This was written for a cliché fic challenge but I have no idea how to post on the clack site which depresses me like no other, especially when I try and work it out posting it 3 times to only god knows where… which just made me mad… so as of right now it is just going to stay on the fanfic site unless someone tells me how to effing post.. well i posted it but whatever it's not correctly posted but they will just have to deal with it
Title: One Long Night
Author: BldCvrdKunoichi
Rating: PG-13
Cliché: Jack and Chloe have to pretend to be a couple
One Long Night
"Jack. Chloe. I need to see you in my office. Now," Buchanan barked across the main floor.
Jack and Chloe looked at each other confused as to what Buchanan was doing. It was a rather slow day, or as slow of a day as they would have at a Counter Terrorist Unit. Chloe had been working on clearing up some surveillance cameras to make sure that nothing had been left out of a previous case, while Jack had been out finishing up a field mission. Neither of them expected to be standing in Bill Buchanan's office at 7 p.m. as both had assumed that they would be preparing to leave work, but instead they were called into Bill's office waiting for him to say something.
"We have found some new information that there is a possible terrorist unit trying to infiltrate the pentagon. As far as our sources go, we have been notified that the person leading this group will be at the Senator's party. I need both of you to attend. Chloe, I know that you are not very fond of going into the field, but this time we need you. You are the best computer tech that we have and you are needed for this mission." Jack nodded his head as he looked at Chloe, knowing very well that she did not want to see another field mission in her life, but at the same time glad that she was going on it with him.
"If you need me that's fine, but I would prefer if you called another tech person in."
"There is no one else we could call in," Bill said in a voice that broke no argument.
"If I have to, I'll go." She said, rolling her eyes as her expression moved from annoyed to exasperated.
"Chloe, you do not have a choice in the matter, you are going." Bill said making sure she understood this was not something that she could change.
"Just give us clearance and we will be able to go," Jack said in a calm and collected voice, not showing one ounce of pleasure on his face at the news.
"I would love to just give you clearance, but this mission needs to look like both of you are there by request, and not because I said that you need to be there. For this field assignment, you have to act as if you are a couple. I will give you alias that you are to use for the mission. Your excuse is that the Senator's wife has asked you to come. You are a well known couple that is extremely wealthy, which alone gives you leverage enough for you to be there. The rest of the guests will be led to believe this, and since you are not impersonating a real couple you do not need to be worried about anyone finding out that you are imposters by looks alone."
"So let me get this straight. Jack and I have to pretend to be a couple, a married couple to be exactly, pulling this off that we are a well known, and of a well off stature. How are we supposed to do that? You said that this will be easy but you forget that I know nothing about pretending to be upper class. Then, at the same time make it appear that we are there on pleasure only?" Chloe huffed exasperated that she had no say in whether or not she wanted to go.
"Chloe, I am worried about nothing." Bill replied, "You are one of the smartest people here. Your mind almost never turns off and even in the most desperate situations, you stay calm. I am certain that you can pull it off, and if you are having some trouble, we could say that you are not used to crowds. That might even be a good excuse to hit the office during the party." During this whole interlude Jack had wanted to say something to Chloe to reassure her that he trusted her. Chloe just nodded in the response to Bill's words, not happy at all at how this is turning out.
"Jack your name is Alexander Mason. You are a prominent banker and your dead father left you all of his money, so basically both of you are living a luxurious life. Chloe, your new name is Nicole Mason. When you are not helping out with charities, you are making sure that your husband does not find himself in any trouble at the clubs. Even though both of you are very well off you still enjoy going to clubs, and if you want to say parting all night. You are even known for the fact that you throw fabulous parties." This information was not helping Chloe's mood in the least bit. She was a computer person who came from a moderately well off family, this was going to be hell to pretend to be the upper class.
"Tomorrow, which is Friday, will be spent with Karen and Curtis for both of you to find everything that you will need. Then Saturday both of you will be going to the party at the Regis Monarch Beach Resort. Both of you are expected to stay the night, and there are no if or ands about it. Even if you retrieve the files you are to make sure that you stay the night, the rest of the guest are staying and we do not want to alert anyone to the fact that both of you are not who you say you are. There will be time between diner and dancing where you will be able to sneak away."
"Chloe, are you listening?"
"I am hearing every word of it,"
"Good, now I want Jack to get you out of there, and make sure that you get into the mainframe of the computer."
"Couldn't I just hack the main frame from the computers here at CTU?" she asked, trying to find someway out of going into the field.
"Not for this assignment. You have to hack into the database of the Hotel's computer to see what they have been looking at and to see who they have been contacting. All we know it is a file that will say something about the Pentagon. All you have to do is get that file out, save it to a disk and look at it when once you have some time while you are in your hotel room. From there you need to decode the files and report back to CTU immediately." Bill made sure that Chloe understood that there was no way that she was going to get out of this no matter what she threw at him.
"I'll send Karen and Curtis to make sure that both of you has everything that you are going to need for the mission tomorrow morning which gives both of you all day to get ready." Both of them stood their waiting to see if they would be allowed to go home now, or if they would have more thrown on their plate to accomplish.
As Bill dismissed them, Jack and Chloe's thoughts resided on the upcoming mission and on how it was going to affect their life, for both of them felt that once they came back from the mission, everything was going to be totally different.
A knock on Jack's door came at exactly 6 A.M. Once Jack stirred from his bed to look at the clock he quickly threw on some clothes that would be worn for the day.
"Do you even know what time it is?" he asked Curtis who was leaning on the door frame in his apartment.
"I know what time it is, and I am assuming that Buchanan did not tell you what time I would be here to pick you up?" Curtis laughed at the disheveled look of his friend.
"He didn't say a word about the time. If you give me a couple more minutes I will make some coffee and we can talk about what you know about the mission. Bill was so brief about it, which makes me wonder if he just did not know about what was going on or if he really does not have any more info." Jack made sure that he started the coffee pot. He needed to be wide awake today to make sure that he did not forget or overlook anything.
"I would gladly take a cup of coffee but Buchanan made me promise to make sure that you were out of your house by 6:30 and it's almost 6:30, so we have to hurry up."
"You are telling me that it is doing to take the majority of the day for me to have a high quality suit that will pass off as if I own millions?"
"Hey I'm only doing what Buchanan asked." Curtis shrugged his shoulders.
"Fine let's get going," Jack grabbed his jacket and walked out the door behind Curtis.
Chloe could not stop shooting her evil death glare at Karen Hayes during the whole ride to and while they were at the mall. "You could have just bought whatever I needed without me. There was no reason for me to wake up at 6 for this assignment."
Karen laughed, "If I was in charge of this whole thing then I would have let you sleep in a little later, but when Bill asks me to do something and I agree to it, I never go back on my word." Chloe rolled her eyes at this.
"Don't worry this whole thing will be over before you know it and you might even have fun while you are there."
"I highly doubt that," sighed Chloe.
"Come on Chloe, don't judge before you even taste what it is really like."
"Whatever," she said, but she missed the glow coming from Karen's eyes.
Once Jack and Curtis arrived at the store, right away he was ushered into a dressing room for measurement. After being told to put on different suit jackets for about an hour, all of which Curtis turned down. Jack was ready to strangle his friend. Nothing was worth this torture.
As Chloe was looking at the dresses in the shop, she was just about to faint. "Karen do you know how much these dresses are?" she practically screamed across the shop.
"I know very well that they are very costly, but in order to fit in at the dinner I expect you to wear them and look at least a little happy about it."
"That doesn't mean that I have to be happy trying them on."
"I never said that you had to." Karen called one of the clerks over to them and told them that they were looking for a dress for Chloe, as she pointed at her.
"Is there a price range?" the clerk asked.
"No there is not." Chloe's eyes widened.
"Don't worry CTU is paying for everything," she whispered into Chloe's ear.
"Whatever you say, as long as I am not blamed for the price."
"You won't be."
"Then if you please follow me," the clerk said pointing to the dressing rooms, "I will be able to measure you and we can see what size we are looking at."
Chloe had no choice in the matter since Karen pushed her all the way to the dressing rooms.
Jack was having just about as much fun as Chloe was at the moment. It took about two hours to find the right suit. Which did not include any ties or even shirts, and somehow Jack knew that it was going to be a very, very long day.
"You have to be kidding me?" Chloe stared at the high heel as if it was going to bite her. "How do you expect me to be able to walk in this thing and not kill myself?"
Karen laughed, she seemed to be laughing at lot today and it wasn't even noon yet, "I expect you to survive like everyone other women in society."
"I managed just fine without wearing heels, almost my whole life." Chloe started staring at the exact height of some of the heels that were brought to the dressing room they were stationed at.
"While we are waiting for the clerk to bring back some suitable dresses for the party, you are going to learn how to walk in high heels. By the end of the day I expect that when you are walking that you are not going to look like they are uncomfortable. You are going to be comfortable enough that tomorrow night you will be able to dance in them."
"Is that a threat, because you are making that sound very much like one?"
"No, that is a promise."
If Jack thought that finding a suit was bad enough, Jack did not even contemplate what finding a shirt would be like. He wanted to pull his hair out at just the thought, lucky enough for him the selection of shirts that would be sorted through was in the same store.
Curtis wanted to laugh at Jack's reaction of utter disgust, so he made sure that it would be even that more painful to him. After all, everything that he was doing right now was on his free will. He was going to have some compensation for taking his time to do this one way or another.
"Now depending on what color dress Chloe is wearing would depend on what color shirt we were going to buy."
"Why don't you make this as painless as possible and call Karen Hayes so that we don't have to play the guessing game." Jack huffed this out, making sure that Curtis heard how frustrated he was becoming.
"That would be a good idea." Curtis said as he walked away to make the call.
"You would think that we don't save the world on a regular basis." Jack said, sitting down on the couch provided by the store.
"Black."
"What?" Jack did not understand it at all.
"Black."
"Black what?" he asked again.
"A black dress, Chloe is going to wear a simple but eloquent black dress." Curtis smirked as he saw Jack's mind processing what Chloe would look like in a dress."
"They said that they have not yet picked it out, but Karen is trying to go for something that Chloe can pull off and black is in no way showy." Jack thought that black was perfectly fine as he let his mind drift to all the possibilities that could lead to with Chloe dressed in black.
"Here," Karen said as she started handing Chloe the dresses that the clerk brought her, "start trying these on."
"Why are these dresses all black? I mean I like black, but aren't the wealthy more likely to buy colored gowns?"
"They are, but because you are not that comfortable being there in the first place so we are going to put you into something very classy that speaks louder than any of your actions there. It speaks of dignity and elegance that is somewhere inside that body of yours that I will pull out of you before tomorrow. You already started walking with high heel shoes and for the rest of the day so that you are comfortable tomorrow."
"You mean to tell me that I am not done wearing these death traps?" Chloe practically wined at the news.
"You are no where near done wearing those so called death traps of yours, and those are no where nearly as high as the heels that you are going to wear tomorrow."
"These heels are practically two inches what size do you expect me to wear tomorrow?"
"Three."
It seemed that each dress that she tried on was just another dress that was thrown in the no pile and given back to the clerk. Chloe was fed up with trying on dresses. She had never tried on so many dresses on in her life. One dress was too short, while the other was to long. Another had to many sparkles, one had to many pleats, and all the others just did not fit with her body type. Karen always seemed to find something wrong, the only thing that wasn't wrong with all of the dresses were the color.
"If this isn't the one that we are buying, it is now because I am sick of trying everything on." Chloe told Karen who just seemed to be waiting for the perfect dress.
"I am not going to even comment on what you just said to me," Karen said handing her the next dress, "but I have a feeling that we won't be here for much longer."
"You better be right."
This time when Chloe put on the dress she noticed that it fit perfectly. The dress was of high quality, which was definitely something since Chloe would not be able to tell what a cloth's count of threads even if you asked her to. The neckline was high cut clinging to her neck as the straps wound there way around her neck leaving the majority of her back bare for the world to see. The actual dress stopped about three inches from her knees but a see through fabric with black beads lay over it and reached her knees. A couple of layers of the fabric pooled at her knees lying in a bunch as it was cut winder than the other black material.
Chloe was in love with the dress and this time she would kill to actually keep it with her.
Jack definitely wanted to kill Curtis, since he was having a fun argument on whether or not his dress shirt was going to be red or blue. As far as he was concerned either would look good, but no, there was no 'Jack what do you think?' or 'Jack which color do you like better?' so his thoughts did not matter to anyone. It didn't matter if he was going to be the one to wear the shirt or not.
Finally fed up with all of this he grabbed the nearest package and the nearest tie that he could find and threw it at the worker.
"I'll take these." The clerk looked at Curtis, who just shrugged as the clerk rang up the items on the counter.
Unfortunately finding the perfect shoes was not the same case as the dress. No matter what color, shape, size, or design of the shoe Chloe would never be happy with it just for the fact that there was a three inch heel attached to it.
After much staring and death glares sent Karen's way, along with some sent towards the clerk that was trying to help her. (which she felt extremely guilty a couple of hours later after she had not only death glared the poor man into the wall, but had also made him ask someone else to help them out, since he couldn't handle the stress, but if he was trying to help her then he should have found someway to help her get out of the store and not keep shoving different styles of shoes in her face.) She gave in to a pair of shoes. Chloe did not tell anyone that secretly she liked the shoes, but at that point she did not care because it was past noon and she had wanted to eat something before more torture was inflicted on her. They were cute. The shoes had a strap around the ankle and then two straps crisscrossed over her toes. One of the straps that crisscrossed had a heart in it, but for all that Chloe could care, was that those shoes would kill her by the end of the assignment.
It wouldn't be the terrorists that killed Chloe O'Brian it would be those three inch heels.
After the whole trip to the salon the death glare had returned. Chloe was ready to kill this person sitting next to her in the car. Chloe was even tempted with the thought that she could hide Karen's body in her apartment, but somehow, knowing Karen Hayes, that plan of hers would backfire just for the fact that she would be wearing those damned heels. Then, on top of that she would be going with Karen to the hair dresser first thing tomorrow morning so that they can fix up her hair for the assignment. As far as Chloe was concerned her hair was just fine as it is, give her a hair straightener, some bobby pins, clips, and she was all set.
As she was dropped off by the devil, she grabbed the dress as well as all the other bags containing the rest of her clothes for the assignment as well as some make-up that Karen considered absolutely necessary. When ever she was back at CTU, she would make sure that Bill has heard everything.
The day had not been tiring for Chloe only, but it was the same way for Jack. As he lay on his couch, thinking about the assignment tomorrow he thought about Buchanan and how this better be worth it. If the tip off was just a prank, Buchanan might find himself with a very upset agent on his hands.
Morning came before either one of them wanted it to, and before both of them knew it; it was time to head to the party. The day seemed to fly by so quickly and, it seemed, that nothing was accomplished in the time span of four hours. As the limousine approached Jack's house he sighed. This was going to be a very long assignment. He grabbed his pack, giving it to the driver so that he could put it in the back with the rest of the luggage that way it would look like they came together.
The drive to Chloe's house was longer then he expected it to be. Jack had never been one to be impatient, but for some reason there was this tension in the air that did not seem to disappear. He was hoping that by the time that they would reach the party it would go away, because it definitely would still be there by the time that he reached Chloe's house.
'Chloe must not be ready,' Jack thought as he walked up her path noticing that Karen Hayes car was still there. He knocked on the door and smiled at the sounds that were coming from inside.
"See I told you that he would be here soon." Chloe's muffled voiced penetrated through her door.
"Oh relax, he's earlier. We still have some time to finish getting you ready. We would have finished on time if it wasn't for the stupid hairdresser that could not seem to understand what it is like to work under a time crunch. Now stay in the bathroom. I'll be in there just as soon as I let Jack in." Karen opened the door for Jack, invited him in, and prompted him to wait on the couch. "She'll be out in a minute, and if it takes a little longer then both of you will just be fashionably late anyway. It's not like you'll be the only ones late." Karen walked back into the bathroom to finish whatever on God's green earth she had started.
Minutes ticked away as Jack sat there, not really staring at anything in her house. If he was restless before, he was extremely edgy by waiting for Chloe to appear out of that bathroom, or what he assumed was the bathroom. It seemed like a whole hour before there was any movement heard in the room, when in reality it was only 10 minutes.
Jack was floored.
He had never seen Chloe looking as magnificent as he did now. He had nothing to say as the words have left him will only a little bit of coherent thought. Chloe looked stunning in the black dress that Karen had picked out for her. The whole outfit was unbelievable, he, in his whole life, had never seen Chloe wearing anything but flats. The high heels that she now displayed definitely were unconventional, as she claimed, but the shoes alone added to her charm. Her hair was done into an elaborate hairstyle with knots and twists that Jack, even though he is an accomplished CTU field agent, doubted that he would be able to unravel in the best situation. And he definitely had to thank Karen, for the trace amounts of make-up that highlighted her face. Jack highly doubted that Chloe owned that make-up that Karen had applied, because he was almost certain that she would never wear such make-up that would enhance so much.
He definitely had to thank Karen later, but as of right now, the time crunch seemed to shorten as they were supposed to be at the party in about a half hour.
Jack could tell that Chloe was certainly not comfortable under his probing eyes, so he gave her a smile, "Are you ready Nicole to stun with your beauty and charm." This brought a laugh out of Chloe.
"Only if you are, Alexander." Jack took her hands in his leading her out of the house and into the waiting limo grabbing her bag as they walked out.
The ride to the party was uncharacteristically relaxed. As both of them sat there next to each other their thoughts wandered to the upcoming assignment. Neither of them were worried that they would not be able to complete it, but it was just the question of what would change between them. Even though they did not know what was going to be changing, exactly, they knew that they would not be able to survive the mission without some kind of change in their lives.
Upon their arrival at the hotel, the limousine dropped both of them off at the entrance, leaving their bags for the door attendant to pick them up. Chloe had never seen something so big or grand as this place. It was massive building even from the hotels in the city. She looked over to Jack to gauge his reaction. All that she found was the normal, unimpressed Jack that everyone knew. If she had not known any differently she would have assumed that he was used to the finites of the upper class, and he did look the part with a dashing aristocrat with a blood red dress shirt with set off a finely tailored suit. It fit him.
Chloe stayed by Jack's side as he went to the counter to pick up the room keys. When he came back he took Chloe's arm in his and escorted her to the hall. To Chloe, even though it was seven and the party technically started at six, there was hardly anyone there.
"Most people like to be fashionably late so that they can make an entrance that everyone can see. The problem is that if there is no one here when you make the late entrance no one will see you. Now explain that to me." Jack whispered in her ear making her smile. With that said, she thought that this might not be as dangerous as she first thought.
The night traveled by quickly between the dancing in each others arms to drinking. Everyone seemed to accept them. By 10 o'clock nothing had been accomplished but the feeling of belonging between them. It just felt right to be in each other's arms.
They left from the party and watched as the employees walked back and forth across the halls, hurrying to do their job. Once they made it to the main office, Jack was able to open the door without any problems. Go figure, since he might as well be god. They downloaded the files that they needed and brought it back to their room. No one would miss them at the party, so they dicided to see what the threat involved, but once they opened the file up all they could do was stare at the screen in horror. It read:
You two better get together or else…
Love from CTU
p.s. Do not even think about coming back until morning, or else you will have triple shifts to deal with when you get back.
They stared, and stared, and stared at the screen even more. As their senses came back they called up CTU screaming into the phone. "You made us go through one day of hell just so that you can tell us that you think that we should get together?"
"Well did it work?"
Silence came from Jack and Chloe's room as they looked at each other.
"Are you two together yet?" He asked to make sure that they knew what he wanted, "And just to make things crystal clear between us I want you to know that the threats about triple shifts are real. I will be assigning them if you go come back early."
Silence reigned on the other end of the phone as they heard the click of Bill hanging up on them. This was going to be a very long night.
A/N I might write a second part to this… I dunno… what do you think i was going to write a second part and i am also playing with the idea of an alternate ending.. thoughts? liked didn't like... a review would be nice