As soon as she made it up the stairs, about half a dozen people called her name. She did her best to deflect them as they asked their questions, understandably frantic because of the crisis. She had not missed this part of running CTU. She already had a million things on her mind and now she had to add more. Nonetheless, she dealt with them all and got to the office. Upon inspecting Michelle's bag, she found a roll-on deodorant and a small perfume sample bottle that looked like it had been there for a while. She felt very exposed by the glass walls of the office. She'd never actually been up here — not post-renovation, at least. Nina moved into a corner and tried to mist the back of her shirt with the perfume. It was a light fragrance, so she hoped that with heavy-handed application, she could mask the stench of the blood.

Someone knocked at the door just as she put the perfume away. When she looked up, Tony was standing there.

"I sent those search results to your screen ten minutes ago. Chloe needs you to prioritise our leads."

"I'll get on it now."

It came out a little shorter than intended. They were a married couple. She couldn't afford to start any arguments. She had to avoid creating any unnecessary tension.

He went to leave, and she asked him to wait, a little thrown by the sound of her voice. It had been hard to adjust to hearing Bryce's voice come out of her mouth, but now she had to go through that process again and consciously not look jarred every time she spoke. Nina walked over to where he was and rested her hand on his bicep.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

But to her confusion, his expression didn't soften. She knew Tony. She knew that even when he'd been together with her — in her original body, of course — he'd always relaxed under her touch. Tony looked down at where her hand was and then up at her attempt at a smile with a confused and almost offended expression. He said nothing, pulling out of her grip and walking away.

She knew better than to ask him what was wrong. It would just make things worse. However, it also affirmed to Nina that maybe impersonating Michelle, who was more than just a colleague of some of these people, would be harder than she had thought. Nina walked back to the desk and let out a breath before sitting down and resting her hands on the desk. As soon as she did so, she noticed something she hadn't been able to see in the darkness of the basement.

Michelle wasn't wearing a wedding band. And she didn't think it was too far-fetched to assume that Tony wasn't, either.

If they had been in the field, that would have been understandable. Most field agents removed their jewellery before going out. But Michelle was acting SAC, so that didn't add up for her. And Tony, well, Tony didn't even look like he was dressed for work. Nina knew about his treason charge. He wouldn't be able to work for the government. So, he must be here on a provisional basis. Tony had come in with Jack, but Nina thought Michelle had authorised it. Now, however, she was starting to doubt not only that but everything else that she had deduced. Tony had been cold to her. And they weren't wearing matching rings.

Could it be they were no longer married?

That was going to be an issue. Acting like she was in love with Tony wasn't a challenge. It didn't have to be an act because her feelings for him from all those years ago had been real. But this was something very different to unpack. How amiable was their split? Were they separated or divorced? What had been the root cause? Had friends and family taken sides? Jack was the impartial type, but he was still human. There would be bias somewhere. There were so many new elements to think of now that she hadn't planned for. Nina brought up the government personnel directory to find Michelle's file. She had looked through it in the early days of being in Bryce's body, but not since. She had figured that, with Michelle around, she could stay up to date through conversation and that even when she left, she would likely never see her again, so it was irrelevant.

True to her intuition, Michelle was divorced. Nina looked for anything else she might need to know, but there seemed to be no other surprises. Nina then took a moment to examine the linked court records. She had to be quick; she didn't have time for this. But she spotted the phrases 'alcoholism' and 'irreconcilable differences'. Their assets had been split evenly. Their house had been sold. Michelle now rented an apartment somewhere downtown, while Tony lived in North Hollywood in a house under somebody else's name. Her mind continued to nag at her and tell her that this wasn't a priority, but she was too curious. The other occupant — and owner —of the North Hollywood home, was a bartender named Jen Slater. Somehow, that didn't seem unrelated to the alcoholism. Was he still drinking? Nina didn't spot adultery in their court file, which made sense. Tony was loyal above all else, even to people he, at a surface level, wasn't particularly nice to, which was why this divorce shocked her so much. Tony had sacrificed everything to save Michelle's life, and she had repaid him by leaving. It sounded unfair and illogical, but she also didn't know the full story, couldn't know the full story from just legal transcripts.

For now, though, Nina redirected her focus to the search results that had appeared on her computer, now dated fifteen minutes ago, hoping they could resolve this crisis fast enough so she could better research the people around her. She managed to catch up and gather what Chloe needed without taking too long. It helped that she didn't need to match a face to a name because she already knew who Chloe was; Chloe was the only constant between the old and new CTU. Still, she hadn't spoken to her very much, and when she came to her station, she seemed annoyed.

"Finally." Chloe huffed. "You know, Michelle, just because you work for Division now, it doesn't mean you're too good to help with analyst work."

"I got caught up with the server fix, sorry."

Chloe rolled her eyes and snatched the papers from her.

As she looked around, nobody seemed to have noticed their interaction. Maybe Chloe was just like this with everyone. Nina reminded herself to breathe.

"Look, I get you're probably tense because your ex-husband is here, Michelle, but we're all stressed. And I think finding a terrorist who kidnapped Secretary Heller and his daughter, then nearly made a hundred nuclear plants meltdown, and might do God knows what else is more important."

The words were blunt, but they weren't wrong. Nina took them as a reminder to prioritise. She didn't have to work everything out today. She just had to help CTU navigate this crisis, then go home and do some proper planning for re-establishing her cover. However, learning about Michelle and Tony's divorce was still shocking. Nina knew it came from caring about Tony. She couldn't deny that. But she couldn't help but feel that maybe there was more to it.

"You're right, Chloe."

As she went up the stairs to the office, she noticed Jack was watching her as he spoke to Curtis, another person she was vaguely familiar with. It was a slightly discerning look but a very familiar one. Why was he looking at her like that, though? He knew Michelle. He trusted Michelle.

But still, Jack was Jack. He'd be the first to notice something was up, and he was likely already watching her more closely than usual because he was worried about her objectivity with Tony around.

Which made Nina realise that she had to be more careful of Jack than anybody else.