LostBluePhantom: No, she's not. She's just gonna go home.
laura sedai: (And anyone else who's curious about Doyle) In my story, Doyle went blind in one eye from the explosion-thingy when he was turning over Josh and is now living with Nadia, but he can't work at CTU anymore because of his eye.
Cchelle: Thanks, me too. They should never have died in the first place.
Tigerlily Brown: Thanks! And there is sort of a Doyle/Nadia thing, but it's more already going on and not really developing much during the story.
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
"Nadia, I've got that information you wanted on Mark Rosenburg." Michelle said, distractedly shuffling papers. When she didn't hear a response, she looked up and found Nadia crying at her desk. "Oh my God, Nadia, what happened?"
"Don't worry," Nadia stood bravely, taking the files from Michelle. "I'll be fine."
On her way out the door, Michelle hesitated. "Nadia, I've worked with CTU for a long time. One thing that I've learned is that if there's something distracting going on, you either have to make it go away or step down." Nadia was silent, "If you don't, it could ruin the whole operation. I've seen it happen and I've had it happen to me. Today is not the day for the director of CTU to be distracted."
"I'll think about it." Nadia whispered.
"Good." Michelle smiled encouragingly, "try to make your decision soon, though."
As soon as she shut the door behind her, Michelle immediately went to Tony's office. When she walked in, he was still on the phone, so she silently took a seat across from him.
"Well, bring them back anyway," he ordered the receiver, "we might be able to get something off of them." After a moment's pause, he said, "listen, I gotta go. Yup. Bye."
"Something's wrong." Michelle told him when he hung up.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"When I dropped those reports on Mike Rosenburg off in her office, she was a mess." Michelle explained. "She was crying in on her desk and she probably still hasn't even looked at them."
"Do you think she'll be able to do her job?" He questioned.
"As your coworker, I think she'll be able to do her job." Michelle admitted, "But as your wife…"
"You don't think so." Tony finished for her.
"I told her I thought she should go home." She frowned. "But if she doesn't, I don't think she'll be able to lead CTU through this."
"Should I go talk to her?" He asked.
"Give her a couple minutes." Michelle suggested, "If she doesn't decide by then, then you can."
"Fine," Tony agreed, then changed the subject. "That was one of my field agents. Most of the stuff we could use is destroyed, but we might still be able to get some information off the computers."
"They're bringing them back then?" she questioned.
"Yup."
"Great," Michelle slowly made her way to the door, "I'll be back in a little while, I'm working on a lead on Mike Rosenburg that I found when I was going through them this morning."
As Michelle made her way down to her station, she heard a feminine voice talking on a phone in the hallway next to her. "Okay, I'm alone. It's a secure line." Curious, Michelle hid behind the wall so she could hear what she was saying. "Sanders is dead. Someone who just came in took his job. Tony Almeida." Michelle couldn't make out what the deep male voice was saying on the other end. "You know him?" The woman asked. He mumbled something on the other end and she replied, "She's here too. They came in this morning with a possible threat from the company they worked for, Withers and Gunderson."
She paused, listening, then continued, "Nadia's not doing well. Doyle called her earlier, she thought I hung up when I patched him in, but I listened in." She hesitated for a minute, "He called to tell her that her father died. It was probably one of those attacks because of their religion. Have you seen the news?" The man on the other end muttered a reply. "They think Brandon Yates was the man who attempted to kill President Palmer, but he's dead. They're also looking into Tony and Michelle's boss, Mike Rosenburg, who they know was involved in some sort of terrorist activity from the corporation." She listened for a moment, then replied, "I think I'll be able to, she trusts me, but it's hard to say." After a short pause, she said, "No, there's nothing else. No, no one suspects me. I'm fine. Bye." Silently, Michelle watched as Selene walked around the corner and headed to Nadia's office.
"Nadia," Selene murmered, rushing over to hug her friend. "What happened?"
"I'm fine." She replied, leaning over a folder. "Why?"
"Nadia," Selene put her hands on her hips and looked down at Nadia, "You can't fool me. I know you've been crying."
"How?"
"Your eyes are red and puffy. Plus your mascara looks horrible." She gently rubbed under Nadia's eyes to rub away smudged makeup. "What's going on?"
"It's my dad. He's dead. I don't really want to talk about it." Pushing it out of her mind, she went back a report from the police. "According to the autopsy, Brandon Yates was killed in a shooting, but they didn't tell me anything about hearing shots fired when they told me the first time."
"Nadia! You can't just put this off!" Selene exclaimed. "Something horrible just happened. I love ya to death, but if you're not fit to run CTU than I have to take over."
"I need to keep busy." Nadia looked up, "I'll be fine. Don't worry."
"Can you try to keep busy with something besides national security?" Selene asked, getting up to leave. Dejectedly, she walked towards the door, but Nadia stopped her.
"Fine." She called to her, "I need twenty minutes to finish up and get my stuff together."
Smiling, Selene turned back to her friend. "Thanks."
From her station, Michelle watched as Selene left Nadia's office, flipped open her phone, and said into it, "She'll be gone in twenty minutes."
Grabbing a random file from her desk, Michelle ran up the stairs to Tony's office. "Tony, I think Selene might be a mole."
"Why?" Tony asked.
"When I was leaving your office, I heard her reporting what's going on here to someone on a phone, and she said no one suspects her. The man on the other end told her to do something and she said 'I think I'll be able to, she trusts me'." Michelle explained, "She went straight to Nadia's office, then when she left, she called someone and said 'she'll be gone in twenty minutes.'"
"Michelle, maybe we should get to know everyone a little before we start accusing them of being moles." He argued.
"Maybe it's because we don't know her that we can tell." She urged, "Tony, I don't know how, but whoever she was talking to knows us."
"So, what? Are we thinking they're from Withers and Gunderson or something?"
"She's second in command. If Nadia's leaving because of her father…." Michelle trailed off.
"Then Selene will become acting director of CTU." Tony finished for her. "What do we do?"
"I don't know, but we need to talk to Nadia before we do anything." Michelle reminded him.
Without wasting any time, Tony picked up the phone and dialed Nadia's number, then put it on speaker phone so Michelle would know what's going on. "Yassir." Nadia answered.
"Nadia? It's Tony and Michelle." Tony replied, "We need to talk to you about Selene Wendell. We have reason to believe she's a mole."
"Selene? That's impossible!" Nadia exclaimed, "I've known her since she started here! She can't be!"
"I overheard several phone calls between Selene and someone we haven't been able to identify reporting on what's going here." Michelle cut in, "When she left your office, she told that person 'she'll be gone in twenty minutes.'"
Nadia was silent for a minute, then asked softly, "She said that?"
"Yes, and one of the phone calls made it sound like whoever she was talking to knew Michelle and I." Tony explained, "Which leads us to believe that they work in some way for Withers and Gunderson."
"So she may be involved in the assassination attempt?" Nadia asked.
"We believe she is." Michelle stated.
"Fine," Nadia gave in, "Take her in for questioning. I want you to find out what she knows. And Michelle?"
"Yes?" Michelle questioned, awaiting her orders.
"I am leaving as soon as I'm packed up and have finished looking into this lead," Nadia said quietly, "I want you to take my place."
Michelle exchanged a surprised glance with Tony, then agreed, "All right."
As soon as he hung up with Nadia, Tony picked the phone back up and dialed the number for security, "Bring Selene Wendell to holding room 3." He ordered, then hung up and looked back up at his wife. "Are you okay with this?"
"With what?" She inquired, tilting her head slightly to the side. "Being head of CTU or just being here."
"Well," he thought for a moment, "both."
"I'm about as okay with it as you are." Michelle shrugged. "I remember what happened last time we tried to get involved with CTU, too."
Suddenly, Tony's phone rang. "Almeida."
"Ms. Wendell is ready," the guard on the other end replied.
"Thanks." He muttered, hanging up, then turned to Michelle, "She's ready, lets go."
