As Chloe drove into the CTU parking lot she began to feel light headed, her side throbbed and she was scared. Scared for Jack but also scared to face her colleagues knowing they would question why she had given up the information. A few years earlier she wouldn't have given herself such a hard time, after all back then she hadn't found the courage she had now. Courage she had found because of him. As she walked into the building she knew that they'd find it hard to believe she would have given up the files; they would have expected her to fight because that's what she would have done if the situation had been real.
The first person she saw was Curtis which was good as she was beginning to feel decidedly unsteady on her feet. She had time to process the shocked expression on his face at seeing her before her legs buckled and she fell to the floor.
Minutes later she woke up in medical with both Curtis and Bill leaning over her. "Chloe, are you Ok?" Bill asked looking all fatherly and concerned.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just glad to be back" she said, rolling her eyes and hoping her lack of ability to lie convincingly didn't catch her out.
She told them the story that she and Jack concocted. That she had been taken by a tall, dark haired American who seemed to know who she was and the level of access she had within CTU.
"I'm sorry" she said, "I didn't know what to do. I had to give him the information. First I tried to give him a dummy copy but he wasn't stupid, he started to torture me and I couldn't hold out. I'm sorry." They both looked shocked at what she was saying, she knew they would be but when the tears started to flow their expressions softened. Bill patted her arm gently and Curtis squeezed her shoulder kindly before they turned away to whisper quietly in the corner of the room.
Her tears were real; she wasn't that good an actress to pretend. She was sad, sad that she couldn't share the good news that their friend had returned, sad that the news of his return probably wasn't that good anyway.
Within an hour Chloe was feeling more comfortable. Her wound had been stitched and she'd been given painkillers. Bill was sitting at her side telling her that they wanted to debrief her. She tried to tell him she wasn't really up to it yet but just as she knew he would he persuaded her that they had little time to find the man and retrieve the information before it was too late.
Bill decided to debrief her himself, which didn't really help to calm her tattered nerves. She sat in the interview room opposite him. He started asking her to again describe her captor, then went through in detail what happened from the moment she stepped into the room to the moment she returned to CTU. Chloe knew her story had holes in it but she couldn't get it any straighter. Her nervousness was increasing, she became tongue tied, her palms clammy. Bill was looking at her with those piercing blue eyes as though they could read her thoughts, read her mind. She on the other hand could read his suspicion.
"Chloe, something doesn't add up here. I want to know what you're hiding from us."
"I…..I'm n…not hiding anything. I'm just in shock I think. Can't we do this later?"
Bill looked resigned and suggesting she rest back in medical for a while, he walked out of the room. As she headed back to medical she saw Bill talking with Curtis and Karen, they all looked at her as she walked past. She felt terrible, as though she was betraying all of them.
Chloe rested for an hour or so, if you could call it resting. Her body was still but her mind was all over the place. She desperately wanted to know what was going on with Jack, desperately wanted to get away from this situation.
Chloe was lying with her eyes closed when she felt a movement to her left. She looked up and saw Curtis standing over her. "Hey" he said, "how are you?".
"Fine!"
"Chloe there's something going on and we need your help"
Thank god, she thought to herself. Finally she would have a distraction.
"What is it?"
Curtis told her there had been an explosion at a hotel in the city, luckily no-one had been killed but only because someone had alerted the authorities then had gone in and removed the device somewhere where it would cause minimal damage.
"Chloe, we have a basic description of the guy but we need someone to do a profile match. We're really short staffed at the moment so could really use some help. You think you're up to it?"
"Sure" she said getting up off the bed and following Curtis.
Chloe settled down at her station and checked through the information they had from key witnesses. The man they were looking for was of medium height and build, carried a utility bag and his most distinguishing feature was that his eyes were different colours; one green, one blue.
Oh my god Jack! She had to run some kind of interference to stop them from finding him before he was ready. Just then, she noticed a woman being escorted from one of the interview rooms, Bill behind her followed by two of the security guys. Bill approached her station with the security guys in tow. Chloe sat nervously – oh shit, something was wrong.
Bill asked her to leave her station and follow him into holding. Once inside the security guys were posted outside the door. "What's going on Bill?"
"That woman you just saw leaving was out jogging this morning near the location you told us you escaped from. She saw you; she saw your captor and her description didn't match yours. We ran a check on all known males fitting her description and she was able to identify the man you were with – it was Jack wasn't it?"
Chloe shifted uncomfortably but didn't respond, she frowned in concentration as she tried to think of a story that would be believable.
"Don't bother Chloe, we have more information so don't bother lying to me more. We now know that Jack has been in Chinese custody for more than a year, that they successfully brainwashed him into helping them get that information. Why did you help him Chloe?"
"He hasn't been brainwashed Bill, he resisted it. He's trying to get to the bottom of what's going on."
"Chloe, are you really that naïve? We know that you believe all that Jack tells you but did it not occur to you that he may have been lying to you? That he is working for the Chinese and he knows how much you trust him and knew you would believe everything he told you?"
"No!" Chloe shouted. "Jack wouldn't do that, he wouldn't"
"Chloe of course the Jack we know wouldn't do that but he isn't himself at the moment."
Chloe looked at Bill in despair.
