"If only you had a child," her mom said, putting the coffee down on the table and looking across at Michelle.

"What?" Michelle asked numbly.

"A child," her mom repeated, touching her hand. She took a sip from her mug.

"Why would a child make this easier?" Michelle asked in a soft broken voice. After that day she couldn't go home, had driven to her mom's house an hour away and collapsed. It was only when she woke up in her old bed and without her husband that everything felt real. She hadn't been able to stop the sudden breakdown, had sat in bed sobbing for so long she lost track of time only becoming aware of the rest of the world when her mom came in and held her hand.

"At least a child would be something - "

Michelle shook her head and looked down into her cup. "He's going to be okay. We're going to be okay."

Her mom sighed, "Twenty years is a long time."

"It's not certain. A lot could happen between now and the trial."

"If you're afraid of going out into the dating world again..."

Michelle looked up quickly, "I can't believe you'd even say something like that," she whispered.

"You're still young. I don't want you to be 50 and trying to figure out where your life went."

"We haven't even had a trial yet, mom. Maybe you should wait for the outcome before dissolving my marriage."

"Michelle - "

She pushed away from the table. "Maybe I want to wait for him."

"You want to spend twenty years of your life waiting for a traitor?"

Michelle bit her lip and closed her eyes, mentally counting to five before speaking.

"He betrayed CTU to save my life. Would you rather he didn't and you got a call about me being dead? Right now...I wish I'd just died in that hotel with everyone else. But mom, if I had died -- Would you be pressing him to replace me?" She was close to breaking down again, felt the tears behind her eyes and the tightness in her throat.

Her mom was silent, looking at the clock on the kitchen wall.

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