"I have better aim than you," Tony stated as he popped another grape into his mouth.
"I'm stealthier than you," Jack retorted, glaring at him as he ate his lunch.
"I can fight better than you."
"That's not true!"
"I kicked Mandy's ass while I was still bound and gagged."
"I killed Fayed with a chain when I ran out of bullets," Jack countered.
"What are you two doing?" Milo asked as he walked into the break room.
"Nothing," Tony answered quickly.
"It sounded like you were having a pissing contest."
"Shut up, Pressman," Jack growled.
Milo grinned at both of them. "You were, weren't you? You two were arguing about who's the better super secret agent?"
The two older men shifted uncomfortably as Milo continued to grin at them. He could see the tips of their ears turn red as embarrassment came over both of them. Milo took a seat at the table with them and started to eat his lunch. When it seemed as though he would drop the subject, Jack and Tony turned back to their food as well.
"There's a way to find out, you know," Milo said around his mouthful of food.
"To find out what?" Jack asked suspiciously.
"Who the better super secret agent is. You just need a test – a challenge. And then whoever wins gets the title."
"What kind of challenge?"
Milo shrugged. "We'll make it something small, since we're at work and we don't want you guys threatening national security just to win a title. So…how about this? You both have to pickpocket somebody without getting caught in the act."
"That's it?" Tony asked. "Just pickpocket them?"
He nodded. "You have to swipe something from their pocket or purse. And here's the difficult part – Jack, you have to steal something from Chloe, and Tony, you have to get something from Michelle. And it has to be on their person when you take it. Swiping things from their desk doesn't count."
Jack and Tony let Milo 's suggestion sink in, eyeing each other carefully. Setting down his sandwich, Jack stuck out his hand.
"You game?"
Tony smiled and shook his hand. "You're on."
Milo just sat back and grinned.
***
Jack knew that Chloe didn't carry anything in her pockets. Most days she didn't even wear pants with pockets in them. This told him that he was going to have to go after her purse, and that he was going to have to find a way to get her to walk somewhere with her purse actually on her shoulder. He spent an hour sitting in his office before an idea finally came to him. Getting up, he left his office and walked down to Chloe's station.
As usual, Chloe sat in front of her computer, her eyes completely focused on the screen as she tapped away at her keyboard. She didn't even look up when he perched himself on the edge of her desk, letting his arm brush against hers. He felt her jump a little at the contact.
"Hey," he said quietly.
"What do you want?" she snapped.
"I thought we could go get a coffee."
She looked up at him like he had three heads. "Jack, the coffee here is wretched."
He shrugged. "I know. That's why I thought we could make a Starbucks run."
"But-"
"It's not like we have anything pressing here, Chloe. You can take a break. Come on," he pleaded, resting a hand gently on her arm.
"Why do you want to have coffee with me?" she asked with a sigh.
Jack saw the genuine confusion in her eyes, and he silently cursed himself for not being more attentive to her in the past few months. She was his best friend, and she couldn't believe that he wanted to spend some time with her. The challenge forgotten momentarily, he squeezed her arm.
"Because you're my friend, Chloe. And I haven't gotten to spend any time with you lately. Please?"
Pursing her lips, she looked back to the computer as though it would tell her what she should do. Looking back up at him, she rolled her eyes.
"Fine."
She stood up, leaning over to pick up her purse and hang it on her shoulder. Giving him a nervous smile, she turned to him, waiting for him to lead the way. Grinning broadly at her, he placed a hand on the small of her back and they walked out of the building.
***
As they drove back into CTU's parking lot, Jack found himself reluctant to go back inside. He and Chloe had had a good time, laughing and joking as though they were normal people who had been friends for years, instead of coworkers who had forged a deep trust through heartache and sacrifice. They got out of the car and walked toward the door, both going slowly. As they neared the building, Jack suddenly remembered his challenge from Milo . Thinking quickly, he waited until they were inside the building before moving slightly ahead of Chloe so that he could open the door leading out onto the main floor for her.
"Thank you," she said, smiling shyly.
"You're welcome," he said quietly, slipping his hand into her purse and snatching out her wallet as she passed by him.
***
When he got back up to his office, Jack was surprised to see Tony laying on his couch, one hand holding an ice pack next to his right eye. He closed the door behind as he struggled to keep a smirk from his lips.
"Don’t even," Tony warned.
"What the hell happened to you?" Jack asked, barely holding in his laughter.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh but it does, Almeida. You might as well tell me now before I go around asking people.”
Tony scowled at him, which only made it harder for Jack to keep from laughing. “I tried to steal something out of Michelle’s purse.”
“Did the purse bite you?”
“No. I walked up from behind her and went to reach my hand in. She felt someone behind her and she swung an elbow back and caught me right next to my eye.”
That was enough to send Jack into gales of laughter as he fell into his chair. He held his stomach as he bent over his knees, his chuckles filling the room. Tony just continued to glare at him as the other man wiped at the tears that were starting to stream from his eyes. As his laughter died down, Tony cleared his throat loudly.
“Are you finished?”
Jack nodded, leaning back in his chair, a few stray laughs still escaping from his lips.
“Did you manage to swipe something from Chloe?”
Reaching into his back pocket, Jack pulled out a wallet and threw it over to the couch. Tony caught it with his free hand and opened it, whistling when he saw Chloe’s driver’s license.
“And she doesn’t know yet?”
Jack shrugged. “I don’t think so. I just got it from her ten minutes ago. I opened the door for her and reached into her purse. Thankfully, Chloe doesn’t get tense when I’m behind her, so she doesn’t start throwing elbows.”
“Are you suggestion my wife was tense because I was behind her?”
Jack shrugged and opened his mouth to answer when the door to his office burst open and Milo came rushing in.
“Give it back,” he ordered.
The other two men looked at him in surprise, not quite catching on. Jack took in Milo ’s serious expression and his laughter left him completely.
“Give what back?” he asked.
“Chloe’s wallet.”
“How did she know-“
“She doesn’t know you have it, but she knows that it’s gone. Give it back, Jack.”
“What’s the big deal?” Tony asked, sitting up, still holding the ice pack to his face and the wallet in his other hand.
“I don’t know. But she’s freaking out down there. I took her to Holding 2 so that people wouldn’t see her cry.”
Jack stood up immediately, walking over and snatching the wallet from Tony’s hand. “She’s CRYING?”
Milo shrugged. “I think it’s a little bigger than just the wallet, but she won’t tell me. Just give it back to her.”
Jack was already through the door as Milo got the last of his sentence out.
***
He opened the door to the holding room slowly, not wanting to scare her. When he saw her, his felt his breath catch in his throat. She was curled up on the floor in the corner of the room, weeping. Her body shook with her sobs and she pulled her knees tighter against her chest.
“Chloe?”
Her head snapped up at the sound of his voice, her tear-stained face looking pale and drawn – so different from how it was when they had been out together just a short while ago. When she saw him, she immediately pushed herself up from the floor, hurriedly wiping away her tears. Then her eyes fell on the wallet in his hands and her face lit up as she reached out a hand to take it from him.
“You found it,” she breathed, quickly opening it and flipping through it.
“Not exac-“
He stopped when she pulled a picture out. It was folded and the edges were creased, as though it were pulled out often and held. He went to stand behind her and looked over her shoulder, suddenly understanding as he looked down at the picture of her and Edgar smiling at the camera.
“That’s what this was all about?” Jack asked quietly as he turned her to face him and wiped away her tears.
Chloe looked up at him sheepishly. “It’s the only picture I have of the two of us. When I thought I’d lost it…Where did you find it?”
For a split second he considered lying to her. But he quickly discarded the idea – this was Chloe. He could never lie to Chloe.
“I didn’t.”
She frowned in confusion. “What do you mean? How did you end up with it then?”
He took his hands from her face and looked down at the ground. “I took it,” he whispered.
“But…why would you do that?” she asked, her eyes narrowing as she struggled to understand.
“It was…this thing. Tony and I were joking around and then Milo came in…he challenged us to pickpocket somebody…I had to take something from you and Tony had to get something from Michelle…and it had to be on you when we took it…” his voice trailed off as he felt her eyes boring into him.
She tried to blink away the tears that were pooling in her eyes. “That explains it then. I knew there had to be a reason.” Tucking the picture back into the wallet, she moved from the door.
Jack reached out a hand to stop her, grabbing her arm. “Explains what?”
She wouldn’t turn to look at him. “Why you insisted we go out for coffee. You needed to get me somewhere where I’d have my purse on me.” She heard his breath catch and she hurried to cut him off. “It’s okay, Jack. I get it. Just don’t give me any of that friend crap again, okay? I’m sure you can come up with some other excuse next time you need to pull a prank.”
Chloe yanked her arm out of his grasp but then found herself spun around and pinned against the door. Jack’s face was inches from hers and the tears in her eyes finally overwhelmed her and streamed down her cheeks.
“I’ll be honest, Chloe. I only thought about asking you to go get a coffee because of the pickpocket thing. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to go. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking for an excuse to hang out with you for months. I’ve just been too scared-“
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t say things just to be nice. It’s okay, Jack. I get it-“
“Chloe,” he said firmly. “I wouldn’t lie to you. I never have. I don’t think I physically can.” He gentled his voice as he ran his fingers through her hair. “Who did this to you? Who made you think that it was impossible for someone to truly care about you?”
He leaned in and kissed her cheek, right below her eye. Then he proceeded to kiss her all over her face, taking away each tear as it fell from her eyes. Her hands came up to grasp his forearms as he cradled her face. Jack stopped his rain of kisses as he paused in front of her lips, staring at her deeply.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “If I was better at this…you would have known already.”
“Known what?”
“That I love you,” he answered as he brushed his lips against hers. When he went to pull back, Chloe followed him, kissing him harder and with more confidence. His mouth opened to let her tongue in as they explored each other and he pushed her up against the door.
Finally Chloe pulled back and looked up at him. “If you’ve wanted to hang out for months, why didn’t you just say something?”
“I didn’t know how to ask.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “It’s me, Jack. All you have to do is say it. I’m certainly not going to hold it against you if it comes out wrong.”
He smiled at her, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. Then he looked at her again, his gaze intense. “I would never hurt you like that Chloe…I would never play a joke at the expense of your feelings.”
“I know,” she whispered. “It’s just hard to make my brain shut up sometimes.”
“Well what can we do about that?” Jack asked, holding her closer.
“I think we can come up with something,” she murmured, her lips once again moving toward his.
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