Michael woke gradually to a room just beginning to glow softly with early morning light. The pain in his shoulder wasn't as bad this morning, although he hadn't moved yet and tested that discovery. Everything was quiet and still. Michael wondered if Sara had slept in the chair by his bed the entire night. He turned to see.
She was gone.
Getting up as quickly as he could manage, he looked for her, first in the common area and then outside. He found her outside, watching the sunrise from the little clearing, standing beside her car. He walked up beside her and she turned to face him.
"What's going on?" Michael asked. He had chosen to stand in a spot so close to her that she could feel the warmth of his body, yet he seemed unwilling to meet her eyes. He was worried, she could tell, probably anxiously wondering what she had decided to do.
"I'm going home," she told him.
"Sara," he blurted out painfully. Michael's hands flew to her arms and held on as if to keep her right there with him forever.
"It's Monday morning. If I don't report to work someone will come looking for me. I don't want anything I do to look suspicious, Michael, because that might make them link me to you and endanger you and Lincoln. But I don't want to leave. I want to work out a way to be with you, I mean, if you want that, too..."
"I do," Michael hurriedly interjected, his hands absentmindedly feathering up and down her arms, doing terrible things to her ability to think in anything but one-syllable words.
"You're right. You have to go to work, just like you would have if everything was normal. Just be careful, Sara. Stay alert. Whoever made Nick kidnap Veronica is really after me. I'm betting it's Abruzzi. If he thinks you're the best way to get to me, then you could be in danger."
"How will I find you?"
"I'll get in touch with you as soon as we find another safe house, I promise."
"You promise?" Sara questioned sadly. The reality of leaving behind the warmth and joy of these past two days was beginning to sink in.
"Sara," he chastised her in a whisper. His good arm wrapped her in a strong hug that took her breath away. He leaned in to whisper into her ear.
"Believe this. I will never lie to you again. Never."
Sara smiled and her heart eased. "See you soon, okay?"
"Soon."
She could see him standing in the clearing through her rear view mirror until the road took her around the bend.
The drive to Fox River was almost unbearably quiet. She had spent the last two days in almost uninterrupted contact with Michael. It was something she'd only been able to dream about back at the prison. Snatches of conversation and snippets of shared looks, always too short, always interrupted, had been the basis of their relationship. The fact that they had grown close at all during that time amazed her. She'd wondered from time to time if it was a crush; she'd had a few in high school. The boys she drooled over were never as incredible in person as they looked from afar; in fact they always turned out to be disappointingly ordinary. She'd wondered at times if her fascination with Michael was the same thing: a dream about a man who seemed mysterious and mesmerizing but up close the illusion was exposed. The past days had revealed that Michael was indeed the exception to the rule. She was more taken with him than ever.
Katie was sitting at her desk just like usual when Sara walked into the infirmary. But there wasn't much else that was normal about the prison in the aftermath of the breakout. Police were still taking fingerprints, checking for clues, and generally making a worse mess of an already chaotic scene. Sara stoically set about putting her infirmary back into some semblance of order. The few patients she saw were brought in under double escorts and in handcuffs. The guards weren't taking any chances in these tentative early days since the break.
Sara dropped a vial on the floor with a resounding smash, getting Katie's immediate attention. Sara hadn't done it intentionally, but she immediately saw it as an opportunity.
"Sorry," she cried out. "I guess I'm still pretty shaken up," she told Katie. She sat down trying to look shaken and frail.
"Sara, honey, you don't look so hot."
"Gee thanks," Sara quipped.
"You know what I mean. You should take some time off. You've been through a lot these past few months." Katie wasn't blind. She was referring to Sara's emotional attachment to Michael Scofield.
"Maybe I should," Sara agreed, trying to sound weak and piteous. She wasn't totally making it up; she really didn't feel very well.
"Go up and talk to Pope right now," Katie ordered. "I can handle things here for a while. Pope can call in Dr. Mitchell," she suggested, naming a doctor who stepped in to help with overloads from time to time.
"I can't leave you with this mess," Sara protested weakly.
Katie's eyes gleamed with victory. "You ain't helping me any in the state you're in now. Go on."
Sara waited to smile until she was alone in the hall on the way to Pope's office. She had to admit to herself that she'd apparently learned a thing or two from Michael Scofield after all.
It was easy to get Pope to agree to give her some time off. He had taken one look at her and made the suggestion before she opened her mouth. So now Sara was on her way home to grab a few things for the week and then figure out how to find Michael. She wished one of them had a cell phone, but the only one who could possibly have one was Veronica, and she had left it behind with Nick. Until they found out what Nick was up to, it wasn't safe for Veronica to go home.
Sara bit her lip in frustraton. She'd been quite excited to get a week off so she could spend more time with Michael. She had put no thought into exactly how that was going to happen, however. Now it was dawning on her that, until he called her, she had no way of finding him. All the doubts in the back of her consciousness began to viciously creep forward. By the time she made the turn onto her street, she was in a truly dark mood from having imagined all the ways Michael was going to prove to her how little he cared for her. She was in such a state that she barely looked up as she approached her house.
It was a good thing she did look up just before she pulled into the parking lot. A very good thing. She saw her apartment window lighting up intermittently as if someone was using a flashlight within. She jerked the steering wheel, guided the car away from the parking lot and continued down the street, numb with fright. Sara went around the block and parked behind the building.
It took her a minute to talk herself into it, but she finally got out of the car and carefully crept towards the back entranceway. With infinite caution, she made her way up the stairs to her apartment door. She could see from the landing that the door was an inch or two open. Swallowing back her fear, she continued down the hall, step by step, keeping to the wall, not making a sound. When she was almost even with her door, a noise from within caused her to jump back into a dark corner of the hallway. She watched with horror as her own door swung open and two powerful looking, sullen men exited. They ran right past her and down the stairs she had just been on.
Sara didn't know what to do. She didn't feel safe in her apartment now; she really didn't want to go in there. But were the men watching her building from the outside now? Wouldn't they see her if she left and tried to make a break for her car, parked on the street behind the building? Maybe they had her license plate number and were out there looking for her car right this minute. Her car might not be safe anymore, either. Sara began to shake.
"This is ridiculous," she lectured herself silently. "You've got to do something."
Sara looked all around her. There was a fire escape on the north side of the building. It was well shaded and she might be able to get out without attracting any unwanted attention. She hoped and prayed they were not expecting her to use the fire escape. They were probably waiting for her to park out front and come in the main entrance, since they would have every reason to believe she wasn't home yet.
With a deep breath, Sara decided to first go back into her apartment. She needed some clothes after all. Her purse was luckily still on her shoulder, with her ID and credit cards. But she had a little cash hidden away in the kitchen and she decided she needed to bring it all with her. She had no idea when she'd be home again, not now that she was apparently being hunted, too.
As quickly and quietly as she could, Sara gathered up a plastic grocery bag full of clothes, cash, and toiletries and was back out in the hallway within a few minutes. She looked warily around before heading to the fire escape and easing herself out through the window onto the second floor landing. So far, so good, she thought as she crept down the ladder rungs. With a mighty leap, she cleared the last several feet to the ground and hit the ground running.
"There she is!"
The cry galvanized Sara and she ran faster than she thought she was capable of running. Ducking through bushes and under low hanging branches, she made it through the yards behind her building and out onto the street. She could still hear shouts behind her but they seemed to be fading. Sara turned down the next, much busier, street and faded into the people walking down the sidewalk, blending in as best she could and trying to walk at an ordinary pace. She walked for a long time. She walked until her feet felt like they were full of blisters and her lungs felt like they were full of lead.
Finally, when she was about to collapse, she allowed herself to slow down to a crawl and pretended to window shop as she recovered her strength. All rational thought of what to do next had fled; Sara was just surviving one moment to the next right now. She found herself in front of a used book shop that she often shopped in. It seemed natural to duck in. There was a small coffee bar at the back of the storewhere she quite often got her morning latte. She slipped into one of the easy chairs arranged for book-reading coffee drinkers and closed her eyes for a moment. It was the first relief she'd felt since seeing the flashlight inside her apartment window.
Sara finally opened her eyes and surveyed her surroundings. She was still worried that she might have been followed here, but so far everything seemed normal in here. The barista came over to where she now sat, having recognized her as a regular.
"Want a cappucino?" He asked genially, naming her favorite drink.
"Please." Sara smiled at him.
"Is your name Sara?"
"Why?" She asked, smile gone, instant suspicion in its place.
"A man dropped this off for you this morning. He described you and I knew who he was talking about, that's all. I know my customers," he pointed out a bit self-righteously. "Young guy, really short hair, tattooes on his arms..."
"Let me see," Sara cried eagerly. The man handed her a manila envelope with her name written on it in precise block letters. Yeah, that would be her architect boy. She tore it open and dumped the contents on the table. Inside was a folded piece of typing paper and a lovely red and green paper flower that matched the one Michael had given her in the infirmary. That seemed like years ago now.
"Thank you," she said to the barista, by way of dismissal. The man was hanging over her table watching her curiously.
"Sorry," he apologized, grinning with embarassment. "It's just that you came in here in such a rush, looking all upset, and then some guy left you this note..."
"Yeah, my life is a soap opera."
"Well, mine's not, so can I watch?"
Sara laughed. "As long as you don't tell anyone what you learn," she answered with a wink. That seemed to satisfy the man. He went back to the coffee bar and began to wipe down the counter. Another customer came in just then and Sara was alone enough to open the note.
'Sara, if you're reading this, you're drinking your cappucino just like you do most mornings before work.'
Well, Michael had no way of knowing she'd skipped that part of her routine this morning, and now she was sitting in her book shop at dusk. Sara smiled to herself, remembering the conversation in the infirmary where she and Michael had compared notes on their favorite coffee shops. They both knew where this old bookstore was and had often been here. They had marveled that they'd never met.
"Maybe we did and just didn't notice each other. We would have been total strangers."
"I would have noticed you."
"I bet you say that to all the lady doctors."
A pang of loneliness for Michael swept over Sara as the conversation replayed in her head. She read on.
'Anything's possible if you believe. Please meet me at Area 4 in 'The Park'.'
The 'Park'?
Sara stopped reading, remembering another conversation with Michael that now made perfect sense. He said he's spent so much time running in Lakeside Park, the park nearest his home, that he never referred to it by name anymore, but rather just as 'The Park'. And Lakeside had numbered picnic areas.
"When did my friend give you this envelope?" Sara asked the barista.
"This morning. Around 10 or 11, I think."
"Thank you."
Sara picked up her purse and coat and walked out, being sure to scan the surrounding street for anyone who looked like they might be watching for her. Seeing no one, she began to walk towards the park. She thought through the note's information again. He would have probably assumed she only came here in the mornings. That meant he had left the cabin sometime after she had, came here and dropped off the note. He would be expecting her, she realized, tomorrow morning in the park. He had no way of knowing she would visit the book store late in the afternoon instead of the next morning.
Sara knew she couldn't go back to her apartment now; it was too dangerous. She decided the best thing to do would be to find a room somewhere for the night and then go wait for Michael in the park first thing in the morning. She began to look for a motel or hotel as she wandered on foot across town. The city had never looked so big, she thought wearily, as she trudged up one street and down the next with relentless steps.
"Sara, wake up!" Someone was shaking her awake, but she was reluctant to oblige. She was so tired, so tired. Every muscle ached. She felt cold and stiff, and her head hurt. With a cough, she sat up and tried to open her eyes.
"How long have you been here?" It was morning now, and Michael was with her. She was sitting in the park, presumably in Area 4, but she had no memory of how she got here.
"I don't know," she mumbled groggily.
"Are you okay?" Michael's voice deepened with concern and worry.
"No," she answered, surprising herself. She was even more amazed when tears began flowing unbidden down her cheeks.
"Sara," Michael soothed her. His hands wiped tears from her cheeks and she found herself swallowed up in his firm embrace. She loved the feel of his arms wrapping her in his heat. Strong lips pressed against the top of her head. She felt safe and treasured and loved.
"How long have you been on this park bench?" he demanded again.
"I don't know."
"Tell me what happened," he urged.
"Yesterday, I went to work, and everything was normal. Pope sent me home and told me to take some time off. When I got home, someone was prowling around in my apartment. I waited until they left and then grabbed a few things from my apartment. When I got out on the street, I think someone saw me, because I heard them yelling, but I got away."
"What did you do?"
"I went to the bookstore and got your note. I started looking for a place to spend the night. I guess I ended up here."
"You slept here?" He asked, incredulous, worry flooding his voice.
Sara shivered convulsively against him. Michael held her more closely to him and put his palm on her forehead. "You're running a fever. You need to get warm and dry. My car is parked just around the block. Can you stand up?"
"Yes," she quavered, but her body slumped against him further. With slow, unsteady steps, Michael guided her to the car and helped her in.
"Where are you taking me?" Sara asked in a hoarse rasp.
"To the emergency room."
"No, Michael, don't do that. You could get caught."
"And you might have pneumonia."
"I'll tell you what to get for me. Veronica can fill a prescription for me. I have my prescription pad in my bag."
The grocery bag she had so hurriedly packed the night before in her apartment was still hanging from her shoulder and tucked under her arm. Her purse was on the other shoulder.
"Veronica and Lincoln left right after you did. Veronica has already lined up a place to stay out west. I stayed behind to..."
Michael stopped talking abruptly and glanced sharply at Sara. Everything he felt for her shone out of his eyes for a brief flicker of a moment, but Sara's eyes were closed with fatigue and she missed it.
"Where did they go?"
"Utah."
"Why?" Sara asked. Michael hesitated before answering.
"There's something in Utah that we need."
Michael sounded like the old, mysterious con from Fox River now. Sara's heart sank. He wasn't telling her everything. Was Michael already going back on his promise to her, that sweet whisper in her ear of just a day ago?
"Sara," Michael said desperately. "We'll be great together. I know we will. Come with me, please?"
"Where? To Utah?"
"Well, at first, yes, but after that, wherever we want."
"What's in Utah?" Sara persisted.
"I need to know what you're going to do first. Do you want to live out your life here? Or do you want to come with me?"
Sara closed her eyes and she leaned her pounding head against the back of the seat.
TBC!
Author's Notes: One more chapter to go! I think!
