Author's note" Here is the last chapter. This was so much fun to write and I must thank by Beta again, Tigerlilly ,you are wonderful and you truly helped make this story better. I hope to have another story ready to post soon. Thanks for reading and leave a review.
Disclaimer: Don't own 24 and I never will. :(
Chloe watched him disappear into the bathroom sat down on the bed, still unsure that she could believe that this was all happening. A knock at the door shook her from her thoughts. With a sigh, she called, "Come in."
The nurse wheeled the bassinet into the room with Toni inside. Mary checked the bracelets on the mom and baby to make sure they were the right ones and left. Lifting the baby into her arms, Chloe said, "Hello, Antonia Michelle. I am your mommy and I love you very much." Chloe touched the baby's fingers with her own. Toni grabbed one of the fingers with her hand.
Jack found her that way when he left the bathroom, dressed in the scrubs. "May, I hold her?"
Chloe passed the baby to him and smiled as she watched Jack with his new daughter. Toni was happy for a few minutes, but then she let out a loud cry and Jack handed her back to Chloe, "I think she needs wants to eat."
Laughing as he turned away to give her privacy, Chloe began to breastfeed. She was about to say something when his phone rang, "Bauer."
"Dad, it's Kim. I just got your message. The hospital won't let me come until ten o'clock. I'm heading over to Chloe's house. I should be there in about twenty minutes, where do I find the key?"
"Just around the back, it's under the third paving stone from the step, but the door may be open. I am not sure I locked it when I left. Chloe's bag should be right by the door. For me just grab whatever you can find, my room is the second on the left."
"What is the baby, boy or girl?" Kim asked switching gears.
"Girl, Antonia Michelle, for the Almeidas." At the end Jack's voice got quiet and Kim knew that he was remembering why they died. "So, I will see you later today then?" Jack asked after a moment.
Kim was amazed at the change in her father. Only a few months ago he would have not been able to pull out of the funk like that so quickly. Then Kim realized what she heard in his voice: happiness and contentment. Those were not two words that she would have associated with her father since her mother's death. Even when she saw Audrey and him together, there was part of him that was still dark and sad, but now that was gone.
Kim had to see what had created that change – was it Chloe, the baby or both? "Yes, I will see you in a few hours." Then she paused to gather courage, "I love you dad."
Jack closed his eyes and said, "I love you too, Kim." and hung up the phone.
Crossing to the window, Jack watched the city move about, oblivious to his joy and peace. He stayed that way until he heard Chloe lay the baby down in her bassinet. Her hand touched his shoulder, "Jack, are you all right?"
He turned to face her and she was holding out her hand to him. As he took it, he said, "I'm better than all right. I'm happy and I love you."
"Let's get some sleep. I don't know how long Toni will sleep. It's been a long night for both of us." Together they climbed into bed, lying down beside each other. She pulled him into her arms, where he released all his pent up emotions for the day. "It's a new day and beginning for all of us, you'll see. "
Chloe dropped off to sleep first and Jack watched he sleep happy for the first time since Teri died. Chloe snuggled closer and whispered his name. Kissing the top of her head, Jack said, "Sleep, Chloe, I will watch over Toni, until you wake."
Jack lay there with the woman he loved in his arms and felt hope for a better life than the one he was living and to do so he needed Chloe to be his wife. Making that decision, Jack found himself pulled down into sleep.
Later that morning when Kim walked into the room, she found Jack and Chloe still asleep together in the hospital bed. Her father looked calm and peaceful. By the way they held each other, Kim could tell that they had come to an understanding. Her father mentioned that he was going to help Chloe with the baby – maybe it was nothing more than that. They were friends, after all.
She called out, "Dad?" but he did not stir. Chloe opened her eyes and blushed when she saw Kim standing there. On Kim's face was a knowing smile.
Chloe turned to Jack and gently shook him, "Jack, wake up, Kim's here."
Jack jerked up, his eyes blinking in confusion. Chloe laid her hand on his face, forcing her to look at her, "Jack, we're at the hospital."
Kim watched the two of them together. Her father was so different than the man who stood on her doorstep a few months ago. If she had come to her like this he is now, she might not have turned away like she did.
"I'm here with you, no one can hurt you. Do you remember why you are here?"
Chloe's touch seemed to ease the tension in his body. His eyes searched the room for danger and fell on the sleeping baby, "We had the baby. We named her Toni." He turned into her hand and kissed it.
Kim looked from her father to Chloe amazed that the two of them were—together. After all the women his father had dated since her mother's death, she never would have considered Chloe as an option. Seeing them together, it looked so right. Her father looked whole and Chloe seemed to be the piece he was missing from his life.
Her mother could never have calmed her father the way Chloe just had. If her mother would have tried to do that, it would only have agitated him even further. Kim looked at Jack – he seemed a little embarrassed for Kim to find out about them this way. He picked up the baby and held her out to Kim, "Meet you little sister, Toni."
Taking the baby, Kim realized that she no longer knew her father and she hadn't for a long time. It was as much her fault as his, but now it was time to change that.
Chloe picked up the bag Kim dropped when she took Toni and headed into the bathroom, "I'm going to brush my teeth and fix my hair. I will be back in a few minutes."
Jack sat down on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through his hair, not looking at Kim. She put the baby back in the bassinet and cleared her throat. "I brought you some clothes they're in Chloe's bag." She motioned to his attire, "You can change and I will take your stuff home and wash them."
Nodding, Jack said, "Thank you. You don't have to do that." He paused and took Kim's hand. "I'm ready to move on with my life. Kim, I want to ask Chloe to marry me. I wanted you to know before I asked. Kimmie, I love her and Toni so much. After your mom died, I didn't think I would find something like this again," he motioned to Toni, "A home, a life, love, and I want you to be part of it."
Kim stared at this man, her father, and felt very ashamed. She had shut him out when he came back from the dead. Every problem in her life became her father's fault, especially when he vanished 24 hours later, only to reappear twenty months after that on her doorstep talking crazy.
The baby began to fuss and Jack picked her up. Seeing that Toni's diaper needed changing, Jack placed her on the bed and changed her diaper. Finished, Jack laid Toni in her bed when Kim spoke, "Dad?"
Jack turned slowly, unsure how to respond, and waited for Kim to say more. Kim sighed, "Daddy, I'm so sorry." She was across the room and into his arms, "I wish I could take it all back, but I can't. Can you forgive me?"
"I already have, Kimmie." Jack pulled her closer and he could not believe how wonderful today was.
Chloe stood on the other side the door and smiled. She had stalled for as long as possible before she came back into the room. She knew that Kim and Jack need time alone to work through something. He needed Kim and she needed her father. Opening the door she saw the two of them in an embrace and she knew it was done.
At the sound of Chloe's footsteps, the two of them broke apart and rubbed at their tears. Chloe held out the bag to Jack. "Do you want your own clothes or are you going to keep those on?"
Taking the bags without a word Jack, disappeared into the bathroom to reemerge a few minutes later dressed in his own clothing.
Kim left soon after, promising to come back later, but she needed to get to work. As she left, Kim kissed Chloe goodbye and whispered, "Thank you for saving him." Kim squeezed Chloe's hand and hugged her dad before disappearing out the door.
The rest of her time in the hospital was frustrating for Chloe. After one day she was ready to go home, but they kept her for two more days because of her C-section.
On the third morning, Chloe was showered and dressed ready to leave. She was not staying a minute longer. Jack came into the room with a bouquet of daisies to find Chloe sitting in a chair rocking slowly in the chair singing to Toni.
He took Toni and laid her back in the bassinet. Kneeling down in front of Chloe and offered her the flowers. Taking her hand she said, "Chloe, I want to adopt Toni. I want her to be my daughter legally and I want you to be my wife."
The flowers dropped to the floor, forgotten, "Jack!?"
Bringing her hand to his lips, Jack kissed it, "Marry me, Chloe, be Mrs. Jack Bauer, be the one I grow old with. I want to be with you through the best and the worst that life can send us. I want to weather those storms with you. I love you."
As tears filled her eyes, Chloe wondered if life with Jack would always be like this, full of wonder and surprise. She knew Jack loved her, but Chloe never expected to be his wife. It seemed that position in his heart and life was Teri's.
"Chloe?" Jack's voice brought her to the present. He was waiting for an answer.
Looking into the eyes of the man she had loved for so long, Chloe said the only answer she could. "Yes!"
Jack lifted her up into his arms and spun her around. They were still doing that when the doctor found them. He cleared both mother and daughter to leave, and Chloe wasted no more time.
Toni was dressed in her own clothes for the first time and placed in her car seat. Jack took Chloe's hand and the baby in the other and the little family headed home.
They arrived at the house and Jack carried the sleeping baby into the house and then went back to the Yukon and carried Chloe inside despite her protests.
As he climbed the back steps, he stopped, "Chloe, this is the beginning of our life together. I love you and I am going to do this so stop struggling or I might drop you. That is not the way to start our life together."
Chloe nodded, "I love you too, Jack." She put her arms around his neck. Smiling, Jack kissed his future wife and carried her over the threshold and they began their new life together.
One morning, Chloe woke when she heard Toni crying. It stopped quickly and Chloe reached for Jack, but he was not there. Climbing from the bed, she went to look for him, stopping first at the nursery to get Toni.
Opening the door to the nursery, Chloe heard Jack singing and rocking Toni in the glider. Tears slid down her cheeks. At the sound of the door, Jack looked up but did not stop. Smiling he held out his hand.
Chloe took his hand and sat down in his lap and they held Toni together, watching her sleep. As they swayed, Jack began to sing the song again and Chloe leaned back feeling herself drifting off to sleep.
When he finished, he looked at Chloe. "I couldn't love her more if she was mine and I love you too. I keep waking up and thinking that this was all a dream. I come in here to watch her sleep so I know that it's real, that our life together is real."
"Oh, Jack, why didn't you tell me about this before?" Chloe asked rubbing his stubbly cheek.
"Because I didn't want you to feel like you weren't all I needed. Dr. Glau said that you needed to know what I was feeling or it would only get worse. That you needed to know why I would come in here and watch her and you sleep. I needed that reassurance, but what I needed more is your reassurance."
"It's all right, this family is real, you, me and Toni are real, most of all, our love for each other is real and nothing can take it from us. Jack, when you have these feelings, I need to know. I can't have you hiding things from me. I know the best and worst about you, Jack Bauer. If that hasn't changed the way I feel about you, nothing can."
His finger brushed her cheek, "You're right, no more secrets." Then he kissed her. "I love you. Thank you for waiting for me to realize it." And they continued rocking, enjoying the stillness and being a family.
Jack was pacing and it was driving Chloe crazy, but she didn't ask him to stop. She understood his anxiety. Kim was expected for dinner for the first time. Jack was worried about what would happen – in his mind his whole relationship with Kim hinged on this meal.
The doorbell rang and he jumped. Laughing at himself, he took a slow breath to calm himself before he walked to the door and opened it. Kim stood on the porch twisting her keys around her finger nervously. "Hello, Dad, how are you?"
"Fine, and you?" he asked in return.
Kim answered, "I'm good."
Chloe watched as them both stood there unsure what to do. They each wanted to embrace the other but neither wanted to make the first move.
Annoyed, Chloe blew the hair out of her eyes and walked over to the door carrying Toni. "Hug each other already so you can close the door. Toni doesn't like the draft." She headed down the hall to lay the baby down for a nap.
Father and daughter laughed at Chloe's order and obeyed. Once they released each other Kim stepped into the house and looked around, "I like the house, Dad. Did you and Chloe choose it together?"
Jack looked a little sheepish, "No, Chloe only bought it because it had a garage apartment for me to live in. She didn't trust me to live by myself. She wanted to give me my privacy but keep me close enough that I wouldn't die of neglect."
Chloe came into the living room and headed for the kitchen to give Kim and Jack some time alone. Crossing the room Kim grabbed Chloe's arm in a loose grip, "Please, Chloe, stay. I need to talk to you as well as dad."
Looking at Jack, who nodded, Chloe sat down beside him on the couch and Kim took the recliner nearby. Kim took a deep breath and said, "Chloe if not for you and your perseverance, I would not have my dad back. You never stopped looking for him when he was in China, you kept him safe while he was pretending to be dead, and you watched over him when he was in the field, but the most important thing you have done for him was love him. No one did that for him, even my mom. We all tried to change him, make him be more like we wanted him to be, and we hurt him – me, mom and Audrey. Chloe, you alone accepted my dad for who he was and I thank you. I want to thank you for everything. I know while we were at CTU I was never very nice to you, but I would like it if we could try to tolerate each other."
Chloe rolled her eyes and then stopped, "I would like that Kim. CTU is gone, so let's put it behind us, but please don't call me Mom. That would just weird me out."
With tears in her eyes, Kim unexpectedly pulled the other woman into her arms, "Oh, don't ever stop being you, Chloe, I love you just the way you are."
Unsure what to do, Chloe awkwardly patted the younger woman on the back. Jack's tears she could handle, but anyone else's made her squeamish.
After a moment, Kim let her go and everyone was silent, waiting for someone to speak. Kim looked up and Jack and said, "Just before Toni was born, I told you that I wanted you in my life but I didn't know if I could handle it. Well, thanks to Dr. Glau, I think I can. Dad, I was so angry at you for so long it almost became a part of me. It was something about you that I could control."
Jack grabbed her hand, "Kim ..." His face softened to tell her that it was all right, and that he understood.
But she interrupted, "No, Dad, let me finish. I can't ask you to stop being who you are. You want to make this world safer and you are willing to give you life to do that. I see now I can't take that from you, no one should. Dad, you are a hero, whether you want to be or not. I can only imagine how I'll deal with those events when they come.
"The day I came to CTU, I wore my anger like armor because I feared that you might get past the shell I had built around my heart. It stopped me from forgiving you. Then we were caught in that room when that gas was released. I saw how you were with Chloe when her friend died. You were kind and gentle – it was a side of you that I made myself forget. I could tell that you cared about her, but the two of you needed to do your jobs. Then you had to ask those two men to sacrifice their lives for the rest of us, it wasn't something that you wouldn't do yourself. On the contrary, you would have done it, but you were too far away. I worked at CTU, but I don't think I ever really understood the choices you had to make. You insulated me from them and that part of you."
Kim paused and looked at Chloe. "When she phoned to say that you were gone again, that you had been taken by China, that she was not sure if they could ever get you back, I was angry – not at you any more, Dad, but at myself. I had a chance to forgive you, to let you know that I loved you, and I squandered it. It was my fault, not yours. I began to look at my life and I didn't like who I was becoming so I threw out Barry and moved away from the city that held too many memories."
Jack reached out and caught one of her tears, "Kimmie, I am so sorry. I was trying to protect you. I didn't want you to know what kind of man I could be, what I could do, what I had to do sometimes." He knelt down in front of her and pulled her into his arms, pressing his face into her hair.
"Dad, I wasn't a child. I needed to know why you were withdrawn and moody. Those choices you made affected me and how you dealt with me. I would not have been afraid of you. You are my dad and you always will be. I love you. I'm not asking you to tell me everything, but don't shut me out anymore."
"I won't, baby. I won't." Jack promised.
Chloe watched the two of them, grateful that they had made peace with each other. The timer went off in the kitchen and she slipped away to give them some privacy while she finished dinner.
The three of them sat down to dinner and Jack took Chloe's hand. "Kim, I have asked Chloe to marry me and she has said yes. We have also started the process so I can adopt Toni. The two of us would like you to come to the wedding. It would mean a lot to us."
Next, Chloe spoke, "I would like you to be my bridesmaid, please. I don't have a lot of people I care about and so I want you to be there with me on our special day."
Taking Chloe's free hand, Kim pulled her to her feet and embraced the other woman, "Yes, I am so happy, how can I say no? When is the wedding?"
"Three weeks. We have been putting it off until you could be there. We had decided to wait until you came around. It will be only about twenty-four people in the backyard. We have lost so many people in our lives that it seems wrong to make it too large." Jack said as the women in his life sat down again.
As they ate he knew that everything would be alright. The curse, if it existed, was broken.
Soon after that dinner, Kim began to visit weekly. Eventually her visits matched Chase's until Chase, Angela and Kim all came together. Neither Jack nor Chloe made a comment but they were happy for the Chase and Kim. It seemed they had a second chance as well.
Kim still worried that he dad would vanish once more, no matter how much he reassured her. She also feared that Chase would leave her again. Both men knew that all they could do was to be there for Kim until she believed what they said was true.
When Toni was three weeks old, Chase and Jack had a chance to prove they spoke the truth. Kim was on her way home from work when a car ran a stop sign and t-boned her car on the passenger side.
Kim was fine, other than a concussion and a nasty bruise from the seatbelt. When she woke, everyone was surrounding her bed. Wide-eyed, Kim surveyed the faces, and it all seemed like a dream.
After being alone for so long, all Kim could do was cry. Chase pulled her into his arms and held her. Jack stood silently, waiting, with his hand on her shoulder, to see what she wanted him to do.
This seemed to banish Kim's fears.
The day of the wedding dawned, sunny and bright. Jack and Chloe saw the sunrise together. Superstition did not rule their lives. The bride and groom ate breakfast together before the ceremony. Angela and Kim came around noon to help Chloe dress and Chase was there for Jack.
Once they were alone, Kim said, "I have something to tell you. I already told dad. Chase and I have deiced to renew our vows. We never divorced and this is a way to let Angela know that we are committed to one another again. Chloe, again, this is because of you. Chase told me what you said, and thank you for giving him the courage to speak to me. It seems that you are the center of my happiness. Most of all, thank you for loving my father"
Chloe searched for something to say that would not destroy the moment. She smiled a genuine smile and said, "You're welcome. It was easy."
The backyard was beautifully decorated and ready for the bride and groom. At sunset, Chloe stood on the porch waiting for her cue. Kim was in front of her wearing her bridesmaid dress and carrying Toni dressed in a beautiful one. Angela danced from one foot to the other in anticipation of scattering the rose petals from her basket.
Closing her eyes, Chloe tried to lock this turning point in her memory; it was her last moment as Chloe O'Brian and she would spend the rest of her life as Mrs. Jack Bauer, at his side, helping him through this life and its challenges.
Kim's voice broke through Chloe's thoughts, "It's time. Dad is waiting for you."
Chloe opened her eyes and there was Jack, tall and handsome in his suit with Chase beside him. Twenty-four steps away. Jack smiled and held out his hand to her.
She knew their life would not be easy. Nobody's was. If duty called, Jack would answer, because he would not be her Jack if he didn't. This time, everything would be different. Chloe would be at his side as his equal. At the end of whatever crisis came their way, Chloe would be there to help him pick up the pieces and love him unconditionally.
Taking a breath, Chloe walked those twenty-four steps to where the rest of her life waited.
Leave a review please, I know you want to.
