Pretty Bad Things Chapter 7
Sorry for the delay…I ran into a little bit of writer’s block. This chapter is a little long, so if you’re short on time the first flashback in the chapter is not that important…I mainly put it in there for my fellow Jack/Audrey fans. If you’re not a J/A shipper you can skip that part. Enjoy and please review!
“Hold on a second. You’re telling me my father and brother had something to do with my capture?” Jack asks incredulously.
“Yeah…I thought you knew that. The problem was, I didn’t know that until it was too late.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I told you before that one of my sources for information was this guy who worked for your father, someone who made it seem as if he was doing the same thing we were doing for the same reason. But it turns out that their objective wasn’t to get you out of there…they were working with Cheng and the Chinese military the whole time. After the Chinese realized you weren’t going to talk, they used your brother and father to help lure Audrey into going over there so they could capture her and use her against you. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any of that until after you were released…I trusted this guy Liddy and through him I arranged for Audrey to meet with someone who worked at the US embassy in Beijing who claimed to have information that would prove our government’s complicity in your capture.”
“Damn it, Tony. Didn’t it ever occur to you how dangerous that might be?”
“Of course it did, Jack. I told her that if she went over there it was possible that the Chinese would try to get to her and use her as leverage against you, but she was determined to go anyway. I was planning on going with her, so that I could help her get the information and be there to protect her if anything happened. But that got screwed up due to some twists and turns in the presidential election.”
“I don’t understand. What does the presidential election have to do with this?”
“Basically, we both felt that if Wayne Palmer won the election, he would be more likely to do something about negotiating for your freedom than Gardner had been. So keeping me hidden was important given the history.”
“I’m not sure I follow,” Jack says.
“The politics get a little complicated here, and believe me, Audrey had to explain some of this three times before I understood it.”
Jack chuckles, thinking about all the times when she tried in vain to educate him about Washington politics and all the games and nonsense involved in getting things done in Washington.
FLASHBACK: 2 MONTHS BEFORE SEASON 4
Audrey is sitting at the computer in her home office, catching up on some e-mails. Jack is sitting on the couch reading a little handy guide she put together for him of the politicians and other VIP’s who will be at the Marine Corps ball the following night and what Jack should say to each of them.
After a minute, Jack puts the paper aside and gets up and walks over to her.
“Jack, you cannot possibly have read that little guide I put together for you that fast,” Audrey says skeptically.
“I told you, I’m a fast reader,” Jack insists.
“Mmm-hmmm. Okay, then I’m going to give you a little pop quiz and see how much you actually digested,” she says.
“What is this, junior high?” Jack asks with feigned outrage.
“No, this is ‘I’m trying to help you keep your job because you’ve gotten in trouble too many times this week and you need to make a good impression tomorrow night,” Audrey replies. “Come on…I’ll make it fun for you,” she says mischeviously.
“Mmmm…I like the sound of that,” Jack says slyly as she climbs into his lap.
“Good. Who’s the speaker of the House?” she asks.
“Don Ashton,” Jack answers triumphantly.
“Very good. What party is he?” she asks.
“What difference does that make?” Jack protests. As good as he is at digesting and remembering details quickly, the party ID in parentheses next to the names wasn’t something he considered important enough to memorize.
“In this town? All the difference in the world…haven’t you learned that by now?” Audrey says, shaking her head. “Come on, you’ve got a 50-50 chance here.”
“Okay. Your father doesn’t seem to think too highly of him, so I’m guessing he’s a Democrat,” Jack says.
“There are plenty of Republicans my dad doesn’t think too highly of either,” Audrey says with a grin. “But luckily, you’re correct…Speaker Ashton is a Democrat.”
In keeping with her promise to make it fun for Jack, Audrey rewards his correct answer by removing her sweater. Jack perks up.
“Okay…I think I like this game,” he admits. He starts to explore with his lips but she leans away.
“Not so fast, buster brown. We’re not done with this.” Jack makes an adorable pouty face. “Who’s the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee?”
“Greg Mitchell?” Jack guesses.
“Nope, sorry, he’s the chair of House Armed Services,” Audrey says with a grin.
“Oh come on!” Jack protests. “Shouldn’t I at least get partial credit?”
“Nope. No such thing,” Audrey replies. She reaches for her shirt and puts it back on, further frustrating Jack.
“What, so every time I get something wrong you put something back on? That’s just mean.”
“Sorry, but I’ve got to give you some motivation to actually learn this stuff,” she says.
“You’re not very nice,” Jack pouts. Audrey grins wickedly.
“Who are the three senators on Armed Services who may pose a problem with the DOD budget?” she asks.
Jack thinks for a minute, then reaches over for the cheat sheet she put together for him. “Hey…no cheating!” she protests. She tries to stop him but she’s no match for his quick movements.
“Rosenberg, Meyer, and Steele,” he says triumphantly after glancing at the sheet.
“That doesn’t count…you cheated!” she protests, laughing as she tries to grab the sheet away from him. He holds it out of her reach, forcing her to tackle him to the counch to try to retrieve it.
“Yes I did, but I still got the right answer and this is still coming off,” Jack says with a grin, pulling Audrey’s sweater over her head as she climbs over him trying to grab the cheat sheet.
“Uh uh…give me my sweater back!” she insists. Jack tosses the sweater to the other side of the room and prevents her from going to retrieve it. When she tries to get up he starts tickling her, making her squeal until she eventually gives in.
“Alright, alright, you win,” she agrees breathlessly.
“Next question?” Jack prompts, giving her a triumphant grin.
“Only three times? You must have been a better student of DC politics and bullshit than I was,” Jack says to Tony.
“Yeah, I guess. I’m still a little hazy on some of this, but basically, right before when we were scheduled to leave for China, the presidential election took another crazy twist as revelations came out that evidence had been covered up related to Wayne Palmer’s involvement in Sherry Palmer’s death,” Tony explains. “Once I told Audrey about my attempt to take out Logan, she felt strongly that I couldn’t risk exposing myself by coming with her to China, and the fact that there was already another scandal around Palmer made it that much more imperative for me to stay hidden.”
FLASHBACK: 5 MONTHS BEFORE DAY 6; 5 WEEKS BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Audrey picks up Tony in the underground parking garage of the Safeway on Wilson Blvd., one of their usual meeting spots, to go over the plans for their trip to China. Tony notices that she looks like she has been crying.
“Are you alright? What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Nothing, I’m fine,” she says, wiping her eyes.
“You sure?” Tony prods.
“Yeah, just had a fight with my dad…nothing important.”
“He’s upset because he doesn’t want you to do this?” Tony asks.
“Yeah, basically. He doesn’t know exactly what I’m doing over there but whatever it is he thinks it’s dangerous, both personally and geopolitically.”
“I know it’s not the response you’re looking for, but there’s a chance he could be right,” Tony says.
“I know that,” she says, exasperated. “But it’s a chance I have to take. Enough people have already tried to talk me out of it, believe me,” she says.
“You do know that if Jack were here he’d be one of them right?” Tony asks.
“Of course I know that. I know he wouldn’t want me to do this but if the tables were turned we both know he’d do it in a heartbeat,” she insists.
“Well, I can’t argue with that,” Tony agrees.
“I’m sorry…you must think I’m the biggest baby, crying over a fight with my dad,” she says, embarrassed.
“No, I think you’re human,” Tony says. “My father immigrated to the US from Mexico when he was in his early twenties…he struggled to raise me and my two brothers on his own after my mom died, working three dead-end jobs at a time and struggling to learn English and gain acceptance as an American. He worked hard to become a citizen and he was so proud when I joined the Marines…he loved this country, and having a son who was convicted of treason against the country he had worked so hard to become a part of was more than he could bear, and the day I was convicted he told me I was dead to him. His rejection stung like a knife and there’s a part of me that’s never really gotten over it. He didn’t even come to my so-called funeral,” Tony says bitterly.
“I’m sorry, Tony,” Audrey says softly.
“Yeah. I guess now that I’m dead to just about everyone, it shouldn’t matter much, right?” Tony quips.
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Audrey says sympathetically.
“Look, I know you’re frustrated because you don’t think your father’s doing enough to help Jack, but you can’t hate him for trying to protect you, alright?” Tony urges.
“I don’t hate him…like you said, I’m just frustrated. But I think I have a way to make him less worried about me going to China.”
“What’s that?” Tony asks. He has a feeling he won’t like the answer.
“He hired a private security detail to go with me but he probably knows that I’ll be trying to get around them when necessary. I know you’ve been trying to keep a low profile, but I think he would feel a lot better if he knew you were going with me to China. You saved my life a few years ago and he trusts you. If I tell him I think I can trust him to keep it a secret.”
“No, uh uh,” Tony insists. “You can’t tell him I’m alive. You can’t tell anyone.”
Audrey sighs. “I know you said you’re better off helping me if people think you’re dead so you could work outside the government, but if you get discovered I’ll back you up. I’ll tell them that I let you take my CAC card and I can probably get you off for whatever else you did to try to find Jack. Whatever you did I was an accomplice to, and because of who my father is the president’s not going to want it to become public. If they prosecute you they’ll have to admit that they knew where Jack was and didn’t do anything about it, and you’d testify that members of our government were complicit in Jack’s capture. So there’s every incentive to look the other way.”
Tony sighs. “It’s not that simple, Audrey,” he says.
“What are you talking about?” she asks.
“Look, it’s better if you don’t know the details, alright?”
“You keep saying that…please, just tell me, what are you hiding? Are you worried that the people who put the bomb in your car will come after you again?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then what is it?”
Tony hesitates. “Please, just tell me the truth,” she urges. Tony contemplates for a minute, then decides it’s time to be upfront with her.
“Alright. The truth is, I’m not just playing dead because I want to help find Jack.”
“What do you mean?” she asks nervously.
Tony takes a deep breath. “Before I came to you, I shot and killed a Secret Service agent and tried to assassinate an ex-president,” he admits.
Audrey looks stunned for a moment, but then realizes what he’s talking about.
“You mean the sniper who tried to take out Logan after he was sentenced to house arrest…that was you?” she asks. She seems surprised but not completely shocked.
“Yeah,” Tony says softly, looking down and then up to gauge her reaction. “I was angry…a few years ago I was sentenced to 20 years in jail for treason for protecting my wife. I couldn’t believe that after everything Logan had done to me and to this country that his punishment was being confined to a luxury ranch. The guys I was working with tried to get the Secret Service agent out of the way but he turned around at the wrong moment…honestly, I wonder if my aim wasn’t as good as usual because I was nervous. I found out later that the agent I shot had a wife who had just given birth to a baby girl,” he tells her, the guilt apparent in his eyes.
Audrey sighs, not knowing what to say or even what to think.
“Secret Service investigated the incident extensively, and they questioned a lot of people who had been involved with or affected by Logan’s insane scheme to provide nerve gas to terrorists,” Tony continues. “The only reason I never came up as a suspect is because everyone thinks I’m dead. If anyone knew I was alive I’d instantly become the prime suspect.”
“Tony, I…I don’t know what to say,” Audrey says after a moment.
“I don’t blame you,” he responds. “I’m sorry for not telling you this earlier, but I didn’t want to put you in a position of harboring a fugitive. If you want to turn me in that’s your call.”
Audrey sighs. “I’m not going to turn you in,” she says firmly. “I don’t judge you for what you did…as much as I hate to admit it, there’s a part of me that wishes you had succeeded. But we need to make sure you stay hidden, at least until after the election.”
“I have stayed hidden,” Tony insists. “Why do you think I always have you pick me up at underground garages in case someone happens to be monitoring via satellite for whatever reason? I live in a house that’s leased to someone else, I don’t have a car, and I have no credit cards or bank accounts. I have a fake ID but I try to avoid using it because I don’t want to take any chances.”
“This is crazy…how do you live like this? How do you support yourself even?”
“Day labor jobs, mostly, and occasionally computer jobs…only stuff that pays cash. There are lots of immigrants in my neighborhood, and these guys come around early in the morning and pick people up for day labor jobs…they’re used to dealing under the table because a lot of the guys they pick up are illegal immigrants. I just pretend I don’t speak English and it’s pretty easy to blend in.”
“Oh my g-d…I had no idea you were living like that. When you said you needed to stay ‘dead’ I figured you just meant you were laying low. I figured your family at least knew you were still alive.”
“Nope…my brothers don’t know…nobody knows except you and a few other people who helped me get inside Logan’s compound.”
“Alright, here’s what we should do,” Audrey says, taking charge. “I’m going to give you some money, and I need you to lay super-low until after the election. Just stay in your house as much as possible…after the election I’ll talk to the Attorney General. I’ve known him since I was a baby and I think I can convince him to cut you a deal.”
“Look, Audrey, I appreciate your wanting to help, but I’m fine. I figured after China I’d just disappear again…or maybe I’d even stay there if we’re successful at getting the president to get Jack released. I’m pretty sure they don’t have an extradition treaty.”
“That’s not going to work…if you get discovered before the election it could ruin the whole plan.”
“I don’t understand…what does me staying hidden have to do with the election?”
Audrey sighs, trying to figure out how to explain it. “Do you remember the Willie Horton ads?” she asks.
“That sounds vaguely familiar…why?” Tony asks, confused.
“Willie Horton was a convicted felon in Massachusetts who committed another murder while on furlough when Michael Dukakis was governor. When Dukakis ran for president in 1988 they used the fact that this guy had committed a crime after Dukakis let him out of prison on a furlough against him…it helped sink his campaign.”
“And you’re worried that because Wayne Palmer was the White House chief of staff when David Palmer let me out of jail it’ll hurt his chances of winning if it comes out what I did after getting out?”
“Yeah, exactly. You know as well as I do that David Palmer took a lot of heat for giving you a pardon…even though you probably deserved it more than anyone else who got one, when people hear the word ‘treason’ it makes it seem so controversial. I may be sympathetic about your attempt to take out Logan but remember that most Americans don’t know the full extent of what he did. The media whitewashed Logan’s crimes, including his role in David Palmer’s assassination, and they’ll portray what you did as a cold-blooded murder of a Secret Service agent whose wife just had a baby.”
“Alright, I get it. I’ll make sure I lay low until we leave for China.”
“You don’t understand. Trying to board a plane is way too risky. If you try to buy a ticket with cash you’ll get flagged by TSA for extra verification at security…using a fake ID to get on a plane is too risky. And I can’t get you on my plane without prompting a lot of questions. I’m going to have to go to China by myself.”
“No. That’s too dangerous…no way. I’m not letting you go by yourself,” Tony insists.
“Tony, it’s not your decision,” she says firmly but without any hostility.
“Yeah it is.,” Tony insists. “I have the information about the contact at the Embassy and I’m not giving it to you until we get there.”
“Tony, come on, why are you doing this?” she protests.
“Because I promised Jack I would protect you, not put you in danger,” Tony says forcefully.
“What are you talking about?”
“When Jack disappeared the first time, he was afraid someone might come after you or Kim thinking you knew something about where he was,” Tony explains, his voice less harsh than before. “So I promised him I would keep an eye out for you. I don’t want to break that promise by enabling you to put yourself in danger.”
Audrey sighs. “I appreciate your wanting to protect me, and I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done to help me get this far. But I’ll have a security detail with me, and I’ll be fine. If the Chinese want to use me against Jack there’s nothing you can do about it that they can’t. I know you’d feel better if you were there, but it’s just too risky right now. We need Wayne Palmer to at least have a chance to win this election if the plan is going to work, and he cannot afford another scandal. Have you seen this?” she asks, grabbing a newspaper from the back seat. The headline reads “New Questions Arise About Wayne Palmer’s Involvement in Mysterious Deaths of Brother’s Ex-Wife and Campaign Contributors.”
“Yeah, I saw that…”
“Some of it’s been an open secret among political insiders for a while, but the stuff about Wayne Palmer being at Sherry’s house right before she was murdered is new…it looks like some evidence may have been covered up, although from what my dad told me at the time I don’t think he was the one who killed her. But the whole thing looks pretty shady, and if it weren’t for the fact that Gardner has been struggling to break out of the shadow of the Logan scandals the election would be over.”
“So me turning up could be the death knell in Palmer’s campaign and make whatever leverage you have against Gardner after this trip useless,” Tony concludes.
“Yeah,” Audrey says regretfully.
Tony sighs, not sure what to do.
“Alright, we’ll have to figure something else out. I’ve got an old buddy from the Marines, Sergio Ramirez, who works for a defense contractor in Arlington, or at least he did last time I talked to him, which was about a year ago. He travels to that part of the world for business fairly often, so maybe I can get him to go with you to China.”
“Does he know you’re alive?” Audrey asks.
“No, but I trust him. I need your help getting in touch with him though…just call him and make up something work-related and ask him to keep it discrete. Then you can tell him I sent you and set up a way for the three of us to meet.”
“Okay, I can do that,” Audrey agrees.
“How the hell is this just coming out now?” Tony asks, looking at the newspaper.
“My dad said that Keeler made a deal with David Palmer when he was running for president to bury it if Palmer agreed not to seek another term, to let him go out with his dignity and reputation in tact. Republicans have known about this for a while, but they saved it for now to inflict maximum damage to Wayne Palmer in the election…it’s what we call an October Surprise.”
Tony looks at the article again. “It’s funny…this all happened the day I was arrested. Frankly, I’m amazed CTU didn’t find any evidence of any of it when they went through all the archived satellite frames and cell phone recordings to do the post-incident reports on the Cordilla virus.”
Tony notices an odd look on Jack’s face when he recalls that last bit.
“What is it?” he asks Jack, confused.
“CTU did find evidence of Wayne Palmer sneaking into Sherry’s house before she was murdered. Nobody ever found it because Chloe destroyed it.”
“Why would she do that?” Tony asks.
“Because I asked her to,” Jack admits.
“What? Why?” Tony asks, shocked.
“Because I knew that there had been a deal to bury it if President Palmer agreed not to run for reelection, and I didn’t want to interfere with that and help his political opponents drag his name through the mud.”
“Come on, Jack, you don’t work that way. You don’t cover things up to protect politicians even if they’re your friends,” Tony insists.
Jack doesn’t say anything, but the look on his face makes it clear that it’s something he’s not proud of.
Tony is surprised and a little disheartened. No matter how much he has grown to hate the government, he has always seen Jack as a force for good and for the truth in a government full of corruption and deceit. He might resent the hell out of Jack for continuing to serve the government in spite of what they’ve done to him. But as much as he does not want to admit it he still looks up to Jack and wishes that he shared Jack’s ability to stick to his principles and keep doing the right thing no matter what the personal cost. Hearing Jack admit to compromising those principles is surprising and disillusioning, though he knows he has no right to judge.
“Did President Palmer ask you to help cover it up?” he asks incredulously.
“No, of course not,” Jack says. “He probably would have been furious if he knew I did it. But I knew that he was a good man who had been dragged into a bad situation and I thought he deserved the right to leave office with dignity.”
Tony nods, but somehow he doesn’t fully buy it. Something seems off about Jack’s explanation. Tony gets a sinking feeling as he realizes that Jack might be withholding part of the story for his benefit.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” he asks. Jack doesn’t answer, his face neither confirming nor denying, which tells Tony all he needs to know. “Did this have something to do with me? Was there some sort of a quid pro quo?” he asks.
“Not exactly,” Jack responds.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“As you know, investigating something like that was outside CTU’s jurisdiction. The proper procedure was to forward the evidence over to District, and Michelle and I didn’t want to give Brad Hammond any leverage against the President given the circumstances.”
“You mean because of me?” Tony asks.
“Yeah,” Jack says in a tone that somehow makes Tony feel even worse. He knows that compromising his principles is no small thing for Jack, and the fact that he was willing to do it for him makes him feel even guiltier than he already did about everything he has done.
Hopefully you’re still with me…I know it was a long chapter. I wrote a flashback for the part above, where Jack makes a rare decision to compromise and cover up evidence to protect his friends, which you can read if you are interested:
I cut it because this chapter was too long as is. Hopefully the next chapter of this will be up pretty soon, so stay tuned! Reviews are very much appreciated.
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As always a fantastic chapter!!!! Looking foward to the next one!!
another great chapter!!!!!!!!!!!!!i loved the jack and audrey flashback!! i can’t wait 4 more!!!!!!!
Ch. 8 Pleeaaaaase! <3