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April 9, 2006

2. Demons of the Past

INT. JACK’S APARTMENT - KITCHEN - 3 DAYS, 11 HOURS BEFORE DAY 4

Audrey finishes setting the timer on the oven and then exits the kitchen and walks out into the living area, where Jack is sitting on the couch typing a letter of apology to Kevin Walkins on his laptop.

AUDREY

Dinner should be ready in about a half hour. If you think of it, remind me to stir it in 15.

Jack acknowledges what she says with a grunt, not taking his eyes off the computer.

Audrey walks over and curls up on the couch next to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and kissing the side of his face.

He tenses up and moves his head away from her lips as he minimizes the letter.

She senses that he wants her to back off, so she withdraws her arms and moves to the other side of the couch.

AUDREY

What’s going on, Jack? And don’t tell me it’s nothing because you’ve been acting strange all afternoon.

JACK

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push you away. I was just focused on what I was doing.

AUDREY

No. You’ve been making excuses like that ever since we went over the approps bill. Talk to me, Jack. Tell me what I’m doing wrong and we’ll talk about it.

JACK

You didn’t do anything wrong.

AUDREY

Is this about what I said about President Palmer? I shouldn’t have said that and I’m sorry…I didn’t think you cared that much about politics.

When she says this, she gets Jack’s attention. He slams his laptop shut and gets up angrily.

JACK

Audrey, this may come as a shock to you, but not everything
in this world is about politics.

AUDREY

(raising her voice)

Then what is this about?

JACK

Nothing, alright? Can we please just drop it? I’m sorry I snapped.

He notices her getting her coat out of the closet.

JACK

Where are you going?

AUDREY

Home, Jack. I’m going back to my place and tomorrow night if you’re ready to tell me what the hell is going on I’ll come over…until then I don’t see any point in me being here. Whatever I did or said to make you angry, I’m sorry, but I can’t fix this until I know what I did wrong.

JACK

Come on, stay. I’m sorry…I promise I’ll stop being grouchy.

AUDREY

Look, there’s obviously something bothering you, and you’re going to keep snapping at me until you’re ready to talk about it. Until then, let’s give each other a little space before we both say things we regret later, alright?

Jack opens his mouth to protest, but realizes there is nothing he can say to refute what she said, so he just nods.

AUDREY

Just stir the casserole in about 10 minutes, then put it back in and let it cook for another 15ÉI set the timer on the oven. If the cheese isn’t melted put it back in for 5 minutes.

JACK

Here, let me cut some of it out for you to take…you can finish cooking it when you get home.

AUDREY

No, that’s okay. I’ll just grab something on the way home.

JACK

Let me get my coat…I’ll walk you to your car.

AUDREY

No, that’s okay. Please, just let me go…I’ll see you tomorrow.

JACK

Okay.

He sits there watching her put her coat on, not wanting her to go but out of excuses to keep her and unable to articulate how he feels. Part of him wants to go over and kiss her and tell her he’s ready to talk, but something seems to be stopping him, telling him he’s not ready and he should just let her go. Not sure what to do, he tries to help her put her coat on, but she resists. He backs away and watches her go, then slumps down on the couch with his head in his hands.

INT. JACK’S APARTMENT - LIVING ROOM - 2 HOURS LATER

Jack is still sitting on the couch with his laptop, checking his e-mail. He opens the following message:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification Delivery to the following recipient failed details of permanent DATA FAILURE

sorry, no such user here (#5.7.1)

—– Original message —– Received: by 10.65.73.9 with SMTP id a9mr2038499qbl; Wed, 06 Mar 2006 10:49:10 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.65.23.7 with HTTP; Wed, 7 Dec 2005 10:49:10

Message-ID:
f9a4619c0512071049oc447680n375535b6bca30c0aosd.pentagon.mil Date: Wed, 7 Dec
2005 13:49:10 -0500

From: Jack Bauer
jbauer@osd.pentagon.mil

To: talmeida@excite.net

Re: In LA next week

MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
boundary”—-Part400618972709.1133981350844″ —Message Body Truncated—

Jack sighs as his cell phone rings.

JACK

Bau…This is Jack Bauer.

CHLOE

Hey Jack. It’s Chloe O’Brien, from CTU.

JACK

Hey Chloe. How are you doing?

CHLOE

I’m alright. And yourself?

JACK

Not too bad. Are you calling to confirm the meeting next week?

CHLOE

Yeah, actually, Driscoll wanted to see if we could move the meeting to the morning.

JACK

I think the morning’s pretty jam packed, unless she wants to do it first thing, at 7:30.

CHLOE

That’s fine.

JACK

Alright, I’ll check with Secretary Heller tomorrow to see if that works.

CHLOE

Great, thanks.

JACK

Hey Chloe, can you do me a favor?

CHLOE

Yeah?

JACK

When we come to CTU, please refuse any non-official requests for information about my extraregulatory activities.

CHLOE

Is that a word? Extraregulatory?

JACK

I don’t know. But please, no telling stories, alright?

CHLOE

Okay, relax. Didn’t Secretary Heller review your file before
he hired you?

JACK

Yes. But my coworkers don’t all know about my background, and I’d prefer to keep it that way.

CHLOE

You’re involved with his daughter, aren’t you?

JACK

(concerned)

How’d you find out?

CHLOE

Relax, Jack. I just guessed…I heard you flirting with her on the phone your last day here, and considering that she’s the only one coming here with you besides Secretary Heller, it wasn’t hard to figure out.

JACK

Listen, Chloe, Secretary Heller doesn’t know Audrey and I are together, and for the time being we need to keep it that way. So please, don’t say anything to anyone.

CHLOE

Okay, I won’t.

JACK

Please, Chloe, it’s important.

CHLOE

I said I won’t, alright?

JACK

Alright, thank you. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to second-guess you. It’s just that you…well, you kind of have a big mouth.

CHLOE

Look, I know I have a tendency to say things that get me in trouble, but when you ask me to keep something to myself, as long as it’s not endangering national security, I keep it to myself.

JACK

You’re right, I’m sorry.

CHLOE

It’s fine.

JACK

Hey, do you happen to have an updated e-mail address for Tony Almeida?

CHLOE

No…nobody’s talked to him in a while. I hear he still doesn’t have a job though…it sounds like his life is pretty depressing.

JACK

Yeah. Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you on Monday…have a good weekend.

CHLOE

Thanks, you too.

EXT. TOWNHOUSE COMPLEX Ð ALEXANDRIA, V.A. Ð NIGHT

Drizzling turns to heavy rain as Jack parks in one of the spots behind the complex, taking care to park several spots away from Audrey’s unit. He looks around to make sure nobody is watching, and then makes a run for her door. When he gets there, he hesitates for a minute and turns around to walk back to his car. He stops, turns around again, takes a deep breath, and rings the doorbell. As he waits for her to answer, he steps away and is about to turn back again when she opens the door.

AUDREY

(surprised to see him)

Hey…

JACK

Hey…

(Awkward silence)

Look, I know it’s late, and I’m sorry if I woke you, but I didn’t want to leave things the way we left them before…I was an asshole and I’m really sorry.

Audrey sighs, contemplating what to do for a second before deciding that she’s not going to let him stand outside in the rain.

AUDREY

Come on in.

He enters hesitantly. She runs upstairs and comes back a minute later carrying a large button down shirt, which she tosses to him.

AUDREY

Put this on. I’ll put the shirt you’re wearing in the dryer.

He quickly peels off his t-shirt and puts on the shirt she gives him as she collects the wet t-shirt from him.

JACK

Thanks.

She takes the t-shirt into the laundry room.

Jack idles awkwardly for a minute, looking at the pictures on her fireplace, which are mostly of her family, smiling at a picture of 5-year-old Audrey standing with her father, holding up a sign that says “Heller for Congress.”

Audrey returns a minute later.

Jack walks over to the couch, non-verbally asking if he can have a seat.

She nods and sits down next to him but not right next to him, keeping her distance.

Eventually, Jack breaks the awkward silence.

JACK

When President Palmer ended the debate, I was in a plane transporting a fugitive I’d broken out of prison as part of a sting operation to try to prevent terrorists from getting a hold of the Cordilla virus. As the moderator was asking the question about the woman he was seeing, the President’s chief of staff alerted him to the situation and told him that he had to make a call about whether or not to authorize the Marines to shoot down the plane.

AUDREY

And that’s why he had to end the debate?

JACK

Yeah.

AUDREY

Oh my g-d…Jack, I had no idea…I feel horrible.

Jack puts his finger to her lips and places his other hand on her shoulder reassuringly.

JACK

Shhh…there’s no reason to feel horrible, Audrey. You had no way of knowing. I’m the one who didn’t handle it right, okay? I should have told you what happened instead of getting angry and resenting you for not reading my mind. But when you said that, it just kind of set something off inside me, and I started having doubts about whether you’d ever be able to understand.

AUDREY

Jack, I can’t understand if you don’t give me the chance to.

JACK

I know…I know. And I know that I need to open up and let you in if I want this to work, but I’m just scared…

AUDREY

Scared of how I’ll react?

JACK

Something like that, yeah.

AUDREY

Look, Jack, I know that you probably had to make a lot of tough calls when you worked at CTU and that sometimes you did things that were a little unorthodox.

JACK

To put it mildly.

AUDREY

And I know that was part of what made you so good at what you did. So I don’t want you to worry about me judging you, okay?

She strokes his arm reassuringly. He nods, not sure what to say or do.

AUDREY

Why don’t you tell me one of your stories?

JACK

You mean about when I was at CTU?

AUDREY

Yeah.

JACK

Baby, you’d get nightmares if I did that.

AUDREY

Well, tell me something crazy you did that won’t give me nightmares.

JACK

What makes you think I did anything crazy?

AUDREY

I have my sources.

JACK

Why do you want to know about all that?

AUDREY

Because I want to know all about you, Jack.

JACK

I know you do. But that stuff’s all in the past…I’m just trying to put it behind me and focus on the future.

He pulls her close, as if to say that she is his future. He tries to kiss her but she resists.

AUDREY

Uh uh. You’re not getting out of this, Jack…no matter how much you try to run from it, the past is part of who you are, and I know there are things you’re still struggling with, and I want you to let me in and let me help you with that struggle. Come on, we can start off small…just tell me something. I promise, I won’t judge.

She pulls his arms tighter around her and rests her head
against his chest, squeezing his hands supportively.

JACK

Alright. The night my daughter was kidnapped, before I knew that Kim sneaking out of the house had anything to do with the threat against Senator Palmer, Tony called for a lockdown and I ignored it and broke out of CTU.

AUDREY

Why did you do that?

JACK

I had a lead I needed to follow.

AUDREY

And Tony didn’t trust you?

JACK

Not back then, no. Tony was a pain in the ass when I was director…constantly undercutting my judgment. It wasn’t until the end of that day that we started to trust each other. It’s funny…Tony surprised me that day by defending some of the decisions I made when my family was in danger. I’m sure he could never have imagined that the tables would one day be turned and he’d find himself in the same situation.

AUDREY

What deviant behaviors did he defend?

JACK

Just my evading the lockdown.

AUDREY

You’re lying.

JACK

Yes I am.

AUDREY

But I guess that’s all you’re ready to tell me right now.

JACK

Yeah. Look, I’m sorry…I know I’m not being fair to you…

She feels his heartbeat increase, and can see how nervous he is getting.

She repositions her head and puts her hand on his heart and looks up at him reassuringly.

AUDREY

Shhh…it’s okay. I know that just telling me what you told me was a big step and I’m proud of you. You’ll tell me the rest of the story when you’re ready.

JACK

(relieved)

Thank you.

She wraps her arms around him and kisses him gently on the lips, feeling his heartbeat begin to slow and the tension in his arms begin to ease as he pulls her close and deepens the kiss.

JACK

So what about you? Are you really as innocent as you seem, or do you have any dirty little secrets?

AUDREY

Depends how you define innocent. Have I ever done anything seriously illegal? No. Am I as innocent in some regards as my dad would like to believe? Not quite. Have I done things I’m not proud of? More than I care to remember, especially when I worked as a lobbyist. If it makes you feel any better, the thought of you seeing me at work in that job makes me cringe just as much as the thought of me seeing you on the job at CTU probably makes you cringe.

JACK

Why’s that?

AUDREY

It’s just a vicious world on Capitol Hill, and I learned to play the game quite well, but that doesn’t mean I was ever completely comfortable with it. I guess I never completely lost my childhood idealism about politics, which is pretty sad considering everything I’ve seen and done.

JACK

Like what? Come on, give me an example here…

AUDREY

I guess that’s only fair. But please, try not to judge, okay?

JACK

Okay…

AUDREY

Alright, here goes. About six years ago, there was a supplemental defense appropriations bill like the one I was trying to explain to you today, and Anderson had a lot of contracts that would have been jeopardized if the bill didn’t get passed in time. Most of the bill’s opponents were the leftie wing of the Democratic Party, but there was one vocal opponent who was a libertarian-leaning Republican and a decorated veteran who opposed the bill for the same reasons you would have opposed it…lots of pork, illogical allocations, etcetera. But like I said, the bill was important to the company, and so I signed off on an ad that attacked him as being weak on defense for voting against that bill…I’ve always felt bad about that…you probably think I’m horrible for it…

JACK

(whispering in her ear)

No I don’t…I think you’re beautiful.

He plants a bunch of soft kisses on her neck, making her relax a little.

AUDREY

See? We all have skeletons in our closets…

JACK

Yeah, I guess you’re right. So what do you mean you’re not as innocent as your father would like to believe?

AUDREY

(coyly)

You know what I mean.

JACK