Dirty basements, dirty noise, Dirty places coming through

[out_of_time]

WHO: Jack Bauer and OPEN
WHERE: Superjail
WHEN: From Saturday evening through the week.
WARNINGS: Probably none.
SUMMARY: Jack Bauer has been arrested. Come visit him.
FORMAT: Paragraph.

The 'Superjail' had been opened specifically to hold prisoners too dangerous or resourceful for containment in ordinary facilities. Its past residents had included alien symbiotes, superhuman sociopaths, vampires. Jack Bauer's abilities hardly put him in the same category, but he was an Import and he was extremely dangerous in his own way. So once he was arrested by Nicholas Angel, the former police Captain and current shame of the force was incarcerated in the police's own facility under heavy guard, pending trial.

Jack had a lot of time alone with his thoughts. Those thoughts were mainly sad, weary, and frustrated. It was fitting in a way: his cell was only a few floors up from the lobby where he and Seras had confronted a Skrull imposter. That encounter had ended in the deaths of two officers sent by Jack's orders into a situation they couldn't handle. Like everything else he'd done, he stood by that decision. Like everything else he'd done, it still weighed on him. Here, the memories of his sins and failures were kept close to him in more ways than one.

The thought of escape hadn't been seriously considered yet. The jail didn't have the greatest track record, but it was still a world-class facility, more than adequate for holding a powerless and downcast former federal agent. Jack knew that if he was going to leave, it would have to be through outside help, and that step would have consequences he wasn't ready to invoke yet. He chafed at the inactivity of his cell, aching with the knowledge of everything he had left unfinished out there, threats looming on the horizon: Vulcanus, Skrull infiltration of the government, killers at large, attacks being planned. He was unable to do anything in here, and that was something he couldn't take even though he knew the City had many defenders- in many ways better defenders- still working outside.

Another reason escape wasn't an option was because on some level Jack knew he belonged here, that this was what he had earned. He had broken his word, set himself above ordinary accountability, hurt a hell of a lot of people. He had changed so far and so fast, since he was Ported in retired and unwilling to return to a life of secrets and bloodshed. The happy life he'd left behind was a thing of the past by now, abandoned bit by bit in the name of necessity. Worst of all for him, more often than not his measures had failed to stem the danger and death the City was so often afflicted by. These were the things Jack brooded over alone in his cell, a busted ex-cop awaiting trial.

Comments

[goryteller]

[He closes his eyes and swallows -- or more shudders, really, that energy in his throat traveling down his arms and to his finger tips. He brings his hands up and hugs himself. This is the right answer. This is the good answer. When Ariel hooked him up to the battery, telling him that he was fighting to save people, Katurian knew they were on the same side. Even if he tortured him. (Which he did.) Even if he killed him. (Which he did.) He knew, deep down, that he was a good man.

He knows the same for Jack, or so he thinks. He still can't stop shaking.]

Good.

[The answer feels incomplete, but it's all he can manage with the thoughts swirling in his head. He nods, his eyes still closed.]

Good.

[out_of_time]

[Jack looks at Katurian with his 'what is happening' face on. He doesn't understand where he's coming from, what depths he's stumbled into here. He just sees a shuddering author telling him 'good' when he's been put in jail.]

Katurian?

[Pause, then because there needs to be more than that:]

I can't tell you what to think about me. No one can tell you that.

[goryteller]

You're a good man.

[He raises his voice as he says the words, willing the strength in his voice to aid in the strength of his limbs.]

But these are things that happen to all good men.

[out_of_time]

You're right, they are.

[He doesn't say 'I'm not.' Standing by his decisions is one thing, but he knows what kind of person makes those decisions. Katurian doesn't need to be convinced of that though.]

I wish things were different. A lot of things.

[goryteller]

They're not. They won't ever be different.

[He brings his hand up, a loose fist, and rests his knuckles against the divider.]

This world is going to chew us up, Captain. It's going to chew us up, and in the end, we'll be nothing but messes of bone and blood.

[out_of_time]

No.

[Jack is shaking his head. He's so taken aback by Katurian's despair that he doesn't even remind him he's not a Captain anymore. But he steps forward to the divider.]

No, you're wrong. You wanna know why?

[goryteller]

[His hand tenses.]

I'm not wrong.

[out_of_time]

[Jack speaks firmly, without doubt. He has had a lot of doubts and still does, but right now they're behind him.]

No. The world may chew us up, hell, at the rate we're going it probably will. But something will be left besides blood. The things we've do, they have consequences. For good and bad. Those will be left behind.

[He shrugs a little.] If they didn't, there wouldn't be so many problems caused by the bad things. Which means the good things must matter too. They have to.

[goryteller]

Only some of us are so lucky.

[There's a vicious undercurrent in those words, bubbling bitterness and frustration and hate. He pauses. Calms.]

But we'll keep fighting for that, leaving a mark. That's right. Until we crumble.

[out_of_time]

[Quietly.]

Yeah. Yeah, we will.

I'm glad you came by, Katurian.

[Being visited by allies and coworkers was something he'd expected. Being visited by someone he thinks of as a responsibility, one of the 'innocent people' he's tried so hard to protect... that's something else.]