This is an extended version of what Jack told Tony in the last chapter about why he had Chloe destroy evidence after season 3 about Wayne Palmer being at Sherry Palmer's house when she was murdered. I cut it out of the last chapter because the chapter was so long, but I thought it might be interesting on its own. It was inspired in part by the scene in season 1 where Jack gave Nina that little speech (long before he knew she was dirty) about how "you can look the other way once and it's no big deal, and it's not, except that it makes it easier to compromise the next time, and pretty soon you don't even know you're compromising because you think that's the way things are done." But what if Jack compromised, just once, to protect the president and help a friend? It's not directly related, but it somehow seems especially interesting in light of the exchanges Jack had with President Taylor last night, so I figured it was worth posting. Plus, it gave me a chance to put Michelle and Chloe in the story. I hope you like it, and I will post more of the actual story soon.

FLASHBACK: 3 WEEKS AFTER SEASON 3

Jack is in his office at CTU looking over some files when Chloe knocks on his door.

"It's open," he says. She enters tentatively.

"What's going on?" he asks. "Did you get me the information I asked for?"

"Yeah, it's all right here," she says, handing him a folder.

"Thanks. Was there anything else?" he asks. Chloe hesitates.

"Chloe, what is it?" Jack presses.

Chloe closes the door, then speaks quietly.

"This morning I was going through the satellite archives for the report on the Cordilla virus containment, and I found something I didn't expect to find."

"What was it?" Jack asks probingly.

"Pictures of Wayne Palmer getting out of a car outside Sherry Palmer's house about a half hour before she was murdered."

"That doesn't make sense. They've already identified the woman responsible for her murder. She killed Sherrie and then killed herself. Fingerprints on the weapon confirmed it."

"Maybe. I'm not saying Wayne Palmer killed her, but the fact that he was there doesn't really look that good."

"Hasn't this already been investigated?" Jack asks.

"Not this...I checked the files, and there's nothing about Wayne Palmer being in her house when it happened."

"Alright, run it by Michelle and then send it over to Division."

"That's just it, Jack. I showed it to her this morning and she told me not to forward it to Division."

"Did she say why?" Jack asks.

"She just said she wanted to look it over more first, but that doesn't make sense. This falls outside our mandate...people at Division are the ones who are supposed to look into stuff like this."

"Did Michelle ask you to find this evidence, or did you stumble on it on your own?"

"I stumbled on it on my own...I was looking for something completely unrelated," Chloe answers.

"Alright, I'll talk to Michelle," Jack agrees.

"Jack, what do you think she's trying to do? You don't think she's trying to..."

"I don't know," Jack cuts her off. "I said I'll talk to her."

Chloe nods. "Chloe?" Jack says as she turns to leave.

"Yeah?"

"You did the right thing by coming to me with this," he tells her.

"Uh, thanks, I guess," Chloe says awkwardly.

Jack dials Michelle's extension.

"Michelle, can you come up here for a minute? I need to talk to you."

"Yeah, I'll be right up," Michelle says. She knocks on his door a minute later.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Close the door," Jack instructs, motioning for her to have a seat.

"What's going on?" she asks.

"Chloe said you told her to hold off on sending information about Wayne Palmer over to Division," Jack says suspiciously.

Michelle looks flustered. "I...I find it hard to believe Wayne Palmer killed Sherry..."

"He didn't," Jack says firmly, his tone suggesting that he knows more about what actually happened than he is letting on. "I know that for a fact. But that doesn't explain why you told Chloe to hold off on sending the satellite images she found to Division."

"I just wanted to look it over first, make sure it hadn't been doctored. This is the kind of thing that can get manipulated by people with a political agenda."

Jack gives her a look that says "I'm not buying it."

"Uh huh. So you took a look and then sent it to Division yourself?" he asks probingly.

Michelle sighs, knowing she's not going to fool him. "No, not yet," she admits. "I thought maybe we should hold onto it until you talked to the President."

Jack sighs. "Michelle, I know what you're thinking, but I can't go along with it. I know I promised you I would do everything I can, but I respect the President too much to try to blackmail him or negotiate some sort of quid pro quo even if I thought it would work, which I don't. If anything I think suggesting it would have the opposite effect."

"I'm not asking you to blackmail him, Jack. You don't even have to mention it to him at all. I just don't want to forward what Chloe found to Division."

"Why not?" Jack demands. Michelle doesn't answer right away.

"Michelle, has anyone contacted you about this? If anyone from DOJ offered you an ultimatum I need to let the President know," Jack says.

She shakes her head. "No, nothing like that. I don't think anyone knows this exists...Chloe just found it when she was working on a post-incident report on the virus."

"Then why did you tell Chloe to hold off on sending it? You know that it's outside our jurisdiction...all we're supposed to do with something like this is pass it along."

Michelle sighs. "I know that. But I don't trust Brad Hammond," she admits. "You know as well as I do that he's had the knives out for Tony since we broke protocol to help you prove that the Cyprus recordings were forged three years ago. I don't want him to get his hands on this."

"You're afraid that if we send this over to Division he'll use it to try to prevent President Palmer from giving Tony a pardon?"

Michelle nods. "I wouldn't put it past him," she says.

"Neither would I," Jack agrees reluctantly. "Maybe we should send it to the FBI instead."

"If we do that, Division will have our heads for going around them. Besides, we don't know who can be trusted there. There are plenty of political opportunists in Washington who would be eager to leak this to the press or use it to try to bargain with the president or his staff."

"So what, you just want to destroy the evidence?"

"If we did that, then nobody can use it as blackmail, for this or anything else," Michelle reasons.

Jack shakes his head. "It's wrong, Michelle," he says firmly. "It's wrong and you know it. And we both know that if Tony were here he would say the same thing."

"I'm not so sure it is," Michelle argues, which takes Jack by surprise. He looks at her curiously.

"You're not so sure that destroying evidence is wrong?" Jack asks with disbelief.

"Not in this case, no," she replies. "From what I can tell, it looks like President Palmer made a deal with Senator Keeler not to seek reelection if they buried something that was embarrassing to the president. Since he's not running for re-election I'm not sure it's our place to interfere with that."

"It's not our job to interfere or go along with any kind of political bargaining. That's for people higher up to decide. We found information and it's our duty to pass it on to the proper authorities," Jack says simply.

"Even if we have good reason to believe it'll be misused?" Michelle challenges, making Jack think for a minute.

"Look, I know you don't like covering things up and I don't either," she continues. "And I'd be lying if I said that my opinion about how to handle this weren't influenced by concerns about how this could affect Tony. I admit that I'm afraid that it will look like we helped create one political shitstorm while we're asking President Palmer to do something that could create another one, and maybe that's clouding my judgment. But there's another good reason to do this."

"What's that?" Jack asks.

"To protect the President," she says.

"No," Jack insists. "I know President Palmer well enough to know that the last thing he would want me to do was cover up evidence on his behalf."

"I don't disagree," Michelle says. "But we both know that Hammond's not the only one who might try to use this as leverage against the president. If we forward this to Division, it will get passed on to the FBI, DOJ, and probably members of Congress, and it will provide ammunition for anyone who wants something from the president or wants to embarrass him."

She hesitates for a moment before making her next point, knowing Jack is not going to like what she has to say. "Look, I'll admit that when Chloe first brought this to my attention, it crossed my mind that maybe we could use it to help Tony. I know it's wrong, but I can't deny that I thought about it. If we pass it on, think about how many more people like me will handle it and get the opportunity to use it to try to influence the president for all kinds of things. And even if President Palmer has enough integrity not to give in, he has staff who might be inclined to make deals to try to protect him. If we delete this now, we cut off any opportunity for it to be used as blackmail or a bargaining chip."

Jack sighs. He knows what she is proposing is dead wrong but he finds it surprisingly difficult to argue with her logic.

"Look, I know that you respect the president too much to try to use this to negotiate with him about Tony, and I understand that," Michelle says. "But I don't think everyone else who handles this evidence will have as much integrity as you do. Given how much you respect the president, do you really want to help his political opponents blackmail him or drag his legacy through the mud?"

Jack contemplates for a moment, suddenly conflicted.

"You know I don't like covering things up, even for the President," Jack says as he wrestles with the decision.

"I know," Michelle says solemnly, her tone showing that she recognizes how much she is asking of him.

"Besides Chloe, who else knows about this?" Jack asks.

"Nobody. I asked her to keep this on the DL for now."

Jack sighs, torn between his almost unflappable integrity and his desire to help one friend and protect another.

"I'll talk to Chloe," he says after a minute, still clearly uncomfortable with what he is agreeing to do.

"Thank you," she says gratefully.

A few minutes later, Jack walks down to the floor and approaches Chloe's desk.

"Chloe, can I talk to you for a minute?" he asks discreetly.

"Yeah, what's going on?" she asks.

"I need you to check something in Tech 1. Walk with me," he instructs. She follows him suspiciously. When they are outside Tech 1 away from everyone else, he leans in and speaks quietly.

"How hard would it be for you to delete the satellite images you found on Wayne Palmer and fill the time code with something else so it's not obvious?"

"Technically not too hard, but it's completely illegal, not to mention wrong."

"I know that," Jack acknowledges.

"This isn't a joke? You're really asking me to cover up evidence in a murder investigation?" Chloe asks with disbelief.

"The murder has already been investigated. Wayne Palmer didn't kill Sherry."

"How can you be sure of that?" she asks.

"Because, I'm sure. I know more about the case than you do and I can't get into details, but I know that's not what happened," he insists.

Chloe sighs and studies Jack for a minute, still a little shocked that he is asking her to do this and confused about why.

"Look, I get why Michelle wants to do this and I feel sorry for her too, okay? But I can't believe you're asking me to do something so illegal. I know Tony's your friend but still," she says, perplexed.

"This is not about Tony," Jack says firmly. "This is about protecting the President from the possibility of blackmail."

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asks, bewildered.

"Something like this can get into the wrong hands and be used by politicians, bureaucrats, even groups that have interests against the US government to try to influence the President. I don't want to enable anyone to put him in that position, nor do I want anyone at Division or DOJ to be able to use this to give Michelle an ultimatum."

"I'm still not comfortable with this..." Chloe says nervously.

"I know. To tell you the truth, I'm not completely comfortable with it either. But given the circumstances I'm less comfortable with forwarding it to Division, and I don't want anyone to find the evidence later and come after you for holding onto it. I know what I'm asking you to do is against protocol, but you're not covering up a murder, and if anyone finds out you were acting on my orders," Jack promises.

Chloe contemplates, looking very uncomfortable (remember, this is before the days when Jack roping her into doing something against protocol was an hourly occurrence).

"Chloe, please. You know me...you know I don't like to do things like this, and I wouldn't ask you to do something like this if I didn't think it was necessary. Please, as a favor to me," he asks.

Chloe sighs, exasperated. "Fine. But for the record, I'm against this."

"Understood. Thank you," Jack says appreciatively.

He walks back up to his office and sinks down into his chair, still struggling with the dilemma. He thinks what he just did was the right decision, and he could even find a way to argue that it was in the best interests of the country not to have something like this floating around to use against the president. But he also knows that he put loyalty to his friends above integrity. It may not be as bad as taking a cut of the money recovered from a drug bust or looking the other way to advance his own career, but he knows that in some ways he is just as guilty as the people he busted for taking bribes a few months before Teri was murdered: he had compromised, once.

I know this was a bit of a diversion from the story, but hope you found it interesting. Hopefully I will have more of the regular story soon. Reviews are always appreciated!