Sorry for the delay between chapters, I was o/s for a few weeks. Thank you so much for your reviews they make me want to keep continuing the story. Let me know if there is something you want to see happen.
I don't own 24 etc... Also as usual this chapter is not for kids - should be for adults eyes only:)
Tony's apartment was crowded. His parents, Jess plus 2 of his friends Riley and Paul were all over helping to move Michelle into his apartment. Tony was tired. He had had a very restless sleep thinking about everything that was going on. He was still furious over what Lisa had done, he was anxious over Doug and how Michelle was feeling about everything. He had so much running through his head at the moment that it felt like his head was spinning.
Michelle had been quiet all morning. He had asked her a few times if she was ok but she had continued to tell him that she was fine. She had told him she was a little anxious about telling his family that she was pregnant, which they had agreed they would do that night after Riley and Paul had left. He was actually really excited about that – he knew his parents were going to be thrilled. His mom was desperate for grandchildren and he knew that they had already taken Michelle into their hearts as family.
Tony wanted to ask Michelle to marry him. He couldn't stop thinking about it. He just wanted to do it properly and he couldn't even think of when he was going to have a chance to even get out and go ring shopping. As they had been packing up Michelle's bathroom, he had taken a couple rings she had in a box and measured their size. It also gave him a good idea seeing everything she had of what type of styles she liked. He could now picture in his mind the ring he wanted, finding it was going to be another matter.
His phone rang. It was Michelle's lawyer. He just wanted to give Tony a head's up that Doug would be out by 10am the following morning. As he hung up the phone Michelle came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist. "Was that Luke Tony?"
He spun around but they kept their arms around each other. "Yes. He wanted us to know that Doug will be released at 10 tomorrow morning."
She nodded her head. "ok."
He rubbed his arms up and down her back soothingly, "Hey, it's going to be ok remember. You are safe now sweetheart."
"Thanks to you and your family and friends. Everyone has been so kind to give up work today to make sure we get me moved in here by tonight. I don't know what I would be doing if it wasn't for you. We just have to make sure that there is no trace left at my place at all of me or where I have gone."
He kissed her forehead. "Baby, all everyone wants is for you to be ok, they would do anything for you. And I want you to know I have hired cleaners to go into your place tonight and get that sorted. I've also spoken to work and they have gone through every possible public file or record of you and had it sealed...down to your video store memberships. Jackson is organizing you a new cell phone and number today that will be completely private. He is going to drop it off later. As soon as we get it, you need to give only your closest friends your new number and then we will cancel your current number."
She smiled with watery eyes. "Wow, you have thought of everything. I didn't even think of my phone..."
"I know it sucks baby that you have to literally change everything but it is the safest way and it gives us the best chance at him not being able to have any way of tracking you down."
Michelle wrapped her arms around Tony's neck and pulled him down so she could kiss him on the lips. "I'll do anything Tony, whatever you think I need to do, I'll do. Thank you. Thank you for looking after me." She kissed him passionately, taking him by surprise. As usual it only took a second for her to have Tony completely turned on. He opened one eye to make sure the door to the bedroom was still closed before running his hands down her back and then grabbing her bottom. She moaned into his mouth at his touch driving him even crazier. She pushed her body into his and began to sway her hips from side to side and then up and down.
He barely broke the kiss as he whispered, "You can't do this to me baby...I'll never be able to stop."
She grinded herself into him even harder. "One of these days we are going to have to learn how to kiss and be able to leave it at just that." She was smiling and then began to kiss his neck roughly.
Tony loved the cheekiness in her smile. He couldn't help but push himself back into her even harder. "Yeah maybe...but I'm not there yet."
She could feel how hard he was and she loved it. She loved the way the tone of his voice changed when he spoke to her like that. "Have I told you just how incredibly sexy you are Almeida?" She ran her hand across his groin.
His whole body jerked at her touch. "Ohh Fuck...baby I mean it...you are going to make me lose it. I have no control."
His voice sounded desperate. She laughed. She pulled out of his grip, went to the door and locked it and then turned back to him.
His stuttered his words and they came out very nervous. "What are you doing? You know there is a whole apartment full of people on the other side of that door..."
She dropped to her knees in front of him and then looked up. "Yeah but how often do you have no control? I can't just let this opportunity slip by..." She undid his pants and pulled them and his boxers down just enough. She giggled to herself as she could hear Tony trying to form a sentence and say something but nothing but grunts and the word 'shit' was making its way out of his mouth. She felt his hands land on the sides of her head and hold her, she loved that.
Tony was struggling to not make any noise but it was hard. Michelle managed to get him into a state that he literally felt like he had no control over himself in. She knew exactly how to make him feel as good as possible. How she knew when to go faster and then slower or when to be hard and when to be gentle at all the right times was beyond him. He felt like she had some kind of super power or something.
After a few minutes someone tried to open the door and then knocked when they realized it was locked. It was Riley, "Tony are you in there? Your landline has just rang out a couple times!"
Michelle didn't even flinch or anything, she just kept going. Tony's heart was pounding so hard he thought it was going to jump out of his chest. He cleared his throat and then yelled back as calmly as he could, "Yeah, thanks mate. We are just getting changed and stuff, I'll be out in a minute...just let it go to the machine."
"Will do!" With that Riley walked away.
Tony pushed some hair across her forehead, held her tight and whispered, "Holy shit baby..."
When he heard her mumble back 'I can't help myself, I love this...' he just about lost it. It made him smile – if she thought she loved this, if only she knew just how much he loved this! He watched her with thoughts about how much his life had changed in the last few weeks. She had managed to make him see and feel a whole new side to life that he never even knew existed. With her, he felt the extreme end of all emotions. With the good it was the most amazing feelings he had ever experienced. With the bad things that had happened it was scary how much he was having trouble controlling his emotions and it surprised him that it could make him feel physically ill. He was extremely scared of Doug's release but he didn't want Michelle to know that. As much as he knew he would do everything in the world he could to protect her, that didn't mean she was 100% safe. As all these thoughts flooded his mind he was still watching her intently and it made the moment feel even more intense.
She looked up and caught eye contact with him for a brief moment. No one had ever looked at Tony the way she was right this moment. He could see the love in her eyes for him. It pushed him over the edge and he exploded. He couldn't take his eyes off her even though his whole body was shaking and making him feel like he could just collapse in a heap on the floor.
Michelle stayed in the moment with him for a couple of minutes before she started to stand back up. He helped her and then pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. "That was incredible, you are incredible sweetheart."
"I'm so in love with you Tony." She pulled him even tighter and he knew that she was feeling just as emotional as him. Whenever they were intimate, they both felt a huge need to stay close to the other one for awhile afterwards. He smothered her neck with kisses. "I love you baby...you are my everything."
As he pulled back out of the hug he could see her eyes were a little watery. "Are you ok? Are you going to cry?"
She smiled and laughed a little. "I'm fine, they are good tears." She looked at him a moment longer and then slapped her hands together. "Right, we had better get back out there before everyone starts asking questions!"
"Well, actually we both have to change clothes...for what reason I am not sure of yet but that's what I told Riley we were doing."
"Let's just pull on some sweats so it looks like we just wanted to be more comfortable and not have to worry about getting dirty...or some crap like that."
They both laughed and then rushed to change and head back out to everyone else. They smiled at each other when after a couple of minutes it became obvious that nobody had even really noticed they had been missing for that time. They got stuck back into moving boxes into different rooms and unpacking.
Paul and Tony were in the study unpacking books and putting them onto the bookshelves chatting away. Michelle had been sorting through things in the bedroom with Jess and Natalie. She went to ask Paul and Tony if they were getting hungry for some dinner - as she rounded the corner she knocked a pile of papers on the ground that she had to get down on her knees to gather up. As she was doing this she could hear Paul and Tony talking.
Paul and Tony had been talking a little bit about Doug and everything else that had been going on.
"Thanks again Paul for dropping work today to help me out."
"Not a problem Almeida. I think Michelle is the best thing that has ever happened to you and I am so glad she is moving in with you, I just wish you didn't have this asshole to be worrying about."
Tony sighed. "Tell me about it. I've done everything I can think of to makes sure there is no trail of Michelle for Doug to pick up on but the closer it gets to him getting out the more I am starting to freak out."
Michelle was a little surprised to hear Tony say that because to her he had been acting like he wasn't worried.
Paul wished he had an answer for his friend but he didn't. "What are you going to do if he does find out she is living here? I mean, how much can your work help out?"
"We can keep an eye on him and he is still under court orders not to come near Michelle or he will be back in jail but that didn't seem to scare him before. It is scaring the hell out of me."
"How is Michelle coping?"
"She is scared to death, I can tell. She tries really hard to not let it seem like he has gotten to her but he has. I know she still blames herself for so much of what happened and I fucking hate that. I need to do everything I can think of to make her see sense on all this."
"You just to keep talking to her man. Just like you are freaking out, she needs to know how you feel as well."
Tony shook his head. "Paul, trust me, the last thing she needs to hear is how worried about everything I am."
"Is it just Doug, or is something else going on Tony? Your Dad mentioned something earlier about how much crap you guys have been through the last few weeks."
"It's more than Doug, it's everything. This prick Jeff was harassing her and I caught him grabbing her by the arm so hard it left a huge bruise. She doesn't want me to do anything about it because of everything else we are dealing with but I just can't let it go. I've given the guy an official warning. Last night this woman who lives in the building, Lisa came over when I wasn't here and told Michelle that she and I have a thing going on..."
"What?"
"I know. It is just the last kind of hassle we need but what am I going to do when she starts seeing Michelle here all the time?"
Michelle had heard enough. She didn't want to keep standing there eves dropping on their conversation. She cleared her throat and stepped inside the doorway. They both spun around.
"Are you guy's hungry? I was going to order in food, everyone else is starving."
Tony could tell straight away by her tone and the look in her eye she had heard what they had been talking about. "Baby...how long have you been there?"
"Long enough."
Paul went to walk out of the room. "Umm I'll just give you guys some privacy."
Michelle stopped him. "No no, it's ok Paul. It was me that walked in on you guys trying to have a chat. I just need to know what you guys want to eat?"
Paul looked over at Tony who by now was looking very nervous. "Umm yeah, I could eat but I'll have whatever everyone else is getting. Thanks Michelle."
Michelle thanked him for being here and helping and then turned back to Tony. "What about you?"
"We need to talk about this Chelle. How much did you hear?"
"Sounds like I need to be more worried about what I might not have heard just as much as what I did hear."
Tony felt like a shmuck. Michelle was smart and he knew she wasn't going to give him an exact point of when she had walked in. "It wasn't like that Chelle, it's not like we were having a bitch behind your back..."
"I know Tony. You have every right to talk to your friends. I'm glad you have close enough friends you can talk to, especially if you're not going to be honest and tell me how your feeling."
Tony loudly pushed the books he was holding onto the case. "I can be honest with you sweetheart. Is this about Chapelle?"
Michelle's heart began to race as she wondered how much she had actually missed. What on earth had Tony been telling Paul about Chapelle? "Ummm no, not Chappelle...but good to know there is another subject you can't discuss with me." She turned to Paul, "What is Tony worried I won't cope at work or something? Or has Chapelle been in Tony's ear again trying to break us up?"
Paul had no idea he was in dangerous territory, he thought he was helping Tony out with his answer. "No Michelle, nothing like that. It was just that Nina..."
Tony jumped in straight away and spoke over Paul, "No, no. Not what you think Michelle..."
Michelle's head dropped. She couldn't believe they had been talking about Nina, it felt like she was never going to escape that shadow. "Nina? What about Nina? Have I done something else like her for you all to be worried about?"
Tony's voice rose. "Hell no. I was just telling Paul about the hard time Chapelle gave me. Absolutely nothing you didn't already know about..."
"Then why was that out of everything the first thing you asked me about? Clearly there is something with Chappelle." She was going to continue but then she stopped. She looked at Tony who looked like he was about to explode. She threw her hands up in the air. "You know what, I don't want to know, I don't want to hear it. I hate that woman. What I care about is that you are scared to death about things Tony and you don't feel like you can tell me. You push me so hard to tell you everything. It doesn't matter if I am crying and begging you, you will make me tell you if you think it is important and you need to know. Yet you clearly can't do the same back."
Tony felt ashamed. He knew how bad this must make Michelle feel but deep in his heart he just didn't want to worry her or upset her, he didn't feel like he couldn't tell Michelle anything, it was just some subjects at the moment he wanted to protect her from. "Like what baby?"
"Like Lisa. Like how you feel about Jeff and most importantly that you are freaked out about Doug."
They all stood silent for a moment as her words sank in and Tony tried to figure out how to handle the situation. He was surprised when Michelle started crying. He wanted to go hold her so much.
"Why would you let me move in Tony if you are scared of Doug? You know I'd understand, I'm scared. But I told you I didn't want to put you in a situation where you had to be worried about being safe, why didn't you just tell me then that you were?"
By this point everyone in the apartment could hear them arguing.
Tony tried to take Michelle's hand but she pulled away. His voice raised even more in frustration. "Michelle I'm not worried about my safety. I'm not scared about me. I am scared of Doug finding out where you are and hurting you. I'm worried about being able to protect you from him."
"But you have done all this stuff to ensure he won't. You have covered every base possible..."
"I hope I have baby. But can't you understand that we could be living with fucking security guards and I'd still worry about you. Nothing is going to make me not worry about you..."
"Why can't you talk to me about that? Why do you have to act like everything is going to be fine? Why can't you tell me gave Jeff a warning?"
"Because I don't want any more worried about everything than you already are! Fuck Michelle, you have been to hell and back lately, I'm trying to help you get through this, and I'm trying to make you feel safe. And I didn't tell you about Jeff because I wanted to just put it behind us and I didn't want it to be an issue when we went back to work."
"But I told you not to worry about that."
"Well I am worried about that! He needed to be put in his place."
"Yeah but you didn't have to give him an official warning."
"Why are you sticking up for him?"
Michelle yelled at Tony. "I'm not sticking up for him."
"Yes you are! Why do you care what happens to him?"
"You already told him to back off at the time and he would have. I just didn't want it turning into a bigger issue than it was."
Tony was yelling now as well. He was pretty pissed off that he knew everyone could hear what they were talking about but there wasn't exactly anywhere for them to go. "Well I wasn't taking any chances with it. I don't want another man touching you, cracking onto you or coming near you like that. He had no right to do what he did and what if I hadn't been there huh? He could have really fucking hurt you or taken advantage of you. Holy shit Michelle, why can't you ever think of those things? What would you have done if I hadn't caught him?"
"I don't know..."
"Exactly. You don't know. Well I'm not prepared to stand by while assholes try to hurt you, touch you, talk about you inappropriately...I thought you would have figured that out by now."
Michelle stopped and looked around at everyone. She felt like an idiot. She felt like she had been so naive about things and that to everyone she must look so stupid. Here she had this amazing guy that would do anything to protect her and make sure she was ok and she just didn't seem to know how to accept that or handle it. She wasn't used to having anyone looking after her. "I'm sorry."
She completely took Tony by surprise. He hadn't expected her to say that at all. He was all ready for her to be angry back at him that she took him off guard. "What?"
"I said I'm sorry."
He rubbed his face and took a step closer to her. "What are you apologizing for?"
"For everything. For not getting it. For not understanding. You have just been trying to look after me and make sure I am ok. I'm not use to it. But I'm not totally useless you know, I can handle knowing the truth about things. If something is scaring you then I should be allowed to try and look after you back. I should be given the chance to try and make you feel better. I can make you feel good you know Tony. I know you inside and out and if you just trusted that I could handle things and that I could be there for you just like you are for me then you would see that I can at least do that. I can at least be a part of making you feel a bit better about some things."
She turned around and headed straight for his bedroom hoping to God that no one was in there so she could on her own for a minute. She kept her head down and as soon as she saw the room was empty she went and lay on the bed.
Tony followed her. He didn't call her name or tell her to stop, he was quite happy to let her go into a room with no one in it so he could then talk to her with a little more privacy. He apologized to everyone and told them they would be out soon. He opened the door and once he was inside he locked it behind him.
As soon as he was out of sight of everyone else he felt tears well up in his eyes and all of his defences come straight down. If only Michelle could see that, or know that – she was the only one in the world that when he knew it was just the 2 of them he was able to be completely himself. He went straight to the bed and lay next to her. He slid his hand around her stomach and gently rolled her so she was on her back and then he basically picked himself up and lay back down on top of her. He propped himself up with his elbows. He did it some to keep her in the one place and not able to move around or away from him and some because he needed to feel that close to her.
Neither one of them had said a word yet but they were looking into each other's tear stained eyes. He leant down and kissed her on the mouth. "I love you Michelle. I love you so much."
This made her cry even more. "I love you Tony."
"You know, I can cry in front of you, I can completely be myself with you. There is no one else on this planet that I can do that with. You make me the happiest man in the world. Every time I have looked at you since our first kiss I get butterflies in my stomach and this really warm feeling all over my body and I think about how lucky I am that you love me, that you want to be with me.
I can trust you to make me feel better because you do all the time. I'm sorry I didn't tell you that stuff. It wasn't because I think you can't help me or make me feel better, I wasn't even looking at it like that. All I was thinking was that I want you to feel better about everything. That I want you to finally feel safe and looked after. I thought if I told you that I was nervous about Doug that it would make you feel less safe and more worried about it all. I wish I could wave this magic wand and make you feel like you were going to be ok, that you didn't have to worry about all this stuff but I can't, all I can do is try and make you feel safe. Does that make sense?"
Michelle ran her hand through Tony's hair. "Yeah it does and you are so beautiful for thinking that way baby but do you think you can let me try and do the same for you? I'll feel better knowing we are sticking together on all this. If you are nervous, then tell me so we can work on it together?"
"I hate the thought of burdening you though sometimes Chelle. Do you know how anxious I get sometimes over the smallest, most stupid stuff?"
She smiled. "I do Almeida...remember I have worked with you very closely for awhile now. I know things really get to you but that's all a part of who I fell in love with and maybe...just maybe if you start sharing the load a little you will find that things don't bother you so much."
He smiled back. Seeing her smile, made him smile. Hearing her say that made him feel special. "Ok, I will. And I'm going to start now. You know all this stuff with Jeff and Lisa?"
"Yeah?"
"That is driving me insane. I'm angry at Jeff just because I know he likes you. I mean, I hate him for treating you the way he did but I also know some of me is so worked up about it all because I feel like I have to worry about him flirting with you, or trying to...wanting you to leave..."
Michelle giggled a little as he stumbled over his words. "Tony are you worried that I might feel something for him?"
He nodded his head. "Am I being jealous and stupid?"
She pulled him down and kissed him. "Not stupid honey...never stupid. You have my heart Tony, no one else is ever going to get it now. If it helps you to know, I think Jeff is completely unattractive in every way possible but that's not the point. I am so in love with you I would never even think about anyone else like that."
Tony laughed. "That helps a lot!"
"And Lisa?"
"I'm so angry at what she said to you. I'm nervous you are going to bump into each other now that you are living here and she is either going to give you a hard time or continue to feed you a pile of bullshit."
"I've thought about that as well. But next time I see her if she says anything then I'll have no problem putting her back into her place and telling her how happy we are together. And if you see her then you can tell her where to go!"
"I just hope we run into her together in the hallway and I can start kissing you right in her face!"
They both laughed. Then Michelle rested her hand on the side of his cheek. "We have so much going on honey it is crazy. We have had the most insane last few weeks and I think we are both very sensitive at the moment. On top of that really emotional, especially now that we know we are having a baby. I think we have to keep that in mind and keep doing everything we can to make sure each other is ok and coping."
"I couldn't agree more. Wow Jess and my folks must really be getting use to listening to us go crazy over each other!"
Michelle felt like she went red even just thinking about it. "It is so embarrassing. They must think I'm nuts!"
"They love you and they get it. They know how much shit is going on. And I can't wait to tell them our news because I know they are going to be so happy and excited."
They kissed. Within seconds Tony started running his hands all up her body and intensifying the kiss. As his hands made their way to her breasts, Michelle stopped him. "Sweetheart, we have to go back out there now. They are all waiting for us, not to mention everyone was starving like an hour ago now."
He groaned playfully. "So what, are you officially declaring this one of those moments that I have to leave a kiss at a kiss?"
"Yes Almeida, I am. However, if you're good, I'll make it up to you very generously when everybody leaves."
He peeled himself off her and then when he was standing he extended his hand and helped her up off the bed. "Trust me, I am going to hold you to that!"
I hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think.