"Call Chase." A pause as she tried to remember his last name. She had only meant him a few times and even than Kim had only introduced him as Chase her dad's partner whenever he got back in town, and her boyfriend.
Chase looked out the hallway and saw Kate Warner. Kate's face lit up when she saw him, with anger and excitement. "Chase please let me see him." Kate called pleading.
"Let her in guys." Chase said remembering who she was very well from the number of times he heard Jack talk about her on the long nights they spent together after the Salazar operation, Jack trying to figure out why she left him.
Kate walked into the room and gasped when she saw him he was much worse than she had expected. She never noticed Angela because she was taken back by the way he looked when she entered. His face so pale except the reddish-purple bruises that covered various spots on his face. Yet he looked at peace, even with the heave bandaging over his chest. "Why didn't you call me?" She said feeling her legs go weak under her as she saw more damage on him, so she grabbed the edge of the bed to hold her up.
"You had the new guy Kim had told me about, and I didn't want to bother you." Chase said trying to keep himself and Kate calm because of Angela being in the room.
Kate finally noticed Angela and looked at her standing over Jack, "Can we talk somewhere else?"
Brenda interrupted knowing there was a need the little girl didn't need to hear whatever was going on, "I'm on break I can watch Jack and Angela while you two go talk."
Chase didn't want to leave Angela there with Brenda, who technically could be considered a stranger even if he had talked to her many times during the past few weeks, but he couldn't have the conversation that Kate needed to have with Angela in the room. "Are you sure?" He finally said after a minutes thought.
"Yea I got a few hours off between shifts."
"Thank you. Angela be good for Brenda."
"I will daddy. Brenda what's this for?" Angela said pointing at the tube that ran into Jack's mouth. "That has to be uncomfortable does it go all the way down his throat?"
Chase and Kate walked out of the room to the end of the hallway. Chase looked back once and heard Brenda explaining everything connected to Jack. "I'm sorry Kate I didn't know your number and I didn't think you would want to be bothered."
"Bothered. Do you know what it feels like to be sitting at work when someone says, 'Hey that man you went out with Jack Bauer he's in the hospital and I guess his daughter died. How is he?' And you didn't even know. I didn't even get a chance to attend her funeral." Kate finally remembered who Chase was, or it finally hit her, "Oh my God Chase I'm so sorry."
"It's fine Kate." Chase said knowing what she meant. He turned around when he heard Angela scream, "Daddy come check this out."
"GO ahead." Kate said needing a moment to collect herself before she went back into the room.
Chase walked into the room and almost freaked when he saw Angela squeezing the ball to the instrument used to take blood pressure around Jack's arm. He saw Brenda behind her but his gut still tighten.
"It's ok Chase." Brenda said smiling. "Angela noticed on Jack's chart that no one had taken his blood pressure in awhile and she insisted on doing it. I think you have a doctor on your hands here."
"Really?" Angela said excited.
"Yeah." Brenda said smiling at her. "How about something to color?"
"Please."
"Sure let me go see what I can scrounge up for you." Brenda looked at Chase as she walked out of the room, "Do you need some coffee or something to drink?"
"No I'm fine." Chase said sitting in the chair by the bed that had become his post recently.
Kate entered the room again and Chase stood up as she walked in. He moved so she could sit next to Jack. He walked over to Angela and said, "Let's give Kate a few minutes with Jack. You need lunch anyways. Let's see if we can get the nice nurse lunch for watching you."
"OK daddy. Bye Kate it was nice to meet you. I'm Angela."
"By Angela." Kate said with a smile.
Chase found Brenda at the front desk and said, "Angela and I are going to get lunch would you like to join us. I'd like to thank you for helpful you've been recnetnly. I don't think I'd get through this without someone helping and you have helped a lot."
"Sure but only if I buy my own lunch." Brenda said smiling she didn't want anything with Chase, well she wanted something but he had just lost his girlfriend and she didn't want to be the rebound.
"Deal." He said smiling. Angela giggled and they walked down to the cafeteria to eat.
When they returned the Doctor was there doing his rounds. He spoke to Brenda for a second outside Jack's room and Chase tried to listen in, but Angela was talking to Jack to loud. When the doctor left Brenda came in with a smile on her face, "Chase can I talk to you outside for a minute."
"Sure." Chase walked outside the room worried that something was wrong.
"The doctor thinks Jack might be strong enough to breath on his own. He wants to take him off the machine in a few minutes to see if he can do it on his own. If you could take Angela home or at least away incase it doesn't work out right."
"How sure is he?" Chase said worried.
"If he can't do it, than the doctor will hook him back up to the machine. But we should try." She said trying to encourage him.
"Ok. I'm going to take her home and I probably she go to work and get some stuff done. Please call me and let me know how it goes."
"Sure I have your cell phone number on file. I'll call you."
"Thank you." Chase said walking away to get Angela. "Come on Kiddo you need to go home and let Jack's ears rest some and Daddy needs to go into work."
"Daddy do I have to go home? I don't want to leave Jack alone."
"That's why Sunny's here and Brenda will keep him company. Come on kiddo you can come back this weekend."
'He's still going to be here than? Isn't he homesick?"
"Probably baby. Come on let's get out of here for awhile." Chase said standing in the doorway.
Angela climbed on the chair again and kissed Jack's cheek, "Bye Jack."
Chase smiled at his daughter when she ran up to him and jumped up into his arms. He carried her out of the hospital to the car. The drive home made him extremely nervous no hearing from Brenda on how it went, he felt his stomach turn anxiously and he was trying to hide it from Angela in the back.
When they reached the house she ran inside and began to tell her aunt about the entire day she spent with Jack, how she learned about all the cool machines hooked up to him, and than how she took his blood pressure, not forgetting to leave out the really sweet beautiful nurse Brenda. Amanda smiled at Chase when she heard Brenda mentioned. Chase shook his head and jumped when his phone rang. "Edmunds"
"Don't you people say hello ever?" Brenda joked.
"Force of habit. You're lucky I didn't answer CTU Edmunds." Chase was sure it had to go good if she was joking.
"He's breathing on his own. The doctor is pleased with his status. A few more days and he might wake up."
Chase felt like screaming hell yeah, but he settled for a huge grin. His sister noticed this. "Thank you very much Brenda."
"No problem Edmunds. See you tomorrow?"
'Yeah I'll probably be back tonight."
"Ah you'll miss me."
"Not going to be the same." Chase joked he noticed himself flirting and felt guilty instantly. "I got to go thank you." He said hanging up.
"What happened?" Amanda asked noticing the smile on her brothers face she hadn't seen in awhile.
"They took Jack off the breathing machine. He's breathing on his own now."
"Oh that's good." Amanda said smiling happy her brother was happy.
"I got to go to work." Chase said, "Can you keep Angela one more night. I'm going to stay at home tonight and. ." he couldn't finish the sentenced his smile fading quickly.
"Go ahead. I'll keep her as long as you need."
"Thank you Amanda."
"What are sisters for?"
Chase was unable to focus much at work. He kept thinking about the improvement that Jack had made and started to wonder maybe Jack could pull through. Chase had his nagging doubt since day one, but he finally might have something to hope for, to hold onto. Chase sat at Jack's desk he had taken over since he became the acting director of Field Operations. He was not sure who was going to be the director of CTU, so far Hammond had been handling it, but they had to bring someone new in eventually. Chase was flipping through a file mindlessly when he heard Chloe clear her throat. Chase looked up and saw her in the doorway. "Hey Chloe." He said smiling looking for a distraction.
"Can I talk to you?"
"Sure about what." Chase said looking at a chair for her to sit in.
"Well I've noticed you haven't been to work, and when you are you really aren't working."
Chases felt his patience wear thin, if she came up here to talk about his work etiquette he just couldn't take it. "What's your point?" Chase said showing she was already treading on thin ice.
"I was worried about you. You are the only friend I have and I wanted to make sure you were ok. Losing Kim and all. And all the time you've spent in the hospital with Jack. I'm worried about you Chase."
Chase felt like an asshole for snapping on her earlier. "Yeah I'm fine."
"Chase I know you are far from fine. How is Jack doing?" Chloe said knowing she wouldn't get a straight answer out of him about himself.
"He's improving some." Chase said not looking her in the eye.
"Are you going tonight?"
"Yeah once I get off work." Chase said looking at the clock not that long from now.
"Can I go with you?" Chloe asked really wanting to go see the man she had respected and feared, but she couldn't do it alone.
"You don't have to Chloe. I know how much you dislike Jack." Chase said looking at her finally and seeing his comment had hurt her.
"No I really want to Chase. Can I go with you?"
"Sure." Chase said wondering why she had been hurt by his comment so much. He had always understood there was a mutual dislike between Chloe and Jack. Not so much that Jack hated, her he loved how she did her job, but they never got along. Their anti-social personalities clashed on more than one occasion and Chase would have to step in to stop them from fighting.
"Can I help you with something?" She said noticing the paperwork that was piling up on his desk.
"Not really." Chase noticed the work himself. He would work on it this weekend while he sat at the hospital. "Let's go." He said knowing the next hour would be torture waiting for his time to leave.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah just let me tell Hammond." Chase said grabbing the phone telling Hammond they were leaving to go visit Jack. Hammond didn't say anything against it he had noticed Chase lack of work, and he knew Chloe was a pain in the ass he didn't want to deal with so he was more than happy to let htem leave together.
Chase and Chloe talked about little things on the way there, Angela and how fast she was growing. Anything but what they both were thinking or any of the forbidden subjects. Chase walked past the guards straight to Jack's room. He smiled when he walked in Jack was off the machine and he could see his chest moving up and down slowly as he breathed on his own.
Chloe gasped in the doorway, not having seen Jack when he looked worse. She almost had tears in her eyes from seeing the frail figure on the bed that use to be Jack Bauer. She had never seen him this down, even when he was in the height of his withdrawal symptoms he still had not looked this weak or this vulnerable. She took a seat and smiled as she saw the teddy bear by his head, "Angela's?" She asked.
"Yeah she bothered me to come see him, and I couldn't tell her no." Chase said smiling at the thought of what Jack would be doing right now if he knew Chloe was here and he had a teddy bear watching over him, for some reason none of it fit the macho Jack Bauer they all knew. But than neither did his addiction, but than no one really knew Jack. They only knew what he wanted them to know. Chase had still not learned about his childhood, or even how he and Nina originally hooked up, or even where Jack grew up. All he knew was that Jack was an ex Delta man, and what had happened at CTU during his career.
"Do they know when he's going to wake up?" She asked quietly as if she were to wake him if she talked to loud.
"No. Or they haven't told me."
A doctor walked in the room than and smiled at Chase who he had known from all his previous visits and the new person with him.
"How is he today doc?"
"Doing better. As you see we got him off the machine and he's breathing pretty much on his own. And I'm optimistic he'll wake up soon. It's all on him now. We've done everything we can for him." The doctor said fiddling with the machines taking notes. He said goodbye and left.
Chloe stood up to look at Jack and said, "He looks weird with the beard. I've never seen him with one."
"Yeah it's not really his best look. I guess he use to sport it when he wasn't at CTU." Chase said trying to take his mind off anything but the woman who looked like Jack so much, and the pain he felt remembering her. He didn't know if he could continue visiting Jack every time he did he was reminded of what he had lost, and part of him blamed Jack and everyone else, everyone but himself and Kim. "We better get out of here. We both have work in the morning." Chase said standing up and looking at Jack again.
"Yeah thanks Chase." Chloe said standing up and touching Jack's hand lightly for no real reason other than she wanted to know he was still there.
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