This is the first part of my chronic about the love of Tony and Michelle.
Each part is named after a song and that is why the whole thing is called "The soundtrack of a love"
This part is named after a song by Perry Como.
Catch a falling star an' put it in your pocket,
Never let it fade away!
Catch a falling star an' put it in your pocket,
Save it for a rainy day!
For love may come an' tap you on the shoulder,
Some star-less night!
Just in case you feel you wanna' hold her,
You'll have a pocketful of starlight!
Disclaimer: I don't owe anything of "24", or the song "Catch a falling star" by Perry Como.
This part takes place around 4 months before Day 2.
Events do not occur in real time ; )
Michelle Dessler was sitting in her car. It was Monday midday and the sun shone down from above the city.
In front of her was the building she was about to go in, it was the headquarter of the counter terrorism unit in Los Angeles.
She took a look at her watch and sighed. She was too early.
George Mason was expecting her in about 15 minutes.
She leaned back in her seat letting everything pass through her mind again.
Two months ago she had gotten a call from Ryan Chapelle offering her a job as the head of intelligence. At that time she would have probably taken any job to get away from District – and away from Carrie.
She had agreed to take over that job immediately but now she wasn't so sure anymore.
Was she the right person for this job? There was no doubt that it was a huge carrier move for her. But on the other hand she was afraid of failing. She had never before had such a job, a job including regular overtime.
What if she …
Stop Michelle she told herself again, like she had did a thousand times before.
At least George Mason, whom she had met once or twice before seemed to be really nice, she remembered. He had been really nice to her on the phone and she had a good feeling about him.
But there was also his second in command, Tony Almeida. She had heard of him a couple of times at the District. She'd heard a lot of people talking about him being a weird, severe and lonely man who was always in a bad mood. But she would learn more about him, there was no doubt because she would have to work with agent Almeida almost every day.
She took a deep breath and watched the security men walking around the parking lot. Maybe she should get inside before they would arrest her of hanging out here. A slight smile came up on her face.
It was time anyway. She slowly got out of the car, locked it and took a last look at herself in the car window.
She had chosen a black skirt, a red blouse and a black blazer – it was quite formal but she wanted to make a good first impression.
Her hair was bend together at the back of her head. She sighed, usually her hair looked good this way, but this morning it had been a total mess and this was everything she could make out of it.
She took a deep breath and then headed to the entrance. She was a total nerve wreck now.
Tony Almeida was standing in the middle of the situation room in front of ten agents at a table. Everyone was looking at the screen behind him.
It was his first day after a one week vacation and he'd already stacked up a Lever 2 protocol.
"The secret service agents are cooperating with our field unit who has secured the whole area around the building president Palmer will meet the president of Mexico today. I want you to survey the whole area within a 3 km radius. Make sure …."
Suddenly the door was opened and everybody turned around trying to see who disturbed the meeting.
George Mason entered the room followed by a woman whom Tony did not know, but her gorgeous didn't surpass him, "Sorry Tony. Please go ahead." Mason said as he remained in the back corner of the room next to the woman.
Tony watched Mason whispering something to the woman on which she nodded shortly. As he realized he was almost staring at them he quickly turned back to the screen.
"Uh … this is the whole area. Jackson? Your teams should cover this side." He pointed to the south and the west.
"No one should get through this perimeter who isn't allowed to, make that clear. Stay on comm. all the time.
You others, focus on surveillance footage. Satellite – traffic – radar – infrared….everything. And if there is something unusual you will report to me or George Mason right away. Alright, that's it for now. Updates every 15 minutes. Let's get back to work." He said and nodded.
Slowly the room emptied and everybody got back to their desks.
Tony gathered a few folders from the table in front of him as Mason came up on him.
"Do you have a minute?"
"Sure George." Tony said, still focused on his folders.
"Tony…this is Michelle Dessler. She will take over for Sam from now on."
Now Tony looked up and his glance wandered to the left side where the woman was offering him a hand. She was smiling shyly.
"Oh, hey. I'm Tony. And I am really glad you are here, we need everyone today." He smiled friendly at her and took her hand shaking it slowly.
When Michelle touched his hand a warm shiver flashed through her spine. And she started to feel a little dizzy so she had to take a deep breath to not fall unconscious.
So that was Tony Almeida, her boss!
Michelle had to admit that he actually looked really good. And those brown eyes of his were almost hypnotizing.
Tony felt the world stop moving. All he could see were her deep brown eyes looking at him. And the shy smile that was still on her beautiful face.
"Uh…could you show her around? I got an important phone conference coming up." Mason looked at Tony.
Tony noticed he was staring at Michelle again quickly pulled back his hand and turned to George Mason.
"Yeah." Tony said crossing his arm.
"Thanks Tony. Michelle…I will see you later." With that Mason smiled at her and left the room.
Michelle watched Mason leave then turned back to Tony who was looking at her.
She smiled.
Quickly he took his folders,
"Alright, come with me and I'll show you the castle."
Grinning he went out of the room and headed over to the main area.
"Could I have your attention for a second?" Tony spoke up in the middle of the hall.
Michelle stopped two steps behind him and looked around. All the people who were running upstairs and across the floor like hell just broke loose stopped and turned to them.
"This is Michelle Dessler. She's taking over for Sam Caulfield. Make her feel welcome." A few people gave her short smile and just a couple of seconds later everyone had sunken back into their work.
"This is my desk." He put down the folders and took a sip out of a mug on the table. Michelle hid a grin. Tony obviously was a CUBS fan.
"Over there is the IT room" he pointed to a hallway on her right side.
"And this is the major floor, where all the action takes place." He smiled.
"Okay." Was all she could respond to his charming smile.
"And…" he went over to another desk and added,
"This is your own private desk. The phone is set up and you can enter the database with your password."
Michelle put down her purse.
"Oh…Mason's office is right up there." He aimed at the stairs a few meters ahead of them that were leading upstairs.
Her glance wandered up and she saw Mason talking to someone on the phone through the glass walls.
"So…I guess that is all you have to know by now."
"Thank you." Michelle slowly sat down and leaned back and forward to test her new chair which was quite comfortable.
"Tony?" a small man came over to them from a desk across hers.
"Yup?" Tony turned around.
"I've got a priority call from Division on line 3."
"Uh…thanks. I'll take it at my desk." Tony said and turned back to Michelle who had switched on her screen meanwhile.
"I need to take this call. You might wanna take a look at the active protocols, get used to the system flow. If you got a question I'll be at my station."
"Thank you." She nodded shortly and sighed when he walked away.
This was going to be a lot of work
Michelle took a deep breath and sighed. Not only was this work more complicated but there was also a Tony Almeida and reflecting the last minutes she kinda felt ashamed. She'd said nothing but okay and thank you…due to this handshake with him earlier she was still feeling kind of dizzy.
While Tony was talking to Brad Hammond his gaze almost unintentionally wandered over to Michelle.
A slight smile appeared on his face when he thought about earlier. He could still feel her soft skin on his like when they'd shaken hands.
After Sam Caulfield had resigned from this job a few weeks ago, CTU had initiated the hiring process for Tony's old job again.
A couple of day's later fifty folders from fifty different applicants for this job had been on Tony's desk. He read all of them but when he got Michelle's references he had told Mason and Chapelle about her right away and both had agreed that she would be the best for this job.
She had been at District for almost 5 years and before that she had been at Division for a couple of months. And she had done a great job there.
Tony wasn't just glad about her being good at her work but also because she also looked so … beautiful, especially with those tiny brownish curls.
Stop Tony. You decided to separate work and private ever since this whole thing with Nina happened about a year ago, he told himself.
But on the other hand that had also made him end up alone.
"Tony? Are you listening?" Brad Hammond cut him off.
"Uh…yeah." Tony said quickly and focused back on the phone call.
Ten minutes later Michelle had just finished reading the protocols when Tony came over in a hurry.
"Hey Michelle. Do you know how to do a Level 5 data search?"
"Uh… I've done a Level 3 a couple of times." She looked up on him confused.
"It's basically the same. The only difference is that you can enter the whole database with 5."
When he saw her odd look her added,
"I know this kind of search parameter is unusual…" he responded like he had read her thoughts,
"…but I need everything you can find about this guy." He handed her a brown folder on which a small photo was attached.
"Are you fluent with our pattern?"
"Yes." Michelle opened the folder and skimmed the pages.
"I opened a socket for you to server B7. Only use that server, understood? " he looked at her determined.
"All right."
"I also need a print out for a briefing in 5 minutes. Do you think you can do it until then?" his expression softened a bit.
"Absolutely." She nodded smiling.
"Good. When you are done meet me in the situation room."
"Yeah."
"Thanks Michelle." He sighed relieved and smiled shortly then turned suddenly almost ran upstairs to Mason's office.
Michelle watched him leaving then turned to the screen, opening a channel, initiating the software for the data search.
Just a few seconds later Mason and Tony came down the stairs again.
"Can I have your attention please?" Mason stayed on the last step and raised his voice.
"We were just informed about a possible attack aimed at the presidential meeting today. I want all active area-heads in the situation room in five minutes. High priority."
Then he and Tony headed to the situation room.
What was going on here?
Michelle turned to the screen and read a few words coming up from the search. This was obviously a search on a terrorist.
Michelle leaned back while the data was printing out and uploaded on the server at the same time.
This meeting between President Palmer and the Mexican president was long awaited and it was important for both states.
And as almost every time they were a couple of men who wanted to stop this, but Michelle would never have guessed that today of all days would be a terror-attack.
Her first day at CTU.
And she wasn't even here for 30 minutes and now was going to be a part of an operation to prevent this attack form happening.
"We definitely have to secure this area." Tony pointed down on the map as Michelle entered.
"The data is ready. I flagged everything important you might need." She handed him the print-outs.
"Thank you." He smiled and lowered his head focusing back on the map in front of him.
"Michelle? I want you to present the results on Goméz." Mason suddenly said.
Tony looked up surprised and saw that Michelle's face had turned slightly red.
"What?" she pressed out almost inaudible.
"Well, there is no better way to get used to it." Mason shrugged.
"Okay." She answered and smiled forced.
She sat down with her papers.
"Michelle?" Tony sat down next to her just a moment later.
She looked over to him uneasy.
"You okay?"
"Yeah…just nervous." She admitted.
"You're gonna be good. Just tell them the important things you've already flagged anyway."
She nodded on his friendly smile and lowered her head.
"I don't have a pencil." She suddenly noticed sounding a little desperate.
"Here, take mine." He handed her a silver pencil still smiling.
"Thanks." She took it and placed it softly on her papers.
Tony was so nice to her – how come every one was talking about him like he was an idiot?
On the contrary – he just had given her the right words to slow her pulse down and to not freak out about this presentation.
Two minutes later the room was packed with people, all gathered around Mason who was standing in front of the screen.
Tony had taken a seat right next to Michelle and every time he looked over her asking if she was getting along her heart started pounding harder.
"The head of the group is a man named Hector Goméz." A photo of a Mexican man appeared behind him.
"Michelle?" Mason nodded over to her. She took a deep breath and raised her head, noticing everyone in the room staring at her.
"Hector Goméz. He is the head of a Mexican rebel group called "The Awakening". His claim is to build a terror regime in Mexico and he was responsible for the attack on the president of Mexico last year.
The CIA has him under surveillance since this attack.
For a couple of months we also have an undercover agent in his closer group. This agent got the information to us and
He also confirmed that Goméz left Mexico a week ago and he was heading to Los Angeles." She sounded very confident.
"And now our priority is to find Goméz and his group within the next 4 hours. In your briefing package is everything essential, you need to know. I want all areas to clear their directory and to stay in constant contact with Division and our field teams so we can secure the whole area." Mason added.
Then he distributed the tasks to every one and ended the meeting.
Michelle was the last one to leave as Tony called her back,
"Listen, uhm. Could you do me a favour?"
"Sure." She nodded expecting.
"Division send us surveillance footage of the area from the past week. It is our only lead so far. I know that this work is actually for the analysts and I wouldn't ask you but …"
"I am not fluent with the protocols." She added.
"Yeah." He gave her an uneasy look.
"No problem. I can do it."
"Really?"
"Yeah, just tell me where I can do it." She smiled friendly.
Tony was speechless for a few seconds. This smile …
"Uh… go to the video room right next to the IT, you can download the footage there."
"Good."
"Thank you so much Michelle." He sighed.
"You're welcome."
"I promise you the next time you'll get something more demanding."
"Okay." She had to laugh.
"Michelle?"
She turned around again.
"You did great a few minutes ago." He smiled brightly.
She gave back a friendly smile then went out.
Michelle had been eyeing the video feeds for half an hour and slowly her back started to ache on this hard chair. She leaned back and stretched a little bit.
"Hey." Someone said from behind her and almost made her fall backwards, but she could reach the table so she managed to pull her self back.
It was Tony.
He sat down on the other chair and rolled over to her.
"What's going on?" she turned around.
"Everything is under control so far. We got the area under control and there is nothing I can do anymore for the next 20 minutes. So I thought I could help you. Oh…here." He handed her a little water bottle.
"Thank you." She took it smiling.
They split the workload and watched in silence for the next few minutes.
Every once in a while Michelle quickly glanced over to Tony. Even though they had just met she had the feeling that they would get along.
Tony leaned back and sighed,
"I don't think we will find something on these tapes. It's a waste of time."
Michelle looked over to him wanting to respond as something caught her glance.
"Tony…could you rewind the camera 2?" she suddenly said.
"Uh…yeah. What did you see?" he did what she had asked for.
He tipped on the keyboard and maximized the screen.
Michelle watched it twice and finally freeze framed the video. On the picture was a man talking to someone on his cell.
A smile appeared on her face.
"What?" he gave her a confused look.
"I know this guy." She pointed on the screen.
"His name is Jacob Gray. Couple of month ago I attended a meeting of an investigation on him at Division. He's a former police officer who was released of his duties because…" she stopped as a smile appeared on her face again,
"He had been connected with Mexican terrorists."
"Why wasn't he flagged by our database then?" Tony's mind was racing.
"Well, as far as I know the charges against Gray were dropped. Turned out there was no proof. And because the charges were dropped the name was erased of the list" She shrugged.
"Okay, so we got this guy who might be in contact with terrorists and even with Goméz …" Tony thought loud.
"Yeah…but it could be nothing." Michelle said.
"But Gray is our only lead. We need to find him."
"Shouldn't be a problem. I call Division to send over the file." Michelle took the phone and dialled.
"I'm gonna talk to Mason, right away. When you are done, get a field team prepared."
Michelle nodded shortly and turned back to her phone.
About twenty minutes later she was sitting in the situation room with Tony, Mason and three other agents of the crisis team.
"Okay…we got phone bills from last month and obviously Gray talked a lot with Mexico lately." Michelle handed Mason a folder with the phone bills.
"Alright, field teams are in position to get Gray. We need to get a hold of him. If he knows something we need to know within the hour. Tony? Prep the special assault team for Goméz. Michelle? Brief Arnold on Gray so he can start interrogating him as soon as he gets here."
Michelle nodded and looked over to Arnold who smiled slightly at her.
"Jackson? You'll be coordinating the field teams with me. That's all for now."
Mason switched off the HD-screen and went to the exit.
Slowly all agents left the room except for Michelle and Agent Arnold whom she was about to brief.
Tony was leaning against the table talking to Mason right across from Michelle.
His glance moved over to her while he waited for Mason to finish the call.
How smart and strong she looked, doing her job.
He really was certain that she'd be great as head of crisis team.
When Michelle had finished with Arnold five minutes later she left the room and went out to the desk where the operation was coordinated tactically.
"Hey." She stopped right next to Tony.
"Oh, hey. The team is about to get him. We just got the confirmation he is inside." He explained whispering sp he wouldn't disturb the operation.
"Good." She said.
"Thanks to you. That was great work Michelle." He smiled.
"Thanks." She responded smiling at him. Then she turned to the screen.
Maybe this job wasn't that bad at all she thought, in more than one way.
Another thirty minutes later Jacob Gray was sitting in one of CTU holding rooms being interrogated and just 15 minutes later the field agents started to prepare for their operation to get Goméz.
Michelle was sitting at her desk working on some things when Tony appeared her. He sat down next to her on her desk and watched her,
"You getting along?"
"Yeah…slowly I get a feeling for this." She smiled.
"Uh…the operation is about to start. Wanna help me with the satellite feeds?"
"Sure."
"The least I can do after I underestimated your talent by letting you watch this video footage." He grinned.
"You didn't. If I wouldn't have watched the videos we might have never gotten a chance to catch him."
"Yeah, but I wanted to apologize anyway."
"Accepted." She said grinning sheepishly.
"Good."
They glanced at each other for while in silence.
"Tony?"
A female agent came over to them and they quickly broke eye contact. Smiling shyly.
"Uh…yeah?"
"Field teams are in position."
"Okay."
Tony stepped back and turned back to Michelle.
"Ready?"
"Yes." Then they walked over to Mason.
The operation went smooth and Goméz was indeed where Gray had told them he'd be.
He was on his way to CTU now, together with 5 men from his group.
Michelle looked at her watch. She had been at CTU for a few hours now but somehow it felt more like days. It was not that it was physically exhausting but to be concentrated all the time made her feel tired.
Back at District she also had 8 hour days but that was nothing compared to this.
"Hey…you okay?" Tony joined her at her desk where she was currently writing a report.
"Yeah." She smiled brave.
"Why don't you get something to eat?"
"Nah…I'm fine." She waved it away.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, thanks."
"Okay."
She smiled tired as he turned and went back to his desk.
Tony seemed to be tired to. But somehow he managed to not let anyone know.
Thirty minutes later she got up and headed to Tony, carrying the hour lies she'd just eyed.
"Here are the hour lies, nothing unusual. I think the president will have a quiet day yet." She grinned.
"Yeah, thanks." He laughed slightly.
"Anything else?"
"So far…no. Take a break." He smiled.
How could she stand this smile?
"Okay." She turned around still smiling as suddenly a loud yell went trough the hall.
Then a shot.
Michelle felt a hand pulling her backwards and she slipped in her pumps. She felt down on her knees hard.
Another shot.
"He's down." Somebody yelled and Michelle slowly raised her head opening her eyes she saw Goméz laying ten meter ahead of her down on the floor with a gunshot wound in his upper chest, bleeding strong.
Three agents were standing around him, one yelling for medical assistance.
Then she turned her glance and saw that Tony was kneeling next to her his arm wrapped around her back like a protection.
He had pulled her down and it was very likely that he had saved her life with that because a bullet stuck in the desk right next to her on the height of her stomach if she would have been standing up.
Tony helped her up when she felt a bad pain flushing through her ankle.
She groaned and reached out for his arm to pull herself back.
"You okay?" he asked softly helping her to sit down on a chair.
"My ankle…I must have twisted it when I felt down."
Tony kneeled down and took a look at her ankle then he grabbed the phone,
"I need medical at station 3." He hung up and turned back to Michelle.
"Everything else okay?" he asked.
Michelle nodded.
"Really?"
"I am okay. Thanks to you."
He hesitated.
"I am fine." She had to smile.
"Okay…I'll be back in a few minutes."
She nodded again smiling.
Tony took a last look at Michelle. Then he went around and moved over to the group who'd gathered around the body.
"What's his condition?" he asked the med.
"Critical. We need to get him into surgery." The man stated.
When Goméz was being taken away Tony turned back to Michelle who was sitting on her chair her face in her hands she looked so vulnerable, like all her braveness and strength had been gone with this incident.
Michelle walked out into the darkness on the parking lot.
Her ankle had been cooled and was now feeling better. Fortunately it had been just a contusion. Nothing compared to what could happened if she would have gotten shot instead.
She slowly walked across the lot. Her first day was officially over.
Mason had sent her home after the debriefing until tomorrow.
When she had left the medical unit she had looked for Tony to thank him but he was nowhere to be found.
She stopped a few meters before her car and looked up.
The whole sky was cloudless, sprinkled with stars shining bright and the moon was covering her in a whitish halo.
"Michelle!" someone yelled from behind.
She turned around and saw Tony running up on her.
"You forgot your purse." He hold it up.
"Oh…thank you." She took it smiling.
"Are you going home?"
"Yes." She smiled brave.
"You okay?" he looked down on her foot.
She slowly nodded and felt her eyes getting wet so she quickly lowered her head.
"Michelle?" he touched her arm.
She took a few deep breaths and then looked up at him with wet eyes.
"I don't know if I am the right person for this job."
"Michelle…"
"I mean…this whole day…it's so much work and I don't know if I …. If I can do that."
"I know how you feel. I felt like this too when I started here. And there was no crazy lunatic who shot at people on my first day."
Both had to laugh.
"But one thing I can tell you for sure is that you are perfect for this job. We choose you because you are good at what you do. And after today I am convinced that you can do it." He smiled brightly looking at her slowly stroking her arm with his hand.
"Just give it a try. Alright?" he added.
"Will it be like this every day?" Michelle smiled.
"Nope…most of the time it will be exhausting." He grinned.
"Thank you Tony, for this and for saving my life." She smiled again.
Suddenly she leaned forward and hugged him tight. Surprised by her own action she quickly pulled back again, smiling shyly.
But when she rose her glance she saw that he was still smiling and her heart started to beat faster.
Michelle couldn't believe how awesome it was to be near him, to feel him.
She just wanted to apologize as Tony suddenly raised his arm.
"Look." He was pointing to the sky.
A shooting star.
"Make a wish." He said to Michelle.
"But you saw him first." She answered.
"Yeah, but I think I will share with you. See it as a welcome present." Again there was this perfect beautiful smile of him.
She smiled back at him and then both closed their eyes.