Sorry about the delay for this, you guys, I've been busy these last few days. Enjoy!
The Hostage
It was done.
She was risking potentially millions of lives, but she didn't care. She was following along; she'd redeployed her men, she would let their one lead to Marwan get away in order to save him. She was doing it for him, just as he'd done for her. She loved him and she'd just gotten him back, losing him wasn't an option.
"It's done."
"Very good, Michelle. Tony was getting a little worried here. I think he doubts how much you care."
She bit her lip, hating how the nameless hostile's taunts were true. He probably did doubt it. She'd left him when he needed her, today she'd treated him so badly, and despite the part of her that screamed the word 'yes' when he asked her to go away, to start over with him, she'd still hesitated. She really had given him no indication that he would be her first choice.
"I did what you wanted, now let him go and leave," she snapped.
"Nah uh. You don't call the shots, Michelle. I do. And maybe I'm not ready to say goodbye to handsome Tony here. Maybe I'll take him with me."
"No!" she shouted, remembering half a second too late that Bill might be outside. "Please don't, don't do that. I've done what you asked, please just let him go."
The woman derided her again, asking her if Tony liked it when she begged, but her growing hysteria kept her from coming up with a suitable retort. Not that there really was one anyway. She might have broken more laws than Michelle could count, but the woman still had Tony. She was still holding the gun to his head.
"You'll need to do something else for me before I'm satisfied. Leave the building and go to your car. Take the quickest way to the four-oh-five. Call me from there."
Already she was gathering her things, stealing frantic glances down to the floor and wondering how she could leave CTU as inconspicuously as possible when she was in the middle of running an operation.
"Don't try to play me, Michelle. Talk to anyone on your way out, tip anyone off and I will kill him; I don't care how pretty he is."
"I won't, I won't. Can I talk to him? Please?"
After heaving a sigh in her ear, Michelle heard Tony's captor speak to him, and heard the shuffling of the phone being slid against his face.
"Michelle?"
"Tony, are you okay? Did she hurt you?"
"I'm fine, sweetheart. Listen, whatever you did, it can be fixed. Go tell Bill what she wants, go tell Chloe, tell them-"
She squawked when Tony's plea was cut off and the woman came back on the phone.
"I've got my gun pressed to Tony's temple; don't make me pull the trigger."
Sucking in a deep breath, Michelle nodded. "I won't, I won't. I'm not gonna say anything. I'm about to leave my office now. I'll go to my car and get to the four-oh-five. Just, don't hurt him."
"I won't if you get moving."
Pocketing her cell phone, and checking to make sure she had her keys, she left her office silently, tucking a chunk of hair that had fallen out of her clip behind her ear as she moved quickly across the floor. She couldn't move too quickly or it would look off, but she didn't want to waste precious time.
"Michelle! I just got a call from the LAPD liaison onsite; he said there's been a change in the search grids that he wasn't notified about?"
She couldn't turn around and meet Bill Buchanan's eyes. She wouldn't be able to hold it together if she did, and for as little as he knew her, he still would be able to tell that she was lying.
"I don't know anything about it, Bill. Talk to Jack and see if he's the one that made the change."
"Where are you going, Michelle? We're in the middle of an operation, you're needed in tactical."
She stopped again, touching her cell phone through her jacket pocket, wondering how much time she had before the hostile got impatient and killed Tony anyway. "Just out to my car for something. I'll be right back in, Bill. Have Chloe talk to Jack and let me know what he says when I get back inside." She flashed him a quick, hopefully reassuring smile and left, forcing herself to keep a normal pace until she'd cleared security and burst through the doors to the parking lot.
Her hands shook as she started the engine and she pulled out of CTU, as it finally sank in what she'd done. So many nights for the last year and a half she'd stared up at a blank ceiling, cursing him for letting 'them' get in the way, for taking the wrong side in what seemed like such an easy decision; she was not greater than the safety and well being of an entire city. Now she understood his knee-jerk reaction. She understood how it felt to be given seconds to decide if someone she loved lived or died, and she took back all the harsh things she'd thought at him at night from their lonely bed.
"Okay, I'm on the interstate," she announced, tucking her phone under her chin and looking in her mirrors to make sure she wasn't being followed yet. It was only a matter of time before CTU sent a team after her.
"Very good. Take the first exit for Sepulveda and go three blocks east. Park in the mall lot, a space closest to the exit, and wait for me. I'll know if you try to play me, Michelle."
She hung up, wordlessly pushing her phone into the spot in the console where she'd be able to hear it ring. Bill would be calling within the next few minutes.
Her phone chirped and she picked up on the first ring.
"Dessler."
"Our hostile's escaped, and you're nowhere to be found, Michelle. Tell me what I'm supposed to think?" Bill didn't waste a second before tearing into her.
"She has Tony. She told me she'd kill him if I didn't-"
"Dammit, Michelle! You should have told me! We could have set up a new operation."
"I couldn't take that risk, Bill."
He sighed. "I need you to come back in, Michelle. I can't let you-"
"Once I know he's safe, I'll turn myself in and accept responsibility for my actions. Just let me get him back, please."
"Where are you meeting? I'll send Jack and Curtis."
"I can't. She'll kill him if she finds out I've told you," she argued softly, pulling off the interstate and finding her way through the darkened, sketchy city streets to pull into the mall Tony's captor had indicated.
"Michelle, you took an oath to this country. I know how much Tony means to you, but that has to come first."
"I know, I know," she took a deep breath, not quite believing her agreement even as she said it. She'd already made her choice, and the country wasn't it. "I'm at the Sepulveda mall. She said she'd meet me here."
"Alright, Michelle. I'll dispatch them."
"No! Please no, Bill. Please. She said she'd know if I'd-"
"All you have to do is keep her there, Michelle. Trust me, it's what you want."
Looking around helplessly, she nodded and agreed quietly. She didn't have another option. Bill was well within his rights to send in the police and have her arrested right now, but he wasn't. She just wanted Tony back safe.
Some time later her phone trilled again, and she saw that it was the same blocked number. It was the hostile. Pressing talk, she lifted it to her ear and squared her shoulders.
"I'm here."
"Good. You are still alone, aren't you? We wouldn't want you to have gone to all that trouble for nothing."
"I'm alone," she assured, her voice shaky even to her ears. "I've done everything you said."
"Very good. You're such an obedient wife; I can see why Tony would jump through hoops for you. Hope Tony's worth just as much to you as you are to him."
Gritting her teeth, Michelle kept silent. She didn't need to have the mistakes she'd made with her husband continually thrown back at her.
"How much longer until you get here?"
The hostile laughed. "I'll get there when I get there, Michelle. Just make sure you keep your end of the deal."
Fifteen minutes later her phone rang again, startling the uneasy silence in her car. Michelle picked up quickly.
"Yes?"
"Get out of the car and walk toward the mall entrance. I kicked him out on the curb. Make sure you kiss and make it better before your tail shows up and takes you away."
The call ended.
She was out the door immediately, running in the direction she'd been told, catching only a glimpse of a dark luxury sedan pulling away and rounding the corner. Squatting down, she rolled Tony's groaning form over, lifting his head into her lap and running her hand across his body, checking for injury.
"Are you okay? Can you stand? Can you walk?"
He nodded silently, and she let him sit up, reaching for him immediately and wrapping her arms around his neck. He returned the embrace without hesitation, and she felt him murmuring comforting words into her skin.
"She was going to- I couldn't let her. I did the right thing, I know I did. Whatever they want to do to me, I'll accept it."
She felt him hold her tighter, felt his lips press against her neck. She shifted closer, burying her face in his throat, breathing him in.
Her phone rang again, and she only shifted slightly to lift it to her ear.
"Dessler."
"Jack and Curtis were able to detain the hostile on her way out of the mall. Someone is on their way to make sure you're contained as well."
She swallowed down the sudden taste of bile. This was it; she wasn't getting a free pass. She wasn't going to get a slap on the wrist and an order to never do it again. She was going to go to jail; she might never get to wake up next to Tony again, never get to fall asleep listening to the sound of his breathing, never get to do any of the things they'd said they would. Their fresh start would be done with a four-inch piece of Plexiglas between them. But she was going to face the consequences, even if she felt like fleeing to Mexico, Timbuktu, or somewhere in the Brazilian rainforest.
"Alright."
Bill's voice was softer when he asked, "How's Tony?"
In spite of everything, she smiled in relief, tightening her grip on the man in question. "He's alive."