I wrote this one for the first Prison Break Fic exchange at LJ. Hope you like it. I want to thanks Siaram for being my beta. And of course I don't own anything but my imac.
Out of guilt
They were in the middle of nowhere and it was three in the morning when Veronica found him meditating near the fireplace of this little cabin.
"Michael you need to talk to him," whispered Veronica, she didn't want to wake anybody up.
Startled, Michael answered, "To whom?"
"To him, Michael, don't try to fool me, you know who I'm talking about."
"No I don't, Veronica, we are in a house filled with people, well all men except you, so talk to him," he replied adding air quotes to the expression, "is pretty general, and a long guess,"
"So guess, make a wild guess of whom I'm referring," she hissed trying to match his ironic tone.
"To LJ?" he asked hiding his smirk in the darkness of the room, only illuminated by the red burning fire. He knew exactly who they were talking about but was set in doing everything he could to avoid the topic she was referring to, he was good at hiding the truth, he'd been doing it for years now, so he will keep doing it.
"Not really, to Lincoln, Michael, to your brother, you have to tell him..." she urged him still in a whisper but starting to sound exasperated.
"And why would I need to talk to him Veronica? What do you suggest I should tell him?" he remarked failing to seem curious and sounding violent at the time.
A grey morning in front to a large building, a younger Michael is waiting under the rain. He looks devastated. As if he hasn't had any sleep in weeks and anything to eat either.
"Because you are throwing your life away for him, and he deserves to know why, because you didn't give him a choice to approve of this insanity. So tell him why!"
"You have no say in this, this is none of your business, so stay out of it," he let out in a mad whisper that sounded just like a silent cry.
Veronica comes out of the building, crying.
"You are telling me, me!" she almost yelled and gesticulated towards herself pointing at her chest, "that I don't have a say in this? Newsflash for you Michael, but I'm in the middle of this," she was almost crying.
He tries to hold her, she refuses and walks away. He calls for her but she doesn't answer and keep walking away.
"Yes, I'm telling you to stay out of it," he answered coldly, knowing perfectly how much his choice of words and its matching icy tone will hurt her more than anything, he knew in fact how involved she was in all this mess. "You are not in the middle. Not anymore," he added bitterly.
He watches her go then turns and walks in the other direction.
"You know that it is not true," she murmured so quietly that it sounded more as she was trying to catch her breath.
Veronica is walking under the cold rain hugging herself. She can't believe how everything turned out this way. How can anger play tricks on you and you end up doing the most wrong thing you can think of just to despite someone. She knew she was wrong, she felt in her heart that Lincoln was guilty so why was she feeling so guilty about it.
"You made the choice," he was trying to hurt her, and succeeded so well, that it also hurt him in the process; he was tired of hurting and getting hurt along this plan.
Michael is leaving a letter in Veronica's door. He looks regretful and sad.
"Oh my god, I can't believe you still think that way! It was my choice, you can't bring that up," she was more upset than angry at this point, showing in her tone of voice and her crystal blue eyes full of tears, sorrow tears.
Veronica, who's crying on her couch, looking devastated, sees the letter come from under the door, and lies down on the couch, and sobs and cries harder, hugging herself.
"Why would I think differently? I thought it was why you said I had to talk to him," he asked, truly curious about it.
Michael is in front of the large building trying to convince her not to go in. He tries to tell her that they can save him, that he is not guilty and he doesn't deserve to be paying for others mistakes.
"Because" she replied, taking a pause to think how she wanted to approach this delicate matter, "time has passed, and we are different now. You have to talk to him about the events that has led to that incident, the real reason you are doing what you are doing for him,"
"Time won't change what you did." He stated matter of factly
Veronica goes in anyways dismissing Michael pleas. Michael waits under the rain.
"But what I did and you know perfectly why I had to do it, is making you do what you are doing, and Lincoln deserves to know that."
Michael is robbing a bank. Veronica is defending his case, there is nothing she can do, Michael is going to jail, she is devastated, she can't believe that everything she touches, ends up broken.
"That doesn't have an ounce of truth, because, what I'm doing it is not out of guilt, it's because I owe him"
A teenage Lincoln is taking care of little Michael.
"You feel you owe him because of what happened..."
The night of Lincoln conviction, a very drunk Michael and Veronica kiss on her couch. They got together to give each other comfort in this sad moment for both of them. They never imagined what would happen next.
"No!" he exclaimed looking her in the eyes, but failing miserably to make a point, he was at lost, he didn't know why he was doing it anymore, he only knew he needed it to be done, and he wanted to move on with his life, and right now his top priority was to stay alive and help Lincoln and everybody else, including her, to stay alive. "If you think you have a voice and a choice in the matter, tell him yourself"
An awkward morning awakening in tangled sheets between Veronica and Michael. She urges him to leave. He does it not pronouncing a word. They both know it was a mistake, there is no need for excuses, explanations and other plain excuses and apologizes that will hurt them more.
He tried to unmask her by taunting her and trying to call on her bluff, "or you are going to tell me that what you are doing is not about that too?"
Veronica is taking a pregnancy test. It's positive. She turns frozen and sits on the bathroom floor to stare at the stick wishing it to change to negative. She says she won't cry.
"What I'm doing for your brother, Michael, is because I love him"
Veronica and Lincoln in bed, being young and happy.
"Because I believe in him, because he is innocent and I can do something about it," she stated really unsure of her own words, it sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than him.
Veronica argues with Lincoln about the tape and him being guilty of murder.
"The night is not hiding your lies, V, you and I both know the truth, you are doing this because of what happened that time, and you are also throwing your life away with it,"
Veronica is ending her engagement. Sebastian is dead. Veronica barely escapes the explosion in her apartment. LJ, Nick and her are escaping Kellerman.
"But that doesn't change the fact that we can't tell him, or are you ready to loose him?" hissed a very angry Michael, he sounded almost menacing, "because I'm not ready, V, he was almost dead, he is free now, and he doesn't deserve any of this, or to suffer because of what happened, it was my fault, and I deserve to carry it, not him. Telling him is just to unload my guilt on him, and I'm not doing that, I'm not charging him with it. So this is the end of it, and I don't want to hear about it again, ok?" Then he mumbled almost out of breath, "I'm not telling him."
"Tell me what?" asked a sleepy Lincoln appearing from the darkness of the other room.
Veronica panicked and stammered: "Michael needs to talk to you," and she escaped out of the room.
"What's up Mike?" said Linc.
"Nothing, bro, just some plan things, go back to sleep, I'll have it figure it out by the morning," Michael lied and disappeared into the kitchen.
"You can't lie to me like that, Michael, and you know it, what is going on between you and V, why were you arguing in the middle of the night?"
"It's nothing, really, drop it" Michael answered a little too strongly and went back to bed.
What he didn't knew was that Lincoln had heard all of it, and was set on figuring out what exactly had happened between these two to be saving him out of guilt.
The next morning, Michael acted weird, and Veronica couldn't look him in the eyes, he was now certain that something big was going on.