Michelle skimmed over it and nodded. "Yeah."
"Okay. We should go then, or we'll be late."
She looked at her own watch. "God, you're right..." She stood up and looked around the room. "Have you seen my shoes?"
"Yeah, I kicked them under the bed so I wouldn't step on them and break those pencil-thin heels." Tony started gathering the papers off the table and filing them into his briefcase.
""Come on, you know you love 'em..." Michelle grinned and bent down to retrieve them. "Anyway, the heels are at least four times as thick as a pencil." She sat on the bed and began to put the shoes on.
Tony clicked the briefcase shut and came to sit next to her as she picked up the second shoe. He took it from her and held the heel up to scrutinize it. "Four pencil thicknesses, huh? Must be pretty thin pencils."
She took the shoe back with mock indignation. "Well, it's definitely more than one," she said, wrinkling her nose at him playfully, causing Tony to first chuckle affectionately and then pull her closer for a slow, tender kiss.
She smiled at him when they broke apart. She was feeling much more confident today and she could tell that he knew and was pleased.
Tony returned the smile and Michelle squeezed the hand she had unconsciously reached out for during their kiss. Tony traced along the back of her hand with his thumb, but then pulled away and stood up with a small sigh. "We really need to go."
Michelle nodded and quickly donned the second shoe and grabbed her jacket. While Tony checked that he had everything she looked through her purse and made sure that her gun was there and that it was fully loaded.
The she took Tony's arm and they left the hotel room.
--
"Can we stop by the house later and pick up some more clothes?" Michelle asked, trying to get a particularly large lettuce leaf to stay on her fork long enough to make its way to her mouth.
"Sure." Tony sipped at his coffee.
They were eating lunch in the CTU cafeteria; something which seemed to happen ninety-nine times out of a hundred when they were working because even the kinds of issues they dealt with on a daily basis somehow weren't things that anybody felt should be left waiting for too long. It was always loud and full of people and the food wasn't exactly haute cuisine, but it was the fastest way to eat and get back to work, and that usually seemed to be the overriding factor in any decisions they made involving lunch.
"You sure you don't mind staying at the hotel a little longer?"
"No, honey, we can stay as long as you want," Tony reassured her. Then he shrugged. "Well, or as long as our credit balance can take it," he said with a small grin, proceeding to take a large bite out of his sandwich.
About two seconds later his cellphone rang.
He rolled his eyes and chewed faster while he reached into his pocket. Having retrieved the phone, he looked at the number and then held the phone out to Michelle with a pleading look in his eyes, his jaws still working furiously.
Laughing a little at her husband's dilemma, Michelle took the phone from him. "Tony Almeida's phone," she answered.
"This is Lieutenant Martin, I'm calling about the incident at Mr. Almeida's house the night before last. May I speak with him?"
"Uh, Mr. Almeida's a little... indisposed right now," -- this earned her a playful poke in the leg from Tony's toe -- "But this is Michelle Dessler, his wife."
"Ms. Dessler, your attacker has regained consciousness but I'm afraid he's not being very cooperative. We have however now positively identified him as a Mr. Robert Murdock. We've sent Mr. Almeida the information, as he requested."
"That sounds great, thank you."
"We'll call if we get anything more useful."
"Alright. Thanks again."
"Have a nice day, Ms. Dessler." The police lieutenant hung up.
Michelle handed the phone back to Tony, who had by now swallowed his bite of sandwich and obviously decided not to take another one quite yet. "They've IDed the guy I shot," she told him. "All the info's been sent to you."
"That's good." Tony nodded. "Progress."
"Yeah." Michelle grinned and speared the last few pieces of lettuce onto her fork. "Now eat! Come on, big bites, hurry up..."
This earned her another poke in the leg from Tony, which quickly degenerated into playing footsie and her trying hard not to giggle.
--
Michelle's phone rang only a few minutes after she'd gotten back to her station.
"Dessler," she answered.
"Hey, it's me," said Tony. "You wanna come up to the office and see what Jack's found on this Murdock guy?"
"Sure. I'll be right there."
Michelle locked her station and hurried up the stairs to Tony's office, where she found him and Jack huddled over the computer. "What've we got?" she asked, closing the door and walking over to stand beside them.
"Robert Murdock," Jack said. "Arrested several times in connection with drug dealing, twice with murder but never convicted. Was often seen with one Vladimir Zuskin."
Michelle looked at the picture of a man who was unmistakably the one who had broken into their house talking with Zuskin, who had been arrested about a year ago for selling arms to terrorists.
"You want me to head down to the prison and talk to him?" Jack asked Tony.
Tony nodded. "Yeah, thanks."
"I'm going with you," Michelle said.
Tony looked at her. "I'm not sure that's--"
"Tony, I need to feel like I'm doing something to solve this. We're not busy, you can spare me for a while."
He looked at Jack, who nodded. "Alright," Tony relented. "But no hacksaws or anything, okay Jack?"
Michelle grinned as Jack nodded again.
"Deal," he said. "Let's go."