Author's Note: All characters from Fox's 24. Except for Dr. Swofford, I made him up. The song is "Til Kingdom Comes" by Coldplay and I believe it really fits the overall situation between Jack and Mandy.

Also, there's alot in this story that is symbolic. Everything is carefully chosen for a reason (such as ash trees being outside of Danvers) and the chapter titles are no different. They're all linked. Can you tell me how? Reviews are most welcome.

Outside of Boston

10:00 am

Although he slept fitfully, tossing and turning and never quite deeply asleep, Jack Bauer woke up in his hotel bedroom feeling slightly better than he did when he stormed back to his bedroom last night. He stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth and take a quick shower before heading back to the hospital to discuss Mandy with Dr. Swofford. After he had gotten out of the shower and was getting dressed in front of the mirror, his cell phone rang. He stopped tying his tie and looked at the caller I.D and saw that it was Chloe.

"Hey, Chloe," he said after answering the phone.

"Hi Jack. I managed to get some files on Miranda Stapleton: police reports, school records, and military records for starters. The information is actually turning up pretty fast and I should have the rest of what you need in an hour or so," Chloe said, obviously pleased with herself.

"Good work, can you upload the information to my PDA?" Jack said, putting her on speaker so he could resume getting dressed.

"No, there's too much and it'd take too long to code down the data. Is there a number I can fax the information to?" she asked.

"Chloe, are you positive that's the only way?" he questioned.

"Jack…I wouldn't say it if I wasn't," she said, irritated.

"Ok, ok, I'll call you right back," he said, and then dialed Dr. Swofford's number. Swofford gave him the fax number to his office and Jack called back Chloe with the number. She promised the information would be sitting there by the time he arrived. He thanked her for her work and encouraged her to call him as soon as the rest of the information was ready. He hung up, grabbed his keys to his rental car and left for Danvers.

Danvers State Mental Institution

10:17 am

Jack wasn't headed to Dr. Swofford's office right away. He found himself climbing the stairs to the fourth floor of the east wing of the hospital. He strode down the hall, footsteps echoing off the walls in the quiet air, towards two FBI agents standing outside of a cell. He approached the two agents.

"Thank you, gentlemen, for your work securing Miss Stapleton, but I don't believe your services are needed any longer. CTU will be taking over from here. If your regional director has any questions, here's my card. Thank you again for your work," he said, shaking the hands of the two young men and watching them move down the hallway and eventually out of sight. He flagged down a passing orderly and, after flashing his identification, had him open up Mandy's cell. She was laying on her bed, hair spread around her like a halo, left forearm tossed carelessly over her eyes as she hummed softly to herself. Jack thanked the orderly and walked into her cell.

"So you really meant that you were coming back." It was more of a statement rather than a question.

"Yeah, I said I would. I've gotta go talk to Swofford, but I just wanted to stop by beforehand," he said.

"What for?" she asked, finally moving her forearm from her eyes and resting it alongside her head on the pillow. She looked at him curiously, waiting for his answer. Ultimately, it was an answer he didn't have.

"I'll be back after the meeting," Jack said, avoiding her eyes by looking out the window. When she didn't reply, he turned back to face her and saw her looking up at him, eyes slightly shining with amusement and a small, restrained smile gracing her lips. He kept looking at her, waiting for her to say something.

"Ok," she said simply, finally. Her eyes followed him through the door and stayed in that direction long after he left. What are you doing? she thought to herself, sighing, before shielding her eyes again and trying to take a nap.

Danvers State Mental Institution

12:00pm

Jack was on his sixth cup of coffee as he processed all of the information he had received from Chloe's diligent search pertaining to Mandy's past. He and Swofford went through it together, with the doctor pausing occasionally to jot down notes as they read and reread the many papers scattered across the cramped, uncomfortably warm office. Jack had long since rolled up his sleeves and loosened his tie and he sat hunched over his desk, face darkening as he continuously pored over new information about Mandy. When they were finally finished going through the information and organizing it, he blew out a deep breath and pushed away from the desk, leaning back in his chair and stretching his arms behind his head. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and grimaced slightly, collecting his thoughts before looking at Swofford.

"Ok, let's go over this one more time, alright?" He asked.

"Alright, you go over the information chronologically and I'll probably stop you to add my two cents into the discussion," Swofford said. Jack nodded his approval before taking a deep breath and continuing.

"Ok, she's born in a small town in Iowa. Her mother died when she was six and we've taken from police reports at the time that neighbors suspected sexual abuse occurred after that. Mandy later confirmed in a meeting with a guidance counselor in high school that her father did in fact sexually assault her from age 8 to age 13. When she was 13, she came home from school and found him in the basement, his head blown apart by…" here Jacked flipped through pages, finding a police report over a decade old, "a 12 gauge shotgun. This was an obvious suicide. On the same page so far, doctor?"

"Yes, Jack. The issue with her mother dying at such a young age is traumatic enough, but just two years afterwards, the sexual abuse began and lasted through puberty. This is most definitely the trigger for her isolation during high school," Swofford said, prefacing the next area of discussion.

"Right. So she lives with her grandparents and goes through middle school. Discipline reports show that she alternately acted aggressively with her peers and, as guidance counselor records show, acted passively, anti-socially, sullen, and withdrawn. Once she hit high school, her isolation increased with teasing and further alienation from her peers, specifically females, if the school records are to be trusted. Her grades from high school show she was exceptionally bright, she was actually involved in the gifted program at the school, and her IQ was tested and found to be above average by a pretty decent margin. Ok, if we look at local police reports from this same time period, her grandparents called the police, several times during the course of her high school career, to report her missing. She was always found in the woods near her house. She told the cops she went there often to think and calm herself down. Yeah, ok, this happened several times….Alright, so next she graduates from high school, no surprise she's valedictorian. She is accepted to Boston University on a full scholarship, she wants to major in psychology an-" Jack was cut off by Doctor Swofford.

"It's my opinion that her father's suicide and what she went through in high school influenced this choice of major. I mean, in my own interactions with her before you got here, when she was coherent, she was obviously trying to understand the people around her. I got the impression she was studying me," Swofford said, made slightly uncomfortable by the memory of Mandy's huge blue eyes focused intently and unwaveringly on him.

"Ok, hang on…" Jack said, making a note of that for his own benefit before continuing, "Alright, so she goes off to Boston University. Lives in one of the dorms…and the subsequent police investigation interviews her friends, who say that she started opening up to them, talking more, laughing, joking, becoming more relaxed. Then there's the reason for the police investigation: she's raped walking home from a party one night. She called the cops, no arrests were ever made and she just closed herself off and stayed for a period of time before forfeiting her scholarship and dropping out midway through her second semester. After that, she returned home to Iowa. We've got withdrawal papers from the University that prove that true. We also know that she enlisted in the Army shortly thereafter…ok, the enlistment papers show that it was five months after she withdrew from college. From there, we have her military records: performed well in Basic, trained as a sniper, and completed her training just in time to be absorbed by Army intelligence and sent over to Kosovo. She saw combat there and participated in several target acquisition and elimination missions. Three months into her deployment, she was absorbed by the CIA and worked as a field operative. Then she just disappeared. Reports indicate she went AWOL just under a month after becoming a CIA field op. That's it; that's where all formal records stop." Jack leaned back and sighed heavily. It was a lot to take in. He looked up expectantly at Swofford, waiting for his thoughts.

"Well…here's the obvious: the repeated incidents of sexual abuse took a large toll on her. I think that after the rape in college, right when she was 'learning to live with herself', so to speak, and opening up, she shut herself down completely and withdrew inside of herself. Sort of like a last straw, like flipping a switch and turning herself off. It wouldn't be a big leap to say she had some massive anger building inside of her, which could be why she joined the Army: as sort of an outlet for her rage. At any rate, combat probably only served to harden her and further mold her into the woman that you've experienced prior to the past few days. And whatever else she's been doing since going AWOL probably reinforced her conviction to her own emotionless, self-serving state. And then the gang rape about a month ago occurred. Given it took place in Boston, and went against her feelings of self-sufficiency and control, I think that flipped the switch back to where it was after entering college, emotionally of course. She wasn't used to having control taken away from her on that large of a scale and it really did a number on her, sadly," the doctor finished, removing his glasses to rub at his tired, over-used eyes. Jack bit his thumbnail as he thought about what the doctor was saying.

"Is the change permanent? Can the switch be flipped back without warning?" Jack quietly asked, hoping the answer would be favorable. After the shit she's been through, she deserves a normal life.

"I'd say that…you know, barring any severely traumatic event on the same level as her previously experienced sexual abuse, then...yes, I'd say that it's a pretty solid switch. I mean, look at her track record: the catalysts of her personality changes throughout adolescence and early adulthood were extremely traumatic events immediately preceding her emotional and mental changes. So no, the switch can't be flipped without warning, but it's not incorrect to say that it could be flipped back with another traumatic event," Swofford said. Jack nodded in agreement, thinking the same thing as the doctor, but feeling more comfortable hearing it from his mouth.

"Can she be released?" Jack held his breath waiting for the answer. Dr. Swofford drummed his fingers against his desk, eyes out of focus as he thought. After several minutes, his fingers ceased their movement and his gaze focused on Jack.

"Yes, she can be released as soon as you're willing to co-sign the release papers, which I imagine is as soon as possible. So why don't you go tell her that she's going to be released and then we'll cut her loose tomorrow?" Swofford suggested brightly, pleased on the young woman's behalf that she could start to build some semblance of a normal life.

"That sounds perfect, doctor," Jack said with a slight grin. The doctor excused himself to go check on "institutional operations" and Jack slowly gathered up all of the papers strewn across the office, letting his mind wander as he did so. She can finally get out of this place. She can understand what's happened to her and hopefully learn from it and move on. She can put herself to good use instead of being some hired gun for morally lacking people. Jack smiled involuntarily at the thought of her freedom, on its way in less than 24 hours. He thought about how, in a few short minutes, he would leave the office and go up to her cell and tell her that she's going to be released. He thought about her reaction to the news and figured she'd get a bit excited at the prospect of being able to pick up the pieces of her shattered, scattered life. He finished gathering up the papers and tucked the sizeable stack underneath his arm and left the office, heading for her cell.

He walked in after the orderly unlocked the cell to find her gazing at the door with a quiet expectation. He pulled the door shut and removed his suit jacket, tossing it next to her on the bed. He walked over to the window and pushed it open through the bars, lighting a cigarette and inhaling deeply off of it, the rush of nicotine soothing rattled nerves as he set down the thick stack of papers on the window sill. As he moved about the room, her eyes followed him patiently and after he lit his cigarette, she decided to break the silence.

"You didn't say the meeting would take so long…"she said, her face an almost undetectable mixture of dejection and confusion. She stood up and met his eyes with hers and reached into his shirt pocket for his cigarettes, lighting herself one. She blew smoke out the window and her eyes traveled to the stack of papers rustling slightly in the breeze from the open window. She tucked the cigarette between her lips and, with great curiosity, began to flip through the pages. Jack watched her with a guarded expression.

"That's you. Everything we were able to find on you, your past, et cetera. Elementary school, high school, grade reports, police reports, college transcripts," Jack said, ticking off each item on his fingers.

"I wasn't in college for long," Mandy said, frowning slightly.

"I know. We've also got…military records," Jack said pointedly. Mandy looked up at him and half-grinned sheepishly, retrieving her cigarette from her lips and flicking ashes out of the window.

"Yeah…that's how I lost myself. And that's pretty much the source of the training that's allowed me to…do what you've seen me do," she said, avoiding Jack's eyes. Jack watched her intently, seeing her face fall at the mention of what she did. He saw the wounded look in her eyes and could see real, genuine remorse; something he never saw from the old Mandy before the past two days. He hesitantly moved his head so he was down at eye level with her and looking directly into her eyes.

"You're going to be released. Tomorrow," Jack said and watched her reaction. She closed her eyes slowly as her eyebrows drew together in concentration, then a smile started to form on her lips, growing larger and larger, just about to break into a grin when it stopped and her face fell. She opened her eyes and tears leaked out of the corners, running silently down her face.

"What am I going to do? I can't stay in Boston, Jack…not…not after…all that's happened. And a job! I don't have a job, for fuck's sake! I don't have any clothes or possessions, because I am not going back to that apartment where….that bitch I was lived. No college degree, no possessions, and skills that could only be used in a finite number of situations! What am I going to do? What exactly am I going to go?" she questioned, her voice rising and getting faster and more panicked as she went on, eyes and head moving and turning frantically around the room in exasperation as her hand shook. Her breathing had increased and he could tell she was on the verge of a panic attack. He hesitated only a second before awkwardly placing a hand on her shoulders, first the right and then the left, steadying her and getting her to stop for a minute. He looked down into her eyes and she stilled almost instantly.

"You're coming back to Los Angeles with me. I can find you a place to live there. We'll work out your living arrangements and get you some new stuff, whatever you need, and then," Jack paused, taking a breath, "…then we're going to try to get you a job at CTU. It might be difficult, and some people are definitely going to fight me on this, but I'm confident that with your skills, experience, and contacts that you'll be a viable team member." Jack finished saying what he had to say and waited, watching her reaction. She kept her eyes glued to him. They're so beautiful, he thought and the suddenness of that thought caused him to take his arms off her shoulders, stand up straight and let them fall to his sides. But he didn't look away as she studied him, eyes rimmed in red and tears drying on her face. Then her smile came back. And it grew, until it was a grin that immediately convinced him to respond with one of his own.

"I don't know what to say, Agent Bauer. After everything I've done, you're still willing to…. I'm very grateful. Thank you so much," she finished, slowly moving forward to slide her arms around his neck and bring him into a hug. He was startled and didn't know how to react. He patted the small of her back awkwardly and then pulled away.

"Yeah, well…I'll be watching you, Miranda," he said gruffly, not enjoying being viewed as a savior or saint or however she was thinking of him now. He grabbed the stack of papers off of the window sill, all of Mandy's past, and gestured with them, posing an unspoken question. She shook her head, smilingly shyly and he dropped them onto the floor. On his way out after they were done, he'd throw the papers in the trash.

He leaned against the window sill, propping himself up with his elbows and Mandy walked over to do the same next to him. The two stayed like that in relative silence, smoking, until someone in the hall turned on a radio and the sound came softly into the small room.

And the wheels just keep on turning
And the drummer begins to drum
I don't know which way I'm going
I don't know which way I've come

Hold my head inside your hands
I need someone who understands
I need someone, someone who hears
For you I've waited all these years
For you I'd wait til Kingdom Come
Until my day, my day is done
And say you'll come and set me free
Just say you'll wait, you'll wait for me

The meaning wasn't lost on Mandy. Need? Now there's something I know, she thought. She snuck a quick look over at Jack, who looked at her out of the corner of his eye, and then faced back forward. She sighed, yet another tiny smile on her lips as she moved closer to Jack and laid her head on his shoulder in one fluid, quick motion. Jack was surprised by her friendliness, but he didn't pull away. Nothing wrong with her showing gratitude, Jack thought to himself. The two stayed like that for long after the song finished, her enjoying the solid feel of his support under her head and him trying to suppress his half-smile at the feeling of warmth coming from the small frame beside him.

Special thanks to Cora, my only reader (as far as I know) as well as my only reviewer (which I do know). Thanks for your support in this story and thanks for sticking with it. Hopefully others will join you!