Another big thank you to my loyal readers: chezlovesyou, Claire M C, Hannah, happyhooligan2001, and beauty0102. In answer to your question, Claire, about whether there is something wrong with Chloe's mother, I would have to say she's shy and she's not quite certain how to treat Jack, so she perfers to deal with him through Chloe. She's also a bit stressed because it's Christmas. Perhaps I didn't write her well enough, for which I apologize. I have to admit, I was concentrating on Jack and Chloe.
Here's the next part!
(smirky face)
"Have you already made the rice pudding, mom?" Chloe asked as soon as supper was over.
"No," Chloe's mother said with a sigh. "I thought maybe we should wait until to-morrow, when Irene and the boys can be here."
Irene was Chloe's sister, and she had called up just after noon with the bad news that one of her sons had tried a kamikaze maneuver on the stairs and possibly broken his collarbone. Instead of driving from Detroit to Kalamazoo, Irene's family had been doomed to spend the afternoon of Christmas Eve in the emergency room, and were currently planning to try the journey again the next morning.
"No," Chloe said firmly. Ever since she'd heard about her sister's delay, a plan for that rice pudding had been forming in her mind, and she wasn't going to have it foiled now. "It's Christmas Eve, mom. Rice pudding is our Christmas Eve tradition."
"We've already put off our Christmas feast, and I'm turning into a grinch without my roast beast," her father said, laughing at his own rhyme. "Come on, Sue, make my heart grow three sizes to-day, or at least my wallet, and let's have the rice pudding."
Chloe's mother sighed tiredly, and Chloe took her chance. "I'll make it," she volunteered, "and while it's cooking, we can watch The Grinch. The real Grinch."
"Thank you, Chloe," her mother said, giving in gracefully. Chloe stood up, reaching for the plates to take with her into the kitchen, and Jack stood up as well. "I can help with the dishes."
Chloe scowled, and poked at him with a fork.
"You're sick, remember?" she told him. "And you're a guest, so sit down and suffer!"
He sat down again slowly, and Chloe turned to her father. "Dad, tell him how the rice pudding works."
When she'd finished bringing the rice to a boil, and had placed all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, Chloe came back into the living room. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas had become another of their Christmas Eve traditions shortly after the invention of the video recorder, and she slid the now-ancient cassette into the machine.
"Did you ever watch this with your family, Frank?" Chloe's mother asked as it began.
Jack hesitated, then shook his head. "I watched it when I was a kid, but I don't think I've seen it since then."
"Quiet, here comes my favourite part," Chloe's father said.
"Dad, don't sing," Chloe warned him.
"Hey, didn't you tell our guest he had to sit here and suffer?" Chloe's dad began to sing along, making Chloe cringe, then stopped after a few bars. "Okay, he's suffered enough."
"Maybe CTU could hire your father for interrogations?" Chloe's mother asked in a very sweet tone of voice, and to Chloe's absolute shock, Jack burst out laughing. Chloe turned her head and gaped at him. She'd never seen Jack laugh. She'd hardly ever seen him smile, but she'd never once considered the fact that he might actually be capable of laughing. If anything, she would have thought that laughter died whenever Jack Bauer was around.
Still smiling, Jack caught her eye, and Chloe felt herself smile back. Maybe her father's singing wasn't such a bad thing, after all.
The film ended, and eventually, the rice pudding was finished. Chloe put the finishing touches to it, then brought the bowl out to the dining room table.
"So, did my father tell you how this works?" Chloe asked as she slid into her seat.
"Yes," Jack affirmed.
"All right. I'll dish up," Chloe said. She carved out a large portion of pudding and used a spatula to scrape it cleanly off the serving spoon and into the dessert dish. When the last bit of pudding had been served, she made a show of mixing the dishes and handing them out at random to everybody. All the while, however, she was keeping her eye on a certain dish, one that had a tiny dark spot in the porcelain close to the rim, and that was the dish that she handed over to Jack.
"Let's start digging for gold," her father said as he did every year, taking his spoon and plunging it in.
There was silence as everybody began to eat. In between bites, Chloe looked around the table, trying not to stare too openly at Jack. She couldn't help but notice that her parents were also checking on him at regular intervals.
It seemed to take ages before Jack finally raised his empty spoon to his mouth and carefully spit an almond out onto it.
"Frank's got it!" Chloe's father crowed.
"Twenty dollars for Frank," Chloe said, joining in with her parents as they clapped. When she saw them exchange a significant look, she realized with a sinking feeling that they'd actually expected this particular outcome.
"Or a kiss from somebody at the table," Chloe's father added.
"What?" Chloe exclaimed, stopping in the act of reaching for her purse.
"That's what I told you, right, Frank? Cash or kiss?" her father asked.
Jack nodded. "That's what you said."
"Dad, what have you been telling him?" Chloe demanded. Her father smirked silently, and Chloe went on. "Whoever gets the almond in their rice pudding gets twenty dollars, that's the way it's always been. You can't go around changing tradition, just like that!"
"Yes, I can," he replied. "Remember when we stopped giving little presents and started giving cash instead?"
"Well, yeah, but … that was different."
"Present, cash or kiss, Chloe, it's still a prize," her mother put in, her eyes twinkling as she looked over to Jack. Chloe's suspicions were confirmed; while she'd been in the kitchen, trying to manipulate the position of the almond, her parents had been in the dining room, setting up their own plan to trick her and Jack. She wondered briefly why they hadn't been recruited to work for the government.
"You guys are ganging up on me. This is really inappropriate." Chloe wanted to scream that they were ruining all her plans, but she had to settle for a scowl instead. "All right, fine. Whatever."
She dug in her purse, pulled out the fifty dollar bill she'd got from the money machine earlier that day, then turned to Jack and waved it enticingly. There was still hope that he would take it. "Sorry, I haven't got anything smaller. So … what's it going to be?"
She almost said his name, but remembered in time, and hastily added, "Frank?"
Jack was still for a very long moment, and then he put the almond carefully on the tablecloth. "I'll … consider my options and inform you later of my decision."
