Wait For You
This is a sequel to "I Know."
I promise it's got a happy ending!
Chloe had been sat in Buchanan's office for a good ten minutes, and was starting to feel annoyed. Not one for sitting still whilst others around her were busy, Chloe got up and started pacing. Looking out of the glass walls of the office, she could see that Bill was down on the main floor, conferring with Curtis. About what, Chloe wasn't sure, but Director or not he had no right keeping her shut up like that.
Just as she was about to reach for the phone, Buchanan turned and headed back up the stairs. Chloe quickly returned to her seat, but made sure the expression on her face told him exactly how she felt about the situation.
Bill pushed the door open, an apologetic yet business like look on his face.
"Sorry to have kept you, Chloe." He shut the door and walked over to the sofa where she was sat. Instantly she rose to meet him but he motioned for her to sit back down.
"What's this about?" She tried to sound annoyed, but a part of her couldn't help but be intrigued as to why she had been summoned into his office on an ordinary Thursday afternoon.
Bill took a breath. "It's Jack."
Of all the things Chloe had been expecting him to say, this was not one of them. She knew she looked shocked but kept her composure as she said, "What about him?"
She hadn't heard from or seen Jack for over a year now. Of course she missed him, and it was tough, very tough sometimes. Especially at night, when she lay in bed and thought of him, hoping he was okay, wondering what he was doing. Many a night she had cried herself to sleep over him, although she would never have admitted that to anyone.
"He's here. Well, not at CTU. Yet."
Chloe suddenly found that the small room was very oppressive, she couldn't breathe.
Bill studied her face carefully. He knew how she felt about Jack, and how Jack felt about Chloe, although both of them had always been too stubborn and proud to admit it.
"I thought I should tell you, I didn't want it to be as much of a shock to you when he gets here."
Chloe's mind was reeling; she had so many questions she wanted to ask. She settled on the first, most logical one.
"Why is he coming here?"
"I… I had to call him in. I've had a heads up from Division about a possible terror threat from Europe. While Curtis ran the background checks, Jack's name came up. He was involved in a similar case some years ago, and I felt we could use his input. Before you ask, Chloe, I had Milo track him down. I thought it would be too…"
She nodded, the painful truth hitting her. Jack had had no contact with her; that was how he wanted it, and she had to respect that.
"Is that all?"
Her sudden change of tone shocked Buchanan, but it didn't fool him.
"Chloe." He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know this will be hard-"
"I can still work. I have a job to do."
He admired her brave face but at the same time wished she would for once just knock down those defences, defences that had always shut everyone out, everyone except Jack.
"Okay, Chloe. He'll be here soon, about ten minutes."
She nodded. Slowly she stood up and smoothed down her skirt. As she reached the door, she stopped and said, "Thankyou, Mr Buchanan."
He watched her walk back down the stairs and over to the comms station. Curtis looked up as she approached, then glanced up at Bill's office, a questioning look on his face. Bill shrugged. Curtis simply nodded. They had done what they could.
…
It was the third time in as many minutes that Chloe had looked up at the main doors, almost willing them to open and Jack to walk through them. She imagined he wasn't too happy at being called back into his old life, the life he'd been trying to walk away from for so long. But then she knew that Bill probably hadn't had to do much persuading; if it was a matter of national security, then Jack would be there.
"Chloe, have you processed the hourlies yet?"
She looked up, startled at Milo who was just behind her.
"Do I look like I've done the hourlies, Milo? I'll bring them to you when they're done, don't I always? Jeez."
"Alright, don't snap at me."
"I'm not snapping."
Milo knew when to walk away. He'd had many an office row with Chloe to know when he was fighting a losing battle. It had probably been a stupid idea to come over to her anyway, he thought, glancing back over his shoulder at Chloe, whose eyes were alternating between the screen in front of her and the main doors into CTU. Sure, she was usually moody, but today was going to be worse, and Milo knew why. Everyone did.
….
"O'Brian."
"Chloe, it's Jeff in Tech One. One of the drives has crashed. Can you come and take a look?"
"Don't you know how to fix it?"
"Yes… but-"
"Don't they teach you new guys anything? I'll be there in five," she muttered, slamming the phone down angrily. She stomped past Milo and Curtis, who shared a concerned look.
"This isn't going to be good," Curtis muttered.
…
Bill and Curtis strode purposefully towards the main doors as Jack pushed them open, sporting a visitor's badge. It seemed very ironic, but no-one said anything.
"Jack, thanks for doing this." Bill offered his hand which Jack shook sincerely.
"Yeah."
"It's good to see you," Curtis said tentatively, trying to gauge Jack's reaction at his return to CTU.
"You too, Curtis." Jack's tone was friendly, warm. Curtis instantly relaxed, but saw that Jack looked anything but.
Both men watched as Jack's eyes automatically scanned the floor for Chloe, a habit that even after a year away he couldn't break. When he didn't see her, it was as though a part of him shut down, the part that had been willing to come back.
"Let's get this over with. What have you got?"
He followed Bill and Curtis up to Bill's office, thinking back to when it had been his office. That had been many years ago, back in his… old life.
As Curtis showed Jack the intel he had pulled up, Jack tried his best to keep his mind focused. He recognised some of the men; pointed them out. He also filled them in on the mission he had been involved in all those years ago, a mission that, like many, had been kept out of his files.
"Okay, Jack, that's all we have now." Bill rose from his desk. "I can't tell you how much we appreciate this."
"It's fine. I'm in town for a while so if you need me…"
The sentence went unfinished. Even after all that had happened to him, Jack still couldn't let go of CTU, of this part of his life. There was something inside him that was made to do this job, and he was starting to realise that he couldn't keep running from it forever. As Bill had proven with his late night phone call, it had a way of finding you.
The three men shook hands. Curtis offered to walk Jack back out of the building but Jack declined the offer, instead leaving the office alone, taking the stairs quickly back down to the main floor.
….
"There, I think that's it." Chloe hit a few keys and sure enough, the drive roared back into life. "Just don't call me again," she admonished a frightened looking Jeff. "I have things to do. Call Milo next time."
Taking quick strides, she marched out of Tech One and headed back down the corridor to the main floor. She had almost reached the door when a small movement caught her eye.
Chloe paused. "Is someone there? This is a restricted area."
It was also, she remembered painfully, the same corridor where she and Jack had parted ways. She always tried to walk this corridor quickly, and was cursing herself now for having stopped.
She waited for a few moments, then deciding it must have been a trick of the light, took a few steps forward.
"Chloe."
This time she stopped completely, her hand flying to her mouth. Closing her eyes, she slowly turned round, thinking it must be a dream.
"Chloe." He said her name again, this time his voice unsure, faltering.
She opened her eyes and looked at him. He was stood as he had been before, leaning against the wall. The only thing that was different about him was the fact that he no longer looked tired. Chloe realised then that it had done him some good, being away for a while. Being away from her.
"You came back." Stupid thing to say, but what else was there to say?
He shrugged. "Bill called me."
"Have you… are you… are you finished here?"
"I don't know. Bill said he needs to see what sort of intel he can pick up from the leads I gave him. I told him I would be around if he needed me."
"Can't keep away." There was a note of bitterness in her voice, which he instantly picked up on.
"Chloe…" He took a step towards her. To his horror, she backed away. He felt the last shreds of his resolve slipping away. He couldn't do this, couldn't be back here if he didn't have her by his side.
Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Chloe stopped. But he didn't make another move towards her, and they stood like that, not quite looking at each other.
"You seem happy," he offered, finally, hating the silence that had fallen around them. Silence was such an alien concept to him when it came to Chloe- he'd always been used to her voice in his ear. Now, to have her standing in front of him, her eyes not meeting his, he felt useless.
Chloe laughed. "Happy?"
Jack frowned. "Aren't you?"
She rolled her eyes, and he saw tears leak out of the corners. "Yeah, I'm great, Jack. Fabulous."
"No, you're not."
His words shocked him as much as they shocked her.
"Excuse me? Don't you dare judge me, Jack. You don't know anything about me. I might be happy. It's none of your business."
The truth of her words cut him like a knife.
"I wanted you to be happy," he whispered, not trusting himself to speak.
Their eyes met across the hall, and Jack saw the terrible truth she had been trying to keep from him.
"Morris left me."
Her words were simple, her face void of expression.
"Chloe, I'm sorry-"
"Well, he didn't so much as leave me," she continued, as though she hadn't heard him speak, "as I gave him an ultimatum. He was cheating on me. Some… bitch from the shoe store he used to work at. He thought I didn't know. But even if I did, he didn't care. So, one day, I said to him, 'it's either her or me.' And you know what, Jack? He chose her!"
She took a deep breath to steady herself, and blinked back the tears that were building up behind her eyes.
"But that's not the worst part."
Jack waited, watched as she struggled to hold it together. He didn't dare take a step towards her, although he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms while she cried. What stopped him from moving was the raw realisation that was now dawning on him.
"Do you want to know what it was, Jack?" Chloe laughed. "Hell, I guess you won't even care."
"I do care," he told her, fiercely wishing he had said the words sooner.
"Fine. The worst bit is, Jack, I just don't feel anything. At all. I mean, I guess I should be crying or drowning myself in icecream or something but I'm not. I just get up, go to work, go home. I don't even mind that he's not there. In fact, I feel quite relieved." She was babbling but couldn't seem to stop herself. "He had the nerve to tell me it was my fault."
"Son of a bitch," Jack spat, wanting to strangle Morris with his bare hands for what he'd done to Chloe, never mind what he'd done to Jack the year before. "They should never have let him out of custody."
Chloe looked up at the anger in his voice. "They dropped the charges. After you… left… they didn't think it was worth making a fuss of. But Bill fired him right then and there. He went back to the shoe store and… well, things between us were never perfect but they just got worse… hell, why am I even telling you this?"
Jack shrugged. They seemed to open up to each other in ways they never had before, not with anyone. Putting it down to trust, neither had dared to believe that it may be something deeper.
"Well, so now you have to go and I have to get back to work," she muttered suddenly. She wanted him to leave before her eyes betrayed her. When it was clear he wasn't going anywhere, Chloe turned and made to move towards the door. His hand on her arm changed her mind.
"Jack, don't…I have to go." A lump was forming in her throat, her eyes were brimming.
"You said he blamed you… why?" His face was inches from hers, his grip on her arm gentle yet firm. She could have left if she'd wanted to.
"You really don't know, do you?"
"Then tell me."
"He said… he said that our relationship was never going to work if I spent my time thinking about someone else." Her voice rose sharply at the end of the sentence. "There. Now, let go. Let me go, Jack."
He released her arm as if in a daze, not daring to believe what she was saying.
"There… there's s-someone else?" The thought of Chloe, his Chloe with anyone else… the thought of someone touching her… Jack backed away slowly, avoiding her eyes. "I'm sorry, Chloe. I'll leave. I'm sorry."
This time it was her turn to stop him as he tried to slip past her and back out onto the main floor.
"Don't be. Please don't go. Please."
"I'm sorry." One hand on the door, he pulled it open and took a step out onto the floor, away from her.
"Jack, please! I can't watch you walk away again… I can't."
Chloe slid to the floor as her legs buckled beneath her and great gasping sobs escaped her lips. He was at her side in a second, hesitating at first but then awkwardly pulling her to him.
It seemed so natural to be comforting her, to be stroking her hair and murmuring words in her ear.
"It's okay, I'm here," he told her, almost rocking her in his arms.
"You came back," she repeated.
"Yeah. Oh, Chloe…I…"
"It was you."
"Me?"
She smiled through her tears. "The someone else. It was you."
"Me?"
"Yeah, quit repeating me." She slowly reached out and touched his face, as if in wonder. "I never stopped thinking about you."
"I thought I'd lost you," he murmured, his hand covering hers. "I thought I'd pushed you away that day…"
"You tried to. But I'm still here, Jack. Like I said I would be. It didn't matter how long it took you, I was willing to give you until forever to sort yourself out. I was willing to wait."
He stared at her incredulously. "You waited for me?"
As if in answer, Chloe pressed her lips gently to his. "You really are an idiot sometimes, Jack," she whispered, pulling away reluctantly.
He returned the kiss, the two of them melting into each other, clinging on as though they never wanted to let go.
There would be no tears that night.