A/N: Sorry it took me a while to update. I haven't been feeling well again and because of exhaustion, I struggled with this chapter but I managed to finish it. Hope it doesn't seem rushed and if it does, again I apologize. I need a break after this but I will write more J/C stories in the future. Another thing, I have to add a warning in this chapter. I did mention the PG-13 rating for violence, sexual situations and psychological abuse. This chapter is very heavy with angst and disturbing content. Some people aren't comfortable and if you're not, that's ok. Alright, enough of my rambling and here's the final chapter. Again, thank you for your wonderful reviews and encouragement to keep writing. I appreciate it very, very much!
Chapter three: Cacophony
Chloe blinked, slowly at first and then her eyes fluttered in confusion at what had transpired. Her memory awakened; the sting on back of her neck. It had to be some kind of drug because whatever the person injected into her system, she could barely move. O'Brian wanted to touch the area but when she attempted her hands were also handcuffed behind her back. Semi-conscious, Chloe managed to decipher where she was, lying on her left side on a tattered paisley couch inside a small bedroom? No, it was an attic and above, triangular wooden beams that would snap in a second if there had been a torrential rainstorm. To the right, she saw a small window (which most likely had been locked) and peeking inside were splinters of crimson, what remained of the evening sun held on as long as it could, touching her face with its warmth.
The sofa she laid upon, a velvety blood-red Victorian chair nearby and a coffee table were the only furniture Chloe noted unless she missed something, which was possible considering her drugged condition. Her mouth was so dry it felt like she had been lost in the desert for days. She desperately needed water and mustered what little strength she had to push herself up. Grunting, she pushed more until sitting upright. Lightheaded and nauseous, Chloe fell back onto her side. She panted not only from the effort of sitting up and feeling like crap, but out of frustration of having her pocketbook stolen. No cell phone to contact Heller now that she was also a prisoner. Chloe thought about CTU. Who could she trust to help her get Jack out of this situation, which is the reason why she didn't bother to tell anyone. The only person was Tony, and he was in jail. She missed him and wished he was there to help. She mentally shook herself…
"Okay, I'm here now. I can't waste time thinking of what I should've done. I have to try and think of a way to get us out of here."
She flinched at a clicking sound…the door. It opened from behind. Chloe's facial muscles and every other muscle in her body tightened. For those moments when hearing footsteps approaching, she dared not breathe. O'Brian wondered what he looked like and now that the person stood in front of her, she looked up, stunned and bewildered.
"Lizzie?" she said drowsily.
"Hey, Chloe," Lizzie answered with a smile that appeared phony rather than genuine. "It's good to see you again," she hesitated, holding up a small tape recorder. "But I'm sorry we're seeing each other like this."
Chloe made another effort, this time to speak loudly despite feeling woozy. "What's going on? Why did you kidnap Jack and now me--," She halted, eyes wide, as if slapped hard by what she suddenly realized. "Mike. You kidnapped us because of him. It was you calling me!"
Lizzie's lopsided smile remained etched onto her face while she pressed the tape recorder button. Chloe listened.
"I know you're worried about Jack. He's safe and I'll let you see him. 622 Cambridge Road."
Lizzie cut the conversation with a click of the button. At that, Chloe added, "You tricked me into thinking it was a man. Who is he?"
"Oh, just someone I found on the street," Lizzie explained apathetically. "A homeless man; he was very helpful after I gave him something to eat."
Chloe shuddered, recalling what the cab driver said about a homeless man found decapitated and partially eaten. "You—killed him."
"What do you care?" Lizzie spat. "He was nothing!"
Chloe swallowed hard; fighting to keep her stomach contents down, she breathed deeply.
Lizzie grabbed Chloe's hair. Her eyes blazed. "You didn't care about my brother. You lied to him, sneaking behind his back and seeing someone else. Mike told me who it was…Jack Bauer, and you let him kill my brother!"
"I wasn't with Jack or anyone. I ended the relationship with Mike because I had enough of him slapping me around!"
"Because you weren't behaving, that's why he slapped you around!" Lizzie shoved Chloe's head back onto the sofa. After composing herself, she went on to say, "I better see how Jack is doing. He has a broken arm, y'know. The only thing I can do for the pain is give him heroin."
"Heroin?" Chloe shouted. "He's been trying to stay away from that stuff and you're giving it to him again?"
For that moment, Chloe had forgotten her bluntness when she was upset and shocked by a stinging blow of Lizzie's hand across her right cheek. It throbbed only a little and she had been certain it would be worse along with the injury above her eye once the drug began to wear off.
"If you keep misbehaving," Lizzie began, "I'll give you more morphine to keep you quiet."
"You can't do this," said Chloe, slurring her words. "CTU will know I'm missing and they'll find us."
"I'm not worried about that," Lizzie replied calmly. "Get some rest," she added, rounding the sofa and walking back to the door. "I know you're still tired from the morphine."
When Lizzie left the attic, Chloe had been afraid to rest. She wondered why Lizzie seemed so calm. What was she up to? Or had she planned on killing them? Mentally Chloe battled to stay awake but again, the morphine had won, shutting her eyes until she fell into a deep slumber.
Lizzie, before checking on Jack, had gone back to the living room. She slumped down on to the sofa, threw her hands against her ears and squeezed them to quiet the cacophony of voices battering her mind. Rocking forward and backward, Lizzie whimpered and longed to be free of the memories that haunted her without reprieve…
Footsteps thundered toward the bedroom door of a house in Long Island, and when it was pushed open, a nine year-old Elizabeth gasped and jumped away from her brother who had been beside her on the bed. Their father stood in the doorway. He didn't have to say anything. His stone face and silence had done enough to terrify them. And when he spoke, his eyes were dark, menacing, frightening them even more. Lizzie followed his eyes down to the top of her unbuttoned nightgown.
"Daddy," she said, barely audible.
"What's going on here?" he barked. Ted Dawson stormed toward Lizzie, grabbed her by the hair and shoved her down on to the floor.
"Dad, no!" Mike pleaded, as if that would stop his father from leeching his hands around his neck and flung him against the wall.
"I tried being nice, got you a dog, and I catch you again. Now the dog has got to go."
When he marched out of the room, Lizzie and Mike ran to the window. They waited, horrified at what he was going to do to their beloved dog. Lizzie's eyes widened with fear and helplessness at the rifle her father gripped in his hand.
"Daddy, no!" she cried.
He continued on. No mercy.
"Daddeeeeeee!"
A shot roared through her ears. It hadn't fazed him, what he had done.
No remorse.
Lizzie cried, "Noooooo!"
Her eyes snapped open. Lizzie continued to scream, even when realizing she was back to the present. Her eyes darted frightfully around the room. The voices ceased. Slowly she peeled quivering hands away from her ears. Lizzie's chest rose and fell in a frenetic rhythm. Hot sweat dotted her forehead. Suddenly, as if stepping out of who she was—the frightened woman tortured from her past, Lizzie straightened. The frigid, bitter expression returned. Robotically, Lizzie stood from the sofa and went upstairs to the attic.
"Get up!"
Chloe never expected to be startled out of her sleep, grabbed by her hair and hoisted onto her feet.
"Lizzie, please," said a frazzled Chloe.
"Shut up!"
Chloe found herself pushed out of the attic and downstairs to the cellar door. Lizzie quickly unlocked the cuffs from around Chloe's wrists. She had a chance to defend herself and help Jack but still found herself groggy from the morphine. All she could do was watch helplessly as Lizzie cuffed her hands onto the door handle. Dawson then knelt beside Chloe, whispering in her ear…
"Do you love Jack?"
Furious, Chloe ignored the question.
Lizzie inched her lips closer to Chloe's ear, so close that O'Brian felt her breath that smelled foul, like someone had just eaten something rotten; something…dead. "Do you really believe he loves you? Chloe, Jack is lying. I thought it would be better if I told you the truth—he wants to be with me."
"Shut up!"
Lizzie grasped O'Brian's chin and yanked her face around to meet her own. "I know you don't believe me, but after what you'll hear, you'll come to your senses." Lizzie grinned, the same lopsided grin that Mike taunted her with before he would do something to hurt her. Lizzie began to unbutton her blouse and stopped, showing Chloe a tad of cleavage.
"What are you doing?" Chloe wondered.
Lizzie stood and teasingly refused to answer. Shestepped around Chloe and slipped through the open door. O'Brian peeked in through the tiny crack of the door and watched as Lizzie took off her blouse and straddled a conscious Jack. She forced him into her embrace, and from what Chloe could see Lizzie kissed him hard. O'Brian had had enough, turning away and slumping against the door. Now it had been clear as to why Lizzie handcuffed her there. She wished to escape the torture of hearing Lizzie's moans. And though she despised the morphine that now lost its effect, at least it would shut out what she had been forced to hear. Chloe squeezed her eyes and let the hot tears stream down her cheeks.
It had gone on for what seemed like an hour, maybe longer. By that time, Chloe was disoriented again, not from the morphine, but from what she had to endure ever since Mike abused her; tried to kill her. And now his sister abused her. She trembled and seething at the horrid madness. Usually it happened to women, though there were cases of it happening to men—rape. She never thought it would happen to someone she loved…to Jack. Chloe shook herself out of hopelessness and despair. She had to do something.
Lizzie slipped through the door. After closing it, she knelt in front of Chloe and pressing the barrel of a gun against her head. "Now do you believe me?" she said in a sardonic, raspy voice.
Chloe recognized the gun…it belonged to Jack. She pursed her lips and stared bitterly hard into Lizzie's eyes. Dawson smirked, ignoring Chloe's hatred for her. "Since you're awake, I know you'll try to escape when I take the cuffs off. Don't do it. Just behave and everything will be okay." Lizzie dug inside the back pocket of her jeans and took out the keys that dangled on a heart chain. Tucked inside the brass heart was a picture of two children. While keeping the gun aimed steady at Chloe's head in one hand, with the other she inserted one the keys into the lock. The cuffs temporarily released their grip around Chloe's wrists.
"Hands behind your back." And when Chloe reluctantly obeyed, Lizzie wasted no time, jerking the chain from around the handle and snapping the cuffs back onto Chloe's wrists. Shepulled her from off the floor and led O'Brian back inside the dim-lit attic.
Chloe found herself knocked down onto the couch again. She recalled Lizzie's key chain and surmised who the children were, though Chloe didn't understand why she was interested in asking about it. "The picture on your key chain…it's you and Mike," she said as a bold statement rather than a question.
Standing above Chloe, Lizzie answered, "Yeah, it's me and Mike." For a moment, it seemed Dawson needed to say something or even cry. Instead, her face hardened as if it had been a sin to show any kind of weakness. She stormed away and Chloe blurted…
"I can't sleep."
Lizzie turned, heading back to the couch. "What?"
"Please," Chloe said, "I'll behave."
Lizzie sat beside her and brushed thin fingers along Chloe's cheek. "You want more morphine?"
Chloe nodded.
"Okay," she replied, smiling. "I'll get it for you."
Lizzie headed for the door, eyeing O'Brian carefully and when she had gone, Chloe quickly erased the pleading expression from off her face. It morphed back to anger while she waited for Lizzie to come back. And when you're waiting like Chloe was doing at the moment, your mind cannot help but race from one thought to another. Jack. She cringed at what Lizzie had done, getting him hooked onto heroin again, forcing sex on him. If only she had Jack's gun.
It hadn't been long. Lizzie returned with the leather case and set it down onto the coffee table. Chloe pretended again, pleading and desperate to sleep. She watched as Lizzie opened the case and reached inside for one of the needles. Holding it up to the light, Dawson made sure it was full and before she had the chance to give O'Brian the morphine, Chloe mustered all her strength and adrenaline rushing angrily into her legs. With one swift kick she sent a stunned Lizzie tumbling over the table and hitting her head on its edge. The needle lay on the wooden floor along with the rest of the contents…and Jack's gun. Again, Chloe struggled, pushing herself up from the sofa and collapsing onto her knees. Her hands stretched for the needle, in which she managed to grasp.
A dazed Lizzie crawled toward the gun. Chloe knew this was her only chance. Quickly, she slid backwards and just as Lizzie's hand neared the gun, Chloe jabbed the needle into her ankle. Lizzie cried out from the sudden sting and though she tried to grab the gun, she was now rendered helpless by the morphine and fell onto her onto her side.
Chloe slid closer until stopping near the back pocket of Lizzie's jeans. The keys, they were inside. She strained her arm muscles so hard that when pulling them, she screamed from the pain. Despite it, she continued to dig her hands into the left pocket. Finding the keys she snatched them out and there had been no time to even breathe a sigh of relief. Chloe had to be quick once more, for she did not know whether the dose of morphine would be enough to keep her down, especially someone like Lizzie.
"What are you doing?" she heard Dawson mutter groggily.
Again, Chloe strained her sore arms and wincing as she inserted one of the keys into the lock.
"Please let it be the right one."
The cuffs clicked open. She tossed them off, snatched the gun and jumped unsteadily onto her feet. Chloe stopped for a second, looking back at Lizzie grasping the table to stand up but with every attempt, she collapsed back onto the floor. O'Brian knew she had better hurry and raced out of the attic.
Jack drifted in and out of consciousness. He wasn't given much to eat; spoon fed chicken soup that had provided only a little energy. The pain started throbbing in his arm again. He desired more heroin and at the same time, wanting desperately to escape what had been like a dungeon in hell than a cellar. He wondered when Lizzie would come back to harass him, beat him, force his lips into hers. When kissing her, it was like tasting something rotten. He couldn't figure it out and felt terribly sick to his stomach each time they kissed, and even when he thought about it now. His eyes skirted nervously to the door creaking open and to his surprise, he heard…
"Jack!"
"Chloe?" he said in a weak, guttural tone; relieved to see her unharmed and running toward him. Jack also noticed she had the keys and his gun. "You're okay," he added with a smile that quickly turned to a grimace when the pain assaulted him again. "What happened to Lizzie?"
Chloe knelt in back of him. Flipping through each key, she picked one. "I gave her a shot of morphine."
Jack didn't mean to answer with only a shocked expression, as if he doubted her ability to get out of a tough situation. Chloe caught his look. Instead of getting upset, she simply smiled but then it vanished when O'Brian thought she had the right key.
"We're getting out of here, Jack," she said, determined while fumbling with the keys and picking another one.
"Be careful," Jack muttered. "My right arm is broken."
Chloe turned the key and let out a relieved sigh when the cuffs opened. Carefully, she removed them from around his wrists. Jack grunted and winced again when he gently lifted his injured arm and laid it upon his lap. Chloe scurried to the front of him. Kneeling again, she used another key to unlock the chained cuffs around his ankles.
"Chloe?" he said, panting weakly.
"Yes, Jack?" she replied and concentrating hard on unlocking the cuffs.
"I love you."
Tears stung her eyes and not wanting to cry at the moment, she strained them back. "I love you, too."
"I mean it," he said, hoping to convince her after what happened between him and Lizzie. He had known Chloe was handcuffed to the open door. Lizzie whispered it to him in his ear.
Chloe looked up at his face damp with sweat. "I know you do," she answered quickly, awkwardly and busied herself with the cuffs until finally theyopened. She yanked them off along with the chains. Tucking the gun and key chain inside the pocket of her cardigan sweater, she circled her arms around Jack's waist and began to lift him from the chair…
"Put him down!"
Startled by the raspy voice in the distance, she peeked over her shoulder to see Lizzie stumbling down the steps with another gun at her side. O'Brian turned, looking into Jack's eyes and though Chloe was frightened, he knew she had no choice but to ease the gun out of her pocket while lowering him back onto the chair. Bauer nodded, signaling her to do what needed to be done. Chloe spun around and aimed the gun unsteadily at Lizzie's forehead. She thought that would stop Dawson. The woman had to be intimidated by something. Instead she continued, swaying somewhat but still determined in approaching Chloe.
"You can't kill me," Lizzie stated with such assurance that Chloe questioned if she had been right. She chuckled and shook her head. "You were afraid of my brother when I told him what to do. He had his fun and you did nothing until Jack came along." They stood a few feet apart. "Chloe, you can't."
And when O'Brian saw Lizzie raise her gun, she swiftly fired a bullet piercing deep into Lizzie's shoulder. The impact shoved her backward and she fell with a thud onto the floor. A shocked Dawson slid back against the stairs. The left side of her blouse was now a deeper shade of scarlet from the blood. Pale fingers of her uninjured arm crawled toward the gun. Chloe froze, shivering.
"Chloe," Jack shouted. "Again, you have to do it!"
Suddenly, O'Brian saw Mike lay there laughing as if she was nothing, worthless…just an odd computer geek. The bathroom…he continuously stabbed her despite her pleading cries; something Chloe tried hard to deny had twisted her features with bitterness and hate. She fired another bullet tearing through flesh of Lizzie's chest. Then came another shot and another and another until…Chloe froze again. It hadn't fully registered in her mind. She stared at the body sprawled on the floor. A bloody hole on Lizzie's forehead and other blood soaked wounds on numerous parts of her body. And then Chloe allowed her mind to accept it…she killed Lizzie. O'Brian dropped the gun, sunk onto her knees and cradled her face into shaky hands. She didn't cry, but only shivered from the shock of everything that had transpired since Friday night.
"Chloe?"
She hadn't responded to Jack immediately but when he left the chair, crawled toward her and placed his left hand on her shoulder, Chloe turned to him andcaved into his embrace.He held her tightly inside the cellar beneath the dangling light bulb.
Ambulance doors slammed shut. Chloe sat beside Jack as he lay on the stretcher. She held his hand and opening the fingers of her own, she stared at Lizzie's key chain on her palm. Brother and sister. O'Brian studied the bright smiles on their faces. They seemed so happy then.
"What happened?" she thought to herself and slowly twined her fingers over the picture.
Two months since the Lizzie incident. Chloe thought that had been enough time for her and Jack to recuperate after that ordeal. Something was wrong. Every time she'd call him, he avoided her. He wasn't himself and that alarmed her greatly. Usually she would worry if there had been something he didn't want her to know…Audrey perhaps? No, it was definitely something else and not Audrey. She waited until the weekend and then Chloe headed back to D.C. He had no idea she was there, that's how she wanted it to be. Pounding her fist on the door of his house in the rain, she stopped when he jerked it open.
Surprised to see Chloe standing in front of him in a khaki trench coat, he said, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here because you don't answer my calls. And when you do, you cut me off. What's going on, Jack? And you look like hell!"
Jack had known she was right. Heller, Audrey and other people noticed his erratic behavior and he often looked exhausted. Even now, one would think he was up all night drinking and shuffling around the house in a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants. Everyone assumed it was because of the ordeal, at least that's what he wanted them to think.
"Are you going to let me in? It's pouring out here."
He opened the door wider, saying nothing and evidently irritated as she marched into his home. Chloe halted inside the small foyer and as she spun around, her damp hair swung along with her sudden movement. "Okay, we need to talk."
An exasperated sigh rolled from his lips. He wasn't in the mood to talk about anything.
Chloe went on despite his stubbornness. "I know what's going on, Jack."
"You do?" he said defensively.
O'Brian closed the space between them and in her usual blunt way, she said, "You've been avoiding me because of the heroin. I thought we were going to be honest with each other?"
Jack smirked. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Lizzie…she got you hooked again. Jack, I'm not an idiot."
"Chloe, please leave."
"Why? Because I'm concerned about what happened when Lizzie kidnapped us? I know what she did to you was horrible and you're angry--,"
"Go! I want you to leave…now!"
She huffed and marched back to the door, but Chloe hesitated before opening it and laid her forehead against the door. Shutting her eyes, she said, "I keep seeing Mike's face. I hear his voice; that day in the bathroom. And now I can't stop thinking about Lizzie. I hated what she forced you to do but that doesn't change how I feel. Maybe you think it does but…I love you, Jack. Please, don't shut me out."
An awkward silence followed what she said. Chloe thought Jack seriously wanted her to leave until feeling his fingers lightly touch her hand. She turned and stared into his eyes swollen with tears. He then cupped her face in his hands.
"Chloe," Jack mumbled in a trembling voice. He couldn't hold it in any longer and the next words that spilled out were, "I love you."
There was no hesitation. O'Brian needed to feel his arms around her. She let him cry, and she cried with him. And at that moment neither one of them had noticed something…
The rain stopped.
End
