second part of the prequel

and since this was a roleplay (therefore, only limited editing possible):

Michelle: neromaguire; Tony, Hammond: MFLuder, Jack: JackAddict


The Almeida Residence

A few months have passed since Tony's release from prison. He has attempted to continue life as normally as possible, but Michelle can already sense from his behavior that everything isn't right.
He hasn't started to look for a job yet, still adjusting.

The stars are shining and Tony is standing in the doorway that leads to the balcony, just taking it all in.
Michelle watches from the kitchen table, she sees Tony standing in the door way, a bottle of beer in his hands. She shakes her head. It had been like this since he had gotten back, she had to say something to Tony, had to get him to come back to reality, had to get him to start living again. She slides away from the table moving silently behind him, She raises her hands ever so slightly and places them onto his shoulders, "Tony?" she whispers softly into his ear.

He jerks abruptly from her touch and lets out a small surprised gasp: "Oh God, please don't sneak up on me like that."

She begins to lower her hands then stops sliding them around the top of his chest and pulling him into a tight hug, she can feel his heart racing underneath her hands, "Sorry," She whispers softly kissing his cheek, she can smell the alcohol that hangs in the air, she closes her eyes tightly, "Are you ok?" She brings herself to ask without pulling away.

"I'm fine Michelle. Anyway, how was your day at the office?" he asks, changing the subject and carefully moving away from her embrace.

She sighs softly to herself. She knows he wants to stay away from that subject but it was hurting them, they would have to confront it some time. "You know the usual, loud noise, ringing phones, lots of reading."

"Yeah I know", Tony says quietly. "Do you always put in such long days in the office? It's after 11 now and you came home after nine." It seems that he's almost forgotten the long hours they both used to put in. His life had been controlled for months by the meticulous schedule that everyone at the prison followed.

The phone rings.

Tony: "You mind answering that?"

"Almeida residence," Michelle says as she answers the phone. She nods, "Yeah I'll just get him." Michelle carries the phone over to Tony, "It's for you hon," She says handing him the phone.

Jack waits until he hears the phone is handed over. "Tony? It's Jack. Just wanted to see how you're doing."

Tony: "Hey Jack, I'm ok. You never really told me how you got Palmer to pardon me." Tony adds quickly, not wanting to go any deeper into discussing his emotional state.

"What does it matter? You're out, that's all that counts."

Tony sighs "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Are you in DC now?"

"Yeah. But I'm coming to L.A. later this week. Tony, I'd like to see you."

"Sure, not like I have more pressing matters to attend to.", he says with a slight self-depriving laugh in his voice. "You know where to reach me. Anyway, it's getting late, let me know when you get here and we'll talk more then, OK? "

"Okay. Tony, hang in there, alright?"

"I will. Later Jack."

"Okay, bye." Jack hangs up.

She takes the phone from Tony and stares at it, going through what she knows she has to say but doesn't want to because it will hurt him. She looks up into his eyes. "You can't keep doing this Tony, pushing people away."

"I'm not pushing anyone away. Just leave it, alright!", Tony says defensively.

"You may think what you're doing isn't hurting anyone Tony, but it is," Michelle pauses, the desperation sounding in her voice, "It's hurting me... It's hurting us." She closes her eyes raising a hand to her eyes, trying to hold back the tears that she can already feel coming.

Tony sees the hurt in her eyes and pulls her into his arms: "I'm sorry I snapped at you sweetheart. I didn't mean to hurt you. I just need time to sort this out for myself."
Michelle nods; she knows in her heart that it's going to take some time. "I know... It's just I want the old you back, and I know it's gonna take some time, and I'm here for you the whole way." She accepts the embrace her head gently resting on his muscular shoulder.

He gently tucks one of her wayward curls behind her ear. "Come on, let's get some sleep."

As Tony and Michelle go to sleep, the nightmares start. Memories of fights with other inmates and solitary confinement come back to Tony's dreams. He tries to fight the other inmates off but they always get to him and after that the guards attack him. He wakes up with a shout, covered in sweat, gasping for air.

Michelle awakens from her sleep at the shout. She sits up quickly, looking at Tony. She sees his face, sees his body rigid with fear of past memories. It was the dreams, the nightmares. She wraps her arms around him. "Shhh, it's ok," She whispers soothingly into his ears. "It's ok, you're not there anymore Tony, you're back with the people that love you." She pulled him back down onto his back, caressing him tenderly. "It's ok."

But it wasn't ok...not by a long shot...

Gradually Tony calmed down with Michelle's gentle touches and fell back asleep. It was restless, but he did not wake up again during that night. As he woke up in the morning, it was a little before six and Michelle was still asleep. He went to the kitchen and made some coffee all the while thinking about what had happened during the night: This has to stop.

Tony goes to the bedroom and wakes Michelle up with a cup of coffee: "Honey, wake up. Come on, wake up, it's almost seven in the morning."

Michelle lay silently on the bed, her eyes slowly opening as Tony whispers her name. Her sleepy gaze settles on the fine features of her husband. She accepts the coffee and takes a long draught from it. "Thanks," She whispered gratefully "But," She began sliding from the bed. "I decided to stay home with you for the day, I'm sure they can manage at work without me for one day."

"You sure about that? Won't Hammond question this? We both know he hates me as it is." He says the last sentence without being able to hide the contempt and irony in his voice.

Michelle notices this; she shakes her head looking back up from the floor and into Tony's eyes. "I don't care what Hammond says."

"Yeah. I'm going to get the paper." He leaves the room, avoiding her again. Not wanting to be reminded of his past job by thinking of Hammond.

Michelle knows she brought that on herself. She closes her eyes as Tony slips out of the room silently. She finishes the coffee and leaves the bedroom.

After coming back inside, Tony unceremoniously sinks into the couch and starts to surf the channels with the remote, throwing the paper onto the coffee table.

Michelle looks at him, she's made up her mind. She moves over to the phone and picks it up dialing Hammond's number. "Brad it's Michelle. I'm taking the day off."

Hammond answers the phone: "What! Michelle, you can't just do that whenever you feel like it! We are shorthanded and the selection of the new CTU staff is still unfinished... you were supposed to supervise that."

Michelle rolls her eyes. "Look I have been supervising it, and I'm not doing it when ever I feel like it," She pauses, "Look Brad, you know how much of a rough spot myself and Tony have been going through, so just stop being your usual high-toned self and give me a chance to pull my husband back together, because right now, because of you being the bastard you are, he has no will left to live.", Michelle says angrily to Hammond, knowing she may have just lost her job.

Hammond: "You haven't heard the last of this Michelle. I suppose birds of a feather do flock together. I thought you were better than that traitor husband of yours". He hangs up.

Tony has been lying on the couch listening to Michelle's side of the discussion. "What did you just tell him Michelle? Are you using me as an explanation to Hammond; that I can't handle myself? Is that what you think of me, huh!" he says nearly shouting the last sentence.

Michelle stared at Tony, shocked, the phone still in her hand. She was speechless. Tony had never spoken like that to her. "I'm not using you..." That was all she managed to say. She waited a moment, but got no reaction from him.

"Tony I know you can handle yourself, it's just I want to help you, I want to be here with you because I LOVE YOU, OK?" She said, yelling the last words.

"That I do know, but I do not like to be used as some explanation... as some reason for Hammond!" He gets up from the couch, takes his jacket and goes to the door without looking at her again.

She rushes to the door blocking his path. "Don't go out that door Tony...Please...Please don't leave me again!"

"Look Michelle, I am not leaving you. Right now I need to think things through. I'll be back, I promise." Tony says the last sentence with a soft tone of voice and briefly caresses her cheek before going out the door.

Michelle nods knowing she can't say anything to change his mind. "Ok..." She whispered softly watching the love of her life walk out the door.

He walks down to the beach not far from their house, letting the wind blow against his face for the first time in months. Longer than he wants to remember. He sits down on a rock by the place where he used to come with his wife, buries his head in his hands and cries. He thinks to himself Oh God, what has happened to me. I can't take this for long.

Not knowing when Tony would be back, Michelle pulled on her clothes. She didn't want to leave, but she was going to, she had something to sort out with Hammond. She quickly jotted down a note for Tony and put it in the one place she knew he would look, the alcohol cabinet. Then she walked outside locking the door behind her and sliding inside her car.

Michelle looked down from her temporary office on the top floor of CTU, she could see Hammond coming in through the doors. She sighed, she knew a fight was coming and she braced herself. A knock at the door startled her, she turned to see Chloe at the door. She motioned for her to come in. "What can I do for you Chloe?" Michelle asked her glance darting back down at Hammond.

Chloe walked in to Michelle's office in her usual manner, giving Michelle one of her assortment of strange looks. "I finished clearing space on the network."

Michelle nods slowly. "Is that all?"
"No... I need to get higher clearance to back up some of the intel on the division servers." Chloe said quickly.

Michelle nodded writing down the username and password on a small piece of paper. "Here you go."

Chloe shook her head, "Michelle this is the wrong password, its 649 not 642."
"Ok so if you know the password why are you coming in here asking me for it?"
"I just wanted to get clearance for the files."

Michelle shakes her head. "Chloe if you have that password, then you have all the clearance you need."
"But..." Michelle cut her off.
"No but Chloe! I'm in no mood for your usual self, just do what you have to do instead of holding things up like this."
"But Tony always wanted it done..." Chloe broke off when she saw Michelle tightening her grip on the pen in her hand. The pen snapped into two like a small twig.

"Sorry." Chloe whispered, leaving.

Michelle looked up to see Hammond at the door. Ahhh right on queue, she thought to herself letting go of the broken pen.

Hammond stands in the doorframe for a moment. "So you decided to grace us with your presence anyway. Good."

Michelle gave one of those looks that told him to shut up. "Hope you're happy Brad, not only have you effectively locked my husband in prison, but you've most likely ruined my marriage as well. See a pattern emerging here Brad?" Michelle asked flashing Brad one of those if-I-could-hit-you-I-would-smiles.

"As long as you do your job, I do not care what goes on in your personal life. But if you ever pull an unannounced stunt like that again, I will write you up for review! As for Tony, I imagined you would've seen the kind of man he is before you married him. Didn't the assault on Ryan warn you at all?"

Michelle tensed, she stood up from the desk and walked around to look Brad directly in the eyes. "Don't you ever say anything about the man I love again, don't utter a single syllable of Tony's name again, Or you'll regret it. Now get out of here Brad." Hammond didn't move. "The door's right there Brad, walk out."

"I really would've thought you to have more sense in these things." he tells her incredulously.

"Get out!" she says raising her voice.

"Fine. I don't feel like arguing over something like this with one of my subordinates. " With that Hammond leaves CTU.

When Tony comes back, it's already dark but the car is gone. He goes inside and pours himself a double shot of whisky, finding Michelle's note in the cabinet. "Figures." he laughs bitterly and after drinking the shot lies down on the couch, falling asleep.

It's late when Michelle comes home, she opens the door silently to see Tony asleep on the couch, an empty glass on the ground and the contents of a whisky bottle spilling out onto the carpeted floor. She closes her eyes tightly in an attempt to control her nerves. Moving around as silently as she can, she picks up the bottle and drops it in the bin, taking the glass she moves off to the sink to wash it, but stops halfway smashing it against the side of the steel sink. The glass shatters into hundreds of small fragments each one being washed away down the drain. Blood dribbles from cuts on Michelle's hand.

Tony wakes up to the sound of the breaking glass. Alarmed, he looks around for what caused the noise. He walks up to Michelle and sees her bleeding hand. "Oh sweetheart, what happened?"

She sighs wrapping a tea towel around her bleeding hand.

"Nothing Tony, just go back to sleep, ok?" She says softly, trying not to let any of her anger show in her voice.

"Hey...come here. Let's clean that up and go to bed, huh?" he pulls her in a hug from behind.
She lets herself fall into his loving arms, closing her eyes tightly. "It's okay, hon, just go to bed I'll be in, in a sec." She leans back kissing his cheek softly.

"You sure you can clean that with one hand? Let me help." Tony says making amends for his earlier actions.

Michelle allows him to clean the blood from her hand knowing it's pointless to resist, but she doesn't really want to resist either, she just wants to be wrapped in his arms and fall into a deep sleep. She watches as he throws the glass into the bin, then wraps a clean piece of cloth around her still bleeding hand.

"How are you feeling?" She asks softly, her eyes focusing on his.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." he says with a small smile. "There, come on, let's go to bed."

Michelle nods. "Ok." She says forcing a smile, she wants to get a straight answer from Tony but knows she's not going to get one.

Michelle falls asleep in Tony's arms but he does not sleep, knowing what happens if he does.

The days and nights pass, Tony barely eats, not sleeping at all or drinking until he falls asleep. Mostly he spends the nights awake looking at Michelle, afraid of the nightmares that will come if he joins her in sleep. He goes to a couple of interviews, but doesn't get any further than that.

Michelle sees what this is doing to Tony and decides to ask for Jack's help.