Another Way

“You can handle the meeting on your own.” She headed towards the door, as he grabbed her bicep.

“Michelle, don’t do this.” Tony shook his head. He understood where she was coming from, but he was too scared. CTU had a way of destroying lives, he knew that first hand. And after they’d spent the past few months unpacking into their new place, successfully establishing their security firm, plus with a baby on the way, there was no way in Hell Tony was going to let CTU touch any of that.

But Michelle wouldn’t be persuaded that easily. She kissed him at that oh-so-soft spot under his earlobe and walked out. Their mutual stubbornness was both their greatest asset and greatest weakness as a couple. When they agreed on something, their combined head-strong attitude meant they always saw it through until the bitter end. But when they disagreed, their fights would prolong, always a competition to get the last word in. Today was a disagree day. But Michelle knew that once she helped CTU find leads, she could just go home. It’d be fine. Tony would deal with Rick Rosen.

The scorching Los Angeles heat beamed down on Michelle’s back as she walked to her car. Unlocking the door, she fumbled with her keys, hearing a clink as they fell to the asphalt. Cursing, Michelle bent down to retrieve them. But something caught her eye as she reached under the car. 

A blinking, red light.

If she wasn’t mistaken, there was a charge of C-4 attached to the bottom of her car. If her twelve years as a federal agent had taught her anything, it was that someone was out to get her, or her and Tony. And if that ‘someone’ knew what they were doing, they were probably watching her right now, ensuring the job was done properly. Despite feeling a lump form in her throat, she put on a non-chalant façade and walked calmly back to the house, as if she’d simply forgotten something.

She was surprised to see Tony so close to the other side of the door. He stumbled back, equally as confounded.

“Hey, I was just about to come with y-“

Michelle pushed past him and ran to the office, fervidly unlocking the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. He followed her there, confused at her sudden urgency. He was bewildered when she passed him his Beretta 9000S and loaded her Glock-19, sans silencers. 

“What the Hell’s going on?”

“There was C-4 under my car. Someone’s out to get us, and we don’t have long before they figure out something’s wrong.”

Tony’s eyes widened. “What? Are you sure?”

“Positive. Now go start locking up, I’ll help you push furniture to the do-”

As if on cue, the sound of smashing glass rattled through the house, accompanied by rampant footsteps. They’d search each room one by one until they found their runaway targets. Michelle and Tony barricaded the door with the filing cabinet, taking cover behind the desk. Breathing heavily, they listened to the racket of broken-down doors become louder as the assassins neared. Finally, a heavy thud sounded on the other side of the office. It repeated, each time sounding more intentional. 

“They’re in here!” A muffled voice yelled. Seconds later, the increased manpower was starting to have an effect on their defence system. The filing cabinet toppled to the hardwood floor with a crash, as men flooded into the room. But Michelle and Tony were ready. It had been a while, but their firearm accuracy still prevailed. Blood splattered across the white walls with every shot. Metallic clangs sounded as weapons fell to the ground. Michelle counted four men, but knew there could be more. Quickly fishing guns and ammunition from the invaders, Tony nodded to Michelle, as they swiftly stepped into the hallway back-to-back. 

Michelle figured whoever was out to get them hadn’t planned on engaging in firefight, judging by the simple handguns most of the men carried. There were significantly less footsteps echoing through the house, meaning they’d taken out most of them. Cautiously, they followed the source of the noise to their living room. Flush against the wall, Michelle by her side, Tony peered around the hallway corner. He held up two fingers to Michelle. On his cue, they stepped out, Michelle successfully making another double tap, but Tony aiming low this time. He needed one of them alive. He had to know who was out to get them.

Tony’s victim groaned in agony, as he walked over, kicking the perpetrator’s weapon away from him.

“Who sent you? Who the Hell do you work for?” He gripped the gunman’s shirt.

“C-Conrad Haas.” The man gurgled, blood filling his mouth.

“Why does he want us dead?” Tony cried.

“It’s n-not about you. You two and the other agent w-were just a diversion, to try and get Bauer out of hiding. Make him take the f-fall for P-Palmer. He was the target.” 

“Other agent? And Bauer as in Jack Bauer?” He furrowed his brow, shaking the man.

Silence followed, as the man choked out his final breath. It was over. Tony threw his hands up as he released the intruder, who slumped to the ground. 

Michelle let out a small gasp. “Oh my God. It’s Chloe. It has to be. She’s the other person who knew Jack was alive.” Her eyes widened in realisation. “I have to warn her.” She dashed to the wall-phone, dialling as fast as her fingers would let her. 

“Yeah?” Chloe’s distinct annoyed voice sounded through the phone.

“Chloe, listen to me. Do not get in your car. You have to run away. Now.”

Chloe froze in her tracks as her fingers rested on the  door.

“What do you mean?” She sounded nervous.

“There’s a very good chance that there’s a bomb on your car. Someone tried to take us out this morning. The same people who took out Palmer. They’re trying to frame Jack by killing whoever knew he was alive.”

“What?! Why?!”

“I don’t know Chloe, but you need to run. Get to CTU, we’ll meet you there.” Michelle hung up the phone.

Tony walked over to her. She winced at the tiny flecks of broken glass in his hand.

“Are you alright?” He looked her up and down.

Michelle nodded, flashing a weak smile. “A domestic shoot-out definitely isn’t on the approved pre-natal exercise list, but yeah, I’m okay. We should call Jack, let him know what’s going on, oh, and Bill too, so we can get a safe escort to CTU. Plus…”  She gestured to the bloodied disarray around her. “Someone’s going to have to clean this up, and get the bomb off my car.”

Tony sighed, shaking his head. “Yeah. I guess that’s the only safe place to go.” 

As she reached over to the receiver, he grabbed her bicep, just as he’d done before she went out to the car. But instead of giving her a look of disapproval, this time, he enveloped her in his arms. Their bodies were still trembling, a sign of the shock not having quite worn off yet. 

“I can’t believe I nearly lost you.” He whispered into her ear.

“I know, me too. It’s okay. We’re here. We’re okay.” She rubbed small circles on his back.

-

Despite her protests that they were completely fine, just a little shaken, Bill insisted Tony and Michelle go get checked out at medical anyway. Tony agreed with Bill. He wanted nothing more than for Michelle to get every scan under the sun (despite having had a sonogram only a day prior), and then just some rest until this crisis was over.

“I’m not a piece of china, Tony. We should be helping them.” She stood up from the bed, pointing through the glass to the bustling CTU bullpen. 

“We’ve been debriefed. Chloe’s safe. Jack’s here. It’s fine. We don’t work here anymore, this isn’t our job.” He walked over, pulling her to sit down on the bed with him.

Rolling her eyes, she brushed his hand away. “Fine. You can stay here, I’m going to help.”

She was cut off by the sound of a blaring siren. People were running frantically, locking themselves in different rooms.

“Code 6! Everybody out! Go! Go!” Bill’s voice was smothered by the glass, but distinct nonetheless. Tony and Michelle looked at each other, they knew exactly what a Code 6 was. Scanning the room, they confirmed the entrances were shut. The black biohazard seals encased the room. Several people were still stranded, including Lynn McGill. Within seconds, they began convulsing, falling to the floor, foaming at the mouth. The Sentox had killed them. Tony’s mouth gaped open, as Michelle turned away, a small cry escaping her mouth. 

“You guys okay?” Jack’s voice sounded over the intercom, startling both of them.

Tony whipped his head around to face the security camera. “Yeah, we’re fine. What the Hell’s going on?”

“We didn’t stop him in time. There’s Sentox in the ventilation system, and all the masks are in a contaminated area. We’re working on flushing it out, but just stay where you are.”

The half hour that followed felt like an eternity. There was nothing to do but listen to the sound of their breathing.

—

Jack climbed back into the situation room, taking deep breaths, after quickly resealing the wall panel. “The schematics were wrong, the panel’s been barred, I couldn’t get to it.”

Chloe sighed, scowling as she concentrated on her screen, trying to find another way to the fated panel. Time was running out, they had less than fifteen minutes to flush the gas out before the seals would be totally compromised. “There’s a couple of sealed rooms nearby. If someone held their breath, they could run over and operate the panel, but it’d be suicide. They’d die immediately after. Plus, everybody else in that room would be exposed.” 

Jack hung his head in despair, but he knew there was no other choice. “Alright. What’s the closest occupied room?”

She magnified the schematics, “Medical Ward 3. That’s where…Tony and Michelle are.” Her voice trailed off. 

“No…” His voice was barely a whisper. “You’re sure there’s nobody else? Anywhere I can get to?”

Chloe shook her head.

With a quivering finger, Jack pressed the intercom, as Chloe switched the security cam feed to the ward.

“Tony? Michelle?” They perked up, and faced the camera. “I am so, so sorry to have to tell you this.” Jack’s voice was wavering. “You two are the closest to the aircon panel. One of you has to open that door, hold your breath, and go flush out the gas.”

“But we’ll be exposed, how do we get back to an uncontaminated area?” Tony hadn’t quite caught on yet.

“We can’t.” Michelle said after a beat. Not in anger, not in fear. She just said it.

“There has to be somebody else! This isn’t fair, God damn it. We left CTU to get away from shit like this. Why us?!” Tony yelled, standing up. He motioned to Michelle, “For Christ’s sake, she’s pregnant, Jack!”

Jack shut his eyes, a sharp pain shooting through his chest. He couldn’t help but be reminded of Teri. “I-I know. I wish it could be me, trust me, this is as hard for me as it is for you. But you’re the closest room, it has to be you. If you don’t go turn the ventilation on, we’re all going to die.”

“Tony…it’s okay. At least…at least we’ll all go together.” Her voice broke, placing a hand to her stomach. Tony was pacing, hands interlocked behind his head, his exhales sharp and frequent. She moved towards him, and grabbed his face, staring Tony in the eyes. “Look. The only reason we’re still alive right now is because I dropped my keys this morning. Maybe it’s, I don’t know, fate? God? Something? And at least this way, we die with honour. Our death won’t be for nothing.”

Fighting back tears, Tony exhaled, knowing Michelle was right. “I-I get it. I-I guess if I had lost you this morning, if that bomb went off in your car, that would have been worse. I don’t know how I could have gone on, knowing that God decided to take you and our baby away from me. It’s the silver lining, I guess, that we’re going to die together.” His voice cracked, before turning to the security camera. “Jack. I’ll do it. Just…just give us a minute.”

“Of course.” Jack’s voice was barely a whisper.

They embraced, tearfully, just like the day Tony went to prison, fingers tangled in each other’s hair. Michelle pressed her forehead into his, feeling the warmth of his shaking body, digging her fingernails into his back. Tony fell to his knees, kissing her stomach. He nestled his face in her abdomen, sobbing. She had barely started to show, but there wasn’t a single moment in those past few months when Tony wasn’t thinking about the little being forming inside of her. And now he was never going to see that little being grow. He would never know what beautiful mix of their genetics their child possessed. He and Michelle would never be able to call themselves parents. It was over.

She placed a hand on the back of his head, tears streaming down her face silently. In the corner of her eye, Michelle spotted their weapons. CTU security hadn’t bothered to confiscate them. After watching the others victims of the gas die so violently, she couldn’t help but think of that day at the Chandler Plaza Hotel all those years ago. Michelle had made a promise, that if she was infected, she’d kill herself. Her mind flashed back to Gael, how he’d refused her gun, since he believed suicide was a sin. She admired his faith, but deep down, had their positions been switched, she’d have done it in a heartbeat. Whatever awaited her in the afterlife, if there even was one, wasn’t worth the pain. She didn’t want to suffer.  The minute Tony opened that door, she only had as long as her breath could sustain before she’d seizure and die just as the others had. And right now, knowing what the gas would do to her, she reminded herself of that promise.

“Tony. I want you to listen to me. When you activate the panel, don’t…don’t come back, please.” She pulled him up to meet her gaze. “I don’t want us to see each other die in agony. I want us to remember each other like this, right now.”

Jack heard this, and suspected Michelle didn’t just mean she didn’t want Tony to see her die from the gas. He’d been there enough times to suspect she was going to take her life. And he couldn’t blame her. 

He sighed one last time. “If that’s what you want, then….okay. I’ll stay there.” Tony closed his eyes, cupping her face. “Michelle, I love you so, so much. Thank you for…for everything.”

Before he could finish his sentence, she kissed him, grabbing onto his shirt, as if that would stop him from leaving. “I just want you to know, that these past five years have been the best years of my life. Even during the divorce, I never, ever stopped loving you.” Michelle whispered in his ear. Remembering that they were on a timeframe, she gently leaned back, staring into his teary, brown eyes, one last time.

“Jack. I-I’m ready.”

Activating the intercom again, Jack spoke, a little more composed this time. “Okay….I can’t thank you both enough. And I will personally tell your families that you sacrificed yourselves with honour. Again, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Thanks Jack.” Tony smiled faintly.

“Oh and before you go…did you…did you have a name picked out? For the baby?”

Michelle sniffled, “Yeah, we, uh, found out we were having a boy yesterday. We were thinking first name Joseph, after Tony’s dad, middle name Jack, after, well, you.”

“Me?”

“If it wasn’t for you on the day of Marwan’s attacks, we’d have never gotten back together. You’re the reason he even exists, Jack.”

Jack laughed through his nose, bittersweetly. “I’m honoured, thank you. Good luck Tony, I’ll let Chloe take it from here.”

Tony placed his hand on the door, the other hand pulling his shirt to his nose, still looking at Michelle. She nodded to confirm she was ready to hold her breath. Opening the door, he followed Chloe’s instructions to walk to the panel.

Meanwhile, Michelle took her weapon off the table, but she wouldn’t take any action until she knew Tony was successful. The last thing she wanted was to scare him before he could save everyone.

She felt the heaviness of the cold, metal object in her hands. Flicking the safety off, she raised it to her temple, squeezing her eyes shut.

—

“You did it, Tony. It worked, the gas is flooding out.” 

Tony smiled beneath his shirt. He could at least die now, knowing he’d saved many others. 

The undeniable sound of a gunshot silenced the sighs of relief over the intercom. Before he could even talk, suddenly, all the pieces came together for Tony. Michelle had killed herself. That’s why she didn’t want him to go back.

“Michel-“ He called out, before succumbing to the gas. Spasming violently, he collapsed, white foam forming at the corners of his mouth. 

Jack looked away from the security feed. Chloe tried to switch it back to the ward, not realising the images there were no better. Michelle lay on her side, a crimson pool forming beneath her skull.

They were gone.

-

One Week Later

-

Chloe buried her face into Morris’ shoulder, weeping. It was hard enough losing so many people, friends, colleagues on one day. It was even harder to go to each individual funeral, hear another eulogy about their service, see another coffin lowered into the ground.

Tony and Michelle’s was no different. They were buried together. Audrey read the eulogy on Jack’s behalf, seeing as he was on his way to China. She was barely keeping it together herself, but there was at least hope for Jack. Her dad would try to get him back, she was sure of it. But for Tony and Michelle, for Edgar, for Lynn, there was no hope. 

Kim walked over to the headstone, reading the names of the three people buried there. After her father ‘died’, Tony and Michelle had been like parents to her. While it sickened her to know they’d been lying, she knew it was just what her dad wanted. Kim never thought she’d lose another set of parents, let alone to something CTU-related. Barry had insisted she didn’t go, for the sake of her mental health. But she didn’t care this time.

—

Jack had counted seven days since he’d been put on the boat. He stared out the porthole, feeling nauseated as the boat swayed back and forth.

Jack wondered how many funerals he’d missed by now.

His last vision of two of his friends was one having a vicious seizure and the other in a pool of her own blood. What he wouldn’t give to see them happy, whole. What he wouldn’t give to have seen their child. 

What he wouldn’t give to have died in their place.

What he wouldn’t give to have died with Teri.

What he wouldn’t give, to just die.