"Mmm," said Tony, hands already wandering to the buttons of her shirt as she slid her hands underneath his, "I'd forgotten how good you look in a business suit..."
"Well, if you prefer it to all that lacy honeymoon lingerie..." Michelle teased in-between kisses, pulling him gently towards the stairs.
"Can't I have both?" He slipped the shirt over her shoulders and began planting kisses along her neck.
"We'll see." She walked backwards along the hallway, smiling as Tony nibbled her earlobe.
And then not smiling so much when the small table between them and the staircase was accidentally knocked over, resulting in a loud crash and a wet mess of broken glass on the newly polished tiles of their newly purchased house.
"Dammit," Michelle said, pulling away from him momentarily and surveying the damage. "I really liked that vase."
"It was from Ikea, we can get another one..." Tony stepped over the glass and held out his hand for her. "And we can clean it up later, alright?"
Michelle only hesitated for a second before taking the proffered hand and following him hastily up the stairs to the bedroom, where they both kicked off their shoes and landed grinning on the bed.
Michelle climbed onto his lap, wrapping her legs around his waist, and they began to kiss less hurriedly, their hands more patient as items of clothing were slowly discarded.
Now clad only in their underwear, the two of them moved further onto the bed, and Michelle pushed Tony into the pillows and grinned mischievously as she bent down to kiss him again.
His hand came up to nestle in her hair, and she leaned in further, feeling the smile on his lips as the fingers of his other hand traced their way teasingly along her spine.
And then came the faint sound of another crash from downstairs, followed by what could well have been somebody crying out.
Michelle pulled back and looked into Tony's eyes. "Did you hear that?" she asked quietly.
There was a moment when she was sure he was going to say no and she almost sighed in relief, but then she saw him nod ever so slightly. "Yeah," he said, shifting beneath her, and she reluctantly rolled off of him and went to grab her robe.
As she put it on, Tony pulled two pistols from their drawer in the dresser. He put a clip in one and handed it to her before loading his own, and they took up position by the door, letting their training take over as they silently made their way back down the stairs and into the barely lit hallway.
Michelle struggled to see in the near darkness. There were unfamiliar shadows cast everywhere -- she still wasn't completely used to the layout of the place as it was, her and Tony having only moved in a couple of weeks before their wedding, and now seeing everything like this was quite disconcerting.
Tony caught her eye and motioned towards the doorway to the living room. On the floor in front of it there was the shadow of what looked like it could be somebody holding a gun close to their side.
Then again, it could just as easily be something perfectly harmless -- a jacket draped over a chair or something.
Gesturing for Michelle to stay where she was, Tony crept down the rest of the stairs and edged around to the other side of the door. The two of them locked eyes for a second, then Tony swung around, holding his gun out in front of him.
"Drop your weapon!" Tony demanded, and a small, balding man stepped out of the room, raising his hands as he let his gun drop to the ground.
"Get on the floor," said Tony, and the man began to crouch down as if to oblige -- only to produce a knife from his sleeve and lunge at Tony.
Michelle shot him.
Tony caught the falling man, taking a moment to react as he got over his surprise. He lay his would-be attacker on the floor and looked up at Michelle as she came down to stand beside him.
She put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head, not yet quite able to process all that had just happened. She looked into his eyes.
"I guess we'd better call 911."
-- --
A short while later Tony and Michelle stood on the sidewalk outside their house, still wearing only underwear and bathrobes, watching the intruder be wheeled over to an ambulance on a stretcher.
Michelle stepped closer to Tony and he put an arm around her, letting her rest her head in the crook of his neck.
"Way to make an impression on the neighbors..." Michelle remarked, looking at the lights and open curtains in many of the houses opposite, the occupants of which had been woken by the sirens.
"Well, at least they'll know who we are now."
"Yeah... and now they'll forever greet me with 'hey, aren't you that chick who shot that burglar?'"
Tony nodded. "That bothering you?" he asked sympathetically.
Michelle sighed. "Yeah," she admitted. "I mean, I know he was about to mutilate you with a big knife, but still... it gets to me."
"Well, I'm glad you didn't let him mutilate me." Tony squeezed her comfortingly. "And you never know, he might pull through."
"I guess." She closed her eyes and nestled further against him.
"Mr. and Mrs. Almeida?"
Michelle looked up to see a police badge being held up for their inspection.
"Lieutenant Martin," said the owner of the badge, putting it back in her pocket. "I'm gonna need to ask you some questions."
The questions in question turned out to be very much like the kind one was asked when being debriefed by CTU, so Tony and Michelle were able to answer them quite easily. The lieutenant seemed happy with their answers and was about to turn away when another officer came up to her holding a couple of clear plastic evidence bags. She scrutinized them for a moment before looking back at Tony and Michelle.
"Do you have any enemies?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
Tony let out a small chuckle. "We work for CTU, Lieutenant; we have too many to count."
"Why?" asked Michelle. "What've you found?"
The lieutenant handed her the bags, and Michelle couldn't help but gape when she saw their contents. "It appears that your 'burglar' wasn't looking to burgle you at all. These were in his jacket."
In the bags were floor plans of their house, photographs of them with their names written on the back in frighteningly neat handwriting, and descriptions of their daily activities going right down to how long it took Tony to shave in the mornings.
Michelle glanced at him and saw him furrow his brow.
He took one of the bags from her and stared at it.
"He was a hitman."
-- --
Their house seemed eerily dark and silent when they were finally allowed back in, even when Tony flicked the light switch on and the hallway was flooded with light. Michelle walked over to where the table they had knocked over earlier was still lying on the ground and looked at the sparkling shards of colored glass that had been her second favorite vase a few hours ago.
Tony came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You wanna try and get some sleep?" he asked softly.
She sighed and shook her head. "I dunno, Tony... I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep knowing that somebody just tried to have us killed."
"You afraid they might send someone else and try again?"
He took her ensuing silence for the 'yes, but I don't really want to admit it' that it was and asked, "You wanna go to a hotel?"
She looked up at him. "Can we?"
"Sure. We'll put some actual clothes on, pack a bag and go, alright?"
She turned around and gratefully rested her forehead on his shoulder as he held her.