geeky_agent | OOM: Visiting Family

Current Mood: worried

OOM: Visiting Family

She almost wishes Caiti would be there.

It would mean more questions and more problems, yes. They'd still have to explain Caiti having met Jack already in Morocco two years prior and she just knew that wouldn't go over well.

Still, she can't help but wonder if maybe it would be better to get everything out in the open now. (Not everything.) Caiti had always been good at dealing with problems between her sister and brother and it sounded like she and Jack had gotten along pretty well and she hadn't seen her in months...

This had probably been a bad idea but it was too late to back out now.

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"I think you're her new favourite person," Jeannie says with a small smile. She kneels, helping pick up some of the toys scattered across the floor as she listens for the sound of teeth being brushed. "I hope she didn't talk your ear off too much."

"No, she just had a lot to tell me about her day camp, her favorite tv shows, the neighbor's dog," she says, trying to list everything that seemed to catch Tori's attention. "I'm surprised at how much she's talking. Last time I saw her it was only a few words here and there and now, full sentences."

It didn't seem like it had been that long ago.

"Kids seem to age fast, especially in the first few years. It's like she was crawling, and then I blinked and she was running around the house," Jeannie says, smiling slightly. She's avoiding the real subject, she knows, but there are so many things she wants to ask, and she's not sure how.

Picking up a few picture books that had tumbled off the dresser, she says, casually, "Jack seems nice." He'd been fairly adept at not talking much about himself at dinner, too.

"He is," Chris says with a nod, glancing over at her sister-in-law. "He really likes the place. I forgot how nice it was."

She was tempted to say more about the cabin but she realizes she's coming dangerously close to rambling.

Jeannie nods. "It's been a while since you were here," she says, trying to not make it sound like she's guilt-tripping Chris for her distance. "So how did you two meet? You said he works for CTU, too."

"Yeah, I know." She doesn't bother with any excuses or explanations for that, instead quietly hoping she'd be able to see them more now that they knew about Jack.

Chris smiles. "At CTU. He was on an assignment and I was his case manager. We talked a lot, at first just about the case... things evolved from there."

"It must have been a pretty slow evolution, over a whole year," she says, still able to sound nonchalant when what she's really wondering is why Chris never mentioned him in all that time. "When did things get serious between you two?"

"Well, he was on assignment. That took priority, a lot of the time," she says with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "Not that long a go. Maybe a few months? He, uh... he and I are living together now."

That gets her attention, and she looks up at Chris, her hand frozen in the act of reaching for another crayon. "Living together?" It was such a large step for her, and considering they hadn't heard anything about Jack's existence before this...

"So you must know each other really well, then," Jeannie says, going back to picking up the crayons, her forehead furrowed in thought.

Her voice is stronger when she says, "Yeah, we do. We have some of the same friends. From work. And I've met his family already."

"Oh?" she says, wondering how long ago Chris had met them. Then again, his family could be in L.A., too, in which case it wouldn't be fair. "How did you get along with them? What kind of family does he have?"

"We get along pretty well, actually," she looks at Jeannie with a smile. "It's really just his daughter, her fiance and his young daughter. They live in the L.A. area and also work at CTU. So, I see them every day."

Well she can't be that young if she's working at CTU.

"He was married before?" Jeannie asks, a little uneasily.

"Yeah. She died, several years ago. They married pretty young," Chris adds, as a way of explaining Kim's age.

This isn't entirely comforting--that's a lot of past baggage to bring to a relationship--but then if Chris seems to be all right with it, then there's not much she can say.

"So you, Jack, his daughter and his daughter's fiance all work at CTU? I didn't realize it was a family business," Jeannie says, her smile a little forced. She's had to hear Ryan's thoughts on Chris working at CTU again, and while she doesn't quite feel as strongly as him about it, it does worry her. Hearing that the man Chris...cared about also worked there as well as his family doesn't really help, either; she doesn't want to see Chris get hurt.

"Jack doesn't work at CTU anymore. He left a few months ago." For a second, Chris almost says that he left after his assignment was over but decides not to add any more details unless necessary. "He's working for a private security firm with a friend of ours."

"Why isn't he working at CTU?" she asks, curiously. It seems odd for him to leave when a number of people he knows work there.

They didn't go over this.

"He has a, uh, medical condition. Heart problem." It's the truth, which helps, but Chris wonders what if anything Jack told Ryan.

"Jack used to do field work. But after his last assignment, his doctor said he should find a less stressful line of work."

Jeannie looks up at her, concerned. "A heart condition? Is he all right? Is it serious?" she asks.

"Yeah," she says somewhat lamely, wondering if she should have been more vague. "He's fine but it's just required some lifestyle changes. Like his diet. And his job."

"Do you have the same kind of stress in your work at CTU?" Jeannie asks, wondering if maybe it was the pressure getting to her that had made Chris so withdrawn. Then again maybe it was the secret boyfriend as well; wihtout Chris saying anything, it was hard to tell.

"Not exactly." Even though saying yes would help explain a lot of her past behavior, Chris didn't want them to worry about her anymore than they already did. "He was in field work. That's more demanding. Especially the last assignment."

"What was he doing?" Jeannie asks, not paying full attention to what she's saying, not realizing that Chris might not be able to answer that, as she's listening for Tori. She's been in the bathroom for a while, and she can hear the sound of water splashing.

"Tori, come on out, and there better not be a mess in there," Jeannie calls, and a moment later she hears the tap turn off.

"I'm not, Momma!" Comes a voice from the bathroom. A few minutes later, Tori wanders out, damps spots on the front of her shirt and the cuffs of her sleeves were wet as well. "I'm done."

Chris looks over at Jeannie with a small smile.

Jeannie gives Chris a long-suffering but amused look and sighs as she pulls out a pair of light pyjamas. "Come on, my little mermaid, let's get you into your jammies."

Tori pouts, but obediently pulls off her t-shirt and jeans, and then dons the pyjamas as her mother folds the wet clothes over the back of a chair. Tori jumps into bed, bouncing on the mattress once before Jeannie's stern expression puts a stop to it. Jeannie wraps her daughter in a hug, kissing Tori's cheek. For all her preschooler rambunctiousness, Jeannie wouldn't trade Tori for the world.

"Night-night, sweetheart, I love you. Do you want me or your Auntie Chris to tuck you in?"

"Auntie Chris!" Tori squeals.

Jeannie looks over at Chris with a wry smile. "I guess I didn't even need to ask."

OOM: Visiting Family

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