I apologize for the split, but some parts are just too long. Plus, more updates for you.

Now, where were we...

Part 1 II

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Nick closed the door behind him and took a few steps to sit down on one of the chairs, glancing through the mirror first and then letting his gaze wander to the close-up on the monitor.

"So? What do you think?"

He stared at her for a long moment before he turned to his superior.

"I think psychology alone won't get us anywhere. She knows the game, all the moves. She knew exactly what I was doing."

As expected, his new boss took it without batting an eyelid. He didn't know him too well yet, after all, he wasn't supposed to start working until next week. They had called him in a few hours ago, but he already had a pretty good idea about what kind of person Ryan Chappelle was. And he wasn't as tough as he made everyone believe. Then again – who was?

"So your recommendation would be?"

Well, maybe she is, he thought to himself, looking at the screen again.

"How fast do you need her to talk?"

"The sooner we find out what she knows the better, but we can't see an acute threat at this point. However, we need to know her contacts, what kind of intel she has, so we can be sure who she's working for."

He nodded and contemplated the options.

"Well, I think it's safe to assume that it's not Drazen."

"Why?" Chappelle asked.

"He's dead, and so are his sons if I didn't miss anything in this report." He lifted the file in front of him and let it drop back on the table. "My guess is she's not talking because she believes whoever she works for will come after her. So it has to be someone who's still very much alive."

"And powerful enough to get to her while she's in our custody?"

He heard the skepticism in Chappelle's voice.

"Doesn't matter," he replied. "As long as she believes it, she won't talk. Unless you go all the way."

"I understand." Chappelle got up. "Well, we've got some time left before she's going to be sentenced."

"What do you think it'll be?" he asked, still not taking his eyes off the monitor.

"That's for others to decide and I won't speculate about it."

He felt Chappelle moving to turn around and stopped him.

"She worked for you, didn't she?"

Chappelle gave him a disapproving look, as if he was offended that he dared to ask his superior such a question. But then his eyes wandered off to the mirror as well and he stared through it for a few seconds.

"Yes."

If anyone had told you this was gonna happen, would you have believed it? The question was on Nick's mind, but he got his answer when he saw the expression on Chappelle's face.

"Anything else?" his superior asked curtly.

Nick hesitated for a second.

"If you want her to talk, you'll have to scare her. Properly. And as far as I could see, there's only one thing she's afraid of."

"And what's that?"

"Jack Bauer."

Chappelle sneered. "She killed his wife, and from what I heard from George Mason, Bauer was already close to killing her before he was aware of that detail. I would be afraid too if I was her."

It was silent for a moment.

"Use it," Nick suggested and leaned back in his chair, folding his hands behind his head.

"What?" Chappelle asked as if to make sure he had understood him correctly.

"Use it," he repeated. "Don't let him kill her but make her believe he will."

"Sure. There's only one problem. I know Bauer too. You obviously don't. The man's not exactly easy to control. If we let him in here, she's dead for real. And that's not what we want."

He didn't object. Chappelle was right. He didn't know Bauer. Reading through the file and looking into the events of the day, he had concentrated on Nina Myers.

"You want to try again?"

Nick shook his head. "No. Let her get some rest. Think about it. Probaby won't change her mind but you never know."

Chappelle nodded and went for the door, but the handle was pressed down before he could reach it.

"Ryan," a woman said as she entered, looking at Chappelle first and then at Nick. Another new face.

"Alberta," Chappelle replied without enthusiasm. "What can I do for you?" What can I do to get you out of my face, was more what it sounded like.

"I want to talk to her."

Nick examined her quickly. There was something about her that made him want to get up, click his heals, and salute. She seemed determined and intent on getting things her way. He let his gaze wander to Chappelle, a bit curious to see his reaction. But his superior just glanced at his wristwatch and seemed to shrug his shoulders.

"Fine. Nick here did the profiling," he said with a nod in his direction. "Work with him."

"I don't think I'll need a profile," she objected coldly, and Nick tried to remember at what point he had come across her name in the file on his table.

Right. She had been called in some time around noon, replacing Bauer while he had been on the run. As acting head of CTU, she had been Nina Myers superior for a few hours.

"Work with him," Chappelle insisted tiredly and turned his head around. "It's your call, Nick."

He nodded and watched his superior walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Feeling Alberta Green staring at him, he met her eyes. Her turn to examine him, looking him up and down frankly, obviously trying to figure out if Chappelle really had that much faith in him or was just putting an obstacle in her way.

"Just so we are clear: I don't think you can tell me anything about Nina Myers that I don't already know. But I'm willing to let you try."

Her voice was low and just a bit gravelly, her pronunciation clear and exact. If there hadn't been this touch of arrogance and self-assertion, he would have liked it.

He gave her a heads-up anyway, and she listened without interrupting, not making any remarks. Only when he was finished did she state her own assessment. He dismissed it, but it would be interesting to watch the woman next door hearing it.

"You worked with her?" he asked pointedly.

"Correct."

She left it at that, not giving any further explanations but he didn't need anything else. There was some history between the two women, and something told him the recent clash about Jack Bauer's whereabouts hadn't been their first one.

"Well, she's all yours then. I'll watch if you don't mind." It wasn't a question of course.

"Go ahead," Green replied icily and walked to the door that led to the interrogation room. He focused on the monitor and smiled. He doubted that she would get any substantial results but maybe she would succeed where he had failed and get her adversary to finally break her silence. It was worth a shot, and it was worth staying around to watch. Maybe Green would trigger a reaction in Myers and that way give him something he could use. He couldn't claim that he had learnt much from talking to her that he hadn't already known from studying the files, but if Green could accomplish what he hadn't been able to pull off, he wouldn't mind at all.

Leaning forward in his chair, Nick focused his attention on the monitor showing the small woman in her chair. Maybe he wasn't done with her just yet.

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The sound of the door startled her and Nina looked up. She didn't even try to hide her surprise when she saw Alberta Green walk in. You gotta be joking, she thought. This is who you think can break me? She smiled and straightened up in her chair, feeling some of her strength coming back to her. This could be interesting.

Alberta took her seat across the table, eyeing her with the usual expression on her face. Just a bit too self-assured, a bit too arrogant. Alberta was working hard and she did a good job most of the time, but she would never understand that it was her attitude that often set her back. Neither superiors nor subordinates appreciated her and for the time being there was probably no one less popular at Division than Alberta Green. Well, of course, that was about to change.

"I underestimated you, Nina. I give you that," Alberta stated after taking some time to look her up and down, displaying the hint of a condescending smile. "I didn't think you had the dignity to get over Jack, let alone the guts to stand up to him. But you turning on him - that was unexpected."

She had her legs crossed, her hands loosely folded, resting in her lap, and made the impression that she was perfectly comfortable in her position.

"From what I hear he's devastated. They couldn't get him away from his dead wife's body until his daughter showed up," she added, obviously trying to trigger a reaction. "What was her name?" It was a lame attempt.

Why are you here, Alberta? This really isn't your specialty.

"Apparently they had to sedate her."

Nina tilted her head, not paying attention to what was being said. No one at Division could seriously think that... .

Again Nina didn't bother to hide her amusement when she realized what she should have known all along. No one was expecting anything from Alberta. For whatever reason she was here, she was not important. And there was no one else to come after her.

"You find that amusing?" Alberta's eyebrows were slightly raised. "You want to tell me you don't care? Try harder, Nina."

Nina frowned, still a bit amused. She had an idea this was about to become entertaining.

"You may have fooled everybody else with this charade, but not me. As I had already told you: I can detect BS. And this has BS written all over it."

Nina allowed herself to break into a smile, turning her head and letting her gaze wander around, resting it on the mirror for a second. She wondered who was watching her, watching Alberta, listening to what she was so eager to share.

"You want to tell me this whole letting-Jack-screw-you-while-he-was-bored-with-his-wife was just a part of the plan? All the times you put your job on the line while covering for him, the way you successfully ruined your own reputation, the office-flirting, the rebound-thing with Tony – everything just an act, just to deepen your cover? Come on, Nina, how credible or how likely is that? What would have happened if you had really lost your position? If Tony had talked before Jack called in?" Alberta smiled widely. "I don't think your 'employer' would have appreciated that."

Just the way she emphasized the word 'employer' was enough to tell Nina where Alberta was going with this. If it hadn't been obvious enough already. She considered playing along, just for the satisfaction of fooling Alberta one more time. But it wasn't worth the risk.

And she had to admit a part of her didn't want to give Alberta the satisfaction of thinking she was right. She knew she shouldn't care but she was only human.

Human. Indifferent to human life.

"So why would you take all those risks if it wasn't indeed for Jack," Alberta continued. "For your naïve belief in that man. I've always agreed with George: what did you see in him?"

Alberta. Interesting enough you and George have been discussing this.

"But I guess you woke up one day wondering that yourself. And I would imagine it was a painful realization. What you let him do to you. Actually it's quite understandable that you wanted some payback."

Trying to sympathize, Alberta? Are we talking woman-to-woman now? Reassuring me I'm just a victim who fought back and went too far? Nina couldn't hold back the smile even if she had wanted to. You want to use psychology on me? She shook her head inwardly.

"I guess he paid all he could. I hear he claims his wife was pregnant. Did you know that?"

This was it. This was the moment she had to act if she wanted to play Alberta. All it would take was showing a hint of an emotion, act a little surprised and in shock or guilty. Not too openly, it had to look like she was trying to hide it. Again she felt the temptation, embracing the distraction from the core of the issue, but again she reminded herself that it wasn't worth the trouble it could cause. She remained indifferent.

Alberta leaned forward, placing her hands on the table, obviously disappointed over the lack of response on Nina's part.

"You can act cool all you want, Nina. Maybe you can fool those so-called experts with your little performance but I know you better than that and I can tell a lie when I see one. This wasn't about some ominous employer or you being a deep-undercover mole."

Nina smiled but closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the thought that had just crossed her mind. But it was getting harder again to concentrate. Careful. Something about Alberta's words had alarmed her.

"This was about Jack rejecting you and going back to his wife. At some point it was too much for you to put up with anymore, and when the Drazens made their offer you accepted, seeing a chance for payback. You wanted Jack to suffer, and I would say you've done that pretty well. And now you're seeing a chance to get off, thinking if you can make the right people believe there is someone behind all this, you can get away with it. Or maybe you're simply embarrassed about your real motives."

Still keeping her eyes closed and the sneer on her face, Nina reconsidered. Either Alberta really believed all this or… She could only hope no one would be convinced by this argument. Otherwise, she would be in trouble. She couldn't confirm that there really was someone behind her any more than she already had, but she needed them to assume there was for obvious reasons.

Looking up again, she tried to fathom if Alberta was using this fact against her. Did I underestimate you?

"I'm not sure you've thought this through, Nina, so let me help you to see things clearly." Emphasizing her words with a little gesture, Alberta leaned forward. "You're not doing yourself a favor by making things look worse than they are. You're in deep trouble enough as it is. You will be charged with murder and treason, and trust me – this is not going to be a carrots and sticks game. You're not going to get anything out of this. I'll personally see to that."

Don't underestimate my influence, Nina almost expected her to say, just like she had told her once, a couple of years ago.

"Although I don't think I'll even bother. Eventually everybody will see this for what it really is."

She still didn't know what to think. Was Alberta simply not able to admit that she had been wrong about her? That she had been fooled just like everybody else? Should, could she be that unprofessional about the whole thing? Or was she actually trying to play her, to turn the tables on her, and make her reveal more than she intended to. Not that she would. She wasn't worried enough. But she was curious.

Now she tilted her head and had a remark on her lips. But she still didn't want to start talking and - most of all - she didn't want to reward Alberta like that. It would be an insult to all her other interrogators and to herself to break her silence now of all times.

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Nick folded his hands behind his head and sank back in his chair.

From what he could tell Nina Myers was everything but a nutcase. She hadn't freaked out about an affair with her boss, she hadn't killed and betrayed because she was heartbroken. But there were some things about her he couldn't piece together. Not yet.

He opened the folder in front of him and flipped through the file, preliminary reports, debriefs and statements, reading some passages again here and there. Then he put them back on the table and frowned. She indeed seemed to have taken a lot of risks to cover for her boss in the past. Nick had a hard time believing that she had done it because she was in love, but Alberta Green had a point. By risking her own position like that, Myers had either made an already dangerous game even riskier or her priority had always been to keep Jack Bauer in his position. For a long time already in that case. But why? How long had this been planned? And how long had she been part of it? If she really had been involved from the beginning, it was more likely that she was working for Drazen after all. Or that her employer was someone close to Drazen. Dammit, some things just didn't make sense.

In his statements earlier that day, Mason had been convinced that Bauer was up to something and that Myers was covering for him. Almeida had supported the first point but had been silent about the latter one. Obviously because he had been involved with Myers on a personal level. Then he had stated that she had played a crucial role in freeing Bauer's wife and daughter. But if she had been working for Drazen, why should she do that? Both Green and Mason had argued that Myers and Almeida were still in contact with Bauer and acting against direct orders, withholding information from their superiors. Almeida had denied that and still was, but what else could he do? By admitting the opposite now, he would only put himself in trouble. Bauer hadn't been debriefed yet, but Nick wondered if they would ever find out everything that had happened yesterday. Probably not, but without more information he wasn't gonna get anywhere. He couldn't do more than speculate.

Well, why bother. His job was done. He had made his evaluation and given his recommendations. Someone else would take it from here and sooner or later they would break her and find out if she really had another employer and if so, who he or she was. He was simply curious now but it would pass once he had another assignment to focus on. Nina Myers wasn't his problem anymore.