Chapter 10
Who would have ever thought to see Jack Bauer in swimming shorts at the beach with his girlfriend and granddaughter? No one, and therefore it didn't happen either.
Renee had been headstrong enough to get him to buy the grayish, sober swimming shorts as she had taken the bright green bikini with flowers on his suggestion. Jack had been obstinate enough not to wear it as well, though. Renee, however, had gotten him far enough to at least undo his shirt... And so it had happened quasi like Jack had planned and Renee had anticipated: him sitting by the side as she and little Teri were playing in the water, both giggling girlishly regardless the difference in age.
Renee looked down to check if the top of her bikini still covered everything she wanted to cover up. The bikini was about two sizes smaller than everything else she wore, and it wasn't even that small for her. Indeed, she must have lost quite some weight. And indeed, she must go shopping for other things soon as well. She couldn't go walking around in slob attires until she had gained again. Gaining wouldn't be easy, since she barely got to eat half of what she used to before being full. Ah, maybe she would regain her appetite in time, too.
She chuckled, swimming backward slowly into the un-deep crystal water and letting little Teri hook onto her toes with her little pinkish hands and surf along as she did. She made sure not to go too deep, though, with the preschooler's only forty-three inches in height. She wouldn't go any further as to where she could reach the sand with her feet, and come with her head above water still.
Renee turned over into the water, and stood. The water almost reached her butt, so this must be deep enough. Little Teri stood, too. The water almost reached her chin. Indeed, deep enough. Teri giggled aloud as Renee easily took her hands, and swirled her around into the water.
Jack watched them both from a distance. From there, the scar on Renee's lower abdomen wasn't visible anymore, even though it had been obvious in close-up earlier. She was such a very brave woman, actually daring to wear a bikini with so many scars in different spots of her body. The bullet wound one surely wasn't the only one. He wondered if he maybe should feel guilty for even having offered a bikini without words. She looked so happy, so that feeling washed over soon.
As Jack sat looking at his girls, he came to realize how often he actually had felt guilty lately, and how often he had found himself sunken in thoughts. He wondered if it would blow over, or if he would be doomed to forever ponder about the kind of life he had lead and left in D.C.
Before he fully well realized, Renee sank down on the towel beside him panting, with Teri in her arms. Little Teri wasn't quite tired yet and squirmed herself free, crawling over to the bag in which she knew her toys were. She didn't appear to have noticed her blue sun cap falling off, or couldn't care less. She just continued picking her toys from the bag and put them beside her into the sand until she had gathered everything: her red plastic bucket, her shovel, her rake, and four little figurines: one in the form of a goldfish, another one in the form of a star, yet another one in the form of an octopus, and another, last one in the form of a sea-turtle. Just as she quietly moved to crawl off, Jack, however, easily snatched Teri by her foot and pulled her to him again. The happy, little preschooler shrieked with laughter. Jack swiftly took Teri's sun cap from beside her, waved it backward and forth in his hand to get rid of most sand, before putting it onto her head.
She almost immediately reached up and threw it off again. Jack, too astounded to react immediately, watched her crawl off. A laugh from beside him sounded, then Renee's voice, "She's already too much like her grandpa."
So, she took Teri's cap, before crawling a few feet further to where Teri had sat herself down with her toys, then waved with it and put it onto the preschooler's blond head without protest. She looked up at Jack accomplished. Jack just rolled his eyes.