CHAPTER 2

Chloe was still sleeping the next morning and Jack was eagerly waiting for her to wake up to try and talk to her again. He was going around the house, looking in front of it, when he suddenly heard something at the back door. It was eerie, but his trained hearing picked it up.

He started to sneak towards the back door with his gun raised and it didn't take him long to catch a glimpse of a dark haired pony tail that seemed to belong to a woman.

He thought it looked like Chloe's sister. As she was a trained police officer, he didn't take any chances. He snuck up to her just like in the hospital but this time she was quick and turned around to point the gun at him before he could over power her. They had both a gun pointing at one another.

"Cate, what are you doing here?" Jack asked her. Although they had never met in person. Jack had Chloe's file memorised and the people's faces closest to her.

"Jack Bauer, I presume. I'm here to protect my sister and to stop you from torturing her to get that stupid code out of her."

"You think I would ever do that?"

"Your record speaks for yourself, Jack."

Jack sighed in frustration, "She's soundly sleeping in the master bedroom. We had a little exchange of words, it got a bit emotional, but otherwise she is fine."

"Let me see her!"

"First, lower you gun."

"You first."

Jack slowly did exactly that while Cate also lowered her gun.

Jack took her to the doorway of the master bedroom and after Cate was convinced her sister was okay, he and Jack went back downstairs.

"You have some nerve kidnapping her like that?" she hissed at him.

"I hadn't seen her for years, I wanted to talk to her and I was told you were against that."

"Well, yeah, look at your track record. I know how far you are willing to go for people you care about and I didn't want my sister to suffer because of it."

"Cate, I consider her to be one of those people. I don't know what Chloe has told you about me but she and I, we're friends, close friends."

Cate was a little stunned to hear that. "Yeah, Chloe speaks highly of you, but I thought it was just one-sided swooning over you."

"Well, It's not. She's very important to me."

"Jack? Cate, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked coming down the stairs.

Jack was instantly by her side as Cate said, "We were just talking, your prince and I."

"Shut up, Cate."

Cate raised her hands in mock defeat.

Chloe then handed Jack a piece of paper, "Here, I wrote down the code for you. I hope Audrey will be okay."

"Thank you, Chloe."

Cate noticed how sincerely he looked at her sister, how his hand brushed against her arm, how they smiled at each other and Cate was starting to think whether she had underestimated Jack Bauer and his connection to her quirky and socially awkward sister.

Leaving the house in the mountains that belonged to a friend of his, Jack left Cate to take care of her sister. He had asked her not to take her anywhere, they were both the safest there in that cabin.

Jack knew he could never give the code to anyone, especially to terrorists because it could mean killing millions of people. So he and Bill made a plan to deceive Cheng and get Audrey back anyway.

At first everything went according to playbook. They met on a bridge. Jack was at one side and Cheng was at the other one. Audrey was suppose to walk to the centre of the bridge and then Jack was going to give Cheng the false code. Audrey was suppose to get over the bridge to Jack before Cheng had a chance to use a sniper to shoot her. CTU took out the sniper, Audrey was almost in his arms, when she was shot and killed. There was another sniper that Jack and the CTU hadn't known about. Audrey died before in his arms before she had chance to say anything.

Jack of course was upset. They weren't together anymore but they had tried to start a relationship again. Audrey couldn't understand Jack wanting to work for the CTU. She feared that he was soon going to get back to work in the field and Audrey couldn't live with the constant fear. So it got complicated. But he still had loved her a lot one time and felt he owed it to her to save her life.

„So you sure that Jack didn't hurt you, kiddo?" Cate asked her little sister.

"I'm sure, he wouldn't do that. We just talked."

"About?"

"Cate, come on. It's private."

Then Cate's phone buzzed and although she didn't recognize the number, she answered it. It was Jack Bauer.

"Cate, how's Chloe? I'm on my way back."

"Jack, how did you get my number. Never mind. What's wrong? You sound strange."

"The exchange didn't work, Audrey got killed in the process." Came Jack's saddened voice.

"Audrey's dead?" Cate asked.

"What?" Chloe jumped up from the couch she was sitting on.

"I don't understand, you got the code, what went wrong?" Cate asked him further, ignoring Chloe.

"I'll tell you when I return."

"Ok, see you then."

Cate turned around to see Chloe in tears.

"Audrey is dead? No, no, no, no, no." Chloe was getting more upset by the second, pacing the living room floor.

"Chloe, it's okay, it's not your fault." Cate tried to calm her sister.

"It is my fault, Jack must be so devastated." Chloe continued to cry.

"Clo', I have your sedatives with me, I'll give you a couple and then you can sleep some more."

Chloe took a couple of pills from her sister and took them in front of her with a glass of water. But Cate wasn't a professional caretaker so she didn't check her mouth and so she didn't see that Chloe didn't swallow them.

So later when Cate was browsing TV-channels, she didn't hear Chloe sneaking out from the back door.

Later when Cate went to check on her sister, she saw that Chloe's bed was empty. Some of the clothes Jack had for her, were gone. Along with Cate's wallet that she had time to swipe.

Cate's car was still there but it her sister travelling on foot in a wild nature, wasn't much of a consolation. So she panicked and called Jack.

"Cate? I'm almost there, how is everything?" Jack asked picking up.

"Not good."

"What do you mean? What's wrong?"

"Chloe is gone. She took my wallet but not my car, I don't know even where to even begin searching for her."

"Okay, so she's traveling on foot and can't get far. What happened? Why did she run away?"

"She heard that Audrey was dead and got really upset. I tried to give her sedatives but it didn't work. I think she blamed herself for Audrey's death and didn't want to cause anymore trouble for you."

"Son of a bitch. Okay, I'll find her, Cate. She can't get far and she'll probably try to hitch-hike."

It was already almost dark outside, when Chloe was at the side of the road, trying to get someone to give her a ride.

There weren't many cars passing by but luckily for her suddenly a black SUV stopped. She walked to the passenger side of the car, opened the door and looked in the car, only to see that it was indeed Jack Bauer looking seriously back at her.

"Get in, Chloe. Now!"

Chloe knew that there was no point fighting Jack, so she reluctantly got into the car.

They drove silently, until they turned off the main road and as Chloe didn't see the cabin anywhere, she asked, "Where are you taking me now?"

"Relax, I just want to talk to you alone."

They stopped literally in the middle of nowhere, it could have been a perfect place to take someone out if that was Jack's intention. But it wasn't. Chloe trusted Jack implicitly.

When they had stopped and had taken the seat belts off, Jack turned to Chloe "Why did you run away like that? You had both Cate and me really worried."

"I just couldn't face you after what happened with Audrey today."

"Why not?"

"Cause I blame myself. Maybe if I had given Cheng the code much earlier, he wouldn't have had to succumb to kidnapping Audrey."

"Chloe," Jack started and took Chloe's hand in his. "We don't know that. What happened…none of it…was your fault. No one is blaming you."

"Not even you?" Chloe asked sniffing.

"Least of all me." Jack then let go of her hand and started the car, "Come on, let's get back to the cabin, there are a few things to go over."

"Like what?"

"Like what are we going to do with you now," Jack smiled at her while backing and driving away from there.

"What do you mean?"

"I have to talk to Cate, but I would like to take care of you until you get better. I don't believe that mental institution is the place to be for you at the moment."

"I agree, but you don't have to do that Jack. Don't you have CTU, a life and so on to get back to?"

"No, I freed up my calendar," He chuckled.

"Jack," Chloe wanted to protest.

"Chloe, let me do this for you. You are my closest friend and I want to help you get better."

"Okay, if you insist."

"I do." Jack said and smiled at her and she returned it.

When they got back, Chloe was given her daily medicines and she went to bed, leaving Cate and Jack talk things over.

"If that's what you want, Jack, you have my approval. You made a hard case, I have nothing to object to."

"Good," Jack smiled.

"But what about the location. Where is that safehouse you were talking about?"

"It's not far from here. So when you or your parents want to visit, you can stay here, in this cabin and visit her during the day."

"You have thought of everything, haven't you?"

"Well, that's my job, to think through different scenarios and be ready for anything."

"I know what you mean," Cate smiled to him.

"I know you do." Jack smiled back. "How is working for LAPD nowadays?"

"You know the same, catch the day guys and know how to differentiate them from the good guys. I won't ask about CTU, because god knows Chloe talks about her work too much."

Jack raised a brow curiously.

"Well, not the sensitive and forbidden stuff, just the general things."

"OK, Cate, I'm going to go and try to catch some sleep myself."

"Of course, I won't hold you back, I'll watch some more TV and then turn in too."