"Bauer, get your hands off my wife!" Arthur barked as Joan gasped for air beneath his grip. Her eyes were wide with terror as he stared her down, but Jack could also see sorrow there.
And, rationally, he knew the longer they waited, the smaller their chances of catching Nina.
Jack dropped her, holding his hands up, and Arthur immediately went to tend to Joan, who was coughing profusely. When he turned around, Annie looked very afraid of him. It appeared she'd been in too much shock to call security. Arthur probably could have, but at the same time, this was a hugely scandalous incident, and he probably wanted to protect Joan's privacy. Annie said nothing, pressing her lips together. Several minutes passed before Joan started breathing properly and stood up. Arthur stared daggers into him, but Joan now looked deeply ashamed. However, Jack could tell she was ashamed about facing Arthur, not what she'd done. She'd looked content before he'd grabbed her. It affirmed to him that her history with Nina was complicated. Perhaps, as complicated as his.
"Get inside." Arthur hissed. "Now."
He kept an arm around Joan as they walked up the stairs, but she moved away from him. They, thankfully, managed to avoid other agents along the way before they made it back to the office they'd been in before.
"Why the hell did you let her go?" Jack asked, keeping his distance so Arthur wouldn't assume the worst.
"I had to," Joan replied. She took a breath to muster her courage before turning to face her husband. "Everything was going to come back to you. The CIA never would have recovered. Your career would have been destroyed."
"She has ammunition that she can use against us at any time now." Jack rebutted. "We were supposed to figure out how she was doing it and shut it down, not let her pull the strings.."
"She won't use it." Joan insisted.
Jack huffed, keeping his voice firm. "She has the CIA wrapped around her finger. She will do what she's done before; she'll resurface as somebody else and get herself into a position where she can manipulate government records to cover her tracks."
"He's right, Joan," Annie admitted quietly. "I don't… I know you were close with her, but I don't understand why you did this."
Arthur didn't say anything, but he had some mix of confusion and disappointment on his face. Jack couldn't help but think of Tony and Michelle again and prayed they would never be in a situation where they had to make difficult decisions between each other and the law. Joan had just let a federal fugitive run free and allowed her to leave with damning evidence against the CIA. That wasn't going to go away. It would have to go on record one way or another that Nina Myers was no longer in CIA custody and that she had violated the terms of her pardon. He would not allow this to be covered up. And, judging by Joan's face, she knew that, even if Arthur hadn't quite gotten there yet.
"Look…" Jack began again. "We don't need to make this a big deal. It can stay private and at top clearance. But we're not going to pretend it didn't happen, either. She violated the terms of her pardon and needs to be held accountable for that. Which means admitting the CIA had her in custody, but now she's gone." He sighed. "Joan, I'm going to have to place you in custody."
"What? Joan outranks you, Bauer! Who the hell do you think you are?" Arthur demanded.
"The only person who is willing to do the right thing."
Arthur rubbed his chin, breathing heavily, desperate to maintain any control of this. "Are you… are you doing this because of her involvement with Lena all those years ago?" He asked, his tone grittier. "Because if so, that is rich coming from you."
"I'm doing this because she released her, Arthur," Jack explained. "She complied with a terrorist's demands and let her not just escape but escape with valuable information. A terrorist who killed my wife."
Arthur went to protest again, but Joan beat him to it. "Enough." She exhaled. "Bauer is right. We can't cover this up. I'll get a lawyer.
We'll fix this, Arthur."
"No." He refused. "I'm not letting you go to prison. Even in solitary confinement, you won't be safe. You're a leader of the CIA with a protected identity, for Christ's sake."
"I can get a lawyer from DOJ-" Joan offered but was cut off again.
"Even if you miraculously get off a treason charge, your career will be ruined." Arthur pointed out. "How is that any different to what you were trying to avoid for me?"
She shook her head. "But I'm not the DCS. I can be replaced quietly. You're a public figure. I don't care, Arthur. I know it was wrong, but I have faith that she'll keep her end of the bargain." Joan then turned to face him. "Bauer, call the Secret Service."
He nodded, but as he went to call Aaron Pierce, he felt Arthur grab his arm.
"Annie, you need to leave," Arthur instructed oddly calmly. "What I'm about to discuss is beyond your clearance level."
In the corner of his eye, Annie appeared very conflicted. She was obviously still concerned by the apparent arrest of her supervisor, someone she likely looked up to. But Jack knew she had more logical reasoning here than Arthur. She'd seen it all happen firsthand. She'd worked under Nina and been hurt by her. She knew what had to be done. She didn't want to argue with that and obliged. Joan still looked nervous but had already started to accept what would happen. He knew, on paper, that Joan was objective and a good leader of the CIA. Arthur was, too, but his objectivity had been lost here because, well, he was threatening to arrest his wife.
"Bauer, we don't have to do this. You know that Lena is one of the most elusive fugitives we've ever had. She never would have stayed in custody for long." Arthur explained. "I understand that you have particularly personal reasons for wanting her to be locked up for good, but I won't let you go back to LA empty-handed."
Jack furrowed his brow slightly.
"There are two agents applying for a promotion from CTU Los Angeles. Agent Almeida and Agent Dessler. They've been married for almost a year now, yes?" Arthur said. "I'm sure they'd appreciate the flexibility and pay increase they can get here rather than at CTU. You let this go… I'll make sure they get what they want."
"Arthur." Joan berated. "You can't blackmail him like this. What has gotten into you?"
"Joan, let me do this for you. Please."
Jack pondered his offer, only for a moment. Yes, he knew how much Tony and Michelle were hoping to get those job offers. He knew they wanted kids and that it would be easier to have them working at this level. But he also refused to let Arthur hold this against Tony and Michelle. He didn't want them intertwined with this disaster. They deserved to earn those jobs fair and square, not as part of such a scandalous cover-up. This was ending right now, the right way.
"Bauer, don't listen to him," Joan stated. "Let me pay the price."
With that, he made the call, and within the hour, Palmer had a full understanding of what had happened. He expressed disappointment in Joan but also pity, noting that he would ensure her record of service wasn't disregarded. But, for now, she would be placed under house arrest and stripped of her clearance immediately. The interagency notice would be that she had taken leave for personal reasons. Her indictment would be kept private for the sake of her dignity and also to avoid public outcry. They would keep an eye on Nina and where she might have gone, but Palmer assured him she would be arrested on sight if she was ever found again. It brought Jack some solace, and he could tell Palmer was happy to be able to retract her pardon. But he still knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep well, knowing she had disappeared again.
As soon as it was over, Arthur coldly asked him to leave. On the way out, he walked past Annie, who looked like she wanted to say something but couldn't and eventually, Jack made it back to his car. He let out a long breath as soon as he sat in the driver's seat, thinking about what he'd just done. He'd torn a marriage apart all because the thought of Nina not being punished had brought him so much anger and a resurgence of his grief. But, admittedly… he wasn't just thinking about Joan and her future. He wasn't even thinking about Arthur or Annie. No, he was fixated on Nina and what she might be doing, as he had been for the last three years since her pardon on the day of the nuclear bomb threat in LA. It had become such a familiar thought to him. He looked at the time and realised it was five minutes until Nina's original deadline of releasing that scandalous information to the media. Despite his argument that Nina could and would use this information against them at any time… he realised now that Joan was probably right. Nina wouldn't risk it. At least… not at this second after she'd gotten what she'd wanted.
When the minute hit, Jack's phone rang. Unknown caller. He already knew who it was.
"Arresting Joan was a good call. You always do the right thing, don't you, Jack?"
Jack gripped the phone tight. "Do you even care about her? Her own husband thinks she did this for you."
"I did care about Joan," Nina said simply. "But I never did love her as much as I loved you. Although, she did just give me my freedom again. I should find a way to thank her."
Hearing her say that made Jack struggle to push down the feelings he'd had at seeing her face in the interrogation room today. Not the rage, not the grief, not the pain. The joy. The happiness. The part of him that he was so ashamed to admit was glad to see she was okay and hadn't been killed during her exile. Only now, in privacy, could he finally acknowledge those emotions. He could finally admit that he was a little relieved that Nina wouldn't be behind bars for the rest of her life. He didn't know who he was without constantly thinking about where she might be. He knew he wouldn't be satisfied if she was in prison. The only way he'd found it in himself to move on after losing Teri was to channel his suffering into anger and determination to know where she was and what she was doing at all times. It had given him his edge back. It made people respect his authority even if they believed he was unstable.
Most of all, though, he couldn't bear to see her die. He could threaten her all he wanted, but the thought of her dying would mean not just the death of his only purpose left in life but also the death of all the memories they'd shared before she killed Teri.
And she knew that.
"Well, I don't want this phone call to be traceable, so I'll leave you to it, Jack. Send Joan my love."
As the dial tone sounded, Jack sat there and knew undoubtedly now that he had to agree with Joan's decision.
But he would take that secret to his grave.
Or, at least, the next time she resurfaced, and he had to act like he despised her with every fibre of his being.