Michael heard light sniffles from behind the door and gently knocked.
"It's open", he heard.
He slowly opened the door to see Sara sitting in a white rocker, holding a brown teddy bear to her, looking at the empty crib with tears in her eyes.
Michael felt his own tears at seeing the broken woman and at the obvious love she has for their child. The room was perfect. A dresser with lots of outfits, a changing table, with a decent supply of the tiniest diapers he's ever seen. The crib looked nice and comfortable with a 'Winnie the Pooh' theme and a mobile of pooh characters hung above.
Sara watched Michael looking around the room. She couldn't believe how she had been so selfish to deprive him of time with his son and now he may never see him or hold him.
Finally closing the door, Michael leaned back on it for support waiting for Sara to make the first move.
She continued to look into the empty crib, but did start to talk.
"You know I always thought that if I told you, you'd insist on coming to be with us and then we would all be in danger. I thought I could keep him safe, by us staying away from anything conspiracy related."
She stopped for a few minutes and then started again.
"I bet if you had been here, you would have stopped them. You would have found a way to keep him safe."
She hugged the teddy bear tighter and after a few minutes started once more.
"I wanted to tell you so badly. I wanted more than anything for you to be with me through the pregnancy and the sickness, and the cravings…god the cravings were horrible." She chuckled remembering a late night pickles, banana and pistachio ice cream concoction.
"I wanted you to be here for his birth. Assure me everything was going to be okay and encourage me to push and then hold our beautiful baby the minute he was born, and he would wrap his tiny fist around your finger. You'd be so happy. All the cares and worries you carry with you would be gone, if only for a moment as you looked at him. And we would be happy. God, Michael we'd be so happy", she trailed off wistfully.
"We still can be", he spoke for the first time.
"No", she said sternly standing up. "Don't you do that".
"Do what?" he asked perplexed.
"Be nice. Don't you dare be nice to me, not after what I've done."
"Sara, you haven't done anything wrong", he tried to tell her.
"Not done anything wrong? I promised I'd keep him safe and I didn't. I deprived you of everything. You may never meet your son because of me!"
She turned away from him, putting the bear in the crib and tucking it in, like the bear was MJ. Her voice had returned to a normal level when she began again.
"He's the only connection I've had to you for so long. I'd look at him and feel as though I was looking at you. I'd stand over his crib at night just like this; watching him sleep, and then his wrist would twitch. Did you know you do that in your sleep?"
She looked over her shoulder catching Michael's expression and then turned back to the crib.
"I couldn't believe it when I saw him do it. Made me fall in love with both of you all over again. I'd talk to him in my belly and it'd be like I was talking to you and it was as if he knew that. He knew what I needed at each exact moment, just like you always did. And now he's gone and I have nothing."
"You have me", Michael stated simply coming up behind her.
"I don't have you. I never did", Sara stated, keeping her back to him, focusing on the empty crib.
"That's not true and you know it. You may be determined to push me away but I'm not going to let you. I love you and I forgive you".
She put her head down and started sobbing. "I miss him so much", he heard the raw pain in her voice.
"I know you do", Michael said, putting his arms around her from behind. She turned in his arms and pushed herself as close to him as she could get, gripping his shirt in her fists.
"I love you both so much it hurts," She said quietly, not believing she was finally back in Michael's arms.
No one slept that night except for LJ who took Sara's room. The group was playing a game of Poker, trying to get Sara's mind anywhere else.
They thought they were doing a pretty good job, until Sara glanced up at the clock and then started crying silently, but the tears could be seen coming down her cheeks.
When she looked up after finishing her deal she saw everyone looking at her with concern and remorse so she explained.
"MJ would be waking me up about now for a bottle. I'd walk into the room, singing a song and he would be cooing at me. I'd pick him up and take him to the changing table and play peek-a-boo while changing his diaper and getting him dressed for the day. Then we'd walk out here and make a bottle, then sit on the couch while he ate. I'd rub his back and he would burp so loud", she smiled at the memories. "And then he'd fall asleep in my arms, holding two of my fingers in his tiny palm. I'd lay him down in the little travel bed and then fix my own breakfast."
When she was done she saw three pairs of eyes looking at her with unshed tears. She hadn't even bothered to wipe her own.
"Excuse me", she got up and went to the kitchen to be alone and start some coffee.
A few minutes later Michael joined her. "Need any help?" he asked.
"Could you get the milk out of the fridge? I really don't want to look in there", Sara said and Michael didn't question her.
He opened the fridge and easily realized why she didn't want to do it. There were at least half a dozen cute little baby bottles staring at him all neatly arranged, ready to be used.
Having never met his son, or been around him, he knew he wasn't hurting about him being gone even a fraction of Sara. He just knew he was hurting because she was. He grabbed the milk and closed the fridge, bringing it to the table to join the coffee and mugs.
Three days later and there was still no news as to where to begin looking for Jane and Paul and MJ. Aldo and his team were hard at work, trying to get a lead of any sort, but kept coming up with dead ends.
Michael, Lincoln, LJ, and Veronica stayed with Sara, awaiting some sort of news that would allow them to begin looking for the infant. Sara was having trouble sleeping. Her eyes were bloodshot. Most nights Michael would wake to find her curled up on the floor in MJ's room, with the teddy bear tucked under her arm. He would just cover her with a blanket and lay down beside her, combing through her hair with his fingers until she cried herself to sleep.
Later that afternoon, Lincoln received a call from Aldo, requesting permission for him and some friends to come to Sara's house. He said he had great news.
After clearing it with Michael, since Sara was in no condition to agree, Lincoln told his father how to get to Sara's place.
Evening came and Aldo arrived with three guests. They were all in plain clothes, one carrying a large file, the others empty handed, but Lincoln searched them anyway before letting them in. He found a gun on one of them, and confiscated it. "What the hell is this?" he sneered at the man. "You should know by now we trust no one and you come up in here with a gun?".
"Lincoln, listen to what they have to say. They came plain clothed so they wouldn't scare you. These men took a great risk coming here, now please sit down and listen."
"Who do you work for?" Lincoln asked the man who had the gun.
"Secret Service", the guy answered.
Lincoln turned the gun on the three unknown men. "Michael, let's go".
"You don't have to run anymore", they heard the other unarmed man without the file say. "We are not here to hurt you. Please listen to me. I understand you are terrified of anything related to government, but please give me a few minutes. If you don't like what I have to say, then you can shoot me. How's that?"
"Don't think I won't. I'd do anything for my family", Link told him, then motioned with the gun for the men to sit at the table.
The man with the file sat next to the unarmed man, while the one that had had the weapon stood behind the two, hands crossed in front of him in the stereotypical governmental way.
"You are the first civilians to know what I'm about to share with you. Not even the press knows, but I felt you deserved to hear it first."
When no one stopped him the man continued. "My name is Greg Sullivan. I am the new President of the United States. It will be announced this evening on the 7 o clock news. Former President Reynolds has been indicted and is currently awaiting trial in a federal prison. We received your information months ago, but it just recently found its way to me."
"We've never heard of you", Veronica said.
"In the event of something of such a large magnitude as this conspiracy were ever to happen, there is a man on reserve to step up to the Presidency. Everyone from the President to the VP and down the line, are all fired. Someone new, totally unrelated to the administration comes in and that is me."
"Jerry", the President stated, holding out his hand. The file man handed over a small packet of papers.
"This is the Attorney handling everything, from the indictments to my appointment and so on. This is the paper that lets you know that I am the President of the United States. Please read it. I want you to be sure of who I am before I continue."
Veronica, being an attorney took the papers and began going through them slowly.
The President was at the head of the table with his attorney to his left, and
then Aldo to his right. Further down the table were Michael and Sara, sitting next to each other, Veronica between Aldo and Sara, and LJ between Michael and the attorney.
Lincoln, not being one to trust easily, was still standing with the gun trained on all the men.
After examining the document completely, Veronica told the group, "It's legit. He is who he says he is". She offered the paper back to the lawyer who told her it was her copy. Lincoln still wasn't convinced.
"If you're the President then where's all your security?" he asked.
"I thought I would show you my sincerity in all this by coming with just one of them. If I had shown with the whole entourage, you'd never have believed me and I wouldn't blame you. I hope you can understand that".
"Makes sense", Michael said, looking at his brother, but understanding completely his hesitation.
"It's true Lincoln. I checked him out thoroughly before bringing him here." Aldo affirmed.
The President held out his hand to the attorney who gave him 5 more stacks of papers.
He passed them out to the respective people after looking at the names.
"Veronica" he passed hers.
"Lincoln", he waited for Link to accept the papers.
"Michael", he slid the pack down the table.
"Sara", he again slid the paper.
"And LJ".
"What's this?" Lincoln asked, starting to read his.
"Full Pardons", Veronica said in shocked disbelief.
"By order of the United States of America, under the direction of President Sullivan, Lincoln Burrows is hereby exonerated of all crimes he's currently convicted of and pardoned from any that may arise due to the situation of his false arrest and conviction and any measures taken to assure he was not put to death unlawfully". Lincoln read out loud.
"What does that last part mean?" he asked Veronica, but the President's lawyer answered.
"It means that if you committed any crimes during the breakout or after to stay alive and safe, you can not be charged and tried on any of them."
"You are a free man, Mr. Burrows", the President told him. "You're all free", he stated looking around the table.
"What about the company?" Michael asked.
"They have all been arrested or killed during our attempt to arrest them. We have found all but two thanks to your fathers information", he spoke directly to Sara.
The President gave another nod to the attorney, who began to pass out envelops to each of the 5 people.
"Holy SHIT!" LJ exclaimed being the first to open his and pull out the rectangular piece of paper.
Inside was a check from the US government in the amount of 5 million dollars for each person.
"You all have enough money there to do whatever you want. If you want to buy your own private island and run it as you see fit, you can do that. Hell, you don't even have to spend it, put it in the bank and live off the interest and you'll still be considered wealthy."
"We're supposed to just walk into any bank and cash this?" Lincoln said in disbelief.
"The bank the check is drawn on is expecting you. Go there and they have boxes loaded with money, just waiting for you. I wouldn't give you a check that we couldn't cover".
"This doesn't begin to cover what I've lost", Sara stated throwing the check back at the attorney and leaving the room.
"Did I miss something?" the President asked.
"The two people that you haven't caught yet, I'm guessing their names are Jane and Paul", Michael began.
"That's right", the attorney spoke up.
"Four days ago, they came here in the middle of the night and kidnapped our baby right in front of Sara, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it. She couldn't even call the cops because everyone was trying to kill us! It doesn't matter how much money you try to compensate us with. The only thing we want is our son back."
Michael got up and stormed out of the room to find Sara.
"I think I failed to mention that part to you. I was so eager to get to the boys", Aldo explained to President Sullivan.