Jack wasn't the kind of man to show feelings, and certainly not when he was at CTU. His training taught him to tuck his feelings away, and Operation Nightfall made him want to keep them there.
But his request was overdue. And the longer Richard Walsh contemplated it, the harder it was to keep from begging with his eyes.
Come on, Richard...all you have to do is say yes...
All Jack wanted was to get out of Field ops. Sure, he wanted to serve his country, but he'd do it from the floor. He'd get out of harm's way, try to patch things up with Teri and Kim, and have a life again.
Just one signature, Jack thought, that's all you need...
There was a knock on the door, and Richard and Jack turned to the door at once.
Nina stood in the doorway with a laptop in arm. She tried to look professional, but the disturbance on her face was too profound for that. "Richard, we've got a protocol..."
"Nina," Jack said softly. "What's wrong?"
She paused and gathered a quaky breath. "Someone flew a plane into the World Trade Center."
A/n: If you're a fact-checker (like me), you're probably tempted to say, "This should be titled 8:46." But I put it one minute ahead for a reason. Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower around 8:46:40. So for Nina to get word of the crash, verify it, and gather intel by 8:46:59, she'd have only 19 seconds. That's not nearly enough time. I figured it was more reasonable to set the story between 8:47 and 8:48, just give Nina some time.