Chapter 5, Trust
About an hour later, Bill walkd into Michelle's office. "You don't look too happy."
"The President's not going to budge on following through with Jack's plan. He doesn't believe that following Jack's advice is the best course of action. He wants a meeting with all of us."
Suddenly, they heard a lot of commotion downstairs. Both looked—David Palmer had just walked in. Michelle and Bill walked, more like ran, down the stairs to meet him.
"Mr. President."
"Bill."
"Mr. President."
"I thought I told you to call me David, Michelle."
"Mr. President," Michelle insisted and shook his hand."
"We were just about to have a conference call," Bill said. "Care to join?"
"I'd love to. Afterwards, I need a moment alone with Michelle."
There were a couple of looks exchanged before Bill said, "Of course."
"Tony, it's good to see you again," Palmer said.
"Thank-you Mr. President."
Five minutes into the meeting, Michelle had had enough. "That's it!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Everyone stared. "Mister President," she addressed the screen, "look up code X1032. I'll wait while you pull up the file." The President did, shocked that Michelle Dessler had shouted. Everyone was in fact shocked. Michelle had hardly ever lost her cool, especially in a crisis situation.
"Dear God," the President breathed along with Mike Novac.
"Ms. Dessler-" Mike offered.
"Please," Michelle held up her hand. "I am more aware of what's in that file and what's not than you will ever know. I asked you to look it up for a reason. Do you trust me?"
"You know we do—even before seeing this file-"
"Good. Then you'll agree that I have ample reason not to trust people, right?"
"Agreed."
"There are only two people that I would completely trust-do whatever they asked me to do, no hesitation, no questions asked. And one of them is Jack Bauer. He has proved himself time and time again and has always been right. He's never let this country down, so I'm asking you to let him do his job."
There wasn't a sound for a moment. Tony felt his chest swell up with pride. Jack actually felt tears in his eyes. He had no idea what was in that file and he really didn't care. Michelle trusted him again-not that she had stopped but it hadn't been the same since Sanchez. Now, he knew that everything between them would be o.k.
Then to everyone's surprise, they heard laughter. And it was coming from David Palmer. They all stared at him. "I'm sorry," he said once he calmed down. "It's jus that I've heard that speech before and definitely wasn't expecting it from a short skinny brunette either."
"And what did you do?" The question came in over the monitor.
"I trusted Michelle. And she's never given me a reason to regret it."
"Very well. Jack you have my full support. That's all." The President started to leave then changed his mind, "Oh, and Michelle?"
"Yes?"
"Who's the other?"
"The other?"
"Should something happen to Jack and/or you, I want to know so we don't have to go through this again. A member of CTU yelling at the President of the United States, which at this moment is me. Not a situation that I want ro repeat. So?"
Michelle didn't hesitate. "Tony Almeida."
The screen went out. "OK Jack you know what to do," Michelle started. "Tony get the monitor ready. Chloe, Audrey, get the satellite in order. Curtis get your team together." Michelle was all business as she headed out the door, barking orders. Again, Tony's heart swelled with pride.
