Author's Note: Hold your horses now, I did say this one was unfinished, didn't I? Here's the ending to Chapter 17, the small line you'll find between two paragraphs indicates what's new and what's not, just in case you're too lazy to read the whole chapter from the beginning ;)

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Tony was filled with emotions, but he determinedly put them aside as he walked the stairs down, one step at a time. He had his gun ready to shoot as he tried not to make much of noise. He knew that Lilah had the benefit of surprise, and he wanted to make sure she wasn't going to use that benefit on his expense. He could hear Michelle's gentle whispering above him and Kate's panicking voice, and he tried hard to focus and not to be distracted. Although it wasn't so simple. Just minutes ago he'd gotten his wife back, someone he loved the most in the world, someone he thought he had lost forever. "Everything's going to be fine." He kept repeating Michelle's words in his head.

Tony stepped down to the basement-level. He wasn't sure where the corridor led, but it was empty. The floor was dusty, it hadn't been cleaned for ages. He concluded that the doors probably led to old holding or storage rooms that weren't been used for years. He watched the floor carefully. He could see footprints from the dust leading specifically to a door. He held his gun tighter and started walking towards the door making sure at the same time, that no one was to attack him from behind. The time seemed to stop when he slowly walked to the door. He was alert and ready to shoot from the slightest sound he heard. The woman had to be somewhere out there.

Tony finally reached the door. He pressed against the wall and cautiously tried the handle – the door wasn't locked. He opened the door keeping himself safe behind the wall until he rushed in. The room wasn't big and there was only one small window that didn't provide much light. But it was enough for Tony to see that what he was looking for wasn't in there. Instead, there was someone lying on the floor. It was a man, Tony noticed as he moved closer. The man was pale and motionless. He looked remotely familiar, but Tony couldn't remember where he had seen him. He was aiming his gun at the man, just in case, and carefully kneeled next to him to check if he was breathing. He placed the back of his hand over the man's mouth to feel his breath and then tried to find his pulse just to confirm what he had already suspected, that he was dead.

Suddenly the door slammed shut. Tony stood up and ran to the door just to find it locked. How could he have let himself to fall in such an easy trick, he cursed while banging the door with his fists.

He heard footsteps echoing in the corridor. They were moving away from the door towards the stairs. The first thing that hit Tony's mind was Michelle, how she was out there in the stairs with Kate. He aimed his gun at the lock and fired.

The gunshots startled Michelle. She had tied Kate's shoulder as best as she could.

"What's happening?" Kate reached Michelle's hand. She took it and held it tightly.

"I don't know." Michelle said waiting for something to happen. She started hearing footsteps climbing up the stairs.

"Is that Tony?"

"If Tony's wearing high heels.." Michelle said. She didn't dare to think what had happened to her husband. "Come on, Kate. Try to get up, ok?"

She tried to lift Kate up and Kate tried not to cry from pain.

"Quickly!" Michelle helped her climb a few stairs up. She could hear the steps getting closer and with every step, her heart beat faster. They didn't have a long way to the upper level where they could sneak inside to the office.

Kate was leaning to Michelle and tried to keep up with her speed. Michelle was dragging her up as fast as she could.

"Michelle, stop. I can't go that fast." Kate let go of Michelle and sat on the stairs and tried to catch her breath.

"Where's my gun?!" Michelle panicked and quickly went through her clothes and tried to remember where she had put it. First Tony and then Kate, she couldn't keep track of everything, could she?

Michelle's gun was lying on the floor where they had just left. Kate's gun was close by, she had dropped it when she'd got shot. The footsteps were just a few levels below.

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A short look at Kate and Michelle made her choice. She surely wasn't fit for a quick exit, she could barely stand up. Michelle ran the steps down towards the guns but she'd hardly made it to the landing when a she saw an unpleasantly familiar face standing just a few steps away from her.

"Well, well.. What do we have here?" Lilah smirked holding a gun.

Michelle weighed her chances to reach the guns but Lilah stepped victoriusly to the landing.

"You are not that stupid, Michelle. Don't even think about it!"

She kicked the guns further away. "You have any idea how much time and effort it took to get those explosives under your house?"

"Hopefully not that much, considering the outcome." Michelle replied sarcastically.

"Maybe I should've done it in the oldfashioned way. But, nevermind, better late than never, right? Tell me now, which one of you should go first, you or the blonde?"

Lilah smirked and turned to face Kate and for a second she looked confused. "Who the hell are you?!"

"Warner.. Kate Warner." Kate sobbed in terror.

"Sweet, very sweet. I almost had you mistaken for someone else. But it doesn't matter.. Nice to meet you, Kate. I'm so sorry we had to meet under circumstances like these. But I don't think we would've gotten along anyways." Lilah laughed. "Goodbye!"

Three gunshots filled the stairway. Michelle closed her eyes and turned her head away from Kate. After a quiet pause she dared to open them again. Kate was still sitting on the floor, now shaking more than ever. Lilah was lying in front of her, her face towards the floor and her back covered in blood which had made the back of her shirt bright red.

Tony stood behind them holding his gun.

"Looks like I made it just in time." He said seriously.

Michelle smiled. "Yeah, that was pretty close."

Suddenly they both looked up. It was a voice of a chopper, coming closer every second.

"That must be Ryan!" Michelle said nervously.

"Jack's on the roof."

"Kim and Chase too."

Tony didn't dare to think what could and what already had happened on the roof.

"I better get there too."

Michelle nodded. "I'll stay with Kate."

Tony stepped next to her and stroked her cheek. "I love you."

She smiled. "I love you too."

Ryan Chappelle gestured the pilot to land on the roof. He had seen Chase quite a while ago waving on the roof and the absence of Lilah had alerted him. Why was she not on the roof? Had something else gone wrong? He couldn't help thinking about Jack and he praised himself for covering his tracks so well, that nothing could indicate that he had anything to do with the deals. The chopper landed on the roof and Ryan stepped down. He walked to Chase and saw his face, which was all bruised.

"What's going on?!" He shouted over the noise made by the chopper. "Where is Lilah?"

"We had an encounter with Jack Bauer, sir!" Chase shouted back.

"What do you mean?" Ryan took a look around the roof, there seemed to be no one besides them.

Jack quietly sneaked behind the chopper and knocked the pilot unconscious with a single hit. He knew well enough that without solid proof Chappelle would get a minimum sentence, if he would be convicted at all. He was still going to make Chase pay for his betrayal but for now, they had to work as a team. He quickly put the pilot's jacket, helmet and sunglasses on and shut the engine off. If they were to get anything on tape, they couldn't do it with the chopper noise on the background.

Ryan turned around to see why the pilot had shut the engines. The pilot gave him 'thumbs up' to indicate everything was ok, so Ryan turned his attention back to Chase.

"You're telling me you have Jack Bauer tied up and gagged downstairs?"

Chase nodded. "Lilah is watching after him as we speak."

"I want to see him."

"Ok, but first, tell me that I'm still part of the plan. That you aren't just going to use me as a scapegoat!" Chase demanded.

"Where did that come from? Didn't I tell you not to think on your own?"

"Very funny. I just realized that everything in your plan leads back to me."

"Pretty smart, isn't it! But what do you care, you'll get your fair share, more than you're worth, actually!"

"I think I'm worth a lot more. I'm risking my ass here!"

"Don't push your luck, boy!" Ryan started to get agitated. "You should just keep doing as your told."

"Like smuggling guns and killing people when you say so?"

"Yes! If you suddendly developed a conscience, that's not my problem!"

"That's nice to know, Ryan." Jack stepped down from the chopper. He removed his helmet and glasses. "I think the jury should also know who lies behind this master plan."

"You just won't go away, Jack!" Ryan drew his gun but Jack had his one already aimed at him. Chase also had his gun pointed towards Chappelle.

"Drop the gun, Ryan!" Jack shouted.

The door to the roof opened and Tony rushed outside.

"Need any help here, Jack?" He asked after realizing the situation.

"With the evidence we've got, he'll sit life in prison." Jack replied. "Now, Ryan. There's nothing more to do, just drop the gun!"

"Just do it, nobody has to get hurt anymore." Chase said.

Ryan smirked. He was surrounded and going down, but he wouldn't go down alone. He saw Kim walking out to see what was going on. Ryan turned his gun to her and pulled the trigger. Jack turned to see what was happening and in horror saw his daughter standing in the bullet's way. He shot Ryan in the leg just a split second after Ryan had fired his shot.

Kim stood on the roof scared. She hadn't been too comfortable with her father's plan, and she was so glad to see Tony rush in to help Chase and Jack. She heard two shots being fired, the first Ryan's and the latter her father's. She saw Tony turning around towards her and her father moving towards Chappelle, but most important, she saw Chase throwing himself between her and Ryan. It was just like watching a movie in slow motion without any sound. Although it all happened in an blink of an eye, it felt like the events took minutes to happen.

"Kim, are you ok?!" Jack shouted.

Kim startled back to reality. Jack had disarmed Ryan and was dialing a number on Chappelle's cell phone and demanded an ambulance. Tony had kneeled down next to Chase, who was still on the ground. She rushed next to him and kneeled down. Chase had his eyes closed and blood coming from the gunwound on his chest and also from his head, he'd obviously hit on the ground when he fell down.

"Oh my God!" She wept not believing what had just happened.

Tony hugged her consolingly. "I'm so sorry, Kim."