A/N: Thanks again for the review amacma! Glad you're enjoying it!
Tony's expression softened. Their son couldn't be alive. It wasn't possible. It just wasn't. It was a miracle in and of itself that Michelle had survived the car bomb, let alone... Was it just that she was only now able to process the grief because he was with her? Because she was no longer being tortured and, for the most part, not worrying about major recovery from torture? They'd put her in a coma. He knew that had been to heal her. But... surely someone would have said something. If those people had known she was pregnant, they would have used it against her. It just didn't make sense.
Michelle looked very distressed, so he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, trying to maintain his own composure. "Michelle..." He started gently. "The bomb nearly killed you. I... I don't think the baby survived, sweetheart."
She shook her head. "No. I-I delivered him. I held him in my arms, Tony. I'm not crazy, I swear."
"Even if it didn't happen then, with what happened after..." He wanted to try to explain that it could have been an effect of the trauma. A way for her to cope. Something. Anything. He didn't want her to get her hopes up. He wanted her to understand the logistics here. But she wouldn't have it.
"No!" Her eyes were wet with tears. "Why... why won't you believe me?"
Tony sighed. It wasn't that he didn't want to believe her. Of course, he did. Their son being alive was the only thing that could make this moment even happier. But if it was a lie, if it wasn't true, and logically, that's what Tony had told himself for so long, then it would break his heart to have to go through that grief again.
"I might not remember everything, but I remember this." Her voice hardened. "It's all coming back to me. U-Until you found me, I didn't know what was real or what I had made up in my head. But I know our son was taken from us because it was all my fault. A-And all I could think about was how upset you'd be."
A crease formed in his brow. "How could it be your fault?"
"After they caught us and after they took you, they started to interrogate me. I-It didn't take me long to realise that they weren't going to back off. They hadn't just chosen us randomly. They wanted us for a reason." He watched the fear creep back into her expression as she recalled this, but she pushed through. "I also knew when I woke up that I was still pregnant. I didn't really look it. As soon as they started getting physical, I screamed and told them I was pregnant. I... I begged them not to hurt me anymore. T-The doctor they had checked me out, and he confirmed it. He treated me then, and the hostiles agreed not to touch me if I gave them the information they wanted." Her face screwed up slightly in anger and shame. "I-I thought I could pull one over on them. I tried to tell them false or outdated information. I told them things I knew would trigger firewalls or wipe their system. I did whatever I could to prevent them from getting what they wanted. They were asking for big things. I couldn't... I couldn't let them have them." She took in a shuddering breath and wouldn't meet his eye. "But they figured it out. They knew I was playing them. And once our son was born, just as I thought I had something left after everything they'd taken from me..."
Michelle was so relieved her plan had worked. Her son was here. He was healthy. He was safe. And she hadn't compromised CTU. She cradled him against her chest, still undecided whether she wanted to name him after Tony. It felt like giving up. Some part of her still believed he was out there looking for her. The other part was slowly processing the fact that she was going to die here, and God only knew what would happen to her son.
But when one of the men, Anderson, the leader of the mercenary group, suddenly burst through the door, his expression furious and all but directed towards her, she realised she had made a very big mistake.
"You think we wouldn't figure it out? That you were pulling one over on us the whole time?" He slowly walked towards her, and she clutched her son tighter. "You made a promise, Michelle. We agreed not to touch you or your son so long as you gave us what we wanted..."
She looked up, trying to put on a brave face. She hadn't even been given painkillers for the birth. She was too exhausted to bluff her way out of this, but even then... she wasn't even sure how to.
Anderson looked beside him and motioned with his head. "Take him away."
Before she could even move, the baby was snatched from her by one of the younger mercenaries.
"No!" She screamed, feeling arms pin her weakened body down. The baby was crying and crying, squirming in the grip of the person holding him. Desperately, she tried to fight the people holding her.
"Get rid of it." He ordered.
"N-No, please. Don't hurt him!" She begged. "Don't!-"
Anderson tutted. "This is all your fault. If you really cared about your son, you wouldn't have taken such a stupid risk."
The man holding the baby was hesitant. Michelle recognised him not as one of the people who'd interrogated her but as a hacker who just followed Anderson's instructions and relayed her information. She'd always thought he seemed a little meeker like he was being coerced to do his bidding.
"Do it now," Anderson emphasised.
Fearfully, he fled, the baby still wailing in the distance. She was beaten senseless, the way they'd wanted to all those months ago, and then left alone to weep. No matter how much they'd hurt her, nothing hurt more than the guilt slowly consuming her as she realised how much she'd screwed up. Her entire body ached, and she was barely conscious. The young man who'd taken the baby then came back. Michelle mustered her remaining energy to scowl at him despite the bruising in her jaw. But as he neared, she noticed how worried his expression was.
"I-I didn't kill him." He whispered, skittishly looking around as though he might be heard. "I-I drove him to the nearest hospital. I watched a nurse take him in. He's safe."
She looked up, finding the man's eyes entirely genuine. If anybody else in the crew found out, he would be killed, no question about it.
"Thank you…" Michelle breathed.
She was sobbing by the end of her explanation, and he was holding her, unable to feel anything but sorrow for her. If this had happened before they'd been taken, Tony could have easily been angry at her decision to risk their son's life in exchange for protecting CTU. Her sense of duty was important to her. He'd always known that and that it was why she'd struggled with leaving CTU behind. She'd tried to balance both her loyalty to CTU and their family but had failed. However, after everything they'd been through, he couldn't focus on that. It wasn't out of pity. It wasn't something he'd hold onto for when she was feeling better. There was just no need to hold this against her. Who was he to be upset at her when she'd suffered and grieved so much over this?
"I'm so sorry." Michelle gasped, her face buried in his chest.
Tony hushed her, telling her it was okay. It wasn't just to placate her. His lingered on the fact that their son had been taken to a hospital. That meant he was alive. He had to be. He could have been taken into foster care or adopted or something, but he was alive. They could find him.
More than that, they had to.