"Dammit Chloe! You need to stop talking" Jack said with a growl.

Chloe snarked at him "But they can't do this Jack. We have to get out of here now."

"Yeah?" he said sarcastically "and how do you propose we are going to do that now they've arrested us?"

"Well they shouldn't have done that" she said, rolling her eyes as if to say he was an idiot and this current situation was not her fault.

Of course Chloe wouldn't think it her fault; she'd only been standing up for what she thought was right. They had been in the middle of an undercover mission when they'd been asked to move along by a couple of cops. They couldn't tell the cops why they were really there and they couldn't move along because they were waiting for their informant.

Rather than allow Jack to deal with the situation Chloe had decided to lecture the cops about safety on the streets of LA and how they should be out there dealing with real criminals rather than harassing innocent bystanders. As much as Jack had interjected, it was already too late; the older cop had obviously had a bad day and decided to take his bad mood out on Chloe by arresting her for a breach of the peace. When Jack attempted to intervene they'd arrested him too.

And here they were in the back of a police van, handcuffed and being told to expect a night in the cells until they cool off.

"Hey!" Chloe said loudly "you can't do this to us, this is an infringement of our civil liberties."

Jack groaned.

The cop smirked at Chloe "lady, you've been infringing on my civil liberties for the last ten minutes, now shut the hell up before I charge you with wasting my time on top of everything else".

Chloe glared at him and Jack groaned again. He knew that if she could just keep a lid on her feelings for a few minutes they would probably let them go; his experience on the force a few years back told him they would just let them sit in the van and stew while the cops got a late night cup of coffee. Then, when they'd finished they would let them go with a caution. But if Chloe carried on like this they would definitely spend the night in the cells and their mission would be blown.

"You're the one wasting our time, not the other way round" Chloe muttered, slightly quieter now but still within the hearing range of both cops who were now standing outside the van, having a smoke.

Jack had had enough.

Chloe hadn't. "In fact I think I might file an official complaint. Cops are meant to protect innocent people, not act like a couple of assholes. Besides . . . ."

Her words were cut off mid sentence by the pressure of hard lips against hers. She was stunned into silence. What the hell was Jack Bauer doing kissing her? Even with his hands cuffed behind his back, he had somehow manoeuvred his body against hers. She struggled against him for a moment but he successfully pinned her to her seat by swinging his right leg across her lower body while he used his upper body to restrict her movements.

His lips were bruising at first but once she'd stopped fighting him he'd softened his touch and began to gently mould their mouths together, his tongue tangling with hers in an effort to keep her too dazed to fight him again.

Chloe could hear the two cops laughing and joking about how they knew there had to have been a way to shut her up. But their words became distant when the fog of desire set into her brain. She tried to hold onto her logical thought processes but failed miserably. She'd been kissed by plenty of men in the past but she didn't ever remember any of those kisses having this kind of effect on her.

After several moments Jack pulled back. They were both breathing hard and Chloe just stared at him, her expression dazed to the point where she didn't see anything other than the depths of his blue eyes staring right back at her. Jack was relieved she obviously wasn't focusing on the unintentional smile that crossed his face at the sight of her. Not for the first time he allowed himself a moment to imagine what it would be like making love to her; not that she knew his thoughts had travelled in that direction before.

They were interrupted by the sound of a forceful cough. They both turned and stared at the cop who was again entering the van. Jack pushed himself back against his seat.

"Okay" the cop said, "we don't have time to deal with you tonight. We're gonna let you go but a word of warning . ." he moved to un-cuff them and looked at Jack "you need to keep this one on a tighter leash if you want her to stay out of trouble."

"Hey . . ."

"Chloe!" Jack warned, menacingly.

"Okay, okay" she said flexing her aching wrists where the cuffs had been.

They stepped down from the van and Jack smiled apologetically at the cops before leading Chloe away with a firm hand in the small of her back.

"Geez, that's one hell of a fiery woman" the younger cop said to his partner, "bet she's good in the sack though". They both laughed.

Anticipating Chloe's next move Jack pulled her into his side before she could spin around, then marched her away.

"That was rude" she said frowning back at the younger cop when they were a safe distance away.

"Probably true though" Jack said, his expression blank.

Chloe looked at him sharply, then noticed the small smile that lifted his lips.

"Yeah, well; you'll never know" she said, glaring at him.

"I love a challenge" he said simply, but to Chloe his words sounded like a threat, or a promise depending which way you saw it.

Chloe felt her heart skip a beat, a momentary attack of nerves causing her to stumble slightly. She felt herself being pulled even closer into his side so she felt rather than heard the rumble of laughter coming from the man next to her.