Hey everyone!
I realize it's maybe easier for you guys if I tell you which chapter happens when. So, last chapter happened between season 3 and season 4 after Tony and Michelle divorced. This chapter happens right after season 3.
Enjoy my dears!
My Lan Graz. :-D
PS: By the way, in case you didn't notice, all the chapter names are movies that had 24 actors in them and no, I did not see these movies nor do I have any intention of seeing them: I got the info from IMDb. So, if the info is inaccurate, sorry!
A DAY IN THE LIFE – The Beatles
Chapter 2 – Stolen Miracle
Stolen Miracle, 2001 – Starring Leslie Hope as Sergeant Jane McKinley
A – A day in Michelle's life
MICHELLE
I tried. I really tried. But I couldn't. I just couldn't get in. It was obviously too big for me.
The bed stood motionless in the middle of the room and I could almost hear it taunting me to jump in and bury myself under layers of covers before falling into a blissful sleep and never waking up. But, no matter what the bed "said", I could not get in. It was as if an unknown force was holding me back. Even if someone held a gun at my head, I wouldn't have been able to jump into the bed. This bed was made for Tony and me. Not just me. Not just Tony. Call me a basket-case. Call me a crazy nut. I thought of myself as a broken soul.
Broken… Like the day I broke Tony's mug. And not just any mug. HIS mug.
The morning of our wedding. I am nervous. No, I am ecstatic. So what if it is a small wedding? So what if we have less than a dozen people invited? This is the beginning of the end of my life. Or the end of the beginning of my life. Or whatever.
I wake up at six. I decide to surprise Tony by making him breakfast in bed.
Bad idea.
I burn the toast, spill the milk, drop the cereal and squash an orange.
Well. I guess he'll have to settle for coffee only.
Apparently not. Even that I fuck up.
It starts simple. Wait for the machine to heat up. Put the mug under the jet. Press on the button. Add some milk. Tada! Now we can take the coffee on a tray to the bedroom.
But noooo! I forgot about the milk on the floor and what happens now? I slip and drop the tray! Which makes a big BANG, then a SPLASH and finally a TZING! In other words, the tray falls to the floor, the coffee spills out from the mug and the mug shatters to pieces!
Oh no… Please…
But it's no use. Even though I didn't look at the mug I took, I know it is THE mug.
Obviously, all the noise wakes up Tony and he, knight in shining armour that he is, comes running to my rescue.
"What happened, baby?"
I am so shocked I can't speak. Then he looks at the burnt toast, the spilled milk and coffee, the dropped cereal, the squashed orange, the fallen tray and the shattered mug. And he laughs.
"How can you laugh?" I can't believe it. I broke HIS mug. The mug takes to work every day. The mug he drinks coffee out of every morning. The mug he loves so much he puts it with the wine glasses.
In between breaths, he utters a "Honey, please don't do try to make breakfast without my help ever again."
"But… What about your mug?"
He scoops me up. "Who cares?"
By then, I was literally sobbing.
"FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!"
The question though was fuck who?
Fuck Hammond for arresting the love of my life.
Fuck Jack for having this whole undercover operation tear us apart.
Fuck Saunders (yes, fuck Saunders!) for making my husband commit treason to save me.
Fuck those fucking people for making this fucking virus.
Fuck Kim for having lost so much today and still having Chase (minus a hand).
Fuck God for making this day the worst day of my life.
But most of all, fuck Tony. Fuck Tony for loving me so much. Fuck Tony for him being willing to risk everything for me.
"FUCK YOU, TONY! I HATE YOU!" Sobs echoed through the silent apartment.
"I HATE SO MUCH!" Rain poured down the glass windows.
"WHY? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?" Life was continuing. For everyone but me.
Can you love someone so much that anytime they hurt themselves you feel like you hate them? "I love you so much baby. I love you so much."
Needless to say, I slept on the sofa that night.
KIM
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. The moment I parked the car I knew this was a very BAD idea. If this had happened to me, I wouldn't want some annoying, blond co-worker who just happens to be the daughter of my husband's best friend to come and stand awkwardly in the doorway while I'm screaming bloody murder that life's not fair. (not that that's what Michelle thinks of me but I don't think she would have appreciated my company at that moment)
I probably should have left at that moment. But a little voice in me reminded me that I came here for a reason and that I had to do what I had come for. So I grabbed my umbrella and locked the car before running to the Almeida household (could you still call it the Almeida household now that Tony was most certainly spending his life in jail?).
I decided to take this the gentle way. I gave a few subtle knocks on the door
Obviously that didn't work.
Then, I rang the doorbell. Once. Pause. A second time. Pause. A third time. Pause.
Okaaaaaaaaaaay… This is SUCH a bad idea.
But, before I could even walk away, something I heard stopped me. Was it screaming? Curse words? I know the whole scenario I had imagined earlier had involved her throwing vases against the wall but I didn't expect her to actually become like this. The Michelle I knew never cursed. Heck, she was always so happy and smiling.
I started panicking. What is she got suicidal or something? I tried ringing the doorbell several times before I saw it. The note.
Stupid me. I should have noticed it before.
Sorry! The doorbell isn't working. Please knock very hard. If we don't answer, we're probably not there or… busy. : ) Tony and Michelle.
That was so… cute. But it didn't really matter anymore So I knocked and did what every person does in a movie when they desperately want to open a locked door: I tried the doorknob. Somehow, it opened. Now that I think about it, Michelle was probably too distraught to lock the door after her.
The fact she forgot to lock her door wasn't what shocked me the most. What I saw broke my heart in two. Michelle was in a little ball on the floor, crying.
"I love you so much baby. I love you so much," she whispered.
Oblivious to my presence, she got up, tossed her shoes on the living room rug and went straight to sleep on her sofa. All that with me watching her.
At first, I felt awkward as if I had spied on her having an intimate moment. Then, a tear slipped down my cheek. I closed the front door and ran to my car, leaving my umbrella on the front porch. I started crying like I hadn't since my mother died.
Too much had happened today. Too much was lost. Too much was forgotten. Too much was taken away from us.
But, in the end, I was lucky. I had Chase, who was going to be okay. I had my dad, who I loved even if though he was going through a rough period. I had a whole life ahead of me.
I left. Michelle didn't need me. No one could help her. She needed Tony and it was up to that single man in a black robe to decide whether she would get him or not. I think that was the last time I ever saw her (a few weeks later, Chase and I moved to Valencia with Angela).
It was only as I was a block away from my apartment I realised I had forgotten to lock her door.
B – A day in Tony's life
JACK
"What? No, no, no! I am not doing this!"
Brad glared at me. "Listen, Bauer. You have enough trouble right now so I advise you to follow my orders and do as I say. Now are you going to interrogate him or am I going to have to fire you?"
Fire me? Ha. You wish. But I knew he would do it if he had to. As much as this office once needed me, I knew they would dispose of me if I gave them any trouble. I was wasted, an addict, a druggie. What use did I have to them now?
So, without a word, I started walking towards the holding room where they kept Tony. I tried to get angry at him. If I wanted to do this right, I couldn't get all mushy over him. I thought of how he sent my daughter in the field. How he said I had not learn anything from Teri's death. How he had managed to save his wife from the dangers of this job… and I had not.
For a moment, it almost worked. I was pretty angry at him. In a way, I felt he was better than me. Or that he thought he was better than me.
Ha ha. Screw you Tony. You're going to jail.
That was what I was trying to make myself believe. It wasn't how I really felt. But, for the moment, I had no choice if I wanted to keep my job.
Though, when I entered the room, all my good intentions of keeping my job flew out the window.
There he was, chained to his chair, staring into space. He was right in front of me. But he just wasn't… there.
"Tony?" I asked hoarsely.
He looked at me with empty eyes. You know… It's like looking at a blank wall that once was filled with many colourful graffiti. And somehow, you know it'll never be the same again. Those graffiti were washed away. You'll never see them again.
But, somehow, I knew I would see the old Tony again. I had too.
TONY
If someone came and told me they were going to kill me, I wouldn't care. Seriously.
When Saunders showed me the video of Michelle, I was scared.
When I called Baker to make him move his team, I was scared.
When I deleted the satellite frames, I was scared.
When I kidnapped Jane Saunders to make the exchange, I was scared.
When the exchange happened, I was scared shitless.
But, at that moment, sitting in the holding room, I wasn't scared anymore. I did what I had to. Maybe it was a wrong decision. But it was too late to regret it now.
I didn't even look up when Jack came in.
Fuck you Jack. This is all your fault. Even though I knew I would have done the same thing had he been in my place.
He looked surprised seeing me in the state I was. "Tony?"
I looked up at him and almost laughed. Yes, that's me. Tony, traitor to my country. Tony, dangerous criminal. Call me what you want. But don't forget the one thing I really am: Tony, the husband who would do anything to save his wife.
And, it was then that I knew my answer. No, it was not the wrong decision. No, I did not regret it. And maybe that was what scared me the most. Maybe that really made me a criminal.
I hereby swear to dedicate my life to protecting this country.
Had the love of my life not been threatened by a psychotic terrorist.
"But that would be an acceptable loss, wouldn't it be, Jack?"
I would be an acceptable loss. Jack would be an acceptable loss. Even Kim would be an acceptable loss. But Michelle would never be an acceptable loss to me.
"I won't give up on you."
Maybe you haven't, baby. But I know I have.
Yes, I really was a cold-blooded criminal. Finally I spoke up.
"Jack, let's cut the crap. Brad sent you here to make me talk. Well, let me talk now. I did what I had to do. No, I don't regret it. Yes, I'm willing to go to jail. And you know what? If I had to do it again, I would. I really would."
