"What do you mean the terrorist wants me?" Chloe asked Bill "Why would a terrorist know about me?"
"Chloe, it's Ok. We're trying to find that out now; apparently he has barricaded himself inside a downtown office building and is holding several people hostage. All we know is that he's a white American and he asked for you to be brought to him. We're gonna get to the bottom of this."
Chloe chewed on her bottom lip, feeling anxious. She was no good at this sort of thing. Take her out of her computer comfort zone and she was lost, worse than that she was an emotional wreck. She thought about leaving, getting out of there, and hiding from the situation. She then remembered Ryan Chappelle, he'd tried that but Jack had brought him back and eventually had killed him for the good of the country. A country that supposedly didn't negotiate with terrorists – what a joke.
But Jack wasn't here, had been missing for the past fifteen months. Some people thought he had gone underground again, including his girlfriend Audrey, but Chloe knew that wasn't the case, that he'd been captured by the Chinese. Oh, she had tried to use CTU resources to find him and had received a number of leads which hadn't amounted to much. Even if they had there was no way she could access the help needed to bring him home. That fact alone had haunted her for months, she felt guilty that she hadn't done more, guilty that she hadn't done the impossible. For Jack Bauer nothing was impossible and she so wanted to be able to do that for him, to prove to him that it wasn't always down to him to sacrifice everything for the greater good. She had hoped that when he saw they could manage without him, he would go off somewhere and be happy; for she knew (as he did) the only way that would happen was if he got the hell away from CTU.
Anyway, she couldn't run. For a long time she had aspired to do the best thing, the right thing – she'd learnt that from Jack. She wasn't a coward; it was just that she was nervous in unfamiliar situations. For a long time she'd believed it likely that she would die because of her job. She'd even done a statistical analysis that told her she was unlikely to survive longer than another 5 years in her current job.
She was broken out of her reverie by Bill talking to her, a concerned look on his face "…..we'll protect you Chloe, we won't hand you over to him…"
"Sorry Bill, what was that?…I…I. wasn't really listening…"
"Chloe, this man has threatened to shoot a hostage every thirty minutes if we don't get you to him now. I was saying that Curtis needs you to go with him but don't worry we have no intention of handing you over to him. We just need him to believe that we are going to take you in there."
"Wh….what's the plan after that?"
"We're still working on that one Chloe"
"Great!" she said rolling her eyes and summoning every ounce of courage in her being. She took a deep breath, looked Bill square in the eyes and said, "OK then, where's Curtis? If we're doing this I'd rather get on with it".
Less than twenty minutes later she stood with Curtis outside the office building looking up to the 23rd floor where the hostages were being held. A perimeter had been set up in the area with only CTU and LAPD personnel in the vicinity. Curtis was talking on the phone to one of the hostages trying to coax the terrorist into talking to him without much success.
"What'd he say?" Chloe asked when Curtis hung up.
"He wouldn't talk to me, the hostage told me he was going to kill her in eight minutes if we didn't do as he asked."
"How did the hostage sound? Wh..what else did she say?"
Curtis hesitated, trying to gauge where her question was coming from. "She was upset Chloe, she sounded scared".
"Hmmph. Well then we'd better do as he asks. Call back and tell him I'm going up"
"Are you sure? You don't have to do this Chloe. No-one will think any less of you"
"I will think less of me Curtis" she said with a wry smile "you should know by now that I don't give a rats ass what anyone thinks of me."
"Except Jack" Curtis said returning the smile.
"Yeah, but that's not going to help me now is it? He's not here"
Within a couple of minutes Chloe was riding up in the elevator to the 23rd floor alone. Her heart was almost jumping out of her chest; she was thinking that this is what certain death must feel like. It was inevitable to her that she would die, probably not immediately because the terrorist obviously wanted her for a reason but he would kill her either because she won't do what he wants or because she would stretch his patience – she had that affect on the most patient of people!
She knocked on the door of the conference room where the hostages were being held. Within seconds the door opened slowly, a terrified woman standing there and gesturing Chloe into the room. On one side of the room sat the group of hostages, a dozen in total both men and women. They all had one thing in common; they shared the terrified expression she had seen on the woman's face.
The woman told Chloe to stand facing the other wall with her hands behind her back. Chloe hesitated "Where is he?"
"Please……." the woman begged, tears springing to her eyes and stammering nervously "he said he will kill me if you don't do as I ask"
"Ok" Chloe said turning and walking to the wall the woman had indicated. Within seconds her wrists were handcuffed behind her back then she heard the sound of the door opening and several people moving towards the it, some crying but mostly they were silent. The air was filled with tension. She heard the finality of the door closing, then silence. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves, sighing gently at the realisation that the hostages had been released. Well, she thought, this was novel; a terrorist who was true to his word.
She strained to hear any sound in the room; suddenly she detected the gently rhythmic breathing of another person behind her. The blood rushing through her ears almost drowning out the other's breathing, she tensed her muscles as she felt hands touching her shoulders, surprisingly gentle hands which did nothing to ease the tension she now felt. The hands travelled over her body, patting her down checking for a wire or any other communication device or weapon.
Suddenly a hand was clamped over her mouth, alarm making her struggle a little. She was spun around so she was facing her captor, her eyes level with his neck; her body clutched tightly to his chest. He took a step back although continued to hold her tightly, continued to muffle any sound she would make with his hand. Slowly she looked up, eyes focusing slowly as shock ripped through her – she was staring wildly into the eyes of the person she trusted most in this world. Tears fell as both relief and an overwhelming sadness washed over her at the sight of Jack Bauer.
Slowly he released her mouth from the pressure of his hand. By now, her breathing was both quick and shallow, tears streaming down her face. This was so unlike her, she never cried in front of anyone (except maybe a few tears when Edgar died) but now it felt like she'd never stop. As Jack reached up to wipe a hand across her cheek, as though hoping to stem the flow that way; Chloe mirrored his touch by gently placing her hand on the side of his face. The wonder that was Jack Bauer standing before her, she had to touch him to make sure he was real. Oh God, was she hallucinating? Was this really some evil terrorist and as a way to cope with it had she created a mirage of the person she trusted most?
Chloe gave a short laugh that was partly a growl at her own lunacy. God, maybe she was going mad after all. She stood there now smiling like an idiot, Jack looked into her eyes, returning her smile then gently placing his head against hers in an effort to stem the emotion they both felt. He knew she was relieved it was him and not some crazed man hoping to destroy a US city; and he, well he was just glad to have human contact from someone he thought of as a friend (the first time that had happened in a long time).