Anything For Love Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is finished! Thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments and encouragement. It made me want to start this chapter right away! Hopefully I won't lose my momentum and Chapter 4 will come together tomorrow - but don't expect anything over the weekend! It's my mommy's 50th bday party and it seems I can only really write while I'm at work. But I'll try not to leave you a cliffhanger for 2 days ;)

Many thanks again to

sparky_girl82, who's high demands make me actually focus and write the story instead of dilly-dallying with other things (you know, like my job). 

Title: Anything For Love (Chapter 3)
Rating: PG-13/R is probably appropriate for the rest of the story
Part 3/?

 

 

            It hurt. Her leg was throbbing, and she could feel blood running down into her shoe. She tried to reach down, to feel how bad the wound was, but her heart sank as she realized that her hands were restrained behind her. Her shoulder screamed in protest of her movements, and she remembered the nail gun, and the pain that had engulfed her just before she hit the ground.

            Her eyes fluttered open as a harsh light suddenly lit up her face. She scowled at the intrusion even as she tried to get a handle on her surroundings. There were other people in the room – that much she could tell. But their faces were beyond the reach of the light and their voices blended into a muffled undertone.

            A face broke away from the rest, coming closer to her. His features became clearer as he stopped mere inches from her, a leering smile plastered on his face. 

            "It's nice to finally meet you, Miss O'Brian."

 

***

 

            Curtis ran with Audrey all the way back to the car, his heart breaking the whole time. He hadn't wanted to leave Chloe. He would have stood there and gone down fighting with her. But the look in her eyes had stalled him. She was so desperate to ease Jack's pain, to finally give him some chance at happiness. He wanted to cry for her – for her selflessness. She was giving her life so that the man she loved could be with a woman she hated.

            As he reached the car he slowed, allowing himself to take some much-needed breaths. Leaning Audrey against the side, he opened the passenger side door and set her in the seat. She hadn't spoken since they'd left the warehouse, and now she just stared off into space, a confused and broken expression on her face.

            An SUV came to a sudden stop beside them, and Curtis saw Jack jump out, anger and worry clearly etched across his face. He strode over to them, but stopped suddenly when he saw Audrey in the car.

            They stared at each other for a moment before Jack crossed the rest of the distance. He gently laid a hand against her cheek, amazed that she was really there, really alive. They continued to hold the other's gaze, unable to think of anything to say or to even figure out what they were feeling beyond relief.

            Jack's eyes finally left Audrey as he swept the rest of the car and the area around him. He turned to his partner, confusion in his eyes.

            "Where's Chloe?"

            Curtis dropped his eyes to the ground, and Audrey shrank back slightly. Jack noted both reactions. He took his hand from Audrey and advanced on Curtis.

            "Where is she?" he asked, his tone forcing Curtis to look at him. Jack watched as he floundered for an answer, his anger growing with every second.

            "WHERE IS SHE!?" he thundered, taking Curtis by the collar of his shirt and shaking him.

            Curtis removed Jack's hands from his shirt, and then led him by the arm away from the SUV. He knew that Jack wasn't going to take the news lightly, and he didn't want Audrey having to deal with his anger just yet. When they were out of earshot, he stopped and faced Jack.

            "She's still down there, Jack. In the warehouse. I don’t think she…" he paused, his throat constricting with emotion. "I don't think she made it," he whispered.

            Jack's bottom lip began to tremble as confusion and disbelief marred his features. "What are you talking about?"

            "This was all her plan, Jack. She thought she knew where the Chinese were holding Audrey. She asked for my help. When we got here, they immediately opened fire on us. I held them off, gave Chloe time to get down to the warehouse. By the time I got down there, she had already found Audrey and was trying to get her out. But some of them found us before we made it. One of them had a nail gun…Chloe got hit…"

            Jack's hands were immediately around his neck, shaking him again. "And you just left her?" he screamed. "You left her there to die!?"

            Curtis fought to loosen Jack's grip, finally managing to push the enraged agent off of him. "I had to!"

            Jack's fist flew out and rammed into Curtis' face. "No! You didn't!" he roared back. "You should have saved her!"

            "She wouldn't let me!" Curtis yelled, pushing Jack away from him and trying to make him understand. "You think I wanted to leave her? You think I wanted to save your girlfriend while Chloe got hurt? I would have loved nothing better than to have dropped Audrey's sorry ass right there and rushed Chloe out!"

            "Then why didn't you?" Jack asked, his voice small and broken.

            "You should have seen the look in her eyes, Jack," Curtis explained, his voice lowering. "She was so desperate to save Audrey – to give you a chance to be happy. That's all she wanted, and she was willing to die for it." He paused, unsure that he should continue. "I know how you feel about her Jack."

            The change in his tone caused Jack to look at him sharply. "What are you talking about?"

            "I'm the only one left who knows, Jack. I remember how hard you fell for Chloe after that day with the Salazars. I know you've loved her since before you met Audrey. I know you still do. But I could never have convinced her of that. She thinks you can only be happy with Audrey, and she was going to do everything she could to let you two be together."

            Jack couldn't keep the tears in anymore. They flowed freely down his cheeks as he realized that everything had gone wrong, and that now Chloe was probably dead because of his inability to voice his feelings. He replayed the scene Curtis had explained to him, his mind latching on to something.

            "You said the guy had a nail gun?" he asked suddenly.

            "Yeah. Why?"

            "So she might still be alive."

            "Yeah, but Jack-"

            "No, Curtis," Jack said, effectively cutting him off. "They took Audrey to get to me. Why wouldn't they do the same to Chloe?" He paused, looking down on the docks. "I'm going after her."

            "There any way I can convince you to wait for backup?" Curtis asked, already knowing the answer.

            "No," he whispered, before turning to face his partner again. "Take care of Audrey. Get her back to CTU."

            Curtis nodded, extending his hand. Jack looked at it for a moment before taking it, and the two friends shook hands. Without another word, Jack slipped down to the docks.

 

***

 

 

            Chloe winced as she was roughly hauled onto someone's shoulder and taken from the warehouse. Her captors hadn't said much to her since taking her, and everything they had said to one another had been in Chinese. She worried about what they were going to do with her, fearing that they would try to use her to get something from Jack.

            She blinked against the sunlight as they carried her outside. She tried to see if Curtis and Audrey were close by, but she didn't want to draw attention to herself by swinging her head around too much. She just prayed that they had gotten away safely.

            The sound of footsteps on metal grabbed her attention, and she realized that she was being taken onto a boat. It seemed they weren't going to just kill her. She wasn't really afraid of the pain of torture, but she refused to be used as a bargaining chip. Falling deeper into her own thoughts, Chloe tried to formulate a plan to take herself out of the equation if they tried to use her against Jack.

 

***

 

            "Damnit!" Jack swore when he saw that the warehouse was empty. He knew that they couldn't have been gone long, and he was determined to find Chloe. The fact that her body wasn't there gave him hope – if they had killed her, they would have just left her on the floor.

            He did another sweep of the building, looking for anything that would tell him where they had gone. As he passed by one of the windows, he noticed a large freighter tied up to a nearby dock. Two young Chinese men guarded the ramp. An idea began to form in Jack's head. Slipping out the door furthest from the boat, he headed for the water.

 

***

 

            She was tied to another metal chair, another harsh light in her face. She could feel the boat rocking underneath her with the waves, and she idly wondered where they were taking her. Would they just head for international waters, or would they take her all the way to China?

            The man with the leering smile came into the room, smirking arrogantly. He carried a chair over and sat in front of her, as though they were old friends having a chat.

            "Hello, Miss O'Brian."

            "What do you want?" Chloe spat out, not caring whether she upset him or not.

            "Just to talk. My name is Cheng."

            "Talk all you want. But you're not going to get anything from me."

            "What makes you think we want anything?"

            "Why else would you have kept me alive?" she asked warily, suddenly unsure of the rules of the game.

            Cheng laughed. "Like I said, we just want to talk. All you have to do is listen."

 

***

 

            Jack was amazed at how easy it had been to get on the boat undetected. He completely avoided the guards, knowing that killing or rendering them unconscious would eventually raise an alarm that would be deadly for both he and Chloe. He kept to the shadows and quickly descended into the lower portions of the ship.

            Finding the main hold, Jack risked a glance in. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Chloe there, obviously alive. But his chest constricted with a burning rage as he saw Cheng talking to her. Unsure of what the best plan was, he slipped into the hold, hiding behind a stack of crates.

 

***

 

            "I need to thank you, Miss O'Brian," Cheng started.

            "Thank me? What the hell for?"

            "For taking Miss Raines off of our hands and providing us with a more…useful tool."

            "Useful? If you think I'm going to be more cooperative than Audrey, you obviously have no idea who you're talking to."

            "I already explained that we do not want information from you."

            "He won't do it, you know."

            "Who?"

            Chloe sighed. "Jack. He won't give you whatever it is you want. Not for me."

            "That is where you're wrong, Miss O'Brian. We know how much you mean to Bauer."

            She snorted. "Please. I'm just his go-to girl. He's not gonna do anything stupid to save me. So you're pretty much wasting your time. You might as well just kill me now."

            Cheng looked at her closely. "You really don't know, do you?" he asked, amusement lacing his voice.

            "Know what?" she snapped, frustrated with the conversation.

            "Bauer never broke during our…conversations with him. But we did learn some very interesting things…"

            "Like what?"

            "That Miss Raines does not hold the power over his heart that we thought she did."

            "You've obviously never seen them together," Chloe mumbled.

            "He held onto the memories of Miss Raines for a while…we heard him whisper her name in his sleep as he tried to cling to the last vestiges of his sanity."

            Tears stung the back of Chloe's eyes as she pictured Jack, broken and bleeding on the floor, desperately clinging to an image of his lover. She was suddenly filled with the most intense hatred for the man sitting before her.

            "But she eventually faded from his memory. As our interrogations increased, he began calling on another person. Every night when we would drop him back in his cell, he fell asleep in a little ball, crying and begging for this person to come save him. He'd call for her over and over again. Do you know who that person was, Miss O'Brian?"

            Chloe shook her head, the tears falling from her eyes. She didn't want to believe what Cheng was telling her, didn't want to entertain the thought that Jack had called for her. She watched warily as Cheng pulled a small tape recorder out of his pocket.

            "Let's listen then, shall we?"

 

***

 

            Jack couldn't move – he could hardly breathe. He remembered those nights, calling Chloe's name over and over. But he didn't want her to know. He didn't want her to be wracked with guilt. He contemplated rushing over and breaking Cheng's neck right then, but then he saw the tape recorder. He froze in shock.

 

***

 

            Cheng pressed 'play,' and Jack's agonized voice filled the room. It reverberated off of the metal walls, echoing and growing louder as the pain intensified. His screams filled Chloe's head, and she thought her heart would burst. She wanted to run to him, hold him, tell him that she was there, that she would save him. But she knew that it was too late. That all this had happened in the past and she hadn't saved him. She had failed him and left him to endure the pain alone.

            "Chloe…oh God, Chloe, where are you? I need you, Chloe…Please…Help me…save me…" Chloe began to sob as his screams resumed, the words no longer intelligible.

            "What do you want?" she begged.

            Cheng stopped the recording. "Now that we know who Bauer really loves," he said. "We want to make him suffer."

 

***

 

            It had taken all of Jack's self-control to not run screaming at Cheng, emptying his clip into him. The sound of his own screams filling the room had brought him back to those eighteen months of hell. Then he heard Chloe's sobs, and his heart broke for her. Tightening his grip on his gun, Jack prepared to move in on Cheng. But the boat shuddered beneath him as the engines roared to life, and Jack realized that they were setting sail.

           

***

 

            Curtis had waited a while, hoping against hope that he would see Jack coming back to the car, Chloe in his arms. But as the minutes slowly dragged by, he began to realize that both of his friends were probably dead. The only thing he could do now was to keep his promise to Jack and get Audrey back to CTU.

            As he started the car, he noticed one of the freighters leaving the dock. It moved slowly into more open waters, and Curtis wondered at the timing of the ship's departure. A sudden thought struck him.

            He dialed Bill's number as he sped back to CTU.

           

 

 

 

           

           

             Chapter 4