The explosion rocked the entire house.

The bay window – the glass, the curtains, the cushion that lined box seat – it all went flying in pieces across the living room before he had even a moment to react. He flipped the couch as he vaulted over its back, hoping that the sturdy leather seat would provide some type of cover from any further attack. His first thought was to get to Teri and Kim, and then, if he could, find a way to the service revolver he kept hidden in the bedroom.

I gotta contact CTU – what the hell is this? He heard another loud boom, felt its shockwave ripple through his chest and he cursed as he stumbled to his knees, angry that he’d lost more precious seconds.

“Teri, get down!” he shouted as he reached for her, taking her to the ground with him as yet another blast ravaged what was left of the front room. He pulled her beneath him, one arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders and his chest covering her head. He could feel the debris from the ceiling and the walls and the shattered vases raining down as he moved the both of them toward the kitchen.

“Where’s Kim?” he panted, struggling to catch his breath with the smoke and the panic choking his airway.

His ears were ringing, buzzing hollowly from the deafening noise, but he wasn’t even sure that Teri could understand him with the way he had her pinned beneath him. The booms kept coming and through the holes in the walls and the ceiling, he could see the firelight from the detonations glowing brightly in the empty street. Rocket launchers?

His eyes danced frantically around the kitchen, trying to find some sign that his daughter was all right. His hoarse shouts for her went unanswered, but Teri’s insistent movement pulled his eyes from the back hall and to her tiny, struggling form.

Oh, Jesus – she’s hurt.

“Teri?”

“Jack,” Teri shouted, pressing against the floor and trying her best to wrench herself from his vice-grip. “Let go.”

She went flying from his arms, sliding several inches across the slick flooring and he felt the chaos around him being sucked into a vacuum as she broke the contact. He looked up. The living room was still in one piece – there were no smoldering holes in the walls and the ceiling hadn’t collapsed, the floor was free of glass and drywall, there was no smoke invading his lungs...

The newspaper, the crossword puzzle that he’d been working on, lay several feet away, soaking under the coffee table in the puddle his broken glass of water had made; the couch lay haphazardly on the floor, its throw pillows scattered around it – the only signs of the carnage his mind had just wreaked on his home.

“Teri?” he breathed, falling back shakily as he tried to shift toward her. His arms gave out on him and he landed hard on his ass on the cold linoleum.

She held back, hesitating for just a moment before she clamored into his outstretched arms. Her eyes were filled with fear, but not of him - for him. Only seconds had passed between her offer to heat him some dinner and the linebacker tackle that had taken her to the floor.

“Oh, God – baby, are you okay?” she breathed into his neck, kissing the clammy skin beneath her lips and gripping him tightly as she tried to figure out what in the hell had just happened.

“Hey, I thought you guys were gonna come wa–”

Kim skidded to a halt just inside the kitchen door. She was panting from the quick sprint down the hall and her bangs were plastered to her forehead, evidence of the summer heat even after the sun had set. She nearly dropped the boxes of sparklers she’d retrieved from her bedroom.

“Mom? Are you okay?” she asked apprehensively as she took in the sight before her. She desperately wanted to go to both of them, but her feet wouldn’t move – they were glued to the floor by a fear she’d never known before. “Dad?”

They broke apart quickly, righting themselves as best as they could as their hearts settled back into their ribcages. “Yeah. Yeah, honey, we’re fine,” Teri promised, wiping quickly at the water pooling in the corners of her eyes as she cleared her throat. “So-so they started the fireworks already?”

Kim looked at her mother as if she were crazy by trying to brush over the fact that the two of them were just sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, holding onto one another for dear life not two seconds ago. “Umm...yeah...Sarah’s uncle just got back with a whole truckload,” she explained slowly, still confused by the sight before her.

Teri had pushed herself awkwardly to her feet by then, but Jack remained on the floor – he didn’t trust his legs to hold him yet – with his back turned. He’d pacified the sharp fear that Kim had somehow been hurt in the nonexistent melee with a quick glance in her direction, but had to turn away from the panicked worry he saw in her eyes.

“Daddy?”

Teri stepped toward Kim, shaking her head at her and motioning for her not to push it any further for the moment. “It’s okay, sweetheart – everything’s fine,” she eased, hoping her fourteen-year-old daughter would accept the forced smile she’d been given. “Why don’t you go on outside with Sarah and we’ll be out there in a little bit?” Teri suggested as she moved to right the kitchen chair that had been flipped onto its side.

Still confused, Kim nodded and slowly started to ease her way into the kitchen. “Okay,” she agree warily, taking in the turned couch and broken glass on the hardwood floor.

She moved to try and lift the heavy leather sofa back onto its legs, but Teri stopped her and ushered her out the front door. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?” she promised, kissing her daughter on her forehead and pushing away some of the hair that had fallen into her eyes.

Teri closed the door behind her and leaned against the heavy oak surface, trying to regain her composure before speaking to her husband, who’d yet to react to anything happening in the rooms around him.

“Are you okay?” she whispered as she pushed herself away from the door, not wanting to upset him even further. His face was twisted in a miserable scowl, half-upset, half-something she didn’t recognize and again, she felt that fear for him well up within her.

He took a deep breath and glanced sidelong into the living room, taking in the mess he’d made in his attempt to ‘protect’ his family. “I’ll clean it all up,” he said quietly as he pushed himself to his feet. He was unsteady for a moment as the vertigo lashed through his mind and he closed his eyes, using the kitchen table for support.

Teri shook her head, reaching out for his hand with what she hoped was a comforting touch. “Jack, I don’t care about that. I’m just worried that there’s – does this have anything to do with your –”

“I said I’ll clean it,” he spat, jerking his arm away before her fingers could fully grasp his.

Teri pulled her hand back immediately, stung by the heat that he’d spoken with, but more hurt that he hadn’t wanted her to touch him. He’d been sharp with his words before, but this...this was different. She’d seen a subtle shift in him over the past few weeks, but he’d denied it whenever she brought it up, accusing her of an overactive imagination that he’d only ever praised her for before. But between catching him staring at the same page in a magazine for half an hour and the nightmares that he never quite woke from, her worry had told her that it would only get worse before it got better and Jesus, she just didn’t know what to do.

She watched as he gathered up some rags then a dustpan and handheld broom from under the kitchen sink, and brushed past her to the living room without so much as a glance in her direction. “You want some help with that?” she offered, not waiting for his reply as she moved to lift the couch with him.

He mumbled a ‘thanks’ and squatted down next to the newspaper, then lifted the dripping mass onto the coffee table where he put some of the larger pieces of glass.

Lip pinched firmly between her teeth, Teri hesitated, unable to quiet her mind’s whispers that she needed to leave, to let him be and work through this on his own. In the end, her heart won out and she leaned down quickly, planting a soft kiss on the back of his head and letting her hand rub a shapeless pattern of comfort over his shoulders. She tried to ignore the way his muscles tensed under the contact, but it was useless and she pulled away.

She couldn’t put anymore thought into it – she’d probably lie awake in bed for hours tonight trying to figure out some way to rationalize it all, but for now Kim was outside. She was waiting for them to draw butterflies together with those fizzling wands while fountains of red and blue and purple fireworks from Nevada went screeching through the empty skies above their home.

And while they were outside, giggling over how Teri jumped at the Snappers popping at her feet, Jack would be in bed, staring at the ceiling, or in the back yard, burning up his mind with some inane task like fixing tools that he was never home enough to use. She knew he wouldn’t answer her – she didn’t think he was even in the house anymore – but she whispered a soft “I love you” before leaving him completely to tend to his mess.

As the Black Cats and Spinning Wizards were lit on the sidewalk in front of his house, Jack tried to ignore the mortar fire that was caving in all around him and remember a time when he didn’t have to force those words from his mouth.

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