Disclaimer: All characters and storyline references are the property of the rights holders. No usurpation of rights is intended.

Smoke and Mirrors

By Morganperidot

FBI Agent Renee Walker stood outside Interrogation Room 1 and looked at Jack Bauer. Jack was seated with his arm and legs shackled to the chair. Anger burned inside of her as she looked at him. He had used her and betrayed her, helping a prisoner escape. But now she had him, and she would use him to get Tony Almeida back…no matter what it took to do so.

"I should do this," her boss, Agent Larry Moss said.

"No," Renee said. "He's mine." She straightened the jacket of her gray suit and then walked over to the door and pushed it open. "Get out," she said to the agents who held guns pointed at Jack.

"Agent Moss said we should…"

"I'm running this," Renee said, her gaze on Jack, who didn't look at her. She threw an icy look at the agent who had spoken. "Get out, or you'll be without a job," she said. "You choose." That man looked at the other agent, and then both of them put their weapons away and left the room. Renee waited for the door to close before she spoke again. "So, we found the traitor, didn't we, Jack?" she said. "What is that old saying?" She paused a moment, then grabbed his chin and pulled his head back and up so he was facing her. "We have met the enemy and he is us," she said. He just looked at her and said nothing. She pushed his head away. "We need Almeida back," she said. "Where is he?"

Jack said nothing, just continued looking away with a blank stare.

Renee hadn't expected an answer, so she shifted gears. "I went to see another friend of yours," she said smoothly. After a pause she added, "Audrey Raines."

He looked at her then, the reflection of her own anger rising up in his eyes – and something else too that she turned away from. He didn't speak.

"Her father had quite a bit to say about you, Jack," Renee said. "He told me exactly what kind of person you are, and exactly how you destroyed Audrey's life." She sat down across from him. "Did you know that she has to have constant care?" Renee asked. "She's too traumatized to function on her own. She can't even hold a job or be around people. From what I hear she has a whole book of phobias." Although Jack had looked away from her Renee could see and feel that her words were hitting home. "She was quite a mess when I saw her," Renee said coolly, "quite a basket case, fidgeting, shaking, I mean you wouldn't even believe what all…"

"Stay away from her," Jack said. "She's not involved in this."

"No, you already made things as bad as you could for her didn't you, Jack?" Renee said. "You broke her, didn't you?" she said.

"There's no point to this," Jack said. "I won't give you Almeida." He looked at her. "You know I won't."

"You will, Jack," she said. "Because I know what hurts you, what really hurts. We could beat you, torture you, whatever, and you would never say word one. I don't doubt that I could tear you apart emotionally and you would still not talk. But I can reach out to these people, Jack, Audrey and your daughter – Kim, right? – and hurt you through them. And you will talk then, won't you?"

"You won't harm innocents," Jack said softly, darkly.

"I'll do what needs to be done for the greater good," Renee said. "Isn't that what you always did, Jack? You let your own wife die while you were out torturing and killing people, right? Maybe you even wanted her dead, is that it? Maybe you set up that hit to be rid of the old ball and chain? A lot cleaner cut than divorce, right?" Jack's jaw was clenched, as were his fists beneath the wrist restraints. "Why not get rid of your kid too, huh, Jack?" she asked. "I guess it's easier to just ignore her?" Renee leaned back and chuckled. "She sure hates you too," she said. "She wouldn't even say your name when I talked to her."

"I won't give you Almeida," Jack said.

"You will, Jack," Renee said, "if I have to go through everyone you ever loved."

Jack looked straight at her then, and she saw the strong mixture of pain and fury in his eyes, and the force of that brutal look hit her like a dagger in her stomach. Renee had to fight her instincts to look away. After all, this was what she wanted from him, to see how deeply she was hurting him. She was succeeding. "Listen to this," Jack said flatly. "I will never tell you anything. That is my promise to you. If you harm those people, those wounded people, their blood will be on your hands as much as mine. And that will haunt you every day, every minute of your life, the same way it has haunted me. If you can live with that, then do it. Commit the same crimes I did in front of me. But don't forget another old quote when you do: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red."

Renee parted her lips, but she had no reply to the words of Lady Macbeth. She knew Jack knew what he was talking about. He lived with that blood always on his hands, and that deep horrible pain in his heart… Renee stood up. "Why did you do it, Jack?" she asked. "Why did you free Almeida?"

"That doesn't matter," Jack said. "If you were smart you would be looking for the mole. While you waste your time in here that person is undermining every move you make."

"There is no mole!" Renee shouted at him, immediately internally chastising herself for losing her cool.

"There is," Jack said. "All this is just the smoke and mirrors, the diversion. I'm not the one who lied to you, Agent Walker, but someone is, someone dangerous, and if you don't find that person…" Renee slapped him, hard enough to leave a bright red mark on his face. He stared at her silently, and she raised her hand to strike him again. "Go ahead," he said. "Beat me, torment the people I've hurt, but in the end this whole house of cards is going to fall and it isn't going to have anything to do with me."

"You're lying," Renee said.

"No, I'm not," Jack said.

"Bastard," Renee said, and she stormed out of the room. The agents moved toward the door. "No," Renee said. "He stays in there alone," she said, "and nothing goes in, no food or water, nothing. Do you hear me?"

"Agent Walker…"

"Let me run this, Larry," Renee said to Moss. She threw an angry glance at Jack through the glass. "He needs to feel how serious this is," she added.

* * * * *

Back in her office Renee sat in her desk chair trying to relieve the terrible cramping pain in her stomach. Her damn deceitful instincts were tell her no, this is wrong. They were telling her to listen to Jack! But she wouldn't do that again. He had been trying to make her doubt herself – and his guilt – but she wasn't going to do that. There was no mole in the FBI! That was ridiculous. Besides the only way for a mole of that magnitude to work would require that the person had some high-level security clearance, which would mean someone higher than her in the Bureau, and how in the world could she find someone like that anyway…

She knew there was only one way she could handle this. Jack was a traitor, but that didn't mean that everything he said was a lie; it was possible he knew for certain that there was a mole in the FBI. But why would he tell her? Why would he insist on her doing something about it? It had to be that he was lying and trying to get her off Almeida's trail, but she still couldn't reject the idea of a mole completely. She knew she had to investigate this as if it were a legitimate tip.

* * * * *

When she went back to Interrogation Room 1, Jack was still bound to the chair, but his head was now bowed as though he was sleeping. Renee shoved the door open and shook him until he woke. "What do you think this is, a hotel?" she snarled at him.

"I think this violates the Geneva Convention," Jack said quietly.

"I don't give a rat's ass about the Geneva Convention, Jack, and neither do you," Renee said. "Tell me who the mole is."

Jack shook his head. "I don't know anything about it," he said. "If you want me to work on finding out…"

"You've got to be kidding," Renee said. "You're not seeing freedom again in this lifetime, much less going through FBI files."

"I don't need them anyway," Jack said. "My guess is that it's Moss."

"No," Renee said. "How dare you try to throw the blame on…"

"I know maybe five people here, so he would be my most likely choice," Jack said. He leaned his head back against the chair and closed his eyes. "Sleep deprivation is against the rules of conduct," he said. "Prisoners are to be allowed 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep."

"If you give us Almeida you may escape execution, Jack," Renee said.

Jack's lips curled. "Who says I want to?" he asked.

"I don't think you want to die," Renee said.

"I don't want to live in prison," Jack said.

"Then give us Almeida," Renee said. "You won't go down for treason."

Jack opened his eyes. "I love this country," he said. "I always have. I did everything I was told to do. So now they want to call it treason. Now they want to wash their hands and walk away and crucify me. That's what I'm here for, the sacrificial lamb." He looked down at his chained wrists. "This is what it all comes down to," he said.

Renee felt uncomfortable talking to him like this without the anger putting up a wall between them. "You betrayed…"

"No," Jack said. "I never did."

"You let a terrorist get away, Jack," Renee said. "You joined up with him. We captured you when you got split off. We know what you were doing."

"Do you really think everything is that cut and dried?" Jack asked.

"Are you trying to make me think you were working under cover?" Renee said. "How many games are we going to play, Jack? One at a time would be good if you want to keep things straight."

"It's never that simple," Jack said. He moved his limbs a bit, as much as he could in his restraints. "You should give me somewhere to sleep for a couple hours," he said. "And I'd love a cigarette."

Renee laughed, and she was surprised to find it wasn't an entirely cruel laugh. "How about a glass of champagne and some caviar?" she asked.

"Just a glass of water," Jack said.

And somehow in that moment Renee realized with near certainty what she had always sensed: that the man she saw here wasn't a terrorist, and as much as she wanted him to be a traitor, she didn't really believe he was that either. He was someone who had done all sorts of terrible things and made a lot of bad decisions, but he wasn't evil. Damn him, she thought, she had been right about him from the beginning. "I'll have a couple agents take you to a room," she said. "You'll have water and food. You have an hour to rest. If you try to escape you will be shot. Do you understand?"

"Yes," Jack said.

Renee got a couple of men to undo his bonds, help him out of the chair, and get him down the hall to another room with a cot, bottle of water, granola bars, and a toilet. "Keep him under watch," she said to the agents with guns that she posted outside the room. "If he tries anything, shoot him," she said. She stood there for a moment and watched him drain the bottle of water, and then she turned and walked away.

* * * * *

An hour later she returned with a sandwich from the local deli and another bottle of water. Part of her expected him to be gone, and that part was disappointed when she saw him lying on his back on the cot, his eyes open, gazing at the ceiling. The other part of her was relieved to find that he was still there.

When she walked into the room he sat up, and she saw the respect in him, respect even for someone who hadn't shown the same to him, someone who had told him terrible lies just to watch it hurt him. Renee handed him the bag with the sandwich and the bottle of water and then sat down beside him on the cot. He opened the bag and looked inside. "Thank you," he said.

"I'm sorry, Jack," Renee said.

"There's nothing to apologize for," he said, taking out the sandwich. "It was a good interrogation."

"No, it wasn't," Renee said.

Jack looked at her. "You're good," he said. "You're going to be great. Don't let this inside you. This isn't anything."

Renee smiled. "You're playing me," she said.

"I haven't lied to you," Jack said.

"Give me Almeida," Renee said.

"You don't need him," Jack said. "This isn't about him. You have to find the mole."

"Damn it, Jack, I have to get Almeida back," Renee said. She stood up. "I lost him because I trusted you, and you betrayed that trust. If I don't get him back that's it for me. There won't be any chance to be great."

"Your instincts were right about me," Jack said. "And I'm telling you now that you don't need Almeida. If you had him you would only be hurting our chances of fixing the mess this country is in." Renee shook her head and turned away. "Agent Walker, listen to me," he said. "I swear to you on my wife's grave." Renee turned back to him at the sound of his painful seriousness. "If bringing Tony Almeida back would solve any of this, I would do it myself. But it wouldn't. This isn't about friendship or terrorism. It's about the security of this nation."

"I wish I could believe you, Jack," Renee said.

"Then do it," Jack said. "There's no time for uncertainty. We have to find the mole and we have to get this fixed. We're running out of time."

Renee wanted to say: There is no we, but she couldn't. "I want something from you," she said.

"If I can give it to you, I will," Jack said.

Renee walked over to the cot and sat down beside him, close, too close, just to find out if what she sensed was true really was. Jack looked at her, and she knew he knew what she was thinking of. She gave him a moment to decide, a few seconds, and then a few more. He sat there and looked in her eyes, and she looked in his. His decision was clear, but she knew he wouldn't make the move…not now. So she did, touching his cheek lightly, and then bringing her lips to his firmly. He responded smoothly, easily, and Renee was relieved for that simple moment of intimacy. The kiss was warm but brief, and Renee leaned back and smiled. "Don't get any ideas," she said.

"I wouldn't," Jack said.

"You're an exceptional liar," Renee said.

"You're a exceptional judge of character," Jack said.

Renee smiled. "Enough of the bullshit," she said. "Let's find our mole."

* * * * *

When Renee left the interrogation room, Moss was waiting for her in the hallway. "Are you going to tell me just what you think you were doing in there with Bauer?" he asked.

"Getting him to trust me," Walker said. "That's the only way it is going to work with him. He'll never open up to the hard stuff, so the only way to do it is to go in soft."

"Or maybe you're just soft on him," Moss said.

"I'm a professional, Larry," Renee said. "I'm just doing my job." She turned.

"I sure hope that's all it is," Moss said.

Renee laughed. "Don't worry, Larry," she said. "I'm not going to fall for Jack Bauer." Renee walked away, fully aware that this was exactly what she had done.