Fandom: Prison Break
Title: Consequences
Characters: Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows, Veronica Donovan, LJ Burrows, Theodore Bagwell, Fernando Sucre, Nika Volek
Warnings: Angst, rape, suicide, depression
Summary:
And everything I can't remember – as fucked up as it all my seem – consequences that I've rendered – I've gone and fucked up things again (Stained; It's Been A While)
VERONICA: I found someone who's gonna talk.
LINCOLN: Who?
VERONICA: I don't know, but he knows things. I'm gonna go and meet him in a few hours.
LINCOLN: A few hours is cutting it close, V.
VERONICA: We don't have any other choice. You have to have faith, okay? Nick's already primed the court to hear our case. Whatever Michael's doing, he doesn't need to do it now. We're gonna beat this thing the right way.
LINCOLN: What if you're wrong?
VERONICA: I'm not.
(1x13, End of the Tunnel)
And she hadn't been. Hale had supplied Veronica with a list of everyone involved in framing Lincoln for Terrance Steadman's murder. With that list the discovery of The Company meant that Agent Don Self of homeland Security was working to bring down the Company along with former employee James Whistler and – surprisingly enough – Linc and Michael's own father Aldo Burrows. Veronica and Nick Savrinn took Lincoln's case to court and he was exonerated a mere eight hours before his scheduled execution. LJ was forced to turn himself in, but with this new information surrounding Paul Kellerman it looked likely that Veronica could get him out of jail time.
While Veronica and Lincoln spent most of their time trying to get LJ out of jail, Michael was still in prison. After all he had still committed a crime; and with twenty-odd witnesses and being caught red handed it was clear he was guilty. So he had another five years to spend in Fox River. Unless he still planned to escape.
"You… me… the guys… we are still getting out of here, right? I mean, just because Linc has been exonerated doesn't mean we haven't all got things to get back to in the real world. You know what I'm saying, Papi?" Fernando Sucre said to his cellmate Michael Scofield as they waited for PI to be called. Only a few hours ago Lincoln had been exonerated and had left Fox River a free man, only to return as a visitor. And Michael couldn't have been happier. It meant no more lying, hiding, deceiving, planning, plotting, sweating, and it also meant that Lincoln could make a home with the woman he had loved for thirty years and his son. Well, as soon as LJ's name was cleared of the double homicide and attempted murder charged. However now the adrenaline rush had worn off Michael realised what this meant as far as he was concerned. Five more years locked up. Five more years of daily abuse, regulated 'me' time, of showers with twenty other men, of not being able to see friends and family or call them whenever he wanted to. Michael had put his blood into this; literally, and now he was left in prison while his brother was a free man. Depression was setting in for Michael, he no longer had a plan. All he knew was that he would not be escaping Fox River – no way was he going on the run solo and being estranged from his family and home for the rest of his likely-to-be short life. And that meant neither was anyone else inside these walls. Especially not the likes of T-Bag and Abruzzi.
And that was exactly what he told them all in PI.
"Fuck you, Snowflake!" Laughed C-Note in a way that indicated he found absolutely nothing funny about this situation. "You don't run this show and no way are you gonna rat on us, because A) we can make the rest of your time in here living Hell, and B) no way are you gonna volunteer another ten years on your bid. Fifteen years? No way. You wouldn't survive one."
"I hate to admit it but my coloured comrade here has a point. We all know the plan – and we all agreed to get it done. So the fact that Pretty here is willing to die in here like scum doesn't mean I am. I want out. And as far as I am concerned I am getting out!" T-Bag told them all, glaring in a way that would have made small children run in fear for their lives.
"I agree. I'm getting out." Abruzzi declared.
"Me too, Papi." Sucre added. "Sorry, Michael, but I have a baby on the way and Maricruz is about to marry my pendejo of a cousin. I can't let that happen! I need to be out, yesterday!"
"You all want out, I get it. But still; none of you are getting out. I mean to see to that. We are all in here because we deserve to me. We have all done things which we need to atone for. Murder, robbery, kidnap… I cannot in all good conscience let you out into the world." Michael said, wishing they understood what he was trying to say. He felt bad about Sucre, especially after he had gotten the guy in trouble enough for the Bulls to revoke his conjugals. But if Sucre stayed inside for another fifteen months then he would be out before his son or daughter was six months old and he could still be in his/her life. And nothing was set in stone about Maricruz and Hector's wedding.
But Michael had underestimated the other prisoners need to get out. C-Note and T-Bag were shaking their heads while John stood there with a hammer in his hand looking threatening. "You gonna stop us, Fish?" Abruzzi asked.
"I am." Michael said calmly.
Sucre looked nervously from the violent criminals to Michael. Prison hadn't touched him. And that was a bad thing because it meant he had no idea the ways in which prison could break a man. Try spending a month in a lockdown, or three weeks in the SHU, or three years on nothing but prison food and con's for company, of even three hours as one of the black guys in the gang's cellmate. Michael had been living the high life since he arrived; getting a place on PI so quickly, getting Sucre as a cellmate, being able to spend time earning Pope's trust and Dr Tancredi's. But that could be taken in the blink of an eye.
"Look. We are all escaping this home of Satan and if you ain't coming along then you best get out of our way." T-Bag said.
"Request a cell transfer. And quit PI. That way maybe you have a chance of not getting extra time. But if you try to stop us we will make you a bloody mess. Me cutting your toes off will feel like a trip to Disneyland on E in comparison to what I will do to you." Abruzzi threatened. Michael looked around at the faces of these people and saw monsters in their stead. Only Sucre remained human as he shook his head in apology.
"Fine." Michael ground out as he threw down his tool and stormed out of the room. "Take me back to my cell, Guard." He asked and the guard through him a puzzled look before complying.
That afternoon while he was in Pope's office completing the final touches to the Taj that Pope had him working on for his wife's anniversary he asked if he would be allowed to request a transfer as thanks for all of his hard work. Pope had been confused believing that Sucre and Michael were a good match but after reminding Scofield that Brad Bellick was in charge of cell reassignments he agreed to see what could be done. That night he didn't sleep a wink as he worried about what would happen to him once the others escaped, and who his new cellmate would be, and what he was gonna do for the next five years.
Bellick came to see him the next day shortly before PI was due to begin. He told Michael to pack his stuff up because he was being shoved up to cell twenty nine. After an initial look of relief and sorrow on Sucre's face, a strong hand reached out to grab Michael as he was leaving.
"Cell 29! That's T-Bag's cell!" Sucre told him in hushed panicked tones. Everyone who had been in the yard that first day that Michael had been here knew of T-Bag's unsavoury desires for Michael. And the PI team knew that the only reason T-Bag hadn't gotten around to acting on those desires was because he had needed Michael to get him out. Now that was no longer an issue and Michael was being moved into the same cell as the paedophile there was little hope that Michael would last the night intact.
"Move it along, Scofield!" Bellick roared and shoved the man forward. In Michael's head the words 'it's only for one night, it's only for one night' kept spinning around in his head making him more nauseous than he already had been. When he arrived outside cell 29 there was T-Bag with a Cheshire cat grin and an evil glint to his eyes.
"Hello, Pretty." He said. Luckily for Michael PI was called not a second later and Michael sat on his new bed while T-Bag ambled out of the cell. Dread filled Michael's stomach and he threw up into the toilet. Bellick watched in disgust.
"No PI for you today, Scofield," he told the man believing it would punish him and be better for him if he really was sick. What he didn't realise was that this was exactly what Michael wanted and he lay back on his new bed and fell asleep, knowing it would be the only sleep he got that day.