The following events occur between the hours of 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m.

Nina Myers sat in a car at a small airport waiting for her ticket to freedom to land. She always felt lucky when she escaped from Jack. She knew what Jack was capable of. She knew of all the times he walked into a situation he should have never of escaped, all the times he was the only one that came out alive. In her heart she loved Jack still. If she had meant him before she went into the business she was in she would have never entered the job. But life was not made to regret. If she had meant him before she would always be waiting for him to leave Teri and that would have never happened. In some ways she felt guilty for leaving Jack back in the U.S. She knew that Treadstone would come again and that telling Jack his plans would not have stopped him from accomplishing whatever it was that he wanted.

That was until the plane flew over the airstrip and a group of cars came rolling in. Nina looked at the driver of her car and told him to take off. The guy pulled out a gun and looked at her. "Can't do that Nina."

She cursed herself for trusting her people to get her out of here. What did she expect Treadstone probably owned half of them and the other half was too scared to do anything. She wondered why they went through all of the drama though. Something wasn't right. Drama like this could cause problems, and Treadstone was not one for it. Than it occurred to her that this was planned all along. Treadstone knew her too well and he had planned for all of this, meaning that his original plan to bomb the State of the Union and the people who didn't show was wrong.

12:10

Treadstone smiled to himself. Everything was working out greatly. They had the president on the plane to California. Once there they would call in their demands and he would track Bauer down himself and the lady after Bauer. She seemed very interesting. There was something in her loyalty that he wanted her to be apart of his team. He had no problem killing Bauer any more. When Bauer broke so did his fascination with the man that never seemed to quit, though if he could turn Bauer he would become unstoppable. But turning Bauer would be like getting Nina Myers to stay loyal to something. Jack was a rare person in the fact that once he found a reason to be loyal you could not stop that loyalty. He did not betray people. Nina on the other hand would sell you everything you wanted for the right price, making both very predictable.

The president had just come too and was looking around trying to figure out where he was at. He saw Treadstone and asked "What's going on? Where am I?"

Treadstone looked at the President of the United States and said, "You are somewhere over the US. And you can figure out what's going on all by yourself, you're a smart man."

"The U.S. does not negotiate with terrorist. So no matter what you want you will not get. I will make sure of that. I would rather die than help you." Palmer said in anger.

"You don't control the country right now Mr. Palmer. You have been kidnapped and possibly compromised."

"My Vice President will not deal with terrorist. He would do no such thing."

"Than he will die. That simple. He is an easy man to kill. He has to prove he is better than you for the next election. That will compromise him. Plus I believe he is a man that has a price. Unlike you who seems to never budge."

"Someone will find you and possibly me and when they do you will end up dead."

"I doubt that sir. I'm too damn good for that. I even got your friend Bauer to break earlier today."

Palmer got silent. He would not argue with the man anymore.

Another man walked out of the cockpit and said to Treadstone, "We have Ms. Myers. And we know where Bauer is, he has company."

12:20

They sat at Jacks small dining table in the kitchen. They were in a weird silent stage. Each knowing the other still cared for them, but how to approach the subject was the problem. Kate tired of sitting quietly asked, "What happened to you? You look like hell."

"I ran into some problems early. Everything is ok now though."

"You don't look ok."

"I'll be fine."

"Jack is it that hard to open up to anyone? You never show your feelings or even acknowledge that you feel them. Sometimes I think you don't have feelings, but I know you do, you hide them. This is how. ." She stopped with that. She knew not to say the next statement.

"God. Do you and Kim talk? Is this like your guys little pet project. Let get Jack to spill his guts to us. Make him into a weakling."

"Do you think show your feelings is a sign of weakness? It's not Jack. It makes you stronger because you are dealing with the things of the past instead of running form them. The more you run, Jack, the faster your demons chase you. You should know that."

"Can we please change the subject?"

"Fine. I didn't come here to fight. I came for the opposite. Jack I know you will not be able to fully love me with your entire heart until you fight your demons of the past. But I am willing to settle for that. I love you. I wake up every mourning still, looking to the other side of my bed for you. Every morning I am let down again. It hurts too much to act like I don't care about you. And yes Kim and I talk. She got close to me before she understands that I'm not here to take the place of Teri. I couldn't even try that. You don't see that your heart is big enough to love two women. It is not that you're giving up Teri when you love me; you're sharing your love with the world. Teri would want that Jack. She wouldn't want you to sit here in this pain your in."

Trying to keep his temper under control Jack said, "You don't know. Now let's get off the topic. I have more things to worry about."

"Jack I know about your fight earlier with Kim. She called me and told me she was going to confront you. She feels like you don't love her because you still will not be there for her. You didn't even show up to her wedding Jack."

"I know. I know. I know. Will it make you happy that I agreed to go with Kim to a damn psychiatrist. Won't that be enough for you two to quit hounding me. I am not perfect. I know that, but in my world feelings get in the way so you don't feel them. You two will never understand that. You've never had to, and hopefully never will."

"I know we'll never understand. I saw your world not to long ago, remember."

"Yes. Can we please have a normal happy lunch?"

"Sure. You look like hell though."

Jack smiled at her. He knew she cared for him as Kim had and they both were worried. They talked about everything from what Kate's been up to, too hockey. Than the phone rang.

Jack got up and answered the phone, "Hello."

"Jack its Tony. We have situation. . "

The phone went dead. Jacks first reaction was to hang up the phone and go get his gun of the bed. He looked at Kate and signaled for her to be quite. He whispered to her, "Do you have your cell phone?"

She grabbed at her purse and tossed the phone to him. Catching the phone Jack dialed the number to CTU. Tony answered the phone, "Jack."

"What's up Tony? I think the phone died on my end. Kate's with me. Call Chase and get him and Kim to CTU. Kate and I are leaving now for it. Gotta go." When Jack hung up the phone, the front door came bursting open and three people came rushing in. Jack shot one of them and yelled for Kate to run out the back. He was firing and covering behind the counter that separated his kitchen from the living room, when he heard Kate scream from the back. A moment later he heard a female voice from the hallway yell, "Jack put the gun down or I'll kill her. He looked behind him and saw Kate crying with a gun to her head standing at the end of the hallway. Jack thought for a moment. He could not let another woman he loved killed so he put the gun down on the floor and stood up with his hands at his side.

"The guns down." He yelled so that the others would not shoot at him, he hoped.

"Put your hands up where I can see them and walk back." A female voice ordered from behind him.

As he was walking back he felt a sharp pain in his head when a metallic thing connected with the back of his head. He felt warm liquid running down his head as he hit the floor. He was still conscious and was getting up when the woman kicked him in his ribs. He fell back to the ground and laid there. He figured they didn't want him to get up, but the lady kicked him again in the ribs and this time he let out groan of pain as she connected bellow his ribs and hit his gun shot wound from earlier. He moved his had protectively over his gunshot wound and tried to stand up again with the other hand. He heard Kate screaming for the person to stop. Jack was now on his hands and knees getting ready to push him self to a standing position when a heavy boot connected with his head. The force of the kick sent Jack into the bar counter that separated the living room and kitchen. Jack hit the ground and lay unconscious.

The woman's phone rang as she was getting ready to pull the trigger on the gun pointed at her sister's head. "WHAT!" She said agitated at the person interrupting the moment.

"Do you have Bauer?"

"Yes he's here on the floor. Sleeping."

"Did everything go ok?"

"One of your guys is dead, Bauer killed him. And Bauer's girlfriend was over. I was trying to deal with her when you called."

"Girlfriend? He has a girlfriend?"

"Yes. My dear sister Kate. They meant during the failed nuclear attack."

"Don't kill her and I'll give you more money towards your cause on top of what we had already agreed upon. I will make sure you and your friend have safe transport to where ever. I need her and Bauer alive so that I can keep Bauer under control. His daughter went back to CTU and since you killed my man inside I can't get to her at all."

"Fine. But I reserve the right to come back and kill both of them at a later date."

"That's fine with me as long as I no longer need them. I'll help you even."

12:45

Nina was sitting in a white room. She did not know where she was. There were no observerable sounds and there were no windows in the room. All that was in the room was a chair and a metal pole that ran the length of the room. The room might have once been a belle studio. Other than that she was clueless as to where she was. No one had spoken to her since the car. She wondered who had captured her. She figures it was Treadstone. If it was the US they would already be in here questioning her. She believed that she might be waiting in this empty white room for her death. The thought scared her she might have killed people and done other things, but she was still afraid of death. Everyone was afraid of dying and if they told you otherwise they were lying. She had even seen the fear in Bauer's eyes a few times.

12:50

The plane landed without a problem. After an hour and some change flight the small plane flew to outside of the L.A. area. Treadstone was amazed by the ability of the plane to fly so fast. He exited the plane and entered a white van with tinted windows. He sat in the passenger seat. The driver waited for the men to close the doors in the back, where the President of the United States sat hand cuffed. The driver drove off into the afternoon traffic.

12:55

The driver of another van drove the blue van around to the back of Bauer's apartment. They loaded the unconscious Jack and than Kate into the van. Marie sat in the back watching Kate holding Jacks head that was bleeding. Kate sat in silence. To scared to talk or move. She was not as scared as she was earlier. Clearly the person who was running things wanted her and Jack alive because of the deal she heard Marie make. That eased her fear a little, but as she had learned a few years ago, there are things worse than death.

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