The following morning, there was an awkward silence between Alex and Adam in the break room, before Adam decided that he could hold it in no longer.
"What the hell was all that about?" Adam demanded, and it was obvious to Alex that he had been thinking a lot about the incident. He had come up with so many different theories, but he had not been able to decide which of them, if any, was the truth or even close to it. As for Alex, he had no idea what he could say that would be convincing enough for Adam. After all, he had been asked by a high-ranking CTU agent to follow another agent outside of work hours.
"As I said, don't worry, it was just because of a personal disagreement," Alex replied, although Adam didn't seem convinced at what was the truth to some extent.
"Jack's idea of resolving a personal disagreement is using CTU agents and resources for non-work-related issues?" Adam responded sceptically, and Alex was about to respond when Chloe suddenly came into the room and the conversation could go no further. If she noticed any tension between the two, she certainly didn't show it as she busied herself with making a cup of coffee. Knowing that he wouldn't be getting any more answers, for now, Adam left the room. Moments later, Alex followed and as he walked back to his workstation, he glanced up at Jack's empty office and wondered if he would want to discuss the incident at some point. Looking over at Kim, he decided to risk going over and talking to her.
"Has he not mentioned anything about last night?" Kim asked Alex as he reached her desk as if she had read his mind.
"No, but I've not talked to him today. Where is he at the moment?" Alex replied. Whilst there were many work-related reasons for him to be stood at her desk, he didn't want Jack to catch him there.
"He's in a meeting at Division, he shouldn't be back here for a while," Kim replied before she remembered something from earlier on in the day.
"I came in early today, my dad was doing something in his office before he threw an object into the trash. I was in there earlier talking to him and managed to look at what he had thrown away. It was a syringe," she told him in a quiet voice to ensure nobody heard what she had just said.
Nodding, Alex looked around at the other employees in the bullpen. Jack often left his office door unlocked during busy hours, so as long as he was careful he could get in and out without anyone noticing. Walking naturally towards the stairs that led to Jack's office, he decided to grab a piece of paper from a nearby desk to use as a prop, before climbing the stairs. Slipping inside, he made his way to the trash can next to the desk. Carefully picking up the syringe with the piece of paper before folding the paper around it, he made his way back out of the office and down to the break room, where he unwrapped the syringe and examined it.
I have no idea what this is for. It could be hard drugs or it could be for diabetes, but it can also help keep Jack off of our backs. I need to get this analysed!
He tried to think of a way to get the syringe analysed, before remembering that the re-developed Medical area of CTU had its own drug lab. They could do it, but another problem arose - how would he get them to check a random, unmarked syringe. Suddenly, he heard someone enter the room and, quickly wrapping the syringe back up again, he hoped that he wouldn't turn to see Jack standing there.
"What did you do in Jack's office?" Tony asked, and Alex knew that he had to think quickly and, as he turned around to face him, he remembered why he had originally picked up the piece of paper.
"I was just putting something he asked for on his desk," Alex replied, hoping that Tony had at least seen him with the piece of paper. He knew that there was actually almost nothing that he would need to be leaving for Jack on his desk, but it was worth a try.
"Then what? You were doing something else," Tony continued. He wanted to believe Alex but was finding it difficult. At first, he had just been glancing out at the bullpen, but seeing him climbing the stairs to Jack's office had caught his attention. He had watched Alex carefully and had taken his chance to confront him as soon as he could.
"I needed to put something in the trash," Alex replied. Not the best of excuses, but he hoped that it would be enough. Moments passed before Tony nodded in response.
"Fine, but you know you're not supposed to go in there when Jack's not around. The same goes for my office," Tony told him. He had decided to believe Alex, seeing as there was little other explanation for what he had been doing. Once Tony had left, Alex sighed in relief but he still had some things to worry about. Firstly, there was nothing on Jack's desk from him. Secondly, Tony was almost certainly going to mention this incident to Jack.
This probably wasn't the best of ideas, it'll only make them more suspicious. They could even start an investigation on me.
As he made his way to Medical, his thoughts returned to how exactly he was going to get them to test a random, unlabelled syringe. He considered the idea of injecting himself and explaining to the doctors that he had been pricked accidentally, taking care not to leave his fingerprints, but he rejected the idea as being too reckless.
Meanwhile, back in the bullpen, Jack had returned and Tony was telling him about the incident with Alex. As he entered his office, the first thing Jack did was to check the trash can. Finding the syringe gone, he knew that he had little time to find Alex before things got bad for him. Returning hastily to the bullpen and finding out from Adam that Alex had headed towards Medical, he wasted no time in heading straight there himself, and, much to his relief, he saw Alex stood deep in thought. Rushing up to him and noticing the syringe in the paper, he grabbed at it which surprised Alex, and sent the syringe onto the floor and rolling away from them.
"What the hell are you doing, Alex?" Jack asked.
"I could ask you the same question, Jack. What's in the syringe?" Alex replied, knowing that they weren't too far from Medical and therefore, people working. If they were to find the syringe before he or Jack did, it would be out of their control what happened to it next.
"None of your business!" Jack scowled at him before he began to search for the syringe on the floor. Alex just stood there for a moment, watching as Jack tried in vain to find it.
"Kim saw it earlier when she was in your office, did you know that?" Alex spoke, and the look on Jack's face was one of shame. He had wanted to keep his addiction secret, away from anyone else and especially his daughter, but now she knew. Sighing, he stopped looking for the syringe.
"Heroin," Jack replied simply and Alex looked at him with shock. He knew that Jack had been through a lot, but he would never have guessed that he would see heroin as an escape route.
"Jack, you need help, that crap will just make everything a million times worse," Alex told him. He knew a little about what heroin did, and what little he knew horrified him. If Jack was going down that path, not only would it hurt Kim, but it would leave him either an addict or dead. Noticing where the syringe had fallen, Alex picked it up carefully with two fingers before wrapping it back into the paper and handing it over to Jack, who pushed it into his pocket.
"I'll get help when I can," Jack replied before he began walking away. Alex looked on with confusion as to what exactly he meant by "when", but he decided it was better not to ask.
Definitely not a good idea to inject myself, then, although now I've got a couple of fingerprints on that syringe. I wonder just what it is that we can do? Jack isn't going to let it go, and the things I've done today won't help to cool suspicion.