Who is Chloe O'Brian Chapter 7
Walking past security, Jack glances at the bullpen and sees Chloe already engrossed in something on her computer screen. Quickly jogging up the steps to his office, he shuts the door and sits behind his desk.
It’s been 6 weeks since he followed Chloe home and learned that he really didn’t know the woman he trusted with his life. Over that time, he’s gone straight from CTU back to her house more often than not. Just to talk, to eat, to share company with this amazingly strong and secretive woman.
Thinking back over the last weeks, he relaxes. She had said to him that she hoped he still trusted her after she read her file. What she didn’t know was Jack was sure no matter what was in it; she was still the Chloe O’Brian he has always known. ‘Chloe’ just being one facet to her personality, one side of her, something she gave to him willingly and trustfully. How could he not trust her? Chloe was still Chloe. Whoever Melinda was, he already knows that the only difference is a change in name. The woman he knows may be a softer version of the former CIA/MI5 agent, but she’s still the same.
Harry had sent him the background two days after he asked. It came over via an encrypted file that Chloe immediately segregated on the CTU server and transferred to a thumb drive. After transferring it, she had deleted all traces from the servers and with a nod, she handed the drive over to him without hesitation.
His fingers trailing over the key ring he kept the drive on, he smiled. It took a lot of trust for her to give this to him. He hadn’t opened the file yet. Never even peeked at it in the last six weeks he’s had it. He wanted to see if her reaction to him changed at all since she willingly handed her life over to him. Over the last few weeks he studied her. She never asked, and he never inquired why she hadn’t asked. All he cared about was the look of open honestly and trust in her eyes that never wavered.
Broken from his thoughts by the buzz of his desk phone, he quickly answered it with “Bauer”.
“How do you feel about Sicilian food?” Her soft voice came over the handset.
Smiling, he leans over and rests his elbow on his desk. The sound of her voice, soft yet confident, in his ear instantly sending a thrill through his body.
“Is that different than Italian?” He teases, chuckling lightly when he gets an image of her rolling her eyes through the phone.
“Yes. Completely different nation, Jack”
“What time?”
“8.” She says and he hears the phone click off. Holding the handset in his hand, he shakes his head.
This change in their relationship causes his heart to flutter in his chest. Their friendship seemingly stronger, neither one of them has mentioned the kiss from the first night. Nor have they repeated it. Here and there, there will be touches. A quick touch of her hand on his shoulder as she walks behind him or a graze of his fingers against hers as he walks by her on his way into the field, nothing overtly sexual in nature, all it more of a comforting presence.
Her gaze when she looks at him usually makes his breath hitch in his throat. The raw openness in her eyes that he sees when he locks his with hers. Every time he has come back from the field as of late, he sees her standing in the hallway. Watching and waiting, warmth fills his chest that he hadn’t before realized was missing since Teri. The realization that Chloe stands in the dark tunnel of field ops just waiting to make sure he comes back safe causes that warmth to spread throughout his body.
He wonders what they’re doing now. What is this leading to? He surprised himself last night, lying in his bed, his very empty bed that he already knew what he wanted it to lead to. Something he kicks himself for not realizing years ago. He grimaces at the time he has wasted. The women he filled his bed with, his life with that weren’t Chloe.
Audrey represented the life he felt he wanted. He struggled hard to be the man she wanted him to be. In the end he realized, that once he shook off that impersonator he felt he was when he was with her, that it wasn’t right. The fear in her eyes when she looked at him while he was the harsh reality that was Jack Bauer told him all he needed to know. She could never accept the man he truly was.
Standing and walking to the window, he looks down over the bullpen. Buzzes of activity as the analysts hunker down and work through their day, his eyes drift to Chloe.
He would let her lead. Deciding last night, he had spent enough time over the years molding his relationships into what he wanted, thought his partners wanted. This time, he would leave his heart and body in the very capable hands of the one person in the world he trusted with them.