Their food finally arrived at the table and couldn't have been more delicious.
"Honey you have to try this," said Michelle, offering him her plate.
He tried some of the creamy seafood sauce and pasta and closed his eyes at the flavor.
"Ah that's so good," he said, "switch for awhile?"
"Okay," she said.
They switched plates, Michelle taking a bite of his steak.
When they finally left, they acknowledged their colleagues with an awkward nod, then went on, holding hands.
By the time they got home they were both feeling the effects of the alcohol. They stumbled into the apartment and immediately reached for each other, Tony's hand going to the strap of her dress, hers going to his collar. She giggled slightly into his lips as she pulled on his tie, trying to get it off. Finally able to loosen it, she pulled it up between them, parting their lips for a second, and grinning at him as she threw it to the floor. He recaptured her lips and kissed her urgently, pushing his tongue into her mouth and fussing with the back of her dress, trying desperately to get close to her faster. Her hands went to his collar again and she pulled him closer while working with the stubborn buttons, trying to get them undone. She finally got to the bottom and was able to slip the shirt off his shoulders. He smiled into her lips and pulled the zipper on her dress further down, slipping his hand in and over her back, drawing her closer for a searing kiss. She ran her hand down his toned chest to his belt buckle, unfastening it and pulling the belt off. He started silently pushing the straps of her dress off her shoulders, one at a time, trailing his fingers over every inch of skin on her shoulder and neck. Once the straps were off, he pushed his fingers in between the material of her dress and her skin, pulling the dress down but running his fingers down her body to her hips, the fabric moving with the backs of his hands. He pushed the cloth over her hips and she stepped out of it, stopping kissing him only long enough to remove her shoes and reach one finger to the belt loop of his pants, pulling him back to her, then placing her other arm over his shoulder. He started kissing her neck as she unbuttoned his pants, grazing her fingertips over the skin between his belly button and pant line, causing all of the muscles in his body to flinch slightly. Once he had stepped out of his pants, they continued their kissing, now only in their underwear, him starting to push her slightly towards their bedroom. He continued kissing her as he pushed her into a sitting position on the bed and crawled over her, pushing her body into the bed. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and trailed her other hand down to the top of his boxers. He squeezed his fingers in between the clasp of her bra and her skin, rubbing his thumb over her back, teasing her. Keeping with that theme he finally removed his lips from hers and started kissing her behind her ear, then trailing wet, warm kisses down her neck, causing her to gasp for air when he moved his lips from hers.
"God Tony just take it off," she said breathlessly as he continued to tease around the clasp.
He grinned into her neck and obliged, leaning down to kiss her again.
Tony woke up first, happy to find her still wrapped warm in his arms. He ran his hand over her side and watched her sleep for a few minutes before beginning to trail kisses down her face and neck, brushing her hair out of her face.
"Good morning," came her sleepy smile into the pillow.
'Hey," he said against her neck.
"Is it time for work yet?" she asked.
"Almost," he said.
She settled her head against the pillow, turning to look at him. He was leaning over her slightly, running his fingers through her hair. He kissed her softly on the mouth, leaning his forehead onto hers. She sighed softly with a small grin playing around her lips.
"I feel like I just want to sit here holding you forever," he said quietly.
She looked at him.
"That would be nice."
An hour later they were in the car driving to work. They arrived in the parking lot and kissed before getting out of the car. Tony took her hand and they started walking in, dropping their hands as they entered the bullpen. It was one of those days yet again. Tony was completely stressed out and had called a meeting.
"So what's going on? We're still operating at 90 percent, and Chappelle is breathing down my neck; can somebody PLEASE explain this to me?" he said, aggravated.
"Field ops is up and running, but we're still trying to load all our new systems with the files and access that they need. We're working on it," said Jack.
"Fine. Michelle?"
"We're almost up to speed but we're short staffed at the moment; since the recent transfers of many of our people, we just haven't had the manpower to keep up," she responded.
"If you can't keep your people at full capacity Michelle than I'll call into division, see if with their help you can actually manage to meet your requirements from the day," he said nastily to her, "Get back to work."
Everybody started to disperse, although Jack and Chase, stayed behind. Tony hesitated for a second, knowing that he had made a mistake.
"Chelle," he said tentatively, as she walked by him to the door.
She didn't even seem to notice, walking swiftly out the door and not even glancing at him. He sat down and rubbed the back of his neck slightly.
"Well," he said, resting his elbows on the table, "Looks like I'm sleeping on the couch tonight."
"Good luck with that. She deserves to be pissed," said Jack.
"Yeah. I know," said Tony, disappointed with himself and the fact that he took his anger out on her, least of all in front of much of the CTU staff.
He grumbled slightly and turned towards their topic of discussion.
Michelle was fuming. It was bad enough when he was just being an ass at home, but at least then she could return the favor, defend herself and be openly mad at him. And it wasn't in front of all her colleagues. He knew very well that she had been working overtime as it was and that she was stressed out beyond belief, but add him yelling at her; that just made her furious. She threw down her pen and rested her elbows on her desk, rubbing her temples. He would pay tonight, that was for sure. It pissed her off even more that in over two hours he had made no attempt whatsoever at trying to apologize, except for his lame try after the meeting. Just as this thought was going through her head she heard somebody walk up behind her and come sit on her desk. She looked over at him and then quickly back at her computer screen.
"What do you need Tony?" she asked in a businesslike tone, although the cold distance was quite clear in her voice.
"Look I know you're mad at me, and you have a right to be. I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't bother," she said uncaringly, making him tense up like a kid who knew he was dead meat.
"Please honey-"
"Is there anything that you need?" she asked again.
"Yes I need to talk to you," he said.
"Well good luck with that," she said, standing up and walking away from him towards IT.
He stood up to follow her, but she turned around and looked at him, lips pursed and clearly furious with him.
"Leave me alone. Go do you're work. Sir," She said, making him grimace hearing her call him that.
He hadn't been "sir" since her first day at CTU, when she called him that and he begged her to never do it again.
He walked up to his office, the day looking distinctly grimmer. Jack came in.
"So did talking to her help?" he asked, slumping himself down into one of the chairs in Tony's office.
"No. She basically told me to piss off," Tony said in a flat voice, "But hell, we both know I deserve it. I yelled at her in front of the whole staff. And the fact that everybody knows I'm dating her doesn't exactly make it any better."
"Don't worry about that Tony. It's sick how obvious it is that you guys are in love with each other. Everybody can tell that you adore her, and that she adores you," he said timidly, then continuing, "In fact, I've never seen you so happy before as when you're with her."
Tony glanced at him.
"Uh, thanks Jack," he said awkwardly.
"Yeah," said Jack, equally as uncomfortable, standing up and staying still for a moment with a lack of what to do, then leaving.
It caused Tony an extra pang to know that Michelle would've been laughing hysterically at them had she known how awkward they'd gotten talking about serious stuff. He found himself concentrating on that laugh; God he loved it. He'd made a fool of himself many a times for that laugh. Her lips were so perfect. And her smile. And her touch. To get her touch and smile and laugh and her lips on his within a few minute period was like heaven, and for over a year he had been living in the clouds. He called her up and begged her to come up, finally resorting to saying he needed her for work. He knew it was low, but he had to talk to her. As for Michelle, she had no intention whatsoever of staying if he turned out to just be trying to talk to her, which he probably was. She opened the door, closed it and crossed her arms, looking at him with raised eyebrows, although her heart couldn't help but soften slightly at the pained expression on his face.
"Honey-" he started, but the second she heard the name she turned to leave.
"Please," he said, slightly frantically, "just let me say this and then I'll let you go. I'll let you tell me what to do, I'll leave you alone, sleep on the couch, whatever. Just let me say one thing."
She turned, arms still folded and waited stubbornly.
"Honey I know I had no right to yell at you, especially in front of everybody. I know I messed up, and I'm sorry. I was just angry, and I took it on you. But I can't stand this. I'm stressed out as it is, but usually I don't care as long as I get to see you're gorgeous smile."
She dropped one arm to her side, leaning against the door, listening, the scowl gone from her face.
"Sweetheart whatever you want me to do, I'll do it. I just can't stand you mad at me. I love you baby, and I really am sorry."
She stared at him for a moment, then sighed.
"Come here," she said gently, motioning him into her arms.
She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and put the other around his neck, putting the side of her face against his as she hugged him to her. He wrapped his arms around her and nuzzled into her neck, sighing at the familiar scent of perfume that lingered on his skin, but he loved on hers, that came from hers. He kissed her lightly under her ear before pulling back and kissing her on the lips for a moment. He rested his forehead against hers, feeling her breath on his face. They were interrupted by the phone ringing loudly, making them jump.
"Go," she said, smiling slightly.
"We okay?" he asked.
"Yeah honey. We're fine," she said, her eyes confirming it for him.
She left his office as he picked up the phone, walking downstairs to continue working.
It turned out that the call was Chappelle, telling Tony that he, as well as the colleagues that he and Michelle had met , were coming to CTU. Tony immediately started alerting the staff, and went to meet them at the door. Tony started leading them through the bullpen when Michelle approached him, needing him to sign off clearance for one of the lower level analysts.
"Tony-" she started, but paused when she saw that Chappelle and his company had arrived.
"Michelle," said Chappelle, his greeting.
"Ryan, well you said we'd be seeing you again soon," she said, extending her hand to one of the men in his company.
"I actually was wondering," started one of the men, "How it is that you two are engaged. In New York office relationships aren't tolerated; I don't suppose it's different here?"
Tony glanced at Chappelle, while Michelle's eyes fluttered to the ground, slightly embarrassed at the question from a near stranger, although in her mind she knew it was a perfectly legitimate one.
FLASHBACK
The day after Chappelle had found out about them, Tony and Michelle walked into CTU holding hands, both wearing jeans and looking casual. Tony dropped her hand at her station.
"You'll be okay, baby?" he asked.
"Yeah," she grinned at him.
He continued up to his office. Once he had gathered his things from his office, he closed the desk drawers and started to walk out. He stopped at the door and put the box down, walking over to the desk and opening the top drawer, reaching to the top and pulling down a taped picture. He walked over and put it on the pile of stuff in his box, clicking out the lights. He stood there looking at his office, feeling oddly sad that it wasn't going to be his anymore. But then he looked down at his box, stared at the picture of her. He smiled and walked out the door. Downstairs Michelle had finished getting her box together when she felt his presence. She looked around to see him coming towards her with a box of stuff. He set it down on her desk and smiled a little bit at her. As she glanced at him she noticed a picture on the top of his stuff.
"I didn't know you had this here," she said, picking up the picture and smiling at him.
He bit his lip and looked down slightly. She nudged him slightly, failing to suppress a grin.
"You ready?" he said quietly.
"Yeah," she said, a little disappointedly.
"What are you guys doing?" said a harsh voice from behind them, making them both spin around and everybody in CTU look at them.
"We're leaving, Ryan," said Tony strongly.
"I said one of you," said Chappelle.
"Yeah well if one of us works here and the other doesn't, we'll never see each other," said Michelle.
"See ya Ryan," said Tony, picking up his box and walking away from him with Michelle.
"Wait," said Chappelle.
Michelle dropped her box on the floor as she turned around and walked right up to Chappelle.
"Ryan you act as though this is surprising. You don't get it. I can live without this job. But him, I can't live without. Goodbye Ryan."
She even managed to stay composed, like always, hardly even raising her voice. She turned around and picked up her box and leaned into Tony more.
"You're amazing," he whispered in her ear, making her smile.
Later, Tony and Michelle were to be found asleep on the couch in their apartment. Michelle was laying down on her back with her head resting on the armrest. Tony was lying next to her on his stomach with his head resting on her upper stomach and his arm draped over her. Michelle's hands were resting on his upper back and in his hair, where she had been tenderly running her hands though his hair before she fell asleep.
"Tony, Tony wake up," said a voice, nudging him in the arm.
"Jack we're taking that key back," said Tony, speaking into Michelle's body.
Tony looked up so that his chin was resting on her. He smiled slightly at her still sleeping, eyes still closed and hand still on his head. He pulled his body slightly up so that he was leaning on his elbows and looked over at Jack, surprised to see who was in his company.
"Brad, Ryan, this is a surprise," he said, trying to mask the slight bitterness and sarcasm in his voice. As unlikely as it was that they would both be there, both felt that this was of high importance, and required unnecessary accomidations.
"Yeah Tony. We wanted to talk to you guys. Can you wake her up?" said Hammond.
Tony opened his mouth to tell them that he wouldn't disturb her just to listen to whatever crap they had to say, but stopped himself and sighed, scratching the back of his neck.
"Yeah," he said.
He moved up the couch so that his head was level with hers.
"Michelle," he whispered in her ear so that only she could hear him, "Baby wake up."
He kissed the side of her face lightly.
"Who's here?" she moaned, eyes still shut.
"How does she know somebody's here," asked Ryan.
"She just does," said Tony, inwardly saying, 'Because I would've kissed her to wake her up if we were alone'.
"Ryan?" she said.
She opened her eyes to Tony's face and sat upright, him following suit.
"This is strange," she said, stating the obvious, "I honestly never thought I'd be seeing you guys in our apartment."
Michelle could tell just from glancing at Tony that he was uncomfortable with his current lack of a top. She reached down and grabbed his shirt and handed it to him.
"Well we needed to talk to you guys," said Ryan.
"Okay…" said Michelle, brushing a stray curl behind her ear and clearly waiting for them to start.
"We, we are willing to give you guys your positions back at CTU under the condition that you don't allow your relationship to get in the way of doing your job," said Hammond.
There was silence for a second.
"Well, I wasn't quite expecting that," said Michelle.
"What do you say?" asked Chappelle.
"Well we need to talk about it first," said Tony.
"What is there to talk about? I thought you guys were pissed that we fired you?" said Brad.
"Well, it's different now," said Tony.
"How?" asked Chappelle.
"Well, I mean, we're getting married. So we have to think about our future," said Michelle.
'A family,' thought both of them.
"Exactly," said Tony.
"Well then," said Jack before either could speak, "We should leave them to it," he said, standing up and motioning for Ryan and Brad to leave, giving an understanding nod behind their backs to Tony and Michelle, making Michelle smile in appreciation and Tony give a slight nod.
"We'll lock the door on the way out," said Jack.
"Thanks," said Tony, leaning over to Michelle who had already repositioned herself back on the couch, making room for Tony to rest his chin on her upper chest.
He relaxed automatically into her, and she started petting his hair.
"We'd like an answer within the next couple days," said Hammond, turning around and glancing at them.
"Yeah," said Michelle in confirmation, watching them walk out the door and leave.
She sighed and refocused on Tony who grinned at her and then softly kissed the spot where his chin had been resting.
END FLASHBACK
"Well, we don't let it get in the way of our work," said Michelle, then turning to Tony, "I need to be able to give Tania access to this server, and I don't have clearance to sign off on it," she said hastily, pointing to the server name on the paper.
"Tania?" he asked.
"Yeah, new level one analyst," said Michelle, "We're short staffed today, might as well see what she can do."
"Yeah," said Tony, taking the pen and signing the paper.
On days like this one, written confirmation was requested by division, and in the current scrutiny by Chappelle and his cronies at division, now was not the time to be stubborn.
"Well, I'm sure we'll meet again soon," she said to the men, hurrying off to work on something, leaving Tony to continue leading the small group around CTU.
It ended up being an aggravating day. The days work along with the presence of division was not making things easier on any of them, and by the time Tony approached Michelle's desk, ready to go, they were both completely exhausted. He sat down on the edge of her desk, placing his briefcase on the floor, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. She glanced up at him and, noticing him rubbing the bridge of his nose, grazed her fingers against the other hand that was currently steadying himself on her desk.
"Honey you look like hell," she said.
He let out a breath of laughter and looked at her with tired eyes.
"You almost done?" he asked sleepily.
"Yeah," she said, turning from him to the computer, "Just give me a sec."
She typed something quickly then began logging off. In the meantime, Tony slipped off the edge of her desk onto the floor so that he could lean against it and close his eyes for a minute before they left. She finished on the computer and turned to him, brushing her hand over his cheek and whispering his name softly. He opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Come on," she said, pulling on his hand slightly, "lets go home."
She pulled him up off the ground, his arm automatically going around her waist. She fished in his coat pocket for the keys to the car and once she had them, they started to leave. He walked tiredly out of CTU, glancing over in time to see Chappelle and his guests looking at them. He gave them a slight nod, tightening his grip around Michelle.
Finally at home, Tony curled up wrapping his arms around Michelle's waist in bed, pulling her into him and breathing in her scent. He kissed her tiredly on the lips.
"Love you," he said, quietly.
"Love you," she said back.
She ran her hand lightly through his hair and within moments he had fallen asleep.
"Goodnight baby," she whispered, before closing her eyes and drifting off.
Enjoy! Sorry this took awhile and i hope i still have readers! i may not be able to post for awhile but im close with the next chapter, so there could possibly be another one sometime soon. please, please review:)