Author's note: This idea just came to me. Lyrics are from Nine Inch Nails – Non-Entity. Characters from FOX's 24.

Warnings: This is going to be a dark story, in parts. Self-mutilation and a few short descriptions of rape are contained within. This is NOT gratuitous and is integral to the plot and Mandy's back story.

I'm going to be taking liberties later on with Mandy's past and information that runs the same gamut. Hope that's ok with you guys.

Summary: Mandy resurfaces, but she's not the same as she once was. When Jack goes to investigate, he finds a broken, troubled woman looking for a second chance. The pairing is going to be Mandy/Jack and maybe Mandy/Jack/Chloe, although I'm not sure how I'll accomplish this. Any ideas are appreciated. And without further delay…

CTU, Los Angeles

9:00am

Jack Bauer sat at his desk, going over the morning's intelligence reports sent over by CIA liaisons operating out of an innocuous office building in downtown Los Angeles. He sipped his coffee as his eyes pored over the pages and pages of data taken from operatives in London, Berlin, Serbia, Darpur, and many other places around the globe. He set his mug down and loosened his tie, settling back in his chair fully intending to read until lunch.

Buchanan, who had been reinstated after the President Logan situation had been resolved, stood outside his office on the ground floor, talking with Chloe, who shuffled off to her work station. Jack glanced up briefly to watch the interaction, smiling slightly in amusement at Chloe's eternal scowl and furrowed brow. Buchanan started towards the stairs leading up to his own office when an agent rushed across the floor to speak animatedly with Buchanan for several seconds before he picked up the phone. Jack watched Bill's face change from confusion to shock as the unheard conversation went on. Bill placed the phone back in its cradle and, glancing around the room briefly, moved purposefully toward Jack's office. Jack slowly set the forgotten reports down on the table and stood, waiting for Buchanan to enter.

What's today's crisis? Nukes? Dirty bombs? Nerve gas? Maybe someone in New York decided to set loose a little sarin in the subway system… These thoughts flew through Jack's head as the door opened quickly and then shut solidly behind Buchanan.

"Jack, Boston's FBI office was doing routine scans of local institutions, hospitals, prisons, the usual, for any 'persons of interest' that could possibly be in the area," Bill started.

"Sounds like the FBI is having a slow day. How does this pertain to us?" Jack questioned.

"Well…they found a particular 'person of interest' that you might be…well, interested in," Bill said slowly.

"Ok...," Jack said uncertainly, "Who is this person?"

"Her name is Miranda Stapleton, known by you as 'Mandy'…the mercenary…ringing a bell yet, Jack?" Bill said as he sat down in a chair across from Jack's desk. Jack stayed motionless for a few seconds as his jaw set tightly before moving behind his desk to sit down.

"Yeah, Bill, that rings some bells, to the tone of she kidnapped and beat Tony, after having part in creating a nice little shit storm for us to deal with. She also attempted to assassinate President Palmer. You know all of this. So what's the situation with her?" Jack calmly questioned, an air of detached indifference sliding over his face.

"She's in Danvers State Mental Institution, Jack, just outside of Boston. She suffered some kind of complete emotional and mental breakdown," Bill said before quickly holding up his hand to silence questions from Jack he knew would be coming, "Yes, I know Jack. How is this our business? Well, she received a Presidential Pardon, so she's not actually wanted for any legal transgressions that we know of--"

"Yeah...that we know of," Jack interrupted, letting his detached air slip to scowl deeply.

"--however," Bill said, pointedly looking at Jack before continuing, "the Boston FBI Field Office cross checked all records they were sifting through with the databases of a number of other agencies. NSA and CIA were all checked, along with CTU's national records. Apparently, the alias 'Mandy' brought up a flagged report filed here right after the Marwan incident. It was filed discreetly and sent out to all the law enforcement systems in the country. The report was filed by Tony Almeida, Jack."

Jack thought for a moment as to why his now dead friend would have done something like that. He came up with one reason almost immediately.

"Mandy roughed Tony up pretty bad. He could have filed a report in order to be notified if she was picked up anywhere so he could maybe exact revenge? Tony could hold a bit of a grudge. It's hard to say without having Tony here to actually ask him," Jack said, his voice becoming softer and more uncomfortable at the mention of his friend's death. Buchanan looked at the ground for a second before moving his eyes back up to Jack's.

"That sounds like it could be possible, but we can't be one hundred percent sure. Regardless, we could just let her sit there for the rest of her life, however…the FBI made some calls to her doctor at Danvers and found out she's been repeatedly mentioning 'CTU' and 'Jack Bauer'. Furthermore, she doesn't seem to be overly violent, just completely out of it and often in a state of psychosis. They thought that CTU and you were a figment of her imagination until the FBI called. Point is, I think you should go out to Boston and handle this," Buchanan finished.

Jack thought about this. She's capable of some really malicious shit, but she's in custody now, in a psychotic state. And surely the FBI sent someone to secure the area until CTU could decide how to act…and it was here that Jack's thoughts trailed off.

"The FBI has her secured for the time being, but we should probably move on this. It's been quiet lately, this is an opportunity to get out into the field, no matter how mundane it would be," Bill said, simultaneously easing his concerns about safety and convincing him that a trip to Boston might do him some good. He thought for a few more seconds before looking at Buchanan and nodding.

"I thought so, Jack. The flight is booked. You leave out of LAX in," he paused to check his watch, "…40 minutes. Keep in touch with us to update on your progress. The Danvers Administration is expecting you. Is there anything else you need?"

"Yeah, if the need arises, Chloe will have to be attached to me. Other than that, I think I'll be fine," Jack said, standing and grabbing his coat. He still had to return to his utilitarian apartment to pack a bag and some other essentials before catching his flight. As he left CTU, he walked past Chloe and smiled at her, running his hand up her arm to squeeze her shoulder as he moved past her and out the doors.

Danvers State Mental Institution, outside of Boston

3:15 pm

"She's spent most of her time isolated from the general population. Because of psychotic outbursts – screaming, throwing things, the like – she has spent most of her time sedated on chlorodiazipoxide…sorry, 'Librium' in layman's terms. Sometimes she gets incredibly violent--" Dr. Swofford was saying being Jack interrupted.

"How badly did she hurt the victims?" Jack asked, his jaw setting tighter and his hands balling into fists.

"No, no, you've got it wrong, Agent Bauer. She's only destroyed her cell and self-mutilated. Last week, she used a spring from her mattress to gouge a six inch long, one inch deep gash into her underarm. We managed to stitch her up, of course, but for those particular violent episodes, we've used Thorazine. We…uh…we call it 'snowing' the patient. Thorazine basically puts them in a walking coma, able to move around relatively well without requiring assistance, but when it comes to eating or going to the bathroom, they need to be helped." Jack shuddered slightly, thinking of what it must be like to be dosed to the gills on Thorazine, walking around without being cognizant of what is going on in the world around you.

Jack followed the doctor as he led him up a flight of stairs and down a long hallway. The floors were tiled in white and the walls painted a pale green. The ceiling was a sort of night sky mosaic made of tiny ceramic tiles. The whole hallway smelled of disinfectant and Jack's nose tingled as he followed the doctor.

"We had to remove everything from her cell and put her on suicide watch after the first few incidents. Since then, we moved her to an isolation cell with just a bed roll to sleep on. She's not allowed sheets because we're afraid of her hanging herself and she's got a pillow made out of foam. I know, it seems sort of inhumane, but until we can get her suicidal ideation dealt with, we have to keep her like this," Dr. Swofford continued as they traveled swiftly down the hallway, approaching a cell at the end with two FBI agents posted outside. They got to the door and Jack dismissed them so he and the doctor could talk in private. Then he stepped up and looked through the window to see Miranda Stapleton, aka Mandy, the most unfeeling, callous, self-serving woman he'd ever come across.

She was wearing a thin, knee length, pale blue hospital gown and was curled up in a corner next to the reinforced window, her arms wrapped around pale, spindly legs. She was incredibly skinny, her raven black hair, now a tangled mess, standing out in sharp contrast to her pale skin. Her eyes were rimmed in pink presumably from crying, her lips a pale version of the same color, almost gray, and she looked deceptively frail. Both of her forearms were marked with self-inflicted wounds, nasty-looking, ragged gashes just starting to heal. Her right arm was slashed from the wrist vertically down, almost to the elbow and was expertly stitched closed. She was rocking back and forth slightly, singing a song Jack only half recognized.

"The sky is not the same shade of blue. Everything I believe isn't true. Missing in a maze of monochrome. How did I get here? How can I go home?" Mandy sang, her voice monotone and fragile, halting at times. The unfocused gaze of her eyes told Jack that she wasn't all there at the moment, or that she simply was deeply inside of herself. The sight of her so weak and powerless, her state so completely out of her own hands, almost elicited a strong sympathy in Jack Bauer. Almost…

"What's wrong with her, Doctor?" Jack questioned, his gaze never leaving the hunched up figure just behind the locked steel door.

"Well, she was admitted here just under a month ago, recommended for transfer here from Boston Medical Center by a Dr. Edward Charles. She walked into the hospital around four in the morning on a Sunday, her clothes torn, mumbling incoherently and using her nails to tear at her wrists. She was pretty badly beaten, and Dr. Charles managed to glean from her mumblings something about a rape. They tried to examine her, but she fought back pretty fiercely, screaming hysterically and so on. They managed to sedate her mildly and a gynecologist came to run a rape kit on her. They found massive tearing of the vaginal walls and deep-tissue damage around her cervix, with metal shavings found up in the vaginal cavity. It…appears that she was gang-raped and they used a metal pipe or something on her. Really fucking awful, if you can excuse my language. When she wasn't any more coherent after the sedatives wore off, she was transferred here and admitted. We managed to get a name out of her and through therapy sessions, which seem to help her, she provided us with more moments of lucidity. When she's had these lucid moments, she told us about her family and where she grew up. Going on that, we found out that her mother died when she was six and her father sexually abused her from age 8 until age 13, the age she was when he committed suicide. She lived with her…." Dr. Swoffword trailed off, handing Jack the file, "Well, I won't bore you with this now. Here's all the information we have on her. You're welcome to it and if you have any questions or need anything, the nurse's station is right down the hall by the stairwell we came up. She shouldn't be any trouble, she's coming down off of a pretty decent dose of Librium, but she's been lucid recently. She'll basically be calm and able to answer any questions you have for her. If she gives you any problems, the FBI agents will be right outside."

Jack nodded his head numbly. Sadistic bitch that she was, the trauma Mandy went through in the streets of Boston a month prior shocked him. Ok, so she deserves a little suffering, but…Jesus Christ, Jack thought to himself as Dr. Swofford unlocked the cell door, the loud turning of the lock snapping Mandy's gaze to the small glass window, and behind it the stoic face of Jack Bauer.

Wordlessly, Jack stepped into the cell and the door was shut behind him. She shrank into her corner as he moved into the cell, crouching against the wall across from her. He stared at her for a few seconds, her face shielded by her hands, avoiding looking at him. He reached up and firmly grabbed both of her hands, slowly pulling them down.

"What angle are you playing here, you fucking bitch!" Jack yelled in her face, tightening his grip on her hands, anger seething through him. He thought of Tony, beaten and bruised. Michelle's relief when it turned out he was alive. Jack thought of his two dead friends…

Mandy stared into his eyes, her own wide and clear, a window to her emotions. She sniffled and bit her lip before her face crumpled and tears began to flow down her cheeks as she sobbed uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…..Jack, help me….I'm sorry….."

Read and review! If this is received well, it'll certainly bolster my resolve to complete this story. This is my first, actually, and I really want to write it because there are very few stories about Mandy and Jack interacting in any way. I know its unconventional, but I think this pairing could have many different angles and dynamics.