"Teri!" Jack shouts, as if to scold her.
It must be an odd sight, Teri sitting over me, running a knife into my stomach.
"Don't you try and stop me, Jack!" is her annoyed reply.
She makes no sense; she rolls off of me and tosses the scalpel away.
"Agent Meyers?" Tony's voice calls. Nice idea of his, trying to make all this crap seem professional.
"I'm fine." I push myself up, groaning. I brush off my skirt and examine my wounds.
Not bad, and not anything close to what I deserve, or to what damage could've been done.
Thus, I'm doing fine.
Teri's arms are shaking. She's staring at the knife on the floor, and I can see a tear glistening on her cheek.
Tony walks over, slowly, to survey the crime scene.
Jack is remaining silent and oddly stationary.
Tony then helps Teri to her feet. How polite, gentlemanly.
Minus one for Tony, for even touching her.
"T-Teri…" is the next thing Jack says, and even this is barely audible, and lacking any sort of emotion.
Teri doesn't look at him. With some difficulty, she throws her still-tied arms over Tony.
Hmm.
"I need to take Agent Meyers to the Situation Room." Tony says to Teri.
I love him. Thinking everything through, I wish I knew how to do that.
He can't send Jack to
do it, that would send Teri over the edge again. And he can't stay
with Teri, that would upset me.
Perfect, Tony's even again.
Jack leaves the room with Tony and I. The only thing that wasn't well-planned was leaving Teri alone.
Jack pages for Security as soon as we're down the hallway, and the problem is solved.
Tony takes my arm and pulls me down to the Situation Room doors.
They're still sealed, and several agents are inside.
Jack gives them some sort of signaled wave, and the doors open.
"False Alarm." He announces, "Prisoner is secure."
Teri the prisoner, a lovely thought.
"We need a minute with Agent Meyers." Tony adds.
The agents nod and scatter.
Oh, I see what's going on; Jack's set it up to make me look like the mentioned prisoner. Fine by me, then no one will worry about Teri, or suspect anything wrong.
"See what I mean?" Jack asks me, as soon as the random people have left and the doors have shut.
I watch Tony roll his eyes. He reaches under the conference table and removes the emergency kit. He opens it and fetches a variety of bandaging.
Jack and Tony silently look over the bandaging.
I sit down atop the table, and they immediately pick up the bandages.
Remember how courteous Tony was earlier? That disappears now.
He untucks my blouse from my skirt and rolls my shirt up.
Jack takes this as some sort of cue, and begins wrapping the bandage around me. His hands are cold.
"I don't even know what to say…" Tony tells us, joining Jack.
There are no words in any language to express what is happening and what we should be saying.
Silence until they've finished.
"So Teri set off the alarm system?" I ask, as Jack tugs my shirt back down. What, am I helpless?
"That's what we're assuming." Was Tony's answer, "The signal came from Waiting."
I nod.
"Where's Kim?"
"Jack took her to Holding, she's fine."
I know he still cares about his daughter, but I certainly don't.
But I respect this, and plus one for Jack.
The Terrorists have fallen behind on my agenda. I need to go pull up some promised schematics for them right about now.
"I'll be back in a minute…" I tell them, and leave.