Tony bounded up the stairs two at a time. His heart was pounding and blood coursed through his veins. His mind spun as it tried to grasp the situation…what was going on? Obviously she hadn't just fallen or hurt herself, her voice gave that away. Both her and the baby were in danger, he knew that…but how? Was their someone in his house? How could anyone find him? Were they ever going to be safe? Once at the top of the staircase, he stopped and forced himself to think. 'Come on Almeida, use your head' he thought. He had to push all of his emotions, fears, and adrenaline aside to think about the well-being of his family: he couldn't go right into the nursery. If there really was danger, he'd just be putting himself, his wife, and his son into a worse situation…he had to go in protected. But what if he ran out of time? What if, in an attempt to find a weapon, Tony was too late? What if something happened to his family that could have been prevented? He couldn't live with that…but could he go into a situation and fight with his bare hands? What if there was more than one person? What if they had a gun? What if their was no one at all, and this was all in his head?

All of these thoughts ran threw his head in less than one second. Finally, Tony turned around and ran into their bedroom to grab the glock he kept in his nightstand. He regretted not thinking about it before, but knew that he couldn't go into the situation unprepared.

Tony ran back towards the nursery and kicked down the door. He looked inside and found his wife lying still, on the floor, blood matting her thick hair. Tony's heart stopped as he looked at her. "MICHELLE!" he screamed.

He looked around again and noticed the crib, in front of an open window. He looked down at his wife one last time and ran to the crib and found it empty. No Anthony, no baby…

He crumpled to his knees. His son, his only son was gone, missing, right under his own roof. His body felt like a weight. He looked over and saw Michelle's figure. Tony pulled himself up and forced his heavy knees to crawl to his wife's side, lifting her head into his lap. He flashbacked to the day when the car had blown up in front of their window, and begged God, why, why this had to happen to them again. Tony whispered her name as tears fell from his eyes.

"Michelle, Michelle baby…please, wake up sweetheart, wake up…"

Blood ran from her head onto his hands. He broke down and cried into her hair. Just then, Tony heard someone smash down his front door. He stumbled to stand up and gently laid Michelle's head on the carpet, grabbed his glock and took his position in front of her body. Tears stained his face, blood covered his hands, and his arms and legs were shaking. Anger, fear, brokenness, revenge, was all coursing through his system. Whatever bastards did this, he was going to kill them…all of them. He was going to protect his wife and family…even to the end.

He heard heavy footsteps bound up the stairs and heard a familiar voice. "Tony? Michelle? TONY!"

Tony relaxed his stance and tried to speak, but no words came out. Then, Jack Bauer stepped into the nursery and saw Tony covered in blood, Michelle lying behind him.

"Tony" he breathed. He hurried to his friend's side. "Tony, what happened? What's going on?" he asked as he hurriedly shoved his gun back in his belt.

Tony tried to respond but no words would come out. Tears ran down his face, but he didn't care. Jack leaned down to check Michelle's slow, but steady, pulse.

"Tony" he said again, more sternly. "Michelle's still alive. What about Anthony, where is he?"

At the sound of his son's name, Tony fell to his knees like putty. He used to be so put together…take away his son, and his body was like jelo.

Jack noticed the open window and the empty crib beneath it. He ran over, checked the scene, and then knelt down next to his friend's shaking side. "Tony, what happened? Is Anthony here?"

"Tony" Jack demanded again, snapping Tony back into reality. "Tony, where is your son? Where…is…Anthony?"

Tony looked desperately at his wife's still body and then back at Jack. "I don't know" he whispered.

Jack looked Tony in the eyes one last time and stood up to pull out his comm. unit. He looked down at his friend, cradling Michelle's figure, and Jack thought his chest might crack in half. Hadn't they been through enough? They had finally gotten out of this shit. Now they were back where they started; Tony rocking a half-dead body, only this time there a child was taken from him, too.

Watching Tony, Jack spoke. "This is special agent Jack Bauer, I need a bus at 427 Forrester Avenue, South LA. Code 1017…34 year old female with a serious head injury and slow pulse." He paused and regretted entering the last call within Tony's earshot. "Code 1242, infant child, whereabouts unknown…I need a medic here now!" He snapped the unit back into his belt and ran his hands through his hair before slamming them on the baby dresser. "Damn it!"

Another call came through his unit. It was Bill Buchanan.

"Alright Jack, we're sending a team over now. What's there? Give us the name of the woman and child to run through our database."

Tony looked up at Jack with Michelle still in his arms. He recognized Bill's voice. Jack and Tony locked eyes as Jack responded systematically.

"Michelle Dessler and Anthony Almeida."