Hi and thanks again for the reviews! I think this chapter, or at least its title requires a bit of an explanation. I called it the epilogue, but it will really be in 3 parts just like the debriefing was. Each of the three principals will have his/her own chapter. This one is from Jack's perspective. Audrey's and Diane's perspectives are to follow. Hopes that makes more sense.

The Debriefing: Epilogue

The next day

10:37am

Jack

Jack relaxed against the pillow on his bed in the CTU medical unit. It wasn't the most comfortable bed he had ever slept in, but at the moment he was so exhausted that it didn't matter. The sheets smelled faintly of bleach just like those at his grandmother's house when he was a little boy. He thought about the fun he had at her house as he dozed peacefully, more peacefully than he had in a long time.

Jack shifted positions and winced slightly. He was sore from head to toe. Muscles that he didn't even know he had suddenly seemed to hurt. Yet, he knew that he was lucky. Other than the two broken ribs courtesy of the hit man that tried to kill him in the medical unit early in the day, he also had a graze wound to his thigh and an injured knee. Right now he was waiting for the orthopedic surgeon to look at the x-rays and decide how much damage he had done to the knee. He had been warned that he may have torn the ACL and that would require major surgery. As painful and swollen as it was right now, he was expecting the worst.

Yesterday was finally over. It had been yet another in a series of long days that he had put in at CTU over the years. When he thought back over those very worst of days, he knew that the previous day ranked right up there among them. It could have been disastrous. The casualty count could have been a lot higher. The losses at CTU could have been even more devastating. But in the end, they had been able to stop the terrorists from achieving their ultimate goal and had limited the damage in the process.

As a result, Jack Bauer was quite literally a different person than he had been when he woke up the day before. He had saved so many people, he had shown such heroism, that President Logan agreed to take responsibility for what happened at the Chinese embassy 18 months earlier. Jack Bauer was no longer wanted by the Chinese government. Oh, there would be hell to pay and Logan would deal with the repercussions, but at least Jack was off the hook. Frank Flynn no longer existed and Jack Bauer had his life back.

He had something else back, too. Something else far more important to him than his life: his daughter. His first encounter with Kim had been much worse than he had imagined. In the 18 months that he lived in hiding, in fear of being discovered, his mind would often wander and find its way to Kim. He would day dream about seeing her again and her reaction to his being alive. His mind had conjured up dozens of different scenarios of how the moment would play out. In some she was angry with him. In others, she threw her arms around him and thanked God for the chance to see him again. Even in the ones where she was angry with him, she always came around in a few minutes and was soon in his arms. Not in any one of them did she refuse to even touch him as she had done the previous afternoon. Not in any of them did she tell him to leave her alone. The pain her reaction caused him was worse than any physical injury he could have ever sustained. It cut through him deeper than any bullet or knife or bullet could possibly go. As if it all wasn't bad enough, in the middle of his trying to explain the situation to her, Audrey called him away. Kim was the most important person in his life and he was pulled from her once again to serve his country; a country that had basically deserted him after years of service. He walked away from his daughter to attend to some other crisis. A situation that someone else deemed important, because it certainly wasn't important to him at this moment. What did he care if hundreds of thousands of people died in a nerve gas attack? None of it mattered if his daughter no longer loved him.

Jack wasn't sure what happened over the course of the next 12 hours, but by the time the crisis was over and the terrorists were either dead or in custody, Kim had had a change of heart. When his helicopter landed at CTU, Jack could see her standing on the tarmac. As he was helped out of the chopper by two other agents, Kim ran to him to see how badly he was hurt.

"Oh my God!" she gasped as she saw the pained expression on his face. "Are you going to be okay? Daddy, please tell me you're going to be okay," she cried.

Jack finally put his arms around his daughter. No physical contact ever felt better to him in his entire life. The simple act of hugging his child healed all of the wounds and the pain of the previous 18 months.

"I'm going to be fine, Baby," he whispered soothingly. "It looks worse than it is."

It suddenly occurred to him how really bad he must look to her. The wound to his thigh, although nothing more than a deep graze, had bled badly. His jeans were blood soaked from mid-thigh to knee. His other pants leg was torn from a fall he had taken in which he had severely twisted his knee. The skin exposed below the torn pants was already bruising a dark purple.

Kim stayed close by, leaving his side only when the doctor was examining him and cleaning up and stitching the bullet wound on his leg. She stood outside of the radiology room while he was having his ribs and knee x-rayed. For the rest of the time she sat or stood next to his bed holding his hand and leaning in more than once for another hug. Jack kissed her and reassured her that he would never do anything like this to her again.

Kim was so tired from the long night at CTU that she was nearly falling asleep sitting in the chair next to him. Jack finally convinced her to have someone from CTU drive her home so she could get some rest. He would keep in touch with her and as soon as the doctor discharged him, which would depend on the x-ray results and the extent of his injuries, he would have someone bring him to her house. Kim agreed reluctantly and kissed him goodbye. Jack was left alone with his thoughts and they swirled through his sleepy brain. He had a lot of decisions to make and although he didn't have to make any of them this minute, that didn't stop them from being in the forefront of his mind. A knock on the door saved Jack from more of his own thoughts.

"Come in," Jack called.

Bill Buchanan opened the door about a foot and leaned in. "Do you feel like having a visitor, or would you rather just get some rest."

Jack sat up a little straighter in the bed, again wincing as he changed positions. "Come in. I'd love to sleep, but I can't. My mind is going a thousand miles an hour after all the happened yesterday."

"I know the feeling," Bill said wryly. At some point during the night he had taken off his jacket and tie and opened the top button on his shirt. It was probably the most relaxed he had ever seen Bill. Come to think about it, until now, he had only ever seen Bill in crisis mode. "How long do the doctors plan on keeping you here?"

"They're waiting on x-rays. If I tore my ACL, they're going to transfer me to Good Samaritan for surgery tomorrow. If not, I'll probably leave later today."

"Where are you going from here?"

"To my daughter's house," Jack said with a smile.

Bill smiled in return. He was happy to see that the two had reconciled. "I'm sure the last thing you want to think about right now is a job, but if you're willing to listen, I have an offer for you."

"A job?" Jack said quizzically.

"Yeah, McGill was relieved of his command for not reporting the stolen key card. They need someone to replace him down at Division and I was asked to take the position."

"Congratulations," Jack said. That was a significant promotion for Bill whose occasional run-ins with his superiors hadn't always endeared him to them.

Bill thanked him and went on. "That leaves a void here. I told the District Director that I would take the position at Division if you would replace me as Special Agent in Charge here at CTU."

Jack squinted slightly as if trying to focus on Bill. "You want me to be the new CTU director?"

"Why not? You've done it before and you certainly know what it takes to run the place. My position at Division would make me your direct supervisor and we work well together. I think it's a great fit."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know, Bill. I'm flattered that you would ask, but I don't know. I'd like to come back to CTU; I'm just not sure that I want to be director."

"Think it over, Jack. I don't need an answer right now." Bill looked at his watch. "I should be going. Call me later this week and we'll talk." The two shook hands and Bill started to walk out the door.

"Bill, wait," Jack called after him.

Bill smiled before he turned around assuming that Jack had taken all the time he needed to think the idea over. He didn't know Jack all that well, but from what he did know, he could tell that Jack enjoyed the time he spent as CTU director.

"I've got a better idea. Why don't you make me Director of Field Operations?"

Now it was Bill's turn to look confused. "I already have a Director of Field Ops. That's Curtis' job."

"Not if you make Curtis the Special Agent in Charge. Curtis would be great in the position. He's put in a lot of years. He has good judgment and all the skills to make him a good director. He deserves it a lot more than I do," Jack said. He looked down for a moment seeming to study his hands. "Besides, the CTU director puts in a lot of hours. I've already done that. Now I want to spend some time with my family and I want to take some time for myself. I neglected that for too many years."

Bill nodded. "I agree. Curtis would make a good director. Let me talk to him and get back to you."

Bill left and Jack relaxed back on the pillow with his thoughts. Things were already beginning to fall into place. Returning to CTU had not really crossed his mind, but now that Bill had offered, it seemed only natural that he could come back and start over there."

Jack's thoughts were again interrupted by a knock on the door and the doctor who was taking care of Jack entered the room without waiting for permission. "Jack," he said with a smile. "I just got your x-rays back. As far as the ribs go, it's pretty much what we suspected. Two are broken, but no other damage. They're going to hurt for a while."

Jack nodded having been told what he was already pretty sure of. "How about the knee? Do you have a surgeon in mind?" he asked expecting that surgery would be the next step.

"You don't need one. It looks like you strained some ligaments, but nothing is torn. You'll need crutches for a while. I don't want you to put any weight on the knee for at least a couple of weeks. We'll put a brace on it to hold it in position, but otherwise it should heal on its own."

Jack smiled. This was going far better than he had anticipated. "So I can leave now?"

"In a couple of hours. I just ordered the brace that you need. That'll be here soon. We'll have to adjust it and get you fitted with crutches. We'll have you out of here as soon as possible. Right now, sit up and I'll see what I can do about taping up those ribs. That should make breathing a little easier."

Jack pushed back the sheets on the bed and groaned involuntarily as he sat up.

The doctor frowned. "I didn't realize that you were in that much pain. Why didn't you say something earlier? I can get you something to make you more comfortable."

"No, that's alright. I'll be okay," Jack assured him.

"It doesn't make any sense for you to sit here in pain. Let me get you something for it." He turned away from Jack and hit a buzzer to call the nurse.

"Can I help you?" she responded.

"Sue, get me 2mg of dilaudid for Agent Bauer."

"Yes sir. It'll just take me a minute."

"Dr. Ingram," Jack started. "You know my history. I'm not sure that dilaudid is the best thing for me to take."

"Look, Jack, I understand your reluctance, but one dose of dilaudid doesn't make you an addict. You're in pain. We need to treat the pain. You aren't suddenly going to develop a craving for heroin again. It's a small dose of dilaudid. It'll take the edge off the pain so that we can get you up and moving around. It also might give you a chance to rest while we're waiting for the brace to get here."

As much as he didn't want the narcotic, Jack knew that he needed to take something for pain. As long as he was lying still he was fine, but as soon as he moved, the pain was nearly unbearable. He said nothing as the nurse came into the room, swabbed the injection site with alcohol and injected the drug.

"Get some rest," Dr. Ingram told him. "I'll be back in a little while."

The doctor and nurse left the room and Jack settled back to try and sleep. He hadn't even had a chance to doze off when his phone rang. He took it from the bedside table and flipped it open.

"Jack." It was Bill Buchanan.

"Yeah, Bill. What's going on?"

"I just finished talking with the District Director and with Curtis. You have a deal. Curtis is the new CTU director. He and I will officially move into our new positions next Monday. You'll be installed as head of field ops as soon as you're medically cleared. I talked to Dr. Ingram, he thought that would be about 4 to 6 weeks. I can't tell you how happy I am to have you on board, Jack. You and Curtis and I will work well together."

"Thanks, Bill. I can't tell you how happy I am to have the position."

"Let me know when you're ready and we'll discuss salary and work out any details."

"Can we do that later, Bill? The doctor just gave me something for pain and it's making me a little fuzzy. I think right now I need to sleep."

"I understand. Get some rest. We'll talk about it in a few days."

Jack set down the phone, barely able to keep his eyes open. Between the drug and well over 24 hours without sleep, exhaustion had finally set in and he needed to sleep. He could feel his entire body relax as his eyes went closed.

He didn't really have any idea how long he slept. It could have been hours or it may have only been a few minutes, but something was nudging him back into consciousness. His eyes were still closed but he knew someone was in the room with him. He didn't hear the person. No, he sensed them more than heard them. It was a woman. He sensed that, too. He was getting a soft whiff of some feminine scent, a cologne or a perfumed hand soap. It was probably one of the nurses. She had probably come in to check on him. He liked the dreamy feeling of the partially awake – partially asleep state that he was in and opted not to open his eyes. If the nurse was here to take his vital signs, she could do that while he slept. He knew that she was standing close to the bed now; the scent was stronger. She touched his wrist as if she was going to take his pulse.

"Jack," she whispered gently. "Jack, it's Audrey. Can you open your eyes?"