Bobby Donnell took many cases in his career as a defence attorney. Some cases were simple, while others were more complicated. Some cases, he defended with the wholehearted truth. Others, he defended, knowing everything that came out of his mouth was a lie. He committed himself to serving his client regardless of what he thought of morally because, as a lawyer, that was his job. It didn’t matter what he thought; it only mattered that he did everything in his power to get them a not-guilty verdict. It required a certain level of detachment, bordering on coldness at times, because emotional investment in a client would warp his judgment. Blurring the lines between professional and personal would reduce his capability to effectively defend his client, and he couldn’t have that.
He had learnt that lesson the hard way.
Despite how much time had passed, the case where he had defended Victoria Keenan had never left his memories. He had never been able to forget that case. He had never been able to forget her. However, he had never mentioned this to anybody, especially once he and Lindsay had gotten together. At the time, Everybody else at his firm had chastised him for sleeping with Vicky, and rightfully so. Never had any other case impacted him enough to make him incapable of delivering a closing statement. Eugene had had to pull together one at the last minute. It was a miracle she had still managed to get acquitted.
So, when nobody was around, Bobby had attempted to investigate her. It hadn’t been easy. As it turned out, there were many Victoria Keenans, even in the United States alone. It almost shamed him to admit how many hours he’d spent searching the Internet, scouring legal records, and even secretly paying a private investigator. After a few years, he'd given up. It hadn't been because Vicky had stopped haunting him, but rather because he had run out of options. It only convinced him more that she wasn’t as innocent as he had thought. He was sure she had changed names and found a way to disappear off the face of the Earth. Whether Victoria Keenan was her real name was something he would never know. He didn’t know whether to believe any of what she’d told him. She had been secretive. He remembered that. It hadn’t fazed him at the time. But now it was just further evidence that she was far from the person he had thought she was.
He also had to wonder whether that had subconsciously factored into his divorce. Even though Lindsay never found out about his ongoing hunt for Vicky’s whereabouts, and even though, at the time of her trial, they hadn’t been together, he wouldn't naively assume that several years of constant background thoughts about another woman hadn’t impacted his marriage. After all, it was him sleeping with another woman that had ended it. Another woman who, like Vicky, was blonde, fair and had strikingly green eyes. Bobby was sure that wasn’t a coincidence, even if Sarah had been an old flame. He hadn’t fantasised that way about Vicky. He hadn’t pined. He hadn’t sat there and thought about what could have been if she hadn’t been a client. But, at the same time, he knew the emotional investment in her wellbeing hadn’t faded. His hunt for her was mostly out of curiosity, yes. Still, deep down, a part of him just wanted to know she was okay.
He cared about Vicky; he couldn’t deny that.
But more importantly, he cared about finding the truth and putting this to rest for good.
By this point, Bobby had lost his firm, his wife, and most of his friends. His son was now in school, and while he had shared custody with Lindsay, he still felt like a stranger to the child named after himself. He had made decisions he regretted. If he could go back in time, he would certainly change his actions. He would certainly keep his objective wall up with Victoria Keenan. But that was never going to happen. So, in the meantime, all he could do was get answers. All he could do was get an understanding of who Victoria Keenan, if she could even be called that, really was.
Because Bobby didn’t know if he could ever move on from his past otherwise.
He blinked his eyes open to realise he had fallen asleep in front of the television again. The light from the screen was starkly bright, illuminating his totally dark apartment. Squinting at the clock, he could see it was about two in the morning. CNN was showing footage outside Capitol Hill. By the looks of it, it was a repeat of some cabinet meeting from earlier in the day. Bobby groaned a little and decided to try and get the remainder of the night’s rest in his bed. He got up slowly, fumbling for the remote between the couch cushions.
“…Secretary of Defence, James Heller, shown here with his daughter…”
Bobby sighed, trying to point the remote at the television. But he soon stopped in his tracks, the remote falling from his hand and tumbling onto the carpet. He sucked in a breath, moving forward, ignoring the tension in his eyes from straining. Her hair was straighter now, the blonde a little brighter, giving her an air of lightness, dare he say innocence. Still, as she gave a small wave to a reporter, Bobby could see the piercing green of her eyes was unchanged. Those eyes he’d fallen so hard for captivated him now, leaving him agape in front of the screen.
He shook his head, rubbing a hand over his jaw. It couldn’t be possible. She would not dare to show her face on national television. He recalled her request to be obscured from reporters as much as possible during her trial. He and Eugene had done everything in their power to achieve that. In particular, he remembered paying off news outlets from showing any photos of her. As for the Internet, well, Internet news had still been in its infancy at that point, so it had not been difficult to keep excessive details of the trial private. It had been insane when he thought about it. He had told himself that he would do this for any client who asked, but he knew that was a lie. He had never protected someone so vehemently as he had, Vicky.
What bewildered him more was seeing her with the Secretary of Defence. The secretary would have to know about her trial, surely. Bobby could understand him keeping his distance at the time. However, he also recognised that the secretary could and should have hired a better lawyer than him. Had hiring his firm been Vicky's choice? Maybe her father didn't know much. Maybe she had promised to take care of everything, and that had been enough for him. Still, the secretary had garnered a lot of media attention lately. Perhaps he should give himself more credit for keeping Vicky's case private if nobody had managed to dig it up and use it against him. He didn't know what to believe anymore.
That being said, Bobby realised he had a solid lead for the first time in years.
He no longer found himself tired and grabbed his laptop, beginning to frantically search for results about James Heller. It helped that search engines had come a long way since his ventures in what could only be described as mild stalking all those years ago. Within minutes, he had what looked to be a profile, a personal story to give some humanity to the otherwise conservative politician. He scrolled down to his family history, and Bobby frantically scanned for mention of a daughter. When he found a link to another article about her, including a large image of the face he hadn’t been able to forget all these years, he laughed to himself almost crazily.
Because all this time, he had been looking for information about Victoria Keenan. But now, Bobby knew he had to start looking for information about Audrey Raines.
She hadn’t travelled under her real name in a while. It was nice for a change, not having to double-check that her fake ID was consistent everywhere, only use cash, and change her appearance.
Her father rested his hand on her forearm in the seat beside her. His eyes crinkled when he looked at her.
“I’ve missed you, Audie.” He said warmly. “You keep going on all these trips. I hope you’re not forgetting about your dear old dad.”
Audrey returned his smile. “I’m not. And they’re important; these trips are for business and making sure people keep you in Congress, Dad.”
He laughed through his nose. After a beat, he furrowed his brow.
“What is it?” She asked sweetly.
“Did I take my pills today?”
“Yes, you did,” Audrey said deliberately quietly, and her father hummed in assent without giving it a second thought.
She was glad Jack was asleep two seats over from her. He was a light sleeper. She knew that. But given that he hadn't stirred, Audrey could sigh with relief, knowing she was safe. Safe because, contrary to her statement, her father had not taken his pills, and Jack knew that because he was usually there to help give them.
Her father had shown signs of on-set Alzheimer's disease when she was in her early twenties, and ever since then, she had been managing his medication and tending to him. It had saddened her. After all, he was the only parent she had left. No mother, not even a stepmother anymore, who had passed recently. Her father was an intelligent man. He still was. Even if the disease slowly ate away at his sharpness. The medication was strong. It helped with some symptoms like chronic joint pain and migraines, but the doctor had made it clear the effect on his memory would likely be minimal. It was unfortunate, but it worked well for Audrey when she needed to prevent him from asking her too many questions.
Especially on days like today.
Because aside from a budget discussion at CTU - which she couldn’t care less about - there was something very important she had to do in Los Angeles. They would only be there for the meeting and then fly back to DC, so she had to be quick. If that meant risking her father’s well-being, so be it. Jack would be there to keep an eye on him, too. It would be fine.
All she needed to focus on was finding and killing Paul Raines.
He was the one who had gotten away. Every other husband she had had was dead. There had been a couple of flings here and there, too, also dead. She didn't always have time to plan a wedding, after all. But Paul was her only living husband and the only one who had truly been married to Audrey, not one of her many aliases. Her father didn’t know that the 'business trips' she’d been going on for years had actually had a much more personal motive. Each trip was an adventure for her. She would change her appearance, sometimes drastically, get a fake ID, a new home in a new town or a new country — usually by way of the money left behind by her dead husbands — and meet new people. She gave them a sense of security so they would open up to her. She took advantage of their trust in her, but then, when things got boring, she would simply end them. Usually, with a knife. It still surprised her how many times people believed her claims of battered wife syndrome. Still, she was careful to clean things up, and she always got away with it.
Almost.
She usually didn’t shoot people since that usually risked being heard, and she especially didn’t shoot people five times, but Robert Adler had been an exception.
It had been okay, though, because she had found a lawyer to defend her by blinding him with her sweetness. She probably should have killed him, too but she had needed to get out of Massachusetts reasonably quickly since the trial had prolonged her stay. Besides, he had kept her name out of the press and ensured she didn’t go to prison. She didn’t mind sparing Robert Donnell. Still, she had kept her profile extra low for a while. She wondered if he ever suspected her story had been built on a foundation of lies. There was a reason she had hired him and not taken the lawyer the state had offered her. Because she had known Bobby Donnell was not seen as some virtuosic, honourable defence attorney. He defended anyone and everyone with equal conviction. He valued the truth, even if it was ugly. Still, double jeopardy meant she could never be tried again for Robert Adler's murder. Bobby was not a problem.
Paul Raines, on the other hand, was. She had only kept him around for the sake of reputation, really. Paul was arm candy to take with her to press conferences and dinners and the other ten million events that came with her father being a member of Congress. But unlike her father, who could be easily persuaded, Paul had put his foot down about her trips, claiming she was avoiding him, that they were married, so she should bloody act like it. That was the only time she had put the facade down. The only time she had snapped without physically hurting anybody. Paul had believed her threats nonetheless, so they'd separated. She had seen fear in his eyes, and she had known he would not dare try to question her. Still, to her annoyance, he had never wanted to finalise their divorce. She had the feeling the pathetic bastard still loved her deep down. And, more importantly, she suspected he had been covertly investigating what she had done on her trips. He had not come to Los Angeles the same day as her by coincidence. He was following her. When she had realised this, she had cursed herself. There was a reason she preferred the stupid ones.
Jack was different, though. She was quite sure she would never get tired of him the way she had her other husbands. But he was a former federal agent, so she could not take too many risks around him. Still, what seemed to set everything in stone for her, what confirmed that he was the one and that she need not worry, was knowing that pulling one over Jack Bauer was not impossible. After all, Nina Myers had done it. So, there was no reason she couldn’t follow in her footsteps. Killing Paul Raines was simply to clean up her past and make sure Jack didn’t leave. She did not want him to think she still had feelings for Paul. She wanted Jack to know her heart only had a place for him.
It would be simple. She would leave CTU under the guise of telling Jack and her father she wasn't feeling well and that she was going back to the hotel.
Then she would go find Paul and make sure he never had the chance to expose her.
Well.
She hadn’t been naive enough to believe her plan would work perfectly; she had planned for various things that might stop her from leaving CTU.
Being kidnapped by a terrorist wasn’t one of them.
But Jack had come through and even managed to bring Paul to CTU. Not just Paul, but injured Paul. He took a bullet for Jack. Jack looked rather upset about it, but Audrey had to hide her pleasure. Jack was safe. It was perfect. It wouldn’t look suspicious for them to interact if they were in the same building. Paul was just a few 'accidents' away from being silenced for good. He was already in critical condition. Nobody would bat an eye if the man clinging desperately for his life suddenly stopped fighting. She had to admit watching Jack torture Paul earlier had been the highlight of her day. It had turned her on a little, to be honest. But Audrey had done her best to try to look horrified, knowing that Paul might retaliate by telling Jack whatever he knew about her 'trips'. She hadn't wanted to take that chance.
Audrey waited for Jack to leave the hospital ward, ensuring she kept her distressed, sniffling image up as he walked past her. Her expression dropped when she was finally alone with Paul. While Jack had been in the room, speaking to Paul, Audrey had silently planned how she would shut him up for good. She couldn’t be sure if the cameras picked up audio; Given that this was CTU, she wouldn’t risk assuming anything. So, Audrey had to keep her voice low, her face sweet, and her body obscuring the various machines keeping Paul alive. She moved to sit by Paul’s side, tilting her back towards the camera.
He blinked a couple of times, deep breaths fogging the oxygen mask over his face. They hadn’t been alone together in the same room for a while. When they'd had to go out for the sake of appearances, they would always end up talking to their own people and doing everything they could to avoid being near each other. He was the more avoidant one; that one moment where she'd shown the true extent of her rage by throwing a knife into the wall just inches away from his head had taught him to hold his tongue. He had become terrified of her, and he still seemed it, judging by the look on his face as he became aware that they were alone. Still, since Paul was always far too concerned with reputation, he'd kept up the happy couple act until she'd met Jack and decided Paul was no longer of use. She'd told him that in those words, no less. Paul had lived in fear for the last year, wondering when he would take his last breath. His petition for a restraining order against her had been denied immediately - because who the hell dared to request a restraining order against the daughter of the Secretary of Defence? She had batted her eyes innocently in court, and the judge had thrown it out.
“I… I know.” He said hoarsely, stopping to breathe in the middle of his sentence. “I know what you’ve done.”
Audrey ignored him, using her proximity to evaluate which tube connected to his oxygen supply.
“The… the fake IDs. The tax records. The trips." He rasped. "All pleasure, no business. It's all lies.”
Audrey paused to sneer at him. “You found a couple of old photos. Big whoop. You can’t prove anything.”
"You take advantage of your father and lie to him, knowing he'd never question his darling daughter." Paul locked his eyes onto hers, mustering every remaining ounce of energy. “But I know the truth. I know that you’ve left a trail of bodies everywhere you’ve been. Paris, Rome, Sydney, Boston-” He winced as she put pressure on the syringe in his hand connected to the IV.
“Now, is that any way to talk to the woman who has spared your life?” Audrey moved her fingers up to brush against his forearm. “You should feel special, Paul; you’ve lasted longer than the rest. Too long, if you ask me.”
“Then why keep me around?” He gritted through his teeth. “I’m sure you got bored of me a long time ago.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, I can’t look too suspicious, can I? With all the constant attention, I needed to make sure I had someone to make me look good.”
He scoffed. “That what Bauer’s for? My replacement, is he?”
As soon as he said Jack's name, she flashed an expression of rage. He could see it in her eyes because he froze. Her nails dug crescent moons into his flesh. It wouldn’t matter. Nobody was going to question the desperate widow’s fingerprints on the victim. In fact, nobody was even going to think of this as a murder. There would be no investigation. Her other hand had been dangling below his bed, tentatively fidgeting with the tube that was currently allowing him to breathe. Gripping it firmly, she pinched the clear plastic tightly, listening to the hiss of the air inside. He jolted a little, finding her gaze cold and malicious.
Audrey didn’t stop looking at him. She wanted to watch, to ensure it was done properly and that there was no chance he would live to tell the tale. She always did. There was never an accomplice, never an assassin for hire. With every person she had killed, she had watched the light leave their eyes.
His clouds of breath started to fog the mask less and less intently. The rise and fall of his chest became slower, more desperate. He started to choke and tried to sit up but found his efforts futile. Paul shuddered as her hand came to the side of his head.
“Goodbye, Paul.” She murmured.
The rhythm of his heart monitor beeping was slowing. She let her eyes briefly flick up to the screen. She couldn’t let him flatline straight away. That would be suspicious, but she had to ensure his body couldn’t fight. As a final attempt, one of his hands grabbed the tail of her jacket. His hand was pale, and she couldn’t help but laugh a little to herself when his grip weakened almost immediately. He went to try again, but she moved away just as he reached out. Audrey stood up, her fingers squeezing the tube tightly one last time for good measure. She took a deep breath, making her eyes water a little.
“Help!" Audrey screamed. "He’s not breathing!”
Six Months After Day 5
Audrey woke gagged and bound to a chair. Her head throbbed. She huffed. All these years, she had always worked alone, and she had never once regretted it until now. Even a disposable accomplice would have been helpful here. She had only love to blame, she supposed. An emotion she had only felt a few times in her life towards very few people. Her father and mother, sure. Her step-brother… well, she wouldn’t kill him unless it was a last resort. But she had never truly understood what it meant to be devoted to someone, willing to do whatever it took to have them, until Jack Bauer. She had known from the day she met him that he was different, that there was a part of him he desperately tried to keep secret. But she knew about it. She had seen his file. She knew what he was capable of. And it was that, that darkness, that had made her fall in love with him.
Audrey just wished he felt comfortable showing it around her.
It hadn’t helped that she'd had to pretend it upset and scared her. The day Paul had died, she had shed more tears than she had thought she was capable of creating. Jack had comforted her and talked to her about how guilty he felt since that bullet had been meant for him. But it had only frustrated her more. She had been happy to get rid of Paul. She had been happy that Jack hadn’t gotten hurt. Jack had interpreted her distress as resentment towards him and given her space. But it had made her panic, made her fear that she was driving him away and going to lose him. And by the time she got a chance to talk to him, Bill had informed her that Jack had been killed.
The news had devastated her. It had made her feel a sadness rivalled only by her mother’s death and the news of her father’s declining health. Nothing had made her feel happy anymore. She had lost all drive, all focus, barely able to perform her duties as the DoD liaison. Her little trips interstate and overseas ceased. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep with someone and toy with their emotions before taking everything from them when she felt nothing but emptiness. Even Walt Cummings, a man she had seen right through and known was trying to gain something politically from her, had not enticed her. She had let him go. She never let them go. Audrey promised herself that once her father died, she would end her misery. Her father would still need her in the meantime. She was all he had left, really. Richard was far too self-absorbed and stupid to take care of him properly.
But one day, a miracle happened.
Jack was brought back to CTU, and it was revealed that his death had been faked. It had angered her at first. One, because he had kept it secret from her, and two, that some woman who barely knew him was claiming to have fallen for him. She could not possibly know him the way she did, let alone love him. Nobody did. Except her. Again, Jack had been tentative in approaching her. Scared, almost. She appreciated his respect and consideration of his boundaries. But she just wished there was an easier way to tell him that he had no need to do that, that she wanted him as he was. Unfortunately, he had been dragged back into CTU’s messes, preventing her from even trying to approach the conversation. At the end of that awful day, they had shared a moment, a kiss full of passion that brought her back to life and reminded her why she had even bothered to keep living.
And then, just like that, he was taken away from her again.
This led her to where she was now: held captive by people that she assumed worked for the Chinese government. Her fury at Jack’s kidnapping had fuelled her existence these last six months, driving her to investigate as much as she could. On his good days, she would beg her father to use his political influence to make the government do something about it. She rarely raised her voice or got angry at her father, one, because she usually had no reason to, and two, because it revealed the darkness within her. And while her father’s memory worked to her advantage here, she just wouldn’t risk showing it to him.
So, she had gone to China on her own and tried to use her usual tactics of seduction to get information. But she had underestimated how many people might follow the daughter of the Secretary of Defence in a foreign country. They had busted her spiking the drink of an intern at the US Embassy and kicked her out of the bar, which had led her right into the arms of the 'police' who subsequently gave her a taste of her own medicine. Or, roofie, rather. At first, she had panicked. They had to have hacked some US government files to know that she had even headed to China because she had made sure her trip was concealed. It had made her wonder what else they might know and whether they could have accessed any of her personal files. She had done a very good job of burying her past aliases, but some things always left a trace.
Unfortunately, all they had wanted was information about Jack and government secrets, particularly those from her brief time at CTU. She had resisted at first. After all, she had a father who worked for the government and had also trained herself to resist torture for her own sake in case she ever got caught. But the Chinese persisted. And a person could only survive so many days without water, food or sunlight. So, she had started giving in. Not because she was weak, not because she was afraid, but because she had to be wise here. The more she gave them, the more likely they would stop interrogating her and be satisfied with what they had obtained. Then, they might attempt to kill her, in which case she could fight back and use all of the energy she had conserved.
That hadn’t happened, though. They hadn’t tried to kill her when she'd run out of useful information but instead started to treat her as some sort of lab bunny. They had started injecting her with concoctions and torturing her in experimental ways. She hadn’t expected it at all, and, as a result, she felt herself lose the little control over the situation she had left. She had made a mistake assuming they only wanted her for her information. No, there was something so cold and calculating in the eyes of her torturers, not unlike her own, as they administered something new to her every day just to see what made her tick, what made her hallucinate, what made her scream. While part of her admired them at first, over time, she realised that whatever small hope she had of escaping was gone. And with the private nature of her trip, rescue wasn't very likely, either.
Still, even as her mind drifted and she felt herself detach from her body and all semblance of time and space became blurry, one thought never wavered.
She knew that she had to stay alive.
Because she had to get Jack back.
One Day After Day 6
It took Bobby a long time to find a private investigator willing to risk their career and possibly criminal charges to look into the skeletons in Audrey Raine’s closet. Nobody wanted to go near the Secretary of Defence’s daughter. He understood that. But his own searching hadn’t gotten him what he wanted. Bobby needed proof she was a killer; ideally, proof that she murdered Robert Adler or even just proof of fraud. He'd take anything. Other than photographs, he needed to find concrete evidence that she had lied about her identity. He had to wonder, if she had killed and gotten away with it once and managed to make herself disappear like this, who was to say she couldn’t have done it again?
But, eventually, he found a PI, old and close to retirement but still damn good at what he did. It had taken longer than Bobby initially thought, but it didn't matter. He was relentless. He had a start. He didn’t care how much he had to pay the PI if it got him the results he had so desperately craved. But those results were not easy to get. There was facial recognition software existed, but it was slow and expensive. The PI had a friend in the Boston police department, which helped, too, but it was hard to find anything concrete that proved Victoria Keenan and Audrey Raines were actually the same person and not just doppelgängers. She had covered her tracks very well.
The only leads they had were the most recent male companions of hers who had died, notably, on the same day. Paul Raines, Audrey’s husband, died from surgical complications at the CTU Los Angeles medical ward, and Jack Bauer, a man who was not anything official to Audrey but had often been seen with her, and James Heller had apparently been shot, also at CTU Los Angeles. What was odd was the fact that both of these men seemed to be affiliated with Audrey Raines, the woman’s true identity, rather than an alias. It seemed like a huge risk for her since they had found countless photos from security cameras across the country. She had done all kinds of things to change her appearance, from dyeing her hair to plastic surgery.
Eventually, Bobby had prepared to present his information to the FBI. He knew he had enough evidence to legally pin her for fraud. He could open up an investigation. He had the names of people who had died or supposedly gone missing and never been found who just so happened to have been last seen with one of Audrey’s aliases. Even if they thought he was crazy, which, by this point, he had to admit wasn’t a total lie, the information was there.
What had thrown a spanner in the works was discovering that Bauer was not, in fact, dead. It hadn’t fazed Bobby at first. After all, she had kept Paul Raines around for a while before she had killed him. But Bobby had soon realised that Bauer did not conform to her MO at all. He had been an exception to her apparent rule of letting people in and killing them once she grew bored. Bobby had waited for the news and checked Bauer’s file day in and day out, thinking that he would one day see him listed as ‘Deceased’ and have another body to add to his list.
Instead, he had found Audrey listed as ‘Deceased’.
A car crash in China, apparently. She’d gone to look for Bauer and rescue him from his apparent capture by the Chinese government. It was an insane length to go for one person. When Bobby had found out, he had wanted to let go of the investigation and allow the PI to finally retire. He had told himself there was no point chasing a dead woman. But he still had questions about Bauer. What was so special about him? How did he spark warmth, dare he say, love, in someone he had otherwise seen as a cold and ruthless killer? Bauer wasn't exactly an innocent person, either. His file at CTU — or at least, what wasn’t classified — seemed to indicate he was no stranger to violence. He had done things Bobby considered unthinkable, bent and broken every rule in existence, and done whatever he had to do to get the information he needed. For good reason, though. It had been for the sake of the country and keeping it safe. Not for pleasure, like Audrey. Bobby doubted Bauer was some kind of sadistic accomplice of hers.
Eventually, he learned that Bauer had been rescued from China. Bobby had gotten himself a flight to Los Angeles as soon as possible. He had asked the PI one last time to track down an address for Bauer. The man lived in a motel room. It was not the kind of luxury he expected a man who had saved the country yet again to be given.
Bobby was nervous when he arrived. He wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the man. But Bauer seemed to respect hard-boiled facts and logic, which was exactly what he had. Bobby tentatively knocked at the door, which opened with a creak. He was met with a much more haggard-looking version of the Jack Bauer he had read about.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Robert Donnell. I’m an attorney. I need to talk to you, Mr. Bauer.”
He seemed irritated already. “If this is to do with my father’s estate, I don’t want any-”
“It’s not to do with your father. It’s… it’s about Audrey Raines.”
Bauer’s stance suddenly became more defensive. “What about her?”
“There’s something you need to know about her past. She’s… she’s not the person you thought she was.”
Bauer took a moment to study the apparent lawyer. His clothes were casual. There didn’t seem to be any weapon on his person, just a large folio of documents he was holding protectively. He couldn’t think of why the hell a lawyer would want to talk to him about Audrey. Given how often they obstructed CTU investigations, he wasn’t exactly a fan of lawyers.
Bobby took the silence and piercing stare as a prompt to continue.
“I met her once. In Boston, over ten years ago. She went by the name Victoria Keenan. I can give you the details, but what you need to understand is that she’s a murderer.”
In one swift motion, Bauer grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall. Some of the papers in his hand fell to the floor.
“How dare you.” He gritted through his teeth. “She’s been through hell and back, she might never be the same again after what those bastards did to her, and you have the audacity to come here and make up lies.”
Before he could implore that he had evidence, Bobby realised something about what Bauer was saying was bothering him, namely, the present tense.
“W-What do you mean? Audrey is dead-”
Bauer furrowed his brow, but the anger was still present in his voice. “She was tortured by the people who took me for eighteen months. She can barely respond to her own name now. So get your facts straight next time. Now, leave.”
Bobby gulped before following the man's orders, feeling utterly guilty and ashamed of himself. Maybe he should have listened to himself the first time. The evidence might be valid, but he wouldn’t do anything with it now. She was already suffering in the prison of her mind; there was no need to make prison a reality. At the same time, being someone who had sworn to help deliver justice and believed in the law, he couldn’t just forget what had happened. He couldn't help but wonder whether this was still part of Audrey's game. She had the means to fake her death and pretend to be ill. He still felt something nag at him. He still believed he had to do something with the information he had gathered.
Was he going to look insane investigating someone who was allegedly this ill? Yes. But damn the consequences because Bobby knew he would never find peace if he did not track down Audrey and stop her once and for all.
Two Hours After Day 9
He’d always been controlling.
She hated it.
One could call it an act of love or simply being protective but Audrey made no excuses for the pathetic man she unfortunately called her husband. It had been clear from day one that he had taken advantage of her poor health as a power play.
She would have killed him a long time ago, but unfortunately, she had needed him. Not for her health and well-being. She healed a long time before she actually showed the signs. She was stronger than she looked. By focusing on Jack during and after her torture, she had kept herself sane. But keeping up the act of being catatonic had been for insurance, so nobody continued to investigate her past.
So, just like Paul, Mark Boudreau was her necessary political arm candy. However, all that time together, when he had been her 'caretaker' day in and day out, had made her quite sick of him. What had been worse was Mark preventing her travel. She hadn't gone on any trips since her rescue. And now, with him working as her father’s Chief of Staff, she could barely escape him. So add in his toxic behaviour, and Audrey was about ready to snap. She hadn’t taken a human life since before she’d gone looking for Jack in China.
Jack.
Right now, he was negotiating a pardon with her father at the US consulate so he could return to America in peace. Her father had still proven competence to serve in Congress, even working up to becoming the president despite his deterioration. Medication had worked wonders to slow the onset, even though it was still inevitable. Mark helped him look good, and for that, she was grateful. She didn't doubt her father would forgive Jack for his sins - not that she really considered his actions sins. In all honesty, she was a little jealous about the blood he had shed for Renee Walker. But today, Jack had saved her life by killing Cheng after he kidnapped her en route to the London CIA branch. They had both been through so much because of Cheng, so it had brought Audrey such great relief and satisfaction to watch Jack kill him. Of course, their celebrations had been short-lived because Cheng had, unbeknownst to him, also ordered his people to kill Chloe O'Brian. Jack had been heartbroken, and while Audrey had never considered Chloe a threat - she knew full well their relationship had only ever been platonic - deep down, she was slightly relieved that someone so important to him was dead because now he could focus on her more. The only other person that fell into that category was his daughter. But by the sounds of it, since Jack would still be at some level of risk, he wanted to keep her safe by staying away. Which meant Audrey could have Jack for herself.
There was just one problem remaining: Mark.
She never loved him. The only man she had ever loved was Jack. She had been through so much for him. And she knew she would do it again and again, without question, because he was hers. Because the darkness within him, although he had no idea, was the same darkness within her. She didn’t want him to find out about her past. He didn’t need to. But if he did, she knew he would understand.
Audrey was back in her hotel room with Mark now, at his insistence that they stay together for the rest of the trip lest something happen to her again. There were a couple of Secret Service agents guarding the room, which meant she had to be quiet.
Her fingers fiddled with the letter opener behind her back. She watched Mark loosen his tie a little as he stood in front of the mirror. He noticed her smiling at him and called her over sweetly. Slipping the blade under the cuff of her blouse, she stepped forward to hug him, keeping her eyes locked on his. She felt his heartbeat, and it made her almost giddy to know she would put an end to it soon. Standing on her toes a little, Audrey moved her mouth to his jaw while, at the same time, raising the sharp object above his back. When the sharp edge slid swiftly between his shoulder blades, she muffled his wince by pressing her lips to his.
Stepping back, Mark spluttered and coughed up a little blood, his eyes wide as he stared at her. Smiling a little, she kissed him lightly again, licking the blood away, ignoring his hands clawing at her back, desperately trying to grab her.
“It’ll be over soon.” She said, hushing him.
The door suddenly opened, and Audrey whipped around to find herself staring at Robert Donnell. How the hell was he here? It had been nearly twenty years since she had last seen him. She almost didn’t recognise him with the grown-out, salt-and-pepper facial hair, but the piercing blue of his eyes was no different. It seemed he was studying her, too, and she almost laughed at the fact that her appearance seemed to leave him dumbfounded. It was reassuring to know that she still had that effect on people.
While Bobby had seen many photos of her over the years, it still shocked him that seeing her in person evicted such a visceral reaction from him. She was breathtaking. When Bobby had seen her appear on television about a decade after giving up, it had brought back every emotion he had buried deeply within himself. But what had ultimately driven him to go was when he saw her standing next to another new man, someone who wasn’t Jack Bauer.
Because this time, she wasn’t going to get away with it. Even though it appeared it was too late to save the man, he had busted her in the act.
Mark gasped for air, stumbling as he tried to look between them. Audrey moved closer to him, her arms around his neck. He attempted to speak again, but her finger came to his lips. “Say hello to Paul for me, will you?” She murmured before letting him fall to the ground.
Bobby raised a gun at her. “It’s over, Vicky.”
She smiled, speaking wistfully. “My, it’s been a long time since somebody called me that.”
“I know everything, Audrey, and now, I’ve caught you red-handed. You killed Robert Adler, you killed Paul Raines, you killed-”
His accusation was silenced by a piercing sensation shooting through his left shoulder. He looked down to find a bloody knife sticking out of his body. His eyes widened, and he started to shake. She stepped towards him nonchalantly, making his blood run cold. Audrey took the gun from his hands and pointed it at his chest. Tilting her head sweetly, she took a moment to appreciate that he had gone to such great lengths just to track her down. At this proximity, she could also see a phony Secret Service badge, explaining how he had gotten in. She had always liked how thorough he was as a lawyer. It was nice to think he had driven himself crazy over her for the last two decades.
“Don’t worry, Bobby. I only need one shot this time.”
As soon as the bullet penetrated his chest, she knew she didn’t have a lot of time. Hotel guests and staff would be on their way any second now, as would the Secret Service agents.
Taking a deep breath, she turned the gun back onto herself, finding a spot near her waist where she knew she wouldn’t risk hitting any vital organs. She fired and let out a piercing scream before teetering backward and landing somewhere near Mark’s bleeding corpse. She didn't have to worry about cleaning up the scene here. People would come in, and she would wail about the stranger who had impersonated a Secret Service agent to come and try to kill her and her husband.
Even if they looked into Bobby’s profile, even if they found the case of Robert Adler’s murder, they would figure him a delusional man trying to deal with his own guilty conscience about defending the ice-cold Victoria Keenan. She had an alibi for her time as Victoria. She always made sure there was one, so there was no reason to question Audrey Heller’s whereabouts. Nobody had ever questioned her stories when she had been the daughter of the Secretary of Defence. Now, she was the daughter of the President. Anybody who dared to investigate this or declare her a suspect wasn’t going to get very far.
The Secret Service agents quickly locked down the area and called her father. They rushed her to the nearest hospital, and she distracted herself from the pain by thinking about Jack, thinking about the fact that now she could have him back, once and for all. He could be her everything again. To her joy, he made it to the hospital ward just as she woke up from the anaesthetic. He was quick to take her into his arms but so careful to avoid her injuries. She could tell he needed her now, that without Chloe, without his daughter, without anybody else left, she was all he had.
Smiling, Audrey squeezed him back tighter. “You have me now.”