agirllost | Lunch with Dad

Jack rolls his eyes, talking out of the side of his mouth as he chews. "Yeah, right. Since when did you get the impression I'd go out of my way to meet celebrities?"

She gives him her best serene look but can't keep a straight face for long and takes another sip of soda.

"Well, if celebrities go there, it has to be at least nice."

Obviously Moiraine hasn't gotten to the lesson on How To Look Serene At All Times yet.

"Yeah, and expensive. And filled with egotistical pr--jerks."

"True, but we are in LA." She eats a few more fries. "Where did you used to go?"

"CTU, while I was working there. The facilities were really good, and I was working there anyway. The DoD had a good one too, when I moved to D.C."

She nods, "From what I remember, CTU didn't leave a lot of time to get to the gym." As she takes another sip of soda she tries to think of a way to move the conversation away from CTU.

"Maybe, but that was the good part about having it in the same building--I could head down there on my lunch hour or after work, but still be nearby if anything big came up."

She grabs a fork and pretends to be very busy trying to get the topping back on her hot dog. After all, when she worked with him there, he wasn't spending a lot of time at the gym.

"Couldn't have lunches like this at CTU though, too messy."

When she'd been working at CTU while he was there, he'd had other, more destructive hobbies.

"Yeah. Doesn't look that good if you're questioning a suspect or doing a video conference with the head of Homeland Security and you've got ketchup all down the front of your shirt," he says, taking a sip of his drink.

"Or even worse, chili," she agrees, taking another bite and debates about whether to tell her dad about how she'll be able to use the CTU gym soon.

"Although, it would be kind of funny."

"Maybe for everyone outside the conference room, yeah," he says, wiping his face with a napkin. "So what have you been up to?"

"Lots of blackmail material," she says innocently and eats another fry.

"Um, besides what I already told you. Well, Angie and Chase are great. Angie's hoping that she'll get to see you again soon and Chase is okay with everything." She wipes her lips with one of the napkins, stalling for a moment. "As far as anything else goes, I'm going back to work on a part time basis."

"I'll have to come over soon, then. Where are you working?"

Her fries are so interesting. She looks down at them.

"Remember where we talked about a while ago? Well...there."

She could be vaguer but it would be hard.

He blinks for a minute at her obvious avoidance. Finally, it clicks. "YOu mean CTU?"

"Yeah," she confirms softly. "But only part time and not any kind of field work." She's quick to add.

He nods, slowly. Truthfully, he's not sure he likes the thought of Kim working at CTU, but then he can't argue with her if it's what she really wants to do. Besides, Chris is working there as well. He just prays that there won't be another incident like the bombing; with his daughter and the woman he loves working there...

"What will you be doing?" he asks.

She's a little tense waiting for his response and smiles slightly when he doesn't try to talk her out of it.

"Sort of the same thing I did before, except part time, which means I'll get to spend more time with Angie." She reaches out and touches his hand. "It won't be dangerous."

"Any more dangers than working at CTU usually is, you mean," he says, seriously. "I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a little worried, but if it's what you really want to do, then you should do it."

Kim sighs, unable to stop herself. "Dad, I'm sort of in danger anyway most of the time." If he knew the identity of Behrooz's attacker he'd probably understand the statement more.

But his next words make her want to hug him, even if she only just smiles. "Thank you, that...really means a lot to me."

"Yeah," he says, softly. He isn't thinking of what happened to Behrooz though; she's in danger simply because she's related to him.

"Well the last time we worked together...it kind of became clear that I had to let you do what you thought was right."

She holds his hand for a moment. "And I appreciate that, but it's going to be okay, I promise. You know that I have special skills and I'm a lot tougher than I look." Since they're out in public she's not going to spell things out.

"Yeah, I do," he says, squeezing her hand.

Of course there's danger from another source that she doesn't even know about yet, and he sighs, softly, knowing that there isn't going to be a good time to tell her about it. "While we're on the subject...there's something I should tell you. Nina's in the bar. A different one."

Her hand goes limp in his and she pushes her food away, feeling her stomach drop.

"A different Nina? Is she from another...is she less..." she tries to find words and fails.

"I don't know, I haven't talked with her. Ryan did and he said she was obviously from after...the day of the presidential primary, but he couldn't be sure how long after."

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