A/N- Thanks for the reviews guys! Keep 'em coming! Usual disclaimers apply.

Counting the Cost

~*~

Chapter Three

Opening Old Wounds

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Jack walked into the CTU office through the backdoor, in full stealth mode. He could not afford to have anyone asking him questions about Kim- he knew without a doubt that he could not stop himself from hitting them in the face.

He reached the first empty room with a usable computer, quietly closed the door behind him. The room was pretty shabby, and had never been restored after the bombing, but that was fine- there were no cameras.



Jack quickly signed in on the computer, praying no one was monitoring this. He quickly cross-referenced everything on Amanda Williams, printing it on the somewhat out of date printer.



"Come on…" Jack muttered under his breath as it took what seemed like five hours to print out the information.



Finally, it was done. Sighing with relief, he tucked it in a folder and under his jacket, hastily stepping to the door and opening it.



"Jack. You're here, everyone's been so worried." Michelle Dessler stood on the other side of the door, smiling warmly.



Jack merely nodded, stepping by her.



"Jack!" She looked at him, confused.



"Look, Michelle, I'm kind of in the middle of something."



"What could you possibly be in the middle of? You haven't come to work in days." Her eyebrows went together, perplexed.



"I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you right now." Jack said curtly, heading towards the end of the hallway towards the door.



"Jack, what the hell?" Her usually sweet voice suddenly sounded angry.



"Just leave it alone, Michelle!" He yelled back.



"Is this about Kim?" She asked gently.



Jack clenched his fists, anger boiling within him like he had never known. He looked at her steely yet innocent face, wanting so badly to hit something that it was making him shake slightly.



"Don't…you ever pretend like you care about my daughter. Or me, for that matter." Jack said, in a dangerous whisper, turning and slamming the back door behind him.

~*~



After checking on Kim at the hospital, who was still stable but showing more side effects of the virus, Jack went to the hotel room, feeling disheartened and not really in the mood to deal with Nina right now.



But she could help him. He couldn't risk Kim's life by trying to do this by himself. As twisted as Nina's mind was, Jack knew for a fact that she had been the smartest agent, man or woman, that he had ever come in contact with at CTU. And she'd help him. He knew she would. So he had to put his own personal feelings about her aside.



He knocked on the door, taking a deep breath.



"It's open." He heard her familiar voice say.



Jack stepped through it onto the dusty carpet, isolated rays of sunlight cutting through the blinds. Nina was on the floor, doing sit ups while she watched TV.



"I got the information." Jack said, sitting back down in the same chair he had previously.



"Anyone see you?" Nina asked, getting to her feet and crossing her arms.



"Just Michelle."



"Who?"



"Michelle Dessler. Your replacement. Married to Tony." Jack explained flippantly.



"Huh. Was she suspicious?"



"No, not really. Everyone's pretty used to me acting strangely."



"Well, that's good. I'm sure she and Tony's marriage is a real meeting of the minds then." Nina laughed derisively, sitting down on the edge of the bed.



"You dated him." Jack pointed out.



"Hey, he was there and available and I wanted to piss you off."

"Why?"

"Well, Jack, I was feeling a little bitter towards you at the moment after you rather abruptly kicked me to the curb." Nina said, her voice laced with bitterness.



Jack looked up at her.



Nina cleared her throat, looking slightly uncomfortable.



"So, what'd you find out?" She said, quickly changing the subject.



"Amanda William's last known job was-"



"In London. I know that. That's how she met Amador."



"Are they involved?"



"I don't know," Nina sighed impatiently, "They're both attractive and working together. I would assume so."



"All right, well, it had some details about her previous jobs as well-"



"Well, way to go CTU. None of that matters. We need to know what she's doing now." Nina said edgily.



"I was getting to that." Jack said, his voice heavy with irritation as well.



"Please continue." She smiled falsely.

~*~



Nina and Jack had spent the rest of the day looking at her recent appearances, trying to spot patterns in her previous migrations, looking for character clues, hometowns, connections that would lead to her current location.



Evening fell outside the hotel room as the clouds grew heavy with rain. They both sat on the floor, all the files spread out between them.



"Well, we know Amador got the virus in L.A. Isn't it safe to assume he'd want to see his success without being in actual danger from it?" Nina pointed out, yawning.



"So you think they're in California?"



"It's just a theory."



"No, you might be on to something. Is there anyway you could contact either of them?"



"Not Amanda. I never really knew her that well. I have an secure e-mail of Amador's, but it might be an invalid account now."



"Try it."



"With what? I don't have a computer."



"I have my laptop." Jack pulled it out of his briefcase.



"Such a Boy Scout." Nina smiled, turning it on.



"What?"



"Always prepared." She said, the light of the computer screen reflecting in her eyes.

"Hardly." Jack looked at her perceptibly.



Nina sighed, typing at her computer with unnecessary force as she wrote the e-mail.



"Look, Jack, we can't do this."



"What?" He looked surprised.



"If we're going to work together, we can't keep ignoring the history between us. It's driving me crazy trying to dance around it. And I know it's bothering you."

"It's not bothering me."



"You're lying." Nina slammed the computer shut after she finished.



"I'm not."



"Well, we could go on all night like this, but you are. So you know what, Jack?"



"What?" Jack sighed.

"Ask me anything. Anything you still wonder about, anything you still don't understand about what happened. And I get to do the same."



"We don't have time for this. We have to find the antidote."



"It'll be awhile before he contacts me, and that's the only lead we have right now. Face it, Jack, we've got some time to kill. It's not like anyone's waiting up on you." She said bitingly.



Jack looked at her, filled with a feeling of dread but having to admit that he was very curious to finally gather some insight into the mind of Nina Myers. She had always been a beautiful, impassable mystery, even while they were dating. She was smart, she was funny, she was passionate when the moments came, but Jack could never even really tell how she felt about anything. Even when he'd ended things with her, she acted as if he'd just told her to refill the ink in the copier.



And here she was, finally presenting him the opportunity to ask all the questions that had always plagued him.



"Fine." He said at last.



"Good." Nina nodded



"You go first." Jack looked at her, very interested in seeing what she'd ask as well.



Nina took a deep breath.



"All right," she looked down in thought for a moment, then met his piercing blue eyes again, "Why did you leave me and go back to her?"

~*~

A/N- Please review! More to come soon!