Tony stepped forward and threw his keys on the table by the door. "You wanna head on upstairs while I clean that up?" he asked, nodding in the direction of the broken vase on the floor.
Michelle nodded silently and made her way past him and up the stairs, which creaked ever so slightly. She didn't remember ever noticing that before.
After fumbling in the dark for a moment for the light switch, Michelle entered the bedroom.
The sheets on the bed were still in disarray from just before the rude interruption which had started this whole mess; some of her clothes were even still lying on the floor. Picking up the pants of the suit she had been wearing that night, Michelle sat on the bed with a sigh and began to fold them. She wondered whether to pack this suit; it was one of her favorites, plain black with a nice cut... but it was also dirty, and she really didn't feel like doing laundry right now. Reluctantly, she put the folded pants at the end of the bed and stood up. Pulling a small suitcase from under the bed, she began to look through her closet.
She had picked out a bunch of clean underwear, two clean suits and a couple of jeans/T-shirt combos when she heard Tony come in behind her.
"Hey, can we take this with us?" he asked.
Michelle turned around to see him looking at her with large, innocently hopeful eyes and holding up a midnight blue negligee.
"Where did you find that!" she asked incredulously. She had meant to take it on their honeymoon but had been unable to find it despite searching for a good twenty minutes.
"Under the couch." Tony grinned and sat down on the bed. "I wonder what it was doing there..."
"I have a pretty good idea." Michelle took it from his outstretched hand and dropped it in the suitcase. "Any other requests?" she asked, smiling and shaking her head.
"Hmm." Tony stood up and came over to stand beside her. "Let me examine the underwear drawer..." He reached inside and pulled out a lacy red bra. "Yeah, we'll have this..." He threw it in the suitcase. "And this... and definitely this..."
"Aren't you gonna pack any of your clothes?" Michelle said wryly, suppressing a giggle.
"These are mine," he said, holding up a pair of panties and grinning.
Michelle snatched them out of his hands and pulled him towards her for a kiss. "As long as you don't try to wear them," she said, and snapped the suitcase shut with a smile.
-- --
Michelle dropped her suitcase on the back seat next to the bag of clothes Tony had hastily thrown together and slammed the car door shut. Leaning against it, she watched Tony lock up the house, barely able to see him in the darkness. Not even the porch light was on.
She had been half tempted to just say "screw this" and crawl under the nice, familiar covers of their bed; she was sure she would have fallen asleep instantly. But the niggling traces of fear in her stomach were still making her feel more than a little uneasy, so she hadn't said anything to Tony.
There was also that fact that Tom Rees looked so familiar, and she had no idea why. She supposed Tony's explanation of her having read about his arrest was a possibility, but she didn't remember ever having heard or seen his name before. The name Tom Rees somehow seemed too... average for the feeling she had gotten when she had seen his picture. She couldn't explain it.
It was pretty unsettling, really.
Tony had somehow appeared by her side without her noticing.
"You okay?" he asked, furrowing his brow. She imagined that she must be doing the same, which had probably prompted the question.
"Yeah." She smiled. "Shall we go?"
Tony nodded, and contemplated her a moment longer before opening the door for her. Climbing into the car, Michelle did her best to appear as carefree as possible. She didn't want to bother Tony with what was probably just her mind playing tricks on her.
Tony started the car and drove it smoothly out of the driveway and into the quiet street. The few cars on the road and the occasional people walking their dogs were a far cry from the crowds of the other night who had appeared when the ambulance arrived. Hopefully this kind of calm would be the norm when they had sorted out the mess they had suddenly found themselves in. As far as Michelle was concerned, she got enough drama at work. Home was supposed to be her escape from that.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the loud crash of breaking glass. She looked up at the windshield, her beleaguered mind taking a moment to understand the meaning of the hole which had suddenly appeared in the window. "Are we being shot at?" she said disbelievingly.
Tony didn't respond. Instead, he reached out and pulled her down so that her head was in his lap. "Hold on..." he said grimly, and Michelle saw him slam his foot down, causing the car to accelerate before Tony made a sharp left turn which caused Michelle's heart to race more than the actual bullets had.
The car swerved again and Michelle gripped at Tony's legs, trying to suppress the instinct to panic.
This situation was Not Good.
Another bullet shattered more of the windshield and she felt Tony duck, then struggle to regain control of the car.
"Michelle..." Their eyes locked briefly. "Take my gun, see if you can't take out their tires."
"Okay." Michelle moved so she could get the gun out of his holster, then cautiously pulled herself up and took aim out of the now nonexistent back window.
The car behind them swerved at her first couple of shots, but she could tell she hadn't hit anything vital. Trying not to think about the fact that she had never fired a gun at or out of a moving vehicle before, let alone both at once, Michelle narrowed her eyes and readjusted her position before trying again.
This time she was fairly certain the bullet had grazed one of the front tires.
She suddenly felt a burning sensation in her shoulder and cried out involuntarily. Crouching back down behind the seat, she quickly examined the damage.
"Michelle?" Tony asked, the tension evident in his voice despite keeping his eyes completely focussed on the road.
"I'm fine," she said quickly, removing her fingers from the hole in the fabric of her jacket and turning around to start shooting again. "It's just a graze!" she cried, as her first shot again completely failed to hit anything.
Her second shot didn't hit where she had intended either, but that was okay because it killed the driver instead.
Feeling a sudden rush of adrenaline at this, Michelle finally managed to put bullets in not one but both front tires.
"We're okay," she gasped, falling back into her seat. She wasn't quite sure when she had started breathing so fast, or when her heart had started trying to escape from her chest, but she had done it.
"Woah," Tony said, staring at the rearview mirror.
Michelle grinned.
-- --
Tony insisted that Michelle should see a doctor about her shoulder, so they drove to the nearest hospital. While she waited for treatment, Tony went outside to call the police and tell them what had happened.
For some reason, he took a lot longer than she had expected. The nurse had already come and gone, and Michelle was actually feeling pretty worried by the time he returned.
"Where were you?" she exclaimed when he finally reappeared.
"I found something out," he said, stepping closer to the bed she was sitting on and lowering his voice. "Robert Murdock is in this hospital."
Michelle blinked. "What?" was all she could think of to say.
"I saw them wheeling him out of X-Ray, so I followed to see where they were taking him. There's only one guard outside his door; if I show him my ID he'll probably let me in."
"I'm coming too," Michelle said immediately, jumping off the bed.
"Michelle, you're standing there in your underwear."
She grabbed her jacket from the bag it had been stored in and quickly did up the buttons to cover the fact that she was only wearing her bra underneath, and arched her eyebrows.
Tony couldn't help but laugh at this. "Alright, let's go."
He led her down the corridor to the elevator. Moments later, they were stepping out of it again, striding purposefully toward a very bored looking police officer at the end of the hallway.
Tony and Michelle held up their badges simultaneously. "We need to see the prisoner," he said in his no-nonsense voice.
The officer looked like he might be about to argue, but the expressions on their faces obviously changed his mind. "Sure," he said instead, gesturing at the door next to himself.
They expressed their thanks and went in.
Murdock was surrounded by countless machines controlling or monitoring his well-being. He was horribly pale. And yet, when he saw them, he began to laugh.
"Robert Murdock?" Tony asked.
"That's me!" Murdock grinned.
"We were wondering if you could tell us why you tried to kill us," Michelle said pointedly.
At this Murdock laughed again. "You have no idea what's going on, do you?" A high-pitched giggle emerged from his lips, and he continued in a whisper, so that Tony and Michelle had to step closer to hear; "My job wasn't to kill you." He glanced at the hole in the shoulder of Michelle's jacket. "Those bullets you've been dodging aren't meant to kill you. This is just the warm-up. Something to get your blood pumping before he really comes after you."
"Before who comes after us?" Michelle demanded.
But Murdock simply smiled.
Author's Note: I must at this point pimp a new LJ community: 24femmeslash
Thanks for all the reviews as well. I love you guys :)