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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"That's a long time to be alone," he considers Jack for a moment. "Did you work with her?"

Jack shakes his head, smiling wryly. "High-school sweethearts. She was a civilian; guess I have a better idea of what it must have been like for her now."

Ryan does that math quickly, Jack was married for a while, longer than he would have suspected. "Chris knows about her?"

Actually, she's met her and they talked for a while, from what Chris told me, Jack thinks. Naturally he can't actually say it, though, so he just nods. "We've talked about her. Chris has... met my daughter, as well."

"You have a daughter?" Ryan's a little surprised. "How old is she?"

"Twenty-four. She and Chris work together," Jack says, knowing none of this is something that Ryan's likely to want to hear.

That's not the answer Ryan was expecting but considering how long he said he'd been married, it made sense. He manages not to point out the obvious fact that his daughter's only seven years younger than Chris. Hell, she and Caiti are about the same age and Ryan's not sure how he feels about his sister living with a man who has already had a family. But he said that she worked at CTU too, and the thought of Tori putting her life in danger all the time makes Ryan feel a little sick.

Jack's a widower with a daughter and Chris has barely had a serious relationship in the past. However, this explains the secrecy and Chris's vague answers. In a way it's a relief.

"I can see why Chris didn't tell us a lot about you," he says after a moment.

"I don't think she wanted to keep it from you," Jack says, quietly, "This just... isn't the kind of thing you want to talk about over the phone."

"There's worse news to hear over a phone." He answers in the same quiet way. "So she's really doing better?"

"Sometimes, when you're not sure how people are going to react, though, you want to be able to say it in person," Jack says, looking over at Ryan again. "And yeah, she is. It hasn't been an easy few months, but things are getting better."

"How bad were things?" He can't believe he's asking his sister's boyfriend about her mental state.

Jack lets out a quiet sigh after a moment to try and think of how to phrase things. "There's a lot of stuff I can't tell you about either, Ryan, but it did get pretty bad. One thing I can tell you is that a friend of ours--not working at CTU--died a couple months ago. Chris was the one who kept it together for everyone else, though she had it rough herself. She's doing better."

It's likely not much comfort, but he can't downplay what happened; with how much Ryan and Jeannie had been worried--with all the reasons Chris had given them to worry--trying to make things sound like less of a crisis than they had been wouldn't have worked anyway. Ryan wouldn't have believed him, and would just have been more worried; or more frustrated, more suspicious, for that matter.

But neither could Jack tell him exactly what had happened, and he didn't want to worry them any more than they already were. His explanation just had to lie somewhere in the middle, just had to be vague, though he knows Ryan isn't going to like it.

Ryan's silent, trying to react without giving away how he feels. He's not good at opening up in general and especially not with someone he's only known for a very short period of time.

"She didn't tell us about any of that, thank you for letting me know," he takes a breath. Chris, why couldn't you let me be there for you?

"You're welcome," Jack says, nodding, hoping he hasn't said too much.

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OOM: Visiting Family

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