Tony swung open the door and jumped down to the grassy bank the helicopter was now sat upon, and reached for his radio once more, with trembling hands.

"Jack? Jack do you copy?" He shouted frantically before glancing at his watch, it had been over 20 minutes since he last made contact with him. He stuffed the radio back in his pocket and ran towards the suits from division who were assembling near the barrier. They had decided to take a more hands on approach after Tony's call filling them in on the situation. The knew they had to take responsibility here now, as the mess had been created by one of there own.

Tony pushed his way through the crowd looking for Hammond. Maybe he would help, now he knew more of the details. "Brad!" He yelled as he spotted him on the phone, talking into it calmly. Brad flipped his phone shut and looked at Tony annoyed.

"What is it now? I don't need to warn you about how thin the ice your skating on is."

"I know sir, but we will deal with the consequences of my actions later. Right now, we need to find Jack."

"SWAT haven't found him. The old mans not talking to us."

"Wait a minute, you already stormed the building?" Tony asked bewildered.

"Yes. I told you Tony, I don't care if this was all a set up for Jack, I need this building empty, and the threat gone. Right now, the threat is Jack."

"No, I already told you. There is a bomb in there, but Jacks disarming it - that's what he said when I last made contact with him. Sir, he is not a threat, and I already explained to you why he's acting on his own authority... because of me."

"Tony, I don't know what the hell you've been playing at today, but we got the bomb this morning. So if your telling me that you held back information of a secondary strike..."

"Look, I did, but I did it for Jack. Clearly my plan didn't work out as expected." Brad was about to cut it so Tony staled, '"You said you have the man Jack had taken hostage?"

"Yes. He is being checked over by a medic right now. He's claiming he volunteered, someone else protecting Jack, surprise surprise. We're still searching for him. No sign of him yet, or this supposed bomb he's disarming,' he said, stressing the word 'bomb,' showing his disbelief of such thing.

"Well if you have the hostage there's no reason to arrest Jack. He has the bomb Brad, he told me that when we last spoke. I gave the information to the informant he is using all right!"

Brad looked at him, confusion and anger running through his eyes. He was totally lost as to what Tony had been up to today, but he had clearly been playing on the edge. Tony sensed he was going to start on with some bull sh!t lecture about his actions, so he started in again.

"Look - there's no hostage there's no threat. You know I'm right. There's no need for you to use lethal force. It's unnecessary. And... If you tell the men to stand down, I'll tell you where to find him."

Hammond stared the man down, now furious. Tony had screwed this whole thing up, screwed Jacks head up and was now threatening him. Before he could say anything his own radio beeped.

"Sir, we found Bauer."

Tony looked down slightly disappointed he had lost his leverage with Brad..

"Found?" He asked, knowing his question would satisfy Tony.

"Yes sir. Were loading him on to a stretcher now to bring him up."

"What's wrong?"

"Collins checked him over but isn't too sure, something's wrong, we just don't know what. Sir, he doesn't look too good."

"All right, bring him up, I'll get a chopper ready to take him to St. Marks."

"Also sir, we found another device. Its been disarmed. There's enough stuff here to take out a nice chunk of the area."

Brad looked up at Tony, and through the worry he could make out relief too; at least he hadn't blown the place up.

"I'll send a crime scene unit down, just get Bauer up here, stat."

"Copy."

Brad looked at Tony and headed towards the chopper they would be using to transport Jack. He climbed in and Tony followed, neither communicating to one another. They sat in silence waiting for the team to bring Jack up. Brads thoughts were swirling, he had to take order of this situation, it seemed that Tony had been calling all of the shots, only without them knowing. Tony's mind was racing about what was wrong with Jack. SWAT found him like that so they hadn't harmed him, but something had.

Dragging him from his thoughts Brad looked at Tony, a frown still plastered on his face.

"You get your thoughts ordered Almeida. Once we land, I want to know everything. And I want it all Tony, down to the tiniest detail. Christ knows what you were thinking!" He said, raising his voice as his frustration grew.

Tony looked down, pity seeping in. Ha he made a big mistake here?

His pity quickly transformed back to worry as he saw two of the SWAT men heading towards them, stretcher between them, Jacks' prone form on it, strapped down. They slid it in and sat besides him, checking him over.

Tony looked away quickly as the guilt seeped in. For the first time in the six months his operation had taken, he wondered if he had misjudged Jacks ability to handle the situation. If they had been wrong about Jack's reaction to this, it was now too late do anything about it. The damage had already been done. He closed his eyes as he felt the chopper lift off, telling himself that Jack would be fine and one day and would recognise the sacrifices they had made for him. He hoped he was right, or they would all live to regret it.