geeky_agent | (no subject)

"That's strange."

She realizes that he's here for a reason and it's not to see her. Chris wonders if Jack had a chance to see Teri while she was in the bar but doesn't ask. Instead she moves a little to the side, folding her arms as she does.

"The cemetery is closing, the groundskeeper will be coming around soon."

"Yeah," he says softly, glancing over her shoulder at Teri's headstone, then back at her. He wants Chris to stay, wants to talk to her though he knows it probably isn't a good idea. He's a little uncertain of how to make that clear, though, when he's not sure if she'd rather just leave.

"Yeah, just...give me a minute," he says, finally, slowly walking past her.

"All right," she says with a slight nod. Chris feels almost pathetically relieved that he asked her to wait, though she's uncertain why he asked.

He nods back and continues walking toward Teri's headstone, carefully keeping his eyes away from the stone next to hers. Feeling a little self-conscious, he reaches out and touches Teri's headstone for a moment.

Part of him still isn't exactly sure if she was really there, in that warehouse, or if it was some delirious fantasy of his own. After everything he's seen in the bar, though...he finds it hard not to believe.

He crouches for a moment, running his fingers along her name, etched into the stone. "Thank you, Teri," he whispers. She had given him hope when he had none, and he wishes he could thank her to her face.

Standing again, he finally forces himself to look at the next stone over, feeling a kind of shiver run up his back as he looks at the lettering.

John Patrick "Jack" Bauer, Nov. 29, 1967-Apr. 25, 2010.

For a moment he jsut starres at it, trying to internalise the thought that that's his name on that stone, his birthdate and supposed deathdate. But it just isn't sinking in, not quite, though the sight is still giving him the willies.

Finally he turns his back on the graves, and starts walking back to where Chris is standing.

She glances away briefly, more because of nerves than anything else. After so long of not seeing him, not having even seen a picture of him, she wants to drink in the sight of him.

Not sure what to say or where to even begin, Chris asks, "Are you all right?"

He gives her a weak smile, his stomach doing a flip-flop as he looks into her eyes. "Yeah. How are you? What are you doing in L.A.?"

"I live here now," she says, smiling back automatically. "I'm working at CTU again."

"Really?" he asks, a little surprised. "What kind of work are you doing there?"

She notices the surprise in his tone. "I'm working at District. Assistant to the Director."

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches site of the groundskeeper picking up stray papers as he slowly made his way towards them.

"Have you had anything to eat yet?"

He shakes his head, watching the groundskeeper from behind his sunglasses. "Not yet. What made you decide to go back to CTU?"

"I wanted to do something more than help people manage their money," she says, shrugging slightly.

With a quick glance to the groundskeeper she adds, almost hesistatingly, "I haven't had dinner yet, I was thinking of getting something."

He nods, a long moment falling between them before he asks, "Did you want to join me for dinner?"

She smiles nervously, brushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. If he hadn't asked, she would have.

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Okay," he says, smiling a little himself, though he's not sure just why he's prolonging this. Nothing's changed; there's no more chance of a future now than there ever was. Why he's determined to cause himself more pain by having her so close but miles away, he's not sure. The only thing he's sure of is that right now he can't walk away from her. Somehow a year apart hasn't made this any easier.

They pass through the gates and Jack stops on the sidewalk outside the cemetery, looking up and down the street. There are a couple cars parked at the curb, and he's not sure which one is hers.

"So where to?"

Chris glances away for a moment, looking into her bag for her keys.

"I don't know, do you think we should go to a restaraunt?" She's not sure how much time Jack spent in the area or whether he'd be recognized.

Yeah, that might be a problem. While Jack knows that the chances of running into someone that knows him are slim, that was no guarantee that it wouldn't happen. Hell, he hadn't expected to run into Chris that day, so Murphy's Law was already fully in effect.

"Yeah, maybe we should get some takeout and eat somewhere where we're less likely to run into people." The beach, a park, anywhere that might be less busy at this time of day and where they could have some cover.

Chris walks towards the black car parked across the street. "That works."

She bites her lip, wondering if she should offer but it's the most practical choice. "We could go back to my place. To eat," Chris adds quickly.

It difficult but she manages not to wince at that.

"Is there anything you have a taste for?"

Soooo many ways he could answer that, and yes, they do pass through his mind. He doesn't smile, though, at the thought; it's the kind of thing he can't have that he's thinking of.

"Not particularly. At this point I'm not really picky," he says, following her toward the car.

The double meaning in her words hits her a few seconds later. It doesn't look like Jack had noticed so she doesn't react.

"Phil's pizza is nearby, I could make a call," she says, unlocking the car doors.

"Sure, that sounds fine," he says, climbing in and doing up his seatbelt.

Truth be told, pizza was a treat outside thr bar. Most of the time he couldn't be bothered doing anything elaborate for dinner and so he just ended up dumping something in a pot or shoving something in the oven without much fuss.

"How's your family doing?" he asks after a moment.

Key in, she turns the engine. "They're ok. Caiti's still in Morocco and my brother's in school." Chris sighs. "It's tough living out here, when all of them are across the country."

Her lips purse after she says that, remembering who she was talking to. He can only see Kim when they're in Milliways.

"I haven't been able to get back to the bar since January."

"I got back for a little while about a month ago," he says, not sure he wants to get into the circumstances of how he got back to the bar. "It had only been about three weeks for them since I'd left. Everyone was doing pretty well; your Dad and Elaine included."

He rubs the back of his neck for a moment. "I, uh...met Caiti while I was in Morocco last year."

So it hasn't been that long in the bar.

When he mentions Caiti, she looks quickly at him then back at the road. "What? My Caiti?"

What other Caiti would it be?

He gives her a dry smile. "Yeah, your Caiti. It figures that out of the thousands of people I could have run into, it would be your sister. We even played a game of chess."

That is so weird.

"You didn't...no, why would you," she mumbles to herself.

Chris furrows her brows and after a moment of thinking finally says, "I didn't know Caiti could play chess."