chelleuncurled: (working//midge)
Michelle's listening to Nadia's update, but mostly her thoughts are elsewhere, on the program she has running in the background on her workstation that is pulling up satellite images, five seconds apart, of Chris's condo for six hours before the bomb hit.

It hurts to see Chris so distraught. So hopeless.

So much like me

After the brief meeting, she's stopped by Nadia, who asks if she's noticed anyone using an exorbitant amount of system resources.

Michelle lies and says no, but when she gets back to her workstation she gives a silent apology and shuts down the search.

With Chris away at Division and everyone focusing on the possibility of more nukes out there, and intel points to at least one more, Michelle again wonders if they missed something with the Palmer assassination. Jack was set up and the only conclusion he reached was that there was no link. Their attention's been elsewhere, but Michelle has a hard time accepting that it was a separate attack and not connected to the series of bombings or the nuclear bomb that went off in Valencia.

Or what happened in China

Even Jack seems too willing to accept this conclusion. Although he's also been reluctant to investigate his abduction for reasons she understands but does not support.

And in the back of her mind is the thought that whoever's responsible for China is also responsible for Tony's death.

Making a decision, Michelle waits until everyone's engrossed in their work and closes the list of suspects she's been researching and double checking. She opens the link to the W drive and after a few moments of searching she finds the archive of Palmer's files.

Some items, mostly related to images and physical evidence had been accessed recently. The files on his computer, however, had been quickly searched and discarded. It's a complete shot in the dark, but Michelle's more than familiar with encryption and security. Tony once told her about how the best way to hide important information was in a plain sight. "They look right over the information that doesn't belong," he'd smiled, "now that doesn't mean you should start going through my files." She'd teasingly went for his computer and he'd grabbed her from behind and she'd laughed and then relaxed against his chest -- she mentally shakes herself, before opening up Palmer's documents. She still feels Tony's arms around her and she tries to will him away from her consciousness. She knows it's a losing battle, but usually she doesn't imagine he's with her. At least not anymore.

She starts opening up documents, going carefully through each page, but finding nothing. She is starting to wonder if there's anything to find, if maybe she's invented connections that don't exist, when she opens the latest draft of Palmer's press conference notes. The file's encrypted, which is unusual, but these are private thoughts. She opens up CTU's decryption program and a few commands later is granted access to the file.

After going through so many of his speeches, she's struck all over again by how much they lost a few days ago, and how deeply she admired him.

No, no time for sorrow, stop it, Michelle.

While scanning one of his later points, she sees a string of letters and numbers that doesn't seem to connect to anything around them. Her heart beats a little quicker as she re-reads to make sure she's right. "NDP-48102004D" she mouths, the code having no meaning to her. But it's an obvious code. And a possible link.

She runs it through a database of every known acronym or abbreviation but nothing makes sense.This was important and it had to mean something.

She has to tell someone, but needs to be careful. She spots Jack making his way to the situation room. "Jack!" she calls out, trying to get his attention.
chelleuncurled: (morose)
May 10, 2012

Michelle hasn't seen Jack since the bar. She's gotten updated status reports from Chris - a cold way to think about a friend's well being, but it's easier to treat this as an investigation.

Her attempts at tracking information back to the source have hit one dead end after another. According to the evidence, a little birdie told the Chinese about Jack still being alive. She called the Toronto police, using her old CTU credentials, and asked the head officer numerous questions about the crime scene and the storage of evidence. She ran a check on her own phones to see if they were being tapped, went through her systems, but she was running out of ideas.

She stifles a yawn. Dr. Banks said being tired is normal and besides, she is still recovering from an emotional experience. When it came time during the prenatal exam to give the father's history, she almost broke down when she realized she didn't know if Tony's family ever had certain diseases and she couldn't believe she didn't ask Alex or Maria those questions before the visit. Her voice trembled as she said she'd have to get back to her on some information. Dr. Banks said a blood test would determine pregnancy and Michelle glanced up at her and told her that she knows she's pregnant and there's no way she's wrong.

The rest of the visit went normally and Michelle watched her blood fill small glass tubes and thought about how she was bleeding for two.

In the waiting area, her mom sat reading Worth and when she saw her daughter she put aside the magazine and walked over to her. Over the last few weeks, Michelle's observed that her mom's started turning Tony into a larger than life figure and using him as a surefire way to keep her from doing anything even slightly dangerous. At the same time, her mom's dislike toward Jack has only grown and Michelle's stopped giving her updates.

In a way she's trapped. Some feelings and things she can never tell anyone - she can't talk to Chris about her jealousy and she can't talk to her mom because she'll only feed her hate and she can't talk to any of her old friends because the circumstances of Tony's death are secret and even if they weren't, she's not sure what she'd say. Some mornings she misses Tony so much she can barely breathe and other times she thinks maybe today will be a good day - but then she'll spot something that reminds her of him and have to force herself to move. She still feels him with her, still expects that she'll wake up and feel his hand against hers, hear him in the shower, have him hand her coffee in the morning - so many little things she took for granted when they were first married, cherished when they were brought back together, and now miss like a sixth sense.

And she knows Jack must have been surprised when she called and asked him if he would help her get Tony's clothes ready for donation. Her mom's been mentioning it casually and more than that she knows living with his memory so strongly around her doesn't help anyone - especially herself and when she's further into her pregnancy she won't be able to lift as much and after the baby arrives it'll be difficult to find the time or energy.

There's a knock at the door and she knows he's arrived.

chelleuncurled: (bathrobe//midge)
[ooc: Millitimed to earlier today]

Michelle isn't going to the bar today. She was okay yesterday, but for some reason she's having trouble getting out of bed right now. She feels that he's missing.

She doesn't plan on moving today, but the knock on her door makes her stand up, throw on a robe and walk out to the hallway.

She runs a hand over her hair and wipes under her eyes, hoping that she doesn't look as terrible as she feels. Then, she opens the door.

chelleuncurled: (bathrobe//midge)
Placeholder. Michelle sitting around in a robe doing more wedding planning and trying to write out her vows...placeholder.

By the Tree

Jul. 9th, 2005 11:49 pm
chelleuncurled: (broken//midge)
[ooc: After this]

Michelle runs across the grass, still trying to get a deep breath, still failing. But she needs to get to the tree, needs to be there. Because, Tony will be there, and she won't have to face this and he'll be reaching for her hand and then it'll be okay.

If she tries she can get away from her thoughts, but alcohol won't work and she can't face the truth or the possible truth and he told her it was just a dream and she held onto that like a child holds onto the Tooth Fairy. When he came back, when he shied from her touch, when she thought she heard screams, she was able to write those off but the truth...he'd never tell the truth.

Hurt because of her, because Saunders put him in an impossible situation and that fucking bastard was in the bar and oh God Michelle wanted to make him pay, she wanted to...her gun was upstairs...she could find him...

Reaching the tree, but Tony wasn't there and she slumped against it, hiding her face in her hands and the air was heavy and she sunk to the ground, crying like she hasn't cried in years and unable to stop.

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chelleuncurled

December 2007

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