Jack glanced in the mirror at the girl curled up in the back of his car, sunlight glinting off her handcuffs. He hated how fragile she looked, her skin was so pale in the sunlight, he wondered how long it had been since she'd gone outside. She was so very thin, she looked as if she might snap if you touched her, although the bruise forming in his back was testament to the fact that she was much stronger than she looked. Her face had gone back to being stony, although it showed evidence of her previous tears and there were red marks forming on her neck from where he'd... No, it was better if he didn't think of that. She was still only wearing Tony's shirt, he'd tried to get her changed, but she'd just stared blankly at him.
He knew it had been a mistake to come, he'd wanted to leave her alone, he'd even gone back to his car to let Hammond know she wasn't coming. But they'd insisted, it was important. So he'd gone back in, she was crumpled in a heap on the floor and didn't even put up a fight as he put the handcuffs on her.
Jack had said he was taking her back to CTU, Michelle knew this was big, she hadn't been back to CTU since the day she'd signed her contract. She really didn't want to go back there, too many memories that she'd tried so long to forget. She glanced at Jack, she knew from the look on his face that he didn't want to be doing this, not that she felt any sympathy for him, he chose to continue working at CTU, even after everything it had done to him.
So she stared blankly into the ground, willing everything away, pretending that this wasn't happening. It was a skill that she'd become an expert in. Even as he dragged her out of his car and into CTU, she saw nothing.
Pulling her through the main floor of CTU, Jack was intensely aware of her appearance. Dishevelled hair, tear stained face, handcuffs, dressed only in a shirt that was far too big for her, her bare feet silently crossing the ground. He should have tried harder to get her cleaned up and changed. It was bad enough that he had to bring her back to this place, filled with people that she had once known, but letting them see her like this wasn't fair.
Whilst most of the people in the building openly stared at her as he pushed her through the doors and guided her to one of the holding rooms, Chloe kept her eyes as far away from Michelle as possible. She didn't see what everyone else saw, she saw the Michelle who had left work five years ago. She could still feel Michelle's fingernails digging into the back of her head as she held her against the wall, the burning anger of her eyes, the pressure of her gun in her lower back. It hadn't even been her fault, Michelle shouldn't have been eavesdropping, and besides, what she'd said about Tony had been true. He did deserve everything he got. As soon as Jack and Michelle disappeared out of sight, Chloe discovered that she had a really bad headache that was far too painful for her to be able to stay at work.
Brad Hammond stood watching Michelle through the window in her holding room, Jack by his side. Jack was right, she was a state. Even so, Hammond knew Michelle. He knew it was only a matter of pressing the right buttons. He purposefully hadn't told Jack about Tony's execution date, Jack wouldn't have gone to get her. Jack was the only link they had to Michelle, she'd refused to deal with anyone else, she said she knew where she stood with Jack, although Hammond thought there was more to it than that.
Jack watched Michelle, feeling incredibly guilty. He should have just told Hammond where to stick it. She wasn't able to cope with this. In 10 days they were going to take away the only thing in the world that she cared about. He knew the look in her eyes, it was one he'd seen in his own eyes so many times before when he contemplated whether life was still worth living.
He turned to Hammond, "Look Brad, I don't think she should be here. Even if you can get her to agree, look at her, she's unstable. You should find somebody else."
Annoyed that Jack would think that pulling Michelle out of her self-imposed retirement was anything but a last option, Hammond replied, "There is no one else and you know it, she's the only agent we have with an immunity. I know you care about her..." Jack knew these words, he'd heard them before, they meant 'I know you're sleeping with her'. He ignored this, that was not a mistake he was going to make again, despite this afternoons lapse in control, but arguing with Hammond wasn't going to make a difference. Brad continued, "...But she has to be the one to do this, she's the only one who can do this."
Michelle rested her head on the table, trying to get some sleep, she couldn't remember how long it had been since she'd last been able to sleep properly. She'd been having nightmares ever since she'd got the letter about Tony. She was more tired after sleeping than she had been before. Even so, sleep was preferable to what was to come.
She fought an urge to wave to whoever was watching her through the window, she imagined it was Brad Hammond, he enjoyed tormenting her. He was the one who had negotiated her contract, her silence in return for her co-operation and a salary. She remembered the way he looked at her and she hated him for it.
She tried to push away all the memories that coming here had brought back. She tried to push away the looks on the faces as she'd been guided into the holding room. She knew what she looked like, but she'd refused to give Jack the satisfaction of making her change. If she co-operated with him, he would think he'd won, she wasn't going to let him win.