Teri sat at her work station and played with the pencil she held in her hand. She was really contemplating going after Jack but she had no idea where he was or what he was doing. Till she had some sense of where he might be she might as well stay put.

It made her a bit uneasy not having him around, partly because she liked to keep track of him after all the stunts he had pulled on her in the past six months she had been working here, "locking her in to keep her safe" was his excuse. Another part of her wanted him around because… because she just liked having him around, he was the only person she could turn to in any given matter. He wasn't half bad to look at either.

"Teri!" called Tony, waking her from her thoughts.

She snapped out of it and looked around in bewilderment for about two seconds before she hurried over to him like a hound waiting for the next order from his master. "What?"

"Ok, I'm gonna ask you for the eleventh time; where is Jack?"

She cast a glance up at Crawford's office. "For the eleventh time; I have no idea. He only told me to cover for him. I thought he was out to get a coffee or something as the coffee you have here tastes like sludge. At best" she added.

"Yeah, well, be that as it may, Jack's been gone for three hours, that's bit long for a cup of coffee, don't you think?"

"Look, Tony, I'm his partner, not his mother. I can't follow his every step, he's a grown man who are pretty capable of taking care of himself."

"Still…" Tony grimaced. "I have a bad feeling."

She took a deep breath. "I know what you mean, I don't like having him out there without knowing where he is or what he's doing either." She cast another glance up at Crawford's office.

She had been working under both Crawford and Chapelle at Division and knew that of the two men Chapelle was the one who took more to looking through the fingers when it came to disappearing from work but he hadn't been the type to take it likely either. Crawford was different and she had no idea what to say if the question came from him about the whereabouts of Jack.

Between the worrying about Jack and the feeling of having to stay made her pretty much caught between a rock and a hard case. Should she follow her gut feeling and go after her partner or should she stay and behave like a good girl, after all she was in pretty much trouble as it was.

As if Tony had read her mind he cast a sideways glance up at the director's office as well. "I think he's sleeping."

"Me too" muttered Teri. "I have been stuck with this stupid case for hours. Personally I think it's an insult to my intelligence."

Tony snorted.

"I'm going after him. I've had this nagging feeling that he needs me."

"In what way?" asked Tony and it was meant as a joke but as the words lingered between them neither felt like it was a joke.

"I have to find him to find out" she replied when her stomach had settled after Tony's question.

"Do you know how to find him?"

"In regard of special agent Jack Bauer I don't trust him further than I can throw him, which is not pretty far judging by size and volume" It was her turn to crack a joke, especially to cover the awkwardness Tony's question had presented her with. "I have been locked in the IT room by him too keep me off a case, he has drugged me to keep me safe so in turn I have put a bug in his car that is linked to my GPS. He's a safe dot on the screen to put it like that."

Tony rubbed his forehead. What these two managed to do to each other… did it have any boundaries? Probably not. "Yeah, well, when he doesn't want to be found you can bet your… behind that you won't find him."

"Yeah, well, I have a knack for finding people who don't want to be found. Till this day I haven't failed to find my marks."

"Good luck!"

"Ye of little faith" she muttered. "It's me, I don't need luck."

In a cabin up at Big Bear had the still form of Jack fallen to the floor. The needle that had sealed his doom lay right next to him under the table.

His eyes were closed and he lay ever so still.

His heart was still beating, his chest rose and fell in tact with his breathing but it was shallow, really shallow.

It could seem as he was fast asleep but he had drifted so far into sleep that he wouldn't wake if he was addressed. He had fallen into a mild coma and there was no way than deeper into coma and then death.

When Teri had stepped into the ladies' room she had heard someone turning their guts inside out and as she stepped out of the stall she noticed that Kim was sitting leaned up against the wall between the basins.

"Hi" she said and tried to smile. She seemed awfully pale.

"So, it was you who tossed your dinner."

"Yeah."

She wanted to tell her to go home but it was not up to her to send people home when they were sick, besides they needed all hands on deck. "Feeling under the weather?"

"Dreadful."

Teri washed and dried her hands. "Tell Crawford that you need to go home, you shouldn't be exposed to stress when you feel like that. You'll get an ulcer at best." She gave her another smile before she left. It was no doubt in her mind that what was the matter with the young woman was a pregnancy. But it was not her job to tell her so because it was none of her business. What was her business was to find Jack. At least she made it her business.

The scenery changed again. Now they were standing on a cemetery. About a hundred yards in front of them were a group of people gathered around an open grave, a coffin was placed above it and slowly lowered into the hole.

He couldn't make out all the faces but he clearly recognized one of the people around the grave as his daughter. A sigh of relief escaped him as he realized that she wasn't the one in the coffin.

"Don't count your blessings just yet, Jack" warned Teri. "Your daughter is still alive but her life has taking a drastic turn for the worse."

He sighed and leaned his head back, not sure he wanted to hear the answer to his question. Hadn't he been through enough? "What do you mean? Who are they burying?"

"Your ex partner, Chase."

He stared at her. "Not him too."

"I'm afraid so. She buried her father, the child she was carrying and now her husband. She has a pretty sad story, poor thing. After you died things grew rapidly worse, your partner Teri died on that rack, Kim fell ill and Chase had to go back to being a field agent to be able to pay all the medical bills and their marriage slowly fell apart. He was shot in the line of duty."

Jack rubbed his face. This was too surreal to him, this could not be the future, this just couldn't. "I can't take this. What of Tony and Michelle and the others, what about them? Everybody can't die from my stupid mistake."

"Michelle got the child your daughter wanted so she quit her job because she wanted to stay home and take care of the kid. Her marriage to Tony fell apart and she left him because he became too preoccupied by his work. First he had lost you and then he lost TC, in his mind he was still in charge and did everything to keep the team together, what little was left of it."

He saw a glimpse of light in the end of the tunnel. "But he's ok?"

"Overworked, that's all. He turned into you, actually. He married CTU instead. He has gotten an ulcer and suffers from insomnia, other than that he's pretty much the same."

The light was a train coming down the track at him. But after the news settled he barked a short laughter. It was so pathetic, so… miserable, melodramatic that it seemed more like a Shakespeare tragedy rather than real life. "Seems farfetched that all this should come from my OD."

"As I said some of this is preordained, what is and what isn't is up to you to find out."

"The event of my death, are you saying that I'm not dead yet?" Was there a possibility that he could turn this around so that he could save TC's life and the rest of his daughter's sanity?

"Not yet but lets be realistic; you ran away to Big Bear to a cabin no one knows you have, no one knows where you have gone. The possibility of you surviving is pretty slim."

"But there's a chance I can survive?" A part of him was hopeful that he could make it but just because he could manage to keep the people close to him alive.

"That's growing smaller by the minute."

"Why me? Why do always I have to be the strong one?!" he all but screamed at her and threw his arms out to show his frustration.

"You took on that part yourself, love. Perhaps not intentionally, but that's how it turned out. Ironic, isn't it? Now you are the one completely dependant on others to survive."

"I never meant to…"

"Meant to what… be the hero? You never meant to take on all those assignments where there were great risk to your life? Bull, Jack. You always loved to play the hero. Now you are the one who needs a hero and who do you think will come through for you when you have pushed everybody else aside? Who will be your savior?"

"TC will come through for me if what you say is true."

She stared at him. "Teri? You can't even say her name because it reminds you of me! What makes you think that she will come through for you? After everything you have done to her, what reason would she have to save you?"

"She values human lives, she values… my life for some reason."

"She cares about you, dumb ass. So does Kim, so does Tony and Michelle. I have no idea why you feel so alone, I don't understand when you are surrounded by people who cares."

"They don't understand…" That was true, he felt like there were not a single person on this planet who really understood him and so they labeled him as a killer, a professional soldier… they didn't see him for what he was nor did they understand the things he did and why he did it.

"What about Teri, does she understand you?"

He hoped she did but he had never taken the time to find out, something he truly regretted now. What if…? What if a lot of things? "I don't know, she trusts me."

"She trusts you and she cares a lot for you."

He sighed. He had been so stupid. Of course she cared, why else would she have saved his life before she even knew him? Why else would she humiliate herself to rush to his side to help him? "I know."

"And you are just taking advantage of that."

"That's not true!" he barked back. "That is not true!" he waved a threatening finger. How dare she judge him. He didn't take advantage of TC, he wouldn't dream of doing something like that.

"What isn't true? What have you ever done for her?"

"We're partners, nothing more. I am not obligated to go through extremities for her."

"Nor have you, she means nothing to you. You only pretended to care about her when you saw her being tormented on the rack!"

"That's not true, that's not true." He shook his head in frustration. If only she knew.

"What isn't true? What feelings do you have for her?"

"Don't push me!" he warned. What the hell had happened to the woman he loved and married? This was not his sweet Teri in front of him. If this was what he had to go to after death he was better off alive.

"Tell me what you feel for her!"