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Okay, so here's another fanfic for your reading pleasure....

            The rescue operation had, for once, gone off without a hitch. Jack and his team were able to extricate Chloe in one piece, and they had gotten away cleanly, losing only one agent to enemy gunfire.

            And now they were back. After a quick stop at Medical, Chloe had returned to her desk and her work. Jack sat in the Situation Room, watching her while he waited for Bill to come in and debrief him. She seemed okay, scowling and snapping at everyone who bothered her with questions about what had happened. Jack watched as Morris came over and tried to hug her. Chloe pulled back sharply, saying something before returning to the computer before her. Morris walked away with a dejected slump to his shoulders and pained expression on his face. Jack found himself smiling at her determination and refusal to fall apart, despite what had happened to her.

            The door to the Situation Room opened, and Jack looked up, expecting to see Bill Buchanan striding in. But to his surprise, it was Audrey. She closed the door behind her and then stood there staring at him, as though he were a ghost.

            Jack stood up and stared back in disbelief. They hadn’t seen one another since that day he was taken, but she looked the same. No matter what, Audrey always looked put-together and ready for business. He started to smile, but it quickly turned to a frown. Suddenly he wondered why he hadn’t really thought of her until now. His eyes scanned past her, back out to Chloe. That was why. For the past three hours he had been consumed with finding her – nothing else had mattered.

            Audrey followed his gaze out on to the floor. She watched as Chloe continued working, oblivious to Jack’s stare. When Audrey turned her head back, Jack had already refocused on her, but she could tell his thoughts were still with the computer analyst.

            “You’ve finally realized it, haven’t you?” she asked quietly.

            Jack looked at her in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

            Audrey smiled sadly. “Chloe. You’ve finally realized that you’re in love with her.”

            Jack opened his mouth to argue, but suddenly stopped himself. He looked back out onto the floor, back at Chloe. His eyes widened in realization, and he nodded. Bringing his eyes back to Audrey, he tried to hold in the tears. He didn’t want to hurt her like this.

            “It’s okay, Jack. I’ve known for a while. I was always hoping that you wouldn’t realize it, though. I knew that if you ever did, I would lose you.”

            Jack took a step toward her, hand outstretched. “Audrey…” he whispered, his voice laden with emotion.

            Audrey raised her hand to stop him. “Don’t, Jack. We both knew this was a losing battle. I can’t live in your world, and you can’t live in mine. It was only a matter of time until we realized it. It’s better this way.”

            Jack nodded, hearing the truth in her words. The things he had to do at CTU scared Audrey. The torture and danger was something she couldn’t deal with, couldn’t accept. And her world was just as foreign to him. He couldn’t sit behind a desk and wear a suit everyday. He couldn’t play nice with people who just wanted to use him as a footstool on their way up. Things just couldn’t work with them.

            Audrey’s voice interrupted his thoughts. “You need to tell her, Jack. It’s gonna take a lot of convincing, since she doesn’t believe you could ever look at her like that. She’s just accepted the fact that you can only be friends. That’s why she got back together with Morris. She was trying to get over you.”

            “Thank you, Audrey,” Jack whispered as he hugged her for what would probably be the last time.

 

***

 

            Chloe looked on in pain as Jack and Audrey embraced.

 

***

 

Four hours later…

 

            Jack and Audrey walked down a back hallway of CTU. The horrific day was finally over, and the suitcase nukes had been recovered. Gredenko had been captured, Fayed killed. Phillip Bauer was missing, and Marilyn had taken Josh home. Jack stumbled a little as a wave of exhaustion hit him. It had been a long day.

            Audrey caught Jack’s arm and stopped him, looking at him with an expression of worry. “Jack are you okay?”

            Jack waved her off. “Yeah, I’m fine. Tired. Feel like I could sleep for a year.”

            “You probably could,” Audrey smiled. They continued walking. “So…have you told Chloe yet?”

            Jack sighed and shook his head. “No, I haven’t had a chance. With everything going on today, she probably would have just hit me for bringing it up in the middle of a crisis.”

            “You need to tell her, Jack. She deserves to know…”

            There was a loud crack and Audrey stopped in her tracks, her mouth open in astonishment. Jack looked back at her, wondering what was wrong, when he saw the growing red spot in the middle of Audrey’s chest. He reached out his arms to catch her as she fell, her eyes glazing over. She was gone before he could do anything. Tears running down his face, Jack looked up to find the culprit.

            “Don’t fucking move, Bauer.”

            Jack found himself staring into the rage-filled eyes of Morris. He had a Glock leveled at his head.

            “Morris,” Jack gasped. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

            “Shut up, Jack.” Morris slurred his words, and Jack suddenly realized that the red in his face was from alcohol. The way he looked, Jack guessed that he had seen the bottom of a few bottles in the past couple hours.

            “You shouldn’t have come back, Jack. Everything here was fine while you were in China. And even when you came back this morning it was okay, because Fayed was going to take care of you. I could comfort Chloe and we could move on. But no. You insisted on breaking free. Jack fucking Bauer to the rescue again! And then you had to judge me for breaking under torture. You had to make me feel like I was less of a man. And then, to top everything off, you had to go and rescue my woman. No wonder she can’t stand the sight of me anymore. Nobody can measure up to the great Jack Bauer!”

            “What did you want me to do?” Jack asked in a low voice. “Let her die?”

            “No. But you should have died this morning and left us in peace!” Morris shouted as he steadied his gun arm. Jack tensed himself, ready to dive to the side, when three shots burst out from Morris’ left. Morris dropped his gun in surprise and looked down at his chest. All three shots had found their target. He looked at the shooter in shock and toppled to the ground.

            Jack stared at Chloe in amazement. She stood still, the gun still raised and pointed at her ex-husband. Her bottom lip was trembling and tears were spilling on to her cheeks, but her expression was determined and her hand steady.

            Jack stood up slowly. “Chloe…” he whispered.

            “Jack! Chloe!” Bill, Milo and Nadia came running down the hall. When they saw Audrey and Morris’ bodies they stopped suddenly. Bill looked at Chloe in confusion.

            “What the hell happened here?”

            Chloe took a moment to steady herself, to make sure that her voice wouldn’t shake. “Morris killed Audrey and then tried to shoot Jack.” She still hadn’t lowered her gun.

            Milo walked up to her slowly with his arms outstretched. “Okay, Chloe…Just give me the gun.”

            Chloe spared him a withering look. “Don’t worry, Milo. I’m not going to shoot anybody else.” She handed him the gun and turned expectantly to Bill.

            “Chloe, why don’t we go talk in my office?” He turned to Milo. “Get a team down here to clean this up. And Jack?” Jack tore his eyes away from Chloe and looked at Buchanan. “After I’m done with Chloe I’m going to want to speak to you as well.”

           

***

 

            As Jack exited Bill’s office and started down the stairs, he saw Chloe at her desk, packing her things up. He hadn’t had a chance to talk to her since the incident with Audrey and Morris, and he figured that now was the best time. He walked up to her station, but she still didn’t look up. He reached out to touch her hand.

            “Don’t touch me, Jack,” she snapped as she pulled her arm away from him.

            Jack pulled his hand back, suddenly unable to breathe. He struggled to keep his face impassive, but the tears were coming despite his best efforts. Chloe still hadn’t looked at him. He nodded, unable to say a word. Turning away from her, he walked off to Tech 1.

            Nadia had seen the exchange and she rushed up to Chloe.

            “Are you really that mad at him?” she asked.

            Chloe looked at her sharply. “Mad at him? What are you talking about?”

            “You just bit his head off. If you’re not mad at him, why would tell him not to touch you?”

            “Nadia, I’m sure Jack didn’t think…” she trailed off as she thought about how what she had said to Jack might have sounded. “Oh God…I didn’t mean it that way.”

            “He went to Tech 1…” Nadia started, but Chloe was already running down the hall.

 

***

 

            When Chloe first opened the door, she didn’t see or hear anyone. But as she let the door close behind her, she heard a muffled sound coming from the far wall. She walked over and saw Jack leaning forward over a table, his shoulders shaking. Her heart broke as his sobs became audible.

            She walked over to him. Reaching out, she picked his left arm up off the table and scooted herself in between him and it. Jack looked up at her in surprise as she took his face in her hands.

            “Jack, I didn’t mean it like that.”

            He looked down, refusing to meet her gaze. “But you said…”

            “Yeah, I know what I said. But it came out wrong. C’mon, Jack…you should know me by now. I never say the right thing.” He squeezed his eyes shut as more tears slid down his cheeks. Chloe took a deep breath before continuing. “I told you not to touch me, because…because I knew that if you did, that would be it. I’d break. I’d burst into tears right there in front of everybody. And I couldn’t let that happen Jack.” Jack opened his eyes, but refused to look her in the eye. “Besides,” she continued in a lower voice. “I thought you’d be the one mad at me.”

            At this Jack’s head snapped up and he placed his hands on her hips, as though he were afraid she would run away.
            “Why would I be mad at you?” he asked.

            The question was too much for Chloe, and tears began running down her cheeks. Jack removed one of his hands from her hip and wiped them away with his thumb. Chloe closed her eyes at the unexpected contact, unable to speak for the moment.

            “Chloe…” Jack prodded.

            “Because Audrey’s death is my fault,” she whispered. “I should have reported Morris earlier when I smelled alcohol on his breath. I should have gone out to find him when he disappeared a few hours ago.” She paused. “And, the only reason he went looking for you with a gun was because of me.”

            Chloe bit her lip in an effort to keep from outright crying, but a sob escaped her lips. Jack quickly collected her in his arms and held her close, letting her get rid of the fear and guilt. He let his own tears fall as well, knowing that he needed to let go of it too.

            He turned his lips into her hair as he spoke. “I was afraid you hated me because you had to kill Morris to save me.”

            Chloe pulled back so that she could look at Jack. There was barely a breath’s space between their faces. “Morris was an asshole. He dug his own grave by getting drunk and pulling a gun on you.” She closed her eyes and softened her voice. “I’m sorry about Audrey,” she whispered.

            Jack nudged her face with his nose, forcing her to open her eyes and look at him. She was surprised to see a hint of a smile on his lips.

            “I am too. But Audrey and I were done.”

            “Since when?”

            “Earlier today,” he told her. “We knew we couldn’t work it out. And we both realized that I’m in love with someone else.”

            Chloe tried to pull back again, but she suddenly found Jack's right hand holding her head in place. He wouldn’t let her go.

            “Who?” she managed to ask, the fear evident in her voice. She wanted to tear her eyes away from his, to look anywhere but at him. But he just kept staring at her with those beautiful eyes that were now gentle and full of…something. Chloe was afraid of what she thought she saw there. She knew she had to be mistaken. That she was misreading something…

            “You,” he whispered.

            Still holding her head in place, Jack leaned in to softly brush his lips against hers. As he pulled back to gauge her reaction, her hands tightened their grip on his face, pulling him back down to her mouth. They both sank into the kiss, Chloe’s hands going around Jack’s neck as his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her ever closer.

            They eventually pulled back out of their need for oxygen, and Jack leaned his forehead against hers.

            “You really love me?” she whispered.

            “Yeah.”

            “Since when?”

            He laughed softly. “Since you helped me fake my death. I think it happened when you were updating me on everything that was going on while I was in hiding. I know it had already happened by the time I came to get you with the chopper and you ran into my arms.” He stopped as his face grew more somber. “You were all I could think about in China. I kept thinking that you were going to show up. That you were going to save me like you always have. I never gave up that hope.”

            Tears were once again coursing down Chloe’s cheeks. “Jack,” she whispered. “I tried so hard to find you. I’m…”

            He put his fingers over her mouth. “Don’t you dare apologize, Chloe. You did save me. Today.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “You chose me.”

            Chloe kissed him again. “I always choose you, Jack.” She paused and gave him a small seductive smile. “Now take me home, Bauer.”