Jack had been driving for awhile, he was far enough outside of L.A. to escape running into anyone who might know him, and the withdrawal symptoms were threatening to cause him to have trouble driving. He found a small motel off the highway. He walked inside soaked in sweat his face pale from the pain he felt. He waited a few minutes for the motel receptionist, most likely the owner, and older woman who was in the back watching Jerry Springer, to come out.

"How may I help you sir?" The woman said eying the man in front of her, suspicious as it was late and he did not look so well.

"I need a room for awhile." Jack answered.

"How long?"

"Couple of weeks. I need to get away from it all for awhile." Jack said to try to console the woman's suspicion he could see in her eyes.

Still suspicious the woman said, "That will be three hundred dollars cash." She was not one to turn down a customer no matter how suspicious they looked.

Jack pulled out his wallet and counted out the three hundred in twenties. He had stopped by the ATM before he left town and pulled out the max amount.

The old woman handed him a key to his room and said, "If you want the free breakfast it's at six a.m. sharp every morning and ends exactly at seven."

"Thanks." Jack said walking out of the office. He pulled his car around to the back of the motel and walked to his room. He opened the door and walked into the dark room studying it's contents. It looked like the room was not used much, the sparsely decorated room had a TV chained down to the dresser, a bed, a chair and a bathroom.

With that he looked at himself in the mirror in the bathroom he looked horrible. He knew the next few weeks were going to be hard, but he did not want to go to rehab. He did not want strangers searching around in his past, he could do that on his own. He could beat the addiction and not what caused it. He did not need to look at the demons to stop doing drugs he thought to himself, and no one else needed to know about his demons. He would do this on his won and prove to everyone that he was not weak and it was caused by his need to fit in with the Salazar's even if it was a lie. He looked around the room and didn't find a small fridge or even a cup for water. He knew he would have to drink plenty of water to keep himself hydrated, so he grabbed his wallet and the keys to the hotel room and walked across the highway to the small store that was still opened. When he walked inside the older gentlemen stared at him, this made Jack assume that they did not see a lot of out of Towner's here unless they were truckers, and Jack did not fit the typical trucker stereotype.

Jack grabbed a case of water and walked up to the cash registered he paid for the water with a twenty never once did he or the clerk speak. Which was fine with Jack because he wanted to be left alone. When he returned to his room Jack locked all the locks on the door and felt the nausea kick in again. He took the water and sat it on the floor of the bathroom next to his self. He would become good friends with the toilet and the bathroom over the next few days, while his system cleaned itself out and struggled to deal without the drug.

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Kim paced Jack's apartment. Chase sat on the couch looking at her trying to be there for her. "Where is he? Why hasn't he called me back? Do you think he got hurt? Maybe I should call the hospitals again?"

Kim had called every hospital in and around California at least two times in the past day looking for Jack. He was gone, but still there as his stuff inhabited the empty apartment. "Do you think he went on a binge, or maybe someone grabbed him? They could be torturing him or even worse killing him right now."

"I'm sure he just needed time alone Kim. He will come around soon." Chase tired to reassure her. There was a knock on the door and Kim ran to the door. She opened it hoping it was her father, but hwy would he knock. She was disappointed when she saw Tony.

"Hello. Has he called yet?" Tony asked. Tony had been searching for him for about a week now, and he still had seen no sign of Jack. The police didn't even have a sighting of him. CTU had joined in on the search because Hammond wanted to question Jack about the Salazar's, Saunders, Nina, and a lot of other things, but yet Jack was no where to be found. Almost like he dropped off the face of the Earth.

"No." Kim said tears in her eyes. She was worried sick about him, she could not loose him yet, she still needed her father.

"I'm sure he will surface." Tony said steeping into the apartment a bag of take out in his hand. When he said surface he cringed.

"You don't think he would hurt himself?" Kim said thinking of him driving his car off a ledge into the water, sure he would surface that way.

"No Jack is too stubborn for that." Tony said hoping it sounded more convincing that what he felt.

Kim knew he was lying but in order to comfort herself she let herself believe the lie. She needed to believe he would come back.

"I brought some food over. Michelle will be by after work, maybe CTU got a lead on him. Michelle told Hammond that you were out looking for him, so take all the time you need before you go back." Michelle had covered for Kim who did not bother to even call into work.

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Francis was worried about her customer. He had been there for almost a week and had never left his room. She made up her mind to go check on him, fearing that he killed himself. She always wondered why people would check into motels or hotels to kill themselves? It made it so much harder on the person who owned it. She knocked on the door waiting for an answer. When none came she took out her master keys and unlocked the room. The curtains were drawn shut tightly so that no light got into the dark room, she walked into the hot stuffy room saying loudly, "I was just checking on you. Thought I might clean the room for you." She saw him lying curled up in a fetal position on the bathroom floor. She ran into the bathroom and asked, "Are you ok?"

Jack never heard her come in. All he could feel was his aching muscles and stomach. He would have laughed if it would not have caused to much pain. He had been worried that he might break down and go and buy some of the drug when it got this rough, but he was so weak he couldn't imagine getting off the floor, walking out of the hotel room, driving to get the drug, and surviving it all. The dealers weren't the best people and they could have easily of taken him out. He grabbed his shirt he had taken off earlier because it was soaked in sweat and used it to wipe the sweat off his cold clammy face. Even though the room was hot and he was sweating he was freezing cold.

"I'll call the hospital." Francis said.

Jack barely said, "Please don't I'm fine."

Like a concerned mother, "You are far from fine."

Jack continued to plead, "Please don't. I will be fine."

Francis noticed the marks on his arms and she knew from the past what they were. She had to deal with something like this before, "Fine. I'm going to call my daughter. She's a EMT, working on her medical degree. She can help out." Francis knew her daughter was off for the next couple of weeks and she knew her daughter would know how to help. Having gone through the withdrawal herself before.

"Amber?" She said when her daughter, Amber answered the phone.

"Mom what's wrong?" Amber said hearing the worry in her voice.

"I need you to come to the motel. I have a customer he's sort of sick. He won't go to the hospital. Can you please come and check him out." Francis said not wanting to give all the information out.

"Sure mom" Amber said figuring it was just the flu or something. Amber grabbed her medical bag she carried with her and drove the few minutes to the motel. When she got there she walked to the room her mother had talked nonstop about. The attractive man who was sort of weird, but really nice looking, who hadn't left his room since he checked in.

Amber walked to the bathroom where she saw her mother kneeled down next to the man holding a cold wash cloth on his forehead trying to lower his temperature. "What's wrong with him?" Amber said before she saw the marks when she did she felt for him. She knew what he was going through, "Ok let's get him to the bed. What's your name?"

"J . . A . . C . . K . " he said with his teeth clanking together because he was so cold.

"Ok Jack. I'm Amber. Can you help me move you to the bed where you will be more comfortable and we can get you under the covers."

"Yeah." Jack said through clinched teeth. He tried to lift himself but he felt so weak. Amber grabbed his arm and Francis helped support his other arm together they walked to the bedroom. Jack sat on the bed, and Amber looked at him, she needed to somehow get fluid in him. Unsure of how to keep it in. If she gave him water she knew from experience it wouldn't stay down long. She said to her mother, "Do you have a bucket of some sort?"

"Yeah I'll go grab one from the diner across the street. Fred has a lot of buckets from the pickles." Francis left to get the bucket.

Amber grabbed her cell phone out and called her friend who was driving the EMT rig right now. "Scott I need your help." She said when he answered his cell phone, "Are you busy?"

"No. What do you need?"

"I have a friend who needs some saline IV drip. He's dehydrated."

"Why don't you have him go to the hospital?" Scott said not understanding what Amber was trying to get at.

She walked out of the room not wanting to say what she was going to say in front of the stranger. She didn't feel right telling his secret to someone else, but that was the only way Scott was going to help her. "Scott he's going through withdrawal. He doesn't want to go to a treatment center, and I don't blame him. Can you please just help me with this. I'll only need like two of them he's almost through the hard part." She knew Scott had a crush on her and if she pleaded enough he would help her.

"I'll drop it by. You owe me." He said giving in.

"Thank you and I won't forget." Amber said happily.

Her mom returned with the bucket and they both turned towards the room when they heard a loud grown out of Jack. Amber grabbed the bucket and ran into the room, helping Jack onto his stomach with his head hanging over the edge of the bed she rubbed his back as he got sick. She was shocked at how quickly her instincts took over. When he finished she helped him back onto his side and she covered him with the blankets. Replacing the cold wash cloth back on his head. She used another to wipe the sweat that was accumulating on his face, chest and arms.

Before Jack passed out from exhaustion he said, "Thank you."

"Thank me once we get you through this." Amber said to him smiling encouragingly wondering who the man was. She knew he must have been strong if he made it this far on his own, and he would have continued if her mother hadn't been a noisy person and checked on him.

When Scott got there Amber got out of the chair she occupied by the bed and walked outside to greet him.

"Are you sure you can handle this?" Scott said worried knowing Amber's past.

"Yes. I know what he's going through, and it's something someone should not do alone. I didn't do it alone." Amber said smiling remembering how much help she received when she was ready for it, it takes a lot to admit you have a problem and to face it head on, and it was draining to do so with other let alone by yourself.

"Fine. I'll stop by after work to check on both of you. Here is the saline you needed and other thing you need to hook up an iv drip. Please call me if he gets worse."

"Don't worry." Amber said reassuringly. She hugged Scott and went back to the room. Jack was asleep and she thought it was good. He needed to rest too. She grabbed his hand and worked on hooking up the IV. She tapped the IV to his hand when she finished and went back to her chair watching his chest slowly rise and fall again.

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When Jack awoke the next morning he noticed the IV in his hand and feared that they had carted him off to the hospital after he passed out. He looked around the room squinting his eyes as the light shined through the window blinding his already delicate eyes. He sat up slowly feeling nauseous from the movement. He looked around the room and found the woman who had came last night, he thought, What was her name?

Amber. He remembered, she was asleep in a chair. Feel a little better he unhooked the IV and went to the bathroom to shower, something he had not done in awhile. He turned the water on and waited for it to become warm enough. He felt weak almost to weak to stand. He took a quick shower and dried himself off walking into the other room where Amber was still asleep in the chair. He got dressed and walked to the front office to thank the lady who helped him last night.

Amber awoke with a start, the dream that haunted her sleep had come back. She blinked and looked around the room, he was gone. She got up quickly, and frantically looked in the bathroom he wasn't there. She feared that he might have left in a weak moment to get some of whatever he was addicted to, heroin most likely she thought.

She walked to the front office and saw him sitting in a chair talking to her mother, who was of course bragging about her. After she got her life back on track, her mother could not stop bragging about her darling little girl who was so successful now. She came from nothing and almost became worse than nothing, but now she was someone.

Jack smiled kindly at the story feeling himself start to feel bad again. She stood up when she finished and said goodbye, he was going to return to his room. He stopped when he saw Amber looking at him through the door way, "Feeling better?" She asked.

"Better than yesterday." he answered.

"I'm going across the street to grab something to eat. You want to join me. You probably should eat something." Amber said.

Jack knew whatever he ate would probably not stay down, but he was hungry. "Yeah." He answered following he across the street watching her walk they way she moved was almost entrancing.

He ordered a club sandwich hoping it might stay down.

Amber decided to pry some into the strangers life, "So Jack what do you do for a living?" She knew he had money from the car he drove to how he paid cash upfront.

"I use to work for the government." Jack answered no wanting to give to much information up, he did not want to think about what he had to go back to, nothing. That was not going to help him out now.

"What did you do for the government?"

"I worked for a division of the CIA Counter Terrorism Unit." Jack answered kindly.

"Interesting." Amber said raising her eyebrows. She couldn't help it every time she thought of the CIA the song Secret Agent Man came to mind. She started to whistle the song unconsciously. Jack laughed and she looked at him, "What so funny?" She then realized what she did.

"You are the first person who has ever done that. I use to think of that all the time and I can remember my first day at CTU I had the urge to walk around singing that song to myself." Both of them started to laugh hysterically.

They finished eating small talk taking up the time. They talked about the weather, and everything else other than what they had in common. Amber and Jack walked back to the motel and Jack went to his room alone. Amber promised to check in on him in a few.

When she walked into the front office her mother began to question her about everything that went on between the two, and any information she might have gotten out of him. Amber smiled at her mom and told her, "He worked for the government that's all he told me." She smiled at her mom, both of them knowing she was not telling the entire truth.