Michelle began to awake when she felt warmth on her face. As she realized it was Tony's hand she wanted to cry. This had been the first time in nearly a year since she had felt his touch. She hated herself for leaving him when he was so hurt, but she had been in pain as well.
Two days after Tony had been arrested she had had a sharp pain in her stomach. It soon became so intense she had to go to the hospital. She was in an exam room for about two hours when the doctor came in.
"Ms. Dessler, I'm sorry to tell you that you've lost your baby. You were immune to the Cordilla virus but your baby was not."
Michelle gave him a blank stare. "Baby?"
The doctor realized she hadn't known and gave her a sympathetic look.
"You were 6-7 weeks pregnant; you just went through a miscarriage."
At hearing those words Michelle began to weep. Her world was coming undone before her. She had lost her husband and their child within three days. The doctor let her stay in the exam room as long as she needed. As she sat there she felt such loss. Even though she hadn't known she still felt such a pain.
Sitting there, she decided not to tell Tony, at least not while he was in jail. He already had enough to hurt him, no need to add to his grief. She was strong; she could deal with this on her own. But she couldn't, as time went on she began to resent Tony for not being there for her when she was hurting so badly. She knew she shouldn't be blaming him; he didn't even know. Even after she had left she hadn't told him and she didn't plan to.
But as she looked at him lying in his bed she thought about how much she would love to have children with this man. That thought was brushed aside when Tony began to stir. She quickly moved her hand away from his face, brushed her hair back and tried her best to look professional.
As Tony opened his eyes the first thing he realized was Michelle was no longer on his chest. He saw her sitting up in a chair next to his bed staring off across the room.
"Hey," he said.
She turned to look at him. "Hey, how are you feeling?"
He looked into her face and thought he saw a look of concern but he knew it couldn't be. "I'm fine, a little tired," he paused, "You don't have to stay here with me Michelle, you look tired go home."
She looked at him with a look of concern. "Tony," she said softly, "Don't do this again, don't do this to me. Stop trying to shut me out."
As he watched her hard face melt away, he knew he had to say something. "Michelle, I'm not trying to push you away, I can see how tired you are and you need to go home." He could see the hint of pain on her face and took his hand and placed it on her cheek. Her face moved against his hand and she closed her eyes. She placed her hand on top of his and they looked at each other.
For a moment things felt like they had before the divorce. Tony took her hand, looked into her eyes and smiled, "Go home, I'm just gonna fall asleep, the doctor said I can be released tomorrow."
She squeezed his hand, "I can pick you up if you need a ride," she said caringly. He was afraid to open up to her so quickly because he knew that one wrong move could bring this chance at happiness crashing down.
"That's okay, Jack said he was gonna come by, we both have to debrief back at CTU anyway." To make sure she didn't take this as a rejection he brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it gently.
A tear rolled down here cheek, "Well I'll at least stay until you fall asleep."
He let a smile come across his face, a wordless agreement.
They sat there for a few minutes just looking at each other trying to reclaim their feelings that had been buried for so long now. The morphine began to kick in and his eyelids began to drop. His breathing became heavy and she could tell he was asleep.
She wanted to stay but knew she needed to get back to CTU so she could check out and go home. She looked at him and thought again how close she had come to losing him. As she got up to leave, she leaned in and kissed him softly on his lips. She lingered there for just a second remembering the sweetness of his kiss.
As she left thoughts flowed through her head of Tony. Was it possible after so long he was coming back to her? How she wanted to let him back into her life. But could she take the chance after how he had hurt her before. What if something else happened and he shut her out again? It was hard enough to take the first time she knew she wouldn't be able to handle it again.
But having it back again would be more than she could hope for. She knew they had connected tonight and at least on her part she had rediscovered the love that ran so deep for Tony. She felt like Tony still had feelings for her as well. During that day she knew the looks they had given each other and could see the love in his eyes.
She had been the one who left him; she knew she had to be the one to go to him. Tomorrow she would see him, tomorrow. As she left she smiled thinking about having Tony back again.