The following occurs between the hours of 11:00 P.M. to 12:00 A.M.

11:00

The four laughed nervously as they drove through the night. When they were far enough away from the house they turned the lights on and drove towards civilization in L.A. "So what do we do now?" Dante asked, "Nina knows Prescott, and I are involved. She knows what all of us look like."

"She'll keep it to herself." Keller said.

"Why would she do that?" Prescott asked.

"She has something on us now. We can't kill her because she probably is already setting up a back up plan. We have her doubting Bauer now. Let's hope that seed of doubt will cause her to revert back to the old Nina." Keller answered.

11:05

Jack sat in the van contemplating what he would say to Kim when he saw her. The last time they talked they got into a fight and he needed to show her that he was trying to move on with his life. In the same instance it occurred to him the Kate wanted an answer from her earlier question. He had two women he had to give answers to in less than ten minutes. He loved Kate, and loved being with her, but he felt that when he was with her he was holding her back because he would always love Teri.

The van pulled into CTU and parked. Jack walked out of the van looking around the parking garage. He thought about the last time he came through the parking garage and it was late, after a long day. The memory hurt, but he kept the thought with him.

The other van pulled up and Jack saw the woman that had caused all the pain in his life, yet saved it more than once today. Nina hopped out of the van intent on interrogating Jack. What the people said, as much as she hated, made sense. He had the opportunity and time to do it, and their excuses were good. She kicked Chase as he was getting out of the van and knocked Richardson over grabbing his gun. Pointing it at Jack she asked, "Who are you Jack?"

"What do you mean Nina?" Jack asked confused.

"Who are you? Are you a spy?"

"We already went over this. No I'm not. Why would I have sacrificed so much the past few years?"

"Where were you the first few years of your duty in the army?"

"That's classified. I can't tell you."

"What?" She said letting a shot off that just barely missed Jacks head. Jack flinched at the shot. Nina walked up to him and pushed the gun barrel into his back. "We're going up to Tony's office. He is going to pull your military records up and I am going to see for myself that you are a traitor." She ordered.

"Fine Nina. But there isn't going to be anything there. You know where I spent the first few years of my military career because it was one of the reasons why I was chosen for operation Nightfall."

"What do you mean?" Nina asked confused.

"I was in the Balkans. Specifically around Kosovo and others."

"So you were close to Russia?"

"Yes, but I've never been there before."

"You are lying."

"Nina what do I have to do to prove to you I'm not a traitor? You are really loosing it. It is you that is the traitor not I." Jack said anger flaring.

Up at Tony's office Tony jumped when he saw Nina enter CTU holding Jack at gun point. He went to walk down the stairs of his office when Nina yelled, "Stay up there. We're coming up to you."

When they reached the top of the stairs Nina had Jack sit in one of the chairs. She kept her gun pointed at him the entire time. She walked over to Tony's computer and said, "Pull up Jack's military records."

"Most of those are classified." Tony answered allowing his confusion to show through.

"Yes I know. You can access them though." Nina said.

"What are we looking for?"

"Proof that Jack is a traitor."

"What? You are the traitor Nina. Why would he?" Tony said angry at Nina for accusing Jack of being a traitor.

He pulled Jacks military recorded up and Nina studied it.

"You see while I was over there I had no chance to go to Russia because I never had leave. I was working with Walsh on a special mission at the time. I was on loan to CTU."

Nina said, "Move!", as she pushed Tony away from the computer. The minute the gun left Jacks body he rushed Nina, jumping over Tony's desk and knocking her to the floor. He began to choke her to. He wanted to kill her so bad. Tony walked up behind him trying to pull him off Nina.

Nina took one of her hands and punched Jack in the abdomen where he had been shot earlier. The blow to his side was a surprise and it made Jack loosen his grip for a moment, but he continued on. Nina than lifted her knee and kneed Jack as hard as she could in the groin. This caused Jack to let go and groan in pain. She pushed him off of her and went to kick him, but Tony grabbed her.

"Nina stop it. Have you gone crazy?" Tony asked. He motioned for Chase and Richardson to come up. "Take her to an interrogation room and keep her there until he ride gets her."

Tony walked over to Jack who was now sitting up. "You ok?" Tony asked.

"Yeah just peachy." Jack said still pissed off.

"The President wanted to see you as soon as you got back. He's in your office asleep. He said to wake him."

"I'll go do that. Where are Kim and Kate?" Jack asked.

"I think they are in one of the conference rooms, but I'm not sure."

"Ok."

11:30
Jack walked up to his office and said, "Mr. President. It's Jack."

The President sat up and said, "It's nice to see you made it back."

"Yes sir."

"About that vacation. It starts immediately and afterwards please stop taking dangerous missions. Pass the torch on to someone else to worry about them. I'm sure there are other people you would like to talk to right now other than me. Go see your daughter and Kate."

"Yes sir." Jack replied and walked out of the office to find Kate and Kim.

He searched the first conference room and didn't see a sign of them. He went to the second one and he found them talking. They didn't notice he had opened the door or was even present, but he decided to ease drop for a moment.

"I can't take it anymore Kate. It's been awhile now and he still had not even dealt with it."

"Kim he has. In his own way. He has improved some. It takes awhile for some people. Everyone grieves in their own way."

"I don't know how you can go back to him? He will only shut off again eventually. And you will end up like you were last time."

"No it won't happen this time because when I start to sense he is shutting down I will encourage him more and live with it more. Eventually he will come through. He just needs time. I love him Kim. I hope that doesn't bother you, but I really love him."

"I know you do and I understand."

Jack closed the door and walked in the room. Both women jumped at the sight of him. Jack decided to play it off as if he had not been there listening that long.

Kim got up and hugged him. Kate followed behind her. They all sat down and Jack new it was coming. This was the moment he had to confront both of their earlier situations. Right now he would give anything to have another crisis to occur. Even if his body just wanted to sleep.

Jack took a deep breath and thought about what he would say. He wanted to stall, but he knew better. It was only prolonging the moment and it was better to get it over with now. "I am going to try to change. I know I have allowed myself to withdraw from both of you. I am going to try to be more open, but you have to understand. I don't live in a normal world. I tried to shield all of you from this world, but each time I have failed. I failed Teri and it is my fault. I failed you both today multiple times. I am going to try. I can't promise anything, but I'm willing to try."

Kim had tears coming out of her eyes, "Dad you didn't fail mom. No one could have known about Nina. No one, not even you. You tried to warn everyone and Mason didn't listen. It is no ones fault. It was her time. Nothing we could do."

Tears were in Jack's eyes but he held them back. Kate walked up to him and hugged him, "It's ok Jack. Everything is going to be fine."

The three walked out of the conference room. Kim went looking for Chase. When she found him she hugged him. She still had tears in her eyes.

Worried that the confrontation when wrong Chase asked, "Are you ok?"

Kim smiled and said, "Everything is fine."

"Good because I think I would have had to deal with Jack if he hurt you again." Chase said jokingly.

"Lets go home. Sleep forever and never get out of bed." Kim said resting her head against Chase's chest.

"I could live with that." Chase said smiling.

The two walked out to the car where Kate and Jack were waiting. They four got in and rove off into the night towards the new day. 11:40

Now in L.A. the four went to Keller's office building. Once inside Prescott called for a secret service person to pick him up, and the others walked out to take a taxi back to their homes.

The phone rang and Keller answered it, "Hello?"

"It's Nina. You lied to me about Jack didn't you?"

"That is for you to figure out. Are we square now or are we going to have to tango again."

"We are even for now. As long as you don't try to kill me again."

"Deal. Why don't you meet me at my office and we can fly to somewhere nice and forget about the past day."

"That sounds like fun. I'll meet you at the airport, as I have an escort making sure I leave the country again."

"See you then."

11:50

Now in Jack's apartment Kate looked at him and hugged him. "I was so worried earlier today. I though you would of left me. You still should be in the hospital you know?"

"I hate hospitals. I know I should be, but if something bad was going to happen it would have happened already. With all that has happened, I think I'll live. Let's go take a hot shower and than go to bed. I'm so tired."

"Sounds like fun. How about we eat after the shower, eat in bed."

"Sure we still have Chinese food left over from earlier." Jack said smiling at her.

And the ninja laughed as he saw Jack and Kate walk hand in hand down the hallway. (ATHOUR NOTE: I promised snake I would do this. She would kill me otherwise for getting bored enough and obsessed enough to write a fan fic. Sorry snake. R U happy now?)

11:57 11:58 11:59