This takes place towards the end of season 7. Assume that Jack has been cleared of the charges against him and Renee has been reinstated to the FBI. Jack called Tony while he was on the run from the FBI to help him and the FBI has been letting them both help until the crisis is averted. Jack, Tony, Renee, and the FBI managed to stop whatever Hodges was doing. For the sake of the story, assume that the shipment Hodges was receiving involved some deadly chemical. The events of the day culminated with a dramatic shootout inside the Third Street Tunnel (otherwise known to many who attended Obama's inauguration as the 'Purple Tunnel of Doom'). Now the deadly chemical has been secured, the hostiles are dead or in custody, and Jack, Tony, Renee and a swarm of FBI agents are securing the chemical and wrapping up the operation.

If you check out the version of this story on my website (linked from my profile), you can see pictures of the locations used in the story, courtesy of Google Maps.

Renee is standing on a closed-off section of I-395 outside the tunnel, talking to Agent Moss on the phone.

"No, the containers were secure," Renee tells Larry, walking further away from the tunnel in order to get a better cell phone signal. Moss says something inaudible.

"Alright, I'll let him know," Renee agrees. She hangs up and walks down toward E Street where Jack is IDing vehicles that belonged to the hostiles.

"Agent Moss wants us back at headquarters to debrief. He said the hazmat team can take care of securing the site and cleaning up," she tells him.

Jack nods. "Tony, let's go," he calls out, before realizing that Tony is no longer on the other side of the road looking for ID on dead hostiles and collecting stray weapons.

"Tony?" he says again, bewildered. "Was Tony down there with you?" he asks Renee.

"No, I haven't seen him in the last five minutes. Wasn't he right here with you?"

"Yeah, he was a second ago," Jack says, confused.

"He was over there less than a minute ago, trying to ID the dead bodies and secure stray weapons," Jack explains as he dials Tony's cell phone, which immediately goes into a message saying that the user had not yet set up voicemail.'

"You left him unattended near a supply of weapons?" she asks him warily.

Jack looks at her like she is crazy. "He just helped prevent the release of a deadly toxin that would have killed thousands of people," he says to her.

"I know. And I'm going to testify to everything he's done today when he comes up for trial. But I can't believe you would have been stupid enough to leave him unattended with a stockpile of weapons knowing he could escape…unless you were helping him escape," she says with a raised eyebrow.

"I'm not and I don't think he's trying to. He gave me his word that he would turn himself in as soon as this was over."

"And you believe him? You trust him to keep his promise?" Renee asks skeptically.

Jack sighs. "I believe he wants to keep it. I don't think he would give me his word if he didn't intend to keep it."

"I hope you're right," she says skeptically. She picks up her walkie talkie to ask for a 20 on Tony but Jack stops her.

"Please, just help me find him," he asks. "The FBI has its hands full trying to secure the chemicals, and Tony couldn't have gone far. You were standing right outside the tunnel talking to Agent Moss, and you didn't see him come through, right?"

"No, but I wasn't looking for him."

"The tunnel is swarming with other agents…if he were trying to get away he wouldn't have gone in there. He knows where the FBI set up a perimeter. The bridges are still sealed off, and he wouldn't be stupid enough to steal a police vehicle with so many agents around…if he wanted to get away he would have gone toward the marina to steal a boat," Jack insists as he leads Renee further away from the tunnel.

Renee looks at him skeptically. "You better not be playing me," she warns, thinking back to the previous morning when Jack had helped her find Tony only to break him out.

"I give you my word that I'm not trying to help him escape. Please, just trust me," he urges.

Renee nods reluctantly, hoping that her instinct that Jack is just trying to give his friend another chance to turn himself in on his own terms instead of being captured again is right and that she's not being played. After everything they have been through today she trusts Jack, but she knows that Jack is a loyal friend and she can't rule out the possibility that Jack feels he owes it to Tony to help him escape given the history. But she decides to trust her instincts and trust Jack, at least for now.

"You check the up here, I'll check the lower level," she says to Jack, running down toward back toward a part of I-395 that is low enough to safely jump down to the street below. Jack continues to run down I-395 away from the tunnel, looking at the roads below as well as ahead of him.

Jack's heart breaks when he sees Tony finish loading up a gun and then climb up onto the railing, his hand shaking as he points the gun at his own head.

FYI, for those of you who don't know DC, I-395 is elevated over several other roads on the stretch between the 3rd Street Tunnel and the bridge, with ledges or railings serving as barriers to prevent cars from falling off the road.

I hope this isn't too similar to some of the other stories I've written lately. I heard an old Tracy Chapman song on the radio the other day that I don't even particularly like, but it gave me the idea for this story and I couldn't resist, especially since I've been hot to do a fanfic for this DC-based season that somehow incorporates the Purple Tunnel of Doom. I thought I had kicked the fanfic habit (and the 24 addition in general!) but Tony's my main muse for writing fanfic, and now that he's back I keep coming up with story ideas. Hopefully people are still enjoying my stories even if they are somewhat similar. Chapter 2 will be up hopefully later today for those who are interested!