"Depends on which time you're talking about. I haven't been a regular employee of CTU in almost five years. The day that I ran into Stenger was the second time I happened to get caught in the middle of things and worked with CTU for the day. Before that day...I hadn't worked with CTU for about eighteen months because I'd had to fake my death."

He knows it's maybe not what she was asking about--why he hadn't worked with CTU after the day he'd met Collette--but it's not just because he's trying to avoid telling her, or just because he finds it difficult to talk about. It's a long story and so many pieces are interconnected that it's hard to give a short, simple answer.