A/N: A little something that got stuck in my head and demanded to be written. As far as I can tell, it's different from any other post-S4 story, which is why I had to write it. I couldn't read it:) For those of you reading my other story, Complications, this is why I haven't finished it, yet. This takes place after Season 4 and, I'm assuming, will become AU once Season 5 begins (in just 5 days, yeah!). Please read and review. Thanks.
She could go places. She could smile and bat her eyelashes and plead her way into places she had no right being. Occasionally, she would use the toddler and beg to use the ladies room before the little girl who was barely potty-trained had had an accident. Then, her innocence and youth would keep her from suspicion.Security guards when questioned about unauthorized entrances wouldn't even recall her trespass.
She had started with notes, but they didn't yield the desired results. There were so many personal threats against politicians on a daily basis. It was hard to garner attention in that arena. Although she knew that her notes weren't just lost in the masses. She knew they stood out because of the places she was able to leave them. That, and the flowing, girlish handwriting that graced the pages. No cut and paste, ugly, black letters for her. She usually chose to spray them with perfume like a love letter and dot her I's with flowers and end the occasional sentence with a happy face. She knew they thought she was crazy. Maybe she was. But she knew they didn't take her seriously and that was their mistake.
"You think you've made sacrifices to get to where you are, but what about the men that made the sacrifices for you. Where are they now? Where did those sacrifices get them?"
She had felt sorry for Tony at first and then had been happy to see him get his life back together. The happiness was soon replaced with resentment as he was promoted up the ladder in the corporate worldas quickly as he had been at CTU. How many lives had he sacrificed in his career? Why did he deserve a happy ending when so many others just got an ending?
"How many unknown soldiers were sacrificed to give you the life you lead now? How many American's sworn to protect and serve their country above all else? How many of the men that you lead now know that you chose you're wife's life over the lives of their wives and children and families? Have you learned your lesson? You will soon have the chance to prove that you have."
It was "former" President Palmer that irked her the most. She knew more than she should know about his role in the nation's recent events. She knew more than she should about the choices he had made, especially the ones he made when he didn't really have the right to make them. Most of the nation respected him as a great leader, but would never know the truth of his past.
"Do you sleep well knowing that there are men that you sent to death's door while you stand on the podium, claiming your victory against evil? Do you think about the injustices you caused trying to right the injustices you found? Do two wrongs make a right? It seems to be that way in your world. You've committed a wrong. I will make it right."
President Logan's threats never made it to his desk until she found the desk of the man responsible for his upcoming election campaign.
"How long do you think you will fool the people of this great nation? Do you really believe that you can make them believe in you for four more years? How will the voters feel when they find out that their leader hid behind their former leader during the nation's last greatest crisis? How will they feel knowing that that man will not be there for you to hide behind for the next one? They will know about the wrongs you have committed. They will know about the mistakes you have made. They will know about the lives you sacrificed. Then you will be sacrificed or you will sacrifice them."
The pregnancy slowed her down initially, but then helped her cause. It became even easier to get to the places that she needed to go. But, it also escalated her timeline. She needed to finish the game she had begun before the baby came. She didn't want it to end. The feelings of bitterness, resentment, and anger had become her constant companions. Her revenge would leave her alone again.
Her last note had made it to a terrorist watch list. She hadn't expected it because she hadn't believed that the President would risk to the damage to his reputation by reporting it. She hadn't believed that he would place the lives of the people above his chance to rule them.
Her next note almost did her in. It had been delivered too soon and into the hands of the very people who could make the most use of it. It was linked almost immediately to her previous one and the CTU machine was set in motion.
"You will face something you've faced before. As in the past, you will find yourselves one step behind. The great men you've sacrificed are no longer there to lead you and their loss will be felt immensely. But this time, your own lives are at stake. This time when you fail, you will fail yourselves. And as that moment arrives, ask yourselves, was it worth it?"
As she neared the end of her plan, she knew she would have to make some sacrifices herself. She wanted to ensure that everyone knew why she was doing what she was doing. She didn't want them to think thatthis was just another act of terrorism. She wanted them to see the reasons behind her actions; the justice in her words. She owed him that much.
Her sacrifice would be her freedom. She wouldn't sacrifice her life. She would live to do her penance; she would live to give her baby life; she would live so people would remember and maybe then, they would learn.
It had been easy to get into CTU; she wandered the halls freely, displaying her visitor's pass. Why they believed she would ever want to visit, she would never know. There weren't any fond memories for her there. The note landed on Director Manning's desk before she had even left the building.
"Once again, you were too trusting of those you allowed in your ranks. Once again, you will find that you were betrayed from within. For an agency that deals in suspicions, you seem to completely lack suspicion.
"The President will hold a news conference within one hour. He will announce to the people his complete inadequacy in office and his complete inability to make decisions in times of crisis. He will tell the people of the hard choices that he left in the hands of former President Palmer. He will tell them how one of those choices resulted in the death of Jack Bauer, a man who did nothing but devote his entire life to the welfare of this nation and its people. On behalf of the nation, he will apologize for this betrayal and for his own failings as a leader.
"If this doesn't happen within the hour, there are three vials of the Cordelia virus ready to be distributed on my command. I'll admit, not very creative, by why waste time trying to reinvent the wheel? One of these vials is within this building and will automatically detonate after the hour is up. The remote I possess is the only way to prevent this from happening. Jack Bauer was a great man, a great leader and deserved better treatment than he received while within these walls. The betrayal of this facility is as significant as was the betrayal of this country. You're opportunity to rectify this is here. Make of it what you will."
She had signed this last note "Avenging Angel". It sounded poetic and he had always called her his angel when she was young. She was just driving out of the parking lot when the lockdown horns began to sound.
She sat in the hotel room she had rented just for this day. The TV played silently before her while tears streamed down her face. She tried not to regret her decisions. She tried not to regret her actions. She tried to focus her thoughts on him to find the justifications and anger again.
Instead, she found his questions and accusations. He had spent his whole life preventing the very thing she was trying to do. He had risked his life time and again for the very lives that she was risking now. She wasn't as certain as she had been that this was the way to honour his memory.
She watched as the daytime soap opera's continued to play out their dramas with no indications of interruption. She glanced at the remote for the timer on the vial at CTU. Dismissing her hesitation, she tried to refocus, searching for the anger that had brought her to this moment. She had seven minutes before making her choice.
The pounding on the door startled her and she jumped to the table that held both her gun and the remote. Shakily, she braced herself for the onslaught that she knew would come.
"Kim!" Chase's voice called to her through the door. "Kim, let me in!"
She stood frozen before the table, her trembling, right hand held the gun raised to the doorway, her left held the remote tightly at her side.
"Kim, I'm coming in. Don't do anything, I'm just opening the door, okay?" Chase's voice soothed her briefly. The sight of him in the doorway with his gun reversed the effect.
"Don't come any closer, Chase!" She felt the tears flowing freely down her cheeks and heard the sobbing of her voice. She didn't know if she was crying because he had found her or because he hadn't found her sooner.
"Why didn't they do what I told them to do? Why couldn't they just admit what they had done? Why are they making me do this to them? Now, I have no choice."
She moved to the window of the hotel, intent on tossing the remote from the window, throwing the decision from her hands as well.
"Kim, wait! You do have a choice. Please, Kim. Just put down the gun and I'll explain."
She watched the gun waver slightly in her hand. Dismayed, she tried to work the latch on the window with the hand that still held the remote.
"I didn't want to go through with it, Chase, but they gave me no choice. All I wanted was for everyone to know. All I wanted was for those people to sacrifice even a portion of what my Dad had to do. I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just wanted them to understand. I grew up without him, but that was okay because I knew that what he was doing was important. Because I knew that he was important. They killed him without a backward glance. It's not fair, Chase, it's not fair!"
She had given up on the window and sunk to her knees. As she broke down, the gun dipped, no longer pointing at him. Chase seized the opportunity and pulled the gun from her hand. He wrapped his arms around her as she sobbed into his shoulder.
"Shh, Kim, it's okay," he murmured into her hair. "Please just give me the remote."
His fingers loosened her grip on the remote and he handed it to the agent that had followed him into the room. The voice in his ear confirmed that the detonation had been prevented.
"Okay, sweetheart, where are the other vials? I know you don't want this to happen, just tell me where they are."
"There aren't any others," she admitted quietly. "I just used that for a distraction. I didn't really want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to stop hurting."
"I know, sweetheart, I know."
They didn't tell her that he was still alive for two more days. They didn't let her seem him for another week. They wanted to make sure that she was telling the truth about the vials. They wanted to know about her connections. They wanted to know about her accomplices. When she finally faced him, she wished she had died. She couldn't bear the pain clearly evident across his face; the pain she had caused and the pain for what he had caused her. The Avenging Angel had gotten her revenge, but in the end, it was against the wrong man.
A/N: The end. Please let me know what you thought. I promise I will reply and won't be offended.