Part II: Dust In The Wind
Six months later…
“Look...just...look at this!” Sabrina wailed. “Destroyed.” Shards of what was once fine china fell from her nerveless fingers. “Everything...” Her words became choked amid the cry lodged in her throat as her broken gaze surveyed what was once their dining room. “Our home... Everything is gone, Jack.”
Even with its exceptional design, the 6.5 magnitude earthquake still had done considerable damage to the Bauer estate; yet when compared to the devastation and loss suffered by others in the city Jack knew his family had been extremely fortunate.
Family.
It was that thought that gave Jack the strength he needed; that allowed him to stand determined and not broken among the ruins of the place he had only recently just truly begun to feel could be home for a man like him.
A man like him.
Jack Bauer knew he was not an easy man to love. A loner by nature, he was complex, intensely private, and extremely guarded, especially when it came to his emotions—traits that made him first among equals at his chosen profession. It was widely known at CTU, just as the line went from the classic Carly Simon theme song from the 007 movie The Spy Who Loved Me, “nobody does it better.” Yet those same personality traits that made him invaluable at CTU could make him virtually impossible to live with at home—his first marriage to his late wife Terri was a testament to that. Still no one was more surprised than Jack when he found himself pursuing Sabrina. As outspoken, bold, and impulsive as she was beautiful, the surgeon was unlike any woman the world-weary Agent had encountered.
“Not everything, Babe,” Jack reminded her. “I know we weren’t here long, but we have the memories we made. We’ll rebuild.” His voice trembled ever so slightly. “And we’ll make more.”
As Jack’s mind raced with said memories of what was once his new home, he could not help but recall all that had led up to his and Sabrina’s oftentimes tumultuous journey to where they now found themselves.
Married just under two of the three years they had been together, they had only been in the new home a little over six months before 90 terrifying seconds reduced nearly everything to a pile of rubble. Prior to that the majority of their union, both pre- and post-matrimony had been spent divided between a swank L.A. hotel penthouse suite Sabrina utilized during her bi-coastal jaunts and Jack’s modest yet spacious home—a home the couple had come close to never sharing. Love was not the issue; neither denied what they felt for each other. And while they didn’t always agree on who fell for whom first and hardest, the one thing they were unwavering in their acknowledgement of was this: both readily admitted they instinctively knew the moment they met each was “it” for the other.