geeky_agent | (no subject)

Current Mood: melancholy

(no subject)

June 18, 2011

Chris didn't know why she was here.

It was almost five and still hot out, the gentle breeze making the heat bearable. Her dress suit was some light wool-silk blend that had left her cold in the office but was a comfort while standing under the afternoon sun.

She'd come from work, a meeting at Division and she'd been sent to represent District while the Director was out of town. On her way to work, she had passed by the cemetery where Jack was "buried".

Chris had never visited his grave before and wasn't sure why she was doing so now, she wasn't any closer to Jack here than she was at CTU. Perhaps, less so.

With a sigh, she laid the bouquets down. Both small, simple and white, one at Teri's grave and one at Jack's.

I miss you.

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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."

"One of her friends was teaching her. She was pretty good at it," he says, scratching at a spot of something on his jeans.

He doesn't ask what she had been about to say, as it's rather obvious--of course he wouldn't have told Caiti about who he was, or that he knew her sister.

"Really? She was never that interested in chess before."

There were a million things she probably should be asking but none came to mind. Chris was still surprised she was sitting here, having this conversation with Jack after so long of not seeing him.

God, I missed him.

While at a redlight, she grabs her cell phone from her purse. "I should call so it's ready when we get there. What do you want on your pizza?"

He shrugs. "Maybe there wasn't much else to do in her free time or she just liked spending the time with her friend."

He glances over at her with a small smile. "Anything, as long as it's not anchovies. I'm not picky."

She smiles at that, dialing the number with one hand. "Are green peppers and sausage all right?"