wait there until we solve this." Bill said with a hint of finality in his voice. "Agent Daniels is en route to CTU. Brief him when he gets back and go find that bomb." Bill turned and headed back towards his own office.

Jack started after him but stopped himself. He turned around and went back to his own office. Danni was now standing and pacing Jack's office, biting the nails of her right hand. She looked at Jack as he came back in.

"Is everything ok?" she asked.

"Yeah." Jack assured her.

"Are they going to help us find Billy?" she asked, somewhat hopefully. She knew this was a long shot. They were torturing her for terrorism only hours before.

Jack didn't want to tell her what Bill had said so he just shook his head in response to her question. She nodded once and looked away. When she turned back to Jack her face was stony.

"I have to find him, Jack. I have to." She said strongly. "He's my son. He's my son!" She stormed up to Jack and stood just a few feet from him, tears burning her eyes. "I'm his mother! I should've protected him!" She was so mad at herself she was shaking. Jack reached for her shoulders but she just shoved him off. "Don't! Jack..." Danni's face crumbled as she started gasping for breaths. "He's only a baby." The tears she'd been holding in poured down her cheeks as she continued breathing in raspy breaths.

Jack could feel tears in his own eyes, but over the years he knew how to hold them back. But his feelings for Danni he could not hide. He wanted to help her so badly, no matter what Bill had told him. And she was in so much pain before him at that moment; it was as though he could see her heartbreak all over her face. He reached out for her shoulders again and managed to hold her before him; she resisted but was losing energy and couldn't seem to shrug him off again.

Danni grabbed Jack's shirt and gripped it in her fists. She shook him slightly but he barely moved. All she could think about was Billy and every time she pictured his beautiful face; she just started sobbing all over again. "Oh God..." she wept. "He must be so scared." She fell into Jack's body and cried against his shoulder. She expected him to push her away; but he didn't. Instead she felt his arms close around her back and pull her into him.

Hugging Danni brought back a whole new set of memories Jack had long forgotten, but he was not the kind of man to push away a friend when they were in so much pain. Even if that friend had aligned herself with terrorists in the past. Jack realized as he held Danni that they both knew he was going to help her get her son back. There was some kind of unspoken bond that had been formed between them; a connection that came from whatever lingering feelings that the pair had left for each other after so long.

They were interrupted but some loud commotion on the bottom level of CTU. Jack and Danni broke apart as he headed out into the hallway to see what was going on. Rahjid Andreas was being moved. Jack surmised that the CTU interrogators had either gotten what they wanted out of him or he hadn't told them anything and was being taken to another location. And by the way Rahjid was striding along side the guards who were pulling him along by the chains that were shackled to his wrists and ankles.

Jack descended the staircase slowly. Most of the agents milling around didn't look up from their work. Whether it was because they didn't see Rahjid or just didn't want to make eye contact; Jack wasn't sure.

Rahjid, head held high; almost refusing to let these agents look down at him, glanced around the bustling office. He presumed most of the people sitting at their computers were trying to figure out how to find the bomb, find his comrades, in particular Maliqe. The thought that they were still coming to dead ends filled him with a sense of pride. As he was walked further along, Rahjid caught the eye of a man on the staircase; the same man who caused him to be in the chains he was wearing. Rahjid's eyes drifted to the top landing above the stairs where he saw a shaken looking Danielle Carter was staring down at him with glowering eyes. He could see the effect his mere presence was having on her so he smirked in response to her stricken expression.

Danni slowly walked down the staircase in Jack's direction. He was watching Rahjid from the bottom of the stairs. As Danni neared him, Rahjid's soulless eyes met her own.

"How's the baby?" he sneered at her with an evil laugh.

Danni lunged forwards towards him, reaching out her arms to grab the son-of-a-bitch that dared mentioned her son's name. And she would've tackled him, too, had she not been pulled backwards by Jack as he grabbed her around her middle.

"Danni, calm down!" Jack was yelling loudly over Danni's cries of anguish and fury.

"You bastard!" Danni screamed as Jack tried unsuccessfully to pull her back upstairs. "Where's my son?! Where is he?!"

"Jack!" Bill's voice bellowed over CTU. "Get her out of here!" He turned to the guards holding Rahjid. "Harris! Montague! Move!"

Jack managed to get Danni back upstairs and into his office. The guards moved with Rahjid even faster and moments later he was out of sight. All the agents who'd lost sight of their work when Danni had lunged at the prisoner began to get back to their own desks and continuing working.

Jack locked his door and hit the button under his light switch that caused the blinds covering his glass walls to swing closed; obscuring the view of anyone who looked in. He turned to Danni, who had her back to him, and could see by the way she was standing that she was fuming. Her back was straight and her muscles were tense. He didn't want to lecture her on what a bad idea it was to attack Rahjid; he had a feeling she knew it was a bad idea while doing it.

"He knows." Danni spoke in a quiet voice but the malice came in loud and clear to Jack. "He knows where Billy is."

Jack hung his head. "I know." He replied.

Danni turned. Her face held no sign of the sadness it had only minutes before when she was sobbing into Jack's shoulder. Her expression was one of pure anger at the people she'd once trusted; the people who'd kidnapped her only child. Her eyes locked into Jack's.

"We have to go." She said.

"Look Danni," Jack started. "Buchannon told me earlier that he doesn't want me to help you. But I promised you I would." Jack added quickly as he saw Danni's mouth open; presumably about to protest.

Danni looked slightly relieved. "So what are we going to do?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"I have to get you out of here without anyone noticing." Jack stated simply.

"Okay." Danni nodded along.

"Usually, after we're done with a suspect, they're taken to a holding cell either here or at the police station depending on the crime." Jack told Danni. "Because of what you've done Bill wants to keep you here." Walking over to his desk, Jack picked up the phone. He dialed Chloe's desk phone number and, when she answered, asked her to come up to his office.

"Who is Chloe?" Danni asked, repeating the name she'd just heard Jack use.

"The only person who can help us." Jack said simply

xxx