Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters related to 24.

Wow I'm absolutely floored by all the positive reviews! You guys are great! Thanks so much! Of course I appreciate any criticism as well…I was very concerned with getting the relationship between Tony and Michelle right so I'm glad that seems to have paid off, I was also worried about my portrayal of Jen, hopefully it seemed somewhat accurate…I'm kind of nervous about these next coming chapters. There's one scene at the beach where I'm trying to describe the place they're sitting…I don't think I did a very good job so forgive me for that one… Please let me know what you think and thanks again for reading!

Chapter Three

Tony awoke the next morning to the feeling of warm sun against his face. He didn't open his eyes, not wanting to get up. For a second he forgot where he was and his first thought was to go get a beer from the fridge. He felt a warm body pressed tightly against him, fingers linked through his and was confused as to why Jen was curled up against him like that. This wasn't Jen; Jen didn't sleep like that, of everyone he'd ever slept with only Michelle liked to nuzzle up against so closely and wouldn't move once she had. It was then that reality hit him. This was Michelle! He was with Michelle. Euphoria set in and Tony was suddenly wide awake. He quickly opened his eyes and broke into a huge grin when he saw Michelle's head on his chest. He began running his fingers through her hair gently and slipped his hand underneath her shirt and began stroking her back. He remembered the countless hours he could spend doing this; just watching Michelle sleep.

Michelle shifted slightly and Tony decided he'd leave before he woke her up. He knew if it was anything like before, she wouldn't mind in the least, but she needed to sleep as much as she could. He slipped out of bed and tiptoed across the bathroom to hop in the shower. He slipped in, letting the almost too hot water drench him from head to toe. He groaned slightly, still sore from the previous days events. A little while later a small, tentative knock at the bathroom door made him jump. It was followed by the sound of someone moving across the tiles and he saw Michelle's shadow reflected on the shower curtain. He poked his head out the side.

"Hey honey I'm almost done in here…" He didn't know what else to say. This time last year Michelle would've grinned mischievously at this, stripped down to nothing and pushed him back in the shower laughing at the shocked expression he feigned for her every time she did this. But today was a different story, today they were just getting used to each other again.

Michelle was running the same thoughts through her head, while trying to read Tony's face. She knew what she wanted to do, but he seemed unsure. She decided to go with the safer action and simply smiled and told him to take his time.

Michelle had barely retreated into the bedroom when she heard the water turn off and turned around in time to see Tony emerge in a towel followed by a hoard of steam billowing out of the bathroom. She wordlessly went to her closet and pulled out a few more of Tony's articles of clothing from the very back. She had been keeping them all in a box, out of sight but not out of mind.

"My turn." She said with a smirk and smacked the side of his arm gently. "You better not have used up all the hot water."

Once the shower had started up again and Tony had changed into sweats and a t-shirt he decided he would surprise Michelle with breakfast for when she came out. He went into the kitchen and raided her cupboards for a toaster, and a couple of frying pans. He then pulled out eggs, cheese, oil, butter, bread, and some coffee and got to work on making a Michelle's favourite omelet.

He heard the water turn off just as he was pouring the mixture into the pan. Michelle was out of the shower and had changed into a fitted pink t-shirt and some grey sweat pants, just in time to see Tony slide their omelets onto plates and place them on the counter between a stack of already buttered toast. She grinned widely. She hadn't really expected him to forget all these little things she liked or obsessed over, but there'd been this nagging feeling in the back of her head that told her he might've repressed a few of these memories when she left him, she couldn't help but feel a little relieved when she saw he was the same as always.

Michelle had already crossed the kitchen and was about to slip her arms around his waist before Tony noticed her. He spun around just in time to pull her into a full embrace and kissed her firmly on the lips. She hadn't been expecting this response and gasped slightly into his mouth before sinking into the kiss. He ran his hand through her still-wet hair and wrapped a silky, freshly conditioned curl around his finger. Her hair was curly again, soon they would be eating breakfast together like they used too; Tony felt like he really did have Michelle back.

Finally he broke their kiss.

"Breakfast is gonna get cold." He whispered, resting his forehead against hers.

"Okay." she sighed contentedly.

She sat down and began to dig into her food, savoring each bite. It felt like it'd been forever since she had one of Tony's omelets. They ate in a comfortable silence for a while, stealing an occasional glance at the other person in hopes that they would get caught by them, but not look like they were trying to get caught. A couple of times they did which caused the pair to grin stupidly and go back to their breakfast. When they'd finished Tony moved to clear their plates away. Michelle started to help him load the dishwasher.

"So what would you like to do? We've actually got all day to ourselves…" She closed the dishwasher as she said this and moved to put the eggs back in the fridge.

"Well I had an idea, if you have no objections?" Tony nudged her playfully in the side.

She pretended to consider his proposal, "What did you have in mind?"

"See now that would be the surprise."

"I hate surprises." She pouted.

"No you don't, you love them…" This caused Michelle to burst out laughing.

"Only the good kind." She defended.

"I promise this is the good kind. This is the good kind that will help you relax."

"Okay, when will this surprise be taking place then?"

"Now. Or well, in about twenty minutes if you want to dry your hair before we go. It doesn't really matter though…"

Michelle was getting excited now. She wondered what he'd come up with so suddenly. She didn't want to wait any longer.

"I'll just throw it back in a clip." She ran into the bedroom almost carelessly, trying to contain her giddiness.

She walked back with a pair of sunglasses on her head and swinging her purse from side to side hoping Tony wasn't going to make her wait any longer. As if anticipating this, Tony was already standing at the front door jingling the keys restlessly in his hand. He reached out for Michelle and she laced her fingers through his as he pulled her into the hall, closing the door behind them.

Once they had started driving Michelle flipped down her sunglasses and began to scrutinize the scenery, looking for any clue as to where they were going. She got a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach that made her suspect she'd known from the moment Tony had told her it was a surprise, but that still didn't make her any less excited.

Her instincts were proven correct. Tony pulled into the parking lot on a small, flat cliff adjacent to the beach with an awkward grin on his face. It wasn't exactly an amazing surprise; Michelle had, after all, figured it out. But when she pushed back her sunglasses he knew the look on her face couldn't have been better. He pulled into a spot on the far secluded side of the parking lot that started to wrap around the cliff. He turned off the car and looked at Michelle. Her grin spread from ear to ear. They got out of the car and he took her hand as they - very ungracefully - climbed down the cliff and stepped onto the soft sand. Michelle kicked off her shoes and socks, Tony followed suit.

Tony reached out and grabbed Michelle's hand as they walked along the beach together. It was a nice, breezy morning, not too hot yet. No one else was really around, at least not on this secluded area of the beach. Michelle knew that was part of the plan and couldn't help but smile at this. They only times they'd ever come to this beach was early in the morning or late at night, whenever they could be guaranteed the most amount of privacy. After a few more minutes of walking they found the small cove they knew so well and Tony climbed up the side of it, to a flat rock jutting out from nothing in particular. He pulled Michelle up after him and they sat there in silence, listening to the waves lap gently against the rocks, staring out over the ocean. It had always been a calm, serene escape from their hectic lives. Today was no exception. Michelle leaned her head against Tony's shoulder, and he in turn rested his head on top of hers, drawing her in closely.

It was Tony who finally broke the silence.

"Um…Michelle…do we need to um…talk?"

Michelle lifted her head off his shoulder and turned to look at him. "What about?" She questioned, although she knew the answer.

"Well last time we were together, it didn't exactly end well…"

"You're not kidding…" Michelle said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Do you not think that might take some resolution before we can make this work?"

"Well, I'm pretty sure we both know how to fix our part of the problem…"

"Michelle…" he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. Then he spoke gently "I'm so sorry…for everything, for pushing you away, for drinking, for…whatever I did that made you leave me."

"I know you are, and I know you know what you have to do now…but Tony, you weren't the only reason I left."

The surprise showed on Tony's face, so she continued.

"I left because of me…because I felt like it was my fault."

"Michelle you didn't do anything wrong!" he almost yelled incredulously.

"You committed treason, got sent to prison, went through hell, got pardoned but had lost everything, started drinking…the thing is everything that caused you all those problems was my fault. I watched you change when you came home from prison to someone I couldn't even recognize you and I felt like that was my fault…like it was my fault you'd lost everything, and even though you swore to me that you didn't regret doing what you did, I felt guilty for making you suffer so much on my account…that's the only reason you started drinking in the first place! I couldn't get past the fact that if you'd just…" Michelle let out a small sob. "I'm sorry…I…" Tony pressed a finger to her lips to silence her.

"Listen to me Michelle." He said seriously. "You did nothing wrong. Yes I lost my job, 6 months of freedom, a little bit of self-respect, but nothing I went through justified what I did to you. Y'hear me? Nothing." He wiped a tear from her cheek. "I kept thinking about everything I'd lost, not what I still had, and that was all I needed, or it should've been…I lost sight of that…but never in the past year have I ever for one second regretted the decision I made…I swear…"

Michelle found her voice again. "And now after all that I didn't even do the same thing for you…"

Tony silenced her this time by kissing her hard on the lips. "I told you already, it's over. You made the right choice…"

Michelle nodded through the tears. "Okay."

She leaned in and kissed him with all the strength she could muster, as if testing to see if he was real. Satisfied she began to relax and let Tony push her back against the rock where they continued their kiss. His lips wandered and he soon found the crook of her neck and began to plant light feathery kisses all over the spot. He then moved his lips to her ear and began to blow air into it. This action caused Michelle to shriek loudly and sit upright once again. She began to laugh. That had always been her ticklish spot. Tony moved to sit beside her and advanced on her ear again. She jumped up but there was no where to go. Tony grabbed her side and tickled her until she was lying down. Then, pinning her hands over her head against the rock with one arm, Tony used his free hand to tickle her until she was laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

"Tony!" She squealed through the laughter. "Stop! Please! You're…" she began laughing again. This caused Tony to laugh and after one final tickle to her side, he released her arms and lay down beside her.

"You know honey," he began teasingly. "You're really not as tough as you look. You'd be easy enough to torture if a person just knew your weakness…"

"You're just as bad as me." Michelle teased as she rolled over onto her side so they were facing each other. Tony kissed the tip of her nose lightly, then her cheeks, her forehead and finally her lips. He went to pull away to tease her some more but Michelle it seemed, was done playing games. She reached up and grabbed the front of his t-shirt pulling him back towards her. She kissed him again, laying down once more, pulling him with her. Tony parted her lips with his tongue and Michelle received it, savoring the moment. She moaned softly into his mouth, unaware she'd done so. Tony rang his fingers up the side of her t-shirt feeling her cool skin against his warm hands. He broke the kiss and made his was down to her collarbone sucking, licking, kissing, which caused Michelle to moan a little more loudly this time. After a few more minutes of this Tony sat up and pulled Michelle with him.

"We'd better go; everyone's starting to show up now."

Michelle glanced down the other end of the beach and saw he was right. The kissed softly one final time and then made their way back down to the beach. No longer sheltered from view of everyone, they settled for walking back to the car with their arms each other. Anything else would have to wait. Tony unlocked the car as Michelle grabbed the shoes they'd left beside it. Soon they were back at Michelle's apartment, completely content in the fact that the other person was there with them.