I don't own 24. Or 23 or 25 for that matter. Or Grey's Anatomy. I wish I did.

The phone was ringing. Ellie ran into the kitchen, jumping over a pair of Kerry's black heels to answer it. "Hello?"

"Hey cute girl," Michelle's voice came from the other end. "You getting packed up yet?"

"I don't leave until tomorrow."

"I know, I was just wondering."

"So, how are you?"

"Great. I'm actually at work right now, so I can't talk for too long, but I wanted to let you know that I have to work tomorrow too, so if it's okay with you, Tony's going to be at the airport to pick you up."

"That's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep. I'll see you tomorrow night," Ellie said brightly.

"Okay. I'm excited for you to get home. Is Kerry right there?"

"Um... yeah. Here she is." Ellie ran the phone to her sister, then went to think about maybe starting to consider packing.

The next day, at exactly 4:11 pm, only fourteen minutes late, Ellie was met at the baggage claim by a grinning Tony.

"Hey Elle," he said, approaching her.

Ellie turned around quickly. "Oh, hi Tony."

Taking her suitcase from her, Tony gave Ellie a side-hug and good-naturedly messed up her already-messy hair. "Ready to go home?" Ellie nodded.

They got stuck in traffic, as was to be expected. When they were still a good forty-five minutes away, Tony predicted that Michelle might just make it home before them. Michelle called three times to see how far away they were.

Tony pulled into the parking spot right next to Michelle's Camry, signifying that Michelle had indeed beat them home. Tony popped the trunk and got Ellie's one small suitcase out, and Ellie put on her backpack before heading up the elevator.

Tony made it through the door before Ellie, who was mauled by Michelle the minute she walked into the apartment.

"Ellie! Oh my goodness I am so happy you are home!" Michelle said, hugging Ellie tightly before releasing her to kiss her husband quickly, then turn back to her sister. "I missed you so much!"

Ellie smiled. "I missed you too."

"Well go put your clothes in the laundry, and dinner will be ready in fifteen or twenty minutes," Tony said.

Ellie did as she was told, deciding not to dwell on how weird it seemed that Tony had just told her what to do.

Over dinner, Tony and Michelle centered a lot of the conversation around Ellie's trip to New York- what she had done, what the weather was like, how Christmas had been, what she wanted to do for New Year's eve the next night.

After dinner, Ellie began to really notice the changes to the apartment. Nothing was very drastically different, but there were little things. Tony's shoes had been added to the pile just inside the door. Tony's keys sat next to Michelle's on the desk, and Tony's laptop was plugged in. Tony's books were on the bookshelf. There was a Sports Illustrated in the living room which Ellie was fairly certain wasn't Michelle's, and other Tony items were placed throughout the apartment. There was actually food in the fridge, which nearly sent Ellie into shock. And most surprising of all was Tony being there. He had hung around a lot before the wedding, but now, he came and went and stayed and cooked and helped with the dishes and watched baseball on the couch.

That night, Michelle knocked softly on the door to Ellie's bedroom. "Come in," Ellie called, looking up from the crossword puzzle she was doing out of the book that she had gotten for Christmas. Michelle entered her room and sat at the foot of the bed, placing a beautifully wrapped present between herself and her sister.

Ellie stared at the present for just a moment before looking up at her sister. "What's that for?"

"You."

"But you already gave me stuff for Christmas."

"I wanted to give you this one in person."

"Oh."

Michelle pushed the gift closer to Ellie. "Come on, open it up!"

Ellie carefully lifted up the present and began to even more carefully unwrap it.

"We're not going to save the paper!" Michelle said sarcastically.

Ellie laughed and hurried it up a little bit. When she pulled away the tissue paper, she found in her hands a framed picture of herself and herself, when she was about six, with her dad. She was standing on his much larger feet, and he was dancing with her. Ellie ran her fingers over her dad's face in the picture.

"I never knew you had this..."

Michelle smiled. "I had completely forgotten about it too. I was cleaning out half of my closet for Tony and I found it in a box of old stuff."

Ellie looked up, smiling genuinely. "Thanks, Chelle. I love it."

Michelle hugged her sister. "I'm glad." She paused, and then continued. "There's something else too."

Ellie looked puzzled until Michelle pulled, out of the pocket on her light blue sweatshirt, another photograph. This one wasn't framed, in fact, it had a fold down the middle. Ellie saw the back first- it was plain white except for some illegible pencil scrawls in the corner. Michelle handed it to Ellie, who slowly unfolded it and stared at the fading picture.

In it stood a man and a woman. Immediately, she recognized the man as her father, but she had never seen the woman before. She gasped in realization as she noticed that the woman was in a wedding dress. She looked up at Michelle, not saying a word.

Michelle fought tears. "I know what you've said... and what she did... but she's your mom...and mine...and I just thought... someday, you might wonder... and if you did..." Michelle trailed off.

Ellie nodded. "Thank you," she said softly.

Michelle pushed a curl out of Ellie's face, stood up, and kissed the top of her head. "Goodnight."

Michelle left Ellie's room, turning off the lights on her way out, and walked into the kitchen, where Tony was just finishing up the last of the dishes. She came up to him from behind and put her arms around his waist. "Thank you, honey."

He dried off the last plate, put it in the cupboard to the right of the sink, directly above his head, and turned around. "You're welcome. For what?"

"For doing the dishes. For making dinner. For being wonderful."

Tony smiled. "I love you too. And you're pretty wonderful yourself." He leaned his head forward to kiss Michelle.

After a moment, Michelle pulled away for air and gasped, "Bedroom."

Tony smiled and picked her up. "Yes ma'am."