I'm facing a serious writer's block and I'm not really thrilled with that chapter. Feel free to tell me that it sucks. Anyway, an anonymous reviewer asked whether that story would be prim and proper or hot and steamy. Considering that the story is pre season 2 and Tony and Michelle haven't started dating yet, it would be prim and proper .however, its sequel (post season 2) would be hot and steamy.

Chapter 9: I barely know him

Michelle entered the break room slowly. Her head was pounding and her eyes were heavy. She hadn't taken a break since her arrival and was dying to have a cup of coffee. She sat down sipping her coffee then she heard some voices. She looked at the two women who entered the room. They stopped talking when they saw her then one of them smiled and extended her hand: "Hi, I'm Cassie Stewart and that's Elaine Holland"

Michelle smiled and shook their hands: "nice to meet you. I'm Michelle Dessler". Both of them sat down then Elaine asked: "whose job you took over?" Michelle shrugged: "I don't know. I'm the third in command". They exchanged glances: "you have Tony's job"

Michelle's eyes widened: "Tony? You mean Tony Almeida?" They nodded and everything Elle said came back to Michelle. So she was working for Nina's boyfriend. Michelle thought that was strange, Tony didn't seem the kind of guy that could be deceived easily.

Cassie noticed her silence: "Don't believe everything you hear. Tony is my friend and I know him. He is a patriot. He would never do anything to harm this country. His only mistake was to give his trust to the wrong person"

Michelle sighed heavily: "I barely know him and I don't really know what to think of him but I'm not going to condemn him just because he was dating Nina"

At that moment, Tony opened the door and walked in. Michelle felt her face grow hot the second she saw him but Tony didn't notice. He just gave Cassie a quick hug and greeted Elaine who asked: "why didn't you come to Jamey's funeral?"

Cassie threw her a warning look but it was too late. A look of pain spread on Tony's face and he glanced quickly at Michelle. She looked uncomfortable and he guessed that she knew: "I was at Division, Hammond and Chappelle wanted to talk to me"

Cassie put her hand on his shoulder: "it's great to have you back Tony" with that she left with Elaine leaving Tony and Michelle in an awkward silence.

Tony poured himself some coffee and sat down. He didn't want to talk about Nina. He wasn't one to talk with a complete stranger about his personal life but he knew he had to, they couldn't afford to have the second and third in command working in tension or not trusting each other: "so…I guess you already know about me and Nina"

Michelle avoided his gaze while nodding. She was embarrassed and didn't want to have this conversation: "Michelle, please look at me". She raised her eyes slowly to meet his and he held her gaze for a minute: "I don't know what you heard exactly but I want you to know one thing, I wasn't helping Nina. I didn't know she was a mole, not while we were just co-workers, or while we were dating"

Michelle shifted uncomfortably in her chair: "it's not my business and……".Tony cut her off: "you are the third in command and practically my right arm. I can't have you doubting me. We can't work that way"

Michelle bit her lip. He was being honest with her and she had to do the same with him: "I heard a lot of rumors but I don't know if they were true. I don't know you. The bottom line is you still work here and even got promoted which means our superiors trust you. That's all I need to know"

Tony eyed her carefully then stood up to leave but she stopped him: "Mr. Almeida". He turned to her with a raised brow and she chuckled softly when she saw his expression and understood it: "sorry….Tony. Off the record, I'm not one to get affected by rumors. I form my opinion based on the person in front of me"

Tony could tell she was sincere and that warmed his heart. He opened the door then paused: "um, Michelle". She looked at him curiously: "thank you"

Tony returned to his station feeling slightly better, his conversation with Michelle put him at ease. Any doubt he had about his co-workers was long gone. He finished his coffee and returned to his work.

Minutes later, something caught his attention. He sat straight in his chair as he double checked what he found then he shouted: "Milo, did you guys check those systems?"

Several heads turned to him as Milo nodded. Mason heard Tony's shout and headed to him as he said: "then how come I just found another information leak?"

"What?" Tony turned to Michelle who walked over to him: "that can't be. I was among the team that checked those systems". She leaned over Tony's computer and her eyes widened. Somebody downloaded some information little over 2 hours ago and it seemed that he had been doing that for the last week. Tony sat down and started typing: "Damn it George. These are Nina's systems. You should have been more careful"

Mason felt anger rise inside him. Those systems were checked by Division and they confirmed they were clean. Now, he had an information leak and Chappelle would breathe down his neck: "Milo, call Division and find out who the hell is responsible for that mistake"

"Call them yourself George". Tony said as he turned and fixed Mason with his eyes as if to tell him that he understood what he was trying to do: "I need Milo here"

Mason clenched his jaw and stormed off to his office but Tony didn't care. It was Mason's job to inform Division but he wanted to avoid talking to Chappelle or worse, Hammond. Tony couldn't blame him though; He hated to talk to both men as well. Tony gave Michelle and Milo some instructions and they managed to secure the systems but failed to find out who stole the information.

It was the end of his shift so Tony headed to Mason's office to tell him he was leaving. Mason was discussing something with Michelle so Tony waited until they finished: "I'm heading home. Do you need anything?"

Mason shook his head and looked at Michelle: "you should go too. You did great today Michelle. I'm impressed". Michelle smiled and blushed and Mason turned to Tony: "you too Tony. Great job. I can't believe we allowed somebody to hack into our systems again"

Tony shrugged: "Nina had been leaking information since God only knows when. Anyway, did they find out whose fault it was?" Mason nodded: "an agent called Carrie something. I wasn't really listening to Ryan"

Michelle raised her head when she heard that. There was only one Carrie in the team and that was Carrie turner. She tried to act normally but Tony noticed her reaction. He guessed she knew the woman but didn't ask. He just nodded at Mason and left.

Tony entered his apartment and sat down rubbing his eyes. He was about to change when the bell rang. He opened the door to reveal his twin sisters Jane and Justine: "so you two got picked up to baby sit me today?"

Justine laughed and hugged him: "we are going to baby sit but I'm not sure we are going to baby sit you". Tony didn't understand so Justine dragged him out of the apartment. Tony's eyes lit up when he saw who was standing in the hallway. He smiled at Anna's son Tony, Jane's daughter Sky and Rick's daughters Sandy and Tia.

Sky launched herself towards him followed closely by little Tony. Tony kissed the kids then turned to his sisters: "I thought Rick had 3 children. Did he got sick of the baby and strangled him?"

Jane slapped his arms playfully: "little John is downstairs with Joey. They will be here in a minute". Tony smiled and entered the apartment with Jane and Justine. The kids had already made themselves comfortable and raided the fridge but little Tony was no where to be found. Jane asked: "girls, where is your cousin?"

Tony put his hand on her arm: "probably in my bedroom. He always goes there and tries to find my gun". Justine panicked at his words: "oh my God. Where is your gun?"

Tony removed his jacket to show her the gun then went to his bedroom to find little Tony. He laughed when he found his nephew in the closet literally: "I don't keep my gun in the closet pal"

He laughed even harder when the 5 years old boy stuck his head out through his suits and pouted. Tony picked him up and carried him to the living room. Joey was there with baby John. Tony greeted his brother then sat down with little Tony seated on his lap and started tickling him.

The little boy started laughing and could hardly breathe: "stop Uncle Tony, please stop". Tony stopped and kissed his forehead before releasing him and he ran immediately to play with his cousins.

Tony leaned back in his chair and looked at Joey who was smiling at him: "why are you staring at me like that?" Justine wrapped his arms around his neck from behind and kissed his cheek: "you are in a good mood"

Tony sighed and placed his hand over hers: "what's done is done and I can't do anything to change it. I can't say I'm totally over what happened but I'm really trying. Enough with that subject, hand me the baby"

Jane gave him the baby and the three of them stood there watching Tony as he held his youngest nephew and made baby talk to him.

Michelle smiled when she entered her apartment. She was in a very good mood; her first day at CTU went as easy as possible. She checked her messages and found a message from Tedd so she called him. He didn't give her a chance to say anything: "how was your first day?"

She laughed at him: "great actually which reminds me. Do you remember our conversation about the agent that was dating Nina Myers? Turned out he's my direct boss"

Tedd stayed silent for a minute then spoke slowly: "are you telling me that he's the chief of staff? How is that possible?" Michelle shrugged: "I don't know all the details. He said something about Chappelle and Hammond. I think they questioned him then allowed him to go back to work. He's very smart; he discovered an information leak today. It was hard to even notice there was something wrong with the system"

Michelle pressed the phone between her ear and shoulder as she put a frozen pizza in the oven. She heard Tedd say: "you mean the one caused by Carrie?"

Michelle sat down and sighed: "yeah, I was about to ask you about that. What happened exactly? Carrie is a bitch but she is good at what she does"

Tedd let out a short laugh at what she said then turned serious again: "she screwed up. She didn't concentrate on her work and nearly caused a disaster. Chappelle demoted her"

Michelle tried to process the information. Carrie was demoted. She didn't know how to feel about that. She wasn't one to be happy because someone got hurt even if she hated that person. On the other hand, Carrie made her life a living hell and destroyed her brother's life and she didn't do her job properly. Tedd's voice snapped her out of her thoughts: "Michelle, I need to go. Talk to you later"

Michelle sat down and started eating. She didn't think about Carrie much. She refused to think about that woman. She found herself thinking about Tony. She still didn't know what to think of him but she liked what she knew about him so far. He was honest, straight and smart.

To Michelle Dessler, Tony Almeida was a man she couldn't wait to know better.