Everything moved back into focus very slowly. First she saw nothing but light, then blurry shapes, and then all at once the shapes came together and she was looking straight into the piercing blue-green eyes of Jack Bauer.
"No," she said, wide awake, and surprised by the garbled sound coming out of her mouth, "No, Jack I told you not to do this."
"Not to do what? Help you. I told you weeks ago that I wasn't going to let you go to prison for a crime you did not commit."
"I did commit it, Jack. In the eyes of the law I committed treason."
"I don't care what the law says; you saved the country from a president who was going working against his people. They should be giving you a medal and instead they were locking you up. I wasn't going to let that happen."
She takes a deep breathe and brings her hand up to rub her eyes. Maybe if she rubbed long enough she would wake up from this nightmare, "Jack, I appreciate that you want to help me, but this is your life you're throwing away. I mean if you take me back…"
"They'll throw us both in jail, Chloe, there's no way out now."
Her voice is barely a whisper, "I didn't want you to have to live like this again."
She heard his long, ragged sigh, "Well, neither did I, but that's the way it is. Besides, this time I'm not running alone."
Firs the first time in months Chloe felt her face stretch into a real smile.