A/N I'm going to skip around a bit. Obviously, this is going to go AU, and I'm a huge Jack/Nina fan, so this is Jack/Nina based. Also, if I didn't mention already, I don't own any of these characters. However, I could kill the people who own them for making Nina the bad guy.

To Mrs. AveryGrint: thanks for reviewing! I love your Untitled story, so keep up the good work!

Well, onward with the story.

"But Kim are you sure you don't know where Rick is?"

"What I'm sure of is that he helped us escape."

Teri walked in watching he daughter defend her friend from CTU. It made her hate Nina even more. She went to the kitchen to wash her glass… and return Nina's cellphone.

"Well, Kim I think we should take a break. Teri you want to finish up?"

"Sure."

zzzzz

Well this was going to be fun. Finishing the debrief with Teri. Now that Teri knew about her and Jack, this was going to be a blast. As she asked questions she could tell Teri didn't want to do this either. But what pushed Nina over the edge was:

"It must be hard focusing on your job when you're screwing your boss."

It was that moment that she couldn't take it. "Look, Teri, I'm sorry that Jack didn't tell you and I'm sorry you had to find out but this clearly isn't working. I'll let Paulson finish in here and I think it would be best if I left, OK? Also, tell Kim that her dad says "Hi", he called here when you guys were asleep."

"Sure, Nina. Would you tell Jack I need to speak to him privately in person very soon?"

"Of course Teri."

And with that, she literally ran out of the house and drove off ready to cry. Didn't she understand? He had shot her today. For her. He would have chosen Teri over her. It hurt so much, she felt like she was breaking. But as usual work came first.

She parked in the garage and went up to CTU to see Jack running around. She hoped he would say thank you for all that she'd done, but instead she got: "What are you doing here? I specifically asked you to watch Teri and Kim so that they feel safe."

She felt like crying. Didn't he get that this was hard for her too? She couldn't tell him what had happened, so she said what she hoped he'd buy. "Paulson was finishing the debrief, Teri and Kim were doing fine so I saw no reason to stay and thought I'd be of better use here." She could tell he didn't believe her, but they had to start working on the situation with Andre Drazen and his muse who worked for Palmer, Elizabeth Nash.

zzzzz

Why wasn't she talking to him? He didn't get it. They'd been working together for nearly 7 years and she was always his second-in-command. They had always talked about everything. Even the little things. They had kept a lot of things away from each other because of privacy, but something happened at the SafeHouse and it wasn't private if it involved Teri, Kim, and Nina. Especially Teri. They'd been back together for only 2 months after being separated for 6. It was during that time he had pursued Nina on a personal level and he was so sorry he had to break it, but Teri and Kim were family. However, there was always a special in his heart for Nina, who he still loved and respected very much. If Teri hadn't been in the picture, he would have never let go, but unfortunately that wasn't an option. He needed to stay with Teri, for Kim. Kim had really been affected by the separation and he couldn't do that to her.

He'd noticed ever since they'd broken up that Nina was different. She always appeared frail and like she would break into tears. He often wondered if Tony was scaring her, for he knew they were together. He hated Tony's guts for it, but if he let it show for that reason he would never be able to keep it out of Teri's gaze. He started the van and drove himself and Nina to the hotel. It was just the two of them, and brought nightmares of their last car ride together.

zzzzz

Nina was terrified. The last time she had been in a car with Jack, he had a gun pointed at her. She felt so betrayed, because she didn't love anything more than Jack. She felt like a freshman in high school with a crush on the senior who was captain of the football team and often thought of this analogy when thinking of their relationship. Her feelings eventually caved and a tear fell out of her left eye. "Of course he will see that," she thought. She didn't want him to, but if there was one thing she knew about Jack, it was that he never missed a clue.

At the light, Jack glanced over at Nina. They'd been silent the entire ride. He noticed a tear roll down her cheek, but she was just staring ahead and didn't even acknowledge him. He knew why she was crying and that she knew he was looking at her, but Jack felt so horrible as the light turned green. Out of sympathy and guilt he pulled over and stopped. "Nina," he said, taking of his seatbelt to get closer to her, "I'm so sorry for what happened and you need to know that if you hadn't had the flak jacket I would have never even picked up the gun. Can't believe I was insane enough to do it and please know that I love you so much and I can never impress upon you how much you mean to me." With that he gave her a hug and kiss on the forehead as she started to cry. Jack had never seen Nina cry. And each muffled sound broke his heart.

zzzzz

"…I love you so much and I can never impress upon you how much you mean to me." This made her cry. Nina couldn't take it. The stress just broke her. She didn't know what to do anymore. It killed her. She embraced his hug and they sat there for what seemed an eternity when she broke it and said, "I think we might be late, we better get on the road." And with that they continued on to the hotel, but what most didn't observe, was his right hand in her left.