A/N: Thank you for the review amacma! This fic will certainly go into some interesting places.

Although Jack had given her some space, they still couldn't avoid seeing each other at work. She seemed almost robotic by this point, mechanically going about her job as though nothing had happened. She had been somewhat stoic at Tony's funeral, keeping it together but still clearly in mourning. But now, her demeanour was so frigid and detached from everyone and everything around her. Jack knew the turmoil lying beneath that demeanour well and it scared him. It scared him to think about how long she'd try to push to keep up the facade, how long she'd last before she finally broke down, and what would happen when she did. He was sure everybody else in her life was thinking the same thing. He was sure someone would point it out eventually and raise a concern about her well-being. Michelle had already made it clear that she didn't need Jack to protect her, so he just prayed that somebody else would be brave enough to broach the topic and that she'd listen to them.

Because although nobody would dare utter the words around her, it was clear that deep down, Michelle had a death wish.

She would volunteer to go out into the field whenever an opportunity arose, her behaviour riskier, flightier, with an edge Jack had never seen before. There had been instances when she'd been a little too gun-ho and nearly gotten herself killed. Psychiatric assessments had been done, and the phrase 'purposely engaging in risk-taking behaviour' appeared again and again. But what could they say if she was delivering results? Sacrifice in the line of duty was just part of the job description.

Jack stood across from her in Erin Driscoll's office, unsure why she'd called the two of them up there. Driscoll had made it perfectly clear that she wasn't a fan of Jack's behaviour, that the only reason he was still employed was that the transition to her 'ideal' CTU was taking longer than expected. It made sense, considering how many staff members too horribly affected by the Cordilla virus attacks had also filed their letters of resignation or internal transfer. CTU Los Angeles was shrinking, but Driscoll had every intention of rebuilding it from the ground.

"What's going on?" Jack asked as Driscoll shut the door behind him.

"We have a lead on Eric Gaeta."

He raised his eyebrows. "Gaeta? CTU hasn't had a lead on him in years."

Eric Gaeta was a former FBI agent who'd leaked classified information to several terrorist groups. Before anybody had figured it out, he'd escaped, masterfully preventing anybody from tracking his location. Nobody had ever quite pinned down a motivation, but rumour had it it was career-based. He'd been an excellent operative but never seemed to be rewarded sufficiently for his efforts. Gaeta's crimes had sparked fear in every other government agency and made them all the more aware that it wasn't just the enemies on the outside they had to worry about. Jack remembered it well. The news that a mole had infiltrated the FBI had come up not long before Nina had been found doing the same thing. Making sure that people like Gaeta were caught was a deeply personal cause for Jack.

"Our sources seem to indicate he's planning something big. Possibly working with one of those white nationalist militia groups we've had our eye on."

Jack nodded.

"So what's CTU doing about it?"

Driscoll cleared her throat. "We're going to send someone undercover to try and infiltrate him and whoever else he's working with."

He shrugged. "Okay, so when do I leave?"

She tutted. "Since you were one of the main members of the task force at the time, you'll be overseeing it. Michelle will be the one going undercover."

His eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Gaeta's not stupid. He likely has intel from government databases. No matter how good or experienced our agents are, there's a chance he'd shoot them down before they can even say a word."

"But…" Michelle started. "It doesn't matter if he knows that I work for the government because he'll be willing to believe that I'm on his side."

"I'm not following." Jack said.

"We're going to use Tony's death as part of her cover story. Gaeta isn't going to question Michelle's history because he's going to think that she wants revenge on the government because of what happened to him."

He turned to face Michelle who simply nodded, agreeing.

"This…this is insane, Michelle you can't-"

"It's the only way, Jack." She said, firmly. "Nobody else can pull this off."

If he thought that working at CTU on a regular day was bad enough for her health, he sure as hell didn't think that undercover work would be good for her either. He knew all too well how exhausting it was to maintain a cover, and he'd been doing it for years. From memory, Michelle had only been undercover a handful of times. Her grief and health aside, this wasn't going to be an easy operation. Gaeta wasn't the most trusting person, it could take months before he warmed up to let her in on what was happening. And he also knew Michelle would do whatever it took to make sure he trusted her, and that terrified him more than anything.

"We don't know exactly what Gaeta intends on doing so we need to act quickly. For now, Jack, your focus is getting Michelle's cover story ready." Driscoll typed something quickly on the laptop in front of her, before turning the screen to face him. "Most of our recent chatter has come from San Diego, it'd be best to catch him before he moves again."

"I'm doing this whether you like it or not Jack." Michelle said shortly. "I'll be fine. I can handle myself."

Part of him wanted to protest again, wanted to insist this was a disaster waiting to happen, that no matter how much Michelle said so, she couldn't do this, she shouldn't do this. But at the same time, he couldn't deny the idea was good. Twisting the truth to make her a convincing candidate for someone that Gaeta would want to recruit. That wouldn't stop him from trying to look out for her though. Tony would never forgive him if he let her get pushed into the deep end like this.

"Fine." Jack said. "But I'll be the primary liaison. We don't know how long this will take. If you can't get evidence to convict him within a reasonable amount of time, I'm pulling the plug."

"It won't get to that point."

He met her eyes, already feeling in his gut like this was a bad idea. "Let's hope so."

A/N: Fun Fact: Any time I have to name a side character in a fic, I usually use names from whatever TV show I'm watching at the moment. So yes...I named this character Gaeta because I was watching BSG at the time of writing this chapter