AN: Thank you for all the reviews! Really, you're all so encouraging, I appreciate it so much. Sorry this has taken awhile to get up, but I'm moving back to the dorms in a couple days, so I'll have more privacy and be able to update more often. I also apologize for not formatting chapter one very well…I was in a hurry to post it, and I completely forgot to go back and make it look nice. So here's chapter two…hope you like it! I'm really looking forward to this and the chapter after, because they'll be pretty happy (as these things go). Also can't wait until the season premiere Sunday night!

Oh, and another thing…I'm going to be glossing over some events from Day 2 without going into a lot of detail, and I'll probably get the dialogue wrong. Unfortunately, I don't have the DVDs with me, so I can't double-check timelines and stuff like that. If you notice anything glaringly wrong, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it. Thanks!

Disclaimer: Don't own any of it.

…And then the bomb happened.

That, Michelle would reflect later, was how she always thought of it. And then the bomb happened. Like it was the destination of all her stories, the turning point for her entire life. But then, that's exactly what it was: a turning point. So many of her friends and coworkers dead- over thirty in all- and of course that awful moment when she thought she was looking at Tony's dead body.

Her heart stopped. Buried under a pile of debris, a man's body was twisted in such a way that Michelle knew he was dead. He was wearing dark clothes, and he was about the same size as Tony. Oh, God, she thought selfishly, please not Tony. Anybody but Tony! The walls of the building (what was left of them) seemed to pull in around her, like a trick camera shot in a movie. All she could see was that dead body. All she could think was I never got a chance to find out.

Then she heard his voice. For a split second, as she turned and their eyes met, her world halted. Everything was gone- the rubble, the dust, her bruised, aching body- only she and Tony were in the room, only relief that he was alive filled her mind. In that moment, a moment that lasted forever, she realized that she loved him. Really and truly loved him, despite everything keeping them apart.

The realization shocked her back into reality. With a rush, everything came back. The ambulance and fire sirens blared, shouting filled the air, and Michelle started coughing. She could not deal with this now. Wait, she told herself firmly. Hash it out later tonight, when this is all over.

Tony allowed himself ten seconds to take it personally.

For ten seconds, he let grief wash through him, mourning the ones who were lost. Five of those seconds were devoted to relief that Michelle was all right. Then, because he was a professional and because it was his duty, he went back to work.

He sorted through rubble till his fingers were bleeding. He helped the emergency response teams lift debris and stabilize injured personnel. He assisted the uninjured with setting up temporary work stations. He watched Paula die and told himself that it was the only thing they could do, that the lives of millions were at stake, and that she probably would have died at the hospital anyway. He wondered if, in Mason's shoes, he would have been able to make the same call- to put the well-being of the country above one person's life.

Michelle caught him grieving. Tony told her that he agreed with Mason's decision about Paula, but that agreeing with it didn't make it any easier to bear. He knew he should have been 100 focused on the job, or at the very least too overwrought to notice, but he couldn't help feeling a small thrill when she put her hand on his back in a gesture of comfort. God, what he wouldn't have given to be able to turn and take her in his arms right then and there. But he didn't, of course. She was just being nice.

Then, because he didn't have enough on his plate already, he found out that George (funny how you started thinking of people you'd never really liked before in friendlier terms when you found out they were dying) had radiation poisoning and wouldn't be around much longer. For a moment Tony thought he was going to break down. He couldn't do it- it was all too much. The bomb, the nuke, all the dead CTU agents, Jack…no one could hold up long under all this stress. No one.

He might have walked out then, consigning everything to fate, if he hadn't looked over and seen Michelle. She was standing straight and tall, as cool and collected as ever, relentlessly hooking computers back up to the network, but when she stood back to examine her work, he caught her expression. It was awful to see so much pain in one person's eyes. Michelle took a deep breath and passed one hand over her face. When she removed it, Tony could see her professional mask was back in place.

That's when he knew he could make it through the rest of the day. If for nothing else, for no better reason, he would do this job, finish this operation for Michelle. Because if he fell apart, everything fell to her, and he couldn't do that, couldn't put more on her shoulders.

If one more person asked how she was doing, Michelle thought, she might actually tell them. Then they'd be sorry they asked. How do you THINK I'm doing? She wanted to snap. I helped dig out the bodies of thirty dead coworkers. I'm trying to stop a nuclear bomb from going off in the middle of LA. My emotionally unstable brother keeps calling, and the woman who MADE him such a wreck is eyeing me for any excuse to get me fired. On top of that, I just realized I'm in love with my boss. So yeah, I'm doing OK.

Not that she would say any of that, of course. She just really wanted to.

So she really couldn't help herself when she confronted Mason about his condition. His reaction was about as polar opposite as possible from what she'd been expecting.

"I made myself and everyone around me miserable for five thousand dollars a year," he said, putting his arm around her. "That was my price." Then he paused. "You know, Michelle, I'm not a big advice giver, but under the circumstances... Don't wait around for your life to happen to you. Find something that makes you happy, and do it. Because everything else is all just background noise."

And that was it. That was the moment Michelle knew she had to do something about her feelings for Tony. Because in this job…you just never knew. The bomb was a prime example: something could happen at any second that would make it impossible for you to tie up your loose ends.

So she told him.

Why does he have to do that, Michelle thought. Tony was sitting on her desk again, watching her work and telling her something that she processed automatically without really thinking about it. She was nervous. Very nervous. But she had to do this. If she didn't do it now, she never would, and if she never did it she'd end up like George: alone.

Well, maybe that was a worst-case scenario, but still.

She took a deep breath and began her mentally rehearsed speech. "Look, Tony, I know that is probably a bad time…" Really, Michelle had no idea what she was saying. It was all just tumbling out, a little at a time. Her mouth was moving but she wasn't hearing the words. All she was hearing was a mental repetition of, God, he must think I'm pathetic. This is so embarrassing.

"Michelle, I feel the same way."

What?

Everything after that was a blur of ecstasy.