Hi everyone and thanks again for the reviews. Based on the reviews for chapter 4, it's pretty clear that you all want Tony and Michelle to be together again. Hang in there. It might be a while, but don't lose hope. I'll try not to play with you too long.

Last night was the 24 season 4 finale in the US. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it, but in my opinion it was the best finale since season 1 and it wasn't nearly as sad as season 1. The writers have set up a million possibilities for season 5. So, come on January! In the meantime, I guess I'll have to be satisfied with fanfiction.

Enjoy chapter 5 and please, please, please review!

Chapter 5: Difficult Decisions

Michelle sat on the edge of the bed stunned. She was staring at the home pregnancy test, staring at the positive result trying to comprehend it. She had done the test twice and it was positive both times. How had this happened? They were always so careful. Bill always used a condom. How could she have possibly gotten pregnant?

She hadn't really noticed when she got up on Monday morning that her period hadn't started. She was usually pretty regular and almost always started on Monday morning. That morning she was busy helping Bill get ready so he could catch a 7:05am flight to Houston for a conference. It wasn't until she got home that night that it occurred to her that her period should have started already. Oh well, she thought, it will probably start tomorrow. By Tuesday morning her period still hadn't started. That was unusual, but still didn't alarm her. She was under a lot of stress at work and frankly, at home, Bill was putting a lot of pressure on her to get married. They had been living together for eight months and had been together for over a year. He was anxious to get married, but she continued to resist. They were living together she told him, why did the need to get married. How would marriage change anything?

Michelle convinced herself that stress was causing her to be late and put any other concerns out of her head. She didn't even bother to tell Bill when she talked to him Tuesday evening. Wednesday came and went and no sign of a period. On her way home from work that evening she stopped at a drug store and bought a pregnancy test. She was sure that she was over reacting but decided to buy it anyway. She read through the directions but decided not to take the test until the next morning. If she hadn't started by Thursday, then she would definitely take the test.

She slept poorly Wednesday night wondering if it was actually possible that she was pregnant. She knew Bill wouldn't mind; that would be an excuse for them to get married. At 5 o'clock she finally got out of bed. She just couldn't lay there any longer. She found herself praying that her period had started, but it hadn't. Michelle sighed and took out the pregnancy test, read the directions again and finally took the test. At first she refused to believe the positive result, so she repeated the test. A second positive result couldn't be ignored. She really was pregnant.

She put her hand on her stomach trying to make herself understand that a baby was growing in there; Bill's baby was in there. Why was this happening? She didn't want a baby. No, that wasn't correct. She didn't want Bill's baby. If this was Tony's baby she would have been deliriously happy, beside herself with joy. She could just imagine Tony's reaction. He would have picked her up and spun her around and they would have laughed and cried and kissed. It would have been wonderful.

It was 7 o'clock before she pulled herself together enough to call Bill. As soon as his phone went to voice mail she remembered that he was on the plane returning to LA. He was coming from the airport to the office and should be there by late morning. Since Bill would be at work, she decided the best thing to do was go to work and she could tell him there. So she absently showered and dressed and drove to work almost numb to all that was going on around her.

Her work day started with a meeting at CTU. It was long and boring. God! Erin Driscoll certainly did love to hear herself talk! Michelle was completely unfocused and had to ask Erin to repeat herself more than once. She was grateful when the meeting was over and she drove directly to Division.

She parked her car and went into her office.

"Good morning, Ms. Dessler," her secretary, Serena, said.

"Hi, Serena," she said without looking up.

"Mr. Buchanan stopped by a few minutes ago to see you. I told him that you would be back from CTU soon. Do you want me to let him know you're here?"

"No, I'll go back to his office. Thank you," Michelle replied.

She didn't even stop to put down her purse or her briefcase before heading off to Bill's office. His office was more secluded than hers and right now she wanted them to have some privacy. She had been able to keep her emotions in check up until now, but she was sure that when she had to say the word "pregnant" out loud that she was going to start crying. She made her way to Bill's office and said hello to his secretary.

"Is he busy?" she asked.

"He's on the phone with Mr. Cohen over at District, but I'm sure it's okay if you go in."

Michelle thanked her and opened the door to Bill's office.

"Ms. Dessler, could you do me a favor and tell Mr. Buchanan that I'm going to lunch. I'll be back around 12:30."

Michelle nodded and continued into the office. Bill looked up when he heard the door open. He smiled and beckoned her to come in and sit down. Michelle walked in but remained standing. She looked out the window as if the view suddenly interested her.

Bill finished up his call. "Hi Sweetheart!" he said as he kissed her. "I missed you."

Michelle pulled away and turned her back. "We need to talk," she said, her voice quivering.

"Michelle, what's wrong?" Bill asked suddenly concerned.

"I don't know how this happened," she said with tears now streaming down her face. "Bill, I'm pregnant."

"You are? That's wonderful, Michelle." He pulled her into his arms and held her. "Why are you crying? You're happy about this aren't you?"

"Happy? We've never talked about children. We're not even married."

"We can fix that. You know I've wanted to get married. Now you have no excuse, it's time for us to get married."

"I still can't figure out how this happened. We always use a condom."

"Sometimes they fail, Honey. Don't cry. Once you're over the initial shock I'm sure you'll be thrilled. Think about it, Michelle! We're having a baby!" he exclaimed. Bill had an enormous smile on his face.

Michelle was surprised by Bill's reaction. She knew that he would be happy about it, but she expected him to at least be surprised. He wasn't surprised at all. It was almost as if he expected her to tell him that she was pregnant. In her line of work, Michelle was constantly analyzing situations and, as a result, she was the same way in her everyday life. Something about this didn't add up.

"You aren't surprised about this are you?" she asked him pointedly.

"Of course I am. I'm as surprised as you are," he said as he turned and walked away from her. He was lying and she knew it.

It all started to become clear to her. They had gone on a wine tasting tour in the Napa Valley a couple of weeks ago. Bill had planned the trip and had repeatedly told her how romantic it would be. He even planned the trip around her period. He told her that he wanted her to enjoy a long weekend of good wine and good food and plenty of love. Now she understood. He wasn't keeping track of her periods just to work around them, he was calculating when she would be most fertile. On top of it all, she had so much wine on that trip that she was horny as hell and had no idea whether he used condoms or not. They had had sex so many times over the four day weekend that she was uncomfortable sitting on the plane on the way home. She suddenly remembered how odd she considered his comments from a year ago about not minding condoms. Of course he didn't mind them; he could choose when and if he was using them. Oh, it was all clear now.

Her voice became low and angry. "You planned this, didn't you? Look at me and tell me that you didn't plan this."

"Why would I have planned this?" Bill asked defensively.

"I didn't ask why you planned it. I asked if you planned it. Don't bother to deny it, I know you did. You son of a bitch! That trip to Napa, it was supposed to be a romantic weekend."

"It was a romantic weekend. Maybe I did forget to use a condom. We were drinking, Michelle, and as I recall you were pretty damn hot for me. I guess in our haste to make love, I forgot."

"We didn't 'make love', Bill, we mated! Animals do that! The male tracks down the female when she's in heat. Is that all I was that weekend, a bitch in heat? And I guess you were the alpha male who was responsible for survival of the species." Michelle shouted at him. "And, as I recall, you were never drunk. I was the one doing all of the drinking. You filled my glass every chance you got. You needed me to stay drunk so I didn't notice that you weren't using a condom."

"Keep you voice down!" he admonished her. Although the office was secluded he wanted to make sure that no one heard the argument.

"I will not!" she shouted back. "You Bastard! I can't believe you did this to me. You tricked me into getting pregnant so that I'd marry you."

"Michelle, marriage and a child aren't bad things. I thought you wanted them."

"At some point, maybe and on my terms. I didn't expect to be tricked into them." She stopped for a moment to get her breath. "How can I ever trust you again? I'll never know if you're telling me the truth or lying to get your way. You can't imagine how much I hate you right now." Michelle turned and began to walk out of the office.

"Where are you going?" he asked her.

"To get rid of your child!" she answered angrily. "I don't want it and I don't want you!"

She stepped quickly out of his office and nearly ran to a rear exit so that no one would see her. Bill moved quickly after her, but didn't run after her for fear of creating a scene. She was in her car before he could reach her. His first thought was to follow her, but he didn't have his keys. By the time he went back to his office and got them she would be long gone. He considered tracking her on satellite, but that type of software was available at CTU, not at Division. If he called CTU and asked for them to track someone, he would have to provide an explanation. He couldn't exactly tell them that they were tracking Michelle.

Bill pulled out his cell phone and called her. The phone rang several times but when she didn't answer the call went into her voice mail. Bill left a desperate message. "Michelle, Honey, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I understand that now. Please don't do anything that you're going to regret. Please just come back and we'll talk. I love you, Michelle."

Michelle knew when her phone rang that it was Bill. When she reached a stop light she found the phone in the bottom of her purse and turned it off. She continued driving toward an LA suburb. She knew exactly where she was going. She had passed the building hundreds of times and had wondered what kind of desperation would lead a woman to go there. Now she knew. Now she was that desperate woman.

She parked her car in the small parking lot and went inside. She stood silently just inside the door and looked around the room. She was standing in a waiting room filled with women. Some of them were sitting alone, others with women who could have been friends or mothers. Still others were with men. All of them looked uncomfortable and kept their eyes down.

Michelle hesitated and then walked to the receptionist desk. "Can I help you?" asked a pleasant middle aged woman that reminded Michelle of her mother.

"Yeah, I just found out that I'm pregnant and I need to have an abortion," she answered self consciously. It didn't seem so bad until she had to say it out loud.

The woman handed her a clipboard with several forms and a long questionnaire. "You'll need to fill this out. After that we'll do some blood work and then you'll see the doctor. If you still want to have an abortion at that point, you'll need to make an appointment for early next week. When you come in for that appointment you'll need to bring someone with you to drive you home."

"I don't want to wait that long," Michelle told her nervously.

"I'm sorry, that's the way we do it. This is a big decision and you need to have some time to think it through. Just have a seat and fill out the forms."

"How long until I can see the doctor?"

"I can't give you an exact time, but right now I would guess about an hour and a half."

Michelle thanked her and sat down to fill out the forms. As she did, she raised her eyes every once in a while to look at the women around her. A couple of them were very young, probably no more than 16 and were with women who she guessed were their mothers. Another looked totally strung out as did the man sitting with her. One girl who appeared to be college age sat alone and looked terrified. Michelle looked at the others and wondered what their stories were. She wondered what they were thinking about her.

She looked down again and tried to concentrate on the forms. It took her almost 40 minutes to get through all of them. She returned them to the desk and the receptionist directed her to the lab to have blood drawn. Once that was complete Michelle went back to the waiting room and sat down. A pile of old magazines were on the table next to her. She picked one up and leafed through it trying to kill some time. A few pages into it an advertisement featured a woman holding a baby. She quickly turned the page unable to look at it. Several pages later there was a picture of a baby playing with a puppy. It was a pretty baby with a little bit of soft hair and big blue eyes. She closed the magazine and picked up another. Similar pictures seemed to be all through it. It was as if they were following her, mocking her. She put that magazine down and just stared off into space.

"Ms. Dessler?" a voice called from the far end of the room.

Michelle stood quickly and walked toward her. "I'm Michelle Dessler," she told the woman.

"Follow me. The doctor is going to examine you and talk to you about the procedure."

Michelle was led into an examining room. She undressed and put on a paper gown and sat on the examining table waiting for the doctor.

It was about 15 minutes before a middle aged woman walked in the room. "Ms. Dessler," she said, "I'm Dr. Abrams."

Michelle shook hands with her and said hello. The situation didn't seem to warrant exchanging pleasantries or engaging in idle conversation.

Dr. Abrams looked over the papers Michelle had filled out. Then she looked up over her half-rimmed reading glasses. She was blunt and to the point. "You found out this morning that you're pregnant and you don't want to be. Is that correct?"

Michelle nodded. She made it all sound so simple.

"The blood work we did earlier confirmed that you are pregnant. Let me examine you and then we'll talk." Her tone seemed to soften a bit. "Lie down and put your feet in the stirrups."

Dr. Abrams examined her methodically, impersonally. Clearly she did this dozens of times each day and she couldn't afford to develop any emotional attachments to her patients. Michelle could feel tear filling her eyes.

"I'm sorry. Am I hurting you?" Dr. Abrams asked as a couple of tears made their way out of the corners of Michelle's eyes.

"No," Michelle said trying hard not to cry.

"I'm almost finished," the doctor said compassion filling her voice. "I know this is very upsetting. We'll talk in a few minutes."

Dr. Abrams finished and helped Michelle sit up. "Go ahead and get dressed," she said as she washed her hands, "and I'll meet you in my office. It's the last door on the left."

Michelle nodded. "Okay," she said just above a whisper. She felt like a child on her way to the principal's office. She waited until Dr. Abrams left then got dressed.

It seemed like she waited hours in Dr. Abrams office but in fact it was more like 20 minutes. Michelle checked her cell phone and found that she had four messages from Bill. She deleted all four without listening to them. She didn't care what he had to say.

Dr. Abrams walked into the office and closed the door behind her. She said nothing as she sat down behind her desk. She took off her glasses and looked hard at Michelle. "Ms. Dessler, you aren't my typical patient. You're older then most of my patients. You're well educated and you have a good job. You're healthy. You don't appear to have a substance abuse problem and I can't find any evidence that you are in a physically abusive relationship. Why do you want to have an abortion?"

"I didn't exactly plan this pregnancy," Michelle answered.

"Lot's of pregnancies aren't planned and the women still have the baby. Do you know who the father is?"

"Of course I do!" Michelle said defensively.

"Does he know about the baby?"

"Yes." She nodded.

"Is he in agreement with the abortion?"

Michelle looked away as she shook her head.

"Then why do you want it?" the doctor asked pointedly.

Michelle couldn't answer. Tears streamed down her face as she put her head in her hands. The doctor came around the desk and put her hand on Michelle's shoulder. "Michelle, this is a decision that will effect you forever. Take a few days and really think this over. Talk to the baby's father. If next week you can tell me that you've weighed the pros and cons and you still think it's the best thing to do, we'll schedule it.

Michelle nodded; she couldn't speak through her sobs.

"Sit here until you get yourself together," Dr. Abrams said as she handed Michelle a box of tissues. "Whatever decision you make, I hope everything works out for you."

The doctor left and closed the door. Michelle sat for a few minutes until she had calmed down, then she gathered up her purse and some pamphlets they had given her and made her way to her car. It was almost 5 o'clock and she wasn't quite sure what to do next. She couldn't go home and she couldn't go back to work. She could go to her parents' house, but then she would have to explain and she wasn't ready for that. After sitting in her car for a while she decided to take a drive and clear her head. Michelle started the engine and put the car in gear. It seemed to know where to go all by itself.

There was a quiet stretch of beach that she and Tony had discovered years ago. At one end was a crowded public beach but if you walked about a mile, the beach became rocky and wasn't good for swimming. Even the sand was coarse and hard on bare feet. She and Tony would climb on the rocks and talk about their future. She wondered what Tony was doing right now. She wondered if he was happy.

It was probably better that Michelle didn't know what Tony was doing at that moment because it would have upset her even more than she already was. It was a beautiful spring evening in Washington DC. The air was filled with the scent of the cherry blossoms in bloom along the banks of the Tidal Basin. By Saturday there would be hundreds of thousands of tourists who had flocked to the Capitol City to see the breathtaking sight.

Although he knew they were there, he barely noticed the cherry blossoms. He was too nervous. Tony and Abby had just had dinner at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Washington and were walking off dessert along the Tidal Basin.

"The trees are beautiful this year!" Abby exclaimed.

"They are," Tony agreed absently as they walked. He reached over and brushed away a pale pink petal that had fallen from a tree and landed on Abby's hair. "Come here," he said as he walked toward a bench. "Sit down."

"Why do you want to sit?" Abby asked.

"I want to ask you a question," he told her.

"We can walk and talk at the same time," she said with a smile.

"I want your undivided attention."

"Okay," she said as she sat down. "You have my undivided attention. Now what did you want to ask me?"

"I wanted to ask you what you thought of this," he said as he took a box from his pocket. He opened the box to reveal a diamond and ruby engagement ring.

"Oh, Tony! It's beautiful," she gasped.

"Abby, would you marry me?" he asked quietly.

"Oh, Tony!" she said again. "Oh! Yes, of course I'll marry you." Tony carefully placed the ring on Abby's finger. She stared at it for a moment almost in disbelief. Then she wrapped her arms around him and they kissed.

It was a bittersweet moment for Tony. He cared deeply for Abby and knew that she loved him with all of her heart. She would be a wonderful wife and maybe someday, a mother to his children. He knew that she would go out of her way to make him happy. And she did make him happy, but she could never replace Michelle in his heart.