He looked horrible. Even from where she stood at the café entrance, Chloe O'Brien could see the slump in his posture. And there was the way he stared at his menu, not reading it, but just staring, because it took too much energy to look around. And he was sitting with his back to the main entrance. She noticed that, too. Ever since Chloe had known him, she had never seen him sit with his back to a door. He had a field agent's paranoid need to see who's coming and going, and now it looked like he didn't care. He looked defeated.

And it broke her heart.

She crossed the short distance quickly, mindful that she was almost a full ten minutes late. As she approached the small table he had gotten, she noticed other disturbing things. Dark circles under his eyes, a slight shake to his hands when he reached for his water glass, and as she came up beside him, she noticed him opening and closing his hand, a habit she thought he had lost as his rehab had completed.

Chloe cleared her throat, no matter how out of it he seemed, he was not a person you wanted to try and sneak up on. He stood to greet her, and Chloe noticed how thin he had gotten in the last few months. Taken all together, he seemed almost… transparent.

Before she could stop herself, Chloe blurted the obvious, "Oh, God, Chase you look terrible. I mean, you look-"

"I know how I look, Chlo, believe, me I know. I'm just really, really tired is all." Chase Edmunds wrapped his arms around Chloe in a tight hug. He was one of the few people Chloe allowed close to her like this, and today she was glad for it. She was afraid that if she had pulled away, it might have loosened one of the few anchors he had left, and he would drift away.

Chloe let him hold her as long as he needed to, and as he released her, he whispered, "I'm glad I could count on you." Chloe was astonished to hear how close Chase was to tears. Please don't let this be what I think it is.

Chase waited until Chloe was settled before motioning to the waiter. He knew she didn't need to look at a menu; they had eaten here all the time after they started at CTU. It was the first place they had tried together, and they hadn't really bothered to find another. And now here they were, together again, only it seemed like she was staring at the end of something. And she felt that same fear that had grabbed her as she left CTU. I can't deal with this, I don't want to.

The waiter took their orders and Chloe absently wondered how much of an appetite she was going to have after this was over. The waiter left and she and Chase sat there silently. Chloe watching Chase, and Chase looking down at the tablecloth, still flexing the hand he had nearly lost over two years ago.

Desperate to break the heavy silence, Chloe asked, "Problems with your hand?"

"What?" Chase looked up.

"You hand, you've been flexing it, have been having any problems?"

"No, no problems. Not with my hand anyway."

The silence descended again. This time Chloe let it rest. Obviously, Chase needed to do this his own way. Eventually, the waiter came by with their drinks and salads and Chloe began absently picking at hers.

She felt, rather than heard, the deep breath Chase took. "I need your help with something, and I don't want to cross any lines, so if you don't want to get involved-"

"Chase, I'm here, right? What do you need and how fast do you need it?"

A ghost of a smile crossed Chase's lips. "Right, get to the goods and skip the rest."

Chloe nodded.

"I need a phone number."

"That's all?" Chloe allowed a glimmer of hope to enter her heart. Please, God, let it just be a phone number.

"It's for Kim's Aunt Carol. She's on an extended business trip of some sort on New York, but I don't have the number."

"You can't ask Kim-"

"No, Chloe. Not about this. Not yet."

"Oh." Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!

"Chloe, I just can't do this-"

"Chase." Impulsively, Chloe reached out for her friend's hand. Whether she did it to cut him off, or to offer support so he could continue, she wasn't sure. But the strength with which he took it and squeezed before releasing it surprised her. There was desperation in the gesture she didn't like.

"Chloe, I need to say this out loud. To somebody… to somebody who won't lie to me about it. To make sure I'm not about to make the biggest mistake of my life, of my daughter's life."

Swallowing hard, Chloe nodded, and once again cursed the man who had put her in this position. This should be you, Jack, she fumed, you should be the one having to sit here and listen to this. I've been lying to him, for months and months, and he asked me here because he trusts me to tell him the truth. Damn it!

"I know you were surprised when I called you a few weeks ago, and I'm sorry, and I know that conversation was kinda odd, but I needed to make sure we were still OK, I mean you and me. Everything's been so-"

"Chase, I already said we're fine. Anything you need."

"I know, Chloe, I just need to say this. Please stop interrupting."

"Sorry."

"I know you are, but listen. I wanted you to, I don't know. To be a touchstone. Someone who was outside and didn't really know what was going on with…"

"You and Kim?"

"Chloe!"

"Sorry. I'm shutting up now."

There was a sigh, "…but you're right. I've been so focused on… other things, that I wasn't sure where we stood anymore. Now I do. I suppose I should thank you for that at least."

A waiter came by, refilling their drinks. Chase took a long sip before beginning again, "You know that Kim's had it rough, I mean after Jack… God, even I'm still having a hard time with it," You and me both, Chloe thought bitterly. "Any way a few weeks ago I came home and-" Chase's voice became harsh as Chloe realized he was fighting back tears again.

Suddenly, Chloe wanted to be anywhere but at that table, in that café, in public. Even tucked away in the corner as they were, if Chase was going to break down… "Chase, we can go somewhere private, if you want, even just get in my car and drive somewhere quiet."

"No, I'm fine, I just need a minute." Chase ran a quick hand over his eyes, wiping the tears that had squeezed out. He visibly shook himself as the waiter came up with their entrees. After the waiter left, Chase pushed his plate forward without touching the food on it and crossed his arms on the table. "OK, here it is, I'm just going to say it and be done: A few weeks ago, a couple days before I called you that first time, I came home from work. Kim was asleep on the couch, so I walked back to Angie's room and checked on her. She was playing in her playpen, nothing was wrong there. It was just like any other day.

'So I went back to the living room to check in Kim. And I didn't, I couldn't really understand what I was seeing. It was like part of me just shut down, I- I froze, Chloe. I actually froze. You wouldn't have believed it."

Chloe looked down, afraid to meet Chase's eyes, afraid he'd see the lie. She wasn't entirely surprised something had happened. She knew something had been wrong with Kim for awhile; she had made an excuse to strike up a conversation with one of the neighbors a few days before Chase had called her tree weeks ago. She knew Kim had been staying in the house a lot, not going to the park with Angela as much as she had been, not meeting friends for coffee, not going window shopping, just hiding in the house all day. But Chloe hadn't said anything to anyone; she didn't think it had been her place. She just gathered the intel, like she always did. Now, she wondered if that had been wrong.

"I knew Kim had been drinking more than usual, I was planning on talking to her about it, but seeing her lying on the couch, next to an empty bottle… And I realized she's not asleep, she's actually passed out."

Chloe shuddered at the thought. Kim Bauer her passed out drunk on a couch? Chloe had been expecting something like this, but the reality of it chilled her. She had never had a great deal of respect for Kim, she had found her likable enough, she supposed, but just the thought of Jack's daughter… It hurt something unexpected in her. But what Chase said next froze her blood.

"And then next to the bottle... on the floor, like she'd been holding it when she passed out… on the floor was my gun."

Chloe's head snapped up, and it was Chase's turn to look down. He was shaking, and for the first time, Chloe saw something else in his posture. Anger.

"It was just lying there on the coffee table, my sidearm. It was loaded, Chloe, and the safety was off. It was just lying there. What if Angie had gotten out of her pen and wandered into the living room? She's managed it before. And Kim was passed out cold, and Angie could have- she could have…" Chase trailed off. "And that was my first thought, 'Angie'. Not my fiancée, lying depressed, drunk and with a gun by her hand, but my daughter. My little girl."

Oh, God. What am I supposed to do with this? But before Chloe could say anything, Chase continued on:

"I didn't know what to do, I mean I put the gun away, and carried Kim to bed, but… What do you do with that?

'I ended up in Angela's room. I put her to bed and I just watched her sleep. All night I watched her. I just sat there. I think I made my decision then, Chloe. I don't want to admit it, but I think that's when I decided. The last few weeks have just been me putting it off."

Dread fell over Chloe as Chase lifted his head. Looking her straight in her eyes, Chase's words came across flatly, finally.

"I can't do this any more, Chloe. I give up. I'm leaving Kim."