A/N: Well, this is it. After this chappie, it sort of picks up with the show. So here ya go!
Disclaimer: Not mine. No money off it for me. Zut alors.
Chapter 4
"I don't think I can do this, Barry."
Kim Bauer slumped down in her seat and closed her eyes, letting the flood of memories wash over her. They were turning in to the CTU parking area and were stopped at a security booth.
"Name and identification," the guard said.
"Kim Bauer," she offered him her id. "Chloe O'Brien should have put me on the guest list." The guard checked her name against a form on a clipboard and nodded, waving her through.
"It'll be fine," Barry offered, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "What the hell happened here?" he asked as they approached where Palmer's car had exploded. There were still several emergency vehicles in the area and debris was still be cleared from the area near the blast. Kim just shook her head as they were motioned to proceed to a far end of the parking garage.
They parked and proceeded in to the building. Sensing Kim's increasing hesitation, Barry grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "You okay?"
"Both of my parents were murdered in this building," she muttered. "I'm just peachy."
SCENESCENESCENESCENE
"I should have known better than to think that you, of all people, could possibly be dead," Bill sighed in resignation while sitting up in his bed in the infirmary. Doctors had determined he had a mild concussion- nothing too serious, but they advised he remain there for a few hours. So he was doing his best to direct the goings on at CTU. Only to nearly have a heart attack when Jack Bauer walked in the room. He was given a brief summary of the days events
Jack had a brief and awkward reunion with Audrey but they had to get a move on if they were going to find out who Spencer was working for. Chloe was watching him surreptitiously from her work station. They knew, however, that it couldn't be long before he realized they were on to him. They had already recovered the visitor's log; sure enough, Spencer was the one that approved entrance for the would-be-assassin.
The phone beeped. "Jack? Kim's here," Chloe's voice called.
Jack's voice froze in his throat. Finally, he managed to get out, "where?"
"Conference three."
"You should go," Michelle urged him quietly. "Go see her. We've got it handled for the moment."
Jack got about halfway there before all chaos broke loose. A voice called out over the radio. "Video is down, I repeat, we have lost video surveillance!"
Jack swore and spoke in to his radio. "Security needs to cover all exits, we are looking for agent Spencer Wolff, he can not be allowed to leave this building!"
He rushed to find Chloe who seemed to be heading in his general direction. "What happened?"
"He must have shut it down from his computer! I tried to stop him but…"
"Which direction did he head to?" Chloe pointed up a hallway as Tony caught up with them.
"What do we know?" Tony asked.
"Come with me!" Jack called. "Chloe, get on his computer and see what you can do about getting the video back up!"
Jack and Tony tore off down the hallway. "He shut down the video and headed this way. He must know we'd have exits covered by now so best guess is, he's hiding."
Jack pointed Tony down an intersecting hall and he continued down the same one, peering in each room he passed.
SCENESCENESCENESCENE
"Something's wrong here," Kim declared worriedly. Chloe had told them that someone would be in to talk to them in a couple minutes but now everyone that came by the room was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
The door opened- Kim expected to see Chloe or Bill or somebody there but instead, a young agent, gun in hand, came through the door and closed it quickly and quietly, crouching below the window. He didn't notice them right away, sitting at the other end of the room. When he did though, he gasped and turned the gun on them. Kim sat there in shock, paralyzed, wondering if she was about the meet the same fate as both her parents. No one moved a muscle until…
"Drop the gun!"
A voice rang out from the opposite doorway, behind where Kim and Barry were sitting. Tony Almeida was standing there, gun trained on Spencer. "Drop it!" Spencer slowly did as told. "Hands behind your head!"
Tony walked past Kim and approached and cuffed Spencer, speaking in to his walkie-talkie radio as he did so.
"Suspect had been apprehended in conference three, I repeat, suspect has been apprehended in conference three." Within seconds, two burly security guards burst in to the room and dragged him away.
"Tony?" Tony turned to look at Kim's disbelieving eyes and he seemed unsure what to say. "What's going on, Tony? Why am I here?"
"Kim." A soft voice came from behind her. A voice that sounded oddly familiar. She whipped around and found herself staring at the last person in the world she thought she would see today.
"No," she whispered, "no. It's not possible." Barry put a hand on her arm. "You're dead, they told me you were shot."
"Kim…"
"No!" She closed her eyes and struggled for words.
"I'm sorry," Jack whispered. "It was for your protection."
A voice crackled over the radio. "Jack, we need you at interrogation one." Silence for a few seconds. "Jack? Do you copy?"
"Just give me a minute," he spoke roughly back in to it.
"Who knew?" Kim asked.
"What?"
"Who knew?" she repeated. "That you weren't dead."
"Chloe. Michelle and Tony. David Palmer."
"That's it?"
"They were the ones that helped me escape. One of Logan's secret service guards was coming to kill me. We faked my death, they smuggled me out."
"So why are you here now?"
"Someone was following me. Someone found out I was still living. And there was an attempt on President Palmer's life. Bill Buchanan and Curtis Manning are both injured."
Kim closed her eyes. "I need some time alone now. I need to think."
"Look, Kim, I want to…"
"Dad, please! I'm glad you're not dead, really, I am. But what do you want me to say? I was pretty messed up for a while, you know. I was twenty-four years old and I get a call saying my one remaining parent was murdered in the say place my mother was and the, lo and behold, a year later I find out I've been lied to? Barry helped me through it and I finally managed to get my life straightened out and even now, CTU is still controlling my life! Please, just give me some time to think."
Jack nodded and left the room. That certainly could have gone over better.
SCENESCENESCENESCENE
"I can't tell you anything." Spencer was adamant. They had been trying to get him to speak for several minutes now. They were trying to figure out who his outside contact was but he wasn't budging.
"It's over, Spencer," Chloe insisted.
"Just tell us who you're trying to protect," Tony put in, "and you can get off a little easier for yourself."
"I can't do that," he said proudly. "I'm just doing my duty."
Tony pulled Michelle out in to the hallway to talk to her.
"What can we do?" he asked. "We're losing valuable time here and I'm hesitant to use a more forceful means of interrogation."
"I don't know," she muttered. "Where's Jack? He might have another idea…"
But just as she said that, Jack came hurriedly down the hallway, President Palmer in tow. They entered the room and Spencer looked quite shocked to see Palmer there. Jack thrust a Polaroid in his face.
"Do you recognize him?" Jack asked. Spencer said nothing, just stared at the picture. "Do you recognize him?" Jack said more loudly and forcefully.
"Yes!" Spencer said.
"Who is he?"
"I let him in to do a tap on some phone lines."
"Under whose orders?" Jack pressed. Spencer was silent.
"Spencer?" Palmer spoke up.
"Mr. President," he acknowledged warily.
"This man is responsible for injuring two of your top agents. He blew up my car and then tried to assassinate me as I walked in the door," he added gently.
"That was him?" Spencer asked in surprise.
"He wasn't putting any taps on phone lines," Jack answered. "Now, I believe you weren't aware of what he really wanted to do which means obviously your employer is playing you. But assisting someone to assassinate a former president…that's a serious crime right there."
"He told me I was just doing my duty to the country," Spencer murmured quietly.
"Who told you that?"
"He said they were worried that CTU was operating without orders from above and it was my job to make sure they knew about what was going on."
"Spencer?" Palmer asked. "Who told you that?"
"Walt Cummings," he said faintly. "The President's Chief of Staff."
There was a stunned silence both in the room and in the observation area outside where Michelle and Tony stood listening with bated breath. A couple minutes later, Jack and Palmer exited the room.
"Thank you, Mr. President," Jack said. "I thought you might be able to provide that extra persuasion. It worked."
"What can we do now, Jack?" Michelle asked. "We can't exactly just have Cummings arrested."
"We need to find out what he's planning," Tony put in. "There must be a greater purpose to what's going on here."
Jack nodded, thinking. "I still have a couple allies among the staff and secret service. I'll call Mike Novick. And then I'll go to the retreat and talk to Cummings."
"What makes you think Novick is going to listen to you?" Tony asked skeptically.
"Simple. He'll have heard by now of the attempt on President Palmer's life. He'll listen…as will the head of secret service, Aaron Pierce."
Michelle nodded. "Just be careful, Jack," she warned. "If Cummings is the one that sent someone after you this morning, he'll know that you're around and probably involved at this point."
Jack went to prepare to leave.
"Dad?"
He turned back to a door he had passed.
"What's going on?" Kim asked.
"I have to leave now," he told her. "I have to go to President Logan's retreat. It seems someone on his staff was involved in the plot to kill Palmer."
Kim came forward and hugged him tightly. "I love you, dad. Be careful."
"I will, sweetie," he sighed. "I love you too."
As he neared his vehicle, he pulled out his cell phone and found the number he wanted. It connected after the second ring.
"Novick."
"Mike? This is Jack Bauer…"
SCENESCENESCENESCENE
A/N: Well, that's it. My alternate intro to season 5. From that point on, assume it's about the same as the rest of the season.
Any thoughts? Comments? Anything?
Cheers!
Lexi
