Title: Friends, Flowers, Finallys

Fandom: 24

Characters: Michelle Dessler/Tony Almeida, OC – Heather, Amy

Word Count: 5,384

Rating: PG-13

Summary: Sometimes even schemers get rewarded.

Author's Notes: I tried something a little different with this story. I had three different perspectives I wanted to tell this from, so instead of choosing, I wrote them all! This is Chapter 1 of 3.


"Are you sure we're in the right place? This doesn't look very secret agent-y to me."

Heather Montgomery glanced sideways at her friend and partner in crime.

"Secret agent-y?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Amy's tendency to make up words had always amused her, and that was a new one. Amy just shrugged, making Heather laugh.

"This is the right place. I think." The building in front of them looked almost like a warehouse, but the dark tint on the doors of the entrance had a seal printed on it that was decidedly government-like. They were playing hooky from work to come and cheer Michelle up, having told their bosses they weren't feeling well, they'd better be in the right place.

Amy laughed.

"Shut up, it's not like I hang out at Michelle's office all the time."

Nodding, Amy opened the door, following a few steps behind her. Shifting the bundle she had in her arms, Heather looked around for anything that indicated where visitors should go. All she really saw was a metal detector at one end of a long hallway.

Finally one of the couple people milling around took pity on them. "Can I help you?"

"Please. We're here to see Michelle Dessler," Amy plowed ahead. Out of the three of them, she was the one to always get straight to the point.

Their helper's head bobbed up and down. There was something about him Heather couldn't quite place, but he seemed familiar in his mannerisms. At the mention of Michelle, his eyes flitted away momentarily, which meant that he knew her or knew something about her.

"Michelle's in a meeting."

"Oh," she and Amy answered in unison. Well, damn. So much for their perfect timing.

"We're here to cheer her up," she explained, indicating the flowers in her hand. And for some reason she added, "She's been a little bit down lately."

The guy nodded, looking away again. Her eyes narrowed. What was it about him? When he straightened up, it clicked. He was about Amy's height, dark hair, dark eyes…

"You're Tony, right?" she blurted, just knowing that she'd look back on her audaciousness in embarrassed horror.

His head whipped up, and if it was possible for a grown man to look like he'd gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he did.

Beside her, Amy just grinned. Usually she was the one to open her mouth and insert her foot. Today it was Heather's turn.

Tony scratched his cheek, looking half guilty, half embarrassed that she knew who he was. "Yeah. Tony Almeida. Nice to uh, to meet you both."

"Heather Montgomery," she introduced herself quickly, looking him over while Amy did the same. She could definitely see why Michelle thought so highly of him; he was damn good looking. Professionally dressed, yet slightly rumpled in a sexy way. His eyes were just like Michelle described them; though today he looked kind of like a sad puppy, waiting to be fed. She wondered how often Michelle had to refrain from reaching out and smoothing her hand over his barely-controlled hair; even her fingers itched to scritch the poor man's head.

"Listen," Tony began, pulling her away from her perusal of him. "I'm not sure how long the meeting Michelle's in is going to last. I can't let the two of you come back, but you're welcome to wait out here."

Amy stood straighter, tossing a strand of hair behind her ear. Oh no, that meant she was up to something. Heather just hoped she wasn't going to try to flirt to get him to let them come back. Michelle probably didn't want her friends coming off as sluts to the guy she was infatuated with. "Actually, we both have to get to work. Is there any way you could do us a favor?"

Tony looked a little concerned, but nodded.

Without a word, Amy ripped the flowers out of her hand, passing them over to Tony.

"Can you make sure she gets these, and just let her know we came by? There's no card or anything, but she should know they're from us."

Tony's fingers closed gingerly around the bouquet. His expression was wary, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah, sure."

"Thank you so much. It was nice meeting you." Heather smiled slightly. Well, he passed the visual test at least.

"Hopefully we'll see you later sometime," Amy added, ignoring the decidedly un-stealthy elbow that was sent to her ribs.

The door had barely closed behind them when they whirled to face each other.

"Why did you-?"

"How did you-?"

They laughed. "You go first," also came out in unison.

Insistently, Amy made her go first.

"Why did you ask him to do that? We were here to make her feel better, not worse!"

Amy just smiled, patting her cheeks. "Sweetie, chill. He's going to do one of two things: put them on her desk while she's gone and leave a note, or…" Amy trailed off.

"Or?" she prompted, seeing the wheels in her friends head spinning already. What other option would Tony Almeida consider?

"Nah, forget it. Anyway, you saw him, he's not going to throw things in her face, he couldn't even look you in the eye after you told him she'd been feeling down lately."

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I am. And speaking of random leaps of intuition, how the hell did you know it was him?"

Heather shrugged, reaching into her pocket for the car keys and hitting the button on the key fob. "He seemed familiar, and then I realized it was because of how Michelle described him."

Amy thought for a minute, head tilted to one side. "You're right. He was cute. A little too fidgety for me, but cute. And he obviously is attracted to her."

"Which is good," Heather reminded, knowing that if they could convince Michelle to put herself out there a little more, things would work out between those two. "And we did catch him off guard, so that's probably why he was so skittish. I'm willing to bet he's a lot more confident when he's not facing friends of a woman he's not even dating as they demand he take said woman flowers."

Amy laughed, reaching out to adjust the radio. She yelped when Heather slapped her hand away. Even after fifteen years of driving together, it still pissed her off when Amy tried to control the radio.

"He's got it bad for Michelle, that's all I know," Amy added, rubbing her hand with a pout.

"That he does. Sorry, by the way."

"You hit hard," Amy muttered, still pouting.

"Three brothers, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, I remember they wouldn't even date me."

Heather made a face, trying to rapidly change the subject. She didn't want to talk about the times when Amy had tried to woo her big brothers. "So how long are you going to wait to call her?"

Amy just grinned. "Oh, I'll be on the phone before you even drop me off."

"Who says I'm dropping you off? You've gotta walk."

Throwing her hair to one side, Amy laughed. "Shut up and drive, Heather."

In the end, neither of them called until later. Only to find out that Michelle had finally made her move because Tony had given her flowers.

TBC in Chapter 2 of 3.