The Overdue Escape:
Chapter 14: Trouble in Paradise
"Michael, this is really no big deal. Please don't get upset." Sara leaned over and kissed him on the cheek as he sat at the kitchen table eating his sandwich. "Having a home care visit is actually a good thing since I didn't pack a first aid kit or anything for pain stronger than ibuprofen. We can always walk over to the health center if that would make you feel better?"
"I understand, but is that normal?"
"Is what normal? You're losing me."
"Receiving a follow up call and then a personal visit?" Michael asked bluntly.
"It's not unusual to receive a call. When I worked at a small outpatient surgery center before being hired at Fox River, the staff would call post op patients to see how they were feeling the next day. However, we are staying in an exclusive resort; maybe a personal visit is protocol for them. I wouldn't worry about it." Sara explained.
"I have trust issues."
"You have many issues, but I won't hold those against you. You should probably go and take a shower but please be careful. If you need some help, just shout."
"Thanks." Michael said as he slowly started to get up from the chair, recognizing the horrified look on Sara's face. "Please don't worry, I just need some rest."
After about 30 minutes, there was a knock on the cabana door. "Michael, I think the nurse is here. I'll be right back." Sara said as she kissed the top of his head and went to answer the door. Returning quickly, Sara introduced the home care nurse to her newest patient, "Michael, this is Susan, she is one of the nurses from the health center."
Michael gave Susan the once over. She looked to be in her late 40's, with salt and pepper hair pulled back in a bun, glasses and no makeup. She wore scrubs and had a plastic name tag hanging from a lanyard around her neck. She also carried a small black medical bag with a bright red cross on it.
"Hello, I'm Michael," he said as he put his hand out to shake Susan's. Susan could see Michael was clearly in pain and struggling to maintain a stoic front, which made her smile crookedly. That strange smile wasn't lost on Michael, but he thought Nurse Susan may just be socially awkward. "Thank you for coming over."
"You are very welcome; we at Isla del Sol want to make sure we follow up with every patient we see at our health center. Patient care is our number one priority, especially when you are out of town and away from your own physician. I just can't believe you had another turn of bad luck so soon, sometimes bad things happen to good people." Susan's voice was sugary sweet. "Now tell me what happened."
Michael started to briefly explain his injuries at the waterfall, as Susan started to remove a few medical instruments from her medical bag, leaving the bag on the kitchen table. "That does sound like quite the story. How is your pain level now on a scale of 1 to 10?" She asked while putting on a pair of white latex examination gloves.
"I would say it's at a six."
Susan looked a little surprised as she sat down beside him and roughly pressed along the ridge of his eye, eliciting a hiss of pain from Michael. "A six, are you sure? Your body language says different. You are reacting like it's more around an eight or nine," Susan said sharply. Michael was surprised by how direct and aggressive she was, especially because just two minutes ago, her demeanor was that of a different person. He looked over at Sara as her facial expressions relayed exactly what he was thinking.
"I will need to examine your ribs; can you take off your shirt?" Susan requested returning to her soft, sweet voice again. Michael just looked at her very confused, thinking that her mood swings where giving him whiplash. However, he started to try and lift his arms up to remove the shirt, but with very little success as the pain in his side continued to throb. Michael's thoughts began to spiral as he was sure Nurse Susan was trying to torture him.
"Sara would you give Michael a hand?" Susan asked.
"Sure," Sara snapped into action, "Michael let me help you."
Susan watched Sara go to Michael and help him undress, giving her ample opportunity to slip a small black object into her scrub pocket undetected. Susan's deep thoughts of revenge were interrupted when she heard Sara gasp. She then turned around to see what the commotion was about and saw the black and blue bruises along the left side of Michael's body. Susan heard Michael say, "It will be okay," as he touched Sara's hand. The sight of the two of them together made Susan want to throw up.
Regaining her composure, Susan approached the couple, bending down to look at Michael's midsection. "That doesn't look so good. Do you have any residual pain in your chest?"
"No, but it hurts a little when I breathe and when I move." Michael answered honestly.
"I'm sure it does. I'm just going to push on your ribs to check for broken bones. This may hurt a little, just try to hold still." Michael held his breath as Susan pushed very aggressively on his ribs. Michael felt something snap inside as he yelled out in pain, panting as beads of sweat started to dot his forehead.
Sara knew Susan had caused further damage to Michael's ribs, but she wasn't sure how much damage. "Was that really necessary? You are hurting him!" Sara shrieked, looking over at Michael doubled over in pain, panting hard.
"I'm sorry Ms. Tancredi, I am old school and I want to examine him they best way I know how. You're a doctor; I know you understand how we medical people get set in our ways." Susan said sugary sweet again looking at Sara as she rushed to Michael.
A switch suddenly flipped in Sara's head as she slowly asked, "How do you know I am a Tancredi? I never told anyone at the health center my maiden name."
"I know exactly who you are, both of you really. You must have been living under a rock to not know who the two of you are. You couldn't run forever and I am so glad I finally found you!" Susan was beaming as she knew she had the upper hand. "However, it's you Sara who I want to settle a score with, Michael will just be collateral damage." Susan pulled a hand gun out of her scrub jacket pocket and pointed it at Sara. "Tie him up and tightly too." Susan screamed as she threw a rope at Sara. "Do it now!"
Sara looked at Michael who was pasty white and panting hard. She could hear his breathing coming is short bursts and knew Susan had broken one of his ribs. "I'm so sorry Michael." Sara was crying hard as she helped him to sit up straight in the chair and began to tie him up, the rope digging into his bare flesh. She could hear him groan a little as she began to tighten the rope.
"Tighter!" Susan yelled at Sara. "I don't want the man who mastered multiple prison breaks to get free from a little old rope." Susan then turned her anger on Michael. "Listen here super star, if you try anything, I will shoot Sara right in front of you." Susan then threw a punch into Michael's face, his head immediately dropping to his chest. "But then it looks like you're not able to do much of anything right now." The last thing Michael heard was Susan laughing and Sara screaming as the room faded to black.
After Susan put a gag over Michael's mouth, she grabbed Sara by the hair and dragged her to the bedroom, throwing her on the bed roughly. "Now that Mikey is out of the picture, we are going to come to an understanding." Susan continued to point the gun at Sara as she paced the room like a caged animal.
"Who are you?" Sara asked trying to catch her breath, wiping the tears from her eyes that were flowing nonstop. "Why did you hurt him? You are a nurse; you are supposed to help people."
"I'm not a nurse and you would know that if you remembered me. You don't remember me do you?"
"Remember you?"
"Who I am, take a good look." Susan yelled pushing her face toward Sara.
"I'm sorry, I don't know who you are." Sara was trying hard to think back.
"Yes…yes you do, you spoiled little rich girl." Sara was struggling to figure it all out as Susan continued to pace back and forth, waving the gun and rambling incoherently to no one in particular. Susan finally stopped talking and got right up in Sara's face, "I'm Susan Richards Bennett. I'm Bruce's half –sister."
For the second time today, a light bulb went off in Sara's head. Bruce Bennett, one of her father's closest friends, had been like a father figure to Sara as a small girl and a type of mentor to her as an adult. Bruce had been there for her when Frank Tancredi was murdered and when she was on trial for her part in the escape of the Fox River eight. He had also posted bail for Michael and Lincoln in Chicago before they were transported to the warehouse in Los Angeles. But the best thing Bruce ever did for Sara was reuniting her with Michael after her alleged death. Unfortunately, getting involved with Sara, Michael and Lincoln also led to his death. There wasn't a day that went by that Sara didn't think about Bruce and the good man that he was.
Susan Bennett, however, was another story. She was manipulative, greedy and jealous and hated Sara's relationship with Bruce for as long as Sara could remember. Growing up, Susan would bully Sara, pull her hair and she even tortured Sara's pet bunny. Susan was a sociopath to the extreme. The last time Bruce mentioned Susan, he had confided in Sara that she had been institutionalized and was now estranged from the family. Susan's name was never mentioned again by any member of the Bennett family or even by her dad Frank. Sara had not seen Susan in years.
"Susan, is that really you? I haven't seen you in years. How are you?" Sara tried to remain as calm as possible.
"You lying bitch, why do you care how I am? It's your fault that I was committed to a mental institution. You have no idea what I had to give up, so you could be a part of our lives. You ruined my life and I hated you for that then and I still hate you now. Because of your actions and choices, my brother is dead. I'm going to take great pleasure in killing Michael so you can feel the kind of loss that I do every single day." Sara's heart broke at the sound of the only two words she heard… killing and Michael.
In the living room, Michael woke with a start, his head and ribs pounding as the earlier events of the day slowly came back into his head. He heard voices inside the cabana, trying to triangulate where they were coming from as he tried desperately to free himself from the kitchen chair. He found it very difficult to think clearly as he tried to devise a plan. As luck would have it, Javier was outside on the patio picking up the dirty towels that he and Sara had used earlier. Michael knew his best chance to help Sara was to get Javier's attention, but he needed to be smart about it. He saw Sara's beach bag on the floor and kicked it over, checking to see if there was anything useful inside. Michael watched as the can of sunscreen rolled across the floor, and smiled as he started to devise a plan.
Back in the bedroom, Susan continued to pace back and forth as Sara tried to reason with her. "Susan, I am very sorry about what happened to you. I had no idea, how much trouble I caused, I was just a child. I didn't know anything about the institution. Can you please forgive me?"
"I can never forgive you!" Susan's arm started to shake as she tried to hold the gun steady.
"Susan, are you okay? Do you need medication?" Sara stood up from the bed and walked toward her, holding a hand out. "Please let me help you." Sara could have sworn Susan was about to take her hand when they both heard loud noises coming from the living room.
"What was that?" Susan snapped as she motioned for Sara to walk towards the living room, the gun still pointed on her back. Sara was relieved to see Michael awake, but he remained tied up and gagged. He looked terrible, but seemed to be alert as their eyes met. He moved his head discretely towards the open patio door, the can of sunscreen lying in front of it.
"What did you do?" Susan walked over and yelled into Michael's face. "Don't make me ask you again. What did you do?" This time she pulled the gag from his mouth and hit him across the face with the back of her hand, thinking she could beat an answer out of him.
Michael just smiled and laughed a little as blood dripped off his chin and onto his chest. "I didn't do a thing. My good pal Javier did."
Susan looked at him strangely as Javier came up behind her and hit her over the head with a large glass vase, knocking her out cold.
"Holy smoke, did you see that?" Javier was jumping up and down. "What the hell happened? I already called the police, they should be here any minute." Javier was talking, but neither Michael nor Sara were listening.
Sara jumped into action and started to untie Michael from the chair, catching him as he fell out of the chair and into her arms. He looked lovingly into her eyes and asked, "Sara are you alright?"
"I should be asking you the same thing." Sara said as she kissed his face softly. "You look like you went ten rounds with a prize fighter."
"Please Sara, are you alright? Just answer the question." Michael sounded desperate.
"Yes Michael, I'm going to be okay."
"That's all I need to know." With that Michael shut his eyes and passed out cold as he lay in Sara's arms.
To Be Continued…
Author's notes: Thank you to everyone for the reviews, favorites and follows. Thank you also to everyone taking the time to read the story. Enjoy ~Kiki