Setting: This chapter continues nine days after the previous one.

A/N: To all those baseball fans out there…sorry!

Suspicions confirmed

Sunday 12:45 pm

"We need to start thinking about getting up if we want to be ready in time for the game," Tony commented, interrupting Michelle's reverie.

Curled up in bed, her head resting on Tony's chest and his hands gently wandering up and down her back, Michelle couldn't think of many things that would tempt her to move. And a baseball game certainly wasn't one of them. If given the choice, she would have picked a meeting with Ryan over watching grown men running around in circles. Actually, her main complaint against the game was that most of the time nothing was happening; despite many enthusiastic explanations over the years she had yet to develop an appreciation of the game. But given Tony's passion for the game, she had a feeling that she was going to have to learn.

"Michelle, you awake?"

"No," she replied lifting her head slightly, meeting his gaze as he rolled his eyes.

"Come on, time for a shower. I'll help you scrub those hard-to-reach places," he offered.

Deciding that a hot shower with Tony might begin to compensate for a boring afternoon of baseball, Michelle slipped out of bed and followed him into the bathroom.

Thirty minutes later, freshly showered and dressed in jeans and tee-shirts, Tony's bearing the Chicago Cubs logo, they made their way into the kitchen.

"Hungry?" Tony asked as he walked across to fridge and began pulling out sandwich ingredients.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure why after that huge breakfast," Michelle replied. Tony had surprised Michelle with an amazing breakfast in bed that morning, a luxury she had greatly enjoyed. However, she suspected that his actions were influenced by a desire to keep her in bed. Not that she was necessarily complaining about that. In fact, thinking back over their morning she could see why she was hungry, and judging from the smirk on Tony's face his thoughts were following the same path.

"Well if you're going to keep feeding me, it makes sense that you have to help burn off the calories," Michelle teased.

"I can live with that," Tony replied with a sly grin. Pulling out a chopping board, he continued, "Now, would I be challenging your culinary skills if I asked you to cut up some salad for the sandwiches?"

Raising an eyebrow at his comment, Michelle decided that retaliation was necessary even though if it was an accurate assessment. Walking silently to the kitchen bench, she pulled the largest knife from its holder. Turning to face Tony, she used the few seconds this movement took to fluidly spin the knife around so the handle was covertly gripped in her palm and the blade pointed out from behind her forearm.

"Careful, if you don't behave yourself you might lose an appendage or two," Michelle warned, punctuating her comment with a stabbing attack aimed to look intimidating although remaining a safe distance away.

Watching her move Tony immediately acknowledged her excellent knife handling skills, as a weapon at any rate, and opted for acquiescing. Raising both hands in surrender, Tony responded, "I yield."

Laughing, Michelle began to chop vegetables as she enquired, "So all I have to do to get you to fold is some mild intimidation?"

Looking at Michelle, relaxed and enjoying herself, Tony thought to himself that just asking would be sufficient but decided against giving her that power. Anyway, he couldn't let such an attack on his masculinity go unchecked.

"Anytime you're interested in some hand-to-hand combat, I'll be happy to pin you down."

"You boys and your one track minds," Michelle responded rolling her eyes.

"Hey, I'll have you know that I consider sport at least as important as sex."

After giving a quick thought to whether this path might get her out of watching the game, Michelle proceeded to veto this idea, not sure she could handle the rejection. Instead she slid the chopped vegetables across to Tony who assembled their sandwiches and began returning everything to the fridge.

"You want a beer?" he enquired pulling out one for himself.

"No thanks."

Watching Michelle crinkle her nose slightly while responding, Tony asked, "Not a beer fan?"

"I'd rather drink paint stripper."

"I can arrange that," Tony joked walking out of the kitchen and inclining his head for Michelle to follow him. Entering his small laundry room, Michelle watched as he opened the cupboard under the sink. Instead of the expected collection of household chemicals, including the aforementioned paint stripper, she saw a large, well-stocked wine rack.

"You prefer reds, right?" Tony asked. "I have a couple of mellow Pinots I've been aging or if you prefer something stronger, I have a robust Napa Valley Merlot."

"I usually just order the house red," Michelle commented, completely lost and slightly surprised at Tony's wine knowledge.

Shaking his head with a sigh, Tony studied his collection for a moment before selecting a bottle.

"OK, we'll start you wine education with a light Pinot Noir."

Returning to the kitchen, Tony uncorked the bottle and poured a small amount into a wine glass. Handing the glass over to Michelle, he instructed her, "OK, step one, gently swirl the glass to allow the wine to breathe. Step two, hold the glass on an angle to look at the colour and clarity. Step three, smell the wine. Then comes step four, the taste test."

After swirling her glass and confirming that the red wine was indeed red, she smelt the wine feeling rather stupid. As she inhaled she was surprised to find that the wine had a very pleasant, fruity aroma; taking a sip, she found the fruit flavours she had just smelt were noticeable in the wine.

"OK, I think I've got a mild berry flavour here."

"Pinots are known for their fruity flavours. That one is an '04 so it should be very mellow and drinkable at this point. Happy with it?"

"Yeah. You going to be sharing it with me?"

"No way, it's an unwritten rule that baseball games must be accompanied by beer," Tony stated as he filled her glass. "I'll have a glass with you at dinner; it will go well with the empanadas I'm making."

Setting the bottle down on the bench, he collected the plate of sandwiches and his beer.

"Let's go. The pre-game commentary is about to start."

Michelle opted to take another sip of her wine, rather than attempt to express any excitement at this prospect. The only thing more boring than the baseball game itself was the never-ending, mundane chatter of the commentators.

Setting the food down on the coffee table, Tony grabbed the remote and settled himself on the couch. Turning to Michelle, who had sat beside him, he stated, "OK, the rules are as follows. Talking during the game is strictly prohibited. If you're interested, I'll be happy to explain the game during the breaks."

A slightly pained look crossed his face as he added, "However, if you prefer, the LA Times is on the side table."

"How do you know I'm not a baseball fan?"

"The LA Lakers are a basketball team, Michelle," Tony replied, referring to Michelle's earlier attempt at discussing the upcoming game with him.

"OK, you got me. I'm just going to grab a pen for the crossword and I'll be right back," she informed him. An afternoon of doing the weekend puzzles and reading the paper curled up beside Tony was definitely sounding better than pretending to watch the game.

…

5:15 pm

Just as the ninth innings started, the phone rang. Casting a malevolent glance in its direction, Tony reached across and answered, "Yeah."

"Tony, it's Jack."

"What's up, Jack?" Tony enquired trying not to sound as disinterested as he was currently feeling. Over the past week, he and Jack had been slowly rebuilding their working relationship. They would be working side-by-side a large part of the time so they needed to get along well, especially considering that stressful situations were part of the norm at CTU. Tony was also hoping that they would end up as friends. Previous conflicts aside, he both trusted and respected Jack, and it would be nice to have someone to actually watch a game with.

"I'm working up a thread relating to an Indonesian terrorist group. Our databases have very little information about the group so I'm trying to synch in with ASIO's (Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) database but I keep running into compatibility problems. I was hoping you could stop by CTU for a couple of hours and help out."

"With ASIO's formatting requirements, it's necessary to filter the search protocol input and output datastreams. It's a time consuming process Jack; can this wait until Monday?"

"I'd rather move on this now while all the details are fresh in my mind. And if we need to get in touch with the Australians, we'll want to do it in the next couple of hours since it's Monday morning there right now. Did I catch you in the middle of something?"

"It's Sunday afternoon Jack; I'm watching the game on TV with a beer and my girlfriend.

Look, my place is about 10 minutes from CTU; why don't you put all the intel you have on an externally accessible directory and come over in about an hour? We can set up the search protocols and have some dinner while they're running. Unless you already have plans?"

"No, Kim's away for the weekend so I was just going to grab some take-out on the trip home. Are you sure I'm not intruding?"

"No. I'm apartment 5D, 54 Willows Rd. I'll see you in an hour, Jack."

"See you Tony."

Hanging up the phone, Tony redirected his attention back to the TV while commenting to Michelle, "I guess you caught that?"

"Yeah. Am I allowed to talk during the game?" she teased.

Casting Michelle a quick glance before returning his gaze on the game, Tony answered somewhat despondently, "Yeah, I don't think my boys are going to take it home."

Michelle forced herself to refrain from commenting; Tony's loyalty to his beloved Chicago Cubs, despite their abysmal losing streak, was kind of sweet.

"Are you going to stay for dinner?" Tony continued.

"I don't know. How's Jack going to react to us dating?"

"Honestly, I can't tell you; Jack's not an easy person to read. But he's going to find out sooner or later and this is as good a time as any to convince him that this relationship is not going to affect our work. Also I'm going to need some help juggling dinner and writing the script for the search filters."

"So what you're saying is that you want me to work on my Sunday night to allow you to potter around in the kitchen?" Michelle surmised.

"Well if you prefer, I can do the programming and you can cook," Tony countered.

Before Michelle could come up with a suitable response, Tony groaned and gestured at the TV.

"Did you see that? My four year old niece could have caught that!" he wailed.

"Unbelievable," Michelle agreed picking back up the newspaper, deciding to postpone this discussion until after the game.

Twenty minutes later, the game ended with a 6-2 defeat. Tony flicked off the TV and turned his attention to Michelle who was intently reading the film reviews with a smile on her face.

"You look like you're enjoying yourself there," he commented.

"Just enjoying the film reviews; they're always written with enough sarcasm and cynicism to make them more entertaining than most of the films they're reviewing."

"I'm pleased that you can see the value of sarcasm," Tony replied, well aware of his own extravagant use of it. "Did you enjoy your afternoon?"

"Yeah, I did. I can't remember the last time I took a whole afternoon to relax and read the paper from cover to cover. And I could get used to having my own personal attendant to keep the supply of wine and food flowing," she added with a smile.

"The bill's in the mail. And just so you know, I charge double on Sundays," Tony teased back. He had also passed a pleasant afternoon. Certainly his team's performance could have been better but he'd enjoyed the game nevertheless. And while slightly disappointed at Michelle's complete lack of interest in the game, she had at least been silent for its duration.

"So have you decided to stay for dinner? My home-made empanadas using the traditional family recipe are second to none," Tony informed Michelle.

"I guess I can't refuse an offer like that," Michelle replied, still not completely sure that she was ready to deal with going public about her relationship with Tony, especially to a colleague she barely knew. Seeing that Tony was studying her reaction intently, she elaborated, "Once Jack finds out, I'm going to go from your Chief of Staff to your girlfriend."

Continuing to meet her gaze, Tony took a second to collect his thoughts; he understood Michelle's position having been in the same situation when dating Nina. To be honest, he had never really reconciled his feelings on the matter but then it was a stretch to consider his liaison with Nina a relationship.

"Look Michelle, I want this— us— to work but we have to face certain facts. I am your boss and there will always be people who think that you are sleeping your way to the top. But Jack won't be one of them. He was there on the day of the nuclear threat to see firsthand what an incredibly dedicated, strong and highly capable agent you are. Which, for the record, is why I promoted you."

"I guess you're right," Michelle conceded before adding, "And I suppose there are worse things than being your girlfriend."

"Hey, you should feel honoured," Tony rebutted leaning in for a quick kiss before getting up from the couch to start clearing the dishes from the coffee table.

"Come on, seeing as you have proven yourself handy with a knife, you can help with dinner," Tony commented as he headed for the kitchen. Stacking the dirty dishes in the sink, Tony started pulling out the necessary ingredients for dinner as Michelle sat herself down in front of the island bar to watch. Once he had everything he needed, Tony took out his apron. Noticing Michelle smirking, he explained, "The apron works like an anti-jinx to prevent me from wearing half the flour."

"Kind of like hanging your laundry outside guarantees that it's going to rain," Michelle quipped.

"Something like that," Tony agreed as he washed and dried his hands in preparation for making the dough. Ready, he began to measure out the ingredients onto the bench.

"Trying to get out of washing a bowl?" Michelle questioned, surprised at Tony's action.

"The secret to making dough is to knead it well and you can't do that in a bowl; anyway marble is one of the best surfaces for kneading."

Proceeding to mix the ingredients together, Tony continued his discourse, "Once the dough is ready, I'll put it in the fridge to settle while we organise the filling. I'm going to make meat empanadas, which have beef, olives and hard-boiled eggs, and choclo, which have …"

"Corn," Michelle interrupted, easily translating the Spanish word.

Tony looked up from his kneading to stare at her in surprise, "You speak Spanish?"

Michelle had never specifically mentioned this, mostly because the fact that she had minored in Spanish was written in both her CV and CIA file. She had always assumed Tony, who had been part of her interview panel as well as her immediate supervisor since day one at CTU, was aware of this fact. However she began to question this assumption a couple of days ago when Tony had received a call from his sister and had switched to Spanish mid-conversation when the topic had turned to Michelle.

"Si," she responded in Spanish, detailing her university studies and enjoying the rare occasion to practice her slightly rusty conversational skills.

…

6:10 pm

At the sound of the doorbell, Tony buzzed Jack in, quickly removed his apron and went to open the door.

"Hey Jack."

"Hi, Tony," Jack responded, "You should have come into CTU; then you wouldn't have had to see those last two runs. I can't believe Floyd missed that catch."

"Tell me about it," Tony groused in reply. "You were watching the game?"

"I had the radio commentary on while I was working," Jack explained. "The Cubs loss was a given, so I figured I might as well do something productive at the same time."

"Hey, my boys are working on that comeback. Next weekend, I'm going to have to invite you over to watch the game with me to make sure you don't head into the office and generate more work," Tony joked.

Changing the subject before he had to endure any further criticisms of his team or today's crushing loss, he continued, "Come on in. I've just put dinner in the oven. Things should be all set to kick off the search," he stated glancing across at Michelle sitting in front of the computer desk in the corner of his living room. After helping him prepare the empanada fillings, Michelle had retreated to the living room to set up for the search protocols and avoid the fiddly business of making the pastries.

"I'm ready to set up the search filters," Michelle confirmed turning to face Jack and Tony.

"Hi, Jack. What drive did you store the protocols on?" she asked, determined to keep the conversation on a subject matter she felt comfortable with.

"Hi, Michelle. I put all the intel on 7 epsilon; it has level six password encryption."

Walking across to the computer, Tony leaned across and keyed in his password, taking the occasion of their close proximity to whisper to Michelle to relax.

Focusing on the computer rather than Tony or Jack, Michelle accessed the relevant files.

"I've got the protocols. It will take me a minute to kick off the script then we can start entering the search parameters," Michelle informed Tony and Jack, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had settled between them.

"OK," Tony responded to Michelle, before turning to address Jack.

"Why don't you come through to the kitchen so we can grab a couple of extra chairs and something to drink? This could take awhile and we might as well make ourselves comfortable."

"Fine. My cardiologist still has me off alcohol but a Coke would be great if you have it," Jack replied following Tony into the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, Tony grabbed a Coke for Jack and emptied the remainder of the Pinot into two glasses for himself and Michelle. Task complete he looked up to find Jack studying him. Meeting his acute gaze, Tony decided that now was the time to ask the question that he'd been burning to ask since Jack first entered the apartment and took measure of the situation.

"You knew, didn't you?"

Shrugging his shoulders slightly, Jack replied, "I had my suspicions."

"You never said anything," Tony commented.

"It's not my place."

"You don't think it's a good idea," Tony surmised.

Jack shrugged wordlessly in response.

"Damn Jack, I've questioned terrorists who were more communicative than you."

A smile crossed Jack's face briefly before he commented, "Look, I'm not convinced that dating your second in command is a good move. Previous history aside, any problems between you will interfere with your work and if things don't work out you still have to face each other every day."

Crossing his arms in front of his chest, Tony countered, "The opposite is also true, Jack. Our relationship makes each of us stronger and more capable of working together as a team."

"I'm not trying to talk you out of this Tony. Hell, I know you well enough to know that it would be a waste of oxygen. You asked for my opinion and you got it. For your sake, I hope I'm wrong."

"Thanks," Tony awkwardly responded, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts as he rubbed his jaw. "So, uhm, no-one at CTU or Division knows about this."

"I'm not going to stand around the water cooler gossiping about it."

Nodding, Tony collected their drinks and ushered Jack, chairs in hand, back into the living room to join Michelle at the computer. The next ten minutes passed quickly as the three of them worked through the parameters to set up the search protocol. Once the input data stream was filtering, the work-related conversation ended.

"So did you get out of the office to enjoy some of the nice weather we had this weekend?" Tony asked, determined to keep the conservation light and off the topic of work, but unable to come up with anything more inspirational than the weather.

"I was down at Venice Beach Saturday afternoon; it's still a little chilly right now," Jack replied.

"Chilly? Typical Californian; anything below 75 and you claim its freezing."

"Snow's all well and good when you're on the mountain skiing but it doesn't belong in your backyard," Jack countered referring to Tony's Chicago upbringing.

"Well, I'm not necessarily saying that I miss shovelling the driveway, but I do like the crisp winter."

"I definitely agree with Jack, cold weather is overrated." Michelle interjected mildly.

Glancing across at Michelle, Jack commented, "Seattle isn't usually known for its tropical climate."

"No, but it's not as cold, wet and miserable year round as everyone imagines; actually summer in Seattle is very pleasant," Michelle replied, surprised that Jack had obviously taken the time to pull up her CIA profile. She, on the other hand, knew nothing about Jack. "You born here in LA?"

"Yeah, apart from some travelling with the army I've always lived here."

"The weather's great and I love the beach but the city itself is a bit too hectic, especially with the constant traffic."

"It's certainly gotten considerably worse over the years."

"You'll have to have a word with Ryan to see if we could get a couple of company choppers to avoid rush hour," Tony joked, pleased to see that his lame conversation starter had exactly worked.

Between some light conversation, a dinner of empanadas and monitoring the search protocols, the evening passed quickly and resulted in a considerable amount of data to analyse. Michelle and Tony were even successful in convincing Jack to leave the threat analysis until the next day.

As the door closed on Jack's departure, Tony turned to Michelle and commented, "That wasn't too bad."

"Not at all. Actually Jack's a nice guy… maybe I made the wrong boyfriend choice," Michelle teased.

"Given that Jack admitted he can't cook, you two wouldn't survive long as a couple," Tony joked back.

"I've managed to live this long without cooking so obviously it isn't an essential skill," Michelle replied before returning to the original subject, "Seriously though, you were right. I'm glad that I've dealt with Jack finding out, especially without all of CTU watching."

"Hey, I'm usually right," Tony replied stepping forward and pulling Michelle into his arms. "And while I'm on a roll with good advice, we should get some sleep. If Jack's intel pans out, tomorrow will be a long day."