Chapter Twelve – Two Steps Forward…One Step Back

It was Saturday. It was Saturday and it was raining. It was Saturday and it was raining and Tony was bored. They had the afternoon off after being stuck in the office into the early hours of the morning. They'd stumbled into the door just after 1:30 that afternoon, pleased to see that summer had officially arrived and that it was warm and sunny and they could enjoy the night after a brief catnap. He had Sunday off and she wasn't expected in the office until eleven the next day. They had every intention of getting outside in the evening; perhaps going for a walk, getting ice cream, something simple and summery that they rarely had the time to do or wanted to waste the time doing during a regular work week. Sometimes ridiculously late nights were a blessing in disguise; it was the best chance they had of obtaining a day (or almost day) off together.

So, after a quick bite to eat they'd set an alarm and crawled onto the couch together, not bothering to suggest the bed since they were way too comfortable to move. He'd simply tightened his grip around her waist to prevent her falling off and tugged a blanket around their shoulders as she settled against his chest.

But when he woke up a few hours later it was to the sound of fat raindrops against the roof and windows and the occasion blitz of lightening and deafening crack of thunder. Tony groaned and buried his head back into the cushion, well aware that their evening plans were shot to hell. The storm grew closer and the next time the thunder came it shook Michelle awake. Initially she jumped, but then relaxed upon realizing what all the commotion was about.

"Perfect…" she sighed. "Just perfect…"

He groaned again in agreement. It was just their luck. The weather had been gorgeous all week – not too hot or stuffy. The drastic increase in humidity when they left the office should've been their first clue, but both had been too consumed with their thoughts to bother with the news or weather reports.

And now it was raining.

"I guess we won't be getting out of the house now…" Michelle grumbled, twisting her body against his to find a comfortable position.

"Guess not…" he yawned and readjusted his grip on her. "I'll still make spaghetti for dinner though."

She smiled slightly to herself.

"I guess that'll have to do."

"And if ya want we can rent a mov -"

As if on cue, every light in the house simultaneously turned off, as well as the TV. They were left dumbfounded in the gray twilight of early evening as the rain continued to patter.

"Damn it." Tony muttered, sitting upright and moving towards the curtains. It appeared they weren't the only ones without power from the looks of the street.

"Like I said…" Michelle groaned. "Perfect."

Twenty minutes later every candle in the house had been lit and Tony had dug the emergency flashlight out from the cupboard. The phones were working, as Danny had just called a few minutes before asking Michelle if their power was out – apparently huge chunks of the city were facing the same problem. The thunder continued to rock the house and it became more unsettling thanks to the fact that there was barely any light. The candles left the house with an eerily orange glow and, worst of all, the air conditioning was out. They were right smack dab in the middle of a muggy, LA summer thunderstorm and they had no air conditioning.

An hour and a half into it Tony had kicked off his jeans and settled into the leather armchair, wincing as the fabric stuck painfully to his legs every time he tried to move. Michelle was in track pants and a tank top, taking up the length of the couch. She'd rearranged a few candles on the end table and had stolen the flashlight, providing her with just enough light to make out the pages of her book. When he'd reprimanded her for wasting their only source of light on reading she'd reminded him casually, her eyes never leaving the page, of the other flashlight in the toolbox and the unopened package of batteries in the bottom drawer in the kitchen. He was bored and wanted entertainment but she was quite enjoying her book at the moment.

A light blanket was draped pointlessly across her legs, which were propped up against an arm rest tilting her body slightly.

Really, Tony had two options. He could leave her alone and continue to be bored out of his mind, or, even worse, crack open his laptop and try to do some actual work. Or…he could join her on the couch. It was already dark, they were already sweaty, and the candles did offer a certain romantic ambience.

Stealthily, he dragged himself out of the chair, wincing as his skin clung to the leather, and crossed the room, amused that she was so engrossed in her novel that she didn't even think to look up. She finally did when his shadow prevented her from seeing the page entirely.

"You're in my light." she stated obviously.

Tony smirked and did not make a point to move. Instead he leaned over and pulled the book and flashlight from her hands. He rested them on the coffee table while lifting a leg over the couch and planting it on the floor against Michelle's far thigh.

"Tony..." she laughed, as he moved his other leg into position, lodged between the back of the couch and Michelle's knee. He bent down to kiss her neck, using one hand to pin hers to the armrest while she continued to struggle against him.

"Don't fight it honey..." he chuckled as his free hand tossed the blanket to the side before sliding underneath her shirt. Inch-by-inch it revealed part of her stomach and Michelle stopped resisting when fingers teasingly traced the edge of her bra before trailing back down towards her belly button.

"Tony..." she whispered, giving up on any protests and grateful his hands released her so she could draw his mouth to hers. She sucked hard on his bottom lip, hands outlining every part of his face, and moaning softly into his mouth when both sets of fingers caressed her stomach.

It was then that the phone rang.

Tony groaned in defeat before pulling himself up and going in search of it.

"I think I left it in the kitchen!" Michelle called after him as he ran out of the room. When Tony didn't return after a few minutes she began readjusting her shirt and retied her hair, skin still tingling from the contact. She picked her book off the table and started to head towards the office when a hand grabbed hers.

"Hey..." Tony turned her around, tossing the book carelessly to the floor. "I'm not done with you yet..."

And with that Michelle found herself pushed up against the wall as a knee forced her legs apart and the same hand went back to work underneath her shirt.

His hands slid languidly over her skin and her own made their way underneath his t-shirt and eased it over his head before tossing it recklessly to the ground. Her pants had been removed a minute later and she was practically lifted out of them, his lips sucking on her collar now, as the moved away from the discarded clothes and further along the wall. Nails dug into his slick, sweaty skin; one set into his shoulders and the other into the small of his back and pulled him closer to press her hips firmly into his.

She laughed breathlessly when his face contorted and he groaned as her hands slid down his boxers. She pressed her lips lightly against his ear and nibbled gently. It wasn't long before her bra and panties were gone and his hand moved between her legs; making her gasp and press her head back against the wall.

She didn't even notice his boxers were gone until he pushed inside of her. It was over much faster than either had expected. She writhed and moaned and clutched him hard against her as she climaxed in his arms.

By some miracle he held both their weights upright, preventing her from crumpling to the floor. She smiled punch-drunkenly at him as he tucked her sweaty hair behind her ears and lifted her to the bedroom where the windows were open. A light breeze licked their sensitized skin and they lay silently on top of the covers for a few minutes – not touching – regaining their breaths.

"Who was on the phone?" she asked when her heart stopped pounding.

"Alicia…I told her you were busy. I think she got the picture" He smirked and she laughed out loud.

"Great…" she lay silently for a few minutes before sitting herself upright. "I should call her back before it gets too late there."

His hand slid around her waist and he pulled her back towards the mattress.

"She'll get over it." He mumbled groggily.

"Tony…" she protested and he chuckled and kissed her cheek.

"Few more minutes…"

"Isn't a little early for sex?" Alicia teased mercilessly when Michelle called her back.

"We had a power outage." She responded calmly, not realizing how utterly incriminating that simple sentence was.

Alicia laughed outright.

"Spare me the details…I don't want to know."

"You're hysterical." Michelle retorted sarcastically as she settled back down on the couch with her legs crossed underneath her. The power company was working slowly through each grid and they still had no air conditioning. Tony was still lying on the bed – probably still in nothing but boxers to fight off the heat – while she had slipped on a baggy t-shirt before emerging.

"I'm sure you've done worse, anyway."

"Worse than sex in my own house?" Alicia taunted. "Yeah, I'll have to agree with you there."

Michelle blushed slightly. "We're not all as adventurous as you."

"I hate to break it to you, Michelle…but you're not adventurous at all. In most social circles I'd be the tame one. You need to live a little."

"I'm quite happy right now, thanks."

"I'm sure you are."

Michelle laughed before steering the conversation away from dangerous waters. It was all in good fun and they both knew that. What was she supposed to do anyway? Seduce her husband in his office at work? That wouldn't exactly go over so well and would be entirely inappropriate and awkward and she'd feel horribly guilty doing it. The closest she'd come to being "adventurous" was…probably on the very couch she was sitting on with the blinds being open while things started to heat up.

She was boring…fine. The sex sure as hell wasn't. Alicia was just teasing anyway.

"So what's up?"

"I am going to Paris." Alicia stated happily. "For two weeks. My boss is sending me and I uh…" she hesitated, gauging herself for whatever reaction she might receive. "I invited Ian."

"You did?" Michelle raised her eyebrows. "Two weeks in another country with your new boyfriend?"

Alicia bit her lip. "Yeah…I know it seems stupid. But I'll be working a lot of the time anyway so it's not like we're gonna live and breathe each other for that entire trip…"

"Is that a good thing?"

"Well…we can do our own things during the day – he's bringing along his own work and he's into that whole artsy thing so he can do all that kind of stuff while I'm with the clients and then we can just do whatever at night…"

"Whatever, huh?"

Alicia laughed.

"Yes, whatever."

Michelle smiled slightly on her end of the phone. Alicia hadn't been so excited at the prospect of a new relationship – or anything for that matter – in a long time. She'd met Ian at some work function, and had neglected to mention anything to Michelle until she inadvertently called in the middle of the night after the anthrax scare in DC to reassure Alicia things were fine.

When she'd called Ian had answered the phone.

"There's a very good chance this'll come back to bite me in the ass and I'll ruin the entire thing. But…I'll take a shot I guess. Might work out…"

"Either way it's Paris." Michelle rationalized, making Alicia laugh again.

"That's what I figure." There was a few seconds silence. "Anything has to be better than what happened to you in DC."

"Don't remind me…"

By the time Michelle crawled back into bed later that night, the power was back on. She fell on top of the covers, relishing in the sound of the air conditioning firing up again as she dozed off to sleep.

"Alright," Tony muttered as he descended into the living room where most of the furniture had been cleared. "You're sure you wanna do this? I mean I wouldn't want you to get hurt or anything."

Michelle laughed dryly. "You're just afraid I'm gonna take you out."

He laughed this time.

"Right…that's why you asked me for help…"

"I never asked you for anything."

He said nothing. Just raised an eyebrow as if to say "yeah, right."

She rolled her eyes. She might've mentioned innocuously, in a non-committal sort of way that she would, perhaps, be interested in brushing up on her hand-to-hand combat skills. And he, always looking for the opportunity to show off, (or teach her how to take care of herself, she hadn't decided which version she was gonna go with), had volunteered to help her out.

For a while they were serious. She was attentive and he patiently showed her maneuver after maneuver until she got it right. Eventually they started getting tired and the whole thing became very funny. Somehow she ended up tackling him when he wasn't expecting it and fell onto the couch in fits of laughter while he tried to brush it off as though he'd intended for the entire thing to happen. After that he stopped being so patient and started being more competitive. Despite her best attempts she never pinned him again, and started becoming frustrated with herself as he easily sent her careening to the floor time and time again.

"You need some serious work, Michelle." He tsk'ed, feigning disappointment. She scowled as he helped her up, the frustration making it more and more difficult for her to land a decent shot before he finally ended up pinning her against the floor with his body as she struggled pointlessly against him. She could've gotten out of it, she assured herself. But she wasn't about to play that rough.

He chuckled at her indignation and kissed her forehead before releasing her and retreating without another word.

The weeks flew by and gradually DC became nothing but a distant memory. They'd put the unpleasantness of those months behind them the night Michelle returned and had never looked back. It was over anyway, what would've been the point?

The problem was that while they put the events in the past, where they belonged, Ryan and Michelle had more one on one meetings than she cared to count, discussing that and only that. He wanted to know exactly what happened, every nitty-gritty detail of her confrontations with Kelly from the moment she stepped through the doors of CTU Washington. He probed her to no end, and Michelle would've been frustrated beyond belief had she not realized that every one of these sessions was simply exemplifying Ryan Chappelle's adamancy to help her put this behind her, both professionally and personally. He was still Ryan Chappelle and he still conducted everything in his own blunt, emotionless, Ryan Chappelle way. But he was trying his best to see she didn't get penalized for something he truly believed she had not done, for whatever reason, and she was grateful.

Six weeks after her return from DC Ryan called her to Division one afternoon to discuss the results of the incident.

"Hey Michelle…" he shook her hand formally as she seated herself in front of him. Her palms were sweating slightly but she tried not to show that she was nervous. Instead she sat upright, her hands folded neatly in her lap and her legs crossed. A middle-aged woman she was not introduced to sat in the corner, pen poised over a pad a paper. She began scribbling notes as soon as Ryan spoke.

"So I'm assuming this is about the meeting yesterday."

It was probably the stupidest, most captain-obvious statement she'd ever made in her entire professional career. Essentially, she was saying something just to make noise…break the tension. She wanted to kick herself afterwards. Ryan, however, didn't seem phased.

"It is. The Division Chief for Washington was present, as was Brad Hammond. We went over the testimonies of both parties over what transpired during your term in DC and it was decided that it was simply a clash of two personalities in a professional setting."

She wanted to protest – badly – but knew better. If there was one thing she'd learned in the last few weeks it was that Ryan, without a doubt, had her back.

"The death of the boy was a severe oversight as a result of miscommunication from both parties but despite Kelly's compelling statement about how you knowingly gave the order to terminate if necessary…"

There was a subtle inflection of sarcasm in his tone and Michelle relaxed slightly, reminding herself yet again that he would sort this out in the best way possible…for her.

"He was the ranking officer and the fact that he wasn't even present when this operation was going on – a fact Kelly admits to – means he too has a role in this."

Michelle's heart started pounding as the words sunk in.

"As well," the corners of his lips curved upwards subtly. "Brad and I both discovered a few holes in Kelly's recount, leaving us to believe that your statement was the more accurate of the two."

She swallowed hard.

"So, Kelly's on probation for the next six months, as are you for the next three. At the end of the term you'll be evaluated by both myself and Bauer and based on that we'll see about getting the incident expunged entirely. Kelly won't have that option."

"So no criminal charges?"

"No. It was collateral damage. As far as we can tell no orders were given to terminate the boy if necessary and it was merely a tragic accident."

Even though Kelly practically gave the order…she thought bitterly. She reminded herself that he had friends in high places, (higher than Hammond apparently), and there wasn't much she could do about that. At least she wasn't getting charged.

"So barring any unforeseen circumstances…" Ryan stated calmly, almost gently. "Three months from now it'll be like this never happened."

It was the best she could've hoped for really. Yes, it would be annoying to have to have Tony or Jack approve any order she gave for the next three months. It would cause delays and be a huge blow to her confidence but she'd get over it.

"Thank you, Ryan." She stated quietly. He fumbled a little awkwardly and then patted her hand briskly with his.

"This shouldn't have happened and I apologize. You did everything right Michelle…"

"I appreciate that."

He nodded solemnly and ended the meeting due to the significant amount of paperwork he had to finish. He explained he'd be in contact with both Tony and Jack to go over the technicalities and the evaluation process. Michelle thanked him a second time as she left, a huge weight lifted off her shoulders.

Three months after Michelle's return, in the middle of one hot, muggy early-August afternoon, Jack pushed inside Tony's office looking a little tired and worse for wear.

"What's up?"

"Division wants us to tail the Salazars." He stated hoarsely. "They want to send someone undercover."

Tony sighed. "And you want to go?"

"It's not an option, Tony." Jack stated firmly. "I am going…"

Tony shifted his jaw to one side, knowing better than to resent the fact that he was receiving something that sounded suspiciously like an order from someone who was supposed to be his equal.

"Not by yourself. Division won't send you undercover without a partner."

"Then we'll find someone externally, none of these guys are qualified to handle something of this magnitude. We'll start recruiting immediately. With any luck we'll be in Mexico by October and making contact with the Ramon Salazar by winter."

Fingers clawing slightly at his cheek, Tony nodded.

"Let me know what you need."

"Thanks."

Michelle brought her hand to her mouth as they stepped into the CTU parking lot.

"Tired?" Tony asked as she swung her bag over her shoulder.

She nodded, still in mid-yawn. "Yeah…I couldn't fall asleep last night…"

He frowned. "Why not?"

She shrugged and placed her head on his shoulder, allowing her eyes to fall shut as he guided her to the car. It was a few seconds after she glanced in the passenger window before her brain registered what was sitting in the seat. After shooting Tony a half-disapproving, half-adoring, mouth-open-in-surprise look over the roof of the car she pulled open the door and picked up a bouquet of calla lilies.

She tilted her head to one side, smiled and spent a few seconds studying them. There was a small white card attached to the ribbon that said Happy Anniversary and made her a lot more emotional than it probably should have.
"Thank you." She responded hoarsely, moved towards him and drew him into a firm embrace. He sighed happily and hugged back.

"I love you."

She inadvertently started to tear. "I love you too."

"I know it was a rough couple of weeks for you…with everything…"

After a few seconds she scanned the parking lot quickly and leaned in for a kiss. His hand slipped snugly around her waist while the other held her mouth firmly on his, making it last longer than she'd initially intended. His body pressed into hers and when they broke apart she was leaning against the car.

"Let's get out of here," she mumbled against his lips.

He nodded, brushed her nose gently with his, and kissed her one more time before they moved to their respective doors.