Chapter 14: Epilogue

The sun had barely risen when Michelle walked out of the bathroom. She stood in the doorway absently fingering her diamond necklace, something that had become a habit over the years. She rarely took it off. She had gone through three different chains, but the diamond pendant was the same one Tony had given her 25 years ago. The last time it was off her neck was four years earlier when she was rushed to surgery following a car accident. Tony had been handed the necklace along with her other personal effects. He clutched it in his fist for the duration of the surgery as if it were her lifeline and if he let go she would die. Afterward he put it on Sophie and asked her to wear it until her mother was well. She came through the surgery fine and was back on her feet in a few weeks. Michelle considered it a minor bump in their wonderful years together. There had been other bumps as well: Tony had badly messed up his knee skiing, an accident that required three surgeries and months of physical therapy and left him with a slight limp to this day; Michelle's last pregnancy had been problematic and she spent several months on bed rest but ended with the birth of a health baby; that after losing a baby who had been born prematurely which had devastated both of them; and Tony's parents had both died over the last few years. It all seemed inconsequential when compared to the great happiness they had shared.

Michelle looked across the room at Tony who was asleep on his back, his bare chest rhythmically rising and falling. His hair was gray now. She smiled; it really did make him more distinguished. He was still so handsome. She walked to the bed and slipped in next to him and began pressing soft, sweet kisses onto his face.

Tony opened his eyes slightly. "Honey, the sun isn't even up yet. What are you doing?" he asked in a sleepy voice.

"We have a busy day, Tony. You don't want to miss Sophie's wedding, do you?" She leaned close to his face and gave him butterfly kisses.

"The wedding is at 6 p.m. not 6 a.m. Besides, she's too young to get married. They're just kids! What do they know about marriage?"

This was going to be a hard day for Tony. He loved his children equally but had a soft spot in his heart for Sophie that no one could deny. The child whose birth he had not witnessed, the one he risked his freedom for, who learned to smile and sit and crawl without him, was going to be the hardest to let go of. She had been her Daddy's girl from the moment he handed her the white teddy bear at the airport 25 years ago. He could not imagine that she was giving her heart to another man.

"Tony, she's 26 years old. Will is 31. It's time!" she reminded him.

Sophie and Will had dated all through college and graduate school but had known each other their entire lives. Will was Bill Conner's oldest son, Tony's Godson.

"Tony, don't make this hard for them. Remember how much it hurt us when your parents wouldn't accept me?"

"You eventually became their favorite daughter-in-law."

"Yeah, but look at the crisis it took to get them to accept me."

"Alright, I admit it. I like Will and they make a nice couple. Can I go back to sleep now?"

She ignored that last request. "Maybe they'll make us grandparents. That would be nice."

"Those two workaholics! Not a chance."

"People used to say that about us, Tony, and look how we ended up."

"Okay, you win. They are a nice couple AND they might just make us grandparents. I'm going back to sleep." He started to turn over but Michelle held his shoulder and pulled him back.

"No, you aren't Tony; we have a lot to do today. We have to pick up Joe and Emily at the airport at 10 o'clock."

Joe was their second child, Jose Antonio, who was named for Tony's good friend Jose Sanchez. Sanchez was killed when his Cessna crashed in a storm just a few months after Tony had been pardoned and returned home. When they had a son, Michelle wanted to name him after Tony, but Tony insisted that he be named for Sanchez with Tony's name as the baby's middle name. Joe had graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy two years earlier and now served as a naval intelligence officer stationed in Quantico, VA. He was tall and handsome with the same engaging smile that had attracted Michelle to Tony so many years ago. Michelle knew how handsome he would look today in his dress white uniform. Emily was his fiancée. They would be married in just over a year at the Naval Academy Chapel under crossed swords.

"Dess is picking them up. He's taking Ryan with him," Tony said, his voice still sleepy.

Dess was the nickname used by everyone except Michelle for their third child, John Dessler Almeida. In their tradition of naming their children to honor special people in their lives, this son had been named for two dear friends: Jack Bauer, whose given name was John, and Juan Rodriguez, Tony's business partner. He was given Michelle's maiden name as a middle name.

Dess was 21 years old and had just finished his third year at Stanford. After graduation next year he was going to work with Tony. He hoped to take over the LA branch office in the next few years and let his father enjoy some much deserved time off. The business had stayed largely in the three partners' families. Juan's daughter was now in charge of the Buenos Aires office, while Pedro's sons ran the London and New York offices. Pedro had died just last year and Tony still missed him and thought of him often. The business had grown and prospered over the years beyond the three partners' wildest dreams.

Dess favored his mother in both looks and personality. His skin was paler than the other children and his reddish brown curly hair about the same color as Michelle's. He was serious and quiet like Michelle but exuded a strong confidence.

Ryan that Tony referred to was Dess' best friend, Ryan Bauer, the younger of Jack and Kate's two sons.

Michelle was obviously not making any progress toward waking Tony up so she decided to take a different approach. She climbed on top of him and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Mmmm," he exhaled. "Now that might just wake me up." Tony wrapped his arms around her and kissed her fully, his lips slightly parted. He put his hands under her satiny night shirt and slid them up her back. "Mmmm," he moaned again. His hands moved down her back again and he cupped them around her bare bottom, squeezing gently. She still excited him. After nearly 30 years together he was still aroused by her. Even if it took a little longer to get fully aroused these days, he thought grimly.

"Oh, Tony," she smiled as he kissed her again. "You are incorrigible!"

"I'm incorrigible? You climbed on top of me! By the way, you didn't call me incorrigible 30 years ago. I seem to remember you liking it."

"I still like it," she admitted. "And I love you."

"I love you, too, Baby." Their kisses became more intense. Michelle put her head back and Tony kissed her neck. She let out that soft moan that drove him crazy. Now he was fully aroused. He wrapped his arms firmly around her. She knew what was coming next. He had probably done this hundreds of times in the last 30 years. In one smooth motion, he rolled them both over without losing full contact with her body. She was smiling broadly now; she loved it when he did that. He could see the excitement on her face.

She ran her hands down his back to his boxer shorts and slipped her fingers under the waist band. He raised his hips slightly so she could push the shorts down. She pushed them as far as she could reach, then let him finish taking them off. He reached up and unbuttoned her shirt kissing her body gently at the place each button had been. He opened the shirt and caressed her. His fingers lingered momentarily on the 6 inch scar on the left side of her abdomen, the only remnant of the serious car accident she had been in a few years earlier. The memory still chilled him. He remembered the call from the police and rushing to the emergency room, the nurse handing him Michelle's personal effects and telling him that she was already in the operating room. He remembered hasty phone calls to their children. He remembered the fear that gripped him; a fear he hadn't felt since the day he watched on the computer monitor as his young wife was held at knife point by a murderous madman. She was at knife point again, he thought, only this time the knife was being held by a surgeon who wanted to save her life. He remembered, too, the smiling face of the surgeon as he walked from the operating room. He remembered his relief as the surgeon shook his hand and told him Michelle should be fine in a couple of weeks. It was the same relief that he felt when Saunders men were all dead or captured and Saunders himself was in custody and he and Michelle clung to each other in the middle of the street amid bullet casings and CTU officers.

"You are still beautiful," he whispered. Almost 60 years old, he thought, and she had a body most 40 year olds would kill for. She smiled and averted her gaze. She was still embarrassed when he complimented her body. "How did I ever get so lucky? What did you see in me, Michelle?"

"I saw an incredible, smart, gentle, loving man who I wanted to spend my life with and have children with. And I've never been sorry, not for a minute."

They made deep, passionate love. Tony moaned loudly as he reached an intense climax. "Shhh," Michelle giggled like a schoolgirl. "Everyone is going to hear us!"

"Honey," Tony said breathlessly, his face buried in her neck, "we are the only ones awake at this ridiculous hour."

Tony was wrong. In the room across the hall, Chloe, Tony and Michelle's fourth and youngest child stretched and turned over. She rolled her eyes and smiled. Not again, she thought. This was at least the second time this week. They have more sex than a couple of teenagers! Chloe wondered what made her parents so different. Half of her friends' parents were divorced and her parents couldn't keep their hands off each other. She was happy they still loved each other so much and deep in her heart she hoped that she, too, could find such a perfect love some day.

Chloe Paula Almeida had been named for Chloe O'Brian and Paula Schaeffer. O'Brian, Tony eventually found out, was instrumental in his escape to Argentina and his trip home to visit Michelle and Sophie. Paula was a CTU employee who Tony had hired and who died in the CTU bombing only a short time later.

Chloe was 18 years old and would graduate from high school next month. She had Tony's dark hair and skin, but had a hint of her mother's Asian heritage around her eyes and high cheek bones. She would be going away to college in the fall, the last baby bird to leave the nest. Tony and Michelle would be on their own again just as they had started out so long ago.

Hours later Tony and Sophie stood at the back of the church. She was stunning, he thought, so like her mother. She had his dark coloring, but many of Michelle's features. Her nose and her smile were all Michelle.

"Are you sure about this?" Tony asked one more time.

"Daddy!" she shook her head and smiled.

"Okay, okay! I give up. My first mistake was not chaining you up in the basement when you were 12 and keeping you there so no one else could have you. I'm locking Chloe down there as soon as we get home!"

"Daddy, stop. Don't you want me to be happy?"

"My God, Sweetie, that's all I ever wanted for you."

"Will makes me happy, Daddy."

Their turn to walk down the aisle had come. Sophie placed a gloved hand in the crook of his left arm. Tony could feel her light grip. He reached across with his right hand and placed it on top of hers. He looked out at the sea of smiling faces: their family, their friends. He couldn't help but smile. Forgetting for a moment, he scanned the crowd for his parents. He felt like they were there with him. They would have loved this day. Sophie, the product of the union of their Latino son and his Anglo wife, a union they had so strongly opposed, had become the apple of their eye. They would have been so happy to share the day with her.

As they neared the altar, Tony and Sophie stopped. He turned to her and lifted her veil over her face then hugged and kissed her. She was the only one of his four children whose umbilical cord he had not personally cut in the delivery room. Twenty-six years later he would finally sever that cord and give her to another man.

Will stepped toward them. Tony turned to shake his hand. "I guess I can't call you 'Uncle Tony' any more," Will said.

"How about if you just call me Tony."

"Actually, I was hoping to call you 'Dad'," he said his hand still clasped in Tony's.

"That would be great," Tony replied embracing the young man. Eyes throughout the church filled with tears.

Tony stepped into the pew beside Michelle as the young couple ascended the steps to the altar, just as he and Michelle had done so many years before. Tony slipped his arm around Michelle's waist and pulled her close. She looked up at him and smiled. He pressed a kiss into her hair. His eyes closed, he lingered there for a moment in silent prayer.

He prayed that Sophie and Will, that all of his children, found the happiness he and Michelle found all those years ago. In the shadow of a nuclear explosion and death and destruction at CTU, they reached out to each other. The pain of their previous relationships was forgotten. Their loved was forged like steel with fear and grief and most of all, hope for the future: a hope they carried with them into each day, a hope that never failed them, a hope that sustained them even when they were thousands of miles apart; a hope that brought them here today, surrounded by friends and family, to watch their daughter begin the circle of hope again.

Thanks so much for reading! Please take a second and review. (I just love to get reviews!) If you liked this story, you might also like its prequel, "First Date" and its sequel, "Undercover."