Chapter 2

7:20am

Tony sat in the holding room. This was a familiar place. This was where they held him 18 months ago when he was first charged with treason for trying to exchange Jane Saunders for Michelle. This was where they held him three years before that when he drugged Chappelle and then helped Jack against Chappelle's direct orders. This was where he first held Michelle's hand. If he closed his eyes, he could remember exactly where they were positioned in the room, how they leaned against the table, their hands out of view of the security camera. He remembered how soft her hand was and how sweet she smelled despite the fact that they had both been at CTU almost 24 straight hours at that point and had lived through the building being bombed. He stood up and walked around the room. He couldn't think about that any more. That was part of his old life; his other life.

He had a new life now: twenty years of prison. Actually, if you wanted to get technical about it, he only had eighteen years and eight months left of prison. And, if he was lucky enough to get parole on his first try, he only had twelve years and eight months. The twenty year sentence with the possibility of parole in fourteen years had been the result of a plea bargain. The federal prosecutor offered the plea bargain to Tony just days after he was arrested. Tony's first instinct was to reject it. Although he admitted his guilt, he was sure that a jury wouldn't convict him. So he met with an attorney and started building a defense but it didn't take either of them very long to figure out that there was little defense for what Tony did. No jury was going to acquit him and the sentencing recommendation for treason was life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. Compared to either of those possibilities, the twenty years in a minimum security facility about a hundred miles north of LA seemed like a walk in the park. Not only that, but it saved him from sitting in the federal detention center in LA for the next year waiting for his trial. He could spend that same year in minimum security and the time would be put toward his sentence. It also saved his aging parents and Michelle from a long trial. Finally, it would keep Michelle from using all of their savings and losing their house to pay legal fees. One way or the other he was going to prison for a long time, he might as well get it started as soon as possible. So Tony decided to accept the plea agreement.

When he decided to accept the plea agreement, Tony made another decision as well. Deciding to accept the plea was hard, but this decision was like none he had ever made. He lay awake nights thinking it over until he finally knew that it was the right thing to do. He made all of the arrangements and then waited for Michelle to arrive for her next scheduled visit.

Visits at the minimum security facility were more casual than at higher security prisons. Visitors were welcome at any time from noon until five and a prisoner could have up to two visitors at a time. Although the visitor had to schedule the visit ahead of time and the visit could only last one hour, there was no limit to the number of visits a prisoner could have each month. Visits took place in a room where prisoners met with their visitors face to face, no glass, no phones. There were several prisoners and their visitors in the room at the same time and corrections officers supervised the visits, so there wasn't much privacy, but hugs and brief kisses were allowed. Michelle had already told Tony to expect her every Tuesday. When she arrived that Tuesday, instead of being directed into the visitation room, she was escorted into a private room where prisoners and their family members could meet with their lawyers and plan for appeals or parole hearings. She was surprised to see Tony and his attorney, Todd Maver sitting around a table with paperwork spread across it.

"Hi Sweetheart," Tony said as he rose to greet her.

"Hey," she said as she kissed him gently. "What's going on? Todd if I had known you were going to be here we could have driven up together."

Todd looked away not sure what to say. He knew this was going to be uncomfortable for him but he couldn't leave. This was scheduled as an attorney/client meeting so he had to be present in the room at all times.

"I asked Todd to come, Michelle," Tony told her. "He drew up some legal documents for me."

"What kind of documents?" Michelle asked clearly not sure of what was going on.

Tony turned his back to her and walked a few steps away. "Divorce papers."

"Divorce papers! Why would you ask Todd to draw up divorce papers?"

"Because it's what's best for you, Michelle. You need to move on and start a new life. There is no point in you sitting around and waiting for me to come home because it's going to be a long time before that happens."

"It's my choice if I want to wait, Tony, not yours," she responded her voice rising in anger.

"Michelle, you say that now but in a couple of years things are going to look different. I want you to make the move now; start over," his voice was gentle and soft. "I want you find someone to love. I want you to marry him and have children. I know how much you want children and if I have one regret, Baby, it's that we didn't take the time to have a family. Let someone else give you what I can't."

Michelle was crying openly now. "Oh, Tony, no! I don't want a divorce. I won't sign the papers. I married you for better or for worse and I meant that. You'll be paroled in fourteen years. I can wait that long."

"Michelle, there is no guarantee that I'll be granted parole in fourteen years. The truth is that I probably won't get it on the first try. Even if I do, in fourteen years you're too old to have a baby and I want you to have that chance."

"I don't need a baby, Tony. I need you. I don't care if I have a baby as long as I have you," she said her voice getting louder and louder.

"But you don't have me, Michelle, the government does. And they intend to keep me for the next twenty years!" He shouted back at her.

"It could be as little as fourteen, Sweetheart," she reminded him optimistically.

"Michelle, traitors don't get paroled. That was a carrot to dangle in front of me. Traitors get executed or they spend the rest of their lives in prison. I took the plea agreement knowing that twenty years was the best I could hope for, not because I thought that I would get paroled."

"I'm not signing those papers, Tony and you can't force me," she said bordering on hysterical.

Tony ignored her and reached for the papers. His voice was calmer now. "Todd drew the papers up so that everything we held jointly is yours: house, cars, stocks, bank accounts, everything. There is an IRA in my name that I kept. I figure I'll be out of here before I reach retirement age, so I asked him to leave that in my name. I hope that's okay with you."

Michelle stared at the paper in disbelief. Tony's signature was written meticulously at the bottom. "Tony this is ridiculous! I'm not signing anything. I don't want a divorce."

Tony stepped close to Michelle. She was looking down so he lifted her chin so she was looking directly at him. "Sweetheart, do this as a favor to me. I've had everything taken away from me at this point and I am asking you for this one favor. Sign the papers and walk out of here and don't come back. I love you too much to see you once a week for an hour. I love you too much to have you waste your life waiting for me when you should be married to someone who is beside you and raising a family with you. My life is ruined; I don't want to be responsible for ruining yours, too."

Michelle's pain and sadness turned quickly to anger. She was angry at Tony for making her do this. She was angry that this was how their perfect marriage and all their plans for a life together were turning out. Unable to control that anger, Michelle grabbed the divorce papers from Tony and slapped them down on the table. She snatched up the fountain pen that sat on the table in front of Todd. She uncapped the pen and scribbled her signature across the bottom of the page. It was barely legible, but it would do. Then she pulled her wedding ring from her finger and threw it at Tony. He tried to catch it but it bounced off of his chest, fell to the floor. He crouched to retrieve it as it rolled across the linoleum. He picked it up and closed it in his hand as Michelle, without seeing him, ran to the door.

She pushed open the small privacy screen several inches from the top. "Officer! Officer!" She called. "Let me out, please. I need to go."

The officer opened the door and Michelle rushed past him nearly knocking him over in her haste. Tony stood at the door and watched her go, tears flowing freely down his face.

"Are you two finished?" He asked Tony and Todd.

They exchanged glances. "I have everything I need, Tony. I'll file these tomorrow," Todd said indicating the divorce papers that he had placed inside a portfolio. "I'll be in touch." He thanked the officer and strode out of the room.

"Okay, Almeida," the officer said. "You need to get back to your cell block. It's almost time for chow." Tony nodded and walked sullenly back to his cell.

Each of the next four Mondays Tony received notification that Michelle Almeida would be in the visitor's room at 4 o'clock on Tuesday. And each Tuesday Tony sat in his cell and watched the clock as 4 o'clock came and went. He wondered how long she waited before she went back home. He wondered how many more weeks she would make the trip before she realized that he wasn't going to see her. After the second week the officer in charge of his cell block called him into his office to talk to him.

"Tony, most guys would kill for a visitor. Some don't get two visitors a year, let alone two in two weeks."

It was true. Without Michelle visiting, there was no one else. His parents lived in Chicago and they certainly couldn't afford to make trips to LA just to see him. His sister traveled a lot for work and she promised that anytime she was near LA she would stop and see him, but that probably would only be once or twice a year. His brother lived on the east coast so there was little chance that he would come all the way to California just to see Tony for an hour in a crowded visitation room. Prison was going to be lonely, he was just going to have to get used to that.

"Why don't you see her when she comes in next week?"

"No," Tony told him. "It's better this way."

Several months later Tony got the official letter saying that the State of California had dissolved their marriage. Tony slipped his hand in his pocket and pulled out Michelle's ring to look at it. The only jewelry allowed in the prison were a wedding ring and a watch so he kept her ring hidden, usually wrapped in a napkin, in his pocket. He never took his wedding ring off and he kept hers with him all of the time, in his pocket during the day and on his pinky when he slept. He was careful to make sure that no one knew that he had Michelle's ring because he knew that it would be confiscated.

Tony's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a pass card swiping through the card reader outside. The door opened and Paul entered.

"Here you go, sir," he said setting an extra large Styrofoam cup in front of Tony. Tony lifted the lid and inhaled the rich aroma. "And I brought you some reading material. It looks like you are going to be stuck in here for the next four hours or so. Everybody has to be debriefed so there isn't anyone free to drive you back."

"Gee, what a pity," Tony said sarcastically as he looked at the newspapers and magazine Paul set on the table: the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal and a copy of the latest Sports Illustrated. "Wow!" he said as he leafed through the magazine. His favorite baseball team, the Chicago Cubs was pictured on the front cover with the words "On Top of the World" above the picture. "It figures that I'd wait a lifetime to see the Cubs win the World Series and when they finally did it I'm in prison. Oh well, at least I had plenty of time on my hands to watch all of the games," He said trying to put a positive spin on it.

"Here," Paul said as if an after thought. "I've got something else." He handed Tony a white paper bag from the coffee shop; a grease stain was forming on the bottom. "I thought you might be hungry and I know you used to like these sandwiches."

A smile spread across Tony's face. "You mean the steak and fried egg with sautéed onions and peppers?"

"On a sesame seed bagel," Paul told him smiling back.

"Paul, I love you. If you were cuter, I'd kiss you."

"That's okay, sir. I'll pass on that one," Paul replied still smiling. "I've gotta go. It's been good seeing you again, sir."

"You, too. By the way, stop calling me 'sir.' I don't exactly out rank you any more."

"Force of habit, sir," Paul told him as he closed the door behind him.

Tony opened the sandwich and bit into it. He groaned out loud. "God, that's good," he said to the empty room. He finished the sandwich savoring every bite then settled back with his coffee and magazine. He flipped through some pages and looked at the pictures until he found the article that he wanted to read first. He was about half way through the article when he heard another key card in the reader outside the door.

"Damn," he said quietly afraid that they had already found someone free to take him back to prison.

The door opened and Michelle stepped inside.