A/N: Just a story inspired by my story, "Connections". Amacma pointed out that, in my story, Jack never shared with Audrey that he and Nina had been together. I very intentionally made that decision for the story because, realistically, he did not share everything with Audrey as indicated by her reaction to his old life in Day 4 and specifically did not tell her about sleeping with Nina based on the things she said when he found out she had slept with Walt Cummings. So, I wrote this little story that is meant to take place during season 5 episode 21. Jack returned to CTU with the audio recording implicating Logan in Palmer's assassination and visited Audrey in medical because of her arm being cut by Henderson. They had a few minutes alone together to talk.

Jack sat at the bottom of the bed in medical by Audrey's feet, Audrey bending one of her legs to make space for him. He kissed her knee cap softly and reached for her hand which she had extended to him.

It was nice for both of them to sit in silence for a minute, just enjoying each other's company. But, there was something on Jack's mind that was bothering him. Something he needed to say to her.

"Hey, what are you thinking so hard about?" Audrey asked, gently nudging him with her foot, noticing that he seemed deep in thought. Jack looked at her, breaking out of his thoughts, and smiled, amazed that she could still read him so well.

"About earlier," he started in a whisper. "You said that you thought I'd think less of you for sleeping with Cummings."

Audrey's face turned red and she pulled her hand slowly away from his to rub her injured arm. She still felt sick about it. Her first ever one night stand and it was with a man who was not only responsible for the nerve gas attacks today but had also tried to kill Jack. She had felt guilty just about sleeping with him in general but now was utterly disgusted. "Can we please not talk about that?"

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Jack said. "I'm sorry you thought I would feel that way."

"Jack-"

"Let me finish," he insisted, seeing that she obviously wanted to be finished with this conversation but he needed to tell her what he had failed to tell her before. "You should have known that I could never judge you for sleeping with a traitor because you should have known - well, I should have told you - that I did too."

Audrey, who had been looking down at her hands to avoid his eyes, looked up at him in confusion.

"Do you remember me telling you that Teri and I were separated for a little while?" he asked, now he was the one avoiding eye contact but he could see out of his peripheral vision that she nodded. "During that time, I was with Nina Myers."

Audrey's jaw dropped, thinking about what that meant. He had slept with his wife's murderer? She could imagine how much more terrible he felt than how she felt about Cummings and felt horribly for him.

"Jack, I-" Audrey started. "I don't know what to say. I didn't know."

"Because I didn't tell you," Jack explained, now meeting her gaze to find nothing but love and acceptance. "I thought you'd think less of me."

"Oh, Jack, I wouldn't have."

"But, you thought I would a few hours ago," Jack reminded her, sensing that she was about to tell him that it wasn't his fault and that he couldn't have known. Exactly what he wanted to convince her of but knew that would make him a hypocrite. "So you understand why I didn't tell you before?"

Audrey nodded. The shame and embarrassment. The sickening feeling of their hands on you. They didn't need to discuss it any further. They understood each other's feelings about this and no amount of saying that they shouldn't feel bad would make either of them feel better. "Yeah. I do."

Audrey reached for Jack's hand again and pulled him towards her. "Come here."

Jack moved up the bed, Audrey moving over to make space for him on the small bed. They laid side-by-side, holding each other and sharing soft, loving kisses. Jack soon started stroking her hair which made Audrey get more and more tired.

"I love you," she murmured as she drifted off to sleep, so sleepily that she probably wouldn't even remember that she said it when she woke up.

"I love you too," he whispered back, kissing her head softly. He snuck out of the bed, being sure not to disturb her as he went back to work, ready to present the evidence against Logan to the attorney general. It was time for this mess to be over.