Jack Bauer's apartment - Tuesday, February 18th, 2003
The place was a mess. Beer bottles and takeaway boxes could be found on every surface including the floor, and the smell was so overpowering that it was a miracle that Jack could even breathe. Tony had been around every so often, trying to get him to clean up or often doing it himself, but Jack just wanted to be alone and to do as little as possible. That was easy enough when it came to Kim, who had barely seen him since her mother was murdered - she was working as an au pair for a couple elsewhere in Los Angeles now, and whilst he had tried to see her a few times, she had always said she wasn't ready.
He slept poorly most nights, but if he didn't have a dream of that day or that night, then he considered it a good night. The most common dream he had was of finding Teri, blood all over her and no sign of life, and no matter what he did, he could never wake her up. CTU had told him to take as much time off as he needed, but he had no plans to ever go back there. They had failed to protect his family, and that after everything he had done for them!
Sighing, he took a swig from a beer bottle, finishing off the last of the now room temperature drink. He let the bottle just fall to the floor and laid back down on the sofa. The picture of Teri he often spent hours just gazing at was on the coffee table in front of him, her sparkling blue eyes and friendly smile now just memories that would eventually fade entirely from his mind as the years went on. He knew that today was his birthday, but he was in no mood to even acknowledge it. He would have given years of his own life at that point if it meant Teri could be brought back, even for just a day.
The first months had been a blur, and he mostly just floated through them. First was the funeral, burying his wife next to her parents. Then came the trial, where the woman he had destroyed his marriage for, the killer of his wife, was sentenced to life without parole for her crimes. After that had been the CTU inquest into what the hell had happened that day. Finally, in what he thought was probably October or November, the events stopped. He didn't need to be reminded every day of what had happened, he could just stay at home and think only of Teri. It was just a shame that he couldn't get that one last memory out of his mind.
He could hear a car radio outside, the driver seemingly wanting to give the entire block a concert. The song was an old classic from the 1980s, one that Teri had loved, which brought tears to his eyes. It seemed almost as if the music was mocking him, and he tried to shut it out, to think of Teri and only Teri. He didn't need anyone or anything else, he just wanted his family to be back in one piece. No matter what he did, or said, or tried, the pieces were never going to go back together, and that devastated him.