A nuclear warhead was missing.

Not missing, that made it sound like the government had misplaced it somewhere - stolen, it was stolen.  And in the hands of very dangerous terrorists who also had the activation codes needed to set it off.

Michelle tried not to think about what would happen if they failed as she sat in the situation room and forced herself not to massage the headache that was building behind her eyes.  It would be a sign of weakness, and she needed to be strong, to pretend that she wasn't about five seconds away from collapsing.

"Why the hell isn't CTU-Des Moines handling this?" She wondered and realized with annoyance that she'd read the same paragraph three times.

Tony entered the room.  "Sorry, Bill's still on the phone to Division. Apparently they don’t believe that Jack's resignation, Prado being found unconscious in the parking lot, and us getting a location for Marwan are unrelated events."

Michelle heard the slight sarcastic tone in his voice.  Sometimes she thought that the men of CTU-LA didn’t think things through beyond objectives to consequences.

Tony shook his head. "Anyway, Curtis's team is almost on site. He'll call when he arrives."

"Good," she swallowed and looked away.  She couldn't let him see that she was afraid.  Didn't want to let him see how helpless she felt and if this raid failed they were out of options.  People's lives were in danger and they had no advanced warning about time or location.  Her gaze wandered to the phone and she knew the next phone call could be about a nuclear strike in the heartland.

"Michelle?"

She heard the concern in his voice and it took a moment for her to speak.

"You were right, Logan isn't exactly filling us with confidence."

Logan's outburst earlier had shaken her too, but she'd never admit it.

"You okay?"

His voice was too close and she looked up to see that was standing next to her, his hand resting a few inches away from her own on the table.

A few hours ago she would have lied or glared at him, but now she glanced away, back at the report she couldn't quite read because sometimes the words blurred.  She nodded, "I'm fine."

She heard his sigh and knew he didn't believe her.  But she thought the point of divorce was that after you signed those papers you didn't have to give a damn what your ex believed or how they felt about your actions.  After all, it seemed to work for her mother.

"Look, uh, Michelle, for what it's worth -- "

"Don't," she whispered because she knew he was going to tell her that she was doing everything right and a great job and there was no way to prevent what was happening.  Maybe tomorrow or next week she could hear that but it was 1:15 AM and she wasn't sure anyone would live to see sunrise.  "Please."

She had to stay focused, had to regain control because teams in the field were counting on her and there was no room for even thinking about failure.

She closed her eyes for a moment, saw Curtis capturing Marwan, saw them finding the warhead, saw herself running tomorrow and having dinner with her mom and step-dad next Saturday.

But her hand moved a few centimeters towards Tony's, needing that brief human contact because sometimes it was easy to forget that she used to be able to feel more and the fact that the first time anyone had touched her in weeks was Bill earlier today, well, she hadn't realized she'd achieved that level of being closed off to the world.

After a moment she felt Tony's hand on her shoulder. "So, if we survive until morning, can I buy you breakfast?" He asked in a low voice.

"Michelle? Curtis is about 2 minutes out," Chloe said over the intercom.

Michelle nodded and briefly touched Tony's hand on her shoulder.  They were needed back on the floor.

She stood up and walked back into the main area.  These were her people and they were counting on her to get them through the night.  Michelle wasn't going to let them down, not like President Logan was letting down the American public.

"Okay, we can't make any mistakes here people, this is it, we have to stop Marwan now, there is no other option." Michelle hoped her voice sounded resolute and in control.  She slipped on her earpiece.

Tony folded his arms and listened.

"Curtis, we need to take him alive." She said into the microphone, an unnecessary reminder but if they killed Marwan they would never find where he was hiding the warhead.  They needed to question him, to find out if this was his endgame or if he had other surprises planned.

"Tony? Have them set up that perimeter now.  I want every available agent that's not part of this raid as part of the containment.  He's not escaping.  Not this time."

Tony nodded and went over to Edgar to arrange the checkpoints.

Michelle stood and looked at the screen.  They had satellite coverage of the area.

Absently, she touched her shoulder, remembering the way she felt the warmth of Tony's skin even through her jacket.

She glanced over at Tony.  He looked back at her for a moment.

In her ear she heard yelling and then gunshots.

Breakfast never felt so far away.