In his office Tony scrawled an address over the sealed white envelope from memory. He put it in his outbox and smiled with relief. The thought of Jack getting his letter and understanding how he felt made him feel better, gave him closure almost. Getting up and stretching he saw Chloe down on the floor, hunched over her station with her eyes fixed on the screen. Tony let out a breath as he hoped Chloe knew just how much he appreciated the help she had given Jack and himself.
Shrugging his suit jacket back on Tony decided he would tell her of the letter and praise her personally for her hard work, he knew she would appreciate nothing more than a pat on the back and a well deserved compliment.
A young looking and spotty faced man entered the office cautiously, holding the door still in case instructed to leave.
"Come in Charlie," Tony said to the new guy. He'd been working a couple of months and it was clear although he was an assistant to all department heads he didn't mind being anybody's errand boy.
"All this ready to go?" He asked as he emptied the outbox items into his satchel.
"Yeah," Tony said, "highest priority as usual."
"As usual," Charlie repeated with a shy smile before he left the office. Tony followed him down the stairs but headed in Chloe's direction. He tapped her on the shoulder gently, she jumped not expecting any contact.
"What?" She snarled as her eyes fixed back on the screen.
"I wrote him a letter."
Chloe looked up at him for a moment before eyeing her keyboard. "I hope you took the precautions necessary," she said sternly.
"Of course I did, its totally safe," he said anxiously.
"Then why are you bothering me?"
Tony smirked slightly, "I wanted to say thanks. You did a good job, with the phone track and all."
"Well its what I do," she said without interest, "so tell me something I don't know."
Tony laughed slightly as he looked down at his thanks. "Well I wanted to say thank you, hopefully this things gonna cool down," he paused, "Jack would want to thank you too you know."
"I know," she said softly, finally giving him the eye contact he expected.
"Good," Tony said, suddenly uncomfortable about speaking of Jack inside CTU.
Chloe's eyes followed Tony as he moved across the floor. Once sure nobody was paying her any attention she let out a sharp breath and smiled proudly to herself.
Inside the empty situation room Charlie sifted through the mass of letters and files he had on his desk. A task he was good at, a task he enjoyed. Only this time, he wasn't ordering, faxing or filing them, he was looking for a specific item. As his hands fell onto the envelope with the rushed handwriting Charlie stopped as his eyes roamed over the addressee's name.
"Richard Johnson," he said quietly, "bingo."
He licked his lips as he realised he had accomplished the task. Pulling out his cell he hit the speed dial and waited patiently before he was put through to his contact.
"Sir," he said professionally, "its me, Charlie Benson."
"You got it, already?"
"Yes sir, I have the information you asked me to collect."
"Send it to me," the gruff voice said, "send it to me right now son, I'll make sure the office are informed of your quick work."
"Thank you sir," Charlie said. He flipped his cell phone shut and folded the letter up and slid it into his pocket. Then he started shifting through the files again, whistling as he worked, hands trembling with excitement.