Ok- this chapter might need a bit of a content warning- mostly for violence- although its not that bad. It just upset me a bit when I was writing it. I don't really dwell on it, and the PG-13 rating probably covers it- but just so you know there is some nastiness.

Jack considered trying to get Tony to try to escape, but he knew he'd never agree. Regardless of what the circumstances were, Tony would never flee his country. But with Michelle dead, it would be impossible. Tony simply didn't care, about anything. So he piled them both into a taxi, he'd have to fight at CTU. They couldn't do this, not today, not on the day of his wife's memorial, they wouldn't.

Brad Hammond saw the look on Jack's face before anything else. 'He thinks this about the pardon,' Hammond realised. Unfortunately it wasn't, he'd discovered that the pardon wasn't valid four days ago. Unfortunately, the President had refused to have him arrested. Tony was free. "Relax Jack, I want to be here even less than you do."

Brad Hammond, another person for Tony to hate. He wasn't actually sure who he hated more, the man who had tormented his wife or the man who had slept with her. No, he definitely hated Jack more.

He wasn't sure why he was here, not that he cared. Michelle was dead, she'd been his for a second, he'd heard it in her voice, but then she was gone. So none of it mattered.

Nevertheless, he followed Jack and Brad to wherever it was they were going, hoping that whatever it was wouldn't take long. He needed to go home, he could still smell her there, he could pretend that she would come rushing through the door, complaining about her shoes, pulling out her hair, breathing. He would give anything just to be able to hear her breathe. Here, all he could see was the place that had kept him apart from her, the place that had killed her.

Then he saw her. She was so pale, her face was swollen, cuts and bruises littered across it. They'd found her body.

Jack saw Tony freeze, saw emotion force the mask off his face. He followed Tony's eyes. Michelle. God, what had they done to her. She looked like she had died in such agony. He felt tears force themselves out of his eyes. Why would anyone do that to her. She looked so pale, so fragile. He shouldn't have let them bring her in. He should have pretended that he didn't know where she was. He should have done anything to protect her.

Then he noticed the IV. Why would they put an IV. in a corpse? "Tony, Tony...she's alive."

Jack was shaking him, yelling things at him. Tony felt his hands curl up into tight fists, he wanted to shove them into Jack's chest until all the skin came off them. It was Jack's fault that she was lying there, dead.

There was a group of people watching her, she could see them through the eye that hadn't been damaged. Her instinct was to curl up into a ball, she didn't want them to hurt her. But she couldn't move. She wasn't sure how badly injured she was, but she did know that there wasn't a single bit of her that didn't ache with an agony that was overwhelming.

One of the group was talking loudly, she couldn't hear what he was saying. He had dark curly hair, like Tony's. Tony. She'd betrayed him. Again. She'd tried so hard, but she'd betrayed him.

She was alive, Michelle was alive. He felt his legs carrying him towards her, Jack just behind him. She wasn't dead.

Jack, that was Jack. She recognised him. Maybe it was safe after all.

He heard Michelle call his name and was there instantly, smoothing away the hair on her forehead, taking her hands in his. "Chelle," he whispered.

This would have made her smile if she could remember how, if she could remember anything except the intense pain. "Is it safe Jack?" That wasn't her voice, that couldn't be her voice. It was cracked, hoarse, filled with pain.

"It's safe baby, it's safe."

Tony couldn't believe it. After all this time, after everything he'd been through, and she wanted Jack. He remembered that day at the prison, when she'd told him. He'd contemplated suicide before, but not seriously. Michelle was his angel, she was waiting for him, he couldn't do that to her. But when she told him, he was so lost. With his training, it was easy. But they'd found him. When he woke the next day, she was there, kissing him softly, telling him she loved him. Her face was filled with pain, her tears dripped down his neck. He'd forgiven her in an instant.

But he was wrong. He could see that now. She'd called for Jack, and now Jack was there, holding his wife. He shouldn't have forgiven her. He felt the anger rising up inside of him, it was growing beyond what he would control. But then he heard her words.

"Tell Tony I love him."

Jack moved so that Tony could talk to her, hold her. He didn't see the terror on her face.

"Sweetheart," Tony whispered softly. She was scared of him, he could see it in her face. Why was she scared of him? Wanting to reassure her, he brought his head closer to hers, his fingers settling on her shoulders.

Not again, they couldn't do this to her again, she hurt so much.

As her scream echoed throughout the room, Jack watched the doctors move in on her. She was given a sedative as they peeled back her gown. He thought he was going to be sick. He could only see her left arm, but it was enough. The top of it was entirely purple, there were small lacerations running along it, and there were bruises the shape of fingers just above her wrist. The marks on her shoulders where Tony had put his fingers could only have been cigarette burns.

"What's wrong with her, why didn't she recognise me?" Tony could hear her scream echoing over and over in his head, he was lost in the terror in her eyes.

"She hasn't been coherent since she got here." The doctor swallowed, wishing he didn't have to say the words that were about to come out of his mouth. "She's been under... immense physical... duress."

Tony felt his world come apart. He knew those words, he'd used them himself before, he just never expected them to be used in conjunction with his wife. They were the words that you used instead of "torture" when you didn't think the person you were talking to could handle the word torture.

When Michelle opened her eyes she smiled. He was here. "Tony," she whispered.

Tony smiled, he couldn't help himself. She recognised him, and despite everything, she still looked beautiful when she smiled.

For a moment, she was happy. She was caught up in his eyes, his fingers were playing with her hair and he was breathing her name. Then she remembered.

He saw it immediately, pain, horror, despair, they all tumbled into her eyes as she tried to escape him. Tears started to form, her breathing became laboured. "Hey, its ok. I promise you its ok."

She wouldn't look at him, she couldn't. She'd betrayed him. "I'm sorry Tony, I'm so sorry." Her words were so small and so filled with pain.

He knew what had been done to her, had read the report of her injuries, losing the contents of his stomach 3 times before he got to the end. He wanted her to know that she was safe, that he would never let anyone hurt her again. He placed her head against his. "Its ok. You did great." He didn't know what he could say that would make her feel better, his words seemed so pathetic, and there was no way he could hold her, her agonised screams when he'd touched her shoulders still played through his mind.

He didn't understand. "No, its not ok Tony. I betrayed you. I tried so hard, I really did. They were too strong Tony, I couldn't stop them. I tried."

Horrified at her words, he drew himself closer so that she would feel him, but so that he wasn't putting any weight on her. Even so, she flinched from his touch, a shudder causing agony to twist down her body in a barely concealed gasp. He knew what she was referring to, he felt so sick. "Michelle, its not your fault, don't say that."

He was pleading with her, but she didn't understand, couldn't. Her mind had been stuck on the same track for days, she was incapable of thinking anything else. She had betrayed Tony before, and he had tried to kill himself. Now, even after she'd promised, she'd done it again. He would hate her, he had to. "But I promised Tony, I promised you..."

Tony said the only thing that came into his mind. "Do you know what day it is today?"

She looked at him blankly, what was he talking about. Maybe she was dreaming this again. But she couldn't be, she hurt too much.

"12 days." Tony answered. "12 days since you accepted this mission." She still didn't understand. "You saved me. I was supposed to be dead now."

She looked at him, eyes wide. He wasn't mad at her, he didn't hate her. She'd spent the last week in agonies of pain, and all she could think about was how he was going to hate her. She couldn't understand it.

He watched her wince as salty tears poured down her face and into the partially closed cuts on her face. Slowly, so that she knew what she what he was going to do, he leant in close enough to be able to kiss her very gently, mindful of the splits in her lower lip.

Jack watched as Tony, balanced precariously on the edge of her bed, leant in and kissed Michelle. He watched her collapse against him. Like Tony, Jack had lost the contents of his stomach before he was able to complete the report of her injuries. They were consistent with what would be expected considering what had happened. But, it was Michelle, and it hurt, a lot.

He'd thought that when she got Tony back, her life would click neatly back into place. They could go back to the way they were. Jack would see his friends happy. It wasn't going to happen before, and it wasn't going to happen now.

He needed to believe that there could be happiness, he'd believed it on the day Tony and Michelle got married, but he was wrong, he was so wrong.

A/N ok- sorry for the whole killing Michelle/not killing Michelle thing. Without it the story was just too obvious. Ps. Let me know if it actually worked- I think that when I put the bit with it being a memorial and not a funeral in that it may have given it away. Only one more chapter to go and I promise it will be happy.