Chapter 8: The truth comes out in the end.

Hannah walked in the familiar room, he was still laying there, motionless, like every time she'd seen him since February. She bites her lip harder trying to stop the tears she feels welling up in her eyes but she can't, a couple escape rolling down her face, burning their path on her skin. She wishes he would open his eyes this time maybe because she needed to talk to him so much more than ever before. Hannah pulls the plastic chair from the corner of the room she left it last time she visited and sat down taking on of Chuck's hands, it seemed swollen and colder than usually. She bites the inside of her lip harder, she doesn't know what this means, what anything means anymore.

"Hey Chuck, I'll be leaving for some time, maybe a week or two, Aaron will keep you company, maybe Mike too." She manages to get the words out with difficulty, the sobs almost chocking her, but she manages to keep it together long enough to finish her sentence, she never cried while visiting him and she wasn't going to start now.

"Miss Wells, can I talk to you or a second?" she is startled by the other voice in the room, her eyes instinctively land on Chuck, hopelessly believing that it was him who spoke, his eyes though are still firmly shut. She looks at the other side of the room, standing just a few inches from the door was the neurosurgeon that is monitoring Chuck, she doesn't remember his name, doesn't bother to learn it.

"Sure." She says politely and dismisses the man with a small wave of her hand. She leans to Chuck, her lips next to his ear, her hand on the other side of his head, her body softly touching his healed torso "Dr. Handsome needs to see me, I'll be back." She jokes, tries to keep the mood light, pulling back she looks at his pale skin and can't help but place a soft kiss on his forehead.

Walking out of the room she sees the doctor waiting by the nurses' station just steps away, he sees her coming closer and leaves down the file he was studying.

"Well?" Hannah can't help but notice the look on his face, it wasn't one that she liked, he looked defeated and she can only imagine what that means.

"Miss Wells, we did some more tests on Mr. Russnik, he doesn't seem to have any brain functions left. I am sorry but you have to start considering letting him go." His voice is stable, even, and she wonders how can he have said what he just said to her and be so calm?

"You mean pull the plug?"

"I am sorry, but yes." Hannah feels her breathing picking up, everything started spinning around her, this wasn't what she needed to hear today, and today was not the day for this.

"I," she tries to take a deep breath, and steps back, just few inches away from the doctor as he reaches forward to help her not fall on the floor. "I need some time," her voice is so different, almost broken, she takes a few steps back, almost losing her balance and falling, the doctor extended his hand to help her if she needed that.

"Of course, it's just, I'm afraid he's only gonna get worse from here on."

"I'll be visiting a friend for a couple of weeks; I'll give you my answer afterwards" the look on his eyes scares her she knows, deep down, what's going to come out from his lips.

"Alright Miss Wells, but just so you know, he might not have a couple weeks after all."

"I understand," her voice breaks a bit at the end she can't really control her emotions at the moment, no matter how well she might be trying "Anything changes you know how to contact me."

"Of course." Neither of them speaks for a few seconds, just standing there, starring at each other until their eyes felt like burning holes into the other person's scull.

"I'll go back to him now." She says and turns on her heels she can barely hear the doctor's response as her feel carried her as fast as possible into Chuck's room. She closes the door behind her and takes a deep breath. He's still laying there, unmoving, it was killing her slowly seeing him like that.

Hannah whipped the tears she didn't knew left her eyes and tried to get a smile on her face, it resembled more of a grimace than a smile and her dark eyes reflected nothing but the pain and sorrow she was feeling.

"Hey Chuck, I'm back." She sits down next to him again taking the hand she had left in hers again. "He just wanted my number!" she tried to joke but it came off wrong, as if her mouth wasn't cooperating with her to get the correct feelings out. She wonders how life will be without him there, a small voice in her head reminding her that he hasn't been there since February, no matter how much she tries to tell herself otherwise, she doesn't know how much of Chuck is there left in this shell she's talking to.

"I'm kidding, he wanted to talk about you, he thinks you have given up, prove him wrong Chuck!" she squeezes his hand a bit tighter as the words leave her mouth, she doesn't know what good it will do but she figures out that since crying and begging didn't work, maybe Chuck's good old stubbornness would kick in this time.

"Dammit prove him wrong!"

John needed to clear his head, so he found himself for some reason walking in the national mall; it was nearly 9 p.m. he should be home by now, his wife was waiting for him, he knew he should have gone home, but his head was killing him and his cheek had swollen a lot since this morning, the pain was throbbing and it was making it difficult to see in front of him clearly. Deep down he knew he deserved it; he was still mortified that he took the bait a hurt and drunken man had thrown at him, he prided himself to being better than that.

He was walking for about five minutes when he saw a figure sitting by the reflecting pool, she seemed to be staring straight ahead, not moving, probably not carrying about him at all. He walks slowly closer to her, something tells him he knows her, there's something in her slender figure, her dark brown hair, something that makes her so familiar to him. He walks cautiously closer to her trying to figure out who she was.

"Hannah?" he calls her name and she turns her head.

"Forstell, or is Director?" her voice is cold, every word dripping with anger. She spat his name, her words sticking to his skin.

"Please." He doesn't know what he pleads her for, maybe some sympathy but he knows she has none for him, no one really does, why would they? He wouldn't if he was in their shoes either.

"Please what Forstell? Please what?" She sees him hanging his head low, he looks defeated and probably for the first time she notices how different he looks.

"Just not you too." You raises his head; Hannah is shocked to see the bruise under his left eye, the small cut on his cheekbone, she heard he had a fight with Kirkman but she never imagined it would get physical.

"Oh my god what happened to your eye?" for a moment she forgets how angry she was at him and just took a couple of steps closer, her hands almost rose to his face, but she stopped herself, this isn't the same man he was last year, he couldn't be.

"The president punched me; he's still wearing his wedding band."

"You deserved that." She looks away at the reflecting pool, it's such a calm night, looking at her watch she sees that she needs to be back home in a little while; she doesn't want to leave Mike waiting.

"I know." She is shocked by this admission, she turns looking at him John Forstell rarely if ever admits his own faults, but here she is just saw him doing just that. "I heard he fired you."

"So you came to gloat; now I'll be working for you again." She couldn't stop herself, her anger overtaking the logic part of her brain which was telling her again and again to just look at him.

"No, I came to tell you that your job won't change when you work for me," she looks at him, the question clear in her eyes, she didn't expect him to say this to her, "I still want you to get to the bottom of this, I want you to figure out everyone who's involved with Pax Americana and bring them to justice." Hannah looks up, there's something in his eyes that confuses her, she's not sure how to respond to it, she wants to believe him when he tells her that all he wants is justice for all those souls that were lost in the capitol building bombing but she wasn't sure she could trust him with anything anymore, the question she wanted to ask him for so long stuck in her head all the time.

"Is that what you were doing with Mrs. Booker and Alex?" for the first time she sees, clearly, his face changing, she can't read him though, she is not sure what the feeling in his eyes have to say after all. "Is it?"

"Yes." he whispers his answer to her, so softly, she nearly missed it.

"Really John? Because what I heard is that you were trying to smear the Kirkmans to build a political profile for a senate run!" she can see the hurt clearly in his features this time, it's difficult to miss when he just turns his head away from her in shame.

"I did want to run for Senate, I never hid my aspirations, but I didn't use this for political gain." She chuckles, having difficult time to believe his words, how could she, he was one of the very few people she trusted completely and he turned around and betrayed her.

"Then why did you drop it when Alex told the world about it?" she felt her anger subsiding as she continued asking him the questions that were eating her alive since Christmas.

"Because I knew it would be seen as such and the bureau would take a hit." He responds to her anger with calmness, one that rivals Jason's patience with her, his voice barely changing tone, she doesn't know how to deal with that, she knows she wants to hate him, she wants to scream at him, call him names, anything, but she can't, she can't because the man in front of her faced her volcano with a cold water. "Believe it or not I actually care about the FBI; I don't want my legacy in the agency to be that all I did was delegitimize it." She sees him biting his lip, there was something else, something he hadn't told her, she knows about it, she was the one to give Alex the needed evidence, with the clear to use them as she sees fit and not care about the investigation, John probably knows that too but he still hesitates to outer the next words/ "Also, the first lady had some evidence that she wasn't involved."

"You were willing to risk the life of a family John, I told you from the beginning there was probably nothing there! I told you both Mrs. Booker and Alex are innocent!" she finds herself not really caring about the tone of her voice anymore, she doesn't care that he kept his calm and didn't start a screaming match she was willing to start one herself. She was tired, exhausted, she had lost her job, her best friend was dying and had lied to all the people she cared about, she honestly didn't care enough not to scream at the director of the FBI in the middle of the national mall.

"And I should have listened to you, but I also had to investigate it! You think it didn't bother me? I knew Alex Kirkman, she was a marvelous lady, tough as nails, and I didn't want to believe that she was involved in any wrongdoing but I had to investigate it." Nasty thing emotions, Hannah knows it, logically she knows that he is right, that he had to investigate, it's what she would have done, it's what she did in the past, but emotionally she felt his betrayal deeper, it was still a knife lodged in her back after all. "Had she been open and foregoing with me it would never have reached to that point."

"What?" she asks him, she can't believe what she had just heard from the lips of the man she thought she knew.

"All she was doing was protecting her family. That's who she is!" she pushes him back lightly and starts to walk away, she can't even bear looking at him anymore.

"Who she is?" his question stops her at her feet.

"Sorry?" her breathing fastens, she hopes he won't hear it maybe that he will ignore it but she knows John and he's too smart to ignore it, she knows better than to think that he might ignore it

"You said that's who she is, and before," he pauses, looking at her, his eyes wide, his blue eyes studying her face as carefully as they could through the tears she hadn't noticed were there. "You keep referring to Alex Kirkman in present, like she's still alive."

"Slip of the tongue." She answers quickly, she knows he knows, all her tries to invade the subject are and will prove futile, there's no way he is going to ignore her 'slip of the tongue'.

"No, no I know you Hannah! This might was a slip of the tongue but you are hiding something. Is Alex Kirkman," he looks around with caution, as if he's trying to figure out who might be hiding in the bushes, he walks closer to her, so close that she can feel his breath on her neck, it gives her goosbumps all over her body but she tries to ignore it, she tries to suppress the sound of her heart beating loudly in her ears. "Is she alive?" he whispers.

"John, this is nonsense." She tries to evade him again and she turns around to leave, she knows if she stays much longer she'll find herself too tangled in this mesh and she won't be able to escape, she wonders, what crime is it to lie to the president, it sounds like one.

"No it's not, Hannah!" this is the first time in their entire conversation that Hannah turns her head away in shame, she can't help but snicker in the irony in her head. "Hannah talk to me!"he walks closer to her, his hands clutching her arms tight enough for her to feel the pressure but light enough to not leave bruises.

"I can't trust you John." she says softly, her voice barely coming out, she didn't want to admit it to him that his actions wounded her almost gravely, that her trust in him was shattered probably forever.

"Of course you can." He stops for a moment, the realization of what she told him hitting him, she can see the question turning to hurt quickly. "Hannah you know me, I wouldn't risk a person's life, I can't sleep since Christmas," his words make her take another good look at him, ignore the bruise on his face or the swollen and cut cheekbone and just look, she notices the black circles under his eyes as if they just appeared out of nowhere , she notices the weight loss and the exhaustion, she wonders how the hell could she have missed it, "Thinking I was responsible for the accident," "Breaks me." They both stay silent, just looking at each other, not knowing what to say next, she knows what he'll ask, he'll want an answer, a straight one and Hannah just prepares herself to give it to him, she is still not sure if she can but she knows she has to. What she blamed Tom Kirkman of doing she sees that she is doing to other as well. This was her mess, and yes she created it but she didn't have to carry the burden alone, she could tell someone, someone she knew would never risk her secret, she wonders is john that person?

"Is she?" he asks, he keeps his voice down, looking around as if he's worried to that someone is watching them.

"Yeah," she whispers softly, it was as if she wasn't sure how to admit the truth, it was such a small word just four letters and yet it probably was the hardest words she had uttered in her life. She sees his face lighting up in a smile she forgot when she saw last, it wasn't sarcastic, or used in an effort to hide anything, it was just wide, open and warm, she almost instantly feels better telling him for some weird reason. "Don't ask me for more John, because I honestly cannot tell you, but she is." she tells him as soon as she sees him opening his mouth, he closes his mouth taking a deep breath and nodes, she is surprised his smile stays there the whole time. He gives her his hand and she takes it "Walk with me" he tells her, they slowly start walking to the Lincoln memorial, the chilly breeze is waking her senses up, like the strongest shot of caffeine.

"Does her husband know?" he whispers, she knew he would want to know more, she doesn't blame him really, she just involved him in a mess unparallel to anything else before, they both might lose their job when all this comes to light.

"No! And he can't know until it's over." She lowers her voice, looking around, they are thankfully alone. John stops and turns to look at her, she knows that look on his face, she has seen it a couple times in the past already.

"When is it gonna be over Hannah? He needs to know." She knows he is right, she has seen him, she knows the pain he is going through and she couldn't agree more that he does need to know, but she knows better than that, he does too, they can't let the emotions overwhelm them in this, letting the president know would only end terribly for all.

"What's he gonna do?" she asks him, she can see him thinking the wheels on his head working overtime, a sad chuckle leaves his lips and lowers his head. "Exactly John!"

"You know he can't know about this. I'll explain everything to him when she's safe, when they all are safe." He raises his head and looks at her, for the first time Hannah can see the director of the FBI there, his next question doesn't come as a surprise to her anymore.

"You know who did it." There is no question in his voice, he knows she knows.

"Yeah."

"It's Rennet isn't it?"

"Yeah." She bites her lip, this was another tough admition, how can anyone admit something like that? It was her that allowed him in their lives, it was her who let him in the white house, she was blinded, and to think that if she only had listened to Chuck's doubts she might have been able to stop all this.

"I'm so sorry Hannah." There's not a sign of pity in his voice, not that Hannah expected it to be but she still is happy to see that he hasn't changed that much after all.

"So am I." she looks at her watch, it's getting late and she needs to get back home soon if she didn't want to leave Mike waiting. "See you around." She tells him and turns around walking away, john stood where she left him frozen in his heels, not sure what else to say there had to be something, he knew there was something but it was as if his voice was stopping him.

"Hey Hannah." He calls her name and she turns around to face him. "If you need any help I'm a phone call away with an army in my disposal." She smiles kindly, they both know that she will do everything not to call him but it was nice to know that she wasn't fighting this never ending battle on her own.

"Thank you John. I know."

She barely had time to take off her jacket and shoes when the bell rang, she takes another look at her watch smiling, Mike was always on time, never a minute late, she guesses this is something he picked up being in the Presidential Protection Detail for over a year now. She walks to the door barefoot, the wood cold under her feet and looks through the peak hole just to make sure it was still Mike, she sees him standing there looking around a little bored she smiles and opens the door.

"Hey Wells!"

"Hey Mike." She tells him stepping aside letting him in the apartment. He lets the files fall on the kitchen counter with a thud, she can sense that he didn't just carry the files to her here.

"I looked through the files, Damian."

"Shhh." She shuts him up, pressing her hand on his mouth stopping him from saying another word. She doesn't know why she is so paranoid, Damian never came to Chuck's apartment, only hers, theoretically his apartment wouldn't be in danger to be bugged, but she still couldn't stop herself from being careful, she couldn't risk it, she's up against an enemy that wouldn't let her live to regret it.

"What?" he asks whispering as soon as she removes her hand from his mouth.

"I couldn't tell you in the office, but Damian is alive, he was wearing a vest when I shot him, he's the one that stabbed Chuck, he's the one who tried to kill me. I was going to bring him in and inform the president but he knocked me unconscious and when I woke up I smelled gas and got the hell out of there." She looks at him as he takes in all the information she was giving him, all the expressions that his face changes were remarkable, she can almost guess his next question, she knows it as well, it's the same Aaron and John asked her, it's the same Chuck had asked her.

"Why not inform the president?"

"He'll have the whole FBI on it in seconds, I know Damian, he's gonna go dark till Kirkman is out of office and out of power and then he'll come back to finish the damn job!" she explodes although it's not Mike's fault he wasn't the one who frustrated her and still she couldn't stop herself, she's tired of being asked the same question over and over again. She doesn't expect his next question though, she knows that many intelligence agencies and the staff are preparing about it but listening to Mike ask her the question was a game changer.

"You think he's not gonna win reelection too?" she is surprised, 'too' does that mean that the secret service doesn't think he'll win re election as well? This is a totally new ball game.

"Yeah, you guys too?" Mike nodes at her question, his head lowered, ashamed to admit that he truly believes that his president, his friend would lose.

"The secret service is already reviewing plans of securing his residences in New York and here in D.C. if he chooses to stay here." She knows, as well as Mike that Tom Kirkman isn't going back to new York, not with his wife buried here, she wonders if Alex coming back before the elections will change the outcome but she shakes this thought from her head, it's not her job to worry whether or not the president wins reelection, her job is simpler, it's to serve and protect.

"So you understand! We can't have him know! Not yet!" he rusn a hand over his tired face, a groan leaving his lips as he opens his eyes and looks at her.

"Fine. I'll keep your secret, but you have two months to get him, or I'll tell him!" his ultimatum was something she didn't expect, but she understands, she totally does why he does it, she wonders if he knew the whole truth how much his reaction would change, would he give her two months or would he demand he flies with her to Alaska? Would he accept to fly coach or would he have commanded Air Force two for the job? Would he settle in a smaller unmarked jet? One thing she knows for sure is that he would inform the president right away, maybe she should tell him, then she could give to Alex someone she really wanted to see.

"I only need one." He looks at her with a smirk on his face, one she gives back, she doesn't know why she says that but she does, maybe it's sheer dumb bravado but whatever, she'll take it, it's the first time she feels alive since December.

Hannah looks at her watch, the airport in Detroit is quite today, not a lot travels surprisingly, her phone rings startling her.

"Wells!" she answers, the voice on the other side of the line scares her, she has heard john in many states but never panicked like that.

"Hannah it's John, I have something for you."

"What is it?" she asks him,

"I've been tracking Rennet since last night; he bought a ticket to Alaska last night at 10p.m. for the 6 a.m. flight to Anchorage. He'll be landing at 2.43p.m. Local."

"Oh my god!" she gasps, Hannah starts looking around, could he truly be somewhere around her? She knows that there's only two flights leaving at 6 am and for her good luck neither is a direct flight. "Where does his flight stop?"

"Chicago and Denver!"she bites her lip, she knows this flight, it's the one she would have taken. The one she always takes when she visits Alaska.

"Dammit!"

"What?"

"Mine stops in Detroit and Seattle, Seattle always has delays but Alex wanted me to get her some things from the duty free shop so I thought I could afford it." she doesn't see him but she knows that the realization of what she told him hit him as well. They both knew what that meant.

"He's gonna be there faster than you."

"Half an hour at least." Of all the times to find herself in the Seattle airport this would probably be the worse.

"Do you need backup?" he asks her, she knows as well as he does that she will refrain from using his help until the very last moment.

"I don't know, I'll call you when I land."

"Hannah," she can feel his disapproval through the phone, it's so obvious after all.

"I'll call you." She says again as if something will change this time

"Hannah!"

"I don't want to involve you yet John! The moment you get involved… he knows. Just wait." she hangs up her phone just in time as her flight is called to board, he's doing the same in Chicago, how it's possible that he will land sooner, she can't help but curse every god listening. She knows she has to call Alex as soon as she touches down in Seattle and hopes that there won't be any delays.

Hannah spends her whole flight trying to get onto a faster one while at the same time tracking the flight from Chicago to Denver. His touched down minutes before hers and Hannah felt another punch in the gut. As soon as the wheels of the plain stop she takes out her pone blindly calling Alex.

"Hello? Hannah?" She sounds surprised, didn't expect her to call and Hannah wishes she didn't have to call.

"Alex get the gun I gave you and run!"There's silence from the other side of the line every minute seemed like an hour to Hannah until she finally heard Alex responding.

"What?" her voice was shaking, Hannah can't blame her, this was probably something she wasn't used to.

"You heard me get the gun and disappear deep in the forest."

"Why, Hannah what's going on?"her voice lost all sings of confusion, and Hannah knows that she deserves an explanation, it's the least she can do for her after all the pain and trouble she put her through.

"Damian knows you're alive and is coming to Alaska," there's only a gasp coming from the other side of the line, taking another look on her watch she sees that he probably already boarded the flight to Anchorage. "He knows where you are. Go!"

A/N: Thank you for reading guys, please leave a word let me know what you think!

Sneak Peak:

Alex hangs up the phone looking frantically around the cabin for the gun her shoes and a coat. She didn't know how he found her but she trusted Hannah, she trusted her all this time, trusted her with her life. The image of Tom and their kids in her head steadied her hands and she put the magazine in the gun leaving the cabin not looking back…