A/N: Spoilers for Cipher. Jack listens; Will remembers.
"Tell me exactly why Tippin has to go through this exercise all over again."
Jack's voice was grim; his eyes demanded a satisfactory answer, one that Vaughn wasn't sure he was able to give. He looked at the older agent, and wished to hell that induced regression had never been invented, so he didn't have to justify it to Jack Bristow at this very moment.
"Look, this isn't my decision, and you know that." Vaughn met Jack's gaze squarely. "Will mentioned in his report that he overheard Sark talking, when they were all in the car that took him to meet you. The CIA thinks that if Will can recall exactly what Sark said, it'll really help our investigations." Vaughn sighed. "And believe me when I say that I wish we didn't have to do this, either. But specific orders have come through, and my hands are tied, Jack. I'm sorry."
A dark emotion flashed in Jack's eyes — not quite anger, but closer to pain, and regret. The line of his mouth remained hard, and the tension etched into his features deepened. Jack looked at Will through the clear glass panel — the younger man was sitting by himself in the adjacent room, waiting for them. But there was a caged fear in his eyes, a hollow memory of terrors that the CIA wanted him to remember all over again.
"Perhaps Will's candor did him a great disservice," Jack observed coldly, his eyes not leaving Will. "If he hadn't been so truthful and thorough in his debrief statement, he'd have saved himself a great deal of unnecessary pain."
"Mr. Bristow," Vaughn began, willing himself to stay calm, "I understand that —"
"No, you don't," Jack cut in sharply, turning to look at Vaughn. "You weren't tortured and beaten for information you didn't even know. You weren't dragged halfway across the world, not knowing if they still were going to kill you in the end. You weren't forced to relive the entire trauma in a hypnosis session. And now asked to do it all over again."
Jack paused; Vaughn opened his mouth to speak, but found no words.
"Empathy can only take you that far, Mr. Vaughn," Jack resumed quietly, his tone sliced to a blade point. "You haven't a clue what Will's been through — or what you're asking him to do."
"Jack," Vaughn tried, one last time. "We'll be monitoring him the whole time, I promise. If it gets too rough on him, we'll stop immediately." Vaughn paused, and then added, "Look, since Sydney can't be here, why don't you sit in for the hypnotherapy session? Then you can blow the whistle if you think something's too much for him to handle."
Jack halted, and seemed to contemplate this for a long moment.
"No, I have another engagement," he finally said, his words sounding tighter than usual. "But just remember this — he's a human being, not a data archive to be tapped and wrung of every drop of information he can yield. At whatever costs."
A brief, strung silence ensued, before Vaughn finally ventured to break it.
"His having spent all that time around Sark means he's probably seen and heard a lot that can potentially be useful to us," Vaughn said; he tried to sound more convincing, but he knew that was pretty useless when it was Jack Bristow he was talking to. "It can really help the CIA get ahead, this time."
Jack was unmoved.
"His being in that situation was an accident, one that Will paid for with blood, and pain, and every terrible thing he didn't deserve to go through." Jack's voice was steady as he delivered the coup de grace: "So stop trying to benefit from it."
He turned abruptly, and without a backward glance headed through the door, into the room Will was waiting in.
Vaughn stepped towards the glass panel. He observed as Will glanced up when Jack entered the room; the younger man looked relieved to see a familiar face. Will's eyes sought reassurance, and Jack wordlessly answered with a light touch to his shoulder; but Vaughn saw the barely perceptible strain in Jack's quick smile.
Vaughn tilted his head thoughtfully. He allowed Jack and Will a few moments to themselves; picking up the phone, he called to confirm the hypnotherapy session.
- tbc -
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