Everyone in this world was nothing more than a computer output screen.  An illusion of an image that hide the programs and processes running just beneath their skin.  Chloe knew that for sure.  People were computers who she had to hack.  It was a long arduous process and some people shifted files so fast she never had a chance to break into them before they were at a different extension.

            There were some people in the world who she had hacked.  People who trusted her, who didn’t shift their files around or run sweeps of their fire wall when she was with them.  Chase was one.  He was a prime example of a biological computer.  The programs inside him were many and varied, some would say hypocritical.  But Chloe knew different.  Some programs didn’t run together, they’d cancel each other out.  He couldn’t be a sniper and a father at the same time.  Or her best friend and some punk teenager neo-Nazi.  One or the other, never both.  The same computer running different programs.

            After Chase, now running a highly unstable program, had left, Chloe turned to other’s to hack.  Michelle might have let her if she had asked.  Tony was a jerk.  And Jack…Jack was an enigma.  His code was expertly encrypted, high-level, complex, multi-layered.  It took her years to crack it, but when she did, everything fell out.

            Crying in her arms, he laid his head on her breast and wept like a small child.  She patted his head but looked at the numbers that tumbled out of him in streams.  All the coding that made up this complex man was laid bare to her genius mind.  Fascinated by what she saw she carefully poked around, seeing the tangled bugs and flaws and malware and viruses that had infected his system.  His firewall was good, one of the best she’d ever seen.  Too good in fact.  Malignant data packets had scratched their way in, but the de-buggers and computer programmers who could fix him had been blocked.

            All of her life, Chloe had never been able to resist a puzzle.  While he cried and babbled in a useless influx of program out put, she went to the heart of the matter.  Wherever she saw a stray piece of coding she latched on and dragged it back where it should be.  With hands and lips and her body, not beautiful but pretty enough to be used as a tool, she attended to him like she would one of her beloved processors.

            The viruses were stubborn ones and some of the mutations in the coding just seemed unfixable.  She knew better.  This was just the beginning, a chance to get out the worst of it.  In time, she’d get to the detail work.  For now she kissed him hard and started her bug-busting campaign.

            Shirt first.  The heavy blue material was neatly folded and laid to the side for a moment.  His jeans were next.  Chloe tugged the pants down over his hips and off his legs.  Smoothing the creases she folded those as well and picked up the clothing to carry it over to the dresser and placing it on top.

            “Chloe…”  Jack sat up, protesting her actions softly.  “Chloe, we shouldn’t…”

            She ignored him, it was one of the malware programs talking.  In the back of her mind she wondered what sort of command prompts he responded too.  Chase had had his own dictionary of command prompts but she’d need an even more complete set for Jack.  “Lay down, Jack,” she ordered, unbuttoning her own blouse.  “I’m trying to work and you aren’t helping by trying to run away.”  Her clothes were folded and placed next to Jack’s.

            Climbing back on the bed, she straddled him and settled comfortable on his stomach.  She blew her bangs out of her face and considered where to start.  Milo always preferred starting on the outside and work in.  Her preference was to rip her way to the core and fix that and work from the inside out.  But that method also could cause collateral damage.

            Chloe’s soft mouth started at Jack’s shoulder, tracing one broad scar with soft lips then damp tongue.  The slim fingers, strong from endless tapping on her keyboard, pushed against knotted muscles.  Jack moaned and reached up to settle his hands on her waist.  They were so large they seemed to engulf her hips.  Calloused thumbs swept the sharp edges of her pelvis.  A secondary program began to run inside her.  She considered shutting it down before it could fully engage but decided it was harmless enough and wouldn’t interfere with her primary function.

            Searing breath traced the lines of his body.  Light touches teased him until his skin seemed too tight and hot.  When he tried to tell her what a bad idea this was Chloe shut up him with a scowl.  Her eyes were narrowed in concentration as she explored his body, carefully noting his reactions to every touch, kiss, and delicate nip.  By now he knew the woman well enough to know he was being analyzed like a tricky program.  It was flattering, especially from a woman who lived and breathed computers.

            Reaching up he tried to touch her but she swatted his hands away.  “Don’t distract me,” she snapped.  Reluctantly he moved his hands away.  He didn’t want to do anything that might make her stop.

It had seemed like forever now since someone other than a doctor had touched him.  And he hated doctors.  Chloe didn’t flinch from the scars the Chinese had torn into his body, instead she looked at each one critically and wound lavish attention on the spot until he couldn’t find reason to flinch away.

When she finally mounted him, he was already lost.  Her eyes were wide and dark.  He’d never notice their depth, like he was looking into her remarkable mind and seeing the sensations and breakdown information occurring as she processed everything.

Finally he reached up and touched, her silky hair sliding through his sweaty fingers leaving darker streaks in the dark, chocolate threads.  She tipped her head forward to let it brush over his face teasingly.  That was all it took and he was flying.

Chloe cleaned then both up while Jack dozed.  A satisfied smile was firmly on her face.  It seemed like her slapdash form of troubleshooting had worked.  Jack had responded to her advances and, once he got over the initial doubts, had made an effort to return the favor.  That meant he was reforging interpersonal bonds on some level.  Feeling like she’d just finished hacking the NSA she settled back down to stroke the short, blonde hair.

Sleepily Jack reached up and pulled her down.  She frowned. This hadn’t been in her protocol.  With a contented murmur he pulled her down against his damp chest, nuzzling her hair.  Shaking herself, she reset her own processes and adjusted.

There.  Perfect fit.  Her body snugged comfortably up against Jack’s.  His face rested against her neck.  She lifted her shoulder to shield him protectively with fond smile.  In her head, she was already designing a new program.