Three Weeks Later

Chapter 4

Tony went home and ate less than two slices of his pizza before deciding he wasn't so hungry after all. He would not allow himself to believe that his feelings for Michelle had anything to do with his lack of hunger. He picked up his phone to call her several times, but decided against it.*The look on her face. I must be heartless. Letting my one mistake with Nina dictate how I treat a woman I genuinely care for.* Tony shook his head slowly. Michelle was so different from Nina. Not only was she not a cold, heartless, terrorist, she was kind. She cared about him. *That's why I treated her so horribly. When she started helping Jack behind my back and lying to me about it, I saw Nina.* Tony sat helplessly on the edge of his bed. He knew he wanted Michelle. If he had ever doubted her feelings for him between her asking him out and their kiss, the kiss expelled them all from his mind. She had been so sweet. He could still feel her in his arms and he could still taste her sweetness on his lips. He knew she felt guilty about kissing him and that she probably thought he was angry about it, but he was *too scared to be vulnerable? *His subconscious jumped in. *She'll never understand how I felt when I found out about Nina.* He argued with himself. *She'll never know unless you tell her how you feel, how you felt, about you.* He sighed and stood up, leaving the phone on the bed. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt and slipped out of his pants. Stripping down to his boxers and socks, he climbed into bed. He wondered what he would do with his first whole day off since the Nuclear threat as he switched the lamp next to his bed off. Before he fell asleep, he decided he would call Michelle. He drifted off with the feel of her in his arms firmly imprinted in his brain.

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Michelle had been very quiet from the time Tony had appeared at the pizza parlor until Kim dropped her at her front door. She thanked the girls and went inside. Kim and Nikki headed for the Bauer apartment. Nikki's father was out of town for the weekend and she decided to stay with Jack and Kim rather than by herself in a large house. Kim and Nikki had called before they left Michelle's in order to give Jack and Kate fair warning. No one had answered, so Kim left a message on Jack's answering machine. So they made as much noise as possible on their way up to the front door. Kim inserted her key in the lock and let Nikki in. Nikki rounded the corner into the living area and giggled softly. She motioned for Kim to be quiet and follow her. When Kim saw what Nikki had been laughing about, she smiled too. On the couch were Jack and Kate. Kate was curled up on the couch with her head on Jack's leg and Jack had his arm draped over her, Kate's hand in his, their fingers intertwined. Nikki made her way to Kim's room while Kim slid a pillow underneath her dad's head and kissed him softly on the brow. Turning off the TV, she followed Nikki into her own room.

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Michelle closed the door of her apartment behind her and sank slowly to the floor. She couldn't hold back the tears that had been threatening to come for three weeks and collapsed into a heap, sobbing in the middle of her entryway. She sat crying for several minutes before she pulled herself together enough to walk into her bedroom and crawl into bed. She pulled the covers up over her head and cried herself to sleep, trying to block the images of Tony from her mind.

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