Story: Fence Talks
Characters: Sara Tancredi, Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burrows, LJ Burrows, Jane Phillips
Pairing: Sara/Michael
Genre: angst, drama, romance, family, AU
Rating: R
Word Count: approx. 3 000 words
Chapter: 21
Summary: Michael is in Sona, but there is no Company deal required from him, Linc and Sara working together to get Michael out.
They are three desperate people who try to do anything to get a normal life together, and they do some so much needed talking along the way.
Spoilers: AU for S3 after the happenings of 2x22 Sona.

A/N: Huge thanks to the lovely spunkyar for doing the beta, she always makes my stories better!!! *squishes* And LOLOL, I totally loved all your inserted comments about this and that, I had such a good time reading the chapter with them! Pity it wasn't possible to leave them in the final version. *wink*

Also, huge thank to everybody who is still reading this story for sticking with me, and special thanks to all the people who are so kind to leave a review, it always makes my heart jump with joy.

This chapter is rather light and fluffy, I thought our heroes needed to have some slack cut...ya know…;)

Chapter 21 – Bedside manner

Lost in time and his sub-consciousness, Michael was brought back from his deep sleep by a light touch to his wrist, then the feel of soft fingers brushing his forehead with gentle care. Opening his eyes slowly, Michael let out a content sigh at the sight of Sara leaning over him. She was smiling softly, with eyes full of affection staring down at him.

"Hey," he whispered hoarsely, his lips spreading into the widest smile he possessed.

"Hey," Sara replied in a low tone while she let her fingers wander south until they were cupping Michael's cheek and jaw, her thumb drawing soothing patterns over his whiskered cheek.

"LJ told me you wanted to see me, but you were asleep, so I let you rest for a couple of hours," said Sara, following Michael's eyes move over to the window, watching the sun sinking lower into the horizon.

"You okay?" asked Sara softly.

"Yeah," he answered bringing his eyes back, his hand coming to cover hers on his cheek. He smiled before continuing.

"Why? Is there something wrong with wanting to see you without a reason?" he added mischievously, watching with satisfaction as Sara's face broke into a huge, slightly embarrassed smile.

"I missed you." He murmured quietly after a moment, his voice deadly serious now. It caused Sara's smile to falter slightly. She closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of her hand trapped between his own and his cheek.

"Missed you too," her voice came out in a gentle whisper, ghosting over his skin and sending goose bumps all over his body.

Opening her eyes again, Sara's looked up and down Michael's torso checking for any signs or indications that would tell her if he wasn't feeling okay. She was unable to suppress her medical instincts and closely observed her patient. Frowning slightly when her eyes stopped on his forearm, she finally noticed the missing needle in his arm, the needle from the IV she knew was there a couple of hours ago.

"Why did you take out your IV?" she asked, her tone brisker and angrier than she wanted to sound. Regretting her harsh tone instantly, she added with more gentleness and care in her voice, "You know you need to keep it in. It's for your own good, Michael," a frustrated sigh left her lips.

"I know and I'm sorry," he replied quickly, rushing with his answer. "The bag was already empty when I pulled out the needle and I only did it so I could go to the bathroom."

The instant he said it, he regretted not to have chosen his words more carefully.

"You did what? Michael!" she half-shouted, frustration and anger now literally dripping from her words. He grabbed her retrieving hand quickly, bringing it back to his face and kissing her palm.

"I am sorry, I know, but I really needed to…you know…go," he explained, a slight shade of pink invading his cheeks, but it seemed to do the trick. The corners of Sara's mouth were starting to twitch upwards, a tiny smile appearing on her lips despite doing her best to suppress it. Michael decided to push his luck by explaining further.

"Don't worry. I asked LJ to help me and I was really careful, not using my injured leg at all." He saw her relax visibly, the frown creasing, her forehead smoothening.

"Just don't do any more stunts without me, alright?" she said with a hint of a smile. He nodded in agreement, his eyes full of rest, contentment and something far richer. Sara wasn't able to resist the urge to get closer to him any longer.

She bent forward, planting a chaste slow kiss to his lips. She could instantly tell he was thrilled by the contact as much as she was. Still, not wanting to take things between them any further before she could fix him medically, she used all her willpower to withdraw, turning her attention to the medical kit resting on the side table instead. A small smile escaped her lips when she heard the disappointed sigh coming from her favorite patient.

"First things first, Scofield," she said with sportive professionalism, hoping he would take her hint - an outstretched hand for truce, and also a taste of some of their common good memories. He did.

"Oh Doctor, but you are so distracting!" Satisfied, he heard her let out a low chuckle.

"Well, I doubt you will still think that once I start to clean up your wound," she said, turning to him with a pair of latex glows already on, her raised eyebrows indicating it was his turn to act. Sensing Sara meant business and the fun was over for now, Michael pushed the sheets over his chest and down his legs, exposing the covered wound on his upper leg. Sara started to slowly peal off the layers of gauze and strips, finally exposing the healing wound.

He winced slightly when she started to dab the wound carefully. She apologized over and over every time she hit a particularly sensitive spot until Michael had to stop her with a chuckle, telling her it was ok and she was doing fine.

She flashed back a nervous smile, realizing her behavior to be a little odd considering the fact she was a doctor just doing her job, in which she was used to inflict pain in order to heal. Yet the situation changed considerably now. Michael was not a mere patient anymore. On the other hand, Michael was never just some patient.

She cleared her throat, desperately trying not to notice the smug grin forming on Michael's lips. "The wound looks good. No signs of increasing infection and the flesh is already starting to restore itself and heal properly."

"Thanks to you," Michael said with his voice barely over a whisper. "I heard you did an amazing job on me when you brought me back."

She froze in her movements for the shortest of moments before she continued as if never stopping, her voice bearing a trace of caution that caused Michael's heart to drop an inch in his chest. It was as if the temperature fell a couple degrees all of a sudden. Sara was hiding in the shadows, again.

"You don't remember anything?" she asked carefully measuring her words and watched him shake his head. "Well," she sighed loudly, snapping the dirty gloves from her hands with a smack, "that's probably for the best," she finished, biting her tongue in order to stop the words from rushing out of her mouth yet failing miserably.

He grasped her wrist, his long fingers carefully curling around them in a gentle caress. "Don't shut me out." There was something resembling begging in his voice. She hated she was making him feel insecure, but she was just as insecure herself right now as well, and she simply wasn't in the state to offer him her poker face, acting as if everything was ok when nothing really was.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Everything was supposed to change once she got him back, safe and whole and loving. But it's all just been in theory, Sara realized with a heavy heart. And reality was currently kicking her ass, being far more complicated than any theory ever invented.

She sighed, closing her eyes. When she opened them again to look directly into his face, his blue orbs were burning a whole into her soul through her hazel pools.

"I don't, Michael. I truly don't. I just…" she started carefully in a quiet voice, "I just need time to figure some things out on my own. That's all."

She saw a flicker of emotion she couldn't identify in his eyes, then it was gone. "Things about…us?" he asked in a feeble voice, the raw fear and panic in his tone breaking her heart. Bending over, she brought her hands to rest on the sides of his face in a calming manner, pressing her face to his as close as possible without their lips actually touching.

"No Michael, not us. Never about us, okay?"

She could feel him exhale, the puff of relieved breath hitting her face in a warm, sweet rush. "I just need a little space for myself right now, and I need you to respect that. Please," she added quietly, her eyes begging him to understand. Finally, he gave a small nod.

"Promise to come to me whenever you feel or need to though, alright?" he asked bringing his fingers to tangle in her hair lovingly. She nodded, loving the feel of his hands in her hair and on her face, leaning into his touch immediately.

"You were always there for me. Now I want be there for you," he whispered right before their lips touched. She believed him, every word.

Michael took his time with the kiss, pouring all the emotions he was feeling in the course of the past couple of days into the kiss. All his longing, all his despair and loneliness and yearning for her, were over now. They could start over, and he would do anything to make that happen, in the best possible way.

Once again, Sara pulled away as the kiss started to deepen, flashing Michael an apologetic look before turning to the medical kit once again, extracting a new sterile needle and a full IV.

"Any pain? Fever?" she asked, attaching the needle to the IV tube. He shook his head. She nodded with satisfaction, yet couldn't help but let her hand rest against his forehead to measure his temperate herself.

"Don't trust me, Doc?" asked Michael playfully, his eyebrows rising at her challengingly. She took on his challenge immediately.

"Well, let's just say you were always one of the worst and most disobedient patients I've ever had to deal with, Scofield," said Sara, her lips curling into a smug grin when she heard the slight gasp upon inserting the IV needle back into his arm.

"And that," she gave him a pointed look, " is why it isn't advisable to take out the needle by yourself in the first place," she uttered, smiling at the light scowl he gave her, rubbing and massaging the sore spot of skin around the needle.

"You definitely have to work on your bedside manner," grumbled Michael half-heartedly, immensely enjoying the sight of Sara smiling in amusement at their light banter.

"And you, my dear friend, need to work on your 'bed-in' manner!" Sara played along, feigning outrage and poking Michael into the middle of his chest with her index finger.

"There. You are all fixed," she said at last, watching Michael's hand curl around her wrist.

When she didn't respond to his touch immediately, his grip tightened yet stayed gentle, tugging at her wrist in an indication for her to come closer.

The huge smile on her face froze, yet not in an unpleasant way. She felt happy, giddy even, a feeling she just remembered she must have lost without even noticing. Her eyes wandered to his face, watching his eyes darken with desire and want.

She licked her lips involuntarily, her eyes switching between his piercing gaze and his lips and back up. She started to bend over slowly, yet instead of kissing him, she pressed her forehead to his, closing her eyes and simply breathing him in. To give him credit, he didn't act but waited for her for make the next move. He was a patient man, and she just asked him for time and space. God knew he would grant it.

She raised her head just an inch away from him, bracing her arms at the side of his pillow for support, switching positions from sitting in the chair next to his bed to sitting on the edge of his mattress.

Michael felt his pulse spike when she slowly started to plant soft kisses on his face - first his forehead, then eyebrows, each eyelid, cheeks and then jaw, excruciatingly slowly making her way to his lips.

Then their lips finally met in a slow kiss. It was almost teasing at first, but then it deepened, despite keeping its slow pace, placing the kiss somewhere between maddeningly unsatisfactory and completely fulfilling at the same time.

It was a pace of Sara's choosing and Michael couldn't help but admire her perfect intuition for what they both needed at that moment.

Surely enough, the kiss soon started to take on a whole new meaning. And when Sara started to involve her tongue as well, the warm and soft flesh gliding over Michael's skin and lips, it nearly drove him to a point of losing his control. His resolve to let her set the pace started to crumble, leaving him with a bold want take the lead himself.

It was only when she withdrew from him slightly to look into is eyes - mischief dancing in her hazel orbs and a soft smile playing upon her lips - did Michael realize with horror she must have noticed what his senses couldn't while completely lost in her. His body was…reacting to her, in the most natural but also the most embarrassing of ways, at least when considered their current situation.

Her smile merely grew, forming a loop-sided smug grin on her face. "Loosing control that easily, huh?" she mocked lightly, and despite his mortification, Michael could see she was enjoying herself.

"Well…" he cleared his throat, "it's been a long time and I've missed you like crazy," he confessed, his uncharacteristically bold statement taking Sara by surprise. Not knowing what to say in return and being overwhelmed by her own feelings at his words, Sara chose to take mercy on him and do the only logical thing. She straightened up to a sitting position on the edge of the bed and grabbed the ends of his covers, pulling them up and over his hips, tucking them carefully underneath him at the height of his stomach.

"Thanks," he mumbled, still slightly embarrassed, but she merely flashed him a wide genuine smile.

"You know," he started with a voice a bit stronger this time, "I've always wondered how you dealt with these things in Fox River. I mean," he continued with renewed mortification at the topic of his inquiry, watching her eyebrows rise, "you know, you were the only woman in Fox River...not to mention a beautiful and caring doctor, working amongst a bunch of the worst guys, some of which haven't seen a female in person in more than a decade." He shrugged shyly, "I only wondered, how you could stand that?"

She shrugged in return, giving him a thoughtful look. "Well, for starters, I wasn't the only woman inside those walls. There was also Katie and some other female personnel. And secondly, you might be very surprised how whiny and self-centered many of those tough guys were once experiencing even such things as a slight fever or a sprained kneecap. They didn't give a damn about a woman; they just wanted the Doc to give some drugs to dull the pain and leave them alone to wallow in their misery." Michael gave her a doubtful look that made her smile.

"Alright alright," she said with her eyes shying away from his amused face, "there were a couple of times – well, more than just a couple actually - when my presence…stirred something up – no pun intended - causing a perfectly natural biological reaction," he was smiling fully now at her lame attempt to stay serious and factual about it, "but," she raised her finger, "I've always been completely professional about it," she added, her cheeks flushed.

"So…" Michael rubbed his hands in exaggerated anticipation, "anybody I know?"

She pondered his question for a moment, a sparkle of amusement igniting her eyes when she finally understood the meaning of his question. There was a flash of what seemed to be an amusing memory, but before Michael even got the chance to start encrypting the person who was the source of it, it was gone again.

"Nope, nobody you may know in particular," she quipped at last, perfectly aware he could tell she was lying.

"Ok, have it your way then," said Michael decisively, causing Sara to let out a small laugh.

"Abruzzi?"

She shook her head, continuing to laugh softly.

"Heywire," he tried, watching her shake her head once again, her laughter merely growing.

"C-Note?!" She continued to laugh in great amusement, the melodic sound warming Michael's heart.

"Charles?" he asked with his brow furrowed by doubt and Sara continued to laugh even harder. He was slowly running out of names, thinking feverishly about all the men he got to know more or less well in the prison, then it struck him.

"Oh my Gosh," he gasped out loud, "don't tell me…" he said incredulously with his head shaking to both sides quickly, his eyes wide open. "Please, don't tell me it was my brother!"

TBC