Extrapolation
Chapter 1

It hadn't gotten them anything new. The prisoner had refused to talk, this defiant dedication, rooted in faith? Conviction? The happy thought he used to fly like Peter Pan? The prisoner's continued lack of cooperation had only spurred the questions on harder, more 'incentive' to answer given each time. He hadn't spoken of information and plans but of begging and cursing at the interrogator. It wouldn't be long before he finally cracked. That much was evident. After all, the human body could only take so much 'incentive,' and if the man thought he had taken all that his captor could dish out, he was sorely mistaken...as he would soon realize...

One final look was sent towards the prisoner, a very dark and dangerous look which promised that what this man just endured was nothing compared to what lay ahead should he not cooperate. He still said nothing of consequence. The prisoner had multiple bruises, a split lip, and likely a broken rib or two. The captive was in immense pain and it wouldn't be long before he broke. The agent could hear the subject's breathing, and the look in his eyes had been hidden under a mask of concentration, but even this couldn't hide the underlying glint of terror.

With other leads to be followed and this getting them nowhere, the interrogator exited the room, addressing the person who stood in the hallway waiting.

"He's close to cracking."

"I'll get Marcus in there to finish up, but they've got a lead for you on the floor."

"Then he's all yours, Bill."

Exiting the hallway, Chloe O'Brien emerged on the floor of Los Angeles CTU. The ever-present buzz of technology and people at work was punctuated by the tri-tone ringing of telephones. Only a few acknowledged her presence as she made her way to Tech 1, taking her cell phone out as she went and calling a number.

"Bauer."

"Jack, it's me. I heard you got something."

"Word travels fast." There was a flurry of typing in the background and craning her neck she saw that he was balancing the phone between his ear and his shoulder.

"It's a relatively small office." She'd been in transit as the conversation had been running. There was a click on the line as she closed the phone and continued without missing a beat. "It's amazing that anything remains secret, especially here, given what we do for a living."

He turned to the side for a moment, his head still tilted holding the phone, only then realizing that she was standing behind him. With a small roll of his eyes, he grabbed the handset and put it back in the cradle. She knew that look and Chloe kept an amused smirk suppressed as she took a look over his shoulder at the monitor.

"We intercepted a call from Harris."

"The contact?"

"Yeah, unfortunately tracing the number showed it came from and went to disposable cells. Triangulated the signals and got an address. Teams went out, there's nothing there. Empty lot and a factory building. Didn't find any traces, but a couple of blank papers. Lab analyzed them; again, nothing. But someone called in a suspicious person-"

"Matching Harris' description?" Chloe didn't even wait for his response. "Where?"

"Out near Anaheim." He turned from the monitor, looking at her for a moment. "It's worth noting that our last reports have them near Compton. We sent teams out and we're waiting on word. Anything from the interrogation?"

He stood, after pressing a few buttons on the keyboard. Grabbing the phone he called over to Tech 2. "Yeah, sent something to your screen... Uh huh, the encryption...Thanks."

Hanging up he grabbed his cellular phone from the desktop and walked with O'Brian.

"Nothing...yet." She let a little air escape her lips before continuing. "Marcus is in with him. So it's only a matter of time."

Chloe closed her eyes for a moment. Her head was killing her, but she had been ignoring it, having already taken something... it didn't help matters that she'd had a pretty rough time bringing the suspect in. She hadn't had time to slow down yet, much less look in a mirror, but she knew that she had a bruise somewhere on her face from when she had been caught off guard by the man now being broken in the interrogation room. It could have been much worse, and Chloe O'Brian would not complain about something so superficial.

How long had they been on the clock? A day? Two days? Three? At this point Jack couldn't be certain, but he knew that he was, at the very least, on his third cup of coffee. It was days like this (or several days like this) that, despite it all, focused him the most. The smallest detail in the data could mean life or death... This focus was now brought in on the clear signs of fatigue being shown by Chloe. As her hand came up and unconsciously brushed some hair behind her ear, showing him the bruise, a frown passed over his features.

"Chloe, you should go get checked by medical."

It wasn't an illogical suggestion but under the circumstances there wasn't the time...

"I'm fine, Jack." A slight shake of her head accompanied her comment. "And besides that, what could they do for it? It's a bruise. It'll heal," she shrugged, letting the concern roll off like it was nothing. This was Chloe O'Brian's way. Wait till it was all over then pull for recovery time. In other words, she ignored it until it was more convenient.

He knew that it wouldn't do any good to pursue this line of conversation, thus he tried switching topics, but she beat him to it.

"Shouldn't be too long..." She was shifting her weight every couple of seconds and it reminded Jack of a two year old who was instructed to stand and not do anything for a time... It was the latest in what had been a series of fidgets. Jack was still looking for a pattern in their appearance, trying to tell what was going on when each occurred, but thus far he had been unable to track it yet.

Jack tried to engage in some semblance of small talk but his conversation partner seemed to have other things on her mind. Her eyes kept glancing in the direction of the room.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked finally.

"'Okay' is a relative term, Jack," she said with a slightly skeptical look.

"Well then are yo-"

Attention was temporarily distracted as several members of the medical staff ran passed them and towards the interrogation room. It was only a moment later that Chloe's cell phone rang.

"We got it!" And with that, Chloe tore down the hallway, Jack following her, knowing that right sudden dash could only mean one thing.

The prisoner was bloodied and unconscious and the medical personnel were trying to get him onto a gurney when they arrived. Chloe didn't waste a minute.

"So what do we have?"

"An address and a possible safe house location," Marcus reported, wiping his brow with a cloth.

"Sounds like we've finally got a lead," Chloe's eyes narrowed. She was ready to get to work. "Okay, pass the information to ops. Jack, relay it to me enroute."

"No. It's too big, Chloe. I want you to take Marcus with you."

Chloe's eyes focused on her boss as she heard just what he was saying. She hadn't gone four steps before the words hit her ears. She knew the implications and she didn't like them. "How many times do we have to go over this, Bill? I don't work with partners. Not anymore."

Bill Buchanan looked at the petite woman standing in front of him with a sigh. "And we've had this argument before as well, Chloe. Now I respect your judgment and your opinions, and normally I wouldn't question your clear opposition, but this time I can't take no for an answer."

Chloe's eyes narrowed as Bill continued. She was doing her best to keep from getting too angry, but this was one of the points she had promised herself...

"Bill I really don't have time for this. Do you forget my track record with partners?" she said was calm...too calm. "Do you really want to lose another field agent? Not one, but two have died after being partnered up with me. And don't tell me that it's part of the job, Bill. You haven't seen that look in their eyes the moment before they find themselves bleeding out..." she let the sentence trail off. "Like I said. I. Work. Alone."

"And I say that I'm sending Marcus with you whether you want him there or not!" Bill Buchanan was not backing down.

Chloe's glare intensified. She wasn't going to win this one and as much as she didn't want to admit it to herself, deep down she knew it.

"I'm not taking responsibility this time, Bill," Chloe said, she'd taken a moment to calm down before speaking again. "But mark my words. If something happens to Marcus, I'm done! It'll be on your head! Not mine." With that she turned on her heel and walked back onto the floor. "Stiles." Edgar was on the phone and at first didn't hear her until she got closer. "Edgar!" He jerked his head towards Chloe. "C'mon, you're with me. I need you to walk me through a scenario." And with that she walked off towards an empty office.

As Chloe walked off with Edgar Stiles, Bill Buchanan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose, his glasses secured in his pocket. Through this back and forth Jack's presence had been practically forgotten. Watching this argument and the aftermath, he knew that there wasn't anything he could say.

"Jack," his attention was pulled from the retreating woman to his boss. "Jack, I want you to keep an eye on her... I need you running comms for this operation. I have a feeling that she might do something..."

"Something unorthodox?" Jack supplied.

"That's a good way of putting it, Jack, but we both know that that doesn't even scratch the surface of what could happen." With a last look that could interpret as concern or even worry, Bill walked off towards his office.

Jack Bauer stood in the corridor for several moments, thoughts of this latest altercation in flowing through his mind. This hadn't been the first time an argument over this subject had happened. Chloe O'Brian was very particular about how and who she worked with. One might say that the job was what got to a person. That one person would be absolutely right, and where O'Brian was concerned, there was a very good reason.

Jack had been part of been part of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorism Unit for years before he was introduced to Chloe O'Brian. In the seven years since O'Brian had joined CTU as a field agent she'd seen things that would keep any good therapist busy for years. Somehow she had been able to keep it together... Then came December Fifteenth and September Seventh. That first day, the shoot out with Gabriel Varrek, from that Jack had been sure she'd been able to recover from, and he'd been right. Chloe had done just that, slowly, and with help from psych services (forced as she was to use them)... with the help of professionals and her friends she'd been able to move on.

With the Illians Incident two years later, Jack had done everything he could to help her. It had taken a lot for her to rely on another after the Varrek shooting and the loss of her first partner, Daryll Haskel. She had stopped dwelling on the what-ifs and the if-onlys and the weight on her heart and shoulders finally seemed easier to bear. She'd finally made peace with it all, and then it struck again. Mason's death had hit her with the impact of two. The memories, the guilt and pain resurged and in Jack's presence she'd sworn that she would never work with another partner.

Chloe had taken some time off after the Illians Incident. In truth, the time, like the intervention of CTU's psych services after Daryll's death, had been forced upon her. She would much rather have stayed in the field, but Bill Buchanan, who had been very understanding during these trying times, had put his foot down and as he was prone to do, did not budge from his executive decision. She'd taken her forced sabbatical in her apartment in LA, where she entertained visits from Jack and from the psychiatrist who came once a week, and with her parents out in Arizona. At first she hadn't wanted to see her parental units, but Jack had convinced her, telling her that there was nothing better than a family for support... the irony of his own word had not and did not escape him.

The fact that Chloe's parents didn't know exactly what their daughter did for a living had helped matters. Not that it was a secret, but Chloe O'Brian did her best to separate work and family. It was difficult, she often complained that when her parents called asking about how life was going, she couldn't really be honest with them... How could someone tell their parents that their days consisted of shooting people dead in self defense... That she spent her work hours interrogating suspects using methods that could be considered breaches of the Geneva Convention?

The first visits with her family had been supervised. That had been how the psychiatrist, Doctor Amy Millner, had put it. The doctor had been worried about how she would react to her family, it was a legitimate concern. Chloe herself was worried about that very same issue. But "supervised" was never the word that was used by anyone other than "the doc." This concern, however, was the reason for Jack's accompaniment on these early trips. It was a change of scenery, the hot mountainous region known as the Mojave Desert was quite a stark contrast to the city of Los Angeles.

All her parents had been told were the basics: That her partner had died and that she was in need of some time at home, someplace she was comfortable. Jack had to smile to himself as he remembered the day he'd said he'd go shopping with Chloe and her father. When he tried to find out the next afternoon around mid-day when they were going, he'd been told the two had already gone... It was a habit that they had picked up when they'd lived in Henderson, Nevada: the afternoon would be too hot to go out, thus they woke at five in the morning to go out and run errands. The look on his face must have been amusing because that had been the first time Jack had heard her laugh in weeks... It was in moments like those that he was reminded just how unique and extraordinary Chloe O'Brian was. How strong she was.

He was pulled from his thoughts by the passing proximity of a returning Edgar Stiles. The large man seemed lost in thought. 'Probably going over that scenario in his head,' Jack thought to himself. He pushed off the wall, where he'd been standing with his arms crossed, and started towards the office Chloe had taken over, only to meet her half way.

He wanted to say something, make sure she was alright, his eyes held the question, but Chloe was not responding to the silent inquiry.

"Jack, we're leaving in fifteen," her voice was very controlled. "Let's to do this right and get everyone back alive."

She again looked up at him, noting his nod and the look he had on his face and ever so slightly her lips tried to form some sort of a smile, if it was meant to reassure him it had fallen short of its goal. He was about to speak, but-

"Chloe, they want you for final checks."

The message's delivery meant that they needed her...now. No time for delays.

"See you on the comm, Jack." That said she turned away from him without a second look, pulled out her cell phone and pressed a few buttons as she walked. "Yeah, it's me. I'm on my way... Yeah, I saw the file..."

His thoughts followed the petite field agent even as she disappeared through a door at the end of the corridor. He turned back towards the floor and Field Ops, looking over his shoulder at where she'd gone, not even noticing as a folder was pressed ino his hand.