A/N- I wrote this about 5 years ago, it was the first fanfic I wrote, I'm uploading it here so that I've got everything stored where I can get it.
Chappelle and Hammond
had left, taking the people from division with them. He breathed a
sigh of relief. They were finally gone, he could actually get some
work done.
He watched Michelle as she took her brother and left
CTU. He couldn't help smiling as she glanced back as she left,
their eyes meeting. She smiled back, then walked out the door. At
least the day hadn't been complete hell, he'd gotten that kiss
out of it. As usual, the phone interrupted his line of thought. A
very anxious voice advised him to look at the news.
He couldn't
believe it. After all that had happened today, someone had tried to
take out the President. He couldn't deal with this right now, there
was no one capable of dealing with this, all of the competent people
in the office had been killed or gone home. He thought of Michelle,
he'd told her she could go home, she'd been so relieved.
He
phoned through to the gate, "Hey, has Michelle Dessler gone home
yet."
"No, she and her brother are still waiting for their
taxi to arrive."
Taxi? Why wasn't she driving home? "Could
you send her up to my office. Tell her its important." He hung up.
She was not going to be happy with him.
As he started to get
information from division, Michelle was walking up the stairs to
Tony's office. She just wanted to go home, she hadn't slept for 2
days, and today had been absolute hell. She wanted to kill whoever
had decided to make these stairs so steep.
He looked up as she
walked in, she looked shattered. He felt incredibly guilty about
doing this to her. He finished up on the phone and turned to face
her. As he did, he noticed the bandage on her hand, that hadn't
been there before. "What happened to your hand?" He took it in
his and looked up at her. Even after everything that had happened,
she could still take his breath away.
"Nothing, really. It got
hurt in the explosion. I had the bandage on earlier, but I couldn't
work with it on." That was why she couldn't drive home. "Look
Tony, what's wrong? You said I could go home."
There was
almost despair in her voice as she pulled her hand back. It was
really beginning to hurt; the painkillers they had given her had
begun to wear off. "Michelle, I'm sorry, I can't let you go
just yet." Her eyes started to well up, but he continued. "There's
been an incident; there was an attempt on the president. Division
needs us to work on it. You have to be here, no one else can access
the data properly. I'm really sorry."
She knew he was right,
everyone else who could work the software had been killed in the
explosion. That didn't mean she had to be happy about it. "Fine,
how long is it going to take?"
"About two hours," then a
smile crept onto his face, "If you like I can drop you home
afterwards." He told himself it was a way of making peace, although
he just really wanted to be alone in a car with her.
Despite
herself, she smiled back, then laughed "You can't drive either,"
she motioned at his leg, "But you could share by taxi, although I'm
still mad." Her eyes sparkled, she had lost any anger at having to
stay, but wanted to wind him up.
He laughed and nodded. As she
walked out, she felt his eyes on her back. He watched her as she
returned to her station before he caught himself and made himself get
back to work.
Michelle
had done about all she could, her arm was aching and her eyes were
burning. She looked up to Tony's office, he seemed to be working,
she wondered if she should just go without him, she was exceedingly
tired. Nevertheless, she wanted to try, so rang his extension.
"Almeida," Tony answered the phone harshly, he was getting
tired of the phone interrupting his train of thought, which, if he
was honest, was generally focused on Michelle, not work.
Startled
by his tone, she was unsure of what to say, "Oh, um, I just
wondered if you still wanted to catch a taxi home, I'm just about
done here." It was not a good decision to phone him, she should
have just gone.
Tony's voice softened. "Sure, I'll be down
in a second, there's nothing left that needs to be done right
now."
A smile spread across her face. "OK, I'll be at the
gate. See you there." She put the phone down, and was unable to
repress the smile that was evident on her face. For the second time
today, she went to order a taxi and leave CTU."
Not
for the first time today, Tony felt incredibly guilty about keeping
Michelle back to help. She had spent the entire ride leaning on his
arm, asleep almost instantly. How she had been able to work he had no
idea.
They were nearing his house now, he knew Michelle lived
near, although not exactly where. "Michelle, honey, where do you
live?" he tried to coax the information out of her without
disturbing her too much, she looked so peaceful. She didn't even
stir. "Michelle?" He shook her gently. She was completely out of
it, there was no way he was going to be able to wake her. She must
have been absolutely shattered. He gave the driver directions to his
house, he'd have to take her with him, he couldn't leave her
where she was.
By wrapping her arm around his shoulders, he
managed to get her into the lift and then into his apartment. "I
would insist upon a top floor apartment." He muttered as he
struggled to get her walk with him, she was still fast asleep. He
couldn't put weight on his leg, and it was making it particularly
difficult.
He slid her into his bed, her tiny frame barely taking
up any space. Breathing heavily, he slid her shoes off and wrapped
the blanket around her. She looked so adorable, wrapped up in his
bed, smiling softly in her sleep. He planted a quick kiss on her
forehead, "You are so perfect," he whispered gently.
He
closed the door carefully and went into his living room. He sat on
his couch trying to calm his breathing. Who would have thought
lugging a body up an apartment block with an injured leg would have
been so difficult, he thought wryly to himself. He went to his
cupboard and pulled out a spare set of bedding. He didn't know how
she'd react to waking up in his bed, but he knew she'd freak if
he was there with her. Besides, he didn't mind giving his bed up
for her.
He didn't think that he'd be able to sleep, to many
bad memories had been spawned by the days events, but like Michelle,
and everyone else who'd had to go through the hell of the day,
exhaustion quickly pushed a dreamless sleep onto him. The last image
in his mind was how beautiful Michelle had looked when she'd kissed
him in the hallway.
The
following morning brought a sickening amount of sunshine that
eventually broke Tony's sleep. He couldn't work out why he was
sleeping on the couch, he sat up trying to make sense of the
situation. Then he remembered. She was in his room. This brought a
grin to his face, despite the aching pain in his ankle.
He got up,
the pain in his ankle forcing him to search for pain killers. He
glanced at the clock, which produced a laugh. He'd been asleep for
almost a day. It didn't matter, everyone had two days off to
recover.
Taking his painkillers, he managed to hobble his way
over to his room. He knocked lightly on the door, not wanting to wake
her if she was still asleep. When there was no response, he poked his
head around the door. She was still asleep, lying in the exact same
position as he had left her in. He was hardly surprised, yesterday
had been an awful day for him, and she'd had it a fair bit worse
than he had.
He closed the door again, and went into the bathroom,
wincing at his reflection. Dried blood had been caked into his
clothes and hair, his face looked drawn and the unshaven look just
wasn't him. He turned the water on, letting it run to warm it up.
Normally he slept on his boxers, but last night he'd been to tired
to attempt taking off his clothes. He did this now, dumping them
straight in the bin. They were not clothes he was ever going to able
to wear again. As he stepped into the warm water, he made a silent
prayer that she wouldn't wake up whilst he was in the shower. He
let the water coarse over him, as if it could burn all the bad
memories away.
Showered, shaved and dressed, he felt and looked a
lot better. It was now approaching 11.00, and he needed to wake
Michelle up. She hadn't eaten or drunk anything for two days. He
considered making her breakfast, but didn't know what she liked.
Instead, he settled on a cup of coffee, he knew how she drank her
coffee.
Once again knocking, although this time not so gently he
wandered into the room. Her eyes flickered open and met his. "Hey,"
she murmured, a smile sliding across her face. She wondered what he
was doing here, then it hit her, and she sat up with a start.
"Why
am I here?" She asked, a hint of suspicion in her voice. This was
obviously his room, one of his jackets was on the back of a chair and
there was an empty Cubs mug beside the bed.
He decided not to hand
her the cup of steaming coffee just yet. He'd seen her when she was
angry.
"You fell asleep in the taxi yesterday, I couldn't get
you to wake up. I didn't want to wake you." Somehow his
explanation did not seem to have the logic to it that it had had in
the taxi.
Not quite woken up, Michelle accepted this as it was,
besides, she trusted Tony. Taking the cup of coffee, she followed him
to the kitchen that joined the living room.
She took a sip of the
coffee. God that was good. She sat down at the table in the kitchen,
noticing the bedding on the couch. "You slept on the couch? Why?
You should have put me there."
He actually looked horrified at
the idea, which brought a slight smile to her lips. "You, my angel,
are far too good to be sleeping on my couch." This intensified her
smile and caused her to go a particularly deep shade of scarlet.
They stayed there, an awkward silence enveloping the room. Tony
thought he'd gone too far with that last comment, whereas Michelle
wasn't quite sure how to respond.
Eventually, Tony decided he
ought to say something, and noticing that she was wearing the same
clothes she had been when the bomb exploded, and offered her a
shower. He'd told her to change after the bomb had gone off, but
not having any spare clothes, she'd had to make do with scrubbing
the worst of the blood and grime out of them. Nevertheless, they were
still encrusted with dirt, so she readily took him up on the
offer.
She discarded her clothes, wincing at her reflection. She
was covered in bruises and her hand was swollen. It wasn't until
the water started to cascade about her that memories of the bomb, her
friends dying, Paula and George, began to invade her thoughts. As she
washed away all the dirt, salty tears slithered down her face.
Eventually, she managed to compose herself, pushing those
memories to the back of her mind. She'd deal with them later,
preferably when she was very drunk. Stepping out of his shower, she
went to put her clothes back on, but found she couldn't bear to.
Instead she wrapped herself in one of his towels and stepped outside.
Tony
had been sat on the sofa, silently cursing himself for being to
forward. Hearing her voice calling his name, he practically flew out
of his seat.
"Could I borrow some of your clothes, only mine are
ruined." She gestured to the pile of grimy clothes on the floor.
They were really only fit for the bin.
She could have saved her
words. Upon seeing her dressed solely in the towel, Tony's jaw had
hit the floor, and his mind was too captivated by the way she looked
to comprehend what she was saying. He'd only seen her dressed for
work with her hair pinned up. Seeing her stood before him, it was
clear how gorgeous she was, her body framed by a cascade of loose
dripping curls.
Seeing him standing there, his jaw practically on
the floor and his eyes wide, brought a huge smile to her face that
counteracted the misery of her previous thoughts.
He saw a smile
spread across her face, then saw her move closer to him. He knew
perfectly well that if she kissed him he'd lose whatever self
control he had left.
Instead of kissing him, she raised her hand
to his jaw and closed his mouth. A mischievous smile slipped onto her
lips as she asked him, "Clothes?"
He went completely scarlet
and managed to mumble, "In the cupboard, help yourself." As she
slid into the room and closed the door he could hear a stifled laugh.
He rested his head on the door and swore in several languages until
he realised he didn't care. She looked stunning and it was nice to
hear her laugh.
