Ficlet: Reports and Revelations
Here is a little story that I wrote on Friday. It is unbetaed and so any mistakes are mine. I hope you like it because I enjoyed reading it....
Now on with the show..... Oh and I don't own 24 or Jack or Chloe or they would not have such crappy lives. :(
Jack Bauer sat at his computer in his office at CTU. He hated typing, he hated report and he really hated typing those stupid reports. If possible he dictated them into a recorder and had Chloe type them up for him after hours or when she had nothing to do. Unfortunately this one was one he could not let her do, this one was a report he had to do alone.
His eyes traveler to where she sat just outside his office working. The report was his debrief for Division on his time in China. They wanted to know what had been done to him in great detail, who had be present at each interrogation, and what questions that had been asked. It wasn't that she didn't have the clearance to see what he was writing, it was that he did want her to have those memories. He had told her a few things about what happened, but he did not want to feel anymore of the guilt than she already felt because she couldn't find him. He did not want to scar her view of the world any more than it already was with the more horrific things he had to endured in China.
With heavy sigh he turned his attention back to the computer and continued typing. A few minutes later he finished the report and saved it. He was about to shut down the computer, when he looked over at the clock above Chloe's head. He still had another half and hour before he could leave. His gaze drifted to Chloe again for a moment and then he turned back to the report to read it over before he sent it to Division.
Scrolling back to the top Jack began to read. To his horror five words in there was a word that did not belong, not a word so much as a name, Chloe. Jack quickly reread the sentence, inserted the proper word, and continued reading. Only to find seven more in the next paragraph.
He looked over at Chloe and frowned. Was he that distracted by her? He realized that he had been thinking about her a lot but enough that he was typing her name over and over in his report. It had to have been just the day he started this stupid report. That was the morning he had first found himself in her bed, when he woke up around 1 am. The strange thing was he had no memory of getting there. He had left quickly before she found him there. It was just too strange because it had happened the next night and every night since.
Since he had showed up on her doorstep after visiting Audrey house, Chloe had not let him out of her sight unless she had to. These instances included bathrooms, when she was running comms, and when they slept, but even that one Jack wondered about. He was sure Chloe came in to check on him during the night.
After Jack had become angry with her Chloe tearfully told him that she was afraid he would disappear if she did not keep an eye on him. That she could not take it, not again. He had took her into his arms and held her while he cried his own tears. He had struggling to deal with what happened to him that it never occurred to him that others might be hurting too.
Shaking his head Jack turned back to the screen and replaced the scattered Chloes with the proper words. Once he continued reading he found a whole paragraph composed of her name over and over again with a few ands, its and ins.
Distressed Jack went to the menu and found all the Chloes in the document. Of the 24, 356 words, there were 3,424 Chloes spread through it.
Trying to shake off his discomfort, Jack returned to reading and extracting the stray Chloes when he came a across three words that stop and stare at it. He did not believe it but there it was in black and white. He swallowed and read them again.
His gaze drifted to where she worked, this time she looked up at him and smiled as thought she sensed his eyes on her. Jack Bauer's heart slammed in his chest ans suddenly he couldn't breath. He forced himself to return her smile before he looked away, so she would not worry that something was wrong, but it was, very wrong.
He tried to push the thought away but it marched right back in and proclaimed itself the truth. Returning his eyes to the screen, Jack wondered if he had read it wrong. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again, no there it was. “I love Chloe.”
Jack looked at Chloe, who had turned back to her own work and was still oblivious to his internal torment. He read it one more time and realized that it was true. He loved Chloe O'Brian, he had for along time. It seemed to have snuck up on him and slipped in when he was not looking.
Not wanting the wrong person to find this report, Jack pulled out a thumb drive and saved the report on to it and erased it from the actual computer. Standing, he gathered his things preparing to leave. Chloe looked up as he spoke, “Ready to go? I'm done for today, lets go home.”
Chloe hesitated for a moment studying Jack. Something was wrong his was agitated, but was trying to hide it from her. “Are you alright? You look at little on edge about something.”
Shaking his head, Jack said, “I'm fine. It's just this report for Division was harder to do than I thought it would be. I realized something and I need to figure out what to do about it or if I should do anything about it.”
“ Anything I can do to help? I'm here for you if you need to talk.” Chloe asked oblivious to what he was talking about.
If possible that put him even more on edge, but he took a deep breath saying, “If I need you, I will let you know.” He said as he placed her hand on her back and guided her from the office and out to the car.
24 JC 24
Early that morning, Jack woke up in Chloe's bed at around 2 am, like he had for the last while. She was curled up next to him and his hand rested on her stomach. This time instead of leaving immediately so that she would not know he was there each night, Jack stayed.
For a few moments he relished the feeling of loving someone and holding them in his arms. It had been so long since he'd been able to do something as simple as that. For the past five years ,his life had been insane and he'd been isolated from everyone he loved.
After a while Jack sighed and slipped from the warmth of the bed and Chloe. He stood in the hallway outside her room for a moment not wanting to go back to his own lonely bed. Chloe lay on her side facing him and it was so tempting to climb back into that bed and sleep next to her safe and protected by her. Sighing again he decided to go to and finish the report. He grabbed the thumb drive from his coat pocket by the door and sat down with his laptop on the couch.
At 3 am he was down to the last few pages and his eyes began to get heavy. Jack lay his head down on on the arm of the couch thinking he was just rest for a moment and then continue to work. Next time he had insomnia he would just do his paperwork, and then he was asleep.
JC 24 JC
Chloe woke with a jerk and reached for Jack, but he was no longer there. When he had woke up earlier and not left the bed, hope had blossomed in her chest. She thought he would stay and they would wake up together. Most of all he would have to talk to her about his sleepwalking and what they causes were.
Each night she found walking the halls calling her name. Every night she would take his hand and lead him to her bed where Jack would lie down and take her into his arms before dropping into a more restful sleep. The first time she had found him doing that she had taken him to his own bed and left him there, once he seemed to be asleep, only to have his wondering again five minutes later. The only thing that seemed to calm him was her bed and his arms around her.
He never stayed that long after he woke up, and Chloe would remain awake enjoying the feeling of his arms around her. All too soon he would wake up and leave her to return to his own bed.
Tonight had seemed no different until he stayed and she fell asleep again. Sighing she heard the clicking of keys. Why would he be working at this hour? Then there was silence and she guessed that he must have fallen asleep.
She found him with his head resting awkwardly on the arm of the couch. Her eyes strayed to the laptop where it rested on his lap and looked away. She should move it before it fell. Reaching down to pick it up she saw what was on the screen. His report to Division. Obviously did not want her to read it, but something caught her attention. Her name was in it.
Frowning at Jack, why was she in his report? She turned back to the screen. “It was a week of hard physical Chloe. I endured burns, small deep cuts that Chloe untreated, and beatings most I love Chloe...”
Chloe suddenly felt light headed. Dropping on to the coffee table beside the couch, she just sat for a moment trying to remember to breath. Once she slowed her heart rate down, Chloe looked over at Jack. He loved her? How could that be?
With a deep breath she proceeded to look through the document. Realizing he was almost at the end, she saved the modified one and reopened the original. There it was in front of her, in writing even, “I love Chloe,” was in there 324 times.
Looking over at the sleeping man, could it really be true? Did he love her in a romantic way? After all they were friends and you could love a friend and not be in love with them. She loved Chase that way and Edgar as well. Her eyes traveled to the screen, but you did not write it that way. I love you, was a special phrase or that special person.
She had waited for this for so long and now that it was a possibility she was not going to let it slip away. Setting the lap top down beside her, she knelt on the floor by Jack's head and shook him gently. “Jack, you need to wake up, please.”
Wrenched from sleep Jack sat up eyes wide and confused until they focused on the woman kneeling beside him. “Chloe?” His voice was raspy from sleep.
“Yes, Jack you fell asleep out here, when you were working.” She cupped his face with her hand and rubbed his stubbly cheek with her thumb.
Jack swallowed and looked at the laptop. It had moved from where he was using it. “You saw.” It was not a question.
She nodded. “I love you too, Jack,” she said, tracing his lips with her thumb.
Shivering, Jack tried to form the word to deny her statement and the ones she had read. The war, he was waging was visible in his eyes, before he could lie to her and say it was not true, Chloe leaned forward and kissed him.
He tried to pull away but her hand from his cheek ran up into his hair keeping him in place. She continued her onslaught daring him to fight her and to dispute the words he had written.
With a moan, Jack surrendered to Chloe and his love for her, from that moment on he was home.