The swat team walked into the abandoned building that was clearly empty. The continued to search the floors and Chase stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Jack lying on the ground blood all around him. He looked down and saw how pale Jack was. Chase walked over to him and checked for a pulse.
Chase felt a fait pulse and screamed for a medic as he was taking his coat off to apply pressure to the different wounds on Jack's chest. He pushed down hard sure he was probably crushing Jack's chest, but he couldn't ease up on the pressure he had to stop the bleeding. The medics rushed in behind him, one of them gently pulled Chase away. T he quickly hooked Jack up to the different machines and got him on the gurney. Quickly one of the EMT's inserted a tube down Jack's throat and connected it to a breathing back he squeezed in and released without fail.
They moved him through the building to the ambulance. Chase tried to follow but was stopped by Agent Baker. "Chase we need you here now. Kim and the others are still out there."
Chase was instantly torn between the two sides of himself. He loved Kim and had to find her, but he also needed to be there for Jack. He let the ambulance take off and watched helplessly as he assumed it would be the last time he would see Jack Bauer alive. Wiping the blood off his hands onto his black pants he looked at Baker, "Do we have a position on them yet?"
"The tracker stopped at the airport." Baker answered.
"Teams over there yet?" Chase inquired still watching the ambulance that was quite distant now.
"They will be there any moment along with more medical." Baker answered, "You got blood on your face." He finally said noticing more blood on Chase's face along with the bit he couldn't get off his hands.
Chase wanted to say he had more than just blood on his face, he had real blood on his hands, and old blood too. He was responsible for all of this he didn't get there in time to help them. He should have known something was going to happen, he should have guards posted outside of Jack's room, he should have never let Michelle go through with the plan she had presented him frantically in Jack's office.
Chases cell phone rang and it took him out of the trance he had been in, "Edmunds."
"Chase it's Chloe." Chloe said in a nervous voice. She didn't want to call him but someone had to and no one else would do their jobs.
"Saunders got away." Chloe said finally.
"What about Kim, Michelle and Tony?" Chase said hoping he wouldn't hear what he thought he would hear.
"They are on their way to the hospital." Chloe said.
"How bad?" Chase closed his eyes trying to hope for the best.
"I don't know Chase." She said into the phone.
"Do we have any way of tracking Saunders?" Chase almost whispered intot he phone.
"Not yet. WE are trying."
"TRY HARDER" Chase yelled hanging the phone up. His anger was building up he just might have lost everything today.
Baker knew what happened and said, "I'll drive you to the hospital come on."
When they reached the hospital no one would tell them anything. A nurse politely asked Chase, "Go take a seat I the waiting room and I will tell you once I know of their conditions." She wasn't suppose to give information out to him anyways.
"Please just tell me how they are." Chase begged as Baker pulled him away before he got them thrown out.
After what seemed like endless hours of pacing, than sitting, than pacing more the nurse walked into the empty waiting room where Chase and Baker waited to hear the fates of the people.
"Mr. Edmunds." Nurse from before asked looking at Chase.
"How are they?" He asked sitting down as the weight of what could be landed on him again. His stomach tightened and he felt like he was going to be sick those few seconds it took her to breath and answer his question.
"Mrs. Almedia didn't make it. Mr. Almedia is in guarded condition. Ms. Bauer is in critical condition, and Mr. Bauer is still in surgery."
"What does that mean?" Chase said putting his head in his hands hoping to hear good news.
"Mr. Almeida will probably live. Ms. Bauer has about a ten percent chance. She was shot in the head and it took a good portion of her skull off along with some of her brain. We aren't sure if she will be able to survive without the machines hooked up to her. Her next of kin is in surgery and we do not know of anyone else so we will leave her on the machines until Mr. Bauer is able to tell us what to do or she passes."
Chase felt the tears drip out of his eyes into his ever increasing bloody hands. "What about Jack?"
"WE don't know about Mr. Bauer. He seems to be fighting but we do not know. They are trying to repair the damage done and get blood back into him. The best thing you can do for him now if you are religious is pray." The nurse said feeling sorry for the young man that sat in front of her.
"Can I see Kim?" Chase said wiping the tears out of his eyes and lifting his head up.
"Technically you are not supposed to be able to only family. But from my understanding you are her boyfriend right?"
"Yes ma'am." Chase said.
"I will let you in for a few minutes since no one else can be there." The nurse said making a decision against hat could make her lose her job. She led the young man to the room and stood outside for a moment watching as he cautiously approached the bed and held the young woman's hand. The nurse left when he started to cry she felt like that was a private thing and he should have his privacy to say goodbye because that was what he was doing in essence as the nurse knew there was no way she would wake up from her state.
A few hours later the nurse returned to find the young man sleeping in a chair holding the girls hand. She checked on the girl and nothing had change the machine was still breathing for her. She didn't wake the young man she just left a note for him to find her when he woke. She had news on Mr. Bauer. She walked out to the lounge to find the man from earlier the hot Asian asleep in a chair also. She called the man who had told her to give them a status on Mr. Bauer as soon as they had one. "Is Mr. Hammond there?" S he said once she heard someone answer the phone CTU.
"Hold please." Chloe said knowing it was the hospital by the number that came up. She dialed the extension to Jack's office where Hammond now sat resting his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands.
He jumped when the phone rang, "Hammond."
"Sir the hospitals on the phone."
"Patch them through." Brad said feeling horrible part of him hoping Jack had died, he could only guess how Jack would react to his daughter, who inevitably would die or that is what the nurse had tried to convey.
"This is Brad." He said once the phone clicked over.
"Mr. Hammond Mr. Bauer just got out of surgery. He is in critical condition and we have guards posted outside all of the rooms."
"Is he going to live?"
"We don't know. He took quite a beating today and we just don't know." The nurse told the truth they were not sure. They didn't expect him to survive the surgery but he had.
"Are the two agents still there?" Brad asked inquiring about Chase and Baker who he had been informed left the scene to go to the hospital once they found out they couldn't track Saunders nor could they save anyone anymore. Brad had been angry at first because they should have reported back for debriefing, but a part of him understood why Chase was there, and he knew Baker was just trying to help the fellow agent out, but he still would reprimand them.
"Yes sir. They both are asleep. Mr. Edmunds is in with Ms. Bauer." The nurse felt a tear well up in her eye because she was so taken by how much the boy seemed to care for the woman.
"Thank you very much for calling." Brad said not knowing what to do now. All of his star players were out of it, and somehow Tony Almedia and Michelle were behind it all along with Saunders. "What about Mr. Almedia?"
"he's asleep he'll probably be awake in the morning." The nurse answered.
"Thank you again." Brad said before hanging up. What was he going to do?
Chase jolted awake when he heard the alarms going off. He saw Kim in the bed and his heart sank automatically as he knew what the alarms meant. The doctors and nursed came rushing into the room and one pulled him out of it. He stood outside and watched them try to bring her back, but he knew in his heart she wasn't going to come back this time. She was gone. He felt his knees give out and he collapsed on the floor with a primal scream of pain as he watched her slip away.
He was pulled out of it when his cell phone kept ringing. He answered it trying to hide the pain he clearly was in, "Yeah."
"Chase it's Amanda I just wanted to let you know I have Angela. Chloe called me and told me what happened. I'll keep her here until you are ready for her." Amanda Chase's sister said in a caring tone. "how are they?"
Chase couldn't hold the tears back anymore, "Kim just passed."
"I'm so sorry Chase." Amanda truly was sorry she had liked Kim and she knew how much Chase had cared for her and Angela.
Chase saw the nurse from earlier and wiped the tears out of his eyes, "Thank you Amanda. I got to go the nurse is here about Jack."
"Ok call me back Chase." His sister said hanging the phone up exteremly worried about her brother.
The nurse noticed Chase's face and frowned, "I'm sorry about your lose." She said putting her arm around the young man.
"How is Jack?"
"He's out of surgery."
"Is he going to live? What are his chances?"
"I normally would say none. He's been through so much his body today and he lost so much blood. But we didn't think he'd survive surgery and he did all six hours of it. So I don't know." The nurse said telling the young man the truth. "he's strong and a fighter I can tell you that. He must be one stubborn son of a bitch in real life."
"That he was." Chase caught himself talking in the past tense and automatically felt bad.
"I'll lead you to his room if you want to see him. I don't know if he'll wake up any time soon and he does look pretty bad. We have a machine breathing for him because his body is so weak it can't do it itself. He was beaten pretty badly on top of the gun shot wounds. If he lives it's going to be a long process of getting back to normal for him. He's going to need physical therapy and it's going to be painful. I just want you to know what he is facing. Does he have any other family besides his daughter?" The nurse asked knowing family around always seemed to help the patient even when they were in a coma like Jack.
"No. His wife died a few years ago." Chase felt the tears coming back thinking about Kim. "And the only family I ever meant was his wives sister." Chase said swallowing hard trying to block the tears out.
"OK." The nurse said gently rubbing his back. "What I need you to do for him is go in there and talk to him. Act like everything is fine. I know it's really hard to do that, but we don't know what's going on with him. He may be able to hear you and he needs something to wake up for. Can you do this?"
"Yeah." Chase said wiping the tears out of his eyes. They were just outside the intensive care unit room Jack lay in. Chase looked inside and his face immediately showed the anguish he felt inside. The nurse noticed this and encouraged him, "it's ok."
Chase walked into the room looking at all the machines they had Jack hooked up to. He studied Jack's chest that was all wrapped up in gauze. Jack's face was bruised all over and there were stitches here and there on his face. Chase sat down in the chair next to him and laughed when he thought, 'Jacks gonna take all this crap off the minute he wakes up.' His smile faded quickly when his mind corrected him, 'if he wakes up'. "hey Jack." Chase said in the deadly silent room. The only noise was the faint beeping of the machine monitoring Jack's respiration rate and the sound of the machine breathing for him, which was very soothing. "I guess I'm not going to make it to the Dodgers game this weekend." He and jack had been joking about the dodgers game that they had missed going to because of a false terrorist alert that needed their utmost attention that turned out to be nothing more than baby powder.
Chase wasn't sure what to talk about it was hard to have a one sided conversation and the only thing he could think of was Kim was gone. He knew if Jack wok up that would probably kill him. Chases heart broke as he thought about Kim again he was going to ask her to marry him soon. He was ready to settle down with her, he was ready to become whatever she wanted, but he didn't have the chance to now. Chase was interrupted from that thought when Baker knocked on the door, "Mind if I join you ladies. Did want you molesting Jack, we all know how much you love him." Baker joked walking in the room.
Baker ignored the wounds on Jack and said, "Bauer wake your ass up we have terrorist to fight still. Come on you lazy bum going to quit on us right when it gets hard." Baker was joking and Chase knew it but it still stung some.
Baker leaned against the wall and said, "So Jack can I have your office till you get back?"
Chase looked at Baker angrily and Bake said, "Never mind I don't want to fight Jr. here for it. This boy has had to deal with you for awhile not going to step in on that."
Chase laughed he couldn't help it as he remembered all the good times as few as they may have been he had with Jack. He had looked up to Jack, idolized him, he would never admit it but it was quiet evident.
"Well I got to go Jack. I got Hammond all over me about the shit you caused today. Leave me to clean the mess up like usual. Talk to you tomorrow." Baker said looking at Chase smiling at him, "Call if you need to." Baker knew he was leaving Chase with a lot, but he had to go deal with the stuff back at CTU it was either he or Chase, and he knew Chase wouldn't' and he wouldn't even bother to ask.
Once Baker was gone Chases said, "I never knew he had a sense of humor. A little mean sense of humor." Chase looked at Jack, "Come on wake up." He said, "You got to wake up Jack you can't leave yet. You still have to help me finish this off. I can't do it on my own. I'm not even field op's anymore at least not active field op's we need Super Agent Jack Bauer to come in and show us bums how to handle it all."
Chase was fighting off sleep as the hours passed by. Each minute is seemed his eyeballs were getting heavier and harder to keep open. The nice nurse noticed this and walked into the room, "Mr. Edmunds why don't you go home and rest. If anything changes I will call you. I'm here until tomorrow evening and I'll keep an eye on him for you."
"I can't leave him." Chase said not wanting to leave afraid he'd wake up to the news.
"You have to take care of yourself too." She said. "Come on." She said looking at him in a motherly way.
Chase got out of the chair reluctantly and looked back once before he left the room to go and hail a taxi cab home. Chase walked into his empty house and couldn't stand it. He could smell Kim and he felt like breaking down. He grabbed some clean clothes and called his sister, "Amanda can you come get me my car's still at CTU."
"Sure Chase are you still at the hospital?"
"No I'm at home. I don't want to stay here tonight. I just can't. I can smell her and still feel her here."
"I'll be there in a minute Chase." Amanda said worried about her brother. She pulled up outside to find him sitting on the door step looking completely defeated. She got out of the car and hugged him. He cried into her shoulder, loud sobs of pain. "It's ok." She said not wanting to let him go. "Let's go back so you can get some sleep."
She watched him as she drove back to her house, his face never changed from the stony exterior. Once they got to her house he got out of the car and walked into the house with his head hung. He walked into the room where Angela was asleep on the small twin bed and he sat down on the edge watching his little girl sleep. How could he tell her Kim was gone forever? How could he do that to her? First her mother than the woman she had loved as a mother. He felt the tears streak down his face as he thought about what faced Jack when he woke up, Chase would have killed himself if he lost Angela and he was sure Jack would try when he found out. Chase curled up around his little girl and fell asleep next to her holding her protectively. His sister stood in the doorway and watched him the entire time until he was asleep. She turned the light out in the hallway and went to bed next to her husband holding him thankful they had not had to deal with a lost in the family yet. Her heart went out to the Jack Bauer who she had meant on two separate occasion and always considered him to be a kind man even though she knew what he had to do for a living.
Chase awoke when Angela started giggling in the morning when she found her father next to her. Chase opened his eyes and smiled at her. She was two years old now and growing still.
"Daddy what are you doing in my bed?" She laughed.
"It just looked so comfortable last night." Chase joked poking her. He got up and stretched.
"Where is Kim?"
The question he was hoping to postpone for awhile came out. Chase felt his blood run cold, it was going to be hard to explain to her. He saw his sister in the doorway trying to encourage him. "Well baby it's" he couldn't find a way to explain death to such a young child, his child. How do you tell something so innocent about all the evil in the world? He would be the one who would shatter her world of innocence's if he tells her. "Baby Kim was killed last night. She's in heaven with God and the angels now. She's not going to be back." Chase felt the tears start to rise and he pushed them down.
"Just like grandpa?"
"Yeah like grandpa baby." Chase remembered how he tried to explain to her why she never meant grandpa. "Jack must be sad."
"Yes he is baby." Chase's voice was cracking slightly as he thought of Jack and how Angela didn't seem to be effected yet by Kim's death, maybe she didn't understand that Kim was never going to come back.
"Angela why don't you go help Patrick make breakfast for daddy." Amanda called to her from the door way.
"Ok." Angela said running out of the room.
"You did a good job kiddo." She said walking over to Chase who she could tell was ready to cry again. "It's hard I know. I'll explain to her more later because you know the questions will start once she starts to think. Are you going to work today?"
"No." Chase wiped the tears out of his eyes. "I'm going to go visit Jack again."
"OK." She said trying to encourage him, "I know Angela will want to see him eventually you know how drawn to him she had been those few times she actually meant him."
"Yeah I know. Maybe when he looks better. Right now they have him hooked up to all of these machines, and we don't know if he is going to wake up." Chase felt it all resting on his shoulders. The weight of the world rested on him, and he had no one left to run to for help. Kim was dead, and Jack was out of action those had been the two people he had the most contact after his sister since he came back to L.A. and they were both gone or almost gone now.
"Will you be home for supper?" His sister asked.
"I don't know." Chase looked away from her not making eye contact he doubted it. He left shortly after not before saying goodbye to Angela and giving her a hug. He drove to the hospital expecting to walk in and find that Jack had passed during the night. Halfway there his cell phone rang and his blood ran cold before he looked at the caller id he was sure it was the phone call telling him not to bother. He grabbed the phone his hands shaking until he saw it was Jack's office number. "Edmunds" He answered a second later getting himself under control again.
"Chase where the hell are you?" Brad came over the phone clearly angry possibly too much coffee since he had not left the office from the previous day still.
"On my way to the hospital." Chase said knowing it would only bring more trouble he should be at work.
"Get your ass to work now or you won't have a job tomorrow."
"Than I guess I don't have a job sir." Chase said not willing to just go back to work, not yet, he had just lost someone he loved deeply and his boss his mentor was in the hospital battling for his life, there was no way he could go to work and be effective.
"Edmunds don't do this." Brad said softening some remembering what he heard about Chase's relationship with Kim.
"I'll question Tony while I'm there." Chase said feeling the need to talk to Tony all of the sudden to let him see what he caused now. It was now Tony's fault Chase had to find someone to blame. "So I will be doing my job, and I can be the guard for Jack. Saunders is still out there and if he finds out he didn't succeed yet he might come back to finish off the job."
Brad smiled the boy knew how to get what he wanted and still do his job, something he probably learned from Jack. "Fine. I will be by later today to talk to you about something's."
"I'll be in Jack's room." Chase said hanging the phone up surprised that Brad wasn't busting his balls.
Chase parked his car and put money into the parking meter. He walked into the hospital and searched around trying to remember where they had put Jack the night before. He found the nice nurse outside the cafeteria and she smiled at him, "Back already?"
"How is he?" Chase asked worry heavy on his voice.
"He's still hanging in there." She said trying to hold her smile.
"Has he woken up yet?"
"No. If he wakes up he probably won't be waking up anytime soon. He's been through a lot and his body wouldn't even be able to function right if he were to wake up, he'd be in a lot of pain." She said trying to break hard news to the man without ruining his hope.
"What about Tony Alemida?" Chase asked.
"he's awake, and recently found out about his wife. There are men outside his door as we speak making sure he doesn't escape." The nurse said not knowing much about the entire situation that brought everyone to the hospital.
"Thanks. Where is his room at?"
"I'll take you there." She said leading Chase towards Tony's room. They walked up a few floors and Chase saw Richardson and another man outside the door and he thanked the nurse.
He walked into Tony's room. Tony's eyes were bloodshot from crying and he had a bandage that covered part of his chest. Chase couldn't look him in the eyes afraid his hatred might show through.
"Why are you here?" Tony said his voice cracking thinking about Michelle.
"I wanted to talk to you." Chase said looking above Tony's head not making eye contact. If he saw anything other than utter sorrow in Tony's eyes he would have attacked him and tried to kill him.
"About what. Michelle's dead does it matter anymore."
"YES!" Chase screamed, "KIM dead. Jack's almost dead, and here you are. Imagine that Tony." Chase didn't know where the anger came from or why all of the sudden he couldn't control it anymore. "Imagine Saunders make sure to kill Kim and Michelle by putting a bullet through their head" Chase had to pause trying to block out the anger he felt and the pain the consumed him. He got his emotions under control quickly and went on, "But you got shot in the chest and are practically fine the next day. While the only person left in this entire debacle is fighting for his life with three bullets in his chest, and one more in the leg. And someone beat the crap out of him and by the looks of your hands." Chase stopped for a few minutes trying to control himself he couldn't attack Tony because Brad would have him taken off the case in seconds possibly fired. "Why?" Chase finally asked crumbling into a chair defeated. "Why Tony? Was this all worth it? Was Kim's life worth this? Why did you do this?"
Richardson heard Chase and walked in. "Come on Chase." He said knowing Chase was not going to get his answer and it would only make him angrier. Chase didn't want to get up first he finally looked into Tony's eyes and Tony saw nothing but pure hatred reflected back at him. Richardson helped Chase up, by practically pulling him out of the chair and pushing him out of the room. "Go visit Jack we got this here." He said pushing Chase away from the room.
Chase walked away his head hung, he couldn't believe Tony. He got to the intensive care floor and walked into Jack's room, there had been no guards anywhere and he thought it was strange. He slumped into the chair next to Jack's bed and as the nurse had said nothing had changed from the day before. Everything about Jack was still the same even his body position was the same. Chase felt the tears come down his face as he looked at Jack. He was interrupted when he heard someone yell, "Let me see the God Damn Bastard now."