He was wearing a new suit, she almost laughed when he saw that, but considering she was in the middle of a room full of people, she bit her lip, forcing herself to keep a straight face. Besides, he wasn't the only one wearing a new outfit, her skirt had cost a lot and it had taken her ages to find a top that went with it. She'd told herself that it was her first day back at CTU with a proper staff, and that she should make an effort, it was the same lie Tony had told himself when picking out his suit.

But work hadn't afforded her any time to speak to him yet, she'd forgotten that coming to work actually meant doing work, and they'd been running intel on a possible threat all morning.

She'd spent most of last night crying, but somehow, she actually found herself feeling much better, maybe this time she could get things right.

Tony sat in his office, getting gradually more and more frustrated with his computer, it had gotten to the point where he was actually considering throwing it through the window. He'd forgotten how tiring this job could be, and it had only been one day.
Deciding he needed a break, he pulled himself back from the desk and towards the window. One of the things he had insisted on inside the new CTU was optional blacked out windows. He had blacked his out this morning, for no other reason than it was a new toy to play with, and Jack was coming in later, he wanted to be able to show it off. It also provided a great opportunity to spy on Michelle without her noticing. He was already very glad that he'd insisted on getting them installed.

He'd had to laugh when he saw her walk in, flaunting the regulations about dress once again. He didn't think he'd ever actually seen anything that fell within the regulations, not that he was complaining. As if she felt him watching her, she turned to glance at his office, and then remembered where she was and turned back to her work. She'd spent all morning briefing everybody on the new system and protocols, all the while co-ordinating the intel gathering for the threat. She wasn't likely to have a free minute any time soon.

Forcing himself back to work, he first picked up the envelope that had been sitting on his desk since morning. He had wanted to give it to her, but they had both been to busy, and it wasn't something he wanted her to open in the middle of the room. Inside were two tickets to one of those hideous love stories that she had been ranting on for ages about wanting to see. He'd spent the whole time winding her up about wanting to see a love story, and he knew she'd be surprised. It had opened a while ago, but they'd both been too busy and too wound up at the world to do anything apart from eat, sleep and work, so he knew she hadn't seen it. He'd made them for tomorrow, which hopefully meant that she would not have time to reconsider.

He'd also made them reservations at a restaurant that his sister had assured him, after about the fiftieth time he'd called to make sure, was exactly what he was looking for. He hoped so, this was an opportunity to put things right and he wasn't going to let it go.

But more importantly, the envelope contained a written apology from Ryan Chappelle. He didn't know what Ryan had said to her, but he had no doubt that it was at the centre of what had happened to Michelle. And although the apology wasn't for that; it was an apology for giving her an excessively heavy work load without the necessary compensation, and which offered her (along with him, at Tony's insistence) the next two weeks off; he hoped that it would replace some of the confidence which Ryan had destroyed.

Resisting the urge to open it and play with its contents, he slid it back onto his desk and forced himself to get some work done.

A knock at the door brought one of the new analysts into his office, he didn't know her name, and at this point he really didn't care. He'd been working for ages, and it had got to the point where his eyes were starting to burn. He had also managed to confirm something of which he had been fairly certain for a while, Brad Hammond was an incompetent moron.

So he snatched the folder from her hands and told her to leave, in a rather rude manner if he was honest with himself. It was information on one of the low ranking members of the organisation, someone who could be used to gain information. Jack was going to send someone in, so they needed to get the details right.

Flicking through the files, he barely needed to glance at them, they were what would be expected, minor charges, some time spent in jail, useful with setting up explosives. The general type of idiot that got involved with these things. Would be easy to manipulate and get information out of.

Placing the file in with a pile to send to Jack's office, his eyes suddenly caught on the surveillance photos. There was a well built man in his early thirties with his arms wrapped about a girl. Dark curls billowed about her face as sunlight glinted off her engagement ring.

He called down to the analyst that had brought the file up, a very annoyed sounding girl wearing a waistcoat, and told her to send Michelle up.
This could not be happening, he could not have put himself in this position again. How could he have possibly been so stupid.