Angela sighed, yawned, and stretched. Sunlight made two blocks of steady yellow on the carpet, giving the distinct impression that today would be a good day, and no matter what happened, it would continue to be a good day because it began a good day, and so it simply was.
She was wearing an oversized t-shirt to sleep in that her dad had lent her without a second thought. Angela realized for the first time that she didn't have but one set of clothes with her. She'd just have to wear the same ones back home, where she could change. She pulled them back on, folded the couch bed back in very neatly, and then peeked into her dad's room. He hadn't bothered to put the picture away, she noticed first off, and he was still sleeping luxuriously, sprawled out, as though even a king-sized bed wasn't quite big enough for him.
She wondered absentmindedly if her dad had work today. If he did, then they'd get to her house later than she wanted. That was, until she remembered that it was Sunday, and so they could get started on the journey anytime. There was a clock in the kitchen, on the microwave, announcing that it was 9:34am. She found some cereal in the pantry, and helped herself to it, knowing her dad wouldn't mind. Angela was surprised at just how hungry she was, when she realized that in the midst of everything that was happening, neither her nor her father had bothered a stray thought for dinner. She gulped down the last of the milk in her bowl. Yeah, it was impolite and she knew it, but she'd always taken to doing it for some reason or another.
"You're just like your father," she spun around to find that her dad had woken up. She smiled and laughed silently. "Yeah, well, I try," she replied with a shrug.
He took the cereal box from in front of her and poured himself a bowl.
"I was thinking that we should get going pretty quickly." He made the statement sound casual, but she could tell that it had bigger impact than it meant. It was almost as though he was uncomfortable giving orders to her, like he didn't want to blow it. And yet, she could tell that he liked it. It was like CTU away from CTU. And because CTU was really all that was in his life…well, there you go.
"Alright," she replied easily.
They sat there, both enjoying the silence of the apartment, the only sounds being Chase's crunching of cereal and the air conditioner, which both would admit that it was nice to have such a silence after the day they'd endured the previous day.
"Should I call and warn her that we're coming?" she asked with an unsure gesture to the phone in which the number her mom knew.
Her dad hesitated. They were on a highway, just outside of San Fransisco. "Yeah, just make it quick. A minute or longer and we can be triangulated."
"Okay,"
And then the SIM card made its way back into her phone and she quickly called her mom.
She picked up on the first ring. "Angela?"
"Hi," she started. "Mom, uh, I got a ride back there. I think-"
She hesitated for a moment. Her dad had explained that if her mom knew that he and Jack were coming, she might try to run or something stupid like that. "I think you should get ready to have some company."
"Who?"
"Mom, I've gotta go," Angela started. "I love you!" she chanted over her mom's voice, which was protesting that she'd a right to know after all of this.
Angela hung up, and made the phone invulnerable once more.
"Does she suspect anything?" Chase asked this as though it was the most normal thing in the world, and Angela got the lasting impression that he said it a lot.
"Well, she has her theories and her nightmares," she explained. She needn't have said this, for she knew that Chase knew it as well as she did.
Needless to say he was nervous. From the time he stepped into the kitchen that morning, he was nervous. There was sweat on his brow that formed irritatingly every half an hour, and he had only half of his brain on the road in front of him. Luckily, however, he had a smart enough half of a brain that could drive well. The best part was that even though he was off-duty, he was still allowed to speed, although he didn't do it very much over the limit.
"Are we meeting Jack?" She asked him.
"Yeah, he asked me to pick him up," It took him awhile to answer. He was probably going over the best- and worst-case scenarios of the meeting in his mind.
Three and quarter hours later Chase pulled over on a street corner. There was a man there, with a heavy-set look about him. He had honey-colored hair and forever hurt and hollow eyes. It didn't take her too long to realize who he was. He had unmistakable parts of her mom, except for those ever-unhappy eyes. She wondered what all they had seen, what all they want to see, and what made them so aggrieved.
Chase went out to greet him. They shook hands politely, but the look in each of their faces was priceless, like two young boys who were just told that Christmas had come five months early.
Her dad made a motion to her to get out of the car, and so she did.
She was suddenly shy. What was going through each man's head at the moment? Her small feet carried her up to both of them.
Jack smiled at her with his mouth, and even his sad eyes gave a twinkle.
He pulled her into a bone-crushing hug. Angela briefly wondered if she would ever recover for she was sure she'd been smashed like a spider.
What a sight we must be! She thought with a slight smile. But for once, she didn't care what she looked like, being crushed by some macho man on a sidewalk in Visalia. Nor did she care when her dad took his turn, although his hug was much more tendered than Jack's.
Then, the reunion was cut harshly short, as they realized they'd better get going. The three loaded the car and drove to the home that Angela and her mother, and for a short time, even her long-lost-and-yet-found dad had occupied.