Drown Every Truth in an Ocean of Lies

Audrey grunted, trying to break free from the hostile's grip. The barrel of the pistol was warm against her temple, leaving no doubt that he would use it. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, drowning out the yelling and gunfire. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see more Marines descending the chopper. They were surrounded, which meant this guy had to realise he had no chance of escape. That being said, he was holding her so tightly against his body, it would be difficult for them to aim for a spot that he couldn't quickly dodge by using her as a human shield. What confirmed this was Jack and her father complying with the man's demands that they lower their weapons. Tears and sweat blurred her vision, but when she met Jack's eyes, she could still see his worry, a worry she had never seen from him before. 

The sun was practically burning her through her clothes, but she could still feel the coldness of the knife against her skin that Jack had slipped to her earlier. Since the man holding her was so focused on making sure his threat was legitimate, maybe she had a chance here. Audrey let the weapon drop slightly, curling her fingers up ready to catch it, but she underestimated just how much she was shaking, both from fatigue and fear, and how slippery her palms were from sweat, because the knife slid too quickly down her sleeve.

When it hit the ground, it did so audibly enough to pique the attention of the terrorist and cause Jack to look at her wide-eyed.

"Audrey, do what you have to do," her father advised, keeping his voice calm so as not to further upset the man.

She shook her head slightly, and he gave her a look of disbelief. She refused. There was another way around this that wouldn't require her to do what he was suggesting, not after swearing she would never show this part of herself ever again, not in front of all these people, and especially not in front of Jack. 

"I am giving you permission," his father said more insistently. "Screw the logistics; you have a way out of this."

Jack looked at her father with confusion, but quickly returned his gaze to her.

"Shut up!" the hostile screamed, his spit landing in her hair. "I will kill her!"

"Damn it, Audrey, do it!"  

Her time was up, and so was his. And, in all honesty, the current adrenaline of the situation, combined with what had built up over the last few hours, only made it harder to resist. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the sounds and sunlight. Audrey felt the stretch in her fingers as they elongated and sharpened into talons. Her teeth did similarly, and she could taste blood as they pierced the inside of her cheek. The process was slower and more painful than it used to be, but she supposed the lack of blood and the fact that it had been many years since she had last done this explained why. The man's grip loosened as she tensed her muscles, but before he could try to grab hold of her again, she head-butted him with a grunt. Knowing the Marines would likely want to try to shoot him, she wasted no time in spinning around and channelling her might to shove him against the wall.

She successfully disarmed him, although given how he seemed almost frozen in shock, she figured even if he still had a weapon on him, he probably wouldn't use it. Her wings cast shadows on and around him, and she knew her eyes were glowing based on how clear everything still seemed. She had one hand around his throat, lifting him high enough to make his legs dangle. The exhilaration of the transformation was exactly what made it so hard to stay in control right now. It would be easier if she was better practiced. As she grappled with the urge, her nails dug into the delicate skin of his neck, and the smell of blood immediately overrode all of her other thoughts. The veins on her hand and arms bulged as she tried to keep herself steady. But by this point, she was so exhausted and dehydrated, she could no longer resist.

Audrey hissed, lunging forward to sink her teeth into the wound. She heard the man gasp for breath as she drank his blood. The more she tasted, the hungrier it made her, all those years of abstaining catching up to her. At some point, she caught herself, knowing that if she had more, she would likely throw it all back up again. The man was pale, his eyes open but lifeless. Audrey could feel the stickiness of the blood around her mouth and below her chin. Her hair had come undone from its pins. She lowered and folded her wings as she relaxed, allowing everyone behind her to see the body. She squeezed her eyes shut to force them to return to their usual blue. Slowly, her fangs and nails retracted too, her body heaving.

When Jack said her name, it sounded awfully timid.

As she turned around slowly, all weapons were now pointed at her. Everything was very quiet, eerily so. She wasn't sure how human she looked right now, as some things took longer than others to retract. Regardless, she was covered in blood. It hadn't even quite been self-defence, and even if it had, it wouldn't change the fear in everyone's eyes, nor would it change how afraid she was right now. She had just exposed herself in the worst possible way. The government might have become slightly more understanding towards sirens with time, but the consensus amongst people that sirens were unstable and dangerous prevailed. Her father had gone to great measures to keep their status secret from the media, and there would be a hell of a lot of explaining to do now. But she was alive, she supposed, so that should make it worth it. That being said, she wasn't invincible. Any of these Marines could still shoot and kill her.

"Put your weapons down!" her father yelled, moving to stand in front of her. "As Secretary of Defence, I am ordering you to stand down!"

She knew she should stay vigilant in case someone decided to disobey her father's orders, but all she could focus on was the shock and betrayal in Jack's eyes.

Jack stared at Audrey through the glass discreetly from where he stood. Heller was standing by her bed, talking to her. She had gotten herself cleaned up and looked more like herself now. Part of him was relieved to see that she was okay, but that part was deeply buried beneath his hurt and rage. He was sure she would have an explanation for it all, but he didn't want to hear it, because she knew what he had been through, he had confided in her about it, and yet she had withheld the fact that she was a siren. To this day, he still had nightmares about the moment he had found Nina hovering over his wife's eviscerated corpse, heaving like a wild animal. He could still see her razor-sharp teeth dripping with blood, the cold, piercing blue of her glowing eyes that he had almost gotten lost in, and the iridescent black scales that had formed on her arms and hands.

He took a deep breath and walked into the clinic. Audrey immediately looked up at him with so much concern that, for a second, he forgot about everything that he had seen. But that was exactly what made him feel the need to put his guard up, what gave him such awful deja vu and made him think about how Nina had fooled him. He had to admit that at his core, he was afraid. He wasn't one to make generalisations. He certainly didn't believe that all sirens were inherently evil. Claudia hadn't been. However, her allure had fed his addiction. She had been like Jekyll and Hyde; one minute, she would slap him and call him pathetic for using, the next, she would hold out the syringe and remind him how much he needed it. Those two sirens of his past aside, Jack was generally distrustful of people, so it only made sense that he was distrustful of sirens who could manipulate him easily and that he couldn't defend himself from no matter how much he tried. Jack refused to show his fear, though. It was the only thing he could do to maintain some control over the situation.

"Jack…"

There was a familiar sweetness to her voice. He started to doubt everything she had ever said to him. He wondered how many things he had agreed to because she had made him.

"You lied to me." 

"I can explain–"

The more Jack tried to hide the pain within him, the angrier he seemed to get. She might have concealed herself with her wings before, but it was so easy for him to meld what he had managed to see of her with his memories of Nina. He thought about how he had intended on introducing Kim to Audrey soon and now he couldn't fathom telling her that he was in a relationship with a siren. After so many rocky years, things had finally started to heal for them. Talking about this with her would destroy the fragile rebuilt trust between them. She would never forgive him.

Jack was so blinded by his emotions, he didn't even realise what he was doing until he heard Audrey gasp for air. His hand was wrapped around her throat. She stared back at him wide-eyed, too shocked to try to fight him. A tear welled in the corner of one of her eyes.

"Get your hands off my daughter, Jack!"

He felt someone grab him from behind and spin him around. Jack went to resist, but they were too strong, too fast. Audrey coughed behind him, but he paid it no mind because he was too occupied with the chill that coursed down his spine as he noticed the piercing glow of Heller's eyes, the same glow he had seen in Audrey's at the compound. Jack felt his knees buckle, nearly collapsing as Heller released him. Of course, he knew that for someone to be a siren, both their parents had to be, too, but his anger had prevented him from registering that. His mind already raced with thoughts about every interaction he had ever had with Audrey, but now to think about whether Heller had manipulated him, too, made his head spin.

Heller raised a hand. "I understand your hesitancy towards sirens–"

"Hesitancy? A siren killed my wife! You know that, you both know that, and you didn't think to tell me?"

"Because we're abstainers, Jack, so compared with most sirens we're pretty weak. Neither of us change at will, only in fight-or-flight scenarios. If it wasn't for what happened today, you never would have known."

He looked between them, still seething. "It's not in either of your files."

Heller rolled his eyes. "Come on, Jack, you know what the deal is. They either force you into the military, usually for suicide missions — and I already did my time, thank you very much — or if you manage to get a different job, they scrutinise your every move. Half the government wants to cure us. The other half wants us dead and to stop us from having children. At the very least, some people are very touchy about it, so forgive me for trying to protect my daughter, Jack, especially after what happened to her mother. You should understand that."

Jack furrowed his brow and glanced at Audrey, who seemed more upset than before. 

"You told me your mother died."

She lifted a shoulder and said, "She's not dead, but I'm never going to see her again, so she as may well be." Her voice was hoarse, making him feel a pang of guilt.

"Do you know about the mutation, Jack? The one that affects a siren's lungs?" Heller asked.

He nodded. "It was related to some chemical attack in the seventies, right?"

"Audrey's mother was affected. We weren't. She lost the ability to breathe above water. She swam off into the Atlantic and didn't want us to follow her."

Jack couldn't say anything about that. His expression softened as he noticed that Audrey was on the verge of tears.

"Look, the point is, Jack…" her voice wavered as she spoke. "I would never hurt you. I would never hurt Kim. I would never manipulate you, and more than anything… everything I told you this morning, I meant it."

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Heller's eyebrows raise. She hadn't said it explicitly, but he wouldn't need his siren intuition to deduce what she had meant.

"You still should have told me." Jack folded his arms. "If you'd been honest with me, I would have tried to understand. But you know how I feel about trust, Audrey."

She wiped under her eyes. "I don't know what you want me to say. I was embarrassed. I thought you'd never have to see that side of me."

He didn't respond, and turned towards the door. He needed to think about this, though he doubted his mind could be swayed, and he wasn't even sure if he wanted it to be.

"Even Paul didn't know, Jack," she pointed out. "This… this isn't personal."

He scoffed, pivoting to face her again. "You lied to me. It doesn't get more personal than that."

"I'm out!" Audrey shouted.

"Stay down!" Jack warned.

Shots continued to fire from every direction, but in the blink of an eye, she was beside him again. He was far too occupied with defending them to ask questions about her using her abilities. Jack returned fire where he could, desperately trying to conserve his ammo, but the hostiles at Felsted were relentless. They were undoubtedly professionals. They had a mission, and that mission was to eliminate him and Audrey. He prayed Tony was close by, because at this stage, he was going to have to take them by hand.

"Jack, I don't know who you called, but they're not coming," Audrey said. They had barely spoken to each other about anything non-work related since their confrontation in the medical ward. He had given her the silent treatment, and she had been too upset to try to reason with him.

"Tony will be here soon. We can hold–"

They both ducked as a bullet whizzed past them.

"Jack, just let me help," Audrey said calmly, meeting his gaze. "I can take them."

"No, there's too many of them." 

It came out so naturally, and he would later realise the significance of that, that despite his feelings of betrayal, in a situation like this, his desire to protect her overrode everything. Even though her powers would give her an advantage, she had said she was out of practice, on top of whatever fatigue she had gotten from before — had drinking blood been enough to counter that? He had many questions, some that would reveal his embarrassing lack of knowledge about sirens, none that he would ask now — and they had no idea if any of the hostiles were sirens, too.

Just as Jack went to insist that waiting for Tony was a better idea, he heard shallow clicks and realised he had run out of ammunition. Audrey noticed this, too, and gave him a pleading look. The hostiles must have come to the same conclusion because they stopped firing, leaving an eerie silence behind. He heard faint shuffling and footsteps. They were out of time. With a shaking hand, Jack prepared to use the gun as a blunt instrument and hope that that would deter them enough until Tony arrived. Audrey shook her head and swiftly moved out of their cover. Before he could protest, he heard a large whooshing noise, and to his worry, more gunshots.

"Jack?"

He had never been so relieved to hear Tony's voice.

Warily, Jack rose from his cover position. He could barely see Tony behind Audrey's massive cream-coloured wings concealing half his view. She had thrown a few hostiles back against the wall behind them, seemingly knocking them out. Another stood trembling in front of her. He couldn't see her face, but he could fill in the gaps easily with what he had witnessed this morning. She snarled, and Jack noticed that the man was bleeding. Jack wondered why she wasn't going for the jugular like she had this morning. The way she was tensing… could it be she was trying to resist?

Tony side-stepped slightly, just as cautious as he was. Both of them stared at Audrey, waiting for her to make a move. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw movement from one of the fallen hostiles and instinctively drew his weapon. Tony beat him to it, firing two bullets into the man's chest. The sound of the gunshot must have jolted Audrey out of her trance, because she suddenly turned to face them, lowering her wings. She seemed a little on edge, but not combative.

"I… I'm parked out the front," Tony said, breaking the awkward silence. "We should probably get going before whoever sent these people figure out that you're both still alive."

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "Audrey?"

She nodded, grunting as her wings retracted slightly. He walked towards her, looking her over with concern, instinctively. He didn't know what to make of it, whether to take it as a sign that their care for each other would get them through this, that things weren't totally broken between them, or whether this was exactly what she wanted him to do, to let his guard down, to let her control him.

They silently walked to the car, and Jack noticed her legs were still shaking. She looked scared, as scared as she had before transforming this morning. Again, he wanted to take that as a sign she wasn't lying to him, but just couldn't. 

The awkward silence continued in the car. Jack assumed Tony was taking them back to wherever he was currently living now. He wasn't quite sure where that was.

"Thanks, Tony," Jack said appreciatively.

"Well, I'd say you're welcome, but to be honest, it looked like you guys had things handled."

Audrey bit her lip shyly, looking down into her lap. Neither of them had anything else to say, both because they wanted to dodge the siren topic and because Tony was taking no interest in why they had been targeted in the first place. He made it tersely clear that he was glad they were both okay and nothing more. 

They eventually made it to the house, dealing with the slightly awkward introduction of Tony's new 'friend'. But, thankfully, she seemed entirely unfazed by the blood on Audrey's shirt or the wings poking out on either side of her.

"Let me see if I can find a sweater or something you can borrow," Jen said, turning to Audrey.

Audrey seemed surprised by this, but Jen smiled.

"My college roommate was a siren," she explained. "Three-day benders and hunting animals don't mix. Believe me, I've seen much bigger bloodstains."

She laughed a little and thanked Jen before following her into the other room.

"Jack, I'm surprised," Tony said quietly. "Didn't think you were exactly, uh, open to dating sirens."

"I only found out today," he replied stiffly.

Tony grimaced. "Right." 

They had sort of had this conversation before, when Tony had disclosed his relationship with Michelle at CTU. He had come to Jack privately and informed him that even if Michelle was half-siren, she was trustworthy and he wouldn't let Jack tell him otherwise. Jack hadn't protested. Of course, it helped that half-sirens — part-sirens, really, even though laws about human-siren relations had been relaxed not that long ago, perfect fifty-fifty genetic splits were hardly common, but the name had stuck — tended to have fewer, less powerful abilities, if any, but he had known from the day of the nuke in LA that Michelle was an honest person. Even then, he would be lying if he claimed he hadn't tested if she could persuade people by looking her in the eye when they spoke and seeing if he could notice anything.

"She's an abstainer, though," Jack supplied. "So, she's not…" he trailed off. Like Nina was implied.

"You seemed to ground her before," Tony commented, clearly not wanting to linger on that topic, either. "I get it was a big thing for her to hide, but I hope you can work things out."

"Me too," Jack said, and he realised it wasn't just for the sake of conversation.

Audrey came out of the bedroom wearing an oversized sweatshirt with her hair down. He felt a clutch of affection for her, but he tried his best to ignore it. As she turned to the side slightly, he noticed the bulge under her back and realised her wings had folded. She had insisted that she had never used her compulsion on him, but how the hell had he never seen her wings? Come to think of it, he had only seen Nina's for the first time in Mexico with the Salazars.

She must have caught him staring because she said, "Siren wings fall out if they aren't used. The last time I withdrew them, I was sixteen." Her voice broke on that last word. Jack didn't want to press the issue, but he knew that ultimately, understanding her past was the only way they had a chance of moving forward. Although ironically, his past was why they were in this situation in the first place.

They managed to avoid another bout of uncomfortable tension because Jack remembered the data they had obtained from Felsted before being attacked. He handed Tony the CD and asked him for help with decryption, as well as access to his computer, which he didn't outwardly seem pleased about, but Jack wanted to believe having something to do other than drinking and watching TV was beneficial for him. 

Jen went to leave for work, but Jack stopped her, with Tony backing him up. She continued to protest until Audrey threatened to have her boss killed if he fired or berated her — he hoped she was being sarcastic. 

Jack then realised that Heller was probably worried sick. He wouldn't let his contempt override his respect for him, probably because Heller had been more of a father figure to him than he would ever admit. When Jack called him, he was thankfully more concerned about Audrey's well-being and the possibility of a mole in CTU eyeing their every move than he was about blaming Jack or accusing him of endangering Audrey somehow. They managed to establish a plan to expose the mole, giving Jack a sense of comfort and control he hadn't felt all day.

When he hung up, he saw Audrey lying on the couch beside him staring at the ceiling, the beer Jen had offered her in hand. Well, she was lying as comfortably as she could with her wings. He couldn't imagine it was very pleasant to suddenly have to get used to having them after so many years without. She wouldn't even look at him. He had so much he wanted to say, yet he felt no matter what came out of his mouth, it would be a poor excuse for how he had behaved. He never should have hurt her. He never should have jumped to such a drastic conclusion. Yes, there were things to work through, and no, he wouldn't trust her quite as much as he had before, not for a while, but she had a side of the story to tell and he should hear it. He hated to think she had been afraid of this coming out, afraid of him, yet offered him so much kindness.

Jack said her name softly, and she rolled over to face him. "What?"

He sighed. "I don't want you to think that I hate you."

She just scoffed.

Jack closed his eyes. "Look, I… I'm upset that you kept this from me, but that does not mean I don't accept you or your father for who you are. I know I can't assume every siren is the same as Nina. I don't. I just– you should have spoken to me about it."

"How could I have, Jack? I don't even like bringing your past up because it's upsetting for you and I know you're trying so hard to move on. And the fact was, I was convinced this side of me would never show up again. I didn't want it to be a part of me or our relationship. I wasn't trying to hide it from you because of your past: I was trying to move on from it myself, and so was my father."

He realised a lot of that was probably because of her mother and the nature of her father's job. It was safer to be perceived a human. If the two of them were able to do that by abstaining, as many sirens who wanted to fit in did, then did he really need to be so judgemental? It wasn't like he had walked in on her killing someone sadistically. What had happened in the morning had been to protect herself. It had been instinct and adrenaline, not something she had consciously chosen to do. And even at the warehouse at Felsted, while she had been threatening to the hostile on the ground… she hadn't been eyeing out her prey. She hadn't lost control.

Before Jack could feebly attempt to apologise and explain himself again, Tony called his name, looking at him and Audrey.

"The file's been decrypted."

"Thanks."

He got off the couch and held out his hand to help Audrey up. She took it begrudgingly.

"He's lawyered up, Jack. We can't touch him," Bill concluded.

Audrey had been working through some documents at a hot-desk since the mole fiasco has been resolved. With her hearing ability, she had been privy to the entire conversation between Joe Prado, Bill, and Jack. It made her blood boil to think that someone could have credible information about the location of a terrorist, yet still think only of themselves and their reputation when confronted. But his lawyer was being very insistent, and any red tape preventing CTU from doing its job would just make things worse. There were going to be enough repercussions as it was with her and her father's siren abilities now public. Her father had gone to great lengths to keep that information private, even inventing a cover story with her mother before she left to make everything appear normal. Of course, it was still there in their medical files, but one would have to dig deep to access them. Outing someone as a siren was against the law; the government had come that far.

Her ex-husband, not so much.

Paul had gotten wrapped up in the investigation and taken a bullet to save Jack's life. Although he had been stabilised, he had still given her a look of scorn when she had revealed she was a siren and offered to accelerate his healing with her blood. She had hoped to never bring it up with him. After all, with the weakness of her siren abilities from not drinking blood, if they had had kids, they would have been unlikely to show any traits. Still, while she had felt guilty for not revealing that, she had felt worse to see the repugnance on his face. He had never been outwardly discriminatory against them, but she supposed people reacted differently when it was someone they knew and not just a stranger. Healing humans with siren blood was also a thoroughly under-researched area — no thanks to the government — so it was an experimental procedure at best, according to most doctors. Some humans believed in it wholeheartedly, even called it miraculous. However, those who still considered sirens as lesser-than often opted to object to the use of siren blood for medical treatment, the way some people objected to stem cell transplants for religious reasons.

She felt like all she had done today was complicate and ruin everything. No matter how much her father had assured her she had done what anyone in her position would have, it still made her feel uncomfortable and hyperaware of her surroundings, like everyone was looking at her. They weren't. She knew that, rationally, but it didn't feel that way. So, maybe, she could fix things. Maybe she could prove herself useful somehow. And although she prided herself on not using this ability because she still believed in living a fair life and playing by the rules, maybe it was time to give it a chance. 

Audrey took a deep breath and walked over to where Bill and Jack were. "Maybe I can help," she said.

They both turned to her, confused.

"Let me talk to Prado. I can make him confess to whatever he might know and he won't remember a thing."

Although Jack seemed surprised, he did not react with outright anger, and really, the urgency of the situation should override drawing comparisons between her and Nina Myers.

Bill furrowed his brow. "Using siren abilities still qualifies as illegal interrogation."

"Only for an agent," she corrected, before smiling a little. "I'm not an agent."

Bill then looked at Jack, who was stoic for a moment, and then nodded.

"He's still in Holding Room D," Jack explained. "If you go in alone, we just have to pray that he and his lawyer haven't seen any news reports."

"My father put a gag order on any news outlets, and, besides, they're too occupied with the nuclear attacks to focus on any scandals right now," Audrey reminded them. "It'll be fine."

She then made her way down the hall, and the guards thankfully stepped aside without much question. She wasn't quite sure if that was out of fear or because she was the daughter of the Secretary of Defence. Maybe a bit of both. However, Prado's lawyer protested her entry. She took a breath. It had been a very, very long time since she had done this, and, even then, she had done it for something very trivial: convincing her step-brother that she hadn't broken her curfew, lest he go tell their father. Her father had always tried to protect her from careers where someone might expose her sirenhood, even if it would have worked to her advantage. He had lived through a period when hostility towards sirens was much more violent and physical than it was now. And while he had been part of the reason for changes in the law, carefully treading the line between showing support for the community and accidentally outing himself, society still had a long way to go.

But right now there was a terrorist with a bomb and she was CTU's only shot at obtaining intel without legal consequences.

Audrey met the eyes of the lawyer fast enough that he froze like a deer in headlights. "You're going to go to your car and forget you came to CTU," she instructed, the resonance of her voice ringing in her ears. "Your client fired you." 

He nodded, his mouth slightly agape, before doing as she had asked, clearing the way to the holding room where Prado was.

Prado furrowed his brow at her entrance, but she simply kept her smile, taking a seat across from him.

"Where's Marwan?" Audrey asked sweetly.

Prado scoffed, not meeting her eyes for long enough, so she grabbed his cuffed hand to get his attention. She watched his pupils dilate as she asked him again.

"I… I don't know."

"Yes, you do," she countered, trying to focus and not worry that her hold on him wasn't strong enough. "You know where he is. But I get it…" She sighed. "You don't want to tell the scary CTU agents out there, but you want to tell me, don't you?"

"He…" A stupid grin formed across his face. "Marwan is at a place called The Hub. A nightclub."

"Good," Audrey encouraged. "That's good. Where is it?"

It took him a moment to answer, "East of downtown," now stifling a laugh like this was amusing to him.

She squeezed his hand. "Thank you very much, Joe."

Audrey stood and went to leave, finding she struggled to get herself out of the charming mindset as much as she struggled to get into it. She knew sometimes that the things she said while she was persuading someone weren't planned. Rather, her enhanced intuition made her able to read people and what they wanted, such that she could convince them to do what she asked. But she didn't want to get carried away here. A very rational part of her brain still recalled that conversation with Jack earlier in the day. She didn't want Jack to see her like this. She wanted to convince him she was capable of acting like a human and that she had complete control. However, she was proud of herself for what she had just done.

When she came back to the bullpen, Jack and Bill were looking at her expectantly.

"Marwan is at a nightclub east of downtown called The Hub."

Both of them looked very surprised and pleased to hear that.

Jack turned his head towards Chloe's desk. "Chloe, did you get that?"

"I'm on it!"

When Jack looked back at Audrey, her heart skipped a beat as she noticed the gratitude on his face.

"Thank you," he said. "That'll be a huge help."

She nodded. "You're welcome."

If today could be summed up in one lesson, Audrey decided it was to never expect anything other than the worst possible outcome ever again. How could everything have gone so wrong so fast? She hadn't even been this gutted in the morning when Jack had blasted her for keeping her sirenhood a secret. No, when he had looked at her after interrogating Prado, something had lifted. She had taken it as a sign that they still had a chance, that, with some work, their relationship would prevail.

But she had been proven wrong just a few hours later.

Paul's condition had suddenly worsened to the point of requiring additional surgery. She had sat there riddled with impatience, asked the doctors more than once if her siren blood could be of any use, but they had firmly denied her on account of the medical preferences in his file. He did not consent to the use of siren blood for medical resuscitation. By law, the doctors could not let her intervene. But she had felt rejected enough already, so she had believed the least she could do was save Paul's life, even if he despised her more than he already did. At least to feel useful, like she had when she had questioned Prado. At least to prove to the world that she wasn't a monster, no matter what they had seen.

Just as she had finally conceded and stepped away, Jack had returned from the field with someone in urgent need of medical care. So urgent, in fact, that he had held the doctor at gunpoint and instructed him to stop working on Paul, to her horror. It had struck her with a terrible sense of guilt about having hid her sirenhood from him during their marriage. Audrey generally considered herself to be an honest person. She wasn't afraid of being vulnerable, and she knew that lying never made anything better. But keeping this secret from Paul had to be one of her biggest regrets in life. She had been a coward. She hadn't been upfront with him. She had allowed their relationship to fall apart by distancing herself instead of confronting him about his hurtful comments about sirens. Ironically, she had still ended up with someone apprehensive of sirens and with more vindication. But Jack wasn't like Paul. Jack was a good man. Yes, he had a dark past but he was a good man. She had sensed it from the moment she had met him. They had had conversations about sirens, and while she had always been aware of the way he stiffened, the way his shoulders hunched, the way a flicker of agony appeared in his expression that no human could detect, she had believed he was accepting, albeit a little hesitant. Her father had warned her. He had told her about Jack's history and how he would never forgive her if he found out but she had insisted it would never be an issue.

However, in her last-ditch attempt to allow some of her siren blood to fall into Paul's gaping, bleeding wounds, Jack had pulled her away. She had watched Paul's eyes shut as he fought for his life, every beep from the machine slowing and weakening. She had screamed and told Jack to let go. At that moment, she could have concentrated and done something inhuman to make him back off. But she hadn't been angry at anyone except herself. She hadn't been filled with rage, only heartbreak, because had Paul died and it had been her fault. And, despite the apologies Jack had whispered in her ear, she had known he ultimately must have believed abiding by Paul's wishes was the right thing, because why else would he have stopped her? He had forced the doctor to stop operating on Paul and he had stopped her from saving him. He had prioritised Paul's misinformed wishes over her feelings.

Only then had her siren side come out, when she had turned with a growl and let her wing send Jack flying across the room. Without thinking, she had told him she hated him. She had felt fire burn behind her eyes so brightly that she hadn't been receptive to how hurt he was. Multiple guards had dragged her out of there, with no care for how tender her wings were relative to other parts of her body. She had found a quiet corner of the hall and wept. When Jack had eventually come out of the operating room with a red mark on his neck from where her wing had struck him, she had turned her back to him. While a part of her had rationally believed that maybe, just maybe, Jack had some kind of explanation for all of it, it had seemed so unlikely, and she had been too overwhelmed by the tsunami of emotions consuming her to feel like talking about it. He hadn't pressed the issue, which had only made her feel more hopeless.

Michelle had been kind enough to help her wipe her smudged mascara and re-do her makeup when she had bumped into her in the bathroom. That simple moment between them had done more for her than Michelle probably would have realised. Maybe it was because she was part-siren, but, truth be told, Audrey could sense her good heart and open-mindedness had little to do with that. Michelle was the only person who hadn't treated her any differently today. She had still offered her sympathy, even though she wouldn't have heard the nicest things about what had happened. It made Audrey wonder how hard Tony must have fought to push her away, because she seemed very loyal to the people she loved. Audrey had also detected some despondence from her, deep in her heart. The only siren trait she could never turn off was her intuition. It was useful. It made her feel safe to be able to perceive people's character. It was virtually impossible for anyone, including a discriminatory human, to point out. It was harmless. She hated that she had to justify something so intrinsic.

"Look, Audrey…" Michelle said as she went to leave. "I know you and Jack have a lot to talk about. But I know he cares about you and he loves you. Just give him time."

There was something comforting about her voice. Audrey wondered if that was also a subtle expression of her siren side or just who she was. Maybe a bit of both.

Audrey looked over at her with a small smile. "Thank you."

Making herself useful with aiding the investigation for the ever-elusive Marwan served as a good distraction and let her calm down. It also made her desperate to talk to Jack and make him understand that she wasn't giving up on them, either. That, once the day was over, they were going to talk and they were going to work through this because she loved him. She did with all of her heart. She didn't want to lose him. But it became difficult to track him down, even though she knew he had come back to CTU. Perhaps he was avoiding her, for which she wouldn't blame him. However, it only increased her desire to make things right. Then, Tony, Michelle, and Chloe, the only other people Jack knew well enough at CTU and might be talking to, also became difficult to get ahold of. Nobody seemed to know where they were, and their educated guesses were conflicting. A Secret Service agent showed up for no apparent reason. Bill immediately escorted him to a private room. Her father was in there, too. What the hell was going on? Why was nobody letting her in?

A piercing alarm sounded and the security guard nearby told her to stay put. She protested and was about ready to shove him out of the way so she could see what was going on, only stopping when she realised he was a siren, too. She wasn't strong enough to take him on. Another human, yes, but not another siren, not one that likely took better care of himself. Her stomach twisted into knots. It wasn't a funny feeling: she knew things were going wrong. She just didn't know how. 

When she managed to find her father, he had an unreadable expression. Her siren intuition didn't work on other sirens; she could only tell based on him being her father that he had information he didn't want to tell her.

"Dad, what's happening?"

"Jack is being handed to the Chinese government for the raid on the consulate," he answered without meeting her eye. He didn't sound particularly mad about it.

"What?" Her eyes widened, but then she remembered the feeling she had gotten about the agent who had come to CTU. 

He was here to take Jack.

Her father called her name as she ran off towards where the guards had gone. She found Bill leaving Section C. He had the same kind of expression as her father, which did not make her feel any better.

"Bill," Audrey said insistently, making him look up. "I just talked to my father. He said Jack was being handed to the Chinese government."

"He was supposed to be," Bill confirmed. "But he tried to escape."

She furrowed her brow. "I don't understand."

"Neither do I," he agreed, though his voice was much softer.

Sometimes when Audrey really honed in on her intuition, she could see things in people's minds. Not just images, but voices, feelings, sensations. It usually only happened when she had enough blood in her system for her abilities to be useful. But as she looked at Bill, she saw enough. Jack lying on the floor, a pool of blood forming beneath him. Her knees started to wobble, and she shook her head to get the image out, but to no avail.

"No," she breathed.

"Audrey-"

"No." A lump formed in her throat. "Don't say it."

She had seen enough. If she heard Bill say the truth, it would only accelerate her inevitable breakdown.

"I'm sorry."

Bill walked away and Audrey leaned against the wall, her whole body shaking. This was her fault, all of it. If she hadn't been so horrible, Jack might have told her what was going on. She could have told her father. They could have figured something out.

Instead, all she could think about was how the day could have gone if she had simply let the terrorist holding her hostage kill her this morning.

Eighteen Months Later

When Jack came into view through the glass door behind Diane, Audrey's whole body froze. He was here. After so much confusion and shock from the morning, first from finding out he was alive, then from the possibility that he had planned to kill some of his closest friends, seeing him in front of her now made all of that spiralling doubt disappear. He had had his name cleared, although she had never considered he might have actually tried to hurt David Palmer, Tony, Michelle, or Chloe. However, the doubt of whether he really, truly was alive was gone now. She could see he looked lost, despite this place being more than familiar to him. He was completely still. He didn't seem to know what to do, and seemed very aware of Diane's presence. 

Before she could try to say something, not that she really knew what, he ducked his head and walked off apologetically. Her eyes stayed on him, and she identified his mixed emotions even as he became further away. She had missed that, feeling connected to him through her heightened senses. It explained why her stomach had had butterflies from the moment he had arrived.

"Can... can you excuse me for a minute, please?" Audrey asked, still looking through the door.

Diane agreed softly, but Audrey could barely focus on that as she walked out the door, calling his name. She observed the subtle way he reacted, like something had lightened in him after a morning so leaden with loss. It was almost nostalgic. It wasn't that she had some kind of saviour complex towards Jack but she knew, she knew, that the world became a little brighter for Jack when she was around. She had an effect on him, and she didn't just think it was her sirenhood.

As Audrey came to face him, that effect only became more apparent. He looked her right in the eye, which almost startled her. He had every reason not to, and yet, he was. It made all of that conflict from the last time they saw each other come back. She had worked through a lot of it via her grief. Losing him had put things into perspective. It had made her reevaluate what was and wasn't important. She had gotten better at not letting tiny things grow into big problems, although the person she had most wished to rectify that with was Jack. But he was here now. There was a lot going on, but once this day was over, they could talk. They could work through things. Maybe, just maybe, they could be together, assuming he wanted that.

"I don't even know where to begin," he said quietly.

His eyes seemed to be focused just beside her, and she realised why, explaining, "My wings fell out again. I, uh, didn't exactly have any reasons to use them after…" She cleared her throat. "After that day."

Jack nodded. "I couldn't tell you I was still alive."

After seeing what had happened this morning, she understood why perfectly clearly, and couldn't fault him for it. The fact that he hadn't told his daughter, either, made her feel a little better, though, since it confirmed that he had withheld that information to protect her, not because he hadn't trusted her.

"Jack, you don't need to apol-"

His voice hardened as he cut her off with, "I did it for your own protection."

She realised now why he seemed so nervous and desperate to justify himself. Of course. It couldn't be more obvious. The last time they had spoken, she hadn't exactly been very kind.

"It's been hard for me thinking that you died believing that I was angry at you, that I hated you. I wasn't able to forgive myself for that," Audrey explained.

Again, Jack seemed so desperate to implore that this was his fault. "You had every reason to hate me. I was responsible for Paul's death. I lied to you."

"So did I," Audrey pointed out. She met his eyes, and he fell silent. She wasn't trying to use her siren persuasion in any way here, but this little moment between them seemed to calm him. There was a slight dilation of his pupils. Perhaps she was using it inadvertently. "You made a hard decision. I never imagined... I'd get another chance to tell you this. But I…" God, he was really here. She was so overwhelmed to see him when the mere memory of standing in that hallway and Bill telling her the news made her heart ache. Tears sprung to her eyes. "I want you to know that I don't blame you for what happened with Paul."

"Thank you," he said after a beat, very quietly. It was clear he needed to hear that.

Audrey instinctively went to hug him, to ground him in her presence, but she hesitated, suddenly not knowing what to do with her hands. There were footsteps behind her that meant she couldn't try again, to her dismay.

"Jack, there's so much I want to say to you. It's not the right time…" she trailed off, and it really became a struggle for her to fight back tears, to not hold him close to her and let them both be vulnerable and just appreciate how many odds had been defied for them to both be here.

"Mister McGill needs to see you," someone called.

She turned her head. "I'll be right down."

Within a few hours, Jack's daughter was brought to CTU, and if Jack had been afraid to confront Audrey, he was clearly terrified to confront Kim. Again, all Audrey wanted to do was hold him and tell him it was okay, but he was dealing with so much. He had lost people close to him. He was being expected to spring right back into acting as an agent to help stop the Sentox attacks. Nobody had given him a break. And while Audrey had prayed seeing Kim might help Jack, she had detected a very strong, very dark anger in Kim from the second she had walked through the door. She was hurting. She had dealt with losing both of her parents in a short period and at such a tough age. It didn't matter that Jack was alive. In a way, it was worse, knowing she had gone through it for nothing, and she couldn't see past that. She seemed stubborn to move past that, and the presence of her apparent boyfriend, who was far too old for her and treated her like a porcelain vase was likely part of that.

Then, with the discovery of a Sentox canister inside of CTU, all hell broke loose. Emotions ran high for everybody. She hadn't been in such an emotionally charged situation in a long time. It was suffocating. If it wasn't for them having already confirmed Sentox was equally lethal for sirens and humans, she would have stayed outside the conference room to help. She had to remind herself to take deep, slow breaths. Her empathy, while a powerful tool in communication, could prove very overwhelming when there was too much information for her body to process. 

Chloe became distraught from Edgar's death. Barry — who had mentioned his profession as a psychologist enough times to make a drinking game out of it — was trying to calm her but Chloe wasn't receptive to it at all. In fact, it only seemed to make her feel worse.

"You're crowding her," Audrey informed him, making him rise and come to face her. But he seemed to be at a loss for words when she stared him down. She would never usually use her persuasion so blatantly, but clearly nobody seemed to mind. In fact, she could almost swear Bill was trying not to look amused, despite the disaster happening around them. 

Audrey then softened her voice as she took Barry's previous position, kneeling beside Chloe as she said, "I know it's a lot. I know you're scared and I know you're upset. But we need you, Chloe." Although Chloe struggled to look up from her lap, her arms wrapped around herself, her soothing tone seemed to help her. "We need you to figure out a way for someone to find the canister and destroy it, so the rest of us are safe."

After a beat, Chloe nodded and got to work. Everybody stayed quiet to let her focus, and Audrey was pleased to note some of the tension in the room had eased, too.

"Thank you," Jack muttered when she came back to where he was.

She smiled a little, reminded of how he had thanked her for getting information out of Prado all those months ago. "You're welcome."

When they later got security footage of the medical ward and found Tony pointing a gun at Christopher Henderson, Audrey could practically hear his screaming heart, even through all these glass doors and barriers. He wanted justice, and he would do anything to get it. Although she hadn't interacted with Tony many times, she knew he had a shrewdness that made him difficult to persuade under most circumstances. Her voice wouldn't be enough. If only she could look him in the eye, then she would be able to talk him down. Jack did his best to hold him off, but they both knew Tony would not just let this slide.

As soon as the gas was cleared out, through the sacrifices of Lynn McGill and Harry Swinton, which only made the existing shock and grief between the people in the room grow, she sensed a resolve in Tony. He wanted to avenge Michelle, and he wanted to do it now. Jack ran after him, but it was too late. Henderson had escaped and killed Tony on his way. While she didn't intrude, she heard Jack crying from the hallway. Audrey had to wonder how much loss someone could suffer before they broke. Jack might act like the tough, objective man of action who would always focus on the bigger picture problem but, deep down, Audrey knew he was still just as human as anybody else. She prayed that once it was over, she could remind him of that and give him a place to feel safe.

Jack took a deep breath as he stood outside the interrogation room. How the hell was this happening? He had had a lot of time to think during his eighteen months in hiding, and he had affirmed to himself that he could trust Audrey. He had shut her out and been so horrible to her that day, and he regretted every second of it. It had helped that through working at the oilrig, he had come to interact with more sirens, heard their plights, serving as a reminder that they were not all like Nina, something he of course had known but not practiced as much as he should have.

But just as he thought they could have tried to work together, Collette Stenger had dropped Audrey's name as a connection to these horrific attacks. Jack could tell that nobody wanted to believe her, but they couldn't take any chances, especially when Karen Hayes was already threatening to let Homeland Security take over CTU's operations, so Bill had conceded that they needed to question her. He also wondered, with bitterness, whether her sirenhood was part of the discrimination. Audrey would have worked very hard to make a good impression at CTU while working as a liaison and there was a noticeable difference between how people regarded her now versus eighteen months ago. But in came a claim of her being involved with the conspiracy that barely held water and now they looked at her the way everybody had looked at Nina after her arrest. For God's sake, if he, of all people, could recognise that not every attractive siren who worked in the government had a personal agenda, then why couldn't anybody else?

The only thing Jack could do was take control where he could. He would be the one to interrogate her. He would not let her come to any harm. At the same time, it had to look believable. He couldn't be too soft. He had to interrogate her with the same objectivity as anybody else. He wished he had a way to communicate this to her, but he didn't. All he could do was try to subtly indicate with his body or his underlying emotions something contradictory to his words so Audrey might click. He wished he understood siren empathy more. He wished he wasn't so ignorant. But he would have to do his best and hope Audrey got the message.

When he walked in, he could see she was very scared, but trying not to show it. He tried to ask her about Stenger and she wouldn't even look him in the eye. Perhaps she didn't want to look like she was trying to persuade him, even though he knew she wouldn't.

"Jack, you're wasting time that we don't have," Audrey pleaded.

"I had to ask CTU to let me interrogate you," he informed her, voice stern. "I have a job to do. If I don't do it, Burke will, and I promise, you do not want to see him walk through that door."

"Fine. What did she say I gave her?"

Jack started pacing. It was a nervous habit, something he usually did when he was deep in thought, but it wouldn't strike anybody who was watching through the cameras as strange. 

"The structural schematics of Bierko's target."

"What kind of structure?"

"She didn't know. She just delivered it."

Audrey looked unimpressed, and he couldn't blame her. Stenger was clearly trying to distract CTU. He could see that. She could see that. Why couldn't Bill and Karen?

"She claims I gave her information, yet she can't say what it is, and that's enough to make me a suspect?" Audrey queried.

Jack was still very afraid that someone would kick him out of the investigation for not pressing her enough or dawdling. He had to make it look like he was regarding her as guilty until proven innocent, which he hated. He suddenly approached the desk, coming very close to her and raising his voice.

"Damn it, Audrey!" She flinched at that so, without thinking, he lowered the volume of his voice. He observed she had no microphone on her person, just the desk. If he could get her away from the desk, maybe he could talk to her privately. "You know what this nerve gas does. They are planning another attack. We will not ignore any leads."

"I have nothing to do with the terrorists," she insisted.

"How did she get your name?"

"I don't know."

This was ridiculous. Sure, to an outsider, Audrey could be lying, but anybody with an expert on body language and interrogation would be able to see that she was telling the truth. Then again, they had dealt with too many pathological liars and people who feigned innocence so easily. He started pacing again and noticed Audrey was scrutinising him slightly. Maybe she was trying to read his emotions. Maybe she was realising that he was behaving out of character for her protection.

"My father is the Secretary of Defence. I'm an easy target. Maybe she's trying to use him or embarrass him."

He paused, hating that he was about to throw out another accusation, but trying to remember what he would usually do in this scenario: leave no stone unturned. 

"Is he involved?" he asked, his voice slightly softer, as though trying to ask whether her father was threatening or blackmailing her in any way. While he knew Heller loved his daughter to pieces, he was a dangerous man when he wanted to be. Being family didn't make people immune from mistreatment or betrayal. He would know.

She seemed very upset by the idea that he would suspect not just her but her father, too. It likely brought up all those memories of when he had confronted them about their sirenhood all those months ago. "Oh, Jack, you know him better than that. You worked with him. He would never do anything outside the law, and neither would I."

Jack decided to focus on the evidence, focus on using logic to prove her innocence. He placed a file on the table and opened it to reveal the two photos of interest.

"The two men we know are part of this are Cummings and Henderson. Have you had any contact with these men?"

Audrey licked her lips and when she spoke, her voice wobbled. She tried to look up at him, but he walked away, not facing her, wanting Bill and Karen to know he wasn't going to let her try to persuade him, since that was probably their assumption.

"Christopher Henderson I'd never heard… I'd never heard of him before today. And, um... Walt Cummings I've met a couple of times, yes."

"Where?"

"DOD briefings," she stammered.

"That's it?"

Cummings was the unfortunate link here. He knew exactly how he and Audrey had associated. It wasn't that he judged her for it in any way, but if she didn't come clean now, she was going to be in bigger trouble for lying. Jack knew he wasn't being objective here. He had let his objectivity slip with Nina and now he was letting it slip with Audrey. But the two cases were different. Nina had hidden her sirenhood. He hadn't known about it and therefore not been able to prepare for it. But he knew that if Audrey was secretly part of this conspiracy, she would have looked him dead in the eyes and made him believe something. She would have persuaded the guards who took her to the room. She would have done anything and everything to get out of this but she hadn't becuase she was innocent. Innocent people didn't hide unless they were scared, and even then, that was always very obvious.

"Yes," she answered.

He tipped his head with a sigh. He could only hope she knew he wasn't disappointed in her, just incredibly worried because now she was lying to him and he had to expose that. He wanted to give her one more chance to reclaim her veracity. But he understood why she was ashamed to admit this, and hated that her fear of his criticism was part of it.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

There was no going back. He had to be cold here. He had to interrogate her like anybody else, otherwise it was over. Jack put on a cold mask and walked back over to hand down the other manilla folder he had been holding.

"Open it," Jack demanded, staring her down as she did so. "The River Hotel, Pikesville, last April."

Her voice raced as she responded, "Yeah, I'm sorry, um... We were there at the same time. We may have had a drink together–"

"You weren't having drinks with him: you shared a room with him. You slept with him," he corrected, cutting her off and planting his hands on the table. He hated that this was autopilot for him. He hated that towering over her and scaring her was an automatic response and he couldn't talk to her with understanding.

"Yes. I was still recovering from losing you, Jack." Her voice broke and her eyes were bright with tears. "He, uh," she laughed through her nose, "he had just separated from his wife, and... I slept with him once and then I broke it off." She was twirling her hair subtly. Another nervous tic.

"Why'd you break it off?"

Audrey buried her face in her hands. He wondered if that was to reduce the overload of her heightened senses. The one thing he had understood from the lockdown earlier was that too many sounds, too many lights, too many things all at once was exhausting for Audrey. She could sense them all to a greater degree on top of intuiting her surroundings. He knew this was a defence mechanism for her now.

"Jack, please…"

"Why did you break it off?" Jack repeated, his voice louder.

She looked up with a weak smile. "Because he wasn't you."

"Why did you lie to me when I asked you the first time?"

Audrey struggled to find her words. "I was afraid you'd think less of me, that you wouldn't forgive me."

He furrowed his brow. "Because you slept with someone after you thought I was dead?"

She hardened her voice. "Because I slept with someone who turned out to be a traitor, Jack."

Jack swallowed the lump in his throat. That made him feel worse. Of course it had less to do with sleeping with someone after having a terrible fight and then him 'dying' and more to do with her sleeping with someone who used her and not picking up the signs. Especially because, as a siren, she would have been better able to detect Cummings' intentions. But her siren abilities were also dependant on how much blood she had. They were very weak when she abstained. That day eighteen months ago had been an exception. He doubted she had had much since then, so how could she have picked up what Cummings had truly wanted from her.

"Was that the only time you spent with him?"

"Yes."

"Did he ever talk about a terrorist attack?"

"No." She shook her head, burying her head in her hands again. She looked so tired.

"Did he mention Christopher Henderson?"

"No."

He was being too gentle. He wanted nothing more than to hug her and tell her that he was here now and that everything was okay, that he believed her, but he couldn't. He was reminded of his task. He had to look like he was giving it his all, and it had to look realistic. So, in one quick motion, he shoved the table to the side.

"Damn it, Audrey!"

She seemed to have pre-empted the movement because she was already on her feet. Jack went to move and push her against the wall but was stopped by a large gust of wind that knocked him to the ground. Her wings had come out, but not in a way that seemed assertive, not like last time, not with anger, not fiercely. They were curving around her, like she was trying to protect herself. He hated that she thought she needed protection from him. 

"I'm telling you the truth, Jack!" Audrey begged. "Please."

Now, Jack had to fight back. He had to look like he wasn't afraid and was still willing to get the information from her. His head had to drive this, no matter how much his heart disagreed. He saw an opening between the wings that revealed a slash of her teary face. Jack stood and lunged forward, his hand landing on her neck as he shoved her back against the wall like he intended to before. She gasped and struggled in his grip, her wings flapping and hitting him. They were surprisingly bony, and it was not a pleasant sensation, but he supposed he deserved it. Now he had her where he wanted, though: away from the microphone.

"You already lied. Tell me what you know, or I promise this will become very unpleasant."

"I'm telling you everything," she insisted.

"I know you are," he whispered so quietly he was practically mouthing it, praying her hearing would be able to pick it up. "I'm doing this so nobody else takes control of the interrogation. Scream if you understand."

She did, in a way that didn't sound too rehearsed.

"I will get you out of here. I promise."

Audrey gave a slight nod before he roared, "Damn it, Audrey, tell me the truth!"

"Jack, I am telling you the truth, I swear."

He met her eyes for a good moment, hoping to convey that he really, truly, trusted her and believed her. He then released his grip on her neck, and her shoulders relaxed. She panted, her wings still protecting her.

Jack turned to look at the cameras. "This is over. You understand? This is over!"

Jack looked over at Audrey, who was still trying to undo her restraints, albeit very carefully. It hurt for Jack to breathe. He was half-sure Heller had cracked one of his ribs when he sent him flying across the room. Most of all, they still felt so blindsided by Heller usurping the operation from them after he and Audrey had gone to him, begging for help since he was their only ally unaffiliated with CTU. Although Heller had assured Jack he could try to persuade Logan if push came to shove, he knew that Logan had the numbers. Logan had people who could hurt Heller, or Audrey, and that was what concerned him. Even a siren couldn't take on half a dozen Secret Service agents on his own, especially an abstainer like Heller. 

So, here they sat, watched by Heller's bodyguards. To make matters worse, the zip-ties were made from a copper alloy, which Heller knew meant Audrey couldn't break through them. Copper was harmful to sirens the way it was to birds or fish, the two living organisms that siren DNA overlapped with. It wasn't that Audrey wasn't strong enough to break through the cuffs, but doing so would cause ailments similar to heavy metal poisoning in humans. It wasn't worth that, and despite her insistence on trying with her talons, Jack had told her not to do it.

"I knew you weren't interrogating me for real," Audrey said, with a small smile. "Even before you told me."

"You did?"

She nodded. "I could sense it. Not at first, but… I knew something was off. Then I realised they probably wanted you to prove you could be objective. You… you did scare me, for a second. That's why I got my wings out. But when I looked into your eyes, I knew you didn't mean any of it."

That made him feel a little better about the way he had treated her earlier, although he hated that he had had to hurt her. It was good to know they were working quite well together, unlike that day eighteen months ago. Jack had noticed so far that Audrey always kept part of her attention to the small window in the doorway, where Heller's two guards regularly walked past.

"Any chance you could persuade them to get us out?"

She shook her head. "Masters and Wexler are both sirens."

"Damn it," he uttered under his breath, trying to look for something to break the cuffs with. He had noticed the steam pipe above them but it wouldn't be hot enough to melt the copper.

"Jack, what if I try to break the cuffs?-"

He immediately shook his head. "I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I know I can't break them. That's not what I mean. I mean try."

Jack furrowed his brow.

"Wexler has always been like an uncle to me. He also understands the copper reaction. I could accuse him of cuffing me too tightly and making me feel sick. I'll demand he cut them off, then distract him and help you."

"What if he doesn't go for it?"

"He knows my father would never want me in pain. Masters, too. They wouldn't risk angering him."

He chewed his lip in thought. It could work. And they didn't have any other options aside from Audrey hurting herself by breaking through the cuffs or him breaking his wrist and slipping out of them. He would normally do anything to save her, but he needed to be able to shoot and while siren blood could act as a painkiller, one, he didn't like the idea of using her for her blood like that, and two, it wouldn't exactly fix the bone. They didn't have time to debate this any longer.

"Do it."

Audrey cleared her throat before purposefully rubbing the copper ties against her wrist. He could immediately see the skin redden, reminding him of razor burn, except razor burn didn't leave him feeling ill. Beads of sweat formed on Audrey's temples and her skin paled slightly, like she might be sick. Although Audrey was clearly trying to yield an intense-looking reaction, she wanted to minimise the necessary contact. He hated the fact that she was doing this. He didn't want her to have to suffer, but it was their only hope.

She then cried out in pain, loud enough for Wexler to still by the door and come in.

"What's wrong, Audrey?"

"You cuffed me too tight." She paused to inhale. "The copper is making me feel sick."

"Are you sure you just haven't been trying to get out of them?" Wexler asked with a slightly condescending tone.

She looked horribly offended, her eyes flashing with ostensible anger. "I know they're copper, Wexler, why would I do that?"

"Well, what do you want me to do?"

"Take them off. I… I think I'm going to throw up."

Wexler didn't look convinced, which made Jack's anxiety grow.

Her voice was very steady and very stern as she said, "Wexler, if I fall ill and can't help CTU with the investigation, that loss of personnel will be on your hands. And if you think my father is doing everything he needs to on his own, then how do you think he'll feel when he learns about how I was treated by your hand?" 

The guard's jaw twitched. "Fine, but if you move an inch, Audrey, I'm putting the cuffs back on."

"I won't."

As Wexler bent down to help remove the cuffs, Jack's field of view became compromised. He wasn't quite sure how Audrey planned to distract him, but the sounds that followed made him ration that she had headbutted him and then spread her wings to shove him away. She looked even paler when he saw her face. He was sure that level of energy had been difficult to muster when she already felt unwell. 

She grabbed a pair of bolt cutters, undid his cuffs, and together, they disarmed Masters as well, stopping only to cuff each of them with copper and take their weapons. Together, they escaped the small maintenance room out to the airfield. As Jack went to call CTU, the roar of a descending chopper came from overhead. When the gunfire began, he told Audrey to go back inside, and, to his bewilderment, Christopher stepped out when it landed. Jack took down the three mercenaries accompanying him before running into the hangar where Audrey was meant to be waiting for him.

"Audrey!" Jack called.

His gut sank when she didn't respond. He couldn't see her anywhere. He kept his gun raised as he walked slower, hyperaware of the massive size of the hangar and all the hiding places it contained.

"I have her, Jack, and don't make me kill her," a familiar voice threatened. As Jack turned towards it source, he faintly made out two figures behind a set of shelves and equipment. He took cover behind the forklift. "There's been too much killing today already, so just throw out that recording."

"Let her go, Christopher."

For Audrey to not have already got her wings out and pushed Henderson away, something had to be very wrong. He could just see Audrey through the gaps, her eyes glowing in the dark and illuminating the fear on her face. 

"After I have the recording."

"Why are you protecting Logan?"

"I'm protecting something more important than Logan."

How could this conspiracy go beyond the president? What the hell was going on?

"What?!" Jack exclaimed.

"The integrity of our government," he clarified.

"Our government has no integrity. Not when someone like Charles Logan occupies the presidency," Jack rebutted. Maybe Henderson still had an iota of sanity in him. Maybe this was just his roundabout way of trying to do an ultimately good thing. Maybe Jack could still have an ally in him. "You can make this right. You can help me stop him."

But Henderson was a stubborn man. "Sorry, Jack. Now, throw me the recording."

"I'll give you the recording if you let Audrey go."

"I wish I could believe that."

"I give you my word," Jack insisted, but it was no use. Henderson knew him too well. Hell, it was on his file. He wasn't Tony. He couldn't give up something so vital to get Audrey back, no matter how much he loved her.

"I'll tell you what: I'll meet you halfway."

Jack furrowed his brow, not believing the supposed lenience of his words. "What does that mean?"

Henderson muttered something that Jack couldn't hear, and he called out for Audrey again. A muffled scream made his blood run cold. He had done something to her. He had never heard her scream in pain like that. Henderson was a very calculating man. He didn't hurt people for the sake of hurting them. He did it with a mission, a purpose. Nothing was irrational. Jack was very much the same way. As was Nina. As was Tony, although that wasn't always obvious and depended on the circumstances. Henderson had taught all of them. That was why this was so difficult and so daunting. How could one possibly outwit the person who had taught them everything? That futility only made Jack angrier.

"Damn it, Christopher!"

"Here she comes, Jack!"

He muttered something again, and when Audrey took a few, feeble steps into the light, his eyes widened at the state of her. Her skin was ashen. Every breath she took shuddered. Blood dripped onto the floor. He couldn't see any wounds on her cream-coloured coat. The wound had to be on her back.

Her wings.

Now, he realised the sides of her coat were bulging on either side, something they didn't usually, when her wings were folded. The coat was large enough to be designed to cover them effectively so something must be wrong.

"That's far enough."

"What have you done?!" Jack demanded.

"You know a siren's wings have so many nerve endings, so many tendons, so many little bones. It's might be an advantage but it's also their Achilles Heel."

Jack's cheek twitched.

"I cut one of the nice, big arteries in her wings, Jack. She has about three minutes before she bleeds to death. Throw me that recording."

"Jack, don't…" Audrey begged, but he couldn't let this happen. He couldn't lose her. They could catch Henderson. They could find another way but he was not going to lose her when it was a miracle either of them were alive in the first place.

"She's fifteen seconds closer to dying, Jack. Give me the recording!"

"Jack, don't do it," Audrey repeated, and, if he wasn't mistaken, she was trying to persuade him with her eyes, but she was too far away for it to work.

"She's running out of time!" Henderson threatened.

Audrey seemed to realise her pleas weren't being received. "Jack… Don't do it, Jack. Don't. Don't give it to him."

The sight of such fear on her face would have overridden any of her persuasion, even if it had worked.

"Here it is!" Jack conceded, feeling so much self-hatred for letting something so valuable slip into Henderson's hands. He promised himself then and there he would find a way to get it back. He had to call Bill or Chloe, someone he could trust.

But he had to save her first.

As Henderson dashed off, Jack came to Audrey's side. She was hyperventilating and clammy to the touch. Henderson had not been exaggerating the magnitude of what he had done. As Jack knelt to the floor and sat Audrey up in her lap, he took off her coat and rolled up her shirt to inspect the damage underneath. He murmured assurances to her, squeezing her shoulders to keep her awake.

"Jack, go get it," she uttered feebly. "Go get the recording."

He shook his head. When he looked at her back, he noticed that about a third of her wings had turned crimson. Henderson seemed to have slashed the tendons connecting them to the rest of her body, as well as the artery he had mentioned. It had been a single precise cut. Amongst the bloody mess, he could see that each of her wings were each barley connected by a single tendon. Henderson clearly knew a lot about siren anatomy. This had been purposeful. He had left them hanging on to cause her pain, and it made Jack's blood boil with rage. The state of her wings here reminded him of when Kim used to wobble a loose tooth when she was a kid. She would proudly show how many ways it could move and dangle when it was about to come out. Teri would scold her for it since it always made her squeamish to look at. Audrey couldn't move like this. The wind could practically rip the wings off. Exposure to dust and air, especially somewhere industrial like here, could cause infection. He needed to staunch the bleeding, but a tourniquet would be difficult to apply without constricting her breathing.

"Cut them off," Audrey rasped.

Jack shot her a bewildered look. 

"If you cut them off at the root, the wound will heal. Just cut them off and go get the damn recording."

The thought of putting her in such pain was horrifying. He was reminded of when Chase made him cut his hand off to get the virus dispersal device off. Sure, it was different because Audrey's wings would grow back, but he wasn't sure if they would be affected since he was cutting them off; they weren't falling out on their own. The memory of Chase was almost paralysing because it wasn't hard for his mind to recall the rest of that horrible day. All those choices he had made. Sacrifices of good, innocent people. He had forgotten how much he hated being this person. Those eighteen months of feeling like a normal person with a normal soul — albeit heavily in denial — had been so peaceful. But he wasn't Frank Flynn. He was Jack Bauer, and Jack Bauer had to do these things.

"Jack, don't make me persuade you. Please." She had tears in her eyes.

He met her gaze. She was already losing consciousness. There was no other way out, and the more he delayed, the more time Henderson had to get away.

Jack retrieved a sharp utility knife from his pocket, identifying the two tendons to be cut. Just moving her wings to pull them taut made her let out a sob.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

As he slashed through, the wings fell to the ground, leaving two stumps between her shoulder blades. Audrey let out a piercing scream, an unmuted echo of what he had heard before. Within seconds, she was out. He was amazed to see how rapidly her body started to heal. Blood was already congealing at the surface and slowing the bleeding. He hoped she wouldn't need to regenerate her wings too soon. He imagined regenerating wings in a state like this would be a lot like picking a scab when it wasn't ready yet.

Jack held Audrey tightly to him, apologising again, the critical task of retrieving the recording fading from his mind.

When Audrey woke, she was sitting in the passenger seat of a car. She blinked a few times to adjust to the light, groaning in pain. It didn't take her long to remember why. Judging by how she was leaning against the seat without too much pain, her body was healing, but she was exhausted from the ordeal. 

Jack looked at her with concern, soon returning his gaze to the road.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded. "Where are we?"

"Chloe's tracked Henderson, we're right behind him. Hang on…"

Before she could even ask why, her whole body lurched as he rammed the car in front of them. She narrowly missed smacking her face on the dash and her instincts kicked in in case Jack planned to do it again. Henderson drove over the hill, seeming to lose control of the car and heading at full speed towards a barn. He crashed through the walls and Jack pulled to a stop outside, holstering his weapon. She wasn't in any state to stand just yet but Jack didn't seem to want her at risk until he knew what Henderson was doing, so he told her to stay. Audrey watched Jack pace forward, her night vision slowly helping her to see things better. Then, there were gunshots. Jack was around a corner, so she couldn't see him very well, just prayed he had the upper hand.

When she faintly heard Jack tell Henderson to stand down, she figured the coast was clear and slowly got out of the car. Only then did she notice Jack had been driving a cop car. If it weren't for being so disoriented and worried, she would find it amusing that in the short time she had been out, Jack had managed to steal one. As she started walking down the slope to the barn, her blood ran cold when she heard Henderson speak without a hint of fear.

"You kill me, Jack, Secretary Heller dies, too."

The smug, indifferent expression she saw on Henderson's face when she walked in made her furious. He was still one step ahead of them, and it shouldn't surprise her.

"My men have been tracking Heller from a chopper ever since he left Logan's retreat. If I can't contact them every fifteen minutes on the dot, they have orders to kill Secretary Heller, which means you got about…" he checked his watch, "three minutes to save his life."

There was no way Henderson was lying. Both from her intuition, and her knowledge of his character thus far, the man did not lie. If he had a threat, he meant it. Her hands balled into fists.

"Jack…" Audrey said, to let him know that she was there. There was a hint of anger beneath her voice, and Jack seemed aware of that as he glanced at her.

"Audrey, please get back in the car."

"I'm not going anywhere until I know what's happening with my father," she insisted, and Jack had no objections to that.

Jack then instructed Henderson to come closer and cuff himself. He called Chloe and instructed her to get satellite footage of her father's car. She leaned against the wall of the barn, aware that she was still quite tired, but stared Henderson down like a hawk, her eyes still glowing. She couldn't sense any fear from him, to her frustration. Admittedly, it was shocking to herself that she was being so… sadistic. It wasn't that she wanted to see him hurt for the hell of it. Henderson had maimed her, betrayed Jack, who she could tell had once looked up to him very fondly, and was now threatening her father's life. She had every right to be furious. This was not the time for self-loathing about her sirenhood. She was who she was, and she had every right to express that when the need arose, especially because she was convinced a pair of handcuffs wouldn't hold someone with as much expertise as Henderson. If he planned to escape, she would know.

Her heart leapt in her chest when she heard her father's voice through Jack's phone.

"Mister Secretary, it's Jack." Jack didn't take his eyes off Henderson, either. "I need you to confirm for me if a helicopter has been tracking your vehicle."

"What's going on, Jack?"

"Time is critical. Is there a helicopter or not?"

There was a pause, although she already knew the answer.

"Yeah, there's a chopper. Who are they?"

"Henderson's men. He claims he's given them orders to kill you if I don't let him go."

Despite the firmness of Jack's voice and the faith she had in her father to listen to Jack when there was such a critical threat, she couldn't help but feel angry at how powerless she was here. She couldn't help her father. She couldn't help Jack. All she could do was hope that her father could elude these hitmen. Throughout today, she had developed a lot of anger over the increasingly long list of government officials or workers who were involved with this conspiracy, right down to the God-damned president. Was nobody honest anymore? Did everyone have to pile lies on top of lies, cover their tracks to the point of murdering anyone who might give them away, and put their own personal gain, be it money or power, over the good of everyone around them? It made her sick. It also painfully reminded her of the chemical attacks around the world that had rendered so many sirens permanently bound to live in the sea. The government had done nothing to help them. Many politicians even proudly stated that it was God's will for them to be in the ocean where they belong, like they were no more worthy than fish. Her eyes increased their glow and her breaths started to shudder.

"Is he bluffing?"

"He doesn't do that, sir," Jack answered.

Chloe then said, "Jack, I've got Heller's car. I'm patching it to your PDA."

"Copy that."

"Jack, they have a laser sight trained on me," her father uttered with a slight jump in his voice that made her heart ache. 

Jack then said very sternly and quietly to Henderson, "Get up. You give me the recording, I let you go: that's the deal."

Audrey felt a pang of affection for Jack, recognising that he was willing to let Henderson go just to ensure her father's safety. 

"No. Come on, Jack. You're wasting time. We both know you're not gonna let Heller die."

Her father's voice came through the phone again, saying, "I can hear him, Jack. Don't let him do this."

"I'm going to walk out of here, and you're not going to stop me, so uncuff me."

"Jack, don't let him go!" her father insisted.

"I don't have a choice, sir," Jack said with resignation.

When her father spoke next, her stomach slowly started to sink. She knew her father well, and, although his voice was firm, she also knew it wasn't just to assert what little power he had over the situation but to assert finality, like he knew this wasn't going to end well for him. He spoke like he was giving his last words.

"Yes, you do. If I had listened to you, none of this would be happening," he lamented. "This is my responsibility. I will not allow Logan and Henderson to use me as a pawn."

"Sir-"

"Do not let them get away with this. Make sure that the recording gets to the right people." There was a beat. "Tell Audrey I love her." 

The dialtone sounded, but Jack continued to yell in protest before trying to reach Chloe again.

"Can you confirm that Heller just drove his car into the lake?"

"Yes," Chloe said apologetically.

That wasn't the worst thing in the world. Despite being an abstainer, he could swim far away with his tail or fly out and open his wings, although it had been many, many years since he had done either of those things. What mattered was that he was still alive. There was a chance. He could get out of this. Adrenaline would give him his power back.

"Jack, he'll swim out. He'll be okay," Audrey said, but somehow, she couldn't believe her own words, and Henderson's scoff confirmed this.

"My people are sirens, too, Jack. And, unlike Heller, they don't abstain, so they have their abilities in full capacity. They'll track him down and rip him to shreds before he even remembers how to swim."

At that moment, she felt herself snap. She would not just stand there and worry about her father, nor would she let Jack keep trying to negotiate. The time for words had passed.

"Damn you!" Audrey roared, launching herself at him. Within seconds, her nails had become talons, digging into the flesh of his shoulders. She bared her teeth and growled menacingly. Henderson tried to shove her off, but she took pride in the fact that, despite her fatigue, she had the upper hand. She was so full of fury, she didn't even notice Jack was calling her name until he really grabbed her shoulder. She whipped her head around with a snarl, but tears blurred her vision. Jack seemed startled but also understanding, more than he had been the last time he had seen her like this. Perhaps if she hadn't tried to go at Henderson, he would have done so himself.

"I can't blame you for wanting to do this, but I need to know where the recording is," he said, regrettably.

"Where's the recording?" Audrey gritted through her teeth, meeting Henderson's eyes, hoping to catch him off-guard, but she couldn't get a strong read from him, making her both confused and worried.

He chuckled weakly. "You know, when a healthy person drinks a little bit of siren blood every day, it makes it so much easier to resist persuasion. I'm stronger and I'm faster than I've ever been. So try me. I doubt you'll get very far."

One of her hands seized his throat, but he still looked at her with pity. It was common knowledge that athletes took siren blood to enhance performance, which was illegal in most competitions the way steroids were. But she had never heard of someone taking it every day, long term. She was still relatively certain it was impossible for a human to become a siren, based on what she knew about genetics, but this was a frightening threat. Her fear drove her necessity for control, making her squeeze tighter. In one quick motion, Jack pulled her back again, and knocked Henderson out with the butt of his gun. He had moved her quite rapidly, aggravating her wing injury. Jack seemed more apologetic when she turned to look at him, her form becoming more human just as quickly as it had become siren-like.

"Your father has a chance," Jack reminded her. "He's got a better chance than most humans."

She took a shaky breath and nodded. Jack helped her up and pulled her into his arms. The feeling of him against her like this nearly made her break down. She didn't realise how much she had missed this. Jack, too, based on the way that he didn't seem intent on letting her go any time soon. So much had changed in the last eighteen months. And while that time apart had been unbearable, she was grateful to have him here, not just alive and well, but more understanding than ever.

When they found it in themselves to break the hug, Jack inspected Henderson thoroughly for the recording, but came up empty, cursing under his breath.

"He must have handed it off to someone," Jack concluded.

As she eyed Henderson's unconsicous body, something occurred to her.

"I might be able to get him to talk."

Jack furrowed his brow. 

"For a human to resist persuasion, it's a conscious effort. Henderson might not need as much effort, but that doesn't make it impossible. He's not a siren, and he never will be." She bit her lip. "If I can ask him where the recording is as soon as he opens his eyes, he might be too groggy to remember to resist."

He nodded. "Go for it." 

Audrey watched and waited, her eyes focused like lasers on Henderson's. She had to try not to think about her father. His phone would have been ruined in the water. It would take him a while to find a phone booth and call someone, especially somewhere as remote as the retreat. She refused to allow the possibility that he hadn't made it out of the water to enter her mind. She tried to focus on her breathing. She distracted herself by focusing on little features about Henderson, any sign of regaining consciousness that she could use as her entry point. Nothing else mattered except catching Henderson. She had one shot at this. It felt like she waited forever, but eventually, his eyelids twitched slightly.

"Where's the recording?" Audrey said, her voice firm when she met his cold, grey eyes.

Henderson swallowed, opening his mouth like he was about to speak. He tensed his muscles, clearly trying to resist her, but she grabbed his chin, forcing her to look at him. They needed this recording. Still, she had exerted herself a lot today, and it was taking its toll. It was a fight to stay awake. Pain crept into every inch of her body, but she would not break her stare until she got the damn answers she needed. 

When he spoke, there was a slight dopiness in his voice, making a smile creep across her face. "There's a plane leaving from Van Nuys Airport. Flight 520 to Frankfurt."

Within seconds, Jack called Chloe, relaying the information. Henderson's eyes closed again. She wasn't sure if she would need more, but that was enough to go off for now. 

Her blinks suddenly became prolonged, and a wave of dizziness came over her when she tried to stand. Jack's hands guided her to sit on a bale of hay. He squeezed her shoulders, uttering her name.

"Stay with me. Stay with me," Jack urged. "I have to go to the airport. I've called CTU. Curtis will be here. Make sure Henderson doesn't go anywhere."

She nodded shakily. He repeated the instructions louder, jolting her awake a bit more.

"I'll be okay," she uttered.

Again, she found herself playing the waiting game, purposefully getting her talons out so she could dig them into her pain to stave off the fatigue threatening to consume her. She couldn't let Henderson get away. She had a job to do. Audrey took her coat off so the cold wind could keep her alert. She picked up Henderson's gun that he had kicked over. It felt light. She hadn't shot a gun many times in her life, but she remembered enough to recognise that it was empty. The security of holding it made her feel better, regardless. She didn't know if she had it in her to defend herself effectively. 

The sound of cars pulling up made her release the tension in her shoulders. Henderson was still unconscious.

When Curtis burst in, she gave in to the feeling of safety, collapsing into his arms.

Audrey awoke in CTU Medical, believing to be in some kind of lucid nightmare because she refused to consider any other explanation for Bill informing her apologetically that Jack had been taken by the Chinese government.

She had gone through these horrible emotions eighteen months ago, yet that didn't make it any easier for her to process them. Even though Jack was not dead, not dead until somebody said otherwise and she had faith that day would never come, they had been torn apart. However, unlike last time, when she had had an all-consuming sense of guilt, now, she was downright furious because nobody seemed overly enthusiastic about finding Jack and getting him back home. Bill did seem to care, but was too occupied with the fallout of the conspiracy. She would like to think Tony and Michelle would have helped her if not for their deaths. As for Kim, well, even though Audrey would like to think she still cared about him deep down, Jack would never forgive her for putting her in harm's way. Most painfully, her father, who should be more than grateful for Jack saving both of their lives and had plenty of strings to pull, wasn't lifting a finger. When Audrey confronted him about it, he made a laundry list of every bad or questionable thing Jack had done, including his reaction to finding out they were sirens. No matter how much she explained that Jack had changed and cared about her, he wouldn't have it.

"God, it's like you want him out of our lives!" Audrey postulated.

"I appreciate what he's done, but you can't ignore how he treated us, and even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, bad things happen to the people around him," her father warned. "The man leaves a trail of bodies everywhere he goes. You push this, you'll end up like his wife."

Her eyes flashed angrily. "How can you say that? All he's ever done is try to protect people, most of all, his daughter. It's not his fault!–"

"I know it's not, but I'm trying to protect my daughter, too." 

"I'm not a child, Dad!"

"No, but you're not thinking straight, Audrey!" He huffed. "I will do my best, but I am not risking everything just for the possibility these people might be nice enough to return him unharmed. If I were you, I'd start treating him like he's dead again."

She scoffed, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. "You're talking about him like he's disposable. He was loyal to you, and he treated me well, and I love–" It all came tumbling out so fast that she had to bite her tongue.

He looked at her, unimpressed. "This is because you love him? You want me to risk staring a nuclear war with China because you love him?"

All Audrey wanted to do was scream, but she took a shuddering breath, attempting to control herself. The more subjective she sounded, the harder the chance she had of convincing her father to even try, let alone try like he gave a damn.

"You're right that I love him, more than I ever loved Paul," she admitted, her voice hoarse before pointing a shaking finger at him. "But this is about principle and you should be ashamed of yourself. You're the antithesis of everything you ever taught me."

"I will see what I can do," he conceded coldly. "But I am not going to risk everything for him, and if they tell me there's no chance, I'm not pushing it."

She wanted to argue further, but she couldn't, not with logic, not with anything tangible. Her father's demeanour reminded her of how he had been after the attacks that banished her mother underwater. He had been so cold in an effort to build resilience and help her move past it when all she had wanted was for him to help find her. It had led to her doing something very foolish: running away in the middle of the night to search for her mother in the ocean. She had come across many sirens, melancholy and lost, desperately asking them if they had seen her. While feeding on small land animals for sustenance, she had swum for almost a week straight, her father worried sick about where she might be. She believed she could have gone on forever in her pursuit, but entanglement in a fishing net had put it to an end. The excess feeding had pumped her full of adrenaline and urgency so, when the sailors on board had made lewd comments about what a rare catch it was to have a pretty little siren on board, she hadn't needed much deliberation to rip them to shreds. After her rage blackout, she had woken up covered in blood, shaking like a leaf. She had called port security and managed to get ahold of her father, who had come and cleaned the mess up. He had persuaded people left, right and centre to cover up the killings. He had been scarily silent. He had not said anything. He had not scolded her. He had just taken care of things to protect his little girl. And although neither of them had been very frequent hunters, after the incident, he had told her that from now on, they would abstain, and she had listened.

But, damn it, right now, she was an adult making her own decisions, and she was going to get Jack back, even if she had to do it alone.

In her desperate search for information that could help her, she had stumbled across Nina Myers' file. She knew the gist of it, but details about her death suddenly caught her eye. She called a few siren-specialised doctors and researchers she knew, asking about the likelihood of a siren surviving a gunshot wound to the chest. A shot to the heart, obviously, would not offer any chances of survival. But a nearby shot that didn't hit an artery was less certain. She found the security camera footage of Jack killing her. After zooming and playing frame-by-frame almost obsessively, she noticed a critical detail: he had looked Nina in the eyes before shooting her. Jack never would have risked doing that, not when he had finally had Nina where he had wanted her. Had he done it on purpose, perhaps to see if she was lying? Maybe it had been habit to look people in the eyes when he was talking to them to get their information. Regardless, she realised there was a good chance Nina Myers was alive, and that being a siren, she might be able to help her.

So, she looked into Nina's associates, and with a bit of help from Chloe, she managed to prove her theory with a frame, a single frame, from a street camera that showed someone who looked a hell of a lot like her. A little more stalking and she found herself standing in a deserted cove in the middle of the night, watching as Nina met with some of her associates under the pier, an ideal location for ensuring they couldn't be heard, presumably for some kind of business deal. There was a briefcase full of cash and some documents. Several guards from each party stood sentry. All of them were sirens. Their wings ranged in colour from cream, like hers, to grey, to auburn, to jet black. Somehow she felt a little inadequate since she hadn't regenerated hers again after Jack had cut them off three months ago. Normally, her lack of wings gave her a sense of security about remaining hidden, but not here.

Audrey crept closer, trying to better listen in on Nina's conversation, but soon realised that was a mistake as she found her back against the rock beside her. The siren guard flashed her green eyes at Audrey, her wings the colour of chestnuts. Audrey gulped. She didn't exactly have a good explanation and charm would not get her anywhere, either.

"Mercer, leave her," a voice said, and the guard obliged.

Nina's arms were folded when she looked at her. "Well… aren't you a little far from Capitol Hill?"

Audrey let out a breath, trying to keep her cool. "I need your help."

Her eyebrows rose. "My help? You can bat your eyes at anyone, but you want my help?" She scoffed. "Whatever trap this is for the Feds to catch me, I'm not falling for it."

She then turned to walk away, and Audrey realised she couldn't be subtle here. She had to make her understand.

"It's about Jack."

Nina froze.

"He needs help and you're the only one left who gives a damn about him."

"He has people who would be more than happy to help. I don't see why you came to me."

"Chloe's done what she can, but she's not about to risk her life, and Tony's dead."

Nina had been still, but flinched like she had been hit. "Tony's dead?"

"Yes. I… I'm sorry."

There was a beat before Nina ordered half of her guards to see her guest off, then turned her head. "You know, if you're trying to pull anything, I won't hesitate to rip your throat out."

Audrey nodded with a gulp. "I know. I… I mean it. I'm telling the truth."

Nina stared at her for a moment. Audrey knew she couldn't use her persuasion on her and vice versa, but it was still intimidating.

"Alright, we'll talk. Come with me."

Audrey followed her up the trail to the lavish beach house. The criminal life treated her well, apparently. Nina led her to an office-type room with chrome and black finishing. It was very sleek. It would look like anybody's home office if it wasn't for the clearly more sophisticated computers and safes around. Nina didn't mess around, and for good reason.

"So, what exactly did Jack get himself into this time?"

She explained the situation with the Chinese government and, if she wasn't mistaken, Nina seemed to be just as angry about the government using Jack as a scapegoat. Audrey wasn't sure about how she felt about that: agreeing with Nina. But she had come this far.

"You want me to get him back?"

Audrey nodded. "Name your price and I'll pay it." She knew money was one of Nina's few motivations, and Audrey had researched the costs of her other dealings. With her own money and Paul's estate, of which she was the sole benefactor, she believed she had more than enough to win Nina over.

"No."

Her brow furrowed. "No?"

"If you come with me, I'll do it for nothing."

There had to be a catch. She could not possibly be offering something so generous for a big job. Audrey could see it in her eyes.

"Why would you want me there? I'm an abstainer. I haven't used my powers outside of emergencies in years. Even my persuasion isn't half of yours. I'm a liability."

"Oh, you won't be abstaining for much longer. Everyone has their limit, but you'll need to get your strength up. I can see it in your complexion."

Still, this made no sense. Another pair of hands could not possibly be adequate compensation.

"What do you really want, Nina?"

She smiled in a way that was almost startling. It was a little snarky, but not malicious. "The same thing you do, to get Jack back."

Audrey furrowed her brow.

Nina just chuckled. "I'm aware that's not what you expected, but I mean it, Audrey. Jack might be a complicated man, but he's been through enough, a lot of it because of me, and he doesn't deserve this."

Audrey wished she had a sure-fire way of knowing she could believe that was her sole intention.

"I'm telling you the truth," Nina said, as though reading her mind. "I care about Jack. I never meant for him to get hurt but killing his wife was something I had no choice about. If the people I worked with found out she knew about the plan, they would have tortured her." Her face took a very far-away look. "By killing her, I spared her a much greater misery before meeting the same fate."

She wasn't sure how to feel about that, but she believed Nina was telling the truth. There was a vulnerability to her expression, that, despite what her file said about her being psychopathic, Audrey believed was genuine. Maybe killing Jack's wife had been more of a difficult decision for her than Jack had believed. She certainly didn't seem proud of it. That was the conclusion the investigation had drawn, that Nina was another inherently bloodthirsty siren who couldn't control her urges. The stereotyping made Audrey furious, but she stopped herself from thinking too hard about it. She wasn't about to justify Nina or her choices.

"Getting Jack back is really all you want?" Audrey asked one more time, just to get something from her.

Nina nodded. "You and I have the same goal here. My only condition is that you work with me. So… do we have a deal?"

Did she really have a choice? She wanted Jack back and Nina was willing to help. She could feel guilty about it all she wanted later. 

Audrey met her eyes. "Deal."

As far as her father and his security team knew, Audrey was off doing work with a siren advocacy group. It didn't seem out-of-character for her, and she had always been interested in using her position in the government to raise awareness; it had been the concealment of her siren status that had prevented her from doing so until now. Chloe had been kind enough to help it look legitimate, even offering to pretend to be a group member, should someone call. It helped that her father wasn't in LA often, really only to visit her. And he didn't ask too many questions, just happy to know she was no longer hung up on rescuing Jack. She had told Bill she was taking leave for a while, who was very understanding. Once the cover was sorted, she focused on the mission at hand. She was going to be the one to get Jack back, which meant she had to prepare more than anyone. She needed to harness every power she had without guilt or shame, because she was putting it to good use.

The first day was rough. She likened it to military bootcamp. Nina tested every limit she had, physical and mental, to make her realise how critical this was. She also wanted her to channel her anger, make her realise the injustice of the situation, that Jack, a hero to this country, had been left to the wolves because it was 'too hard' to get him back. It gave her a fiery determination that manifested in every part of her body. At first, it was difficult to control. She likened it to a ball of fire in the centre of her chest that moved of its own volition. The fact that, in recent times, she had only used her siren abilities under intense distress as a forced fight-or-flight response didn't help. She was sure that if she had activated those parts of her regularly, privately, in a controlled way and not tried to bury it deep within her out of fear of another incident, she would have, one, had the courage to tell Jack the truth much earlier, and two, not found Nina's preparation process so gruelling.

Still, to use her abilities so freely and without fear here was exhilarating.

As Audrey stood in the shower now after such a long, hard day of work, it surprised her how the endorphins still overrode her exhaustion. Those first few steps in the ocean had made her feel alive. She had forgotten how fast she could swim with her tail. She had forgotten how nice it was to go underwater without having to come up for air to pretend to be human. Of course, the initial euphoria had worn off when she had realised that Nina didn't just want her to swim for fun. The ocean wasn't exactly a local pool, so it had been hard to measure how much she had swum, but Nina had pushed her hard, not just in swimming and diving deep, but also in emerging from the water with her wings. The transition from tail to wings was a difficult one. She had never done it before, and certainly not swiftly. But, with practice, she had been able to go between the sky and the sea with ease. Audrey was proud of herself. She had taken some big steps today, not only to prepare to bring Jack home but also to accept and love the parts of herself she had ignored for so long.

However, what dampened this high was the constant voice in the back of her mind questioning whether she could have found a way to do this without Nina. She was grateful for her help and genuinely believed that she didn't have a hidden agenda. It didn't mean that Audrey could look past her actions, though. Nina had betrayed her country and two people who had loved her. Jack had made it very clear from the day they had met that Nina was a part of his past he wanted to keep deeply buried. For God's sake, he had killed her to give himself peace. How was he going to react when he found out she was alive? How conflicting would it be for him to know that she had been one of few people who still cared about him enough to want him safe? Would he understand the desperation that had resulted in Nina being her only option to get him out, or would he resent her for it? Did Jack even believe he was worth saving?

Before she could spiral much longer, she noticed the excess steam on the glass walls of the shower. Her muscles had probably had enough relaxation. And she realised that, most of all, what she wanted was answers from Nina, particularly about how she was still alive. She wouldn't do this without full disclosure, and Nina didn't seem to be intentionally trying to hide anything. She was just trying to get to know her since they were going to have to work closely for this to work. Audrey towel-dried her hair and got changed into the pair of pyjamas she had brought with her. Packing that duffel bag in her car before going to the beach night had really been a mark of commitment on her part.

When she came out to the main room, Nina was sitting on the couch. There was a takeout bag on the table.

"I got Mercer to order us some Thai food." She motioned with her head. "It's still warm. Help yourself."

She could definitely use some sustenance. There was a large tub of Pad Thai, as well as some spring rolls and dumplings. She took a bit of everything and then sat in the armchair across from Nina.

They sat in silence for a moment before Audrey said, "I have to ask… how exactly did you survive?"

Nina smiled without mirth. "Jack made a mistake, and I took advantage of it. He looked me in the eye, something he knew better than to do, asked me if I had any more information — which, for the record, I did — and at that second I knew I wasn't getting out of that room alive. So, I told Jack to miss." Nina pulled a section of her shirt to reveal a handful of jagged scars. "I didn't expect him to shoot me three times, but I managed not to lose too much blood by the time I ended up alone with the coroner, got myself help, persuaded him to put all the paperwork through, and then I escaped through a passage of CTU I knew had blind-spots, stayed hidden until the heat died down."

It occurred to Audrey that Nina had probably continued staying under the radar by monitoring government databases. "Is that how you found out about me? You… you knew I was a siren, even before I could explain how my father had covered it up."

Nina nodded. "In all honesty, I was disappointed to see that had been the case. I think with the clout you and your father have, you really had the potential to make advances for siren rights."

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean by clout?"

She shrugged. "Defence is still a hot-button issue, has been since 9/11, so your father's job is pretty respected, and you're his smart, attractive blonde all-American daughter. If you came forward and dispelled the myths about sirens, people might listen, and I don't mean because you could persuade them."

Audrey thought about that for a moment. Nina had a point. If she hadn't been so distracted by dealing with everything going on between her and Jack, maybe she could have taken charge and used it as an opportunity to be truly authentic with herself and the world. She had more privilege than most siren women. She had a team of security that followed her everywhere or watched her. She had power in politics. She had a voice that she could use, and instead she had used that privilege to get away with hiding. But who would speak for the people who couldn't hide their abilities, the people who had been caught at the wrong place or wrong time, the people imprisoned by the legal system or the lack of care in the medical system to find a cure for those affected by the chemical attacks? She never thought a mercenary would be the one to make her realise she had the power to do good things in her life.

"I know I'm the last person you want advice from, and I don't blame you for being hesitant. I can see you love Jack and that's why this is hard for you." Nina pointed out, like she could read her mind — although her look of contemplation wasn't exactly invisible. "But I hate that what I did had such a permanent impact on the way siren women in the government are perceived. That…" She sighed. "I made a lot of mistakes, but that's one of my biggest regrets. I kept my sirenhood a secret because of the hardship I faced and it backfired. I was under so much stress, trying to keep it in, so when I realised Teri had heard me on the phone, I snapped. I… I know it looked like I killed her viciously or for enjoyment, but I didn't."

"I believe you," Audrey said honestly. "I… I think most, if not all, sirens have been in a position where our emotions have got the better of us. People just see the violence of it and don't realise that it wasn't a conscious choice, it's just…" She shrugged. "It's just how our bodies react and how we're different."

When she looked up from her food, Nina seemed a little taken aback by her words.

"I might not agree with all of your choices, but I recognise that you were put into a difficult position, and that you dealt with it the only way you could. The fact that you're helping me get Jack back is proof of that. If you really saw him as a means to an end, you wouldn't care so much."

Nina nodded, the corners of her lips upturning. "I don't think I've ever had anybody understand me like that before," she confessed.

The guilt was still at the back of her mind. Audrey didn't think it would ever fade, and it shouldn't. She needed to honour both her dislike of Nina for how she treated Jack ,as well as her gratitude for how she was trying to help him now. She had never been one to believe that people were set in their ways and had no hope of changing. It was clear that while Nina had no intention of leaving her criminal life behind, she was trying to make up for hurting Jack. She doubted she wanted penance for any of her other actions. It was probably too risky or impossible in most cases. But she was trying to do a good thing here, and Audrey respected that. It also made her realise that, even if Jack didn't, it wouldn't matter. Audrey just wanted him home. If that meant coming clean about going to Nina and Jack wanting nothing to do with her as a result, then she wouldn't stop him.

If someone had told Audrey six months ago that Nina Myers would become her mentor, she would have thought they were crazy. For the past four months, she had been living something of a double life. She spent every second she could with Nina, but her father worried about her, and she didn't need him suspecting she was off chasing some ridiculous dream of bringing Jack home. So, when necessary, she lived a life of philanthropy. She now volunteered with the siren advocacy groups she had only claimed to be with earlier. It brought her a lot of fulfilment. Granted, she couldn't be as public as she wanted to be about it, but there were many human volunteers who believed in the cause, so it wasn't a huge deal. As much as she wanted to be open about her sirenhood, and as mad as she still was at her father for not doing anything to help Jack, she wasn't about to create a massive scandal.

She leaned on the railing of the boat, feeling the wind whip through her hair. It was peaceful out here. It was almost easy to forget that she was about to embark on one of the most dangerous tasks of her life, but fear would not drive her. No, she was going to fight with everything she had to bring him home. Everything was in place. Through some backdoors at the embassy, they had schematics of the blacksite Jack was being kept in. They also had limited profile information on the guards. What they were counting on was that they were mostly human. Although scientists hadn't quite figured out the exact genetic mechanic, the mutation affecting siren lungs was much more prevalent in people of Asian descent. China, in particular, by having such a large population had at least developed viable infrastructure for those forced to live underwater. It wasn't accessible for everybody, but it was much better effort than most countries in the west. So, although Audrey and Nina were confident that they, and the other crew members could persuade their way into finding Jack with minimal confrontation, they also had to ensure they kept the boat for transporting Jack secure in neutral territory, lest border patrol stop them.

From the boat to the blacksite, they would fly as far as they could, keeping mind of air surveillance above them. Audrey would be the one to sneak in through a duct to where Jack was being kept. Since it was likely that Jack had been drugged, possibly to the point of delirium, he wouldn't respond well to strangers or Nina trying to tell him what to do. Even if Jack thought she was a hallucination — a concept that made her heart ache — he would still be willing to go with her. Still, Audrey was hyperaware that she would be on her own here. Nina and the other crew members would have to persuade guards left and right, and try to find Cheng to make him forget about Jack and the incident at the consulate. It wouldn't exactly be worthwhile if they got to the US with Cheng hunting them down. They had to be in and out. Mental strength was more important than physical strength. The less mess they made, the better. 

There was a sigh as Nina came next to her. She could feel the boat slowing to a stop.

"You ready?"

Audrey looked at her. Although Nina looked calm, Audrey knew her well enough to know that she was nervous, too. It hit her that they only had one shot at this. If they couldn't get to Jack, none of them would make it out alive. She wasn't sure what scared her more: being imprisoned and tortured alongside Jack or being killed and her father never recovering her body. But screw being scared. Jack was suffering, and she was the only one who could save him.

"You're ready for this, Audrey, more than you think. Just go find Jack, and we'll take care of the rest."

She nodded, and Nina went to leave, but Audrey called out to her, "Wait. I just– Thank you. For everything you've taught me and for agreeing to do this."

"You're welcome." Nina offered her a small smile. "Now, let's get going."

While Audrey trusted Nina to execute this properly, it didn't shake the feeling she had that something could go wrong at any moment. As they flew, she constantly scanned her surroundings, anxious that they could be attacked before they even made it to the blacksite. But when the building came into sight, she snapped into action. Despite having only seen limited satellite footage and mostly knowing this building from a two-dimensional schematic, she spotted her mark and went for it. She landed softly, checking her surroundings. There were two guards in the distance, each brandishing automatic weapons. The air duct she needed to climb into was just behind them. As they completed their lap towards the fuse box she was hiding behind, she held her breath, watching as the flashlight arcs just missed her.

When both turned to walk back, she shot her wing out, bringing the first man towards her like there was a rope around his body and she had tugged on it. Before he could speak, their eyes met, and he smiled giddily before collapsing. It was amazing how little effort she needed to persuade someone now. The animal blood she had been consuming regularly since Nina had accepted her offer was to thank for that. She had set a hard boundary about hurting humans, and Nina had respected it. In fact, Nina, herself, usually stuck with animals and only hunted humans when she saw it was necessary. Even then, Audrey had been privy to some of her 'hunts', and, more often than not, it had been someone who wasn't exactly innocent. A corrupt CEO here, a pervert who preyed on young girls there. While it had been confronting to see, she hadn't quite lost sleep over it. She had never felt bad about what she had done to defend herself all those years ago. Any negative emotions from that experience were rooted in the excessive actions her father had had to take to cover it up, not the act itself. Audrey then repeated her actions on the other guard, impressed by how quickly she was doing this, before walking over to the vent.

As she climbed down, the smell of sewerage assaulted her senses. Unfortunately, with all the work she had put in, those senses had improved, so anything remotely foul-smelling was now unbearable, but she pushed through it, recalling the directions she had memorised and trying to move quietly. It was a tight fit with her wings, but she managed. Her stomach dropped at the sound of a man screaming in pain. He wasn't far, but the sound was so horrible that she nearly let out a sob. Audrey clasped a hand over her mouth. She was almost there. She could get to him. She crawled towards a grate and paused to look through it. She saw three similarly dressed men towering over Jack. One of them spoke, and she recognised the voice as Cheng's. It took everything in her to not lunge down and rip his throat out, but she had to control herself. If word got out to the authorities that Americans had initiated some kind of 'attack' on a Chinese government official, all hell would break loose.

Once she was sure the men had left, Audrey dropped from the grate. It frightened her that Jack hadn't even moved or reacted to the noise. He was still conscious, but barely. His hair had grown out, slick with grease as it stuck to his skin, which was covered in dirt, blood, and grime. His clothes were torn and ragged, revealing an array of bruises, scabs, and injection sites on his sallow skin.

"God, Jack…" Audrey breathed, bending down to his side. She was almost afraid to touch him, like the slightest graze of her fingers against him could hurt him.

Audrey rolled Jack to his side so she could lift him. He blinked wearily at her, mumbling her name feebly. She almost didn't know what to say, tears springing to her eyes at how broken down he was. "I'm going to get you out of here," she whispered.

The door opened with a creak, making her whip her head around to find Cheng standing there. He obviously hadn't wanted to give Jack much of a break. Cheng seemed stunned by her presence. She could see that he recognised her, perhaps from when she and her father had been kidnapped. But he wasn't looking at her face. No, he was looking at her wings with a hungry, interested look that reminded her vividly of when she had gone to search for her mother. She fought the familiar rage building within her as she walked towards him. He seemed stupefied enough that she could back him into a corner, staring him down with her glowing eyes.

"You had no right to take him," Audrey hissed. "We have proof that it was friendly fire on your consulate." The proof was shaky at best, but he didn't know that, and he had every reason to believe her. "If I bring that evidence to light, I will make your country a laughing stock. You don't want that, do you?"

He shook his head, fear creeping into his expression as she bared her teeth. She had no intention of using them; she knew there was more at stake than just her own anger.

"Then you're going to forget about all of this. You will leave Jack Bauer and any of the men who went with him on the raid, alone. You will never lay a hand on him again, or I'll come for you and make you very sorry. Do you understand?"

Cheng nodded frantically.

"I need to hear you say it. Tell me you won't hurt Jack for as long as you live."

"I-I won't hurt Jack for as long as I live," he repeated dumbly.

"Good." She smiled sweetly. "Then you'll have no problem letting me and my people walk out of here."

Another voice yelled in Mandarin, and Audrey panicked, immediately sensing the source to be a siren, and not one that had come with her. The unfamiliar man appeared at the door, his grey wings already unfolded. His eyes widened as he noticed Cheng was in a trance, but before he could break their eye contact, Audrey jabbed him with the tip of her wing, rotating just enough to hit him square in the solar plexus and wind him, without turning away that she couldn't ready herself for a counterattack. He was quick to lunge back at her. Judging by the ravenous look in his eyes, he was not someone who abstained. While trying her best to shield Jack, she shoved against him with the side of her body before delivering a front kick to the solar plexus again. But she could only move so fast while she was holding him, and soon found herself fighting with everything she had to keep him in her grip while the siren shoved her against the wall, wrapping a hand around her throat. She winced as his talons pierced the side of her neck. It became a struggle to breathe. Stars crept into the corner of her vision and all she could tell herself was to fight it. She would not let this happen. She had not come this far just to lose him again. But the siren holding her was strong, her slight handicap aside.

She never thought she would be so relieved to hear two gunshots in succession. The man collapsed, crying out as blood spurted from his neck. Nina stood there, looking between her, Jack, the mercenary, and Cheng, worriedly.

"Cheng's not a problem anymore." Audrey assured, motioning with her head. "Let's go."

They navigated the halls back to the flat roof of the building where they could fly off. The other crew members were already waiting in the air. As Audrey rose with Jack limp in her arms, a part of her had to commend herself for her increased strength. Although Jack was visibly weaker and therefore probably weighed less than he used to, it was still a feat for her to be flying while holding him. She flapped her wings harder to catch the wind and start flying towards the boat. Her eyes flitted between Nina and Mercer, who were just ahead of her, and Jack, who was now unconscious. The wind was cold, dry, and salty from the ocean below her, so it immediately stuck out to her when she felt something wet and sticky on her hands. As she looked down, she realised she must not have shielded Jack completely because there was blood seeping through his shirt onto her fingers, falling like rain into the ocean below.

"Nina!" Audrey called, who backtracked and came to her side. "He's bleeding."

Aware of the deadline creeping up on them, they tried to continue flying forward as Nina hovered underneath Jack to pinpoint the source.

"He got nicked by something. Must have been the siren who attacked you."

"How bad is it?"

Nina grimaced. "I don't think it hit any arteries, but he is losing a lot of blood. Try to put pressure on it. We'll be at the boat soon, but we have to keep moving."

But Audrey was so aware of how frail he was, and feared that he couldn't hold out. They didn't even know what kind of infections and wounds he already had, but she didn't like how much this one was bleeding. She could give him her blood. But she couldn't carry Jack one-handed.

"Nina, I'll meet you there."

"What do you mean you'll meet?- Audrey!"

By the time Nina figured out what she was doing, she was already descending towards the ocean. She slowed to a stop so the pressure of hitting the water wouldn't bruise Jack any further. The water was cold enough to jolt Jack awake. He mumbled something incoherent and groaned. Audrey met his eyes and hushed him, turning him over so she could see where he was bleeding from. It was pitchblack, but with her night vision, she could see filth leech out from his clothing into the water. Her tail wasn't out because she didn't think she would be down here long, but she had forgotten how hard it was to keep herself above water with both the weight of Jack in her arms and her wings. She was hyperaware of every wasted second, wondering whether Nina had been right and this decision could put them in jeopardy. Given that Nina hadn't come down to her, she must be trying to bring the boat closer. Audrey continued to kick with all of her might, trying to keep Jack in a position where he wasn't facedown in the water, but she could still access his back. 

Holding him tightly to her, Audrey brought her wrist to her mouth, piercing the skin with her fangs to draw blood. It was difficult when she healed so quickly now, but she managed to start letting blood drip onto the wound. She had to keep intermittently re-opening the cut but did her best to not let a single drop go to waste. It obviously didn't help that Jack was so rundown but she could see blood congealing on the surface of the wound, and the yellow pus around it, disappear. At this moment, Audrey realised she wasn't struggling to keep afloat anymore. It felt like there was a buoy beneath her, suspending her so she could keep healing Jack. Maybe Nina had come back to help. The thoughts of how and why were at the back of her mind in favour of trying to inspect Jack for any other bleeding or clearly infected wounds while still trying to monitor her surroundings.

When the big wound finally healed, Audrey resumed holding Jack to her chest like she had before, pinching his nose. She dipped below the surface for just a moment to gain momentum before emerging to the sky, shaking off the water and holding Jack steady as he coughed. All those gruelling days she spent lifting boulders from the water and cursing at Nina as she made her do it again, and again, had paid off. She flew as fast as she could towards the boat, driven by pure adrenaline, knowing it was only a matter of time before she might be visible in the rising sunlight. To her relief, the boat was much closer than expected; they must have been heading towards her to meet halfway. 

Audrey landed, and her crew members with medical expertise immediately took him away to tend to him.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Nina called over the wind.

"He would have bled out by the time I got there!" she insisted, and clearly she looked as overwhelmed as she felt because Nina backed off, instead placing a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll look after him. He's going to be okay, Audrey." Nina wasn't one to lie out of pity. She said it with enough earnest that Audrey had faith it was true.

As she accepted that, she then asked, "How did you get back so quickly?"

Nina furrowed her brow. "What do you mean?"

"You helped me keep Jack afloat, didn't you?"

She shook her head. "We were all back here trying to figure out how to get to you without being spotted."

That made Audrey pause. She might be stronger than ever, but she hadn't grown an extra set of hands. Something, or someone, had been helping her. She supposed it didn't matter, now that Jack was safe, and they were away from Chinese authorities, but the question lingered in her mind.

Audrey leaned against the wall, slightly dizzy, watching Nina's doctor tend to Jack, but there wasn't much for him to do. The siren blood Audrey had continued to administer had taken care of a lot of it. She wondered how disgusted he would feel when he woke up and discovered she had used siren blood to save him given that only a few years ago, he had prevented her from saving Paul's life with the very same method. Any signs of infection had disappeared. Major wounds had started closing up. His skin, while still indicative of many months away from the sun, looked better than before, especially since his contusions were fading. They had used their siren strength to manipulate his broken bones back to place. 

The doctor then left her alone with him, muttering something about further testing his blood for drugs and infection when they got back to shore, but assuring Audrey he would be okay.

At least, physically. Emotionally, Audrey wasn't too convinced.

She knew what she could do: wipe his memory to make him forget all the terrible things Cheng had done to him. Technically, it didn't even have to stop there; she could manipulate his memories to make him forget how mad he had been at her for keeping her sirenhood a secret. However, this power didn't make someone forget, rather, it pushed the memory very deep into the subconscious. The memory could still be recalled, even from something as simple as a conversational mention of the incident, depending on how strong it was. Someone was bound to bring that up, likely her father. Someone was also, unfortunately, bound to debrief him about his torture. While she had really learned to hone her siren abilities, she hadn't done a lot of memory wiping. What she really wanted was to remove the traumatic emotional charge of his memories but allow him to recall them. She didn't want to erase history, but she didn't want to make it more painful for him than it already was.

However, there was another factor. It was something she had debated the entire time she had prepared for this rescue mission, and she still didn't really have an answer: would Jack ever be okay with this? Any person would be grateful to have their freedom, but Jack was too much of a man of principle. He might understand that she had concentrated on becoming a stronger siren to save him, since nobody else in the government thought he was worth the risk. He might even be appreciative. But she would inevitably have to tell him that she had gone to Nina, and that was a non-negotiable for Jack. No matter how much Nina had opened her mind and made her realise that there were two sides to every story, the entire root of the rift in their relationship was Nina. Jack had obviously tried to stop believing all sirens had the potential for evil, and there had been a difference in how he regarded her between Marwan's attacks and the Sentox attacks. But this easily had the power to set them back. He would be furious. He would accuse Nina of doing something shady and secretly screwing them over again. He would probably get protective and presumptuous and accuse Nina of polluting her mind somehow. Audrey would want to defend her, but how could she look Jack in the eye and stand up for the woman who had murdered his wife? It just wouldn't work.

"How is he?" Nina asked from behind, making her turn.

"He's asleep, but the siren blood seems to be working."

Nina looked pleased to hear that, but then noticed the solemn nature of Audrey's expression. Audrey hated how ungrateful she was being, and she knew Nina would hate her even more for it. Someone she truly loved and cared about was home safe after being told by almost everybody to start planning his funeral, and yet she was thinking about the worst possible scenario. But unfortunately, it was also the most likely, and the one she believed would eventuate. Jack did not forgive and forget. There was no way in hell that he would ever be okay with this. And she wouldn't lie to him, either. One, because it could come out and backfire, and put them in the same position if she had told him the truth. Two, it would only make him trust her less. The note they had left things on before he had been taken had been the best she could have asked for. Why ruin it?

"You and Chloe fabricated those documents, right?" Audrey asked. "They're all ready to go?"

Nina nodded, her expression wary. "Yeah… why?"

"Because I need to make sure when Jack wakes up, he has all the information so he doesn't suspect otherwise."

Nina came closer, keeping her voice quiet. "I don't follow. He's going to know it was us, and then we're going to explain why it has to be covered up. He'll understand."

She shook her head, looking up to meet her eye. "No, he won't."

Her brow furrowed.

"I'm not going to be around when he wakes up, and neither are you or your crew," she explained. "I'm going to manipulate his memories and make sure he has every reason to believe the CIA rescued him, and that the black-ops group has to remain anonymous for protection."

Nina stared blankly at her, then folded her arms, gaze sharpening.

"You're going to throw this all away? After working so hard to accept yourself and bring awareness to the community, you're going to run away from Jack because you don't think he'll want you?"

"He's suffered enough," Audrey pleaded. "This way, he can start fresh without me, without any other sirens interfering with his life. It's what he deserves."

Despite her conviction that this was a logical argument, not an emotional one, Nina was still deeply offended. Perhaps Nina hadn't just wanted to repay Jack, but also have the chance to talk to him. It made Audrey realise that maybe Nina's feelings for Jack ran deeper than she had believed. Maybe Nina had truly wanted to try to find a middle ground with him and was now upset that she couldn't if they wanted to ensure the CIA story held water.

"You're a coward," Nina said simply. "You're doing this because you're afraid of having to tell Jack that you went to me, aren't you?"

She shouldn't have expected anything other than Nina seeing right through her. She dropped her head in shame.

Nina scoffed, shaking her head. "You self-righteous bitch. You came here, crying to me about how much you cared about him, and I agreed to help you because we made it clear that we both Jack. You confided in me, I helped you to accept yourself for who you are, and now you've gone right back to how you were before: still worried about you and your precious father's reputation-"

Audrey struggled to keep her voice down, her eyes glowing with anger. "It's not about reputation! It's about giving Jack a break from everything he's going through."

"He's got no one left, no one besides us, and maybe O'Brian. You seriously think abandoning him is the better option here? What's going to happen the next time he meets a siren, huh? He's never going to change. He's never going to even have a chance of moving past what I did to him if he doesn't realise that, one, siren powers can be used for good, and, two, not every word that comes out of our mouths is a lie." She huffed. "You're still lying to him," she pointed out. "You're just not going to be around to deal with the fallout. You think you're doing him a favour? You're wrong, Audrey."

Tears pricked the back of her eyes. She didn't want to do this, and she hated that Nina saw this as a selfish act when it was anything but. She was trying to lessen his burdens. But then it occurred to Audrey why Nina was so hung up on talking to him. Nina hadn't just wanted to help Jack, she had wanted to redeem herself in Jack's eyes, have this to hold over him so he wouldn't try to kill her again.

"Are you doing this for Jack or yourself, Nina?"

Nina shot her a bewildered look. "What?"

"I know what this is about: you only helped me because you wanted to make Jack realise he was wrong about you. You wanted him to see that you care about him, and for what?" There was so much tension in her chest from months of deliberating what to do after they rescued Jack. Combined with latent adrenaline and the extra blood she'd had yesterday, she was more emotional than usual, and it was showing. "He's never going to take you back, if that's what you think. He's never going to forgive you–"

Nina stepped into her space, her eyes just as bright as hers. "I don't want his forgiveness, I want him to understand–"

"Understand what? That you killed his wife but felt bad about it, so it doesn't matter?"

Her cheek twitched. "You know it's more complicated than that."

At this moment, Audrey realised that while she had never trusted Nina completely, apparently Nina had trusted her. Why else would she be this hurt? God, she was a monster, in every sense of the word. And that only affirmed to her that she needed to do this. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't do this to Jack. It was better this way. She still believed that.

Jack moaned slightly. He must be waking up. Audrey was quick to rush to his side, hushing him and telling him to go back to sleep. It worked within seconds, and she turned to see a familiar, cold facade on Nina's face.

"You know what? You can have it your way. Once we land, we can take him to the motel and leave him the note. You can convince him that he was saved by someone from the CIA and to forget all about you." Nina met her gaze. "But you and I are finished. I don't care what the hell happens. If something goes wrong and you fuck with his head or someone comes after him again, don't even think of coming to me."

Audrey knew she wasn't bluffing. Nina never did. So, if Nina was letting her do what she wanted, she wouldn't argue.

"Fine by me. I'll disappear as soon as I know he's okay, and then you won't see me again."

"Good."

Four Years Later

When Audrey woke up every morning, she replayed the moment when she had kissed Jack's forehead before leaving him in a hotel room in Malibu with a wad of cash, ID, and medical supplies, just in case. With Chloe and Nina's help, they had falsified records that a covert CIA group had rescued him. The 'leader' of said group had contacted Bill, who had conveniently made it to the hotel room just as Jack had regained consciousness, without a clue as to what had happened. Jack had then gone to her father, asking where Audrey was. Her father had demanded he not be anywhere near her, and that she was working with a siren outreach group away from the public eye. Although her father was only perpetuating the cover story she had invented for seeing Nina, he had obviously not changed his mind about keeping him away from her.

Leaving Jack had not been easy, but she maintained that it had been right. It wasn't like she had removed him from her life completely. Initially, under the guise of 'checking up on him', she had followed him everywhere he had gone. But over time, it had become more of a task to keep him company, even if he didn't realise it. Without his daughter, or working at CTU, or most of his friends, he had become lonely quite quickly. He saw Chloe from time to time, who was glad he was okay, but that was about it. He travelled a lot, roaming from country to country without a plan or desire to do anything concrete. So, she had decided to sprinkle joy into his life where she could, in addition to continuing to privately aid siren charities. Sometimes that joy was making sure a waitress in a diner prioritised his coffee order over anybody else's, but making sure nobody remembered her. Sometimes it was running a hand down his back and hushing while he slept, trying to keep his nightmares at bay, but ensuring that she was gone when he woke up. Sometimes it was trying to stop the people who wanted to hurt him, but never to the extent that he might believe he was being watched. It wasn't always easy to do so, though, depending on the location. In Sangala, it had been hard with the children around. She didn't need any of them claiming to see a siren, given that many of the military officials in charge, including Juma himself, were also sirens.

She still went back to her father when she could. Although the topic of Jack had ultimately driven a wedge between them, he was still her father, and she loved him. He worried about her. She had had to act surprised when a subcommittee hearing had been announced to investigate the now-disbanded CTU, with Jack as the scapegoat. She would have tried to persuade Trammell in Sangala, but he would have recognised her. Her father had been surprisingly disgruntled about it, probably because he had backed CTU for a number of years in his position as secretary of defence. She, too, was upset. She knew a lot of good people at CTU, like Curtis, Bill, Chloe, and so many others who had been put out of a job just a couple of months after Jack had been taken. From what she heard, Curtis ended up moving back to Boston. She had seen him for coffee a few times while volunteering, but then lost touch with him. Bill had married and then retired with Karen Hayes. Chloe had remarried her husband and now had a son with him. She was happy for them.

Audrey had tried to sneak into the senate hearing, up on the balcony lest he make eye contact with her. But he had soon been escorted out by a red-headed FBI agent. Without Chloe or Nina, Audrey had improved her ability to navigate the intensely vast government databases, and had soon identified the agent as Renee Walker, who was part-siren and in the prime of her career, with great potential. She had also become aware of some kind of national security threat, but there was nothing she could do about it. Showing up at the FBI and bombarding Jack wouldn't help. She needed to let go. She went through this grief every time she lost and found Jack again, and she concluded every time that he was clearly doing as well as he could be and that her persuasion had worked. If he saw her now, it could all unravel. 

To clear her head, she had ended up going for a walk along the Potomac in the evening. There was something very peaceful and comforting about doing the familiar lap around the Washington Monument. She avoided meeting the eye of anybody who might recognise her. It wasn't like she had been hidden from the world; on her file, she had taken emotional leave from the despair of losing Jack and Paul, then moved on to a life of philanthropy. But she didn't need to be interrogated and spoken to condescendingly by friends of her father. She still concealed her siren status. She was precisely the coward Nina had denoted her. She hid from the world because it was easier. She took advantage of her privilege. But Nina wasn't in her life anymore, so her judgement didn't matter. At least, that was what she told herself because, deep down, she had learnt a lot from Nina and those final words they had exchanged had stuck with her.

She had watched the sunset from a marina, still wondering what Jack was up to — she doubted he had been brought to the FBI for trivial consulting; he had been called into the field, she was certain — but trying to keep those thoughts at bay. The hairs on the back of her neck raised suddenly, and a nearby boat started its engine. She then caught sight of Walker lurking in the shadows, oblivious to her presence. As the boat departed, Walker ran for it. Although she made contact with the deck with a loud smack, the water did not work to her favour, and she slipped, falling right into the river. Even if she could swim, the murkiness from pollution and the possibility that she had hit her head meant her chances were not good. 

Audrey dashed after her, diving into the water and getting her tail out. There was a reason she often wore sundresses or skirts; she could afford to lose a pair of panties from the fusing of her legs to form her tail, but could still keep an outer layer of clothes. With her night vision, she could see Walker sinking deeper and deeper, a pistol, likely what Walker had been carrying, and a cell phone. She grabbed the two objects before coming underneath Walker and scooping her into her arms. There had been a small cloud of blood following her. Audrey performed butterfly-stroke to gain momentum — another thing that was always easy with her tail — before coming to the surface. Walker barely reacted to that, making her worry. Her tail was swapped for her wings, which she quickly used to dash off towards a nearby retaining wall shrouded by trees.

Walker's body was limp in her arms as she laid her down, setting the gun aside. There was a large gash on her forehead. Audrey tilted her head to the side carefully, letting some of the excess water fall out. She placed her hands over her chest and started pressing her hands down. It didn't take long before Walker gasped and coughed up more water. She jerked around, trying to move, and Audrey managed to catch her eye to tell her to relax for a moment. It would be a lot easier to treat her wound if she was still. Despite Walker's slight predisposition to being more difficult to persuade, she was obviously out of it enough to heed her command. Audrey cut her wrist with her teeth and let the blood drip onto her wound. It made her feel better to know that Walker was part-siren and therefore probably had fewer objections to being healed with siren blood. But even if she hadn't known that, it wouldn't have stopped her from doing this. One of the main things she had focused on in her charity work was advocating for funding into siren blood medical research and reducing the stigma. She had heard amazing stories about not only life-saving uses but also the reversal of diseases that doctors had believed were incurable. Although she might have gone back on a lot of her promises to Nina, and herself, she had become more assertive in her belief that, if someone was in need, she could and would save them with her blood. 

Audrey cleaned the wound to the best of her abilities, satisfied as the wound closed up. Walker's mouth was slightly open, and Audrey let some of the blood fall between her lips, too.

A few minutes later, Walker blinked her eyes open wearily, moaning a little, before placing her hand to her forehead.

"You hit your head pretty hard, but I don't think you're concussed," Audrey explained. "I gave you some of my blood."

Her wings were still out, so Walker hopefully knew what she had meant by that.

"I also got your gun back and your phone, too, but I don't think it's in working condition."

Walker nodded slowly, trying to sit up. Audrey was quick to help her as she was hit with dizziness.

"Since when do sirens swim in the Potomac?" Walker mumbled.

"We don't, usually." Her nose wrinkled. "It's not the cleanest."

Walker snickered, but as she met Audrey's eyes again, she had a moment of recognition. It wouldn't be a surprise if Walker knew her, but then panic seemed to strike her. "Juma…" Walker muttered. "J-Juma took off in the boat. Did you see where they went?"

Audrey shook her head. "I didn't, sorry. As soon as I saw you fall in, I went for you."

Walker cursed under her breath. "I need to call my boss. Something's about to go down, and we need to find him."

She bit her lip, looking around until her eyes sought a payphone. She motioned with her head towards it. "You can call him from there."

Despite wanting to get there urgently, Audrey still helped her up and monitored her as she walked towards the phone. She then clicked: Walker had mentioned Juma. She could only be talking about the Juma from Sangala, who was a siren. Why would he have been on a boat when he could have swum much more covertly at this time of night? Maybe the boat had been for weapons storage. As she looked down the length of the river, she realised there was only one place they could be heading. Sure, the White House had security, but given the unorthodox entry, she knew they wouldn't be prepared for the number of men she saw boarding the boat — especially since she doubted they followed an animal-only diet or abstained.

"Agent Walker, they're heading for the White House."

Walker told her boss to hang on before moving the phone from her ear.

"What?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense: they're sirens and they're planning to get into the White House underground."

Her eyes widened, and she immediately relayed that information. Audrey was glad to have been of help, but now that the FBI was on their way to pick her up, she didn't need to be here. But, as she turned to leave, the agent called out to her.

"Where are you going?"

Audrey didn't look back at her. "I've been trying to stay out of the public eye for some time, Agent Walker. I'd prefer to keep it that way."

"There are no sirens in the Bureau anymore. We could really use your help," she beckoned. They hadn't exactly been banned, but there had been a drop in siren federal agents who were tired of being scapegoated. "You might have an insight into Juma that we don't. You know as well as I do that the policies and intel on siren is crap. Please."

She sighed. It wasn't like she was a fugitive; there was no reason she couldn't do this other than her own hesitancy. 

Audrey turned around and agreed, "Alright, I'll stay."

When the Agent in Charge, Larry Moss, arrived, he, too, seemed a little surprised to see her. He was very appreciative that she had saved Walker's life, and her siren intuition detected that wasn't just because she was a valued agent. They set up a staging area outside the White House. It seemed they were too late: hostages had already been taken and Secret Service agents were dead. The FBI obtained a manifest of the people inside, and her heart dropped when she saw both Jack's and Bill's. What the hell had the FBI dragged him into? It had been hard to hide her tears, and Walker seemed upset by this as well, perhaps because they had spent so much of the day together. While they tried to get lines of communication inside, Audrey had to remind them she couldn't persuade anybody without eye contact, so talking Juma down wasn't possible. She ended up feeling very useless, sitting in the corner, covered with a shock blanket to shield her wet clothes from the cold wind, trying to keep herself calm as she worried not only for Jack but the dozens of people she could sense in the White House. They were so scared. Add to that, the palpable stress of the FBI agents, and it was threatening to make her shut down.

Walker came over to her, frustrated by the situation. Apparently, the Vice President wasn't listening to any of the FBI's suggestions.

"You alright?" she asked, taking a nearby towel and drying her own hair.

She offered a small smile. "I haven't been around this many people in a while, and not under this much stress. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help."

"Don't be," the agent reassured. "You saved my life and got us a valuable lead, even if we didn't get there in time."

Audrey was reminded of how Michelle had comforted her that terrible day all those years ago. Again, Audrey could sense that the solace Walker had offered wasn't just because of her nature, rather the temperament of her heart.

But the calm passed as quickly as it has arisen because there were loud banging noises and flashing lights. There had been an explosion. People were panicking left, right, and centre, but at this moment, it was like Jack's heart was screaming out to her. Something bad had happened. It didn't feel like he was hurt, but his heart was pounding. She needed to get to him. All of those voices of fear, doubt and self-loathing were silent because right now, she could feel that he needed her. Audrey ended up following the FBI agents amidst the chaos, who were too busy to point out or stop her given who her father was and that she had no body armour.

Audrey followed the sensation of Jack's heart until she found him sitting and resting against a doorjamb, his eyes fixed on the body beside him. 

Her shoulders slumped, knowing it was Bill before she could even get close enough to see his charred face. It only hurt more to see the look of despair and heartbreak on Jack's face. He had so few people in his life. Why did fate decide to keep taking them away from him? He was so focused on Bill that he didn't notice her approaching until the shadow of her wings came into his peripheral vision. Their eyes met, and all the emotions he was feeling only became more intense.

"A-Audrey?" he said, looking up at her.

She nodded, and before she knew it, she had bent down and his arms were around her, clinging to her desperately.

"I… I don't know what to say," he rasped, having cried against her for some time.

"You don't need to say anything. I'm here now. It's okay," Audrey assured, brushing her hand against his temple. "I'll explain everything later."

"Bauer," a voice called, and Audrey turned to see Moss, with Walker not far behind.

As much as she wanted to hold Jack for the rest of time, he gently moved away from her and stood to face Moss. Whatever it was was urgent, they both knew that.

"This isn't over yet, Agent Moss," Jack said. "Juma and his men were not working alone."

"What are you talking about?"

"When I was in the lockdown with the president, Bill said he heard Juma talking on a sat phone. Said he was getting real-time intel from someone on the outside."

Audrey could sense some animosity between them. She didn't know Moss well, but she sensed enough to conclude that like many other people in charge of government agencies, he was hesitant to listen to Jack due to his choice of tactics. Yes, she acknowledged how frightening they could be sometimes, but she stood by them. He had saved innocent lives and stopped pervasive conspiracies. He had done what others couldn't. And, if he had been under Bill's guidance, she was sure it had been for very good reasons. She didn't like thinking of Bill in the past tense.

"Who?"

"I don't know," Jack admitted. "The point is, I don't think this threat is over, and I don't think the president is safe."

"You sure Buchanan heard this right?"

Jack bristled at the doubt in Moss's voice. Her hand subtly came between his shoulder blades, just resting there for comfort, and she was glad to see he didn't flinch under her touch. 

"He wouldn't have told me unless he was sure," he responded coolly. "And right now, the only lead we've got is Ryan Burnett. He knew about the attack on the White House, and chances are, he's gonna know who Juma was talking to."

Moss hastily agreed, "All right, all right, I'll talk to him-"

"No, the president already offered him immunity," Jack informed him. "He turned it down. He's not going to tell you anything, but he will talk to me."

"Why's that, Jack? Because you tortured him?-"

This was a waste of time. If Burnett had information, debating how it was obtained was not a productive task. There was an obvious solution here, but none seemed to be aware of it.

"If I can say something?" Audrey piped up, the three of them looking at her. "You and I both know that I could get information out of Burnett efficiently and painlessly. I'm not on the government payroll anymore, this would be completely disconnected from the FBI. Legally, there are no implications. I'm just a civilian asking questions."

"Siren-powered interrogation is still not thoroughly researched. There are ethical implications if his mind is-"

"Larry, she's right," Renee agreed, and when he looked at her, there was a flicker of shame, like he had forgotten she was part-siren for a moment. "Let Audrey try."

He bit his lip.

"I should point out, she once got valuable intel from a suspect regarding nuclear weapons at CTU under Bill's complete authority," Jack added. "If you're that worried, someone can be in the room with her."

Something fluttered in her chest to hear him defend her. Sure, it was because they were discussing siren abilities in a professional context, but it still meant a lot. It also made her tentatively hope that things would be okay for them after today, assuming they got back to the FBI unscathed. God, why was it that every time she and Jack got a moment of peace, they were dragged into some kind of crisis?

"Alright. I want a doctor in the room to monitor his vitals, and I'll be within reach, but if I don't like something, I'm pulling you out."

She nodded. "Fine by me."

"Bauer, I have standing orders from the President to take you into custody, but…" He sighed. "I'm sure she won't mind if you help with this in the meantime."

Jack smiled a little. She could tell it meant a lot to have someone validate him after so many years of not being taken seriously and being forced to take things into his own hands to save the country again and again.

The four of them made it to the hospital where Burnett had been transferred. Moss took the lead on the requesting the doctor to come inside, and Walker agreed to stall the president. Audrey noticed that Jack kept looking at her, wanting to say something, but unable to find the words, and she felt the same. The other FBI agents that had come with them had set up Burnett's room with cameras and audio surveillance so he could be monitored The doctor amusingly assumed Jack would be the one to interrogate Burnett again and fretted, but Moss assured him that he wouldn't. 

The FBI agents remained outside while Audrey and the doctor went in. Before she could, though, Jack grabbed her arm.

"Look, I know you've done this before, but don't tire yourself out. If it's too much, one of us can try-"

"Jack, it's alright," Audrey assured. "I appreciate you thinking of me, but I'll be fine."

She was a little startled to see Burnett's condition, but from what she understood, he had intel that affected the lives of thousands of innocent people, so if Jack had been a little rough to get that information, it certainly didn't bother her. He had been sedated, too, so she knew her best opportunity would be to get him when his eyes opened. After what had happened with Henderson all those years ago, she wasn't going to assume that someone like Burnett wouldn't prepare by drinking siren blood.

It took a few minutes to rouse him, but as soon as she caught his gaze, his pupils dilated. It had been a while since she had done this, admittedly, but her animal blood diet had kept her abilities strong, another thing that she could only owe to Nina.

"Mister Burnett?" she said sweetly. "Or would you prefer Ryan?"

He opened his mouth a few times, voice hoarse as he mumbled. His eyes shut again and she cursed under her breath. He was too out of it.

"Audrey, when I let you do this, it was because I assumed it would be efficient," Moss said in her earpiece. "Waiting for him to wake up from his nap is not something we have time for."

"Give her a chance, Agent Moss," Jack chided.

She gently shook Burnett's shoulders, trying to wake him up. She needed to be direct. What did they need? Knowledge of the next attack. This wasn't a human interrogation with leading questions and slowly building up to the big things to gain the person's trust. No, she knew what they wanted, and she needed to get it, fast. Damn the eye contact being a necessity. She just needed him to blink. Audrey urged him to wake up, using the same gentle tone, but a stupid grin crept across his face. Great, so she was in his drug-induced dreams and he didn't want to leave. 

Finally, his eyes opened for another moment, and she was reminded of how quickly she had had to act with Henderson all those years ago. "There's another attack. Tell me about it."

His speech was slurred. It was difficult to understand him.

"Damn it…" she uttered. "Tell me what's going on. Come on. Please." She squeezed his hand. "Just a name."

Burnett gasped, wincing. Obviously the more conscious he was, the more he was fighting the sedative and the more pain he was remembering he was in.

"Ms Heller," the doctor said in a warning tone.

She wanted to stare the doctor down and tell him to back off, but she couldn't afford to lose the eye contact. 

"Doctor, this man is responsible for innocent lives, and he'll be responsible for yours if you don't give me a chance to talk to him," she responded.

Then it hit her. If he wasn't responding to questions because he was too giddy from her persuasion, then maybe she could just remind him of what Jack had done earlier.

"Ryan…" she brushed his cheek. "If you don't answer my question, I'm going to have to send Jack Bauer in again." Just the mention of his name made his eyes widen. "You don't want that, do you? Wouldn't you rather tell me?"

He nodded. "Okay… okay…" he blubbered, still fighting to stay conscious.

Audrey sensed the presence of somebody else before she heard the noise. Instinctively, she turned to see a small silver device shaped like a sand timer. There was a hissing sound, and she heard Burnett's babbling cease. He convulsed, foaming at the mouth, unable to move. A thud sounded as the doctor behind her collapsed to the ground. As she went to move, she was overcome with a wave of dizziness. It was like she was moving through honey, every effort feeling sluggish and difficult. The other person — or siren, rather — she had sensed, descended from the ceiling wearing a gas mask. Whatever the substance coming out of the mini canister was, it affected sirens, but didn't render them completely paralysed like humans. 

His taupe wings shot out to knock her to the ground, but she narrowly missed them, growling as she lunged towards him. She needed to go for his mask. There was also a small monitor in his hands. She was willing to bet he had messed with the cameras in here, otherwise Jack and Moss would already be busting down the door. With a grunt, she moved her wing to shield her body as he went for her again, clearly intending to take her out before he did whatever he wanted to do in here. He was a professional. And although she was not a mercenary or a strong field agent, she was not about to let him interfere with her task here. There was an imminent crisis, and she was the only one who could get the necessary intel. It made her understand Jack's mindset a whole lot better than she used to.

She was powered only by pure rage and determination as she feebly planted her hands on his chest and pushed him away. To her luck, he stumbled over the doctor's body, and she took advantage of that to pin him against the ground, his head smacking against the wall. Her talons had come out, and she used them to pry the mask off his face. Obviously, it had a strap around the back of his head, but if she could just loosen the seal, he would inhale enough to be affected. It was clearly a very potent toxin. He growled as she scratched his skin, lifting the mask. She had to keep blinking to stay alert and concentrate on shifting the mask enough that he would have to choose whether to restore its position or fight her. His hand came out to her neck, and she observed the slight lag of his movement. But as she went to move the mask further, his hand seized her neck. Audrey used one hand to pry it off her, while the other fumbled to grab a clump of feathers from his wing and yank them out. 

As he winced, she knew she only had one shot to end this, quickly digging her nails into the side of his neck hard enough to pierce his carotid artery. Blood spurted out from the side, and he made a choking noise. His body stilled rather quickly, although he feebly tried to keep reaching out to grab her. She was so angry that her teeth had come out, too. And at that moment, the door opened. Moss cursed under his breath, while Jack said her name worriedly. Although the sight was probably a shock, she knew she was in control. It had all been self-defence, and the device that had slid across the floor proved that. Audrey took a breath, trying to retract her teeth. She could feel the assailant's warm, sticky blood on her skin.

Slowly, she stood, and she realised that Jack looked at her, not with concern for her stability, but just plain concern. It took her a moment to speak, her mouth feeling slack like it did after a dentist applied local anaesthetic. Moss was tending to the doctor, who was shaken but seemed alright. Burnett was blubbering about something, which at this point was just a sign that he was alive and alright.

"What the hell happened?!" Moss asked.

"That man messed with the cameras," Audrey panted. "He's a siren. He released some kind of toxin. The doctor and Burnett were paralysed. I was inebriated, but managed to fight him off."

Jack seemed to recognise the device on the floor. It only took a few moments to have her theory verified. 

"Christ," Moss muttered. "It was a good thing we sent you in there, then."

She certainly agreed. If it had been Jack, who knew what would have happened?

There was just one thing left to do now: finish what she started with Burnett. Audrey walked back over. The fear in his eyes was palpable. The fact that she had blood all over her probably made him a little more willing to talk.

"That man really wanted to keep you quiet, didn't he?"

Burnett nodded.

"Now, like I said. If you tell me, I can let you go back to sleep and forget this happened. Isn't that a little easier, Ryan?"

"P-Port of Alexandria," he was quick to say. "There's a shipment at the Port of Alexandria." 

The exertion seemed to tire him out immediately. She could get more if she tried.

"Audrey," Jack said, making her turn. "He's right. I just checked the assassin's phone; he got a text saying Port of Alexandria." 

"We can work with that," Moss decided. "Leave him be."

"Alright."

She hushed Burnett, letting his heart rate stabilise again. When she turned to the doctor, he seemed like he wanted to make some kind of criticism, but couldn't. Burnett's vitals were fine. And, well, she had saved their lives.

"You can leave the patient alone now," the doctor decided to say.

Audrey smiled and left the room. Moss seemed to be genuinely impressed, but trying not to show it too much. She had to admit she still was affected by being appreciated for her siren abilities, not in spite of them. It was very reminiscent of how she had felt after getting Marwan's location from Prado all those years ago.

Except this time, Jack didn't look at her like he was surprised she'd achieved such a feat. No, he looked at her like he'd known she could, and that was everything.

With that piece of information, the FBI managed to secure a massive shipment of some kind of lethal bioweapon. Although it was concealed in a way that made it difficult to identify who was moving it, with the assassin's phone, and a little digging, they concluded it had come from Starkwood, a private military company that had apparently been testing the weapon in Sangala. Moss was on the phone with the president, who authorised a warrant to search the compound. After a quick debrief by Walker, Audrey finally felt like she could breathe. 

"I, uh, I read a bit of your file," Walker said as she got to the door. "I can understand why you've kept your status private, but as far as your philanthropy goes… it's very admirable."

Audrey smiled a little. "Thanks. I wish I was brave enough to be more open about it, but…" she sighed, hating how she felt a need to diminish it somehow, as though she could hear Nina's criticism in her head, "balancing interests is hard, and I don't want to bring too much negative publicity to the advocacy groups."

Walker still looked understanding, shrugging and saying, "Regardless, it's a meaningful cause, and you've given it a lot of time and energy that it won't ever get from the government."

Audrey hummed in assent, noticing that Walker seemed a little personally emotional about it. "You know, a lot of the allies that work there are part-sirens. They're always looking for more people. I know your job doesn't exactly, uh, give you free weekends but if you're ever interested, I think you would be a really good fit."

Walker seemed to contemplate that for a moment. "I'll think about it," she said genuinely, not pityingly. "But I'll leave you to it. Thank you again for everything you've done today, most of all, for saving my life."

She smiled. "You're welcome."

When Audrey walked out, she could see Jack was on the phone. Slowly, she came towards him, not wanting to eavesdrop.

"Alright, I'll see you soon," Jack said. "Thanks, Tony."

That name made her pause. There was only one Tony he could be talking about and that… didn't add up. She thought over the years she had been following, then felt almost ashamed of it. As if she knew him better than anyone because she had chosen to watch his life from the outside like a coward. She needed to talk to him. And, hopefully, now she would have the opportunity.

When Jack looked up at her, he had a soft smile. How long had it been since he had looked at her like that? She had missed it so much. Still, her curiosity was at the forefront of her mind. Something about that casual phone conversation didn't sit right, and she knew better than to ignore her gut.

"Who was that?" she asked innocently.

"Tony," he answered, his tone subtly gruff, but it didn't seem to be directed at her. 

"Are we talking about Tony Almeida here?"

Jack nodded. "It's a long story. Henderson faked his death. But Tony's responsible for about half of the bad things and half the good things that have happened today."

She knew how close he and Tony had been and detected a lot of pain in his voice. Perhaps Tony had changed so much that Jack could no longer trust him. That thought hurt a lot. If he'd lost faith in Tony, whom he'd known for years, then maybe she shouldn't be naive enough to expect that things would be okay between them. She wanted to believe they would be, eventually. The way he had reacted to seeing her today made her optimistic. But she wouldn't let that hope consume her.

"He had been chasing up leads, one related to the White House, another related to Starkwood. He gave me his word that once it was over, which it is, he would turn himself in at the FBI."

Tony must have really gone down a bad path if he was coming to the FBI as a criminal, not a consultant. It saddened her. She imagined it could only have come from the despair of losing Michelle. Even though she had met him while they were divorced, she had been able to hear their hearts screaming for each other. Still, if that were the case, if he was angry and wanting to do something about it… would he really just give himself up? From what she knew, he had not handled prison well the first time. Unless he knew for sure that he was being reprimanded some other way or had a deal waiting for him, why would he be so eager to go along with it? The more she thought about it, the more her stomach churned. She decided she would keep her guard up when he got there. He might have saved her and Jack's lives all those years ago, but she wasn't about to assume he was the same man. People changed, for worse or for better. She knew that better than anyone.

When Tony arrived, he was understandably surprised to see her. On the outside, he looked somewhat glad about it, but her siren intuition knew better. He was afraid, which meant he was up to something. She doubted it had anything to do with her being a siren. He knew her, and he had always been pretty accepting of her, even if Jack hadn't. Even if he had changed, he doubted he had suddenly garnered a hatred for them — although radicalisation into an extremist group wasn't something she could totally rule out, she supposed. Even then, unlike Jack, sirens hadn't killed Tony's wife, so he didn't have any real vulnerability to exploit in that regard. 

Tony wasn't taken into custody immediately; he was debriefed but not regarded like he was a flight risk. Obviously, he had done enough today to garner the respect of Moss, who was not an easy man to please.

"Audrey?" Jack said once they were alone. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head, keeping her voice low. "Tony's up to something."

He furrowed his brow. "What do you mean?"

"I-I don't know, but when he saw me, he had this sense of… panic. Like he really didn't expect to see me and it worried him."

"Can you read into it anymore?" Jack asked. It somewhat surprised her that Jack wasn't trying to find another explanation. 

She shook her head. "He moved too far away. But I'm going to try to follow him."

His face displayed a familiar, protective, worried expression. "I'll come with you," he suggested.

Audrey shook her head again. "He's going to expect you to come after him, especially if he believes I've told you something, but he won't be able to sense me."

Jack still seemed hesitant, and she couldn't blame him. It was a miracle they were both standing here right now.

"Tony wouldn't hurt me," she insisted, not entirely convinced based on the gut feeling that felt more like an alarm bell at this point. "Right? I know he's obviously been through some things, but… do you believe he wouldn't?"

"I don't know," he confessed. "But if you think he's up to something, I trust your judgement," he stated coldly, completely unlike how he would usually talk about Tony. He trusted her perception of Tony's character right now over his own — and he had known Tony for a very long time.

"I can defend myself. I'm not going to assume anything. I… Something tells me I need to know what he's up to."

Jack nodded. "Alright. I'll track you with the cameras. I doubt he knows blind-spots, unless he's had this planned, and Emerson did have a contact in the FBI, so we can't be sure. If I feel like he's getting away or you're at risk, I'll come find you."

That made her feel a little better. And again, it meant a lot to have his unwavering support.

Audrey waited for her opportunity, pretending to chat with Jack while keeping her peripheral vision focused on Tony. One of the guards was near him. He wasn't cuffed. He had obviously impressed the FBI enough that they didn't see him as a flight risk, and if she was right, he was going to take swift advantage of it.

Tony then went in the direction of the bathrooms, but Audrey doubted he was going to come back to the bullpen. 

As she went to walk away, Jack said her name again, making her turn.

"Good luck, and be careful," he urged.

She smiled a little. "Thanks."

She laid in wait around the corner, and, true to her suspicion, Tony went the other way towards the stairwell. Audrey listened out for his footsteps, counting how many flights he went down so she could time her entry to ensure he couldn't hear her. He ended up at what looked like an evidence room and adjacent forensic lab. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. It was Jack.

"He just took out two guards. He's in the room where the bioweapon is being stored."

Her eyes widened. "You don't think he's?–"

"He just grabbed a canister. You have to stay on him, but don't let yourself be seen. If he's taking this… whether he wants to sell it or do God knows what else, then he'll have no problem stopping anybody who gets in his way."

"He'll probably go out to the parking lot," she hypothesised. "I'll try to get there first. If I make eye contact, I can stall him until you come out."

"You'll have to be quick; he's armed," he warned her.

"I'll be fine," she assured, before hanging up as the laboratory door opened again.

As Jack had informed her, Tony was holding a small duffel bag with a cylindrical object inside. Something about this made her blood boil. Maybe it was the fact that she had never expected Tony, someone who had genuinely been so kind to her the day they had met, to do such a thing. Or maybe it was the fact that she, Jack, Walker, Moss, and so many others, had nearly lost their lives trying to find the bioweapon. This wasn't right, and she had to stop it.

Tony scaled the stairs with more urgency, knowing now that the FBI might suspect he had made an escape attempt and wanting to get a head-start before they inevitably sent every guard on every floor after him. Audrey knew it would be a while before he got to the bottom, but as she eyed a balcony on the floor she was on, she knew how to beat him to it. The guard there was confused to see her, but a quick flash of her eyes made him move out of her way. She unfolded her wings, climbing onto the railing. Using her night vision, she couldn't see any threats or obstructions on the way down.

Audrey swooped down to the concrete with a slight whoosh, her landing soft. To her surprise, despite calculating that he would be not too far away, he had remarkable speed. Something about that didn't sit right with her. The stairwell door opened with a barely audible creak, and she called his name. He froze, looking around and drawing his gun. She used the shadows to her advantage, and in one swift motion, shoved him against the wall, making him drop the duffel bag. It was more difficult than she thought it would be. He was bigger than her, but she had never had a problem overpowering a human man — at least, not when she was no longer abstaining.

To her surprise, Tony didn't even look surprised. He had an insolent expression that was almost mocking.

"I don't know what you plan to do with that, but I know that something in your heart tells me you've betrayed Jack and I'm not going to stand for it. What the hell are you up to?" she growled.

What really disturbed her was the realisation that she could barely get through to him. She didn't think she was exhausted or needed blood. She had interrogated Burnett without trouble before. Her stamina was much better than it used to be, even if she wasn't quite under Nina's training regime anymore. No, the block she felt here was almost like she was interrogating a siren. But he wasn't one. He wasn't even part-siren. She knew that. She still believed that. But it wasn't quite easy to convince herself that he was human, either. Audrey repeated her questions, more angrily to mask her growing fear that she had seriously underestimated Tony here. She hoped Jack wasn't far behind.

"When I died at CTU, I was revived with siren blood. I've had transfusions every day since, so I could be strong enough for today." 

There was a very focused, almost manic, look in his eyes. He was twitching. His pupils were dilated. It was like he was on cocaine, but she knew it wasn't that simple. She didn't think it was possible for someone to be affected by siren blood like this, but if Tony had had it for that long, all those years… maybe he was addicted. Still, siren blood didn't make people angry or uninhibited — contrary to what some politicians might claim regarding blood donation policies. The physical manifestations of sirenhood only came out with strong emotions, usually as part of a fight-or-flight response. Sure, Tony might be stressed that she was delaying whatever plans he had, but this was unlike anything she had ever seen. Something was wrong. Maybe it wasn't just this incident. Maybe everything that had happened today, the bad things Tony had done that had led to him being arrested… it could all be connected.

But before she could question him further, her eyes widened as he bent her wrist back to release her grip. She cried out as she heard something snap, but before she could try to retaliate with the other hand, their positions were reversed. Her head hit the wall with a thud. She could hear a muted growl from his throat. He shook as he strangled her more fiercely. His breaths shuddered, each exhale a puff of hot air against her face.

"I can't let you stop me," he gritted through his teeth. "Not you. Not Jack. Not the FBI. Nobody."

"What happened to you?" Audrey rasped, tears welling her eyes as she choked. "Tony, what the hell happened to you?"

As stars crept into her vision and she realised she might not win here, a wave of onyx swept across her vision. She gasped for air desperately as Tony's hand was pried off her. Her wrist seared. She could probably try to correct the dislocation, but not without some proper light, and not while she didn't know if she still had to defend herself. 

Nina had pinned Tony to the ground. "Touch her again and I'll make you sorry."

Jack burst through the stairwell door, eyes flitting between the sight of her, Nina, and Tony. He was very confused, and she couldn't blame him. 

He came towards her, not fully turning his back to Nina and Tony. "Are you alright?"

Audrey nodded. "Something's wrong with Tony," she explained, clearing her throat. "He said he's had repeated siren blood transfusions, but it can't just be that. I-It's like he's high on something."

Jack furrowed his brow, but both of them turned as Tony cried out in pain. Nina was holding him up by the collar.

"What are you doing with the canister, Tony?" Nina asked sternly.

Audrey grabbed Jack's hand, not wanting him to interrupt, even though he was understandably stunned by hearing Nina's voice.

"Nina, be careful," Audrey warned. "He has a lot of siren blood in him; he's stronger than he looks."

Jack seemed even more bewildered to realise that she was talking to her nonchalantly.

"A-Alan Wilson," Tony bleated, his voice shaking. "I need to get to Alan Wilson."

"Why?"

It was so jarring to hear him speak with such trepidation while Nina held him, following up with more and more questions until he tearfully revealed that everything he had already done and planned to do was get close to Alan Wilson, the man who had been working with Charles Logan and put the hit out on Michelle. He was almost hysterical when Nina was through with him. She had been tenacious, but not pernicious.

As Audrey stepped closer, Tony was dripping with sweat, panting, and had a look of vulnerability in his eyes that reminded her more of the Tony she had met all those years ago, the one who had barely been able to look his ex-wife in the eye out of shame when they had had to work at CTU together. Audrey could hear his heart, too, practically screaming at her.

When Nina released him, he fell to the ground with a groan. She straightened her posture and turned to them. Jack stood there, slack-jawed, but there was an unmistakable anger in his eyes.

Nina just rolled her eyes. "Take a picture, it'll last longer, Jack."

Before he could respond, Tony curled up in pain, but she knew it had nothing to do with Nina. He started convulsing. Blood poured from his nostrils. His hands came to his temples, covering his ears. If she was already concerned that something was wrong, she sure as hell believed that now.

"What did you do to him?" Jack asked, looking at Nina. "What have you done?"

"Nothing," Nina insisted, her face just as concerned for Tony. "I barely touched him, and I didn't question him that hard. You've done worse to someone, Jack, and you're human." 

"Jack, she didn't do anything," Audrey said, making Nina look up at her with a mix of surprise and gratitude. "I could see it in Tony's eyes when he had me. It was like he was on the verge of a breakdown. The siren blood isn't the problem: it's his emotions."

Audrey bent down and rested her uninjured hand on Tony's chest, as best she could at least,while he was moving around. She closed her eyes. Memories entered her mind, painful, horrible memories of the car bomb that had killed Michelle that made her whole body shudder. Then, seeing her profile labelled Deceased at CTU, being attacked by Henderson, waking up to see a siren man with chocolate-brown wings and honey-coloured eyes tending to him and telling him that he would help him. It got hazy after that. Dissonant. Paranoid. Dark. She had never heard of anyone being persuaded by a siren long-term, especially not years, as Audrey was inferring. But clearly it was so far gone that Audrey — and Tony — couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't.

"It was David Emerson," Audrey concluded when she opened her eyes and looked up. "He's been persuading and controlling his mind since the moment he woke up there, and now it's driving him crazy. The siren blood is affected by his emotions, not the other way around. When Nina asked him for the truth, it made him confess everything and realise that he had been lying to himself, too."

"No!" Tony shouted in protest. "He cared about me. He loved me. He was protecting me-"

"Emerson lied to you from day one, Tony," Nina informed him bluntly, but Audrey could hear the sympathy in her voice. "He said he could make you a siren so you could be unstoppable when you went to Wilson, but it was just to get you to be loyal to him. He got you hooked on siren blood, his blood. He took your grief and made it consume you. It was all to control you, Tony." 

He tried to argue again, but he was so confronted by the unravelling of all of Emerson's implanted memories and ideals that it was too much for him. He was choking back sobs, screaming in pain. Audrey wasn't scared of him anymore. She felt sorry for him. He had loved Michelle with all of his heart, so it had been shattering to lose her so tragically, especially after trying to leave CTU behind as a preventative. Then Emerson had mended his heart with twisted memories, imbued hatred where there had once been love, and trained Tony like a dog so he could have a loyal soldier, all the while egging him on to pursue a reckless journey of revenge. It explained why he had made such drastic, callous choices. He was so far gone that it was difficult to see who he had once been. But Audrey wanted to believe there was hope. He deserved a chance to heal.

"Make it stop," Tony begged weakly. "Please. Make it stop."

She pursed her lips with sympathy as his eyes met hers, the rage from before all but gone. Just as she had done with Burnett, and with Jack on the boat all those years ago, she did her best to meet Tony's eyes and hush him, telling him to sleep. She was admittedly nervous to persuade him more when Emerson had messed with him so much. But putting him to sleep wouldn't do much harm. She was only telling him to relax. His whole body slumped with exhaustion as he lost consciousness.

Audrey then heard footsteps and realised somebody else was coming down the stairs. Nina must have, too, her eyes widening and body preparing to flee.

"Nina, wait!" Jack called, startling her before she turned to look at him. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Nina said genuinely, looking between them before launching off the ground with a whoosh just as Walker burst through the door.

"Tony's escaped, he's probably already…" she trailed off as she saw Tony on the ground. "Gone. What… what happened?"

They must have been in a blind-spot on the cameras, otherwise Walker would have seen everything, including Nina, although she had kept her wings up almost the whole time, probably in case someone spotted her.

"I can explain everything," Audrey said.

But it was clear by the look on Jack's face that the FBI was not the only one who demanded an answer.

If it wasn't for Jack's own desire to understand what had happened to Tony, Jack would have struggled to pay attention in the debrief, his mind swimming with questions about how Nina was alive, and why Audrey had regarded her like they knew each other. He couldn't stop staring at her as she explained her theories about Tony to Renee and Larry. Both of them seemed deep in thought. Renee being part-siren meant she probably understood more than Larry, but it was a pretty big claim that Tony had been psychologically manipulated and driven to insanity by Emerson, when the only proof was what she had heard in his heart. In the meantime, Tony had been heavily sedated and placed in the medical ward. The doctors didn't really know what to do, but his fitful movements and aggresive delusion when he was conscious made them want to control the situation as much as they could. Doctor Macer, who had been sent from CDC to take samples of the bioweapon, would exam him. That made Jack feel a little better, knowing that she had handled the Cordilla virus outbreak and done a lot of research into why some part-sirens and sirens had been immune. She was human, but had a lot of compassion for the siren community that even some part-sirens lacked.

"He's a government agent who's been screwed over, more than once. When it looked like he was aiding Juma, I believed him. There was enough justification for it." Larry shrugged. "The fact that he had a more complicated plan than any of us could have envisioned just shows that he knows how the government works better than we do, and his tenacity. He committed treason for his wife. Is it that crazy that he'd go this far to avenge her?"

"But you didn't see him, Larry. He was…" Renee shook her head. "Not right. And his blood tests have come back clean for drugs. We knew Emerson was a siren. We knew that he and Tony were… close. He was there for Tony at a vulnerable point, and that made him susceptible to manipulation."

"Bauer, what do you think?" Larry asked. "You know Tony the best. Do you think this has all been him?"

Audrey looked at him expectantly. He was pretty sure she hadn't even made eye contact with him since they'd come inside. But this wasn't just a question of what he thought Tony was capable of, at least, not to Renee and Larry. To Audrey, this was a question of whether he trusted her judgement, trusted her, plain and simple. Tony's actions today had confused him, to put it lightly. First, he had lumped Tony in with some of the vilest criminals on the FBI's list. Then Bill and Chloe had shown up. After that, Tony had stalled making good on his promise to turn himself in, and gone dark chasing leads. Those leads had panned out, and he had seemed intent on doing the right thing. But then Jack had watched him sneak around the FBI, taking advantage of the trust placed in him so he could steal the bioweapon and kill anybody who stood in his way. Although he had run to the parking lot as soon as Audrey had flown off the balcony and not witnessed the fight, she had an angry red mark around her throat and a broken wrist. She had looked afraid, too, despite being a siren and therefore, in theory, capable of defending herself against him. Tony wouldn't hurt Audrey. That alone made him really question things. While Nina's presence required a separate line of questioning, she had broken Tony with little effort. Jack had had a knee-jerk reaction to assume Nina had been responsible for harming him, but, really, Nina wouldn't hurt Tony, either. If he thought about Tony after that, the physical and emotional aspects were comparable to agents or soldiers who were held captive and tortured relentlessly. Something was very wrong with Tony indeed. He was inclined to believe Audrey's theory, objectively. Jack supposed the only reason he was still denying it was having spent so much of today trying to tell himself to go against that innate part of him that trusted Tony unconditionally. Accepting Audrey's theory meant accepting that Tony was still the same Tony he knew, trusted and cared about. It was, in its own way, a good thing. Maybe Tony could heal. Maybe things could be okay for him.

As Jack acknowledged that he was mostly, if not completely, siding with Audrey, something occurred to him. He trusted her. Despite having not seen her for a long time, and the unresolved tension from the day her sirenhood had been revealed… he still trusted her. He didn't question her perception. He didn't question her intentions. He looked at her, and he just knew. And while they definitely still had a lot to talk about, he wasn't going to let anybody try to shut her down when he had seen firsthand that her siren intuition and abilities were not to be underestimated or feared.

"I've spent all day wondering what Tony was really trying to get out of this," Jack started. "I've never seen anybody love someone the way he loved Michelle, so it made sense that he would want to avenge her at any cost. Even then, I knew it wasn't quite right. I knew something didn't add up. And what cemented that was seeing him kill two agents just to get his hands on the bioweapon, the same bioweapon he had told me earlier he wanted to stop the distribution of. But when I saw the way he broke down after being asked what he was doing…" He had to be careful not to mention Nina. When Audrey had explained her story, she had claimed to have broken Tony with her simple questioning. Nina was not to be acknowledged, not in front of anyone else. He didn't like the idea of protecting Nina, but he would protect Audrey. "I didn't see a terrorist. I didn't see someone consumed by revenge. I saw my friend, someone I knew and trusted with my life, hurt and confused. He was disoriented. He was convulsing. He was unwell in a way that is justifiable by years of psychological torture."

The look in Audrey's eyes as she realised he had validated her made his heart leap in his chest.

"Maybe it doesn't justify everything he's done, but to me, it sure as hell makes sense that he's been twisted into acting this way. He might have wanted revenge for Michelle, but I have to believe he never would have taken things this far, and I think we have a pretty good explanation for it."

Larry and Renee looked between each other, unsure of what to do. Two of their colleagues had been killed by Tony's hand, not to mention the hundreds of innocents on the planes that had crashed this morning. Tony's mistakes couldn't be undone. But maybe they could make sure he didn't make them again.

"Alright…" Larry said. "I think it's safe to say we can't make any decisions yet, not until he's had a full evaluation by a panel of doctors and psychiatrists, siren and human alike. But we'll follow up on this Alan Wilson guy to see if we can at least get some evidence to back this up. If he played a role in his wife's death and David Palmer's, it's our responsibility to reprimand him the way the other Sentox conspiracy members have been."

Jack was more than happy with that. For as much as he and Larry hadn't exactly seen eye-to-eye today, that was assuring. Larry said something about asking Janis to start gathering intel on Wilson.

"Audrey, do you want me to get something for you to wrap your wrist?" Renee offered, also going to leave. "I'll see how Tony's doing while I'm there."

"I think I've clicked it back into place, but that would be great, thanks."

When the door closed, they were left in silence. God, where did they begin? He hadn't seen her in so long. She had disappeared without a proper explanation. Her father had given him some vague story about outreach work and a private life. She had never once reached out to him, and he had believed she was better off without him. But then today, after Bill's death and so much destruction, she had appeared like an angel and acted like no time had passed. It had still been a little awkward in the moments when they hadn't been trying to help the FBI ,but not tense, not uncomfortable, not bitter. He had had so many questions, and Nina's appearance had only created more. However, he had also regained some vague memories, most notably, a brief image of being on a boat, not the freighter that Cheng had taken him in, but a smaller one. There had been two familiar voices arguing.

"You… you saved me, didn't you? Both of you," Jack concluded.

Audrey was looking into her lap. "Yes," she confirmed, taking a breath. "Nobody wanted to get you back. I begged my father. I begged Bill. I exhausted every connection I had and none of them wanted to risk going to war with China. They told me you were as good as dead and I should act like it." Her voice broke a little. "I went to Chloe. She helped me try to find a legal way out, proof that the consulate incident involved friendly fire. But then when I looked through your file, and everything related to it… I deduced that Nina was alive. I was prepared to liquefy every asset, drain every account, give her the clothes off my back, sell my soul, if it meant getting you home." 

The thought of her being so distraught over him made him feel guilty. He hadn't been the best partner he could have been. For God's sake, when a part of her she had tried to keep buried, in part for his sake, had been unveiled, he had assumed the worst and rejected her. Then that part of her had become the only reason he was even here today. He had done a lot of thinking in his solitary years, mostly about his past. He had thought about sirens. They had seemed to continue popping up in his life, even in minor ways, and it had made that fierce assumption, that defensive stance he had held since finding Teri's body slowly start to crumble. Not all sirens were Nina. Not all sirens were evil, unhinged beings. He wasn't generally prejudicial, but he had been about sirens because of Nina, and partially Claudia, too. He had justified his presumptuous mindset to himself for so many years, but it was wrong. It always had been.

She pressed her lips together. "But Nina didn't want anything from me. When I told her what had happened to you, that Tony was dead, that nobody else wanted to help me, she put everything aside so she could. All she wanted was for me to go with her because she didn't want you to see her. So, I trained under her. I realised that, contrary to my belief, I could live off animal blood, and that made me strong enough to actually put my powers to good use. I didn't lose control of it. I went into that room, ready to take on whoever was there, and I did." Her cheek twitched. "But I knew you would never forgive me for going to Nina, plain and simple. Even though she tells a different version of the story, insists that she lost control and wasn't out to be malicious, which I believe, it doesn't change that."

That certainly shocked him a little, and, no, he wasn't about to forgive Nina, but that wasn't what Audrey was asking him to do. She had a right to tell her side of the story, and he would let her. He wouldn't jump the gun just because Nina was involved, no matter how hard that was.

"Nina was under the impression that I would be unapologetic about who I was from now on, but I was too afraid of how you would react when you found out."

More came back to him. "When… when we were on the boat," he said, making her look up. "There was a conversation about lying, about wiping my memory. I remember that now."

She nodded. "I wanted to make you forget that I saved you. I made you believe the CIA saved you and got the evidence to make it all add up." Her shoulders curled defensively, as though he would berate her for lying, but he let her go on, explaining, "Siren persuasion can't erase memories, but it can push them down in your subconscious so you wouldn't remember anything unless you were triggered specifically about that day. Nina told me I was a coward, and that I was using my privilege to hide when I had the power to make a difference in your life, and others. But I couldn't do it. Which was why I let you go." She sighed, tears sliding down her cheeks. "I kept an eye on you from afar, but I never let myself get too close. I went into charity work. I thought it was the only way I could try to do something good without being in the limelight."

He could see the shame in her eyes. He could see that she was so upset by her actions, but she shouldn't be. She had been brave. To challenge one's own self-hatred and face it head on was no easy feat. He, himself, had never been able to do it. But all of this was rooted in not just her own judgement or society's perception of sirens, but how he had reacted that day. It hurt to be treated that way by people who love you, and he knew that better than anyone. 

"I came to DC for the Senate Hearing, but then you were escorted to the FBI. I happened to be near the river when Agent Walker went after Juma, so I saved her. The FBI roped me in on everything, and when I learned you were in the White House, I thought, to hell with it. And now… we're here." 

Audrey could no longer fight her tears, burying her head in her hands. Jack slowly reached out to tuck a hair behind her ear, which she reacted to with surprise. He wasn't quite sure how to respond to all of this, but he could see how it had been torturing her.

"Jack, you don't have to act like this isn't hard for you." She took a shuddering breath. "I don't want your pity. I don't expect you to change your mind just because I'm here-"

"Audrey," he said gently, cutting her off. "I started questioning my beliefs the day I found out you were a siren."

She scoffed, looking up, but not at him. "You'll have to forgive me for finding that hard to believe."

He bit his lip. She had lost all her faith in him. She really did expect him to still hold that stupid hatred and overprotectiveness he had all those years ago. He hated that that was how he had made her feel. He hated that he had driven her away.

"The day I faked my death — which, I hope you understand, the reason I didn't tell you was the same reason I didn't tell Kim, to keep you both safe — I told them to use siren blood if epinephrine didn't work. When Paul died, the reason I kept you away from him was that I didn't want you to be crushed by someone else you love rejecting you. He would have resented you for it. I saw the way he spoke to you that day, and I didn't trust him. I was convinced he might hurt you. I know that wasn't my choice, it was yours, but I wanted to protect you so badly to make up for how I had reacted." 

He knew how desperate he sounded, but he also knew he had to make her understand that even on that day, he had still loved her, he had still wanted to be with her. 

"It's not an excuse. I know that. How I treated you and your father was wrong, but I need you to understand, Audrey, that I don't hate that part of you, or only love you on the condition that you conceal that part of yourself. I love you because I just do. Because I stopped seeing in grey and started seeing in colour when you came into my life. You reminded me what it felt like to be happy again." He let out a breath. "And the reason I reacted so badly was that I was afraid of losing that again, I was trying to punish myself for believing that I deserved good things, all of my grief and pain that I had never resolved had come up so suddenly and I didn't know what to do about it. I got angry. I pushed you away because that was the only thing I knew how to do. But not anymore. I… I'm tired of losing people, Audrey. I'm tired of telling myself everyone is better off without me. I want to try letting myself be happy for once in my God-damned life, so please… give me a chance."

He had been so caught up in his ramble that he hadn't realised Audrey was looking right at him, absolutely floored. She was listening to every word. She wasn't refuting him. She… believed him. His eyes met hers, and he wasn't afraid to look in him. The thought that she could persuade him didn't even cross his mind because he knew she wouldn't, even if she had done it once before, to protect him. Jack took her uninjured hand in his, squeezing it.

Before either of them could get closer, the door opened, startling them both.

"Sorry about the holdup, I've got the-"

They turned to see Renee holding the bandages she had mentioned.

"Oh, I'm… interrupting something, aren't I?"

Audrey snickered a little, a smile creeping across her face that he realised he hadn't seen in a very long time. She took the roll and thanked her.

"How's Tony?" she asked.

Renee shook her head. "They had to sedate him again."

A solemn silence fell between them. Although this conversation had gone better than expected, and Jack felt a glimmer of hope for their future, it was hard not to think about Tony.

"Jack, there's one more thing," Renee went on. She looked very nervous now. "Your daughter's here."

He blinked a few times. "What?"

"She's been contacting the FBI all day, trying to find you. She came for the Senate hearing. She's waiting in a conference room."

Audrey's hand covered his, wordlessly assuring him. He looked over at her again.

Renee cleared her throat, and he quickly glanced back at her, who just chuckled. "I'll give you both a minute."

He nodded, and as soon as the door closed, his lips were on Audrey's. His hand came to the back of her neck, keeping her there as she kissed him back eagerly, all that lost time catching up to them. He loved her. God, he loved her so much. And, judging by the way she was gently cupping his face, she did, too. They were going to be okay. The talk they had just had would be one of many, he was sure. But he had nothing but good expectations for their future. He was so sick of letting fear rule his life. She was alive. So was he. So was Kim. So was Chloe. So was Tony — even if he wasn't quite the same. If he kept living life the way he had been, then pretty soon, he would lose them, too, and he would truly have nobody. He couldn't have that. Audrey had saved his life, and he intended on demonstrating his gratitude for the rest of his life.

When she pulled away, she wiped one of the tears from under his eye. He felt himself smile in a way he hadn't in a long time.

"Go see your daughter. I'll be here," Audrey encouraged. "I'm not going anywhere this time."

As he went to stand, he was overcome with anxiety. The last time he saw Kim…

"She's happy this time. I can feel it," she assured. "She just wants her father."

Jack breathed a sigh of relief. He was so used to assuming the worst about everything. But maybe with someone who could read the world better than he could, he wouldn't have to be such a cynic anymore.

Two Years Later

"The two different colour onesies were a good call," Audrey mused.

"Kim was friends with twin sisters in grade school," Jack recalled. "I remember their parents saying it took about two years for him to tell them apart. Let's hope we get there before then."

She snickered. "Maybe one of them has a mole or a birthmark. That'll help."

As he looked down at his daughters and then up at Audrey, he couldn't help but smile again.

Audrey tilted her head. "What?"

"You're beautiful."

She returned his smile, leaning to press her forehead against his.

There was a quiet knock on the door, and he turned to see Kim grimacing beneath a massive bouquet of flowers. Her husband was brandishing two oversized teddy bears, struggling to hold little Teri's hand as he came in. Kim told little Teri to keep her voice down because the babies were asleep. After setting the flowers down, she came over to hug and kiss both of them.

"Oh, I don't know who I want to hold first!" she gushed.

"Here," Jack slowly passed the baby over to her. "Alicia's three minutes older. You can hold her first."

They had each named the twins after their mothers: Alicia after Audrey's and Anna after his. Seeing Kim so happy made his heart flutter. She had always wanted a younger sister, and now she had two. But just knowing that she was married to someone who treated her very well, and had a daughter whom she had named after her mother, gave him a peace that he never thought he would have. She had grown up so much, but she was still his little girl, and nothing was more uplifting than seeing her happy. Likewise, she was happy for him. Despite having not had the chance to introduce her all those years ago, Kim welcome Audrey into her life with open arms. He had always worried that she might be hesitant because of her sirenhood, but her husband was part-siren and a doctor who specialised his research in using siren blood for treatment. She had had the same fear when introducing her husband, so it had been good to see that both of them had long moved past that apprehension. 

Audrey let Stephen hold Anna, who then amusingly tried to explain to Teri that the two babies were technically her aunts. She seemed to pick up on the logic of it, but was understandably still confused. Heller's arrival distracted her soon enough. He, too, had brought two teddy bears, along with an expensive box of chocolate he knew was Audrey's favourite. Jack gave Audrey a knowing look. Thank God, they'd built a big enough nursery for twice the expected amount of oversized toys. After a lot of talking, Heller had embraced Jack's presence in Audrey's life, all the way down to treating Teri with just as much love and warmth as his other grandchildren, often by spoiling her rotten. He treated Kim like a daughter, too. But the biggest thing Heller had done, which had meant the world to him, and Audrey, was publically disclosing his siren status and advocacy for siren rights, at the same time as announcing his run for president. Despite knowing the risk it would come with, including a tangible possibility of tanking his career, he hadn't gone back on it, and his authenticity had actually garnered a wave of support for him. Progression was happening in all facets. Studies were getting the funding they deserve. Infrastructure was being considered to better allow the sirens who could breathe above water to communicate with their loved ones who couldn't. More stringent anti-discrimination laws were being implemented. There were setbacks and the progress was by no means universal, but it was better than it had been in a long time.

"I can't wait to go see your mother," he said with a bittersweet smile. "She's going to be honoured, Audie."

After many painful years apart, Audrey had worked with Chloe to find her mother, after believing for many years that she had aided his rescue from China, which she had confirmed. With the increasing accessibility, Audrey and her father had been able to see her somewhat regularly. Laminated photos did the trick to explain what couldn't be brought with them, although it upset Audrey to know that, at this stage, Jack wouldn't be able to meet her — at least, not without scuba gear — nor would she be able to see her granddaughters. But some of the research being conducted was looking into at least temporarily allowing those affected sirens to breathe above water. For once, Jack was hopeful about the state of the world. He wanted to believe these things that weren't possible just weren't possible now but would be eventually.

"How's Tony doing, Dad?" Kim asked.

"He's not too bad. I think he said he'd stop by tomorrow with Chloe and Morris. He's still a little uncomfortable with being around too many people."

She hummed in understanding, her expression a little solemn.

The extent of the psychological damage done to Tony by Emerson had been greater than anybody had anticipated. He had lost the ability to trust virtually anybody except those from before the day Emerson had revived him, which had made initial, conventional treatment very difficult. He had been paranoid about every medication offered, anybody who looked him directly in the eyes, anybody who tried to get him to open up. But Audrey, through the unique combination of being a siren who could tap into his memories and being a figure from before that Tony trusted, had slowly managed to help him through his trauma. It hadn't been easy at first. The initial session had led to an outburst where, despite the presence of Jack, a psychiatrist, and another guard, he had hurt Audrey when they had both pushed too far into a memory. It had been hard for Jack to watch, understanding just how much Tony was suffering. Despite the intense, violent reaction, only when one looked into his eyes could they see a broken, frightened man, and that had been so difficult for Jack to grasp, to see someone he cared about so unwell. However, with time, Audrey's form of therapy had worked, which had led to a breakthrough not just in Tony's treatment, but psychology as a whole. Sirens were being asked from all over the world to become trained in counselling so they could use their abilities to help patients with repressed trauma. As Tony had started to gain clarity, he had been eager to try anything and everything to feel like himself again. Medication had helped to control the physical symptoms when he became overwhelmed. A mild form of electroshock therapy had separated the true memories from the false, like a sieve. But nothing had been more effective than letting Audrey, or another siren, talk it through with him.

The validity of this research had also meant that the FBI had dropped all charges against Tony on count of temporary insanity. He had still requested to go back into law enforcement, believing it to not be a total excuse for his actions. With Renee and Larry's support, after finally being discharged from treatment about two months ago, he would begin consulting for the FBI part time. Renee had fought tooth and nail to every bureaucrat to get the pardon for Tony, and Jack would be forever grateful. Audrey was, too, and they had become close friends after that day. She and Larry, who were also in the middle of planning their wedding, had said they would come by as soon as whatever threat the FBI was dealing with was over. It was a good thing a flash of their badges was enough to bypass hospital visiting hour rules.

Despite Larry's offer, Jack had decided not to go back into law enforcement, instead helping Audrey establish her own counselling service and continue her philanthropy. He had decided once and for all he was leaving government work behind, wanting to focus on supporting his family. A small part of him couldn't quite believe he was here. He was, though. They all were. And, along the way, he had learned to let go of that mindset that good things could only be temporary. Because as he looked at his family around him, the warmth in his chest was something he knew he could hold on to forever.