milliways_bar | (no subject)

She nods trying not to let her change in demeanor show. Every mention of her father's death reminded her that this was temporary and that he wasn't going home.

"And your father? What year is he here from?" she asks, testing out one of her theories.

"He's from early 2010 I believe." Kim says carefully.

Hmmf. Chris had wondered if maybe Jack was from earlier - possibly still in the throws of his drug addiction. Or perhaps recently fired from CTU.

"It sounds like everyone in this small groups is from about the same time."

"Pretty much. I'm not sure if I asked, but when are you from?"

"September 18th, 2009. A few friends and I went out early for my birthday so that's why I was a few sheets to the wind when you first met me."

"Your birthday was on the 18th?" Kim says hopefully.

Chris looks down.

"No, it's the 20th."

Oh God. Kim blinks and reaches out and touches Chris's hand.

"I'm so sorry, Chris."

Chris gave a watery smile even as her throat tightened.

"It's ok," she says as she brushes a few of the tears with her hand.

"God, I wish I could move past the random crying part of this."

Kim could not imagine feeling worse, the truth spinning around her mind and she can't say it. Cannot say it.

"After my mom died...the random crying part never really goes away."

Chris takes some napkins. Slightly embarassed that she was crying in front of a stranger but she knew enough of Kim's background to know she could understand.

"I was afraid of that. When my mom died it was a little different. Not much. But we could prepare and say goodbte so it seemed like I got to the stage where I could talk or think about my mom without crying a lot quicker."

Kim forces back the tears.

"Yeah," she says in a strained voice. "I...I'm just so sorry about what happened to your dad."

She nods, drying her eyes and trying to regain some composure.

"Sorry 'bout that."

Kim smiles at her a little. "It's okay, this bar does weird things to emotions."

She takes a breath.

"Would you like something to eat?"

"No," she says with a shake of her head, "But some tea would be nice."

Kim nods. "A tea for Chris, please, bar."

The tea appears and Kim slides it carefully over to her.

"Did you ever meet my dad at Division?"

"Thank you," Chris replies.

After taking a sip she adds, "No. He'd already be let go by the time I started working there."

"But you knew who he was when you saw him in the bar, right?"

"He looked familiar but no. Although I know about him - work-wise. I was a little confused on how to order from the bar and he was the closest person around so we started talking."

Part of her, no, more than part of her kind of wonders what Chris has heard about her dad. She's pretty sure that her dad was not one of Division's favorite people.

"That's cool. Um, this might sound a little strange but what do they say about him?"

Oh, this is awkward.

Chris thought about dodging the question but she had a feeling Kim would know if she tried to bullshit her.

"He's a pretty controversial figure there. There were some people who were happy when he was fired. A lot of it's probably intra-agency rivalry bs," she says with a shrug, "I'm sure my father wasn't well-received by many of the branch CTUs."

Yeah, that doesn't really surprise Kim.

"What kind of stories? I'm really just curious."

Kim smiles at that a little. "Yeah, you could say that."

"Mostly about his work behavior. His reputation for not following the rules and being a loose canon. I didn't pay attention to a lot of it because most of it sounded so ridiculous."

"Yeah, that's my dad, he...doesn't always follow the rules. I guess you heard stories about how he was friends with the President and almost single handedly stopped World War III?"

"The first yes. After he saved Palmer's life. The second, no..." she pauses as she remembers something, "No, wait. My father mentioned that but he didn't mention names. Was he the one who argued with him over evidence at CTU?"