A few days later...
Morris' house, Los Angeles
Alex stood close to the house, preparing himself for what was about to happen. Having been freed from prison, thanked and forgiven by Kim and flown back to California by CTU, he was now about to inform Morris of his pardon. He had a copy of it in his hand, and he had read and re-read it numerous times since he had rescued Teri from the barn. There had never been a real motive established for why Richard had taken Teri, but there was a rumour that he was a former CTU agent who had some sort of grudge against Jack, and Alex knew that, before he had transferred to Los Angeles from Chicago that Jack had made some enemies within CTU, even if most of the agency seemed to see him as some sort of hero.
Inside, Morris was sat at his kitchen table, reading the newspaper. He had no idea of who was at the door as the doorbell rang, and as he walked towards the door, he was unprepared for the surprise of seeing Alex Myers of all people at his door.
"Hello, Morris," Alex spoke, only temporarily making eye contact. He could see the shock on Morris' face.
"What are you doing out of jail?," Morris spoke quietly, but with an hint of fury that Alex knew would increase if he said the wrong thing in the wrong way, and he had no intention of hurting Morris any more than he had done already. Holding up the copy of his pardon slowly, he resumed eye contact with Morris.
"They pardoned me, Morris. I helped save Teri, Jack's granddaughter," Alex spoke, and Morris noticed the paper in his hand. Grabbing it, he read the document slowly, unable to believe it. Was it true? Did Alex really save Jack's granddaughter? He looked up at Alex, who was obviously uncomfortable with the situation, and Morris could only wonder why he had even been involved in saving Teri.
"You did?," Morris spoke, more out of disbelief than asking. He could see Alex doing such a thing, sure, but Alex and Jack had become anything but friends in the years after Chloe's murder.
"Morris, I only accepted the pardon so I could help Kim and help rescue her daughter. I didn't do it for myself," Alex spoke, and he could almost hear Morris thinking about this, about the idea that Chloe's murderer was now free, that the very same person who had tried to kill Jack Bauer had just helped save his granddaughter.
"Kim, do you really think your father would want you to go through life without living?," Morris said. It was a few months before her marriage to Stephen, and she was already having doubts about the wedding. She had concerns that Stephen would be in danger just by marrying a Bauer, concerns that she would lose him in tragic circumstances, concerns that some ghost from CTU would come and haunt them. This was why she was talking to Morris for the first time in years.
"No, he wouldn't. I guess I just can't see beyond gloomy possibilities," Kim replied, her eyes looking down into her half-empty coffee mug. Jack was currently nowhere to be found, although a CIA agent had been certain that she had seen him in India the previous year. Kim didn't want to get married without her father, but she knew that if she waited for him to come back, she might never go through with it. Not that either her or Stephen saw marriage as an essential part of their relationship, but she still wanted to be married to him.
"You've been through some terrible things, Kim, and now maybe it's time for you to have some happiness. I lost Chloe firstly because of my alcohol problem, and secondly when she was killed, and maybe I'm not the most suitable of people to be talking about moving on and being happy when I've not truly gotten over Chloe's death, but you've got so much life ahead of you," Morris spoke, his eyes gazing at a picture of himself and Chloe, taken some years before her death. Whilst others had seen her personality in a negative light, it had only been seen as positive to Morris.
Even though he had finished reading minutes before, Morris took his time to raise his head back up from the document to look at Alex again. He could tell that prison had certainly had a physical effect on him, but he still wondered if there really had been any point to the ten years of being behind bars that Alex had experienced.
"I can't forgive you, at least not just yet," Morris spoke quietly but firmly, not willing to look weak in front of Chloe's murderer. He looked at Alex, who seemed to not be surprised at the statement - after all, Alex had been remorseful from the start and had pleaded guilty quickly, even if they did have to go through a trial due to his insistence that he had not attempted to murder Jack at all.
"I don't deserve it, Morris, I just came to tell you about the pardon, and to apologise," Alex replied, and the tone of his voice told Morris that he meant it.
"What are you going to do now?," Morris asked. He assumed that as Alex now had no ties to Los Angeles, he would most likely leave California, and as he couldn't work for CTU anymore, he would have to find some other job.
"I'm thinking of moving to Philadelphia, where Kim and her family are. I don't know what to do with the rest of my life, Morris, but I promise you it will be something constructive," Alex spoke, and Morris nodded slowly. Alex sounded sincere, and the promise would certainly help him accept the pardon, and Morris truly hoped that Alex would indeed do something constructive with the three, maybe four, decades he was likely to have left.
"Good luck, Alex," Morris said, and he held out his hand. Shaking hands with Morris seemed to be a rather bizarre act, but it meant that in some way, there had been redemption for him in Morris' eyes. Turning around, he walked to the gate, but stopped to face Morris again.
"I think about her every day, Morris, and I hope I never wake up to a day that I don't," Alex spoke, and a smile grew on Morris' face.
"I do as well, Alex. Every day," Morris replied.
BND building, Stuttgart, Germany
The room was tense as Jack Bauer walked through it. This building housed the Stuttgart branch of the German foreign intelligence service BND, or the Bundesnachrichtendienst. Noone knew who the American walking past their desks was, but as far as they knew, it was simply a CIA agent who was cooperating with the BND on some German-American issue. Approaching the office of the head of this particular branch, Jack took a deep breath. After all, this was a guy he had met before. He knocked quietly and somewhat reluctantly on the door.
"Geben sie, bitte", called out a voice, asking Jack to enter. Slowly pushing open the door, he came face to face with the surprised but smug Theo Stoller.
"Jack Bauer, what a surprise. Of course, I should have guessed that 'Curtis Manning' was not the man I should have expected. If I now remember correctly, you shot him dead, didn't you?," Stoller spoke in English, his accent slightly more American – BND agents were often taught English by trusted Americans who lived in Germany.
Not bothering to respond to Stoller, Jack sat down and wasted no time in speaking.
"I suppose you know what's been going on in my life for the past few years?," Jack spoke, and Theo's features became more serious. He certainly knew what Jack had been getting up to, and he didn't like the idea of Jack Bauer being in his office, or even his country.
"Yes, I do, but what really concerns me, Jack, is that I've had reports of a blond American running around my city killing various Russian and Eastern European agents, as if it were still the Cold War. May I remind you that Germany was literally in the middle of America and the Soviet Union during those years? My father was a BND agent, and I know all too well what your country and the Soviets got up to in Germany," Theo replied, and Jack could tell that this was not going to be an easy meeting, especially in regards to what he wanted to get out of it.
"They are trying to kill me, I am just defending myself," Jack spoke. He knew that it was risky to seek help from any intelligence agency, never mind one which was somewhat friendly to the United States. He had been in London for a few months before moving on to Germany, and not once had he considered asking MI5 or MI6 for help – he would have been on the first plane back to the States if he had. The Germans, although still allies and friends with the United States, were not as close to the Americans and Jack felt that he could consider them if he decided to seek their help.
"And what do you suggest my agency can do to help you, Jack? Offer you protection?," Theo spoke, his eyes fixed on Jack's face. He was willing to help Jack in some way, but only as much as he himself was comfortable with.
"I want you to help me fake my death, Theo," Jack replied.
CTU Los Angeles, Los Angeles
It had been a rather surreal moment when Alex had approached the guard who was monitoring people coming into the building. The guard had no idea who he was until he had spoken his name, and as the pardon was only really known to the agents, he had looked at Alex with worry, until Alex pulled out the pardon and showed it to him. After that, he had walked into the main bullpen and, although he knew that CTU was certainly going to look different, he was shocked to see just how. The number of technological devices in the room was close to countless, and there must have been thirty or fourty people all working at computers or various other devices. Noticing a rather officious looking woman, he approached her.
"Are you Director Yassir?," he spoke, and the woman, who had been busy looking at a computer screen showing something totally alien to anything Alex had seen when he had been a CTU agent, looked up at him.
"Yes, and you are?," Nadia replied, and Alex could only assume that she knew of the pardon. After all, she worked at CTU Los Angeles, where he had done so a decade before.
"I'm Alex Myers," Alex spoke, and the background noise of the room suddenly fell slightly, and although most people seemed to be still working, he could tell that some were staring at him, and others were listening intently to whatever conversation was about to unfold.
"I didn't expect to see you here, Alex. Any reason for the visit?," Nadia spoke, somewhat indifferent to his announcement of who he was.
"I just came to see how CTU looked nowadays. I was at the Philadelphia branch for a while, and it all seems so futuristic, so different," Alex replied, a slight feeling of envy creeping into his mind, before realising that the new developments were there because terrorism must have increased, must have become stronger since his imprisonment. Whilst they did have access to newspapers and a television in jail, Alex rarely read the papers offered or watched the television.
"We've moved on a lot since 2008, Alex. You're remained somewhat of a myth in this building, you know? You, Jack Bauer, your sister, Tony Almeida, Michelle Dessler, all of these people that left CTU so long ago," Nadia spoke, and Alex could sense a sadness in her voice.
"I visited Morris earlier," Alex said, and Nadia nodded. She had worked with Morris before the closure of CTU, and the murder of his ex-wife was forever on his mind, even when he was at work.
"He worked here for a while, at the same time as myself. How is he?," Nadia asked. She had never experienced losing a loved one in the way Morris had – although Milo had been in love with her, she had been unsure, although when he had sacrificed himself for her, it felt more painful than she expected.
"He's doing OK, I suppose, but maybe he was hiding a lot from me. After all, why would he want to look defeated by the loss of Chloe in front of the man who murdered her?," Alex replied.
BND building, Stuttgart, Germany
Theo paced as he considered a lot of things. He was OK with helping Jack fake his death, but he was not OK with it being traced back to him, his agency or Germany. Therefore, it would require the act itself to be executed outside of the country, and Theo knew just the place.
"Jack, come back here at 9 in the morning and I will have more to tell you. I can't make any promises, though," he spoke, and Jack rose before nodding.
"Thanks, Theo, thank you," Jack replied, and he sounded as if he meant it, which he did, and as he walked out of the door he knew that he was a step closer to seeing his family again. It didn't matter if he was using a fake name, or if he had plastic surgery to alter his appearance, alls that did matter was that he could be with his family again.