Ya one in a million cause you got that shotgun shine

[out_of_time]

WHO: Jack Bauer and OPEN
WHERE: NoHOPE
WHEN: Visiting hours, Saturday 10th through the week.
WARNINGS: Should be none.
SUMMARY: Jack has been incarcerated in the Import asylum after being apprehended by Wonder Woman. Visiting hours are open.
FORMAT: Whatever works.

Suicidal tendencies. Violent behaviour. Paranoid traits. Anger issues. Possible PTSD.

Jack had been caught again, but this time he wasn't going back to the Superjail as a convict. This time, it had been decided that he was sick, that he needed help. He was a psychiatric patient now. They were going to treat him.

Despite not having superpowers to speak of, Jack was kept under careful and delicate watch in his room. They had his file, they knew what he was capable of. Even his plastic utensils were scrutinized and accounted for after every meal. After Harvey Dent's suicide, even his clothing was treated with suspicion, in case his shirt became a makeshift noose or garrote. His room was locked, his window was bulletproof glass, and everything, everywhere was so damn white.

He cooperated with them, within reason. As far as he was concerned he wasn't sick- his behaviour in Venezuela had been the result of Vulcanus' damn virus. But these people were just doing their jobs, and he understood. He answered their questions. They talked a lot about his past, about his career, his experiences. He didn't let them get too close though. His family was off-limits, especially his wife.

He was anxious throughout though, tense, on-edge, and it was hard to hide. Always watching, looking for openings or threats. As far as Jack was concerned, he was running out of time. His capture and institutionalization couldn't have been kept secret, not for someone with as many warrants as Jack had. Soon the world would know that Jack Bauer was captive in NoHOPE. And there would be those who weren't content to leave him that way. Sooner or later, they would come.

The hospital had at least one advantage over Superjail, from Jack's perspective. It would be a little easier to escape.

Comments

A Visit- Callie and Julian

[maggotbone]

As Callie learned more about the nature of his incarceration, she began thinking that they might have a chance to get him out of there. They just needed to find someone to stand in as his out-of-house therapist. She just needed to prove that he had to get out of there- that the environment wasn't rehabilitating him or helping him get control of his "sickness".

Callie arrived at NoHope, bringing Julian along as he requested. As far as Callie could tell, Jack was the only one with the fire to actually try to get things happening. They needed him.

After checking in, going through the security scan, they were led to the visitation room.

[onetouch]

Ned tapped on the door frame with his free hand, a covered pie in the other. "Jack?" he hazarded softly into the empty corridor. This place was a little creepy, no surprise there.

He moved into the room, setting the pie on the small table at Jack's bedside. "I couldn't remember which was your favorite, so I made you a little of everything."

Monday

[wild_roar]

How Kotetsu found out that the guy he had let free a couple weeks ago had gotten himself in the looney bin, it didn't matter. But after pondering it, he decided to go and see him, to figure out what was going on. And, perhaps, to let him know that he'd survived that night after all.

Smartly-dressed in a threadbare tweed suitcoat and with mask firmly in place, he went through the security to be admitted as a visitor and soon found himself face to face with the man who had unwittingly served to save his life.

Re: A Visit- Callie and Julian

[out_of_time]

"Callie." He came to the window quickly when they were led in. He was surprised to see Julian there- but the kid was a D.O.I. agent, wasn't he? And he'd been actually supporting Jack waving guns at defenseless people...

"I didn't know you were bringing anyone."

[out_of_time]

Jack actually chuckled. "You shouldn't have."

He lifted up the covering, looked at the pie. "I'm surprised you got this through. They've been pretty strict about what I've got access to." He grimaced, looked down. "Apparently I'm dangerous. Who knew, huh?"

[out_of_time]

"Wild Tiger?" This was one visitor Jack had not been expecting. But it was definitely good to see that yes, Jack had not in fact abandoned him to his death on All Soul's Night.

"What are you doing here?" Jack hoped he wasn't here for questioning him or anything like that. He wasn't in the mood.

[onetouch]

He just tilted his head, a smile in his eyes though it didn't reflect elsewhere. "I can be... persuasive when I need to be."

[wild_roar]

"Yeah - hi." Kotetsu raised a hand in a lame little wave. "I hope you don't mind. I, uh...heard this happened, which is kind of ironic considering I let you go." He had a glance around, instantly pitying the guy for having to put up with the stigma of being in a mental hospital of sorts. "Can't say I like the decor, though."

Right, his purpose. "Well, you know...I didn't get to meet you properly, things were kind of weird at the time. I figured it was a good way to introduce myself."

As usual, he was covering more serious matters with a silly bluff. He wasn't there on official business, no, but he did have questions. He would get to them in a bit.

[out_of_time]

"I'm glad. The pie here stinks."

Jack sighed, then put on his serious face for Ned.

"I owe you an apology. Earlier, I... said a lot of things I shouldn't have. Things you didn't deserve. You were just trying to help, I get that now."

[out_of_time]

"You're just here to say hi?" That wasn't what he was expecting either. Jack eyed him.

"Jack Bauer. Wonder Woman found me after you let me go." He grimaced. "She wasn't as understanding as you."

[wild_roar]

"Nice to meet you, Jack." Kotetsu made a bit of a face. "Wonder Woman? Sounds, uh, interesting." He shook his head, then, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Don't get me wrong, I didn't let you go out of some sense of justice. I would have brought you in if we hadn't been in trouble. But I couldn't let you fight my fight, not if it was going to end badly."

[out_of_time]

Jack snorted and suppressed a smile. "When you put it like that, it sounds like a sense of justice is exactly why you let me go."

He remembered how things had been going when he'd fled. "Since you're still here, I'm guessing you beat that thing. Do you know what changed? Why it started taking damage?"

[wild_roar]

Kotetsu shrugged. "Couldn't tell you. But it happened after I let you go, so for all I know...maybe my being willing to sacrifice myself was its weakness. You know, like it was vulnerable to noble altruism or something." It was his only real guess, even if it was furthest from the truth. "I tell you, though, I don't ever want to be put in the position of punching the crap out of my partner again. It didn't feel good."

He glanced briefly around the stark hospital surroundings once more and then breathed a sigh. "So. Somebody else got you and now you're here. Guess it beats prison, in some ways."

[onetouch]

Pulling up a chair with a loud scraping sound, he cleared his throat and pushed his hair back while he awkwardly sat himself down.

"You weren't yourself." Ned still didn't really understand what had happened over there, but he had gleaned that much.

[hellionated]

Julian had always liked Callie's attitude, but even given that, he'd been surprised when she seemed to agree that people weren't doing enough about what had happened. He'd expected any so-called authority figures to tell him to shut up, since in all fairness that was what they usually did. But Callie hadn't. She thought they needed Jack.

So did Julian, after seeing his determination to stop Vulcanus during the virus. That attitude was what people needed now. Vulcanus had to be cut away. Those ends would justify whatever means they had to use to make it happen.

"I wanted to come." And she'd let him. God, Jack shouldn't be behind bars. They had to get him out. "You made a hell of an impression out there."

[maggotbone]

Callie nodded. "I hope you don't mind, Jack. You... need all the people on your side as you can get. He's the head of security in the D.O.I, so Julian definitely needs to be a part of this."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Our situation here, in this City, our place in this world, and the status of Vulcanus.... you're the only man so far that's taken action with anything that might've been worth something. We need you out of here. We need to fight back."

[out_of_time]

Jack rubbed his hands, looked down at them. "It's not that simple. The virus didn't make me do anything I haven't done before. And a lot of what I was feeling was real, I just- I lose control of it."

He wanted to make Ned understand. He deserved to.

[out_of_time]

"Yeah, some," Jack allowed. His face was begrudging. "I don't belong here though. Aside from what the virus did, I'm not sick. I'm willing to take responsibility for my own actions." Besides, Superjail was directly run by the C.P.D. - it was more familiar.

[out_of_time]

"Fair enough. In that case, I'm glad you're both here. Because you're right, we do need a way to fight back and right now that's not happening."

He looked at both of them in turn, making eye contact. "The first thing we need to get straight is that what I did in Venezuela was a disaster. I got no information out of those people because they didn't know anything. I attacked innocent people and handed Vulcanus a media victory for nothing. If we do this, none of us are going to stoop that low again. We clear?"

Now that he was in his right mind, the memories of terrorizing people and believing they deserved it, seeing them as political objects or subjects for punishment, made him sick in his stomach. In those moments, he'd been more like the people he fought against than he'd ever wanted to be.

[onetouch]

He nodded again, leaning forward a bit, ever the understanding friend. "I know what it's like to lose control." Everything else was water under the bridge as far as he was concerned, nothing had been damaged irreparably. He just hoped Jack wouldn't bring up his own confession.

[wild_roar]

"Yeah, that's what I guessed." And now they were touching on the thing Kotetsu had actually come to learn about. "That thing with the virus...I have to admit, I was surprised to see you back here walking around like that. Whatever actually came of that incident, down there?"

[out_of_time]

Jack winced slightly at the recollection, for more than one reason. "Someone talked me into saying something personal, something that triggered the cure. Then someone else came and... extracted me." In this context 'extracted' meant that Scathach had beaten him unconscious for his own good, but that wasn't important right now.

"No one died, that's the important thing."

[out_of_time]

"I owe you," Jack said, because neither he nor Ned could have nice things. "When you set me off, the things I talked about- they must have triggered Vulcanus' cure. My head got a little clearer. Enough that I didn't shoot the person who came to get me out of there." It was too bad he had still been riled enough to fight with Scathach, though.

[wild_roar]

Kotetsu breathed a huge sigh of relief that lifted his shoulders. "Oh, thank goodness. That's better than I expected. I know they're the real bad guys, but I still didn't want to see anyone killed over this."

His lips twisted in an uncertain expression, then. "It didn't do any good, did it? Something tells me you wouldn't have been on the run if you had information that could save the rest of us."

[out_of_time]

"Yeah." Jack sighed. "I didn't get any useful information. You and the other people who tried to talk me down, you were right all along. It was pointless, and it was wrong."