Author's Note: This is the last chapter! Just read it and tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Tony's eyes locked on Michelle's as he pushed their bedroom door partway closed behind them. He drew her into his body and felt his jaw line tingle as her fingers traced it. "Chelle..." He took her face in both hands and gently lowered his mouth to hers, savoring the warmth of her lips. All his senses drank her in: her gorgeous eyes, smooth skin, intoxicating scent and sweet taste. As his tongue brushed hers softly, then lingered, his hands tangled in her vivacious curls, angling her head closer. He dragged his lips down her chin, leaving a light trail to her collarbone. His light nibbles sent a chill through her, and she moaned. The sound sent a shock through him. Tony swept her into his arms and layed her on the bed, only to be immediately pulled down on top of her.

"God Tony...I need you." He couldn't imagine anything sexier than that breathy, ragged voice - then he felt her fingers working their way under his shirt. They tugged it upward frantically, and he paused for a moment to rip it off. Then he was back on top of her, sucking her bottom lip and running his hands up and down her sides.

"You have no idea about the things you do to me, Michelle." His words were heavy with passion. She moaned loudly and kissed down his chest - just as they heard a knock. Before they could even react, the door swung open, revealing the last person they wanted to see.

Ryan Chappelle.

Tony quickly rolled off Michelle, scrambling to pull the sheet over them, but it was too late. Jack, only a step behind Chappelle, bumped into the man when he stopped suddenly in the door. Both Tony and Jack swore under their breath, and everyone in the room froze for a moment.

Chappelle was speechless...but that didn't last long. "Wh-...wha--...What are you thinking, Almeida?!" His face was practically purple with rage.

"Listen to me, Ryan-" Tony began, but it was useless.

"I don't think I need to! It's pretty obviously what's going on here! Almeida, I need to talk to you outside, now." Tony squeezed Michelle's hand under the covers before pulling his shirt on and rolling out of bed in one motion. He reluctantly joined Chappelle in the hall, leaving Jack and Michelle in the room. "You are the ranking agent here! You should have known better than to pull something like this, especially after Nina Myers! And-"

"You have no right to compare Michelle to Nina!" Tony exploded. "And you can't tell me how to live my life, it's none of your business!"

"It BECOMES my business when two of my agents can't live in the same house for a few days without screwing each other!"

Suddenly Tony understood. Chappelle thought they had just been fooling around this week and didn't have a relationship before that. "It's not like that, Ryan."

"Really, Tony? Then how is it?"

Tony sighed and reached into the pocket of his jacket hanging on the doorknob. "It's like this." He held up the jewelry box and flipped it open, revealing the ring that had been occupying his thoughts the past weeks.

"Are you saying that you and Michelle are..."

"Yeah, I am saying that. I love her, and I'm asking her to marry me soon. Really soon. And I don't care what you think about it."

For the second time in as many minutes, Ryan Chappelle was speechless. Tony could tell he was trying to decide whether to be more or less angry now that he knew the truth about their relationship. Finally, a resigned look crossed his face. The words he spoke didn't match his expression: "I'm going to transfer her to Omaha. There's no way I can have my director married to his chief of staff." He obviously knew what Tony was going to say - when Tony Almeida made a decision, nothing could change his mind.

"Then I'll solve that problem by quitting. And you should know that if I quit, Michelle will too."

Chappelle sighed, expecting that reaction. He didn't want to lose both of them - they were two of the most talented and experienced agents at CTU. Tony was pleasantly surprised by his next words. "I don't like it, Almeida. You know that. And if I see any indication whatsoever that this is interfering with your work, I'll have no choice but to transfer one of you. But for now, we can give it a test run. I'll be watching closely, and so will others, so don't screw up."

Tony let out the breath he'd been holding. "Thank you, Ryan. We won't. And if it makes you feel any better..." He trailed off. Maybe the fact that no one had noticed their relationship for two years would reassure Chappelle they could keep it out of the office, but then again, it might just make him angry at how long they'd been keeping this secret. He left the sentence unfinished; luckily Chappelle was already moving on in the conversation.



"Anyway, the real reason I came up here was to congratulate you both on a successful mission. We found enough information to justify sending an agent in closer to the Salazars - it will be dangerous, but they're running a major operation here and it's the only way we can think of. All that doesn't really affect you, though, so when we get home tomorrow, you'll just need to come in to CTU for a couple hours to debrief. Then you can have the rest of the day and a long weekend off."

'A couple hours' doubtlessly meant all day, but tomorrow was Wednesday, so that still left four days free - more than Tony had hoped for. "Michelle too?" he asked.

Chappelle paused, obviously thinking about arguing, but then said, "Yes, Michelle too."

"Thanks, Ryan. Can I talk to Jack a minute before you two go?"

"I'll wait downstairs." he agreed.

Tony walked back into the bedroom, and Jack and Michelle went silent, looking at him expectantly. He could see the tension in Michelle's eyes, worried that Chappelle was going to make life difficult for them. Tony spoke, alleviating her concerns. "He's OK with us!"

"What? It didn't sound like it from the way he was yelling!"

"Well, he was pretty pissed at first, but I talked him down. He'll be fine." Tony re-enacted most of the conversation for them, fudging slightly on the part involving the ring and talk of marriage.

"That could have been worse!" Michelle agreed. "I wasn't really expecting him to coming marching in here tonight."

"Obviously," Jack snickered.

"By the way, Jack, thanks for the warning," Tony said sarcastically.

"Sorry, I didn't really have any way of getting in touch with you other than the cell phones. I tried to think of a reason for Ryan to let me come up first, but he wasn't buying it and I didn't want him to get suspicious. You know my usual strategy would involve threatening, drugging, or tying him up, but I didn't think any of those would be quite appropriate for the situation."

"Well, it worked out all right," Michelle assured him, always the peacemaker between the two men. "Anyway, it saved us the nerve wracking experience of straight-up telling him!"

"True," Tony admitted. "That would have been a horrible meeting."

Jack laughed. "Anyway, I'll leave you two for now. Sorry again about the Chappelle thing."

"It's OK, Jack. We'll see you tomorrow at CTU," said Michelle.

As Jack left, Tony joined her on the bed. "That wasn't so bad," he commented.

"Probably not the best way for him to find out, though - walking in on us in the middle of a mission!"

Tony agreed. "There is good news, though..." he breathed into her ear.

"And what would that be?" She could tell the nature of the news by his tone.

"I don't think we'll have any interruptions for the rest of the night. Remind me where we were..." Her mouth moved over his, and he was lost again.

Tony woke the next morning to sun seeping through the blinds. The first thing he felt, before even opening his eyes, was Michelle's body in his arms. Now THIS is paradise,he thought.It was getting to the point where he couldn't imagine falling asleep without her steady breathing or waking up without her comforting warmth. Reluctantly squinting at the clock, he realized their alarm wouldn't go off for another half hour. His thoughts turned to the implications of the night before. The one thing that was keeping him from proposing was the potential problems it would cause at work...but now that Chappelle knew, there was nothing holding him back. The thought made him nearly dizzy.

He and Michelle could actually get married...buy a house together, go grocery shopping together, pick out furniture together, even have kids together. They would wake up every morning in their bed, and come home every night to their house. They would spend holidays together, visit each of their parents together...it was everything Tony ever wanted, and he didn't know how much longer he could wait. He knew she didn't need the proposal to be showy or extravagant, but he wanted it to be perfect. Slowly, a plan began to form in his mind. He mulled it over, and before he knew it, the alarm was beeping. Damn...Trying not to disturb Michelle, he reached over and shut it off. He let himself hold her for a little bit longer, then brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead. "Wake up, baby..."

She shifted against him and tucked her head into his chest. "Huh uh..." she mumbled. He felt her warm breath against his skin and it made it harder to move. Slowly, she began to wake and pulled back to look up at him. "Is it really time to get up already?"

"Yeah...we have to get ready to leave for the airport."

"Oh!" Michelle bolted upright. "How much time do we have?"

"Enough," Tony chuckled quietly, pulling her back down. "I don't want to let you up just yet..." He ran his fingers over her bare skin.

"As much as I would love to stay in bed with you all morning," she kissed him square on the lips, "we really do have to get to the airport." He groaned as she climbed out of bed, his eyes roaming over her naked body. "Do you want to shower first, or should I?"

"Come on," he said, getting up and pulling her towards the bathroom. "We have time." Michelle was easy to convince.

After a long shower together, they got dressed and packed last-minute toiletries. Michelle checked the bedroom again to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything, and they carried their bags down to the front door. Racquel greeted them. "Hola, buenos dias. Breakfast is nearly ready."

They ate one last meal with their new friends, and said goodbye. Before they knew it, Tony and Michelle were in their rental car pulling away from the ranch house. "You OK?" Tony asked, noticing that she was unusually quiet.

"Yeah, just thinking," she said. He waited for her to say more, knowing she would probably explain if he gave her a chance. "I'm going to miss this place, but more than that, I don't want to go home. I'm sort of looking forward to getting back to work, but I don't know how Danny's doing."

Tony wished there was something he could do to make it better, but he knew the best thing was to just listen and be sympathetic. "Maybe he and Rachel will be talking again when we get back."

"Maybe...but maybe he brought Carrie to the birthday party and made things even worse."

"That's possible," Tony admitted, "but listen to me, Chelle." He waited till she turned toward him. "What Danny does isn't your responsibility. He's lucky to have such an amazing sister to look out for him, but he's a grown man. I know you love him, and I really admire your loyalty, but I hate seeing you hurt over and over."

"Tony, I don't know what I'd do without you. You have no idea how much strength I get just from your presence and your touch. I can deal with anything as long as I know that at the end of the day, I can go home and you'll be there."

"And you know I always will be, sweetheart." His mind flashed to the plans he had come up with that morning - plans to make it much more permanent.

Half an hour later, they arrived at the airport. Tony found the rental return parking lot, and they left the car there and took their luggage from the trunk. "Let me get that," Tony said as he watched Michelle struggle with her bag.

"No, thanks, honey. My one rule about packing is to never bring more than I can carry myself."

Tony laughed as they made their way into the terminal. After checking their bags, the pair passed through security and found their gate. "How long do we have before our flight?" Michelle asked.

Just then, an announcement came over the PA system. "Now boarding United flight 108 to Los Angeles."

"Wow, looks like we cut it pretty close," Tony commented as they boarded the plane. He felt a sudden fluttering of butterflies in his stomach. If he was going to enact his plan, it would be soon. There was no way or reason he would back out now.

They settled in their seats, but after twenty minutes, the plane still hadn't moved. Tony was starting to get restless - delays like this always made him nervous. What's taking so long? The intercom clicked on, and a deep voice said, "Good morning, this is your pilot. We're experiencing some runway traffic, and our takeoff has been pushed back about twenty minutes. We are the next plane up, so we should be moving shortly."

Tony was relieved, but not quite convinced. Michelle, on the other hand, curled up on his shoulder. "I'm going to get some rest. Wake me up when we take off," she requested.

Minutes later, Tony's mission cell phone rang. Seeing it was Jack, he answered it without waking Michelle. "Almeida."

"Tony, it's Jack."

"Yeah, no kidding. Is everything OK? We've been sitting on the runway for half an hour."

"That's not related to you specifically; we've determined that none of Salazar's people followed you to the airport. You're in the clear."

"Alright, thanks Jack. Good luck on your flight."

Jack chuckled dryly. "Yeah."

As Tony hung up the phone, he let out a breath. That was the last step in the setup of his plan. Now he just had to wait till they were in the air. Luckily, it wasn't long till he felt the plane shudder and begin to roll toward the runway. He nuzzled Michelle's cheek. "We're moving, baby."

Her gorgeous eyes opened and she sat up. "Who was on the phone?"

"Just Jack." Tony stopped for a second as the plane took off, the butterflies back in full force. "He was calling to say we were clear, nobody followed us here."

"So this mission is officially over?" Tony nodded. Jesus. I'm gonna pass out. He knew what the next words out of her mouth would be. "Oh, I should take off this ring then." She began digging around her bag to find the box.

Now or never. "I think I have both our boxes," he said, bending down to locate it in his own carry-on. He handed it to her quickly before she could notice the slight tremble of his hand.

She flipped open the box - and saw it already contained a ring. This one was much simpler - a mid-sized diamond with a small purple stone on each side. It was gorgeous. "Tony?" Her voice was soft and uncertain. He held her gaze and took her hands in his, nervousness suddenly gone.

"Michelle, the last two years have been the best of my life. You've awakened things in me I didn't even know existed, and you understand me sometimes better than I understand myself. No matter how bad a day at work is, you're the one thing that anchors my sanity. When I'm not around you, I'm constantly counting down in my head to when I'll see you again. I can't fall asleep without you in my arms. So what I'm trying to say is...I love you." Her lip trembled and tears crept across her vision. "Michelle Dessler, will you marry me?"

She wasn't sure her voice would work. "Yes, Tony. Yes!" She threw her arms around his neck and he pulled her in tightly, rocking her back and forth as tears slipped from her eyes. "I love you so much, Tony."

"I love you too, baby. More than you can imagine. Mi mundo, mi vive, mi amo."

Wow, finally done! This was my first real story so please review and give suggestions! I've been doing some shorter stuff...songfics, oneshots, etc so go look at those if you want...thanks for reading!