Jack Bauer looked at his wife and smiled. She was staring in concentration at her screen, her face contorted into a familiar frown. She hadn't noticed him yet, she was too busy trying to figure out whatever problem she was working on. So he took the opportunity to just stand and stare at her for a few moments.
They hadn't seen each other for three months. Although he knew she was there, watching his back like she always did. It had been the hardest undercover mission of his life. He couldn't believe that he had survived it without talking to her. His heart contracted slightly as he saw her glare at one of her co-workers. Everything about her was so familiar to him, was so necessary.
He had decided that this was his last undercover mission. He couldn't bear to be away from her for so long. She had argued with him, telling him she didn't want him to do it for her. He'd assured her he was doing it for purely selfish reasons.
He knew that most people thought that she needed him more than he needed her. But it just wasn't true. When he first acknowledged his feelings for her he'd had nothing left to live for. In fact he'd been sitting at his first wife's graveside with his gun in his hand, with every intention of using it. He'd given himself a moment to think of those he'd cared about. Audrey had married someone else while he was in captivity in China; Kim still hadn't wanted to know him. And everyone else was dead. Everyone important to him that is; except for one.
His thoughts had drifted to Chloe. She'd always been there for him, had trusted and cared for him. And on that day she had saved him without even knowing it. It had taken him months to get her to realise his feelings for her. Months where they danced around each other; until eventually he had managed to get her to see that he didn't want to be without her.
They'd only had a couple of weeks together since their wedding day, then he'd gone on this undercover mission. Chloe had been half convinced that something would happen to him this time, she didn't believe in happy endings. And today was to be their last day working at CTU. They had agreed to leave the day he came back from his mission; IF he came back, she used to say. He'd promised her he'd come back for her, that he would take her away from this soulless place that had been a home for them for many years. He wanted a life and he wanted it with her.
She looked up from her screen then, noticing him leaning against the wall for the first time. Her face relaxed and she met his warm smile with a small upward curve of her lips at the same time as tears stung her eyes. She pushed herself away from her station and stood, ignoring the questions fired at her from one of her team.
She walked towards him, her head down in an attempt to hide the emotion that was etched in her features. She hated people knowing what she was feeling. When she reached him he pulled her against him, burying his face in her hair. He lifted her slightly so he was half dragging, half carrying her as he opened the door of the room directly behind them.
And then he was kissing her, tasting the saltiness of her tears as they continued to fall unheeded from her eyes. The warmth and taste of her left him aching for more, the familiar ache in the pit of his stomach pushing him on. Eventually when he could no longer breathe he drew back.
"Thank you" she said, her voice trembling.
"For what?" he asked.
"For coming back to me."
He took her face in his hands, rubbing his thumbs against the curve of her cheekbones. His gaze captured every contour of her face and his heart swelled with love for this woman who had finally given him something to come back to.
00000
Chloe woke from the dream, the moisture from her tears trailing down her cheeks. She felt the gnawing knot of despair that was a familiar part of her daily routine. She always woke with a sense of despair.
She moved to the edge of the bed and swiped at the tears still falling. Eventually she got up and walked to the bathroom where she examined her profile in the mirror. She saw the lines drawn across her face and the dull greyness of her complexion. She knew she was ill, knew she was dying.
She closed her eyes against the injustice of life. Every night she prayed for the end, every night she dreamed of what should have been, yet every morning she woke to a life that held no meaning.
He had been visiting her every night in her dreams for thirty years since that day he failed to come back to her, after only weeks of being together. She closed her eyes so she could picture him standing in front of her, he looked the same and she could sense him, smell the essence of him in the room with her. The senses were growing more powerful, she knew he was here with her. She'd often felt him with her but now he seemed to be there all the time, she drew comfort from that, knowing it was his way of telling her he was waiting, that they would be together soon.
She sighed as she went about her morning routine thinking that tomorrow was another day and hoping it was a day she wouldn't see. Thirty years had been too long to wait to be with him again and she didn't want to wait another day.