"What to you call this place?" asked Jack as they climbed the stairs.

"We like to think of it as CTU," Bill answered, "at least what's left of it".

Jack wondered how it all has come to this. As he put his briefcase on a table, he heard Chloe's voice calling his name. He turned and saw her standing at the doorway to another room, stunned to see him. It had been almost 4 years since he had skipped town to run away again. So seeing her after so much time was very overwhelming. Saying her name was all he could say to make his brain believe it.

"It's good to see you," said Chloe, no knowing what else to say.

They were always on the same wave length because that's what he felt too, to put it mildly, and how could he not tell her that. He wanted to say so much more but the time wasn't right. They had another crisis to deal with and they weren't exactly alone.

When they had all explained themselves to him, they were preparing to send Jack and Tony to the undercover mission. Just as they were ready to go, Jack heard someone's footsteps from the stairway. He quickly turned and was about to draw his gun but stopped cold when he saw a little child running up the stairs. He couldn't be no more than 3 years old little boy who, reaching the top of the stairs, started yelling "mommy, mommy" and ran past Jack to the arms of the only woman in the room as a startled Jack just looked at the reunion with disbelief.

„Hey little guy, what are you doing here?" asked a bit surprised Chloe.

„He was crying a lot and wanted to see you„ says a woman, climbing the stairs, who Jack wasn't familiar with, „ I know you said not to bring him here anymore, I'm sorry".

It angered Chloe that the babysitter had decided to ignore her orders but didn't want to get into it in front of her son.

„Just don't do it next time, or at least call me first" was all she could say.

While this was going on, Jack had collected himself and turned to Bill

„I didn't know Chloe had a baby. Whose child is it?"

Chloe who had heard that said quickly, „It's my child!"

„Yeah, I get that," Jack let out a small laugh, „I just meant who is the father?"

„Morris got me pregnant before he died," Chloe bluntly answered, „Happy now?".

Bill and Tony changed glances as Jack didn't understand why Chloe got so defensive. So Jack decided to get acquainted with the little boy. He scrunched down and looked at the boy with the biggest smile anyone had ever seen on Jack Bauer, a smile that he wore very rarely these days. Chloe was standing right behind his son who seemed a bit scared of the man scrunching before him but he quickly warmed up to him.

„Hi, what's your name little guy?" Jack asked an innocent question but everyone in the room, besides Jack, just froze up. Chloe couldn't believe that she hadn't thought that this situation would come about. She tried to think of a way out of what was coming next but didn't come up with anything realistic. So now there was no going back.

„Hello, my name is Jack," the boy returned the innocent question with an innocent answer.

An overwhelming shock washed over Jack as he slowly drew his conclusions. He just sat on the floor looking at nowhere particular and just tried to get some sense of it all.

Chloe knew that when he would come out of his initial shock, all hell would break loose, so she quickly decided to do some damage control. She told the little guy she would see him in a few hours and asked the babysitter to take him home. Then she looked at Tony and Bill with a look that dared them to stay there. Neither of them really wanted to be there when Jack comes out of the shock, so they just left, almost running.

Now with only the two of them in the room, she started to think what to say to him.

„I'm sorry, Jack, that it came out like that," Chloe started with regrets, "I wanted to tell you myself, I wanted to-"

"How is this even possible?" yelled Jack, and with a reason, Chloe knew that.

Jack come to his feet and standing there a few feet away, looking straight to her eyes, asked again with a more quieter voice "how is this even possible, please tell me because I don't understand".

Chloe collected her breath before she spoke, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy.

"Almost four years ago, the day after you got back from China. Do you remember where you ended up?"

"At your place," Jack answered with a quizzical look," I woke up in your bed, you told me that I had crashed there the night before, but you didn't say a word about something else happening between us," he said with an hint of anger evident in his voice.

"No, no, I didn't, I'm sorry about that," Chloe responded with a very chloe-like answer.

"Chloe, start talking, " Jack ordered gruffly.

"You showed up at my doorstep that night, totally messed up. You had probably been drinking the whole day since you came back from seeing Audrey. When I opened the door, you looked at me like I have never seen you looking at anybody. It's hard to put in words but i was stunned and we stood there for what seemed like an eternity.

I didn't know what you were gonna do or say, but you didnt say anything. You just grabbed me and kissed me like there was no tomorrow."

Chloe looked at Jack who was trying hard to remember but ended up with nothing. He wanted to say something, probably apalogize, but she continued

"I was shocked, to say the least, and things just happened from there on. We ended up in the bedroom, you were really forceful and the look on your face told me that you wouldn't have really taken no for an answer."

Jack who had till then listned to her quietly, pushed her to the wall. His face was only inches from hers with sudden anger written all over his face. He looked at her with all kinds of emotions running through his mind and asked "So it was a rape?" the sound of his voice barely audible.

"No, Jack, of course not," voiced Chloe, shocked that he could even think that he was capable of something like that, especially with her. But she quickly realized that maybe she hadn't done the best job explaining it and now looking at his deep blue eyes that mirrored so much fear and pain , she knew she had to make it absolutely clear to him that what happened that night was what they both wanted. If she didn't, their relationship would never recover, he would never recover. But she had to do it without being totally honest.

"Wasn't it really? That's not the idea I got from your explanation," he demanded the truth, all sorts of questions running through his head. Mainly the question if it was true, how, just how could he have done it to her, the most important person in his life besides Kim. The only person he trusts and...he knows that he is to her the only person that she would trust her life with...and he did this to her? He couldn't really wrap his mind to it as unbelievable as it all seemed but his thoughts were cut off by her next words.

"No, it wasn't a rape" she almost yelled with disgust evident in her voice, "if I really wanted you to stop, I would have found a way. You know I can take care of myself. If I had started to kick and scream, you would have come out of the hypnosis or whatever you were trapped in. But I didn't want to, okay- I gave you what you needed, like I always do." The last sentence was said with a calmer voice after a short break in her tirade.

Now silence fell in the room as the two of them just looked at it each other with no more words needed. Chloe knew that he believed her and that was all that mattered. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly like he never wanted to let go as he felt that he almost lost her for good. He had a lot of questions but right now he just needed to be close to her.

They had stood there for what seemed like forever when jack finally broke free and just looked at her with an un readable face.

"We have a son together?!" he said as more of an statement than a question.

"Yeah, we do".

It was all too much for Jack. He made his way to the nearby couch and just sat with his head on his hands.

"I'm sorry, " Chloe bit off, " I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner but I thought it would bind you to us. I didn't want you to be forced to do anything you really wouldn't want to do. "

Jack said nothing

"I'm sorry that it came out like that but I want you to know that you are not forced to do anything. When the day is over, you can just go on to hiding and not worry about us. Little Jack is my responsibility. I let things go that far."

She was turning to leave when she felt being thrown against the wall again.

"Don't think about it. Don't even say it. You're not going anywhere with him. Do you understand? "

Chloe couldn't figure out the meaning of the words but she just nodded as he quicly kissed her with such force she had felt the night they had made little jack.

He stopped but only inches away.

"I have to go to the mission," said Jack. "But I will be back."

With that he grabbed his bag and left, giving her only a unreadable side look. He was angry, she knew that much.

He kissed her with such a force that it frightened her for a second. Her hands were all over her as he picked her up and made his way to the bedroom all the while kissing her with all he's got. He almost threw her on the bed and started to unbuckle.

Chloe knew what that meant and knew how wrong it was as he was totally wasted but she couldn't deny it to the neither of them. She would just lay there and watch him now totally naked and ready for her. He got on top of her and basically ripped her night gown and panties off. Well, she wasn't sure how damaged they were but she knew that she wouldn't be able to wear those pieces of clothing again.

Last coherent thought actually was that the only thing not making it look like a rape is her not yelling 'NO' which was even a bit amusing. As she thought that with any other man that would just be what she would do, but with Jack...it was all she wanted from him any way he wanted. So at no possible reason she could say no to him. He was her everything-everything she wanted.

It was over quickly as he just took what he needed as fast as he could and when he had came he just fell a sleep not waiting for her. But she wasn't too sad. Orgasm wasn't exactly the most important for her. Just the feeling of having him inside her was enough. The only man she thought she would never have was inside her and they shared an intimate night together. Those were her last thoughts before she too fell asleep, of course in his tight grip.

She woke up early, way before him. She looked over at his direction and got totally freaked out. It's not possible, they hadn't done the obvious were her first thoughts but memories of the night before came quickly. For a second she let herself have a little smile remembering it but then quickly came to an understanding. He could never know.