Setting: Several weeks later
One big, happy family
Thursday, 10:13am
"You were told to immediately send the results to my screen so I can run my search protocols," Chloe stated bluntly, standing in front of Adam's desk glaring at him.
"I'll send the files as soon as I've finished writing these search parameters," Adam replied curtly, without looking up from his monitor.
"Even with you mediocre skills, it should only take you a couple of seconds to send those files. You're just holding onto them because you want to make me wait," Chloe berated him loudly.
Not again, Michelle thought Since starting as Jack's IP-MAN just two weeks earlier, Chloe had managed to completely rub Adam the wrong way to the point that Chloe's comment was most probably correct. Securing her computer, Michelle walked across to Adam's workstation to mediate.
"Is everything OK?" Michelle asked.
"Adam's not passing on the files I need to do my work," Chloe informed Michelle.
"I'm currently using those files and if Chloe wasn't bothering me, I'd be finished setting up my search protocols and she'd have the data by now," Adam retorted.
Suppressing a sigh, and her annoyance to having to take time out of her hectic day to deal with a couple of colleagues who were acting like six year olds, Michelle stepped back to look at them both and buy herself a minute to decide how to best handle the situation.
"Adam, I know you want to get right on those search protocols but it's important that you send a copy of the data files to Chloe first so she can also get on with her own workload. And Chloe, if you don't agree with the way Adam is doing something, you need to calmly raise the matter with him without resorting to a character debate. Now can I leave you two to work this out?"
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Adam nodded and commented, "I'll send those files now."
"Good, thanks," Chloe replied abruptly and turned to return to her workstation.
Michelle followed suit and was settling into her chair as her eyes caught the decorative container that she used to store change for the vending machine. It was woven from palm fronds and had been a gift from her brother Danny on his return from travelling in Thailand several years ago. The sight of it evoked an overwhelming sense of deja-vous as she remembered the constant petty arguments with her overbearing, older brother and her mother's method of mediation, which mirrored how Michelle had just managed the situation between Chloe and Adam.
Shaking her head slightly, she logged back onto her computer wondering exactly when she had starting turning into her mother. Not that this was a bad thing; Michelle respected her mother and they had a relatively close relationship despite the thousand miles separating them. In fact, her parents would be in Los Angeles this weekend for the sixth birthday party of Danny's daughter Stephanie. Michelle was looking forward to catching up with them but at the same time was slightly daunted at the prospect of introducing them to Tony, whom they knew she was currently dating. However, she at least had a fairly good idea how her parents would react; how Tony would take the whole meet the parents situation worried her to the point that she had yet to mention their upcoming visit. And with less than 48 hours until their arrival, she would have to do so soon. Glancing up at his office, she saw him frantically tapping away at his computer while talking on the phone and decided, with some relief, that it would have to wait until this evening.
…
10:21am
Having successfully re-focused on the task at hand, Michelle found herself rather irritated to be disturbed minutes later by the ringing phone.
"CTU, Dessler," she answered sharply.
"Everything OK?" Tony asked softly.
"Yeah." Whether it was his voice or the genuine concern behind his question, Michelle felt her ire dissipate.
"I just finished talking with Hammond; he reviewed the systems upgrade report and wants the installation schedule revised so that it's tabulated by departments."
"But we already spent half a day tabulating that data by date after Chappelle reviewed the report," Michelle groused, her frustration returning instantly.
"Yeah, I mentioned that to Hammond and his response was he wanted it by department. No explanations, no apologies, just a get it done order. How are you going with the interagency reports?"
"I still have at least another hour of work to do on them," Michelle replied.
"I noticed you talking with Chloe and Adam while I was on with Hammond; did something come up in the reports?"
"There were a couple of flagged items of low-level interest that I've forwarded to the appropriate people for follow up. As for Chloe and Adam, they were arguing again," Michelle explained as she turned to look up at Tony. At Jack's request, she and Tony had sat on the interview panel for the Field Ops IP-MAN. Michelle had voiced her concerns about Chloe's personality after her interview but Tony and Jack believed her superior technical skills were an asset that made her the best candidate.
"Could you ask Jack to have a word with Chloe about the importance of working together as a team?" she added, noticing Jack heading upstairs to Tony's office.
"I'll put you on speaker so you can fill us in on what happened," Tony informed her, waving Jack in.
"Hi Jack, looks like we have an on-going problem with Chloe and Adam," Tony greeted Jack as he transferred his call with Michelle onto speakerphone.
"What is it this time, Michelle?" Jack asked.
"How did you know it was me, Jack?" Michelle inquired.
"You're the obvious candidate," Jack commented as he turned slightly to meet Michelle's upward gaze, "and you always look up at Tony when you're on the phone with him."
Unsure whether Jack was simply pointing out the facts, or if he was teasing her, Michelle calmly kept his gaze as she outlined the latest conflict.
"I'll sit down with Chloe and try to get her to ease up on the snide remarks," Jack stated. "Have there been any problems with her work?"
"No," Michelle replied.
"But you're still not convinced that we should have hired her," Jack finished.
"She really doesn't interact well," Michelle explained.
"Most IT specialists don't," Jack pointed out.
"Thanks, Jack," Michelle answered sarcastically. Meanwhile Tony retaliated against Jack's stereotype with an attack in kind:
"Just like your average Field Ops agent likes to go looking for a fight."
Glancing briefly at Tony, Jack smiled and responded to Michelle, "Sorry, Michelle; I never had the pleasure of working with you. But I can tell you that my previous IP-MAN had a sarcastic retort for every order I gave him."
Rolling his eyes, Tony retorted sarcastically, "That wouldn't have had anything to do with the fact that your orders never came with any explanation or justification."
"That's because I work from my intuition," Jack answered looking across at Tony, "and it was that same instinct which told me that if we could get past our differences you'd be a real asset. Michelle, give Chloe another month to settle into the routine here and I think you'll find that I'm right about her too."
"OK, but you get to play mom next time those two start bickering," Michelle joked.
"Fine, we field agents have ways of bringing people into line."
…
11:52am
"Tell me you've completed the revised table," Michelle sighed as she entered Tony's office.
"Yeah, and you're a cordon bleu chef," Tony replied without taking his eyes off the screen.
"You know it's hard to roll my eyes at you if you refuse to look at me," Michelle gibed.
"I've written a program to reconstruct the table but I keep getting a script error," Tony explained as he continued to frown at his monitor. Michelle walked around his desk and looked over his shoulder
"Since you're the culinary expert, why don't you go grab us some coffee and I'll review the code?"
"I'll agree to anything if it means I don't have to keep staring at those same lines," Tony replied, ceding his chair to Michelle.
"So I should have requested something more extravagant?"
"I'll be back with coffee, then we can discuss your other demands," Tony replied with a smirk, leaving Michelle to work through the program code.
Just as she identified the suspect line of code, the phone rang.
"CTU, Dessler."
"Hello, may I speak with Tony Almeida?"
"May I ask who's calling?" Michelle requested, although based on the heavy Latino accent she was certain she already knew.
"His mother. Is this Michelle?"
"Yes," Michelle answered, surprised that Tony had obviously spoken about her in enough detail to disclose her surname.
"Don't tell me my lazy son has you answering his phone?"
"No, Mrs Almeida. He just stepped out to get some coffee."
"Please, call me Denise. Perhaps, it's better if I speak with you anyway. I'm planning a birthday party for Tina, Tony's sister, in three weeks and I'm hoping Tony will fly in for the weekend. And you too, of course. Have you ever been to Chicago?"
"No, I haven't. Tony should be back any minute," Michelle replied struggling to keep her composure, while staring desperately across the bullpen in the hope of spotting Tony.
"That's fine, I understand that with his new promotion things are busy. I've been trying to convince him to take a weekend off and come visit for the last six months; he still hasn't met his newest niece. And that's where I'm hoping you can help. Talk him into coming out to visit; we'd all like to meet you and I promise that I'll keep the family engagements down to a single afternoon tea. Chicago is a lovely city, and it will make a nice change from the stress of LA."
"Your invitation sounds great, but I think you have far too much faith in me. Apart from spending half a day catching up on work, Tony likes to keep his weekends low-key; Chicago is a long way to travel for two days."
"Michelle, from the way my son talks about you, I can assure you he'd walk bare-footed over broken glass all the way here if you asked. And between us women, that's a power you want to learn how to exercise."
"I'll keep that advice in mind, and I'll see what I can do to talk Tony around," Michelle responded, thinking that this was a woman she'd be interested in meeting. "Speaking of the devil, he just walked in. It was nice talking to you, Denise."
"You too, Michelle. I'll see you in three weeks."
"Your mom," Michelle explained, handing the phone across to a surprised Tony.
"Hola Mom. ¿Que pasa?"
Eyes on the computer monitor, Michelle made the necessary corrections to the program code, while following Tony's side of the conversation. As his mom predicted, Tony give a non-committal promise to check his schedule and get back to her.
"Sounds like you've had a productive couple of minutes; you seem to have solved my programming glitch and still had the time to make a new friend," Tony commented after hanging up the phone.
"Your mom was nice," Michelle stated.
"Runs in the family, along with charm so it seems. Mom informed me that she's sweet-talked you into the idea of heading to Chicago to meet the family who, I'm warning you in advance, are for the most part overwhelmingly neurotic."
"Does that also run in the family?" Michelle teased him hoping to lighten the mood before commencing to argue her case. "Consider it this way: we'll get to spend a completely work-free weekend together, you'll make your mom happy and you'll get your revenge on me for making you meet my parents this weekend."
"You've arranged for me to meet your parents this weekend and I'm just finding out about it now?" Tony replied, dashing Michelle's hopes that he might overlook her last point.
"Well, my parents arranged the trip before we started dating, and it was only last week when we were finalising plans that they asked if I was bringing you along. I've been meaning to mention it to you all week, but I guess I was worried that I'd scare you off."
"Hey, I'm a Marine, we don't scare easily. I'll call mom this evening and let her know we're coming, and then you can fill me in on your parents and precisely what kind of interrogation methods I'll be facing on Saturday," Tony joked.
"Deal," Michelle replied with a smile.
…
Saturday 10:55amArriving at the door to Danny's apartment, Michelle turned to Tony and asked, "You ready for this, Mr. Fearless Marine?"
"Of course," Tony lied steadily. Meeting a girlfriend's parents for the first time was always an ordeal, and the apprehension behind this meeting was exacerbated by the fact that he really wanted to make a good first impression. And with that thought in mind, he would most probably achieve the opposite goal.
Seeing straight through his lie, Michelle grabbed Tony's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze as she rang the buzzer.
"Michelle, great to see you," Danny exclaimed as he opened the door. Entering the apartment Michelle exchanged a quick hug with her brother before turning towards Tony to make introductions. Likewise, Danny turned his attention to Tony and a look of surprise immediately crossed his face; at the same time it dawned on Michelle that they had met when Tony prevented Danny from strangling Carrie that catastrophic day at CTU.
"You're that guy who sedated me," Danny spat out in accusation.
"Danny, this is Tony Almeida, director of CTU and the guy who stopped you from doing something stupid that would have sent you straight to prison," Michelle quickly commented before Danny could begin his rant. Determined not to allow either of them to dwell on that awful day, she continued, "Where are Mom and Dad?"
"In the living room playing with the kids; come on in," Danny replied grudgingly stepping aside to allow Michelle and Tony to enter.
Michelle grabbed Tony's hand and led him into the living room. Crossing the room she greeted her parents.
"How was your trip down?" Michelle asked as she gave each of them a quick hug.
"Uneventful accept for the very early start," Michelle's mother replied. Her gaze moved across to Tony, who was standing back giving Michelle time to catch-up with her parents.
Turning slightly towards Tony, Michelle was about to make the introductions when her niece Stephanie jumped up, hugged her legs and asked, "Aunt Michelle, where's my present?"
Smiling at her niece, Michelle knelt down returned the hug and handed Stephanie a large, brightly wrapped gift from her shoulder bag. She then gave David a present in turn, so that he wouldn't be left out. A sense of ease passed through the room as everyone watched the kids gleefully tear the wrapping paper of their new toys.
Deciding to profit from the serenity, Michelle turned back to her parents. "Mom, Dad, this is Tony. Tony, this is my mom Louise and my dad Steve."
"Hi," Tony uttered as he stepped forward to place a kiss on Louise's check and shake hands with Steve.
"Hello Tony, it's a real pleasure to met you," Louise answered smiling at him while her husband nodded wordlessly as he gazed at Tony in a manner that seemed to suggest he was undecided whether or not he was pleased.
Noting that both her husband and son seemed less than enamoured with Tony, Louise added warmly, "Take a seat Tony."
Tony sat down in the nearest armchair while Michelle settled herself on the arm of his chair.
"Michelle, don't sit on the arm," her brother chided.
Rolling her eyes in Danny's direction, Michelle relocated herself onto Tony's lap determined to let her brother know that required neither his approval nor opinion on her choice of boyfriend. However, despite her independent nature she still wanted both her brother and her parents to like Tony.
"How's work going?" Michelle asked her parents. Her dad was a lawyer, and her mother his legal secretary.
"Busy, we have a couple of major cases at the moment so this weekend away is a blessing," Louise answered. "How's your new position going?"
"I'm slowly settling into it," Michelle replied.
"You're doing a great job," Tony corrected.
"Michelle mentioned that you work together," Steve commented to Tony.
Silently sighing to himself, Tony rubbed his jaw as he took a second to mentally prepare himself for the questions to come. However, before he could reply, Danny interceded.
"Actually Michelle is sleeping with her boss," he stated while settling himself onto the couch alongside his parents.
The combination of Michelle's anger at her brother's crude remark and his own refusal to be intimidated, especially by someone who wasn't in a position to make relationship critiques, spurred Tony into action.
"Actually, Michelle and I decided to start dating before my promotion to Director of CTU," Tony clarified, stretching the truth to its limits.
"What precisely does the Director of CTU do?" Steve enquired.
"I manage the processing of intelligence gathering alongside Michelle, my Chief of Staff, and coordinate operational missions with Jack Bauer, our Head of Field Ops," Tony explained.
"Did you study management at college?" Louise asked.
"No. I have a double degree in engineering and IT followed by a Masters in IT. I was originally hired for the IP-MAN position, like Michelle" Tony explained. "So maybe in a couple of years Michelle will be running CTU," Tony added in a vain attempt to draw the attention away from him.
Fifteen minutes, and many questions later, the kids tired of their new toys and demanded lunch. Louise immediately ushered everyone to the table where, much to Tony's relief, the focus returned to the birthday girl and the mood relaxed considerable.
After lunch, Danny and the kids returned to living room to watch cartoons while Tony, Michelle and her parents remained at the table drinking coffee and chatting. The conversation had once again refocused on Tony. However, now sated and relaxed, he was enthusiastically describing his childhood in Chicago and his plans for the upcoming visit he and Michelle would be making. An hour later, it was time for an afternoon nap, something that Michelle's parents, exhausted from an early mornings travelling, looked forward to more than their grandchildren. Michelle and Tony said their goodbyes and left the apartment hand in hand.
"That wasn't too bad," Michelle commented as they headed for the car.
"Sure. Your dad asked me enough questions to write my biography and your brother treated me with the same enthusiasm as syphilis," Tony countered.
Shaking her hand, Michelle clarified, "Danny has always been overprotective and he's a bit negative on the relationship front right now, but he'll come around. As for Dad, he's a lawyer and loves to ask questions; it wasn't exactly an interrogation."
"My Drill Sergent always said: if it doesn't kill you, it will make you stronger," Tony joked.
"Good, then you should be primed for dinner with my parents tomorrow."
"That's a tough task, but for you I'll endeavour to endure the ordeal," Tony replied sarcastically, punctuating the sentence by opening the passenger side door for Michelle with a flourishing gesture.
Laughing, Michelle entered the car, thankful that the afternoon had passed relatively smoothly and hoping that it was a sign of things to come.