Even more hours later, and Alex was at home. Thankfully, it was a Friday so he could at least avoid CTU for a couple of days, unless something unexpected decided to ruin the weekend. Lying in bed, he thought of the kiss - he had enjoyed it but at the same time, he hated the possibility that he was just encouraging Kim and stringing her along.
I do love her, I just don't think I love her in the way she wants me to. Yet, I can't get the kiss out of my mind. Do I really want to take our relationship in that direction? We're both single, but there are certain things that will only get in the way.
The weekend and a couple of workdays passed. Kim had not said anything about the kiss, and Alex wondered if it had just been a mistake on her part and that things would stay as they were. She had said she was going to the toilet, but a few moments later, a text asking him to go to the corridor again.
Again? Surely we would be better off talking about this outside of work?
Alex mulled it over for a moment, before making a decision. He looked around and found everyone else busy at work, making it easier for him to slip away. As he walked down towards that corridor, he wondered if this was making him look suspicious, after all there were still cameras down here. Then his eyes grew wide. How could they not have considered it?
Cameras! We're probably on tape, kissing! Sure, it's a dusty old corridor and chances are the cameras aren't working down there, but we can't assume anything about them!
Kim looked confused as she saw Alex. He was looking up at the cameras, almost as if he were inspecting them.
"I think we should be more careful down here," he stated, and it was the turn of Kim's eyes to go wide, realising that they had been recorded.
"Maybe we should delete the footage?" Kim suggested. It wasn't as if she was ashamed, but she didn't want it to be public knowledge. At least, not yet - she still held out hope that Alex would change his mind and that her dad would be accepting.
"I can do that, but it might look suspicious, especially as this is an unused area," Alex spoke as he looked up and straight into the nearest camera, lowering his eyes quickly as he remembered the disturbing video of Nina, the one showing her heartlessly killing Jamey, he had seen at the trial. The look in Nina's eyes was hard to forget. It had been hard to reconcile the fact that the cold glare was coming from his own sister.
I can do it but it'll have my ID number all over it, and if there's even a tiny bit of evidence against me, there'll be an investigation.
Kim began to think. She didn't want to get Alex in trouble, but at the same time, if the cameras worked then she didn't want that footage to be in existence either. Alex had been thinking too, and he had decided.
As he entered the tech room, he checked to make sure it was empty, then headed to the central console. He navigated through the many options and menus until he reached the files of camera footage. Locating the exact ones he needed to get rid of, he took a deep breath and pressed delete. It seemed to take an age for the files to finally disappear.
And now the waiting begins. Will someone notice what I've done and inform Jack or Tony? Will it simply be buried deep down and never brought to light?
He sent Kim a quick text message to confirm the deletion. Of course, it was in an agreed-upon code, so the message looked unsuspicious to any outsider. Hoping that it was enough, he turned around and almost collided with Jack.
Oh no, here it goes. How much did he see?
Jack looked at Alex with confusion. The younger man had a look of panic on his face, suggesting he was doing something he shouldn't, even though it was common practice for agents of his rank to be where he was. Luckily for Alex, he had forgotten the look on his face back in Jack's office.
"Are you OK, Alex?" Jack asked, concerned. He had just walked into the room, and the only thing he saw was Alex on his phone.
"Yeah, I didn't realise you were there, that's all. People and their phones, you know?" Alex replied, and Jack chuckled. Parting ways, Alex looked at the console quickly, to make sure he hadn't left the incriminating menu up. As he walked away from the tech room, he couldn't help but worry that he was making himself look suspicious and that could lead to closer scrutiny of him.
How many times is that going to happen? Is it a sign or something?
Later that day, Alex was at the agreed public meeting point. They had chosen a park on the other side of Los Angeles that they hoped would be good enough for the purpose. Small and with a good view of their surroundings, it allowed them to talk more openly. At least there were no cameras around to catch them.
Deleting the camera footage was a good idea, I think, but what keeps bugging me about that? I mean, when they're gone, they're…oh no.
Alex suddenly remembered the disturbing video again. Nina had deleted it, but agents with higher security clearances had been able to recover it. He was lower down the ladder than Nina had been. He swore quietly to himself and hoped that they at least wouldn't discover that he had deleted anything. It all felt so stressful, and all over one kiss, but one strange thought really worried him. In a way, he kind of liked the tension, the having to worry about being caught, the need to keep things secret and he wondered if Nina had felt the same way before she was exposed - had she enjoyed the danger of playing Jack and everyone else? As Kim approached, he decided not to mention the ability of the higher-ups to recover deleted footage. She had not been in court the day that the video was shown, and he was sure she had not even heard of it.