Disclaimer: Prison Break and the characters are not mine. They belong to Paul Scheuring and all the people who made this amazing show!
Note: I've just recently gotten into this show and I have fallen in love with it and Lincoln and Michael are the best. Ever since I saw the show I've always wanted them to have some other family out there, just someone who they both loved as much as they loved each other. While Lincoln had LJ, I never felt Michael was really that invested in him, so I decided to give them a sister.
Please let me know what you think and leave a review. If you like maybe I'll write more.
A Special Job
When I was little mom had said I was going to have a special job, I never through that job would turn into a real thing. But here we sit, Michael on one side and Sydney on the other, our mother's casket in front of us. Mike had sat still and silent as a stone while Sid clung to my arm and tried to be brave like I had asked her to this morning. But I knew it was just a waiting game to when they both broke.
Mom had been sick for a long time, and when she had passed away I had been half hoping that dad would come back and save us. And even though I knew he wouldn't, I still had been disappointed when I never saw him. The preacher said his last words and Mrs. Donovan gently pushed on my shoulders and I tugged Mike and Sid to their feet. Sidney swayed a little but steadied herself by latching onto me again. I kept an arm around her as the few friends we had walked by, hugs, well wishes, and false promises of help were offered and we were done with this part, all that was left was the grave-side. Veronica and her mom were the last ones beside the preacher. I owed Mrs. Donovan a lot, she had helped me do this. I was too young to know how to plan a funeral. Mike and Sid were even younger.
Michael ended up getting several steps ahead of us, his eyes cold as he all but ran to the car. Sitting still had always been hard on him, and I knew all he wanted to do was to run. He was just like mom. Sidney still clung to me as we walked to the Donovan's van. We just had to get through the last part then we could go home. Back to our run-down apartment where there was still so much evidence of our mom. I didn't know what to do. I sat in the middle section with Sidney and Michael sat in the back with his head pressed against the glass.
These two depended on me now, I was all they had now. Nine years ago when mom told me I was going to be given a special job, that I was going to become a big brother, I had no idea that special job would turn into a fulltime job, a job that would change my life.
It's been two months since mom's funeral, and between Michael's insomnia, Sidney's nightmares, the bills on the table that my fast-food job wasn't paying, and my failing grades sleep had been impossible to come by. Right now Michael was reading in his room several hours past his bed-time and Sidney curled up beside me and I was laying wide awake contemplating what I could do. If I didn't do something to get more money I would lose them, and we would lose this place. Mom had left us with no money, the extra money we did have had been used up long ago with her doctor bills. And even all of those were not paid for.
I needed more money, but I was working every second I wasn't in school. And this little nagging voice in my head was screaming the answer at me. If I dropped out there would be seven more hours I could work, seven more hours of pay coming our way. I wasn't the best student anyway, spent more time in detention than I did in the classroom anyway. Michael was the brain of the family and I was the screw-up. It had always been like that. Ever since Michael started school he was always on the honor roll, always getting some type of reward. Sidney was smart too, just not Michael smart.
I dropped the bill I had in my hand and picked up another one, electricity this time, we were so close to losing it again. I sigh and drop it on top of the others that lay on my nightstand, away from the little prying eyes of my brother. A little whimper from beside me signals the start of another nightmare. I sit up and gently tug her into my arms. She was so little, brown hair identical to Michael's, but her eyes were dad's eyes, my eyes. Her teacher was worried about her, pressuring me to get her to open up.
I knew I had to do something. I had a special job to do. And I owed my little brother and sister a good life. A life they deserved. They were nothing like me, they were good, never got into trouble. I knew what I would do.
The next morning we all went to school like normal and Michael and Sidney had gone home alone like normal, but what they didn't know, not for several weeks, that I had dropped out. I would tell them goodbye at the elementary school then I would go off to work. My days off I ran around the city picking up cans and sending them in for coins. Every little bit helped. But it was never enough. Then one cold, windy morning I ran into Otto, he knew I needed money and he said he could help me. It was just some drugs, no biggie. A quick walk across town and bam extra money in my pocket when I went to the store to buy milk. A few years went by and it went smoothly, until I was caught in the act. I'll never forget the fear I felt the first time those cold, metal cuffs bit into my skin. But it wasn't fear for me, it was fear for the two ten year olds who would be waiting for me to come home.
At the jail I used my one phone call to ask Mrs. Donovan to get them. I was released on probation. After my first arrest I packed up my siblings and we moved to Chicago. Otto's ring had been busted up, but I knew he had connections there, and since it was a bigger city maybe I could make more money and not get caught this time. I needed the money. Mike and Sid were getting older, needing more things, new clothes, and then some.
Michael had grown out of his insomnia, but Sidney had not grown out of her shell. She was still quiet and plagued by nightmares. Maybe this change in life would help. The apartment we had in Chicago left much to be desired, Mike and I shared a room and Sidney had the smallest room I had ever seen. But we were still together. That was until I got busted again. This time the judge threw the book at me. I was sent to juvenile hall and my siblings were sent into the system. Three weeks into my stay at juvie I got two letters from the state, Michael's address and Sidney's address. They had been separated. Sidney was with a family outside the city and Michael was down on Pershing Avenue. They weren't even going to the same school anymore. I think that was the first time I had cried since mom had died. I had had one job, a special job, and I had failed.
I got out of juvie dirt broke and I immediately went back to doing what I was doing before. I had no chance of getting Michael and Sidney back until I had something stable for them to come back to. After three months on the outside I turned seventeen and I met Lisa Rix. She was so beautiful and I hadn't seen Veronica since our move to Chicago. It was weird being around her, she wasn't involved in my lifestyle, yet I always saw her out with people I was doing business with.
It was with her that I really realized that drugs and alcohol didn't mix and two months after one stupid night Lisa tells me she was pregnant.
I had sat like a log for several hours after she told me over the phone. I couldn't even keep my brother and sister in my life, what chance did I have of keeping a child in my life? My dilemma was quickly solved when I was busted a few weeks later for criminal damage to property. I had missed my son being born, but Lisa had at least let me in on the name, she even gave him my last name. The first time I held my son he was a month old, but I had never fallen in love with another person as fast as I had him. My beautiful LJ.
I had tried to keep my nose clean, got an actual job for the first time in years, got a two bedroom apartment for when LJ came to visit, which was every other weekend. The weekends he wasn't with me I was with either Michael or Sidney. They were still apart, but both in different homes again. Michael and Sidney were never in the same home longer than a few months. When I turned twenty had got roped back in with crime when I came up short for both my bills and Christmas presents. A quick robbery was my solution, but I hadn't thought it through and I ended up being sent back to juvie hall.
As I sat in my cell for my son's first Christmas I realized I would have to try harder to kick my quick-fix habit. So when I finally got out again I lived in shelters and worked two jobs until I was able to rent out another two-bedroom apartment, bought a beat-up car to get LJ and visit Michael and Sidney, and after receiving yet another address card I was delighted to learn that Michael and Sidney were finally in the same house. But after getting a letter from Sidney telling me how wonderful her new foster family was I realized I needed to be more involved in their lives before I lost them to this new family.
After finally getting my life back to some sibilance of normal I had managed to talk Michael and Sidney's foster family to let them visit me on the weekends. Sidney and Michael were fourteen now and I was on my way to pick them up from the bus stop. They had been put in the same house for the first time since they first went into the system and the foster parents seemed like good people, and were going to let them spend most weekends with me. I drove down the busy Chicago street in my beat-up car that smoked like a chimney and made the worst sounds. I pulled into the parking lot and walked into the terminal. After scanning the bus schedule for a few minutes I saw their bus was late. So I sighed and plopped down on the hard bench and stared out the dirty window for the bus that would deliver my brother and sister to me. I hadn't seen them both together in a long time. I had seen them separately, but never together, not since I lost them four years ago.
I had, of course, kept track of them. In juvie there was a lot of routine and time spent just sitting around. I had learned to do one thing and that was make an origami crane. After I got out I left them for Michael and Sidney to find. I had been doing it for four years. They had never brought them up when I saw them, but I had seen all of them in Sidney's room in an old shoe box that also held her photos of mom, me, and Michael. She even had an old photo of dad in it.
It seemed like forever, but in reality it was only fifteen minutes when the bus finally pulled up. I stood up and walked out into the cloudy and windy day. Several people got off the bus, some went and hugged other people who were waiting beside me while others simply walked down the street. My eyes were glued on the door, my breathing seemed to be nonexistent. Where were they? More and more people got off and I bounced from one foot to the next. Then I saw them.
Michael steped off the bus first, a black backpack hanging heavily off his shoulders. His hair was still cut like he'ed had it for years, his eyes were still the same color, but they were darting around very fast in his head, scanning everything around him. I smiled and raised my hand as I barked out his name "Mike! Michael! Over here!" his head snapped to his left and a huge smile broke across his face, making the cleft in his chin I hadn't seen before more propionate on his face. He got a few steps off the bus before he turned around and reached his hand out to Sidney who I almost didn't recognize. Her brown hair was long. Longer than I had ever seen it before, she had glasses on her face and her eyes were shadowed by thick eyeliner and hoop earrings hung from her ears. She had a purple bag hanging off her shoulder. Michael said something then pointed to me. She smiled a huge smile before letting go of Michael and running over to me, launching herself into my arms.
"Oh my god, Lincoln!" she said against my shoulder as she huged me. Her arms strong and warm. She smelled like flowers and all I did was hug her back, smiling at Michael as he patiently waited his turn. I took an arm off Sidney and grabbed Michael's shoulder and pulled him against us, and for a few seconds I feel invincible. I had my siblings back. We were a family again.
We pull apart, I took Sidney's bag and her hand and we walked out of the bus station together. We got in my car and we drove to a Mexican restaurant and with the money I had made by selling a stolen TV. As I listened to Mike and Sid tell me about their lives and I began to realize all I had missed I knew I needed to keep my nose clean, I wanted them back. I had plenty of money stashed up, a two-bedroom apartment that had all the necessities, and I needed them back in my life. And after three weeks of legal paperwork and a promised amount of community service I was back at the bus station picking them up for the last time. I finally had them back.
Even having them and LJ in my life didn't stop me from my other ways of money making. I had an honest one, but it paid nothing compared to what I needed. So I went back to work, but I worked extra hard at not being caught, even turned down some well-paying jobs because of what was at stake if I was caught again. But Michael wasn't a kid anymore. In fact he was very different. If I came home late he was up waiting for me, his eyes seemed to scan every bit of me as I stood there, guilty and uncomfortable under his gaze. Then he would shake his head and walk to the room we shared. I would never follow him. I'd just go to the bathroom, take a shower, and change into the sweat pants that I had left on the floor that morning. I'd sit in the living room and watch some old movies until I knew he'd be asleep.
I'd finally go to bed myself and I'd look over at the other bed that was against the opposite wall and look at the outline of my brother. I wish I knew what was going on in his head these days. His grades were better than ever, but he had been all over the place elsewhere. I had gotten home early one day to see him staring at a broken computer that had been sitting at the bottom of my closet. A few days later he had it working. He could assemble our cheap furniture faster than anyone I had known, and when he had turned sixteen he had got a part-time job working for a furniture store near-by.
Sidney was a different story. Her new looks were not the only thing different about her. I had been hoping she would be more like Michael, but she was turning into a little me. And that scared the hell out of me. She was skipping class, passing with C's, and when she got suspended for being caught with alcohol and put on probation for stealing from the mall I knew I had to do something for her and for Michael.
I put extra care into keeping a tighter leash on her. I had her school call if she didn't show up for even a single period, had her teachers send me a list of assignments and made her do them all, having Michael look them over. I cut back on my illegal activities and got a factory job that had benefits and the weekends off. It took a lot of yelling, screaming, hurting words, and a broken hand from punching the wall for Sidney to realize what she was doing. She did her best to stay out of trouble and other than a few other minor issues, she turned eighteen and her record was wiped clean.
One weekend we went back home to visit mom's grave. Sidney had dropped to her knees and brushed all the leaves and dead grass from the headstone before she lay her flowers on top of the ground. Michael stood by the headstone and ran his hand across the top while I set a white paper crane on top of the flowers. She had been gone almost ten years. I had to wonder what she thought of what I had become? A no good criminal who had almost set her little girl down the same path. I knew she would be ashamed of me. When she told me eighteen years ago that I was going to have a special job she told me that job had responsibilities. She said I was going to be responsible for how my little siblings would see the world. And I had almost made Sidney see the darkest side of it all. Michael had always deserved better than what he had been given. And it was right there, standing at our mother' grave that I decided I would do all I could to help my brother and sister make something of their lives. I would give them the chance that I never had to be someone. No matter the cost.
I sought out a new way of getting money because their graduation was fast approaching and Michael wanted to go to college and even Sidney had expressed an interest in going. And I wanted to help get them there. I would be of no help on the financial or brain side, and even with financial aid they would struggle in school. So I had to get it for them. After asking around and following every lead I could I finally found someone who could make it happen. I knew I would owe this man for the rest of my life, I would probably die owing this money, but Michael and Sidney would never know, and they would be able to move on from this shitty life I had subjected them to.
So I got the money, ninety grand, from a man that now basically owned my life. I had told Veronica the day after I did it. She had looked at me with her brown eyes full of disappointment, but she said she understood why I had done it. A month later I held her hand and cheered louder than I ever had in my life as Michael and Sidney walked across the stage at their High School Graduation. Lisa and LJ had even showed up, Veronica and Lisa had glared at each other almost the whole time. But today was about Michael and Sidney. They had both done something I had never done. And I was going to make sure they kept surpassing me in life.
After the ceremony Veronica had made us pose for picture after picture. She had to threaten Michael after he kept taking off his hat, she said she understood why it was a pain but he had to put keep it on, I liked hats so I don't know why he was complaining. That was until he stuck it on my head and I figured it out, these things were very uncomfortable. But he sucked it up and wore the hat for picture after picture. Veronica drug us all over the school until Sidney finally took the camera and threatened to smash it if she didn't stop. Then Michael and Sidney took off their robes and we went and ate Mexican food. It was there that I presented them both with two debit cards and told them the money was from mom's life insurance that I had been saving for them until they had graduated. Sidney teared up before she stood up and hugged me, soon we were joined by Michael. I held them tight in my hand, and for the first time since getting the money I didn't regret my decision to get the money. I was now in debt to a loan shark, but they would get to go to college, they would get to better themselves. I felt like I had finally done something right in regards to the special job I had been given.
Four months later I sat in the living room and watched them rush around with backpacks and bag lunches in hand as they made sure they had everything for their first day at college. Michael, always optimistic and smart was signed up for eighteen hours while Sidney had taken the safer twelve hour route. I sat in my blue recliner chair that they had gotten me for my birthday and just watched with a smile, the past months had been spent with them pouring over brochures and going on college tours until they had settled on a college they both liked. Then it was visits to campus for picking their schedules, getting their student ID's, and scouting out the bus schedule since we didn't have a car, not like one was really needed in Chicago. I reminded them of the time and Sidney gave me a kiss on the cheek before her and Michael rushed out the door.
As it slammed shut behind them and I was left alone in the blissful silence I felt some weird since of satisfaction. Their journey was long from being over, but they were on the right path, far away from the path I was on. But I was doing better too. I had managed to keep this new job for six months and it was looking promising. LJ and I were having our blueberry breakfasts every Saturday when he came over, he was in school now and several of his drawings and spelling tests hung on my fridge beside Michael and Sidney's class schedules.
We had all come a long way, I had kept my nose clean and for the first time in a long time I felt like the worst was behind me. I was keeping my promise to mom when it came to Michael and Sidney, I was trying to be a bigger part of LJ's life, and even though it was a slow process it was happening.
When I was little mom had told me I was going to be getting a special job, I had no idea just how special she meant.