Author's Notes: This was inspired by a fic challenge from an RPG I'm in and the song "Countin' on a Miracle" by Bruce Springsteen. I don't own the characters, the song or the story of Cinderella. I don't even own the idea that inspired this!

"Cinderella heard the tower bells and knew that she had stayed too long, she had to leave at once."

Dark amusement mingled with hysteria as she remembered when her daughter was little and she told her bedtime stories every night. Funny to think about now. Or maybe it was fitting because it was almost midnight and like Cinderella, Teri watched the clock with anxious eyes. Every second that passed she was convinced someone would find them but every second that passed proved her wrong.

With the tape against her mouth, Teri tried to take a deep breath through her nose. Maybe it was her fear - it made her heart race, made anything but shallow breaths impossible - but it hurt to try. Teri closed her eyes, rested her head on the back of the chair she was tied to and forced down the panic. She had to be calm, she had to believe that someone would find her. That Jack could pull off another miracle and come through just in time. They'd been through so much this day. She wasn't going to die in CTU, that was ridiculous. Someone would find her and stop Nina.

It was difficult to make out what Nina was saying or doing. She heard the occasional beep from the computer and some whispered conversation but Teri couldn't understand any of it. Her mind wandered back to when Kim was six and so obsessed with Cinderella that she wanted to dress-up as her for Halloween. Teri had spent weeks on the costume, an old blue bridesmaid dress from a friend because she knew she couldn't whip up something from scratch. After spending her free time during the day on the costume, at night she had to tell Kim the Cinderella story because that was all she wanted to hear.

"Cinderella's wicked stepmother locked her into the attic so the prince wouldn't find her."

Teri changed the details around, she tried to make it more interesting, make Cinderella less of a damsel-in-distress. Those changes made Kim love the story even more and every night she'd ask to hear it and every night Teri had to try to think up a new way to tell it.

"I'm leaving now, Teri. I'm gonna lock you in from the outside." Nina's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Surprise and relief washed over her and Teri couldn't believe it was over just like that.

"Someone will find you soon. Everything will be fine." Teri didn't understand why Nina was trying to reassure her but she heard the door open and shut with a click. It was over. The room was left quiet save for the hum from the servers and her own breathing.

"But Cinderella climbed out the window and escaped, finding the prince outside."

She waited in silence, her mind racing with ways to get someone's attention, to escape. Then she heard a sound she couldn't (didn't want to) recognize, footsteps. Her relief evaporated There was another sound, like a whoosh of air, that she recognized a second too late. Something hot exploded in her chest.

"And they lived happily ever after?" Kim prompted, blonde hair in pigtails. She was curled against Jack and he grinned at the expectant tone in their daughter's voice.

There wasn't pain, just heat in her veins and darkness falling down around her. Dimly, Teri heard another sound same as the first. Then there was no heat this time. The warmth slipped from her, running down her shirt as she slid into the darkness.

"They lived happily ever after. The end."