Heads of state who ride and wrangle

[out_of_time]

WHO: Jack Bauer and Sue Storm
WHERE: NoHOPE
WHEN: Monday afternoon
WARNINGS: Probable discussion of violence and torture
SUMMARY: As part of Jack's therapy, Susan is going to interview him and work out what makes him tick.
FORMAT: Prose

They were going to make him talk to someone new today. Part of some new therapy they wanted to try on him. Jack didn't exactly like the sound of that. He had generally cooperated with the staff so far, but he didn't want anything experimental anywhere near him.

The first step was apparently an interview. That was manageable, he had done lots of interviews. Some of them had involved acid, beatings, electric shocks. He'd handle this one like the others, Jack told himself as he was led into the room and sat down behind the table. Just like his previous talks with the staff, he'd keep his cards close to his chest on the personal matters. On the things that could hurt the most.

Comments

[out_of_time]

Oh, now Jack did not like the sound of this at all.

"Yeah? What's that?" He raised his eyebrows as he asked.

[invisibly]

"I'm going to recommend she create a program that will simulate what happened with the HIVE. It may not be the root cause of your stress, but I think working through what happened then will be good for you, cathartic even." She offered him a polite, sympathetic smile.

[out_of_time]

Sometimes Jack hated being right.

"You're going to put me in a simulation of that crap? You can't be serious," he snapped. "How the hell is forcing me to relive a war and the destruction of an American city going to help anything?"

Cathartic his ass.

[invisibly]

"Sometimes pushing through your trauma is the only way you can overcome it," Susan said, gathering up her paperwork again.

[out_of_time]

Jack stood up, arms tense against the table. "Don't start to leave. You don't even know I have any trauma from that mission! You are not putting me back through that and calling it therapy!"

[invisibly]

"I'm not doing anything, Mister Bauer. The final decision about your treatment will be determined by the doctors overseeing your care."

She tried to look sympathetic, even as she stands up from her chair.

[out_of_time]

"I'm not interested in any excuses," Jack snapped. His knuckles clenched on the table's surface. "If this therapy puts me through that again, I will hold you responsible."

[invisibly]

She looked down at him, eyes narrowing. "I hope for your sake that wasn't a threat."

[out_of_time]

"It's a promise." Jack narrowed his eyes back.

Maybe she would back off if he could make her understand why he never, ever wanted to do this. "Look, a few months after the battle in Los Angeles, there was an attack on the City. I got put into a... magical sleep, trapped in a nightmare. Reliving my wife's murder-" He swallowed. "Reliving the moment I found her body. I held her and cried for two days before I finally woke up."

Jack looked down, then back up. "I never want to go through anything like that again. But now you're talking about making me relive watching my hometown get burned, by my own government. That's why I'm serious when I tell you that if you put me through this simulation, I will make sure people know what you've done."

[invisibly]

"What I've done is try to help you. You're a troubled man, Mister Bauer. You're paranoid, prone to acts of violence, you have a lot of trauma that it would seem you've never dealt with." Susan's voice was calm, not spiking any even though on the inside she wanted to scream. She didn't like this, not at all. "If you're not willing to experiment and try, things will never improve for you. Are you really willing to give up your chance for recovery because it might be difficult?"

[out_of_time]

"You don't get it. I'm not sick. I don't need a cure," Jack insisted. "Yes, I've been through a lot. Yes, it's painful, yes I have to live with it every day. Yes, I've had a violent career, I've done bad things. But I accept that. It does not mean I am not in control of my actions. Aside from the crap Vulcanus put in me, I am willing to take responsibility for everything I've done. Those were my choices, not the result of any illness that I'm recovering from."

The ideal of owning one's decisions was deeply ingrained in Jack. So much so that he would rather be considered a criminal than be treated as though he wasn't fully accountable for the calls he'd made. He was in the asylum instead of back in Superjail because of the idea that he couldn't be held legally culpable for what he'd done. The entire premise of his treatment here cut against the core of what he believed in.

[invisibly]

"Forgive me for being blunt," Susan said, pushing her chair in so that she could rest her hands firmly on it's back. "But if you're taking responsibility for your own actions, why are you in this hospital instead of a prison? The lawyers and judges and doctors who decided your case felt strongly enough that you needed help that they chose to send you here. These people, everyone in the facility, we all want to help you, Jack. Don't give up before you've even tried. If you do that..."

Sue trailed off, thinking a moment. She'd seen too many people lose themselves in insanity. Reed had seemed to teeter on it so often. She'd lost and been betrayed by Victor twice. True, she barely knew Jack, but she didn't want to lose another person to the terrors of their own mind.

"If you don't try, you could be here for a very long time."

[out_of_time]

"Maybe it's a political move," Jack answered immediately. "Maybe putting me here keeps them from having to decide whether to extradite me to Mexico or Venezuela, did you ever think of that? Or maybe all those people made a mistake. It wouldn't be the first time." If Harvey Dent could be found cured, Jack thought it was completely plausible he himself could be wrongfully diagnosed as well.

"Either way, it was the wrong call. The system you're serving doesn't always work," he continued. "Sometimes it's corrupt, sometimes it's incompetent, and each time there's a price to be paid. That's why I lost my job- because I wouldn't stand for that anymore. Going along with it now, that's what I'd call giving up."

[invisibly]

"This hospital has undergone a lot of changes since Danger took over. She doesn't have the political motivation to keep you here if you're not really sick." She shook her head sharply. She could be just as stubborn as he could.

"The system isn't stagnant. It's changing, Jack. Our presence is altering this world, for better or worse. Giving up isn't going to fix it. It's going to break it and leave us with nothing. Think about that."