Title: A Beautiful Mess
Author: Jeanine (jeanine@iol.ie)
Rating: PG
Pairing: Tony/Michelle
Spoilers: Season Two Episode 23, and everything up to that.
Feedback: Makes my day
Disclaimer: If it was in the show, it's not mine.
Archive: At my site The Band Gazebo (helsinkibaby.ahkay.net) Anywhere else please ask first.
Summary: Everything is a mess
Author's Note: For the LiveJournal FirstLines1000 Challenge #16
***
Everything is a mess. They are trying to save the world, stop it from quite literally being blown to bits, have been doing that all day, and it's ended with them here, in a holding room in CTU, which, for two people like Tony and Michelle, who have dedicated their lives to their careers, is not such a good thing.
This has been one of those days that each would cheerfully love to write off, to go back in time and erase completely, starting with the bombing of CTU in which so many of their colleagues, their friends, lost their lives, people like Paula, who Tony hand-picked to work here, whose fears Michelle tried to assuage in the ladies' room, in a conversation that seemed like it took place a hundred years ago.
They thought that nothing could be worse than that, but that was before they learned that Mason had been exposed to a lethal amount of radiation, Mason, who Tony butted heads with on a daily basis, but who recommended him as his successor. Mason, who never had many dealings with Michelle, but told her to find something that made her happy and go after it, no matter the cost. He's dead now too, like Paula and the others, sacrificing what little time remained to him to save countless lives, but they've had no time to grieve, no time to mourn, instead, they've been trying to track down who was responsible for bringing an nuclear bomb into the country, a task at which they seem to be failing spectacularly.
She paces from wall to wall, and Michelle can't help but think that if her professional life is going to hell in a handbasket, then so is her personal life. Things appeared to be looking up, what with seizing the chance to tell Tony how she felt about him, all the more so when he told her that he felt the same way about her. The bottom fell out of her plans though when Carrie Turner showed up at CTU, and the very sight of her made Michelle's blood boil, made her want to scratch the other woman's eyes out. Things only got worse when Carrie began to throw her weight around, unwilling to accept Michelle as her boss, and when Michelle refused to tell Tony about their history, any progress they'd made was seriously dented.
Then the bomb exploded and news got out and Danny began calling, and Carrie grew even more bitchy, and Michelle found herself with no choice but to come clean to Tony. Danny picked that time to come to CTU to see her, threw a fit when he saw Carrie, tried to strangle her, not that Michelle can blame her brother. But that was the time when things got on top of her, when she had to escape, to get away, and that was when Tony followed her.
She'd never wanted him to see her like that, a mess, falling apart, but he did his best to catch her, and she held onto him, kissed him, and when she apologised, he kissed her right back.
Which is when a miraculously recovered Carrie saw them.
She doesn't know what's going to happen between them, doesn't know if their relationship can go forward, if they might have just ruined it for themselves, doesn't know what Carrie might tell Chapelle. Whatever it is though, he'll be inclined to believe, what with Tony drugging him and knocking him out, and Michelle herself being dragged from a van at near-gunpoint, their efforts to help Jack well and truly rumbled.
He stands at the table, and she paces the floor, and both know how much trouble they are in. Both know what could happen to them, that they could conceivably be prosecuted for treason, and when she breaks the silence, asking him what he thinks they'll be charged with, he's honest with her, tells her as much. But when he tells her that, he immediately tells her that he'll protect her, that he'll tell them that she was just following his orders.
He would do that, for her.
But she won't let him, and she tells him so, tells him that she did what she thought was right, and that she won't let him lie for her.
She's very aware of where they are, of the camera to their back, recording their every move, knows she has to be careful about what she does, what she says. So slowly, unobtrusively, her hand moves across to his, her skin covering his, and she stares straight ahead, holding her breath.
She doesn't let it out until his hand moves, equally unobtrusively, his fingers closing around hers and staying there.
No more words are exchanged, nor do any need to be. They're in a hell of a lot of trouble, with no real clue of how to get out of it, and they are in a holding room at CTU, but they are together, and they are holding hands.
Life may be messy, but things could be worse.