Disclaimer: Well, I haven't acquired any of the characters since I wrote chapter 3.
Her alarm went off at 6:30 the next morning, but like always, he woke quickly and turned it off before she heard. Looking over at her, he was struck by how much she resembled an angel as she slept - porcelain skin with rosy cheeks, beautiful lips parted slightly, almost smiling, head of curls sprawled out over the pillow. The last thing he wanted was for such perfect sleep to be disturbed by a harsh, noisy alarm clock. As much as he would have liked to, Tony knew he couldn't just watch her sleep all day - she would never want to be late for work.
He kissed her hair softly, then moved down to her jawline. "Chelle...time to wake up," he whispered. She didn't stir, so he started to nibble under her ear, a spot he knew was sensitive. A trace of a smile appeared on her face.
"Mmm...Tony," she muttered. "Do we have to go to work today? I could get the boss to give me the day off..."
"Really, could you?" he asked, teasingly. "The boss doesn't like being at work without you."
"Oh, I'm sure he could take the day off too...I have my ways of distracting him from work." She began to work her fingers down his chest, down his stomach, slipping them under the waistband of his boxers.
Tony felt his body quiver. "You are quite convincing," he growled as he kissed her.
An hour later, they finally pulled themselves out of bed to get ready for the day. "We have about 45 minutes till we need to leave to get to CTU before nine...do you want to shower first?" Michelle asked.
"No, you go ahead, you know I can get ready in 15 minutes...unless you want company in the shower," he suggested with a mischievous grin.
"Sorry," she said, kissing him lightly. "We really do have to get to work sometime this morning."
"If you insist..." he consented reluctantly as she headed toward the bathroom.
Less than two hours later, they pulled into CTU in their separate vehicles - it was better to avoid suspicion, and anyway, Michelle had driven her car to Tony's the previous evening. Parking, they greeted each other like it was the first time that day, but Tony's gaze was enough to remind Michelle of the morning they had. She bit her lip and smiled slightly as they entered the bullpen, then they were all business.
"Adam, did you get that report sent over to Division last night?" Michelle asked, remembering the phone call she had received from Ryan.
"Yeah, Chappell was hounding me about it," he replied, still wrapped up in his computer screen. "Speak of the devil..." Adam muttered as he spotted the bureaucrat making his way across the bullpen. Most of the analysts gave him a wide berth.
"Good morning, Ryan," said Michelle. She had always had a soft spot for him, even though he was hated by most of his subordinates, and she suspected that he could really be a nice guy under his "work" exterior. She almost felt bad that he was always left out of the camaraderie between CTU employees, and made a point to include him whenever she could.
"Hi, Michelle," He gave what could be called a smile, which disappeared when he turned to Adam. "Adam, are you caught up on your work yet?"
"Yeah, almost," he grumbled. "The only reason I'm behind in the first place is because I had to do that whole report Chloe was supposed to be working on!" Adam and Chloe were too much alike, their personalities clashed and they fought like cats and dogs.
"I heard that," Chloe snapped from her station, "and it definitely wasn't my responsibility! We're understaffed here, Ryan!" The short-tempered analyst was never afraid to speak up.
"That reminds me, O'Brian," he said calmly. "We just hired a new computer technician, and I need you to get her up-to-date on some of the newest protocols."
Chloe spun in her chair. "What?! Why me? You know I'm not good with idiotic newbies." Michelle stifled a smile.
"Well...her employer specifically requested that you be the one to train her." Ryan looked slightly afraid that she would explode at him.
"And who would that be?" inquired Chloe.
"Jack," Ryan said cautiously.
"And...why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me?" Chloe was suspicious, and Michelle had to admit she was getting the same vibes.
"Well...her name is Kim..." Ryan hedged.
"Kim BAUER?" Chloe was incredulous. "Why?!"
"Well, Jack thought she could use a stable job..."
Chloe snorted. "CTU, stable? More like he wanted to be able to look out for her!"
"She's qualified," Chappell defended himself. "And I won't let Jack protect her from anything any other agent would have to do."
"As long as he knows what he's getting into..." she muttered and walked off, no doubt going to discuss the situation with Jack.
"That went well," Adam smirked.
"All right, back to work," ordered Chappell. "Michelle, I need to talk to you and Tony." For a moment, she wondered if he had found out about them, but then he added, "Jack, too, once Chloe's done with him. Meet me in conference room 3 in 15 minutes."
"I'll go tell Tony," she said. Still curious, she made her way to Tony's office. Usually, if someone higher up wanted to talk to the three of them, it was because they had disobeyed orders or completely disregarded every protocol in the book. She couldn't remember doing anything of that nature in the recent past, though, so she had no idea what the meeting was about.
She knocked quickly, then opened the door. "Tony?"
"Hey, sweetheart," he said, looking up from his computer and rubbing his eyes. "What's up?"
"Chappell wants to see you, me, and Jack in conference 3 in about 10 minutes. Any idea what that's about?"
He thought a minute. "No...we haven't gotten into any trouble lately, have we?" he asked with a smile.
"That's about what went through my mind," she admitted, "but I couldn't think of anything. I don't think he could have found out about us...maybe it's about what happened at Jack's last night? But I'm not sure why Chappell would need to talk to us about that - the police probably got statements from Jack and Kate, and it was pretty obvious what happened."
"I'm sure it's nothing, honey," he reassured her. "Let's go get Jack and find out, shall we?"
They walked together down the stairs and over to Jack's office. Michelle raised a hand to knock, but before she could, Chloe opened the door and stormed past them. As Michelle covered a smirk, Tony shot her a questioning look. "Later," she mouthed, and they entered Jack's office.
"Hey, you two," said Jack, looking slightly traumatized. Michelle assumed that was from the time spent arguing with Chloe. "What's up?"
"Chappelle wants to see the three of us in conference three in ten minutes," she explained.
"And neither of us can remember shattering any major protocols lately," added Tony, "so we were wondering if you had any idea what this is about?"
Jack thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, I've got nothing, but it sure makes me curious. Chappelle will be there early, let's get going and see what he wants."
The trio entered the conference room to find Chappell waiting for them. "Take a seat," he said, sliding a folder to each of them. Michelle flipped hers open to find information about some kind of field mission. She looked up and waited for Chappell to explain.
"As you know, we've been gathering info on a Mexican drug operation run by two brothers – Ramon and Hector Salazar. We know they have a major heroin business, but Intel suggests that's a cover-up for something more serious, and they could eventually become a threat to U.S. security."
Jack, who was up to date on the Salazar situation, had been reading the brief while Tony and Michelle listened to Chappell. He suddenly looked up, smirking. "What?" Tony asked him, feeling like he was missing something.
"Nothing," Jack replied innocently. "Just keep listening. Ryan...please get to the point."
"I'm getting there," he grumbled, then continued, "The problem is, we have no real info on them. They're pretty paranoid, hard to get close to. Infiltrating their staff would be too dangerous, almost impossible. Our best bet is the nearby ranch that's for sale – from there, we would be close enough to run recon missions without risking setting up a base they could stumble on."
"And your point..." Tony still didn't understand why he was telling them like this.
"Well...we can't exactly just buy the ranch and set up a CTU, Las Nieves. The Salazars are sure to check out their new neighbors – like I said, they're cautious. So we need to take it over as an actual working ranch, get some hired help, and make it look normal. For that, we're going to need someone to run it...and we think it should be two agents undercover as a married couple. We don't know what kind of connections the Salazars have, so these agents would have to keep up the couple act around the ranch hands and generally everyone."
Jack, Michelle, and Tony all fought to keep their expressions blank as they saw where this was going. "So...you want them to be the two to do it," Jack finished for Chappelle, an amused smile barely detectable on his face.
"Right," Ryan confirmed. "Just for a week, maybe, till we get something concrete on the Salazars. If everything goes as planned, they'll never realize you aren't Tony and Michelle Remmel, a newly married couple who has no clue what it takes to run a ranch. When we're done, you'll suddenly realize ranching is too stressful and uncertain for you, and sell the place. Jack, you're going to be the lead agent working with them on this, because you're already familiar with the Salazars."
Tony and Michelle knew if they made eye contact with each other, they'd probably burst out laughing, so they looked straight ahead at Chappelle. Jack decided to help them out. "If there's nothing else, Ryan, I can start briefing them now?"
"OK, that's all I've got. When Jack's done going over everything with you, you can take the rest of the day off to pack and prepare. You'll fly out at 9 tomorrow morning. Come to me with any questions." The three agents sat frozen till the door closed behind them, then they exploded in laughter.
"He has no idea!" Jack said.
"Let's keep it that way," suggested Tony. "He'd never let us take this if he knew we were involved...he's switch one of us in a heartbeat." He decided this wasn't the time to bring up his concerns about keeping Michelle safe.
"And this is one undercover mission I'm actually looking forward to! It shouldn't be too hard to fool the ranch hands," she joked.
"Yeah, since anyone who's seen you outside of work in the last year probably already thinks you're a married couple," teased Jack. "The hard part will be keeping CTU from finding out you actually ARE together!"
"They'll just think we're very good at acting," Michelle said with a smile.
The trio laughed and joked as they went over every piece of Intel they had about the Salazars, then every detail about their made-up characters. They were allowed to use their real names because it was easier than trying to remember to call each other by fake ones, and the Salazars wouldn't have access to the databases they would need to discover that the "Remmels" were actually government agents. When they had picked over everything in the file, Jack said, "Well, I'll leave you two in here to discuss this...you know where to find me if you need anything."
"Thanks, Jack...and thanks for keeping quiet with Chappelle," Tony said.
Once Jack left, Michelle waited expectantly for Tony to speak. She could tell something had been bothering him; he didn't seem as excited about this mission as she was. "Chelle..." he started. "Are you sure you want to do this? I know you can handle it, but these are dangerous people. No one would think any less of you if you turned it down. I'm not going to push you either way, but you know how I feel about putting you at any risk..."
"Of course I want to do it, Tony." She was firm, but she didn't seem angry. "These are our jobs, and like we told Jack, we can't let our relationship get in the way."
"If you're sure...you know there's nobody I'd rather do this with than you, but my priority is keeping you safe."
"We'll both be fine, Tony. Think of it as a paid vacation!"
He laughed. "I love you, Chelle."
"I love you too," she said. "We better get out of here so we can pack...it's going to take a while."
Tony grimaced thinking how long it would take her – she would no doubt take everything in her bedroom and bathroom. "I think you might be the slowest packer in history. I bet it'll take me less than half an hour."
"If you're so speedy, why don't you get enough for an extra night and we can sleep at my place?" she suggested, and smirked coyly. "Then you can help me decide what clothes to take."
Tony liked the thought of that. "You convinced me," he said quickly. "Now, I have a couple things to take care of here...I'll be at your place in a couple hours?"
"OK, I'll finish up here then go get started packing," she agreed. He kissed her quickly before leaving. "See you soon."
Tony left conference room 3 with a smile on his face, but quickly turned serious when he neared Jack's office. He knocked, then stuck his head inside. "Hey, have a second?" he asked.
"Sure," said Jack, swiveling in his chair. "What's up?"
"About this mission," Tony began. "How dangerous will it be?"
"Not really at all," Jack answered. He thought the question was strange: Tony was usually like him, rushing into a situation without caring about possible threats to himself. Then he realized the reason for the caution. "Tony, I know you and Michelle have been dating for almost two years and have obviously managed to keep it from interfering with your jobs. Really, I'm impressed, but I can tell you're nervous about her going into the field. You need to remember it's part of her job, and she's just as well-trained as you, me, or any other CTU agent."
"I know, but if something were to happen to her...I'd never forgive myself. I love her, Jack."
"Tony, this is a relatively safe mission. And don't forget, you'll be with her every step of the way, and I'll be working from the underground mission ops station to keep you both safe. I know it's hard, but you're going to have to deal with Michelle doing fieldwork eventually. Remember, she's very good at her job. And I promise I'll do whatever it takes to protect you both."
"Thanks, Jack. It helps a lot," said Tony.
"Now go pack, because I'm willing to bet when you're done with that, you'll be getting together with her somewhere."
Tony laughed and admitted Jack was right. "Bye, Jack."
A/N: Sorry if the "undercover as a married couple" thing is kind of cliché, I just thought it was funny for them to go undercover as a couple while pretending not to be a couple. Anyway, please review & I'll put up the next chapter soon!