Author's Note: I'm goin to try and update this at least once, maybe twice a week. Thank you for being so patient.

This chapter assumes that even after a year of working with her, Tony's been unable to get rid of Carrie, and so she's been terrorizing Day 3's CTU employees, especially his wife. Will Tony finally stand up for Michelle? Will you laugh when you read how? We'll see. Leave a review to make me smile, I haven't gotten many of those in a while.

…He Makes Your Life Less Uncomfortable

From the view at the Chief of Staff's desk, Michelle Dessler, arguably the most exhausted woman on the planet, could see everything perfectly. Various people were getting started for the day. Chase Edmunds was quietly padding over to his locker to put some of his things away in case he got called out.

Adam Kaufman was arguing with Kim – Jack's daughter – about some elementary protocol that couldn't quite come to mind. (Michelle didn't have the energy to walk over, intervene in their petty little fight, and tell Adam that he was, in fact, wrong.)

Gael was managing Comms, operating with various agents to set up a protection detail for one of the more important members of the midterm elections, and in no way was to be disturbed (the Director would have something to say about that).

Up in Field Ops, Chloe O'Brian, Michelle's newest recruit, was staring at her computer with the usual pissed-slash-you-are-in-no-way-as-smart-or-obedient-as-me-so-don't-give-me-lip face. She typed frantically, never looking up at anything. Michelle sighed. That was Chloe for you, in a nutshell. As Jack Bauer came over, they began to argue animatedly, and Michelle turned away. Jack and her husband had never quite understood where she'd been coming from when she hired the mousy-looking analyst.

That left only one place left to observe… the Director's office. She swiveled around and looked through the clear paneling, and the interpersonal stress just melted away. Tony Almeida was looking through paperwork with an extremely bored look on his face. On anyone else, it would have been annoying; on Tony, it happened to be adorable. She picked up her cell phone and dialed speed number 1.

She smiled as Tony picked up. "Almeida."

"It's me," she said, and from where she was, she could see his entire face light up.

"What's up, sweetheart?" he asked.

"Everything's good down here on the floor for the most part. Kim and Adam aren't arguing…"

"…for the moment," he said shaking his head. "And Gael…"

"…is doing a wonderful job," she confirmed. "He refuses to divert his attention from it unless it's you or me interrupting him."

"Jack…"

"will have to go through us. They…"

"haven't really gotten used to each other, got it," he nodded. "And Chloe?"

Michelle lightly closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "She does great work, Tony. I just can't figure out how to get her to stop arguing with Jack over protocol. I swear, one day…"

"she's going to give you a migraine."

"Honey, why do I feel like we've had this conversation before?"

"Because, sweetheart," he chuckled, leaning back in his chair, "we have. More than once."

Michelle winced. "I'm sorry."

"No, no problem, sweetheart. You know you can interrupt me with anything you need or want to talk about."

"But…"

"You're my wife, Michelle. If something is bothering you, I'm going to put that ahead of whatever protocol we're running."

For the first time that day, Michelle smiled a full smile. "Okay," she said softly. As Chloe started to look her way, she stiffened and sat up from her lounging position in her chair. Returning to business mode, she said, "Carrie's late, by the way. Again."

"You know, I'm really feeling the urge to fire her ass."

"Sweetheart, you've wanted to fire her ass since the minute she got here."

"No, that would be you. In my case, I've wanted to boot her back to wherever the hell she came from since the second she got here. Division keeps butting in, though. Oh, by the way…"

"What?" Michelle asked.

"She's here," he said. "She'll be at your desk in six, five, four, three, two…"

"I'll call you back," Michelle said as calmly as she could, flipping her phone closed.

"Michelle, I'm sorry I'm late," Carrie said, a fake smile plastered across her face.

Michelle sighed. "I'm not the one you need to apologize for. Go talk to Tony about it. But I'm pretty sure we've given you a couple of warnings…"

"Save it, Michelle, you're not the one in charge."

Michelle stood up to her full height, 5'4 (5'7" if you included her heels), and instantly towered over a 5'2" Carrie. "Listen to me very carefully," she said in an uncharacteristically pissed fashion, venom lacing every word. "I am your superior, and Tony is busy, so while that continues, in case you weren't aware, I am in charge of this floor. Now, go up to the Director's office."

Carrie smirked. "Fine," she said, "I'll go up."

As the analyst from hell stalked away, Michelle instantly got that feeling, not for the first time, that much like a year ago, Carrie was going to tattle on her to her own husband. She quickly sent him a message over the system that CTU had installed.

Carrie's coming up, she typed frantically. She was late and circumvented my authority, again.

Damn, he replied. Sweetheart, I swear, I'm taking you out for an early lunch break.

Michelle almost smiled. That would be great. By the way, I'm going to hack into the audiovisual feed in your office to see what happens.

She could see him silently laughing. Michelle…

Don't laugh, Tony, she pouted, her bottom lip sticking out. And don't argue, she's walking up the stairs now.

Still chuckling, he nodded his head. Got it. I'll delete the transcript of this conversation. Love you.

Love you, too, she typed. Then, she quickly signed off and hacked into the bandwidth. It wasn't like there was there was anything else to do; other than Gael's setup of the next day's operation, which he happened to be in charge of, there was absolutely no reason to be there.

On her screen, the African-American woman walked into Tony's office.

"Carrie," he said, feigning surprise. "I wasn't aware you were here."

"I just got here a few minutes ago," she said calmly.

"Exactly. That's a problem," he said harshly. "Look, this is the third time in the last few weeks that you've been coming in to work late."

"Look, my mom's been having chemo…"

"You're lying," he said immediately. "You haven't seen your mother since you were ten." When she shot him a threatening look, he squinted at her. "What? I look up the background investigations of all CTU employees."

She began to wring her hands, probably to keep herself from wringing Tony's neck, Michelle mused. "If this is something you and Michelle planned out when you were supposed to be working…"

"First of all, Carrie," he seethed, "Michelle is my Chief of Staff as well as my wife. So yes, I will be talking to her regularly throughout the day, but you know as well as everyone else that we keep things professional and don't plan the demise of other analysts. You are late, and lying about it, and I don't trust that.

"Second, you've been tormenting the hell out of Adam and Kim."

"Tony…"

"Not just them, either. Who do you think you've been purposely terrorizing ever since you got here? I'm not going to stand by while you distract my analysts, my agents, my second-in-command. My wife."

"Tony, you know I don't do that," she said with an almost flirty smile.

"Cut the crap, no one's watching," he said, scowling. Despite herself, Michelle let out a throaty chuckle, zooming in on Carrie's astonished face. "As of this moment, I'm relieving you of your duties. Clear your workplace and be out of the building in the next fifteen minutes, or I'll send security for you."

She placed her hands on her hips. "On what grounds?"

"Wavering professionalism," he said, "as well as harassing my team and annoying the hell out of me. You may go now. We're done talking here."

"But…"

"Carrie."

She sulked as she stomped out of Tony's office and down the stairs as Michelle, slightly elated and completely shocked, stared at her computer. At that moment, Tony turned around and gave the camera a wink.

"Weren't expecting that, were you?" he said.

She typed, How long have you been planning on doing that?

After reading the question, he looked back up at the camera. "A while," he said. "Honey, everything I said to her I've wanted to say to her for months."

The part about me being your wife?

"Yes, that too," he said honestly. "Actually, I knew I'd eventually be proposing after that disastrous fire in your apartment."

You decided you were going to marry me after I nearly killed myself trying to cook a simple dinner? she asked, laughing.

"Yes," he said seriously.

Thank you, sweetheart, she typed. Anything else you need?

"Yeah, actually. Come help me on some of this paperwork.

That an order?

He chuckled. "Honey, what do you think?"

She took her cell phone out and called him. "I'll be up in a second."

"Okay."

"Tony…"

"I know. Love you, too," he whispered huskily. "Now come up here before Chappelle kills me."

She smiled, hung up, and immediately began to walk upstairs. Today had turned out much better than expected, thanks to Tony. For fear of sounding cheesy, he truly made everything worthwhile.

Unbeknownst to both Tony and Michelle, two hours later, while they were on their lunch break, Kim, Chase, Adam, Chloe, Gael, and Jack were situated around Kim's computer and silently laughing.

"Well," Kim said, "I have to say, that was very entertaining."

"You can't say she didn't deserve it," Chase agreed. "The look on Carrie's face was priceless."

"Tony definitely did the right thing," Adam said.

"The conversation he had with Michelle the entire time was actually really sweet," Chloe interjected.

The hell? Everyone shot her a confused look. "They're allowed to have a nice, married-couple moment every once in a while, I guess," she scowled.

Moving on, Gael said, "I do not feel sorry for her at all. And I applaud Michelle for hacking into the frequency, and Tony for letting her watch the show."

Everyone turned to the one person who hadn't spoken yet. "What do you think, Dad?" Kim asked her father.

He chuckled and shook his head. "The Almeidas should be back any minute. Get back to work, all of you." Everyone scurried back to their desks. "But between you and me," he whispered to his daughter with a small smile, "I wouldn't mind seeing that again."

A/N: The review button is starving and wants to know what you think, especially about the last half of the story! R&R, it's almost as good for the soul as chocolate!