Michelle awoke to find Tony kissing her forehead. She blinked slowly. "Hmm?" she said, looking up at him as he pulled back slightly.
He smiled when he saw that she was awake. "Hey. Look, uh, it's time for work. You feel up to going in?"
She burrowed deeper into the covers again and squeezed her eyes shut. "I guess."
"Sure?"
"Yeah," she said, nodding into the pillow. "'S gotta be better than sitting around all day trying not to think about what happened."
"Alright." He reached out and tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "You're gonna have to get out of bed, then..."
"Mmm."
She heard him chuckle. "I'll get them to send some breakfast up."
The sheets rustled as he leaned over to pick up the phone on the nightstand the other side of the bed. Michelle stretched, sighed, slowly climbed out of the bed and went in search of the shower.
Tony appeared in the doorway just as she was testing the water in the large shower cubicle. "Room for me?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at her hopefully through the glass.
"Sure." She adjusted the water temperature as he undressed and made room for him when he slid the door open and stepped in next to her. "Soap?"
"Gimme." He took the small bar of soap from her and held it under the shower head to get it wet. "Turn around," he said, gently pulling at her shoulder so that she had her back to him.
Michelle sighed and began to relax as Tony rubbed the soap into the back of her neck and down across her shoulder blades, even as she herself washed her arms and legs. They then swapped positions and she did the same for him, taking care to knead the soap in thoroughly just in case there were any remnants of blood left on him from last night, though she didn't tell him that.
She finished scrubbing his lower back and he turned to face her.
"You gonna shampoo your hair?"
She shook her head. "Not today."
He nodded and looked at her, sensing that there was something she wanted to say.
"Tony... whoever it is who wanted us killed... do you think they will try again?"
He exhaled quietly and stepped forward to take her in his arms. "I dunno, sweetheart. We can't rule it out. But whatever happens, I'm not gonna let anyone hurt you, alright?"
She sighed, touched by his words, but still... "What about you?" she asked.
"I'll be fine."
"Promise?"
"Promise. As long as I have you watching my back, I'm not too worried about me."
"Alright." Michelle managed a smile, her worries suppressed for now. She nodded. "Let's go to work."
-- --
It was one of the quieter days at CTU.
Michelle wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not. On the one hand, it meant that she didn't have to deal with a national crisis whilst still trying to mentally process the events of the last twelve hours.
On the other, it meant that work wasn't quite the distraction she had hoped for.
She sat at her station, staring at the computer screen and rubbing her temples, mentally bemoaning her lack of sleep and starting to regret the decision to come in today. Reports like the one she was supposed to be reading now were a chore to get through at the best of times, and now she found herself becoming distracted from it by the tiniest change in the room around her; every time a phone rang or somebody walked past her desk her fragile concentration would break and it would take her several minutes to regain it.
And then of course all hopes of any of her thoughts being about working for at least the next ten minutes were shot all to hell when Tony came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.
"Hey," he said softly, and when he gently rubbed the muscles in her neck she realized just how tense she still was.
"Tony, not here..." she said with a small smile, though she hoped he would ignore her protests.
In response he massaged her neck more thoroughly, and she closed her eyes for a second in relief. "Y'know what," he said, "Considering what happened last night I don't think anyone will mind..."
"Does everybody know?" she asked, reaching up to clasp one of his hands in hers.
"Not everybody, but I actually have a few people working on it seeing as we're not exactly swamped in work today."
"Are you sure you should be doing that?" She allowed herself a small grin. "Isn't that infringing on LAPD's territory?"
"Maybe, but it's nothing major. I'm just having a coupla lists compiled of people we've worked against who might be holding a grudge."
"Didn't you say yesterday that we had too many enemies to count?"
"Yeah, there is that. This might not be easy to figure out. But I called the lieutenant we spoke with yesterday and she says the guy who attacked us will probably live, so they're gonna be questioning him as soon as they can."
"Well, that's good."
"Yeah. Don't worry, we're gonna find out who's behind this."
Michelle smiled and squeezed his hand a little tighter. "I know."
--
"You weren't kidding when you said these were long."
Tony and Michelle were sat on the bed in their hotel room, going through the lists of potential suspects Tony had had worked up earlier, trying to narrow them down before they tried to get some sleep.
"Come on, you were done with yours ages ago..." Tony teased.
"Only because I haven't pissed off as many people as you have!" she retorted.
"Well, be that as it may, I think I'm about..." -- he wrote a final comment on the sheet of paper he was holding -- "Done." Putting the piece of paper on top of a pile of similar ones, he scooted over to look over Michelle's shoulder. "How's it going?"
"Not bad." She scrawled a comment next to one of the names on the list of their common enemies. "I just get to write 'jail' next to most of them. Y'know, we're pretty good at our jobs!"
"Toby Mulligan," Tony said, reading the next name on the list.
"Jail," Michelle said, writing it down.
"Gordon Munch."
"Jail. Death row."
Tony paused. "Nina Myers."
"Africa," Michelle said emphatically. She spelled it out in capital letters.
Tony was quiet for a moment. She could feel him looking at her, but she wasn't quite sure if she dared to look back.
He snapped himself out of it and read on. "Sandro Naccarato," he said, and Michelle moved her hand down past Nina's name.
It took them almost half an hour to reach the end of the list.
"Marie Warner."
"Jail."
"Dawai Yan."
"Missing, presumed dead."
"Vladimir Zuskin."
"Jail, but there's a pretty big network of people who could still be working for him."
"Alright, put a cross next to him as well..."
Michelle did as he said, indicating that Zuskin was a higher-probability candidate. She looked up at Tony. "So are we done for the day?"
He took the paper and pen from her, kissed her briefly on the neck and began clearing things off the bed. "Yeah. Tomorrow we'll go through them again and try and come up with a shortlist, okay?"
"Okay." Michelle climbed under the covers, feeling fatigue already trying to take her over. Then when Tony turned out the light and got in beside her, enveloping her in the calming heat of his arms, she found herself half asleep even as she moved closer and murmured a goodnight.
"'Night sweetheart. Sweet dreams," came his reply, and she let the warm darkness claim her.