Hey, I'm into the last bit of this story. Again, I'm not exactly sure how much is left, but the end is in sight.

Chapter Nine

"Oh shit.'

Nathan grabbed at the wounds on her wrists, putting pressure on them. Ignoring the fine spray of blood. Tom moved her carefully, bending over her, his ear pressed against her heart. He shook his head and started CPR.

Michelle ran back out into the corridor. "I need medical in here now!" She glanced back over her shoulder, listening to Tom's increasingly desperate count

Ashley picked up the jagged piece of glass, holding it carefully. "Who gave her this?" Turning it slowly, watching the patterns the light drew in her blood.

The lights and sirens flashed, mirroring Tom's motions.

"I did." The security guard, pale faced, licked his dry lips. "She was thirsty."

"And you didn't watch the monitors." Ashley advanced on him, holding the bloodstained glass in front of her. She watched him swallow nervously, fighting against the urge to back away from her. "You just sat outside on your fat ass and you did nothing."

"Ashley." Michelle raised her voice, stepping between the two. "Walk away from this."

Tom's count filled the sudden silence in the room.

CTU Medical arrived, two men laden down with equipment and bags. Shoving their way through to get to their patient, taking over from Nathan and Tom. Nathan rubbed idly at his jeans as he stood, watching them work, his trousers stiff with Alyson's blood.

"Michelle..."

"Ashley. Back off." Michelle closed her eyes briefly. "Go and get that damn alarm turned off." The noise, the lights, were cutting through her skull.

Cutting through her like a sliver of glass.

She shivered, wrapping her arms around herself. She turned to the guard. "Fill in an incident report. Get it countersigned by your watch commander, and have it on my desk within the hour."

"Yes ma'am." He walked off, head bowed.

The paramedics kept working on her, struggling to revive her. Her eyes closed, her hair hanging loose around her face, matted with her own blood, a slight smile on her face, it looked like she was sleeping.

"She's beautiful."

Tom flinched when he realised he had spoken aloud. Neither Nathan nor Michelle seemed to have noticed.

Ashley arrived back at the door of the room. "I spoke to Tony, he's shutting down the alarm sequence now." She sounded out of breath.

"Good."

Even from the door, Ashley could see the jagged wounds Alyson had carved into her wrists.

The alarm went suddenly silent, the room lit by one lamp. She looked even paler without the intermittent flash of red to add some colour to her skin.

The paramedic looked up and met Michelle's eyes.

He shook his head. The room terrifyingly, bitterly silent, broken only by the sound of the crash machine.

The paramedic reached out and switched it off.

xxxXXXxxx

Tony typed quickly as Ashley hurried away from his work station, running through the corridors. It had been on the tip of his tongue to ask her what was wrong, what had happened, had even opened his mouth to ask, but she had left before he had gotten the chance.

"Tony can you come over here and take a look at this?"

"Sure." He levered himself out of his chair and walked over to Adam's workstation. "What have you got?"

"I'm not sure. It might be a possible target for Fredericks." Adam brought up a picture of man on his screen. "His name is William Cronje. He's the new Chief Prosecutor in Cape Town."

"Fredericks home turf. What's he doing in the US?"

"He's here to take possession of a prisoner. Kevin van der Melde."

He had always been able to sense her. It had become one of their favourite games. She would try and sneak up on him, and he would let her creep closer and closer, pretending that he didn't know she was there. Then he would turn and she would pretend to be scared, laughing all the time.

It had been so long since he had heard her laugh.

He looked around as she drew closer to Adam's workstation, so tired and dejected. He ached to put his arms around her, tell her that everything would be okay.

"What's wrong?"

"Alyson Rawlings is dead."

"What? How? When?"

"She committed suicide. Cut her wrists with a shard of broken glass." Michelle leaned against Adam's desk, rubbing at her forehead. "What are you working on? She was so tried, so drained. Empty.

She wanted Tony to hold her while she fell asleep. Wanted him to help drive away the images of every death she had been responsible for. She could almost feel him kiss her head through her curly hair, the same way he did every night when she fell asleep on the couch. She almost smiled.

Adam's voice dragged her back to reality.

"We've been working on potential targets."

"You get anything?"

"I think so."

He started to explain, but Michelle cut him off. "Send it to my screen." She forced herself upright, staggering a little in her weariness. "Good job, both of you. Thank you."

xxxXXXxxx

"Back so soon? I thought the way you rushed out of here, I was never going to see you again."

Nathan slammed the door of Interrogation One behind him. "Shut up Samuel."

Tom walked over to the table and sat down. "I've just seen Alyson, Samuel." He almost smiled as Nathan started to pace around the room, every circuit bringing him a little closer to Samuel.

"How is the little whore?"

Still the same smug smile.

Tom stared at him for a second, that mocking smile burning through his head. In a flash he remembered the sad smile, frozen forever on Alyson's face. Remembered how she'd cried in this room. How he'd broken her in this room.

He'd broken her. He'd driven her to it.

Him and this bastard.

The punch caught Samuel by surprise. Catching him just below his eye. Knocking him and his chair backwards, the chair swinging crazily on its hind legs. Nathan caught him by the shoulders, pushing him back upright. Holding him steady for Tom's next punch.

Nathan grinned. "Not that much fun when it happens to you, is it shithead?"

Samuel shook his head, spitting out a tooth that Tom had knocked loose.

"Where is Oliver Fredericks?" Tom stood up, looming over the prisoner, his fists clenched. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Alyson, saw the wounds she had carved into her own flesh. Wounds that he had driven her to.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

Tom punched him again. Trying to drive the image away. Trying to beat away his own guilt.

Samuel started to laugh. Laughed even as Tom punched him again.

"Where is he?"

"Go to hell!"

Nathan glanced up at Tom, jerking his head towards the door. Breathing heavily, Tom followed after him, the sound of Samuel's laughter chasing him across the room.

How many times had Alyson heard that laughter, seen that smile? Was it any wonder...

He shook his head. He couldn't afford to think like that. He still had a job to do. "What do you think Nathan?"

"I think we can beat on him all day and all night and he's still not going to give us Fredericks."

Tom glanced over his shoulder at Samuel, still laughing in the middle of the room, bruised and bloodied. "I think you're right." He wanted to nail this bastard, wanted to nail him for everything.

"We still got him though." Nathan gripped Tom's shoulder. "We still got him for trafficking and for blackmailing her. It's not like the piece of shit's just going to walk out of here."

"I know, but we got nothing on Fredericks." Tom sighed, rubbing at his bruised knuckles. "Okay. You start the paper work on Williams for the other charges."

"What about you?"

A sudden thought, a sudden fear, raced through Nathan's mind. He had seen Tom's face as he punched Samuel. He couldn't leave him alone with Samuel. Enough things had been fucked up at CTU without adding that to the list.

Tom sighed, the anger and hatred slipping from him like blood from a cut. "I'm going to go tell Michelle what we've got."

xxxXXXxxx

Michelle paged through the hastily written report. This was the last thing she needed, a breach in security, just when there was a chance that she could Hammond off their backs. "So you weren't paying attention to the monitors?"

The security guard didn't look at her, staring at the floor of her office. "No ma'am"

She threw the report on her desk. "Why not?"

"Pardon me, ma'am?"

"Look at me." She waited until he met her eyes. "Why weren't you watching the monitor? Were you called away?"

"No ma'am...I didn't think...she wasn't under arrest...I didn't...I didn't....I'm sorry ma'am."

"I know you are." Michelle took a mouthful of coffee, trying to postpone things for as long as she could. "It doesn't change the fact that she died while she was supposed to be under our protection."

"No ma'am."

She sighed heavily. "You're suspended. One month, half pay." She made a note in his file. "Effective immediately. Now get out of my sight."

"Yes ma'am. Sorry ma'am."

He walked out of her office and down the stairs towards the bullpen. Ashley walked past him on the stairs, and she turned to glare at him as she passed. He turned his body, careful not to touch her, careful not to look at her, and hurried out of CTU.

Ashley knocked on Michelle's door.

"Come."

She walked in, closing the door behind her. She walked over to Michelle's desk, folding her hands behind her back.

Barely two days in the job, and she had already fucked things up.

"What is it, Ashley?"

"I just came to apologise, Michelle. For earlier. I was out of line."

Michelle looked up from her computer. "Yes you were. This is my department, Ashley, and I will handle the discipline. Not you."

"I just didn't want to see that fucking idiot..."

"Ashley. I've already dealt with him."

"What happened to him?"

"That's none of your concern." Michelle turned back to her computer. "I want you to go home, get some sleep and come back in the morning."

"But Nathan and Tom are still interrogating Samuel Williams!"

"I don't care Ashley. Go home and get some sleep. We'll call you if we need you. But I want you fresh in the morning."

"Okay." Feeling like a dismissed child, she drifted back towards the door of the office. Wondering how she'd managed to fuck things up so quickly.

"Ashley. Look, you've done fantastic job so far, we wouldn't have gotten Williams without you. But I might need you again, and I don't want you so tired that you make a stupid mistake and put yourself or the operation in danger."

"Thanks Michelle." Ashley smiled and left the Directors office.

Maybe she hadn't fucked things up.

xxxXXXxxx

"I just wanted to thank you for everything you've done in this matter."

"I'm delighted to help. Let me just say that I think that his actions and conduct have been completely inexcusable. How is their morale?"

"I've spoken to them. All they want is the freedom to do their jobs. His actions have driven both of them to consider their futures."

"Are these people good?"

"Some of our best sir."

"We cannot allow these people to be driven away by his actions. I think it is time that I got involved in this directly."

"If you think that's wise, sir." She tried to hide the enthusiasm in her voice.

"I think it's time he realised that he cannot run CTU like his own private organisation. The president made his decision he has to accept it. Just like everybody else."

"Thank you sir." Natasha Grey smiled and hung up the phone.