After a week and a half Jack's swollen eyes had gone back to normal, he could open them now and was strong enough to move about the house. Richard was happy to see his son healing, but what now. Jack couldnt very well go outside, he was considered dead, and Richard had no idea what happened anyways.
"I have to call Tony" He announced to his father as he came out of his room, to see Richard on the couch watching tv.
"Tony knows your alive?" Richard asked turning the tv off.
"Yes he helped me get out, I have to call him when something goes wrong" Jack stated, pulling out the phone book and looking up Tony's number.
"Who else knows?" Richard asked standing up and moving over to the opposite side of the counter, facing Jack.
"President Palmer, Chloe, and Michelle" Jack sighed heavily as he dialed Tony's number.
"Almeida." Tony was still in the habit of answering the phone like that.
"Tony, Its Jack" Jack replied. There was a silence.
"What happened?" Tony finally asked.
"My cover was blown in Rome. The chinese got to me and sent me ironically to my fathers' house after they were done." Richard heard that he was in Rome, and was mildly suprised by that.
"Your at your fathers' house now!" Tony asked almost not believeing what he was hearing.
"Yea, ive been here for a week and a half." Jack stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
"You musta nearly gave him a heart attack" Tony half joked.
"Yea i think i did..." Jack replied in a some what embrassed tone.
"What do we do now?" Jack then asked.
"Well i know President Palmer has been trying to clear your name ever since. He keeps me updated every so often, hes getting close. Hes really dedicated Jack. I think he feels guilty about what happened to you" Tony explained.
"I made my own choice...and i got the consequences" Jack sighed heavily, putting his hand his eyes.
"Yea... But ill come over now, to see how its holding up over there, and see if we need to move you or something." Tony said.
"Okay see yea then" Jack replied, then they hung up.
"Tony's coming over" Jack said to his father.
"You were in Rome?" Richard couldnt get past that.
"Yea, I went under a different name, and got a passport. That allowed me to get over to Europe. Ive been travelling around Europe ever since." Jack explained.
"How was that?" Richard asked.
"I was being chased the whole time...thats why I had to keep moving... Someone blew my cover in Paris, and finally they caught up with me in Rome" Jack sighed heavily sitting down on the bar stool, putting his head in his hands.
"Im sorry Son" Richard placed his hand on Jacks' back.
Richard answered the door. It was Tony, he arrived about 2 hours after Jack had called him. Jack had went to take a nap after he had called Tony and was still asleep.
"Let me wake him up" Richard smiled as Tony sat down on his couch. Richard went to Jacks' room and placed his hand on Jack's shoulder, bringing him around. Jack walked out into the living room where Tony was on his feet and moving towards him. Richard sat down at watched Tony hug Jack in a friendly way.
"Its good to see you" Tony smiled weakly, after he got a good look at the roughed up condition Jack was in.
"Likewise" Jack replied as Tony sat down on the couch and himself the chair opposite of the couch.
Jack then proceeded to explain what happened between when Tony dropped him off outside of CTU until now. This took 2 hours, literally, and Jack wasnt even going into details. Richard and Tony basically remained silent through the explanation. Then after Richard realized something.
"Kristine is coming back tonight..." He said aloud, kind of randomly.
"Kristine?" Jack asked.
"Whos Kristine?" Tony asked.
"Shes Carols' daughter. She was at camp fo the last month. Shes coming back tonight" Richard explained.
"Where's Carol?" Jack asked. Richard looked to him, not wanting to explain to him that his sister had died 2 months ago.
"Shes...dead Jack" Richard sighed heavily.
"What? how" Jack asked instantly.
"there was a car accident 2 months ago, a drunk driver slammed into the drivers' side of her car. She died in the ER. Kristine survived though, she is partically paralyzed in the left leg, but other then that shes okay. She lives with me now" Richard explained. Jack looked as if he were to cry, he and Carol were very close. He was very protective of her, and she was the same to him.
"Im sorry Jack" Tony sighed heavily, thinking this would be a good time for him to leave. He got up and said good bye to the men and exitted the house quietly.
That night...
"Grandpa!" Kristine dropped her backpack at the door after closing it behind her.
"Kristi!" Richard smiled walking up to her, he wanted to tell her about Jack before she went into the living room where he was and found out about it herself.
"I had such a good time!" Kristi hugged him with one arm as the other was in the slot of the cane she had especially made for her and it braced around her forearm.
"Glad to here it sweetie, now I have something to tell you" Richard said pulling her back to look her in the face. Kristi just turned 13, and she was a very intelligent girl, she was remarkably like her mother. Richard loved that and hated it at the same time, seeing his daughter in his granddaughter all the time.
"Uncle Jack is here" Richard announced bluntly.
"Uncle Jack is dead, Grandpa. Remember? We went to his funeral" Kristi wasnt exactly getting it.
"Hes not dead, Kristi, the government faked his death to save his life." Richard said. Kristi started to cry then, she had taken that very hard. She and Jack were very close, almost closer then he was with Carol, if that were possible.
"Thats impossible" she said through her silent tears.
"Hes in the living room, see for yourself" Richard said, moving out of the way. Kristi hobbled into the living room to stop dead infront of Jack, gawking in astonishment.
"Uncle Jack!" She cried as she flung herself into Jacks' arms.
"Hey Kristi..." He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back.
"I missed you so much!" She said continueing to hug him, not wanting to let go.
"I missed you too" He said kissing her on the forehead as he did everytime he saw her before this all happened. She pulled back and looked at him, tears of joy streaming down her face.
"Are you here to stay?" She asked.
"For now..." Kristi's eyes light up like they did when he last saw her, she was so happy.
Jack and Kristi were sitting on the couch, and Richard was sitting on the recliner. They were all infront of the tv, watching the Ring 2.
"No way Deer wouldn't do that!" Kristi shouted at the tv.
"They dont even look real" Richard commented.
Jack didn't say much, he just watched the movie, along with what family he had left. It was some good quality time with Kristi and his father. He hadnt had this good of time in...years even. And yet all they were doing was watching a movie. No one spoke of Carol, nor what happened to Jack or Kristi. They just were enjoying the movie, munching on popcorn, and laughing at how bad the movie was.
"Deer dont attack like that do they!" Kristi stated, looking to Jack then back to the tv.
"They eat plants, I dont think so..." Jack smiled.
"Thats what i thought, but come on seriously..." Kristi mumbled.
"You were the one that said this movie was good!" Jack poked.
"My friend said i needed to watch it!" She judisfied the picking of this movie.
"Well tell your friend she has bad taste..." Richard said looking to them.
"No duh, Grandpa" Kristi laughed.
"Well it is the funniest scary movie Ive ever seen..." Jack said as if defending the movie though he really wasnt. Kristi grabbed the remote and turned the tv off.
"I cant stand watching that whole thing!" She said looking at them.
"O good im not the only one" Jack laughed grabbing the remote from her. "lets see if theres a hockey game on" He suggested as he flipped the channels.
"Hockey! YES!" Kristi always loved hockey, she had played before the crash but now she could only watch.
"Alright kids...Im going to go make some dinner for us" Richard announced standing up and going to the kitchen, leaving Jack and Kristi some uncle/niece time.
Jack found a hockey game finally. San Jose's Sharks verses the Minnesota Wild. It was the 3rd period. The Wild were up 3 to 0.
"The Wild have a good team this year" Kristi commented.
"How are the sharks this year?" Jack asked.
"They are 0-3 right now" Kristi sighed.
"And The Wild?" Jack asked again, knowing full well Kristi was the one to ask for current Hockey statistics.
"4-1" She smiled.
"thats minnesota for yea..." Jack knew the Minnesota team always did well, ever since they got one back again in 2000.
"what do you expect...they are on the border with Canada!" Kristi remarked.
"True..." Jack smiled.
They watched the game, shouting at the tv from time to time, cheering for a team in their state of california, but was getting half ticked off with the wild kicking their asses. The end of the period and game, the wild had scored 2 more times on the sharks, for an end score of 5 to 0. A shut out for the wild.
"They are good this year" Jack said clearly impressed.
"I told yea" Kristi said in a matter of fact tone.
"Dinners ready!" Richard then shouted from the kitchen.
Three days had passed since Kristi came. Richard was out getting more groceries, and other stuff. Now there were three of them, instead of him and Kristi. Which was good, the more the marrier, he shrugged it off. Money was never a problem with the bauer family. Richard had retired a very decorated officer, and also won a lawsuit, sueing against one of the food companies. He sighed heavily at the memory, poor 14 year old Carol had to spend a month in the hostipal for that.
Kristi was just eating some cereal with Jack at the house when there was a knocking on the door. Jack was about to get up anyways so he went to answer the door. Kristi shrugged it off, completely not remembering what day it was until Jack answered the door. He opened the door, and just stood there for a second in aw at the woman before him with a little boy at her side. There was a long erie silence, before Kristi realized who it was without even looking. She half mentally kicked herself standing up and moving over to Jack quickly.
"Jack!" The woman stuttered half. The boy standing next to her looked up at his mother, in half wonder.
"Nat" Jack replied, both were just kind of staring at each other. Kristi came up behind Jack then.
"Hey Nat" She greeted her.
"Kristi!" The boy squealed finally seeing Kristi and running towards her basically.
"Hey kristi, could you take Matthew off for awhile, I need to speak with Jack alone" Nat told Kristi. Kristi nodded politely and took Matthews' hand and lead him off into her room. Jack didnt even look at the boy, he was still in shock that Nat was standing on his father's house's doorstep.
"Can I come in?" Nat asked, she had obviously regained some control of the shock. This brought Jack back some.
"Uhh. Yea of course" He stuttered halfly, moving out of the way, letting Nat come in. Jack noticed she hadnt changed a bit, since he remembered seeing her last.
"You look great" Jack commented as they went into the living room and sat down.
"You dont look bad either..." Nat smiled weakly, though through her eyes he did look aweful, at least since the last time she saw him.
"so you are a mother now? Thats great" Jack commented, he was aware of the boy, partically, but didnt give him a decent look-over.
"Yea, Matthew is good, like his father" Nat continued to smile weakly.
"O thats good, so who's the Father?" Jack always talked to her like a close friend, though they hadnt spoke for 5 years now. They had gone out when him and Teri were separated, before Nina, but had to break up because Nat was moving to New York for a few years.
There was a long silence.
"You." Nat said, trying to read Jack's reaction. Jack had nearly stopped breathing.
"Hes going to be 5 years in a couple of weeks" Nat added. Jack was back in his shell-shock state.