Jack paced the van; around him the other agents were in uproar. Copell was
ordering Jerry to get the signal back, and Jerry was yelling that they'd
lost it, that he couldn't get it back. The SWAT team were asking
permission to go in, and Jack wasn't sure what to answer. He wasn't sure
whether to go in, afraid of what he'd see, and then also needing to help
Nina.
Copell stood, "Shall we go in and have a look?" he said, having already made up his mind. He zipped up his flack jacket and pulled his gun out of his holster. He took the safety off, as he waited for an answer.
Jack nodded, undoing the back door to the van and jumping onto the ground. He landed with a splash in a puddle that had collected in the road from the recent rain, now stopped, and shivered against the cold. He left his jacket in the van and didn't even consider going in to get it. In the back of his mind he heard Copell calling the SWAT team, and then they ran in front of him to the station, leading the way in.
They rushed through the first row of doors and checked all the shop fronts, two agents running into each and checking around before telling the others it was clear to advance. The glass doors at the other end of the corridor were shattered on the floor, but the opening mechanism still triggered when they climbed over the turnstile. The door opened halfway and shut on it's own safety mechanism when it bashed into a large chunk of glass.
The agents stepped through the frames and made their way into the central area of the station. Jack hung back, until one of the SWAT team members brushed past him, then he slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out his gun, cocking it ready to fire, in case Davison had survived the explosion.
The circle of people were still there. Sitting on the floor, some hugging each other, several crying. There were pillars just past the circle, several intact, a few in the distance blown into. Nina was standing in between two. Jack ran towards her, ignoring the agents, ignoring the hostages.
Nina looked confused, she turned around. She looked at the entrance, looked at the hostages, looked at Jack, but didn't absorb that he was there. She turned back to look in the opposite direction, and put the briefcase down on the floor. She squatted over it and opened it. It was filled with sand, and she pulled the bags out, Jack approached, "Nina." He whispered her name as he knelt down behind her. She put the sandbag down on the floor and placed her hand on top of it, resting on it for support as once again the pain amplified.
He quickly flicked the safety back on his gun and pocketed it, and then placed a hand either side of her waist and tried to lift her up. For a moment she didn't want to budge, groaning as his hand pressed against her wound, and then he looped his hands under her arms, and pulled. "Come on." He whispered encouragingly.
Once stood up she leant into his support, using her hands to paw at her forehead. She shut her eyes as she massaged the bridge of her nose and Jack watched with concern.
Copell approached from behind. "Jack?" He ventured as a few members of the SWAT team came up behind him.
"Yeah," Jack turned his head towards him, he couldn't turn completely without letting Nina drop a little, and he couldn't do that. Jack slid his hand down her side and pulled her towards him, letting her rest on his shoulder. He looked past Copell for a moment, and saw the blast, and a body lying in the centre, close to the subway entrance. "I think that's Davison." Jack said, and Copell ran past leading the SWAT team further on. Few paused for a moment as they passed Jack and Nina, who was holding onto Jack lest she collapse to the floor.
"I have to take you to the hospital." He whispered into her ear, as her hands clawed at his shirt, slipping as she tried to hold herself up.
"No, not yet." She pleaded, and lifted her face to look at him. The pain was like liquid now, pumping through her veins in place of blood, but she couldn't stop. Jack cupped her chin, kissing her eyebrow, her cheeks were scuffed with soot, and she was shaking. "Not yet." She said again, pushing forcefully at his chest. She took a moment to regain her footing and then she walked back across the station to the broken glass entrance.
Copell caught Jack glancing back and forth from Nina's retreating form to the blast site, and he called him over. "Looks like we're going to have to get your explosives guy in here." He commented, stepping outside the tarnished stone. Jack nodded disjointedly.
Copell saw Nina disappear into the entrance hall. "Take her to the hospital." He told Jack.
"What?" Jack honestly seemed surprised.
"I've got one of Carrey's cards, I can call him. Davison's dead, so there's no rush on her statement." Copell looked over at his body as he spoke. "I doubt your wife would object to you taking her to the hospital."
Jack froze for a moment, and then looked Copell in the eyes. He seemed to be measuring something as he squinted at him. "Thanks." He said eventually, and took two steps backwards, Copell watched him retreat, and then turned back to Davison as Jack called his name. "John!" He attracted his attention. "We split up." He told him, and then sprinted across the room, weaving between the hostages as they were escorted out of the building. He noticed Nina's coat, folded, on a chair in the waiting room and grabbed it, heading out.
-24-
The officers manning the rope line had their work cut out for them. Reporters were bombarding them with questions, using the zoom on their cameras to get as much information about the train station as possible. Jack looked up and down the road as he searched for Nina, finally spotting her weaving in and out of the cars on her way to his SUV. He called out her name and didn't earn a response, and then ran in between the cars to catch up with her. She braced herself on the door before she pulled the handle when Jack caught up with her. "Nina." He called, sliding in the gap between someone's fender and someone's rear spoiler to catch her.
She rolled over, leaning against the back door. "Open the car, Jack." She requested, leaning forward as though she was going to be sick and then straightening again.
"You need to go to the hospital." He told her, walking slower now he had her attention.
"I need sleep, food, my apartment..." She contradicted, her head swaying. Her face was block white, more than usual, and fine beads of sweat hung to her forehead and eyebrows.
Jack moved his head with hers to keep her attention focused on him. "...A morphine drip, a laparoscopy." He finished for her.
She shook her head, supporting one side with her hand as though she was afraid it would fall. Jack placed a hand either side of her body, ready to hold her up if necessary. "No, what I need is..."
Nina leant forward as another wave of nausea came over her. The bulletproof vest was too tight, there wasn't enough space for her to breath, the wire pack was itching her skin, and she had to get them off. "...This vest, I need." Nina didn't bother telling him, just pulling the buttons open, letting them pop or break, and she wasn't really interested which.
"Nina, what are you doing?" Jack grabbed her hands and stopped her, just as she managed to get at the buttons undone to her belly button, exposing most of the Kevlar vest. Her coat threatened to slip from his arm, and he freed her hands to gather it up, and then moved her just enough to open the back door, pushing her inside.
Nina was relieved to have the seat underneath her; it meant she didn't have to do all the work. She slid backwards along the seat to give Jack room to get in and he shut the car door. When she was settled against the seat, she finished undoing the buttons on her shirt. "What are you doing?" he questioned again, reaching out a hand to stop her, which she easily avoided.
"I have to get this off." She muttered, "I can't breath in it." She unhooked the last button and shrugged the sleeves off. Next she reached for the Velcro strips. Jack helped her, raising the material over her head when she found it too painful. With her back turned slightly to him, he was able to unplug the microphone, and he peeled the black pack off as slowly as he could. Nina didn't complain. She pulled the mike and it's cord out of her bra and passed it to him, focused on smoothing the edges of the bandage flat against her skin. "Check the vest, did I bleed on it?" she asked.
"What?" Jack said, not really wanting an answer. He unfolded the vest and looked, it was clean white. "No." Nina turned back to him and reached out of her shirt. He gripped her hand and moved it so he could see the centre of the bandage, it was red and a little yellow where her wound had broken, he scowled at her. "I'm taking you to the hospital." He placed her shirt on her lap and reached for the door handle.
"Wait..." Nina called, slid her finger inside her ear. She retrieved the transmitter and placed it on top of the vest with the resting of the listening device. "Give those back." She said, and began to find the arm holes in her shirt.
"And then we're going to the hospital...." He prompted, hoping she'd agree this time. She concentrated on putting her shirt sleeves the right way round. "Nina?"
"Give those back and then we can go to the hospital." She agreed, sliding the shirt around her back, and pushing her hands through the armholes.
Jack let go of the handle, reaching for her. He rubbed some of the dirt off of her cheek, and brushed some of the disturbed hair back behind her ear. "I really don't want to see you at work tomorrow." He told her smiling before he kissed her. He tried not to lean on the equipment as he leant into the kiss, sliding his hands down her back to pull the shirt up and over her shoulders. Jack kissed her neck and her collarbone, licking the little hollow just above it before he pulled her shirt closed. Nina kissed his forehead as he rose to look at her. "I wish we could continue this, but you need medical attention." He mumbled to her, pulling away to collect together the equipment, and reaching for the car door handle.
-24-
Nina pulled back the bolt and opened the door. Jack was standing, looking a little awkward in the corridor outside her apartment. He was brandishing a carton on tomato juice and nodding slowly with a gentle smile on his face. "You know you could have called me for a lift home from the hospital?"
Nina moved aside to let him pass, and then shut the door behind him. "You were busy." She said.
"Yeah, I was at CTU. But I don't recall changing my cell phone number." He handed her the tomato juice and gave her a once over. Her forehead was a blotchy red colour but only two or three of the hundreds of tiny stitches she'd had on her forehead remained.
"What's this for?" She asked referring to the carton. He took a moment to survey her other wound. The bandage around her waist was partially covered by her pyjamas, which wasn't a surprising choice of attire considering it was nearly midnight. Her pyjamas consisted of a pair of loose green trousers and a white vest top that barely covered most of her midrift, although, at this point only revealed the bandage. She was keeping herself warm in a short flannel bathrobe, which slipped down her shoulder as she spoke.
"Not wine, incase you were on medication." He explained as she read the label on the carton and hoisted the sleeve of her robe back up. She nodded and scampered off into what appeared to be the kitchen. "Do you want a glass?" she called back.
"Yeah." Jack called back to her. Glancing into her kitchen briefly before he looked at the other room that was off from the entrance area. It was a living area, quite a decent space. There were two doors leading off of it in the far corner, but right near the door she had a little corner cabinet of drink and glasses, a decanter of whisky sat on top, along with two upturned glasses. On the same wall was a decent stereo system, resting on a huge chrome support system, it was playing a cd at the moment, classical music, strings at this instant, and he moved on round the room. The next wall he came to was painted a different colour. The first had been green, the second was burgundy, the next blue and the fourth purple, all of them strong colours, all of them warm. This wall had a few photos on it, black and white, and closer to the doors at the end, was a short counter top with a television and all related appliances on it. The remotes were placed on top of the vcr or dvd player, a sign of order that led him to presume she rarely watched it; they were all off at the moment, flashing the time up, all three of them reading exactly the same. The vcr was flashing up the symbol that a tape was inserted, and he pressed the eject button, reading the label before pushing it back into the vcr. 'Auntie Nina's visit, July 2001, Jacob's second birthday' Behind him, her laptop sprung to life, and he lowered himself to the sofa to look at the file on the computer. The screen saver had activated and he placed a finger on the mouse pad to wake the computer. A word document flashed up, and he grabbed a handful of papers from the side to try and work out what she was working on.
"Hey?" Nina objected, as she walked into the room and placed two glasses of tomato juice on the coffee table. She sat down next to him on the couch and put a bottle of Worcestershire sauce next to her laptop as she reached over to close down the file she had open.
"What were you working on?" Jack asked, collecting the sauce and opening the lid to give it a sniff, he'd never seen it before.
Nina began to compile her papers together, and answered as she checked their order. "Satellite photos of that cult outside San Diego, compiling the records we've got on weapons movement. You asked for me to give it to you by Tuesday."
Jack laughed, putting the bottle of sauce back on the table. "You mean this week Tuesday, when you were in two explosions, admitted to hospital twice..."
"Yes, that Tuesday." She replied, upturning the bottle over her tomato juice and emptying a good portion of the bottle into her glass. She put the lid back on and licked some sauce off her finger, then leant back over to turn off her computer, pushing it to the back of the table and putting the files on top of it. She settled herself into the back of the couch and cradled her drink. Jack twisted himself towards her and used a finger to stroke hers around the glass.
"I think that can wait until you get back to work." He told her, letting his baritone voice drop another octave. Nina smiled at him, and he kissed her neck and then her ear lobe on his way to kiss her lips. He hadn't seen her whilst she was in hospital, as she was always asleep by the time he got off work, and although they'd only kept her in for two days, he had been concerned that she had changed her mind about the changes in their relationship, but when he kissed her, she happily kissed him back.
Some how he managed to pull her on top of him, spread diagonally across the better part of the sofa during their kiss, and when she broke it, she turned and settled herself on his lap, leaning back against him. Jack slid a hand over her stomach, lightly rubbing her bandage. "Why didn't they do a laparoscopy in the end?" he asked.
"Too well healed already, there was no infection. They didn't want to open me up again unless they absolutely had to." She replied, sighing contentedly. Her head was rested over his shoulder, placing her neck close to his chin, and he kissed her neck, giving her time to ask her question. "What about the case?" she asked him. "I gave my statement to the police at the hospital, but the officer had no idea what was going on with Davison."
Jack nodded into her shoulder, breathing in the smell of her soap and shampoo, her hair was slightly damp, even though her skin was dry, she'd probably just taken a shower. She'd been pretty lucid when he'd taken her out of the station, and that had been the last time she'd had contact with the case. "Davison was wearing all the C4 he'd taken out of his stock under his coat. The remote was connected to the bomb on his chest, and he detonated it in the subway entrance. The briefcase was a diversion, filled with sand. Nobody got hurt, well, except him."
Nina groaned as his fingers made contact with her skin a little higher. "What else?" she asked.
"Carrey reconstructed the device about ninety-five percent, he's filing a report on all the cases for us. CTU have a new stock of C4, and JayKay's marketing are trying to rebuild their offices with a memorial to the workers who died." Jack kissed her neck again and raised his hands to push her robe off of her shoulders. "And forty nine more people from the metro station were released from hospital." Nina turned in his arms and leant into his body again, kissing his neck, he pulled her back to look at her. "I think he wanted to spare you."
"Spare me?" she sat up on her own as Jack shifted on the sofa.
"When you railed him about all the people he'd hurt, I think he decided he didn't want to hurt anyone else." Jack reached for her again, "especially not you." He kissed her and, having finally succeeded in removing her robe, he tossed it across the room. "Are we okay?"
"We're fine, I wish you'd stop asking that." She growled as she started undoing the buttons on his black suit shirt.
Nina kissed the skin under Jack's ear as he apologised, and his voice went up a half an octave, which still rendered it pretty low. "I just want to make sure that this is..."
Nina pulled back and rested herself on her elbows. "It is what I want Jack, and we're both professional, private people, we shouldn't have any problems at work." Jack regarded her warily for a moment and then smiled at her, pulling her down for a kiss.
"So we're okay?" He said, once more as he began to help her with his buttons, it was more of a statement than a question, but she answered anyway, most of the sound muffled by Jack's tongue.
"We're fine."
THE END
There will be no sequels (before anyone asks) I will however probably end up writing a few alternate ways in which they could have hooked up. I realise the last scene was a little cutsie, but...well I'm the author and I wanted to! I would have written it a little more in line with the characters, but I made this a PG-13 fic, so I couldn't. I'll try and do a fic where Jack gets whumped, as requested, poor Nina took a few blows in this one. She's kind of my favourite character in 24, although I think in this one, towards the end, I deviated from her and made her a little more like me. It's getting harder to write Jack/Nina fics as they don't get any screen time at the moment, and Tony's stopped being a wanker, but I'm sure I'll find my niche again.
As always, feedback encourages me to write, and anything you'd like to see, write it up there! I've got a couple of plots (not all of them this long) on the boiler at the moment, and I'm not sure which to pursue next, so any suggestions would really be helpful.
Teryl Rothery rocks (even if this is the wrong show) Love Aria!
Copell stood, "Shall we go in and have a look?" he said, having already made up his mind. He zipped up his flack jacket and pulled his gun out of his holster. He took the safety off, as he waited for an answer.
Jack nodded, undoing the back door to the van and jumping onto the ground. He landed with a splash in a puddle that had collected in the road from the recent rain, now stopped, and shivered against the cold. He left his jacket in the van and didn't even consider going in to get it. In the back of his mind he heard Copell calling the SWAT team, and then they ran in front of him to the station, leading the way in.
They rushed through the first row of doors and checked all the shop fronts, two agents running into each and checking around before telling the others it was clear to advance. The glass doors at the other end of the corridor were shattered on the floor, but the opening mechanism still triggered when they climbed over the turnstile. The door opened halfway and shut on it's own safety mechanism when it bashed into a large chunk of glass.
The agents stepped through the frames and made their way into the central area of the station. Jack hung back, until one of the SWAT team members brushed past him, then he slid his hand into his pocket and pulled out his gun, cocking it ready to fire, in case Davison had survived the explosion.
The circle of people were still there. Sitting on the floor, some hugging each other, several crying. There were pillars just past the circle, several intact, a few in the distance blown into. Nina was standing in between two. Jack ran towards her, ignoring the agents, ignoring the hostages.
Nina looked confused, she turned around. She looked at the entrance, looked at the hostages, looked at Jack, but didn't absorb that he was there. She turned back to look in the opposite direction, and put the briefcase down on the floor. She squatted over it and opened it. It was filled with sand, and she pulled the bags out, Jack approached, "Nina." He whispered her name as he knelt down behind her. She put the sandbag down on the floor and placed her hand on top of it, resting on it for support as once again the pain amplified.
He quickly flicked the safety back on his gun and pocketed it, and then placed a hand either side of her waist and tried to lift her up. For a moment she didn't want to budge, groaning as his hand pressed against her wound, and then he looped his hands under her arms, and pulled. "Come on." He whispered encouragingly.
Once stood up she leant into his support, using her hands to paw at her forehead. She shut her eyes as she massaged the bridge of her nose and Jack watched with concern.
Copell approached from behind. "Jack?" He ventured as a few members of the SWAT team came up behind him.
"Yeah," Jack turned his head towards him, he couldn't turn completely without letting Nina drop a little, and he couldn't do that. Jack slid his hand down her side and pulled her towards him, letting her rest on his shoulder. He looked past Copell for a moment, and saw the blast, and a body lying in the centre, close to the subway entrance. "I think that's Davison." Jack said, and Copell ran past leading the SWAT team further on. Few paused for a moment as they passed Jack and Nina, who was holding onto Jack lest she collapse to the floor.
"I have to take you to the hospital." He whispered into her ear, as her hands clawed at his shirt, slipping as she tried to hold herself up.
"No, not yet." She pleaded, and lifted her face to look at him. The pain was like liquid now, pumping through her veins in place of blood, but she couldn't stop. Jack cupped her chin, kissing her eyebrow, her cheeks were scuffed with soot, and she was shaking. "Not yet." She said again, pushing forcefully at his chest. She took a moment to regain her footing and then she walked back across the station to the broken glass entrance.
Copell caught Jack glancing back and forth from Nina's retreating form to the blast site, and he called him over. "Looks like we're going to have to get your explosives guy in here." He commented, stepping outside the tarnished stone. Jack nodded disjointedly.
Copell saw Nina disappear into the entrance hall. "Take her to the hospital." He told Jack.
"What?" Jack honestly seemed surprised.
"I've got one of Carrey's cards, I can call him. Davison's dead, so there's no rush on her statement." Copell looked over at his body as he spoke. "I doubt your wife would object to you taking her to the hospital."
Jack froze for a moment, and then looked Copell in the eyes. He seemed to be measuring something as he squinted at him. "Thanks." He said eventually, and took two steps backwards, Copell watched him retreat, and then turned back to Davison as Jack called his name. "John!" He attracted his attention. "We split up." He told him, and then sprinted across the room, weaving between the hostages as they were escorted out of the building. He noticed Nina's coat, folded, on a chair in the waiting room and grabbed it, heading out.
-24-
The officers manning the rope line had their work cut out for them. Reporters were bombarding them with questions, using the zoom on their cameras to get as much information about the train station as possible. Jack looked up and down the road as he searched for Nina, finally spotting her weaving in and out of the cars on her way to his SUV. He called out her name and didn't earn a response, and then ran in between the cars to catch up with her. She braced herself on the door before she pulled the handle when Jack caught up with her. "Nina." He called, sliding in the gap between someone's fender and someone's rear spoiler to catch her.
She rolled over, leaning against the back door. "Open the car, Jack." She requested, leaning forward as though she was going to be sick and then straightening again.
"You need to go to the hospital." He told her, walking slower now he had her attention.
"I need sleep, food, my apartment..." She contradicted, her head swaying. Her face was block white, more than usual, and fine beads of sweat hung to her forehead and eyebrows.
Jack moved his head with hers to keep her attention focused on him. "...A morphine drip, a laparoscopy." He finished for her.
She shook her head, supporting one side with her hand as though she was afraid it would fall. Jack placed a hand either side of her body, ready to hold her up if necessary. "No, what I need is..."
Nina leant forward as another wave of nausea came over her. The bulletproof vest was too tight, there wasn't enough space for her to breath, the wire pack was itching her skin, and she had to get them off. "...This vest, I need." Nina didn't bother telling him, just pulling the buttons open, letting them pop or break, and she wasn't really interested which.
"Nina, what are you doing?" Jack grabbed her hands and stopped her, just as she managed to get at the buttons undone to her belly button, exposing most of the Kevlar vest. Her coat threatened to slip from his arm, and he freed her hands to gather it up, and then moved her just enough to open the back door, pushing her inside.
Nina was relieved to have the seat underneath her; it meant she didn't have to do all the work. She slid backwards along the seat to give Jack room to get in and he shut the car door. When she was settled against the seat, she finished undoing the buttons on her shirt. "What are you doing?" he questioned again, reaching out a hand to stop her, which she easily avoided.
"I have to get this off." She muttered, "I can't breath in it." She unhooked the last button and shrugged the sleeves off. Next she reached for the Velcro strips. Jack helped her, raising the material over her head when she found it too painful. With her back turned slightly to him, he was able to unplug the microphone, and he peeled the black pack off as slowly as he could. Nina didn't complain. She pulled the mike and it's cord out of her bra and passed it to him, focused on smoothing the edges of the bandage flat against her skin. "Check the vest, did I bleed on it?" she asked.
"What?" Jack said, not really wanting an answer. He unfolded the vest and looked, it was clean white. "No." Nina turned back to him and reached out of her shirt. He gripped her hand and moved it so he could see the centre of the bandage, it was red and a little yellow where her wound had broken, he scowled at her. "I'm taking you to the hospital." He placed her shirt on her lap and reached for the door handle.
"Wait..." Nina called, slid her finger inside her ear. She retrieved the transmitter and placed it on top of the vest with the resting of the listening device. "Give those back." She said, and began to find the arm holes in her shirt.
"And then we're going to the hospital...." He prompted, hoping she'd agree this time. She concentrated on putting her shirt sleeves the right way round. "Nina?"
"Give those back and then we can go to the hospital." She agreed, sliding the shirt around her back, and pushing her hands through the armholes.
Jack let go of the handle, reaching for her. He rubbed some of the dirt off of her cheek, and brushed some of the disturbed hair back behind her ear. "I really don't want to see you at work tomorrow." He told her smiling before he kissed her. He tried not to lean on the equipment as he leant into the kiss, sliding his hands down her back to pull the shirt up and over her shoulders. Jack kissed her neck and her collarbone, licking the little hollow just above it before he pulled her shirt closed. Nina kissed his forehead as he rose to look at her. "I wish we could continue this, but you need medical attention." He mumbled to her, pulling away to collect together the equipment, and reaching for the car door handle.
-24-
Nina pulled back the bolt and opened the door. Jack was standing, looking a little awkward in the corridor outside her apartment. He was brandishing a carton on tomato juice and nodding slowly with a gentle smile on his face. "You know you could have called me for a lift home from the hospital?"
Nina moved aside to let him pass, and then shut the door behind him. "You were busy." She said.
"Yeah, I was at CTU. But I don't recall changing my cell phone number." He handed her the tomato juice and gave her a once over. Her forehead was a blotchy red colour but only two or three of the hundreds of tiny stitches she'd had on her forehead remained.
"What's this for?" She asked referring to the carton. He took a moment to survey her other wound. The bandage around her waist was partially covered by her pyjamas, which wasn't a surprising choice of attire considering it was nearly midnight. Her pyjamas consisted of a pair of loose green trousers and a white vest top that barely covered most of her midrift, although, at this point only revealed the bandage. She was keeping herself warm in a short flannel bathrobe, which slipped down her shoulder as she spoke.
"Not wine, incase you were on medication." He explained as she read the label on the carton and hoisted the sleeve of her robe back up. She nodded and scampered off into what appeared to be the kitchen. "Do you want a glass?" she called back.
"Yeah." Jack called back to her. Glancing into her kitchen briefly before he looked at the other room that was off from the entrance area. It was a living area, quite a decent space. There were two doors leading off of it in the far corner, but right near the door she had a little corner cabinet of drink and glasses, a decanter of whisky sat on top, along with two upturned glasses. On the same wall was a decent stereo system, resting on a huge chrome support system, it was playing a cd at the moment, classical music, strings at this instant, and he moved on round the room. The next wall he came to was painted a different colour. The first had been green, the second was burgundy, the next blue and the fourth purple, all of them strong colours, all of them warm. This wall had a few photos on it, black and white, and closer to the doors at the end, was a short counter top with a television and all related appliances on it. The remotes were placed on top of the vcr or dvd player, a sign of order that led him to presume she rarely watched it; they were all off at the moment, flashing the time up, all three of them reading exactly the same. The vcr was flashing up the symbol that a tape was inserted, and he pressed the eject button, reading the label before pushing it back into the vcr. 'Auntie Nina's visit, July 2001, Jacob's second birthday' Behind him, her laptop sprung to life, and he lowered himself to the sofa to look at the file on the computer. The screen saver had activated and he placed a finger on the mouse pad to wake the computer. A word document flashed up, and he grabbed a handful of papers from the side to try and work out what she was working on.
"Hey?" Nina objected, as she walked into the room and placed two glasses of tomato juice on the coffee table. She sat down next to him on the couch and put a bottle of Worcestershire sauce next to her laptop as she reached over to close down the file she had open.
"What were you working on?" Jack asked, collecting the sauce and opening the lid to give it a sniff, he'd never seen it before.
Nina began to compile her papers together, and answered as she checked their order. "Satellite photos of that cult outside San Diego, compiling the records we've got on weapons movement. You asked for me to give it to you by Tuesday."
Jack laughed, putting the bottle of sauce back on the table. "You mean this week Tuesday, when you were in two explosions, admitted to hospital twice..."
"Yes, that Tuesday." She replied, upturning the bottle over her tomato juice and emptying a good portion of the bottle into her glass. She put the lid back on and licked some sauce off her finger, then leant back over to turn off her computer, pushing it to the back of the table and putting the files on top of it. She settled herself into the back of the couch and cradled her drink. Jack twisted himself towards her and used a finger to stroke hers around the glass.
"I think that can wait until you get back to work." He told her, letting his baritone voice drop another octave. Nina smiled at him, and he kissed her neck and then her ear lobe on his way to kiss her lips. He hadn't seen her whilst she was in hospital, as she was always asleep by the time he got off work, and although they'd only kept her in for two days, he had been concerned that she had changed her mind about the changes in their relationship, but when he kissed her, she happily kissed him back.
Some how he managed to pull her on top of him, spread diagonally across the better part of the sofa during their kiss, and when she broke it, she turned and settled herself on his lap, leaning back against him. Jack slid a hand over her stomach, lightly rubbing her bandage. "Why didn't they do a laparoscopy in the end?" he asked.
"Too well healed already, there was no infection. They didn't want to open me up again unless they absolutely had to." She replied, sighing contentedly. Her head was rested over his shoulder, placing her neck close to his chin, and he kissed her neck, giving her time to ask her question. "What about the case?" she asked him. "I gave my statement to the police at the hospital, but the officer had no idea what was going on with Davison."
Jack nodded into her shoulder, breathing in the smell of her soap and shampoo, her hair was slightly damp, even though her skin was dry, she'd probably just taken a shower. She'd been pretty lucid when he'd taken her out of the station, and that had been the last time she'd had contact with the case. "Davison was wearing all the C4 he'd taken out of his stock under his coat. The remote was connected to the bomb on his chest, and he detonated it in the subway entrance. The briefcase was a diversion, filled with sand. Nobody got hurt, well, except him."
Nina groaned as his fingers made contact with her skin a little higher. "What else?" she asked.
"Carrey reconstructed the device about ninety-five percent, he's filing a report on all the cases for us. CTU have a new stock of C4, and JayKay's marketing are trying to rebuild their offices with a memorial to the workers who died." Jack kissed her neck again and raised his hands to push her robe off of her shoulders. "And forty nine more people from the metro station were released from hospital." Nina turned in his arms and leant into his body again, kissing his neck, he pulled her back to look at her. "I think he wanted to spare you."
"Spare me?" she sat up on her own as Jack shifted on the sofa.
"When you railed him about all the people he'd hurt, I think he decided he didn't want to hurt anyone else." Jack reached for her again, "especially not you." He kissed her and, having finally succeeded in removing her robe, he tossed it across the room. "Are we okay?"
"We're fine, I wish you'd stop asking that." She growled as she started undoing the buttons on his black suit shirt.
Nina kissed the skin under Jack's ear as he apologised, and his voice went up a half an octave, which still rendered it pretty low. "I just want to make sure that this is..."
Nina pulled back and rested herself on her elbows. "It is what I want Jack, and we're both professional, private people, we shouldn't have any problems at work." Jack regarded her warily for a moment and then smiled at her, pulling her down for a kiss.
"So we're okay?" He said, once more as he began to help her with his buttons, it was more of a statement than a question, but she answered anyway, most of the sound muffled by Jack's tongue.
"We're fine."
THE END
There will be no sequels (before anyone asks) I will however probably end up writing a few alternate ways in which they could have hooked up. I realise the last scene was a little cutsie, but...well I'm the author and I wanted to! I would have written it a little more in line with the characters, but I made this a PG-13 fic, so I couldn't. I'll try and do a fic where Jack gets whumped, as requested, poor Nina took a few blows in this one. She's kind of my favourite character in 24, although I think in this one, towards the end, I deviated from her and made her a little more like me. It's getting harder to write Jack/Nina fics as they don't get any screen time at the moment, and Tony's stopped being a wanker, but I'm sure I'll find my niche again.
As always, feedback encourages me to write, and anything you'd like to see, write it up there! I've got a couple of plots (not all of them this long) on the boiler at the moment, and I'm not sure which to pursue next, so any suggestions would really be helpful.
Teryl Rothery rocks (even if this is the wrong show) Love Aria!