Always

She tangled her fingers in the soft hair on his chest, pulling herself closer to him. His arms were locked around her, his chin resting on her head of damp brown hair and his rapid heartbeat matching her own.

Every so often he would drop small kisses on her forehead and tighten his already vice like grip round her waist, but no words were spoken. Nothing needed to be said.

A small whimper escaped her lips, breaking the silence that had fallen like a cloud, cocooning them from the outside world.

"Chloe?" He released her and tilted her face up to meet his, shocked to see the sheen of tears behind her already tired eyes.

She bit her lip, shook her head, the tears falling despite her efforts to stop them.

"Oh, baby, don't cry." His own voice was choked, her distress clearly affecting him. He began smoothing her hair out of her eyes, catching her tears with his thumbs. Gradually, she stopped trembling and curled up against him, needing to be close, needing to hear his heart beating beneath her ear.

"I love you," he whispered, certain she couldn't hear him as he replaced his arms around her and settled back into the sheets.

"I love you, too, Jack," she murmured.

It was a while before they fell asleep, fighting the exhaustion that would take them from each other when the night inevitably gave way to morning.

….

The sunlight was pouring in through the half opened curtains, blinding Chloe as she slowly opened her eyes. The sound of the radio drifted into the bedroom, confusing her. Had she forgotten to turn it off? But she never listened to the damn thing anyway… Her brain argued with her, trying to warn her that something was wrong but her tired body wouldn't cooperate. She fell back into the pillows, curling up into a ball and pulling the sheets tight around her.

After ten minutes she realised sleep had left her, and pushed back the covers in frustration. The pillow was damp, adding to her discomfort. Alarm bells sounded once more in her head, and this time Chloe paid attention to them, noting for the first time the empty space beside her. Worried, she got out of bed and walked over to the windows, throwing the curtains open completely. Passing a mirror, she noted the dark bags under her eyes, and the tracks of the previous day's mascara running down her cheeks.

Memories flashed through her mind and she ran from the room, towards the direction of the radio. If she could just switch it off…

A familiar sight met her as she approached the kitchen. He had his back to her, busy cooking breakfast, singing along to the inane song playing softly from the speakers. Upon hearing her thudding footsteps, he turned and smiled.

"Morning, love. Would you like some breakfast?"

Chloe felt her stomach lurch but she stayed where she was, her eyes disbelieving.

"Morris? What are you doing here?"

She saw a brief look of shock flit across his face, but then he was laughing. "I live here, love. Me and you. Married. Living together. Makes sense, yes? My God, was it a late night last night? I wish you wouldn't spend so long on that laptop," he added, turning back to the food.

"What? No!"

Chloe ran from the room and quickly back up the stairs, her breath coming in gasps. Her brain was screaming at her now, blocking out the sound of Morris calling after her. She tore into the bedroom but it looked just as it had minutes before, the unmade bed and… Morris's things on the bedside table…

She felt strong hands on her shoulders, turning her round. Defeated, she didn't argue.

"Chloe, what's the matter?"

"Jack… Jack was here! Morris, he was… wasn't he?" She stared into his eyes in desperation, and the sadness she saw there confused her.

"Oh, Chloe," was all he murmured, before pulling her into his arms.

….

The drive to work was awkward. Morris had insisted on taking the wheel, and as a result they were crawling through the mid-morning traffic at a pace that set Chloe's teeth on edge. He hadn't mentioned her earlier outburst, but she knew he wanted to say something. The glances he occasionally threw her way told her he was debating whether it would be safe or not to broach the subject, but he obviously thought better of it, and pulled into CTU after thirty gruelling minutes of silence.

"Chloe, wait!" he called, as she hurried ahead while he locked the car. She barely slowed her pace, Morris taking strides to keep up with her as she wrenched open the door into the main building.

"Chloe, love…" He trailed off helplessly, realising his attempts would be futile. She didn't look at him as they rode the elevator up to the main floor, walking quickly away towards the women's locker room without a word.

He managed to catch her as they left the situation room following the morning briefing. He'd spent the meeting trying to pay attention to Bill, but his eyes kept flicking to Chloe. Chloe, however, was focussed solely on the task in hand, and reacted angrily to his grabbing her arm and pulling her into a side corridor.

"Would you let go of me?"

"Chloe, I'm worried about you." Morris reluctantly loosened his grip, but she stayed where she was. "You're not sleeping. I think we need a break away from here. I'm going to book us a holiday. What do you think?"

She nodded. "Yeah, fine. Sounds good." Chloe forced a smile onto her face. "Would be nice to have a break," she admitted.

Morris smiled. "Okay. I'm finishing at four today, I'll see what I can do." He kissed her gently on the lips before taking her hand and leading her back out onto the floor.

True to his word, Morris left at four, promising to have a holiday booked and dinner waiting for her when she returned home.

Chloe had been sat at her station all day, not even breaking for lunch. The files Bill had her working on were time consuming but needed to be done. He'd said he could only trust her to do it, she was the best analyst they had… before off-loading thirty discs into her arms and returning to his office.

Taking her eyes from the screen, Chloe looked now towards the stairs and up at the glass walled room where Bill spent a lot of his time when there wasn't a national crisis. She could see him sat at his desk, talking animatedly to someone on the phone. From the angry look on his face, she could tell it probably wasn't a social call with Karen.

Her eyes scanned the upper floor, resting on the office just down the hall from Bill's. Field ops had had a quiet day, too, with only a handful of agents called in. The light in Jack's office was off, the blinds drawn. Chloe realised she hadn't seen him all day.

….

For once in her career at CTU, Chloe left on time. On the drive home, she idly found herself wondering where Morris had booked their holiday. He was right; they could use a break, especially as she wasn't sleeping-

Chloe swerved, taking a sharp left into the path of an oncoming car. Ignoring the beeps of other angry drivers, she put her foot down on the gas, heading towards the one place where she knew she would find him.

It was almost dark by the time she pulled up on the makeshift gravel parking lot. There were no other vehicles around, the only sound being that of the waves crashing against the shore.

She walked slowly down the stone steps and onto the sand, feeling it seep into her shoes but not caring as she glanced around, taking in her surroundings. This was the only place he could be.

Finally, she saw him approaching, limping slightly from an old wound in his leg. He was wearing the same black t shirt and black jeans that he'd had on that morning. His hair was dishevelled, and as he neared Chloe could see dirt on his cheek.

It was a moment before he spoke.

"You found me."

"Well, someone had to look out for you." Chloe's eyes shifted to her feet. "What am I doing here, Jack?"

"Someone needs to look out for you too, Chloe." His tone was gentle and brought tears to her eyes. He reached out as though to pull her into his arms but both of them knew that he wouldn't, he couldn't. Chloe watched as his hand stopped inches from her, that familiar sad smile on his lips.

"I'll always be here for you, Chloe."

Chloe nodded, unable to speak.

The wind suddenly picked up, blowing her hair wildly around her face. She impatiently brushed it back and blinked against the sand now stinging her eyes.

"Jack?"

She found herself alone, yet strangely calm. Taking a deep breath, she turned and walked back to her car, his words repeating in her head.

"I'll always be here for you."

And she would always come back, always return to the one place where they could be together.

Just like the light would always be switched off in his office, the blinds drawn to keep out prying eyes.

They had saved each other so many times over the years, neither verbally acknowledging the deep bond of trust that ran like a lifeline between them. In the end he had given up everything to save her.

Too late, she'd run to him, begged him not to go, but of course he had, holding her in his arms and promising he would come back to her.

The explosion twenty minutes later told Chloe that she'd lost him, this time for good. She felt her world ripped apart as Bill had offered words of sympathy. She couldn't remember what he'd said, couldn't remember anything after that other than running as fast as she could towards the car and driving, just driving for miles until she'd found this secluded beach, where she sobbed until her heart broke.

Every night since, she had fallen asleep in his arms, tears pouring down her face as she desperately tried to cling on to the moment, fearing the morning when he would be taken from her once more.