Michelle looked away and resisted the urge to scratch her shoulder; the tape that was strapped to it was beginning to irritate her.
It felt strange to be pulling into the hotel parking lot in the middle of the day. The thought of all those free afternoon hours still ahead of them made Michelle wonder again what exactly they could possibly do now. There was no way she was going to be able to relax, but she was at a loss as to what she could do to help their situation now that she no longer had any of CTU's facilities at her disposal.
Tony locked the car and led the way through the heat and sunshine of the parking lot into the hotel, then upstairs to their room. Michelle followed in silence.
Once back in their room, Michelle sat on the bed and watched as Tony took his jacket off, threw it down next to her and began pacing the room. She let him walk from one side to the other a couple of times before she said what they were both thinking:
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know," Tony said angrily, glaring at the wall and stomping towards it so fast Michelle was afraid he might walk right into it.
She sighed, kicking off her shoes and lying back on the bed. She stared at a faded stain on the otherwise white ceiling and listened to the sound of Tony's pacing. "Come lie next to me," she said finally, after a long minute filled with nothing but angry footsteps.
"What for?" Michelle could hear the longing to kick and pummel something in the tension of his voice.
"Because otherwise you're going to explode." She held out a hand. "Come on."
She heard the pacing stop, and the sound of Tony scratching his neck. A few moments later she felt his warm fingers clasp her outstretched hand, and the mattress creaked slightly as he lay down beside her. Some seconds passed as Tony exhaled slowly. He inched closer to her. "What are you looking at?"
"That stain." She nodded her head at the ceiling. "Do you think it's tea or coffee?"
"Neither." She felt his head shift as he scrutinized the mark in question. "I think it's hot chocolate."
"Not a chocolate sauce incident gone awry, then?" Michelle grinned.
"Like the kind of chocolate sauce incident we had last Tuesday?"
"Something like that."
Tony paused. "Nah," he decided.
Michelle smiled and rolled onto her side to face him. "Okay," she said. "Now we've calmed down, we need to figure out what we're gonna do."
Tony sighed, but nodded. "Alright," he said. "It probably won't help, but we could try looking Rees up on the internet."
"Good idea. It might turn up something, you never now."
"Uh-huh. Any ideas of your own?"
"We could go back to that house Jack found, see if anything's salvageable."
"And possibly get blown up."
"Yeah, there is that." Michelle nodded. "So, internet first might be good."
"Right." Tony slowly climbed off the bed and stood up before pulling Michelle to her feet. "Where's my laptop?"
"Under the bed by your nightstand."
While Tony released his grip on her to retrieve the computer she walked over to the small table to clear a space for it.
She furrowed her brow as something caught her eye. Next to the small vase of plastic flowers there was a polaroid photograph.
She reached out to pick it up and take a closer look. "Tony..." she said, with a growing sense of unease.
The photograph showed a charred building with half its roof burned off and a good portion of its side missing. Michelle turned it over as Tony came up behind her. Scrawled on the back of the polaroid were two words:
Nice try
"He knows we're here," said Tony.
"More than that..." Michelle turned to face him, and saw the worry she felt burning in her chest reflected in his eyes. "He's been in here. Or at least someone working for him has."
She watched the implications of this play across Tony's face. "We've gotta get out of here," he said.
Michelle couldn't agree more.
-- --
It took them less than thirty minutes to pack all their things, check out of the hotel and bundle everything into the trunk of their car, after which they made their way to the police station to speak with Lieutenant Martin.
"I'm not gonna lie to you," the Lieutenant said, looking at them earnetstly across the table. "This is not good." She gestured with the polaroid she held in her latex glove, glancing at it yet again and shaking her head. "Frankly I'd feel better if the two of you moved into a safehouse."
Tony shook his head. "I know from experience that safehouses aren't always as safe as they're supposed to be. As determined as these guys are, I don't think a safehouse would stop them."
Michelle nodded in silent agreement, unconsciously squeezing Tony's hand where it lay on her knee underneath the table. They had talked about the possibility of a safehouse on the drive to the station, and had agreed that it wouldn't make either of them feel paticularly secure. Better to get out of town, somewhere out-of-the-way, and to move around every couple of days.
Lieutenant Martin sighed. "Well, that's your call. We can dust this for prints..." She waved the photograph again. "But considering our luck so far, I wouldn't pin any hopes on it."
"Alright." Tony nodded and got to his feet.
"Thank you," said Michelle, following suit.
"Don't thank me yet," said the Lieutenant, smiling grimly. "I'll call if we turn up anything. In the meantime, try not to get yourselves killed!"
Despite herself, Michelle grinned. "We'll do our best."
-- --
Eventually Tony and Michelle ended up in a motel in a small town a couple of hundred miles outside LA, having been driving well into the evening. Tony unlocked the door to their room, and for the second time that day Michelle kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto a strange bed.
This time, however, Tony didn't hesitate to join her.
After pulling off his own shoes, he propped himself up on an elbow next to where she was lying sprawled on her back with her eyes closed. He reached out and gently brushed the hair from her forehead, causing her to smile.
"Listen, sweetheart..." He stroked her cheek. "I"m really sorry about all this."
Michelle opened her eyes and looked at him. "Tony, it's not your fault."
"I'm not saying it is, but... it's because of me that you're involved."
"Don't be silly." Michelle lifted herself to a sitting position. "I'm involved because I'm your wife... and there is nothing I would rather be."
"Michelle..." Tony struggled to sit up.
"Shh." She kissed him lightly on the lips and lay back down, letting her eyes fall shut again.
A moment later she felt Tony press a kiss to her cheekbone. "Y'know," he said, "With everything that's been going on I don't think it's really sunk in for me yet that we're actually... married."
"I know what you mean." Michelle smiled. "But we are actually married."
Tony kissed her again. "I think that needs celebrating."
"Again?" She grinned.
"Again."
Michelle giggled.
For the second time that day, she couldn't agree with Tony more.