As soon as he had finished talking to the two agents stationed outside, Alex was quick to go inside. He had to assume that Jack's arrival was imminent.

"The informant has Jack, they'll likely be working together," he said as he and Nina walked into the kitchen.

Nina sighed. "They won't stop until I'm dead."

Alex was about to reply before a sudden burst of activity from the front door interrupted him. Seconds later, Jack and two masked men rushed into the room.

"Hello, Nina," Jack growled before lunging at her, only for Alex to push him back. "Keep out of this!"

Alex glared at the two masked men before turning his attention to Jack. "Who is he?"

Jack declined to answer, still intent on getting around him. Alex grabbed his arm and repeated the question.

"He said to call him Howard."

Nina stared in surprise before moving closer to Jack and looking him in the eyes. "You don't wanna be working with him!"

He scoffed. "Of course you would think that."

"The order to kill anyone who could tie me to Germany came from him," she replied. Mona might have been the one to tell her, but it had come from Howard.

Jack studied her face, unsure how to take this information.

"If I didn't kill Teri that night, he would have killed us and our families."

He contemplated her words. If she was telling the truth, and he did want her to be, then Howard was partly responsible for Teri's murder. Nina wasn't innocent, of course, but Teri might still be alive if it weren't for Howard. Staring into her eyes, he hoped she would be honest. "Would you have killed her without the order?"

Nina shook her head. "No, I never wanted to hurt Teri."

Believing her made his reluctance to work with Howard grow stronger. Even if he was offering a chance to get his long-desired revenge, he couldn't stand the man. Somehow, he seemed far worse than the woman who had murdered his wife.

Alex let go of Jack's arm, sensing the threat dying down, though he didn't let his guard down. Jack was deep in thought, contemplating his decision, and it could still go either way.

Time passed in stony silence before Jack came to a decision he hoped he wouldn't regret. Turning around, he fired two silenced shots into the hearts of the masked men. He watched them slump to the floor before turning back to face Nina. "If you're messing with me…"

She stared into his eyes, wanting him to believe the truth even if it came from a seasoned liar. "I'm not. Not any more, I promise."

He nodded, feeling a strange sense of happiness, before walking over to the dead men. "We need to go to CTU and come up with a plan."

"What's CTU?"

The trio stared at James. He was stood in the doorway, trying not to look at the two corpses on the kitchen floor.

Alex decided that he would have to tell the truth. "A federal agency, I work there."

James nodded before gesturing towards Jack. "What happened to his grudge?"

Nina walked over to him. "I used to work there too, so did he."

He looked at her, surprised. "You've never said anything about it."

She glanced at the dead men. "They worked for a man who wants me dead."

James was stunned. Where were all these death threats coming from? Then again, she had always seemed troubled by something she kept buried deep down inside. He had never plucked up the courage to ask, but after tonight? They would have to talk.

Jack walked over to the dead men. "We should move these bodies before your children see them."

Howard took a puff from his cigar as he imagined the ongoing events at Nina's house. She might have been living in peace for all these years, but she was a risk he couldn't tolerate.

Stubbing out his cigar, he remembered the day they had proven she was back in the country. At first, he had considered sending some of his men to take care of the problem. It would have been a quick solution, but risked attracting attention, so he had decided to go by a more legal route. He had contacted her brother in the hope that Nina would end up dead. Having known little about Alex Myers, he had not known of his divided loyalties.

He looked over at one of his men and beckoned him. "Go to the guest room and check on their progress. She should be here soon."

They had dragged the bodies into the van, leaving it for CTU to collect. Now they were in the SUV and speeding towards the agency itself. Nina was in the front passenger seat as Alex drove, with Jack sat behind them.

She was deep in thought, thinking about everything. Her first days at CTU, the relationship with Jack. The exposure, arrest and conviction. The pardon and then the escape. What could she tell James about, and how? He knew she was hiding something and tonight had told him it was something big.

Alex was feeling relieved. Jack had believed Nina before turning on Howard's men, but the peace was fragile. For now, the main worry was Howard himself. Any more permanent settlement between his sister and his friend would have to wait.

Nina looked into the rear view mirror, catching Jack's attention. "I still remember what you said about the Sunday before, every last word."

He had expected to see mockery on her face, but saw the same sincerity he heard in her voice. "You never apologised for killing my wife."

"I am sorry for killing Teri, it's the one thing I regret the most."

As they drove into the CTU parking lot, the trio thought of that night all those years before. It might have been a continent away from LA, but the memories were crystal clear. They always would be.

Nina was apprehensive as she walked into the bullpen. Were they going to let her leave once everything was over? Still, she couldn't help but look around, impressed by what she saw. That was, until she looked into the disbelieving eyes of a woman she had not seen since that day.

Kim glared at her. "Dad, why is she here?"

"I'm sorry for what I did, but I've changed. I'm no longer the same person I was back then."

Her words had no positive impact on Kim, who walked away towards one of the conference rooms. Jack followed her inside.

"Sweetheart, let me explain," he began as soon as he closed the door behind them. "Someone told me she was back in the country. I wanted revenge at first, but things have changed."

Kim was leaning against the table, arms crossed. "Are they gonna arrest her?"

He knew her opinion would carry great weight in how he would play his part in what happened next. Nina's actions had badly hurt her, but he had done many terrible things to protect innocents. If he could find redemption and lead a happy life, couldn't she? He wondered if he had finally snapped, thinking this way about his wife's murderer. Yet she had been living in peace with her family for years, causing no harm to anyone. Couldn't things carry on like that? Couldn't the violence and bloodshed and death stay in the past?

"Dad?"

"She has a family now. Other than Alex, I mean. An husband and four children."

Kim stood up. "Why does that matter?"

He knew she was right, that having kids didn't mean someone could avoid consequences. Yet it was his own child's experience that he was thinking about. "They don't deserve to lose their mother any more than you did."

Kim nodded. She agreed with him and she was glad he wasn't going to kill again, but it sounded as if he was okay with her living free. "Yeah, but she made her choices a long time before they were born."

"The man who told me about her? He would have killed us all if Nina had made a different choice that night. Us, your mother. Nina and Alex."

She looked out into the bullpen. "I wanna talk to her, alone."

Hastings was deep in conversation with Nina. He was willing to let things carry on as normal, but he knew he had an obligation as Director. After all, he had heard plenty about this shadowy figure of CTU history.

"I promise I no longer have ties to that world," she said. Whilst she often felt undeserving of this third chance, she knew it wasn't only for her. Her children needed her and she wasn't going to let her past harm them.

"Help us stop this Howard and we can work something out. Nothing has to change here."

She nodded, more than happy to help. Her earlier apprehension had faded away now.

Jack approached the two. "Nina, Kim wants to talk with you."

Nina looked at him in surprise before glancing over at the conference room. Inside, Kim was talking on the phone and she wondered who was on the other end.

As she headed for the room, Alex joined Jack and Hastings.

"It's gonna take us a while to accept this," Jack spoke. He knew that Kim wasn't delighted, but she was willing to give it a chance.