Chapter 4

Fate or Destiny?

Sara

Sara was in the kitchen filling her travel mug up with coffee when a half asleep Lincoln stumbled in.

"How are you even awake right now?" he asked as he plopped down into one of the chairs.

"Well good morning to you too Linc." Sara said cheerily.

Lincoln glared at her in return, daring her to make one more comment "Just pass the coffee would ya?"

Sara smiled as she slid the cup across the table, watching as he drained half of it in one sip.

"Okay, I think that gives me about 2 and half minutes to make it back to bed." he said as he stood back up and took a few steps before he turned back around. "Why did you say that you're up?"

"Thanks to Bruce, an old friend of my father's; I was able to get a job at the hospital downtown. I start today."

"Oh," Lincoln said unable to hide the disappointment in his voice.

"What?"

"Nothing, it's just, I thought we were going to be working on a plan for Michael, not going to work."

"Lincoln, I got a job at the hospital. The same hospital that Michael was admitted to, the same hospital that has records of its previous patients." Sara explained.

Lincoln looked up at her, his face completely blank.

"Oh my God you're slow in the morning." Sara said as she tried to explain more slowly "As a doctor I get access to patient records. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get down to the storage room and find Michael's file so I can find out exactly what's wrong so we can fix it."

Lincoln looked at her like she was speaking Chinese, still obviously lost.

"Sara..." Sara said slowly pointing to herself "fix...Michael."

"I'm going to go back to bed." Lincoln said turning around and walking into his bedroom.

Sara stood there for a moment still not quite believing what had just taken place. She knew Michael had gotten all the brains in the family but there was no way Lincoln could be that much of a space case.

"Unbelievable." she muttered to herself shaking her head as she walked out the door.

Michael

Michael nervously tapped the end of his chair as he looked up at the clock on the wall.

"Michael, would you stop fidgeting already?" Emily asked putting her hand on his forearm "Everything's going to be fine."

Michael nodded his understanding as he stared down at her hand on his. He still couldn't stop thinking about what had happened two days ago. Words could not describe how he felt when was with Sara. It was like he was lost in a huge crowd, Emily was there, and leading the way as usual but he just seemed to get more and more lost as he followed her. Then he saw Sara and suddenly it was like he was going in the right direction again, but then she left and it was chaos all over again.

He still remembered how it felt when her skin had touched his, the initial spark that never faded. But as he looked down at Emily's hand he felt no spark. It all made no sense, if only he could see her one last time...

"Mr.Scofield." the nurse interrupted his thoughts as she came into the waiting room "You can come back now."

"Okay." he said as he got up from his seat.

"I'll wait for you out here okay?" Emily asked from her seat.

"Yeah." he said as he followed the nurse to the hospital's exam room.

He took a seat on the gurney as the nurse filled out his chart.

"The doctor, who did your surgery, Dr. Brunson, was called in for an emergency consultation so I'll have the on call doctor come in and see you."

"Alright." Michael said looking down at his hands, eager to get this visit over with.

A few moments later the door opened and in stepped his doctor.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Tancredi; I'll be covering for Dr. Brunson..." she said coming in without looking up as she flipped open his chart."It's nice to meet you Mr...Scofield?"

This made both Sara and Michael look up at the same time.

"Michael?" Sara said shocked as their eyes met.

"Sara." Michael said not being able to contain the huge grin that was spreading like wildfire across his face. "I didn't know you worked here."

"It's my first day." she replied, a smile of her own touching her lips. "You're my first patient."

"Whoa, I guess its fate."

"Fate uh." Sara said with a smirk, taking her seat in front of him "You really believe in fate?"

"Maybe not fate, but I do believe in destiny." he said watching her intently, before adding more seriously "Sara, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since the other day. And now you're here and I feel like it's a sign or something."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Sara said losing herself in his blue eyes. She finally snapped herself out of it and concentrated on the task at hand. "So, how about we get those stitches out."

She removed his stitches, taking her time as she tenderly removed each one.

"All done." she said once the last one was disposed of.

"Great." Michael said not sounding too thrilled about the possible ending of his appointment.

Sara glanced above to the band-aid that was still covering the cut over his eye.

"May I?" she asked gesturing to the bandage.

"By all means." he said with a smile as she slowly peeled away the flaps.

"Looks good." she said gently touching the healing skin. "No sign of infection."

"What can I say? I had a good doctor patch me up." he said with a hint of flirtation in his voice.

"Yeah well..." but before Sara could finish the nurse came into the room.

"Sorry Dr. Tancredi but we have a back up out here." the nurse said quickly before exiting the room again.

"Guess that means our time is up." Michael's face fell with disappointment.

"I guess it is." Sara said looking down at the floor.

Sara wanted nothing more than to tell him everything right then and there. But she still needed more information about his condition before she could fully open up to him.

"Take care of yourself Michael."

"You too Sara." Michael said lightly gripping her forearm before exiting the room.

When he made it to the waiting room Emily was still waiting for him.

"It's about time." she said getting up and walking over to him. "Who knew stitches took 20 minutes to take out."

"I know strange." Michael replied casually trying to hide his smile.

He looked back towards the exam room. He hated more than anything having to just leave like that again. But what could he do? She was a doctor and he was her patient. He would probably never see her again after today. He had been given a clean bill of health, which meant no more hospital which in turn meant no more Dr. Tancredi.

Suddenly a plan started forming in Michael's head. It still freaked him out when his brain did that, just naturally plan things out. He was going to see Sara again; this hospital was his only connection to her so he just had to find a way to get back here.