Previously on 24

Police officer chasing Jack and Kevin: "District 12, where is backup! This guy's going in and out of traffic!"

Officer Johnson's bike explodes. The explosion is loud and rattles the car windows. Jack glances in the rear view mirror. Jack takes an exit off the freeway and heads toward the CTU building.

Michelle gets up from her chair and walks over to Catherine. "Where are you on that list?"

"I've got about hundred right now. And counting."

"Leese, I'm leaving, going back to Sacramento. You can handle this without me."

"Kevin, wait!"

"Jack," George stops him as Lisa follows Kevin, "My office. It's not a request. Let's go."

Heather: "Kim, wake up. We're leaving."

janitor: "Miss! Hold on!"

Kim: "Yes? Me?"

"You dropped this."

George: "You were good, Jack. But you're grieving and that's not good to have hanging on your shoulders when you're at work."
Jack points a finger at George. "You take me off the case now, you'll be doing them a favor."

George to Lisa: "Get him out and start babysitting. Anymore screw ups," George points his finger in Jack's face, "You're gone. I don't care if your daughter is missing or not."

Lisa: "I'm only going to speak once and then it's over. You owe your job to Jack and you can't even treat him with the smallest amount of respect. I'm shocked at what a little man you have become, but I'm glad that I don't have to deal with you anymore."

Lisa walks calmly down the stairs and over to Jack, who is speaking with Tony. "Jack, we need to talk. Privately."

...

Two parachuters in front of a military institution are ambushed. One of them is killed, the other one captured. "GET UP! UP! NOW!"

The following takes place between 8 pm and 9 pm

08:00:01 --- 08:00:02 --- 08:00:03 --- 08:00:04

Hospital
"Oh...um..." Kim takes the bag and thanks the man. "That was close," she mutters for Heather to hear, as the janitor turns away and leaves.

They finally exit the hospital, Peter still holding her hand. "Where are we going?", Kim whispers, glad to be out in the fresh air again, though she anxiously glances around her in the emerging darkness.

"I don't know." Heather feels relieved to have left the place, but she suddenly feels lost. She shakes her head. "I don't know, let's just get out of here." She opens the car door for Peter and hushes him inside. He cudles the puppy again and finally looks all happy. Then she helps Kim get in. "You wanted to talk earlier. What was that about?"

Kim shakes her head, "I don't know if it would even make sense. I've been in trouble and didn't want you and your son mixed up in it." Heather gets in the car and they start driving. "But I need to get ahold of my dad. He thinks I'm still in danger and he's looking for me."

"Okay.", Heather turns to her bag, reaching for something but then sighs, having remembered something. "My cell phone died on me earlier today. I think it's best if I take you to my place. You could call from there. Okay?"

A dead cell phone. That wasn't a good start to this journey. "Thanks for your help, Heather. As soon as I know it's safe, I'll explain everything. I just don't want to involve you any further."

"We're already involved. Somehow I feel responsible for you. I can't just walk away."

CTU
"I'll be right back, ok?", Jack excuses himself and follows Lisa to her office. He sighs. If this is about the past, it's just not the time. "Okay. I'm listening."

When they're out of earshot, Lisa apologizes. "I came here with an agenda having no idea you would be involved." The words make her chuckle immediately. "I feel so stupid. My point was to show George that I could handle more than he or anyone else gave me credit for and to do my best to make him uncomfortable. But now..." Lisa folds her arms in a protective manner, "Now that doesn't matter."

She glances away for a second, then continues. "All I see now is that I want to help someone I care about. I want to protect that person from being hurt again and I can't do it because of the mistakes I made in my personal life. George is right, though." Now her eyes are focused on him, "There is a distraction. I'm sorry, Jack."

"Shhh, it's okay..." Jack takes a step forward and hugs her. They're quiet for a few seconds.
Then Jack whispers. "You've been a great help today Lisa. I needed you and you were there for me, I'll never forget that. I won't let you take the fall for what you did to help me out." She leans her head on his shoulder and he runs his fingers through her hair. "You're not a distraction."

There is a moment when she knows she shouldn't but Lisa ignores the knowledge and blatantly crosses the line. She turns her face upwards, eyes meeting his, then she closes hers. Lisa kisses him softly. He has yet to move her away. One hand encircles his neck as they kiss again.

Then, like lightning, it hits her - she can't do this. Teri died here. Jack's wife died in this place. "I...I'm sorry..." the words sputter from her lips as she tries to hide her embarrassment.

It's wrong. Jack knows it's wrong. But the feelings he had for Lisa years ago are suddenly back. Maybe they were never gone. He can't help it. He pulls her closer and kisses her again voraciously. For once, his feelings are stronger than his mind.

"Lisa?" Tony's voice suddenly fills the room. Both Jack and Lisa are looking at the door but see no one. Again, his voice is heard. "Lisa, if you're there, pick up."

The phone. Unwillingly, she pulls away from Jack and answers the call. "I'm here, Tony."

Jack runs his hand over his face. What just happened here? He closes his eyes and shakes his head lightly, pulling himself back to the reality of this room.

Tony notes her voice sounds odd but says nothing. "You've got a call on line 1. It's a hospital you called earlier wanting to know if you had anything further on Kim."

Kim. Back to the main focus. "Okay...thanks." She turns back to Jack not knowing what to do, say, or...even if what happened really happened. "Um...do you have a picture of Kim I can fax to the hospitals? For identification."

"Yeah, sure." Jack takes out his wallet and holds out a photograph of Kim, handing it to Lisa. "Here, you can use this. Thank you, Lisa."

He gives her a glance, but can't look at her. He shouldn't have let this happen. Jack stands there a moment longer, then turns around quickly and walks to the door but stops before he leaves, his back to Lisa. "Pull yourself together Jack", he orders himself. "There's work to be done."

...

Michelle is filtering through the list Catherine put together. A lot of stops and gos in the projects. It could take days to find the right trail if they don't get a tangible clue sometime soon. She glances towards Lisa's office. Hopefully Jack will be out soon.

Heather's car
"It looks like we're running out of gas, Kim. I'm gonna have to pull over at the next gas station."

"How far can we go?" Kim doesn't like this area and doesn't want to stop if they don't have to. "Heather, can we get to your house and then call someone to fill up your car there?"

Heather chuckles. "No, I don't think they do that... Look, I'm feeling just as uncomfortable as you are, but it's probably better if we've got a full tank.", she smiles nervously. "Maybe we're both just being a little paranoid... I really don't think we can go far, certainly not to our place. I don't live around the corner, unfortunately."

Great. How far does this woman live? Kim sinks down into the seat. "Maybe try to make it as far as we can at least. That'll give us a good head start."

CTU

Lisa places the call to the requesting hospital and faxes Kim's photo using the machine in the room. "You have my number...Yes, if you find any matches even similar, call. Thank you."

Jack notes her call only marginally. He had turned towards the door again, avoiding her until he got a grip on himself again. He wasn't in the least expecting this to happen. But now that it has, he's afraid to face her.

The call ended, silence once again takes over. She forces herself to turn around but Jack is headed for the door. Great, she's blown it before it has begun - if there ever was an it to begin with. "Jack..." Lisa starts but doesn't continue. He probably doesn't want to talk. It's best to let him go.

He doesn't quite know what to to about it. And he's not sure if he could control himself if he turned back. But he can't just leave her standing there like that, either.

Jack turns around slowly, but leans his back on the door. He looks up from the floor . Lisa is looking quite as helpless as he is feeling.

He tries a smile. "Don't..." It's stupid, but he just can't think of anything better to say. Yet her eyes are on him, asking for a reaction. Jack takes a deep breath before slowly walking over to her desk.

"Lisa..." Jack feels like there's nothing to say. They've crossed the line and words just seem so useless. He's speaking softly. "This can't stand in the way... It won't, alright?" He knows it's not going to be that simple. But it has to work out. "Okay? We need to find a way to focus. We're pros, right?" He smiles. Hopefully she'll understand.

Jack's right, as usual. They would be professional and continue. She steps forward and makes it near the door but stops. "Well...for an 8 out of 10, I guess we can be pros."

Lisa grins at the look on Jack's face and is glad she broke the tension. "There's work to be done, Agent Bauer."

somewhere inside the military compound

The woman is led into a large building on the premises. A guard pushes a button and a door opens automatically. It's a heavy door, leading into a cell with only a faucet and a toilet bowl.

She is forcefully pushed inside. "Stay there!" someone shouts at her.

"Yeah, like there's anywhere I could go.", she mocks and remains standing in the center of the room, as the heavy door closes behind her.

When she hears the sound of the footsteps fade away, she silently speaks: "I'm in."

On the other end of the receiver, in the secondary compound, Mick is listening. "Good. Well done." He smirks at himself. Nick walks in.

"She made it.", Mick informs him. "And we're right on schedule."

Nick nods. "Good. That's great."

Back in the lockup, the woman takes a seat on the floor in the corner of the room. As she lifts up her head, we can finally recognize her face.

It's Mills' Nanny.

Sherry

Sherry Palmer is on the phone with Mike Novick.

"There's nothing you can do right now, Sherry. "

"I'm not giving up all those years of supporting him-"

"I'm sorry to say this, but it was all over months ago. He lost his trust in you completely, he is never going to try again. You should sign the divorce papers. It will be easier for the both of you."

"Mike, you're his Chief of Staff. Technically, you're still working for us, not just David. Can't you just talk to him?"

"I'm sorry..."

"Then I hope you enjoy the free fall he is going to head for when the headlines make the news tomorrow." Sherry hangs up. She's furious. Sign the papers? She'd rather burn them.

CTU main office

Reentering the world of CTU is a shock to the system. The hum of the computers is loud in Lisa's ears as she crosses the room to Tony's desk. "The meeting you had downtown... did you come back with anything?"

"Nothing yet and were not sure there will be anything useful." Tony glances over her shoulder at Jack who is coming up behind. "The hospital have anything on Kim?"

Lisa shakes her head, "I think we're getting closer. The high-res images should be finished downloading. Just wanted to check in with you first."

"I can't show you what I don't have.", Tony shakes his head in frustration.

"Understood. Keep trying." Lisa passes Jack as she returns to her office.

Heather's car

Peter is getting worried and the look in his eyes isn't comforting. "Hey..." Kim gently pats his hand, "Everything's going to be okay. We've just got some grown-up stuff to figure out."

He smiles at her and cuddles his puppy.

CTU

Jack walks over to Michelle for an update. She tells him what she does and doesn't have on Annabelle Peterson, then shows him the list Catherine has been working on. Jack takes the printout, scanning through it.

"Somehow all this is connected. Mills, Codis, Burton and everything else that happened. We're only looking for a missing link here. The core piece of the puzzle..." Jack's thinking aloud.

Michelle says nothing. If it were just one piece that was missing that would be nice. But this whole thing looks more like they only had random pieces and most of them didn't fit.

"Michelle, try codenames, aliases, anything else that Annabelle Peterson could mean. Codis didn't just happen to write that name down just like that."

Michelle nods. "Sure. Uhm... There's something else. Tony got a chip off Burton, but we haven't been able to decode it yet. The encryption doesn't respond to any of our decoding programs."

"What are we doing about it?"

"I'm not sure. I suggested bringing in an external contractor but I don't know if Tony wanted to do that."

"Okay, keep working on that name."

"Alright."

Jack walks over to Tony. "Tony, what's with that chip you took off Burton? Who's working on it? Any results yet?"

Tony crosses his arms, "No one's working on it, Jack. It's like I've told everyone who's questioned me about it - I found it, we've tried to get something off of it, and there isn't anything except for random strings of numbers that our filters can't put together. We've tried international codes, routers, accounts, you name it."

Before Jack can answer, they're interrupted by Andre. "Tony, Mills' nanny didn't complete her duties today."

He looks towards Andre, "What?"

"I've been locked into the security cameras at Mills' house since we got this. Back footage shows the nanny leaves every day at 11:30 to pick up his two kids from their school at noon. She didn't do it today. I've been waiting to see if I missed something and the kids were picked up by a driver because of the assassination but no one has come back to the residence with them." Andre is scrolling through still shots quickly. "After the assassination, I can't find her in any frame."

Tony glances at Jack then directs a question to Andre, "Do we have a name on her?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Michelle and Lisa have just had me working security cameras and cross-checking Codis with Mills."

This new information raises a red flag immediately. Jack walks over to Andre's screen, Tony following close behind.

"This is it. This could be what we're looking for." Jack's voice is suddenly optimistic, finally they could be getting somewhere.

"Michelle," Jack calls to her, "You have a list of people working for Mills?"

"Yeah, sure." Michelle grabs a list from her desk and brings it over. "Here you go."

Jack takes it hastily. "Thanks."

"Sure."

All three of them view the list. Then Jack points to a name. "There she is. Kelly Simmons. Michelle, get me her profile. If she's somehow mixed up in this, now is the time to find out."

Heather's car

"Kim, look, there's a gas station right after that traffic light. If you were in trouble earlier today then someone could still be after you and frankly, it's better to have a full tank than an empty one. Let's just go fill her up."

Heather stops at the traffic light and gives Kim a questioning look.

looking for Kim

The guys that are after Kim, Bill and John, are driving down the same road Heather took a few hours ago, when she hit Kim. "Stop!", John shouts. "Back up!" Bill does as told.

John exits the car and walks to the side of the road. He stoops to pick up something and then looks around. Skid marks on the road. Might be fresh. And right where he's standing, it looks like a car drove through the grass.

John walks back to the car. He's holding a tissue in his hand that has traces of blood on it.

"This looks like there's been an accident recently. Where's the nearest hospital? Let's go check there."

Heather's car

"Okay." They couldn't very well go anywhere without gas and Kim's ankle, though not broken, was still hurting. It was a chance they'd have to take. "I'm going to run in and see if they have a phone."

While Heather parked and started pumping, Kim sought another opportunity to make a call but it was to no avail. "Sorry, kid, no public phones. You look like you've got money, go get one of them cellular things."

"Yeah, maybe someday." Disgusted, Kim retreats back to the car.

CTU

The images she's been seeking have come to her computer. Lisa prints them out but looks at them carefully. Kim is obviously the one being helped from the ground and into the car. But the license plate is obscured. At least they know she got out of the Petrov's hands, but where is she?

Lisa calls the hospital closest to the scene again and questions the admitting nurse. "Take a look at the picture. No Kim Bauer's? Anyone resembling that person?...What are the names of the blondes you did admit?...Uh huh...okay."

Now the decision whether or not to share this information with Jack...it's not going to be an easy one.

Maybe Jack does work wonders. Tony can't believe their luck and his shock probably shows. He might as well ditch the chip from Burton's car. The poor guy died for nothing.

"Congratulations, Jack." His tone is defensive yet accepting. "Another day of breaking the rules has lead us to another lead."

Another day of breaking the rules? It's better not to start that discussion right now. Michelle gives Tony one of those looks, but then rushes over to her station to pull up the profile.

"Yeah, guess we got lucky." Jack utters curtly but doesn't even look up from the list of abandonned projects in his hand. It's a long one, they'd better find a way to filter through it efficiently sometime soon or it could take ages. "Catherine!"

Uh uh, here it comes. He's going to make her sort the hundreds of projects in some way. Aww, how she hates doing that kind of stuff. Catherine tries to look interested as she turns to Jack. "Yes?..."

But Jack doesn't get to respond. Michelle's voice prevents that.

"I got it! Kelly Simmons."

Michelle begins reading the information in the file while Jack and Tony are approaching her desk.

"Age 32, graduated from college early, born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey..."

She scrolls through the rest of the file. "Nothing suspicious, Jack. Perfect citizen. Not even a parking ticket." She's losing faith that they'll find anything here. She looks up at Jack and Tony. "Please tell me this isn't another dead end..."

Palmer

Aaron Pierce is standing in front of a door in a beautifully decorated hall. Inside, President Palmer has just walked in for a meeting with the Secretary of Defense, Stephen Brooks.

"Thank you for finding the time to meet with me, Mr. President."

"Of course. National Security is one of our top priorities nowadays." Palmer smiles. "It should be." In the back of his head, Sherry. Yes, she is one of his top priorities today, too.

the military compound

"This is Lieutenant Bryan. Put me through to Commander Daniels... I'll hold."

"Daniels."

"Commander. This is Lt. Bryan, Miramar Naval Air Station San Diego. We have a situation."

"What kind of situation?"

"Tresspassers. One dead, one in custody."

There is silence on the other end for just a moment. "Alright, I'll send someone over to interrogate him."

"Er... Sir. It's a woman."

"Woman, eh?... Fine, then I'll send someone to interrogate her ."

The mockery in Commander Daniels' voice is obvious. It doesn't escape Lt. Bryan's attention, but he can't comment on it. Instead he just says "Thank you Sir." and hangs up the phone.

CTU

"Nobody's that perfect." Tony takes a look at the information Michelle has found. "We'll start with the early college graduation. Why? What was the degree? Who were her classmates? Let's also see what led her to that college. Where she was born, where she has lived, that sort of thing. How soon can we get a bio worked up?" He's looking around for answers.

"Um...usually takes half an hour or so depending on the starting info." Andre shrugs his shoulders while talking. His guess is based on what he has encountered but others might work faster.

"Sorry to interrupt." Lisa is speaking softly, the pictures covered with a CTU file folder, "Can I borrow Jack for one minute?"

hospital

The two guys pull up infont of the hospital entrance. They're still wearing the uniforms. They walk inside and look around. No trace of Kim. Not at first glance, at least.

"Think we should ask around?"

"And draw their attention? No. I've got a better idea. Come on."

They go over to the security guard standing at the door. "Excuse me sir. This is an emergency. We need to view the security camera footage."

"What's this about?", the guard is visibly concerned.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that sir. It is important that we view those tapes now."

"Er... okay." He glances around, the place is quiet. It's not like anyone would miss him if he disappeared for a minute of two. "I'll take you. Let's go."

CTU

Jack glances at Lisa. He can feel it's about Kim. She wouldn't be looking at him that way if it weren't.

"Michelle, pull up Codis' file and start cross-checking it with Kelly's. I have a feeling about this. Andre, get going on the bios. Catherine, start sorting the projects list according to the potential of use in a terrorist act. And we still don't know what Annabelle Peterson means. I'll be right back."

Jack walks up to Lisa and takes her by the arm, leading her away from the rest of the staff.

Catherine is not thrilled by this assignment. "Michelle, if these projects were abandonned, why does he want me to treat them as a threat?"

Michelle can't believe her ears. This is the Counter Terrorist Unit and this girl still doesn't understand what they're here for. "Because they could have been continued, Catherine. In secret. And that's exactly the kind of projects we are looking for, okay?"

"Fine." Catherine nods, but rolls her eyes.

"Cath... Get someone to help you on that."

"No, it's okay. I can do it."

"Maybe so. But it will take ages. And we need results, now. Get help."

Catherine sighs. Here we go again. One step closer to being fired. She picks up the phone to call for help. While she waits, she glances up to George's office.

In an empty corridor, Jack and Lisa stop.

"Did you find Kim?"

Jack is prepared for the worst.

08:59:57 --- 08:59:58 --- 08:59:59 --- 09:00:00